Glorious Days To Be Alive!

I remember my dad used to say that he wished he lived in the early 20th century when times were simpler and resources were seemingly limitless.

Me, I have no such reservations, I am overjoyed to be alive now regardless of all the gloom and doom scenarios we are constantly being bombarded with. The economic crisis is being compared to that of the Great Depression (only worse because it affects us globally). It’s bad, many people are suffering but I think it’s a great opportunity for a new form of capitalism (or something to that effect) to emerge. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/newcapitalism.pdf

We were a runaway train of consumerism. People forgot the simple joys of growing and cooking our own food, or simply shopping in the supermarket to make a nice- home cooked meal from scratch.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001405.html.

We see Michelle Obama planting an organic garden and all of a sudden we are all oohing and aahing like if we need to be brain scientists to this, or need someone of importance to instill common sense into our brains!Great times, so many opportunities in this lifetime!

I am not sure if I’ll be around for when there is a cure for cancer, or when there will be everlasting peace, or when the rape of the Amazon stops, but what intrigues me is the profound impact technology has and is making in our lives. Unfortunately my father didn't live long to see the marvel of the internet, and the only cell phone he saw, weighted a ton and looked like a brick! www.retrobrick.com/moto8000.html

But ahh, the winds of change are blowing across the world, we have female presidents/prime ministers, people of color are leading in traditionally "white" dominated areas, POTUS , sports such as tennis, Formula One, and golf. The Berlin Wall has fallen, Apartheid has ended, Mandela is free, we have free phone calls http://www.skype.com/, 24 hour communication, live radio/tv/cinema and so on!

Oh the marvel that is the internet! The internet has rekindled the student in me. I remember as a high school student spending hours poring over thick encyclopedias trying to write geography papers. Now, I think I can learn anything via the internet – I have amassed tons of useless information - (Do you know rats can laugh when tickled)?news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/85711.stm - 28k

I have become a financial wizard thanks to reading all about stocks and bailouts and foreclosures, the Dow, the CAC and the Nikkei financial indexes online. And thanks to the internet, I have become a domestic diva when it comes to cooking. I am also a medical expert, tell me your ailment and I will Google http://www.google.com/ everything for you!

And then there's Face Book, Twitter, IPods, Blue Tooth, Black Berries and digital cameras - Oh I remember my father chastising me about “wasting film” pre-digital camera days! Oh what about Botox, Viagra, Silicone implants (Do you know you could get implants in your derrière)? Kids becoming mega-billionaires, the invincible USA crashing financially, the entire car industry on the verge of collapse not solely due to the high cost of gas, but other financial reasons.

Who would have thought these things were possible? It’s a modern day Armageddon, like a scene from Mad Max, but when the dust settles, a new breed of mankind will emerge, one for the better I hope.

The winds of change are blowing, some are good, some are bad, but I won't trade this time for anything! I am glad to be alive now!

Surviving The Economic Downtown – Opportunity to be Environmentally Conscious!(Or at least let everybody think you are)!

Remember the days when we were sitting at Starbucks sipping our Mocha Latte Light, texting on our Blackberry, while looking forward to going home in our Hummer and reclining in front of our 56” plasma TV.??? Well those days are gone now thanks to the current economic crisis that we in part with our excessive consumerism, have helped create. (Oh, AIG, Citigroup, Bear Sterns, Lehman Bros, and numerous other “Big Companies” bad management did contribute significantly to this mess too)!

But there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. The point is to be pro-active, take the bull by the horns, take responsibility for your destiny, and all those other clichés we toss around in times of adversary. It’s time to appear to be environmentally conscious without feeling embarrassed that you lost your cushiony six-figure- a -year job and have been reduced to selling cookies out of your kitchen!

1. You now take public transport to work because you can’t afford gas or maintenance – Your spin – “I am reducing my carbon footprint”.

2. You brown-bag it to work instead of having lunch at some overpriced, artsy café – Your spin – “I am trying to eat healthy and reduce my carbon footprint”!

3. You take your own popcorn to cinema – “It is less fattening than the cinema popcorn, so I am being healthy, and saving the environment by consuming less resources”!

4. You use coupons everywhere! - “Well the stores used a lot of paper to create those coupons so I am merely recycling paper”!

5. You are eating so much beans you could write a recipe book on 100 ways of cooking beans! – “More beans = less meat = less trees being cut to raise animals”. Ah the sacrifices you are making for the environment!

6. You traded your Mercedes for a Smart Car – “Less gas, less pollution – all for the sake of the environment”!

7. An afternoon of fun is playing basketball with your friends at the local park instead of going to the game! “I am reducing my carbon footprint by staying close to home instead of driving to the game”!

8. You turn off all electrical equipment when not in use because you can’t pay the electricity bill – “I am doing this not just for me, but for Mother Earth”!

9. Your “dream vacation” is now the park near your house – “ I am cutting down on my carbon footprint by staying close to home”!

10. Your jeans have cuts on them due to wear and tear – “I am anti-consumerism so I refraining from buying new clothes”! ( P.S. You are also trying to start a new fashion trend – ChicPoor)!

11. The only brand name items you own are imitations – “I am providing work for the thousands of third world citizens who survive by producing imitation stuff – plus I are saving the environment”!

12. The only job you can get with your fancy MBA is flipping burgers – “I always wanted to experience the true meaning of work, to work with my hands, to create something, to bond with my customers”! (Plus you are saving the environment)!

So now go forth you Harvard educated, MBA citizen, bask in your new reality and be proud of it, after all you helped create it!

CUSTOMIZED BABIES ANYONE??????????????

In my country, in local dialect, when someone is pregnant, we say, “she’s making a baby”. Well it seems now we can pre-select the “ingredients” for creating our own “unique” baby. That is, if the latest reports coming out of a Californian fertility clinic are to be believed. It is already possible in some countries like the US, and Russia to pre-determine the sex of a baby in the lab. In many countries of the world, including the UK, this practice is illegal, but if you can afford the thousands of dollars for the procedure, you can have it done in some countries.


It’s ironic how the West is always criticizing countries like China for its human rights policies such as female infanticide and now, the wealthy in the West have access to something similar but couched in more “acceptable” terms! Ok, some might argue choosing the sex of your baby is a good thing especially in cases where some genetic diseases are passed on to a specific sex e.g. hemophilia in male babies. But in reality how many people who will use this “marvel” of modern medicine will be doing it purely for medical reasons? Hmmm, I have 1 boy, now I want a girl to create the “perfect pair” of kids, so maybe, I’ll tamper with nature and be 100% sure it will be a girl! Oh, what about those “poor” couples who have 5 girls and always wanted a little boy? Should they be denied the right to customized the sex of their child, or be doomed to trying, trying until they get it right?


Sex selection opens the doors to many social ills in the world. Countries in Asia notably China and India, often practice female infanticide, i.e. aborting or murdering female children. Girls are seen as social burdens, not productive enough. Already there is a sex ratio imbalance favoring males in these countries. What this California clinic is offering in a more clinical and certainly far less messy way, is the same in essence, choosing the sex of your baby and going against the natural laws of nature.


And if it is to believed that “gayness” is a result of nature and not nurture, does it mean there will be no “gay” people in the future, OR maybe the opposite, MORE???


I always thought that people who wanted kids didn’t really care about the gender as long as the child has 10 fingers and 10 toes. If this is not the case, then in reality, deep down inside of all of us, we have a wannabe God gene, in which we really want to create “mini-me’s” of ourselves.
Which brings me to the next thing – eye color, height, hair color. Apparently, you can pre-select these things as well for your new baby. Now, since it’s only going to be the wealthy people doing this because of the high costs, are we going to end up with a race of tall, blond, blue eyed, mainly boys from Western countries? Someone started out with this premise years ago, he wanted to create a “superior” race, i.e. the Aryan race and we all know what happened!


One of the joys of having a baby, is the process of creating that baby – i.e. old fashioned sex and the thrill of finding out whether it’s a boy or girl. With these designer-made babies, we are actually outsourcing baby making! All the “work” is being done elsewhere and we just bask in the knowledge that our baby is perfect from the beginning. If there was one thing I thought this financial meltdown would have taught people was humility and humbleness are what really matters. But I was wrong, money will always rule the world, and the opportunities offered to the have and the have –nots will never be the same.


I think I am going to make a baby girl. Let me get the ingredients – Petri dish, and lots of $$$$$$$$$$!

HELP, I AM ADDICTED TO FACEBOOK!

Yes I admit it, I am an Addict. In my 40+ years on this earth, I passed through the alcohol, cigarette, marijuana phases without even batting an eye. In my mind, only the weak become addicts. Snug with this “superior” logic, I found myself totally unprepared for the full scale addiction I am now facing. It started incongruous enough, I got introduced to this “new” thingie to reconnect with old friends I lost contact with after high school. I thought it was an innocent way to re-connect, but slowly, slowly as the friend count increased, I found myself logging on once, twice, three, four times a day, just to observe who posted what, who updated his status, who added new pictures etc. I go through all photos with heart pounding in anticipation to see how my “friend” aged, his/her significant other/ who their kids look like, etc.. OMG, I have become a virtual stalker! I tried to go cold turkey but I started to experience withdrawal symptoms, so I always cave in. I say to myself (in vain), maybe today, I’ll just check my email, surf the web and leave…… But like a Siren’s sweet melody, I am drawn deeper and deeper into the Abyss that is FaceBook. Everyday I say, only one quick look…. Everyday, it’s the same, I spend hours browsing profiles of people I don’t even know!
Am I abnormal? Do I need help? Is this the new reality of having too much information and too much time? Is this the young people’s ultimate revenge on us older people? (FaceBook was created by a kid and a significant number of users are over 30). I admit, I need a life and so it seems many thousands of others who are addicted to FB. Maybe I should create a group “People Addicted to FB”, but where is the best place to host this??? FaceBook maybe? Damn you FaceBook, you are worse than chocolate!