"The Social Network" just made me admire Mark Zuckerberg

Advertising = Web Education = fun?
I ignored my to-do list today and enjoyed the luxury of focusing my whole work day on designing a web page and e-mail for Bernie's 2012 India tour. I love looking at the final version and tweaking and looking and tweaking. My strategy is to develop content that is tied to registration for a specific event, but also inherently interesting (both to me and readers). Thus, I plan to launch a virtual pilgrimage to India. This is where the old social studies educator in me comes forward.

I feel a tension between perfectionism and the drive to get more things done quicker. For example, I would like to start working on the budget management. I feel like this is an important skill that will help me be able to make the type of contribution I want to make in the future. After stepping away from my comic book for several months, my newly web-design-trained eye realized that I could say more in my comic with less words.

Is Facebook evil?
Even though Social Network portrayed him as a socially inept jerk, I left the movie with a growing admiration for Mark Zuckerberg. I felt defensive about the movie's anti-geek agenda and wasn't surprised to learn that writer Aaron Sorkin is not on Facebook. That is fine, except for that about half of Americans are on Facebook, so it is no geeky minority. I've felt a tension lately, on the one hand inspired by Silicon Valley capitalism and on the other hand, skeptical.

I think designing web content is fun and it has allowed me to reach thousands of people cheaply with messages that I think make the world a better place. I visited Silicon Valley for the Wisdom 2.0 conference last year and I've been listening to podcasts from the Valley as part of my business self-education (ever since my organization faced layoffs and pending loss of our property, my home, because we couldn't pay the bills, I've been much more attentive to money matter.) I admire the fact that these are folks doing what they love, influencing millions and being successful. I was pleased to see Zuckerberg join Bill Gates in pledging to donate half of his wealth to charity.

But, as I experienced at the Wisdom 2.0 conference last year, I am troubled by what seems to be a superficial embrace of social enterprise. I'm not convinced they are doing a thoroughgoing analysis of the effects of the cycle of production and consumption on every level. I just can't quite buy into the "invisible hand" dream that if I just do what's most profitable for me, it'll actually be more profitable for everyone.

Blogging > Journaling

Just my personal blog
I'm trying something new today. Instead of writing in my journal, I'm going to blog. I'm going to dust my old blog off the InterWeb and dive in. After all, this is "just my personal blog," not my professional, important Socially Engaged Buddhist blog....which I've been neglecting lately. Blogging is funny for me. I love doing it and I also hate it. I feel such a strong drive to share and yet I get so hung up on perfectionism. So I'll just blog instead of journal tonight. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow as well.

Overcoming the fear of offending
I assisted in Yoga class today. As a member of the Teacher Training, I have to do 10 classes assisting. I really don't like assisting. I feel embarrassed to touch people who I do not know. I feel less embarrassed with my fellow teacher trainees, but even one of them told me "Just get in there! You know what you are doing. Don't be afraid." At least I am feeling less and less afraid every time I do it. I also felt some anxiety because I bluntly told a business associate why I don't think they are doing what they need to do in order to move their web traffic to the next level. I thought it had to be said, but it was still difficult.

Support my Participation in Auschwitz Retreat!

I have raised $1250 to cover my plane ticket, expenses in Krakow and part of my registration fee. Please contribute towards the remainder of the fee!

Why do I want to go to Auschwitz?

Two years ago, I came to Montague, MA to train at the headquarters of a group called the Zen Peacemakers. After my training, Bernie Glassman hired me on as staff. To put it simply: I love this place and the people here. I cherish the practices and teachings and want nothing more than to plunge in more deeply. While many Buddhist centers focus mainly on meditation, founder Zen Master Bernie Glassman has lead the Zen Peacemakers into the streets and social services as a sphere of active practice, bearing witness to all of society and taking actions to heal it. The deepest fuel for this work comes from witnessing humanity's greatest atrocity: Auschwitz.

What happened last time I went?

As I explain in a series of blog posts at Elephant Journal, attending the Bearing Witness Retreat at Auschwitz last June was very powerful for me. It opened my heart and clarified my vision.

What is special about the next trip?

This November, we are initiating an innovative element of bringing together young adults to bear witness together at Auschwitz from Israel (both Jewish and Arab), Palestinians, Poles, Swiss, Italian, Americans and others. Bernie asked me to serve as Young Adult Coordinator for the retreat, but because there is no funding to cover this roll, I am raising money to participate.

Frequent Flier Miles: Do you have frequent flier miles with an airline or partner that flies to Poland? If you would be willing to donate them to help me get to Poland, you would take a significant chunk out of how much I need to raise.

Why should you support me? (Here's 10 reasons)

10. Join me: I will take you on the journey with me by naming a bead after you on a 'mala,' or prayer bracelet, that I will create and bring with me on the retreat. A $300 contribution will be represented by a large bead and a $50 contribution will be represented by a small bead.

9. Spiritual Practice: Donation is a spiritual practice for both giver and receiver. As far back as the time of the Buddha, it was the practice of lay congregations to support monks through donations of food and clothing. There are parallels in most traditions.

8. Receive updates: While it took me several months to edit my journals from the last retreat into blog posts, I will send close friends and sponsors correspondances during the retreat itself. I see this as a relationship. Not just a donation.

7. Support young adults: My experience teaching high school for two years and directing a residential teen summer camp will inform my role as U.S. Young Adult Coordinator in caring for the emotional well-being of young adult participants.

6. Inspire me: Participating in the Auschwitz retreat last June had a profound and beneficial effect on me. It opened up my heart and deepened my presence in working in service.

5. Invest in my future: I value this path deeply: from starting Seminary two years ago to working the past several months as founder Bernie Glassman's Assistant to my current role as Marketing and Communications Coordinator. I am comitted to this work as a vocation and know that the practice of bearing witness at Auschwitz will move me further along that path.

4. Get the word out: As the editor of the Bearing Witness Blog and regular contributor at the Elephant Journal, I will eventually share my experience with a wide audience.

3. Heal society: Registration fees support the charity work of the Zen Peacemakers, including building future retreats and offering free community meals and wellness offerings for low-income families.

2. Innovate fund-raising: I hope to use this experience of online fund-raising as a pilot to create a new scholarship-raising structure for Zen Peacemakers program participants.

1. Build a future of peace: As Zen Peacemakers staff, I hopes to apply lessons learned on the retreat towards building future retreats with a greater number of young adult participants. I believe that bringing together Israeli Jews and Arabs in the practice of Bearing Witness and listening to each other could contribute to a more peaceful future.

Want to learn more?

Watch the video below to learn more about the retreat or read the reasons below to learn why I invite you to support me. Thank you. View Retreat web page to learn more about it.

Participation Budget

$800 = plane ticket to Poland
$1,000 = retreat registration fee (includes all buses, food and accommodations at the Dialogue Center in Oswiecim and operational expenses)
$60 = paypal fee
$100 = hostel in Krakow

$1,960 = TOTAL

Don't want to pay via paypal?

Please call me at (413)367-5269 with any questions.
You may also write a check to Ari Pliskin and mail it the following address. If you do this, please notify me by e-mail as soon as possible.
177 Ripley Rd.
Montague, MA 01351
ari@zenpeacemakers.com

Disclaimer: Unless otherwise requested, funds not used for this retreat will be donated to support the humanitarian work of the Zen Peacemakers.

It's not just about money:
I would like to share a message with you from a $10 donor who means just as much to me as the $100 donors:

"You do not know me, but I just received an email from my uncle Ike that explained your need for your trip. Though I am a Christian and do not share in your religious beliefs, I did make a small donation as I support your efforts and the humanitarian work that you are doing. I hope that you raise enough money to cover your expenses and I will be praying for safe travels for all of you as you make your way to Poland and back."

This process is about getting diverse groups involved and creating peace.

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I realized the power of yoga by mistake...

When I lived in New York, yoga was part of my fitness routine that I did once a week. With my membership at the New York Sports Club, I also did boxing once a week and lifted weights twice a week- one day for chest and arms, the other for abs and back. After a few weeks of suffering from a cold, I decided to cut out the “rigorous” lifting and boxing to let my body rest and recuperate. Not able to break my gym habit, I kept going several times a week and just did yoga (I later learned that the persistent cold was actually a sinus infection).

After a week of frequent yoga, at one moment, I noticed something was different. A stressful thought came up, heart speeding up, pressure welling up in my chest. And I breathed. The rush of anxiety passed through me. I calmed down. I felt a tinge of distance and perspective- a moment of choice. It reminded me of the feeling of holding an asana, feeling the desire to flee or give up and just holding it and breathing. My mind was trained to have a better automatic response to stress. It felt lovely.

Coimcs as a Tool for Learning Spanish

As a social studies teacher, my students appreciated the innovative ways that I used comics in the classroom. I have found that comics are even more powerful and appropriate at a tool for teaching foreign language. I developed a method of using comics to teach a foreign language while teaching Spanish at SummerBerg camp in Tiffin, OH, where I also served as director. Working with a cartoonist the previous summer, I developed a course that teaches kids how to make comics. This method will help participants ace standardized foreign language tests, prepare for trips to Spanish-speaking countries and build appreciation for other cultures.

The first reason why comics serve as an effective tool for foreign language acquisition is because of the combination of words and pictures. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, the images in a comic provide the reader with a critical base of information. Once the images provide the reader with a context of setting, atmosphere and character, they must complete the essential task of interpreting the text. While school typically focuses on verbal learning, using a medium that combines verbal and visual information supports verbal learners to develop visual intelligence and vice versa.

The second reason why comic books are an effective tool is because they increase student engagement, which manifest in careful reading and lively conversation. Because many learners find comics more exciting then typical school materials, comics facilitate increased attention and engagement. Unlike watching a movie or listening to a song, readers can pace themselves at the appropriate speed and reread passages until understanding is achieved. Because most text in a comic book is dialogue, the comic book format facilitates reading out loud and developing conversation skills.

The final reason why I have found comics to be an effective tool is because my passion about comics and personal experience with Latin American cartoonists inspires students to because enthusiastic about engaging with another culture. Comics served as a powerful gateway into Latin American culture for me and I enjoy sharing that with students. While traveling through South America, I met cartoonists who wrote and illustrated stories about local politics and history, tales of sci-fi and adventure and also autobiographical accounts of the daily lives of teens. These stories provide unique insight into life in another society.

In conclusion, there are several reasons that I have found Spanish-language comics to be a powerful tool for supporting student learning. The combination of words and pictures provides an appropriate scaffold for language learners. The format of comics facilitates engagement in a variety of forms. Comics also provide a rich and fascinating window into other cultures. As an added bonus, students also discover how kids like them around the world are using self-publishing in print and on the internet as a low-cost means of personal expression.

Summary of Explorations of Comics in South America

While traveling through South America in 2006-2008, getting to know local cartoonists and their work was one my richest experiences. It all started at a book fair in Mendoza, Argentina, where I met Cristian Mallea, visiting from Buenos Aires. I sent him an e-mail begging for an unpaid internship and he invited me to a comics convention in Montevideo, Uruguay. At the convention, Montevideo Comics, Latino cartoonists maintained a tight-knit community amid of sea of kids enthralled by Japanese comics.

Back in Buenos Aires, I visited a class taught by Cristian and his colleagues to children and teens. I also met the other cartoonists in the publishing collective to which Cristian belongs. Following in their teachers' footsteps, the students create their own comics and publish them with photocopiers and on the web. One of the students illustrated a script that I wrote about the Holocaust (page: 1, 2, 3).

After leaving Buenos Aires, I visited various cartoonists along my route, contacting friends of Cristian. I met an autobiographical cartoonist in San Luis, Argentina. In Chile, a cartoonist explained the status of publishing there and I attended a museum exhibit. In Bolivia, I attended Vinetas con Altura. In contrast to Montevideo Comics, this convention focused entirely on artists from Latin America.

Inspired by the Bolivian gathering, cartoonists in Buenos Aires organized Vinetas Sueltas, presenting independent comics from Latin America and also inviting four European artists. Through these travels, I met a variety of talented cartoonists, all of whom present their works on the web. One of the most exciting books I found was the first Chilean graphic novel, which I translated and reviewed.

Back in the States, I seek to develop the power of comics as a gateway of intercultural exchange. I guided kids in Spanish class through translating some Bolivian political cartoons. I translated Destino Invisible, also about the Holocaust, by Gervasio, another of Cristian's colleagues. The first few pages of which now appear as a free webcomic. I also created a Spanish-language blog in order to help latino cartoonists navigate the American market.

Bolvian Political Cartoons

I used the following Bolivian comic strips while teaching a Spanish class in Ohio. The high school students translated them into English with me. After translating the strips and some songs, the girls presented to the rest of the camp. The strips are by Joaquín Cuevas of Bolivia from the collection "Unoffensive".


The first strip caught their attention because it deals with something close to home.



The final comic comments on the Bolivian movie "America Visa" in which a Bolivian tries to get the proper documentation to enter the United States. The girls were surprised that it is so hard to immigrate into our country. We also translated Manu Chau's song Clandestino about a wanderer who left Africa for Europe struggling to seek work without papers.

Page 3

The Second Page EVER

OK, here is the second page... might still need some work in terms of clarity, but I'm excited to share it. Constructive feedback welcome. Penciled and inked by the talented Laura Dattoli.

My first page ever!!!!

OK, kids. This is the moment you've all been waiting for. This is the first illustrated page of my script. It is about my grandfathers struggles in Nazi Poland (no mice though). That is him and his first family. It was illustrated by Laura Datolli, a student the workshop of La Productora in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Stay posted for more.

4th of July

As I walked from the dorm to the park to watch fireworks, some drunk local started talking to me. He mentioned that his license was taken away.

“If you walk down the street and kill someone, what happens?”

“You go to jail.” I answered.

“But in Afghanistan, what happens?”

“They give you a medal”

“I joined the navy in 1994 and I got a medal. They gave it to me because they just changed the name. This is the longest war in history. They just keep changing the name. Persian gulf, dessert storm…”

“Why’d you join?”

“Well, I wanted to join the marines, to travel over seas.”

“Why?”

“Because I hate this place and wanted to get the heck out of here.”

Historietas

While Latin American creators of comics, which they call historietas, face the same market forces that we do here (domination by superheroes and manga), they keep producing quality art, often publishing it themselves. My encounter started in August of 2006 at a book fair in Mendoza, Argentina, where I met Cristian Mallea of La Productora, a self-publishing collective based in Buenos Aires. Cristian served as my guide to the rich world of contemporary Latin American comics. I visited La Productora’s workshop regularly and traveled with them to conventions in Uruguay and Bolivia (Viñetas de Altura), where I met cartoonists from all over Latin America.

La Productora are considered to be part of the younger generation compared to the Argentina’s classical creators (Lalia, Alberto Breccia, Oesterheld etc.). Their work appears in the newly revived Fierro magazine. Angel Mosquito, another member of La Productora and Mallea run a comics workshop for local kids and teach at the newly formed Comics Design program at the University of Palermo in Buenos Aires. La Productora’s political anthology Carne Argentina was translated into French and presented in an exhibit on Argentine comics at Angouleme, France.

My incomplete list

Bolivia

Joaquín Cuevas makes a funny political strip as well as narratively solid silent comics.

Frank Arbelo (born in Cuba)

El Marco Toxico

Argentina

Cristian Mallea

Angel Mosquito: appears on the website Historietas Reales, which showcases the work of a number of contemporary creators.

Gervasio

Thomas Desscance: Born in France. Publishes comic magazines Revista Ex Abrupto and, with others, Suda Mery K,!, which that mix European and Latin American cartoonists.

Salvador Sanz

Ernán

Peru

Jorge Perez-Ruibal has a wild and detailed style that mixes humor and vulgarity.

Mexico

Ricardo Peláez

Colombia

Joni B and Nomás are part of the team that produces the free pamphlet Robot, which includes comics and prose humor.

Uruguay

Rodulfo Santullo publishes a number of talented artists.

Guacho

Chile

As a member of Ergocomics, Cristian Reyes is a talented creator and staunch advocate for Latin American comics.

Cristiano makes autobiographical and political comic strips.

Brazil

Fabio Zimbres’s comic that I bought reads like a Brazilian James Kochalka, but he does other stuff to.

Viñetas Sueltas

Before I left Argentina a few weeks ago, I attended a comics convention in Buenos Aires. Thomas Desscance organized the event. Receiving funding from European consulates, the convention hosted guests from Spain, France and Germany. Convention panels focused on foreign as well as regional comics scenes. Local European cultural centers hosted exhibits of the visiting cartoonists work.

I sat on a panel that Cristian facilitated about comics throughout the Americas at the convention Viñetas Sueltas in Buenos Aires (pics below). I’ve met more cartoonists then I could quickly rattle off, but I’ve included a brief list below with some of my favorites (and links to their websites). As in my previous entry, I am focusing on using my blog to share Latin American comics with English-speaking readers.

The convention floor. In addition to the row of stands on the left, there was another smaller row on the other side of the room. Impressive for the event's first year.

Exhibits were prepared of the work by artists visiting from Europe, both at the convention and at separate art galleries.


The Productora table manned by Angel Mosquito and Gervasio.

Our Pan-American panel with convention coordinator Thomas Desscance on left, next to panel facilitator Cristian Mallea.

Our panel (from left to right): Joni B (Colombia), Me (USA), Rodulfo Santullo (Uruguay), Chiqui Vilca (Peru) and a cartoonist from Brazil.

The audience.


Guests gather for the farewell.

The guests from Galicia, Spain: Brais Rodriguez (left) and Ablerto Vazquez.


Enjoying the exhibit of Peruvian artist Jorge Perez-Ruibal (bottom left).

A traditional locro at Mosquito's house to celebrate the Argentine national holiday

The First Chilean Graphic Novel

Here is one gem that I found at convention Viñetas Sueltas in Buenos Aires in May. Published in 2007, Road Story is a comics adaptation of a short story by Chilean Alberto Fuguet (whose accomplishments include translations into several languages and one movie). As in David Mazzuchelli’s adaptation of City of Glass, cartoonist Gonzalo Martínez uses the unique language of comics to build upon an already rich work of prose. While collections of serialized political or humorous comics are common in Chile, it is less usual to publish a longer narrative story, in this case 127 pages.

A paragraph from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road including the line “I didn’t know who I was” introduces the story opposite the splash page. While Kerouac transformed travel into a lifelong journey of searching for "It" or finding Enlightenment, this adventure is a road trip with which middle-class Americans may be more familiar (though both trips certainly share the virtue of being doused with more than enough booze). As the opening line states: "Simon feels that all this is a parenthesis. Parentheses are like boomerangs, he believes. They even look like them. They enter your life suddenly and cut off your past from your present with a clean precise blow."

Subtly using characters' experiences to hint at a broader social context, Road Story is a telling window into both the pan-American dream and its dark side. After a failed marriage, protagonist Simon sold his business and left his home in Chile. Retracing a path that Fuguet once traveled himself, Simon drives around the American Southwest and dips into Mexico. As seen below (click to enlarge), using awkward camera angles that don't reveal the character’s face, Simon contemplates his accomplishments. A book he edited for his father's company is tossed aside amid a bottle of Gatorade, a symbol of American consumption familiar in South America. (Before I cheaply inserted English text using Paint, captions had typed letters while world and thought balloons were hand-lettered.)

Similar to Jason Lutes, Martínez subtly creates a sad, yet endearing tone and enriches the story with visual motifs that illustrate the character’s inner struggles. For example, Simon's changes in hair style reflect his fumbling self-image. In the flashback below, thawing frost on a windshield serves as a metaphor for his growing awareness that his wife Natalia was cheating on him.

While Jessica Abel’s La Perdida reveals the misguided entry into Latin America of a half-Mexican girl born in the United States, Road Story (the original title of the Spanish-language comic) shows how oddly comfortable a Chilean is in the United States. Indeed, Simon thinks that the United States colonized his subconscious.

The story works because of poignant prose narration complimented by austere drawings. There are also a number of moments, like the illustrations at right and below of how Simon met and married Natalia years earlier, in which images alone communicate key developments.

As Simon travels, Road Story concisely takes the reader through a process of healing, a very human process with painfully real moments, expressed in ways that are both blunt and naked while also subtle and understated. While wandering, Simon links up with a Bolivian woman, Adriana, who was “made in the USA”. The relationship between Simon and Ariadna develops infused with uttered clichés and made-up identities. A scene in which Simon is rudely awakened by the suicide of a hotel neighbor eerily foreshadows a later scene in which Adriana nearly drinks herself to death.

The art is straight-forward and utilitarian, if at times uninteresting. By the end of the story, the reader may tire of looking at Simon's frowning mug. The entire work stays true to the mood of parenthesis. Ultimately, Simon closes the parenthesis. But does he really acknowledging the cause of his problems? While Road Story critiques consumerist culture, it is the nuanced perspective of someone ingrained in it, enjoying its benefits.

Compared to its neighbor’s, Chile is a country who has historically had closer economic and political relations with the United States and it is a place with a substantial middle and upper class. In 1988, when the pro-capitalist CIA-backed dictator Pinochet allowed elections for the first time since his coup in 1973, he narrowly lost, winning 44% of the vote. By contrast, the Argentine dictators only received about 10% of the votes when they tried to continue their rule once elections were held. Chile is a country that deals with the complicated legacy of economic "success". Were it to be translated in English, Road Story would be a fascinating treatment of familiar issues with the twist of the perspective of the developing world.

For the first 10 pages translated into English, check out: http://wordswithoutborders.org/graphic-lit/from-road-story/

Unanswered Questions

It is time we consider some of the underling questions that the media conveniently hasn’t addressed during this election cycle. We must remember that we don’t live under a regime where top offices are stolen by shrewd political manipulation. We live in a republic, where the presidency goes to the leader who wins the hearts and minds of voters. In an environment of free speech, statesmen compete to sell their intellectual treatises to the public.

I mean, voters actually spend money on politicians’ books! Nonetheless, while we listen to sound bites touting the great differences between candidates and search the candidates' memoirs for evidence, we should also remember the ways in which our options are defined and limited. While Obama became a millionaire with Dreams from my Father, McCain revealed his views with Faith of my Fathers. They both wrote about their fathers!! What about their mothers? And let’s face it. Is there really that much of a difference between dreams and faith?

But all cynicism aside, in every election, we have the moral responsibility of ignoring hangups based on idealistic fantasies (dreams and faith, you might say) and choosing the best of all options. Nonetheless, I think we need to ask: is America ready for a Hawaiian president? I mean, I know our nation has come a long way since the 50^th state was added to the Union in 1959 and I have no doubt in my mind that Americans born outside of the continental US are just as American as everyone else, but there are a lot of ignorant people in this country. And those ignorant people may ask: what next? A Puerto Rican president? Representatives from every country disproportionately influenced by the American government?

Do you really think continental Americans will let an islander win? Hawaii is pretty far into the Pacific, much closer to Asia then the rest of the United States and much of Hawaii claims Asian descent. But most importantly, what will happen when people actually start looking at Hawaii’s state flag and realize that it contains the union jack? We all remember what happened in Georgia. Do Hawaiians secretly maintain allegiance to the British Empire? That empire expanded until the sun didn't set on the land it controlled...and look at it today. Might that be a bad example?

If we elect someone more representative of the world than of the Brady Bunch, we may risk losing our belief of having ended history and having achieved the purest, more perfect socio-political system. We may have to acknowledge that everybody isn’t the same and that the whole world no longer wishes they could be like us.

As we move forward during this historic moment, we must be sure that we press politicians to address the real issues at play and we must not get wrapped up in petty politics and cheap sensational news coverage.