Good Reads: From writer鈥檚 block, to edible insects, to an unexpected nuclear leader
To face the blank page
What if writer鈥檚 block or the moments between creative inspirations didn鈥檛 bother us? What if they could be considered welcome moments or even essential to the game of creation? Most people don鈥檛 experience writing in one fluid bout of perfection, anyway, writes Leni Zumas in the Spring 2013 issue of . In an essay titled 鈥淲orking the Hole,鈥� she investigates how to overcome those moments when 鈥淸t]he aversion to sitting down to write, or to staying at the desk, is fierce and physical, almost as if magnets were at work, rejecting each other.鈥�
Make use of your time in between bursts of inspiration by becoming a scavenger, Ms. Zumas says. Not in the carrion bird of prey way, but by practicing deliberate awareness. 鈥淚n order to show readers the world in ways they may never have seen it before, the artist herself must practice being open to raw, unbridled perception,鈥� she writes. The only thing wrong with 鈥渢he lacunae of inspiration,鈥� as Walter Benjamin once described writer鈥檚 block, is how much we fear it.
Eat your insects
Lauren Alix Brown that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says it鈥檚 time to get over it when it comes to the topic of eating bugs. Ms. Brown points out five reasons to follow through: (1) They鈥檙e good for you, 鈥済rasshoppers have comparable levels of protein to raw beef....鈥� (2) They鈥檙e better for the environment. (3) It makes economic sense. The cost of raising insects is low, which is good for economic development. (4) They are less likely than livestock to transmit food-borne maladies like SARS. (5) Insects are everywhere, and many people already do eat them.聽
鈥淗umans, on average, already unintentionally ingest an estimated 1 pound of insects a year, mixed in with other foods,鈥� writes Brown.
Why own, when you can rent 鈥� or borrow?
Americans have defined themselves by what they own: their cars, houses, books, music, power tools. But a cultural shift is changing definitions of ownership, as the Monitor鈥檚 Oct. 1, 2012, cover story reported (鈥淭he sharing economy鈥�). Janelle Nanos of delves further into the forces that have made sharing and renting more appealing: a poor economy, rapidly evolving technology that encourages sharing (share button on Facebook, anyone?), and growing city populations.聽
Added to that is an increased concern for the environment 鈥渢hat鈥檚 giving rise to a new social and commercial landscape in this country, and even a new way of life,鈥� Ms. Nanos writes. What does that new way of life look like? From Airbnb, the website that allows you to rent rooms in private homes for less than what hotels or B&Bs charge, to Zipcar alternative RelayRides (a national peer-to-peer car sharing service), peer-to-peer exchanges of goods and services are now hailed as a more economical, ecological, and social form of ownership. Of course, for a culture that鈥檚 not used to sharing, there鈥檚 still getting over what Nanos calls the 鈥淚ck Factor,鈥� the fear of strangers and awkward social encounters.
Europe is faring better than it seems
Despite the ongoing euro crisis and the rapid economic rise of countries such as Brazil and China, Europe has not faded into utter irrelevance, argue Mark Leonard and Hans Kundnani in 尘补驳补锄颈苍别.听
Sure, Europe is in decline in one sense 鈥� for centuries Europe was pushing the lists of firsts: first in international relations, first to colonize, first to go through a world-changing Renaissance.聽
But the game of catch-up that other rising players have been playing since World War II isn鈥檛 a bad thing and it isn鈥檛 making Europe obsolete. In fact, it鈥檚 helped spur another first for Europe: 鈥淸a] new model that pools resources and sovereignty with a continent-sized market and common legislation and budgets to address transnational threats from organized crime to climate change.鈥�
The other nuclear Asian country聽 聽
We鈥檝e heard the nuclear concerns about Pakistan and North Korea and Iran. But there鈥檚 another country in Asia to watch. Of course, unlike North Korea and Iran, Kazakhstan is positioning itself as a global nuclear leader, and is now in talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency to host a global nuclear fuel bank.
Kazakhstan is uniquely positioned for this leadership role, writes Jillian Keenan . Home to Semipalatinsk, once the world鈥檚 second largest nuclear testing site, the former Soviet state has seen firsthand what happens when nuclear testing goes wrong.
鈥淎 ninth of Kazakhstan鈥檚 territory, comparable with the territory of Germany, was turned into a nuclear wasteland鈥� when the Soviet Union tested its nuclear bombs there, said Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in a speech at the 20th anniversary of the Semipalatinsk closure in 2009. (And here it might be worth mentioning that Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world.)
Those tests resulted in the first Soviet antinuclear movement, which succeeded in pressuring the Kazakh government to close all its nuclear facilities.
