Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

These are the words of a poem written by William Ernest Henley. “Invictus” meaning “invincible” in Latin, was first published in 1875. It is also a theme in the new film, Invictus.

I love movies. I love all kinds of movies. They have the power to incite emotions and make people feel and think about things that they may not have taken the time to think or feel otherwise. I even love the movies that specifically don’t make you think. But, Invictus…was a thinker.

Invictus is a film about the life of Nelson Mandela after the fall of the apartheid in South Aftica. It takes place in a specific time during his term as president when he campaigned to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup in order to unite the people of South Africa.

Pause for a brief history recap (in a nutshell).

I am terrible with history. I can’t remember dates or names to save my life, but Wikipedia sure can, and let me tell you, I’ve learned a few things. Nelson Mandela is the first president of South Africa to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before he was elected president, he was an anti-apartheid activist, which landed him in prison for 27 years. He was convicted of charges of sabotage and other crimes committed while he led the movement against the apartheid. (Apartheid: a social and political policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by white minority governments in South Africa). After Mandela was released in 1990, he advocated for reconciliation and helped lead the transition toward multi-racial democracy in South Africa.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled program.

Now, here’s what I found interesting.

First of all, Mandela was locked up in a jail cell approximately the size of an average man’s arm span for nearly 30 years. He was locked up because he wanted equality. He fought for equality. Then, when he was released from imprisonment, he immediately forgave the perpetrators of his unfair captivity and worked to unite the “enemies” despite seemingly insurmountable odds. The film is littered with one-liners that depict the struggle, pain and patience that Mandela showed during his plight to unite a divided country. He says, “Forgiveness is a powerful weapon,” and asks all of his family members and employees to begin practicing this forgiveness, for “great leaders lead by example.” This is remarkable to me. Francois even says, “I was thinking how a man could spend thirty years in prison, and come out and forgive the men who did it to him…” His ability to forgive the people that locked him up like an animal for almost 30 years because to him, reconciliation was the only path to true freedom. That’s bravery. That’s courage. That’s leadership.

Enter Springbok – South Africa’s rugby team.

Mandela attends a rugby game and while he’s watching the white fans root for the team and the black fans root against, he determines that this little rugby team is going to unite the country. If he can just figure out a way to unite the fans of the team, he will, in turn, unite the entire country.

Mandela develops a close relationship with the Springbox captain, Francois Pienaar. Mandela views Pienaar as just as much of a leader as he is himself. He instills the same teachings that he learned while in prison, and from the poem he had in his jail cell throughout his imprisonment – what it means to truly be a leader. Slowly but surely, and with much work by both Mandela and Pienaar, the Springbok gained the support of the whole country. With 43 Million people supporting the rugby team, they win the World Cup. But they really won much more than that. Then won united freedom.

What amazes me is Mandela used the power of sports to bring people together. When we think about our lives today, while they are much different than life in South Africa, sports are a big part of them. But what role do sports plan in our lives? In joining lives? Mandela used the rugby team to unite an entire country. It’s incredible to me that all it took was support and belief in one thing, one team, and he could unite a divided country. It’s the power of sports. It’s the power of leadership. It’s the power of putting the past behind us, moving forward, and being an example for those who are following us. It’s truly inspirational.

Many times, it seems as though Americans (myself included) get caught up in their own American issues and forget there is a whole big world out there. I’m sure (or at least I hope) many of you have seen the news recently and have heard about the big controversy going on Iran.

Well, I didn’t.

It wasn’t really until tonight; via @ecomentario on Twitter that I realized that Iran is a big mess right now. So, I put on my little journalist hat and did some research. Here’s what I came up with.

The entire conflict in Iran stems from the 2009 Presidential Elections. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became President of Iran in 2005. It was after this election that the losing candidates claimed the election was unfair and there were irregularities at the polls. However, this was never investigated. Even after a formal protest, the argument was dismissed.

Now, Ahmadinejad has been re-elected in the 2009 elections that were held on June 12. And once again, the controversy is revived.

According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, Ahmadinejad won the election with 66 percent of the votes while Mir-Hossein Mousavi received the remaining 33 percent. Now, concerns of alleged irregularities during the vote have been brought to the forefront.

According to an article from CNN, there is no independent election monitoring; only theCouncil of the Guardians of the Constitution would be in charge of monitoring/regulating anything to do with the election.

“Candidates are not allowed to be present at polling stations during voting or counting. Many voters are illiterate and officials help them fill in their ballot papers, so the possibilities for rigging are immense. And there are no booths in the polling stations so voting is done in public, not in private — a major obstacle for transparency,” said Amir Taheri, a Mideast analyst.

No one was watching.

While Ahmadinejad does have public support in Iran, Taheri believes that winning 66 percent of the votes is “impossible.”

Now, there are protests in the streets of Iran – people are dying because of this “stolen” election. And the government seems to be fighting fire with fire.

It is also believed that having Ahmadinejad as President for another four years will stunt the growth of the U.S.-Iran relationship.

According to Karim Sadjapour (from the article from CNN), another Iran expert, “[Ahmadinejad] presses the worst buttons in the context of domestic U.S. politics with his denial of the Holocaust and belligerence towards Israel. Domestically in Iran he has profoundly mismanaged the economy with one of the highest inflation rates in the world and high unemployment.”

Now, like America does it, Obama has come forward and said that Iranians should have every vote counted, should look into a full investigation into the possibility of vote rigging and should stop all the violence.

Duh.

However, what interests me the most about this conflict is how it’s affecting social media. I know, I know – I’m a nut, but it’s really fascinating.

@ecomentario, who seems to be right in all the action in Iran, tweeted earlier, “If you’re outside Iran, change your Twitter profile time zone to GMT +03.30 Tehran, and your location to Tehran to confuse government.”

Now, the government is trying to track down protestors via Twitter. And now avid Twitterers are using specific hash tags in order to remain under the radar.

In fact, Twitter had a scheduled maintenance that was due to occur tonight, but has now been rescheduled.

According to the Twitter blog, “A critical network upgrade must be performed to ensure continued operation of Twitter. In coordination with Twitter, our network host had planned this upgrade for tonight. However, our network partners at NTT America recognize the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran. Tonight’s planned maintenance has been rescheduled to tomorrow between 2-3p PST (1:30a in Iran).”

This rescheduling was due to the new hash tag, “#nomaintenance” in order to stop the maintenance from occurring so people could continue to tweet the events occurring in Iran.

Just another reason Twitter and its users are capable of ruling the world.

More information as the story unfolds…

Other informational sites

Summary of the issue

Obama urges investigation of Iran election

Twitter reschedules maintenance

Live blog of the events in Iran

I had lunch with my cousin yesterday. It was a great lunch – we went to Cantina Laredo in the 29^th Street Mall in Boulder, had margaritas and ate lots of Mexican food. Midway through the meal, our small talk and catching up turned into a very interesting conversation.

I’m Jewish. My family is Jewish. Therefore, my cousin that I was dining with yesterday is also (I bet you can guess it) Jewish. About five years ago, she married a Palestinian. Of course, this caused a major ruckus in my family – as you may or may not know; there has been a war going on between the Palestinians and the Israelis for many years.

Here’s a brief history (as I was taught):

The conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis is about land. The State of Israel was established in 1948; however, the Arabs believe that the Israelis took over their land and they do not recognize Israel as a state. It all boils down to each state’s idea of their history. Israel thinks God gave them the land and Palestine (the Arabs) think the land is rightfully theirs. Many people believe that this war is no longer a religious one; it’s now political.

Many peace attempts have been made – mostly to cater to a two-state solution, which would mean that there would be an independent Palestinian state alongside an independent Israeli state. The Palestinian Liberation Organization  accepted a two-state solution in 1988 and the Oslo Accords  were supposed to have contributed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. However, it didn’t work and there is still fighting today. 

My cousin’s husband is a devout Muslim and whole-heartedly supports Palestine in the war. According to my cousin, her husband did not pressure her to believe the same. He told her to go out, do some research on her own, and make her own conclusion. She came to the same conclusion as her husband – supporting Palestine in the war. 

This is interesting to me because she’s Jewish and still identifies as a Jew. We talked about this for a while at lunch. She said that Jews grow up supporting Israel. Even at Sunday school, the teachers pass around a little piggy bank and kids get money from their parents to donate to planting trees in Israel. From day one, Jews are raised to support Israel. She claims she went out and did her own research in order to come to her conclusion. Do I agree with everything she said yesterday blaming Israel? Absolutely not. Is she entitled to her opinion? Yes. More importantly, is she a part of my family regardless of who she marries and what she believes? Of course.

The media play a role in what people see and hear about the war in Israel. Because the America supports Israel, we only hear about the Israeli death toll or the bombs thrown into Israel. Sometimes, in order to develop a well-rounded opinion, we need to venture out of the immediate media and do some research on our own. 

As my cousin pointed out, there are two sides to every story. While the Israelis and Jews feel only their side of the argument is correct, so do the Palestinians. Um, that’s sort of what war is, right? Fighting for your “rights”? 

We are privileged to live in America where many different ethnicities, religions and races are able to coexist without bombs going off. 

I am Jewish. I was raised Jewish. I consider Israel my homeland and I plan on going on Birthright when I can in order to visit the land my ancestors lived on. I support Israel in the warHowever, and that’s a big however, what I support more is peace. While I do think Israel is “right” in claiming the land as its own, I do not believe in violence as a solution. I do not believe Palestinians should be forcing Israelis out of their homes or their land or vice versa. I do believe that Israelis and Palestinians should work harder to live together (I know, I know. In a perfect world, right?). 

The legalization of marijuana has been a hot-button topic for quite some time. Especially in Boulder, Colo., where I currently reside. Now, the idea of legalizing marijuana has taken a different turn.

Legalizing marijuana to boost the economy.

On Thursday March, 25, Obama held an Internet video chat in order to answer thousands of questions Americans  had about the economy. According to a Web site, more than 100,000 questions were submitted to Obama for the interview. The idea was that Obama would answer the questions that were most popular. 3.6 million votes were cast and one of the top questions was whether or not legalizing marijuana would stimulate the economy by allowing the government to regulate and tax the drug.

Obama said, “The answer is no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow the economy.”

Video: Obama on Legalization of Marijuana

The people on the pro-legalization side argue that the alcohol and tobacco companies make an insane amount of money for ultimately killing people. The tobacco companies could make a fortune manufacturing and distributing marijuana joints in the same manner as cigarettes are distributed now. The market price would be far above the price to manufacture and distribute these products; therefore, they would make more money and it would, in turn, boost the economy. Marijuana’s legalization would also open up beds in the jails and prisons as well as cut down on court time and costs (which taxpayers pay for).

According to an article in the New York Times, many people who oppose the legalization of marijuana argue that the use of pot is equal to the use of tobacco or alcohol. However, smoking is the single most preventable cause of death and disease in the U.S. and the most widely abused drugs with the most serious implications is alcohol.

On the other hand, people that oppose the legalization of marijuana argue that marijuana is, in fact, a highly harmful drug. Marijuana smoke contains more carcinogens and lung irritants than tobacco. Marijuana is known to affect coherent thinking, learning and memory. High doses can even cause hallucinations and paranoia. Because of these factors, legalizing marijuana would put another harmful drug on the market and detract from the positive image America tries to uphold.

Video: Another Perspective

As for medical marijuana, it is believed that marijuana can relieve some conditions that deal with appetite loss, nausea and vomiting and help ease pain caused by arthritis. However, those who oppose say that any medical benefits that legalizing of pot are outweighed by the societal problems it could create. Can we really raise children with the idea that drugs are ok and legal?

Some questions I have:

In the off-chance that marijuana is legalized (for more than just medical use), would people buy it even though it’s taxed now?

Or would this just stimulate the black market and tax-evading sellers?

Can we really raise children with the idea that drugs are ok and legal?

Is the mantra “drugs are bad” only encouraging people to engage in illegal drug use?

Do we really need more unproductive members of our society?

Does using marijuana really make you unproductive?

Would the legalization of marijuana also stimulate the food industry? (halfway joking here)

Regardless of whether marijuana is legalized or not, people are still going to smoke it. Part of me says, “well, if people are going to smoke it regardless, we may as well profit from it.” But the other part of me says, “how many more potheads does this country need?”