A resurrection

After a doomsday post, more than two years' break, and a whole lot of mood swings vacillating between despair, what's-the-point?-it's-too-late-to-fix-it-anyway attitude and optimistic, but-we-need-to-at-least-try-otherwise-there-is-no-reason-to-wake-up-in-the-morning-and-we-might-as-well-get-ready-to-die thoughts, the blog is finally to be revived. Hopefully, this time the commitment lasts a (somewhat longer) while. What's to come: format - and naturally, content - updates. Meanwhile, here are some significant updates about the author: Firstly, I haven't been a US resident for the past 22 months. Yet, I still filed my taxes. On time. I moved to the island where the sun doesn't shine (I was originally skeptical with regards to this fact, but have recently lost all hope), the United Kingdom of Great Britain. I am currently in the final stretch of my studies towards an MSc in Urban Economic Development at the University College London, University of London's Bartlett School of Architecture & Planning's Development Planning Unit (Or MSc in UED @ DPU, UCL, UoL for short). Besides becoming proficient in acronym memorization, I am happy to share that I thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from my course, didn't lose all of my accent or give up on my "z's", and continue to see no point in writing the extra "u" in colour, behaviour or neighbourhood. Secondly, in the following months, I intend to disseminate abstracts of papers I have worked on during my studies and as usual continue to sketch thoughts on current issues. Stay tuned!

The End

"Number 8: The ecosystem collapses. Last July, in Science, the journal Science, 19 oceanographers published a very very unusual article — it wasn’t really a research report, it was a screed. They said, we’ve been looking at the oceans for a long time now, and we wanna tell you they’re not in trouble, they’re near collapse. Many other ecosystems on Earth are in real, real danger. We’re living in a time of mass extinctions that exceeds the fossil record by a factor of 10,000. We have lost 25% of the unique species in Hawaii in the last 20 years, California is expected to lose 25% of its species in the next 40 years. Somewhere in the Amazon forest is the marginal tree. You cut down that tree, the rain forest collapses as an ecosystem. There’s really a tree like that out there. That’s really what it comes to. And when that ecosystem collapses, it could take a major ecosystem with it, like our atmosphere."

What Does Davos 2011 Have to Do with Universal Education Reform?

This video is almost as exciting and thought-provoking as watching Francine Lacqua host a debate on Davos 2011 live on Bloomberg. It made me feel like I am back in college: starring Niall Ferguson as the ever-annoying know-it-all who just won't shut up. He would argue everyone's ears off, wasting the entire class in useless dialogue with the unfortunate Economics professor desperately trying to teach theory to that particular group of sorry economist-wannabes. And sure enough, he wouldn't make many friends in the class.



The above video is just slightly less intriguing than Stanley Fischer's mischievous smile or Mehmet Şimşek, Turkey's Finance Minister, who was the only person I listened to with appreciation and respect.

When the RSA Animate video is added to this video, however...



both of them combined create such a powerful sensation of importance and immediacy that it'll be foolish to ignore them. While global, international economic forums will continue to spark debates (that is the whole point of a forum after all), a major TV network is yet to televise one such forum focused around the issue of a universal education reform.

Gold doesn't get out of style

Bernanke is out, Ron Paul is in.

Anyone will agree that during inflation, the price of gold remains a relatively stable measure of how bad the situation is for all the currencies and their respective countries out there. However, we are also painfully aware of what happened during and after 1) the Gold Rush and 2) the Gold Peg to name a few memorable historic moments.

Paul has the advantage of sounding like a lovable grandfather. Otherwise, no one would take him seriously as a financial adviser (or at least shouldn't).

Prohibit Fumar

On my last visit a couple of years back, Spain (or at least a part of it, namely Catalunya) made an impression for having the need to specify prohibition of use of illegal substances in public spaces. As a New Year's resolution, the country has joined several other European neighbors in the fight against smoking of tobacco in those same venues used by the public.

I won't dwell on the health benefits of reducing second hand smoke, however, I will reflect on the economic downside of the huge drop of bars' revenue as seen on CNN. 'Tis the season to be jolly as a popular folk song reminds us. There is no merriness inside Spanish bars this holiday season, however. Since the legislation has gone this far, one can only suspect that the next smoking ban would target el botellón. And then... all matadors will break loose!

Spain's amicable neighbor Italy, apparently among those already under the public smoking ban, has decided to take a slightly less controversial approach to the European trend of the January 1st prohibition. Instead of banning another vice such as increasing the legal drinking age from 16 as it is currently the case or a sin like taking God's name in vain (or blatantly calling God a pig or a dog), the current threat is aimed at the arch enemy of all Italians - the plastic bag. Those fashion paper bags must have a pretty strong union. All I can do is hope that they're all recyclable.

Sad Land of Contrasts

The saddest place on earth* is the place where a great haircut + tip costs as much as a cocktail at a bar. The land of paradoxes and contrasts, my homeland, is a pretty sad place. That's no news to anyone who lives there currently or has had that privilege in their lifetime. Nonetheless, most often than not, it takes an outsider to tell it straight, and I can attest to that. As I go back even more rarely and I am a mere tourist enjoying her sojourn in familiar places with old friends, it shocks me how much whining is done per diem. Not that the same isn't happening anywhere else, and the US is becoming increasingly unhappier as employers continue to exploit employees while the short-staffed organization is trying not only to keep itself afloat but to grow and expand simultaneously. Cheap labor has moved the US economy to greater lengths and shores while allowing for the exploited to still enjoy a higher standard of well-being here than on any other corner of the earth.

How are things changing? And what can be done to change a mindset in sad countries such as Bulgaria? Well, for once, there is always room for gray areas. Nothing is ever black or white. As many commentators pointed out, there isn't much information given on where the stats came from and how they were manipulated. They are merely food for thought and debate.

My favorite comment on the article was from sheilll [who] wrote: Dec 16th 2010 10:15 GMT "The empiricist...thinks he believes only what he sees, but he is much better at believing than at seeing." George Santayana

It is such a contrast to live in a country where people focus on the positives and it is somewhat demeaning and embarrassing to admit how miserable or desperate you are. There is such an importance given to being happy, comfortable and well off that it scares me how readily the majority of people I talk to on the opposite side of the Atlantic share their problems and concerns, blaming it all on the government, the society, the people around them, but never on themselves. Certain principles I am not willing to compromise yet. I still won't pay more for a haircut if I can. I need to draw the line somewhere.

*Even sadder places relative to income not taken into account due to lack of data

Not Another Annual Appeal

In the spirit of the non-profit world I work for now, I am making an appeal to the teeny number of readers of this blog. I will not ask for contributions but I implore you, as this blog's lifespan is bound to be shorter than average, please, please, please follow this closely instead, or in parallel, if you absolutely need to.