Inforum

It's been a while.
But let's jump right into it.

I love the bay area. Why? Well, there is just so much to do, and so much going on, so much energy in so many different areas of life. Last night, me and a few friends were helping out at the Bang XX game, short for Bay Area Night Games but it's basically a puzzle hunt organized in a neighborhood in Bay Area. We were in the North Beach section of town, and we were volunteering to help run the game which one of our friends is organizing. I have not much of the idea of what puzzles were about, but, it seems like pretty serious business, and that I would have no freak'n clue how to even start. This was a huge game, with 61 teams and over 300 people attending.

The spot I was helping out involved each team being split up into two groups, and messages had to be ferried from one to another. So I was a runner, ferrying various messages. Which means I get to run around in a green St. Patrick's hat, yelling out awesome team names like, "BIPOLAR BEARS!", "UNIVERSAL SOLVENT!", "LEAD PIPE CONSERVATORY".... it was fun, despite the cold. Only something like 12 teams made it to the final puzzle, which I also helped out at, and the winners were the Burninators, and were clearly at least an hour ahead of most other teams. The whole game just lasted 3 hours. So being an hour ahead, makes you pretty elite.

Tonight, I went to my first lecture/panel at the Commonwealth Club. I have always been interested in the activities of the Commonwealth Club, but it's not really quite worth joining if you work / live outside of the city and has a job, considering much of the activities start around 6-7pm in downtown. Many of their higher profile lectures and exchanges are also broadcasted by the local NPR station, which is why I know of them.

So, what is the Commonwealth Club? It is America's oldest and largest public affairs forum.
Its mission statement is simply as follows: "The mission of The Commonwealth Club of California is to be the leading national forum open to all for the impartial discussion of public issues important to the membership, community and nation." In short, if you are into PBS, NPR, public and current affairs, you would find their activities very worthwhile and interesting.
I heard about tonight's panel actually from a Doctors Without Borders mailing, and I decided now that I live/work in the city, and only a 15min walk from work to the club, I really should join. Then I found out it's only $75 to join the youth branch of the club, and you get FREE lectures on Mondays and Fridays, and also FREE language lessons, how cool is that? I can't really use the language lessons since they are all intermediate/advanced French and Spanish, but hey, it is still cool.

Tonight I went to a panel titled "Afghanistan: The New Iraq?" and featured 3 panelists, the US head of Doctors without Borders Sophie Delaunay, an Afghan-American journalist named Fariba Nawa, and another guy I forgot his name who is an expert in south asian affairs.

It was only an hour, and I thought the moderation of the panel coudl have been done better but there were insights from these experts that were very illuminating. Fariba lived in Afghanistan for a few years during the war, and had very first hand insights of the mood and thinking of the populace. She also stressed the difference between Iraq and Afghanistan. 30 years of war has broken down the tribal structure that used to be the foundation of Afghan society, and that must be taken in account when one thinks about Afghanistan versus Iraq. They are essentially incomparable in her view, other than that both are Muslim countries. Sophie noted that it has became dangerous for NGOs operating in the humanitarian arena in the region when governments, esp the US government, often mix development and military agendas. Doctors Without Borders were targeted (5 aide workers were killed in Afghanistan in 2004, prompting DWB's departure) because the Afghans lost trust with NGOs workers after confusing them with American military personel. I thought that was an interesting perspective. I have always thought governments should go forward with development aide, but I suppose if done incorrectly, mixed with military goals, the downside is impartial NGOs could get "tainted". The third guy, who has a more macro view on the topic, stressed very much that nothing is "just" afghanistan. The administration needs to have a regional strategy that makes sense in both military and development sense. All in all, it was very informative, and I'm glad a know a tiny morsel more about Afghanistan... because to be honest, after funding the war there with my tax money for 8 years? I know next to nothing about it still, and I woudl consider myself relatively well informed.

Oh, and I would say the average age of the audience was about 65. I would say I saw maybe 5 other people about my age, in a crowd of about 100. Good times.

Tomorrow? It's the beginning of GDC - Game Developers Conference. The makers of Rockband has a party and I have an invite to it. Go Bay Area, I love living here.