Quote of the Day (QotD) #1

I am starting a new rubric enigmatically called Quote of the Day.
Today's blurb is about Malthus and sustainable development.

The sage Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed."

How to Deal with Street Charity Collectors

Cynicism may be one of the few ways to remain sane in this starving world. Looking through the prism of a skeptic allows us not to fall for cheap and empty promises, to question how much of donated materials and effort reach their intended destination, and to consider more effective options for aid and assistance.

Personally, I am not easy to convince when it comes to charity. I'd much rather volunteer time and effort. Yet, I can't stop wondering if harm reduction is all we could do at the moment. Charity collectors in the streets of Boston have not failed to amaze me with perseverance and cheerfulness even in the freezing single-digit temperatures of winter. Great actors those guys and gals. Not long ago I decided not to stare down at my feet while passing by one such "hustler" by being so naturally distracted that I failed to notice him coming my way and to act distracted. Too late to pretend, I was left with two options and I didn't have the guts to run. And I am glad I didn't. What I learned from a pretty lengthy conversation was that the person I had feared would sweet talk me into doing something I had been careful to avoid was actually clueless. Not only was he the worst salesman I have ever met, lacking the type of magical charisma that would turn a stone-cold, heartless person like me into Mother Theresa, but he barely knew anything specific about the organization he was supposed to represent. I guess it didn't help him much that I had previously casually researched it, not to mention my educational background and interest in aid. He ended my monologue with a sincere regret that he had wasted his time with me, because "[I was] a good person and knew a lot." Those were his words, not mine for mine would have been something along this line: "You can't expect to easily persuade anyone to do a thing, for which they have made it their life goal to find a reliable substitute."

Democracy Is Not a Spectator Sport

Best things in life are free and my current favorite T-shirt proves it.

I kept hitting my head against the wall trying to put Howard Zinn and Massive Attack in one sentence. Oh, I guess I just did...

Professor Zinn's presence in and around my alma mater was too sentimental and I felt as if I had lost a mentor when the world lost him in January of this year. He was one of the main reasons why I attended BU, being introduced to him during a high school World History class. I took my first college date to his annual lecture in 2006, after which we turned the occasion into a special ritual to commemorate our anniversary.

Then there is Massive Attack who are still here, still rocking steady. Music has been my preferred medium for expression of radical ideas for a long time and last month's show was a sweet surprise. When the video installations rolled Howard Zinn's pearls of wisdom, something inside me shook so violently that at last, I was able to find outward expression of the dormant hunger for justice. All that was left to do was to act on the impulse to create, to destroy, to seek and to simply to do, act, work towards something meaningful. So I danced. I danced even more fiercely, and I hoped. I hoped that I wasn't alone in the crowd packed venue, ripping by the mad force that were the fanatic, maniacal Massive Attack fans. I hoped that they read what I was reading, that they saw what I was seeing. And that they knew what they needed to do more than I understood then or can fully comprehend now.

Synthetic, Artificial, Sci-fi and Cool

On a regular basis, I go back and forth arguing with friends on the impact of today's discoveries. We brush aside the much-publicized moral dilemmas and focus on the juggernaut, the coolness aspect of each innovation. In the end, whether we speak of genetically modified fruit in our insipid mango juice or the creators of the first synthetic cell, the new rock stars you may say, we seem to agree that the mass consumer will embrace the new as easily as they brush aside the old. But there's a catch. There is one condition - how to prove that the synthetically created, cloned or artificially modified product is just as good if not better than the natural, preservative-free, untouched one? Marketing helps, but preconceived notions are not easy to shake and for a reason too. I, as a consumer, could not care less where or how my food is produced if I couldn't tell the difference; moreover, if I knew for a fact that the new product is enhanced with vitamins without a single side effect much like its good old naturally-born prototype, I'll be the first one in line at the grocery store (a place I still dread to this day). To elaborate, I feel constantly cheated when I shop and know what food labels hide from me as if I were a character from Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" consciously choosing to ignore the truth. There are too many things that are wrong with our society and I need to pick my battles after all!

Purpose Maximizing

Warm glows and purpose vs profit maximization problems. Or how to rethink undergraduate economics.

Philanthropy will not save the world...

...But it gives hope that the world is worth saving.

Feliz Cinco De Mayo, Boston!

Only a state like Massachusetts can get away with legally boycotting a state like Arizona.


Here's an obvious step to promote a little bit of my immigrant-Bostonian pride.

¡Felicidades!