some other things I’ve read today:
Job Description for the Next Pope, by R. Scott Appleby - I might comment on this later. I don’t think he fully understands what globalization entails.
The Soul of the New Machine, by Michael Scherer - This may not be the whole article, but it’s an amusing piece from a lefty publication about the head of Americans for Tax Reform. He sounds like a pretty cool guy.
The laid off programmer, that is.
It’s been in the news quite a bit lately, especially in Silicon Valley, where I’m from. Outsourcing. Especially IT and help desk jobs for computer companies. India has been the recipient of many of these positions formally held by Americans and many of the American workers are very angry. Many would like legislation to stop outsourcing and actively petition lawmakers to change the rules in this area as well as the ones for immigrant worker visas with which many foreign workers come to the United States in order to be trained in jobs that they will ultimately “take from Americans.” Daniel H. Pink takes a good look at this phenomenon in the current issue of Wired. He draws one conclusion that, “It’s easier to attack visible laws than it is to restrain the invisible hand,” which illustrates the somewhat futile effort of these activists.
Indians, on the other hand, have another point of view. A slightly more enlightened one if you ask me.
“‘Don’t you think we’re helping the US economy by doing the work here?’ asks an exasperated Lalit Suryawanshi. It frees up Americans to do other things so the economy can grow, adds [Aparna] Jairam.”
Pink rightly seems to support these bright workers from the subcontinent and shakes a finger at those U.S. workers who would deny them a chance at prosperity.
“What begins to seep through their well-tiled arguments about quality, efficiency, and optimization is a view that Americans, who have long celebrated the sweetness of dynamic capitalism, must get used to the concept that it works for non-Americans, too. Programming jobs have delivered a nice upper-middle-class lifestyle to [Indian programmers]. They own apartments. They drive new cars. They surf the Internet and watch American television and sip cappuccinos. Isn’t the emergence of a vibrant middle class in an otherwise poor country a spectacular achievement, the very confirmation of the wonders of globalization - not to mention a new market for American goods and services? And if this transition pinches a little, aren’t Americans being a tad hypocritical by whining about it? After all, where is it written that IT jobs somehow belong to Americans - and that any non-American who does such work is stealing the job from its rightful owner?”
And while it may seem cold-hearted to support such ruthless global capitalism, Pink has only optimism for the future in the United States. One thing that Americans have no shortage of, and no great competition in, is ingenuity. The creative processes at work in the minds of Americans have led this country to be the forerunner of the world in developing new ideas. Once Americans come up with things, intelligent people around mimic them and refine them. Without the initial development process though, there would be nothing for anyone to do.
Let’s put our minds to work.
Watch for improvements
I’m getting internet tomorrow, finally. I also noticed yesterday that my archives don’t show up correctly. That is not good. I’ll work on fixing all that after tomorrow. I also started reading the help links on the blogger site and there are lots of pretty cool things I can do to make posting nicer, and other stuff. I will add permalink buttons and some other stuff.
In other good news I got my computer working again at home this weekend. I hauled it up here to Berkeley last night. It took a few purchases but I got it going. The new MSI motherboard that works with my old processor and RAM is nice. It’s also very upgradeable, so I hope it works for a long time. I got a new graphics card too because mine was dead I think. I got an All-In-Wonder card by ATI so I can watch TV through my computer if channels happen to come through the cable when I get hooked up for internet. That’s what happened in DC, and I’m still using Comcast, so we’ll see.
Hmm, it might be kind of sad that getting internet in my apartment will be the highlight of my week. But then again, all of you are reading about it on my blog…
Musings while in church…
I went to church today with my mom and in the homily the priest began by remarking about the Democratic Presidential candidates giving a bunch of speeches last week before the Iowa caucuses. Then he said something about how a year from now we’ll be hearing another speech, but it will be an inaugural address by whomever is elected president. He then tied it into today’s Gospel reading of the beginning of the book of Luke by saying that Jesus had his inaugural address in this passage. The quick and dirty was that as the first act in his ministry, Jesus went into the temple and pulls out a scroll of the book of Isaiah and reads aloud this passage:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
After the priest had mentioned inaugural addresses I thought about this quotation from Isaiah and scared myself: George W. Bush could say the exact same thing at the beginning of a second term and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit. It would sum up his past actions and make clear his reasoning for the future…
Moving
I’m moving back to Berkeley tomorrow to finish my last semester of school. I won’t have internet up in my apartment for probably about a week. Not like that will be much of a change from my normal frequency of writings, but I’m just letting my 3 (if that) readers know. I pledge that I’ll find interesting things to write about when I get there. There will be stuff going on around me that I probably will want to spout off about. I’ll try not to bore anyone with my research about Religious Outsiders in the Middle Ages or Early Medieval Historical Writers.
DON’T PANIC
I guess this is the perfect thing to have on the internet, and there may even be a better one out there, but I found an amusing version of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Now, I’m talking about the actual encyclopedia, not just the book about it with the same name. It may be amusing for those of you who are fans. Funny thing is I found it while browsing for Neil Young lyrics. Only those of you with varied tastes like me will know exactly what I searched for to come up with it.
I should really sleep instead of posting stuff like this after 1:00 in the morning.
Change of address
I have figured out how to publish to my new website. The address for my blog will now be http://blog.tommykeswick.com rather than the site on blogspot. This may be the last post you will see on the blogspot site. Kindly update your links and bookmarks if you have any…
Talk about pigs
An issue or two ago The Economist highlighted obesity. A gentleman from Indiana wrote in to highlight some of the costs that the obese impose upon society:
My doctor had to buy new electronic scales with a maximum of 450lb as his beam scale only went to 350lb. Patients over 450lb are sent to a farm with scales that are used for weighing pigs to determine if they are ready for market.
Call me mean, but it made me laugh.
Frog Brigades and Dreadlocked Girls
So on New Year’s Eve I had four tickets to see the Les Claypool Frog Brigade at the Fourth Annual New Year’s Eve Frogout. I had no friends in the area that got back to me who may have been interested in going. No problem with me though. I’ve been to concerts by myself and still I have a good time. I enjoy music. One thing that sucked was that it wasn’t sold out as of a week before so eBay wasn’t really an option. The day before I tried to check for tickets on Ticketmaster and they appeared to be sold out. That was a relief because I figured I’d be able to get rid of my extras at the show. It turns out that I got rid of them for just under face value, which by that point I was OK with. I just wanted them out my hands with a little money in my pocket.
Anyway, the opener, DJ Disk & Ramulen, was awesome. It was experimental music, with the DJ scratching, a guy on drums, a guy on bass, a guy on keyboards, and another guy on drums played with his hands. It was really fun to watch. The songs they put together were very energetic. There was this woman there who had brought her three kids. In line I heard the youngest one say she was 7 1/2. I wish I had a mom like that. The two slightly older boys were dancing around until they probably got tired and went to look for a place to sit in the balcony.
May I mention that the Fillmore is one of my favorite venues. I’ve been there three or four other times. To see Soul Coughing, Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel, and a couple of other shows I think. The chandeliers are awesome and because it’s such a small place, even if you are in the back you feel like you are right in there with the band.
After DJ Disk there was a short break and Claypool and the Frog Brigade come out. The show seemed to last forever. I really should buy their CD. I can’t believe I haven’t yet. I recognized a couple songs from the Holy Mackerel CD, but many were new to me. I had heard a couple of others in some shows I have received through trading. They also covered some Pink Floyd which they have been known to do.
Although I’ve never found dreadlocks on anyone to be very attractive, there was this one girl dancing in front of my for the majority of the latter half of the show who was very, very cute. She had long, blonde, (pretty gross) dreadlocked hair, but a face like an angel. She was with a guy who she seemed to like, but he wasn’t giving her much attention. Maybe they were going out, maybe not, but they didn’t kiss at midnight like the other dreadlocked couple they were with did, and soon after that he just seemed to ditch her. That was fine with me because I just got to stare at her dancing to her heart’s content.
The show lasted until about 1:30 and I didn’t get home until just before 4:00 because I had to take a cab to the BART station. For those of you familiar with the Washington, DC Metro, BART is the Bay Area’s equivalent, built by the same company even. I took the train to Fremont and drove the 30 miles home.
I really did have a good time even if I got no New Year’s kiss. It gave me a chance to clear my mind, to think, and just to enjoy music.
No Alarms and No Surprises
It’s funny how, without feeling particularly antsy, excited, or even upset, certain songs can just make you more calm. I have my 400 disc CD player on random and “No Surprises” by Radiohead came on and I just felt peaceful. Very interesting. After helping disassemble Christmas at my house I will be back to write about my solitary, but fun, New Year’s Eve. Stay tuned.
