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.

QotD #2

It's already October of 2010 and I watched Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" for the first time this afternoon.

In a societal culture driven by fear, Yoda's pearls of wisdom ring true:  

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

Google "hate crimes" and report back why people are so afraid of the unknown/different/nonconformist. Why must we stress how different we are from the rest, and therefore, better than them? We all do it, semi-consciously or not. There is no excuse.

Part dos

I did it! I finished Sach's "End of Poverty"!

EOM

mon(k)eynomix

Monkey business:



FYI, turns out I am completely risk averse.

Multi-You

As this blog continues to stray from a narrow development economics path, I feel compelled to consciously justify my choices for blog topics. As many of you out there, I am not immune to having many interests and keeping up with several of them. I am thoroughly, truly, madly, and deeply fascinated by people who manage to specialize in a certain field and follow through with it, making it their career and life calling. My own inability to control my self-diagnosed ADD has given me an insight into the multi-layered, multifaceted ways to even begin to discuss development economics. People always ask me what DevEc means to me. To me, it is a blend of cultural, social, basic micro- and macroeconomic, environmental, political, military, scientific, humanist, purposeful, engaging and informative understanding of the world on an individual, case-by-case, as well as global scale. How can we begin to search for solutions if we don't even grasp the nature of the problem? What if the problem is only a mere difference in all of the aforementioned characteristics derived from an artificially created divide we have drawn between OECD and non-OECD political entities?

Well, what does it mean to you?

Life is beautiful, albeit overwhelming

Data surrounds us. We swim in it, breathe in it. We socialize with it, share, discuss, fight over it.

The question is, how do we organize it? Information, just like life itself, can be very beautiful if looked through a reflecting prism, at a particular angle. Moreover, overflowing stats taken aside, organization can be creative and liberating.

With the following TED talk I hope that you will leave this blog inspired and start looking at the usual daily news chewed and thrown at you in a brighter, more color-coordinated light.