Gaza, Naples, and Medellin

At my monitor's suggestion (thanks Kristin!), I'm trying a different format to make reading this long post easier. Let me know which you prefer!

5.5 hours reading/ruminating/research, 0.5 hours emailing.

Well, Gaza has fallen to Hamas. The Palestinian territory is now divided between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-controlled West Bank. Sad and worrying. Money quote from The Economist regarding the issues I'm writing about:

"a conflict that has been building since Hamas ousted Fatah from the PA in last year's election. From the start, Fatah tried to prevent Hamas from getting full control of the PA security services, which are a cornerstone of political power and a job scheme for unemployed militants, and which had become bloated with Fatah loyalists during the secular party's long and corrupt rule. Hamas countered by adding a tough, disciplined “Executive Force” of its own loyalists to the PA roster in Gaza, where it is much stronger than in the West Bank. Fatah then won backing from the United States to turn the presidential guard into an elite force to counter that of Hamas."

Doesn't get much clearer than that in terms of the impact of security-force design on regime stability. Politicized security forces make you vulnerable to insurrection....

Last week, I attended a number of films at Open Roads, a festival of new Italian films at the Film Society of Lincoln Center (thank you, student prices!). To my delight, Antonio Monda, the Italian film critic who introduces the films of Steve Zissou at the beginning and end of The Life Aquatic, the most under-rated (and over-hyped) Wes Anderson movie, was on hand to do Q&A after several of the films. Monda has a charming quirk to his spoken Italian, gargling his rolled "r"'s in a fashion I can't help but enjoy. The highlight of the five films I saw was The Unknown Woman, ("La sconosciuta"), by Giuseppe Tornatore, who did Cinema Paradiso. It was like Vertigo meets The Hand that Rocks the Cradle crossed with Spanglish, but, you know, good. Crazy, in fact. Quite lurid and over-the-top in spots, with some scenes that were tough to watch, but never less than creepy and compelling. If Roberto Benigni can get nominated for Best Actor for Life is Beautiful, Xenia Rappoport deserves a nod for her unbelievable performance in the title role here, as an immigrant nanny who insinuates herself into the life of a wealthy Italian couple for mysterious reasons. What her character goes through, what she's capable of, both loving and horrible, is amazing. If I had some cash lying around, I'd buy the remake rights and cast Vera Farmiga - the character's even originally from the Ukraine, like her. (Don't forget to thank me in your acceptance speech!)

The other memorable film was called See Naples and Die, a Michael Moore-esque documentary about life in the drug-ridden projects of Naples. Two local mafia, called alternatively camorra and "clans," compete for the drug trade in the projects, and ordinary people are sadly and predictably caught in the crossfire...

...which sounds a lot like the period of La Violencia (1946-66) in Antioquia (the state of which Medellin is the capital), Colombia, the topic of Blood and Fire, which I profitably continued reading today, along with the other three strands I pursued yesterday: math, Latin American security, and case-study methodology. It definitely feels like the different strands are starting to come together; some of the math I've been doing this week was directly applicable to some of the methodological reading, and the news about the Gaza resonate with the world of La Violencia in Colombia, and even the film about Naples I saw last week.

Convergence: Not a bad note on which to end the week. Many thanks to Kristin Donnelly for being this week's monitor! Next up is Diana Kapiszewski; more about her on Monday.

Have a great weekend!