february goals wrap-up

So I admit that I haven’t been paying too much attention to my February goals, so let’s see how I did.

1. Become an early riser. Check.  This one actually worked.  The tough part is making it stick, and I think I’ve done that.

2. Learn patience. Well, this one is a bit tough to measure.  I do feel a bit more relaxed in stressful situations, but I did get a bit over-annoyed a few times this month.  I’ll work on this a bit more.

3. Develop a new project at work. I’m still on track for this one.  I didn’t get the proposal materials done, but hopefully this weekend, as I’m meeting with some people next week to discuss it.

4. Learn lead climbing skills.  This was my big disappointment.  I was all set, until an unfortunate spill down the stairs.  But I’m aiming for April now instead.  It will happen!!

And my yearly goals:

As I mentioned, I’ve bumped the lead class to April, so I’m still on track.  The debt payment is slowly stumbling along, and will hopefully pick up some steam in the next couple of months.  I’m definitely not at a Yoga 3 level yet, so I think I’ll incorporate more yoga into my March goals.  I leave for vacation in 2 weeks, which will also signal the end of the term.  One term to go!  This weekend I’m going to buckle down and get working on developing my thesis.

implications of the beef recall

In case you aren’t aware, we are currently in the midst of the largest beef recall in history. Officials say you shouldn’t be concerned about health hazards. Most of the beef has already been consumed, and the recall is purely on principle.

Well, that’s true and false.

Since most of the meat has already been consumed, and there hasn’t been an epidemic of GI illness, it’s not likely that there will be one related to this incident. But, that doesn’t mean this is an isolated case, and from what we already know about USDA and the meat industry, I’m quite sure it isn’t.

Here’s the beef (so to speak) -

USDA has very little power over the meat industry. Despite a superficial appearance as a regulatory agency, USDA’s rules are mostly voluntary. The beef trust has very handily, over the past 100 years, ensured itself not only a virtual monopoly, but also virtual free reign. You think the government can protect your food? Think again. The meat industry is pretty much self-regulating, and it is not in their best interests to care about your health (and in relation, the health of meat animals).

Part of this has to do with powerful special interest lobbying in meat-packing states. Those of you in Iowa, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Texas can thank your representatives to Congress for that one. USDA has effectively been hamstrung, and lacks the budget to truly regulate this industry. There are just not enough inspectors for them to be able to do a thorough job; and if the meat industry has its way, there will never be.

So why this recall? Well, despite mad cow disease being extremely rare, some of us are scared enough to worry. In addition, the past wave of pathogenic contamination (in meat and produce) has also raised issues of food safety. And of course, the War on Terror has highlighted all the weak spots in our food production chain.

So, when video footage (shot by animal rights groups - the only people who seem to care about our health) showed clear violations of safety standards, the government had an incentive (and a cause) to step in. In addition, what makes this case unique is that most of the beef winds up in school lunches as part of the federal plan. This gives USDA greater power than usual.

Think about that for a minute. Meat that is part of the national school lunch plan is usually poor quality. We’ve always known that, and know we have even more evidence - sick cows (called downers) are beaten and abused to the end of the assembly line. This is what your kids are eating. When did we get to the point where we’ve decided that feeding our children bad food is ok?

This case has highlighted other deficiencies in our system. Mad cow disease is rare, but we actually don’t have a good handle on prevalence. Why? Because the beef industry refuses to allow mass testing of their meat animals. We slaughter 35 million cattle a year. Less than 1 million of them are tested for mad cow disease.

Cows are also fed antibiotics to aid in growth; presumably this would fight off infection as well. But as we see a rise in antibiotic resistance in microbes, you can bet that’s being fueled by antibiotic use in cows. You can also bet that the pathogens that cows pick up aren’t being killed by the growth additives.

And finally - meat slaughter is not humane. It can be, but not in a slaughter plant. Cows that are already stressed by factory farm living are then herded into a slaughter house where they are stunned before being killed. Of course, some of the cows are not quite knocked out when slaughter begins. Stress releases hormones into the blood stream that settle in muscle and fat. This stress hormone-laden muscle and fat is your hamburger. Not only are you at risk for pathogens, but you’re also being loaded with stress (and growth hormone).

So it’s not just about a few cases of tainted meat, or one factory that mishandles slaughter. It’s about a systemic failure to put the health of people first. It’s about an easy way to make a profit. And the problem will only get worse until we start seeing fundamental shifts in the way we view our food.

weekend check-in

So it’s already Monday, but better late than never.  The past week has been incredibly busy, so I apologize for the slowdown in posting.  I will be better soon!

I spent the week in class or at work, so there is really not much of interest.  I did, however, make it to both yoga and the climbing gym this weekend, which I’m quite happy about (having not done either in about 3 weeks).  Other than that, not much to report.

I did manage to read a few other blogs this week, so I wanted to highlight a few posts that I particularly enjoyed.

Patrick at Cash Money Life discussed choosing between right and easy.  We’ve all been in these situations before - how did you respond?

Heidi at Banker Girl makes a distinction between broke and poor.   It’s easy, when we’re saddled by debt and yet another credit card bill, to think of ourselves as downtrodden.  But at least we have a means to access the basics in life.

Leo at Zen Habits explains why you should love your enemy.  I found this to be a powerful post, and the comments are even more inspiring.

teach a man to fish

Nicholas Negroponte has a vision. While most of us dream of clean water, adequate food, and access to essential medicines, Negroponte envisions a world in which we are all interconnected. This is no small task, and it takes a special kind of genius to bring this to life.

When he first proposed the idea, the world (particularly the tech world) laughed. What’s the value in providing a laptop to a child who doesn’t even have a proper school building? And even more cynically, where’s the profit?

But as he developed this further, value became apparent. His idea is simple - provide a low-cost, high-tech device to children in LMIC (low- and middle-income countries) to enable their learning process. It isn’t enough to provide books and teachers; children need to be engaged in their learning. They also need to be connected to something bigger than themselves. Engagement = empowerment, an equation that has had profound effects in the rest of the development community.

Anyone with a child knows how quickly they surpass the learning curve. So giving a child with no electricity a laptop isn’t such a crazy idea. And his idea has borne fruit - children with zero English skills have mastered typing and searching with ease. Negroponte jokes that the first English word his Cambodian pilot group learned was “Google”. And the kids themselves are eager and excited to learn.

The laptop itself provides not only connectivity (which OLPC enables), but also transforms into a handheld game device and e-book. This multifunctionality keeps children engaged, while also providing them multiple learning platforms.

There have, of course, been obstacles. OLPC is a non-profit, so it relies on donors to fund the laptop production. It also requires government buy-in, particularly in the form of financial aid. But these initial stumbling blocks have been overcome. Uruguay and Mongolia have both pledged to purchase laptops and recently have rolled them out. Even the city of Birmingham, Alabama purchased enough for each of their children.

So OLPC seems to be on its way to revolutionizes the education of the world’s children. I would like to think that providing this sort of access would help in other ways as well - not only teaching children (and their parents) the basics of health and sanitation, but also allowing them a platform to create local solutions to local problems. And all for $100 a child.

weekend review

Yet another week has gone by.  Do we start to feel the passage of time more acutely as we get older?  We’re more than halfway through February already!

I learned a few things about myself this weekend -

1. I have too many interests.  I am the naturally curious type who needs to know something about everything.  Everything fascinates me.  I think I’ve always been like this, but I had hoped my weekend conference would help me narrow some things down. If anything, even more opportunities have made themselves available.

2.  I am easy to remember/recognize.  I am terrible at recognizing people out of context, but apparently, no one has a problem remembering me.  Even people I’ve only met once.  It’s astonishing, and a little disconcerting.

3. I am addicted to spending.  The past year or so I made great strides in getting the spending under control.  But in situations during which I am constantly bombarded with shopping opportunities, I am easily susceptible. My hotel is connected to the conference center via an indoor mall.  I walk past stores multiple times a day.  The damage this weekend?  Two pairs of shoes, a pair of pants, a jacket, a top, and an expensive birthday gift.  Total? Approximately $300.   Absurd.  And it’s only a small relief to think that the non-sale price for everything would be about $520.

Things have been a little busy for me the past few days, hence the posting slowdown.  I’ve also not had a chance to check in with my favorite blogs.  I haven’t even made it to the gym in two weeks.  Hopefully, things will clear up soon!  I have a lot of commentary on vital issues to blog about.

medicine for the soul

I run a book club, and we read one book a month. Most of our books are non-fiction, and tend to have a social or environmental bent to them. Many of them have been eye-opening for me, and I thought I’d review a few of them here.

The Tipping Point. Most people know the concept behind Malcolm Gladwell’s best seller. The tipping point is like critical mass - it’s the point at which an idea gains enough momentum to catapult into the mainstream. In describing this process, Gladwell undertakes some fascinating psychological analysis of humankind. Many of his examples are counterintutitive and provide some excellent insight into why certain things work and certain things don’t. I learned a few things about myself in reading this, and definitely some things about other people.

Three Cups of Tea. I will be the first to admit that this book is not particularly well-written. But if you can get past the occasionally cheesy prose, the underlying story is one of immense inspiration. Greg Mortensen is a man on a mission, and single-mindedly so. He succeeds under circumstances where most of us would have given up so long ago. He started his mission - to build schools for girls in underserved areas - without thinking about the bigger picture, and somewhere along the way, realized the massive import of what he was doing. Educating girls is one of the single best ways to bring communities out of poverty, increase women’s rights, and reduce a number of mortality indicators. I’ve never undertaken such a daunting task, but every time I’m faced with a seemingly unsurmountable obstacle, I think about this book.

Stumbling on Happiness. I’ve blogged about this one before. I don’t tend to like to make statements such as “this changed my life”, but Gilbert really did open my eyes to some intriguing ideas about ourselves and our search for happiness.

Fast Food Nation. This is absolutely a must-read for every American. We live in a society where we have zero transparency about what our food undergoes to reach our plate, and Schlosser wanted to change that. He dug deep into the backstory of the fast food industry, taking a few detours to visit the major beef and potato companies too. What emerges is an incredible history of how our seemingly capitalism-loving country is hostage to the beef trust, the fast food trust, the potato trust, and various other entities (and lots of social injustice to boot). This book is our generation’s “The Jungle”.

sometimes it’s the little things

So I had some bad public transportation experiences the past few weeks - nothing really big and all resolved in a satisfactory way, but still unplanned for and unappreciated.

Two of the trains I took were late in leaving or arriving, which meant I didn’t get a chance to get work done before class.  Then there was the day the president came to town, and the resulting street closures meant that I got to stand on the shuttle for an hour.   The worst was the day I waited for the shuttle for 30 minutes and it showed up and didn’t have enough room on it (meaning another 30 minute wait).  I had to call the company and they nicely sent someone to pick me up.

So after that, I’ve been a bit grumbly about taking public transportation, and been leaning towards driving to class.  But the last two times I took the train, I got my train ride comped.  The first time was an accident, I think, but the second time, the train conductor did it on purpose.  He gave me a little smile as he punched over an existing punch on my pass.  How nice!   It has definitely made me remember why I prefer taking the train.

weekend check-in

Things are a little bit busy right now, with some major assignments due this week (and I’m going to Boston next weekend).   My wrist is feeling better, though I’m still bummed about not being able to take the lead class.  It looks like I’ll have to wait until April.

Last Wednesday was the new moon in Aquarius, the sign of the visionary.  This is the sign under which we make radical changes in our lives to move ourselves forward.

Of my four February goals,  three of them are on track (no lead climbing skills this month).  My 2008 goals seem to be a mix of stagnation and movement.  A few steps forward, a few steps back…

The past week was killer on my budget, but not as bad as I thought.  Overall spending was within the budget, but I have already blown my dinner allotment.  Off to finish some homework!

why home ownership ain’t all it’s cracked up to be

I own a condo, but I don’t live in it. I actually live in a rental unit. Sounds a bit weird, but it’s giving me some good experience with both ends of the spectrum. The lesson I’ve learned from this is that I hate owning my own place. Why?

It’s a lot of responsibility. When things go wrong, you have to fix it. Not being much of a fix-it kind of girl, I have to call in a contractor, or plumber or whatever. I also have to assume they’re giving me a fair rate on the problem (and that the problem is really a problem). I don’t have the time to call around for different estimates.

In addition, since I don’t live there, I have to be timely with repairs. My tenants expect, rightly so, that repairs are completed in a timely manner. If I lived there, of course, I could take my time on certain issues.

It’s expensive. Not only the upkeep, but also the general expenses (mortgage, condo fees, etc). Currently, my tenants’ rent covers the cost of mortgage plus condo fees. I’ve also rented out my parking space to cover the cost of repairs, etc. I’m not making money on this, but barely breaking even.

Frankly, I’ve got a lot on my plate right now. I can’t take off a day to wait around for the plumber, but I ended up doing that on Wednesday. See, we have a plumbing problem. Actually, multiple. One is a building-wide issue with hot water. The second we thought was a leak from upstairs, but now turns out to be a building issue with the pipes. I’m not a plumber, but I suspect there is a relation there.

So after 4 hours of watching the plumber rip holes in my condo and the unit above, we think we know where the problem is. Fortunately, it’s not in my unit, so I will likely not have to pay for further repairs. But now we have to wait for the building to fix the problem. In the meantime, my tenants have a duct-tape covered hole in the bathroom.

now i know how the pats feel

So yesterday should have been the first day of my lead climbing class.  Instead, I took a spill down the stairs and hurt my wrist.  It is very frustrating when you plan for something, and then some random event derails your plan.  So, now I’m looking at April instead.  It’s really not a major issue, just somewhat annoying.

But the wrist is making it hard to type, so I might take a break for a couple of days.