browngeek

get ready for the next revolution.

The SF Jewish Film Festival is in town this week. I caught the Sundance award-winning documentary “Wall“. Powerful film! Its about the 500km barrier (”separation line”) built by Israel to separate Israelis and the Palestinians. The first obstacle is barbed wire followed by a huge ditch in the ground - to prevent automobiles from crossing. Then there is the huge wall of concrete blocks. If somebody manages to get this far, there is a dirt road to cross- footprints marked. Then a concrete road for the Israeli soldiers to drive their humvees into the intruder!

Israel’s defense minister defends (pun intended) the wall was built to prevent would-be suicide and car bombers from entering Israel. When asked why the wall was built inside the Palestinian territory (based on the Green Line) he responds “Well…we consider both sides to be ours. We are the rulers.” How ridiculous! As one Israeli puts in the film “If the wall was the solution to the conflict, we could have put it up 50 years back!”. Another says “All Israelis are in consensus on the wall…they have all lost their minds!”

“Wall” sticks to its intent- the wall - and does not go down the tempting path of exploring the broader conflict in the Middle East. It does not provide a solution to the conflict either…but does prove that the wall is definitely not a solution. If anything its a problem. History has shown that such dividing walls have always been demoralizing and detrimental and this one is no different. And like the other walls, its time to - in Reagan’s words - “Tear down this Wall!”.

A few days back I went speed-dating. While the whole concept of deciding if you would date a person within 7 minutes seems pretty shallow, it is however a surprisingly effective way to weed out the obvious mismatches. It also helps that everybody there is for the same reason (unlike the bar scene where some of the women are there “just for the music”).

So how long is 7 minutes? It depends. As Einstein described his theory of releativity- “When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute-and it’s longer than any hour”. Don’t get me wrong here. Physical attraction is a must but it is not the only attribute. If the person across you cannot hold a conversation for more than a few seconds, or if there is no eye-contact at all (worse if the person is looking at the next date) then you pretty much know in the first minute that the next six minutes is a long arduous torture. I had four such 6-minute eternities that night. OTOH, with three other women, the seven minutes went by unnoticed. In fact, we kept talking as I walked to the next date. Obvious chemistry. (If you were one of them, you probably are reading this :wink:)

I highly recommend speed-dating over online-dating (match, eharmony etc). The primary reason being you meet the real person and not his/her writing skills, not to mention photos that were from five years ago! Another reason is stereotyping. A lot of online profiles say that ethnicity of the date does not matter. Of course. But since you need to spend lots of time in sending emails from pillar to post, why bother with the ones from a different race. Why bother looking past the stereotype. I bet the number of inter-racial couples that met online is in the low single digit. The third reason, of course, is time. Seven minutes. Thats all you waste on a mismatch. Yes they can be long minutes but, hey, you can always excuse yourself and get a drink!

Just saw the film Crash. It was intense…in a sort of “eye-opening” way. It deals with racism, stereotyping, bigotry and ignorance. Of course, there is nothing new about this theme. Where this film excels is in its methodical approach in putting these elements in today’s perspective. There are some very obvious cinematic elements in this film, but for the most part its message is real.

Think about it. Are you a racist? You probably answered no. Because thats what you want to *think* about yourself. Reality is that we are all racists, some on the surface (example, rednecks) and for the rest of us, its beneath. But it surfaces more often than you think. Most of the time you are not even aware of it. Whats your reaction when an Asian woman cuts you off on the highway? What do you think when you see Mexicans huddled in the back of a pickup truck? Do you cross the street when you see a group of Black men in the corner? Whats your first reaction when you see a Muslim woman walking on street with a burka? How about when you call Citibank customer service and an Indian answers your call? Or, the Sikh cabbie that dropped you off last night? What do you think when you are riding the elevator with two Eastern Europeans talking in a foreign language?

“Crash” does not deal with the so-called “reverse racism”. What the hell is that anyway. Why is racism only against non-white and reverse racism is on the white? You probably *did not* notice that I never mentioned anything about White folks in my previous paragraph. Like, what do you think of all the White people in starbux or trader joe’s? Somehow we are all trained to think that racism goes outward, away from the White, and if you reverse it, you are looking at the White. Strange.

Racism and stereotyping has become an acceptable consequence of our “melting pot” society. Funny thing is, it does not have to be this way. See this film and open your fucking eyes and mind.

CalTrain is catering to a niche market, the commuters who rather save the frustration of traffic than the money spent on the commute. Sort of like the Mac users- rather spend the few extra $$ than to deal with Windoze’s “blue screen of death”

CalTrain is operating in red and recently hiked the fare prices by about 20% to ameliorate the losses. 20%? thats steep! Will this move force the regulars to drive rather than caltrain (note the casual use of of CalTrain as a verb)? I don’t suppose so. Let me explain why.

I just completed the book, The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. In it, Gladwell talks about a certain group of individuals called the Mavens. They are the early adopters of any new innovation or technology. Businesses cater to them at the nascent stages of the product release, to fuel a word-of-mouth epidemic about the product. This is the Tipping Point where the product crosses the chasm from the early adopters to the early majority . The Mavens, in other words, can make or break a product. Of course, if the product itself is not good, the Mavens will move on to another alternative. This is, according to Gladwell, the Stickiness Factor. An attribute of the product itself. Market a “sticky” product to the Mavens- the Tipping Point can be reached.

I believe that the loyal commuters of CalTrain are the Mavens. They might not be the “early” adopters but they see the potential for it. Then why is there no CalTrain “epidemic”? Thats because the Stickiness Factor is lacking. Sure, you can sitback and relax in the train rather than deal with that man on the highway, driving an empty pickup, who is eating a donut in one hand and shaving with the other, or that woman who has lipstick in one hand and a starbux latte in the other, driving an empty SUV. But this is not a sticky message. Most people say they would rather get to work a little soon (although CalTrain is accused of being slow, the time saved by driving is only a few minutes) and then *relax* at work!

The Stickiness Factor CalTrain needs is…are you ready?…Wireless Internet access! Duh!
Seems like an obvious idea, then why the hell don’t they still have it. Geez, we are after all, in the *silicon valley*, the high-tech Holy Grail. CalTrain should promote the concept of “Train Office” (yes, similar to home office). That should make the message sticky and we Mavens will gladly start the word-of-mouth epidemic.

CalTrain has the potential to become mainstream. Its Tipping point is Wi-Fi access.

yeah, that is you would say after tasting a sip of the “drip” coffee from the Blue Bottle.

…the city of San Francisco. Butterflies everywhere. Doors open. Freedom beckons. Life awaits.