100 Words – Security and Tofu

Well, my attempts to create a cogent long post are gone. Time has become premium. I just recently began community based participatory research to find out where people shop and what they buy. Most of the route, however, I think of the high crime rate – the high murder rate in my city right now, and last year. That and the fact that we are in a recession means that I travel sans many of my attires for just looking chic. Its work, not the Fashion Week.

The crux of this research is the idea that if you give people supplemental food (you being the government) you can create a whole dietary culture around healthy eating. I give the analogy of tofu. I do not eat tofu right now, but if you made it available to me for free, and taught me (again!) about how nutritious it is for my health, I might consider eating some tomorrow, when you give me my first free coupon for tofu. It may be foreign to my palate, but its free so I will come for more. Can then this free supplement induce me to eat healthier? Will I become more health conscious or am I just temporarily toeing the line so that I can get relief from my high food bill.

Urban Un-Planning | Form Follows Finance – The Moment Blog – NYTimes.com

Urban Un-Planning | Form Follows Finance – The Moment Blog – NYTimes.com.

If I am to say which buildings should have never left the sketch board, I am to create a vivid image of a faceless city landscape. This article is a flashback to my training as a city planner.

I wish they could do a similar comparison for the Chicago facade.

After a Devastating Birth Injury Called a Fistula, Hope – NYTimes.com

As we count down to International Women’s Day – March 8, consider the widespread challenge of fistulas in women. May we not forget their stories.

Thinking Cap: An Unexamined Life

A few days ago, I read this post at Gukira about Humanities in Kenya and their usefulness (when they are often rendered useless) – and it made such sense. You see, before I started college, I thought that the college degree was to prepare you only for a professional track. I was thinking of the better known professions in my home country, the law, medicine, architecture, accountant etc. It was many many moons later when it came time for me to start undergraduate liberal arts studies that I started to understand what the point of a university education has become.

What is a liberal arts education, you might ask. I sought the interpretations of thinker C.S. Lewis who was better known as an Oxford tutor and a Cambridge lecturer. He is best known for his thoughts on Christianity, which are well circulated and published. His words are analysed here by Dunn who said that C.S. Lewis main points of a liberal arts education are to:

• The ability to rule ourselves frees us from the tyranny of our appetites, and the liberal arts disciplines this self-rule.”
• to avoid the prejudices of our age – cultivate a habit of reading the thoughts of older writers, and so avoid the same blind spots as other contemporary writers and thinkers. History repeats itself after all.
• to pursue a vocation – “we can therefore pursue knowledge as such, in the sure confidence that by so doing we are either advancing to the vision of God ourselves or indirectly helping others to do so.”

We often read that the only way to find yourself is in immersing oneself in working for others.

You can become successful without a college degree – but with a college degree you have a set of additional tools to navigate your chosen field and passion. I really enjoyed Gukira’s post. Something that struck me was that for all the things that happen whether fires, or politicians, we need to frame our questions requiring thought, discussions and argumentation. I considered that the way that many of us think about education is that it is a means to a financial end. It is. We are hoping to improve our lot in life, however, I would argue that we are educated to have a more examined life – one where things that happen are things we have the tools to process, religion, philosophy and literature guiding us, we can proceed.

It was Socrates that pioneered many of the known critical philosophy analyses that we see today, of course there were other philosophers who were not recorded – but who survive in oral tradition of different communities. He, Socrates, said – an unexamined life is not worth living – that every question of life should open up a set of other queries. I found this fascinating, especially in light of the massive questions that daily life entails. That one should define and debate these questions is a luxury that many of us cannot afford, but that we desperately need to invest in.

This week, I was thinking about the job market we are entering, us graduates of 2009, and the high hopes that we have. Is it fair to expect that with more education one should be remunerated for your troubles? I assure you, this kind of musing can keep one up late, especially as you send application with little hope of encouragement from such ventures. But if my college education served its rightful place in opening up my mind to ways of re-examining the world, then this is a chance to start thinking anew about merging the intended profession with the passion for social change and the means to make these two come together. I am allowing this kind of examination, because we invest so much time in this education that we can scarcely afford to ignore its benefits.

Job Hunting in 2009

I famously said (well as far as my Facebook is concerned) that looking for a job in these troubled times can only be described as “This is Spartaaa!” – and to the chuckles and commentary of many of my friends, we christened this time as such. You see, many of us are graduating in 2009, with various degrees that will grant us the power to read, and all the privileges that come with that degree. I suppose there is something to be said about coming to the end of 16 years of school – that something is NOT – grumble grumble no job. In fact, there is much fanfare and pomp expected. So why are there no whoops at joining this job market? I muse below.

Reason #1:

The Recession – when they finally called it another recession, I realized that it was indeed the worst time in the world. Well meaning friends and acquaintances have billed this as a great time to take a sabbatical, or a great time to go back to school. I think this is the best time to make your fortune. If your currency is in people management, there has never been a larger mass of people to work for your start-up. If you are a writer, there has never been a better time to distract and entertain readers, and no worries, you can always self publish. I can imagine the people who have made their vast fortunes in such tumultous times. And, for the first time since I have been here in these United States, there are actually ads on TV telling people NOT to buy when they cannot afford to do so. Sounds formulaic, even simple, but it has been very difficult to change behavior for many people.

Reason #2: Student Loans

As I said above, there is such a drive to jumpstart spending in the US economy. I submit to the great economists that the only way that you can guarantee that there will be economic spending will be to let students borrow at the same rate as banks. I assure you, we will spend the money in the most extravagant ways possible, but it might just pull the land out of the deep end. No other generation has the short attention span and credit card itch-to-spend. Its not rocket science to tell you we the students fuel the Ramen industry single handedly.

Reason #3: Obama

He is a major reason why there are more models of color on this year’s runways, the reason why people are a little more tolerant of the ‘other’ here, at least viscerally and a source for hope for many globally. I submit to you dear reader that should this economy and job hunting need to yield homage to the Obama effect – it will be well deserved.

END

PS: Dear Reader, I fully intend to write more but there is a gag rule on dreary writing on Valentines’ Day so I shall wish you well, wish you clearer vision to see that love is all around all the time and enough patience to let the sun come out wherever you are!