Brainy and dirty-minded is a lethal combination, as I (being able to lay claim only to the latter) discovered when my friend Judy pounced on the quite innocent Facebook status message I posted yesterday (see image above) and accused me (publicly!) of autodermaphilia.

I truly and honestly believe the body’s largest organ to be a beautiful and marvelous thing, and I’m not alone. The BBC agrees with me, as does the US News and World Report’s Health Editor, who says, perhaps a bit gender-insensitively, that “man has never made anything better as sensor, shield, and communicator.” 

This morning, my appreciation for skin is further vindicated by a post from Ethan, who’s liveblogging up a storm from the Pop!Tech 2007 conference in Camden, Maine (here’s the full list of livebloggers):

Anthropologist Nina Jablonski praises us as an audience for being, “an exceptional and alert group of primates.” (I will be more exceptional and alert with a bit more coffee.) She invites us to begin her talk by being quite primate and spend twenty seconds touching the skin of someone else in the room. She’s unsurprised when many people don’t participate in this activity - we’ve moved away from this behavior in human society, but it’s incredibly important to our primate ancestors.

“We gather an enormous amount of information about our environment from our skin,” especially the skin of our hands. Hands are equipped with an amazing range of nerve endings that interpret pain, deep touch, temperature.

So there you have it, Judy. Science says I’m not a pervert, but merely a self-decorating ape.

- That American Airlines (AA) does not suck on every, single level. After delaying my flight out of JFK on Monday (fuel leaking into the a/c of the original aircraft, (unionised?) crew claiming illness as a result) and causing me to miss my connection out of Miami, I received an e-mail this morning from AA customer service apologising abjectly for the screw-up and offering me 5,000 bonus miles. This doesn’t quite make up for the fact that the meal vouchers they gave me could only be used at the hotel where they put me up, and where US$15 covers the cost of a cheeseburger and a cup of coffee, but it’s better than nothing. Now that I have enough miles for a reward ticket, I guess I’ll be forced to break my vow of never flying AA again.

- That my college friend, Lisa Cooper, has won a MacArthur “genius” award!

- That there’s another pilgrimage to Mecca besides the Hajj. (Thanks to Amira for this one, or rather to Amira’s mother, who’s Umrah-ing in Mecca as we speak).

To follow up on my previous post, and also the piece I wrote on Global Voices about the role of the internet in the Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago elections, here’s an excerpt from a comment left by Liz Henry on a Global Voices post about the build-up to the general election in Guatemala (which takes place today):

People sometimes bring up the digital divide, or low literacy rates, as a reason not to care about putting political information online. But we’ve got to support good, clear, thorough information about elections and candidates — and history and law — online. Then it can spread, through whoever does have the means to read it, print it, distribute it, and do what it takes to get the information out into the world.

All of this is enough to make me think that the population is really politically savvy and educated despite the lack of structured civics education in our school system. What I worry about is whether the online community, with ready access to computers and the Internet, are an accurate representation of the general population. What about the political opinions of those on the other side of the digital divide? And it may be that the Internet is just the latest forum for Trinis to do what they do best, talk. How much this translates into action is another question. Like a friend of mine, wary of all the online talk that has been taking place, recently wrote: “While we, 'the future', sit and occupy our time amusing ourselves with all these…discussions, the true leaders in the real world are doing as they please.”

Blogger Shivonne du Barry, expressing some healthy skepticism about the “alternative spins” on Trinidad and Tobago politics being provided by blogs and social networking sites. And now it’s my turn to play devil’s advocate, and a highly optimistic one at that!

Juxtapose the 12% internet penetration rate and Danah Boyd’s infamous findings about Facebook and class (assuming they apply to Trinidad and Tobago) and you conclude that Shivonne’s concerns are well taken, as of course they are – they’re the concerns perennially expressed in discussions about the role/value of the the internet in “developing” societies. But they also assume that, in the absence of Facebook and its equivalents, the political dialogue/activity taking place among this select group would have taken a different (and possibly superior) form (as well it might). Or taken place at all.

They also assume (more than likely correctly) that there’s not some innovative parallel activity taking place “on the other side of the digital divide” using cell phones and SMS. They also assume that all online political activity will necessarily be partisan. Might we not see some serious citizen reporting this upcoming election season? Might some ordinary person not happen to capture some priceless image or bit of footage on a cell phone camera that the jaded media practitioners have missed?

Colours of Notting Hill: Over at Global Voices, Nikipedia has posted a selection of photos from this year’s Notting Hill Carnival celebrations in London.

The Manning blog: The Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago is blogging! Would love to know who’s behind this, but on the other hand, maybe I wouldn’t — knowing who it is might just spoil the fun. Hazel “Breakfusses” Manning chimes in from time to time.

Barbados apartment tragedy: Barbados Free Press posted three lengthy reports (one, two, three) on the collapse of an apartment containing five people into a cave in Brittons Hill, Barbados. According to BFP’s last post, it is “highly unlikely there are survivors”. The latest post had attracted 79 comments when I last checked. Barbados Underground and Pull! Push filed reports as well. YouTube user izellajaouda has posted a video of an eyewitness’s account of the collapse recorded from the local television news, and another video from the Voice of Barbados radio station shows a car being rescued from the site.

If you believe as a matter of faith that a certain book is blasphemous, and therefore dangerous for the faithful to read, then you have a simple solution. Tell the faithful that they must not read it. If they are truly faithful, they will obey, and be saved from the perdition you fear for them. If they are not of the faith, or have lapsed in their faith, then to read a blasphemous book will only damn them a little bit further. That is really, as a mindful officer of the faith, none of your business—your only concern is to ensure the obedience of the faithful.
- Nilanjana S. Roy in today’s Business Standard (read it before it’s relegated to “premium subscriber only” status).

As few people in this place seem to read, for “book” you may substitute “lifestyle”, “sexual orientation”, “style of dancing”, “style of dress”, “social practice” etc, as required.

—-

And speaking of mindful officers of the faith, Prime Minister Patrick Manning has denied that the TT$42.3 billion fiscal package he presented yesterday in parliament is an “election budget”. But in an election year, what party in its right mind would present anything else? Don’t they wish to stay in power? Unless 2007 isn’t really an election year. . . .

Technorati Tags: trinidad, caribbean, politics, religion

I’m back in Trinidad and still haven’t reported properly on BlogHer even after all sorts of cool people have written about meeting me (thanks, cool people! At least I took lots of photos). Putting me particularly and rather dramatically to shame (and not just for blogging about BlogHer) is Beth Kanter, an old Global Voices colleague whom I first met at the second GV summit in 2005, and who has been conducting a very successful fundraising campaign for a bloggers’ conference in Cambodia.

I’m hoping the fact that American Airlines left my luggage in Miami last night will net me some sympathy. And be thankful that your dog is probably not the Fake Steve Jobs either.

The single binding aspect of all the magazines subsequently mentioned in this issue, and this will seem obvious, but far too many editors ignore it, is that for a publication to succeed it has to have a point. It can’t just come into being because the owner wants to impress his friends. Or because market studies have shown an opening in a certain line of interest.

Graydon Carter, writing in GOOD Magazine about The 51 Best* Magazines Ever, and echoing my own grouse with many of the titles I see cropping up in these parts. I’ll be the first to admit that the glee I experienced on reading this is due (partly) to sour grapes: selling ads for our baby The Ticket (which had a point) was like pulling teeth, while other publications with less of a point seemed able to bamboozle advertisers into supporting them. Please note that I say this in full awareness of the fact that the grass is always greener, etc.: maybe these other publications just tried harder and complained less.

Other publications with a point: Caribbean Beat and The Caribbean Review of Books. (And yes, I am associated in all sorts of ways with both of these publications — which, somehow, never seemed to affect their quality).

Hat-tip to Prufrock’s Page.

This has been my most out-of-it Carnival ever. In 2006 CFR was on Carnival, as they say, like white on rice, with a whole series of posts entitled “My Carnival” and Flickr pages updated what seemed like daily with a dizzying selection of photos from the Minshall mas’ camp and any other place I could sneak a camera into.

This year the word has barely even been mentioned in these pages. There’s no Minshall this year, of course, and I believe I’m persona non grata in at least one pan yard. And I don’t think my being out of the country for most of last week helped, nor does the fact that I’ve now come down with what a nasty cold which made me miss the only fete — C*POP’s infamous “Beach House” extravaganza at Ortinola estate — I’d have attended for the season. I did attend the uber-slick 3canal Show at Queen’s Hall on Monday, but Queen’s Hall operatives stopped me from taking photos, so I have nothing to show for it. I guess the pale attempt at a photo essay I made the other day at their offices will have to suffice.

And now it’s Carnival Friday, the day the Carnival bug — if it hasn’t already — is supposed to bite hard and make you run out and sign up for a costume in the nearest band and start calling around in desperation for Brian Lara fete tickets (the “you”, in this case, referring of course to other people; I myself have better things to do with my hard-earned cash).

I’m about to head out into the fray shortly to run a few errands, so if I don’t return it’s either that the bug has bitten or the traffic is worse that usual. But at the rate I’m going, it looks like I might even skip j’ouvert.

Speaking of Carnival, I’ve been meaning to recommend my Global Voices colleague José Murilo’s lovely piece on Recife, Brazil, where the build-up to carnival has included a celebration of the 100th anniversary of frevo, the traditional sound of the state of Pernambuco, and other lovely things.

Me, all I’m concerned with at the moment is the build-up in my nostrils. Sniff.

Since returning from India my sleep patterns have begun to look a bit more like the average person’s. Yesterday evening, however, I took a dose of anti-histamines (explanation below) which knocked me flat by 8:30pm. Hence the reason I’m up again at 2am to receive the latest prod from Vernon. (I also received an e-mail this week from P W Fenton saying, “Caribbean Free Radio makes me look absolutely prolific”. I know, folks. Believe me when I say I’m trying).

RIP, Uncle Ellis:

One of my late father’s wishes was that his musician friends play at his funeral. Which they did, bless their hearts — parang instrumentals and popular songs and calypsoes. The funeral of Ellis Chow Lin On, which took place yesterday, was practically a concert, with Chris “Tambu” Herbert, David Rudder, Shurwayne Winchester (who lost a devoted manager in Ellis’ passing), Roger George, Natalie Yorke, Carl Jacobs, Pelham Goddard, Carl “Beaver” Henderson and others giving “Uncle” Ellis the musical send-off he more than deserved.

It occurred to me today that I’d known Uncle Ellis for almost 20 years, mainly in his capacity as the father of my good friend Sharon, and uncle of Tony. Most people will probably remember him as one of the founders of the seminal band Charlie’s Roots, but Tony, in a loving tribute to his uncle (and mentor), also recalled his involvement with KH Records, a key player in the development of soca music in the 1970s. Writing in the Guardian on Monday, Debbie Jacob was spot on when she said that “in the cut-throat business of calypso defined by backbiting and cynicism, Ellis remained optimistic and kind. He always managed to smile. He was one of those old-time storytellers, a Chinese griot. . . .” Ellis Chow Lin On was really the loveliest of people.

Stung!: Engaging in a bit of praedial larceny (i.e. picking fruit from a tree at the side of the road) in the countryside over the weekend, I was stung by a wasp. A bit of Googling has since revealed that the best thing to have done in the circumstances would be to have instantly applied a bit of the juice of the purloined fruit (citrus) to the sting. This would have neutralised the poison, which hand sanitizer gel (the only thing vaguely medicinal I had on hand) apparently does not.

Two days later, my ear (site of the sting) is still red, swollen and slightly painful to the touch, and my scalp and the area just below my jaw are numb. I’ve discerned no effect on my behaviour except a slight bad mood, but I still don’t relish the idea of walking around with a head full of wasp venom. (This, by the way, is the reason I took the anti-histamines.) So if I suddenly stop blogging (even more), you’ll know it’s either because I’m dead or too busy stinging baddies in the guise of a wasp-powered superhero.

iPhone bet sets friend back $30:

The only reason I’m joining the chorus about Apple’s newly-announced iPhone is because I foolishly volunteered to put together a piece on international reactions to the thing for Global Voices, and because a friend of mine says he has a $30 bet on that I’m going to acquire one as soon as they become available in this neck of the woods.

I’m a bit surprised that this friend doesn’t know me better than that. In addition to not being a great fan of technological convergence in the gadget realm, all I really demand of a mobile phone is that it be able to make and receive calls (my ownership of two fairly feature-rich units notwithstanding). Which is not to say that I deny the importance of cell phones with kick-ass features to people in communities with limited access to computers and the internet, or the value of SMS as an easy and inexpensive means of disseminating information. (Incidentally, my compatriot Taran Rampersad is predicting that 2007 may be the year of the mobile phone — and he may just be right).

Nor am I denying that the iPhone is so beautiful it makes you want to weep, and has some features that are completely and totally to die for.

Thing is, I don’t need an iPhone. So unless somebody offers me one as a gift, I won’t be owning one any time soon. Besides, the damn thing costs US$500: know how many Kiva.org entrepreneurs I could finance with that kind of cash?? Nikipedia says he’s getting one, however, so I could always play with his.

Stolen MacBook: This one’s a long shot, and mainly directed at local readers. A friend of mine had her 15″ PowerBook stolen from her car over the weekend. The serial number is SW85160Y3RG4. If it happens to cross your path, please give me a shout.

It’s 4am. Back to bed for this delinquent podcaster.

Another earthquake….

Not terribly strong, but unnerving all the same.

I am beginning to think that the ability to be happy may be a gift or an aptitude. Could it be that some people are simply better at being happy than other people?

I also anticipate that those who belong to the former group will agree with me, and those who belong to the latter will ask me to “define happy”.

UPDATE (13/11/06): The word I should have used instead of “happiness” was in the title all along: JOY.

Malcolm Gladwell, writing today on his blog:

I think that misunderstanding over degree of difficulty issues is one of the major reasons for conflict between insiders and outsiders. We bridle at the school teacher who asks for a raise, because we don't realize--and we can never realize unless we've been a teacher ourselves--how hard being a school teacher is.

Think about it.

I wore black today too.

And all day I’ve been running a fever, on account, I assume, of the yellow fever shot I had yesterday.

Just watched the nail-biting finish to the Champions Trophy match between the West Indies and India.

My team is still capable of making me so happy sometimes.

They already never call — just wait till they read this.

(Forgive me — I’m not having a very good morning).

- In today’s Trinidad Express, BC Pires talks with artist Steve Ouditt about the festivals of Divali and Eid-Ul-Fitr in the Trinidadian context.

- Guadeloupean saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart’s MySpace page. His latest album, Soné Ka-La, gorgeously synthesises Guadeloupean gwoka and all that jazz (full-length music samples are available at MySpace).

And while we’re on the subject of great saxophonists, the New York Times yesterday runs a moving article about Sonny Rollins — who’s now 76 — as he comes to terms with the death of his wife and (reluctantly) embraces technolological change.

- My photos from last night’s Divali dinner at Omi and Lalo’s are up on Flickr. They’re a bit on the dark side, and again, will be more appreciated by those who know the people in them. But I do deconstruct a dinner plate.

- And here’s one from the tech files: last night, in my quest for a method of cheating the upload date on a few of my photos so they wouldn’t appear at the top of my Flickr photostream, I came across h4ppierphotos, which worked like a dream.

- The music video for Jamaican artist Gyptian’s “Beautiful Lady” is one of the Editor’s Picks today at video-sharing site Revver. Interesting that VP Records is using Revver . . . The piece is packed with ads, of course.

- Reporters Sans Frontières has released a new report on the Internet in Cuba.

- “Bird of Night”, the chamber opera by Trinidadian composer Dominique LeGendre (who was the subject of CFR podcast #38 — those were the days, weren’t they?), opened this past Thursday at London’s Royal Opera House. The show runs till October 28. (Hat tip to Titilayo).