Russell's Blog

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2009-07-03T19:13:00.002-04:00

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Reno is going well

2009-06-28T20:10:00.004-04:00

The movers came to Manteca on Thursday. Mom and I drove to Reno the same day so we'd be here when they dropped stuff off Friday morning. We've come a good way to getting settled into her new home. The part of Reno she's in is really nice. They've developed a second city center away from the casinos with shops, cafes, etc. July there will be an entire month of artistic events for Artown. I'm starting the habit of going for a walk each morning before it warms up. There's a really nice path along the Trukee River. Monday I'll start doing some academic work each day, as well as helping with the getting settled.

I'll be sure to take some pictures. On the subject of pictures, I'll soon be temporarily taking many of my Picasa albums down so I can reorganize and repost them with the Picasa software program.

in CA

2009-06-22T20:21:00.003-04:00

Flew into SF on Thursday. Spent two nights at Sanjay and Palav's new place. They started residency at UCSF hospital yesterday. It was nice to see their new place. Went hiking with my cousin Lisa and uncle Bryan at Tennessee Valley (pics on Picasa) on Friday during the day and saw her and my longtime friend Ben that evening. Saturday I went furniture shopping with Sanjay and Palav and then went to San Jose to celebrate my cousin Hilary's 30th birthday at her boss's house in Los Gatos. Most of the people seemed to be lawyers or techies, which makes sense as Hilary is a lawyer, Pascal is a techie and they live in the Silicon Valley. My sister Annie also attended the party and she drove us to Manteca Sunday morning for my mom's last Sunday. They did a nice potluck/gifts/speeches thing after the service. Amazing to see how well my nephew Carson walks and how he's beginning to talk.

Now comes the reason I'm actually here: helping Mom move to Reno. The truck comes Thursday morning and there is still much to do (though thankfully parishioners helped pack her church office and the kitchen). Will also take this opportunity to sort through my things, get rid of things I no longer want and send many of them back to NC to get them out of her way.

My Rio pics on Picasa

2009-06-17T15:49:00.003-04:00

On my brief trip to Rio to attend LASA I mostly attended panels at the conference. The only pics I took were of the skyline from the top of my hotel. I went on a few nice walks around the area, but forgot to take my camera. Sorry if I disappoint anyone and promise I'll take many more Brazil photos when I do my fieldwork. Which will be whenever I manage to track down funding.

LASA: Day Went Well

2009-06-12T21:32:00.003-04:00

Right as I walked into the university to register I saw Milagros from University of Havana. She's who I worked with most closely while I was in Cuba. It's weird the nature of the small world, the people you bump into and the people I can't seem to find even though I know they're here.

At 11:00 I was on a workshop panel Greg Weeks organized about blogging about Latin American politics. It was a bit odd that I'd stopped doing Rulablog in between the time the panel was accepted and taking part in it. We had a very good discussion about the pros and cons of blogging.

Waited in line for lunch and read over the papers for my paper panel. I really enjoyed the two papers for my panel. People had some very useful feedback about my work. I'll have to think about if this is worth continuing with as a side-project.

Went to the panel chaired by a student in my program on corruption. Four papers presented in three languages! A professor who went to graduate school with my undergraduate advisor was at the panel. We had dinner afterwards and now I'm home. Some UNC folks are having a party a few block away, but I'm dead tired and I think I'll start winding down for bed. Have to look over the panels for tomorrow to see which ones I'll go to.

in Rio / update

2009-06-11T15:00:00.004-04:00

It was not even four weeks ago that we returned home from Cuba and now I'm once again out of the country, this time for the meeting of the Latin American Studies Association. Wow. My time settling back into life at home really flew by. It's good to be here and I'm excited about seeing old friends and making new ones. Walking around there are some interesting contrasts between Rio and Havana. I may write about that sometime.

I realize I haven't posted since I got home, so here's a brief update. I arrive home Tuesday, then leave again Thursday to see friends and family and help my mom move to Reno. I get back in early July. A week later Allison wraps up her program studying Yucatec Mayan in Mexico. The times seems to be passing reasonably easy given all these distractions.

One Month to Go

2009-04-15T18:44:00.002-04:00

Wow. I haven't written for a while. Thirty days from today we leave Cuba (we spend two nights in the Bahamas, long story). Amazing how accustomed I've gotten to my routine here. As is often the case I think I hoped for doing more than was really possible. One of the reasons for this is how much more time any given task takes. People don't have call waiting or voice mail, so just getting hold of a person to set up a simple coffee date can be a lot of work. And so forth. But I have some things to show for my time here, just not exactly the ones I'd anticipated. After all, things are rarely as we expect them to be, least of all in Cuba.

Laundry Service, Pt. 2

2009-04-05T10:28:00.003-04:00

In Brazil last summer I wrote this about laundry:

I took a little over a week's worth of clothes, figuring laundry one a week. The key problem is that laundry takes a while. It has to hang dry in a humid country. Also my host mom saves it for the maid's weekly visit so it can be ironed. Today I snuck a pair of boxer shorts out of the to-be-ironed pile because I was out of clean ones.

I packed about the same amount here. We can pay the people who clean the residence to do laundry, but turnaround time varies. There's a laundry place maybe a 15 minute walk away, but you have to get there super early in the morning to avoid waiting in line too long and then return in the afternoon to pick it up.

So, we've mostly ended up doing our laundry by hand, either in the sink or while we take a shower. We have the good fortune of having a clothesline on the roof. I've never done laundry by hand before and I must say that I like it. My back gets sore from bending forward to do half a dozen pieces, so I'm sure I would not enjoy doing a larger quantity. I often do it in the morning after breakfast and it feels good to accomplish a simple concrete task at the start of the day.

With the laundry room so close at Hillmont, I don't think I'll be washing my clothes by hand when I get back, but I may see how my across the breezeway neighbor feels about a clothesline. It's nice to save a little money and energy.

It's gotten hotter this past week, which means sometimes clothes dry in a few hours. This is good, because the heat also means I sweat more and wash my shirts more often (we're fortunate to have AC in our room and the dining area, but the patio and sitting areas do not have it).

Things I've recently had trouble explaining in Spanish

2009-03-22T15:19:00.003-04:00

alumni giving
endowments/ endowed chairs
March Madness brackets
tenure
hydrogen peroxide (even with Allison doing most the talking).

Sunday updates aren't going to happen

2009-03-09T21:43:00.004-04:00

I'd set out to write weekly summaries, as I did in Brazil, but I've decided to abandon that goal (after only doing it once). I'd rather write reflections or random anecdotes than chronicle exactly what I did in a given week.

So apparently Bachelet was standing in the middle of my street in front of my residence...

2009-03-05T18:59:00.001-05:00

No, really. Allow me to explain. I live on Avenida de los Presidentes
(Calle G). It's a wide street with a park in the middle. For a good
stretch each block is dedicated to a different president. The block in
front of the residence where we are has a statue of Allende. While
Bachelet was here there was a wreath in front of the statue. I
wondered if perhaps she'd put it there, and people confirmed this. Had
we known we could have seen her by simply walking out the front gate.
But, alas, we did not. That gets to the topic of access to
information, about which a blog post is long overdue...

While I'm on the subject of Calle G, it's the popular spot for angsty
teenagers to hang out. They have goths, punks, bohemians, hipsters
(couldn't the embargo at least have kept out the damn hipsters? I
guess they make them in Europe, too. Of course the point is culture
moves regardless of the politics.) Anyhow, Granma had an editorial
about the youth who hang out there and I said "wait, G, that's our
street...". A student in the group said he watched a documentary about
teens who congregate there and it was pretty good.

Glass half full

2009-03-03T20:16:00.003-05:00

I wrote this in the morning, but just getting around to posting it (and revising it) now.

Sometimes my default perspective is to see the negative in things. But usually there is a positive side to things, if I stop to realize it. I try to train my mind to see the positive.

Allison left today for Bermuda and comes back Sunday...

...but I’m glad she’s able to attend this conference. Time apart will be good for us. I get the whole bed to myself. I’ll have time to work on my LASA paper.

It appears she may have taken our room key with her to Bermuda...

...but they have an extra one.

My LASA paper is due on the 9th...

...but I’m fortunate to have had my paper accepted and to be able to answer questions that interest me for a living.

There are a few problems with one of the data sets I’m using...

...but at least I didn’t have to compile it myself and I’m glad I found them so they can be fixed.

My dad is having shoulder surgery today...

...but I’m glad he survived cancer and is still here. I’m glad he has access to necessary medical care, friends to help take care of him, and that my aunt will keep me posted about his condition via email.

Today is my grandma’s birthday. This will be hard for my mom (my grandma died in 2007)...

...but I’m grateful that I got to know her as well as I did and that I have access to email to check in with my mom.

In short, I choose to try to make today a good day. Maybe the sunshine is making that easier.

Cuban cabinet remodel

2009-03-02T21:47:00.002-05:00

Okay, so that's only mildly clever. I first heard the news on CNN International. It wasn't in today's Granma, but that makes sense as the announcement came mid-day. I'm going to try to watch more Cuban TV.

This BBC story seems to summarize things well:

Cuban shake-up claims key figures (BBC)

Some analysis in this post from The Cuban Triangle.

The guard downstairs, Guillermo, was listening to the news on his radio. I'll have to talk with him the next time he's on--he's really smart. Allison heads to Bermuda for a conference tomorrow, so I'll probably end up chatting with the folks downstairs more, as well as posting more--I have a backlog of things to write about. I also have a week to finish a conference paper if I'm going to hand it in on time...

you can't be serious

2009-02-26T18:53:00.003-05:00

Allison and I went to get our 1 peso ($.05 US) espresso at the place down the block and they were out of sugar. In. Cuba. I mean, I know they've diversified the economy, but come on.

In a similar you can't be serious vein, while watching Obama give his economy-bad-but-we're-up to-the-challenge address on CNN International Allison noticed the following:

OBAMA: ...we laid railroads in the middle of the Civil War... [paraphrase]

[camera quickly pans to Asian-American]

OBAMA: dropping out of high school is no longer an option

[camera quickly pans to African-American politicians]

Guest blog: Allison

2009-02-24T23:00:00.001-05:00

I was thinking the other day about the multiple worlds in which we circulate. Here in Havana, the disparity between these worlds is more visible and felt, but it’s a gap that is always present.

Here’s what I mean: On Saturday, we waited for the P11, the bus that has what I believe is the shortest route to la Habana Vieja. The line was quite long, so we decided to cross the street, wait in the shade, and catch the bus from what is technically the last stop on the route. The people on this side of the street get on the bus first. After the bus came once, we figured out that we were waiting in the line to have a seat. The line on the other side of the street is for standing passengers. We’ve never waited very long for a bus, so we decided to try our luck with the “sitting line.” After 45 minutes of standing in line to be able to sit on what is essentially a 15-minute trip, we crossed the street again and chalked it up as a learning experience.

For us, it was not worth it to stand, wait, and sit. This was not the case for the 50-someodd people in front of us, and the 25 people behind us. Now I know why people think we’re crazy to offer our seats—when we have them—to other riders. In Santiago (de Chile), passengers would race to give up their seats to the first little old lady or pregnant woman who got on. But I suppose that system was quite different.

In la Habana Vieja, after getting off the $.40 MN bus, I ate a breaded pork sandwich in the street for $5 MN (see Russell’s earlier entry about currency system, o sea, Bither-Terry (2009)). I walked around, took photos, and purchased for $4 tourist currency at the feria a copper ring and earrings to go with my fancy dress. Neither the dress nor the jewelry is outside the financial range of people here, as most of the people at the feria were Cuban and most of the people we interact with (university students, professors, administrators) have nicer clothes than I do.

But then I went to Bar la Floridita, one of Hemmingway’s old stomping grounds. It strikes me that most of the patrons might not be lovers of the simple sentence, so much as looking for an excuse to have expensive drinks on a Saturday afternoon. I very much enjoyed my drink, and at $6 tourist currency it’s more than 5 days’ worth of food and drinks for me.

I’m tacana by US standards, but the average salary here is $250 MN, or $10 CUC. As a white American graduate student, I have access to certain sites of privilege—the American dollar and passport, the university—and different worlds among and between which I can circulate by choice. Most people don’t have that choice. Once I open my mouth, many people here think I’m Spanish, Argentine, or Chilean, but I’ve also been mistaken for Cuban by some Colombians. It’s funny to think about the forms of privilege that are visible—like my phenotype—and those that leave people guessing—like nationality and its sundry implications.

To cure my slight buzz I ate pastry in the street (o sea para poder ‘curarme’ y no andar tan curada, jajaja): layers of pastry filled with guayaba paste topped with a thick slab of chocolate.

And then I went to a great concert at the oceanfront Centro Hispano-Americano de Cultura, featuring five flautists and a pianist performing several pieces composed by the lead flautist. They began with the pianist and a single flautist and progressed to a stage teeming with flautists, some of whom were quite young, though they seemed accomplished to me. Of course, I don’t know anything about classical music, but I enjoyed listening. The free concert reminded me of these different worlds in which I had circulated throughout the day.

With a quick ride home on the P11, I had dinner paid for by UNC at the student residence. Yet another sign of privilege and another world.

in memorium: Bob Dash

2009-02-18T10:45:00.004-05:00

My undergraduate adviser passed away from lung cancer a few weeks back. I was asked by the department chair to write something for a book of memories they will give his family. This is what I sent in.

Havana, Cuba

I wouldn’t be here without Bob. I keep thinking these words, even more since Patricia Varas told me the news of his passing.

Spending this semester in Havana naturally recalls the last time I was here, in 2001 on a week-long trip that was part of the Latin American Revolutions class that Bob co-taught with Kelly Ainsworth. This is where I really got to know him better. I remember sitting outside at our hotel in the Sierra Maestra one evening. Bob bought me a beer while he, Jules Boykoff (in graduate school at the time) and I chatted, each at a different stage in our study of politics. That wonderful trip would have never happened without Bob.

I wouldn’t be here now without Bob, either. He continued to be someone I could turn to for professional advice long after I’d graduated from Willamette. When I suddenly had the opportunity to come to Cuba as resident director of UNC’s study abroad program and struggled to decide if it was worth delaying my dissertation project, which is not about Cuba, I called Bob. “Do it,” he said.

It’s not just that I wouldn’t have come to Cuba, be it in 2001 or 2009, without him. Bob was a key part of my decision to pursue a Ph.D. in political science. Taking Latin America and the International System inspired me to major in politics, and reading Lars Schoultz’s Beneath the United States in that class inspired me to apply to UNC. Scholarship applications, the thesis, graduate school applications--Bob helped me through it all. I can’t begin to imagine the course my life might have taken without him, leaving me grateful to have had him as a teacher, mentor and friend. I really wouldn’t be here without Bob.

Russell Bither-Terry (’02)

CANF website not blocked

2009-02-17T11:33:00.001-05:00

I successfully loaded the top page of CANF in both English and
Spanish. I find that interesting. Students have encountered a few
pages that are blocked, such as the Wikipedia entry for an author
critical of the Cuban government, hence my curiosity about the CANF
page. Obviously this is a one-time experiment--I can't speak to if it
loaded yesterday or will load tomorrow, nor if sections of it are
blocked. Also can't speak to access to it through connections other
than ours (through the journalism institute).

Sunday update

2009-02-15T09:34:00.004-05:00

As I did in Brazil, I want to start weekly updates on Sundays. It's been a while since I've written anything about what we've been up to.

Wednesday before last some students from the University Student Federation (FEU) came over for dinner. Some of our students have become friends with them and been having great discussions about politics, culture, baseball, etc.
The Friday before last we saw the National Ballet. They were amazing. Originally we were going to have to pay the tourist price (about $12 U.S.) but the woman at the University who coordiantes our program managed to get them for us complementary.
Wednesday we had a scholar come talk to the students about her work and have dinner with us. She talked about the competing metaphones in U.S.-Cuban relations.
Thursday I saw Chucho Valdes as part of a Jazz Festival. Also amazing.
That morning I met with someone at the Fundación Antionio Núñez Jiménez de la Naturaleza y el Hombre to discuss doing research on the politics of urban agriculture here.
Yesterday we went to a free concert just up the block. It was good and lots of people danced. Allison and I have decided we want to learn to dance. Let's not kid ourselves, I have more learning to do than she.
Today we are going to the International Book Fair. Chile is the invited country. There should be lots of inexpensive books there.

Allison has returned and we should head out soon. I hope that fills you in on a bit of what we've been up to.

New Pics--album on sidebar

2009-02-07T17:29:00.002-05:00

I've put the Havana album on the sidebar for easy access. It has a few new pictures, including one of the residence where we live.

I've decided to mostly limit my blogging and (esp.) uploading of photos to the weekends. I may do some very short posts during the week, but only if I have something brief I'm burning to say.

Reading (Thomas) Friedman in Havana

2009-02-04T09:53:00.001-05:00

In our first week here we were touring old Havana. There are book
vendors in one of the plazas. One of them had a Spanish translation of
The Lexus and the Olive Tree. I found that interesting as it runs
contrary to many U.S. expectations. I didn't buy it, of course. I
doubt I'd find Friedman any less obnoxious in Spanish.

On the subject of Friedman, check out this gem, "Create Your Own
Thomas Friedman Op-Ed Column," which a friend sent me a few years
back:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2004/4/28ward.html

pics up on Picassa

2009-01-29T20:26:00.003-05:00

(See the link on sidebar).

I'm just naming the album Havana for now. It takes a while to mess with this stuff and I'm spending too much time in front of the laptop emailing with work at UNC and doing my academic work that I don't feel like sinking much more time into photos and blogging right now. But
I'll do a little every now and then.

These photos are from a march on the eve of Jose Marti's birthday (Tuesday) organized by the Federation of University Students. I hope to write about it soon.

Obama T-Shirts

2009-01-23T08:47:00.001-05:00

I have seen two Cubans wearing them so far. One on the street and one
worn by a professor. It will be interesting to see how the early days
of his administration are potrayed in official media. Granma put the
inaguration on page 4 (of 8). The tone of the article struck me as
neutral.

buying pizza with Moneda Nacional

2009-01-18T11:32:00.003-05:00

Cuba has a two currency system. You can easily read about it elsewhere, but I will try to give the basic run down. Pesos Convertibles (CUCs) are tied to foreign exchange. You generally obtain them with US dollars, Canadian dollars or Euros. So this is what tourists generally use. Moneda Nacional is what Cubans use for most of their day-to-day expenses. The unofficial exchange rate is 1 CUC to 24 MN.

When I was here briefly in 2001 as part of a course on Latin American Revolutions Cuba had legalized the use of US dollars. You received change in pesos convertibles, but I think they only had them for denominations smaller than a dollar, that is centavos (now that have bills for CUCs and you have to change dollars into them first). My only experience with MN was when my classmate Michelle wanted to buy a straw had in a MN store. She spoke very little Spanish so I asked a guy on the street if he wanted to exchange money, which he did. She let me keep the Che Guevara coin. Little kids were trying to sell them to tourists for 5 dollars when they were worth much less than a dollar.

One of the key functions of the dual currency system is to charge tourists tourist prices and capture that foreign exchange but also be able to charge Cubans more affordable prices. Otherwise they have to charge everybody the same price and either tourists pay much less or things are totally unaffordable for Cubans. We had been told that we would need our carnet, an ID, in order to obtain MN, but that if we have a student who can pass for Cuban we could send him or her to obtain them at a place of exchange (Cadeca), claiming to have forgotten the ID. Being students here for a longer stay entitles us to legally use them. However, on Friday Cubans told us we can just pay CUC at a MN store or restaurant and should not have any problems. So maybe everybody can use them and they just keep the tourists from using much or any MN by making the establishments where they are likely to go in CUC. This is unclear for me right now.

So we tried it out yesterday at a pizza place. After waiting in line for a while we were able to get pizza for 2 MN a slice, paying with CUC and getting MN in change. Success!

Let us do the math One dollar is .80 CUC (the tax dollars at 20% because they are hard for Cuba to use due to the embargo. You can often do better coming in with Canadian or Euros). That comes out to about 20 MN. So one MN is about 5 cents, making each piece cost about 10 cents US. The crust was quite good, we thought, but there was not much sauce or cheese. Still, it is clear that I will not need to worry about going hungry or broke while I am here if I stick to buying lunch with MN (breakfast and dinner are provided by the residence where we
stay).

This is of course a first impression of the dual currency system and I am sure I will get a better sense of it over time.

UPDATE 1-20-09: Minor corrections.

Here Safely

2009-01-17T14:44:00.001-05:00

The flights went fine and were basically on time. Yesterday we took
care of some errands such as changing money and getting the health
insurance cards for the students. This morning there was an event
honoring Lou Perez, professor of history at UNC and one of the top
historians of Cuba. It was great to be able to attend. The students
arrive tomorrow. Allison is waiting for me to go on a walk, so I
should wrap up. Right now we have to use a shared computer with a very
slow connection, but I will try to check my email every day or two.
Will write something more exciting in a few days.

Farewell Rulablog

2009-01-13T11:20:00.002-05:00

"Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'."

--Bob Dylan, "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall"

"...ev'rything I'm a-sayin' You can say it just as good."

--Bob Dylan, "One Too Many Mornings"

I've decided to take down Rulablog. It'd been considering it for some time. I have a number of reasons. Posting got to feel like an obligation and stopped being a hobby. I'd get stressed about not posting.

The main things, though, are captured by the song lyrics, above. They both come back to blogs requiring one to constantly have something to say. I grew frustrated with this for two reasons. The first is that needing to have something to write prevented me from appreciating what others were writing.

The second, related reason is that right now I don't have much original to add. Since I started Rulablog several progressive groups, including WOLA and NACLA Report on the Americas, have started blogs. You add the analysis of more good blogs than I have time to read, and others are doing a fine job of saying what I'd say if I spent the time.

I'm at a period in my life where I'm really trying to cut back on distractions, feeling that I'd rather do less and do it better. About a year ago when I was withdrawing from many things to finish my M.A. thesis my friend Geoff refered to it a my "the thesis cave." If I were a theorist I'd work Plato into that somehow.

As I've mentioned before, I head to Cuba in a couple days to spend the semester there as Resident Co-Director of UNC's study abroad program. The net is very slow there and I knew blogging would be very slow and frustrating there anyhow. So I was going to take a break from Rulablog anyhow to focus on enjoying Cuba and doing my job there.

Still, I'll try to write about Cuba some here. When I set up Rulablog it was in response to a piece on the top ten mistakes made by bloggers. Number 8 was "Mixing Topics." I'd been blogging some about Latin America on this blog, but I was inspired to start a new, more focused and more serious blog. As the title of this blog suggests, my posts are all about mixing topics and as I've said before my main intended audience is my family and friends. Others are of course welcome to read if they enjoy doing so, but I do not measure its success by the number of readers I have.

I fully intend to keep reading as many of the excellent blogs on Latin America as time (and over the next four months bandwitdth) allow and to leave comments when I have something to say. I'm very grateful for the connections I've made through blogging. I'm not leaving the community/conversation, just changing my role in it.