I’ve had the urge to write for a while now (it’s been the longest since I’ve written a few months), but I feel like work has taken my time and energy. I wrote a post called “A Premature Assessment of Chad”, which was just that because it looks like I will not be headed back to Africa this summer, so I did not post. It’s a long story, but essentially, the UN brought their focus back on Darfur and delayed the efforts to assist the residual peacekeeping efforts in neighboring Chad. The troubled irony with this decision is they’ve also succumbed to Sudan’s pressure to kick out any American businesses in country (in retaliation to increased sanctions the US has placed on them) so now the UN is scrambling to find other non-American companies to do our job of providing logistics support to their mission. This doesn’t bode well for the UN for a number of reasons (these smaller companies will not benefit from centralized organization, experience, economies of scale, and deep financial pockets) and will most likely result in a further delay to their massive additional mobilization of 25,000 more troops and in worse overall support. This article explains it all. I have a feeling we will be hearing about Darfur for a long time.

One of the other reasons for delays in writing is that I’ve found any after hours creative energy is geared towards either enjoying DC and my friends or into absorbing other mediums. One I’ve really enjoyed is Ted.com’s list of interesting speakers. I’ll prop this site up for a brief moment, only because I find it fascinating how one 15 minute speech can be such an inspiration. I’ve spent countless hours surfing around this site, which is an organization dedicated to sharing ideas and has used the web to blast out sound bites from their great seminars over the last few years. Speeches like Benjamin Zander’s on revitalizing classical music, Hans Roslings talk about analyzing statistics on improving third world countries, Isabel Allende discussing passion, and Sir Ken Robinson on revitalizing creativity in schools, I’m thoroughly enriched and entertained, in a dorky intellectual kind of way, but none-the-less, energized in the sense that the organization tries to accomplish.

I enjoyed a good 4th of July, walking around the National Mall taking in the Smithsonian’s Folk Life Festival, which this year highlighted Bhutan (which is a Himalayan country that places more importance on Gross National Happiness than on it’s GDP), a big showcase on NASA, which was really neat hearing various astronauts and scientists talk about their experiences past, present and future, with the agency. The reason I was really drawn to this years showcase was because their third highlight was the great state of Texas, which produced some BBQ and a little Tejano music, but overall, was the least impressive produced events of the three, to my disappointment. Afterwards, I hopped around a few parties and found my way to a downtown rooftop to watch the fireworks. Part of me wanted a big soundtrack (something other than the 1812 overture) to back up the grand display over the mall, something like this, but was substituted this year with rain.

I’ve been put up in a hotel this summer, which is nice but hardly the green oasis I lived in France, and I find myself missing my time there more and more (I suppose a natural after effect). Little things are making me happy, like eating frozen grapes, driving with loud music, afternoon exercise room jogging to the chauncy soundtrack of TMZ celebrity trash tv, smiling at uncomfortable silences while in elevators, and so on.

I’m looking forward to traveling some in August, someplace Latin, and then beginning school in September. It’s always good to look forward to something. And this post is…wait for it…done.