Tuesday, July 3, 2007

4th of July

Hey yall...sorry about the wait. I wrote this blog about a week and a half ago, and wasn't going to post it, but I think its okay so here you go:


I must keep you waiting on my official ipod charging blog as there s something else I have to get down...

Last weekend, we heard that on Sunday night, Milford (my hometown) was having a fireworks show for the first time. Would they shoot them off from Silver Sands or Walnut Beach? Would they shoot them off at Gulf Beach near the harbor so they could be seen easily from a beatiful, thriving downtown? Nope. The fireworks were at...The Connecticut Post Mall. A pretty odd choice if you ask me, but I could live with it. As some of you may know, we live 5 minutes from the mall, and I figured we should be able to watch them from our back yard. So, we sat in the yard on lawnchairs around 9 PM waiting for the fireworkds to start. Finally, around 9:30, we see some flashes through the trees. Unfortunatly, they were not high enough above the treeline to make them enjoyable, so me, my mom, and my Dad hopped in the car to try and find a better view without actually driving to the mall. We tried the sidestreets around our house, but nothing. We continued driving until we reached Post Rd., Rt. 1. We tried to see from Krispy Kreme, but the view was not consistent enough, so we went nextdoor to, of all places, McDonalds. And we parked, of all places, right behind the flagpole. I didn't think twice of any of this at first, but suddenly I realized how American I was right at that moment. Me, sitting on the hood of the car, staring at the booming fireworks high in the sky being launched from the mall (which has pretty much doubled in size in the last year)on the most American of holidays, the 4th of July. In the foreground of my view, a flagpole. Atop that flagpole, a large American flag. Just below that, another flag of equal size sporting the red background and the all-American Golden Arches.

I struggle almost daily with my feelings on issues like globalization and America's role in the world. As an undergrad, outside of my engineering curriculum, I gravitated towards the departments of Development Sociology (country not child) and City and Regional Planning. Here, Marx was God and the World Bank was nothing but a bunch of neo-colonialists. I learned to HATE McDonalds, Walmart, sweatshops, Adam Smith, and Larry Summers (check out "Let Them Eat Pollution", a leaked internal memo written by Dr. Summers when he was with the World Bank). I even wrote a paper on the dangers of the commodification of land, labor, and money and my professor ate it up.

In the last few years, I have studied more seriously some economics and public policy, and have become more of a centrist on these issues. I don't mind that my shirt says "made in India" because the sweatshop where it was made may be pulling its workers' families out of extreme poverty or giving women their first access to an income. I have met and learned from several World Bank advisors (one senior level) that I have all the respect for in the world. As tactless as Larry Summers is(you may recall his most recent blunders as President of Harvard), there are points in "Let Them Eat Pollution" (a justification for exporting pollution from rich to poor countries) that I actually agree with to some extent. Finally, I have learned to at least respect the power of markets, and along with "The Wealth of Nations", I even own a book entitled "The Wisdom of Adam Smith." It sits awkwardly on my shelf next to "The Communist Manifesto" and "The Great Transformation".

Sunday, July 1, 2007

They Should Make an iPod Patch

With a month and a half left before I take off, I have started to seriously think about packing. I am allowed 80 lbs of total checked baggage, plus a carry-on. However, the single piece of advice I have received from every volunteer I've talked to in Panama is: Pack light!!! There is a lot of steep terrain in Panama, many of the work sites are 2-3 hour hikes from the nearest form of vehicular transportation, and 80 pounds gets heavy real quick in 100% humidity. I have set my goal at 60 lbs checked baggage, all in my trusty Wolfskin pack and a day pack to use for carry-on.

You find out a lot about yourself when packing for Peace Corps. Its like a real-life version of that hypothetical question "If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only have 5 things with you, what would they be?" The clothes part is easy, because there is no pressure. Whatever you don't bring, you can probably find in-country, or if need be have it sent to you from home. However, I need to make important decisions on various other candidate items which I will not be able to find and Panama, and which could not be sent from home because they would surely be stolen (a funny side note: they suggest that if something valuable does need to be sent, put it in a box for feminine hygiene products...some norms have no borders and apparently one of them is that guys don't mess with tampons). Anyway, I need to figure out what things I can and cannot live without for 2 years. This is no small task. Luckily, I have a couple significant advantages over most PC volunteers. I have already spent a significant amount of time in my country of service. Many volunteers are getting their passports for the first time. More importantly, I have a better understanding than most of how frustrating development work can be. I am using this advantage in a strategic packing exercise:

I picture myself alone after dark in my wood hut with dirt floors. Rain is pounding on the zinc rooftop. I haven't been home for 8 months, and haven't even seen another Peace Corps volunteer for over a month. I just spent all day building a spring box (a cement box used to protect water springs from contamination). It came out terribly, and apparently nobody even cares about the project because the men in the village that were supposed to help with construction showed up 2 hours late and left at noon.

Now: At that moment, what will keep me sane?

For me, it will likely be music.

So, I need to have some music with me. But it can't just be any music. It is to be really great music, music that I can get lost in, or music that puts me in another place entirely. Unfortunately, there will be many days when I will need something to keep me sane. The situation described above (or something like it) is not uncommon, and there is not one, or even 10 albums that could get me through 2 years.

I need my ipod. Okay, need is a strong word, especially for something that didn't exist 5 years ago. I don't need my ipod to survive, but I need my ipod to keep myself in working order.

There is, however, a slight problem. Sure, that internal battery is incredibly effective at making the ipod super sleek and the size of a credit card. However, Steve Jobs did not target the "off-the-grid" market in his design. So, I have spent the hours of 12-2 AM for the last 4 or 5 days figuring out how to best keep my ipod charged. This has turned into a internal struggle in itself, to be detailed in the next episode of...dun dun dun...Esteban in Panama