Too much food

This is so weird. I have a fridge full of dumpster dived biscuits, pomegranates, eggs, milk, and more than I could ever actually eat.
Plus, I was forced to buy 80 meals upfront for the semester, plus $180 in money I can only spend in on campus dining. I have over half of my meals left, meaning 40-some meals to eat in about 3 weeks.

Oh, and I got a care package with tons of food from my church.

I have too much food. I’m trying to figure out what to do with so much food.

Seriously, how can this happen in a world where so many people don’t have enough?

The Amero?

What would happen if North America had one currency, similar to the euro in Europe?

Interestingly enough, it’s been proposed. The amero, it’s called. It got a bit of a mention during Larry King’s interview with Mexican President Vicente Fox on Monday Night. (transcript) That’s when the idea first came up.

It turns out there is tons of speculation on the subject, and Fox basically stated that he and President Bush have discussed the idea.

Evidently, the whole thing blew up when Hal Turner (News and Commentary for White, Straight People) claimed to have received “professional images” from somebody in the treasury department of the new coin.

I’m not an economist, by any streretch of the imagination, so I have no idea what this means for the common people. Would one currency level the playing field or make it even more slanted? A University of California study says that yes, the playing field could become more level. It says the U.S. would lose some of their coercion power, as they would not solely control the money- among other things. Basically, the playing field is too advantageous to the U.S. already, and we dare not make it leveler.

Maybe we just need to switch fields.

(Photo from Hal Turner’s site)

Beware, Costa Rica

Free trade (as it’s mistakenly called) is a leading cause of immigration, as I found in NAFTA: The Cause of Immigration. So it was very saddening to me to see the news that Costa Ricans voted to pass DR-CAFTA.

Costa Rica is the last Central American country to ratify this treaty, and the fact that it passed with a similar margin (51.5%) to when it passed in the U.S. House of Representatives (2 votes) is proof that not all is lost.

The Washington Post article misses out an a key part in this vote that most other media covered- the White House’s strong-arming tactics to scare the Costa Ricans into voting for the measure.

“Washington last week urged Costa Ricans to recognize the treaty’s
benefits and vowed not to renegotiate the terms of the deal if voters
rejected it. U.S. officials also suggested they might not renew other
trade preferences now afforded Costa Rican products, set to expire next
September, if the pact is not approved.”
-Costa Rica to Join Free Trade Agreement, AP

This is neoliberalism at its best- depriving countries of the possibility to self-govern, especially in the case of economics.

As far as I know, this is the only country where the citizens actually were able to decide to pass DR-CAFTA or not. (Democracy)
?In the Dominican Republic, it was written by the Zona Francas (maquillas), and then presented to Congress to pass. (not Democracy)

Related Posts
Development and Immigration
The Vaina I’m up to
NAFTA: The Cause of Immigration

Poverty.com

I saw a link to Poverty.com once, and was intrigued. So I clicked (advertising actually works, eh?) and was immediately dismayed. The site is a great example of what not to do- pictures of young children with sad eyes popping up in Africa, Asia, and South America. They slowly fade, as a “Hunger Deaths this hour” counter is incremented.

On the side are links to articles about problems caused by poverty- Malaria, Measles, etc. Under that, the site says: “A solution: International Aid.”

This goes against everything I have learned about development work. It shows poverty (correctly) as the cause of many problems, but overlooks the causes of poverty. Poverty is looked at as something that happens only to non-white people (not true either.)

Also, believe it or not, international aid is NOT a solution. Yes, it helps people have food, etc., but it does not change the systems that impoverish so many people. Also, according to The Globalizers by Jeffrey T. Jackson, the vast majority of international aid actually goes back to businesses in the giving country. For example, in building El Cajon dam in Honduras, the USAID gave millions to the project. However, the majority of that money went to contractors in the U.S. to build the dam. Instead of training local people to build a dam (or even allowing the local people to decide if they WANTED the dam), outsiders came in, prescribed a solution (that came up faulty in the end), and paid themselves well to do it.

Sadly, poverty is not an easy issue, with international aid being a cure-all. Should you give? Yes, but make sure that the money will be going to projects that are people centered, and not money centered.

Iran’s president speaks

“Unfortunately human rights are being extensively violated by certain
powers, especially by those who pretend to be their exclusive
advocates. Setting up secret prisons, abducting persons, trials and
secret punishments without any regard to due process, extensive tapping
of telephone conversations, intercepting private mail, and frequent
summons to police and security centers have become commonplace and
prevalent.”
-President Ahmadinejad’s address before UN General Assembly

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How
can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of
your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You
hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see
clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
-Luke 6:41-42, NIV

And it goes both ways, right?

Weird

This is weird. I have a post that is for some reason giving me a lot of trouble. I tried posting it earlier today, and it took the site down for a few hours while I tried to troubleshoot. I’ve isolated it to a post, but now can’t figure out what it is within that post. I think I may be tripping some kind of filter for words that without context could seem questionable, but I can’t figure it out. I’ll get that post up soon, I promise.

Happiness

Here’s a quick update on me-

• I’m working pretty intensely on managing the campus TV show. Started training people on our new DVX100Bs, which was fun to revisit myself.
• Went to a wedding last weekend. I wore suspenders and was rated as 8 or 9 on a scale of “1 to Amish.”
• The promotional video in Guatemala looks like it is falling together- so I’ll be blogging from another country in under a month.
• I am currently transferring all the files I saved off my old corrupted hard drive back onto the same drive, freshly wiped.
• My Lacie Rugged has been serving me well, although I haven’t had the chance to test it’s claim that you can drop it 35″ without it breaking.