First of all let me say that I am deeply saddened by the assassination of former Prime Minister Bhutto of Pakistan. That it was so violent and took the lives of so many other innocents makes it all the more horrible. I hope and pray that the people of her country and the rest of the Middle East will finally come to know peace.
Many of you know that I am a fervent supporter of Joe Biden's bid to be President of the United States. Senator Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has had Pakistan front and center on his radar screen for a very long time. For months he has said that we need a "Pakistani Policy not a Musharrof Policy". He has maintained open, honest and not infrequent communication with President Musharrof and with Ms. Bhutto until shortly before her tragic murder.
The Iowa caucus is just days away--January 3rd. I can only hope that Iowans who have been on the fence will see that Joe Biden is the one with the experience, connections and judgement to lead our nation at this time.
If you would like to see Senator Biden speaking on the issues related to the assassination and the future of Pakistan and our own nation, there is a 12 minute video of his press conference given as the Chairman of the Foreign Relations committee--not as a presidential candidate. The video can be found at www.joebiden.comI urge you to check him out. May some good come from these recent, terrible events.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
I guess I'm a socialist or something, but do you see the Third World in our future?
I hadn't been to New York in several years, but I went into the city a couple of times on my trip to the East Coast for the holiday season. Even before I left there in the late 90s, it was getting a bit ridiculous to live there. Some thought that maybe 9-11 would dampen the real estate market in the City, but that was merely a beep on the radar. Prices are out of control.
Back when I lived in New York, I had a little apartment in a two-family row home in Astoria, Queens--forget Manhattan even then. Since I moved out, even Astoria is looking astronomically expensive. Those who want to make an investment need to look out in Newark--it's a little dicey out there, but you've got a train route into the city.
In the meantime, I am reading an excellent book by Paul Krugman called The Conscience of a Liberal, which is labeled as current affairs, but I see more as an economic/political history of the twentieth and early twenty-first century. It looks at economic policy and especially tax policy as political tools to manipulate a greater political agenda by the Republicans, even while their rhetoric may have spoken more loudly to cultural issues. It is fascinating and to me, it all blends into what I see in New York, and to a broader extent across the country--a widening of the socio-economic gap in this country, which I feel could eventually propel us toward a Third World condition. I'm not saying this is immanent, but we cannot be complacent.
Having lived in Brazil, a country with one of the largest disparities in wealth distribution in the World, I am no stranger the dangers that exist. In Rio, where the slums have grown up the mountain sides through which the rich beach neighborhoods weave, those who wish to seperate themselves from the great unwashed, uneducated, poor and at times dangerous masses have had to resort to machine gun guarded, gated communities. Their maids venture out to the market in private buses and all is well for those who can. In Sao Paulo, on the other hand, apart from squatters under the overpasses, the majority of the city's poor live in far out neighborhoods, while the rich cluster in the center of town (grant it, the center of town is the size of Manhattan, at least, but we are talking about a huge city). The poor, like the guys who worked at the bakery on my block, traveled two hours or more each way to work for almost nothing. They walked part of the way.
New York could soon be the new Sao Paulo. Since the 1970s, the tax structure in this country has been arranged so that the very rich are keeping and investing and keeping so much of their income that the disparity between the rich and poor has been steadily expanding. The pay packages of high-level executives is so many hundreds of times the salary of the average worker that it is almost beyond belief. I would argue, that the extreme increases in incomes of the rich and in turn the super rich have been much of the drive behind the extreme increases in property prices in the major economic and political hubs of the country. Of course, this is coupled with the weakening of the dollar, which has recently compounded the phenomenon as wealthy foreigners have also sought to purchase property in areas like New York and San Francisco.
In the meantime, unlike after the post-war years, when the American middle class truly began to blossom, we are seeing a dangerous erosion of the average family's safety net and security. The fear of illness wiping out a family's security or leading to a loss of the family home is real for many hard-working and relatively well-educated Americans.
I work in education and all I hear is how we need to get every kid ready for college and that will be the ticket to a secure future, but I have felt in my bones that that was a croc of crap. And a college education is getting more and more expensive just as the guaranty it used to offer to security is eroding.
What Paul Krugman discusses in his book, The Conscience of a Liberal, is how the GOP systematically went about developing a message and an infrastructure to dismantal the New Deal and to peel away from the Democratic base many voters who should have voted for and supported the policies of the Democratic Party and the continuation of the New Deal and its promise of a strong middle class.
I urge people to read the book and to decide for themselves. How is it that so many American voters can be convinced to vote against their own self-interests? Krugman points to subtle race bating as a major component of the plan. Fear tactics, for sure, enter in. I would love to hear from any of you and discuss the implications of his arguments-- and my own fear that if the tax and other economic policies of our nation are not reversed that we could be heading towards a Third World economy--not in terms of overall size, but in terms of economic disparity and increased obstacles in movement into higher socio-economic standing. In short, an end to the American dream and the American society as we know it.
If I am correct, the end of the American society will come not primarily from immigrants or minorities, or gay marriage or pre-marital sex, but from the economic policies and political tactics of the GOP.
Call me a socialist if you want to. I prefer American.
Back when I lived in New York, I had a little apartment in a two-family row home in Astoria, Queens--forget Manhattan even then. Since I moved out, even Astoria is looking astronomically expensive. Those who want to make an investment need to look out in Newark--it's a little dicey out there, but you've got a train route into the city.
In the meantime, I am reading an excellent book by Paul Krugman called The Conscience of a Liberal, which is labeled as current affairs, but I see more as an economic/political history of the twentieth and early twenty-first century. It looks at economic policy and especially tax policy as political tools to manipulate a greater political agenda by the Republicans, even while their rhetoric may have spoken more loudly to cultural issues. It is fascinating and to me, it all blends into what I see in New York, and to a broader extent across the country--a widening of the socio-economic gap in this country, which I feel could eventually propel us toward a Third World condition. I'm not saying this is immanent, but we cannot be complacent.
Having lived in Brazil, a country with one of the largest disparities in wealth distribution in the World, I am no stranger the dangers that exist. In Rio, where the slums have grown up the mountain sides through which the rich beach neighborhoods weave, those who wish to seperate themselves from the great unwashed, uneducated, poor and at times dangerous masses have had to resort to machine gun guarded, gated communities. Their maids venture out to the market in private buses and all is well for those who can. In Sao Paulo, on the other hand, apart from squatters under the overpasses, the majority of the city's poor live in far out neighborhoods, while the rich cluster in the center of town (grant it, the center of town is the size of Manhattan, at least, but we are talking about a huge city). The poor, like the guys who worked at the bakery on my block, traveled two hours or more each way to work for almost nothing. They walked part of the way.
New York could soon be the new Sao Paulo. Since the 1970s, the tax structure in this country has been arranged so that the very rich are keeping and investing and keeping so much of their income that the disparity between the rich and poor has been steadily expanding. The pay packages of high-level executives is so many hundreds of times the salary of the average worker that it is almost beyond belief. I would argue, that the extreme increases in incomes of the rich and in turn the super rich have been much of the drive behind the extreme increases in property prices in the major economic and political hubs of the country. Of course, this is coupled with the weakening of the dollar, which has recently compounded the phenomenon as wealthy foreigners have also sought to purchase property in areas like New York and San Francisco.
In the meantime, unlike after the post-war years, when the American middle class truly began to blossom, we are seeing a dangerous erosion of the average family's safety net and security. The fear of illness wiping out a family's security or leading to a loss of the family home is real for many hard-working and relatively well-educated Americans.
I work in education and all I hear is how we need to get every kid ready for college and that will be the ticket to a secure future, but I have felt in my bones that that was a croc of crap. And a college education is getting more and more expensive just as the guaranty it used to offer to security is eroding.
What Paul Krugman discusses in his book, The Conscience of a Liberal, is how the GOP systematically went about developing a message and an infrastructure to dismantal the New Deal and to peel away from the Democratic base many voters who should have voted for and supported the policies of the Democratic Party and the continuation of the New Deal and its promise of a strong middle class.
I urge people to read the book and to decide for themselves. How is it that so many American voters can be convinced to vote against their own self-interests? Krugman points to subtle race bating as a major component of the plan. Fear tactics, for sure, enter in. I would love to hear from any of you and discuss the implications of his arguments-- and my own fear that if the tax and other economic policies of our nation are not reversed that we could be heading towards a Third World economy--not in terms of overall size, but in terms of economic disparity and increased obstacles in movement into higher socio-economic standing. In short, an end to the American dream and the American society as we know it.
If I am correct, the end of the American society will come not primarily from immigrants or minorities, or gay marriage or pre-marital sex, but from the economic policies and political tactics of the GOP.
Call me a socialist if you want to. I prefer American.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Merry Christmas to all!
'Tis the season to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Wondrous New Year! I love the Christmas season--the happy lights, the glowing trees, the stockings hung by the chimney with care. But what I love the most is the reason to stop all I am doing and put energy towards everyone I love in my life.
As a teacher and a director and a blogger and a wife and a and a and a....I have so many competing demands on my time that I spend much of my life realizing that I am working as hard as I can, as fast as I can and I am never at the end of the "list". In fact, for my own sanity, I have banned lists from my life. I used to make them, but when I couldn't get what I "needed" to do crossed off, I'd get anxious and upset. A mess. I have resigned myself to doing the best I can and helping as many people as I can--leaving myself time to eat a real dinner and get some exercise. And I help so many kids and I know that I make the World a little bit better by what I do and it fills me with satisfaction and gratitude for all I have.
But Christmas is a time to stop just long enough to connect with and honor all those people who have made my life possible. Not just my parents, but the friends, the teachers, the former students, the host parents, the co-workers who have somehow touched my spirit and left me better off. Some of whom I shared the happiest days of my life and some the lowest, but regardless, I came out better on the other side for knowing them. Some I see most everyday. Some I haven't seen in more than a decade, but all of them are with me always.
Every time I choose a gift and then wrap it thoughtfully and form a beautiful bow I honor the person who will receive it. Every Christmas card I write and stamp is a little connection with someone who I love. It isn't the cost of the card that is important, it is that I chose to spend that bit of money and the moment of time "with" the recipient. And the tighter my time gets, the more beautiful those moments are. I am so grateful for Christmas, because it allows me to share. It is the perfect reason to decorate, to bake, to entertain. To open my home as a symbol of my heart. I love my Christmas party. I love each person who comes to share it with me.
One of the best things that I did this holiday season was to take the student officers and choreographer of the Ballet Folklorico Program I direct to lunch at a nice restaurant. These people bring so much joy to my life. They, even the students, do adult work to keep the program on track and to help so many students grow in their lives. They are my Board of Directors. I loved this lunch. I loved to see them enjoying their little "executive perk". I loved to see them relax and enjoy themselves with me--like people--not like students. I loved giving them a gift-- a little token of appreciation for all they give me throughout the year.
This year, we shared our lunch, at a Brazilian restaurant, with my host daughter, who is here from Brazil. It was with my officers' permission that she joined our annual lunch date--she had served as our DJ at two shows! That was a gift, too. That all of them were happy together and happy with me. And I can be tough on these kids!
I am so lucky to be able to give at Christmas. I am so happy to be able to share at Christmas. I am so happy to be here for another year to celebrate Christmas. No matter where you are, no matter what your faith or lack there of, no matter how many pressures you have in your life, enjoy the glow of Christmas time! Slow down for a minute and share some love.
Merry Christmas to all!
As a teacher and a director and a blogger and a wife and a and a and a....I have so many competing demands on my time that I spend much of my life realizing that I am working as hard as I can, as fast as I can and I am never at the end of the "list". In fact, for my own sanity, I have banned lists from my life. I used to make them, but when I couldn't get what I "needed" to do crossed off, I'd get anxious and upset. A mess. I have resigned myself to doing the best I can and helping as many people as I can--leaving myself time to eat a real dinner and get some exercise. And I help so many kids and I know that I make the World a little bit better by what I do and it fills me with satisfaction and gratitude for all I have.
But Christmas is a time to stop just long enough to connect with and honor all those people who have made my life possible. Not just my parents, but the friends, the teachers, the former students, the host parents, the co-workers who have somehow touched my spirit and left me better off. Some of whom I shared the happiest days of my life and some the lowest, but regardless, I came out better on the other side for knowing them. Some I see most everyday. Some I haven't seen in more than a decade, but all of them are with me always.
Every time I choose a gift and then wrap it thoughtfully and form a beautiful bow I honor the person who will receive it. Every Christmas card I write and stamp is a little connection with someone who I love. It isn't the cost of the card that is important, it is that I chose to spend that bit of money and the moment of time "with" the recipient. And the tighter my time gets, the more beautiful those moments are. I am so grateful for Christmas, because it allows me to share. It is the perfect reason to decorate, to bake, to entertain. To open my home as a symbol of my heart. I love my Christmas party. I love each person who comes to share it with me.
One of the best things that I did this holiday season was to take the student officers and choreographer of the Ballet Folklorico Program I direct to lunch at a nice restaurant. These people bring so much joy to my life. They, even the students, do adult work to keep the program on track and to help so many students grow in their lives. They are my Board of Directors. I loved this lunch. I loved to see them enjoying their little "executive perk". I loved to see them relax and enjoy themselves with me--like people--not like students. I loved giving them a gift-- a little token of appreciation for all they give me throughout the year.
This year, we shared our lunch, at a Brazilian restaurant, with my host daughter, who is here from Brazil. It was with my officers' permission that she joined our annual lunch date--she had served as our DJ at two shows! That was a gift, too. That all of them were happy together and happy with me. And I can be tough on these kids!
I am so lucky to be able to give at Christmas. I am so happy to be able to share at Christmas. I am so happy to be here for another year to celebrate Christmas. No matter where you are, no matter what your faith or lack there of, no matter how many pressures you have in your life, enjoy the glow of Christmas time! Slow down for a minute and share some love.
Merry Christmas to all!
Biden on the Rise--We hope for a Jan. 3 surprise!: Go Joe!
My man Joe Biden has been coming up in the polls in Iowa. And he has been running the campaign he wants to run. No pundits sway him. No focus groups urge him to soften or harden his image. He is who is is--the most experience, level-headed, action oriented, plain speaking, humor-invoking guy in the race. If you have not already checked out the videos and blog at www.joebiden.com, please do and make up your own mind. He isn't perfect. I think he needs to expand his plans for immigration and his policies toward Latin America as a whole, but damn--he his right--we have to get Iraq out of the way first. And we have to do it in a thoughtful, responsible, pro-active way. And we have to take care of the troops coming home and we have to take care of the working and middle class people of this country in a real way. Their standing in this nation is what sets us apart from the Third World.
Finally, too Joe is getting some national press. There was a great piece on him in the New York Times this past week, outlining his personal story with all the tragedy and challenges that he has overcome and come out better for it, I might add. It stated what those of us who follow his campaign have known all along. He is his own man and he is running the campaign he wants to run--no matter what.
The L.A. Times featured a piece on its front page this week about a volunteer caucus organizer in Iowa, Teri Hawks Goodmann, who is supporting Biden. She is a die-hard supporter and she knows her stuff. She is doing everything she can to get Biden where he needs to be on caucus night--January 3rd. The way the Biden campaign figures it, if he can place 3rd in the caucuses, he can make it to the White House and me, I have to believe it, too.
That would probably mean bumping John Edwards off, and that will be hard, because he has been organizing in Iowa since the last go round in 2004 and he got a lot of people out to caucus then. But, who knows, maybe Obama will go down? He can get people out to see Oprah, but will that translate to getting people out to caucus?
Go Joe!
Finally, too Joe is getting some national press. There was a great piece on him in the New York Times this past week, outlining his personal story with all the tragedy and challenges that he has overcome and come out better for it, I might add. It stated what those of us who follow his campaign have known all along. He is his own man and he is running the campaign he wants to run--no matter what.
The L.A. Times featured a piece on its front page this week about a volunteer caucus organizer in Iowa, Teri Hawks Goodmann, who is supporting Biden. She is a die-hard supporter and she knows her stuff. She is doing everything she can to get Biden where he needs to be on caucus night--January 3rd. The way the Biden campaign figures it, if he can place 3rd in the caucuses, he can make it to the White House and me, I have to believe it, too.
That would probably mean bumping John Edwards off, and that will be hard, because he has been organizing in Iowa since the last go round in 2004 and he got a lot of people out to caucus then. But, who knows, maybe Obama will go down? He can get people out to see Oprah, but will that translate to getting people out to caucus?
Go Joe!
Chavez Watch update
Well, I have been away a long time, but I promise I have been busy with my life outside the blog--mainly school and the folklorico program, but I have been keeping an eye on that crafty Chavez and have mixed news to report. Most of my information is coming from The New York Times, CNN and NPR.
Chavez successfully got Venezuelan time zone changed to a half-hour system, which will brighten the Caracas sky half an hour earlier and, according to Chavez lead to more productivity--odd since he also has mandated a 6 hour work day, but never mind--he did it. Score one for the fruitcake, but in the meantime, people are worried that the half an hour less of light at the end of the day will only contribute further to the violent crime rate, which is surging in Venezuelan cities.
On the flip side, despite some juicy oil money inducements linked to the measure, Chavez was NOT successful in getting the public to approve, via referendum, a change to the constitution which would have allowed the crafty leader to be re-elected indefinitely. Score one for Democracy. Hope is alive.
But, don't get too happy, Chavez has got his Development Bank off the ground, with big, regional players like Brazil signed on for the ride. The bank is designed to right the wrongs of the IMF-style loans, which come with so many strings attached that they have brought some nations (notably Argentina at the turn of the 21st century) to their knees. Often the IMF and World Bank required free-market reforms and tax over-hauls that even the most capitalist of development nations don't live up to. This new bank will not require the strings, (whether there will be new strings, who knows?) but the idea of the same countries providing the funds for a bank as will be receiving the loans seems a bit fishy. Stay tuned.....
Meanwhile, Chavez pal, Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, is facing growing opposition from the relatively wealthy eastern area of his country. Evo, the first indigenous leader of Bolivia since its independence from Spain, is doing all he can to centralize power in the Andean region, home to many Amayan natives, but the East is not having it lying down. They are trying to decentralize and seek more regional autonomy. Could be a very volatile 2008 for that country.
On an interesting side note, the suitcase of cash (between $700,000 and $800,000) that was intercepted by Argentine authorities in Buenos Aires was confirmed to have been sent from the Chavez camp as a contribution to the campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. No evidence as of yet that she knew anything about it.
If you haven't figured it out, I am a huge lover of South America and wish only the best for the entire region in the New Year. I also wish that our country would pay a little more attention to our neighborhood--not in a Big Brother kind of way, but in the concerned neighbor kind. Because people like Chavez will always be around to fill the void.
Chavez successfully got Venezuelan time zone changed to a half-hour system, which will brighten the Caracas sky half an hour earlier and, according to Chavez lead to more productivity--odd since he also has mandated a 6 hour work day, but never mind--he did it. Score one for the fruitcake, but in the meantime, people are worried that the half an hour less of light at the end of the day will only contribute further to the violent crime rate, which is surging in Venezuelan cities.
On the flip side, despite some juicy oil money inducements linked to the measure, Chavez was NOT successful in getting the public to approve, via referendum, a change to the constitution which would have allowed the crafty leader to be re-elected indefinitely. Score one for Democracy. Hope is alive.
But, don't get too happy, Chavez has got his Development Bank off the ground, with big, regional players like Brazil signed on for the ride. The bank is designed to right the wrongs of the IMF-style loans, which come with so many strings attached that they have brought some nations (notably Argentina at the turn of the 21st century) to their knees. Often the IMF and World Bank required free-market reforms and tax over-hauls that even the most capitalist of development nations don't live up to. This new bank will not require the strings, (whether there will be new strings, who knows?) but the idea of the same countries providing the funds for a bank as will be receiving the loans seems a bit fishy. Stay tuned.....
Meanwhile, Chavez pal, Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, is facing growing opposition from the relatively wealthy eastern area of his country. Evo, the first indigenous leader of Bolivia since its independence from Spain, is doing all he can to centralize power in the Andean region, home to many Amayan natives, but the East is not having it lying down. They are trying to decentralize and seek more regional autonomy. Could be a very volatile 2008 for that country.
On an interesting side note, the suitcase of cash (between $700,000 and $800,000) that was intercepted by Argentine authorities in Buenos Aires was confirmed to have been sent from the Chavez camp as a contribution to the campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. No evidence as of yet that she knew anything about it.
If you haven't figured it out, I am a huge lover of South America and wish only the best for the entire region in the New Year. I also wish that our country would pay a little more attention to our neighborhood--not in a Big Brother kind of way, but in the concerned neighbor kind. Because people like Chavez will always be around to fill the void.
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