The Beginning of a Brain Drain

Jay Leno once noted that President Bush believes that Iraq "can have a strong economy...can have a good health care plan, and...can have a free and fair voting." Of particular interest to me here is health care. Indeed, Article 30, Paragraph 1 of the Iraqi constitution states that:

the state guarantees to the individual and the family -- especially children and women -- social and health security

My question: how can we get that over here in the States?

Of course, there are countless social institutions in the U.S. that are far superior than the comparable institutions in Iraq. Education is an excellent example. In an earlier post, I noted that school-age children in Iraq are not attending classes and are instead working to support their families. The situation in higher education is just as dismal. Reporting for NPR, Anne Gerrels filed this story on the sad state of Iraqi universities.

Back in the Saddle

It's official: I have returned to Bard College to finish my studies. Student Accounts has my parents' money, I've "registered" for courses, and even the library caught whiff of my presence and is asking me to return overdue books from my last semester here (more on the scare quotes in a moment).

I'm living on the periphery of the main campus in Gahagan, an old house which was converted into a dorm. The construction from that conversion was either poorly executed in the first place or has been warped and skewed over the years. (I tend to believe the former with the latter as a factor that compounded already existing problems.) The house has three entrances, one in the front which leads to a common kitchen and the three rooms on the ground floor. A side door serves as a private entrance for one of the rooms on the ground floor. The third entrance is located near the back of the house and leads to a stairway to the second floor, which, in my estimation was either an attic or originally part of the ground floor before the house became a dorm. There is low clearance walking up the stairs and in most of the second floor, making it a less than ideal setting for a tall person such as myself. It is impossible to move from the second floor to the ground floor rooms without going outside to the front entrance. Finally, the latch on the door to my room will not shut completely unless it is lifted while closed.

These annoyances aside, it's quite a nice place to live. The other students living on the second floor are quite friendly and welcoming. The rooms are also quite warm, a nice problem to have after suffering from insufficient heat in my previous room.

As for "registration," technically, there is no space in the classes in which I would like to enroll. In order to register today, I would have had to settle for a selection of classes that, while certainly interesting to others, would have been devestatingly boring for me. Thus, I will be registering by adding classes to my course load during the add/drop period. The two professors who I spoke to today seemed eager for me to be in their classes: political science professor Mark Lindeman and I had a brief conversation about the politics of education, the false dichotomy of dividing America into two diametrically opposed ideologies of red/blue and conservative/liberal, and the decline of Hollywood cinema; sociology professor Yuval Elmelech and I discussed his seminar on social problems in America and my interest in education as one such problem to be explored in his class. I intend to take three courses this semester as a way of easing back into the strenuous academics of Bard, which leaves space for one additonal course. Hopefully, for that final course, I will be able to join history professor Myra Armstead in her research seminar on urban history.

There is one final note, a disappointment, which I must register: the food. "Same shit, different day" seems to me an apt description. All the more motivation for taking up cooking this semester.

The Evolution of Technology: Scratch-n-Sniff Develops into Rub-n-Sniff

It seems like a minor distinction, but according to AdAge, the Wall Street Journal is going to start integrating "rub-n-sniff" advertisements into their newspaper. The smell emitted by the new ads will supposedly be more subtle than the offensive perfume ad inserts that pervade fashion magazines.

This all seems a bit silly to me, though. Last I heard, circulation of print papers was down considerably and I can't imagine that readers will flock to the WSJ just because they can smell the ads. Another questions: how much is this going to cost the Journal to implement? Do they really think those costs could possibly be offset by potential increased circulation and ad revenues?

Mala Vista

According to a story today from The Times of London, Microsoft's profits for the last quarter are down 28%. Why? Microsoft couldn't get its act together in to release their new O.S., Vista, when they had planned to. Thus, Microsoft had to offer coupons so that consumers purchasing new machines at the end of last year could upgrade to Vista upon its release. My question: why bother waiting for an upgrade when you could go out and buy a Mac?

Che cosa, Cusamano?

I've been wending my way through the first season of The Sopranos, which is wonderful not only for the stellar performances by the entire cast, but for the complexity of its writing. The Sopranos' writers withhold such a wealth of information as to intentions, motivations, and even the meaning of words that watching each episode requires one's utmost attention. One particularly confusing feature of the last episode I watched, "A Hit is a Hit," was the use of the word "cus," a nickname for a character with the last name of Cusamano. The character alludes to the fact that, in Italian, the word "cus" bears a negative connotation, but does not elaborate on the meaning. The writers deny the audience a chance to understand the full meaning of the word, which I can only hope will be explained in a later episode. Even drawing on the wealth of information now available through the internet, I was unable to find a hint as to the meaning of the phrase.

"Hogwash:" Proof that Cheney Doesn't Know Dick

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Vice President Dick Cheney dismissed "the blunders and the failures" in Iraq that Blitzer alluded to with characteristic gravitas: "I simply don't accept the premise of your questions. I just think it's hogwash." While Blitzer contended that the war in Iraq has created a "terrible situation," Cheney suggested that the difficulties in Iraq are simply "ongoing problems" that pale in comparison to rule under Saddam Hussein.

While Cheney's assertion may be true, the dire nature of the situation in Iraq cannot be aptly described as a set of "ongoing problems." The ramifications of daily attacks by insurgency forces have expanded far beyond the cost of lives alone. Not only is the Iraqi government falling apart at the seams (Nouri al-Maliki isn't too keen on staying in his position; neither, apparently, are the legislators), but the general populace is suffering, too. According to a report by ABC, children of Iraqi's who have been injured or killed in insurgent attacks are now leaving their schools so that they can support their families by working. Attendance in Iraqi elementary schools has dropped from 75% in 2005 to a mere 30% in 2006. Instead of pursuing an education, children are working either for legitimate businesses or for insurgents eager to indotrinate a new generation of Jihadists.

With a failing government, Iraqi children being raised as soldiers for the insurgence, and a host of economic shortcomings, perhaps Mr. Cheney should choose his words more carefully when describing the Iraqi state.

Stories of Note for the Morning of Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Politico Downgrades Giuliani's Chances
Writing for The Politico, Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith look at the former mayor of New York and his uphill battle for the RNC nomination in 2008, suggesting that Giuliani's failed run for Senate in 2000 along with his highly public lifestyle is detrimental to his current campaign. Of course it doesn't help that earlier this month, Smith, writing for the New York Daily News, obtained a copy of Giuliani's '08 campaign playbook. For his part, Giuliani claims that his campaign will be working full swing in Iowa by mid-February.

Security, Growing Doubts over Stability Hinder Iraqi Legislature
The constant threat of bombings along with a fragile infrastructure have recently left the Iraqi legislature often lacking a quorum of members. Damien Cave of The New York Times examines the threats and doubts that face legislators and the paradoxical attempts to promote attendance.

L.A. Considers a Gangbusting Tax
How bad is the gang violence in Los Angeles? Bad enough to spur the City Council to call for a parcel tax that would raise the $50 million to enact a variety of anti-gang measures. Patrick McGreevy and Steve Hymon of The Los Angeles Times write on the the likelihood of the passage of the tax and the opposition from citizen who have rejected recent tax hikes.


Other Stories

• Analysis of the President's State of the Union speech from The Nation, The New York Times, and The Washington Times.

• The Boston Globe is carrying an AP story today confirming that John Kerry will not make a bid for the presidency in 2008.

• AFP reports that the the President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, will step down in the face of rape charges.

The Evolution of the IT Professional

The rain came to the Hudson Valley yesterday, early in the morning while I slept. Upon awaking, I did not venture out into the cold wet of the day because of the beginnings of a flu having taken root in my chest and head. This is not to mention a desire to catch up on some work which I had needed to do. But the flu makes a nice excuse for everyone who would ask about my absence from this meeting or that class.

This morning, I awoke to find, instead of rain, unseasonably warm weather. I rose late and had to hurry to work, but I enjoyed my walk there, lasting 15 minutes as it usually does. The air was nice and warm, rippled by an occasional, slight breeze. It did not occur to while I strode toward my office that my morning walk would be the longest I would spend outside during the marvelous day.

Perhaps I would not have felt such remorse and disappointment now for forsaking a beautiful day for the sake of earning a few dollars if I enjoyed my work to a greater extent. Allow me to elaborate briefly on my current occupation.

I work at an office on a college campus that coordinates study abroad programs. In running these programs, my organization is responsible for promoting these programs, recruiting students to participate in them, reviewing student applications, and coordinating the administrative aspects of each program with the foreign universities that are our partners.

This may strike some as being an exciting line of work that provides opportunities for travel to exciting cities across the nation and across the world; a line of work that lets one see foreign lands and interact with people from a wide range of backgrounds. And the work certainly promises that for my supervisors, who are responsible for the administration of programs which I described. My work is far more mundane. I began working at this organization last semester, doing the very simple, soulless work of data-entry. Recently, though, I have been entrusted with some more interesting work: maintaining a website for the organization and working on restructuring the database in which I was entering data in for so long. Yet I find that despite the fact that I enjoy greater responsibilities, I am still dissatisfied to a great degree with my work. This is not due so much to my work per se, but to my work environment, including both the physical and organizational environment.

First, I shall address the physical. The organization I work for is housed in an oddly shaped house, octagonal from a bird's-eye view. There are three floors to the building, with a cramped spiral staircase snaking from the ground floor to the third. My organization is spread throughout office space on all three floors, though the second and third are shared with offices from different departments. The fact that our seven staff people are spread over three floors does not make collaboration very easy. Add to this that staff computers have yet to be networked, preventing the sharing of common files and data, and it is clear that the physical design of the organization's space does not serve its purposes.

Regarding the organization of the environment, things are even more hopeless. Certainly the staff can work around physical barriers and rely on phone and e-mail communications to share data, but the data being shared is so often poorly organized that it stands in the way of efficiency as an institution. Information is not stored in a centralized location. Various staff members maintain multiple versions of documents on in their own folders. The databases containing information regarding our students and professional contacts are unwieldy and inefficiently designed. There are no standard procedures for organizing materials such as, for example, the constituent parts of a student's application for a particular program. The application is simply thrown into a folder, helter-skelter, with items in no particular order. Should such chaos continue, my organization will find itself floundering in an attempt to accomplish even the simplest daily tasks.

I admit I have exaggerated the helpless state of my organization, though I would not readily say that the degree to which I exaggerated is great. Be my concerns completely unfounded or underwhelming, there must be a change in the organization of the office soon. There is certainly a will among many of the staff members, but changes have been held back by two forces: first, a lack of time among staff members to undertake changes (which is understandable, given their workload); and second, a lack of commitment from the IT staff of the college (which is completely unacceptable). I certainly appreciate the services that the IT staff provides, and can understand that they well may be handling an excessive workload at times, but it seems that now they are simply dragging their feet. My organization has waited weeks for a network to be installed in its building and for months has tolerated using a database which is simply dysfunctional. While the IT staff has proven to be more helpful and efficient over the past few months than it was last year, these current problems are intolerable. Not only do they disgrace the IT department, but they also hinder the efficient functioning of an entire office.

March in New York...

...is probably not as nice as April in Paris. I can't really say, never having been to Paris. But I would hope that April in Paris is a little more consistent than March in New York. Case in point: today, the 8th, was a rather nice day. Near 40 degrees Fahrenheit, with a mostly clear sky and an occasional gust of wind. The wind picked up slightly in the evening, but, overall, it proved to be quite nice. However, I was dismayed to find, this evening, that the National Weather Service has posted a winter weather advisory for Dutchess county, where I currently reside, for Thursday the 9th, calling for "a wintry mix of freezing rain and sleet." Of course, this is preferable to "a summery mix of freezing rain and sleet," which would simply be odd; "a wintry mix of 22 inches of snow," which would be redux of the largest snowfall in New York City that occurred ealier this winter (and would be something of a oxymoron); or "a wintry mix of fire and brimstone" which would be a downright biblical. I wonder if there is anything particularly wintry about the mix of freezing rain and sleet which we in Dutchess county will be experiencing tomorrow. Is it wintry simply by virtue of it's occurring in winter? Is there a specific ratio or a range of ratios of freezing rain to sleet which qualifies a mix as "wintry?" Of course, maybe the folks at the National Weather Service were getting a little weary of their lifeless, coldly rational take on the weather and were trying to spice up their prose a bit. I shall see if there are any similarly strange and obvious descriptions of weather in future warnings.

Inaugural Post

For years, I've promised myself that I would write on a daily basis, be it an hour or a half-hour or how long I was able to force myself to write. Of course, being the procrastinator that every person pretends not to be, I haven't gotten around to seriously attempting this until now. Blogging strikes me as a good way to allow myself to write on a regular basis and share my writing with others, though I must say that for the time being I am more concerned with simply writing rather than getting extensive feedback. I certainly believe that sharing is crucial to improving one's writing, but, as of now, I would be content to write a few pages every day without a single comment. Of course, should anyone who might be reading the wish to comment, please feel free to do so.