Building Better Hotels
Hyatt heads toward greener future with new eco-friendly Seattle hotel and new sustainable design guidelines.
By Derek Gale, Senior Editor -- Hotels, 4/1/2009
Put simply, the new 346-room Hyatt at Olive 8 looks and sounds green. From the all-glass façade and living roof to the actual name of the hotel, you cannot help but get a green feeling with this LEED-certification candidate property.
And give credit to architect Richard Gluckman because the Seattle hotel not only looks green, it also looks good.
"I think the Hyatt at Olive 8 is a good example that having a responsible environmental approach can also result in an aesthetically pleasing building—one doesn't have to compromise the other," says General Manager Mark Stiebeling.
While the blue glass architectural elements are striking, also contributing to the attractiveness of the property is the aforementioned living roof, which covers the first three floors of the hotel. Because of the podium-and-tower design of the property, south facing guestrooms (in the tower) look down onto the living roof.
"The aesthetics of looking at a roof planted with native plant materials versus traditional roofing materials is a completely different experience," notes Stiebeling. "It's amazing how much the view transforms the experience."
That said, the plants aren't only for show. They reduce the amount of heating or cooling required for the space immediately below—in this case, the hotel's ballroom. They also dramatically reduce the amount of rainwater going to storm sewers, as it is absorbed into the soil. Finally, they also keep the roof from generating additional heat into the atmosphere during the summer months.
Similarly, the glass façade allows abundant natural light into the building's public spaces, brightening the ambiance while minimizing the need for energy-consuming artificial lighting. Meanwhile, triple-paned glass and a special coating on the exterior protects from excessive heating of the building's interior.
Other aspects of the hotel's greenness are less obvious, but no less important from a design and/or operations standpoint. Some of those include water-reducing shower heads and dual-flush toilets, as well as guestroom master power controls for lighting to conserve electricity.
The net effect of these green design and operational features is a building that will use 32% less water and 20% less power than other similar-sized buildings in its class.
"We know that our commitment to the environmental program at the hotel will also reduce our operating costs," Stiebeling says. "We're certainly [excited] after a few months of operation to look at metrics such as utility cost per occupied room, or per cover in banquets and restaurants."
He says the Grand Hyatt Seattle property across the street, which he oversees as well, will offer a good baseline for comparing a more traditional hotel with one designed to be environmentally friendly.
And perhaps it is lucky for Stiebeling to have such an existing traditional hotel nearby, as Hyatt is unlikely to ever build another one like that again. The company's new global sustainable design guidelines, completed in 2008, will apply to every new-build hotel—as well as every renovation—across all brands worldwide going forward.
"We want to build our buildings 'right' from the start," says Brigitta Witt, Hyatt's vice president of environmental affairs.
That means recycling construction materials, implementing energy-efficient lighting, finding ways to conserve and recycle water, and generally building hotels in a way that allows them to be as environmentally friendly as possible.
For example, Witt says that something as simple as recycling mass quantities of paper and plastic bottles can be affected by design elements such as the size of a hotel's loading dock.
"What we've done with the design guidelines is made sure that even things like loading dock space get addressed, so that if a hotel has the opportunity to recycle, it is not limited by the size of its loading docks," she explains.
"Olive 8 was a great test for us—to understand everything that goes into a LEED-certified property. It helped us build a case for how relevant and important this is. From a cost perspective, there is a misconception that building an environmentally efficient property has to be substantially more expensive. We know that is not necessarily the case. But also, the reception from customers validated that this is something that is not just important to us as a company, but also is important to our customers."
Direct comments to: derek.gale@reedbusiness.com
Hotels' Breakfast Buffet
Here is a sampling of interesting ideas from around the industry related to hotel breakfast strategies.
By Derek Gale, Senior Editor -- Hotels, 4/1/2009
Le Méridien Transforms Breakfast, Coffee Culture
Through partnerships with Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and illycaffé SpA, Starwood's Le Méridien brand is completely revamping its breakfast and coffee programs.
The brand recently conducted breakfast research with business and leisure travelers throughout Asia, with results showing that more than 90% of individuals would be willing to try new breakfast items while traveling.
To satisfy this hunger for something different, Le Méridien has launched a new signature breakfast in partnership with Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten that will roll out throughout its Asia Pacific hotels this year.
The offering includes "eye-opening elixirs" featuring combinations of fruits and vegetables (such as oranges, carrots and raspberries) with herbs and spices (such as chilies, cloves and pepper), as well as new interpretations of classic breakfast entrée items like the poached egg.
"My goal for Le Méridien was to create a breakfast experience that not only delivers the basics at a high-quality level, but also provides a level of 'discovery' for guests by blending exotic flavors with everyday ingredients," Vongerichten says.
As for its coffee program, a partnership with European premium brand illycaffé is meant to forge a "robust coffee experience" throughout Le Méridien hotels that will include a signature coffee menu featuring both hot and cold drinks, as well as specialty coffee recipes to be made available to guests.
The brand also plans to designate one of its hotels to serve as a "coffee laboratory," enabling illycaffé to test products and bring new coffee experiences to life. Also under consideration is the introduction of a "master barista," an individual who would implement coffee culture training throughout the brand's hotels.
Breakfast For Dessert: On Trend Or Old News?
The New York Times recently ran an article discussing how many top restaurants have taken to serving breakfast for dessert in some form (perhaps most frequently in doughnut form). This is not a new idea—it has been going on for some 15 years—but it has, in the past year or two, become much more widespread.
Examples in the hotel world include various Four Seasons properties offering house-made doughnuts with different glazes or other toppings. The Verandah restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas, for example, features a doughnut machine that also is used for hotel banquets and receptions. The machine allows guests to make their own doughnuts with choice of glazes (chocolate, vanilla, coffee, maple and lemon) and toppings (sprinkles, nuts and cookie crumbs).
At the Four Seasons Seattle, meanwhile, Pastry Chef Ryan Witcher has "noticed a trend on desserts leaning to the breakfast side. I see a lot of takes on brioche French toast with maple syrup gelato and so on. I think it is another venue to try different ideas and concepts with pastries."
Throughout the winter, Witcher made vanilla-dusted doughnuts with crème fraîche sorbet and spiced pomegranate compote for dessert. Now he is doing doughnuts with a Washington rhubarb compote and fromage blanc sorbet.
"The main reason I do it is to give the guest an experience that they wouldn't [otherwise] try," Witcher says. "Changing the flavors of the condiments is where the chef gets to play with ingredients and the guest gets to try something out of the daily norm."
But not everyone thinks breakfast for dessert is the way to go, even if it is on trend: "We're actually cycling out of the whole breakfast-for-dessert thing," says Susan Terry, vice president of culinary operations and corporate chef for Hyatt Hotels Corp. "It's starting to become a bit mainstream—we were doing things like coffee and doughnuts 18 to 24 months ago."
Breakfast: Innovation Not Required?
• "I firmly believe the most important thing about breakfast delivery, in terms of both food and service, is the ability to read a guest and provide exactly the right experience without reinventing the wheel," says Felipe Gomez-Kraus, director of food and beverage at Rosewood Sand Hill, Menlo Park, California
• "When it comes to breakfast, most people stay with a regular routine. Whatever the personal preference, we know that for most travelers, a familiar breakfast brings the routine of home to the routine of the road," writes Brad Nelson, corporate chef, Marriott International, in his Marriott In The Kitchen blog
• "Our core programming is somewhat predictable. The reality is breakfast is breakfast, and people are creatures of habit. While [new items] are exciting and add variety, the reality is the majority of people sit down to breakfast and order either two eggs or an omelet. Those are still going to be your drivers. For us, the key is reinforcing standards of timeliness, value for the dollar, engaged employees, and an overall quality experience," says Susan Terry, corporate chef, Hyatt Hotels
Spotlight On: House Smoked Maple Cured Salmon, The Langham Boston
WHAT: House-made smoked salmon served with a toasted bagel, cream cheese, tomatoes and red onion (US$17)
OF NOTE: Smoking the salmon in-house involves a five-day process, but because it is part of the kitchen sta
در ادامه بحث‌های قبلی ؛ به نکته بسیار مهمی می‌خواهم اشاره کنم که به بارآمده سالیان درازی کار رسانه‌ای و خبری ( عملی و آموزشی ) است:
" هیچ کسی ـ هیچ دانشجویی یا رسانه‌نگاری و به طور کلی هیچ جوینده دانشی و هیچ فهم‌جویی ـ تا سؤال نداشته باشد ، نه تنها به جواب نخواهد رسید بلکه در آن مفهوم یا حوزه اندیشه و عمل بشری مانند پشه در گل می‌ماند و راهی به دهی در آن حوزه نخواهد بردو سر از عربستان یا ترکستان درمی‌آورد.
باید سؤال داست، دغدغه داشت، ده‌ها و صدها پرسش در ذهن باشد تا جوابی را جست.
در هیچ کلاس درسی نمی‌توان موفقیتی برای شاگردانی تصور کرد که بدون سؤال سرکلاس می‌نشینند و چشم درچشم استاد به سرزمین رؤیاهاشان می‌روند و قصه‌شان می‌شود قصه آن حاضر غایب که همه دیده‌ایم و می‌بینیم.
حتی نمی‌توان رسانه‌نگاری را دید که بی پرسشی و مسأله‌ای درکار خود به جایی رسیده باشد.
به جرأت می‌توان گفت: ارزش هر شاگردی به پرسشی است که دارد و به مسأله‌ای است که در دل و جان می‌پروراند.
بگذارید از این هم قدم فراتر بگذارم: اختراعات و اکتشافات آدم‌ها هم نسبت مستقیمی دارند با تعداد پرسش‌ها و مسأله یا مسأله‌هایی که در ذهن داشته‌اند.
تیرخلاص را بزنم: آنها که تجارت موفق‌تری دارند و پول بیش‌تری به‌دست می‌آورند کسانی اند که پرسش‌های بی‌شمارتر دارند و مسأله‌های فزون‌تر و عمیق‌تر.
شاید شنیده باشید که استاد بی‌هماورد ادب پارسی روزگار ما ، جناب دکتر شفیعی کدکنی نیز در همه مقاطع کارشناسی و ارشد و دکتری ، به‌جای درس دادن متداول بی‌خاصیت ، فقط به پرسش دانشجویان پاسخ می‌دهد !... و چه جرأت تاریخی دارد این بزرگ‌مرد!.
اگر با من همدلید و همرای، مغزرنجه و قلم به‌پنجه نمایید و سؤال‌هاتان را در این حوزه برکاغذ آورید یا ماوس رنجه و صفحه‌کلید زیرپنجه کرده ، برای من هم بفرستید.
کار عملی:
ضمنا همکلاسی‌های دانشکده خبرم و همکلاسی‌های دانشکده صداوسیمایم این رنجه و پنجه‌ها را باید تا هفته دیگر به‌عنوان کار عملی درسمان برای من میل کنند.
یادکردی بایسته:
تنبل‌های عزیز خبر 4 نیز فقط تا همین هفته فرصت دارند که 25 پرسش و مسأله جلسه نخست کل همکلاسی‌ها را به زبان خودشان ارسال کنند.
در همین باره:
در ادامه پرسش‌های قبلی سری به اینترنت زدم. متأسفم که چیز دندان‌گیری گیرم نیامد. تنها در سایتی جملات زیر را دیدم که از دکتر امید مسعودی برداشته بود( فکر می‌کنم در مقدمه کتاب خبرش است). شما هم بنگرید:
« سالها خبرنویسی در مطبوعات تاكنون پاسخ روشنی به پرسش «خبر چیست؟» (What is News) داده نشده است. دانشجویان در كلاسهای درس بیشتر با توصیف های گوناگون از «پدیده خبر» آشنا می شوند، از این رو پس از پایان درس خبرنویسی، ناتوان از ایجاد رابطه یی منطقی میان عناوین درس، در ارایه تعریفی جامع و مانع برای «خبر» (News) نیز در می مانند. آیا براستی ارایه تعریفی منطقی از «خبر» ناممكن است؟ آیا زمان تعریف مجدد از «خبر» فرا نرسیده است؟ ... »
شما چه فکر می‌کنید؟درست می‌فرمایند؟ این ارسال/ پست را ارسال‌هایی دیگر نیز درپی است. بنگرید.
در همین زمینه:
پاسخ به این پرسش دو کلمه‌ای و تأملی مسؤولانه یا مشتاقانه ، بلافاصله ما را وادارمی‌کند که از خود بپرسیم :
تاریخچه به‌کارگیری این واژه یا اصطلاح در زبان فارسی یا زبان انگلیس یا عربی یا . . . چیست؟
بشر نخستین بار کی این مفهوم را به‌کار برد؟
آیا مفهوم آن در طول زمان تغییر کرده است؟
چه تعاریفی در چه زبان‌هایی ( دست کم در فارسی و عربی و انگلیسی ) برای این اصطلاح یا مفهوم ارائه شده است؟
آیا برسر تعاریف آن توافق وجود دارد؟
آیا مفهوم خبر در طول زمان عوض شده است؟ کی و چگونه ؟
کجاها خبر یاد می‌دهند؟
آیا خبر درونی است و برای فهمیدن وحس کردن آن باید گیرنده‌های خاصی در درون افراد یا دست کم رسانه‌نگاران و اهالی خبر وجود داشته باشد؟ یا نه خبر آموختنی است و باید در کلاس‌های رسمی از معلمی خبردان یادگرفت؟
آیا این سؤالات شما را قلقلک ــ یا غلغلک ! ـ می‌دهد که چند لحظه به خبر فکر کنید؟
شما هم برخیزید و گامی برای شکل‌گیری ادبیات این مفهوم عزیز بردارید؛ قدم رنجه شما برای من مهم است و بر دیده و جان جای دارد ؛شاید برای دیگران هم مهم باشد و در تاریخ خبر ، ردی از دردمندی شما بر ردای تاریخ بماناد.چشم در راه ارسال/ پست‌های دیگر هم باشید.
مدرس دانشگاه:
وبلاگها آزمايشگاه ارزان و نسبتا دقيقي براي سنجش وضعيت فكري جامعه هستند
خبرگزاري دانشجويان ايران – تهران
سرويس: نگاهي به وبلاگها ؛ 24/01/1388
يك مدرس دانشگاه معتقد است: وبلاگها به نوعي منعكس‌كننده افكار عمومي و وضعيت فكري، رواني، اجتماعي و سياسي جامعه هستند.
دكتر عطاءالله ابطحي در گفت‌وگو با خبرنگار خبرگزاري دانشجويان ايران(ايسنا) اظهار كرد: وبلاگها در اينكه اعضاي يك جامعه بتوانند با هم گفتگو داشته باشند، به گفتمان مشترک دست يابند و حرف يكديگر را تحمل كنند، تاثيرگذار هستند. همچنين وبلاگها نشان‌دهنده سطح تحمل جامعه هستند و زماني كه وبلاگها در برابر يک بحث روز جامعه يا مطلب يك وبلاگ ديگر واكنش نشان مي‌دهند، اين واكنش مي‌تواند به نوعي نظرسنجي يا وضعيت‌سنجي جامعه باشد. مثلا با مطرح شدن بحث‌هاي مختلف در وبلاگها، از طريق بررسي واكنش ايجاد شده در اين فضاي مجازي، به راحتي مي‌توان فهميد تا چه اندازه جامعه آن انديشه و فكر خاص را پذيرفته يا رد کرده است.
وي افزود: اگر وبلاگها به اين سمت بروند كه پذيرش نظرات ديگران و نوع برخورد با ايده‌ها و انديشه‌هاي مختلف را تحمل‌پذيرتر کنند و اين تحمل‌پذيري را منعكس كنند، مستقيم و غيرمستقيم آن را به جامعه آموزش داده‌اند و اين مساله سبب اصلاح انديشه‌هاي نادرست و تمرين تحمل نظرات يكديگر مي‌شود.
اين رسانه‌نگار تصريح كرد: وبلاگها آزمايشگاه ارزان و در عين حال نسبتا دقيقي براي سنجش وضعيت فكري جامعه‌اند؛ و به تبع آن مي‌توانند در شكل‌دهي نحوه تحمل يكديگر و ارتباطات سالم اجتماعي با يكديگر تاثيرگذار باشند.
ابطحي خاطرنشان كرد: همه قبول داريم که بايد در وبلاگها حريم‌هاي خصوصي حفظ شود و به باورها و هنجارهاي اجتماعي احترام گذاشته شود، اما براي تاثيرگذاري بيشتراين رسانه‌هاي ارزان امروزين و تبديل شدنشان به رسانه‌هاي تأثيرگذار بايد بيش از حوزه مطبوعات و ديگر رسانه‌هاي متداول قديمي براي آنها آزادي فراهم کرد.
وي يادآور شد: تاثير منفي ايجاد محدوديت براي وبلاگها بيش از مطبوعات است و سبب بي‌خاصيت و بي‌تاثير شدن آنها مي‌شود.
ابطحي در عين حال گفت: هرزهنگاريهاي سياسي و اجتماعي و مرزشکني‌ها و بداخلاقي‌ها در وبلاگها سبب تخريب اين فضاي رسانه‌اي مي‌شود و اثرتخريبي آن بيش از هرزهنگاريهاي اخلاقي است.
وي تاكيد كرد: بايد از يک سو مديران دلسوز اجتماع، به شکل روزافزوني براي وبلاگها آزادي بيشتري فراهم کنند و از سوي ديگر، وبلاگ‌نگارها نيز بايد حريم‌ها را رعايت كنند تا اين فضا بيشتر بتواند انعكاس‌دهنده واقعي افكار جامعه باشد و به شكل‌گيري باورها و هنجارهاي تازه مورد نياز جامعه و رشد سطح فكر آن كمك كنند.
اين مدرس دانشگاه با بيان اينكه نقد سالم در جامعه هنوز جايگاه واقعي خود را نيافته است، گفت: بايد اجازه داد نقدها مطرح شوند و نقد كردن در همه‌ي عرصه‌ها تشويق شود، بگونه‌اي که تحمل کردن همديگر - با هراندازه اختلاف باور و رفتار - به يک ارزش والاي اجتماعي تبديل شود و روشن است که تحقق اين فضا نيازمند درك و شعور اجتماعي بالايي است.
وي يادآور شد: وبلاگها ضمن رعايت حريم‌هاي خصوصي به هيچ وجه نبايد به خود سانسوري دچار شوند و افراد و جريان‌ها و دستگاه‌هاي مورد نقد جامعه نيز بايد آستانه تحمل‌پذيري خود را به‌گونه‌اي که مورد نياز جامعه امروز است، افزايش دهند.
ابطحي درباره تاثير وبلاگها بر فضاي نقد سالم در جامعه، گفت: حتي در شرايطي كه نقد سالم در جامعه وجود ندارد، وبلاگها فضايي فراهم مي‌کنند که افراد با هويت‌هاي واقعي و غيرواقعي بتوانند نقدهاي خود را مطرح كنند که اين تمريني تاريخي براي فراهم کردن فضاي نقد سالم در جامعه است.
وي تاكيد كرد: ابتدا بايد اجازه داد آزادي عمل و فضاي واقعي حرف زدن در فضاي مجازي ايجاد شود تا در نهايت بتواند به افكار عمومي كه حاصل تضارب اين انديشه‌هاست، شكل دهد.
وي همچنين گفت: فضاي وب به دليل هويت‌هاي مجازي عوارض كمتري براي نقد سالم دارد و مانع شکل‌گيري تعارفات اجتماعي مخرب مي‌شود.
http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1315129&Lang=P
روز دو شنبه در کلاس زبان 2 , بحث ساده ای پیش آمد که برای من یک فاجعه را با تمام ابعاد نشان می داد.
هنگامی که داشتم روجلد کتاب انگلیسی و فارسی باراک اوباما را به عنوان یک متن خوب یادگیری انگلیسی معرفی می کردم و توضیح می دادم , طبق عادت همیشگی دلم می خواست بچه ها هزارویک نکته دیگر هم یاد بگیرند ؛ بنابراین , پرسش ساده ای پرسیدم:درفارسی به این سطر چه می گوییم؟ / منظورم عنوان توضیحی کتاب بود.
پاسخ هایی که شنیدم بسیار ناراحت کننده بود و حقیقتا شایسته است اشک هر ایرانی دلسوز را درآورد: از یک کلاس حدود 40 نفره حتی یک نفر این عبارت را نشنیده بود که هیچ , پاسخ هایی که می دادند آینه شکست تاریخی نظام آموزشی کشور بود. فقط یکی دو جواب را بشنویید و بگریید:
« فهرست , سرفصل , ................. » / !؟
به نظر شما می شود به این بچه ها ایراد گرفت ؟ آیا این نشان کامل ورشکستگی نظام آموزشی ما نیست ؟ تاحالا شده از خود بپرسید حدود دو دهه از بهترین سرمایه های کشور ما یعنی حدود 20 سال از عمر بچه های ما در آموزش و پرورش و دانشگاه چه حاصلی دارد؟!.... لطفا موارد استثنا و دوپینگی های عزیز المپیادی و نخبگان را مثال نزنید که خود آن ها دلیل کامل ناکارآمدی نظام آموزشی استعدادهدرده ما است.
لطفا یک دقیقه وقتتان را به تأمل در این فاجعه بگذرانید و شما هم با یک جمله قلم رنجه کردن سهمی در پیشرفت کشور داشته باشید.
همکلاسی‌های عزیز ؛ لطفا یادبگیرید؛ اگر برای نمره‌تون خوب نباشه برای قلبتون خوبه!
خطوط 100 مگابیت برای خانواده های استرالیایی
آقای کوین رود، نخست وزیر استرالیا امروز اعلام کرد دولت استرالیا قصد دارد بزرگترین پروژه زیربنایی در تاریخ این کشور را آغاز کند.
فکر می کنید بزرگترین پروژه زیربنایی این کشور در چه موردی می تواند باشد؟ صنایع؟ نظامی؟ یا انرژی؟ هیچکدام، دولت استرالیا به خوبی دریافته که مهم ترین عامل در پیشرفت، ارتباطات و اینترنت است. به همین دلیل بودجه ای معادل 31 میلیارد دلار آمریکا برای اجرای گسترده ترین شبکه کشور در نظر گرفته است.
هدف این است که طی هفت سال آینده 90 درصد خانه های استرالیا به شبکه و اینترنت با پهنای باند 100 مگابیت متصل شوند. البته 10 درصد باقی مانده هم فراموش نشده اند. برای آنها دسترسی به شبکه بیسیم با سرعت 12 مگابیت فراهم خواهد شد.
به گفته آقای رود، این پروژه برای 37 هزار نفر شغل جدید ایجاد خواهد کرد. کشور استرالیا به دلیل وسعت زیاد با مشکل در توسعه زیرساخت های ارتباطی مواجه است. هدف این پروژه این است که مشکلات دسترسی فعلی را حل کند. و این امکان را در اختیار جمعیت پراکنده استرالیا قرار دهد تا به شبکه و اینترنت فوق سریع دسترسی داشته باشند.
توضیحات:
100 مگابیت = 102,400 (100,000) کیلوبیت
چند مقایسه در سرعت های دسترسی:
سرعت متوسط خطوط اینترنت دیال آپ (کارت اینترنت ) = 48 کیلوبیت
سرعت دسترسی به اینترنت ADSL در کاربران خانگی ایران = 128 کیلوبیت
http://www.narenji.ir/content/view/1288/54/
رویترز - Sydney Morning Herald
Barack Obama
A Story of Race and Inheritance
"For we are strangers before them,
and sojourners, as were all our fathers.
A LMOST A DECADE HAS passed since this book was first published.
As I mention in the original introduction, the opportunity to write the book came while I was in law school, the result of my election as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.
In the wake of some modest publicity, I received an advance from a publisher and went to work with the belief that the story of my family, and my efforts to understand that story, might speak in some way to the fissures of race that have characterized the American experience, as well as the fluid state of identitythe leaps through time, the collision of cultures-that mark our modern life.
Like most first-time authors, I was filled with hope and despair upon the book's publication-hope that the book might succeed beyond my youthful dreams, despair that I had failed to say anything worth saying.
The reality fell somewhere in between.
The reviews were mildly favorable.
People actually showed up at the readings my publisher arranged.
The sales were underwhelming.
And, after a few months, I went on with the business of my life, certain that my career as an author would be short-lived, but glad to have survived the process with my dignity more or less intact.
I had little time for reflection over the next ten years.
I ran a voter registration project in the 1992 election cycle, began a civil rights practice, and started teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago.
My wife and I bought a house, were blessed with two gorgeous, healthy, and mischievous daughters, and struggled to pay the bills.
When a seat in the state legislature opened up in 1996, some friends persuaded me to run for the office, and I won.
I had been warned, before taking office, that state politics lacks the glamour of its Washington counterpart; one labors largely in obscurity, mostly on topics that mean a great deal to some but that the average man or woman on the street can safely
ignore (the regulation of mobile homes, say, or the tax consequences of farm equipment depreciation).
Nonetheless, I found the work satisfying, mostly because the scale of state politics allows for concrete results-an expansion of health insurance for poor children, or a reform of laws that send innocent men to death row-within a meaningful time frame.
And too, because within the capitol building of a big, industrial state, one sees every day the face of a nation in constant conversation: inner-city mothers and corn and bean farmers, immigrant day laborers alongside suburban investment
bankers-all jostling to be heard, all ready to tell their stories.
A few months ago, I won the Democratic nomination for a seat as the U.S. senator from Illinois.
It was a difficult race, in a crowded field of well-funded, skilled, and prominent candidates; without organizational backing or personal wealth, a black man with a funny name, I was considered a long shot.
And so, when I won a majority of the votes in the Democratic primary, winning in white areas as well as black, in the suburbs as well as Chicago, the reaction that followed echoed the response to my election to the Law Review.
Mainstream commentators expressed surprise and genuine hope that my victory signaled a broader change in our racial politics.
Within the black community, there was a sense of pride regarding my accomplishment, a pride mingled with frustration that fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education and forty years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, we should still be celebrating the possibility (and only the possibility, for I have a tough general election coming up) that I might be the sole African American-and only the third since Reconstruction-to serve in the Senate.
My family, friends, and I were mildly bewildered by the attention, and constantly aware of the gulf between the hard sheen of media reports and the messy, mundane realities of life as it is truly lived.
Just as that spate of publicity prompted my publisher's interest a decade ago, so has this fresh round of news clippings
encouraged the book's re-publication.
For the first time in many years, I've pulled out a copy and read a few chapters to see how much my voice may have changed over time.
I confess to wincing every so often at a poorly chosen word, a mangled sentence, an expression of emotion that seems indulgent or overly practiced.
I have the urge to cut the book by fifty pages or so, possessed as I am with a keener appreciation for brevity.
I cannot honestly say, however, that the voice in this book is not mine-that I would tell the story much differently today than I did ten years ago, even if certain passages have proven to be inconvenient politically, the grist for pundit commentary and opposition research.
What has changed, of course, dramatically, decisively, is the context in which the book might now be read.
I began writing against a backdrop of Silicon Valley and a booming stock market; the collapse of the Berlin Wall; Mandela-in
slow, sturdy steps-emerging from prison to lead a country; the signing of peace accords in Oslo.
Domestically, our cultural debates-around guns and abortion and rap lyrics-seemed so fierce precisely because Bill Clinton's Third Way, a scaled-back welfare state without grand ambition but without sharp edges, seemed to describe a broad, underlying consensus on bread-and-butter issues, a consensus to which even George W. Bush's first campaign, with its "compassionate conservatism," would have to give a nod.
Internationally, writers announced the end of history, the ascendance of free markets and liberal democracy, the replacement of old hatreds and wars between nations with virtual communities and battles for market share.
And then, on September 11, 2001, the world fractured.
It's beyond my skill as a writer to capture that day, and the days that would follow-the planes, like specters, vanishing into steel and glass; the slow-motion cascade of the towers crumbling into themselves; the ash-covered figures wandering the streets; the anguish and the fear.
Nor do I pretend to understand the stark nihilism that drove the terrorists that day and that drives their brethren still.
My powers of empathy, my ability to reach into another's heart, cannot penetrate the blank stares of those who would murder innocents with abstract, serene satisfaction.
What I do know is that history returned that day with a vengeance; that, in fact, as Faulkner reminds us, the past is never dead and buried-it isn't even past.
This collective history, this past, directly touches my own.
Not merely because the bombs of Al Qaeda have marked, with an eerie precision, some of the landscapes of my life-the buildings and roads and faces of Nairobi, Bali, Manhattan; not merely because, as a consequence of 9/11, my name is an irresistible target of mocking websites from overzealous Republican operatives.
But also because the underlying struggle-between worlds of plenty and worlds of want; between the modern and the ancient; between those who embrace our teeming, colliding, irksome diversity, while still insisting on a set of values that binds us together, and those who would seek, under whatever flag or slogan or sacred text, a certainty and simplification that justifies cruelty toward those not like us-is the struggle set forth, on a miniature scale, in this book.
I know, I have seen, the desperation and disorder of the powerless: how it twists the lives of children on the streets of Jakarta or Nairobi in much the same way as it does the lives of children on Chicago's South Side, how narrow the path is for them between humiliation and untrammeled fury, how easily they slip into violence and despair.
I know that the response of the powerful to this disorder-alternating as it does between a dull complacency and, when the disorder spills out of its proscribed confines, a steady, unthinking application of force, of longer prison sentences and more sophisticated military hardware-is inadequate to the task.
I know that the hardening of lines, the embrace of fundamentalism and tribe, dooms us all.
And so what was a more interior, intimate effort on my part, to understand this struggle and to find my place in it, has
converged with a broader public debate, a debate in which I am professionally engaged, one that will shape our lives
and the lives of our children for many years to come.
The policy implications of all this are a topic for another book.
Let me end instead on a more personal note.
Most of the characters in this book remain a part of my life, albeit in varying degrees-a function of work, children, geography,
and turns of fate.
The exception is my mother, whom we lost, with a brutal swiftness, to cancer a few months after this book was published.
She had spent the previous ten years doing what she loved.
She traveled the world, working in the distant villages of Asia and Africa, helping women buy a sewing machine or a milk cow or an education that might give them a foothold in the world's economy.
She gathered friends from high and low, took long walks, stared at the moon, and foraged through the local markets of Delhi or Marrakesh for some trifle, a scarf or stone carving that would make her laugh or please the eye.
She wrote reports, read novels, pestered her children, and dreamed of grandchildren.
We saw each other frequently, our bond unbroken.
During the writing of this book, she would read the drafts, correcting stories that I had misunderstood, careful not to comment on my characterizations of her but quick to explain or defend the less flattering aspects of my father's character.
She managed her illness with grace and good humor, and she helped my sister and me push on with our lives, despite our dread, our denials, our sudden constrictions of the heart.
I think sometimes that had I known she would not survive her illness, I might have written a different book-less a meditation on the absent parent, more a celebration of the one who was the single constant in my life.
In my daughters I see her every day, her joy, her capacity for wonder.
I won't try to describe how deeply I mourn her passing still.
I know that she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her.
درسته که آغاز بهار ، آغاز شکفتن است و برای همراهی با این شکفتن نیکو است که گل و بلبلی سخن بگوییم ؛ اما تا خود را در آیینه قرار ندهیم به شکفتن و به حیات دسترسی پیدا نمی‌کنیم ؛ و بهترین آیینه ،همکلاسی‌هایند، یا دست‌کم همکلاسی‌ها می‌توانند از بهترین آیینه‌های شکفتن در زندگی شخصی و زندگی اجتماعی محلی و جهانی برای یک انسان در عصر ما باشند. به‌ویژه برای محو و ریشه‌کنی ایرانی‌بازی‌ها ، چه کسی بهتر از یک همکلاسی منتقد؟ پس اجازه بدهید از « دوستان همکلاسی تنبل بسیار عزیزم » گله کنم که :
فصل شستن جسم و جان در چشمه حیات برشما ـ وبلاگ‌نگاران و وب‌نوردان ـ و بر جمله کسانتان مبارک
امیدمندم در سال تازه چشمه‌های حیات در زندگی‌تان جاری گردد و جانتان در همه روزان و شبان 88 سرشار از شادمانی باد
