Historical Image of the Day

Teaching children to meditate from the book Teaching Children to Meditate: The Art of Concentration and Centering, 1975

Historical Image of the Day

Children at free dental clinic, Lexington, North Carolina, 1918

Things Just Ain't What They Used To Be...

In fact, they are far safer.

The industry of parental fear and guilt makes me sick. The idea that there are rapists and molesters and kidnappers and murders all over the place ready to kidnap our children is extraordinarily antisocial and damaging to society. That we have to protect our children from even the possibility that they might fall and scrape a knee or get scratched up by blackberry nettles or that they might hit a rock and fall off their bike if they ride down the street--this is all insane.

There was a time when we needed to worry about our kids in public spaces--the 1970s and 80s. When I was growing up, there was significantly greater danger to kids. We never wore bike helmets. There was no Amber Alert. People didn't watch over kids with the same hawkish view.

I'm not exactly saying those were good times. But the overreaction is ridiculous. And as the link shows, crime rates have plummeted from their 1970s highs, a trend holding through the recession.

Carnaval in Brazil 2010 (I) - Pre-Carnaval

Next week marks the official start of Carnaval, though informal street celebrations began this weekend in Rio, as well as in other parts of Brazil. As always, even the informal blocos (street parades and musical groups) had a "theme," and this year, they apparently were promoting keeping Rio clean (text is Portuguese only, though the pictures are universal).

While the official Carnaval events haven't begun yet, there are always controversies leading up to and during the celebration, and this year is no different. The government is gearing up to hand out 55 million free condoms to citizens throughout the country as part of its ongoing campaign to promote safe sex and combat the spread of AIDS. Though the Catholic Church has condemned the government in the past for this program, the Church has remained fairly quiet this year.

Additionally, judges have eliminated a ban on religious symbols during the events of Carnaval, ruling that the ban impinged upon free speech. Officials originally established the ban in 2007, believing it to be "imprudent" to have crosses and saints alongside the, shall we say, not-so-saintly clad women and men in the parades. This story is amusing not only because it features people being uptight about the religious implications of having scantily-clad individuals in the vicinity of crosses and saints (rather than being uptight about the scantily-clad individuals); there's also the fact that, well, Carnaval is (nominally) a religious event, celebrating debauchery and gluttony in the days leading up to Ash Wednesday, which begins the religious season of Lent and the accompanying sacrifices many make in that season. So the fact that religious symbols had been banned from an ostensibly religious commemoration is more than a little amusing.

On a far more serious note, the Viradouro samba school (they of the banned Holocaust float a few years ago) is stirring up a much different kind of controversy by picking Julia Lira, a 7-year-old girl, to serve as its Queen of the Drum Corps (Rainha). As the article points out, the role is usually reserved for women in their early-20s due to the fact that the Rainhas are often among the most scantily-clad (and, subsequently, most famous) participants in Carnaval. The symbol of the Rainha has come to be equated with the sexuality and beauty that many associate with Carnaval. Thus, the selection of a Lira for a position that is usually associated with sex and nudity is causing quite a stir, and a judge is considering even blocking the girl's participation. While I agree with the girl's father (who is also president of the samba school) that anybody thinking sex when they look at a 7-year-old has a real problem, that doesn't stop some people from looking at 7-year-olds and "feeling excitment," as Lira's father puts it, and I think the concern over the fallout of viewing children as sexual objects in a country that has struggled with childhood prostitution is a legitimate concern. Ultimately, while it is completely in Viradouro's rights to pick who they want for their Rainha, it's pretty clear that they like to make controversial decisions. It's not that they couldn't have gotten some young model or starlet; it's that they deliberately chose not to do so. In the end, I think it will actually be disappointing if Lira walks as a Rainha; after all, there are real, negative effects that her participation in this particular role could have on cultural and social attitudes. I think it would be preferable if Lira waited until she actually was in her late-teens/early-twenties to serve as Rainha; she can still participate in the samba parades before then, in a less sexualized-role. We'll just have to wait until later this week, though, to see just what happens.

Baby Einstein Doesn't Work?

You mean that if I plop my child in front of a TV with all the right videos, they won't turn into Albert Einstein? I'm shocked. You mean I actually have to parent and spend time with the kid? I can't believe that! I was sure that if I just played Mozart to them, they would turn into brilliant scientists!!!!

Note 1: This is a prime example of how we fetishize technology as the solution to all our problems.

Note 2: If you don't have time to actually teach your children, maybe you shouldn't be having children, though of course, things happen.

Note 3: The whole idea of Baby Mozart and Baby Beethoven and all of that is deeply offensive because it turns classical music into background music that supposedly makes you smarter, but really is something no one wants to think about.

Note 4: Just because your child doesn't turn out to be a genius, you know that's OK. If they are plumbers or secretaries or cooks or whatever, they are still really valuable people so long as they treat the people around them with love and kindness.

Note 5: Even though these videos are totally worthless, they are also racist. They all promote European culture as the be all and end all. Where's Baby Lao Tzu? Baby Kurosawa? Baby Mandela? Baby Frida? Actually, I'd totally buy Baby Frida. The weirdness of that is fun to contemplate.

Perhaps The Internationale?

This NPR piece about the first song you to play your newborn baby made me think what I would do.

Maybe The Dead Kennedy's "Kill the Poor"? Or Steve Earle's "Fuck the FCC"? Or Dick Justice's 1920s classic "Cocaine," with its great chorus, "I'd simply wild about my good cocaine."

I might as well start the poor kid out on the right foot. They are going to resent me anyway, so why not speed up the process?

Also, the people in the NPR story sound unbearably pretentious.