While I ran on Friday I listened to Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings‘ album “Naturally,” which includes an excellent cover of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.”

That song is often sung by schoolchildren and people at pro-government political rallies as a sort of feel-good anthem, akin to a less jingoistic and heart-cloggingly proud “God Bless the USA.”

Jones’ adaptation includes the original lyrics, which I first noticed when I heard Drivin’ ‘n Cryin’ cover it live in 2006. These two verses are conveniently omitted from the feel-good versions:

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I’d seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

As I listened to her deliciously soulful Motown revival voice, for some reason my mind drifted to when I participated in the Alabama Beta Club Convention during the 10th and 11th grades. The first time I nearly lost my mind at the jaw-dropping displays of overt religious evangelism and group performances by different high school delegations, which included giant PowerPoint backdrops of hyper-patriotic images accompanying shamefully gimmicky musical performances. These acts filled out the top three which won the judges’ smug approval to represent Alabama in the national convention. Meanwhile Gadsden High School’s all-percussion ensemble, which performed live a piece written by one of the ensemble’s student members, got no such nod. I guess talent is not number one in this talent show. This experience led the band I was a part of, Red Clay, to write our massive hit single “Teabag” which we performed at the next year’s convention (we didn’t make the top three because we didn’t have “coordinating outfits.”)

I imagined going back and doing a production based on the original, socially-conscious lyrics of “This Land Is Your Land,” to first draw in the chaperone-esque judges and the half-bored, half-overeager crowd of students there in the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Auditorium and then hit them with cognitive dissonance.

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island
From the redwood forests to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

Here would be a PowerPoint backdrop shifting to display the pristine images considered in the verse.  A group of students, half well-dressed and half dressed in an array of non-white collar styles, would begin to shuffle onto the stage doing a funky walk to the beat of the song.  The judges smile.

As I went walking down that ribbon of highway
I saw before me that endless skyway
I saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me.

The people on stage continue some appropriately coordinated funky dance, which would hopefully pass muster of the competent funk authorities.  Their interactions are positive, and the images on the screen behind them show hearty social interactions between people all across the USA, of all colors and creeds and class and the like.

As I was walking, now they tried to stop me
They put up a sign that said “PRIVATE PROPERTY”
Well, on the backside you know it said nothing
So it must be: that side was made for you and me

The PowerPoint begins to show pictures of class division.  Images from the civil rights movement and the Jim Crow era, Tea Party protesters spitting on black Congressmen, police brutality against homeless people gathered near a shining shopping mall.  The well-dressed students on stage put up a “PRIVATE PROPERTY” sign and stand behind it, their arms crossed and looking distrustfully at the other group of students who appear disappointed and frustrated.  As the song mentions “the backside” which says nothing, some of the more roughly-dressed students point to it, and they all shuffle onto that side and look back angrily at the well-dressed students.  During the instrumental break, some funky movement of the feet and body is still going on, while the scene changes to fit the next verse.

One bright sunny morning, in the shadow of the steeple
Down by the welfare office, I saw my people
They stood hungry, I stood wondering
If this land was made for you and me?

A church steeple appears in the background and on the other side of the stage, a welfare office.  The poor students are shuffling down-heartedly to the beat outside the welfare office, while the well-dressed students march past them in their Sunday best, most of them clearly doing their best to not meet eyes with those for whom this land was not made.  The PowerPoint slides artfully incorporate vivid imagery with graphs and figures about economic disparity and social immobility.

This land is your land…

As Sharon Jones sings the names of different cities in the US, the PowerPoint slides show a succession of images of the downtrodden organizing and resisting unfairness.  Union meetings, nonviolent marches, huge protests, riot police.  The downtrodden students are encroaching on the territory of the well-of students.  It ends with funky anger.

The Gadsden High School Beta Club teacher advisor laughs.  The judges do not.

I lunched today at the pleasantly authentic NOLA restaurant with a friend who works for an embassy in Beijing.  I was interested to hear more about what would be glamorously called “diplomatic life,” a label he has readily cast aside.  He mentioned during our discussion how much money is wasted when officials based in the home country go on foreign visits, often on the premise of one or two official meetings but with the aim of taking a funded vacation.  We discussed how much money is spent on business-class airfare for everyone, business-class accommodations and all for a frequently small political payoff.  He told the story of a cabinet member who was visiting called up a consular officer in the middle of the night because he was hungry in his hotel room.  The consular officer had to get up and drive to get the cabinet member just to go out to get something to eat in the wee hours.

Amazing!  At least, to my friend and I who are in China to experience something interesting and learn as much as we can.  I cannot imagine being in the situation of traveling all over the world and not wanting to dive in as much as possible, digging beneath the veneer of official dinners and expat restaurants to discover the pulse of local culture.  That is of course a personal trait and one that betrays my having been so involved in AIESEC.  But what of the exorbitant travel fees?

I wrote some time ago about the lack of a dedicated broadcast journalism towards the shoestring backpacker crowd that even Lonely Planet slowly betrays.  This concern extends to business and government practice: significant waste on travel that could be heavily curtailed.  Personal experience: when I came to China, I had to stay in Shanghai for three weeks in order to get my visa processed before I could come to Beijing.  The company said they would cover all of my meals, transportation, and the cost of a hotel.  I, however, did not want to stay in a hotel; hostels are an order of magnitude cheaper and it is much easier to meet interesting people in a hostel than in a hotel.  For three weeks I split my time between two hostels (the first was a bit far away and the beds were too hard).  I met cool people with whom I had good times in the city and had some of my first cultural crash courses in China.  Because I saved the company so much money, they agreed to pay for the cost of my visa – a great financial weight off of my shoulders!

I have been on the benefiting end of friends with expense accounts coming to visit me at Tech and paying for dinner and drinks – it made Ru San’s a lot more fun!  It seems, though, that there should be a way for governments and companies to reward financial prudence on trips as a matter of course.  Employees and officials should have an incentive to spend a bit of extra time figuring out how to save money while traveling on official business.  For example, staying with friends or couchsurfing ought to be an option if available that could result in a reward for the employee who opts to save money.  I hear that some companies already offer set food allowances that an employee can keep if they don’t spend it on food.  Cutting down on the outrageous cost of travel without impacting travel itself could save a lot of money.

If I were the top guy of a government department or a company, you can bet that required interview questions would include: “Do you like to experience local culture when you travel abroad?”  It has to be a much more rapport-building exercise to staff agents that actually try to enjoy and understand their working environments.