National Brands

The Wall Street Journal recently featured an interesting article about a Peruvian man's lonely campaign to change the Peruvian national anthem, which starts with such uplifting, pride-inspiring lyrics as:

"For a long time, the oppressed Peruvian dragged the ominous chain."

:(

The article talked about how other nations had also considered (and mostly rejected) changes to their national anthems, in an era marked by consciousness of "national branding".

The phrase struck me as quite strange, especially since it was casually thrown into the conversation as if it represented a part of daily global conversation.

When I think of national brands, I tend to think of actual brands. After traveling to China, for example, I realized that there is no better ambassador for a positive American image abroad than the clean, shining interior of a convenient and delicious McDonald's.

Oh hey there.

Is a national anthem really part of a country's overall image? Forgive me if this is merely ignorance, but no anthems really come to mind when I think of other countries...ask me to hum a few bars of Britain, France, Russia, or even China's national anthem, and I don't think I could do it. And we haven't even gotten to lyrics yet.

I suppose, however, that anthems were originally intended to represent the country, at least to its own citizens. America's anthem calls to mind glory in war, honoring the flag, lovely fireworks arching over a twinkly star-filled sky...all clearly very "American" facets of our culture. So is this focus on national anthems, and the desire to change them to reflect changing times (such as the removal of God from Russia's national anthem, or expunging a cry to crush the 'rebel Scots' in Britain's), a relevant reflection of a national identity crisis? Since almost all of the countries features in the article voted overwhelmingly to keep their national anthems the same, I guess that might mean that national identity is as strong as ever. But if anthems are no longer heralds of national identity, then what, if anything, really makes up the "national brand"? 

If such a thing exists. 

You can find the original article here: 

"Oh, Say, Can You See New Lyrics For This Anthem?"

Back to the Grind

Whenever I'm in Chicago, I always end up thinking about one thing:
money.

I came back on the second and almost immediately headed over to Kumon, which was still littered with the remains of a holiday party that occurred on the 24th of December....luckily, my boss conscripted his daughter into the cleanup, so I could concentrate on the always life-affirming work of making copies. Which I proceeded to do for three hours. I think that everyone who works at Kumon might, at some point in their life, become a Marxist.

I've really started to view money in a different light. Instead of swinging by Forever21 and snatching up the first ten-dollar top I see, I have to stop and think. Ten dollars is an hour of my time. It's really throwing a wrench into my internet shopping habit, for one thing.

On a related note, my Physical Sciences class today discussed the following topic:
"Weather...sometimes we can predict and sometimes we can't, and when it's bad, it costs people money."
As I was sitting there, watching my friend's eyes glaze over, I checked facebook for the third time and thought about how this hour and twenty minute session was costing my family hundreds of dollars. In exchange for learning next to nothing, I was in essence using up tens of hours of my own labor-time. Then I cried tears of gratitude that I don't have to fully finance my own education. I really admire those who see the value of education clearly enough to work for it.

On an unrelated note, I hope everyone had a great holiday! I'm already planning Spring Break.

Yum.

Black Swan.

Tangled.

Go see them now.

Adopting a family "in need"

I take zumba (aerobic dancing) at a church in Centerville, which is taught by this very energetic and spiritual woman whom I really admire. My ears perked up today when she began talking about how our zumba class (probably at least fifty women from around the area) should think about "adopting a family" for the holiday season--aka buying them gifts they couldn't afford themselves.

It sounded like a great idea, and she'd even put the gift requests on little tags at the front of the room. I have fond memories of a similar thing we did in high school. One year I gave a little girl a journal, since in her note she said she wanted to write. That request really touched me, so I was eager to see what my family could do to help this year.

Imagine my surprise when I started reading the tags themselves.

"$50 giftcard to China Cottage"

"Nintendo DS games"

"iPod case"

etc.

I understand that many families in our area have been hit hard by the recession, and perhaps one or even both parents have lost their jobs. I'm not sure how families are chosen to be beneficiaries of this type of program, but I don't think a family that requests A SPECIFIC DOLLAR AMOUNT on their gift cards should really qualify. If one of the kids wants Nintendo DS games, that means he already has a Nintendo DS--not the cheapest of toys.

It makes me wonder what we qualify as "need". Of course, I'm equally guilty of material desires, and I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with wanting material things, but there has to be a limit. The point of the "adopt a family" program is to make up for a deficiency and bring Christmas to a home in which it would otherwise not exist. But a parent who can afford to buy their child a DS and has the audacity to request a fifty dollar gift-card from a total stranger doesn't qualify, at least in my opinion. I wonder if that family reads the news and sees the other families around the world whose suffering is ten times greater than theirs.

I eat, therefore I am.

There is something strange about our household. At least once a day, the Food Network is on, with its cheerful images of food that the viewer can neither taste nor smell--and you would think that no one would watch such shows, since it's essentially like putting an orchestra of well-dressed musicians on a screen, then pressing the mute button.

So why do I love the Food Network? I can't really cook, and I don't even attempt baking. The food on the show is very different from what I eat at home--I watch specials on southern-style barbecue and Italian food while eating my rice.

I thought maybe it was the comfort of watching experts and their deft handling of a craft that is still a world away from me--but if that were the case, then I'd get a huge kick out of watching golf. And it can't quite be the personalities that draw me in every time, since I find Paula Deen slightly horrifying, Bobby Flay annoying, and Sandra Lee the devil herself.

I will semi-homemake your soul into submission.

Why does anyone watch the Food Network? Is watching people make a cake really that interesting? (yes, but why?) Do you really glean useful tips and recipes from the shows? If I want to make anything, I always end up going to the website for the recipe...but in that case, why not just have the website without the tv? Writing about this is making me want to watch Iron Chef America.

For that matter, why have I started reading Slashfood, the blog about food trends? I can't even really call myself a foodie, since I'm limited by a student's budget even in a foodie paradise like Chicago. I'm genuinely puzzled by this. Maybe I'm masochistic, making myself drool over food that I'll probably never eat.

Either way, I hope I come out of this whole phase (if it is a phase, which I'm starting to doubt) a better cook. What do you think? I wonder if other people have truly inexplicable interests.

Five Things to Love Today

1. Cute kids and a father's love for them--check out this cool article that my friend Belinda sent me:
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/a-father-who-creatively

2. Christmas desserts.

3. Starbucks' winter- themed drinks! Those red cups always bring a smile to my face.

4. The always-fabulous dresses from Modcloth.com and all the time in world to peruse them :)

5. The Black Swan. The words "Natalie Portman" and "erotic ballet thriller" are almost always a good combo.

As a side note, my boyfriend is officially halfway across the world right now and I miss him terribly. 

However, I'm cheered by the fact that tomorrow I will make my first foray into the world of Christmas craft-making. It'll probably turn out as well as my nutella cake did...oh boy.

sigh.

You know you're getting old when you start getting this sentimental.

It’s so strange for me to think of myself as being almost twenty. At the end of this short year, I will have crossed the boundary into the latter half of my undergraduate career. (Let’s not think about how many years of schooling I’ll have after that…)

I’m sure many of you are going through similar thought processes. This year when I came home for Thanksgiving, all but a handful of my friends were in college already. I’m thinking specifically of the big Chinese Thanksgiving gathering that always marks the beginning of the holiday season for me—the boys who seem like my older brothers and especially the girls I love as my sisters. When did we all get so old? I’ll always think of this motley crew as forever in high school, forever taking endless piano lessons and playing tennis and taking art and whatever the hell we did to fill those Ohio days. Now, we’re spread all over the country, owning our own businesses, getting married—but it comforts me to know that we’ll always have our time together, and we regroup it’s almost as if nothing has changed.

The same goes for my friends from high school. In many ways, we have grown apart. Instead of spending eight hours a day together, we spend maybe fifteen hours a year in each other’s company, which makes the time we have together all the more precious. We’re not in the same classes, and increasingly, we don’t interact with the same people. All of this is frightening, but at the same time, comforting—because I can spend almost an entire year away from these people and yet still go to their houses and feel home again. We can still while away the long hours of a snowy Ohio evening just talking.

I told myself that I wouldn’t use this to ramble endlessly about myself, which is the blogger’s tired, clichéd trap, but I just had to say something about the feeling of love that overwhelmed me tonight. I wonder if people ever know how much they mean to others? As I sit at home watching the silence settle over my neighborhood, I feel so grateful for all that I have—all the wonderful people who make up my life and all the wonderful people who have yet to enter it.