Living in Pittsburgh has proven to be quite the experience. For one, I have learned to appreciate live sporting events and mostly all sports. I have so many international friends. I think they and the majority of the Yinzers in Pittsburgh have made my understanding of sports culture much richer than it could have been in Naples. Leaving that other home in Naples, FL was the best thing that I could have done. I learned to appreciate my surroundings and people much more here than I would have been able to back home. The sort of connections that I have formed are much more deep than I could have dreamed. I think I have learned more than I know not only in class, but also from some random people. The amount of random, hilarious, and just flat-out bizarre moments I have had in this city far outnumber any I have had anyplace else.
I love the working class aesthetic of Pittsburgh, it's a lovely departure from the stuffiness of New England or the new, dirty, and ugly money found in South Florida. I like the beer in this city. It's not only cheap, but actually edible. I think that Pennsylvania has some of the finest breweries this side of the Mississippi. Further, the rough winters build character and makes me significantly appreciate the sort of warmth that comes from a cool spring day.
I value the education that this city offers. I take for granted my neighborhood back home versus here all too often. Back home, everyone needs a car to get from one place to another, here, people can either take the bus, call a cab, or just walk from one part of the city to another. The urban landscape has a more broad appeal than just density and proximity. Pittsburgh's old abandoned buildings teem with limitless potential. This city is screaming for a makeover and someone, perhaps a Policy major with a zeal for urban policy ought to do something about the way things look around here.
Besides that, I generally enjoy the dive bars, free shows, cultural events, and general excitement that comes with Pittsburgh, it's not the strip in Vegas, or Ocean in Miami, or Rodeo in the Hills, it's Pittsurgh, Pixxburgh, Sixburgh, full of some of the nicest people in the world. I will definitely be sad to say goodbye when I graduate. It's been a sometimes tumultuous ride to graduation and there will still be some road bumps along the way, but all in all, it's been unbelievable.
Work has its perks. Especially learning new things about some of your fellow employees.
I have a pretty mind-numbing job, I talk to people for three hours about virtually nothing and get paid to do it.
You'd think I'd be more appreciative, but I loathe calling people and talking to them.
Ironically, I am a telemarketer who can never be reached. I avoid my phone like the plague. It's a source of illness and unwanted stress.
I call all types of people, but mostly alumni from my school, prospective graduate school, and parents. Anyway, most of the time, I find the people at my work absolutely intolerable, but one of my supervisors revealed something incredibly interesting...she's actually a normal person.
For the longest, I thought that normal people outside of me in my place of work didn't exist, but for once I can admit I was a dumbass. Other normal people, who actually who lives work for my company doing the same taxing work as I do.
In addition, the girl I sat next to at work proved to be quite funny. She has an ironic sense of humor. I was so surprised. She actually had me laughing behind the headset, which never happens at work. I can appreciate a girl who kisses alum ass in one line and then calls them assholes and bitches in the same breath.
I am starting to actually love my job, that sounds sick, maybe one day I'll write a book about the exploits from annual giving. For now, homework looks to be a real pain in the ass. I must get to it.
Ah, the title of this one is a bit of an inside joke. Most people who live in Oakland know that Schenley Park is where a lot of interesting stories are born.
The politics surrounding Haiti's earthquake have troubled many potential donors in the last few days.
People inquire about the building codes, infrastructure, lack of personnel and trained medical doctors.
People often stereotype Haitians as poor, uneducated, malnourished, and of course overwhelmingly black.
Well, we are poor, we are uneducated, even malnourished in some cases.
None of these things happen without some sort of cause.
The history of the nation on Hispaniola is complex, but to make a long story short: Haiti never got a fair deal out of independence.
The reparations that were owed slaves were actually given to former slave owners. That is, the French and the Americans colluded to reinstate the sort of slave dichotomy which had defined white European relationships with Africans. First, through the overt alienating of the island. France and many other nations did not even recognize Haiti for most of the 19th century. Secondly, Haiti has been occupied by foreign (U.S.) troops in the 20th century. After that last occupation, Haiti experienced the worst set of dictatorship in its complicated 200 year history. A dictatorship, mind you, that was backed by the U.S. government for many years.
The overthrow of these ruthless figures came from the Haitian public. After Baby Doc's exile, the last Duvalier's brutality was mimicked by successive military juntas. Finally after years of mobilizing, the Haitian public attempted to alter its government and put power back into the people's grip. For once, the U.S. played a pivotal rule in making Haiti safe for democracy. Unfortunately, the price for democracy was unusually high. Neo-liberal restructuring, privatization of necessary goods, and of course the faux democracy of Aristide, who began to abuse his rights as executive in his second term.
Nevertheless, Haiti manages to survive these crises in representation. Perhaps all the country needs is the aid that the U.S. and other nations has promised to rebuild and start over. The time for a revolution of ideas in Haiti has come, and it's been a long time coming.
Keep the discourse alive!
Haiti has too many problems to list. The added burden of yet another natural disaster has finally hit the upper echelons.
I, for one, am pleased that finally in the midst of all these troubles the presidential palace, one of the nicest, most opulent buildings in the country was reduced to literal ruins.
Maybe now the supposed public officials who live within the gated confines of that palace can be forced to look at all the problems facing this incredibly poor nation.
The government in Haiti accepted corruption for too long. While millions in the country starved, the fat cats sat in a white palace, stealing from their own people. No new roads in years or even schools were erected.
Traveling around the tiny island remains increasingly difficult because the country lacks even basic infrastructure. Meanwhile, the earthquake did affect the majority of the country's poor, that is the real tragedy.
These poor souls need not have passed, if their government were more caring and less corrupt.
In the state of California, buildings are built to withstand the force of earthquakes as massive as 7.5 on the Richter scale. This country was ill-prepared before this incident for the likes of any sort of tropical storm or Hurricane and yet nothing was done to begin to reverse the insane deforestation in the nation.
I hope that the earthquake opens the Haitian public's eyes. Now is the time for discourse, a proper discourse involving the disenfranchised. Remember, 80% of Haitians live below the poverty line, which means the majority can organize and make the government work in their favor.
Keep the discourse alive!
My deepest condolences to anyone affected by the earthquake. I'm one of the ones still waiting to hear about the status of my relatives in the nation, so I fully comprehend the emotional toll that the natural disaster has had on people.
It was the snowiest day in the new year. I don't regret not getting out of the apartment building. Amid the entire weather trouble, one of my roommates surprisingly flew into Pittsburgh with no issue. I, on the other hand, did the dishes, drank coffee, ate pasta with a friend, watched Blues Brothers (original 1980s version with Belushi) and began to finish the second part of one of the driest, slowest books ever, Pride and Prejudice.
Looking back at Wednesday, I was reading the book on the Greyhound bus and all of a sudden began an intense conversation with a sexy Australian blonde. Classy women of such high intellect rarely, if ever, decide to talk to strange men on Greyhounds, but this one decided that I was too much to pass up. She initiated the conversation over the reading. She, of course, found it curious that I, a handsome twenty-something black man, would read such a feminine book. I replied that I like to read whatever I can get my hands on. She smiled and thus our conversation began. Besides that I told her that I had received recommendations from people about the book, but never mustered the intellectual courage to finally commit to reading the damn thing. Finally, I kept this part hidden, I felt that reading this book would help me understand women and obviously I was not that far from the truth.
Sharon was her name, a nice departure from American women she was. I also got hit on by an older German woman at the bar on Christmas, but, that's for another entry.
Really?
Go greyhound and leave the driving to us.
I honestly like pets, but I am from the old school. Pets are nice, from a distance.
This New Year...all I want is peace of mind.
I just put down Profiles in Courage.
The state capitol has its perks. The rolling hills, large plots of well-maintained farms and ranches, a dazzling river running adjacent to the historic downtown district, and of course the glorious mountains enclosing the majority of the city.
The republicans are determined to stifle progress with health care reform being the major area of concern until the December holidays, opponents of the bill like the majority of Senate Republicans claim that the bill is just wasteful and unnecessary at this time because the United States already has a huge deficit.
Needless to say, these same dissenters are not upset at the current policy to send more than 30, 000 troops to Afghanistan to "finish" what we started. We need to reexamine our so-called values as a people when war trumps health at all costs.
The destruction of life and the killing of people has taken more precedence than love, sharing, and caring for one another as a society. We need to make policy decisions that value life more than money. If Republicans disagreed with Democrats regarding specific provisions of the reform measure, I would be more inclined to agree with some of their arguments, however thus far the minority only offers either ad hominem attacks of the administration.
Mitch McConnell claims that the administration is already too incompetent to implement legitimate change to the United States. But, where are the Senator's solutions? I think he and his Republican colleagues suffer from an unfortunate case of status quo bias. The irrational arguments given by the right-wing orators has yet to provoke change, only more of the policies that President Bush became infamous for. The same free-market message that the Republicans have uttered for years deserves sparse consideration when the subject of health care comes into focus. Health care can no longer be viewed as a privilege when more than 10% of Americans have lost their jobs and increasingly Americans find themselves squeezed financially. This recession is partly our doing, but the government has to promote positivity and somehow transform our habits. Not all voters think rationally about finances or even about their health. Allowing consumers to make decisions leaves room for fraud because most of the health care industry does not offer full disclosures to help us make the most optimal decisions about which insurer to use.
The industry cannot stay the way it is for much longer, otherwise the United States will witness a sharper decline in prosperity. I recently lost a young cousin to cancer, I have no medical background, but I do have eyes and I witnessed his parents suffer not only because of his deteriorating condition, but also because no amount of medicaid or other government health plan covered his treatment enough. Many families dealing with disease have lost their homes trying to pay for medical bills and my cousins were victim to the same circumstance. Their livelihood and everything they built for their family...lost. Why?
We can live in a country that actually does something about the least of those and tries to alleviate its problems.
Instead, we continually let injustice occur under the name of fiscal conservatism.
I'm outraged by the likes of Mitch McConnell. What struggles has he had? He has the best health care in the world, he is a Senator and thus receives health care on our tax dollars. I bet he would be singing a different tune if he were from a low-income bracket and had inadequate health insurance.
Keep the discourse alive!
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