On The Vine: What we do when the world burns
It’s odd, but it almost seems easy to forget turmoil when you yourself are not in crisis. I suppose I should only speak for myself. You let me know if you sympathize with the sentiment.
Though the world has seemingly, strangely slowed down since March 2020, the days are still nonstop. Work hasn’t slowed. Everyday is chock full with just stuff to do. And while, sure, our job at The Star as journalists is bound by the news gripping the community; the world — good, bad and foolish — for us (there I go again not just speaking for me) rather, for me it becomes, on the daily, a duty, a task. It’s all compartmentalized. It has to be.
And because it is, when the work day is over I simply let the wave upon crashing wave of TikTok videos, TV shows, movies, podcast, celebrity gossip, video games drown me.
If I slow down; sit still for a moment and stop doing stuff the tide shifts and I wade into turmoil: devastation in Haiti, fear and sadness over Taliban rule in Afghanistan, incredulity watching Lebanon, exasperation and resentment that we’re still “arguing” about masks and vaccines. And of course the tide always gets higher — homelessness and the housing crisis, racism, xenophobia, queer rights, garish egocentric billionaires, climate change. It’s a swell.
And what do we do?
I recently told my partner, waist deep in that turmoil anxiety, to cast it aside and focus on what’s in front of us, the stuff we can control — knowing damn well I was right behind her about to dip my toe in.
What do we do? We laugh at the TV, cry into books, dive into work, focus on ourselves; distractions, and allow ourselves to be inundated by anything but turmoil.
Maybe it’s just me. Hell, maybe I’m ranting, maybe it’s gibberish. But it feels like truth.
Around the block
Watching Kabul from Kansas City
The Afghanistan capital of Kabul fell into Taliban rule Sunday, abandoned by its leader as U.S. allies and those aligned with the 20-year mission attempted desperately to flee the country for fear of retaliation and a return to a Taliban state rooted in sharia law and depriving women in the country of basic rights.
The Star’s Anna Spoerre tells the story of a once U.S. translator in Kabul, now a UMKC student in Kansas City, watching from a far as the life his sister and family have enjoyed is threatened:
Azizullah, who asked not to be identified by his full name out of fear the Taliban would harm his mother and siblings, grabbed his phone to reach his family. The calls wouldn’t connect.
He thought of the safety he was afforded in America. After working as a translator and legal advisor for the U.S. government in Afghanistan, Azizullah was given a special immigration visa in order to dodge death threats from the Taliban.
He thought of his sister as he watched Kabul crumble. She was a student, a freedom not allowed under Taliban rule decades ago.
“I see the girl who lost everything, every right,” he said, as he watched the Taliban sweep into Afghanistan’s capital. “The freedom that we enjoyed during our young age, she won’t be able to enjoy the freedom. And I’m so sorry for her; so sorry that we couldn’t give her what she deserved.”
‘We were scared’: Afghan interpreter for U.S. headed to Missouri after fleeing Kabul
The Star’s Jonathan Shorman interviewed U.S. translator Zamzama Safi, who for years, under threat of the Taliban, had been trying to leave Afghanistan:
As her flight departed Kabul Sunday, the city below was swarming with Taliban, some perhaps searching for her.
It was then that Zamzama Safi finally allowed herself to feel happiness.
“I was crying so hard,” she said.
“There were rumors going around. Everybody was talking, ‘Hey, Taliban are inside Kabul,’” Safi said, describing the atmosphere at the airport. “Maybe the flight is cancelled. We were scared so much.”
Safi, 25, worked for U.S. coalition forces as an interpreter, translating for American and Afghan military personnel. Her decision to help the United States stemmed from her kidnapping by the Taliban as a teenager in 2011. Even after she was released, Safi was threatened with having to marry her abductor.
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‘Dehumanizing’ myths blaming Mexican immigrants for COVID surge are baseless, experts say
Since Day One, the COVID-19 pandemic and racism have been near inseparable, writes The Star’s Aaron Torres.
Last week, Doughboys, a Kansas City-area doughnut shop put up a sign reading, “Stop importing COVID from Mexico unmask truth.” The owner of the shop, Marjain Breitenbach, offered no credible data supporting his claim. “Look it up,” he said when asked what sources he was referencing. He said he would not take down the sign.
Such rhetoric allows people to focus on the behaviors of others and not their own behaviors that contribute to the surge — like getting vaccinated, following social distancing and wearing masks when indoors.
“It’s a much more believable story to blame immigrants when we have already seen them as other than ourselves and blame them for our problems: economic, political, social, cultural,” said Natalia Molina, distinguished professor of American studies and ethnicity at the the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences...
Since the beginning of the pandemic, however, Hispanic adults have experienced a rise in racist encounters, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. Some 39% of Hispanic adults surveyed said they have experienced one of four incidents, from fear of being threatened to being told racial slurs.
Beyond the block
Biden Says U.S. Forces Will Stay in Kabul to Get All Americans Out
President Biden said on Wednesday that the United States was committed to evacuating every American out of Afghanistan, even if that may mean extending the military mission beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for a total withdrawal.
“If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay to get them all out,” Mr. Biden said during an interview on ABC News.
Mr. Biden, as he did earlier in the week, offered a strong defense of his administration’s handling of the military withdrawal, which has plunged Afghanistan into chaos...
In the days since Kabul fell to the Taliban on Sunday, thousands of Americans and Afghans have surged toward the airport, seeking flights out of the country. Taliban forces outside the airport have been brutally stopping many people at checkpoints. Many others have made it to the airport perimeter only to be turned away.
Also check out...
The Taliban says it will rule under sharia law. What does that mean?
Nearly half of trans people have been mistreated by medical providers, report finds
Haiti was devastated by a quake that killed more than 2,000 people. Here’s how you can help.
María Luisa Paúl writes for The Washington Post:
After Haiti was rocked Saturday by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake — more powerful than the one that left the country in shambles more than a decade ago — communities were left to grapple with the tremor’s destructive aftermath.
Haiti’s civil protection agency said that 2,189 people had died as of Wednesday night, and that more than 12,000 had been injured. The earthquake took a toll on about 1.2 million people in the Caribbean nation — including 540,000 children — according to UNICEF. The child-welfare organization estimated that 84,000 homes were damaged or destroyed — a situation that will require at least $15 million to respond to urgent needs.
The earthquake is the latest crisis in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. In recent months, Haiti has struggled with a spike in gang violence and kidnappings for ransom. The country was further challenged with the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Those problems come amid a pandemic in which 0.17 percent of Haiti residents have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to Oxford University’s Our World in Data.
Paúl’s story delves into the many necessary and urgent ways people can help those struggling and suffering in Haiti — through local means on the ground in Haiti like GoFundMe campaigns, U.S.-based initiatives taking donations and contributions, as well as international organizations like UNICEF accepting donations and offering aid.
For the culture
Britney Spears’s Father Says He Will Step Aside in Conservatorship Battle
I read this headline aloud to my family as we hung out in the kitchen last week. That’s what we do; hang out in the kitchen and entertain and debate. I think that day Andrew Cuomo was on the chopping block, but all discussion stopped immediately. Nothing but applause followed.
Joe Coscarelli and Liz Day reported for The New York Times:
In an abrupt reversal after more than a year of fighting in court — and a much longer battle behind the scenes — Britney Spears’s father has agreed to eventually step aside from his long-running role overseeing the singer’s finances as part of the unique conservatorship that has governed her life since 2008.
Ms. Spears has called the conservatorship abusive and said she is afraid of her father, James P. Spears, vowing not to perform as long as he remained in charge. A new lawyer for the singer recently filed in court to have Mr. Spears immediately suspended or removed from his position as conservator of her estate.
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This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 1:46 PM.