blog

Came across this in my Notes app while I was doing some e-decluttering. A lot of the stuff is still things I would recommend, even though obviously I’ve seen & recommended a video or two since 2019! This playlist is some thing I set up for the earth day event that I organized in 2019 at Cinematique theater on Beach Street, downtown Daytona Beach.

Earth Day Playlist 2019

• Backyard Native Plant Pocket Prairie https://youtu.be/JbCb5ZlxHoE

• Cherise – Doula music video

• Ocean-Friendly Gardens CPR 1:29 https://youtu.be/UB3tUmO8PFQ

• Urban Wetlands Make Cities Liveable 1:55 https://youtu.be/v3GXlESxaR4

•

• Ocean-Friendly Garden Tour 3:40 https://youtu.be/GO4Zmm05FRs

• The Living Machine 2:40 https://youtu.be/fmdsBlWwSTU

• Rain Gardens: Stormwater Pollution Solutions 5:47 https://youtu.be/Bv0O2UcP2_s

• Urban Forests: How Do Trees Benefit a City? 4:20 https://youtu.be/A6miJ6YEOdI

• Placemaking in Detroit 2:55 https://youtu.be/1zi8rCiDrl4

• The Story of Bottled Water 8:05 https://youtu.be/Se12y9hSOM0

• The Story of Stuff – intro https://youtu.be/OqZMTY4V7Ts

• China’s Green Roof Revolution https://youtu.be/N8L1hDWACKQ

• Scythe vs Mower https://youtu.be/1I4RNenmfFI

• DIY Outdoor Solar Shower 3:52 https://youtu.be/2JW87R0WxP8

•

• Village Homes – City of the Future – Mollison 10:37 https://youtu.be/QmFVxPjG2JI

• Meet the Rainwater Harvesting Champions of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda (RAIN Foundation, 9:54) https://youtu.be/xJLTuJZ2vL8

• Rainwater Harvesting on Open Oceans (Kevin Chiang, 13:38) https://youtu.be/rMfeQJMSRzY

• Overview of Lancaster-Homestead Water-Harvesting Strategies (Brad Lancaster home, 12:12) https://youtu.be/xdvmJ-AFlRA

• Planting the Rain To Grow Abundance (Brad Lancaster TEDx 17:53) https://youtu.be/I2xDZlpInik

• A “Laundry to Landscape” Greywater System (Greywater Action 1:50) https://youtu.be/WdV_gbOipQs

• Mulch Basins Catch a Stormwater Rain Bomb (Oasis Designs 4:03) https://youtu.be/6ylVDvfm1G4

• Composting in an Apartment 5:08 https://youtu.be/E5kGAxHsesY

• This Monster Plant Is Trying To Take Over – What If We Let It? https://youtu.be/_1Qj4Bm47hA

• Beyond the War on Invasive Species: Quick Review https://youtu.be/8-QDC6RxzfU

• Theaster Gates: How To Revive a Neighborhood (with beauty, creativity, and…) https://youtu.be/S9ry1M7JlyE

• Artist Theaster Gates Turns Chicago’s Open Spaces into Incubators for Culture https://youtu.be/j3izd9U9xm4

• Dr Vandana Shiva: Solutions to the Food and Ecological Crisis Facing Us (TEDx Masala 11:40) https://youtu.be/_eLi_PJKUoo

• Composting Toilet Creates “Humanure” (Austin American Statesman 2:56) https://youtu.be/F9JgpVbDbHM

• Poop in a Bucket Frank Meyer 2:53 https://youtu.be/t_pFAMSv6pM

• Eco-Friendly Wastewater Treatment System 2:46 https://youtu.be/pXaXjzbccPo

• You Will Never Throw Away Grass Clippings After Watching This (GoGreen 3:56) https://youtu.be/PSAZu1yiJ34

• China’s Greening of Vast Kubuqi Desert https://youtu.be/kp4PikdJhKM

• Greening the Desert – Geoff Lawton 5:21 https://youtu.be/sohI6vnWZmk

• Greening the Desert – 10 yr timeline 3:54 https://youtu.be/W69kRsC_CgQ

• Can the “Great Green Wall” Stop Desertification in China 9:37 https://youtu.be/pSn6S-H7m-8

• Make Basket from Palm Leaf — Cambodia https://youtu.be/VP-zd6T8CLM

• Palmetto Basket Class – Making a Basket from 1 Leaf Lafayette LA https://youtu.be/ErgbcOhVgT0

•

• Make Bioplastic by Yourself! Science Luxembourg 1:03 https://youtu.be/Cqg-QpaF1lk

• “Edible Glass” made from Seaweed https://youtu.be/nva6MGqArFU

• Whole Foods, Gentrification, and the Erasure of Black Harlem https://youtu.be/onU2p0fU_J4

• Urban Permaculture Oasis at St. Pete Ecovillage 8:21 https://youtu.be/-OPkuGozcl8

• Can Locals and Transplants See Eye To Eye on Gentrification 11:41 https://youtu.be/UIGXgWifPyI

• Michael Pawlyn: Using Nature’s Genius in Architecture https://youtu.be/3QZp6smeSQA

• What Is Fleet Farming 2:21 https://youtu.be/RWucD9jslkM

• Fleet Farming Inspiring Future Urban Farmers 4:09 https://youtu.be/MxN6xXpinVI

• Passive Cooling Your Home 2:14 https://youtu.be/-pO4w1Qt6pE

• Less Walls, More Life — Design in the Tropics TEDx 11:46 https://youtu.be/Heb9l59L6ZU

• Can Tiny Houses Save Detroit 5:53 https://youtu.be/qY4s5T6cLSw

• Can Urban Farming Spur Job Growth and Better Health https://youtu.be/oEauo21ELD4

• Floating Farms of Bangladesh BBC News https://youtu.be/CONfhrASy44

• How To Make a Floating Island 3:03 https://youtu.be/-LQqjKLwG7I

•

• Woody Tasch: Slow Money 4:32 https://youtu.be/WJuUcaVtifg

• How the Urban Community Can Stop Gentrification and Restore 2:52 https://youtu.be/H-XI3-loRys

• What We Don’t Understand About Gentrification Stacey Sutton 13:53 https://youtu.be/XqogaDX48nI

• Superblocks: How Barcelona Is Taking City Streets Back from Cars 5:31 https://youtu.be/ZORzsubQA_M

• How Highways Wrecked American Cities – highway removal projects 4:39 https://youtu.be/odF4GSX1y3c

• Carfree Cities: The Gritty Details 5:47 https://youtu.be/j9qUvTTlF2Y

-30-

end marker

So there!

Had a beautiful walk to the beach for a dip just now. Around 7 PM. The sun is setting these days around 8 so it was a nice time to go.

When I got out of the water and walked up the sand, passing by the trash cans as I headed up toward the road, I noticed a bunch of new-looking beach toys had been stuffed in the trash. The people who had put them there said there was nothing wrong with the toys; it was just that the family was getting ready to fly home.

One small motel on the A1A up towards Ormond has a toybox where the tourists can leave their toys for the next people. It would be cool if some of the big hotels were to do that too.

Well, I gathered up the toys and brought them home and added them to my beach toy library.

I was glad that I had happened to be there to rescue them, but it was kind of sad too. All of this plastic. And so much prosperity, so much income disparity, that buying things and throwing them away is some thing that people don’t think twice about anymore.

Suddenly a forgotten memory popped into my mind’s eye. The inflatable rafts that we had had growing up. They were navy-blue on one side, red on the other, and made of canvas. I am pretty sure they lasted us through 8 or 10 summers. I can remember having them when I was seven, and I think I can remember them still being with us when I went off to college.

Somehow the memory had a deep quality. Like, it might sound corny, but we had an actual relationship with those rafts. The rafts went with us through several moves, rode the waves of Pacific and Atlantic and floated in some lakes and maybe even a pool or two. I’m pretty sure we have at least a photo or two around still, of us kids with those rafts. I can feel the texture of the wet canvas on my skin.

Now, lest this should sound like some sort of bombastic boomer bragging — it’s not. I’m not putting down people for having plastic beach toys. And not saying I will look how great we are for having these artisanal authentic canvas inflatable rafts. What I’m saying is that people deserve better, the same as we had better, way back then. At a much less affluent time of our society, to boot.

On a related note … Yesterday I got an email newsletter from the apparel company Patagonia, which is known for its eco-responsible policies regarding well-made clothing, and repairing and recycling clothing. And even discouraging people from buying more than they need.

The Patagonia newsletter had a link to a film that has been made by Patagonia. The title: The Shit-throp-o-cene: Welcome to the age of cheap crap. It was pretty funny, if a little too painstakingly clever at times, and it made some really good points. You can watch it for free.

It struck me that my little beach-toy lending library is a way of somehow elevating and redeeming what would otherwise be trash plastic. I’ve turned the little buckets and scoops and shovels and boogie board and plastic inflatable life-rings into a bit of cheerful bright-colored art hanging on my fence. Usable art, that anyone can borrow and enjoy — and, I hope, make a sweet and lasting memory.

Yesterday all of a sudden got the idea of moving the bookcase from the living room into the front porch room, and some assorted other changes.

Living room:

With the bookshelves moved out to the little “front porch” room, the living room now serves more of its original intended function of overflow guest lounging/sleeping space. The hanging rack that has the blue triangle pattern quilt on it is where the bookcase used to be.

(Yes, we have our fridge in the living room, not in the kitchen. It’s kind of weird, but neighbors had a huge fridge they were getting rid of, and this was as far into the house as we could get the fridge. If we had wanted to get it into the kitchen it would’ve had to go around multiple corners and skinny hallway. Modern American fridges can be gigantic, and this house was obviously built in the era before gigantic fridges.)

Front porch room:

Moved the bookshelves from the livingroom to the front porch roomette – love the update so the books & games are more front & center. #communallivingprototype #ornateminimalist

Detail notes:

Lampshade – If you’ve been following me for a while, and have an eye for certain details, you may have noticed this lampshade over the years. I made it from one of those moisture-proof, vacuum-sealed bags that coffee comes in. I was glad to find this reuse, but even happier to later find a local coffee roaster who sells us coffee in mason jars. (And bonus, gives a significant discount for us returning the jar each time.)

Mug sitting on the bookshelf – This is my favorite coffee mug. I use it daily. It’s decorated with an illustration and quote from my cousin Jim Kay, an artist-activist born and raised in Fall River, Massachusetts. He loved his hometown and did so much good there in his 87 years. His daughter, my sweet cousin Alix, designed & commissioned commemorative mugs for us.

You can see pics here on my deep green Facebook page. Living room; and porch room.

Lately Facebook has been serving me up a bunch of memories from 10 years ago. As it happens, this time of year 10 years ago was a very challenging phase of my life.

Spring 2014. My mother had had a heart attack and had triple bypass surgery, with other medical complications such as diabetes as well, and I had gone up to Virginia to stay with her in her house while she recovered. If I recall correctly it ended up being about three months.

My siblings live an hour or so away from the rural place where Mom & Dad had retired to, and they had always been steadily helping Mom with all sorts of things after Dad passed, so I felt like the least thing I could do would be to go up there for a spell and try to contribute some hands-on support such as helping with driving to appointments, cooking, complying with meds etc. And trying to provide some joy and pleasure.

I actually feel like I did nowhere near enough for my siblings and our Mom, but in my mind at the time it was the best I could do. If I could invent a time machine there is a lot that I would do more & different. Most of it has to do with communication; that would’ve solved a lot.

(My siblings, whose names and other information I withhold out of love and respect, because they are very private people as was our Mom.)

Financially this period back in 2014 was a very hard time keeping up with my apartment and other bills, as I had started to depend on income from location-dependent work (pedicabbing, general labor, retail side-job etc) in my home city of Daytona Beach.

Emotionally it was a very very hard time. Having to navigate between the doctors’ advice, hospital discharge instructions etc., and what our Mom was willing to comply with. Being afraid that my mom might die if I happened to be the only one of us with her and was not able to say the right thing to convince her to comply. It was big because I always felt like I was my mother’s most difficult and troublesome child. From the very beginning of our childhood, the other siblings were always so much better behaved and gave her so much less grief than I did. So there was definitely some history there. Sometimes a parent and child can just have personality differences and it’s nobody’s fault.

Nonetheless, Mom and I did genuinely love each other no less than the other family members. In a different way perhaps but I would say no less. And, we managed to have some genuinely good times even during that rough phase.

One of our pastimes together was watching all sorts of things on TV, such as Criminal Minds and CSI, and Call the Midwife, and The Bletchley Code, and documentaries on the history channel.

For the first time ever, I became dependent on online sales of my artwork to pay my rent and other bills. There were some close calls, but I managed, thanks to many friends and strangers who purchased my artworks. I even went to the farmers market of the little town and managed to sell one of my artworks to the mayor of that town! (Or maybe she was the deputy mayor, I don’t remember.)

At one point my mom asked me, how much do you make from selling your art. I took a deep breath, mustered all the put-on dignity and brook-no-discussion determination that I could, and responded, “ENOUGH.”

It must have been enough brook-no-discussion vibe, because she didn’t say anything back. I couldn’t afford for her to have her attention on that, could not afford to let this become a topic. For many reasons. Dignity was seriously at stake. As well as a legitimate wish to protect my Mom from financial anxiety. (Even though she had always had financial anxiety despite being well-off. There was nothing I could do to help her get past it — I had tried many times — but at least I could do my best to avoid adding to it.)

Having been raised on a middle-class path with the expectation of college and always a cushy office job with all the security, I had always felt a bit in the closet ever since I had dropped out of the middle class in the early 2000s. Actually, let’s be honest, I started dropping out of the “professional” middle class almost as soon as I started trying to endure the office thing, it just took a while for me to muster the courage to fully disengage.

The finances, harrowing as they could be, were never the hardest part of it. The hardest part of it was the fear of disappointing my parents. Of becoming — or maybe already being — that embarrassing weird family member no one wants to talk about.

I never did really fully come out of that closet, although they always knew that I wasn’t working any kind of steady job, let alone one of those “professional office jobs.” What would be called a “real job.” I tried it for a few years right out of college but it just didn’t feel like me. To the point where it felt like death. So I had to choose life, and if that sounds melodramatic, so be it.

This photo shows a few of the artworks I made during that Spring 2014 time period. The period of my mother’s heart surgery and recovery. All of my artwork before had had a very strong Texas flavor –and then later on when I moved to Florida, a Florida flavor.

It’s kind of startling to look back and see this little batch of artworks that were influenced by my surroundings in Virginia. The garage one is inspired by my parents’ garage, and was very much filled with the legacy of my Dad’s memory. When I look at that piece of art I can still smell the garage.

Dad passed in 2010, and Mom in 2017, but I can still smell the garage. It smelled like ancestral sawdust and multigenerational carpentry, rust and petroleum, car interior vinyl, road atlases, our family’s whole life together. It smelled of stored dreams and archived hopes. It smelled, too, of course, of everyone else’s impressions which were out of the bandwidth of my sense of smell’s range.

It smelled of memory-traces that I guess follow a person or family over the years from one garage to the next: It smelled of snow and cigars and little organized jars of screws in Grandpa Nazak’s basement in northeastern Pennsylvania; it smelled of tarry pilings in Yokosuka; it smelled of a swimming pool on a military base in Long Beach; it smelled of juniper bushes on a manicured desert suburban street in San Diego, it smelled of cut grass from different lawns of the different houses we had occupied.

During the “Virginia 2014, Mom’s Heart Recovery” phase, there was a point when I was selling my artworks for $13 apiece. It was tough, but it got people buying, and it added up to pay my rent, and there is no feeling like the satisfaction of that! That at an extremely challenging time of my life, I was able to pay my bills entirely with pens and pencils and paints.

If I had not been able to find a way to make money, I would’ve had to give up my apartment and then had to look for a new place when it was time to come home to Daytona Beach. Thank God that did not have to happen.

For many reasons — mainly because of my activism — my mix of work nowadays, and throughout most of my life other than some unusual times like spring 2014, has generally included multiple activities in addition to my art.

However, I remain grateful, and I also remain a strong advocate to fellow artists who are trying to earn their livelihood purely from their art. I’m here to tell you it’s totally doable.

There were a variety of emotional pressures but it still worked. Art IS a way to make a living. The arts ARE a way to make a living. I believe Kurt Vonnegut said that, and I totally stand by that.

Artists are needed in this world. All types of artists and artisans are needed, no less than roadbuilders and architects and lawyers. It really does take all of us, and if any of us aren’t showing up, it’s like if you were a paint brush trying to be a hammer. You might be able to hit a few small nails with that paint brush but really the paint brush needs to be making paintings, and if you have a big nail you need to go get a hammer.

Back in 2014 when I first posted these, some rando on my feed commented that they were crap and even his kindergarten daughter could do better. Well I totally believe that, because kids are great artists and I’m a decent artist but I’m really not all that.

But the fact remains that my art paid my bills and kept me from having to give up my apartment, and nothing can take that away. From me or any other working artist. Fellow artists navigating life, I salute you!

By the way, my mother was an artist too. She never had to depend on it for her livelihood, but she was no less an artist. She made outstanding sculptures of dogs and horses and other subjects. She drew and painted as well, and made jewelry. I always think I got my artistic side from her, and from our cousin Jim Kay.

If you want to see my drawings that popped up in my Facebook feed today, you can go here to the post on my art and design page.

In the following post that I made on my Facebook page 3 days ago, I said some things that in retrospect I would have said differently, or refrained from saying. (The links and excerpts stand. Those are good articles for anyone who wants to understand the wider societal context of the OJ Simpson case.)

I’m leaving the post in its original form (for accountability & learning) but am also posting a revised version below it. Maybe my rewrite based on reflection will be helpful to some other people who, like me, are trying to learn how to be more understanding and empathetic to their intended listeners, while still speaking up.

The main differences: 1) I took out the mention of our local comedy scene, which only ended up fanning the flames of a recent conflict in the community, plus obscuring the point I was trying to make. And 2), I corrected the tone and wording to be what I hope is more appropriately empathetic and humble.

The original post:

In regard to OJ Simpson’s passing, I have seen a lot of covertly racist comments — and some overtly racist comments as well — on the pages of fellow white people, in regard to OJ Simpson’s passing. Racist jokes and racist comments are never OK.

And a special note to my fellow comics:

One of the things I love most about The Last Laugh Open Mic Comedy at Tir na nOg Irish Pub, is the absolute, non-negotiable prohibition we have against racist jokes. It’s actually the only restriction we have on content at the Nog.

(I say fellow comics, even though I have only tried stand-up a handful of times, at open mics, and am really mainly an audience member — but I do use humor extensively in my writing and hold myself to this rule).

And I thank all the beautiful Daytona comics who have so consistently enforced this essential rule at the Nog.

I actually think it’s not OK to even make mean-spirited comments about someone’s death, never mind actual racist comments, but maybe that’s just me.

As a white person who is learning how to be anti-racist, I found these two articles to be very helpful. I have shared the link to each, with a couple brief quotes.

1) from Washington Post Apr 11: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/04/11/oj-simpson-racial-divisions-murder-trial/

“While the reaction to the verdict was largely portrayed in the media along racial lines at the time, it was always more complicated than that, said James Lance Taylor, a politics professor at the University of San Francisco. “The truth is many millions of Black people thought O.J. Simpson was probably guilty,” said Taylor. “There was just so much wrapped up in the O.J. case that was connected to the Black experience in America.””

BUT, AND, ALSO: “Coming just a few years after the acquittal of four officers who beat Black motorist Rodney King in 1992 and the 1991 killing of Black teenager Latasha Harlins by a store clerk in Los Angeles, Simpson’s treatment by the police and media was viewed by many in the Black community as proof that even wealthy celebrities couldn’t escape racism in America…”

2) from Antiracism Daily’s weekend edition today:
“Nearly 30 years after O.J. Simpson’s acquittal, his death shows America’s persistent racial divide. Simpson, who died Wednesday, remains a symbol of racial divisions in American society because he is a reminder of how deeply the inequities are felt, even as newer figures have come to symbolize the struggles around racism, policing and justice.”

The newsletter goes on to link an article from PBS on this topic:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/nearly-30-years-after-o-j-simpsons-acquittal-his-death-shows-americas-persistent-racial-divide

“Some people recall watching their Black co-workers and classmates erupting in jubilation at perceived retribution over institutional racism. Others remember their white counterparts shocked over what many felt was overwhelming evidence of guilt. Both reactions reflected different experiences with a criminal justice system that continues to disproportionately punish Black Americans.”

OJ Simpson; USA racial divide

The revised version which I posted on my Facebook just now:

Revised version:

In recent days, I started noticing a lot of comments on social media, regarding O.J. Simpson’s death. They seemed triumphant, like oh good the guy is going to hell etc. And something about it to me didn’t sit right, even beyond my personal aversion to commenting triumphantly about someone’s death.

So I did some reflecting and some web searching, and also, in a timely manner, things popped into my inbox that helped me understand the bigger picture behind what I was feeling.

As a white person who is learning how to be anti-racist (and I expect this to be a lifelong journey), I found these two articles to be very helpful. I have shared the link to each, with a couple of brief quotes.

1) from Washington Post Apr 11: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/04/11/oj-simpson-racial-divisions-murder-trial/

“While the reaction to the verdict was largely portrayed in the media along racial lines at the time, it was always more complicated than that, said James Lance Taylor, a politics professor at the University of San Francisco. “The truth is many millions of Black people thought O.J. Simpson was probably guilty,” said Taylor. “There was just so much wrapped up in the O.J. case that was connected to the Black experience in America.””

BUT, AND, ALSO:

“Coming just a few years after the acquittal of four officers who beat Black motorist Rodney King in 1992 and the 1991 killing of Black teenager Latasha Harlins by a store clerk in Los Angeles, Simpson’s treatment by the police and media was viewed by many in the Black community as proof that even wealthy celebrities couldn’t escape racism in America…”

2) from Antiracism Daily’s weekend edition today:
“Nearly 30 years after O.J. Simpson’s acquittal, his death shows America’s persistent racial divide. Simpson, who died Wednesday, remains a symbol of racial divisions in American society because he is a reminder of how deeply the inequities are felt, even as newer figures have come to symbolize the struggles around racism, policing and justice.”

The newsletter goes on to link an article from PBS on this topic:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/nearly-30-years-after-o-j-simpsons-acquittal-his-death-shows-americas-persistent-racial-divide

“Some people recall watching their Black co-workers and classmates erupting in jubilation at perceived retribution over institutional racism. Others remember their white counterparts shocked over what many felt was overwhelming evidence of guilt. Both reactions reflected different experiences with a criminal justice system that continues to disproportionately punish Black Americans.”

OJ Simpson; USA racial divide

I have been adding more features to the “porous property” edge of my yard.

One of my projects the other day was to set up a makeshift loom on the south sidewalk-edge of my front yard. By attaching two skinny lengths of bamboo to two of the fence posts.

And I started weaving a little rug using various scraps of fabric (accreted over time from my waste-stream diversion efforts) in bright pink/orange hues.

The first two photos show the start of the project, which I was able to do under the excessive street lights. The third photo shows today, this morning, weaving in the right-angled strands.

The beach toys you see in the third photo, I found on the beach, someone had left them by the trash for someone else to pick up and use, but sometimes they end up getting thrown away when that happens, so I am going to start a beach-toy toybox at the edge of my yard. People walking by on their way to the ocean can grab beach toys, and either bring them back or keep them.

It’s important because so many beach toys just get discarded after one use.

A few years back, someone tried to start a beach-toy toybox on the beach, and it was allowed to be there for a while but then it was removed, unfortunately.

Update:

• I ended up using the bamboo poles as a hanging rod for my beach-toy lending library. The hooks (made of yellow-coated wire, from a massive roll — one of the many things left in my garage by the previous owners of this house) are easy to remove any time I want to use the bamboo poles as a loom again! 
• The little rug is now on the floor of my back office, serving as cute bright decor and as a sand-stopper from when I walk into my office through the back door from outside.
• All of the stuff mentioned in this piece was rescued from the waste stream.
• Projects like this are what I see as low-stakes experiments aimed at helping to restore a more healthy level of trust in our society. Help repair the social fabric. Maybe even “build back better,” since some of this stuff is pretty fun and unusual and out-there.

You can see photos here, in this post on my Facebook page art & design by jenny nazak.

Update April 21: I made a three-part series on my YouTube channel about my “porous property” adventures. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Each video lasts about a minute.

Update April 28: This morning I heard someone talking in glowing terms about my yard. She was speaking into a phone. It turned out she was Instagramming my yard! How cool is that. Especially since my Instagram account is not active, if I even have one.

We introduced ourselves to each other and had a nice conversation, exchanged numbers. She is a relatively recent arrival and just bought a condo right nearby. I was thrilled to meet such a nice neighbor and in such a cool context.

Neutrality can be very lucrative. Look at Switzerland during World War II. There are some situations where one definitely should not be neutral.

By the way, the point of this post is not to pick on a particular country; it’s to reflect on how neutrality is sometimes very very beneficial to the neutral party in ways that we don’t see. Can be money, can be something else.

And the party taking a neutral stance doesn’t have to be a country. Neutrality is a thing all around us. Like, in interpersonal relationships, neutrality gives a person access to double-dip approval and other goodies from both sides, instead of having to take a fall and endure ostracism or worse.

Same as Switzerland offered neutral ground for the Nazis/Axis powers to meet with the Allied powers for discussions aimed at seeking a peaceful resolution, a person taking a neutral stance can serve a valuable role as a mediator or mediation space. We just have to be alert to the potential dangers of adopting a neutral position.

An interpersonal situation I witnessed (actually multiple situations) prompted me to explore this topic by googling “Switzerland World War II”.

• “The sinister face of ‘neutrality’” (from Frontline/pbs.org ): Switzerland’s reputation as a neutral safe-haven during World War 11 has been badly tarnished by recent revelations about its wartime transactions with Germany. What began as an examination of the dormant bank accounts of Holocaust victims has gained momentum to include the whole gamut of Swiss financial dealings with the Nazis. In recent months a vast amount of incriminating documentation has been unearthed that reveals the sinister side of Swiss “neutrality”. … Most of the Jews who availed themselves of the opportunity to transfer their assets failed to escape the flames of the Holocaust. While happy to accept Jewish capital, the Swiss were less happy to accept Jewish refugees (often their own depositors).”

• “Swiss supplied arms to Nazi war machine” (from swissch.org): “New studies probing Switzerland’s wartime past have found that the country supplied munitions to the Nazis at the expense of the Allies. Seven studies released on Friday by the Independent Commission of Experts (ICE) show that the lion’s share of Swiss munitions exports went to the Axis powers.”