For my Intro. to Economics class we had a guest "marxist" lecturer come in..I regretfully missed his name so I will refer to him as "he".
"He" started the lecture stating that capitalism is naturally and fundamentally a global economic system and has always been international. This is in reference to globalization. The great explorations in the 15th,16th, and 17th centuries extended the reach of European countries. Thus, creating a more integrated Europe.
Things came to a crashing halt in 1914, in what was destructive first half of the 20th century. Things such as the World War I, World War II, and the Great Depression happened. Productive capacity was destroyed as well as international trade.
There has been this sudden popularity in this big monster called "globalization" and discussion and panic at what it is doing. We ask, "where did it come from?" and "how do we stop it?"
But in all actuality globalization is not a recent invention. Today, it is just now catching up to what it was when it first began.
Again, he was "marxist" but he wasn't as scary as America plays them out to be. He actually looked a lot like a Karl Marx/Albert Einstein...
-A.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Jeffrey Sachs' discussion on the progress of the Millennium Villages PART 2
One of the villages in the project is in Kenya. It is called Sauri. A company agreed to provide 360,000 bed nets. Jeffrey Sachs made this partnership seem so easy so it makes me wonder why it seems we never see, actually see, all this aid the U.S. supposedly sends? If Jeffrey Sachs can scrounge up 360,000 bed nets, what could one of the most powerful nations do?
A major challenge is health. This is for obvious reasons: poor water conditions, if any, poor nutrition, if any. Sachs mentioned the basic intervention of a mid-day meal. He said there are numerous of studies that claim learning is imposible when someone is hungry. It hinders their performance. So imagine a child who gets no meal that day.
They have managed to get computer labs in the villages and working on making all villages connected to the internet. Amazing. A village can have no running water but can have cell phone service and internet. That seems backwards doesn't it?
Phones have helped improve the lives of villagers. They can call for information on directions and even call a relative. Villagers can find locations of water, markets, and villages more easily.
The basic outline of the project is based on investment. Investment in: agriculture, health, education, infrastructure. There is low productivity when there is low investment. So there is no income, much less a surplus of income.
Most importantly to making this project succeed is donors coming through on their commitment to aid. Donors got halfway but haven't fully delievered and things are looking shakey as we enter these rough economic times.
So, the Millennium Project is starting to look toward the second 5yr plan which consists of institutionalizing, or commercializing the project. Making a path to commercial agriculture. Higher energy prices have required more costs than expected and also because of the depreciation of the dollar. In agriculture, the goal is to help farmers grow more food and prevent soil depletion.
They still haven't solved the water problem but are currently looking into figuring out how to get piping into villages. Yet, every year 2 or 3 villages have a drought which slows things down tremendously.
In matters of Health, they want to have no charges for health services. Why? Becaues if you charce 10 cents, you lose a quarter of the community. When you charge 25 cents, you loose half of the community. You cannot afford to lose those people.
In education, build schools where there are none, hire teachers, and offer mid-day feeding programs. When there is a mid-day feeding program there is a huge jump in school attendance. When schools are in safe areas for girls to walk to and that provide heigenic facilities, parents will send their kids.
Infrastructure: safe water for household use. Litrines that protects the water source. Roads made better. Electricty. Infrastructure is harder because it requires more time and planning.
2nd phase:
Agriculture: diversification of crops by nurseries and multiplying seed. Irrigation which costs lots of money but requires up-front capital. Laslty, a credit system-- a way to insure repayment.
Health: elaborated health system. Ambulances, emergency rooms, training, local hospital, cell phones for health workers. There are hardly any nurses and commonly no doctors.
Education: electricity in schools, computers, illumination.
Infrastructure: BIG TICKET ITEM. Electricity grid, solar panel fields, piped water, roads.
Finally, the point in all of this is to make it all sustainable. They want this second phase to be done commercially and not based on grants. For instance, selling increased value-added crops on merket if the agriculture improves. Start poultry farming, a dairy industry.
At the moment, considering the economy, funding is being offered from countries such as the Middle East and China.
The idea behind this was to demonstrate and start the learning process for solutions at the local level and to search for how to break poverty trap. To document a way out of the poverty trap that can be scaled up.
Overall, health has scaled up, but no scaling up in agriculture. The host governments love the project and want to scale up to a national level. For example, Mali want to scale up the plan. This country may be the first to have national Millennium goals. This detailed plan would reach 166 villages. Next could be Rwanda and a district in Kenya.
There are only 7 years left though, which means time is running out. Unfortunately, that is not a lot of time. Especially when there are set backs, for example when Bush cancelled funding to Marie Stopes International, a Aids programme for African refugees. Jeffrey Sachs is adament for a new administration that will bring new hope to this project and more support. Let's hope he is right.. (p.s. I'm pretty sure he is referring to Obama as that new hope ;)...)
- A.
A major challenge is health. This is for obvious reasons: poor water conditions, if any, poor nutrition, if any. Sachs mentioned the basic intervention of a mid-day meal. He said there are numerous of studies that claim learning is imposible when someone is hungry. It hinders their performance. So imagine a child who gets no meal that day.
They have managed to get computer labs in the villages and working on making all villages connected to the internet. Amazing. A village can have no running water but can have cell phone service and internet. That seems backwards doesn't it?
Phones have helped improve the lives of villagers. They can call for information on directions and even call a relative. Villagers can find locations of water, markets, and villages more easily.
The basic outline of the project is based on investment. Investment in: agriculture, health, education, infrastructure. There is low productivity when there is low investment. So there is no income, much less a surplus of income.
Most importantly to making this project succeed is donors coming through on their commitment to aid. Donors got halfway but haven't fully delievered and things are looking shakey as we enter these rough economic times.
So, the Millennium Project is starting to look toward the second 5yr plan which consists of institutionalizing, or commercializing the project. Making a path to commercial agriculture. Higher energy prices have required more costs than expected and also because of the depreciation of the dollar. In agriculture, the goal is to help farmers grow more food and prevent soil depletion.
They still haven't solved the water problem but are currently looking into figuring out how to get piping into villages. Yet, every year 2 or 3 villages have a drought which slows things down tremendously.
In matters of Health, they want to have no charges for health services. Why? Becaues if you charce 10 cents, you lose a quarter of the community. When you charge 25 cents, you loose half of the community. You cannot afford to lose those people.
In education, build schools where there are none, hire teachers, and offer mid-day feeding programs. When there is a mid-day feeding program there is a huge jump in school attendance. When schools are in safe areas for girls to walk to and that provide heigenic facilities, parents will send their kids.
Infrastructure: safe water for household use. Litrines that protects the water source. Roads made better. Electricty. Infrastructure is harder because it requires more time and planning.
2nd phase:
Agriculture: diversification of crops by nurseries and multiplying seed. Irrigation which costs lots of money but requires up-front capital. Laslty, a credit system-- a way to insure repayment.
Health: elaborated health system. Ambulances, emergency rooms, training, local hospital, cell phones for health workers. There are hardly any nurses and commonly no doctors.
Education: electricity in schools, computers, illumination.
Infrastructure: BIG TICKET ITEM. Electricity grid, solar panel fields, piped water, roads.
Finally, the point in all of this is to make it all sustainable. They want this second phase to be done commercially and not based on grants. For instance, selling increased value-added crops on merket if the agriculture improves. Start poultry farming, a dairy industry.
At the moment, considering the economy, funding is being offered from countries such as the Middle East and China.
The idea behind this was to demonstrate and start the learning process for solutions at the local level and to search for how to break poverty trap. To document a way out of the poverty trap that can be scaled up.
Overall, health has scaled up, but no scaling up in agriculture. The host governments love the project and want to scale up to a national level. For example, Mali want to scale up the plan. This country may be the first to have national Millennium goals. This detailed plan would reach 166 villages. Next could be Rwanda and a district in Kenya.
There are only 7 years left though, which means time is running out. Unfortunately, that is not a lot of time. Especially when there are set backs, for example when Bush cancelled funding to Marie Stopes International, a Aids programme for African refugees. Jeffrey Sachs is adament for a new administration that will bring new hope to this project and more support. Let's hope he is right.. (p.s. I'm pretty sure he is referring to Obama as that new hope ;)...)
- A.
Jeffrey Sachs' discussion on the progress of the Millennium Villages PART 1
Living in New York gives you remarkable and once in a lifetime opportunities. For instance, in the past two weeks I have had the privilege of hearing Jeffrey Sachs, a prominent economist, speak twice. Not only twice, but each time on something he is passionate about: Economics and the world's poor.
Today, we are in the middle of the 5 year mark of the Millennium project.
Sachs explained that the real challenges to development lie in providing safe child-birth, climate change, areas of engineering, and other technologies. Not particularly in the economics field.
Although it seems like big things to tackle, Sachs was encouraging that there are solutions to be found.
Billions are trapped in poverty and barely have enough to survive today, let alone think about what they need to survive the week. Even if they do know what they need, which Sachs indicated that a lot of villages do, they cannot afford it. So, the poorest of the poor know what they need and cannot afford them while the richest of the rich are too blind to offer them.
Sachs claims we have this mentality, that if you are poor, it is your own fault. I know, personally, I have heard this. There are numerous of homeless people lining the streets of New York. Some look lazy while others do look sincerely desperate. It is easy to turn a blind eye and figure they can help themselves. This is not always the case. I feel like the only way to disprove this thought process is to see the poorest of the poor. In most places such as Africa, India, and China, it is a cyclical disease that plagues generations. It is a lifestyle in which often times kids know no different not necessarily a choice. Talk to the orphan in Nairobi and he will tell you he wants to be a pilot. Don't dare put him and the guy with the change cup on 34th street in the same category.
With 250 experts, worldwide, the Millennium team put together a 16 volume set of recommendations for the U.N.. Hopeful, Jeffrey Sachs said they were still waiting for that $100 billion check to start implementing these recommendations. Jokingly, he said he is still waiting for that check but supposedly if you are a bank you can get about $700 billion. Too bad that is not a joke though, huh?
One thing that I liked was that they were looking for a way to support this challenge in an innovative way. Good advice in anything and everything we do.
These villages for the Millennium project are made up of 5,000 people each. He mentioned that this was their definition of a village, one that may vary from others.
In talking with one prospective supporter, the man told Sachs that he was not sure if the project would work or not but it deserved to be tried. Today there are a dozen countries and soon it will be expanded to 16 countries.
More to come later...
Today, we are in the middle of the 5 year mark of the Millennium project.
Sachs explained that the real challenges to development lie in providing safe child-birth, climate change, areas of engineering, and other technologies. Not particularly in the economics field.
Although it seems like big things to tackle, Sachs was encouraging that there are solutions to be found.
Billions are trapped in poverty and barely have enough to survive today, let alone think about what they need to survive the week. Even if they do know what they need, which Sachs indicated that a lot of villages do, they cannot afford it. So, the poorest of the poor know what they need and cannot afford them while the richest of the rich are too blind to offer them.
Sachs claims we have this mentality, that if you are poor, it is your own fault. I know, personally, I have heard this. There are numerous of homeless people lining the streets of New York. Some look lazy while others do look sincerely desperate. It is easy to turn a blind eye and figure they can help themselves. This is not always the case. I feel like the only way to disprove this thought process is to see the poorest of the poor. In most places such as Africa, India, and China, it is a cyclical disease that plagues generations. It is a lifestyle in which often times kids know no different not necessarily a choice. Talk to the orphan in Nairobi and he will tell you he wants to be a pilot. Don't dare put him and the guy with the change cup on 34th street in the same category.
With 250 experts, worldwide, the Millennium team put together a 16 volume set of recommendations for the U.N.. Hopeful, Jeffrey Sachs said they were still waiting for that $100 billion check to start implementing these recommendations. Jokingly, he said he is still waiting for that check but supposedly if you are a bank you can get about $700 billion. Too bad that is not a joke though, huh?
One thing that I liked was that they were looking for a way to support this challenge in an innovative way. Good advice in anything and everything we do.
These villages for the Millennium project are made up of 5,000 people each. He mentioned that this was their definition of a village, one that may vary from others.
In talking with one prospective supporter, the man told Sachs that he was not sure if the project would work or not but it deserved to be tried. Today there are a dozen countries and soon it will be expanded to 16 countries.
More to come later...
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Tacos and French fries
I hate spicy. The littlest drop and I drown myself in the nearest glass of water. Therefore, I also hate Mexican food. Yet, I tend to be a minority among new friends and old ones. So I have tried to redeem myself by 1) eating at a Mexican restaurant in the past week (Cash only) 2) Making Creamy Tacos and 3) Making Tacos...next is Salsa dancing!
Ingredients:
3 Potatoes
Vegetable oil
- I recommend a "Fry Daddy" (target.com)
1 pound of ground sirloin
1 yellow onion
salt
pepper
taco shells
butter
1. Melt the slightest bit of butter in a pot
2. dice up onions (as much as you want) and put in the pot, cook until clear
3. put the ground sirloin (salt and pepper first) in the pot and immediately pour water into the pot (just enough to cover the sirloin)
4. break up the sirloin in the pot
5. meanwhile, peel and slice potatoes and place in FryDaddy until done (start to turn golden, crisp)
6. Place taco shells on a cookie sheet and place in oven (Medium) cook until warm
7. When meat is done, drain water
8. When fries are done, put on plate
9. Take the taco shells out
10. Stuff tacos with meat
Several side notes:
- Obviously, you want to buy toppings as fitting. Lettuce, cheese, etc...
- My New York stove does not have numbers. Furthermore, it is backward - for example, "hi" is really "low" and "low" is really "high". So if I can manage to guesstimate and be successful, I'm sure you can do just fine.
- I realize fries do not exactly go with Tacos..but it works- I promise!
- I made this and it served 3 people.
Ingredients:
3 Potatoes
Vegetable oil
- I recommend a "Fry Daddy" (target.com)
1 pound of ground sirloin
1 yellow onion
salt
pepper
taco shells
butter
1. Melt the slightest bit of butter in a pot
2. dice up onions (as much as you want) and put in the pot, cook until clear
3. put the ground sirloin (salt and pepper first) in the pot and immediately pour water into the pot (just enough to cover the sirloin)
4. break up the sirloin in the pot
5. meanwhile, peel and slice potatoes and place in FryDaddy until done (start to turn golden, crisp)
6. Place taco shells on a cookie sheet and place in oven (Medium) cook until warm
7. When meat is done, drain water
8. When fries are done, put on plate
9. Take the taco shells out
10. Stuff tacos with meat
Several side notes:
- Obviously, you want to buy toppings as fitting. Lettuce, cheese, etc...
- My New York stove does not have numbers. Furthermore, it is backward - for example, "hi" is really "low" and "low" is really "high". So if I can manage to guesstimate and be successful, I'm sure you can do just fine.
- I realize fries do not exactly go with Tacos..but it works- I promise!
- I made this and it served 3 people.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Heels as Wheels
Ladies,
Out of respect to the shoe gods: Manolo, Louboutin, and Prada...
If you are going to wear heels on the streets of New York, I suggest carrying (discreetly) a pair of more comfortable shoes. Why? Because some of you, heck I am even guilty too, tend to give away how long we have been walking in heels or better yet we suggest it is our first time EVER wearing them.
When you start arching over, with booty out, chest forward, it is probably time to slip on the flats. When it starts to take 10 steps to make a regular step, start looking for a bench or wall to (discreetly) slip on the flats. When your ankles start tilting and falling inward or even outward, you probably should practice walking around the house a little bit more before making your debut -- or if you are saying "I always wear heels, this just started happening!" then maybe consider if the heel is too high. Most importantly, when you start making unattractive facial expressions that scream "ow, ow, ow" with each step, time for the flats!
Several more words of advice:
If you are wearing tights that are of certain design, your feet will start hurting faster. The uneven bottom of the tights on the feet start kicking in after a few avenues. I suggest, if you are wearing boots, to where a pair of slim socks over your feet. If you are wearing these with heels, I suggest not walking for very long in them.
NEVER, EVER, change your shoes in the actual subway. People love to people watch so you will most likely be seen. Trust me, I have considered doing it but decided I could not bare the shame of all those strangers knowing my stiletto boots defeated me.
If you are stuck on 6th ave. and still have to make it to Park and you're already dying, pretend you are in a New York movie -- this always gets a few extra miles in.
Godspeed & Gucci,
A.
Out of respect to the shoe gods: Manolo, Louboutin, and Prada...
If you are going to wear heels on the streets of New York, I suggest carrying (discreetly) a pair of more comfortable shoes. Why? Because some of you, heck I am even guilty too, tend to give away how long we have been walking in heels or better yet we suggest it is our first time EVER wearing them.
When you start arching over, with booty out, chest forward, it is probably time to slip on the flats. When it starts to take 10 steps to make a regular step, start looking for a bench or wall to (discreetly) slip on the flats. When your ankles start tilting and falling inward or even outward, you probably should practice walking around the house a little bit more before making your debut -- or if you are saying "I always wear heels, this just started happening!" then maybe consider if the heel is too high. Most importantly, when you start making unattractive facial expressions that scream "ow, ow, ow" with each step, time for the flats!
Several more words of advice:
If you are wearing tights that are of certain design, your feet will start hurting faster. The uneven bottom of the tights on the feet start kicking in after a few avenues. I suggest, if you are wearing boots, to where a pair of slim socks over your feet. If you are wearing these with heels, I suggest not walking for very long in them.
NEVER, EVER, change your shoes in the actual subway. People love to people watch so you will most likely be seen. Trust me, I have considered doing it but decided I could not bare the shame of all those strangers knowing my stiletto boots defeated me.
If you are stuck on 6th ave. and still have to make it to Park and you're already dying, pretend you are in a New York movie -- this always gets a few extra miles in.
Godspeed & Gucci,
A.
The End of Credit
We have all heard the news that credit is going out of style thank to the greedy boys on Wall Street but this is nothing new as a fellow New Yorker.
There was a day that only Taxi's took cash and now Taxi's take credit cards. Unfortunately, there is an increasing amount of restaurants that are now CASH ONLY. No, these are not just the restaurants in China Town. Anywhere from the Burger Joint in the trendy Parker Meridian all the way up on 79th at the Great Burrito.
So how is a girl to rack up dividend miles, Barnes and Noble discounts, and overdraw from her bank account? Good question...
Word of advice: Always carry at least $20 cash on you at all times.
There was a day that only Taxi's took cash and now Taxi's take credit cards. Unfortunately, there is an increasing amount of restaurants that are now CASH ONLY. No, these are not just the restaurants in China Town. Anywhere from the Burger Joint in the trendy Parker Meridian all the way up on 79th at the Great Burrito.
So how is a girl to rack up dividend miles, Barnes and Noble discounts, and overdraw from her bank account? Good question...
Word of advice: Always carry at least $20 cash on you at all times.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Creamy Tacos
Ingredients:
12 Small Corn tortillas
Vegetable Cooking oil
Taco Meat (ground sirloin)
Velveeta Cheese
Rotel Tomatoes
Onion
Evaporated Milk
Directions:
1) Soak tortillas, individually, in cooking oil (count to 4)
2) Put a napkin in between each tortilla on a plate
3) Cook taco meat
- put a teaspoon of vegetable oil in pot
- put diced onion in, cook until clear
- put taco meat in
- cover with water
- run a fork through meat to cut it up
4) Cook meat until brown
5) Meanwhile, slice up velveeta cheese and put into a microwave safe bowl
6) Add Rotel tomatoes (1-2 cans)
7) Add a can of evaporated milk
8) Put bowl in the microwave
- Cook for 1 minute increments
- After each minute, take bowl out and stir
* CAREFUL NOT TO BURN THE CHEESE
9) When meat is done, drain the water out of pot
10) Put meat into corn tortillas and roll
- If tortillas are breaking, they did not soak in oil long enough
- If you are not a perfectionist, it doesn't matter if they are breaking because it all cooks together anyway
11) Put tortillas in a oven safe dish
12) Pour cheese mixture over tortillas
13) Place dish in the oven
- Cook for 20 minutes or until cheese starts to bubble
* Everything in this dish is already cooked before putting it in the oven so you can decide how long you really want it in the oven.
Serves: 4-8 people
12 Small Corn tortillas
Vegetable Cooking oil
Taco Meat (ground sirloin)
Velveeta Cheese
Rotel Tomatoes
Onion
Evaporated Milk
Directions:
1) Soak tortillas, individually, in cooking oil (count to 4)
2) Put a napkin in between each tortilla on a plate
3) Cook taco meat
- put a teaspoon of vegetable oil in pot
- put diced onion in, cook until clear
- put taco meat in
- cover with water
- run a fork through meat to cut it up
4) Cook meat until brown
5) Meanwhile, slice up velveeta cheese and put into a microwave safe bowl
6) Add Rotel tomatoes (1-2 cans)
7) Add a can of evaporated milk
8) Put bowl in the microwave
- Cook for 1 minute increments
- After each minute, take bowl out and stir
* CAREFUL NOT TO BURN THE CHEESE
9) When meat is done, drain the water out of pot
10) Put meat into corn tortillas and roll
- If tortillas are breaking, they did not soak in oil long enough
- If you are not a perfectionist, it doesn't matter if they are breaking because it all cooks together anyway
11) Put tortillas in a oven safe dish
12) Pour cheese mixture over tortillas
13) Place dish in the oven
- Cook for 20 minutes or until cheese starts to bubble
* Everything in this dish is already cooked before putting it in the oven so you can decide how long you really want it in the oven.
Serves: 4-8 people
Friday, October 17, 2008
Slay York
For anyone who has seen Sex and the City it is easy to feel like Carrie Bradshaw when you hit the streets of New York in heels. What they don't say in the episodes and movie is while she is smiling on the outside she is consumed with the throbbing of her designer encased feet.
With that said, let me begin with going to visit Duffy, the Eyebrow Slayer. Considered the best in the New York, you cannot go wrong but also keeping in mind that she believes in tweezing, not waxing. Both painful, but not always equally tolerable. But as a young girl, you learn that beauty is pain -- so what might start with an "ow" will surely transcend into a "wow".
So after walking 15+ blocks in my stiletto boots, I had my date with Duffy. I gave her clear instructions that if I start tearing up, just keep going. She said she was "gentle"--an uncommon adjective associated with eyebrows. However, I sat back and tried to take this nice little nap that Duffy suggested. It was only minutes before I realized she was half way done and I hadn't condemned my sex once. For once, beauty wasn't painful.
Conclusion: You can't wear gorgeous shoes without blisters, but you can get your eyebrows done without pain. (Proven and now considered Fact).
- A.
With that said, let me begin with going to visit Duffy, the Eyebrow Slayer. Considered the best in the New York, you cannot go wrong but also keeping in mind that she believes in tweezing, not waxing. Both painful, but not always equally tolerable. But as a young girl, you learn that beauty is pain -- so what might start with an "ow" will surely transcend into a "wow".
So after walking 15+ blocks in my stiletto boots, I had my date with Duffy. I gave her clear instructions that if I start tearing up, just keep going. She said she was "gentle"--an uncommon adjective associated with eyebrows. However, I sat back and tried to take this nice little nap that Duffy suggested. It was only minutes before I realized she was half way done and I hadn't condemned my sex once. For once, beauty wasn't painful.
Conclusion: You can't wear gorgeous shoes without blisters, but you can get your eyebrows done without pain. (Proven and now considered Fact).
- A.
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