The white thing to do...

I'm now up to 70 minutes one way on foot from our apartment building in Ballston. This is the point at which I stopped this morning and turned back. Inching my way towards Reagan National...

I've just learned that Authorized Departure has been extended for another month, meaning we'll be here until at least July 11. On that happy note...

The fear keeps popping up in my Facebook feed. A couple of days after "Prepared Not Scared" (complete with a bullet) was posted by a friend, this was put up by a relative:

For the sake of harmonious familial relations I didn't engage with said relation on their FB page. Rather, I'll do it here for all the world (or at least a couple dozen people) to see. Here are five reasons why I feel the need to comment on memes such as these:

1. They demonstrate fear, not toughness. Who is the target audience of such a post? The potential home invader/looter? That's doubtful, as those people are unlikely to be checking up on Facebook first before launching their assaults on the poster's residence. No, the poster is demonstrating to their FB friends that they aren't afraid to do what is necessary to protect their freedumb. Their friends are no doubt putting up similar memes, so everyone reassuring each other that they're armed and ready for...for what?

In real life, in the highly unlikely event that fantasy turns into reality, they would probably only injure themselves and their loved ones, and not the attacker. Movies and TV shows present an image of the calm warrior coolly disposing of his foes with uncanny accuracy and a follow-up witticism. In the real world, fear, nerves, perspiration and sweaty hands would more likely result in a family member being mistaken for an invader, with tragic results.

2. Their moral compasses have become skewed. Many of the folks who posture in such aggressive manners will state they're willing to do what it takes to protect their family and their property. Family I can understand - on more than one occasion I've acted quickly to put myself between my wife and/or daughter and someone acting inappropriately. But property? I find it chilling that someone would brag to the world that they wouldn't hesitate to unload a cartridge into another human being in order to protect their flat screen TV. Dude, just take it and leave my family alone.

According to my expert armchair analysis, this is the result of a society that emphasizes the acquisition of material goods and the pursuit of wealth at any cost, instead of prioritizing social programs that would benefit the society as a whole (can you say "universal health insurance"?).

3. There's that whole Freudian thing when it comes to firearms and the displays thereof. Suffice it to say, depending on your anatomy, you're either compensating or substituting for something when demonstrating your supposed love of weaponry.

4. The racism behind these memes. Oh sure, the posters will deny it. But when they fantasize about protecting their family and property from those seeking to harm the former and seize the latter, I doubt they're imagining white, college-educated males breaking down the door to their house. We know who they're afraid of, which leads us to the last reason...

5. This is why we have police brutality. White people in the suburbs are terrifed of young African-American males. This is why black men have the police called on them, and why they often end up arrested or brutalized or worse. The police are well aware of the fear, and act accordingly to "protect and serve" the community. For years we've heard about unarmed African-American men being shot dead by police officers, and yet the people who post the aggressive memes will either remain silent on social media; or, if they do react on FB, it will be along the lines of "all lives/blue lives matter". Or they will go to great lengths to point out that not all police officers are "bad", which is true, but at the same time obfuscates the real issue that there are serious abuses going on in the name of law enforcement. As long as scared white suburbanites either ignore or seek to explain away police brutality, or divert attention to looters and the so-called threat to their families and properties, the problems will go on...and on...and on...

 Bridges

OK, let's finish this post on a lighter note. I've always been fascinated by lightning and thunder (much to my wife's bemusement), and living on the 21st floor gives an interesting perspective on passing rainstorms. Yesterday evening I went out onto our balcony, looked to the west and saw the approaching clouds:

It wasn't long before the storm was upon us:

After a few minutes, the rain clouds continued on their merry way:

But in the distance another burst of rain loomed. In all, three storms would blow over us by the time I went to bed last night:

The white glow in the background is the closest I've ever come to catching lightning in a photo:

The BBC has video of lightning striking the Washington Monument last night. As I tidy this up this rant before posting, yet another lightning show is going on outside, though the rain hasn't started falling on us yet. Hey, 61 days into authorized departure, entertainment options are still somewhat limited...

What we have here is failure to communicate

With all the turmoil currently going on in this country, I thought a sunset photo would be a nice way to kick off this post...

OK, time to face facts - I suck at trying to get my point across. I used to chalk it up to people deliberately misunderstanding what I was trying to say in order to play the victim card, or to the fact that some folks are just plain stupid and struggle with the nuances of the English language. But seeing as it happens time and time again, I have to accept that I am a poor communicator. A very recent case in point...

I have a Facebook friend whom I've known since college in the late 1980's. After graduation, said friend moved to a city in the foothills and has been there ever since. According to census data, the ethnic makeup of said town is 84% white, and less than 1% African-American. Considering those demographics, you would naturally expect the residents of this town to lean a bit towards the right on certain issues. In recent years my friend would post on FB their outrage over President Barack Obama supposedly wanting to take their guns away and, more recently, that ALL lives matter. So it came as a pleasant surprise to see them supportive of the demonstrations that have broken out across the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

Until this appeared:

It turns out that according to unsubstantiated rumors that were subsequently passed along to the townsfolk by local law enforcement officials, outside agitators were on their way to loot and pillage the downtown business district. Shopfronts were boarded up, and following that, the testosterone started to flow as chests were thumped, and penises whipped out and made erect in the name of scaring off those bad people coming to do harm to their wholesome town.

Now I have certain relatives of mine - uneducated, untraveled white males - who love to post such tough-sounding memes on their FB pages. And so I wrote on my friend's thread the following:

"The bullet and the military-style lettering looks like something racist, right-wing relatives of mine would proudly post."

To which they replied:

"...if it were in script would it be nicer? There is absolutely nothing racial behind my post....just dont vandalize my town....whoever you are....we won't have it."

At no point did I intend to suggest they were "racist"; rather, I was trying to point out that a meme such as this could be taken the wrong way, and so I clarified:

"I know that but others may not. Taken out of context it could easily be taken for something else. It really does look like something these relatives of mine would post, who don't share our views on what's been going on in Minneapolis and other cities, but who do think our president is doing a fine job."

I hope that cleared up things for them, but I can't say for sure. Certainly their friends didn't seem to get the point, especially when I followed up with this:

"Isn't the posting of something as overtly aggressive as this meme an admission of fear?"

And the responses from the peanut gallery:

1. "...we've a right to protect our families and ourselves don't we???? It's not fear it's just a fact as I'm sure if someone was breaking into your house threatening your family would you just offer them tea and try to talk sense into them or would you do whatever it takes to protect your family and yourself???"

2. "...if I had to I’d empty every weapon I own to protect my family and property."

3. "Hell yes I will protect my home if some asshole comes storming in like those piece of shit looters!"

4. "As we see when things play out, we are left to defend ourselves. Exercise your second amendment right!"

Note that the person who made comment #1 also shared a video on FB showing lots of overweight, bearded middle-aged white men hanging around the boarded-up business district, with the original caption:

"Lets do this scum bags PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE bring it! Waiting on Antifa to legally beat the shit out of them"

And this is why we're never going to have nice things in America. But more on that later. First, in answer to No. 1's question, yes, it is fear. Because what is driving the terrible racial problems in this country is the fear demonstrated by white suburbanites like those who made the above comments. This fear is covered up by bravado, by a show of arms and tough-talking rhetoric, but these are people who are afraid, plain and simple. Ironically, were those "looters" to have actually showed up in their town and commenced "looting" (they didn't, of course; presumably "Prepared Not Scared" frightened them off), these heroic white warriors, once they stopped urinating in their pants, would probably have ended up shooting themselves and their loved ones as a result of their trembling hands, but that's another story...

The problem in this nation isn't so much institutionalized racism per se. Jim Crow laws died off a long time ago, to be replaced by civil rights legislation, and legal recourse exists now to protect those whose rights have been denied. No, what continues to drive this racial tension in America is the terrified white suburbanite cowering in fear that someone is coming to harm them, their family and their property. And who are those terrible people coming to rape, pillage and loot? Does it need to be said? When commenters 1-4 above are fantasizing about defending their homes and loved ones (while bringing themselves to a climax thinking about their 2nd Amendment rights), the skin colors of the "assholes" they are imagining taking out do not resemble their own hues. 

It's because of this fear that the Beckys and Karens of this country call the authorities on people having barbecues in the park, or why self-appointed vigilantes, once their dicks are sufficiently hardened, go out and murder the Treyvon Martins and Ahmaud Arberys. The role of the police is to calm such fears, even if it means taking a knee on someone's chest to the point where they stop breathing. Blue lives matter!

The sad thing is that many of these suburbanites may very well consider themselves to be progressive, reminding one and all who they voted for in 2008 and 2012. And yet they wouldn't hesitate to call 9-1-1 if they saw an unfamiliar black man walking through their neighborhood, and to ask their partner to get their gun "just in case". They may express support for the demonstrators marching against police brutality, but upon hearing rumors that people are coming to destroy their town, they quickly post images and statements that would have a hardcore Trump supporter whooping it up in glee. 

So what's the solution? The fuck if I know. Try to convince the media to tone things down, and the government to actually enforce the "well-regulated Militia" part of the 2nd Amendment? Neither of those things is going to happen anytime soon, if ever. As long as the fear remains, the police will act accordingly, and the outrages will continue. Sure, there are a lot of white folks jumping on the bandwagon now, but the depth of that commitment is questionable. I honestly don't see much hope on the horizon. Once the next big issue takes attention away from George Floyd, the abuses will continue and America will agonize over why it can't live up to its ideals. Meanwhile, the fear will go on...

OK, so have I made my point(s) clear? No? Fuck it, I tried. I just want to get the fuck out of here...

A postscript: I posted the same "Prepared Not Scared" image on my Facebook page yesterday, asking people for their impressions of the type of person who would put up something like that. I wanted to see if my initial reaction (that it was something those racist relatives of mine would post) was wrong (not the first time that's happened!). However, after a few minutes, I thought better of it and deleted the post. Soon after, I learned from another friend that Facebook's algorithms had busted me for the bullet image! And yet, the original post from my college friend is still up on their page, along with their friends' comments about wasting people, nearly two days later! Hey, Mark Zuckerberg, what gives? 

This was the scene from our balcony yesterday afternoon:

  

Today is a holiday?

Arlington National Cemetery

Yes, it's a holiday today. Memorial Day, to be exact. But when every day feels the same while you're stuck indoors, it hard to feel like there's a national holiday to be celebrated. We've only been in Virginia for fifty days, but it seems like it's been much, much longer. Things are slowly beginning to open up in our area, but it's still pretty quiet outside. This is how it looked from our balcony at 1325 hours EDT on Monday:

As I write this, the death toll from COVID-19 in the United States stands at 98,169. On this Memorial Day it's worth noting that figure is greater than the American death toll from the Vietnam War, and is rapidly closing in on the count from the First World War, which stands at 116,516 (an interesting side note: more of those casualties died from disease than from combat during WW1, largely due to the 1918 flu pandemic!). But people are understandably anxious to get on with their lives, and you can't keep a population locked down forever. I'm in favor of gradually opening up for business, provided strict safeguards remain in place (face masks, social distancing etc.). But as these news articles from the BBC and CNN show, it seems there are too many people who are willing to risk greater outbreaks in their rush to get out of their homes.

Our situation is complicated by the fact we shouldn't even be here in Arlington. Our return to Addis Ababa አዲስ አበባ depends on when Authorized Departure is ended; when consulates and embassies in Africa are reopened for routine services; and when the Ethiopian government ends (or at least modifies for diplomats and their families) the mandatory 14-day quarantine upon entering the country. Until then, we continue to wait things out in the Washington, D.C. suburbs.

So, what do I do when I'm not teleworking?. On weekday mornings I go for hour-long walks after breakfast around the neighborhood. There usually isn't much to see. While there are a lot of very attractive tres Americana brick or wooden houses (many dating from the 1940's and '50's) in this area, it's the more modernist structures that tend to stick out (namely by clashing with their neighbors), like this beauty. Just look at those southern exposures!:

There are also the occasional historical markers to show how much things have changed (not to mention how much change remains to be carried out):

On weekends (i.e those days when I don't need to telework), I get more ambitious with my outdoor strolls. Our apartment building isn't far from the Custis Trail, and each weekend I go for gradually longer walks on the pathway. From an initial one-hour round trip, I'm now up to two hours. This past Saturday I learned that one hour on foot from our residence will take me beyond the Custis Trail and onto the Mount Vernon Trail and Theodore Roosevelt Island (the latter which my family and I first visited back in the summer of 2012). Next weekend I plan on stretching that walk to two hours and ten minutes, and so on until the day we can finally return to Ethiopia. It's the only exercise I'm getting:

The return route from Theodore Roosevelt Island took me through the streets of the normally bustling business section of Rosslyn. Very little is hustling or bustling these days:

I'd forgotten it was the Memorial Day weekend until I passed by this sight on Sunday morning:

Speaking of Sunday, that afternoon (while the girls were out grocery shopping) I took a walk to the Fort C.F. Smith historical site, 43 minutes and 2.1 miles (3.4 kilometers) from our apartment building as the rabbit hops. Birds, squirrels and bunnies are getting bolder as people continue to stay indoors:

The highlight of the park is the Hendry House, which is normally available for weddings and other functions. I don't need to tell you that things aren't "normal" these days, do I?:

The various localities in the northern Virginia region have done a great job of creating and maintaining parks and other public lands. If it wasn't for the sounds of traffic from the nearby Interstate 66, you could almost feel like you were deep in the forest, instead of being in one of the most affluent suburbs in the country:

On the way back from the fort, I passed by this rather charming house, with its covered elevated walkway connecting the carport with the front door. Echoes of Frank Lloyd Wright...:

On the other hand, however, there was this place, with its English lions and American and Australian flags:

This morning (Monday) I headed over to the famed U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, only 47 minutes and 2.4 miles (3.9 kilometers) away. En route I passed by the Belvedere Condominiums. According to this website they date from 1987, though they appear more like something out of the 1970's to my untrained eyes. Get a load of those "Romeo and Juliet" balconies:

It certainly wasn't my first time to the memorial (see here, here and here):

Around the base of the memorial is etched the names of wars that have involved the Marine Corps, a depressing litany of conflicts that demonstrate this country seems to be on a permanent war footing:

Before heading home, I looked over the wall at the rows of headstones in Arlington National Cemetery, another sobering reminder that peace remains elusive in a country operating under the aegis of a military-industry complex. It wasn't for my "freedom" that many of these men and women supposedly made the "ultimate sacrifice":

I'll continue to walk until this lockdown ends and we can return "home" to Addis. Hopefully it won't be too much longer - I'm beginning to develop a hole in one of my left shoes (an unfortunate and expensively common occurrence due to the flawed way I walk).

A "talent" for touching nerves

These face masks make my glasses fog up. The struggle is real...

Little has changed since my last post - Authorized Departure has been extended until the middle of June, and it won't be until July at the earliest that we will unlikely be allowed to return to Addis Ababa አዲስ አበባ. So in the meantime life continues with its teleworking and daily walks, though Virginia (like many states) is in the risky process of "reopening". Sadly, we've had to face reality and cancel our trip this summer to Taiwan and Japan. I was especially looking forward to taking Amber around the Chūbu region 中部地方 of the latter, but with almost 315,000 deaths worldwide and the fact that we can reschedule for next summer, I'm not whinging.

A brush with history while walking in Rosslyn

But that's not the reason for blogging. Instead, I'd like to touch on the issue of identity (and a few other things). I'll begin with the time back in the mid-oughts when I was managing a small English language school in Yokkaichi city 四日市市, in Mie Prefecture 三重県, Japan. The school's owner was an Englishman named David, who ran the operation with his Japanese wife, Tomoko (? Actually, I don't remember her name, other than it ended with a 子). One day David was bragging about how it was his turn to head his neighborhood association, and how that made him an accepted part of the community. In reality, the only reason he had a turn was because of his marriage to Tomoko (were he a single gaijin 外人 it was unlikely he would've even been considered), and while his neighbors probably had nothing against him personally, I'm pretty sure they didn't think of him as one of "them". Instead, they probably referred to David amongst themselves as "that foreigner". But David was happy to believe otherwise, and seeing as he was my boss, I didn't say anything (in retrospect, I probably should've, seeing as David had issues with following Japanese labor laws, but that's another tale).

Fast forward to now, and Facebook, where one of my FB friends has recently taken to sharing articles touting Taiwan's successes in the fight to contain COVID-19 (as have I). The interesting thing here is that A (as I shall call him) has been taking credit in the sense of referring to himself as "we", as in "we can only help if the world wants to listen" (italics mine). The "we", of course, means "to be Taiwanese", as in "I am one". To which I replied "We?", and which most definitely touched a nerve with A, leading to a long, somewhat unhinged diatribe that included the following:

"... (C)itizenship didn’t stop YOU (collective) from accepting MY (personal) donations of surgical masks that I sent from MY account that I get with MY national health system account."*

The heroic personal sacrifice he's referring to is the government of Taiwan's donations of surgical masks and other virus-fighting equipment to various countries, including the U.S. For the record, we (meaning my family and I) are using Made in Taiwan masks here at home in Virginia, but those were bought by my wife last year when she went back to Taiwan from Ethiopia to visit her family, well before the virus broke out in Wuhan. Anyway...

Potomac Overlook Park. The overlook had grown over a long time ago, rendering the park's name obsolete

I should pause here to point out that A is a white guy from Washington state, teaching English at a high school in Taichung 台中 (or he was when I was still living there), as Caucasian as yours truly, though I arguably tan better. Like me, he has a Taiwanese spouse and child. I should also stop here to try and define "identity".

It isn't easy during this lockdown to pry my daughter's hands loose from her devices

There is "identity" in the legal sense. A isn't Taiwanese in that he hasn't obtained Republic of China 中華民國 nationality. Doing so in Taiwan is a complicated and potentially risky process; while many countries require their newly-naturalized citizens to renounce any prior citizenship claims to other states, the ROC government demands proof of such abandonment before even considering a citizenship application. This means that if your request is rejected, you become "stateless" (the government does make exceptions for foreigners who have made "outstanding contributions to Taiwanese society", but this usually doesn't include teaching English to small children at cram schools, like I used to do). On the other hand, permanent residency in Taiwan is comparatively easy to obtain. I don't know if A has done so, but if I had been in the country as long as he has, I certainly would've gotten my Alien Permanent Residence Certificate by now.

Fly like an eagle (see below)

A makes the argument that he pays taxes and so is a member of the community, and he's right...sort of. Except that no matter how much he contributes to society, even were he to become a full-fledged ROC citizen, very few of his Taiwanese acquaintances, friends and neighbors would ever consider him as such. In immigrant-built countries like Australia, Canada and the United States, you can get naturalized and most Australians, Canadians and Americans (though not all, including certain racist relatives of mine) would accept you as part of the team.  Not in Taiwan (nor in Japan for that matter) - you might be liked and well-treated by the community, but in most peoples' eyes you will forever remain "A, that foreigner" or "A, that American guy". And that's a nerve that I seemd to have rubbed raw in A. 

See above

For which I apologize, but at the same time say "Too fucking bad. That's reality, deal with it." Because for myself, it's an issue that hits home in that I have a daughter who has held ROC nationality from birth, but is still treated like an outsider (or at times like a freak of nature) by many of her compatriots when she's back in Taiwan. Granted, she has yet to face anything overtly hostile or malicious, but she's old enough now to be aware that she isn't truly considered one of "them" (and least not completely), and to feel frustrated at times by the ignorant ways other Taiwanese sometimes react to her. And so I remind her that she is just as Taiwanese as anyone else, to never forget that and to tell people to fuck off (well, not that last part, not until she turns 18).

Watching the rain fall from twenty-one floors up

I also appear to have touched another nerve with A with an FB post from a day ago. In an article on how people in Taiwan increasingly consider themselves to be "Taiwanese" (as opposed to "Chinese"), I shared it by writing the following:

"There are plenty of Caucasian English teachers in Taiwan happy to debate the topic of Taiwanese identity with their fellow 外國人, not to mention helpfully explain to locals what it means to be Taiwanese..."

At the time I thought I was being charmingly snarky, but the more I think about it, I realize it goes deeper than that. A and his fellow white boys and girls frequently debate online amongst themselves what it means to be Taiwanese. It might seem harmless enough at first (and some of it is unintentionally funny, especially the extremes to which some of them go to convince themselves and others that most Taiwanese are not, in fact, of Han ethincity, but that's a topic for another time if I can be bothered) - after all, these are mostly English teachers we're talking about, not academics. But there is a disturbing undercurrent at play. 

A memorial to police officers killed in the line of duty

That undercurrent is the sometimes fierce competition to be the white guy (or gal) who gets to explain Taiwan and the Taiwanese to their friends and acquaintances (and perfect strangers) online. In order to do, the people of Taiwan have to be reduced to unique Others, living unique lives, and not as normal human beings trying to get by in life, like everyone else the world over. After all, considering Taiwanese as you would your own countrymen and women doesn't make them worth arguing or debating over. You live and work in Taiwan, you speak Mandarin, you've read a lot of books and no one is going to be allowed to question your reduction of a people to easily managed ethnographic models. The ultimate goal, of course, is to become one of the "we" (at least in your mind), because once you become one of them, no one can challenge your assertions or observations, and all must bow to your hard-won knowledge and wisdom. 

A colorful office building

OK, let me pull this back a bit, as I'm no doubt making a proverbial mountain out of a molehill (or as the Taiwanese might say, 小题大做). But when I imagine these folks lecturing Taiwanese acquaintances, friends and coworkers on what it means to be Taiwanese (as I'm pretty sure most do from time to time), I guess you could say it touches a nerve, for I used to do the same years ago when I was living in Japan (before the age of social media). At least I did until I learned to stop myself from saying things like "the Japanese do things like..." or "the Japanese think that..." (and I never referred to myself as "we Japanese"!), and to realize it was a country of 127 million individuals (fewer now with the declining birth rates) that didn't need to be explained or interpreted by me. 

Or like Dracula, as a friend suggested

I'll finish this with a probably irrelevant recollection. Back in the days when I worked in the HR department of a major English language school chain in Japan, there was an applicant from North Carolina (complete with a thick drawl) who so much wanted to be Japanese that he had legally changed his name to "Isao Fujimoto" (or something similar; it was a long time ago), even though he hadn't taken out Japanese citizenship. He didn't get the job, though it had nothing to do with his new name (lots of people just didn't have the skills to teach English in a classroom, especially applicants with education degrees!). Now, I don't think A would ever go to the extremes of Fujimoto-san, but if A is going to publicly claim to be part of the team and thus take credit for things he's had little or nothing to do with, it's going to be hard to resist the temptation to point out that at best he's just leading the cheers from the stands.

Nerves can be very tempting at times...

Why I don't like taking photos of people. I took this shot of a man relaxing in a hammock, only to find out he was sharing an intimate moment with his girlfriend. Jeezus, people, it's a public park. Get a room...

*I was living and working (and paying taxes) in Taiwan in March 2011 when the Great East Japan Earthquake 東北地方太平洋沖地震 occurred in Japan's Tōhoku region. Like many Taiwanese, in response I (a non-Taiwanese, a waiguroen) made a not-insignificant (considering my financial situation at that time) monetary donation to a relief fund for Japanese tsunami victims. When the Japanese government later thanked the people of Taiwan for their help, I didn't feel the need to proclaim to anyone who would listen that I also was or should've been included.