Friday List!

Sarah's List:

Have you seen this Open Letter to South Africa from the "foreign media"? Some instructions on how to behave while the world is on "Mandela watch." An excerpt:

"Our footage is made more compelling by your presence. Specifically, we are fond of small black children praying and/or singing in unison. Equally telegenic are the Aryan ubermensch blonde kids also praying/singing, who help underscore the theme that Mandela united people of all races under a Rainbow umbrella." 

You can read the rest in the Daily Maverick here.

Image from here.

And while I'm stealing links from this week's This American Life, I'll just keep at it. Check out this blog: The Real Housewife of Ciudad Juarez. Written by an American woman who due to immigration laws has moved with her Mexican husband to Juarez, Mexico.

The ellipses are taking over. Here's an explanation. What the...Why everyone and your mother started using ellipses...everywhere. Guilty as charged...

If you're reading this, our family is somewhere between the States and Congo. And hopefully not too harried from dragging around two kids, two car seats and carry-ons during our long layover in Paris. Found this site, Between9and5.com, where you can book hotel rooms just for the day.

I can't stop thinking about Egypt for so many reasons. Our two years there were incredible. And although I couldn't wait to leave, I'm feeling a little (okay, a lot) jealous of great friends just moving there. Remember them? This guy and this gal. 

P.S. Ask for Mahmoud on Rd. 203 for the clay pots of fish stew. Best kept secret in the city.

At some temple. Circa 2007.

Jill's List:

After LouLou and Charlotte made their debut on the ONE Facebook feed yesterday (you know, right next to Bono) - I found these brilliant videos from Stop the Pity Project/Mama Hope after perusing the page.  Really, really great - or at least they seemed good to me.  What do others think? (You should actually click on them.)

And relatedly, poverty porn is something that I think about almost every time I write on this blog (Well, except maybe when I'm writing about my hair). Like the Guardian says: "we've got to do a better job of reporting the plight of the people we want to help – so that the voices that emerge are not ours, but theirs")  Also from The Guardian:

My journalism professor was fond of a provocative anecdote, the punch line of which was made famous by the foreign correspondent Edward Behr. Simultaneously reprehensible and practical, it is a poignant comment on the profession of conflict reporting.

To set the scene: a grizzled reporter treks to the middle of a Congolese war zone. Men with machetes abound, women clutching half-clothed children are weeping. It's a familiar sight on this beat, and the reporter knows what he has to do now is get the horror-flecked story inherent to the region's conflict.

And thus his query: "Anyone here been raped and speaks English?"

Poverty porn is a well-established trope in media-studies circles. Violent deaths. Bone-chilling rapes. Diseases that leave bodies ravaged and mutilated. Hunger that is evident in the rib cages of small children. These ubiquitous images practically define today's perception of humanitarian work.

By comparison, quality-of-life issues elicit little more than a yawn. If no one's dead or dying, there are more compelling causes beckoning.

Working mothers!  Follow this ever-evolving project by Alice Proujansky here.

My guilty pleasure plane reading selection.  (I cheated, read the first book, and had to buy two more.)  I'm also trying to stock up on a few U.S. magazines so that I don't accidentally buy a $30 Elle in Turkey again.

Image from Amazon.com

Got one of my twice-yearly haircuts yesterday (thanks Anna!).  So lovely.  Johan took this picture, because Lou and I are totally rocking the same look. (And, yes, I'm still a color virgin.)

I will be dreaming of beautiful barns for months and months after this summer. Virginia, you really are quite good at barns.  Well done.

We're on Every Mother Counts again!  

A day in the life...of a South Sudanese nurse.

Image from BBC.

Insanity by Lariam. 

And, remind me not to forget the Blue Dawn this year.  Apparently, it can do things that Dr. Bronner's cannot.