http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php JANERA.COM is a new online publication and social network for and by the vibrant comunity of Global Nomad. en-us PHP/4.4.7 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=133 It isn’t that I don’t feel bad; it is that I don’t feel worse tonight than I did last night.—J. Robert Oppenheimer, upon his first visit to Japan Read more Thu, 08 May 2008 08:42:03 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=133 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=132 First meaning possession. Read more Thu, 08 May 2008 08:40:07 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=132 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=131 The world has been obsessed with superheroes since at least 1938, when DC Comics launched Superman. Since then, like Spiderman, Captain America, Wonder Woman, and the Fantastic Four, Superman has been— with uncommon strength and virtue—a leading superhero archetype. Read more Tue, 06 May 2008 09:17:35 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=131 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=130 Who needs the craft most? Artist or patron? Scottish painter Lex Braes would argue that it is the painter, that the act of painting itself is a way of finding meaning—in the diffidence of life, and in the rage that exists in all of us. Read more Mon, 05 May 2008 16:01:03 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=130 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=129 12:35 a.m., Campo Alegre, Curaçao. Young prostitutes walk seductively through the palm tree lined alleys and give naked dance shows under flashing disco lights, hoping to attract business. Read more Mon, 05 May 2008 15:25:38 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=129 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=128 “Are you a Jew?” I’m standing at London’s Heathrow, waiting to board a flight to Tel Aviv, and the El Al Airline attendant will not let me into the gate, or return my boarding pass or passport until I answer this question. Read more Mon, 05 May 2008 15:10:10 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=128 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=127 At 3 a.m. I left for the airport, eager to leave New York City. I didn’t know what to expect. A few days earlier, I had been contacted by a public relations company that asked me to join a cruise down the Brazilian Amazon with a group of philanthropic doctors called Saude & Alegria. Read more Mon, 05 May 2008 14:33:24 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=127 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=126 In the winter of 1979, shortly before the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, my family went on holiday in Kabul. We were living in Pakistan at the time and, even though my English grandmother was visiting, my father wanted an adventure. Read more Mon, 05 May 2008 14:14:27 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=126 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=125 If you had the world’s attention, what story would you tell? Millions of people are expected to see and hear responses to this question on May 10, Pangea Day. Read more Mon, 05 May 2008 14:07:33 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=125 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=124 If you’ve never heard of Keith Reinhard, you know him by the ad slogans he created. Does “You Deserve A Break Today,” or “Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun” ring a bell? Read more Mon, 05 May 2008 13:54:47 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=124 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=123 I still remember clearly the day in 2002 when I almost met Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The choir I sang with was performing at a memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, one year after the attacks of September 11, and Tutu delivered the homily. Read more Mon, 05 May 2008 13:21:11 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=123 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=122 “The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw” by Bruce Barcott, a contributing editor at Outside magazine, is a portrait of an American expatriate, Sharon Matola, who lives in Belize and leads a fight against a corrupt government. It is a story not about the bird in the title as much as it is about the passions that bird stirred in a woman who fell in love with Belize’s animals and saw their natural habit was in imminent peril. Read more Mon, 05 May 2008 10:20:06 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=122 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=120 Given its acute focus on photographs as articles that both illuminate and obscure reality, it seems somehow appropriate that “Standard Operating Procedure” is not the movie it initially appears to be. Read more Mon, 05 May 2008 10:01:48 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=120 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=119 At 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning, students wait anxiously to be buzzed in through the heavy, wrought-iron gates at 142 Rua Dr. Gabriel dos Santos. Beyond lies a large, colonial house with a broad, wrap-around veranda. As students march upstairs to the old-fashioned classrooms, the wide-plank steps creak noisily underfoot. By 3p.m., schooled in the basics of documentary film making, they’re back on the street—shooting their first video on a digital video camera. Read more Sun, 09 Mar 2008 17:01:48 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=119 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=118 Janera speaks to Randal Corsen, pianist, composer and arranger from Curaçao, about what it’s like to be from a small island and play in the global arena. Read more Sat, 08 Mar 2008 13:21:21 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=118 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=116 For many of us, Christmas means cold weather, shopping, and gathering around a decorated tree with family. I wanted a drastic change, so I decided to travel with my friend Liana to the Bolivian jungle. Our research led us to Rurrenabaque, a town of 8000 souls, 200 miles northeast of La Paz. Rurrenabaque (Rurre for short) is located in the rainforest, and is the starting point for many jungle trips. The town can be reached by land, on a horrifying 20-hour bus ride down an unpaved highway known as the Most Dangerous Road in the World or by airplane. Due to lack of time and courage, we chose the latter. Read more Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:56:13 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=116 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=115 Upon first arriving in The Netherlands, I found myself face-to-face with a woman I had a genuine desire to greet warmly. We had corresponded for months via email and we both felt the excitement of witnessing a person, who moments before had been only a name, materialize in the flesh. Sensing that a handshake would be inadequate for the occasion, I leaned in for a kiss on the right cheek. I hesitated barely a moment before “muh”-ing the left too (we were in Europe, after all). As I started to draw away, she pulled me back for a third peck and whispered in my ear, “In Holland, we do three.” Read more Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:41:51 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=115 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=114 A blind man walks towards me as he whispers prayers through broken teeth and parched lips. His kaftan skirts the dust before him, sweeping rhythmically left to right through the seething Medina market, undisturbed. Heaped spices tumble next to chopped and feathered foul, and leafy mint bundles are tossed into vats of boiling sweet tea water. Read more Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:30:30 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=114 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=113 Trivia question: what do the Ploof restaurant in New Dehli, the Divan Hotel in Istanbul and the Elks Club in Panama City have in common with the Eurasia Foundation in Kiev and a Starbucks in Nongkhai, Thailand? Read more Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:26:18 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=113 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=112 Janera speaks to Parag Khanna about his first book and what he believes lies in our globally integrated future. Read more Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:09:06 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=112 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=111 Harare, Zimbabwe, July 2000 Read more Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:49:27 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=111 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=110 ‘Each man had a liver, a heart, a brain,and a Flag.These were his vital organs.On these his life depended.’ Professor Tucholsky’s Facts, Christopher Logue Read more Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:45:21 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=110 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=107 “Persepolis,” based on Marjane Satrapi’s two-volume graphic novel memoir, succeeds because of the tension between its contradictions. Read more Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:16:47 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=107 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=106 When one thinks about psychedelic rock, the first thing that usually comes to mind is either trippy guitar riffs or manic light shows, not the exotic sounds and instruments of the Middle East. Read more Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:55:33 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=106 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=105 New York, 7 February 2008 Read more Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:42:29 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=105 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=104 It’s forbidden on subways, banned in certain hotels, denied entry at the airport. Those who’ve encountered its prickly exterior and foul odor say it’s reminiscent of forgotten gym clothes, cheese left on a radiator, an overripe sack of trash. Read more Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:31:23 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=104 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=103 “Everything was shocking, everything was new,” says Adnan, an Iraqi translator working for the Americans in George Packer’s first-time play Betrayed. “But that was before.” Read more Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:27:05 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=103 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=102 Born in Turkey, living in Germany, the “Head-On” director weaves together two stories—one German, one Turkish—and chips away at the walls that divide us. Read more Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:53:02 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=102 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=99 I know what you've heard about Staten Island - I've heard it, too - from the L.A. publicist who told me "there's no there there" to the tourists from Madrid who saw me reading the papers on the ferry one day and declared me "como la esposa de Antonio Banderas" (like Melanie Griffith) - a real-life Working Girl. They never guessed I not only read them but help write them nor that a Staten Island woman may have once lived in Madrid and understood them perfectly. Read more Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:57:38 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=99 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=97 Where you from? I've asked and been asked this question way too many times, the most common reasons for which are its usefulness as a conversational jumpboard, probably plain curiosity, and on some good occasions in Hong Kong -- genuine interest. Read more Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:43:41 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=97 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=96 Born in Indonesia. After WWII sent to the Netherlands in 1947. Born into a family of artists, it was natural for me to love arts. Writing and painting. As I get older I tend more and more to only write poetry. Mostly in Dutch. Read more Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:30:14 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=96 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=95 Born in Indonesia. After WWII sent to the Netherlands in 1947. Born into a family of artists, it was natural for me to love arts. Writing and painting. As I get older I tend more and more to only write poetry. Mostly in Dutch. Read more Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:27:16 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=95 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=91 Read more Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:25:33 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=91 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=90 Read more Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:38:18 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=90 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=89 As the sun set behind the Palisades on a frigid January Sunday I went underground at Times Square. I boarded an uptown 1 train and stood by the door, not planning to get off until sunrise. Read more Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:13:30 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=89 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=88 On the tumultuous terrain of politically rivaled and culturally distraught Israel and Palestine, PeaceWorks attempts to make peace through work in the name of all natural, snack bars, salsa, spreads, tapenade and spices. Read more Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:11:23 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=88 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=87 Nigeria is the fifth largest exporter of oil in the world—it produces three million barrels of oil a day, half of which is exported to the U.S, according to the CIA factbook. This should make Nigeria one of the wealthiest countries in the world, if only the Nigerian government were more efficient at managing and negotiating the dark nectar. Unfortunately, as writer/actor Dan Hoyle makes clear in his one-man show “Tings Dey Happen,” Nigerians themselves never see the profits from their oil. Read more Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:00:05 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=87 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=86 Francisco Javier Valle Garcia begins roasting at 6 a.m. every morning at Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Portland, Oregon. He’s only 23, yet he’s been roasting for nearly a decade. In his native Nicaragua, coffee is the chief export, and Garcia’s family has grown and harvested it for generations near Jinotega, the principle city in Nicaragua’s North Central Valley. Read more Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:55:44 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=86 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=85 How does a Mexican of Jewish heritage with a background in business and law launch PeaceWorks, an innovative food company, and the ambitious foundation OneVoice, both of which work towards towards peace in the Middle East? Read more Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:48:53 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=85 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=84 Seated at a worn wooden table near the stage of Tablao El Flamenco, a popular dance bar, I have a clear view of the dancers seated onstage. This evening in late August, all five of them have slicked their dark hair into buns secured at the nape of their necks that are adorned with flowers or jeweled combs. The guitarist strums his melancholy chords and in turn each dancer rises to perform, while those remaining seated fiercely clap the song’s beat. A dancer’s graceful arms and flared skirt soften the pounding percussion of her footwork. Read more Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:36:24 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=84 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=83 He said the sea could be masculine or feminine, depending. The smell of it,el mar and la mar,in my armpits; sandy, conch-lips purled over,pink innocence and Titans sounding: the sea. Read more Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:16:27 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=83 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=82 “We must uphold minorities’ rights if we are to maintain a free and democratic society.” Riccardo Malagoli, president of Bologna’s San Donato neighborhood, punctuates these words with a long, dramatic pause. As he lights another cigarette, a plume of smoke wafts towards the window, as if attracted by the misty gray of the mid-October sky. Read more Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:01:16 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=82 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=81 Galway is a city on the edge of the ocean and on the edge of Europe. Here, on the west coast of Ireland, the rain-swollen Corrib surges past granite bridges on the way to the Atlantic. For generations, Spanish boats docked here to unload wines and citrus fruits. This was also where Christopher Columbus rested the night before sailing to America. Read more Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:47:48 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=81 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=80 Upon arrival in Istanbul an American writer plans to isolate herself with a self-involved memoir— instead, she finds bestselling success by accidentally creating an anthology of expat peers Read more Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:25:09 -0800 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=80 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=77 When Curaçao’s IZALINE CALISTER came to New York for three performances with her band, Janera Soerel went to see her twice. After the last performance, they spoke backstage about Papiamento and feelings in music. Read more Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:02:03 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=77 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=76 I read a piece in the New York Times that profiled a wheelchair-bound Halliburton contractor named Shaheen Khan who was paralyzed while working in Iraq. Reading that story made me realize that the casualty statistics the Bush Administration, Congress and the newspapers tally each day misrepresent the toll the Iraq conflict has taken on the United States and our allies. As I read that she cleaned laundry for U.S. forces, I could only think that had this war been managed like past conflicts, Ms. Kahn would have been wearing a military uniform in Iraq and would be wearing a Purple Heart today. Thinking about her, I started to wonder “What is the real toll of this conflict?” Read more Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:36:00 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=76 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=74 Towards the end of her transfixing travel memoir Down the Nile, Rosemary Mahoney remarks that Florence Nightingale—the 19th century British nurse whose image the author marvelously resurrects as an intrepid, edgy heroine—“strikes one as willing to try just about anything.” The same should be said about Mahoney, whose oeuvre is devoted to her own fearless travels to remote and inhospitable countries. This is a woman who has rowed across the Sea of Galilee in a rubber raft (The Singular Pilgrim); interviewed progressive women in Ireland about politics and sexual mores (Whoredom in Kimmage); chronicled provincial intellectual life in pre-Tiananmen Square China (The Early Arrival of Dreams) and, perhaps most famously, endured an entire summer taking care of the cantankerous and foul-mouthed American playwright Lillian Hellman (A Likely Story). In her latest book, Mahoney traipses off to Egypt by herself with the singular (and somewhat inscrutable) goal of rowing down the Nile. Read more Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:05:15 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=74 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=70 Paul Crowe, 27, lives in Hawaii, where he captains a boat and teaches scuba diving. He has thick blonde hair and a sturdy build and wears faded jeans, a red rugby shirt, and a deep copper tan. He is articulate, has a degree in marine biology, and is at ease discussing virtually any topic. He likes the Lakers, and tends to vote Democrat. His accent is sharp and smooth, his choice of words, careful. In many ways he fits the bill of a well educated twenty-something American. Read more Tue, 26 Jun 2007 10:43:20 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=70 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=67 Call me naïve, but I’m an optimist. For all the persistence of nationalist and sectarian agendas, I see hope in the rise of a generation that is redefining traditional conceptions of identity—and a value system. Read more Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:03:47 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=67 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=62 In his treatise about the gentle art of eating, The Physiology of Taste, the 19th century gastronomic philosopher Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin can be more than a tad de trop. However, there is considerable merit to his contention that fine dining ought to combine Attic Elegance, Roman Luxury, and French Subtlety. Read more Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:30:15 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=62 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=59 I love surprises. When Giada, my Italian photographer friend, told me that she was shooting a group of musicians, who were screening their documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival, I decided to accompany her. I knew nothing about L'Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio, and even though I had lived in Italy for four years, I also knew little about the country’s immigration issues and laws. Read more Tue, 12 Jun 2007 14:25:35 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=59 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=58 It was late 1999, and I was alone in a darkened Silicon Valley conference room with a 23-year old self-professed geek known as Hemos. We had a computer hooked up to a projector, and Hemos, whose real name was Jeffrey Bates, was walking me through the inner recesses of his website, Slashdot.com. The more I heard, the more certain I was that Hemos and his partner CmdrTaco (that's "Commander Taco,") were on to Something Big. In fact, I felt sort of guilty as I was more or less pumping the kid for information. Read more Fri, 11 May 2007 08:12:06 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=58 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=57 When do high ceilings framed by skin-bare, unpainted walls and long expanses of hardwood floor start to glitter with lights and invite? When do pleasant archways successively crowning the shafts of narrow hallways, window-sills, frames and glass bring actual dimension to a space? When people weave in and between one another, converse and shed ideas like skins within these architectural blanks, space becomes place. Painting walls, furnishing, draping, decorating, and articulating corners with pillows, candles, and crystal towel-holders are how you animate a space. But without having first been used, felt, and stained by the prints of human embrace, these objects will continue to render space placeless. Read more Fri, 11 May 2007 08:07:22 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=57 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=56 Almost all the adults I know think that learning a foreign language in adulthood is impossible. “I’m terrible with languages,” they say. Read more Fri, 11 May 2007 08:01:25 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=56 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=44 Economist Nouriel Roubini, an Iranian from Jewish descent, born in Istanbul, lived and studied in Italy, Israel and the US, divides his time working and traveling between the Middle East, Europe and US. An entrepreneur, an associate professor at NYU Stern School of Business, a contemporary art collector, party animal and former policy maker, Roubini talks to Janera about the state of the economy, the role of Global Nomads, his heroes and his love life. Read more Wed, 02 May 2007 12:22:14 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=44 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=43 Boxes, pearl laden and checkered with Sahara gold. Read more Wed, 02 May 2007 10:45:41 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=43 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=42 I have a doggie door at the base of the back entrance to my house that is truly a boon to my life. My dog can pass between the house and yard at will while I am at work, and it frees me to stay late at the office, when necessary, or to head straight to an after-work event. It also serves unexpectedly as the source of a moral dilemma. Read more Wed, 02 May 2007 09:57:07 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=42 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=36 A travers le soleil se forment les ombres Read more Tue, 01 May 2007 07:14:21 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=36 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=33 “Do you know Solange?” I ask my Italian friend Ulderico. “The Rwandan woman who’s at every cool New York party?” He thinks for a second and replies: “Oh you mean the girl with the distant eyes who always sort of glances over?” Read more Tue, 01 May 2007 06:08:47 -0700 http://www.janera.com/janera_words.php?id=33