Stiring up trouble

Ebola in Sierra Leone:

It apears this nytimes article is causing some problems...

"SYLVIA BLYDEN ON LiFE AFTER STATE HOUSE

The NEW YORK TIMES article is evidence of why I had to quit State House. Too many saboteurs who can smile to the President and stab him behind his back. Oswald Hanciles is one such person at State House. He surreptitiously aided to plant the article through his friend Adam Nossiter but made sure his name was never mentioned even as he incited against the President and so-called Makeni politics. I prefer to resign and criticise from the outside than stay inside and leak documents to NEW YORK TIMES like Oswald Hanciles and his likes are now doing.

Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden. "

Moving toward the/a future

So in all the here and there of trying to make decisions about schools and where to go a very definitive moment and circumstance has been illuminated for me.  Months ago I looked at some European schools and settled in on the University of Ljubljana as a good option for me, and one that I was guaranteed to get in to.  The educational merits are there for me to attend this school.  Third ranked school in Eastern Europe, Interdisciplinary program, done in four years max, 1.5 years there and then back here to do (required) coursework at foreign institutions and my research (i.e. could study at Rutgers), etc.  Just prior to hearing back from Binghamton, when the rejections were starting to rain in, I started really thoroughly examining this opportunity.  And it quickly became more about a career and life choice than a school choice.

I started constructing a rationale in my head that made, what could be seen in many ways as a defeat (if I did not get in anywhere here), into a victory.  The problem was that the rationale was in fact, way to sound. As you start to think about your future and creating a place of joy for the long term, you start thinking through things of personal and social importance.  Where you want to get old, what type of society you want to live in, if you had kids what kind of society would they grow up in, does your country embody your beliefs both at home and abroad, and perhaps most importantly what are does a country and its socio-economic prospects for the future hold?

For me these questions made me want to move.  Getting a PhD in America means setting ones self up within the American system, and best positioning oneself for a job here in America.  Going abroad does the opposite.  If I went to Slovenia (a small country of 2 million people, formerly part of Yugoslavia, that is nestled within Italy, the Austrian Alps, and the islands of Croatia on the Adriatic sea and carries a rich history of egalitarian economics and slavic language and culture) I would stand a very good chance of creating career opportunities there.  If I spent four years there I would both ingrain myself within the European academy and Slovenia.  I would speak Slovenian and maybe Serbo-Croatian to some extent, to go with my Czech and the German I studied in college.  If I studied Occupy and the US's suppression of the movement, I would have a strong American studies resume that would make me very marketable on the teaching market throughout Europe, nevermind the areas of Central Europe that I feel at home in.  If I go to school here, the degree could still open some of those doors if I do it right, but not the same social and linguistic ones.  More readily though, it sets me up for a life here in the United States, as part of the Academic and socio-economic system I so readily struggle with.

More importantly though with this logic is that it is a bet on America moving forward.  This right now is not a bet that I feel very comfortable taking.  America is in decline, and the only people (sadly a majority living here) that don't believe this are people blinded by nationalistic rhetoric, our sensationalist media, and/or are just plain ignorant of the signs showing this.  Forget about China's assent and the shear numbers of people in Asia, and the rest of the trajectories of the outside world and lets just focus on America.  We are a disaster.  We are incredibly in debt, of which more than half of that is owned to foreign creditors who now carry US dollars to buy our goods with, except we are not producing as many goods for sale.  That money we borrowed, rather than spend it on investing in our own production (infrastructure, economic production and investment in manufacturing and services for sale to the world) we spent it on wars and tax breaks which are not being spent here at home as much as in larger investments in places cheaper to invest and with higher rates of return (i.e. Asia, Africa, South America, etc.).  This is basic capitalism 101, the capital will flow to areas of lower costs and higher returns.  The US does not fit in to this model at all as it carries high wages and regulations that require companies to do humane things like limit work weeks to 40 hours, provide safe, sanitary conditions for workers, and not lock factory doors so all the people die if there is a fire.  The problem is though that with all this regulation and investment, we are not doing it right.  Our political establishment is deliberately incapacitated and disastrous.  Tomorrow we are about to have this mandatory sequestration that cuts government spending across most all boards by up to 10%.  The politicians are intractable ideologs beholden to a system owned by corporate and private interests that carry soooo much more weight than individual people that would love to think they have democratic control over the country.  While economically speaking we should be increasing public and governmental spending to stimulate the economy we are giving tax/regulation breaks to people and companies so they will stimulate our economy.  But - again - they are all following the basic rules of capitalism and for the most part not investing locally, nevermind in infrastructure and the foundational elements of an economy that expand the economic multipliers for every business (roads, bridges, research, etc), not just those in their supply chain.  Technological advancements, and cheaper labor options abroad are taking higher level jobs away from the American workforce, while the advertisers emphasis on debt fueled consumerism only creates low wage retail and service type jobs fueled mostly by the growth of population and perceived "needs" for new gadgets, widgits, and elves on shelves.  Real wages (meaning adjusting for inflation) have been dropping since the seventies, and since 2008 50% of the jobs we've lost were at a middle class wage level, while on two percent of those that we've regained since the start of the crisis are middle income.

It now takes two incomes to provide what one wage earner used to for a family.  So we go further into debt with credit cards, home equity, medical bills, and soon to become the worst bubble of them all: student loans.  Given the crunch on jobs, and more aptly decent paying career type positions, as these jobs are shipped abroad, our workers become "redundant" and un/underemployment rises.  Education is of course shown as the ticket to a better paying job.  Thus we all have to roll the dice and try to be the one in 500 to get that job, but we have to have the degrees or you don't even get considered.  So we take the loans, go to school, and then nearly 50% of us end up in jobs that don't require degrees or pay for them.  So we struggle to or can't pay back our loans as we don't have enough income, meaning we will forever be financial behind (with no possibility of bankruptcy on federal student loans).  This stagnated struggle of course limits the capacity for the "american dream" of home ownership.  This of course then hurts the housing market, leading to lower values and less jobs.

It seems the only market to get into would then be education, as it is fueled by government subsidized loans that you can't default on, and which financial companies churn and burn through a system of hedges, safety measures, and insurance/derivative options to allow companies to still make money even while consumers fail.  Schools though keep raising tuition, 5-10% every year to upgrade facilities to try to bring in the best students, but this is all based on debt as well and will eventually prove unsustainable.

Most importantly though the education market is predominantly fueled by governmental spending - either through loans, grants, or subsidized tuition - and most importantly to this condemnation of the American system moving forward - is the ideological pathway we are headed down.  In the 50's and 60's when America was  in the midst of its "greatest generation's" heyday, we had as high as 90% tax rates on the rich which progressively went down from there, that tax bracket was down to 35% and below last year.  Capital gains, inheritance, back then the government still made money and spent money - and lest you think this is about entitlement programs, it's not - its about investing in our country's ability to make its way forward economically, and to provide for its citizens and its business endeavors.  I no longer believe that this is what we are doing.  We are cutting everything.  40% of our bridges are in desperate disrepair, not to mention roads, we are destroying our environment with every second we don't act, we sped money on weapons that destroy economic capacity and lives rather than build upon them, all the while "leaving education to the states" while we both cut and "cherry pick" their funding.  We have created an ideological and populist fear of taxes, that is and will slowly strangle us into a privatized, capitalist, profit driven noose that will not invest in common interest projects for the betterment of our economy and society, but rather in short-term individualized profit.  This is not an investment in the future that I think will really create a wonderfully sustainable place to live.

Look at New York City alone.  Go anywhere in the world it seems and most subway systems in major cities are beautiful shining examples of care and functionality.  They look like places meant for people.  The NYC subway system is grossly infested with disrepair and just as much dysfunction as the rest of the city.  Our politicians are grossly corrupt, and we have a draconian policing strategy that has spread throughout the country and infects all of our communities with stiffing repression of minorities and economically disadvantaged people.  And it's only getting worse.  I go into these buildings that I deliver to and see palaces that cover entire floors, two floors even.  Tens of millions of dollars for home after home in a city with a median income below the national average and a cost of living almost double the next closest city.

Fact of the matter is that NYC, like America is going down and ideological pathway that is untenable for the economic and social future of the country and planet.  So how do I, with an eye on my future, make a choice to be a part of that?  Yes, things are easier for me here in many ways as my family and friends are here, day to day things make sense, I know how it works and am rarely surprised functionalities, but still, I am left tremendously wanting.

And the most troubling things is that as I have been reading a People's History of the United States, it is eiry how little things have changed.  New technological faces on the same old systemic problems.  But of most importance in thinking bout this book and life here, I have found myself seeing things through the eyes of the settler to America, the European outcast, the immigrant that picked up there things and family and said I'm going to bet my future on something else than my current existence.  They looked at their lives in Europe, China, wherever, and left.  They didn't know what they were going to, but just knew they didn't want to be where they were.  I don't believe that short term unsettlement is as bad as the decades of the decline that my surroundings are likely to go through.

But is Europe any better?  I mean, the same neoliberal pathways are being followed there as well these days.  But at least they are starting from a place of strength.  Universal healthcare, lives not based solely on work, vacations, safety nets, etc.  I was always happy with the way the systems around me worked when I was there, even if I struggled at places within it.  I came back to the US with the goal of getting a PhD so I could have the qualifications to go live anywhere I wanted and to be able to get a legitimate job and support myself while I was there.

I have no idea where that place is, but I do know that right now what I see out of America makes me feel like those that emigrated from their own countries and came to America.  I feel a lack of hope, a desperation in my surroundings, that makes me think that there are other places to look to for better future prospects.  But where do you go in today's world to escape capitalism?  I don't know that there is any escape.  It's a global epidemic.

So I guess there is no answer.  But I tell you, when I allowed myself to look at a life in another place, less assuming, less aggressive, less competitive and ambitious, with a quieter pleasanter life, I found myself idolizing it.  Shorter time in school, solid job prospects, and a clear transition strategy.  Sigh, now I still have other schools to hear from and Boston (northeastern) and Hawaii are a different place than Binghamton for sure, as is York in Canada, so we will have to see.  But I tell you, Ljubljana - with its juxtaposition to this American future - feels like a nice alternative to spending seven years preparing to spend the next several decades competing in a job market and economy that I've already spent more time losing in than I've even been in.  Plus, we have military bases and kill people without trial or impunity all over the world to satisfy our aggressive global imperialist/unethical agenda.  I don't like saying that I am a part of that, do that, or represent that.  Maybe I am not proud to be an American, or of what America is.  I don't know.  Maybe its time to look elsewhere.

Why there is no money in changing the world

It's simple and systemic.  We live in a world based on power and the accumulation of capital as its principle means of expression.  Power does not want the world to change.  The powerful, like it the way it is.  The Romney's, Goldman CEO's, Bush families, Koch Brothers, and such (yes, there are plenty of lefty rich people out there to include here as well) that are just fine with their lives.  The rest of us sadly though struggle to become more of them, less of ourselves.

I have a friend right now that splits time doing real work trying to keep greedy businessmen from stealing land from indigenous people in the developing world, with editing food and cooking publications.  Seemingly one actually matters to people's lives and the other does not matter as much.  People being dispossessed of their land, their livelihoods, and their power, in the name of someone else's profits, somewhere else's appetites, and somewhere else's energy or mineral needs is abominable.  But it happens - last year to the tune of land the size of France.  Recipes and tasty tidbits of the 1st world are well... not important.  I mean, yeah, I like a good meal.  But the fact that there is plenty of money in editing gourmet cook books and so little in saving people's lives and livelihoods is to me the cornerstone of the problem in the world today.

This is the same situation I am in and have been in for years.  There is no money for changing the world, thus so many fewer jobs.  She wants to work full time and support a life doing food and agricultural justice work, yet it doesn't pay enough.  I want to do similar things with economic and social justice, but I'm not getting anything there either.  The labor market is simply too tight with too many people applying for the same positions.  The powers that be don't want the world changed, and the powers that be are the ones with the money.  Thus they have no interest in funding change in the world.  So the non-profit and activist community scrapes by.  There are just never enough jobs, never enough money, never enough help for those around the world (and in the US) being dispossessed, having their land stolen, their lives stolen, trafficked, killed, raped, whatever.  It is these crimes in far away lands that allow us in the "1st" world to have enough food and time to buy cook books and experiment with new types of food, as opposed to using what food is available, eating as nutritionally as we can, and trying to simply maintain enough human security to live happy productive lives for ourselves and our communities.

The problem is simple, for all of us to find economic and social avenues towards success we need to change the power structures affecting us.   That is just exactly what my friend and I want to do, but we can't commit ourselves fully every day to it.  The greed and feeling of entitlement to power those with it have is so entrenched as to never allow us enough money to change it (I'll write more on the entitlement component of that later).  This hold has lead to all sorts of outcomes.  At the behest of this power, governments are cutting grants and funding programs, corporations have become people, private individuals are driving things with their agendas, and the average everyday person can't find the means to fund or work full-time towards true change, nevermind food and shelter in many circumstances.  So what do we do?   How do we bring change without the tools needed to change?  What is the power of the powerless?

A call back from the abyss!!

Started on 4/29..

So the political party called me back.  They wanted me to do some campaign work for them.   Not fundraising stuff, but door to door, advocating stuff in New Jersey.  I got a vague voice message and then had a quick but nondescript conversation about doing something with them for a few days till that campaign ended.  The lead guy on it was going to get back to me.  I heard nothing for a week. 

I then got a call from the one HR guy that I had originally interviewed me (and mislead me).  I had questions about it all and he was a bit taken aback that I was questioning it all.  I wanted to know the candidates name and a bit about them before I just jumped in.  He had this air of arrogance and bewilderment in his stance though, as if I actually had bought into the sh*t they were shoveling over there and had really wanted to work for them; that I would be unconditionally involved with whatever candidate and issues that they were pushing and how they were doing it.  No... I'm sorry, I am skeptical of you.  I am skeptical of your party.  I am skeptical of your means, your methods, and definitely the entire system you operate in and can't separate yourself from.  You are after all just another political party, you stump for money first, and ask about votes later.  No, I do not trust you.  After all, I was let go because while I could get you votes and turn people's opinions, I could not raise you money.  You are bought and you are sold. 

Mind you, this HR call came on April 30th, and he asked me if I could start the next day - May Day!!  Yes, the same international labor May Day that is celebrated all over the globe and would see a massive Occupy and labor coalition action that had been in the planning for the entire year!  He was oblivious, yes the "political arm of the unions" was completely oblivious to the largest planned day of action for labor and workers issues in decades.  This both amazes and scares me.  I had pushed for observance of it while I was working there to no avail.  I had gotten the same type of bull sh*t politically obfuscated response I had gotten to my questions about some of their fundraising leads came from.  Deflection, subtle dismissal, and general plea of not being responsible.  It was all bull sh*t at the time and I knew it.  On the call of course this was completely apparent.  I mentioned May Day to him and he was clueless and taken aback again that I would think people like them shouldn't be working that day.  The unions and Occupy are talking general strike and you not only aren't supporting it with your workers, but you don't even know about it.  Wow!!

I told him I'd get back to him after I looked into it.  Two days later exhausted from May Day (yes, a looong reportage of that day has been undertaken and will be posted in an amazingly untimely fashion!), I ran into another guy from Occupy that happened to start working on this same campaign jsut a few days earlier.  He was mortified.  A complete disaster.  He was working for the party, but was paid through a separate union maybe, yet could say none of this when he went to the doors.  He had to say he was a part of some specific New Jersey organization for change type of name that was supposedly unaffiliated with any part of the party, unions, whatever.  Yeah... Shady Super PAC stuff.  The essence of what Occupy's push for campaign finance reform - and that party's own campaign finance reform push - where specifically against!  Here it was, politics in America at its sleaziest. 

Yeah, sure, that's how the system works.  That's what Democracy looks like in America.  Shady organizations, cutting around shady corners, in shady ways, using shady money trails.  How does one get involved with that?  Yeah, it's money, an income that I need, but I am sorry.  I am in Occupy because our political and socio-economic system is corrupt almost beyond reproach and we have to change it.  Yeah, you could look at it all and say how can you work for this or that, retail, capitalist, etc.  But retail is a guy trying to put food on the table in a sh*ty system.  While I don't condone the system, I don't fault the singular person.  Politics on the other hand is the method to our madness, the means to bring about change.  Sure, it's idealistic to think the system is going to change from within without using the funding methods instilled within the system.  But I personally have barriers.  Things I won't do.  Lines I won't cross.  And I am not going to stand on someone's door and lie to them.  I am not going to tell them I work for someone I don't, and I am not going to pretend that money is more important than even the most basic forms of integrity.  At least when I sell someone an expensive sleeping bag I don't have to lie to them about where it's produced or what company made it.  I have no respect for this party or our political system at this point.  It must be changed.  It can not be run by money.  It can not be run by the rich, the powerful, and/or the corrupt for the rich, the powerful, and/or the corrupt.  It must be run by people.  One person, one vote.  Not one dollar, one vote.     

No politics!!

So a guy came in to the hiking store today, apparently he's a regular, and he started talking about Chicago and the NATO/G8 events there towards the middle of May.  He was talking about the whole city being evacuated, actually claiming all of Illinois was being evacuated and was off on some details.  Obviously given my position within Occupy circles I had some things to had.  So I stuck in a few general facts about Obama moving the G8 to Camp David and some facts and figures on the police ramp up and supposed tactics being discussed by them.  Nothing too profound, just some point of information type stuff.  The conversation went on and I was pretty neutral and subdued, GMO's came up, occupy, etc.  The other guy working in the store was staying out of it.  He left to get something to eat and I got a bit further into things.  When he came back we were fully into GMO's.  I should also say, the guy was full on conspiracy theorist, so if anything, I was tampering his fervor.  But anyway, we finally get to a closing point and he says "ok, one last question..." which I probably could have guessed.  "9/11, inside job?"  lol.  My colleague was back and declined to answer, I give a politically correct no and brief explanation which the colleague added to.

Once the guy leaves, pleading the whole way that it was an inside job, my colleague tells me nope, natta, we can't engage in politics.  He states that the owner will of course at times (especially amongst ourselves) and sometimes you have to, but that the store can't be seen as taking a political stance.  From a business perspective I see his point wholly and respect it, sounds rational and prudent for business.... but not for life.  I mean think about the world we live in.  We have this unwritten rule in America that in "polite company" we don't talk about politics and religion; two things probably most often gone to war over in human history.  Yeah and maybe on the surface that's a good reason to stay out of it, but come on, what is politics if not your daily life?!  We make choices all the time, choices that are political and can be even more political.  To not engage in dialog about the most contentious aspects of our social existence is to ignore them.  To ignore the most important parts of our lives. 

This to me seems to be just more of the same old dumbing down of America and its politics.  I remember on numerous occasions while in Europe sitting places and speaking to both friends and strangers about politics and religion, and having them express how odd they thought it was that in America they were taboo topics that people didn't want to talk about.  It has become such a part of life here in the US to not express your political and spiritual beliefs - in the land of the free!!  Somehow we don't feel comfortable engaging in this type of dialog, nevermind seeing people protest about it.

My personal opinion is that it is not about the subject matter, but about our manner of discussion.  The way we talk to each other and the respect that we have for other people.  Our political system has become so polarized, and so entrenched with its poles, that these discussions to easily lead to black and white stances with little room for common ground and grey areas to agree upon.  But more importantly, I think these arguments so easily come about because of how we've become as people.  I don't see a mass populace will to listen or taught to be open to new or different people and ideas.  We are brought up to believe in our beliefs as we come to learn them at all costs and not to waver.  Pride and arrogance - and ugly combination.  An open mind it seems is a terrifying thing to possess in America.

Yes, I am generalizing and perhaps detrimentally so.  But I believe on the whole, we have created a country that is unwilling and incapable of simple person to person political dialog in both our friendly and professional circles.  What does this do but simply make us less capable of discussion over time and also less informed.  Person to person dialog is invaluable.  It is the only way to truly understand the lives and politics of other people.  The only politics most people end up getting in their lives is the politics of hand picked - and in many cases agenda driven - sound bites and/or the repetitive voices of well funded political pundits.  That is not politics.  That is large scale social engineering.  I won't get into the American media and the disaster that it is in this post, but its pretty simple, if you really want to learn about people, ask them.  If you really want to understand politics, ask people.  And not just people like you, but ask people you don't know and don't identity with what they think about things.  Random people on the subway, at the mall, the supermarket, wherever: Occupy, Obama, stop and frisk, Romney, banking, Iran, whatever.  As a society we will never learn anything if we can't engage in honest open - nonrepehensible - dialog about our lives, our neighborhoods, our stores, our countries, our world, whatever.  Politics should NEVER be off limits.  Just like stifling protest should never happen.  But I suppose it would be best if first we actually made it acceptable to both have different beliefs, and to accept others with different beliefs.  Talk freely amongst yourselves!!   

Work Update

So the grand experiment that was Timmy the political fundraiser is dead!  Not that it ever sat so well with me anyway!  I had till Wednesday (the 18th) to show progress and be making quota.  It didn't work out.  It was an amicable split.  No drama, nothing too profound.  I will say though that I put myself in the most disadvantageous position I possibly could though probably as I spent the morning embroiled in my deteriorating domestic entanglement and running just over a mile at 6 minute pace to get there barely on time - with tears in my eyes for at least the first half a mile!!  Can't say I've ever cried and ran before that I can remember.  Anyway, so is life - holistic - one thing doesn't wait for the next.  No school, no job, and quite likely no girlfriend all in a few days.  What can you do.

BUT!!  I took a call mid way through the evening shift and already had another job, before I had even lost this one!  It's not a lot of hours, 10/week, but it will be a good start to move forward with.  It will be as a hiking guide and retail sales for an outdoor store in Brooklyn.  It really is so much closer to my heart than fundraising for sure!  It takes me so much further back to things like the Sierra Leone trip and such.  All the gear I put together, the research, all the time I spend out in the woods bouncing off rocks.  It's not enough to sustain myself financially, but it is an income for a quick moment while I figure things out.  In a month I will have a license to be a guide and I will have learned a great deal of things that will mean A LOT to me personally.  Things that I have really wanted to get further into for  long time.  It also may open some really interesting doors as well.

My first day was today (Sunday, 22nd) and it was all about training on the gear in the store.  But we did talk a bit about Sierra Leone and an idea I'd had while there about doing some trail marking to help the country with tourist trips doing ecotourism and hiking (as well as seeing how things are in another place in the world, a much poorer place than America). The one guy thought it might be a great thing to try to do through the store.  Wow, we'll see!!  Anyway, I loved it.  I'm sure it will bring some different issues in general, but on the whole I will just be learning and talking about the outdoors and spending time there.  At least it will be a nice segue to another place in life - either through itself, or on the way to someplace else.  Not to mention, its a job.  What else you gonna do! 

A day in the life.

So yesterday was a mesmerizing day.  I woke to sunshine and hope.  It was followed by a bit of love, a little annoyance and domestic despair, even a touch of hopelessness.  Then I rushed off to work.  But this wasn't a day of ordinary work.  I was paid to be at a protest rally.  I was paid to hand out political theater on the sidewalk.  I was paid to keep people within the confines of a march, to marshal a protest (i.e. to keep it within the legal parameters of public protest while yet protesting against the illegality of so much of our society).  I must admit that I struggled the night before with the idea of being paid to exercise my freedom of political expression.  But I seemed to easily get past it once we got to Trump Tower and were getting set up.  I was excited. 

I was going to be handing out envelopes with "more money than GE, Verizon, Bank of America, etc. had paid in taxes in the last three years", (one penny inside) and then engaging in conversation about it all with passers-by.  It was great.  But I tell you what, midtown (and 5th ave of course) was a nightmare for sympahty.  Tourists, rich people, businessy types, and an occasional blue collar delivery or tech service type guy.  We did this for a while and then went to down to near Rockefeller center and eventually Bryant park.  Actually it was across the street from the park and Bank of America, right in front of the NFL store!  Which I didn't know existed!  But I'll get back to that in a sec.  So we just waited and waited and waited for things to get organized.  But I just stayed on the corner and handed out my envelopes.  It was so much more fun than just milling about.  I love this kind of stuff.  Flyering is great.  Engaging with real people, about real issues.  Most want to have nothing to do with you, some take it or keep walking while you get your qhick last second hook in.  The business types seem to be the worst, so arrogant.  They don't need your "money" and they certainly don't have anything to "learn" from you is the vibe thy give off.  Hell, why don't they at least stop and teach me something??  No time, no interest, more important things. 

There were some amazing moments though, people who just look at you in amazement at what they've just learned.  People that have no clue of any of this stuff.  It was also interesting in thinking about the people that I approached as well.  The only methodological selection I tried to do was to weed out foreigners.  Otherwise, it was as random as people that weren't on the phone, or obviously rushing.  Suits, sweats, jeans, men, woman, whatever.  But you could see some people when you offer them "money" stop and look like they could desperately use it.  I felt bad sometimes knowing that there really was only a penny in there.  But I think that was the point.  They needed money, they were paying their taxes, and these big businesses had a net tax burden below zero.  They were getting money back.  That's a tough pill for many to swallow.

Anyway, it was an interesting day of that.  But at one point kind of surreal.  Anyone that knows me, knows that I come from a place and history so completely mired by a passion for football and all things related.  One person walking on the sidewalk - unbeknownst to me of course - worked in the NFL retail store there.  I of course tried to give him an envelope and finish the story as he ducked into the store.  I didn't follow him, but tried to finish it from the entrance until he turned around and stood next to the security guard and told me to stop.  He was so rude.  To him I'm sure all I was was just another dirty protestor messing up his day, little does he know how much of my heart has been poured into football and the NFL.  I worked for years with the NFL in Europe with player development, junior national teams, marketing and business development.  Coaching and developing young prospects and sending players to their elite camps, developing the game, playing there.  I played Division I football, and even pushed the game a bit in China and Sierra Leone of all places.  So much of my soul has been spilled on football.  I stood there in silent disbelief, I froze speachless.  He obviously took my hesitation and blank stare as an affront as I looked down at my feet in a daze and saw my one big toe lightly touching the door frame.  I wasn't allowed in the store.  Obviously, they don't want our political theater there, but it was so surreal to me as the two passions I've followed in life came so resoundingly crashing into each other.  I am an activist now.  And the NFL is just another giant corporate entity - granted, one that runs its league along egalitarian socialist terms!  It was tough for some reason to feel that though, to be hurt by it, and to wake up this morning with it in my head.  Odd, yet kind of painful all the same. 

Fact is the whole day ended with a lot of oddities.  Marching for money and organizing for money with an organization is so different.  I go back to the whole horizontalism versus hierarchical structures for getting things done discussion.  The organization of the march was actually kind of poor during it.  They had three groups of marshals, one in the front, one in the middle, and one in the back.  Nothing in between keeping everyone together or on the right path, just clumps.  I took initiative at one point and stopped at a spot where there was construction dividing people and tried to keep them together.  I later approached my "leader" about it and he resoundingly shut down any thought of such preemptive initiative.  We were to stay together and do as he said, which put probably 15 marshals just walking together and occasionally providing a human shield for speakers (which could have been done by half of us).  It was amazing to see this concept of oversight and a lack of faith in individual personal capacity.  At occupy, people just step in and make things happen they see need to be done.  Who needs designated people to keep crowds off speakers when you can just ask people from the audience to do it on the spot?  Free will, personal agency, all hierarchyed out of they equation.  I so much prefer the occupy method, and for the first time REALLY saw what people mean when they say Occupy is a "leaderfull" movement rather than a "leaderless" movement.  Given agency and purpose I believe people will step up, feel empowered to act, and act in an intuitive communal way.   I believe Occupy shows this.

As it was, there was not a big Occupy presence there at this rally though.  I was under the impression they would be meeting up with us today.  But it didn't happen.  Not that their weren't occupier's there, but it was not a huge presence.  Maybe they were all still down on Wall St getting mistreated...

Anyway, the rest of the day went as it does.  Some good comradery and catching up with occupiers and others as the "work" and the march wound down.  But then of course there was more domestic uncertainty and dismay as the evening went on.  Life is a struggle right now.  As was yesterday.  I felt at home - to my core - acting within my own personal agency, activating other people, reaching out to them, engaging, and then just stepping in and filling unforeseen gaps in the event.  But sadly, as much as I felt at home and felt like I TRULY made a difference yesterday, I stand a very good chance of losing my job today.  It doesn't matter what I can do on a street corner with the issues, or step up at an event and make things happen, it is only about how much money I can make for them.  And yeah, it probably doesn't help that in filing in holes in the event, I was not following "orders" appropriately.  Who knows how much that will matter.  Some seemed to see the value of that, others seemed more concerned with their own power maintanence - a product of their adherence to and belief in hierarchy perhaps.  But so be it.  I felt good about things, even if I don't feel good about my prospects in this type of life per say.  Wholly capable, yet wholly in capable it seems.  


   

Transformation Within?

Written 4/3/2012

I really hope not!  So here I am. catching myself in this fundraising world starting to think in fundraising terms, staring to frame things in "whether people will give money or not":  "great conversation, they didn't know us yet and weren't ready, but they'll give in the future."  Sigh....  It feels like a dark day.

I've become that guy.  Or am capable of being that guy as I have to.  It is really interesting in thinking about it all in the context of time and the transformation of the self (or at least within one's self).  Here I am in the beginning of this job (read the recent  posts) complaining about and analyzing the position and the culture at this organization, and now here I am, becoming indoctrinated within the same framework.  Thinking about contributions, about getting donors.  I mean it would be virtually impossible not to.  My livelihood right now depends on it.  If I don't raise money, I am gone.  I was one day away this weekend from being done.  I have no choice but to fall within the lines (or confines) of this cultural paradigm.  It is truly sad.  But this is exactly what we as a society are required to do everyday, and in every job.  There are corporate cultures, certain ways of doing things, and requirements that we all must adhere to should we wish to maintain our places within the social order and the working world's order.  And it truly is sad.  Not that we become a part of a culture or a part of something semi-uniform.  That in many ways is positive and very inclusive.  It gives a sense of belonging to many people in many settings, even work.  

My issue with it all is that this is what American culture has seemingly become about: work.  We work as many hours as any country out there and our jobs have become how we mostly define ourselves.  What is the standard question most people ask when they first meet someone?  "So what do you do?"  Who is proud to say, "I'm unemployed?", "I'm in between jobs?", "I just got out of school and am still looking for work?"  Fact of the matter is that we for the most part have started to define ourselves by what we are professionally.  Not what we do when we are at home or out in our free time.  We are our jobs.  If that isn't the case, next time someone asks you what you do, say: "I run and hike when I'm not reading ancient Chinese philosophy."  See, you can't say you're a runner, because then people think you're doing it professionally, and if you said I'm a reader of ancient Chinese philosophy they'll likely ask, "wow, how do you get paid to do that?  Are you a professor?"

Fact is our minds gravitate to work and jobs.  It is how our society has taught us to define ourselves in so many ways.  So that is my dilemma.  Am I now becoming a fundraiser?  Not an occupier, not a runner, not and academic?  Just an organizer, or more aptly a fundraiser?  I'd like to think of myself as a lot of other things and perhaps lastly as a fundraiser - and in fact do.  But it seems that my thoughts are perhaps starting at times to betray me.  When you start seeing people you speak to on the phone as per their capacity to give money, you are a fundraiser, even if just in that singular moment.  Funny how we transform as human beings: with the ebbs and flows of our lives and our social scenarios.  This shows how fickle culture can be on a daily basis.  Whether it is the horizontalism in Occupy, hierarchical fundraising in a political party, or the profit maximizing push of a corporate entity; all are reasons why we need to change our whole social and economic structure.  The world we are currently living is completely corporatized and privatized.  We have to change how we view our worlds, and our lives within them.  We need different motivations, different pathways, and different outcomes to strive for.  We have to change the system.  It is the only way to change our reliance and adherence to these disingenuous social norms, to change our reliance on believing that this is the only way life can be.  Another world is possible. 

At what cost?

Written 3/28/2012

So I feel a bit like I'm up against a wall on this.  I have to get myself to the right place in terms of the quota, but today was a straight disaster.  I got one contribution for less than 10 dollars.  I was trying.  I was engaging with people, having great conversations, and completely getting people familiar with everything we do and the party itself.  In fact I would certainly say I did a hell of a job today, just not my job today.  As I've said before.  My job is to make money for this party, not to get out the vote.  I'm great at that, but that isn't how the game works in our world.

Anyway, so the gist of it all is that it is tough to work hard, to try daily, to push yourself, but to not succeed.  It is not something I am very familiar with.  I tend to have success in many ways and in most things I try to do.  This has been a bit different of late though I guess.  I haven't gotten very far with schools and jobs back here in the US, so maybe I should no longer say that.  But I guess more pointedly, I haven't done good getting jobs and into schools.  Once I'm there, doing, I usually always do well.  But not in this sense.  Not this job. Seems I generally fail at this kind of sales and fundraising throughout my life.  Everyone always thinks I've got the personality for it, but it doesn't seem I've got the heart or character for it.

No matter, tonight was a tough night.  Felt like I was just trying and trying (too hard probably) to make it work.  Not only was I pushing and pressuring myself, but I was taking it kinda hard.  I was having great conversations, but then nothing would come of it.  I'm actually kind of disappointed with myself over it all.  Here I am measuring success in a political sphere on whether people give me money.  Its so far from where I have and want to be.  I can feel this ugly transition in me, toward measuring my self through this outcome.  It is so sad.  I believe in these mutual and communal ideals, yet here I am now, forced to deal with and become driven by this job and a success based on monetary outcomes.  It is so sad that society can't function as Occupy does, and the Occupy couldn't provide a sustainable life for me.  It doesn't pay, and in our society it seems that this is the first and foremost thing that matters.  Food, shelter, clothing, they all come from money these days.  Money I don't have, and that I need this job to provide.  But at what cost?

The pressures on me now!!

Written 3/28/2012

You may recall a couple weeks ago that there was a guy there at work that got called into "the room" and came out with "that look" on his face: half distraught, half pissed, and have trying to look as unaffected and as stone faced as possible.  So a couple days ago, I walked out of the room with "that look" on my face.  I was not getting it done!  (As you might have gotten from my last post!)  The pressure has been put on me now and somehow, while I don't feel like I've put pressure on myself since then, my numbers are up a bit.

Pressure is an interesting thing for me these days though.  My boss actually seemed quite disturbed by what he seemed to perceive as a "laissez-faire" attitude to it all.  But then again, laissez-faire is a word that is as misused as much of my general philosophy of life is misunderstood in the West.  If you read back into much of my writing, you'll see Daoist philosophy and thought come into play.  This is why this pressure stuff is so interesting to me.  How is it that pressure fits so readily into our concepts of drive and pushing for the things we want?  My boss gave a related version of the old Yoda mantra: there is no try... you're just going to do it.  I of course responded with a much more pensive and calculated, "well my history has shown me that the odds are against me in this kind of work, but I believe in the causes we are fighting for and am working hard, analyzing my self and working to make myself better each day and each hour.  The results will be what they are and they will be, but pressure won't become me."

He seemed baffled by this.  A willingness to just work as one works, do as one does, ground one's self in the heart of  history and reality while simply allowing life to happen, your world to happen, things to just be.  Yeah, it made no sense to him either!

It's all so funny though, I spent so much time in life embracing pressure, stepping up and thriving in it.  Especially in sports, and then even in business settings.  But now I take an approach very different from then, one that allows my heart and soul to feel at peace with life.  I just work at things, and allow them to be.

I think some of this is why Occupy works so well with me.  It's a place where things just happen, are done.  People don't seem to try, they just come together, think of something to do, and it just happens collectively, communally, and organically.  It is an amazing place. 

Politics, the Art of Making Money

So here I sit in my cubicle, thinking I'm fighting for the good cause, fighting the political fight, trying to raise the minimum wage in NY.  Turns out that while that might happen at some point in a future as of yet unseen, really I'm just here to try to make money.  Actually its a little more nuanced than that, I'm not exactly here to 'make' money but here to get people to give me money.  And while the difference in wording is really just about semantics, in reality, politics is as much a business of making money as anything else in America.  Where I am REALLY struggling with all this is that I spend my days and weekends protesting to get money out of politics, and then I am spending my evenings trying to get money in to politics.  Now granted, at this organization we don't take corporate money and I'm simply calling individuals and asking for small monthly contributions, $5-10 in most cases.  But all the same, even politics 'light" in America is all about money.  

It doesn't matter how many people I get "involved" (sign petitions, write letters, pledge to vote for the party, or just activate and inform), its all about money at my job.  I am blowing away the quotas for everything but the fundraising goals.  Yup, that's right, I'm having lots of interesting and informative conversations about the issues, getting people excited and activated, engaged with the issues and the party itself, but this isn't enough.  I have now seen first hand of how politics really all works.  I guess it would be really easy if they took large sums of corporate money, but they don't (hence their appeal to me and many others) so the whole operation becomes simply about making money.  I suppose that is why the entire organization is a group of fundraisers.  The two ways into the organization are through door-to-door "canvasing" and telephone "organizing" (both just fancy names for asking for money either on foot or by phone).  The organization only promotes from within, i.e. from either of those two avenues.  

This is of course proving to be an issue for me.  For while I'd love to be doing some solid research and analysis on the issues I don't seem to be successful in fundraising like this.  Thus, that chance may simply never present itself as its money or nothing!!!  I of course find this really sad.  Here I sit with all this experience; almost two masters degrees, years of business, developmental, and whatever other kinds of experience I have, and yet there doesn't seem to be much of a place for me.  Sad, guess I'll just have to keep Occupying!  ;)     

Student Debt and House Bill H.R. 4170

So I just thought I'd weigh in quickly on this house bill HR4170 (summary, full, petition) that is trying to forgive aspects of student debt.  And before anyone gets all excited... no you would still have to pay your existing loans - there would just be an end in sight.  I do though have some very serious reservations about the whole thing.  Yeah, great, so the one trillion dollars already accrued in student loan debt may become more manageable for those of us buried under it, but that does NOT solve the problem or the causes.

The bill is marketed as both helping individuals and the economy.

Excessive student loan debt is impeding economic growth in the United States. Faced with excessive repayment burdens, many individuals are unable to start businesses, invest, or buy homes. Relieving student loan debt would give these individuals greater control over their earnings and would increase entrepreneurship and demand for goods and services. (full)

But obviously there are some serious issues that quick summaries and marketing doesn't lay out.  Firstly, debt default does leave a hole in the banks balance sheets (often covered by insurance or hedging with other investments, etc. etc ( and whose loses I don't have much sympathy for)).  It also makes the act of student lending more risky and less profitable - especially with a cap on interest rates at 3.4%.  This is not as I think things should be, but as capitalist lending is based pretty much solely on rate of return.  Thus, there will in the longer term be less money lent to students making school actually perhaps less accessible.  And while, according to the petition, "since 1980, average tuition for a 4-year college education has increased an astounding 827%, [and] since 1999, average student loan debt has increased by a shameful 511%."  So how are we going to cover this gap in the future?

"While current borrowers would be eligible for full forgiveness under the plan, future borrowers would be subject to a $45,520 cap on forgiveness (based on the average overall cost of a four-year degree at a public university). The aim is to incentivize students to be mindful of educational costs and for colleges and universities to control tuition increases." (summary)

(fyi: $45k doesn't cover one year of most any graduate school)

Yes, if we forgive some student debt right now you are going to make the people holding the 1 trillion dollars of debt happier, but you are actually harming the education system in this country for the future as "the bill would not affect funding for existing student aid programs", or the educational and research systems themselves.  The ONLY way to sort out the education issues in this country are to FUND the educations themselves.  Fund the schools, fund the research, fund the students, FUND IT ALL!!

It is great to say things like:

(1) A well-educated citizenry is critical to our Nation's ability to compete in the global economy.
(2) The Federal Government has a vested interest in ensuring access to higher education.
(3) Higher education should be viewed as a public good benefiting our country rather than as a commodity solely benefiting individual students. (full)

It is an entirely different thing to actually do something about it.  This bill is a start to help the people buried under this debt.  But tuition is not going to come back down on its own, nor is people's ability to pay for it going to somehow miraculously appear.  For the future of education (and the economy) you must do so much more.  Among other 'minor' things (like changing the entire way our socio-economic and political system operates), SPEND GOVERNMENTAL MONEY ON EDUCATION!!!!

Billions and billions of dollars.

At EVERY level.

(and EVERYONE knows where that money can come from!!)

Ahhh... the nuances..

So again, I straddle two worlds and two worlds that are so incredibly complex in their own rights, and yet so even more profoundly complex when facing each other.  A political party and the anti-politics of Occupy... or wait, occupy as anti-political?  Isn't it hyper political, even while denouncing the political system and its own roles in it?  Wow, who knows, so really this being said, anything I say further will probably really make no sense, as Occupy really makes no sense (and by no sense, I mean this in the most endearing Daoist view of "the way", of something as being undefinable, unknowable, of simply being without being, doing without doing.  No one can define what "it" is, other than that "it"' being thousands of people acting uniformly separate.  Thus, comparing a political party to Occupy is a non-starter...

I do however, want to bring to light some observations of mine during the back and forth of both worlds.  I want to take a second here to think about the people.  Now I haven't done any real analysis or questioning of individuals in either place.  But as a participant observer, one can start to pull out sentences, themes, patterns, and structures that seem rather evident.

Tonight a comment was made about pushing, making quota, and getting to a place where one could "pay the rent" within an implication of ideology and principles taking a back seat.  I thought it worth exploring the concept of compromise that most everyone is forced into to survive our daily lives.  I mean, here I am, I don't pay rent.  I bounce around between several living scenarios, and am really just paying for food and transport.  I am afforded this luxury for two reasons, because I am willing to live a stabilized transient life style, and because I have found sympathetic people that will let me stay with them.  Most people - and I'm sure me longer term - are not willing to live this type of lifestyle by choice.  So we have to work, find a means of income.

What I find interesting, in a very limited observers role thus far, is that the two places that I am intertwined have such very similar interests, yet are still worlds apart.  At Occupy Wall St. we are currently having a very principled debate over taking money from rich corporately engaged funders.  Most every voice in the movement that I'm hearing is against it - on principle.  Yet if the political organization I am working for was offered this money up front, they would jump on it. As was said to me at work, money is politics, money is the way you vote in our current system.  This concept is such a stark contrast to Occupy, a place that seems to be so categorically opposed to money in politics (though again, what is ever concrete in occupy?).  The difference is usage of the system, and a principled disengagement from it.  The political party uses it to enact change.  Raising the minimum wage, anti-fracking, clean elections, no corporate personhood, health care for all, all issues occupy speaks to as well.  But Occupy isn't writing legislation, lobbying congress, or offering a specific stance.  Or is it?  (Occupy the SEC, Albany millionaires tax, Occupy Nashville's three demands, etc).  Oh wait, so you mean to tell me that Occupy is politically engaged?  Wait so how grey did our grey area just get?  This is getting complicated.

But anyway, I'm rambling a bit.  So back to work.  How is my coworker so wholly capable of making a career out of critiquing the very political apparatus that takes private funds, while simultaneously purporting to believe, and push through a fundraising job, that money is votes?  She fights the system within the system, hypocritical or not, through generally accepting that to be the way it is or has to be.  Ask for money to get money for a political campaign to get money out of politics..........

Yeah, I suppose we all should be confused.  And then of course there is occupy.  Asking for nothing, demanding zilch, but drawing a whole lot of attention.  Everybody knows Occupy, few know the party I work for.  One is getting specific things done within the system, the other causing a ruckus and making waves that may ripple the entire pool - based perhaps soling on principle?  Wow, tough game to play.  For me though, it's always been about principles.  How does one take money, even ask for money, so that a system that you fundamentally oppose can perpetuate itself in an effort to eradicate its perpetuity?  Sigh....  but what can II do?  I am like everyone else trapped in our social structures, limited by my own agency.  It's a job, and I need a job so I can keep eating, sleeping, and occupying.  Ugh... I'll never understand it.  Principally unprincipled. How has the world come to this subtle balance between being and being.  I really wish there was a way to figure it out!       

Dinner time!!

So we call people in the evenings, 4-9 at night with a 6:30-7 dinner break.  Last night for my break I went flyering for Occupy Town Square IV at Fort Green Park in Brooklyn (Sat, Mar 25th).  We work on the third floor, and underneath us is another politically inclined non-profit.  When I walked into their offices thinking I'd hand some flyers out, I was taken aback by the exact same layout and functionality as ours.  A bunch of cubicles making phone calls surrounded by the obligtor offices with doors.  Wow!!  I bet your saying, that's the way everything always is at businesses.  But more for me it just brought to question many things that run through my head about our political and non-profit world.

It wasn't the layout, it was the purpose and functionality.  Non-profit and political campaigns are simply about asking for money.  They are unfortunately not simply funded as an essential apparatus of the operating of a democratic state.  We do not as a society have an institutionalized funding apparatus for the things that are actually - to me - the most important to a society en large: governance and assistance.  Both of these are corner stones to democratic society.  And when I say governance, I do not mean the functionality of the government or what it does, but its guidance.  While we spend trillions of dollars on governmental programs from war, to social services, to government workers, we have left democracy fully and totally privatized.  There is no funding to amplify those voices being heard in small spaces, nor any funding to assist those not being heard in any spaces get into the public sphere.

No news here, but our democratic process - left unfunded - is left solely to the capitalist system and the free market for regulation.  Everything in the electoral system of any scalable importance is privately funded.  Hence these two organizations I've referred to spending so much time and effort on fundraising.  Why must organizations working so hard to bring to the fore political and socio-economic issues and injustices - so essential to a knowledgeable electorate - be so left upon itself?

Now I know, I am bring up an insurmountable political cauldron, but I am seeking more to just address a question of a principle: political awareness as a human right.  Why not?  The UN's declaration on Human Rights touches on political issues in article 21, but it's of course toothless and offers no substance.  But if anything is of importance, this is the first thing that a society should be promoting and funding: the awareness of our social world in a way that is transparent and builds social and electoral capacity.  Yes, I know, there are a million questions about what gets funded, how, by who, and how it would work in general.  But those are questions beyond the level of the "principle" that popped into my head, and they should be saved for another day.  At its core though, this concept stems from the public financing of elections and runs further into non-profits doing political work, and then even into non-profits doing relief, aid, and empowerment work.

Our society is bleeding.  Look around both America and the world.  Poverty is our greatest threat.  Disparity of means and wealth, health and wellness, human security.  Not some dictator or terrorist far off, but the poverty that keeps people down and allows them to be dictated to - our own Dictorship.  Our lack of transparency, our lack of democratic and social voice all handcuff us at every moment.   We live in a society where political speech is completely regulated on a systemic level in a way that discourages true democratic engagement and disallows true change. 

Fact is, these two organizations are both contingent upon not just money, but money that currently must come from private individuals, private foundations, companies, etc.  All of these entities have one thing in common: individual AGENDAS!  They all come from places not systemically promoting the greater good.  I want a political system that funds the agenda of itself, the free and fair democratic rule by the people - alllllllll the people.  Not just those with money, not just those with direct stakes in issues, but everyone.

How can this be done?  Well in our current context, we have to fund bringing a voice to everyone.  Meaning political pressure groups would need to be transparent and funded by a state-like apparatus.  Empowerment type groups and community organizations would have to be funded by a state-like apparatus.  All political parties would need to be funded by a state-like apparatus based on the common good.  They all could illuminate their issues to and for the greater good, and work towards addressing - or having their issues addressed - to and for the greater good.

Obviously, this is an INCREDIBLY complex and incomplete thought and does not actually fit well into our current socio-economic structure.  But the point I am trying to make is that a privatization of the democratic process - such as exists in America - does not serve the democratic process itself but rather those who privately can control and affect it through their own private individual means.  Again no mystery here, but still, it was tough to walk into a room and see it all so blatantly obvious, so blatantly preposterous.  That so much human capital was being spent on trying to make money to try to simply engage in the political process on such a basic level.  All this while, so much of our country's financial capital is being given to an effort to destroy both humans and their capital in agenda driven wars and policies throughout the world.  Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to make the Pentagon do door-to-door and telephone fundraising for their wars, just like we have to do for the fight against poverty and for a democratic voice.      

Why Sierra Leone?

I was posed a very good question last night and thought that I should answer here on this page as well.

"You are from the US, what about looking to help the people right here in this country that need it as well?"

 I was caught a bit off guard by the question and I'm not sure why.  I ended up with pretty much a three tiered answer.  Firstly, I do not see myself as an "American".  I know that nationalism is ingrained within us all from an early age - and not just into American's, but into just about everyone.  National pride, the Olympics, holidays, school history lessons, wars, they are all laced with a "what's within our borders" versus/in comparison to "what's within their borders".  I struggle with this because, A, I am trying to minimize as much competition in life as I can, and B, what makes a person born on one side of a line in the sand more or less valuable than someone born on the other?  I consider myself a 'citizen of the world' (Though I hate the cliché), and more importantly I view us all as equal partners in both humanity and our whole ecosystem.  I believe that we all need and deserve compassion and 'human' security as much as anyone else, no matter where we come from or live.

Secondly, and probably most importantly to me, ties directly into the first one.  As I see us all as being of equal worth, then effort should strictly be based on need.  I am poor by US standards, yet I have food, shelter, familial support, education, security, etc.  There are a tremendous amount of people in the US struggling these days - especially given the economic situation we currently face - but imagine what this recession is doing to people in the developing world that rely on US and European investment when there isn't even money being spent here?  Where do they sell their goods when consumer spending is down in the rich countries?  People in poorer countries were, and are, far worse off in terms of basic human needs (as judged by our Western measures).  A great one of these measures is the UN's Human Development Report.  Just think about this, when adjusted for purchasing power (PPP) the average person makes 679 US dollars in one year!!  (in terms of per capita GDP - dividing the population of the country by it's total dollar value output). They measure it all equally in terms of what it can by, looking at each country on one scale.

Now imagine that for yourself?!   If you make $679 in one month in the US you are desperately poor, that is $8,148 annually.  Now imagine a family of four, five, six... making that for the whole year!!  The people in these developing world countries are truly poor.  Not what we consider 'poor' here in the US, we make $45,592 per year in per capita GDP and consider a family of four to be poor if they make under $22,050 annually.  The US is a very rich country (8th in terms of per capita GDP), and it ranks 13th out of 182 countries in the world as measured by the Human Development Report.  Sierra Leone ranks 180th.  Third from last.  That means that statistically speaking, of the 6.8 billion people in this world there are only .006% of people live a worse life than those in Sierra Leone.  99.99% of the world population lives at a higher standard of living than Sierra Leoneans.  They truly need the assistance more than we do.

I should also say though that it pains me to have to 'prioritize' or 'triage' the situation like this.  I read a statistic several years ago that said that 2 billion people will go either without adequate food or clean water that year - and this is a global phenomena that touches even the US.  You can go to either the South Bronx or Appalachia and you will see destitute people.  People that could use help.  Yet they have outlets, social services, food stamps, homeless shelters, educational and training services, etc.  These services are grossly inadequate in my view, but this is what a social welfare system does and can do, it helps to provide for those in need.  In Sierra Leone, none of these services exist, there is not social safety net - and they really need it.

This line of volatile thinking above segway's well into my third point.  I think that if anyone wants to help the US and its poor, that it is never going to start in this country.  The entire system is way to engrained with the arrogancy of itself.  The US is the world's super power.  It is a fully established socio-economic entity that has lead the world for a century.  It views democratic capitalism as the victor, and its political, cultural, and economic systems are far too entrenched to be able to change or experiment with on any level.  Just think of the American political debate, red v. blue, liberals v. conservatives, republicans v. democrats, and NO ONE wants to hear what they other side is saying.  There are no alternatives, mainstream or otherwise, especially and truly revolutionary ones!!    Intractable ideology and closed minds.  Need I say anything more than simply refer to the New York and California State budgets?

America is a mess, but one with such fortified positions and issues, that it is virtually unnavigable.  I believe that to bring about any change in America it is going to taken proven results from elsewhere, and a collapse of the American system and its subsequent standing in the world - which some would say is currently happening.  However, with no alternative pathways for human development and security on a larger scale right now, we are left wanting.  This is where my interests lie, looking to create new pathways to human development that break free of current ideological constraints.

This project is not just about Sierra Leone, it is about the US, it is about Europe, Asia, Africa, the whole of the Americas, everywhere.  Sierra Leone is a place that I have studied and have developed an affinity for.  It is a small country of just under 6 million people that has been devastated by a recent civil war and has a relatively cleanish slate build upon.  Yet it still maintains incredibly proud traditions and history as it was created to be a home for freed slaves, and was once considered the "Athens of West Africa".  Projects undertaken there are not only to assist the local population, but can also be used to learn from and then to be used elsewhere.  If some of the ideas that we are working with can become successful, then the whole world could benefit from them in time - including the United States.  Think local, act global.