Apples and Oranges

It's a well-worn discussion that Europe and the United States have problems with their health care systems. However I'm not sure if I agree with Ezra Klein in the value of choice in our health care system. He argues in favor of the French system because it has lower debt. Yet let's look to the future. What about the millions of second and third generation immigrants? How will that affect French industry? Is it enough to argue that Medicaid/Medicare have crippled the American health care systems and not predict problems for the French system in the comparison? Dale Franks argues that the American system may still be preferrable over the French and German health care systems, but all are not satisfactory. He is right in the differences between the two systems. However, to group the two countries is not the best idea either. France is a top-down bureacratic state and German is a federal state. Neither will translate directly to the American liberal economy.

presidential likenesses

I've always said that people of certain races tended to aggregate at my high school, and now,

"nobody has ever voted for a presidential candidate they wouldn't have had lunch with in high school."

Thank you, David Brooks. Even if I can't agree with the typecasts, reading this quote after watching a primarily white audience dance to rap music made the column worthwhile..

Feeling small

Last night I watched Syriana. In a way, watching such a movie was a strange phenomenon. Watching a conspiracy unfold alongside strangers in the dark. The audience gained bits of information related to the characters but had no power by which to intervene. Men in business suits made pacts and ordered killings with the efficiency and undistinguishable air of ordering a cup of coffee. T argues that the movie doesn't aptly depict life in bureaucracy and oil dealings. I am little qualified to argue anything besides bureacracy and the actions left unsaid.

Between student government, interning, and being a bit of a politics nerd, the inherant consequences of "insider" information is difficult to ignore. Trying to know and make the student opinion heard while being an overloaded student is difficult. Working with administration that is in transition is difficult, with rewards at infrequent intervals. Yet reading about the everyday politics of a country, even as I realize that so many people do not follow them, is hard to comprehend. The politicians and bureacratic forces that shape the laws, make the laws, and sign disarmament agreements is important to the particular society. The discussions between Sinn Fein and the DUP will shape Northern Irish politics for the next decade. However, the ability to find meaningful commentary is low. Is globalization supposed to open up interest in other parts of the world for reasons other than self-interest?

In some ways, this began as a response to K's blog about the liberally educated person. We are supposed to be able to converse on multiple levels and display dexterity in knowledge. Perhaps the liberally educated person will be more willing to develop understanding of multiple regions of the world that are affected by our global economy for reasons that are not self-interested initially. Perhaps it will be the ability to reach outside of personal "bubbles" and to be more than a spectator or ignorant reader who skips particular section in the daily newspaper. There are some life skills that will not be taught at Kenyon - such as a lack of direct correlation to an "academic" nature or upon the affluent nature of the college. I agree that a wake-up call is necessary. As much as I abhor bureacratic machinations, I probably will continue to work towards some sort of meaningful progress. I know my contributions are as large as one ant. It' is hopelessly depressing at times, but in one microcosm of the world, it may be all that can be done. Sometimes I just wish that people outside of the microcosm would take genuine interest in my "bubble" as I hope to do with their "bubble."

a liberal education

A friend of mine is interviewing in DC this week. She has a new spring suit, new shoes, tasteful jewelry, a modest briefcase, and multiple copies of her resume. She’s conducted two practice interviews, one with our career counseling center and one with friends with varying degrees of interview experience. We spent last night brainstorming the little details: how to take public transportation (viz. buses), merits of carry-on luggage, and checking whether the hotel had an ironing board.

What amazed me last night and has amazed me since I came to college, are the number of small “life skills” that my friends and I do not know. My friend’s new suit? The pants needed to be hemmed, and out of the four 22-year-old girls, only I knew how to hem. Making a flippant remark about the fact that it’s one of those life skills like sewing buttons, I was slightly taken aback that my roommate doesn’t really sew buttons. Yet she knits!

I confess, I was clueless about car care two years ago. I still am clueless. It took me two months, three conversations, and two phone calls to determine that my front wheels needed to be balanced and that my sister can throw away the old windshield wipers. Do I know what to look for when I look under the hood? I’ll take the 5th on that one.

We are talented thoughtful writers who can discuss political philosophy, quantum mechanics, narrative theory, and ecological population shifts. We can cook, do laundry, and clean a house to varying extents. Do we know how to network and how to do an informational interview? Do we feel that it is possible to live on less than $20,000 per year in a large East Coast City? Increasingly, our parents will support us in a monetary fashion after we graduate. I will still call my mom for tips when I spill red wine on white pants. I will call my stepdad and my dad when I don’t know how to check what kind of light I need for the door light. And I will ask my friends when I don’t know what I’m forgetting to do.

New Slang

Even if she can't tell the pineapple story to save her life, I enjoy laughing at my sister's jokes almost as much as I enjoy laughing at her.

Be a free radical. Join the anti-Markovnikov movement.

where Fargo is a big city

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifThe NY Times has an intriguing article on North Dakota. Whereas the Sunbelt and Cactus Belt are struggling to absorb their population increases, North Dakota is seeing a mass exodus.

North Dakota has continued to lose people. And it didn't have that many to begin with. In 1930, its population peaked at 680,845. In 2000, it was down to 642,200, and by 2004, the last year for which statistics are available, it had dropped to 634,366. (By comparison, the national population more than doubled, to 294 million from 123 million, during the same period.) Of the 25 counties nationwide that lost the largest portions of their populations in the 1990's, 12 were in North Dakota.

I spent a few days in rural ND last August, and it confirms the anecdotal evidence of the residents of Crosby, ND. Towns are few and far between. The landscape is flat, to be broken as the fields change from corn to soybeans to sunflowers. In town, there is one main drag, often with a railroad line dividing the town into sections. One town celebrates "Uff-da Days" and unfortunately, I left my T-shirt with the recipe for lefse at home. Neighbors can peer through their lacy windows because, well, strangers add a little excitment, mystery, and fodder for gossip. North Dakota was built on the pen of Lincoln with the Homesteading Act and thus on the need for community. The article points out initiatives by inhabitants to maintain what it values:

North Dakotans, [one resident] says, are "superfriendly, to where you say they're borderline nosy. A real tight sense of community."

The NY Times makes no secret of the problems that cannot be helped by civic pride alone. The desire to live in a place where everyone knows your name doesn't bring employment opportunities and young families to town. [I'm not talking about the teenage pregnancy problems where the youth have nothing to do but smoke, drink, have sex and now do meth. Even seeing David Brooks' column about the lack of values in our society today didn't make me too optimistic] It brings retirees.

The emigration to other places (like Minnesota) and the lack of a tourism industry has meant that ND is in danger of falling off the map. It's sad to hear about a town that simply folds up because it has two residents. "A History of Violence" set itself in Nowhereville, Indiana, to emphasize the disappearance and imagery of small-town America; the NY Times recommends that one goes to ND to see the last vestiges of true small-town America. But this real-life version is grimmer and more ghostly.