The River Rukarara & An Impure English

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The River Rukarara

The Paris Review • 30 Sep 2024 • ~5100 words

This piece starts with reflections on the author's childhood memories of the Rukarara River, intertwined with her family's history and experiences during their exile as Tutsi refugees. From there, it delves into the river's significance, the legends surrounding it, and the efforts by explorers to trace the Nile to its source, which led them to the Rukarara. The article also reflects on the changing status of the Rukarara and the impact of development on the river. It's a beautifully written piece.

In our exile in Nyamata, my mother spoke constantly of the Rukarara. When one of my two youngest sisters, the ones born in Nyamata, got sick, my mother, Stefania, lamented: “Poor little things, they’ll never be healthy, they’ll never be lucky. I didn’t wash them in the waters of the Rukarara.” We, the older ones, who were born near the river (I myself had just barely made it in time), were inoculated against all sorts of ailments, against most of the evil spells that others would surely try to cast on us, and against all the poisons with which the envious would season our food; we might even, my mother hoped, avoid some of the inevitable misfortunes that weaved the fabric of every life. For her, the most effective baptism was not the one we’d received from the priests, but the one she had administered by washing our newborn bodies with the far more beneficial waters of the Rukarara.

A language of beautiful impurity

Wrong Side of History • 3 Oct 2024 • ~1800 words

What if the English had won the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and would the language have evolved differently without the influence of the French? This piece explores a playful alternative history where English retains its Germanic roots, transforming familiar words into unique alternatives. It’s an interesting dive into the conversation about linguistic purity and the richness that comes from a blend of influences.

In Anglish, theology would be godlore. rhetoric is speechcraft. doctors would be healers, journalists newsmen, and status-signalling would be rankmarking. A rodent is a gnawdeer while a comedian is a laughtersmith.

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How Japan’s tsunami-ravaged coastline is being transformed by hope

BBC • 2 Oct 2024 • ~1850 words

After the devastation of the 2011 tsunami, Japan's northeastern coastline is being transformed by hope and resilience. This piece describes the efforts to rebuild communities, preserve memories, and envision a brighter future for the affected regions while also highlighting the ongoing challenges and the gradual return of visitors to this attractive yet tragic area.

The Miracle Lone Pine Tree was the plantation's sole survivor. But lethally poisoned by saltwater, it died in 2012; was it finished off by grief, I wondered? Now preserved with chemicals and supported by a steel rod, this monument loomed above the flattened landscape, a powerful symbol of resilience. Nearby, the tsunami-dashed ruins of Rikuzentakata Youth Hostel slumped over a pond as though mourning their own reflection.

Christian Nationalists Dream of Taking Over America. This Movement Is Actually Doing It.

Mother Jones • 3 Oct 2024 • ~4750 words

This article examines the rise of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). This evangelical movement seeks to Christianize all aspects of American society, including government, education, and the courts. It explores how NAR's beliefs and tactics have infiltrated local communities, such as Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and influenced the political landscape, raising concerns about the blurring of church and state. The article also questions the movement's growing influence and its potential impact on democracy.

These state representatives regularly interact with NAR leaders. In May, two of them met with Sean Feucht, an NAR-aligned pastor who travels the country holding prayer rallies on the steps of state Capitol buildings. Also present at the meeting was a local self-proclaimed prophet named Abby Abildness, who works with the state’s prayer caucus group inside the Capitol to promote Christian initiatives in government. She has spoken candidly about her desire to blur the boundaries between church and state. “We need them and they need us,” she said, “because we can’t go write those laws.”

Yes, Listening to Music Is Therapy

The Walrus • 3 Oct 2024 • ~3350 words • Archive Link

How deeply can music impact our well-being? This piece explores the therapeutic power of music, weaving together personal experiences and historical insights to illustrate how music can heal the mind and body.

Some of the beneficial effects of music across history may have accrued by putting patients or entire tribes into a trance state, or by accessing the subconscious, thereby opening a route to healing. An important question is whether there’s something intrinsic in music that promotes healing or, alternatively, if it’s the trance state itself that facilitates healing. It may be that music is just one of several psychological enzymes—catalysts—that can lead to healing through trance. But if there are others, they have not revealed themselves to us as clearly as music has.

The Flying Car Is Finally Here. It’s Slightly Illegal.

Intelligencer • 3 Oct 2024 • ~2550 words • Archive Link

Flying cars have long been the stuff of dreams, but now they’re inching closer to reality—albeit in a slightly tangled web of legality. This article explores the rise of electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles (EVTOL) and the regulatory gray areas that come with them.

There is something surreal in the way that an EVTOL hangs in the air, as though in willful defiance of gravity, or perhaps just temporarily ignorant of it, like Wile E Coyote after he has stepped off a cliff and before he realizes there is no solid ground under his feet. One gets a similar sense of precarity when contemplating the legality of the aircraft.

The Right-Wing Plan to Make Everyone an Informant

The Atlantic • 3 Oct 2024 • ~5450 words • Archive Link

This piece examines how conservative lawmakers and activists in Texas and other Republican-controlled states have enacted laws and policies that encourage citizens to monitor and report on their neighbors' behavior, particularly when it comes to issues like abortion, LGBTQ rights, and school curricula. It explores how these "Snitch State" tactics, rooted in past Red Scare eras, aim to suppress dissenting views and impose conservative ideological goals through invasive surveillance and the threat of legal consequences.

If you live in a part of the country where your very person could attract unwanted attention from the state and its informants, abstaining from social media or even withdrawing from public life may not guarantee safe harbor. Sometimes, you just need to leave.

Your First Electric Car Could Be a Vintage Ford Bronco

GQ • 2 Oct 2024 • ~2950 words • Archive Link

Imagine driving a classic Ford Bronco, but with the benefits of modern electric technology. In this intriguing piece, Rosecrans Baldwin explores Kindred Motorworks, a company that is electrifying vintage vehicles like the Ford Bronco and Volkswagen microbus, catering to a niche market of enthusiasts who want the style of classic cars combined with the performance and efficiency of electric vehicles.

The appeal is obvious: All kinds of people, but especially people with a surplus of both cash and taste, want to drive a rare, classic automobile around town. At the same time, a lot of the same people are increasingly open to going electric. And so a small group of companies has emerged to turn everything from an old Porsche 911 to a vintage VW bus into something you can plug in overnight.

‘This much evidence, still no charges’

London Review of Books • 2 Oct 2024 • ~9000 words • Archive Link

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry exposes a troubling intersection of negligence, corporate malpractice, and institutional indifference that led to a tragedy. This piece explores how decades of regulatory failures and a lack of accountability have left survivors frustrated and demanding justice, despite overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing. It’s a stark reminder of the consequences when public safety is sidelined in favor of profit.

The inquiry’s final report, issued on 4 September, cuts a critical swathe across public and private bodies. It is a sober and dispassionate document – its authors are all too aware that it will form the basis for future prosecutions – and its restraint seems at times too mild a response to the arrogance and incompetence displayed in the evidence. It is now indisputable that companies rigged safety tests with the complicity of the testing authorities, that politicians refused to act on safety concerns because to do so might have obstructed deregulation, that a social landlord which loathed its tenants ignored and concealed fire safety notices. The report firmly establishes the fire as the shameful ‘culmination of decades of failure’.

The Journalist Who Cried Treason

The Atlantic • 2 Oct 2024 • ~2750 words • Archive Link

This article discusses the career of investigative journalist Craig Unger and his decades-long pursuit of the "October Surprise" conspiracy theory - the allegation that Ronald Reagan's campaign team made a secret deal with Iran to delay the release of American hostages until after the 1980 election, denying Jimmy Carter an "October surprise" that could have saved his presidency. The article explores how Unger's investigation into this story nearly destroyed his career.

“For anyone who had missed out on Watergate, the October Surprise seemed to offer another shot,” he writes in Den of Spies. But it would not be Unger's Watergate. It would be his undoing. Within a year, the story was downgraded to a hoax and Unger was both out of a job at Newsweek and being sued for $10 million. He had become, he writes, “toxic.”

The Plan to Save Frank Lloyd Wright’s Only Skyscraper Isn’t Going as Planned

New York Times • 30 Sep 2024 • ~2934 words • Archive Link

This article discusses the financial troubles facing Price Tower, Frank Lloyd Wright's only skyscraper, located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It explores the failed attempt by a pair of cryptocurrency entrepreneurs to revive the building, the sale of some of its Wright-designed furnishings, and the current efforts to find a new owner for the historic landmark. The article raises questions about the challenges of preserving and maintaining iconic architectural works, especially when faced with financial pressures.

Wright, holistic in his approach, viewed exterior and interior as a whole, and spent time designing the offices and other spaces as well as the furnishings. It made for an odd office building, with few right angles. Wright thought a variety of angles encouraged more flexible human movement. Some of Wright’s furniture — chairs, desks, stools and tables — took on the same angled forms as the building.

Before Hurricane Helene, A Perfect Storm Of Climate Denialism

The Lever • 2 Oct 2024 • ~2300 words • Archive Link

In the wake of Hurricane Helene's devastation, this piece examines how climate denialism and anti-climate policies by Republican lawmakers in North Carolina over the past decade have exacerbated the impacts of Helene. It explores how the state's shift away from climate adaptation and renewable energy measures, driven by corporate interests, has left communities more vulnerable to extreme weather events fueled by climate change.

Then, in 2011, Republicans proposed a bill that prohibited the communities in the state from using the state’s own updated sea-level-rise risk data in their planning decisions, forcing them to rely on outdated data that showed lower risk. The legislation gained national notoriety, with one pundit declaring the state had just “outlawed climate change,” when it passed in 2012.