"We live, as Tony Judt has written, in an "age of forgetting," and nowhere is this truer than in our political discourse. Rarely do we stop to remind ourselves that, as a New York Times editorial put it, Obama "took office under an extraordinary burden of problems created by President George W. Bush's ineptness and blind ideology." The economy was tanking: for the decade between 2000 and 2009, real growth was at its lowest point since the 1930s, and the fact that two-thirds of all economic gains went to the top 1 percent of the population meant stagnation at best for most workers, actual decline for many. Clear environmental threats had been allowed to fester. The Bush Justice Department was engaged in what appears to be widespread criminal action in a host of areas. We were fighting two wars, hamstrung by the hatred of most of the world's citizens, and operating torture chambers (and lying about it) across the globe. What's more, based on the theory of the "unitary executive" Bush and Cheney were claiming near dictatorial powers to ignore both houses of Congress and even the courts when it suited their purposes. What was his successor to do? Should he bail out the banks? Nationalize them? Break them up? Allow Detroit to die? Invite the firing of tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of teachers, police, firefighters and emergency workers by state and local governments strapped by falling tax revenues? Allow the deficit to explode or the economy to implode? Should he close Guantánamo and Bagram prisons? End rendition? Get out of Iraq? Reverse signing-statements? Outlaw domestic spying? Cut carbon emissions? And by the way, exactly how would he accomplish these things—and simultaneously? By legislation? By executive fiat? By magic? Believe me, I could go on."
Read the above article ...http://www.thenation.com/article/37165/kabuki-democracy-why-progressive-presidency-impossible-now. Totally worth the nine pages!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Jenny sans teeth weekend.
My right bottom and top wisdom teeth were finally removed this past Friday after a struggle of finding insurance and battling between lying, needing to really get them out, money issues, etc. All for you, Peace Corps!!! (and I suppose for me in the end as well, psh)
I did a whole lot of ... nothing. Too much facebook stalking. Too much rolling my eyes at my mom while she was being precious and making me homemade soups and smoothies. And while she was also yelling at me about stains on my sweat pants and t-shirts. Over it.
Didn't read books like I said I would. Instead, compulsively browsed tumblr and added new tumblrs. Watched Uruguay vs. Germany, The Two Escobars, Alice in Wonderland, About six episodes of Roseanne, and Spain vs. Holland. Going to go ahead and say it. Soccer brings nations together like no other sport I have ever seen. And I will forever be confused at the passion for American football...maybe I should just learn the logistics? Or maybe I will just be biased and forever love futbol because of my family. And love how even in the most poor of countries, compost is used to make a goal and any measly ball works as a soccer ball. Cheesy moment.
Not going to work tomorrow. Whoops. Definitely not going to work since it is 2:41 AM....I'm still quite swollen. Stretched out funny looking skin. And why not continue my Bon Iver music marathon tomorrow morning?
Skinny Love
On repeat on repeat.
Sometimes, I am just so happy sitting on my bed listening to music alone and laughing via internet conversation with my best friend Jenna. That moment is right now.
I feel blissfully happy right now for no reason. Isn't that the best?
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Macedonian Brain.
I have so much to do before I leave. It is extremely overwhelming. However, I am not going to let that get the best of me. Right? Right. This post is going to be random and scatter brained.
Macedonian is ridiculous. There are random v's in words and i am going to sound crazy for awhile. Usually, in French, Italian, Portugese, and any other romance language, I can read the text and catch on to the meaning. Not in Macedonian....these words are like nothing I have ever heard before. Also, I can't help but always giggle when people ask me, "what language are you going to learn?" and i say, well.. Macedonian. Doesn't that sound fake?
Well, I need to learn this thing:
Macedonian is ridiculous. There are random v's in words and i am going to sound crazy for awhile. Usually, in French, Italian, Portugese, and any other romance language, I can read the text and catch on to the meaning. Not in Macedonian....these words are like nothing I have ever heard before. Also, I can't help but always giggle when people ask me, "what language are you going to learn?" and i say, well.. Macedonian. Doesn't that sound fake? Packing:
PACKING. Ahhhh. I am so terrified to begin this packing adventure. I need to pack up my life in boxes, find houses to store my random items in for 2 years, and weed out what I deem to be a neccesity for me to have while in Macedonia. The below items are recommendations from current Peace Corps volunteers.
A) An Osprey bag. These bags just look so cool and mountainous. Is it worth it to spend a week of Bravo money on this? I bet this bag has so many secret compartments. It is so tempting to splurge.
B) Measuring Cups- Good thing I am the owner of the gaggle of geese to the left. They are most definitely being wrapped in my clothes and coming along with me to Macedonia to measure out the ingredients for Baklava. And eclairs. and I still don't kow any other Macedonian delicacies.
C) Hiking boots- ALL HIKING BOOTS ARE SO UGLY. Including these. And these were the only ones I sort of liked. I am going to look like the realest dyke. Macedonia has a ton of mountain ranges, beautiful sights, etc. etc. I suppose it depends where I am placed after training if I will be hiking a lot or not. But I am sure the boots will come in handy at some point in my 27 months abroad. BUT THEY ARE SO UGLY.
I feel like I am going camping.
Also suggested was a can opener, potato peeler, dial soap because the soap there is really hard? Tampons, because only the cardboard kind exist... and only in big cities. A sleeping bag, pillow cases, deodarant, ziplock baggies....I have to bring clothes for every season. 100 lbs. of all my clothes for 27 months? This is going to be absolutely insane.
List of items I need to get rid of from my apartment:
1. Pointless clothes that I am never ever going to wear. In Columbus or in Macedonia.
2. My futon of love. Coffee Table. TV Table. Lamps. Big red chair. Computer desk. Computer chair.
3. What am I going to do with my bike? :( I want to bring my bebe.
I found a Macedonian bike site on facebook and got soooo stoked again about having a bike while I am there. I am not sure how my one speed bicicyle will manage in Macedonia though. Or how my set of deep-v wheels will look among the goats and babushkas.
I can't stop thinking about leaving. I just feel like there isn't much left to do in Columbus for me right now. Things have been sort of dragging. And extremely average. But then when I think about leaving I also think about how puffy and red my eyes are going to be while sitting on the plane waiting for it take off from Columbus. Ok enough about Macedonia ! For today at least.
I need to stop shopping at forever 21.
Via New York Times Editorals
Editorial China, the Sweatshop Published: July 5, 2010
The labor strife spreading through China’s factory cities has clearly frazzled the government. Last month, it deployed Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, a k a “Grandpa Wen,” who told laborers at a Beijing subway station that the government and society “should treat migrant workers as they would their own children.”
China’s exploited workers don’t need an extra parent. They need higher wages, better working conditions and a chance to form independent unions. They need China to stop being sweatshop to the world.
Worker unrest has spread after reports of suicides at two campuses in southern China owned by Foxconn Technology, an electronics maker that employs 800,000 people in China who assemble products and parts for Western companies, including Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Since May 17, workers struck at three Chinese plants that make transmissions, exhausts and locks for Honda, the Japanese carmaker. There also have been reports of labor action in dozens of other factories.
Working conditions in too many of these factories are dismal, and the pay is, too. At the Pingdingshan Cotton Textile Company, The Toronto Star reported, workers make 65 cents an hour, working grueling two-day shifts, often in 100-plus degree heat. Workers at Honda Lock demanded a 70 percent raise from their $132-a-month wage. There are no independent unions allowed.
China, over all, has done well with its export-dependent strategy based on cheap labor and a cheap currency. Gross domestic product per person trebled over the last 10 years, to $7,200. The share of the population living on less than a dollar a day fell to 16 percent in 2005, from 36 percent in 1999. But China needs to move on.
Too much of the country’s prosperity has been absorbed by companies’ profits. Too little has gone to workers. Partly as a result, consumer spending in China amounts to merely 36 percent of its gross domestic product. In the United States, that percentage is more than 70 percent. In Europe and Japan, it is almost 60 percent.
China’s manufacturing sector can afford to pay higher wages. After the suicides, Foxconn suggested moving production of some Apple products to newer facilities in North and Central China where pay is cheaper than around the manufacturing hubs along the coast. But it also doubled wages at its Shenzen campus — to about $290 a month.
Rising wages and better working conditions are essential for China to become a more self-reliant economy, powered by domestic consumption. Until it treats its workers better, it has no chance of becoming a just and stable society.
Sometimes I feel so ungrateful. SIXTY FIVE MOTHER FUCKING CENTS A DAY? I also underestimate the hearts people have. A man at a convenience shop in the rhodes tower just gave me a free granola bar and pb crackers because I didn't have my cash on me and the credit card minimum was $5. I want to always appreciate what I have. SIXTY FIVE CENTS DAY????
Editorial China, the Sweatshop Published: July 5, 2010
The labor strife spreading through China’s factory cities has clearly frazzled the government. Last month, it deployed Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, a k a “Grandpa Wen,” who told laborers at a Beijing subway station that the government and society “should treat migrant workers as they would their own children.”
China’s exploited workers don’t need an extra parent. They need higher wages, better working conditions and a chance to form independent unions. They need China to stop being sweatshop to the world.
Worker unrest has spread after reports of suicides at two campuses in southern China owned by Foxconn Technology, an electronics maker that employs 800,000 people in China who assemble products and parts for Western companies, including Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Since May 17, workers struck at three Chinese plants that make transmissions, exhausts and locks for Honda, the Japanese carmaker. There also have been reports of labor action in dozens of other factories.
Working conditions in too many of these factories are dismal, and the pay is, too. At the Pingdingshan Cotton Textile Company, The Toronto Star reported, workers make 65 cents an hour, working grueling two-day shifts, often in 100-plus degree heat. Workers at Honda Lock demanded a 70 percent raise from their $132-a-month wage. There are no independent unions allowed.
China, over all, has done well with its export-dependent strategy based on cheap labor and a cheap currency. Gross domestic product per person trebled over the last 10 years, to $7,200. The share of the population living on less than a dollar a day fell to 16 percent in 2005, from 36 percent in 1999. But China needs to move on.
Too much of the country’s prosperity has been absorbed by companies’ profits. Too little has gone to workers. Partly as a result, consumer spending in China amounts to merely 36 percent of its gross domestic product. In the United States, that percentage is more than 70 percent. In Europe and Japan, it is almost 60 percent.
China’s manufacturing sector can afford to pay higher wages. After the suicides, Foxconn suggested moving production of some Apple products to newer facilities in North and Central China where pay is cheaper than around the manufacturing hubs along the coast. But it also doubled wages at its Shenzen campus — to about $290 a month.
Rising wages and better working conditions are essential for China to become a more self-reliant economy, powered by domestic consumption. Until it treats its workers better, it has no chance of becoming a just and stable society.
Sometimes I feel so ungrateful. SIXTY FIVE MOTHER FUCKING CENTS A DAY? I also underestimate the hearts people have. A man at a convenience shop in the rhodes tower just gave me a free granola bar and pb crackers because I didn't have my cash on me and the credit card minimum was $5. I want to always appreciate what I have. SIXTY FIVE CENTS DAY????
Friday, July 2, 2010
Mango
Today my day started off with:
Clogged ears
runny nose
uncontrollable coughing at 4am
losing my nose ring in the shower
and
A MANGO
which makes things so much better.
I'm about to read all of my news blogs. and then pretend to do my job but actually close my eyes and take a nap. Hoping I can leave work early today. Lay under my quilt at home with my lap top, get some rest, and maybe find some energy to venture out into fireworks (yes into them) later this evening.
Happy day!
Clogged ears
runny nose
uncontrollable coughing at 4am
losing my nose ring in the shower
and
A MANGO
which makes things so much better.
I'm about to read all of my news blogs. and then pretend to do my job but actually close my eyes and take a nap. Hoping I can leave work early today. Lay under my quilt at home with my lap top, get some rest, and maybe find some energy to venture out into fireworks (yes into them) later this evening.
Happy day!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Cough Cough.
It has been awhile. But as of late, I have had a very strange urge to blog.
Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog.
All of the posts below this one are about Arvind. Oh my, how the times have changed. Arvind is now one of my best friends. and I tell him my deepest secrets. and I yell at him as if he were my son. And he still gives me the tightest and most meaningful hugs. But I don't cry about him anymore. And I am happy to give him girl advice. And he is happy to give me boy advice. And he can still say I have been one of the most important people in his life and always will be. Most importantly. I can say.. I AM NO LONGER SAD AND I AM NO LONGER JEALOUS. I want to scream that from the top of Mount Kilaminjaro. VICTORY, AT LAST!!!!!!!!
Today is my very best friend, soul mate, sister, and often times girlfriend's birthday. Not sure I could call myself sane or fun, or even FUNNY without a Jenna Huhn. Unfortunately on this blessed July 1st, 2010 I am a sick bird with watery eyes, phlegm explosion, and ears-a-poppin. Exciting! Hopefully this passes sooner then later.
So if I could make this poem more friend like I wish I could. I just think it is all of the pretty things and I wanted to post it somewhere:
i carry your heart with me(i carry it inmy heart)
i am never without it(anywherei go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fearno fate(for you are my fate,my sweet) i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;
which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
Edward Estlin Cummings
I hope someone wants to tattoo that on their body in my name some day.
My mind has been a whirlwind lately. Not sure I am very happy about that. I'm usually just happiest when riding my bike. or when I am watching TV from my lap top under my quilt. Or when I am taking naps at Goodale park with my best friend. Or when the homeless guys selling their newspapers next to Dunkin Doughnuts give me high fives and gently smirk at me.
My life is going to dramatically change in 80 or so days. In 80 or so days I will be looking around me in dismay. and just nodding my head yes, or shaking it no. maybe will be looking and or feeling a little bit weird in my new city/town/village. i am hoping i will not be eating meat filled products. i also hope to have new friendships and bonds. new adventures. and new admirers. and to read an abundance of books. and to be possibly more creative then I ever have been. I hope leaving for 27 months with the Peace Corps to Macedonia is the right thing for me to do. I can't see what else could be better.
Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog.
All of the posts below this one are about Arvind. Oh my, how the times have changed. Arvind is now one of my best friends. and I tell him my deepest secrets. and I yell at him as if he were my son. And he still gives me the tightest and most meaningful hugs. But I don't cry about him anymore. And I am happy to give him girl advice. And he is happy to give me boy advice. And he can still say I have been one of the most important people in his life and always will be. Most importantly. I can say.. I AM NO LONGER SAD AND I AM NO LONGER JEALOUS. I want to scream that from the top of Mount Kilaminjaro. VICTORY, AT LAST!!!!!!!!
Today is my very best friend, soul mate, sister, and often times girlfriend's birthday. Not sure I could call myself sane or fun, or even FUNNY without a Jenna Huhn. Unfortunately on this blessed July 1st, 2010 I am a sick bird with watery eyes, phlegm explosion, and ears-a-poppin. Exciting! Hopefully this passes sooner then later.
So if I could make this poem more friend like I wish I could. I just think it is all of the pretty things and I wanted to post it somewhere:
i carry your heart with me(i carry it inmy heart)
i am never without it(anywherei go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fearno fate(for you are my fate,my sweet) i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;
which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
Edward Estlin Cummings
I hope someone wants to tattoo that on their body in my name some day.
My mind has been a whirlwind lately. Not sure I am very happy about that. I'm usually just happiest when riding my bike. or when I am watching TV from my lap top under my quilt. Or when I am taking naps at Goodale park with my best friend. Or when the homeless guys selling their newspapers next to Dunkin Doughnuts give me high fives and gently smirk at me.
My life is going to dramatically change in 80 or so days. In 80 or so days I will be looking around me in dismay. and just nodding my head yes, or shaking it no. maybe will be looking and or feeling a little bit weird in my new city/town/village. i am hoping i will not be eating meat filled products. i also hope to have new friendships and bonds. new adventures. and new admirers. and to read an abundance of books. and to be possibly more creative then I ever have been. I hope leaving for 27 months with the Peace Corps to Macedonia is the right thing for me to do. I can't see what else could be better.
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