Late night song of the week: some ska perhaps?

Why yes, that sounds lovely. Ignore the absurd video.

an interesting article on rental housing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/affordable-rental-housing-scarce-in-us-study-finds/2011/04/25/AFcBjilE_story.html

Values: awkwardly confronting global power and influence

All while wearing fancy clothes!!!

I feel kind of like a phony. Or very confused at the least. I personally value finding balanced arguments and trying to understand how different people and actors view situations, but that has been throughly challenged this week, because as usual, I am realizing how I am truly at an elite institution, despite wherever I may feel that my sentiments lie.

I spent a good deal of this week trying to get hired for an internship with Corporate Accountability International. They do a lot of really interesting work, pressuring corporations and trying to create change through various campaigns, currently focused around the water, food and tobacco industries. I loved the office and the staff seemed like awesome people, but some things made me uncomfortable. For instance,as I think I've mentioned before, Tufts, for all its liberal bias and talk of active citizenship and social change, doesn't usually like to expose us to a ton of anti-market thinking. I've been exposed to the idea that you need to frame an argument subtly. So I'm not entirely sure that I can truly reject things like water market privatization wholesale. Water is a human right, but is it better for water to be mismanaged by a corrupt government or a profit making apparatus?

Cut to part 2: At the last minute, I ended up hosting people for an event the Institute for Global Leadership is putting on, without really knowing what I was getting into. Turns out the conference, on social enterprise is sponsored by the Young Presidents Organization(YPO). Basically, it consists of children of global elites(ie presidents of companies) networking at an expensive conference. So, I currently have a member of the Guatemalan oligarchy sleeping on my couch, along with another slightly less exotic member of the American elite. I met two other kids last night as well. You may know that I am involved with an organization called BUILD that works with former guerrilla combatants in Guatemala, who fought a 36 year civil war, essentially against the concentration of wealth and power that aforementioned individual literally represents. Even more ironic, we spent a BUILD meeting today talking about agriculture, land markets and Mayan struggles for economic recognition. What frustrates me the most is that I want so desperately to talk about these issues, but it is impossible for me to feel comfortable doing so without knowing someone very well. However, if I've become convinced of anything while I've been in college, its that in order for social change to be lasting, there needs to be a recognition and a commitment on the part of elites to see the injustices and inefficiencies that inequality generates. Maybe the speakers they're being exposed to in the conference are the first step towards that change, but I'm not entirely convinced. From a more abstract perspective, these kinds of linkages fascinate me, sociologically speaking. No longer do we simply have national elites, but the emerging global elite and their increased sense of interconnection fascinates me. Oh, and its totally weird to be chilling with kids who don't think much about money when I am trying to figure out how to magically fund unpaid internships. Also, sorry for using the word elites a thousand times: too many political science courses.

In other interesting news, this weekend was the Tufts Energy Conference, which interestingly enough involved me going to a cocktail party to schmooze with people and going to a workshop sponsored by BP (yes, that BP, aka the ASSHOLES WHO DESTROYED THE GULF OF MEXICO) as a favor to a friend. Was my presence in the room a tacit approval? Should I have boycotted? Protested? Would that ultimately have made any sort of difference???

I am challenged by the realization that despite the feeling that I am separated from these "real"/"wealthy" people, that my current reality is what it is because of my ties to them. Almost every good I consume traces back to some corporation. My parent's salary. My education. The media I consume. We can raise a voice against injustices, but we also perpetuate them by virtue of existing in the modern world. This gives us power, but also renders us hypocritical from the very second we open our mouths.

On a lighter note, I realized that in this last week, I've been wearing professional looking clothes as much as I haven't been. Not sure how I feel about that. Like always, my identity is in flux, trying to figure out what the best way for me to just live my life is.

Blog within a blog (part doux)

So, since i keep telling prospective internship employers that i have experience blogging, i have been trying out other blogging platforms other than blogspot.

Today's adventure: tmblr.

Pretty, although admittedly useless since I'm not actually a photographer:

http://jumbolicious.tumblr.com/

It's official...

Buds are out! Happy spring everybody, we deserve it!!

I miss the sound of acoustic guitar

Rays of Hope

These last couple of months, I keeping being reminded of something one of my professors in Chile said:

"Democracy means an increase in conflict, not less"

The context of the quote was that when we are truly free, there are more voices heard, which may be in conflict with each other, something which usually brings about an end that is ultimately good. I wonder what he would have thought about this current budget lunacy.
With so much of the other kind of conflict lately, the destruction of human life for selfish ends, its hard to not become cynical and hardened about our prospects.


But while I was looking through some articles for my crisis mapping class today, I found two really cool projects, bringing the opinions of people around the world together to report on stories and secondly, to keep their leadership accountable. It's these kinds of things that are what democracy truly represents to me, a forum that has the potential to be a lot purer than a bunch of old white guys in suits bickering while pretending to truly represent the needs of the constituents of an amazingly culturally diverse nation. Of course, technology as democracy has its downsides, access being first among them, vulnerability as we share ourselves with audiences we may not even realize and the empowerment of hate alongside the empowerment of discourses of justice and freedom and fairness.

Anyway, these give me hope that we can create a different world, slowly, click by click.

http://globalvoicesonline.org/

http://transparency.globalvoicesonline.org/

Read my/our other blog!

So my housemate Rebecca and I have a food blog, chronicling our classy home cooked meals- Check it out! Appropriately named Cuisner (French for to cook) since Rebecca studied French pastry making and cachai for my random smattering of Chilean/vaguely South American contributions.Throw in a smattering of absurdly cheap groceries from Chinatown and you'll have a pretty good idea of our fushion cuisine...

http://cuisinercachai.wordpress.com/

And what the hell, another music video too.

Los Bunkers: Sueño Con Serpientes

Revisiting 3rd Grade History

"But this victory from which we all derive, Europeans and Americans both, delivers as well a terrible blow to our capacity to feel in harmony with the world, to belong to a preestablished order; its effect is to repress man's communication with the world, to produce the illusion that all communication is interhuman communication; the silence of the gods weighs upon the camp of the Europeans as much as on that of the Indians. By winning on one side, the Europeans lost on the other; by imposing their superiority on the entire country, they destroyed their own capacity to integrate themselves into the world."

Tzvetan Todorov "The Conquest of the Americas and the Question of the Other"

I came across this AMAZING quote while I was working on my midterm for Globalization. I'm starting to grow quite fond of the class: it's wonderful to approach history as a question rather than an answer. Why did things have to happen as they did and could they had been envisioned differently?

Infographic: Tax Breaks vs. Budget Cuts

A good look at where our national priorities are right now....

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/02/tax_breaks_infographic.html

Cortisol Detox

After finishing with my midterms, it was time for a break. After my last class on Thursday, I ran into some friends on the president's lawn (the big hill in the center of the Tufts campus) and we just sat for a good half hour, not doing much of anything, listening to the awesome rhythms of BEATS, Tufts drumming collective, who bang out tunes on everything from real drums to garbage cans.

That night, we had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day Dinner party, including very very green pancakes.

And yesterday, ahhhh just one of those wonderful wonderful days.
After work, I biked downtown to the Museum of Fine Arts, in the gorgeous warm weather. (although eerie from a climate change perspective.) As much as I love Tufts, its so good to get away and have a little perspective, seeing other people that make up the fabric of the city. Everyone was dying to get outside after the winter: it always amuses me how much less lame of a place Boston is in the summer. After that, I went with my housemate for a free wine tasting which was quite lovely. And then we went home and cooked an impromtu middle east inspired dinner, before a late night soccer game on the quad.

These are the days when you realize why people describe college as the best time of their lives.

FUERAAAAAA DE AQUI

Going home for spring break! Excited to chill with the fam for a bit. Had this song in my head lately. It's actually about abuse BUT it has a really catchy refrain: Fuera de aqui (Get out of here) which is why I am adopting it as the official start of spring break song.

One Problem Set Left til Spring Break Song

A Hopeful Song

Internship Search

I am having a hard time with my search for internships during the summer. I really want to have an interesting chance to gain more experience...along with every other undergrad in the country. And typically for me, I can think of about 25 different subject areas off the top of my head that I would be interested in working with. I'm a little upset because I just found out yesterday that one option I had been thinking about, working with a coffee cooperative BUILD partners with, is not going to be possible because they are having a very unusual year due to the extremely high global coffee prices. See a really interesting New York Times article on the subject. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/science/earth/10coffee.html (Proof that Tufts kids are totally coffee fiends: at least 5 separate people I know have brought up this article in conversation recently)

Anyway, this means that for now I am trying to apply for more competitive things. Which I don't like. Because I lost all my competitiveness last semester when I had to assimilate to a society that values solidarity and group work. I jest. Basically though, I dislike this because it seems like a waste of time to apply to internships with basic description that sound like:

"Seeking dedicated unpaid labor to do office work most of the time, although there's a chance you may get a chance to do something cool for a bit. Maybe. I mean you'll be working for us for 50 hours a week so.....By the way, we did mention we can't pay you anything whatsoever, right? And good luck finding a cheap apartment round here. To apply for this amazing opportunity, send us 2 copies of your resumé, some other form, an official transcript, a 5 page writing sample (like we'll read it), 3 references, a cover letter, blood samples. Preference will be given to applicants who are willing offer us their firstborn child."

After being frustrated by the fact that I am about as likely to get any of those as I was to get into an Ivy, I ran some internet searches on some other ideas. Mining policy came to mind. Until I googled mining activism and found that the first 3 pages of results were people who had been assassinated. Not very reassuring. Probably any career that hypothetically sounds really cool has a pretty high death rate associated with it. Not bueno.

I should stop complaining though, I am lucky enough to have a world class education and will no doubt find something worth while to do with it.

In the meanwhile, I am keeping calm by drinking lots of tea, because I am getting sick because Tufts is currently a germ infested hole, no doubt caused by midterms concentrating everyone in the library without much ventilation. I went to Buddhist mediation at the Greater Boston Buddhist Community Center today which was pretty cool too, except we didn't actually meditate much, just listened to a buddhist nun talk about certain ideas for practice. And I am listening to this awesome mellow Chilean guitarist chap, Manuel Garcia, over and over and over.

http://youtu.be/mS5ODsIlWqI

Just staying calm and trying to get things done, because there is just nothing else that I can do, except try and control my destiny to the best of my ability.

One more tidbit: If you are in Buddhist temple, it is generally considered disrespectful to point/ stretch out your feet directly towards the Buddha statue representations. Oops. At least I know now.

Thoughts and Prayers...

To all those affected by the horrible events of today. Fuerza Japón!

Translating...Or not.

While trying in vain to find something in Spanish that hasn't been translated into English for a final project, I came across this interesting article. Words are so great. yeah. Ok, back to finding something global scholarship has neglected to render bilingually.
http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-awesomely-untranslatable-words-from-around-the-world/

Una noche, una noche toda llena de murmullos, de perfumes y de músicas de alas

Nighttime is fast becoming my favorite time of day.

I read somewhere once that in the middle ages (or some time long ago and far removed) that people used to sleep in two shifts, waking up midway through the night to get up, walk around, even socialize. According to Ingrid from my internship in Chile, the Mapuche believe that 3 in the morning is a time of the day with magical characteristics.

So clearly, I'm not completely alone (read: insane) in thinking there is something especially beautiful about this time of the night: the lights of Boston sparkle from the lookout on the library roof, looking different every time, invigorating cold air rushes against my face as I bike home, everything is absolutely calm and still.

And now on to "hacer tutto." 40 winks, shut eye, what have you.

Newly Annointed Late Night Library Theme Song...

"At home she's looking for interest
At home she's looking for interest
She said she was ambitious
So she accepts the process
She said she was ambitious
So she accepts the process"

........................................

"At home she feels like a tourist
She fills her head with culture
She gives herself an ulcer
Why make yourself so anxious
You give yourself an ulcer"

Gang of Four, "At Home He Feels Like a Tourist"

There is no better song I can think of to describe late night study here.