Rampant with poverty and crime this part of the city is used to being neglected. That all changed on Tuesday night as it played host to the Barack Obama victory party.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Victory
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Final day fever
Today started, well yesterday, and this blog post is brought to you fuelled by copious amounts of coffee. Running on a whopping three hours sleep for the past 48 hours but hey this is election day and it's what I signed up for.
At Obama HQ here in Houston the office is buzzing with volunteers making calls into swing states, reminding them of their polling location. Nevada voters have been plagued with calls and during my stint in the phone bank last night I got some fruity responses. My personal favourite was a guy who when he picked up the phone instantly yelled down the line "I voted already" before slamming down the dog and bone. Good thing I wasn't a member of his family ringing with an urgent bulletin.
Staff have been burning the candle at both ends just like the good old college days. In the wee hours of the morning Sanjay and I were dispatched to various polling stations to distribute out yard signs screaming "Obama/Biden" and "Vote straight Democratic." At one of the polling stations we drove through a thick cloud of fog or at least we thought it was fog. Perhaps the lack of sleep was beginning to catch up on us.
We returned to work on the flyers to be distributed and organise the morning canvasses. Then a minor emergency as we discovered that the www.harrisvotes.com website was down on certain browsers. If you don't know your polling location (which many even approaching the 7pm deadline don't) you need to log on to find out. Is it simply a coincidence that the Republican controlled Tax Assessors office site temporarily downs tools on election day? Conspiracy theorist. Moi?
At 5:30 am I return to my temporary home for a quick shave, shower and coffee in that particular order. Ken and I skip out the door with adrenaline pumping in our veins to hit the polling stations with a team of chirpy volunteers. In the course of some 90 minutes this particularly disparate crew hum and chant "Yes we can" before ascending a bridge overlooking a motorway to wave Obama posters which prompted a hearty response from the motorists travelling at speed below us. Truck drivers seemed particularly keen.
We return to the office just after 10am to get the material together for the morning canvass. I'm dispatched to a heavily African American quarter of the city known as Acres Home to whack on doors and remind potential voters to well you know what. The after affects of Hurricane Ike were still much in evidence and the rampant poverty in some sections were shocking. What was most concerning was a respectable looking home lying next door to something that would look more at home in a favela in Sao Paulo.
Being there certainly took me out of my comfort zone and it served as a reminder just how tough a job the next President is going to face. Turning communities like Acres Home into a places where people want to live instead of being forced there as a force majeure.
As I type a team of lawyers are sitting directly in front of me answering calls from concerned voters. You can be turned away from the polls for the most bizarre of reasons. Voter suppression is a Republican speciality and in states like Texas people are employed specifically to 'purge' voters off the rolls.
Here's an example: On a voter registration form you're asked for your Texas drivers licence number and if you don't have it you give the last four digits of your social security number. Many people put down both just as a precaution but lo and behold the lawyers got several calls from flustered locals who couldn't vote because they had filled in both boxes. They got straight on it.
Pundits questioned whether turnout would match the grand expectations set by the Obama campaign. In Texas there have been reliable reports of sparse turnout in Republican strongholds. Theory goes that the GOP faithful have never been won over by John McCain and convinced that their man isn't going to win prefer to stay at home. Still we wouldn't in our wildest dreams expect Obama to win the lone star state this time round. Expect McCain to triumph by six to nine points.
The polls are about the close and we're gathered around a single flatscreen television to see how the States light up. I've taken refuge in a quiet office in the back to post this live update. Parties are being planned, balloons are currently bopping and there is a huge sense of expectation. Dare I say it there is some over confidence but first we have to win this thing. So let's get back to work.
At Obama HQ here in Houston the office is buzzing with volunteers making calls into swing states, reminding them of their polling location. Nevada voters have been plagued with calls and during my stint in the phone bank last night I got some fruity responses. My personal favourite was a guy who when he picked up the phone instantly yelled down the line "I voted already" before slamming down the dog and bone. Good thing I wasn't a member of his family ringing with an urgent bulletin.
Staff have been burning the candle at both ends just like the good old college days. In the wee hours of the morning Sanjay and I were dispatched to various polling stations to distribute out yard signs screaming "Obama/Biden" and "Vote straight Democratic." At one of the polling stations we drove through a thick cloud of fog or at least we thought it was fog. Perhaps the lack of sleep was beginning to catch up on us.
We returned to work on the flyers to be distributed and organise the morning canvasses. Then a minor emergency as we discovered that the www.harrisvotes.com website was down on certain browsers. If you don't know your polling location (which many even approaching the 7pm deadline don't) you need to log on to find out. Is it simply a coincidence that the Republican controlled Tax Assessors office site temporarily downs tools on election day? Conspiracy theorist. Moi?
At 5:30 am I return to my temporary home for a quick shave, shower and coffee in that particular order. Ken and I skip out the door with adrenaline pumping in our veins to hit the polling stations with a team of chirpy volunteers. In the course of some 90 minutes this particularly disparate crew hum and chant "Yes we can" before ascending a bridge overlooking a motorway to wave Obama posters which prompted a hearty response from the motorists travelling at speed below us. Truck drivers seemed particularly keen.
We return to the office just after 10am to get the material together for the morning canvass. I'm dispatched to a heavily African American quarter of the city known as Acres Home to whack on doors and remind potential voters to well you know what. The after affects of Hurricane Ike were still much in evidence and the rampant poverty in some sections were shocking. What was most concerning was a respectable looking home lying next door to something that would look more at home in a favela in Sao Paulo.
Being there certainly took me out of my comfort zone and it served as a reminder just how tough a job the next President is going to face. Turning communities like Acres Home into a places where people want to live instead of being forced there as a force majeure.
As I type a team of lawyers are sitting directly in front of me answering calls from concerned voters. You can be turned away from the polls for the most bizarre of reasons. Voter suppression is a Republican speciality and in states like Texas people are employed specifically to 'purge' voters off the rolls.
Here's an example: On a voter registration form you're asked for your Texas drivers licence number and if you don't have it you give the last four digits of your social security number. Many people put down both just as a precaution but lo and behold the lawyers got several calls from flustered locals who couldn't vote because they had filled in both boxes. They got straight on it.
Pundits questioned whether turnout would match the grand expectations set by the Obama campaign. In Texas there have been reliable reports of sparse turnout in Republican strongholds. Theory goes that the GOP faithful have never been won over by John McCain and convinced that their man isn't going to win prefer to stay at home. Still we wouldn't in our wildest dreams expect Obama to win the lone star state this time round. Expect McCain to triumph by six to nine points.
The polls are about the close and we're gathered around a single flatscreen television to see how the States light up. I've taken refuge in a quiet office in the back to post this live update. Parties are being planned, balloons are currently bopping and there is a huge sense of expectation. Dare I say it there is some over confidence but first we have to win this thing. So let's get back to work.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Perception & Perspective
Spend enough time in any country and it's likely you'll start to adopt a few national traits. The locals start to think you're one of their own as you soften your g's and exaggerate your t's.
After the guts of five months in the United States they've begun to accept me...in all their various forms. In the course of this adventure I've been asked which part of New England I'm from on and whether I'm related to the Kennedy family on multiple occasions.
At it's most bizarre I've been considered more yankee doodle doo than even the natives. Allow me to explain.
One month ago my friend and fellow volunteer Sanjay were out on a voter registration drive in a shopping mall in Clear Lake. Sanjay's parents are Indian but he has spent most of his life in Texas and has a proper American accent. To my dismay he loves 'college football' and supports the Longhorns so he's pretty much as Texan as can be.
While we were signing up new voters it became apparent that I was having a tad more success than my pal. Much as I would like to think I was the consummate volunteer (and indeed I tried) it seemed as though other factors were in place. Or should I say race.
While we were working the crowd a potential voter said to Sanjay, "You're not even a citizen," which in fairness he laughed at. The problem was this person was serious and just for the record such an accusation has never been leveled at me or should I say mise - the non citizen.
Was it simply because my skin tone was considered more American? One would like to think in the 21st century race wouldn't be an issue but let's not delude ourselves and think it doesn't exist. Hence all the column inches devoted to the so called 'Bradley effect.'
Racial divisions are likely to remain whether Senator Obama is elected on Tuesday or not. Often they are present in an inoffensive way like the other day when I was chatting to a vendor who was selling all forms of Obama merchandise. He told me that he sold a bunch of Obama buttons to a guy who wanted to flog em in his local community. The buyer only wanted the pins with the happy smiling face of Obama and passed up the opportunity to acquire the Obama/Biden mugshot variety.
To quote the buyer, "I'm from a black neighbourhood and they don't want to be looking at no white people on their badges." One could argue the budding entrepreneur was a racist. More likely he was a keen eyed businessman who knew what would sell in his market. Barack Obama shifts badges and Joe Biden doesn't. Go figure.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
An often cited criticism of America and by virtue of that Americans is how insular they supposedly are. Take a quick glance at the news networks and you'll find very little in the way of international coverage unless there is a major crisis somewhere. CNN America is certainly a contrast to the one we're used to at home. During the primary it earned the title Clinton News Network by Obama volunteers and then there is Fox News or should I say Fixed Noise as some call it.
Whatever. With the general election on the home stretch there is wall to wall saturation and while I've formed a bond with my colleagues another one has been created with Chris Matthews of MSNBC. He's the only guy who can wear a red jumper and baseball hat on air and not get ridiculed. We consume the news, devour every poll and get flustered when we have to remind someone that the voter registration deadline passed a month ago.
Living in the midst of an election cycle renders everything else irrelevant. I've tuned out of football and the financial meltdown in Ireland only registered on my radar because America sneezed and the rest of us caught a cold. You lose perspective.
Then something happens and you regain your senses. For the past few weeks I've been living in the museum district of Houston but my only interaction with the said museums has been watching the silhouettes entering the buildings in the morning. One day I had a few hours to myself and paid a visit to the Holocaust Museum just round the corner from my temporary home.
Anyone who has been to a Concentration Camp will tell you how sobering the experience is. My abiding memory of being in Dachau last year was how talkative people were on the train out to the Camp. On the way back there was total silence.
Spending time in the Holocaust Museum brought me back to reality with a thump. I've learnt about Goldwin's Law recently, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldwin%27s_law, and observing the media during my Stateside stint I've seen Nazi comparisons made far too willingly just to prove a point.
No words can even begin to quantify the horrors of the Holocaust and I for one am not going to even attempt to here. While in the Museum I say a plaque bearing the words 'Operation Texas' about how Lyndon Baines Johnson as a young Congressman worked to provide a safe refuge for Jews fleeing Hitler's Germany. Hundreds of lives were saved by his brave actions and it wasn't until some 20 years later that the project became public knowledge. The plaque I'm referring was subtle in size and message but it left an effect on me. Political sway can be used for good.
Later that day I told my friend Ken about 'Operation Texas' and to my surprise he had never heard of the project. Ken graduated from the LBJ school of Public Affairs so clearly the tale of the future Texan President during the Second World War remains a little known fact.
A few days later I re-visited the Holocaust Museum and Ken accompanied me. For a man who lives and breathes politics he switched his phone off for an couple of hours to take it all in. As we stepped out the door later he was completely quiet, just like the people on the train back from Dachau a year earlier.
Perspective.
After the guts of five months in the United States they've begun to accept me...in all their various forms. In the course of this adventure I've been asked which part of New England I'm from on and whether I'm related to the Kennedy family on multiple occasions.
At it's most bizarre I've been considered more yankee doodle doo than even the natives. Allow me to explain.
One month ago my friend and fellow volunteer Sanjay were out on a voter registration drive in a shopping mall in Clear Lake. Sanjay's parents are Indian but he has spent most of his life in Texas and has a proper American accent. To my dismay he loves 'college football' and supports the Longhorns so he's pretty much as Texan as can be.
While we were signing up new voters it became apparent that I was having a tad more success than my pal. Much as I would like to think I was the consummate volunteer (and indeed I tried) it seemed as though other factors were in place. Or should I say race.
While we were working the crowd a potential voter said to Sanjay, "You're not even a citizen," which in fairness he laughed at. The problem was this person was serious and just for the record such an accusation has never been leveled at me or should I say mise - the non citizen.
Was it simply because my skin tone was considered more American? One would like to think in the 21st century race wouldn't be an issue but let's not delude ourselves and think it doesn't exist. Hence all the column inches devoted to the so called 'Bradley effect.'
Racial divisions are likely to remain whether Senator Obama is elected on Tuesday or not. Often they are present in an inoffensive way like the other day when I was chatting to a vendor who was selling all forms of Obama merchandise. He told me that he sold a bunch of Obama buttons to a guy who wanted to flog em in his local community. The buyer only wanted the pins with the happy smiling face of Obama and passed up the opportunity to acquire the Obama/Biden mugshot variety.
To quote the buyer, "I'm from a black neighbourhood and they don't want to be looking at no white people on their badges." One could argue the budding entrepreneur was a racist. More likely he was a keen eyed businessman who knew what would sell in his market. Barack Obama shifts badges and Joe Biden doesn't. Go figure.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
An often cited criticism of America and by virtue of that Americans is how insular they supposedly are. Take a quick glance at the news networks and you'll find very little in the way of international coverage unless there is a major crisis somewhere. CNN America is certainly a contrast to the one we're used to at home. During the primary it earned the title Clinton News Network by Obama volunteers and then there is Fox News or should I say Fixed Noise as some call it.
Whatever. With the general election on the home stretch there is wall to wall saturation and while I've formed a bond with my colleagues another one has been created with Chris Matthews of MSNBC. He's the only guy who can wear a red jumper and baseball hat on air and not get ridiculed. We consume the news, devour every poll and get flustered when we have to remind someone that the voter registration deadline passed a month ago.
Living in the midst of an election cycle renders everything else irrelevant. I've tuned out of football and the financial meltdown in Ireland only registered on my radar because America sneezed and the rest of us caught a cold. You lose perspective.
Then something happens and you regain your senses. For the past few weeks I've been living in the museum district of Houston but my only interaction with the said museums has been watching the silhouettes entering the buildings in the morning. One day I had a few hours to myself and paid a visit to the Holocaust Museum just round the corner from my temporary home.
Anyone who has been to a Concentration Camp will tell you how sobering the experience is. My abiding memory of being in Dachau last year was how talkative people were on the train out to the Camp. On the way back there was total silence.
Spending time in the Holocaust Museum brought me back to reality with a thump. I've learnt about Goldwin's Law recently, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldwin%27s_law, and observing the media during my Stateside stint I've seen Nazi comparisons made far too willingly just to prove a point.
No words can even begin to quantify the horrors of the Holocaust and I for one am not going to even attempt to here. While in the Museum I say a plaque bearing the words 'Operation Texas' about how Lyndon Baines Johnson as a young Congressman worked to provide a safe refuge for Jews fleeing Hitler's Germany. Hundreds of lives were saved by his brave actions and it wasn't until some 20 years later that the project became public knowledge. The plaque I'm referring was subtle in size and message but it left an effect on me. Political sway can be used for good.
Later that day I told my friend Ken about 'Operation Texas' and to my surprise he had never heard of the project. Ken graduated from the LBJ school of Public Affairs so clearly the tale of the future Texan President during the Second World War remains a little known fact.
A few days later I re-visited the Holocaust Museum and Ken accompanied me. For a man who lives and breathes politics he switched his phone off for an couple of hours to take it all in. As we stepped out the door later he was completely quiet, just like the people on the train back from Dachau a year earlier.
Perspective.
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