A trip to the zoo, where the plastic zebra was better than the real animals.

Found some toys from my childhood.

My husband seems to have built the world’s most tiny, perfect yet useless storage space.

As a student of political science, I spent countless hours sitting down (sometimes I read and walked) reading texts: essays, books, articles, magazines, etc. And I mean hours. Many of the other students would joke about how they never read any of the texts and achieved a high mark. I was never one of those. I read EVERY WORD of EVERY assigned text. Sure, there were some times when I fell short, but not many. And this includes fat books of 600 pages, Plato and Aristotle texts. Those are not easy to get through. But I have a reverence for the written word. And a reverence for the ways in which human beings try to govern themselves, try to divide power, try to protect the vulnerable and try to share resources.

With this type of study comes a necessary acknowledgment: Yes, human beings (mostly men, sorry to say) have screwed up a lot of things in their political endeavors. Most things, actually. But I do believe it is still essential to approach power and who holds it with sense of history and a sense of respect.

This is why the video the Trump administration showed to North Korean President Kim Jong Un so deeply troubling. To this point, I have fretted and anguished and gotten angry, but this is a turning point for me.

The video is basically a movie trailer with Kim Jong Un and Trump as the stars. Clearly, Trump is still trying to achieve his version of the American Dream: a television idol with the highest ratings, and a businessman who has closed the ultimate deal. He sees politics like a businessman, rather than a diplomat with an understanding of the nuances of respecting other cultures and the necessary incremental progress. This would be fine, because everyone possesses an ideology, if you can call that an ideology.

But when you have so little comprehension of the world and the state of its people that you see yourself as a movie star in a trailer, along with your adversary, this not a matter of an idiot running the office. This is a matter of a man who is putting millions of lives at stake, reducing negotiations with a dictator who is starving, torturing and denying basic human rights to millions, to a Hollywood scene.

As a student of politics and as a human being who is passionate about protecting basic human rights, this is extremely unsettling and distressing. It should be a call to action.

Check out this feature in British Vogue on Calabash, the literary festival.

The other day dancehall artist Mavado was shot at in a community called Cassava Piece. As a result of some kind of related feud, two young men are now dead. And there is a curfew in the area. This is right near my daughter’s school. We drove by this morning and all appeared peaceful. Here is the release from the police (note the use of the term “imaginary line” to denote the boundaries):

JCF PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release

CURFEW IMPOSED IN CASSAVA PIECE, ST ANDREW

June 07, 2018- A curfew has been imposed in Cassava Piece, Kingston 8. The curfew began at 6:00 p.m., Thursday, June 07 and will remain in effect until 6:00 p.m., Saturday, June 09. The boundaries of the curfew are as follows:

NORTH – Along Glen Drive from the intersection Mannings Hill Road and Glen Drive with an imaginary line to Grosvenor Terrace.

SOUTH – Along Clifton Boulevard from the intersection of Mannings Road and Clifton Boulevard with an imaginary line to Constant Spring Road.

EAST – From Grosvenor Terrace to Constant Spring Road.

WEST – From the intersection of Glen drive and Mannings Hill Road to the intersection of Clifton Boulevard and Mannings Hill Road.

 

During the hours of the curfew, all persons within the boundaries are required to remain within their premises unless otherwise authorized in writing by the ground commander.
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