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Health care and sociospatial transformation in Caracas, Venezuela
Therapeutic landscapes and spatializing culture
In this article I use the most popular English translation of Barrio Adentro: 'Inside the Neighborhood'. I do this for simplicity's sake and because no satisfactory term exists in English to communicate the meaning of 'barrio' in the Venezuelan context. However, 'barrio' does not mean 'neighborhood' in general; rather, it refers to a poor urban neighborhood characterized by informal settlements (journalists often describe barrios as 'slums').
This article integrates the concept of therapeutic landscapes from the field of health geography with an anthropological analysis of the social construction of space to show how Chavez-era health projects changed marginalized urban spaces in order to render them more therapeutic. Integrating different disciplinary approaches to space, I argue that this development in Venezuelan state health care is an example of sociospatial change.
Over the past twenty years, health geographers have developed the concept of therapeutic landscapes to explain how certain social and natural environments promote healing (Conradson 2005; Gesler 1992; Kearns and Gesler 1998; Tonnellier and Curtis 2005; Wakefield and McMillan 2005). Focusing attention on the notion of health in place and emphasizing the social construction of space, the concept of therapeutic landscapes encourages us to consider how shared cultural expectations of a place's healing potential may affect the outcome of medical encounters (Gesler 1992, 1993, 1996). First applied to the study of famous healing sites, such as Lourdes or Bath (Gesler 1993, 1996, 1998), the concept has expanded to include 'natural and built, social, and symbolic environments as they contribute to health and well-being in places – broadly termed landscapes' (Williams 2007, 1–2). Scholars have applied the concept of therapeutic landscapes to analyses of roadside art (Einwalter 2007), fictional accounts of healing (Tonnellier and Curtis 2005), and even nonphysical healing environments such as telephone- and internet-based anxiety therapy (Davidson and Parr 2007). In my analysis, I focus on understanding how spaces with a longstanding reputation for endangering health may be intentionally transformed into therapeutic spaces (see also Frazier and Scarpaci 1998; Wakefield and McMillan 2005). In doing so, this article builds on the work of Gesler (1993) and others who claim that therapeutic landscapes may emerge organically over time or they may result from intentional planning and construction. I examine how the deliberate placement of clinics, medical professionals, and community health programs in socioeconomically marginalized areas did not merely promote healing for individual bodies but resignified these areas as social spaces that could heal the body politic (Scheper-Hughes and Lock 1987). Programs like Barrio Adentrosignified more than the physical reparation of disease for local residents. State health programs were intentionally spatialized to transform the experience and the imaginary of the barriofrom a marginal 'red zone' to a life-affirming part of the formal city. State-endorsed associations between health and space promised social reintegration via the provision of health care, which was compelling for residents of poor neighborhoods who already understand health to be tied to space and place.
I integrate the concept of therapeutic landscapes with an anthropological approach to the study of space that posits that space and place are not neutral sites upon which social life independently plays out. Instead, spatial processes are implicated in everyday meaning making, in the institution and maintenance of social and political order, and in the perpetration of and challenges to social exclusion and inequalities (Low 2011). Low (1996, 861) proposes an analytic approach, which she calls 'spatializing culture', 'to locate … social relations and social practice in social space'. She identifies four types of social practices for anthropologists to study: the production of material space, people's uses and experiences of space, discursive practices that make meaning of space, and embodied practices in which people's bodily presence produces a sense of place (Low 2011, 392). By paying attention to spatial processes and spatial meanings, we can better understand how governments construct populations and social hierarchies, and how people contest and attempt to reformulate unequal power relations.
Anthropological research on space and place often examines the state-directed spatial entrenchment of inequalities and the responses such policies engender (Rabinow 1989; Holston 1989; Caldeira 2000; Garcia 2010). My research provides a different perspective on state-directed processes of urban planning, by examining health programs that aim to reform spatialized inequality. Integrating a theoretical understanding of how place constitutes health with an analytic approach to spatializing culture that emphasizes power relations, I show how patients understood state health programs as transforming their neighborhoods into spaces that were healthier and less marginalized. This analysis demonstrates that spatialized inequalities may be challenged by state health programs, given sufficient resources and political will. More broadly, this work also directs theoretical attention to landscapes as constructed and thus transformable environments.
Spatial inequality in urban Venezuela
Anthropologists of Latin America have already shown how social inequalities become ingrained in the urban landscape via formal and informal processes of city development (Caldeira 2000; Holston 1989; Low 1996). Their work highlights how urban spaces in Latin America are spatially segregated along racial and class lines. For example, Caldeira's work on suburban enclaves of Sao Paolo reveals how wealthy families literally walled themselves into their residences out of fear of crime, making longstanding spatial divisions between social classes in Brazil more visible, tangible, and impenetrable (Caldeira 2000). In Latin American cities, the development of informal settlements beyond the remit of city infrastructure and services (such as barrios and favelas) has resulted in landscapes of inequality. Often, fear of crime, popularly instantiated in the figure of the barrioor favela dweller, legitimizes new forms of spatial and social exclusion that further marginalize residents of these zones.
Spatial segregation along class and racial lines in Caracas was acute and immediately palpable, even to foreign visitors. Here, as in popular imaginaries elsewhere in Latin America, the association between informal settlements and criminality was strong. Caraqueños in particular were extremely concerned about violent crime, as the city's homicide rates were some of the worst in the world (Romero 2010; King 2014; Rebotier 2011). It would be difficult to overstate the extent to which the fear of crime and violence, glossed as 'insecurity' (inseguridad), dominated daily life, although the risk of crime was unequally distributed across urban spaces, leaving barrio residents far more vulnerable to crime than residents of wealthier neighborhoods (Zubillaga 2015; Rebotier 2011). For example, as of 2015 approximately 85 percent of homicide victims in Caracas resided in poor barrios (Zubillaga 2015).
Barrios and colonial-era neighborhoods in central Caracas (known as el centro) like Santa Teresa, where I conducted much of my fieldwork, were figured in popular imaginaries as zonas rojas, literally 'red zones', spaces of heightened insecurity that wealthy residents avoided unless absolutely necessary. While barrioresidents would spend time in urban centers and wealthier neighborhoods for work, recreation, and shopping, members of the city's middle and upper classes rarely entered barriospaces. As sociologist David Smilde (2008, 42) writes, 'many of the middle and upper classes have never in their lives set foot in a popular barrio'.
Caracas residents described barriosin terms that underscored the centrality of space and place in making sense of social inequalities in Venezuela. Even though not all barriosare located on the peripheries of the formal city or on hillsides, people described barriosas 'far', 'outside', and 'up'. Similarly, people often alluded to barrioresidents with spatialized metaphors like 'socially excluded' or simply 'the excluded'. Policy discussions about how to deal with poverty often employed euphemistic spatial terms like 're-inclusion' or 're-integration' when referring to the goals of social welfare programs.
It is impossible to understand health care and health outcomes in Caracas without understanding spatialized forms of social inequality and exclusion. Like much of urban Latin America, life chances and social relations in Venezuela's capital city are shaped by systematic spatialized inequalities. In Caracas, barrioswere the poorest urban spaces, the most socially marginalized, and the most deprived of services. Cerros were particularly problematic; these barrios were built into the valley's steep hillsides and were subject to unexpected mudslides in heavy rains. Other neighborhoods, while often not as economically or sociopolitically marginalized as barrios, also contended with poverty, crime, and intermittent or inadequate public services. For example, in Santa Teresa residents worried about the appearance of streets, sidewalks, and public spaces; violent crime, drug and alcohol use, and prostitution; and people living on the streets, squatting in abandoned buildings, or staying in cut-rate pensiónes scattered throughout the neighborhood. All of these conditions posed a challenge to the health of residents. These areas were far from what health geographers might call a therapeutic landscape.
Until the mid-2000s, the physical landscape of poor neighborhoods in Caracas was often devoid of public health clinics or programs, a legacy of a historical failure to invest in barrio-based social services combined with the disinvestment that accompanied neoliberal reforms in the 1980s and 1990s. But the historical inequalities of Venezuela's health care system are not unique when considered cross-culturally. Systemic inequalities in health care access are all too common across societies in the global North and global South (Castro and Singer 2004; Farmer 1999; Pfeiffer and Chapman 2010). Anthropologists and others have demonstrated that the unequal distribution of health services not only leads to poor health outcomes, but also maps on to other social inequalities based on class, race, gender, citizenship status, etc. In recent years, few countries have attempted to expand or overhaul national health services to the degree that Venezuela has. As a result, the case of Venezuela's Barrio Adentro offers a unique opportunity to consider the material and symbolic effects of widespread improvements in health care access for poor and working-class people.
Moving medicine 'inside the neighborhood'
My research focuses on people's experiences of recently founded health programs, based on fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Caracas between 2006 and 2009. I conducted the majority of my research in the working-class neighborhood of Santa Teresa, located in the middle of the historic city center, and in the barrios of Catia and 23 de Enero, both located west of the historic city center.[note 1]These neighborhoods all lie within the densely populated Libertador municipality of Caracas.
I conducted participant observation in health care sites (Barrio Adentro clinics, health promotion programs, and hospitals) and more than fifty in-depth interviews with patients, health professionals, and health activists. Most research participants were patients of Barrio Adentro and residents of the neighborhoods named above.
In 1999, the leftist political leader Hugo Chávez was elected to the presidency and soon after the people ratified a progressive new constitution that guaranteed access to health care. Four years later, the government began to institute the BarrioAdentro program of universal primary care as a cornerstone of its broad efforts to promote social justice and popular participation in government via innovative social welfare programs. The oil-rich state invested in expanding no-cost health care offerings in the public system by creating a new network of community-based clinics. Each clinic was designed for one doctor and nurse to provide free basic health services and pharmaceuticals. The government built thousands of clinics across the country in a unique architectural style, a red brick octagonal structure with blue trim, that made them easily recognizable symbols of the new health program's reach (see Figure 1). Filling approximately 80 percent of their physicians' posts with doctors from Cuba and modeling the system on Cuba's family doctor program, the Venezuelan government transformed access to medical services in a short period of time (Westhoff et al. 2010). Tens of thousands of doctors began working in new clinics, the country's rate of per capita pharmaceutical use rose to one of the highest in Latin America (E.M.S. 2008), and the government reported that infant mortality rates fell by more than 30 percent between 1998 and 2007 (Alvarado et al. 2008; Weisbrot et al. 2009). In the Libertador municipality of Caracas where I conducted my fieldwork (with a population of two million), more than five hundred Barrio Adentro primary health clinics were established between 2003 and 2008, most in neighborhoods that had had no public health services before (Mara Gomez, director of public health for Libertador municipality, personal communication, 2008). As a result, many people could walk from their home to a free clinic, which transformed many residents' perspectives of their neighborhoods. The public health system expanded to include other specialized programs, such as neighborhood-based health promotion programs for the elderly, called 'Grandparents' Clubs'. At the same time, the Venezuelan government rolled out many other social development projects to empower the poor and working classes. People's responses to Barrio Adentro were thus intertwined with their overall response to a deeply changed government that promised radical improvements in their quality of life.
For poor and working-class residents, the changes to health care could be quite profound. In the 1990s, people who needed biomedical care but could not afford private clinics sought treatment from hospitals. Patients commonly lined up outside hospitals at dawn and often waited until after nightfall to see a professional, or else were sent to another hospital across the city because workers were overburdened. One public health official critiqued this system as la ruleta or 'the roulette wheel' because patients were like the roulette ball, being bounced around from one overcrowded hospital to another before being admitted for care (Cancel 2007). According to Westhoff and colleagues (2010), since the introduction of Barrio Adentrothe number of medical consultations with a physician has increased from 3.5 million per year to 17 million per year and emergency room consultations in Caracas hospitals decreased an estimated 30 percent. During my fieldwork I observed that in neighborhood clinics, individuals sought most services on a walk-in basis, without referrals or appointments. While some continued to seek care in the public hospitals and at older, pre-existing walk-in clinics, a many people seemed to prefer the Barrio Adentro community clinics.
Nearly every Barrio Adentro user I spoke to during my fieldwork claimed that the program provided them with much-needed access to biomedical care. Patients commented not only on the sheer fact of access but also on the significance of the local placement of clinics inside communities. For example, in December 2008 I met with medical professionals and community health workers in a barrioin Catia, a sprawling region in western Caracas where families built their homes, sidewalks, and staircases into steep hillsides (see Figure 2). Residents relied on special four-wheel-drive trucks or camionetas to travel between their homes and the main streets below, from which they could connect to the city center using public transportation. In 2003, the government established a Barrio Adentro clinic in a living room of a resident's home, with a Cuban doctor and Venezuelan nurse overseeing the medical needs of residents. High in those hills, sitting in the makeshift clinic, the nurse and community health workers who worked there and resided in the area explained that the home in which the clinic was located was over sixty years old. They emphasized that this long-established barrio was not one of 'extreme poverty' (pobreza extrema) like some others, as many residents attended college and worked in the formal economy. In spite of this, they explained, there had been no health programs or clinics in the area prior to the current administration, and that many had suffered as a result.
The doctor and nurse explained that they staffed the clinic in the morning and made house calls in the afternoon, which was the expected practice for Barrio Adentro community clinics. The bulk of their work was in identifying and monitoring the chronic health problems of the community. Hypertension, asthma, and diabetes were their patients' most common diagnoses. The Barrio Adentro workers helped keep these illnesses in check with monthly clinic visits, medications, and lifestyle recommendations. The doctor explained that many of his patients had these diseases before Barrio Adentro, but they had gone undiagnosed due to lack of access to medical care. This narrative was characteristic of many I heard from Barrio Adentro workers and patients in other areas of the city.
In impassioned tones, volunteer community health workers (who also used the clinic as patients), explained what the clinics meant to their community. Luis,[note 2]This and all other names of research participants are pseudonyms.
one of the community health workers, said:
Here, [in the past], many people died. They died because – first, just to get down to the, the transportation, you know? – at any time of day, whether daytime or in the morning, there just wasn't transportation, and then, who would take care of these people? When they would arrive at the hospitals, they were totally, totally congested [colapsado], it was hellish. Then, well, the Barrio Adentro network was born… . Truly, from our point of view, health has advanced considerably; these primary care [clinics] are here so the hospitals don't come to a standstill, so the hospitals don't continue to become even more congested.
During this conversation, health volunteers and the clinic's nurse narrated examples of patients they had seen who benefited from having the clinic in the steep hillside neighborhood. For example, wheelchair-bound patients who could only access roads via steep, uneven staircases now had doctors and health volunteers visiting them at home for routine care. The broader point they sought to make was that before Barrio Adentro, residents who sought biomedical care not only had to travel distances but also arrived in already overextended hospital emergency rooms; now, many of these cases could be treated (often long before they reached a critical stage) inside the neighborhood. As one Barrio Adentro nurse said matter-of-factly, when I asked how Barrio Adentrowas different from other public health systems: 'It's different because people can get health care at any hour of the day and they don't have to travel all over the place just to be seen. Instead, we care for you right inside the community'.
Luis described the improvements brought about by various state projects, but noted that more needed to be done. During my visit, a community health worker named Mireya served chamomile tea and hallacas, homemade Christmas tamales wrapped in banana leaves and filled with meat, olives, and raisins. Everyone enjoyed them except for Wilmer, a local community organizer, who had to rush to a meeting to discuss the problem of uncollected trash that was creating a burden for the neighborhood. Luis offered concrete suggestions for improving the community's health care and revitalizing the barrio. These included adding a fleet of vehicles that could transport patients from their homes to specialized medical facilities (Barrio Adentrocommunity clinics offer primary care only), and 'rescuing' nearby abandoned buildings to offer more social services. The group radiated excitement over the improvements brought about by state social projects, which was tempered by an impatience and frustration in their desire to further and deepen these transformations.
In order to understand how Barrio Adentro represents not just improved access to biomedical care but also a reordering of spatial politics and political belonging, we must take account of the spatial politics of Venezuela's capital city more generally. It is in this context that the new primary care program takes on added political meaning. From the beginning in 2003, the health program was conceptualized – in explicitly spatial terms – as a project of promoting equal access to care. The spatial emphasis is evident in the program's name itself, which focuses attention on the placement of clinics. In a country beset by striking social inequalities, instituting a universal health program called 'Inside the Barrio' makes a political statement about which communities merit attention and resources. Government officials advertised Barrio Adentro as a righting of past political wrongs (such as the failures of neoliberalism), as a means to equalize access to health care, and as a way to promote 'social re-integration' (Gobierno Bolivariano de Venezuela 2006; Coordinación Nacional de Barrio Adentro 2008).
The following excerpt from an interview I conducted with Viki and Katerina, two young women from Santa Teresa, illustrates how Barrio Adentro promoted a spatial politics of inclusion and recognition. Both women were college students; Viki was a nursing student at a prestigious national university and Katerina was a Barrio Adentro patient.
AC: What is the difference between Barrio Adentro and other systems of public health?
Viki: Well, look, there's a big difference because Barrio Adentro has integrated itself in a very special way that is aimed at the patient. In other words, Barrio Adentro is a very profound public health system because it is in the barrios, whereas doctors, previously, did not go to the barrios. Now, Barrio Adentro is indeed including all these areas, you see?
Katerina: In other words, it is including the excluded [or marginalized people, lit., los excluidos].
Viki: Yes, exactly. Including the excluded, I mean, the excluded don't have to come down here. Right up there we have Barrio Adentro and with specialist doctors, those with medical specialties.
A woman from the same neighborhood named María vividly described the transformation of health care access in spatial terms. As she speaks, one can imagine an animated map of the country with doctors and medical services flowing from economic and political centers to the peripheral zones of cities and states:
In Venezuela what is happening is – well, I'll speak first about what's happening at the national level – and that is that the Venezuelan doctors, I don't know why, but they haven't wanted to integrate themselves, but you'll see that the Cuban doctors are spread out across the entire country. There isn't the smallest corner of Alto Apure or Amazonas [in Venezuela] where they are not offering their solidarity, their medicine, all the way to the indigenous communities of the Wayúu, the Piaroa – all the way to the very top of the cerro Petare [in eastern Caracas]! The people [I've met in Petare] have told me: 'look, señora, here if we don't have a car and we have to get a patient to medical care at 11 or 12 at night, they die on us', and more than one has died because the transports only run until a certain hour. So the miracle that here you have right beside your house a doctor, this is a blessing of God, and this is thanks to the Cuban-Venezuelan agreement, you know?
The fact that most Barrio Adentro doctors came all the way from Cuba to work in poor Venezuelan communities was one of the most unique features of the health program, and one that carried deep political significance for its patients. Most patients I knew characterized Venezuelan doctors as elites who were unwilling to step foot in a barrio, much less work there. In comparison, many patients thought that Cuban doctors communicated solidarity with the poor by living in the neighborhoods where they worked. This made accessing health care convenient, as after-hours emergencies could often be addressed in one's neighborhood, and it distinguished the doctors in Barrio Adentro from other doctors in Venezuela. In order to staff the clinics in the future, the government has been offering free medical training for thousands of Venezuelans, many of them from the same communities that Barrio Adentro services target. This also effects a spatial reorganization of health care, since in the past, most Venezuelans doctors hailed from wealthier neighborhoods.
Therapeutic landscapes for aging Venezuelans
Placing clinics, doctors, and medications in poor neighborhoods was the most obvious way that the state sought to transform barrios from places that endangered health into places that promoted health, transforming them into new sorts of therapeutic landscapes. But the development of related health programs, like the Grandparents' Clubs, also transformed the meaning of neighborhood spaces. More than five thousand of these community-based exercise clubs have been established with state support since 2003. The clubs recruit aging neighborhood residents into daily exercise and other recreational activities in public space, and, as I show, change the experiences of health and place for their participants. Technically, each is sponsored by a Barrio Adentroclinic, though I did not observe any practical ramifications of this beyond advertising the club to patients when they visited clinics for medical services. I began conducting sustained participant observation with Grandparents' Clubs after a serendipitous encounter on one of my first days of fieldwork when a contact of mine brought me to observe a club's lively dancing and socializing in an otherwise sleepy courtyard.
In the club that I observed regularly, between twenty and forty aging adults – over 90 percent of them women – met weekdays as the sun was setting, spending up to two hours stretching, dancing to blaring pop and salsa music, and gossiping under the tutelage of a local volunteer teacher.[note 3]Near the end of my fieldwork, after the club had been operational for approximately one year, a Cuban sports trainer was assigned to lead the group's activities.
The club meant different things to its members, who ranged in age from fifty to more than ninety years old. Some used it as an informal physical therapy, supporting themselves with canes or walkers while attempting pared-down versions of the challenging moves the teacher performed. Other more sprightly members wore vibrant spandex outfits and enhanced their workouts with homemade weights of water bottles filled with sand. Still others made little pretense of attending bailoterapia (dance therapy) for the exercise; they wore street clothes or housedresses and perched on concrete benches at the periphery of the action, talking amongst themselves. In spite of these differences, I documented among members a shared conviction that participating in the club made them healthier. Also, meeting in public spaces was seen to be meaningful for their health regardless of the specific activities each person performed.
Members associated the physicality and sociality of bailoterapia with the activation of mind and brain, and with generating positive emotional and psychological effects. More specifically, people reported that socializing and exercising in public space were essential for good health. Some even claimed that staying indoors, in private spaces like the home, could lead to illness and death. As Lourdes, a club member, told me:
On various occasions, I've told my family that I am truly very content [with the Grandparents' Club], because this is what people like us have been missing, people of the third age. Because if we don't have a job we should [still] go outside every day, right? Join in many activities. I believe that one just starts rusting inside the house, staying inside, staying inside, getting sick, getting fat, and worst of all, the brain is closing in on itself. Because being inside the house is just – every day you're dying a little more: not talking to anyone, not learning about anything, so the brain just goes to sleep, the mind closes.
Although others shared the belief that staying indoors threatened physical and psychological health, they told me they found it challenging to take advantage of being in public space, given especially their fear of crime. The Grandparents' Clubs provided opportunities to publicly socialize with other residents, and thereby counter the sense of inseguridad that prompts many to encerrarse en la casa or 'lock themselves in' by 6 or 7 pm every evening. The idea of having, as one woman called it, 'a place to come to', where older adults can socialize and relax in public space, was important to these people, as evidenced by the frequent comments that no such spaces were previously available to older people like themselves, with their limited financial resources.
As I got to know club members, I learned they shared a narrative of having become more contented and healthy from participating in the clubs. Estrella was a quiet, mild-mannered, seventy-eight-year-old resident of Santa Teresa who attended bailoterapia regularly, nearly on a daily basis, and became one of my favorite people to talk to when I attended. She seemed well-liked by the other members, too: most people made a point to seek her out, give her a hug, and ask how she was feeling. Estrella shuffled about in a well-worn dress and thick-soled orthopedic shoes. Some days she walked with visible difficulty, which she attributed to an illness or some worry she was having. This made her seem older than other club members of the same age who dressed in more youthful, athletic clothing and who exerted more energy in their movements. However, Estrella's slow movements and quiet speech belied a charming mischievousness that she displayed in conversations when she took breaks from exercising. For example, when a Cuban sports trainer was assigned to live in Santa Teresa and work with their club in December of 2008, Estrella made sly jokes with other women about which of them should let the handsome young trainer sleep in their home.
Estrella learned about the club from the club's founder, an elected neighborhood council member, because she lived next door to their offices. The nurse in her local Barrio Adentro clinic also encouraged Estrella to join. By her own account, Estrella had been living an isolated, sedentary life before joining the club at the beginning of 2008. She had lived in an apartment in the center of Santa Teresa for thirty-five years, and was now a widow living with her only surviving child, an unmarried son. When we first met and I asked her what she thought of the Grandparents' Club, she told me that she liked attending bailoterapia because 'it's good to get out of the house'. I did not think much of this claim until I learned that Estrella would often spend the entire weekend inside her apartment, not leaving until Monday when she would attend bailoterapia. Estrella also joined in most of the club's outings that year, which included trips to thermal baths, the beach, meet-ups with other clubs in public parks, and theater performances.
In an interview, Estrella described her experience of the Grandparents' Club:
AC: Has the Grandparents' Club helped you?
Estrella: Yes, because if I don't go for a while I lie around in bed, and then at night I'm tossing and turning, but here I distract myself, you see? And when I go to sleep at night, before it was very difficult for me, but now I wake up feeling lighter on my feet, even though I don't do that much exercise here [in bailoterapia].
AC: … Do you think the lives of older adults are improving now or is it similar to the way it has been before?
Estrella: No, now there are more clubs.
AC: More clubs?
Estrella: Yes, more clubs. I see people of the third age as more optimistic now, because of these clubs and things.
AC: So who organizes and who funds these clubs?
Estrella: Well, this all started after Chávez. Before, people would have to pay to go to some therapy like this.
AC: So, why did they fund these clubs for grandparents?
Estrella: Oh, I don't know, for our well-being, and because he [Chávez] is such a caring person and he loves the grandparents – you know that!
Eugenia was another woman involved in the club, but unlike Estrella she was involved in many organizations and courses. Each time we met, Eugenia told me a story about something interesting she had done recently. The seventy-eight-year-old grandmother traveled across town to a government day center for older adults, belonged to a dance group that performed choreographed dances, and took free computer literacy classes taught by youth social workers. In an interview she described her experience with the new health projects as a significant improvement in her quality of life:
AC: Do you feel as if your health has improved?
Eugenia: Yes, yes, yes. Very much so, but more than anything, psychologically and emotionally. Because before I used to feel – left out, that I was nothing more than a slave in the home: cooking, washing, ironing, with no incentive, without that something special that one needs, you know?
AC: And how have you changed?
Eugenia: I've changed a lot, because today I feel like a different person. For example, with [the Grandparents' Club] we go to the beach. Different people go and we hang out like family. If we have to make a sancocho [traditional stew], each person helps to peel the potato, the yuca, the plantain, and cook it and serve it and, well, it's a beautiful brotherhood. Really great. You know, we didn't have these before, these clubs for older adults.
Eugenia emphasized the sociality she enjoyed through her participation in the new health and social programs like the Grandparents' Club. Her personal transformation had spatial aspects, as she associated her interior home life with misery and isolation, and her outdoor activities with happiness and kinship/social relations.
In January 2009, Eugenia competed in – and won – a beauty pageant for older adults that the club's founder had organized to coincide with the city's Carnaval celebrations. Many neighborhoods chose a 'King and Queen of the Third Age' to compete in a citywide pageant during the week of Carnaval. The club's founder, who was also an elected neighborhood councilperson, set up a large stage and sound system in the largest plaza in the neighborhood, Plaza la Concordia, and encouraged many of the club members to participate; as a result, the majority of contestants were club members. Each person dressed up in their best dress and wore heels and makeup. A few women who had participated in the recent pageants had special costumes made to look like showgirl outfits. Balloons decorated the stage and red chairs were set up in orderly rows for the audience, made up of contestants' families and neighbors.
Contestants took turns standing in front of the microphone and giving 'advice for the younger generation'. All seemed to enjoy this opportunity to publicly address their neighbors, share their worldviews, and bask in the attention. Eugenia beamed throughout, standing up proudly with one leg positioned in front of the other like a beauty pageant participant. The event offered a counter-narrative to accepted ideas about the elderly, as the men and women on stage presented themselves and were celebrated as socially and politically engaged with active, vital bodies.
The pageant also resignified the space of the plaza. During fieldwork in the neighborhood, I heard two stories of people being murdered in the plaza, and some residents reported that they avoided walking through it out of fear. The plaza was flanked by narrow colonial-era streets, and as we walked down these corridors, informants had chided me for not holding my shoulder bag properly to avoid having it stolen. Holding this event in Plaza la Concordia was a political statement that temporarily reconfigured the dilapidated concrete plaza as a safe, viable site for health-promotion activities, public entertainment, and sociality (notwithstanding the fact that some visibly inebriated men on the margins of the event heckled the speakers from time to time). Similar events included a day-long Olympics of the Third Age held in a large centrally located park, with neighborhood teams of elderly residents competing in athletic events (topped off by a huge bailoterapia session), and an event honoring The Day of the Older Adult (Día del Adulto Mayor) in the symbolic Plaza Bolívar, adjacent to the National Assembly.
Transforming social space through health projects
Since 2003, changes to Venezuela's public health system have not only transformed access to medical care, they have also transformed understandings of communities as life-affirming spaces. This is important in a city like Caracas, where so many communities are stigmatized as places that endanger health. My research reveals some of the conditions that enable institutions and individuals to resignify even life-threatening places as therapeutic landscapes.
Applying Low's concept of spatializing culture, and its rubric for analyzing the constructed nature of social spaces, can help us understand the process of change I describe. She discusses four processes that anthropologists should analyze: (1) the 'social production of space' (actions to physically create spaces, such as constructing buildings, transport systems, or cities); (2) the 'social construction of space' (people's experiences of and in physical spaces that give meaning to those spaces); (3) discursive practices, including everyday conversations, media reports, and official pronouncements, that make meaning of space; and (4) embodied practices that change the meaning of places, in which the person is 'a mobile spatial field' who, through everyday actions, 'produces place and landscape' (Low 2011, 392).
I found that Barrio Adentro and other new health programs transformed poor neighborhoods into therapeutic landscapes in at least three ways. The first way of effecting change was discursive: through the use of language and other symbols, government officials and institutions reframed existing understandings of space and health. The creative naming of the nationwide program that promised to bring medicine 'inside the barrio'was an important semiotic move that drew attention to the place-making qualities of this community-based health program. Speeches and pronouncements emphasized concepts of social exclusion (exclusión social), social inclusion (inclusión social), and social reintegration (reintegración social), highlighting the fact that health programs were not only seeking to improve health outcomes like life expectancy, infant mortality, or vaccination rates but also were explicitly interested in effecting sociospatial transformations as well. Symbolic features of Barrio Adentro, such as the iconic architecture of the eight-sided red brick clinics, were unlike any other aspects of the built environment in the city. They were unmistakable symbols of social and spatial change that visually popped out of the landscape, marking poor neighborhoods as capable of attending to the population's health in new ways. These aspects of space making clearly map onto Low's category of 'discursive practices'.
The second way such programs effected sociospatial change was through physically changing neighborhoods and how people used them by building clinics and providing health services. Offering free access to biomedical care within the neighborhood changed people's experiences of personal health, encouraging them to view their neighborhood as a place that can treat diseases and promote health. Barrios and other poor neighborhoods became, quite literally, more therapeutic spaces after the institution of Barrio Adentroclinics. In some areas, this change has been very dramatic, as in Santa Teresa, which had no public health presence prior to the first Barrio Adentro doctor arriving in 2004. Providing new clinics and free medical services, pharmaceuticals, and health promotion activities on a massive scale not only improved health outcomes, but these activities also resignified the poor as deserving of state services, as full citizens. Government construction of new clinics and programs were top-down (state-led) practices in the social production of space (Low 2011). Sometimes, these were also bottom-up (community- or activist-led) practices in the social production of space, because the state relied on local community activists to identify disused spaces for clinics and to oversee the work of construction teams building new clinics (Cooper 2015a). The construction of new clinics remade poor and working-class spaces not just through the physical construction of clinics (what Low (2011) calls 'the social production of space'), but also through the way people responded to and used the clinics (what she calls 'the social construction of space').
The third way that health programs effected sociospatial change was by claiming space, particularly public space, for new, pro-social purposes. These different forms of claiming space often entailed aspects of the social construction of space and embodied space making (Low 2011). Often, local residents occupied and enacted changes to public spaces in response to calls for them to participate in state health-promotion programs. In densely populated urban areas, community health activists commonly established new clinics by repurposing local government offices, using the front rooms of a willing resident's home, or taking over an abandoned building while plans developed for a more permanent, purpose-built structure. Participants in Grandparents' Clubs used public school courtyards and neighborhood plazas to perform their daily exercises, and in the process reclaimed these spaces for leisurely socializing and community well-being. Claiming public spaces for health also occurred when government leaders worked with activists and health professionals to host jornadas de salud (health fairs) in neighborhood plazas. These were usually held on weekends and offered a range of services. One that I attended focused on healthy eating and provided body mass index measurements and dietary recommendations for attendees. Another fair, pictured in Figure 6, offered a range of medical services as well as educational seminars for residents and community health workers. The celebration for the Day of the Older Adult included a separate tent where medical professionals provided flu shots and basic health checks for attendees. Such public spaces were generally not considered healthful or even safe spaces in these neighborhoods, so offering health-promotion activities there was not a neutral act, but rather a deliberate resignification and reclamation of parks and plazas as healthful, public places. Drawing people into public spaces to dance or receive medical care produced embodied spaces (Low 2011) that remade the meaning of these places. Groups like the Grandparents' Clubs encouraged residents to literally move their bodies in public spaces for the purposes of promoting health and sociality, and in so doing, sought to transform the meaning of those spaces.
Public health programs entailed the social production and social construction of space as well as embodied and discursive practices of remaking space, resulting in a multifaceted process that promoted barriosand other poor neighborhoods as therapeutic landscapes. Of course, this sociospatial resignification was always partial and fragmented. State-sponsored health projects have faced a number of financial and political challenges. The Chávez-era health programs, which continue apace today, promised more than they could deliver, though it must be noted that they promised quite a lot: universal medical coverage, the vitalization of deeply marginalized communities, and empowerment for historically disenfranchised Venezuelans, all in the name of a new brand of socialism. Thinking in terms of therapeutic landscapes, it would be unreasonable to suggest that these programs transformed poor neighborhoods into therapeutic landscapes in any totalizing or wholesale way. Barrios and other poor communities continue to be perceived and experienced as threatening to health and well-being, due to continued problems of inseguridad and poverty. This manifested in an ironic turn of events near the end my fieldwork in Santa Teresa in 2008, when a Barrio Adentro clinic started locking their exterior door during business hours because the doctor was afraid of crime and wanted to control who entered. The exterior door was made of iron bars, giving the clinic a prison-like appearance even when it was open to the public. Visitors had to stand at the door and call out for a community health worker to let them in, a process that community health workers complained about because it symbolically undercut the program's promise to make medical care accessible and integrated in the community. Efforts to transform poor urban areas into therapeutic landscapes were hampered by the lack of more broad-based social and economic changes that could lead to a decrease in violent crime. At the same time, for many people these neighborhood spaces have nevertheless changed for the better, becoming more life affirming in both a pragmatic and symbolic sense.
This article expands the concept of therapeutic landscapes by presenting a detailed analysis of a government effort to transform neighborhood spaces into therapeutic landscapes. Using Low's analytic rubric of spatializing cultures, we can see that sociospatial change was not solely the result of a top-down government intervention but was also produced by a variety of community actors using, engaging with, and changing spaces in tandem with state efforts to institute health services.
Elsewhere, I argue that health and public health care have become the grounds upon which new forms of citizenship are negotiated in Venezuela (Cooper 2015b). When for decades a doctor's visit was something that only the elite could be assured of, going to the doctor, especially one that now lived and worked in one's own neighborhood, signified much more than the services themselves. The program was in this way also an act to de-marginalize people who previously lacked easy access to public health care. By going to a doctor in Barrio Adentro, patients were enacting their right to access free medical care provided by the state, a fact that many patients made explicit in conversations with me. Taking advantage of new health services could be as easy as walking to the neighborhood clinic a few blocks from one's house, or it could involve a much more complicated 'therapeutic itinerary' (Brotherton 2008) that combined biomedical, herbal, and spiritual healing.
The social and political significance of Barrio Adentro transcended the sheer fact of improved access to doctors and medications. Here, I show how the spatiality of that health care access – such as the decision to locate clinics inside poor neighborhoods – was of utmost importance to many who use the clinics. I suggest that the spatial logic of the Barrio Adentro project both indexed and enacted changes for residents of historically marginalized zones of the city, improving their quality of life and drawing them into relations of belonging with the oil-rich state from which they had long felt excluded. Focusing on space and place in this analysis allows us to see how health programs effect changes that act on the social body as well as on individual bodies.
About the author
Amy Cooper is a cultural and medical anthropologist whose research examines the sociopolitical effects of people's engagements with health care. As the first in-depth analysis of health reform in Chávez's Venezuela, her book project, In Excess of Medicine: Pleasure and Politics in Venezuelan Health Care, offers a personalized account of people's struggles for social justice via health care. A new research project tracks the deauthorization of biomedicine in North America via the off-label use of psychopharmaceuticals. Amy earned her PhD from the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago and is currently an assistant professor of anthropology at Saint Louis University.
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Frazier, Lessie Jo, and Joseph L. Scarpaci. 1998. 'Landscapes of State Violence and the Struggle to Reclaim Community'. In Putting Health into Place: Landscape, Identity, and Well-Being, edited by Robin A. Kearns and Wilbert M. Gesler, 53–74. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
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King, Kiki. 2014. '24,000 Murders Last Year Confirm Venezuela as One of the World's Most Dangerous Countries'. The Guardian, 12 January. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/12/violent-crime-makes-venezuela-dangerous.
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Rebotier, Julien. 2011. 'Politicizing Fear of Crime and Insecurity in Caracas: The Manufacturing of a Fearful Urban Meta-Narrative'. Emotion, Space and Society 4: 104–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2010.12.003.
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Zubillaga, Verónica. 2015. 'The February Protests and the Unequal Experience of Violence'. Hot Spots, Cultural Anthropology website, 5 February. http://www.culanth.org/fieldsights/637-the-february-protests-and-the-unequal-experience-of-violence


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The Figerhorn is a beautiful ski mountaineering tour. South facing and with only 900m vertical height gain, it is ideal for beginners.
How to reach East Tirol (Osttirol, Austria):
1) From Munich or Verona via the Brenner motorway to exit at Bressanone. Drive through the Pusteria valley to reach the Italian-Austrian border. Continue from here past Lienz towards Felbertauern to reach the starting points in about 1 hour.
2) From Munich to Salzburg, then continue south to Bischofshofen. Leave the motorway here and drive through the Salzachtal to reach Mittersill. From here take the the Felbertauern road, through the tunnel, to enter the East Tirol.
Our starting point is Kals am Grossglockner. Follow the road to the Lucknerhaus (the car park for Großglockner) and park the car circa 0.5 km before the Lucknerhaus, on the right.
We put our skis on and ascend the road that leads to the tree line. Wide, gentle slopes open up here, about 25° to 30° steep and we continue up these which seem to have been created perfectly for ski touring, to reach the so-called "Graiwiesen". We leave our skis here and continue on foot, firstly up a steeper slope, then along the easy crest that leads to the summit.
With about 900m vertical height gain, a south facing aspect and ideally angled slopes, the Figerhorn ski tour is ideal for beginners but also for advanced skiers if avalanche conditions are not suitable for more demanding itineraries.
Contact the Alpine Guides Kals am Großglockner: www.bergfuehrer-kals.at
East Tirol Tourist office: www.osttirol.com
For the Figerhorn we recommended the Austrian Alpine Club map (AV Karte Nr. 36 Venedigergruppe).
New for 2012: the ski touring guidebook of East Tirol by Thomas Mariacher
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subset: commoncrawl


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Pet Pride day is an annual San Francisco event that takes place in Golden Gate Park usually close to Halloween. People are encouraged to bring along all kinds of pets and to costume them as creatively as they can. As you can see, there are a lot of very patient dogs in this city!
Of course, not only dogs can get dressed up . . . .
And some other pets made appearances.
I just loved the chinchillas - they were so soft!
And of course I've always been a big fan of rats.
This animal was not up for adoption, sadly . . .
Legally Blonde! I loved this costume.
The cutest cowboy there . . .


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What instruments are played in reggae music?
Reggae is a genre of music rich in culture and tradition. Like other genres, reggae is associated with certain musical instruments. These instruments work together to create the rhythm and style that people typically associate with reggae.
As it does in a lot of popular music styles, the guitar gives reggae a lot of its rhythm and punch. Reggae guitar is generally played with quick, short accents, giving it its "chop/chuck" sound. To do this, the guitar is strummed, and then the fingers holding down the chord are raised slightly off the fret board. Many bands have multiple guitar players, with one playing lead parts and others playing rhythm. A variety of guitar brands can work for a reggae guitarist. Commonly used models include the Fender Stratocaster, the Fender Telecaster and the Gibson Les Paul.
Bass Guitar
The bass guitar is an important component of the reggae sound. Bassists generally go for a low, natural sound. They typically like to cut out most high frequencies and only use enough mids before the sound gets too bright. Playing near the neck of the bass can help give a fat sound. A deep thump from the bass helps to establish the reggae groove. A variety of bass guitar brands are used by reggae bassists, with the most popular being the Fender P bass or Fender Jazz bass.
Keyboards have been used in various capacities over the years in reggae music. Synthesizers were generally used in the 1980s. Before that, reggae musicians often used pianos or organs. Keyboards can be used to add rhythm or to replace other sounds. For example, some reggae bands use keyboards instead of bass guitar or a brass section. The keyboard is typically used to fatten the overall sound and accent the guitar chop/chuck. Like the guitar, this is done by playing the chord quickly and then releasing the keys. The keyboard can also be more of a lead instrument, adding melodies and fills to add character to the song. Brands vary greatly among players. In general, a keyboard with strong piano and organ sounds is preferred.
Like other types of popular music, drums are played in reggae music to provide rhythm and a solid backbeat. But unlike most popular music styles that often emphasises beats 2 and 4, reggae typically emphasises beat 3. Often on beat 3 the bass drum and snare drum will be hit together. On other beats, the hi-hat provides a lot of the rhythm and is often played in a swing feel. The drums work together with the bass guitar to provide a solid, fat rhythm, but in general the drums are typically played in a fairly laid-back style, instead of the pounding rhythms that typically make up rock 'n' roll. Drum brands vary greatly among players.


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Cute CZ Inlaid White Gold Plated 925 Sterling Silver Crown Ring
This crown ring is unique enough, wearing elegant, rich flavor and the popular fashion element. Wear it will let you out of the ordinary, stand in the forefront of popular. In addition,this ring is inexpensive and durable. It will be an amazing gift for you and your friends!
Material:Plating White Gold & 925 Sterling Silver & Cubic Zirconia
Main Stone:3A Cubic Zirconia
Package Include:
1*Cute CZ Inlaid White Gold Plated 925 Sterling Silver Crown Ring
1*Luxury Jewelry Gift Box
1*Luxury Jewelry Gift Hand bag
1*Silver Polishing Cloth
1*Gift Card for You to Write Greeting Words
To clean, wipe with soft cloth. Avoid frequent contact with strong chemicals, such as detergent, bleach, perfume, etc. Store in a jewelry box or soft cloth. Always remember to remove your jewelry before shower or exercise. Do not wear them in hot tubs or swimming pools.


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Via Joystiq read all about Omaha, Nebraska librarians who got in trouble for purchasing (for the library) the game "Rock Band", then making an entertaining promotional video of themselves assembling and playing the game. They put this on YouTube and though these librarians rock in every way, there are questions about them using public funds for the purchase, and perhaps they were just too cool in the video. I think they did a great job, just the sort of bold and fun promotions we could all be doing.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
I've been looking for a companion for my little beaglemeister since November of last year. My sister loaned me her Golden Retriever and I really loved the way she got along with my beagle pal, and thought to find a Golden Retriever of my own for him.
As it turned out, the Golden Dog of his dreams was another beagle. She is just a pup, and she is so sweet. They have had some adjustments to make in getting along, but after about three weeks now they snuggle by each other and live to go for walks, play fight, and explore the yard side by side.
Beagles for the win!
Posted by Librarian D.O.A. at 7:46 AM 5 comments: Links to this post
Friday, February 20, 2009
So Lost: 316 (Spoilers for anyone who doesn't think I'd actually talk about what happened in the episode...)
I definitely have to watch this episode a second time. It was a mostly straightforward episode time-switching wise. Almost a relief!
Jack, with his "messiah complex" (From wikipedia: Messiah complex is a state in which the individual believes themselves to be, or destined to become, the saviour of the particular field, a group, an event, a time period, or in an extreme scenario, the world) is sooo easily led by the nose by Mrs Hawking and Ben. Here is a smart talented man who has no clue, but thinks it is always his job to save the day and "fix things". Couldn't he use those smarts to see that Mrs. Hawking and Ben and the Island aren't fixable? Noooooo. And there he is, in direct competition with John Locke who also believes he is destined to be "special" and save the Island. Criminy.
Kate is such a little psycho. How she manages to appear small and vulnerable while being up to no good 24/7 I just can't see. "You must promise never to ask me about Aaron"...yeah right. Lucky for you Jack always wears his leash so you can just give him a little shake now and then and he rolls on over to have his belly rubbed (dog reference).
What happened to Aaron we ask? My coworker JR (not the one from "Dallas") had a great theory that Charles Widmore has both Kate and Sun working on his behalf. We have seen Sun offering to work with him, but wily Kate?
He might easily be involved though...how did those two women, Sun and Kate leave their children behind and trudge off to the Island? He could have promised them something, and it would have to be something that would eventually allow them to be re-united with the kids. I can see that he could convince them to carry out some set of orders.
I think Sun is sufficiently obsessed with being back with Jin so that she would go no matter what. But not Kate. The other possiblity for Kate is that she had another visit from Claire, who told her in a previous episode not to bring Aaron back to the Island.
But...what about the whole "nobody must raise Aaron but Claire" thing? Hmmpf. Kate could have left Aaron with Claire's mom, but why? And why do that and go back to the island? Does she think she can switch places with Claire somehow? She would do that for Aaron I think.
The Dharma Initiative and its membership raises its intriguing head as the inventor of the pendulum that detects the Island. How they guessed there was an island like this in the first place is a puzzle. I need to go back and watch the very first Dharma Initiative training film. In it, briefly, the founders of the Dharma Initiative, a man and wife are briefly seen and named. I don't recall that they have been referred to since, but they have remained in my mind. Woman with blond hair, hairy bearded guy...could be anyone. I keep thinking they are Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore under bogus names but that would be too easy.
The whole 316 thing...over my non-theological head. Clearly John is the sacrifice and Jack the unbeliever (Doubting Thomas) who must be convinced. I will say I do not feel Mrs Hawking or Ben are remotely holy, reverent, or using the church, it's teachings or anything else as more than a tool and a screen. Ben can light candles till doomsday but he is a bad bad man.
Mrs. Hawking, though there is speculation she is a protector of the island and the timestream or some such...also seems bad to the bone. Did you see her face all hard and cold and ugly when Desmond told her he was there on Daniel's behalf to ask for help? Not exactly snuggly mama. Although it did occur to me as I pondered this that she is angry at him, perhaps for trying to alter time and events to save Charlotte. Ack and how could I forget, Daniel had funding for his time travel research for 10 years from Charles Widmore. So mama doesn't like her mumbly voiced son sleeping with the enemy. Aha.
Lastly, at the end we have Hurley, Jack and Kate back on the island, greeted by Jin with a brand new Dharma Initiative uniform and the blue van from previous episodes all sparkly and new. So they are on the island but in the early days of the Dharma Initiative. Maybe they'll meet those founders I find so intriguing.
We're missing Sun, who will be going BONKERS that Jin is not on the island as promised, though he's in another time frame, I speculate. How is Ben going to explain all that? With a full helping of slime, no doubt. I will be surprised if all of them are in the past and just in different locations on the island.
We're missing Sayid and his lovely police escort.
Of course John-in-a-box is missing. Too interesting to see in what corporeal form he shows up next.
And too cute! A whole back-of-the-plane-load of new shiny disposable Red Shirts! All of those people ready to be ground up in the Island Munch Machine.
Good stuff.
Note: here is the orientation film. I can't make out the names of the Dharma Founders, (DeGroots?) but I did see something I didn't pay attention to the first time around: Charles Widmore up in his office, seen through an outside window and said to be the financial backer of the Dharma Initiative. (Ah this answers my question above...how did the Dharma Initiative know to look for the island...Charles Widmore got them involved, since he funded them.) These two don't look like Widmore and Hawking at all so forget that wild theory. There we have it...
Posted by Librarian D.O.A. at 5:55 AM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: 316, Lost television show, Season Five
Survivor Tocantins Episode 2 Catfight!
I took my notebook down to watch the show and the first note I made was:
Candace Cannon Fodder!!!
Sure enough! She was a tough physical competitor but socially she really needed to be a lot more mellow. It was a big mistake to go against the oily but apparently influential "Coach" so early on. She really had to make sure she had lots of allies. I had her on my "Survivors" list and poof she goes down. Oh oh. It did surprise me to see whiny Erinn vote against her though. If "Coach" is getting people popped for poor attitude, then Erinn is next. *shudder*
I also noted "Stephen=Dork" Man where did they get this guy? Has he ever watched the show?
Sierra, who I wrote off based on her bio and her picture (waif like) has really proven to be a tough and determined competitor. She needs to bond with the others in the group though or she is toasty.
Taj: Big mistake for her to say she is a famous football player's wife. However just on her own I just love her. She has the best personality and attitude. She's working the social game and the psychological game and she was right in there physically competing in the "basketball" competition. Cool lady! I hope she stays in the game.
Brandon really is working the entrepreneurial angles. He's going to be a wealthy man someday, however he does on Survivor.
Posted by Librarian D.O.A. at 5:32 AM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: Survivor Tocantins
Thursday, February 19, 2009
More Things on a Stick Thing 25: Blogger's Toolkit (or in the common parlance..."How to Pimp Your Blog")
20 Usability Tips For Your Blog
Following my Master Plan to be more methodical and thoughtful this time around with the 23 Things, I'm going to hit every part of the "DO"s. There are a ton of Things in Thing 25 so this post will be a long one. I considered breaking it up but I have other post topics I'd like to cover for myself so keep your 2.0 eyes peeled here for the Thing 25 Saga.
1. Pick a topic for your blog.
I absolutely agree with this. Although it may seem initially appealing to do stream of consciousness blogging about whatever pleases you, even you will soon become bored. If you are writing for yourself or your imaginary audience about something that you are really fascinated by, you will be inspired to write far more frequently.
It is cheating, and a BAD SIGN when you subtitle your blog "...and anything else I feel like writing about". You can certainly offer off-topic items, and write about something not specifically on your theme, but its best to just slide those posts in under the wire rather than be sort of in-your-face about the whole thing.
I will say, counter to this in a way, if you are a public library reference librarian, you get every question in the world, a high percentage of which are unique things you've never been asked, no matter how long you've been in the field. This gives you huge leeway in your blog because the sky is the limit. You actually can talk about anything at all and be spot on topic. Tis good to be a librarian :)
2. Encourage comments
I certainly encourage comments and allow anonymous readers the ability to comment. This is really nice for those who read your blog but don't have one of their own. I would not get discouraged if there are no comments, nor can you assume no comments mean no readers. Blogger has a nice step by step help page on enabling comments:
How do I enable comments on my blog?
If you'd like to see if someone really is reading or if your words are floating unread in the ether, get a site use counter (probably covered later in these things).
I use Blog Patrol here, which gives a count and lets you know what people are reading and searching for that brings them to your blog. It can be a little quirky signing in sometimes, not loading, but you can just check later in the day.
3. Make it easy to subscribe:
Easier said than done! I recall having difficulty with Feedburner in Round 1 and here it is again. I bet this is some tricky way of having people re-do some of the tough stuff so they get the knack of it. Hmmpf.
Feedburner has been purchased by Google. They have a sign in on the Feedburner site that does not take your Google sign in. However, if you circuitously get to Google's page you're fine. Why they make you jump through that sign in hoop, I don't know.
In fact, signing in through Google only lets me have the ability to burn feeds and connect with an aggregator such as Bloglines. I am going to let this go for the nonce.
4. Include an About Page
I made a few changes to my original page. Not many.
5. Present your ideas visually
I really like adding some type of visual to each post. Even if I have alot of text, the perfect picture or cartoon or altered image brightens things up.
6. Keep posts short and to the point
This is mostly a good idea but it has to depend on what you're writing about. For pithy posts...go to Twitter!
7. Use subheadings for long posts
I understand the principle of this but in truth I rarely read what is continued on another page. This is probably a necessary technique when you have many updates or multiple posters and frequent updates. For a solitary blogger, it seems unnecessary.
8. Link abundantly
You definitely should credit others and link to the work of others who enhance or support your view.
9. Make headlines descriptive
This will make the reader decide to stop and look. If I am laughing at my heading as I type it, I know the post will be a good one.
10. Archive by topic
I like the idea of this but I'm already lagging terribly on these Things so I'm not going to ponder it now. I also fear the topical archive might take up too much sidebar space.
11. Include a list of related posts beneath each post.
I think in a more technical blog this would be useful. It seems like hubris to do it on a blog you write for fun.
12. Allow users to contact you offline
I had a mailbox for the blog briefly and had nothing but you've won a lottery in a foreign country scam-mail.
Currently someone could leave a Meebo message, but I am seldom logged in there and can never remember my password :(
13. Present your real viewpoint
14. Write for your future employer
My future employer is aways out in the timeline, but it will be me, retired and sitting in the sun with my spouse and beagles so, I'm okay on this one :) :)
15. Include a Top Posts Section
Again, this seems self-promotional so it is not for me.
16. Provide an Index
The one listed is alas for WordPress only.
17. Get your own URL
If I ever become famous I'll be sure to get one.
18. Include a Recent Posts section
Good idea for many, but for my purposes, it takes up prime sidebar real estate. I'm trying to recommend books and authors and other sites as much as I am interested in what I write myself.
19. Reward commenters for commenting
Excellent for high traffic sites, or as a means to promote comments on a high traffic site but I think it might also discourage some to be listed with a puny commenter score.
20. Post Often
Definitely a goal, but there is in truth not always time or inspiration.
More Useful Blogger Tools
Post by Email This could be useful while traveling but otherwise not so much.
Google Gadgets I'm a big fan of gadgets, for instance the Feedjit map that shows where my visitors hail from.
Make your Blog Talk!
Posted by Librarian D.O.A. at 2:46 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: More Things on a Stick wiki, Thing 25
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
The Blog Typealyzer
Since the Book Besotted Librarian and Carol Has Her Nose In A Book were buzzing about the blog/personality analyzing tool the Typealyzer (sounds like it might kill you in your sleep, doesn't it?) I found it and my blog reveals:
ISTP - The Mechanics
The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.
The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.
Paragraph one is fine but paragraph two? No way.
Posted by Librarian D.O.A. at 7:31 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: blog analyzer, blog type, Typealyzer
Thursday, February 12, 2009
More Things On a Stick! Thing 24, Go Forth and Refresh Your Blog
At last I'm beginning the More Things on a Stick, part two of the 23 Things on a Stick program. I have continued blogging since the last program ended, and I have added and tried many things to enhance my blog. Still, there are always things to learn.
I only commented on a few blogs last time around. I think perhaps my blog name and my adorable skull avatar might have taken a few bloggers by surprise. I still tend not to comment alot on other blogs, but in the interest of discussion I'll hop on out there this time to see what happens.
If you would like to comment on this blog and you have a Blogger account, just type your message in the comment box. You will then be asked to type in a verification code, just type exactly what you see in the box. This mostly prevents weasely automated programs from sending comments to your blog. You will also be asked to sign into your blogger account in order for your comment to appear. I worried at first that signing in would give the blog my information, but never fear, it is never seen at all by the blogger.
I have also chosen the option in my blog setup to allow Anonymous comments. If you have trouble with the Blogger authentication and sign in, or you do not have a blog, just write your comments and choose Anonymous as your sign in option.
25 Basic Styles of Blogging
I'm pretty sure I have this embedded here. This is a great introduction to various blogging styles and reasons for blogging you might not have considered. There is no reason not to combine various styles if it suits your purpose.
The 25 Basic Styles of Blogging ... And When To Use Each One
View more presentations from rohitbhargava. (tags: howto rohitbhargava)
Find a New Layout for Your Blog
You are able to change your template at any time. Your content will generally transfer to the new template style, but some page elements such as pictures or links along the side or bottom may be re-positioned or they may not quite fit anymore. In other cases they may fit much better. The basic set of choices you had when you originially set up your Blogger account will be there.
There are other sites that have user created templates for you to try for free as well. Be aware that a few might require downloads to your computer and if you are working on your blog at work security restrictions will likely stop you from downloading.
Blogger Templates
Blogger Buster Lots of templates, plus forums for discussion, tutorials and a selection of widgets.
Btemplates A large variety of templates in Blogger format.
Add information to your profile
I am going to change my profile a bit for the purpose of 23 Things. I'm not going to display my name, collegiality or no. Since this is a personal and not a professional blog, the rules of the online world and protecting yourself from... lets just say it...wierdos... stays firmly in place here at D.O.A. Central.
Get Creative: 10 Fun Websites to create your free avatar
I must be the only person who did the original 23 Things who never created a Yahoo Avatar. For this exercise I created one and it is at the top of the page. None of the vast array of outfits except a fuzzy pink bathrobe really suited me. The avatar at the top of the post is actually quite close to what most characters I create look like in the online world, so there we are. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to snare it to display here. They used that tricky term "export" and I didn't see where to do it right off or that they just wanted me to copy and paste the html code from their export page to here. My cheeks were burning thinking why oh why can everyone figure this out but me. Luckily I persevered. Fingers crossed when I hit Publish there isn't a bunch of gobbledygook up there.
I'll try some of the others as well and try to wedge them in here with commentary.
Off to a good start at last! D.O.A. over and out.
Otaku Avatar Maker
Here is my Otaku Avatar. They have many options style wise. I think it is very user friendly except for choosing coloration--they don't make it clear that you need to click on the current color palette choice in order to change it. Oops the avatar isn't here on the page at all, just a line that says "Otaku Avatar Maker". It isn't a link either. This appeared to be saved in My Pictures....need to do some tweaking.
That's interesting. The Save Picture As option came up saving this as a GIF file, but that did not display. I used the drop down on the Save As box to choose bitmap instead and there she is!
I'm not sold on having an animated avatar but I did create one. I may be wrong but it seems that an animated avatar might make your page load slowly for some visitors. As I'm writing that my Kat Clock came to mind. The blog page loads fine but that widget and its animation does load very slowly on some computers.
Although there are many options for customizing the avatar, many could not be previewed because they were VIP. Once I found a look I liked and went to save I was told some of my options cost "Coinz". (Note actually I see now each option that costs COINZ ) Since they had distributed some to me in theory for signing up and getting their newletter, I went ahead and pressed "purchase and save". Maybe I'm a few Coinz short! because it has been over ten minutes and my avatar is still "processing". 45 minutes.... In order to move on without losing my avatar for posterity, I did a Print Screen of the web page. And stuck it in Word (which I couldn't get to post here,) then Paint. This is from Paint:
So, anywho, I couldn't get the avatar to stop processing so the big eyed creature you see here in part, is all she wrote. Tis a shame because I selected the body style "Booty Betty". Tsk.
Pimp My Doll
The page won't come up on this site so back to it later perhaps.
I didn't realize I had already signed up for this avatar site, but I changed the avatar a bit so she rocks. Sort of. Once again the GIF type image didn't display a picture so I used the alternative of Save As and stuck it in My Pictures then lofted it here.
The Horoscope Avatar maker lets you customize a face, adds your sign and theoretically...displays your horoscope of the day.
I have not been able to get this avatar to display here by copying and pasting code, by doing a Save Picture As...nada. Let alone show my daily horoscope.
Mess Dudes!
These are sort of fun and easy, with all options free of charge, something I'm really beginning to appreciate.
It might be a bit confusing trying to add this one to your blog because the "Download Now" directions make it look like it is only for your desktop or mobile phone. Once you are on the download screen the option to add to your blog or site by using "Save Picture As" is available.
The Doll Palace
Requires an account sign up. They email you a password and then ask you to change it right away.
This uses a drag and drop onto the model interface. I tried out the Pirate Dolls. There are dozens of choices and they're really stylish. Good choice if you would like to change your avatar frequently, even seasonally. There is an option to upgrade to a premium service which gives more options such as creating a doll contest. Most useful.
Dollmaker Code
Theoretically, this provides html-meisters with the tools to create from scratch their own avatars. I can copy and paste code with the best and worst of them, but it all looks like math to me. I can't create with the "easy creator" except by using their stock "Elouai" model and options.
Digibody's AIM Icon Maker
This tiny avatar has a few options and an interface used by many of these avatar makers. Use when you're in a silly mood or want to accentuate something comedic you write. No sign up required.
South Park Avatar
Well...I've never watched South Park so these squat little figures are just ok.
Simpson's/Burger King Avatar
This avatar creator says it analyzes your photo and "Simpsonizes" it, but as you can see below there really is no observable correlation between the original photograph and the completed avatar. In fact, the avatar creation process is the typical one where you pick certain facial and other features from a set and add them to your "creation".
The Original Photo
The Same Photo Simpsonized
You must register and/or login to save your creation. Save options are emailing the image or "exporting" which in this case does not mean you can copy and paste html code. The "export" option allows you to save the image on your computer, which can then be added to your blog or site. A much better option for photo editing and making an avatar from a photo is Pizap
Note my D.O.A. avatar. I was able to add color to the photo, change the eye color, and write a message. Additionally you can have your Pizap image put on a T-shirt, mug, Mousepad or other object.
Image Chef Avatar
The Image Chef program lets you adapt your photos or images provided by them, adding messages such as the one below:
Posted by Librarian D.O.A. at 11:00 AM 4 comments: Links to this post
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Survivor: Tocantins My Early Calls: Survivors vs Cannon Fodder
I'm geared up for tomorrow night's show. For the first time ever I'm going to try to call who has the best chances of survival based solely on the pictures and biographies on CBS's page.
I've divided the contestants into two groups, the Survivors (who seem likely to have the best chances from what little we know) and the Cannon Fodder (those who will be scooting on out, torches blowing in the wind.)
We all know the game is loaded with surprises and that people disintegrate into their bare selves by about day three, but we have to start the guessing game someplace.
Cannon Fodder!
Survivors! (Best of luck folks!)
Edit: After watching the show, I think I'm wrong about Stephen. He seemed very high strung and I fear he will be on the Cannon Fodder pile all too soon.
Posted by Librarian D.O.A. at 7:29 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: Survivor Tocantins
Chapter & Verse Book Club at Red Balloon Bookstore for adults who love children's books
This would be me! Although I'm not and have never been a children's librarian, ah how I do love the books. Perhaps because I had access to libraries (school only) beginning in about sixth grade, books written for that age and a bit younger and a bit older are always enjoyable to me.
There was an article in the paper a week or so ago on this club and I have kept it in the back of my mind because I'd love to go.
From Red Balloon's web site:
It's a Book Club!
Good News for Children's Literature Enthusiasts!
Beginning February 19 and continuing on the third Thursday of each month, a book club for adults who love to read and discuss children's literature will meet at The Red Balloon Bookshop from 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. The club, called Chapter & Verse, is co-sponsored by Children's Literature Network and The Red Balloon Bookshop. Membership in Chapter & Verse is free. Participants who attend meetings at The Red Balloon Bookshop will receive a 20% discount on the price of book-club titles.
Discussions about children's and young-adult fiction, nonfiction, picture books, and poetry will be led by Gail Nordstrom, who is the youth services supervisor at Stillwater Public Library. Gail served on the 2002 Newbery Award Committee for the American Library Association and has organized metro-area Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz Award mock discussions for teachers and librarians since 1997.
The titles for the February 19 meeting are: Madapple, a mystery for young-adult readers by Christine Medrum, and How I Learned Geography, a picture book by Uri Shulevitz.
Visit www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org to find the book list (under the Events heading) for the next several months.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Chalice by Robin McKinley
Mirasol has been chosen as the "Chalice" after the unexpected and violent demise of her predecessor. In a society with a very hierarchical structure (Overlord/Master/Chalice/Grand Seneschal) her role is to ceremonially, psychologically and physically bind the land, the Master and the counselors together.
The Master of the land or "demesne" is also new and untrained. The younger brother of the now dead former Master had been sent off to be trained as a Priest of Elemental Fire, training which alters the acolyte physically into a Being a Fire.
The untrained pair work to fulfill their obligations never sure they are doing the right thing. Perhaps because they are in the same awkward, isolated position, they make extra efforts to work together and to find a way to heal their land.
Running through the narrative are bees. Mirasol was responsible for keeping an area of woodlands which has a small cabin and bee hives. The bees, like the land, respond to Mirasol. They produce honey for her in amounts and qualities such as has never been seen. Mirasol discovers that adding honey to her ceremonial healing chalices makes them more effective.
The storytelling, like the hum of bees on a hot lazy summer's day was refreshing and relaxing. There is a great deal of power in celebrating the rhythm and cycle of life, nature and human relationships.
Posted by Librarian D.O.A. at 5:02 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: book reviews, Chalice, Robin McKinley
Mostly Mysteries: Joan Maze
I try to keep a mystery theme here though I often stray. One of the things I hope to do is to feature Minnesota mystery authors whenever I can.
Today, a long time customer came in who I know has been working to get her Romance novels published. She has been working on a mystery series on the side as well (with romance elements liberally sprinkled in).
She has a guest column on the Chasing Heroes Blog and though it is "under construction" I'm all admiration for the work she is doing on a web site of her own.
Joan's book will be available as a downloadable audio. Keep an eye on her site for more details. Good luck to her!
Posted by Librarian D.O.A. at 3:22 PM 1 comment: Links to this post
Labels: Chasing Heroes Blog, Joan Maze, Red Rose Publishing
Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
The third novel in the Inkheart Trilogy delves further into the story of the Inkworld and its inhabitants. Funke's villains really come to the fore in this volume, especially the immortal , yet rotting, Adderhead, and his dangerous daughter Violante. As a counterpoint to them, Mo, the original "Reader" takes on the role of the "Bluejay" a masked robber who helps Adderhead's victims.
The story takes on a life of its own that neither the original Inkheart author Fenoglio, nor the twisted upstart plagiarist Orpheus can quite control. There are many questions about the real world vs. the Inkworld and whether our characters can or should stay in the Inkworld-if they survive.
Although the book is the third in a trilogy, certain events lead the hopeful reader to think we might see more of the Inkworld and our heroes and villains in the future.
This is a suspenseful and rich story for anyone who loves books and reading and wishes they could step into the pages of a beloved imaginary world.
Posted by Librarian D.O.A. at 12:50 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: Cornelia Funke, Inkdeath review
Thursday, February 5, 2009
So Lost: The Little Prince (Spoilers of course, bozoid)
We interrupt this non-serious blog with a note on last night's episode of Lost.
This was the most straightforward episode in a long while. It actually drove the plot forward in a fairly linear manner (despite the Time Jumps).
The questions that arise from it are:
Everyone is on the dock except Hurley (who will arrive via RottenLawyerMobile shortly we can assume) and John's body, correct?
How much time of the "70 hours" that they had to work with has elapsed?
Why are they at "slip 23"? And will Penny's Ship "The Searcher" land in that particular dock shortly as well? This would bring Desmond who is a "key" of some sort right into the "return-to-the island-fray".
Will Charles Widmore and the cloaked woman who we assume is Daniel Faraday's mom also show up? If they both get back to the island, what happens then? Would they actually want to get back?
If Daniel and crew make it to the Orchid and someone (I'm guessing Daniel or John) turns the wheel to move the island just as all of the other players are gathered in one place on the dock, will this bring all of the people on the dock to the island?
If the wheel turner is Daniel and Desmond his "Constant" is among the dock group, then will Daniel hold his place and stay on the island rather than being moved back to regular land?
If the wheel turner is John, can he convince everyone on the dock to come back to save the remaining people from the plane--the fact that they know he is "dead" could have a huge impact on their judgement. Perhaps the dead body of John is a place holder that keeps the "live" John from moving back to normal space or in fact it allows him to return to normal space and still return to the island.
Note the episode title "The Little Prince". Does this refer to Aaron, and is there a tie to the book The Little Prince by Antoine de St. Exupery's novel?
Final notes: I love the Rousseau character and it was both lovely and sad to see her young, sweet caring self and to know what would happen to her shortly.
I KNEW Jin was alive! He and Sun are two of the best characters on the show and unlike some of the cast, their characters have changed and grown so much. I know Sun would go back to the island for him in a heartbeat, but..her little baby is in Japan. What am I thinking? I'm sure Ben is having her transported to the dock as we speak.
Posted by Librarian D.O.A. at 2:34 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: Little Prince, Lost television show, Season Five
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