Dear J-Frost,
ITS FRIDAY! Christian comes tomorrow! Christian comes tomorrow! Christian comes tomorrow! For all you not in the know, that means I not only have an additional friend but a brother to hang out with. We're going to drink together, eat together, I'm going to punch him and run away, then he's going to punch me and I'm going to unexpectedly land flying left hook on his dome (thanks muay thai), and we're going to hang out and then hang out and then hang out some more! No more of this going to bed at 9:30 business, no more getting the brunt of all my mom's anger, no more, no more, no more.
I just knocked over a glass of water on my effin computer keyboard. FAAACK. Such an idiot. So far everything is in working order,/// / / / / except/ for/ the/ fact/ when/ i/ push/ the/ fucking/ space/ bar/ a/ fuckin/ slash/ comes/ up./ FUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCK./ / / I/ dont/ get/ it/ I/ didn't/ even/ spill/ on/ the/ fuckin/ spacebar./ Shit./
Friday, November 23, 2007
Thursday, November 22, 2007
It has come down to this...
Dear Despair,
Thanks to Ad's blog, I became aware of a of an article describing the unfortunate phenomenon of a self-made narcotic, Jenkem -- a "noxious mixture made from fermented sewage." When glue is unavailable and gas is too dangerous to steal Zambian teenagers literally scoop sewage into bottles, leave them to ferment, and then get high when enough methane has formed at the top. At complete disregard from where the product came from, children are looking for any means of escape -- this high lasts about and hour and comes at no monetary cost.
While Jenkem in itself is sickening, it is even more disheartening to ask the children and teenagers why they choose to partake in such a practice. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia is said to affect at least 25% of adults in urban areas. This combined with government policies among other factors is destroying the domestic economy resulting in huge waves of children being sent out onto the street. With the traditional backbone of any society rapidly disintegrating, the youth are forced to fend for themselves. Boys try to find any labour, and girls are often forced to sell their bodies. It seems as if the national economic problems of Zambia are being taken out on those that are supposed to be the future of the country. These youth are being driven to find and then hold onto anything that will allow them to survive that much longer.
An employee of the Zambian Drug Enforcement Agency summarizes it best when he said, "It's unimaginable. It hits right at the heart to see a human being coming down a level, to be able to dip his hand into a sewage pond, picking out the material and not caring about anything but the feeling of getting high." I suppose then, it doesn't seem to surprising that these street children have found a means in which to free themselves from the burdens they carry, even if it is only for an hour.
Source: BBC News
Thanks to Ad's blog, I became aware of a of an article describing the unfortunate phenomenon of a self-made narcotic, Jenkem -- a "noxious mixture made from fermented sewage." When glue is unavailable and gas is too dangerous to steal Zambian teenagers literally scoop sewage into bottles, leave them to ferment, and then get high when enough methane has formed at the top. At complete disregard from where the product came from, children are looking for any means of escape -- this high lasts about and hour and comes at no monetary cost.
While Jenkem in itself is sickening, it is even more disheartening to ask the children and teenagers why they choose to partake in such a practice. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia is said to affect at least 25% of adults in urban areas. This combined with government policies among other factors is destroying the domestic economy resulting in huge waves of children being sent out onto the street. With the traditional backbone of any society rapidly disintegrating, the youth are forced to fend for themselves. Boys try to find any labour, and girls are often forced to sell their bodies. It seems as if the national economic problems of Zambia are being taken out on those that are supposed to be the future of the country. These youth are being driven to find and then hold onto anything that will allow them to survive that much longer.
An employee of the Zambian Drug Enforcement Agency summarizes it best when he said, "It's unimaginable. It hits right at the heart to see a human being coming down a level, to be able to dip his hand into a sewage pond, picking out the material and not caring about anything but the feeling of getting high." I suppose then, it doesn't seem to surprising that these street children have found a means in which to free themselves from the burdens they carry, even if it is only for an hour.
Source: BBC News
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Choo Choo
Dear Parallel Tracks,
Sometime last week my looking balls came across this article in the International Herald Tribune, which I found incredibly interesting. If I was a real journalist I would have done some more digging and perhaps found a few other sources, but since I am a little short of the Anderson Cooper world this one article will have to suffice. So here goes...
I always knew that railroads played a vital part to a country's dynamic. Seriously...I had to write a paper on the railway boom in British North America and the Dominion of Canada in the second half of the 19th century. Not that its a big deal or anything but I totally killed that paper. Boo ya. Moving on...railroads in themselves are fascinating feats of engineering and pivotal in sewing a country together. These seemingly infinite metal tracks do not merely serve as a means of transportation but also as physical vectors for the nation's inhabitants. This last point is exemplified in the article, "Riding the Train of Dreams Across India".
In India, the Pushpak Express is the starting line for young hopefuls eyeing something great. Often it is young men who board the train in hopes of achieving big dreams in the 'City of Gold'. As one journeys from the bleak countryside into the urban domain, the shift in affluence is apparent. The scenic farmland and dirt roads slowly disappear giving way to traffic-filled streets, large buildings, and bright lights. It can be overwhelming and its easy to see why there is such an epidemic of the so-called Mumbai Fever. However, migrants' lofty hopes of lucrative job offers are often dashed as the thousands of country folks become part of the city's great anonymous. One older migrants recalled that, "Dreams don't go away in Mumbai, they just get smaller."
According to this article, one of the greatest migrations in world history is happening in India. If current migration trends continue as predicted, every minute about 31 villagers will show up in Mumbai for the next 43 years. This South Asian migration combined with the exodus currently going on in China has, "helped push the world over a historic threshold this year: the planet, for first time, is more urban than rural." And to think that the majority of these people began their quest for the good life by boarding a train for about six dollars.
Sometime last week my looking balls came across this article in the International Herald Tribune, which I found incredibly interesting. If I was a real journalist I would have done some more digging and perhaps found a few other sources, but since I am a little short of the Anderson Cooper world this one article will have to suffice. So here goes...
I always knew that railroads played a vital part to a country's dynamic. Seriously...I had to write a paper on the railway boom in British North America and the Dominion of Canada in the second half of the 19th century. Not that its a big deal or anything but I totally killed that paper. Boo ya. Moving on...railroads in themselves are fascinating feats of engineering and pivotal in sewing a country together. These seemingly infinite metal tracks do not merely serve as a means of transportation but also as physical vectors for the nation's inhabitants. This last point is exemplified in the article, "Riding the Train of Dreams Across India".
In India, the Pushpak Express is the starting line for young hopefuls eyeing something great. Often it is young men who board the train in hopes of achieving big dreams in the 'City of Gold'. As one journeys from the bleak countryside into the urban domain, the shift in affluence is apparent. The scenic farmland and dirt roads slowly disappear giving way to traffic-filled streets, large buildings, and bright lights. It can be overwhelming and its easy to see why there is such an epidemic of the so-called Mumbai Fever. However, migrants' lofty hopes of lucrative job offers are often dashed as the thousands of country folks become part of the city's great anonymous. One older migrants recalled that, "Dreams don't go away in Mumbai, they just get smaller."According to this article, one of the greatest migrations in world history is happening in India. If current migration trends continue as predicted, every minute about 31 villagers will show up in Mumbai for the next 43 years. This South Asian migration combined with the exodus currently going on in China has, "helped push the world over a historic threshold this year: the planet, for first time, is more urban than rural." And to think that the majority of these people began their quest for the good life by boarding a train for about six dollars.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Got Milk?
Dear Methane Contributors,
With all the changes that are perpetually occurring throughout the world, it seems normal yet is slightly unexpected that the global village is currently undergoing a worldwide milk boom. Over the past couple of years several factors have contributed to the significant increase in demand for milk and thus commercial dairy farming. Some may even go so far as to say that supply is not keeping up with the rising demands resulting in shortage of the good stuff.
The primary driving force behind the increased demand for milk comes from the "roaring global economy." As millions of people rise out of poverty and into the middle class they have the disposable income to spend on luxury items such as televisions, clothes, meat and of course, milk. Figures from 2000 show that the average citizen in China consumed a mere 9L of milk per year, while pales in comparison to today's 25L consumption rate. Furthermore, in the current state of affairs it isn't at all surprising that China has become the leading milk producer and milk importer in the world.
Another factor contributing to the rising costs of milk are the mounting costs of feeding the source. With the high, "demand for bio-fuels is pushing up the price of corn and other grains, which is what farmers use....to feed their cows instead of grass." Furthermore the milk industry tends to be controlled heavily by the government, though the price supports and subsidies may become somewhat irrelevant due to the sudden milk boom.
How exactly does all this milk activity effect us? Well the answer is simple (and obvious): rising prices. Yet, it goes beyond paying a dollar more for a carton of milk. Because milk is used in a great several forms in an even larger range of food products (baby formula, cheese, chocolate, butter, ice cream, cake etc.) the effects are felt to a wider extent. Now Starbucks sells more milk than coffee and has raised their drink prices accordingly. Pizza parlors and ice cream vendors alike have also adjusted their prices to compensate. Hershey's has suffered a fall in profit tied to the increased cost of production, and even Kraft (think KD) is feeling the blow.
Whats interesting about this entire situation is not that milk can be compared to oil, or even that such a seemingly trivial industry has literally taken off in the past few years, but why. In under five years, the growing middle class (primarily located in developing countries) has transformed the world market. Its interesting how five years ago such people could be labeled as a burden to the society they lived in and now they are a significant driving force in the global economy.
What is unusual, and somewhat confusing, about the milk boom compared with other booming commodities is that milk is not like oil: You can't stick it in barrels and stockpile it. It goes sour. Even in powder form, the most commoditized version, milk has a shelf life. As a result, only about 7 percent of all the milk produced globally is traded across borders. The rest is consumed in domestic markets, which are protected by geography and just as often by tariffs or subsidies.
With all the changes that are perpetually occurring throughout the world, it seems normal yet is slightly unexpected that the global village is currently undergoing a worldwide milk boom. Over the past couple of years several factors have contributed to the significant increase in demand for milk and thus commercial dairy farming. Some may even go so far as to say that supply is not keeping up with the rising demands resulting in shortage of the good stuff.
The primary driving force behind the increased demand for milk comes from the "roaring global economy." As millions of people rise out of poverty and into the middle class they have the disposable income to spend on luxury items such as televisions, clothes, meat and of course, milk. Figures from 2000 show that the average citizen in China consumed a mere 9L of milk per year, while pales in comparison to today's 25L consumption rate. Furthermore, in the current state of affairs it isn't at all surprising that China has become the leading milk producer and milk importer in the world.
Another factor contributing to the rising costs of milk are the mounting costs of feeding the source. With the high, "demand for bio-fuels is pushing up the price of corn and other grains, which is what farmers use....to feed their cows instead of grass." Furthermore the milk industry tends to be controlled heavily by the government, though the price supports and subsidies may become somewhat irrelevant due to the sudden milk boom.
How exactly does all this milk activity effect us? Well the answer is simple (and obvious): rising prices. Yet, it goes beyond paying a dollar more for a carton of milk. Because milk is used in a great several forms in an even larger range of food products (baby formula, cheese, chocolate, butter, ice cream, cake etc.) the effects are felt to a wider extent. Now Starbucks sells more milk than coffee and has raised their drink prices accordingly. Pizza parlors and ice cream vendors alike have also adjusted their prices to compensate. Hershey's has suffered a fall in profit tied to the increased cost of production, and even Kraft (think KD) is feeling the blow.Whats interesting about this entire situation is not that milk can be compared to oil, or even that such a seemingly trivial industry has literally taken off in the past few years, but why. In under five years, the growing middle class (primarily located in developing countries) has transformed the world market. Its interesting how five years ago such people could be labeled as a burden to the society they lived in and now they are a significant driving force in the global economy.
What is unusual, and somewhat confusing, about the milk boom compared with other booming commodities is that milk is not like oil: You can't stick it in barrels and stockpile it. It goes sour. Even in powder form, the most commoditized version, milk has a shelf life. As a result, only about 7 percent of all the milk produced globally is traded across borders. The rest is consumed in domestic markets, which are protected by geography and just as often by tariffs or subsidies.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
