Do you ever find yourself guiltily wondering what a dead man you never met would say about your actions?
Taking a walk with my Mom the other day, I plucked a piece of wild grass, shredding off the seed pod between my fingers. Thoreau's comment in Walden about city people and their need to touch plants while walking through the woods came to mind, giving me that automatic sense of unease I've been saddled with whenever I take a walk since I read Walden freshman year of college.
Or packing lunch in the morning, walking back and forth to the fridge 3 times, I mutter to myself, "What would Frank Gilbreth say?"
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Economics
First off, I don't claim to know anything about economics. It's one thing that gives me a head ache. But everything in the news lately about AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Lehman brothers has gotten me thinking. I don't know how the government should solve the "financial crisis" I'm not even sure they should get involved. Maybe it's better to let the actual crisis hit, and then build on a new solid foundation than going into debt to buy bad debt (not sure aobut hte logic on that one. . .)
Anyway, this is the quote on the radio that really got me thinking. I forget who it was exactly, but some government official taking about why they bailed out some financial institution said that if they had not bailed out the financial institution it would have "lead to the reduction of American household wealth". Exactly. And would that really be so catastrophic?
What exactly would happen if the government left well enough alone? Would we really have a crisis? Or would it lead to a reduction of American wealth? Right now in Zimbabwe, they're experiencing a REAL economic crisis. Inflation was at 11 million percent (just as a comparison, our inflation rate is currently 5.37%) The bank of Zimbabwe had to print 100 billion dollar notes. As in the denomination is 100 billion, not that is how many 1 dollar notes they are printing. In July they redenominated their currency system- for all you world travelers out there, you can turn in your old Zimbabwe dollars for New Zimbabwe dollars. 10 billion old dollars will get you 1 new Zimbabwe dollar. And despite that immense currency change, one new dollar is currently exchanged for not quite 1 US penny. (1 ZWD = 0.00991326 USD)
In Zimbabwe at least 80% of the population is unemployed. I've heard 90-95% from people who are from/were recently in Zimbabwe. August unemployment in the US was 6.1%. In 2007 per capita GDP in Zimbabwe was $200. In the US it was $45,800. 80% of Zimbabweans live below the poverty line (for a Zimbabwean, below the poverty line means earning less than $41 a month). 12% of Americans live below the poverty line- and our poverty line is a LOT higher than theirs- $867/month for a person living alone.
So, as the media focuses on impending doom and financial collapse, I just don't find myself all that worried. I can't feel the doom and gloom. Perhaps it's because someone else is providing for my food and lodging. Maybe it's knowing that hopefully in not too long I'll be in a country where the economy isn't as good as it is here and surviving on less than I do now. Maybe it's because I know in the long run, the economy is bound to recover. And partly, I think it is knowing that our poverty is wealth to much of the world.
statistics were found at:
http://inflationdata.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe#Economy
www.xe.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Zimbabwe
http://stats.bls.gov/eag/eag.us.htm
Anyway, this is the quote on the radio that really got me thinking. I forget who it was exactly, but some government official taking about why they bailed out some financial institution said that if they had not bailed out the financial institution it would have "lead to the reduction of American household wealth". Exactly. And would that really be so catastrophic?
What exactly would happen if the government left well enough alone? Would we really have a crisis? Or would it lead to a reduction of American wealth? Right now in Zimbabwe, they're experiencing a REAL economic crisis. Inflation was at 11 million percent (just as a comparison, our inflation rate is currently 5.37%) The bank of Zimbabwe had to print 100 billion dollar notes. As in the denomination is 100 billion, not that is how many 1 dollar notes they are printing. In July they redenominated their currency system- for all you world travelers out there, you can turn in your old Zimbabwe dollars for New Zimbabwe dollars. 10 billion old dollars will get you 1 new Zimbabwe dollar. And despite that immense currency change, one new dollar is currently exchanged for not quite 1 US penny. (1 ZWD = 0.00991326 USD)
In Zimbabwe at least 80% of the population is unemployed. I've heard 90-95% from people who are from/were recently in Zimbabwe. August unemployment in the US was 6.1%. In 2007 per capita GDP in Zimbabwe was $200. In the US it was $45,800. 80% of Zimbabweans live below the poverty line (for a Zimbabwean, below the poverty line means earning less than $41 a month). 12% of Americans live below the poverty line- and our poverty line is a LOT higher than theirs- $867/month for a person living alone.
So, as the media focuses on impending doom and financial collapse, I just don't find myself all that worried. I can't feel the doom and gloom. Perhaps it's because someone else is providing for my food and lodging. Maybe it's knowing that hopefully in not too long I'll be in a country where the economy isn't as good as it is here and surviving on less than I do now. Maybe it's because I know in the long run, the economy is bound to recover. And partly, I think it is knowing that our poverty is wealth to much of the world.
statistics were found at:
http://inflationdata.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe#Economy
www.xe.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Zimbabwe
http://stats.bls.gov/eag/eag.us.htm
Friday, August 15, 2008
6 Words
Today I got an e-mail from Amazon suggesting the "top books" of the year so far. "Not Quite What I was Planning: Six word memoirs from writers famous and obscure" caught my eye. I went to the website and and started browsing through some of them. There were some good ones.
Took different road, never got there
Sorry, you're thinking of my sister.
Got fired. Crazy, amazing, wonderful day.
Curiosity: killed cat. Eight lives left.
Evolved since childhood. Still like bananas.
So, I decided I wanted to write my own six word memoirs. :)
Speaking English, dreaming Spanish, learning Chinese
Many questions, never any easy answers.
Eight at home, one in Taiwan.
Wanderlust and service. Can they coincide?
God leads. I try to follow.
And, this will be even more appropriate once Sarah Grace comes home:
4 brothers, 2 sisters. Life's crazy.
How would you sum up your life in 6 words?
I leave you with 6 words a little girl that I just met yesterday said to me today as I was leaving work. Do they make you as sad as they made me? Pray for her.
"Will you take me with you?"
Took different road, never got there
Sorry, you're thinking of my sister.
Got fired. Crazy, amazing, wonderful day.
Curiosity: killed cat. Eight lives left.
Evolved since childhood. Still like bananas.
So, I decided I wanted to write my own six word memoirs. :)
Speaking English, dreaming Spanish, learning Chinese
Many questions, never any easy answers.
Eight at home, one in Taiwan.
Wanderlust and service. Can they coincide?
God leads. I try to follow.
And, this will be even more appropriate once Sarah Grace comes home:
4 brothers, 2 sisters. Life's crazy.
How would you sum up your life in 6 words?
I leave you with 6 words a little girl that I just met yesterday said to me today as I was leaving work. Do they make you as sad as they made me? Pray for her.
"Will you take me with you?"
Monday, May 12, 2008
Justice
Let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amos 5:24
I've been thinking about justice lately, or maybe, more precisely, injustice. What started me thinking was the rising price of gas, the growing global food shortage, and the correlation between the two. We knew that as more grain products were used for ethanol, the price of grain would rise and the availability of grains for human consumption would decrease (Already 20-30% of grains grown in the US are used for biofuels). What we (at least, we the general public) did not expect is that it would happen so quickly. In our search for a way to maintain our lifestyle, and even in our desire to be more "green" and less oil dependent, we created a crisis which the rest of the world has to deal with.
It seems so unjust. We (the privileged people of the world) created this problem. We are the ones who consume too much. We are the ones an eventual oil shortage would most effect. And yet, when we try to solve the problem, they (the people who already have less) suffer. Sure, food prices are rising here too. And there's a lot of talk about recession. But I don't know anyone in danger of starving, not even one of the 98% of the students at my school who qualify for free or reduced lunch. We are cushioned here in this land of opportunity.
But our problems become the worlds' problems. According to an e-mail from my friend Jason, "Prices for staple foods like rice have more than doubled over the last four months in places like Cambodia. Rice, the main source of
nutrition for many of the world's poor, is now priced beyond what they can afford. To the already 1 billion people that struggle to live on less than $1 a day, the U.N. now estimates that an additional 100 million of our global neighbors will struggle to avoid starvation."
An NPR special on the global food shortage said, "UNICEF and the World Food Program are falling behind in donations, unable to keep pace with the spiraling cost of rice. It has hit $950 a ton, three times what it was at the start of 2007."
For people living on a dollar or two a day, that sort of price increase makes survival nearly impossible.
What do we do in response to all this? In an article entitled "Reconsecration to a Wartime, Not a Peacetime, Lifestyle" Ralph Winter suggests that we rethink our lifestyles. There are lifestyles appropriate to peace, and lifestyles appropriate to war. We are at war. In Matthew 10:34 Jesus says "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Jesus is bringing about his kingdom here on earth. The power of heaven is fighting against the rulers of this world, and God has called us to join the fight. He tells us to go, preach the good news, disciple the nations, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the widows and orphans, visit those in prison. That is our battle command. And knowing that we are soldiers in battle should effect our lifestyle. Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2: 3&4 "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." We should not be entangled in the pleasures of this world. There are so many unnecessary, frivolous things that we even begin to see as needs, or at least as our due. And meanwhile, millions are dying without the chance to hear of the One who died for them.
Think about these statistics for a moment from Serving India Ministries
Experts estimate that for $13 billion a year we could provide basic nutrition for every starving person in the world. American Christians spend $21 billion a year on cable TV.
For $6 billion a year we could educate every child currently not in school. American Christians spend $11 billion a year on coffee.
For $9 billion a year we could provide safe drinking water for the millions who die without it. American Christians spend $21 billion a year on soft drinks.
Approximately 160 million adults in America claim to be Christian. If each one of us would increase our giving by just $15 per month to ministries who are effectively serving the poor, we could feed every starving person in the world, educate every child currently not in school, and provide safe drinking water for the millions who die from lack of it.
How will you respond?
2 Timothy 2: 1-4
"Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."
righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amos 5:24
I've been thinking about justice lately, or maybe, more precisely, injustice. What started me thinking was the rising price of gas, the growing global food shortage, and the correlation between the two. We knew that as more grain products were used for ethanol, the price of grain would rise and the availability of grains for human consumption would decrease (Already 20-30% of grains grown in the US are used for biofuels). What we (at least, we the general public) did not expect is that it would happen so quickly. In our search for a way to maintain our lifestyle, and even in our desire to be more "green" and less oil dependent, we created a crisis which the rest of the world has to deal with.
It seems so unjust. We (the privileged people of the world) created this problem. We are the ones who consume too much. We are the ones an eventual oil shortage would most effect. And yet, when we try to solve the problem, they (the people who already have less) suffer. Sure, food prices are rising here too. And there's a lot of talk about recession. But I don't know anyone in danger of starving, not even one of the 98% of the students at my school who qualify for free or reduced lunch. We are cushioned here in this land of opportunity.
But our problems become the worlds' problems. According to an e-mail from my friend Jason, "Prices for staple foods like rice have more than doubled over the last four months in places like Cambodia. Rice, the main source of
nutrition for many of the world's poor, is now priced beyond what they can afford. To the already 1 billion people that struggle to live on less than $1 a day, the U.N. now estimates that an additional 100 million of our global neighbors will struggle to avoid starvation."
An NPR special on the global food shortage said, "UNICEF and the World Food Program are falling behind in donations, unable to keep pace with the spiraling cost of rice. It has hit $950 a ton, three times what it was at the start of 2007."
For people living on a dollar or two a day, that sort of price increase makes survival nearly impossible.
What do we do in response to all this? In an article entitled "Reconsecration to a Wartime, Not a Peacetime, Lifestyle" Ralph Winter suggests that we rethink our lifestyles. There are lifestyles appropriate to peace, and lifestyles appropriate to war. We are at war. In Matthew 10:34 Jesus says "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Jesus is bringing about his kingdom here on earth. The power of heaven is fighting against the rulers of this world, and God has called us to join the fight. He tells us to go, preach the good news, disciple the nations, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the widows and orphans, visit those in prison. That is our battle command. And knowing that we are soldiers in battle should effect our lifestyle. Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2: 3&4 "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." We should not be entangled in the pleasures of this world. There are so many unnecessary, frivolous things that we even begin to see as needs, or at least as our due. And meanwhile, millions are dying without the chance to hear of the One who died for them.
Think about these statistics for a moment from Serving India Ministries
Experts estimate that for $13 billion a year we could provide basic nutrition for every starving person in the world. American Christians spend $21 billion a year on cable TV.
For $6 billion a year we could educate every child currently not in school. American Christians spend $11 billion a year on coffee.
For $9 billion a year we could provide safe drinking water for the millions who die without it. American Christians spend $21 billion a year on soft drinks.
Approximately 160 million adults in America claim to be Christian. If each one of us would increase our giving by just $15 per month to ministries who are effectively serving the poor, we could feed every starving person in the world, educate every child currently not in school, and provide safe drinking water for the millions who die from lack of it.
How will you respond?
2 Timothy 2: 1-4
"Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."
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