Kaulapi World

Watched a hearing on social security hoted by the Senate Democratic policy committee. A few points raised stuck out in my mind: first, the lack of a credible “crisis” that would drive privatization. that at the current course, with no changes to policies, the system will still remain in good shape at least until 2042, give or take depending on which numbers you use. In fact, the system has been running surpluses, 140B in 2004, and SSA may be the only federal fund that might be running a surplus.

Secondly, the concept of private accounts for retirement benefits is not a novel idea, in fact they are already in place, called 401Ks and IRAs. I liken it to gambling with your retirement. 30% of SS goes to disabled individuals and to families that have lost a parent or loved one. I assume that this would apply to the families of soldiers who die fighting in the war.

Two international examples of privatization were mentioned, Britan and Chile, both of which have been failures. One of the witnesses testified that the Chilean SSA administrator is telling people not to retire until the stock market picks up again. UK has been swamped with administrative costs. Basic limitations and externalities of capitalism and risk. The investment firms that manage stocks are not interested in providing revenue or security for people, only making profit.

Possbile adjustments or changes in policy that could be enacted in lieu of privatization: There is a salary cap on SS, at 90K. 6% of workers are at the 90K+ level. raising this cap to 144K would bring new revenue, especially from a group of taxpayers that have benefitted greatly fromthe recent tax cuts. Another would be to allow the SSA to diversify their investment strategy for the trust fund to include more than US government bonds.

It is a littel strange, coming from a party that won in 2004 based on “morals and values.” It brings up the diea of divide and conquer - drive a wedge between older and younger workers, children and parents. favor the wealthy and rich, people with stock portfolios and wall street brokers against people who rely on wages.

January has always been a month of reflection for me, usually it has been marking the new year, as well as Martin Luther King Jr. day, perhaps the first influential American figure that I read about whom made a lasting impression on me. I still remember reading about him in preschool, in a short biography about him that actually gave a lot more context and insight than many history texbooks do, now that I think about it. Much lot about his legacy, and commentary on American society and race relations struck a chord, especially the fact that he was partially inspired by Mahatma Ghandi’s teachings of non-violent civil disobedience.

What is not as well known about him was his stance on the Vietnam war, and the root causes of opression and racial injustice, our system of unchecked capitalism that has made our country an imperial power. A lot of these ideas came out well after his “I have a Dream” speech, none of which fit well with the warmer and fuzzier image that the establishment would like to remember him by. His famous speech was given five years before he was killed, during which time he had spoken out loudly against US foreign policy at the time. Not surprising that the government opened a file on him in the years prior to his death and that he was probably considered one of the most dangerous black americans around, following Malcolm X.

For these reasons and many others, I found it hard to listen to Dubya’s inauguration today, especially that the closing benediction mentioned Dr. King’s name. It seemed fittingly ironic walking in a sea of haole elite, wearing mink furs, and cowboy hats. Of course the pastor that delivered the benediction was black, another example of how the right wing hides their true views of racial tolerance and equality behind another token minority’s face.

The ceremony itself was worth commenting on. First off it took forever to get through the security checkpoints and screening, a feat that really seemed wasted. Plus it was frickin cold, even for someone who has weathered 6 Wisconsin winters. Luckily I had the brains to dress warmly enough, and prioritize wearing shoes with traction for the ice and snow, I was amazed to see quite a few people in dress shoes and high heels. I think the movement of people from the checkpoints to the actual event was not well planned at all. I spent at least an hour standing in place while waiting for a huge mess of people to inch forward. Once I got to my ticketed area, the ceremony had already started. I had enough time to see Dick Cheney getting sworn in as VP, and I realized that the only seats left were right in line sight of a big white tent which blocked any visual of the podium. To my left, back and front were all vocal supporters, who were cheering as if we were at a football game or something. More cowboy hats, boots, and mink fur coats.

Halfway into his inaugural address, a bunch ladies clad in pink connected pieces of a fabric sign that they had stashed in their coats. They were about three rows in front of me. In classic activist tradition, they yelled until the police took their signs down, ignoring the jeers and random snowball thrown at them from the angry red-state crowd. After things settled down, they pulled out another sign, while chanting to bring the troops home. A couple of them then tied themselves to the chairs while the cops dragged them off.

I have to admit that I was pretty amused by what was transpiring in front of me, and was disturbed by the kind of comments that the pro-dubya crowd was yelling around me. “Get a life!” “I’m sure you’re mother is proud of you!” “Bring the troops in! Right here!” “Get a Job!” “You lost, now shut up!”. All within reason of shit talking for a partisan crowd. But what disturbed me was what followed, “Shoot em!” “Zap em with a taser!” all with a haole twang, or course. I hope they weren’t serious, but you could feel the tension in the crowd, almost like a mob mentality. Looking in their eyes, I could see a deep hatred and anger in some of the audience to a level that surprised me. So much so that I was anticipating some of the people next to me to run up there and start throwing punches. It all goes to show that we still very much so a divided country, and will most likely be so for some time. I cringed at the thought of the snipers scanning the crowd and wondered whether it had been a good idea to come at all. The thing that a lot of people don’t seem to realize is there is always a risk of being an innocent bystander, especially in situations with tight security.

Throughout dubya’s speech there were several rounds of applause for every time he made a religious comment, or praise of American’s being born in the creator image. I almost felt like I was at church or something, given the reaction to the people around me. It was troubling to see this many people collected in one area eating up the outright hypocrisy in what the past four years have been, and the promises for the future. It seems that ever more so today we as a nation are moving quickly towards the very thing that we claim to be freeing the world from. All this talk of freedom, freedom, liberty, freedom and liberty rings more and more empty when considering whats really going on around us.

My concern is that much of America is still asleep. The start of a new presidential term, and the 109th congress would be a great time to wake up.

Its halfway through Jan and I’ve been watching some of the last football games of the season. The Patriots are back to playing for another division championship for the third time in the past four years, with two superbowl wins as well. They ultimately shut down the Colts and Payton Manning, even after all the hype about the high octane offense. The only points the Colts were able to muster was a field goal at the end of the first half. Reading some of the game predictions, you could sense that the Patriots were underdogs going into it, but in the end they pulled it off. Pop was going nutz by the fourth quarter, it brings back memories from the last time they went all the way. It’ll be a tough game against the Steelers next week, but at least they have a more reliable kicker to go to if it comes down to it. Will need to talk some shit to Iso before the game.

Looking forward to this strange week where I have a three-day weekend followed by a four-day weekend. If I wasn’t trying to save money for school I might’ve gone someplace warm or something. Then again I’ll be going home for about a week pretty soon so that constitutes a vacation in itself. Not looking forward to the flight, hopefully the jetlag will be a lot milder this time around.

I did go to a bridal shower this weekend, it was my first time ever going to anything like it before. I’ve been noticing the multiple levels of rituals and energy that goes into planning a modern American wedding, all of which seems more than a little excessive to me. I also don’t buy that any of these rituals are directly tied to any kind of religious meaning or value. Weddings have become a lot like Christmas, overly commercial and overbearing.

Been looking at buying a new computer, bestbuy had a good sale on VAIOs this past week, was almost tempted, but didn’t bite just yet. I’m thinking I’ll wait a bit more to see what my budget looks like, or at least until March or April when they start clearing the shelves for the next set of models. Then maybe I could mess around with linux on my current laptop or something.

Another week in the district, another week of work. Been especially busy lately, doing write-ups and documentation, data analysis and reliability checks. There are times like this that my job really seems to click, I think the NT part of my personality type comes up every once in a while, especially when I’m dealing with a lot of data. In my spare time I found an interesting article on what seems to be a princess/middleage crisis complex happening in Japan. kind of reminded me of some research I did back in Madison in sociology, I wonder how the theories I found might apply or explain this.

The big buzz around town is the inauguration coming up this next week. Security is so tight that a lot of federal workers will be taking the day off as an impromtu federal holiday. It honestly makes sense, with so many Inauguration street closings it really isn’t worth it to try to commute into the district for work, let alone the festivities. As for myself, I actually scored some tickets, and I might be attending, depending on how cold it is that morning, and of course how tight security is. I’m not looking forward being in large crowds of people with tense law enforcement people looking around.

Meanwhile HHS came out with a new food pyramid to follow towards a more healthy life. I guess eating less food and exercising actually is a benefit to health. duh.

Spent some time over the past days watching the workings on the hill, namely the filed objection to the Ohio election results, and subsequent debates. Also watched some of the AG confirmation hearings on CSPAN. Noticed how AG stands for Attorney General as well as Alberto Gonzales.

I’m convinced that the opinions of AG in 2002 had more than just something to do with the policies set in place that allowed it to happen. This memo in itself will have long lasting on our foreign policy, and image to the rest of the world as a just nation. Decisions like this that affect the rest of the country should not have been made behind closed doors, behind secret meetings. If America is going to now condone torture then the people and Congress should be consulted. And he can’t skirt away the responsibility for this. It says a lot that Dubya lacks any basic respect for human rights and dignity for continuing to push these nominees for cabinet positions.

If we as Americans are willing to condone torture for our enemies, then we should be willing to accept that atrocities like Abu Ghraib are a possibility, and a future reality. Accountability should be directed at our representatives and leaders in congress, and the white house, not just the foot soldier, and especially not those that speak out about it. Much of the criticism I hear from the right about the confirmation hearing so far has been at the media for showing this ugly side of war. Instead of addressing the root of the problem, they attack the bearer of bad news.

While almost all Americans expressed their concern and disgust on the pictures of torture and sexual assault that occured at Abu Ghraib I doubt that many of them realize the factors that come into play, and to what level of personal responsibility do we all carry. I also wonder whether it was the barbarism of the actual acts that was disturbing, or the thought that the beloved icon of the generic American military personnel could commit such atrocities. As seen in some American’s empty excuses for what had happened, some say that it was not representative of what the majority of the troops are doing in Iraq, others say that their actions are justified because of the new climate that we live in post 9-11.

Both of these arguements fail to convince me for a number of reasons. First off, people who try to discredit these as isolated incidents fail to recognize the extent of prejudice and racism in America, and its role in motivating soldiers to conduct their duties in war. Prejudices towards a group of people are used to justify our negative views or treatment of them. In times of war dehumanizing the enemy is accomplished by focusing on the differences between countries and cultures is instilling a sense of revenge and justification towards killing the enemy. In this case it 9-11 has served well as a dual motivating force, we have a sudden, and collectively unexpected attack on a civilian target which was carried out by 19 young men who were all part of the same ethnic group. It does not take much more to bring out the prejudice and racism after that.

Some of this anger we observed came right after 9-11 when the major media channels broadcasted footage of Palestinians cheering. Aside from the fact that the footage was later found to be recycled from the 1991 invasion of Kuwait, it struck a nerve in many Americans that “they” must pay. Due to media hype and misinformation by many factors, such as the fact that a good number of Americans still think that there is a proven link between 9-11 and Iraq, and recent polls showing that that Americans are willing to curtail the civil rights of American citizens that belong to the same ethnic group, all point to the capabilities of Americans committing human rights violations.

This definition of “They” was reinforced by all kinds of prejudice and stereotypes spanning across several ethnic, political, religious and national lines. Effectively what this attitude represents is our willingness to wage cultural war well beyond our national borders to no limits or consequences of our own. Out of vengence we are willing to force the world to their knees to impose our moral will and way of life. The troops on the ground are an extention of America, if the public opinion points towards a dehumanized view of Arabs, then it would not be surprising that a number of troops do as well. Reports of torture and abuse are still coming in, although none of which getting quite as much press as Abu Ghraib did. Just because CNN and FOX aren’t reporting, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

Secondly, 9-11 did not automatically void all international treaties or agreements, regardless of what the collective American public may think or feel. To have this attitude that we are above the world, or above all international law because somebody finally was able to retaliate against our grossly evasive foreign policy is counterproductive, not to mention ironic. One of the purposes of the Geneva convention was to acknowledge the horrors of war and the utter brutality that nation states are capable of unleasing upon prisoners of war. To say that this treaty does not apply to our new postmodern war on a noun makes all the sacrifices that millions of people gave in the previous world wars go to waste, in that we as a nation are scaling back a recognition of human rights and dignity even in the most chaotic of times, war. To put it in simple American terms, we are spitting on the graves of our uncles and countrymen who died for “freedom”. We are ripping up the very rights that they fought and died for.

Our new foreign policy of pre-emptive invasion and nation-building is already suffering in part due to this change in policy. No nation that advocates torturing human beings can expect to the rest of the world to accept any form of government and political system that disregards human rights to go quietly or obediently. We will have to force the world to go along with our policies just as we force information out of these detainees or enemy combatants, or what ever official legalese title we wish to give them. We as a nation have neither the resources or the will to continue along this path, and I hope that people will eventually start to realize this and start to demand accountability.

Back to work, been pretty busy. Already setting up new meetings and processing paperwork. I’m a little impressed with how many people are back so soon after the holidays. It was like a ghost town only a week ago, DC is really a city of people from all over the place. At least when it comes to the people that actually have decent jobs.

However, I’m realizing that the city has a large population of people in limbo, mostly residents who are kind of put in a weird employment market, with so many educated and qualified people flocking to the power and opportunity. I’ve noticed a large contrast in customer service at certain stores and shops, depending on where in the city you are. I’m sure that a lot of people commute long hours on the metro or bus to work at these places, for long hours and much less than a living wage. Additionally, the demographic markers are striking. The types of work you see people doing falls in line almost stereotypically, everything from store clerks, to panhandlers, security guards, to attorneys and federal employees. Not to mention the delegation and staff working on the hill. It is no wonder how people develop stereotypes and prejudices, rural, suburb, or urban setting it doesn’t matter.

Something as simple as catching a ride on the metro, the minimum fare is now $1.35, even if it is just one stop on a line downtown, which might be less than a quarter of a mile distance. Several times I see people asking for money, holding up a metro card asking for some change. Instinct might say that its just a front, I’m sure quite often it is. I wonder what I would do in that situation. Walk, I suppose. Of course I once wondered why, if the person doesn’t have a job to go to, does he need to ride the train so urgently, especially during rush hour? If I was that poor then I would stay put. Then I thought that in a sense he is commuting to where his “job” is, that is, where the largest number of people with spare change in their pockets walk by, downtown. Essentially, not that much different than the average DC denizen who lives way out in VA or MD suburbs and commutes an hour at the expense of the government. Really just like the rest of us.

On a side note, DC really should get a voting delegation in congress. I’m starting to get annoyed by this taxation without representation bullshit. Another reason to not be a Republican.

Reflecting on my own situation, I have to say that I’m in good shape, things could be a lot worse, definitely. Trying to figure out my budget for 2005, which will be tricky, especially if I do start school again in the fall. It’ll be prety tight, but I think I could hack it with minimal public assistance. Who knows what the new year will bring, really.

New Year is here, spent the last couple of days hanging out with friends and family (sort of), and reflecting on a lot of the going ons as of late. Went to Baltimore with Hana, her sister, and family friends to watch the fireworks, the harbor area reminded me a lot of Aloha Tower. I’ve been really bummed out lately, for reasons that are beyond me, seems like ever since I got back to DC after my 4 day stint back home I’ve been very lethargic and overall antsy. I think a large part of it has to do with the Tsunami, I’ve been dwelling on the thousands of lives lost and the amount of human suffering going on right now.

a Although I’m not a fan of new years resolutions, I think this year I might actually make good my plan to dig a bit in the area of world religion and faith, partly in trying to make sense of world events and personal experiences, but also to do some work in more practical areas that actually might affect me in the near and distant future. I say this half heartedly with some skepticism, in that I think I am pretty secure in my own faith, but important people around me seem to be not as sure. This seems especially relevant with the disasters, the war, and the threat of biological, chemical, or nuclear terrorism. It really seems like it might be end times soon.

Spent a good part of the early new year skimming through a number of religious writings, or as I might put it, cliff notes for the contemporary American Christian (none of which are mine, of course). I have to say that I was none too impressed as a whole, half the time I couldn’t quite follow the train of arguement, or see any rational or convincing evidence in support of the religious dogma. I see that common strategies among this group are to nitpick on isolated points of arguements or theories that counter Christian thinking, or just to quote heavily from the bible, as if it were proof enough to debunk any rational skepticism or criticism.

and there is a whole line of written works which claim that the author has convicnced hard core “skeptics” to accepting the word of god, and join the cult of Christ. Quite often the correspondence is obviously staged, or very mediocre it its exchange, asking a lot of simple questions and being handily served by the pious and valiant Christian crusader.

Especially interesting was a thick guidebook on how to convert members of world “cults” i.e. anything that is not American Christianity, including Muslims, Taoists, Scientologists, Catholics, Jews, Moonies, Mormans, New Age Hippies, and of course, Buddhists. Although it didn’t convince me one bit, it did give me some interesting info on some of the world religions, such as one group requires its followers are required to spend three years of celibacy after 3 days of married life, directly following the 30 days of celibacy after their mass wedding.

Another passage on Buddhism showed a limited understanding of Karma and Nirvana, or simply the pursuit of nothingness and un-self, and tried to use a semantic inconsistancy as prove the superiority of Christian dogma over all. Sad to say it failed miserably, and I ended up chuckling while reading it. I figure if you’re going to critique a philosphy, or writing of sorts, it helps to at least read it and gather an elementary level of understanding first.

Then there were all the points that try to refute the theory of evolution and modern science in general. The problem time and time again was that the “evidence” that supposedly refuted science was either a direct quote from the bible, or a nitpicking of words in an original theory that many people have disregarded already. This was true when it came to a Christian critique of psychology, basically denouncing every psychological theory as blashphemy, everything from B.F. Skinner’s classical conditioning to Jung’s archetypes. The author had major issue with Freud’s interpretation of sexual fixation, no surprise here, but I think grossly missed the simplistic point that sometimes talking about your problems is helpful. Honestly, I don’t see much of a difference in what priests and ministers do when they talk to their followers in private.

Of course a lot of what organized religion relies on is their steadfast stance that they are right, and everyone else is wrong. Thus you are either with them or against them. Auwe.