http://www.ca-smith.net/blog Politics, culture, and travel | San Francisco and the world Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:06:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en First there was Al Gore. Then there was Tony Blair. Next it'll be ... Kim Jong Il? My new piece for San Francisco magazine plays off the mini-trend of world leaders teaming up with Silicon Valley venture capitalists to save the world and (ahem) make some money along the way. Herein, ... http://www.ca-smith.net/blog/2010/08/unlimited-partnerships/ In this month's San Francisco magazine, I review California Crackup, Joe Matthews' and Mark Paul's excellent new diagnosis of what ails California. When it comes to the Golden State's ills, the depth of our despair is matched only by the dysfunction of our system. And while a pox-on-both-houses purge ... http://www.ca-smith.net/blog/2010/07/political-reform-is-what-we-do-in-california-to-break-our-hearts/ If you follow the political game, you've probably heard of "dog-whistle politics." That's when politicians speak in code to their supporters--all of whom get the meaning even if outsiders don't. Sarah Palin's speech at CSU Stanislaus last week put me in mind of the dog whistle. Apparently, she discussed "the ... http://www.ca-smith.net/blog/2010/06/intellectual-action-hero/ The World Cup has finally begun (read my new South Africa piece here, starting at pg. 71), and in honor of the globe's most popular game, I've compiled a quick portfolio of soccer-related photos from Africa and the Middle East. You can see most of these images, in larger form, ... http://www.ca-smith.net/blog/2010/06/goal/ Note for note, Sudan produces some of the most infectiously happy-sounding music I've ever heard. Maybe it's the country's position at the fulcrum of Africa, its mixing of North and South, East and West, Arab and sub-Saharan Africa. All of these influences--the pentatonic scales, the brass and strings, the crisp ... http://www.ca-smith.net/blog/2010/05/joy/ Lots of things: Proposition 13, which froze property-tax rates at artificially low levels, and allows many businesses to avoid paying their fair share. The two-thirds rules in the legislature, which prevent virtually anything from getting done. Our infrastructure, which was the envy of the world in the 1960s and which now is falling ... http://www.ca-smith.net/blog/2010/04/whats-the-matter-with-california/ The May/June issue of Afar magazine is out, and it's running my feature on South Africa's "Born-Frees," the first generation to come of age after apartheid's end. [Turn to page 71.] I tell the story through the life of my friend Thami Nkosi, a 29-year-old Soweto activist and inveterate shit-stirrer, ... http://www.ca-smith.net/blog/2010/04/the-new-face-of-south-africa/ This month's issue of California runs my profile of Trevor Paglen, an artist, geographer, writer, and photographer who deals in exploring "the limits of what we can know," as he put it to me one day. This broad category takes in everything from investigations of California's vast prison network to ... http://www.ca-smith.net/blog/2010/03/strange-renderings/ The new issue of the travel magazine Afar has a small piece of mine on Newtown, Jozi's cultural hub. [Turn to page 18.] I've spent a lot of time in this former industrial neighborhood on my visits to Jo'burg, and I've seen it change. Back in 2002, my fixer and ... http://www.ca-smith.net/blog/2010/02/newtown-johannesburg/ I've got a couple of small pieces in the current issues of California and San Francisco magazines. One is on climate change, the other on health care. Wonky? Sure. But contentiously wonky. The first, a short profile (.pdf) of former SF environment department director Jared Blumenfeld (who decamped to the EPA ... http://www.ca-smith.net/blog/2010/02/wonk-stuff/