Category Archives: Current Affairs

The past two nights I’ve spent downtown at the World Affairs Council on Sutter Street in SF.

Wednesday night I listened to an outstanding presentation and Q&A titled Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy. Professor Gerges (extremely impressive) gave a lucid overview of the state of the militant jihad, the middle east in general, and our efforts at fighting terrorism. Here are my rough notes from the talk. Big take aways that I didn’t know:

• After 9/11 most all moderate Muslims and some radical clerics denounced 9/11 as terrorism as not jihad. American media keeps asking, "Where are moderate Muslims?" False question. But, the same cleric who denounced 9/11 also said all Muslims should kill American soldiers in Iraq (and anyone who supports them).
• 65% of Arab world is under 28 years old!
• Third generation is bubbling up from Iraqi insurgency
• Took European nation-state concept 300 years to reach a fully functioning civil society. Comparatively, Arab state isn’t making bad progress.
• They are electing governments like Hamas because secular governments haven’t been able to stem poverty and have, all in all, been a dismal failure. Why not try something else?

That youth statistic really caught my attention — is there a way we can overcome the hundreds of millions Saudi Arabia spends on indoctrinating their kids in schools? In other words, can we penetrate the system on an ideas level?

After the talk I had dinner with my good friend Valerie Cunningham of GoingOn at Perry’s, where we could debrief on the talk and catch up on each other’s lives and Silicon Valley happenings.

Tonight I attended Understanding Youth Unrest in France, a talk put on by two Berkeley professors. It, too, was informative. Interestingly, one of the Berkeley professors was in France during the latest protests over employment law and…marched with them! Given my opinion on those riots, you can imagine my surprise. My big takeaway was that the U.S. media grossly exaggerated the extent of the riots and violence. I learned some interesting factoids about France, its history with race and protesting, and the state of current political life, but there was little discussion on how to actually solve the unemployment problem. Here are my notes from the talk.

All in all, an enlightening two evenings, good food for the brain, and despite backing me up on work, totally worth it.

I love Al Gore jokes. Al just did a great opening skit on SNL. A great start to another beautiful day.

Link: YouTube – President Al Gore on SNL.

EDIT: The movie has been taken down by YouTube due to copyright infringment. I suppose this is the new normal — wait several days before linking to a YouTube video to see if it lasts. The Colbert one didn’t.

I spent the long weekend in Monterey at the World Affairs Council 60th Annual Conference, the most prestigious international affairs conference on the West Coast.

It was a fantastic event with A-list speakers, interesting attendees, and an idyllic location. The theme "Global Balance of Power in 2020" raised several important points. I have publicly said for a long time that globalization is going to be perhaps the single biggest influence my generation will have to deal with. After this conference, I can safely expand that assertion: a strong grasp of international affairs can no longer be an "elective" for anyone under 40; if you are unable or unwilling to get a handle on the political, economic, and cultural implications of the changing balance of power around the globe, you might as well not show up.

I don’t yet have a strong grasp, but after a few days chewing on this stuff and being exposed to some incredible minds, I have a lot racing through my mind. Here are my rough notes from the conference.

Friday night we started with an excellent panel on the geopolitics in the world in general. At 10 PM I went to a policy simulation on a 2020 Middle East boycott of oil which lasted till midnight! (Well past my bedtime.) Saturday featured excellent discussions on China, India, and Brazil. In the afternoon I went for a run on the Monterey beach coast, a spectacular setting with the sun beating down on the ocean (and on me). In the evening I had the good fortune of dining next to World Affairs Council CEO Jane Wales, an extremely impressive person (formerly on the National Security Council under Clinton) and thinker. We had a good conversation.

This morning we wrapped up with some additional talk about China and other wild cards and a summation by conference chairman J. Stapleton Roy, a D.C. star and managing director of Kissinger Associates.

Before hitting the road, I grabbed lunch with an old friend at California Pizza Kitchen, and then raced up the coast on Highway 1. I felt like a classic Californian — flying up the coast on Highway 1, through the flat agricultural fields and the Pacific Ocean on my left, sun beaming, and then through the Santa Cruz mountains and predictably that good ole’ California traffic, which was so bad I was actually able to read a book while driving.

I made it home invigorated, anxious to go to the next World Affairs Council event on understanding the youth unrest in France, and as excited as ever about my upcoming gap year where I will see all these countries for myself.

Thanks to the Council for paying for all my (and other students’) conference fees, a membership, meals, and room and board!

If you aren’t apathetic about politics, ie you consider yourself a Dem or Republican in the U.S., then you must read Michael Tomasky in the American Prospect. It’s kind of long, so print it out, settle in, and give it a read. Premise: the uniting philosophy of a new Democratic party must be "the common good." It’s provocative, well written, and chock full of nuggets that resonate with me. I don’t often read, let alone like, the plethora of pieces being published on how the Dems can get back on their feet, but this one is great.

Then, go read Noam Scheiber’s rebuttal in the New Republic.

Where do I stand on it? Well, I’m more of an individual liberty individual responsibility kind of guy, and I doubt our pitiful trust in government could ever rebound back. (For good reason.)

I have friends who are going to Duke next year. I also am fascinated by race, gender, and poverty, the three age old issues which have torn and continue to tear this country apart. If you want to understand why I’ve stopped trying to follow "the facts" involving the Duke lacrosse stripper scandal, read Dahlia Lithwick. Spin has won.

If you want to understand why television is the worst medium ever for serious analysis of anything, go watch this clip of Tucker Carlson debating some woman on the Duke case.