[UPDATE 6/27/07: check out Balkan Beat Box's MySpace page to listen to their new electronic/reggae/gypsy fusion song "Digital Monkey;" I dare you to not shake yo' booty... "Comin at you digital monkey style!"]

Monkey graffiti from a garage door in Lausanne, Switzerland; a fairly boring place with good graphics.

I like monkeys because they are so similar to us. Yesterday I visited the Duke University Lemur Center, one of the only research centers in the world that houses a huge variety of lemur species. It surprised me that most of the lemurs are housed in large kennels that minimize their ability to run around and climb, while those who can roam free in acres of nearby Duke Forest have embedded microchips for scientists to track them.

Why does that bother me? Logically I understand that scientific research can help in the big picture for human understanding of endangered species; and the more we learn about lemurs the more we can pressure to stop habitat destruction, one of the major causes of species extinction. However I look at lemurs and see species so closely related to myself; afterwards a friend remarked that a little toddler held by his mom reminded him of a lemur. The tour guide explained they hide the lemurs’ food and put it in boxes so they will have to search for food as they do in the wild. He continued, if the lemurs don’t “work” for their food, or have other “enrichment” activities planned for them, they will get bored and may engage in self-destructive behavior such as obsessively pulling out their fur.

That remark struck me, reminding me of bored suburban teenage girls who cut themselves to relieve anxiety, or how inner-city kids stuck in cage-like projects join gangs because it’s actually something to do. Today’s article in the NY Times about rival factions of Brooklyn’s Bloods gang totally reminded me of Hamas and Fatah in Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on earth with a depressingly underdeveloped economy and limited options for self-expression. Militant groups like Hamas depend on kids’ boredom and desperation to replenish their numbers.

Even to a lesser extent many aspects of our Western society are based on releasing pent-up boredom and frustration rather than actually addressing our true desires. I can’t help but think of our city and suburban architecture in which we frequently move from one box-shaped building to another and feel that we are free because at the end of the day we can plug in our iPod or watch a DVD and relax at home… is that true freedom? What would true freedom look like?