Lunatic Fringe

I saw the bigger-than-normal moon this past Saturday. It was an eerie but also exhiliarating experience.

This was filmed on Saturday evening at about 9:00 p.m., after I was returning from an event held in South Gate, CA. It was filmed in the parking lot of a Walgreens Pharmacy. I knew I needed to frame the moon next to some architectural features, and this lighted trees seemed like a good option. To show scale, you need to compare the feature with other known objects.

The moon, as was continuosly explained on the news, is at its closest approach to the Earth. It will next be in this proximity in another eigthteen years. Where will I be then? And, will humanity have returned to the Moon by then? Will the Chinese have sent their first astronaut to this celestial body? With all the triumphalism that seems to accompany the description of China's rise, this may be so.

And lately, this triumphalism is applied to Brazil as well, a country that President Obama has been visiting lately. It seems that under Luis Inacio da Silva, Brazil has grown at an amazing pace these past few years, a process that seems remarkable given the memory of the crushing debt crisis of the 80s and 90s that I recall, and the way in which the region, with the exception of Chile, has been mired in a crushing legacy of underdevelopment. Brazil was even profiled on NPR today because it is said that they are poised to become a new scientific superpower because of their investment in their scientific infrastructure, reversing decades of brain drain.

Mexico, of course, lingers in a deadly morass of drug violence and limited growth. While the rest of the emerging powers have given up their dependence on the USA, and look to other countries such as China, Mexico seems as saddled as ever to a dying giant. Free trade has not worked, despite all the proclamations and the breathless hype of the 90s. The only growth industry is narcotrafficking, and the titans of industry are the drug lords who launder their money lavishly, corrupting the entire country's institutions.

Brazil looks to the rest of the world and thrives. Mexico looks only to its neighbor to the north and continues to dig its own grave.