Viv Ayiti

When I first visited Haiti in May of last year I went with - among other things - the express purpose of coming back with a harrowing article for you all. Something about the cruelty of fate or the human condition. Like a CNN Special Report sans the Anderson Cooper. Yet, after an entire summer of contemplation and even a second visit, I still have very little I can say. My impressions and feelings are difficult to vocalize. Above all, Haiti is a melting pot filled with bizarre juxtapositions, contradictions and non-sequitors. Take, for instance, the man in the "Harvard Law" t-shirt who sells bread on the corner, or the lonely Domino's Pizza sign standing in front of a vacant field. Take Port-au-Prince, with a Colonial Church looming eerily over a neighboring tent town; Take the Texaco gas station in a city seemingly paved with built-in potholes.





Haiti is a bizarre dreamland where nothing quite is as it seems. It's like wearing a shoe and being unsure if it's too big or too small, or hearing a chord with a stray sour note. I am more than anything just flat out not sure what to make of it.

I remember sitting by the pool at my mother's house in P-A-P this past weekend. I happened to be staring vacantly at the wall that divided our and our neighbor's yards, and I suddenly noticed that the bricks weren't overlapping. It struck me as odd because I didn't understand what reason the builders would have for doing that... I don't believe it's that much cheaper to build walls like that, though I guess it might be slightly easier... If this was the standard for other construction it's no small wonder that the country was so completely devastated by a large-scale earthquake. Thankfully, after the earthquake the Embassy took the time to inspect all of their still-standing structures to make sure they were up to American code

One of the more festive shops...

Having had both parents assigned to Haiti and having visited twice, I've heard a lot of the stories of what happened during and before the earthquake. One woman had just received a guest into her home and was giving her tour. As they stepped out into the garden, the earth shook and the house collapsed behind them. In a different part of town the Embassy had rented out a two-story apartment complex. At the time of the earthquake this complex was empty; all of its residents were on shuttles headed home from school and work. They arrived to find their homes pancaked into the street. In a condo neighborhood just recently completed before the earthquake, witnesses reported watching the peripheral security wall wobble as if made out of Jell-O.

The country was already in such difficulties that this wrench in the gears should have just completely destroyed the machine. Hell, here in the "civilized" world we start riot over sporting events. Yet these people don't turn over your car in the street. One of the major problems during the earthquake relief effort was that the tent cities being built in and around Port-au-Prince were being populated by people who hadn't lost their homes in the disaster. They saw food and shelter being given out on a daily basis and decided to take advantage of the situation, cheating those who most needed the aide. I don't consider them to be bad people. It was simply a matter of desperation

"Jesus Christ is coming to take the chosen ones, 21 May 2011"

What truly left me in awe after my visit was the resignation of the Haitian people. I spoke to a middle-class Haitian who jokingly said they "only complain when things are good". Where they find the strength to wake up every morning and say, "I'm going to go out into the streets and walk until I sell all of these mangoes," is a complete mystery to me. Their faith is certainly strong. That's easy to see in the names they give their "buses", which they call "tap-taps" and are any variety of re-purposed auto, most commonly a pick-up truck with an added seating area. "Merci Man Man Marie" (Thank You Mother Mary), "Dieux Tout Capab" (All-Capable God), and "Romains 12 v12" (Romans 12:12). These names also find a place in the huge grass-roots lottery industry - another sign of their faith in Fortuna.

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

I think that quote really sums up the Haitian people right there. They are proud, faithful, and resigned to do their best in their circumstances, and their situation doesn't seem to be getting much better, even with a new President. Martelly has expressed his frustrations with the Haitian government, where funds to build housing for the poor are locked away, but he could immediately begin work on a summer home for himself if he so chose. Haiti is basically run by twelve wealthy families who control the government and all major industry in the country. It's a modern-day oligarchy with a Democratic mask - and what a mask! Members of the Haitian Congress receive a salary of $10,000 US per month, which you can imagine is an obscene amount of money to have in a country so poor.

What's even more bizarre is the series of contributions Haiti has made to History that few are even aware of. Infamous buccaneer Jean LaFitte was born in Port-au-Prince around 1782 - he would later be largely influential in helping us win the War of 1812 in the Battle of New Orleans. Haiti gave Simón Bolívar the military and financial assistance that may have made all the difference in his fight to liberate New Granada (which we know today as the countries of Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela). Throughout the 60s and 70s, Haitian doctors, professors, and other intellectuals who fled the tyrannical rule of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier contributed significantly to the development of former French colonies in Africa. So, what happened to Haiti?

The hole in the middle of the square was once a police booth, torn down because it was haunted.

Consider their Eastern neighbor, the Dominican Republic. Comparing Gross Domestic Product, The DR comes in at around $93 Billion, while Haiti trails behind at not quite $11 Billion. Haiti is nearly half the size of its neighbor but has a slightly higher population. On the Human Development Index (which measures relative living standards), the DR scores 0.663 (medium) and Haiti only 0.404 (low). I think ultimately the problems stemmed from squabbling factions and the country's inability to maintain the economic strength it had before its independence that was supported by the 90% slave population.

Of course, we could sit here and ponder and muse all day long over the reasons for Haiti's trouble and still the people of Haiti would be living in tents. The most we can do is support programs that help Haitians and others like them around the world. Ultimately, though, it's up to the Haitian people to take fate into their own hands, because no amount of international intervention can change the hearts of a people resigned.




There is a popular Haitian proverb that says "Dye mon, gen mon," behind every mountain is another mountain. It means that no matter how many obstacles we overcome, there will always be more to face in the future. Perhaps it's not about fighting the circumstances you're in, but about making the best of them, and perhaps, in that sense, the Haitian people have it all right?

A Thousand Pardons

I know I have been greatly remiss in posting over the summer months. I have some exciting stories to tell, though, and I plan to be back in business A.S.A.P.

See you all soon,

Semester End

Hey Readers!

My spring semester just ended today - exciting, I know! Unfortunately, I leave on Tuesday for Haiti to visit my mother and little sister, and do not return here to San Francisco until the 13th of June. Therefore, I must take my leave until that time, since I don't know how much time I can spend writing for y'all while I'm out and about. I promise to do an article on the condition of Port-au-Prince and the Haitian people, and I'll even take pictures, but for now I need some rest after finishing finals...

See you in a few weeks,

Music Mondays - Damita Jo: Silver Dollar

They can't all be a number one hit. Today, we celebrate a rather charming flop!

Food for Thought - Lady Gaga and Madonna

Yesterday, pop culture icon Lady Gaga released the video to her latest single, "Judas".

Normally, this would be outside the scope of my blog, since I deal mostly with vintage or nostalgic elements. However, there is a nostalgic slant to this story. In addition, this would normally be dealt with on Music Mondays, but I felt it deserved a more in-depth article than those I do for music videos.

The main controversy surrounding Mother Monster as she is called by her fans (myself included) and her new album "Born This Way" is that the title song - the first single released from the album - sounds suspiciously like one many people remember from Madonna's album "Like A Prayer". If you follow pop culture at all you will have heard in the weeks and months since the release of "Born this Way" many call-outs on Lady Gaga for the song's striking similarities to "Express Yourself".

How does she plead? Not guilty. In an interview with NME she called claims that the video was a rip-off of Madonna's "Express Yourself" ridiculous: "If you put the songs next to each other, side by side, the only similarities are the chord progression. It's the same one that's been in disco music for the last 50 years."

There are many differing opinions on the matter, mostly falling into the camps of "guilty" or "not guilty". Personally, I feel that either of these views are overly simplistic and cannot really address the issue as a whole. Plagiarism is something we've dealt with a lot as a society since the Information Revolution of the 1990s. The Internet has made it much easier to share and/or steal both ideas and intellectual property. Most of the debates regarding the Internet over the past ten years have been about protecting copyrights for musicians, photographers, publishers, etc.

In a 2002 exposé on this subject and its appearances in the fashion world Cathy Horyn, New York Times Fashion Critic (who made a guest appearance at my school this past week) asked "Is Copying Really a Part of the Creative Process?" To summarize the article, she took the example of designer Nicolas Ghesquière's apparent "lifting" of a designer vest from the 70s in his Spring 2003 Collection (see side-by-side here

The original on the right and the copy in Balenciaga's Spring 2003 show on the left.

A quote from the article:





"''I think it's a phase of our time,'' said Harold Koda, the costume curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ''Part of it is post-Warhol. It's just rummaging through extant material culture and juxtaposing it with other things to create something different. Postmodernism has really pervaded our culture.''"

Another quote:





"Mr. Wong [Kaisak Wong's brother. Kaisak died in 1990] knows about the Balenciaga copy. ''Is it like plagiarism?'' he asked. Copyright laws don't cover fashion as they do publishing and music -- nor should they, said Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford University law professor. ''We borrow and change -- that's the creative process,'' he said."

We can understand two things from these quotes: first, that in the modern artistic climate we borrow from others in order to create and second, that in order to avoid plagiarism, we must take what we borrow and make it our own. There is little doubt that Ghesquière's actions were, in fact, plaigarism, since he took an existing design and changed only the actual fabric - not even the type of fabric, but did Lady Gaga do the same thing?

Even if we consider that she "lifted" the melody for "Born This Way" from "Express Yourself" (which I don't really believe, though I do see strong similarities between the two songs), she changed the lyrics, cadence, rhythm, and message of the song entirely. Even if she "borrowed" the melody she still took it and made it her own. This is not copying, this is the postmodern creative process.

I'm sure some of you are out there saying that Gaga's Madonna get-up at the end of the "Born This Way" video proves the accusations of plagiarism. However, we must remember that these allegations had been bandied about even before the video went into production. Being Lady Gaga and enjoying ironic commentaries, she naturally wanted to reference the similarities in an irreverent way. This was how she did it:

Two stills from "Born this Way" showing the Madonna look.

Here's the part of my article that I think is really cool. For the first time I think I may actually have a somewhat legitimate scoop. I don't know exactly how many of my readers were alive when "Express Yourself" was first released, but I wonder if the media at that time made any references to this song when Madonna's hit came out:







Skip to the one minute mark and I'll wait for you to pick your jaw up off the floor. If there is any plagiarism going on in this situation, the guilty party is Madonna. Unlike "Born This Way" to "Express Yourself", here the chorus is melodically identical to its predecessor.

However, do I actually think Madonna is guilty of plagiarism? No. I don't. To be frank I don't think that either of these women are guilty of copying something. Did they borrow as part of the creative process? Maybe, but I am a strong believer in Zeitgeist and the philosophy that ideas don't really belong to one person or another and instead exist all around us. It is those who take those ideas and create something uniquely his or hers who can then claim the product as their own.

An artist can be inspired by a tree and choose to paint it. Does this mean that he owes the tree a royalty check? If a designer (say Yves Saint Laurent) is inspired by an artist (just picking names out a hat here.... Mondrian) and creates a dress that maybe kinda sorta looks something like this:

Would that make Monsieur Saint-Laurent a plagiarist or a genius? Whether or not he owes royalties to Mr. Mondrian is a question of legal procedure. This is a philosophical debate.

Very little of what we create comes from thin air. A good example of this is explained in a theory about dreams - that we can only dream about people or places we've seen in real life. This makes sense to me, despite what some of you have just shouted at the computer in disagreement: "What about that dream I had where I was in a land made of cotton candy/a place I've always wanted to go but have never been to/a place that did not exist in my lifetime?!?" Simple: We take elements from what we see every day and mix them all up in our heads to create new places. We might take the grass from our backyard and the mountain range from that travel magazine you flipped through at the doctor's office. The toaster in that tree came from the Highlights under the travel magazine. The key here is the creative combination or alteration of these basic elements.

"OMG they TOTALLY ripped of Highlights!!!1!!"

You can also think about it this way: Most people know that mythical creatures are based on misunderstandings of real animals. Think about how the ancient people tried to explain them. Someone who has never seen a rhino before and who has no word for rhinoceros in his language would naturally, upon returning to his tribe, explain what he saw as a horse with a horn.

What I'm trying to say - in a rather roundabout way - is that it's practically impossible to be completely original. All ideas come from somewhere outside ourselves. The challenge is finding an original way of expressing those ideas and creating a product therefrom.

Adding a drum kit to an extant song does NOT count.

Madonna and Lady Gaga have both done this indirectly. Gaga has admitted that she is a huge Madonna fan. There was likely some indirect inspiration there. Did she sit down with the sheet music to "Express Yourself", change three notes and release a new song? No. MOVE ON. Madonna probably heard "Respect Yourself" growing up. Maybe she felt that chorus could be taken in a new direction or maybe that phrase just stuck in her subconscious and came out as a new song. Did she sit down one day and say, "Gee, I think I'll rip off talented artists and make gobs of money off of their hard work"? No. That job is already taken (I'm looking at you, Forever 21).

I wish I could say that we've moved on from this controversy, but people are already comparing "Judas" to Madonna's "Like a Prayer", saying there are similar religious overtones and bla bla bla. It's kind of irritating. In En Vogue's "Free Your Mind" they feature a spoken introduction just like "Express Yourself". Are they plagiarists, too? As a society can't we learn to concentrate our energies on debates where there is, in fact, plagiarism going on? (I'm still looking at you, Forever 21).

Think about it,

For more on intellectual property, see this post.

Music Mondays - Keynes vs. Hayek

Normally the theories behind economics are enough to make one's head spin, and normally economics wouldn't fall under the subject matters discussed on my blog, since I tend to stick to less "substantial" topics.

I also realize that this might seem like Vanilla Pudding in comparison to certain current events.

However, when I stumbled onto this I couldn't resist. It was both fun and intellectually stimulating, which is a combination anyone is hard-pressed to find on the internet these days.

It's basically an economics rap battle (Yes, you read that correctly: an economics rap battle) featuring the simplified theories of probably the two greatest Economists of the 20th century, Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes:

Hayek is best known for his Nobel-winning theories on the Economic Calculation Problem. To sum up (if I've understood correctly), he believed that centrally-controlled economies (like socialism) were faulty because when the government controls all resources there is no way for a small group of people to always fairly determine how to give out these resources. Instead, free market prices should dictate how resources are spread around. He advocated little government involvement outside the rule of law and what he called a "safety net" which is basically social security.

Keynes (left) and Hayek (right)

Keynes is best known for the Economic revolution he started by encouraging governments to engage in deficit spending to stimulate the economy. His idea was that government involvement could affect the rate of employment - which was a completely new idea at the time. There is much controversy surrounding his theories and their interpretation, however, since many people believe that since his death in 1946 many people have twisted his ideas or haven't interpreted them correctly.

The above video is actually a follow-up to this original, which better explains their general theories:



My mind has imploded from knowledge. I therefore have nothing more to say.
Peace out,

Ask A Gentleman II

"Dear Nostalgically yours:

You are, of course, the epitome of great taste and flair – so I resort to you to ease my mind when making plans to attend an upcoming wedding. My sister is getting married. The setting will be in the deep south on a river boat. As you may know, it often gets to be over 100 degrees during that time of year. So, here is my dilemma. My sis has impeccable taste and an endless budget – it will be a very small but very tasteful wedding and I want to represent. I, on the other hand, have a very limited budget – really, I don’t even have a budget for a new outfit, seeing how it will cost us about $1000 for my family to get there. BUT, I want this day to be special for her, free of drama, and perfect – that is what she deserves. So, have a couple of choices of things I already own. My sis, BTW, is wearing a 1950 nostalgic throwback dress with a full skirt and small sweet bodice – I don’t know what it will look like – but, in my head I imagine something like what Audrey Hepburn wore when she receive the Academy Award for “Roman Holiday.” Anyway, you should know that everything looks good on her – she is very elegant, very chic, very stylish! The theme is “nautical, creams, blues and above all … stylish”. In thinking of things that are already in my closet (that would be appropriate for a smoldering summer day), I have a lot of long, flowing summer skirts and maxi sun dresses, one pair of black palazzo pants, but nothing in red, or white, or blue. What do you suggest? Oh, I almost forget, her son, who is a designer, will be giving her away – so… no pressure! The good thing is, of course, that all eyes will be on her – so that is wonderful – but since there will only be about 20 guests total, I want to make sure that I look elegant, and not embarrass her!

Thanks,
Perplexed by Panache"

Dear Perplexed,

Though I doubt you are truly as perplexed as you say, let me start off by saying that you already have the upper hand because you're aware of yourself. The first step toward an elegant countenance is to be aware of what one is working with - you have that down pat! Money has very little to do with elegance and sophistication. There are plenty of people dripping with money who can't hold an outfit together to save their lives.

See? Money can't buy class.

As Christian Dior once said: "Elegance is not dependent on money. Of the four things I have mentioned above [distinction, naturalness, care and simplicity], the most important of all is care. Care in choosing your clothes. Care in wearing them. Care in keeping them." And in the words of Diana Vreeland: "The only real elegance is in the mind; If you've got that, the rest really comes from it." You already have this Care, dear reader and I'm fairly certain the other three aren't far behind.

You know they ain't trippin'!

Unfortunately, because I don't know what is in your wardrobe and only what isn't, I cannot truly advise you on what, specifically, to wear. The good news is that no-one will be looking at you since you're not the bride, so a lot of the pressure is off. Think carefully about what is appropriate for the occasion, appropriate for the weather, and above all appropriate for you.

I hope this helped,