Pithy Thought of the Day: American Jobs

There's been much discussion about American jobs getting outsourced overseas. While I do feel for the people who lose their jobs here to cheaper labor in foreign countries, perhaps we should at least be flattered that the world actually wants to take our jobs, such as sitting in cubicles answering customer complaint phone calls, mining in hazardous conditions, and sewing away in sweat shops. These are jobs that we created that are not generally desirable, yet other countries actively want them. Whodathunkit!

America has enough talent, ingenuity, and resources to now focus on making the world a better place-- environmentally, socially, medically, etc.-- , rather than dwelling on mundane tasks that, while necessary in many ways to the world's economy, may just be better off being done by someone else.

So instead of striving to maintain jobs that "suck the life out of us", perhaps we can reach for the stars and create better jobs to take on challenges to improve the world-- such as improving the environment, improving the health of others, and improving job conditions in developing countries (how ironic), to name a few. Hopefully other countries will then want to copy those jobs as well...

The Power of Creativity

A blurb by James Gleick from the New York Times Magazine:

The Internet has taken shape with startlingly
little planning... The most universal and independent network on the
planet somehow burgeoned without so much as a board of directors, never
mind a mergers-and-acquisitions department. There is a paradoxical
lesson here for strategists. In economic terms, the great corporations
are acting like socialist planners, while old-fashioned free-market
capitalism blossoms at their feet.

Congrats, fellow average Joe and Jane Web-sters
out there. Sometimes the best things are the result of a lack of hard-core planning. The meeting of the minds clearly does not have to occur in a lush, wood-paneled boardroom anymore. It can occur on a remote island, on the top of a mountain, or in a drafty barn. The Internet is open to all... bring your creativity with you.

An Uplifting Note from a College Campus

In light of recent events on college campus, I'd like to turn something that's positive. In the February '07 edition of College Planning & Management (http://www.peterli.com/cpm), I caught a small snippet about the College of the Atlantic in Maine. I was really impressed by what they're doing. Just
reading the College's About Us page (http://www.coa.edu/html/about.htm) is
interesting and inspiring. Follow the link to take a gander, won't you?

But anyway, going back to the article, it states that the college has been designated as a "net zero" campus for greenhouse gas emissions-- the first in the USA. Essentially, the college has pledged to "avoid, reduce, or offset all contributions to global warming that are associated with any of the college's activities,
including travel to and from campus. All of the school's annual emissions, including electricity, heating, and commuting, will be offset by funds to be invested in projects that reduce the college's greenhouse gasemissions to 'net zero.'"

This, to me, is what college is all about. Being innovative, progressive, and challenging its students and faculty to step up to the next level. It's clearly not
your typical educational institution.

I thank them for stepping up to the plate in dealing with this scary issue of global
warming, and also for educating its students in a unique and positive
manner.

This is a college scenario that I wouldn't mind seeing copycatted.

A Sad 50th Post

So this blog post marks my 50th of my short career as a "blogger". Almost 5 months since I started. Ahh, the memories.

But I digress.

What I'm here to banter about are guns in this country. By now we've all heard about the despicable shooting at VTech. I for one am fed up with hearing about these shootings and seeing people killed, hurt, and suffering because of them. And I
can't help but think that guns are quite literally killing this country.

Now yes, I know that Americans have the right to bear arms. And yes I know that the vast majority of gun owners don't commit heinous crimes like this rampage. And I also realize that if somebody really wants to kill somebody, they can find a way to do it. But let's face facts here... there's a very small percentage of people who have it in them to mess things up for everybody else out there... in ANY area of life.

For example, in a game of basketball, there's always one guy who fouls
constantly while everybody else is playing a clean, competitive game. Well, if this
guy keeps fouling, he's going to foul out of games (if they're refereed), or people will stop playing basketball with him in due time. Simple solutions. In either case, this persistent fouler becomes marginalized so as not to ruin the game for everybody else.

Unfortunately, when it comes to guns, gun owners seemingly won't accept style="font-style:italic;">any solutions to make things better for the majority of people. And the rest of us have to deal with the consequences of a few lunatics who feel the urge to shoot up fellow humans for unexplained, unjustifiable reasons.

So now what? Short of getting rid of guns, which won't happen (for better or for worse... I'm not going to debate that issue one way or the other at this point), how do we marginalize people who feel the need to unleash their semi-automatics on innocent bystanders? Penalties apparently don't matter, especially when the shooter commits suicide. And it can be difficult, if not impossible, to recognize the signs of somebody who's about to spray bullets. And there is certainly no way to have security at every corner and doorway to try and prevent such incidents.

One solution that might help: the media should be barred from showing the face or announcing the name of the killer(s). Sadly, I think many people are looking to make "a name" for themselves and becoming cult heroes by starting a massacre. Think about the "trenchcoat mafia" from Columbine, the Unabomber, Timothy McVeigh, etc. Their faces, tactics, and mental histories are bandied about in the media, making them seem larger than life. Without such notoriety, I highly doubt there would be so many copycats.

To wit, let's go back to the basketball game scenario. If you're watching an NBA game on TV and a streaker runs across the court, what happens? The cameras all turn away, the announcers give a vague update that "a senseless fan is interrupting the game", and once the culprit it nabbed, life goes on. TV viewers will never find out the guy's name, identity, or motive. And guess what? People are less likely to idolize the culprit and subsequently copycat him or her. Therefore, the few idiots out there don't continue to ruin it for others.

Well that's my take on the issue. Stick around for the next 50 posts, won't you?

If you're not too busy...

...this is a must read article.

What's the Deal with Training for Public Employees?

I can't help but take notice of all the politicians, public employees, and government workers getting wrapped up in corruption, wasting government money, and generally abusing power.

This leads me to the question... do these people receive training or what? And if they do... perhaps we should be looking at a better training program, because this one sure ain't doing a good job!

Unfortunately, we have become accustomed to hearing stories in the news about public employees doing wrong. Some say vote out the bad politicians. Some say these people are merely a product of our society... garbage in = garbage out. Some say that it's "the system's fault".

I find those notions to be too abstract and insufficient.

It's common knowledge that with better education comes better citizens who make better decisions and generally do a better job. Maybe these folks simply need some improved training to understand the importance of their positions serving the people of this country. Surely, the money it would cost to sponsor these programs would be well worth it in the long run.

But what do I know?

Another Environmental Mess: Kauai

An article from the Philly Inquirer has been bugging me since I read it on Sunday. It talks about trash on the island of Kauai in Hawaii.

Here's the meat of the article:

One unpleasant detail (on the island of Kauai) compromised the (otherwise beautiful) scene. A baffling display of ugliness sprawled along the tide line: water bottles, milk crates, fishing buoys, netting, plastic bags, a barrel-sized clump of orange plastic rope, and, scattered everywhere, a fine confetti of broken-up plastic chips.

By any standard, Kauai is remote, thousands of miles from the nearest continent in any direction. Where did this stuff come from?

The answer stunned me. It came from Mexico, the continental United States, Alaska, Taiwan, Japan and China. Some was dumped from recreational and commercial ships, but most of it came from individuals who littered, by the side of the road or on the beach. Plastic takes hundreds of years to decompose, meaning that all the plastic ever made still exists somewhere. A lot of it is floating in the Pacific.

"We're at a juncture of convergence zones that create this massive gyre that collects trash," said Paul Tannenbaum. "Some of it ends up on our beaches."

Marine scientists refer to that gyre Tannenbaum mentioned as the "Great Eastern Garbage Patch" - an oceanic trash pile that's twice the size of Texas, and by one account contains 3 million tons of debris. Slowly circulating currents gradually draw trash dumped off the coasts toward its center.

The main Hawaiian islands and the chain of small islands to their west act like a giant comb at the fringes of the gyre, collecting bits of floating plastic from all over the world, Tannenbaum said.

A garbage patch that's twice the size of Texas? 3 million tons of debris? Those facts just boggle my mind. How sad is it that an otherwise beautiful island in the middle of nowhere serves as a landing spot for the rest of the world's refuse? It's really a sad reflection of what this world's come to.

For more information, check out:

Hawaii’s offshore goldmine? Pacific trash vortex

Giant patch of ocean debris carries ghost nets, trash onto Island shores

Now we just need to figure out how to fix this problem and prevent it from worsening...