The Oil Spill

I haven't blogged about this yet, and I feel like I'm way behind. Things are continuing to get worse. Anderson Cooper has been following it a lot, keepin' them honest, you know, and since I'm in love with him, I've been using him as a way to keep up on the oil spill.

BP is being sketchy about releasing figures and videos about how much oil is still spilling. But, they're BP. They're a major oil company. This is what they do.

They say they're not being sketchy, everyone else says they are. So it goes.

The oil has started to hit the Louisiana coast. Oil dispersing chemicals, human hair, domes... no one can come up with a functional idea of how to stop it, and it's pretty scary.

Here are some links:

1. New York Times Interactive Map

2. How you can help

3. Seven Long Term Effects slide show from the Huffington Post

4. What BP has to say

Living Without Money

I stumbled across an article that discussed how Mark Boyle, a man in the UK, decided to live without money for an entire year. He lived off the grid and created his own energy, grew his own food, and foraged through the wilderness or got leftovers from restaurants for the rest. He took some advice and assistance from the Freeconomy Community--another UK group that's been living without money in an alternate community. My main question about Boyle, is that he's been writing articles for The Guardian; so is he getting paid to write these articles? I couldn't really find any info. If you're aware, let me know!

However, the more I looked into living without money, the more I realized that Boyle was far from alone in the quest, and that others had been doing it long before he had. They all had different reasons for trying to go moneyless. Boyle did it because he was disaffected with consumer culture and money, and also to live a more sustainable lifestyle consuming others' waste.

There is Suelo, from the US, who lives without money in a similar manner by consuming others' waste. This involves dumpster diving and asking for leftovers from restaurants. Suelo focuses on faith and philosophy as a backdrop to surviving life without money. He's been moneyless for 12 years, with the exception of one month. His life seems more nomadic than Boyle's, who set up camp in one place.

Heidemarie Schwerner, from Germany, was a psychotherapist who after years of seeing people's lives destroyed by money decided to go moneyless. She began exchange circles where people could exchange services and objects. She then gave away or donated all of her possessions and "cancelled her flat" (that's what the article says, not totally sure how that works) and moved in with friends, working for them in exchange for living space and food. Heidemarie's philosophy is very different from Suelo and Boyle who often live off other's excess. Heidemarie is moneyless, but basically works for friends, simply cutting out the exchange of cash. However, she has been living without money for 12 years, just as Suelo has and the idea of exchange circles has expanded all over Germany.

Obviously, most of us don't have the skills or knowledge or, let's be honest, the drive to simply quit money cold turkey, but perhaps in hard economic times (or for us broke college kids) and dire environmental circumstances, we could all learn a few things. Take leftovers: furniture and appliances that other people don't want anymore--pick them up off the side of the road (I have definitely done this before), check Craig's list, dumpster dive if you're brave enough and not germ-phobic; you could try asking restaurants for leftover food like Suelo and Boyle do. You can exchange favors with friends. It's simple advice, and a lot of it is common sense unless you want to build an apparatus to live off the grid like Boyle. However, I think we've all forgotten that there are other ways to get food, objects, and services when we utter the phrase, "I'm broke as shit."

May Day

All across the world today, people have come together to protest for worker's rights. In countries other than America, May Day is International Worker's Day or Labor Day.

In an age of ever more unemployment, I feel like May Day this year is particularly necessary. I took place in one of the demonstrations in my area and found that this May Day has come right in time for everyone across the nation to show solidarity with immigrant workers in Arizona. CIR or Comprehensive Immigration Reform (reform that urges law makers to handle the illegal immigration situation in American with a focus on Human Rights) floated around a lot today, and I think that with this new bill in Arizona, CIR is ever more important.

Not every protest today was peaceful, however. In Greece's protests turned violent because of the current and very serious economic crisis happening in the country. The protests were to fighting against wage decreases and pension reductions as Greek tries to deal with it $400 billion dollar debt. In addition, the protests were trying to keep Greece from accepting loans from the IMF and the EU. This article reports that protestors were yelling, "No to the IMF's junta!"

Other protests happened all over Europe and the New York Times has some neat pictures in their slide show including this one below.

More emphasis on worker's rights is always necessary throughout the world, and strong May Day demonstrations are one small, but important, step in that direction.

NJ Education Battle Continues with Student Walk-Outs

I'm insanely proud of the thousands of New Jersey students who participated in the mass walk-outs yesterday across the state! Students left their classrooms to chant against budget cuts and hold picket signs and engage in the political atmosphere of the state.

The biggest demonstration was apparently in Newark, where thousands of students marched to city hall through the streets.

I haven't heard of any protest like this involving high school students happening in years, and it's great to see that New Jersey's students give a shit about what's going on involving their education.

On that note, I'm pretty sure my generation has been called lazy and apathetic and a bunch of other nasty words. I think this is a great example of how we can be motivated and political, and I wish governor Chris Christie would feel the same. If he doesn't feel guilty about what he's doing from seeing the teacher's perspective, he should certainly feel guilty for what he's doing from the student's perspective.

But, apparently, that's not the case, according to the New York Times:

Michael Drewniak, the governor’s press secretary, released a statement on Tuesday saying that students belonged in the classroom. “It is also our firm hope that the students were motivated by youthful rebellion or spring fever,” Mr. Drewniak said, “and not by encouragement from any one-sided view of the current budget crisis in New Jersey.”

I think that it's really despicable that thousands of students take part in a protest and the governor says it's because of spring fever. New Jersey's high school and college students want a good education and it should be our state's responsibility to give it to them when they are asking for it, not tell them that they're just being youthful rebels.

When thousands of students march into the streets chanting about how they don't want their teachers to be let go, it's NOT because they just wanted to play outside.

*If anyone is looking for ways to help out with the grassroots movements happening around the education cuts, this Facebook group is really a great place to start.*

Arizona Immigration Bill

Last week, I talked about some issues in New Jersey. And even though I live pretty far away from Arizona, I'm one of hundreds of thousands of people who are concerned about the new immigration law that just passed there. The bill gives the Arizona police department the right to stop anyone that they think is undocumented.

So, Arizona's State Legislature, what exactly does an undocumented person look like? Last time I checked, being undocumented was a status, not a physical trait or a matter of mannerisms. Also, under this bill, legal immigrants are being asked to carry around their papers. What's the difference between a legal immigrant and everybody else in America? Do we all have to carry around papers?

I could write a lot more on this subject, but here are some links instead:

1. This bill obviously holds the power to allow for racial profiling, and that's where a lot of the concern about the bill (rightly so) is coming from. If you're interested in having your voice heard on the subject here is a great place to start.

2. A blog on my blogroll, Waging Nonviolence, posted an article about this recently.

3. 1,000,000 Against the Bill Facebook Group

4. Jon Stewart on the bill

NJ Governor Chris Christie's Battle with Education

If you're not from New Jersey, you might not be following what's been going on with Governor Chris Christie's cuts to education. He has proposed $800+ Million in cuts to education in his '11 budget and has asked teachers to take wage freezes. NJ voters recently voted on the school budgets for their districts, and the governor encouraged people to vote down budgets in areas where teachers refused to take wage freezes. 59% of school budgets in New Jersey were voted down.

To put it frankly, all of this is really pissing me off. I'm sick of politicians not caring about education. Yes, New Jersey is overtaxed. But seriously, do we have to destroy public education in order to get tax cuts? In case you were wondering, Christie's kids attend private, Catholic schools.

Not only has Christie waged a war on teachers financially, he's made it personal. Recently, students in Monroe school district were asked to complete a civics lesson on voter participation. The students were instructed to ask IF their parents planned to participate in voting concerning school budgets. The questionnaire wasn't asking HOW they were going to vote. I remember having to ask my parents if they were planning on voting in both budget matters and in presidential elections throughout k-12 grade. As far as I know, no one took offense to it.

Enter Chris Christie.

The following is an excerpt from this news article:

"'These are the typical kind of scare tactics that they involve themselves in,' Christie said about the 200,000-member New Jersey Education Association, which has been critical of his proposed $820 million cut in school aid. 'Scaring students in the classroom, scaring parents with the notes home in the bookbags, and the mandatory 'Project Democracy Homework' asking your parents about what they're going to do in the school board election, and reporting back to your teachers union representatives, using the students like drug mules to carry information back to the classroom, is reprehensible.'

Steve Wollmer, a spokesman for the NJEA, said a third-grade teacher in Monroe distributed the homework as part of a civics lesson on voter participation, and it had nothing to do with how parents would vote.

'It's just astounding that a governor who just spent a week telling people how to vote would be upset at a teacher for just wondering if people are going to vote,' Wollmer said."

Um, what? Drug mules?

Apparently in the anti-teacher wave that's been sweeping the state, New Jersey teachers are becoming afraid to tell people their profession. I talked to a teacher from New Jersey (trying to let the individual remain anonymous here) who is retiring who said that she's going to be afraid to tell people that she's a retired school teacher. And, sadly, I don't think that she was joking.

I always thought being a teacher was a respectable position. But I guess Chris Christie would disagree with me.

The College Student Job Search

Why is it so hard to get a job? Rationalization and Suggestions from a College Kid

I'll be honest here: I haven't been in the working world very long. I mean, what do you expect? I'm 20. I worked for 2 1/2 years in a clothing store from the time I was 16 until I was 18. During that time I took on two separate jobs, one at an ice cream place and one at a dry cleaners. I returned to the dry cleaners last summer when I came home from college.

So, do I have a lot of experience in trying to get a job? No, not really. A pretty good amount for someone my age, but not a lot as far as the general American goes.

But I know one thing: it's freakin' hard to find work right now. I managed to have two jobs just a few years ago, and now I'd be lucky if I could find one. Which I can't. I've interviewed, sent out applications, looked on Craig's list, and so far... nada. To top it off, I'm looking for jobs in two different states because I could stay up at school or go back home. Still, nothing.

I applied to a coffee shop recently that said they were having "call backs" for interviews. They had so many people applying, they had to do call backs.

The economy is supposedly getting better, so what the heck is going on?

First of all, I think it's necessary to address the fact that we aren't really a production based economy anymore, we've made the transition into being a service economy. I know my mom worked in a factory during her summers in college, but there aren't really that many factories around in USA. We all know outsourcing exists and a lot of people here are suffering from it, and I think we all know that it isn't going to change. Unless the people who own the companies that do outsourcing decide they want to give up the cheaper labor for more expensive labor, we're stuck with the situation.

Second of all even though the economy is getting better, it doesn't take away the fact that a lot of people lost their jobs only a little over a year ago and now there's a whole lot of people competing for a small number of positions.

So what does it mean for us, the college students looking for summer work? Based off my not-so-scholarly experience of applying for places and not getting hired, I'd say we're kinda screwed.

What do we do? I can sit here and point fingers all day at outsourcing and the change to a service economy and the economic crisis, but that's not helping me. If you're looking for a summer job, here are my suggestions if the typical retail or waitressing job isn't panning out for you:

1. Summer Camps: Cannot stress this enough. I'm considering applying to one on Monday if my continued job search over this weekend proves fruitless. These jobs are good because they're seasonal yet steady for the season. Also, they want young people. They want college students. You can work in the dining services, with the kids, with the administration, etc. etc.

2. Babysitting: It's under the table, and even though the economy stinks parents still need to escape their children. If you get a nanny-type position you're set for the whole summer.

3. Tutoring: Good money for short amount of your time. Try posting an add on Craig's List. If you did well on your SATs this is a good place to start. Also, if you're in a major that's a subject in grade school (English, history, science, math) then you might be pretty set.

4. Census Bureau: Look to see if they're hiring in your area. The pay is great ($13-$15/hour!). I'm not totally sure what the work entails, but click here for more information.

5. Swimming Pools: If you're a lifeguard or have the capacity to be a lifeguard, these are also seasonal jobs that like to hire college kids. Unfortunately, I can't swim well at all.

6. Amusement Parks: If you can stand the crowds these have tons of different types of jobs. Everything from being a mascot character to operating rides to life-guarding the water parks.

7. Farms: The pay isn't always great, but low pay is better than no pay!

8. Odd Jobs: Offer to mow people's lawns. Seriously. And you get to be outside!

9. Ice Cream Places: Work goes fast in these places for the summer, but if you can snag one of these jobs you do really well in tips. Also, from what I know, the turnaround rate with ice cream can be kind of high sometimes, so it might be worth it to periodically check with your local ice cream place over the summer if you're still jobless.

PS: Have a suggestion for a summer job? Leave a comment and I'll update the list!