An Internal Struggle

This is not the post that I planned. I have a relatively long line of finished posts ready to be published. I also planned out the timeline for publishing, posting on a weekly basis about my exploration of cooking and cuisine both here in the U.S. and around the world. 

This past week was no ordinary week. 

I am still struggling to process what happened. How a majority of Americans could vote for an openly racist and misogynist candidate for President. How could Americans vote for candidates affiliated with the Republican party, whose platform not only embraced racism and misogyny, but contains a Spanish Galleon's worth of planks that are truly unpopular with a majority of Americans? How could a majority of Americans vote for politicians who openly campaigned on such racism, targeting communities of color, and who publicly called for utilizing the government to inflict substantial harms on groups who have known little else than discrimination and persecution by the supposedly greatest democracy in the history of civilization?

Cooking provides an escape for me. It is a way to close the door to my daily anxieties and stress. I can immerse myself in learning about food and the people who prepare it. I often joke that this blog also serves as an outlet for my international studies degree, as I travel virtually around the world to learn more about people. I try to learn as much as I can about their history, culture, and, of course, their cuisine. 

In recent months, I have viewed my culinary journeys as following the footsteps of someone who I have revered ... Anthony Bourdain. He traveled the world in a quest to learn not only about food, but the people who prepare it. His travels took him to some very troubled places, like the Middle East (Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank), Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He detailed in an open, objective way, the struggles of the people. In so doing, Anthony would ultimately show how food united people, showing how much more we have in common than what divides us.

Anthony Bourdain in Beirut, Lebanon (Source: No Reservations)

I have been "walking" in those footsteps for some time. Over the past few years, I have explored the cuisines of Armenia, Vietnam, St. Helena, Portugal, China, Mexico, Thailand, The Gambia, Argentina, India and Sri Lanka. I have also explored the cultures and cuisines of some very troubled places, like Gaza, the West Bank, Myanmar, Xinjiang, and Kashmir.  

It is the posts about those troubled places that have profoundly moved me, just as I expect it did to Anthony Bourdain as he walked the streets of Gaza or visited with home cooks in Haiti or the Congo. I learned about the struggles and suffering of people, the cause of which more often than not lied outside of their direct control. While it has been hard to write some of my posts (like those about what is happening in Gaza right now), there was always a small light off on the horizon. A beacon that, if it could guide humanity, would lead to something better: an end to conflict, an amelioration of suffering, and a restoration of human dignity. 

This past week revealed that such a beacon may, at best, be further off in the distance than I thought, or, at worst, may be nothing more than a mirage. Setting aside the untold level of masochistic pain that Americans have just unleashed upon themselves, they have also opened the floodgates to a further torrent of violence, suffering and pain around the world. 

For example, the past week's election represents an "all-clear" to the far-right wing Israeli government to continue and perhaps intensify its campaign of genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. It waved on Israeli fighter jets to further clear the southern reaches of Lebanon of not only Hezbollah, but also of Lebanese civilians.

The past week's election will also embolden Russia in its effort to recreate what it lost back in 1991, pushing it to not only eliminate Ukraine's existence, but to further destabilize other countries, like Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, and the Baltic States. 

However, it goes beyond Ukraine and the Middle East. As Lady Liberty's torch goes dark, I look at the prospect of not just more suffering and blood in many other places around the world. Places where the strife was the result of a history that bears the marks of our past foreign policy or our current capitalist economy. (Just look up and down the Western Hemisphere.) Strife that will only get worse because the next administration lacks the empathy, knowledge, and understanding to do anything about it. 

Source: ABC News

As Lady Liberty's torch fades into darkness, I find myself struggling with whether the path that I am on is one that I should continue to explore. Why try, even in the smallest way, to promote empathy and understanding when a majority of people in your country just don't care. Why try to promote what unites us when that majority seems quite content to drown in what divides us. 

I've come too far to go back to posting what random dish that I made on a particular day. I could choose to explore the cuisines around the world, confining myself to places free of suffering and pain. I could limit myself to just cooking out of cookbooks or recipes off of the internet. But, that is not who I am or who I want to be. I can't turn a blind eye to what is going on or what will happen, which means that the road ahead is one that may be too overwhelming and unsustainable. I just don't know right now. 

While I try to resolve this internal struggle, I will continue to post what is in my queue. After that, only time will tell. Until then, I will close with my undying wish for everyone around the world ...

PEACE.