What the Republicans Hath Wrought

If I read one more quote from the likes of John McCain criticizing the current bail out package, I may have to throw something. Don't think my arm is strong enough to reach Washington, let alone Arizona, though. Darn!
Let me say it loudly and clearly: the Republicans raided their children's and grandchildren's futures when they allowed the banking system to spin out of control over the past 8 years. The shell game of securitized assets, insurance on securitized assets, short selling of bank stocks, hedge funds and the like absolutely guaranteed that a loud sucking sound would be heard. Poor fools who had their money in 401ks, in mutual funds. What chance or hope did they have to avert what the Wharton School whiz kids had cooked up?
I knew things were fishy several years ago, when youngsters suddenly had financial managers and the managers themselves were still wet behind the ears (I typed years, mmmm). When Merrill Lynch customers paid extra closing costs and origination fees to their investment bank for mortgages that were supposed get as "valued customers" at discounted rates. When the rates themselves were far from discounted. I started to feel squeamish after awhile when yet another customer would announce to me that they 'needed to run things by' their financial advisor. And when my investment bank assigned me to one of this ilk, I spent my first and last phone call with him conducting my own job interview. It didn't take long to realize this kid who was trying to sell me annuities was working off a script penned by only god knows who. And if you think things have gotten better, you only need to know all it takes to become a mortgage loan officer for a leading lender is a high school degree.
I know it's going to get really rough out there. The money men behind the Republicans want back into power so they can raid the last vestiges of wealth out of the American pot: Social Security (remember how much they pushed for those individually controlled investment accounts for young workers?) and employer provided Health insurance. Heaven save us if they get their hands on those funds -- or get control over whether employers offer benefits at all.

The Ethics of Layoffs

Seems I'm not the only person wondering about the constant barrage of corporate layoff announcements lately, specifically from healthy companies like Microsoft and Viacom -- here's an insightful blog on the same subject:

http://www.businessethics.ca/blog/2009/01/layoffs-by-profitable-companies.html

On another note (musical -- I can't be outraged all the time, can I?) -- the Grammys last night were eminently watchable and, unfortunately, predictable, with Robert Plant and Alison Kraus walking away with album of the year and former Led Zeppelin frontman Plant sounding like an industry insider as he managed to thank everyone responsible for handing him a "lifeline". Standout performances from Radiohead (didn't those marching band members look happy?) and "let's give the award to the talented chubby girl" Adele instead of the abstinence espousing Jonas kids, I'm still wondering why M.I.A., the Sri Lankan rapper extraordinaire, got drowned out by the rap pack boys when she managed to show up on her baby to be's due date. Give the girl 3 minutes air time for her trouble, guys !!

And good on Grammy President Neil Portnow for calling attention to the fact that while the arts are one of our biggest cultural exports, arts funding in schools remains abysmal (abysmal? non-existent is probably more like it). Will we get a cabinet level arts member? Probably not. But it speaks volumes that artists now feel empowered to *ask*.

Stock Owner Power -- Addressing Job Losses and Corporate Accountability

It's all over the news, job losses in January topped 600,000, the worst job losses since 1945. My question is this: for every non-executive level worker laid off at Caterpillar, Home Depot, or Sprint, how many board of director positions or salaries or meeting budgets were adjusted?
President Obama has made a laudable start in addressing the egregious difference between executive and average worker pay by asking banks who will be receiving significant bail out funds to cap executive salaries. Maybe it's time to start addressing the corporate bloat in all American businesses, where executives often make 400 times the average worker's pay in benefits, stock options and bonuses.
Should we reward hard work and innovation, yes. But can we continue the privilege party for the few (a group that seems to have grown exponentially during the Bush years) at the cost of the many? I don't think we can.
If you're a stock holder, it's time to exercise the power owning those shares still gives you (as their economic reward is so sorely diminished) --read the proxy materials and start voting your shares for change in the way America does business.

Don't Get Fooled Again ...

Senate amendment 353 arrived as a buzzword in my email this week. "Urge your Senator to support amendment 353 to reduce mortgage rates to 4.5 percent," urged the president of the real estate company that holds my license, and included a link to make it easy for me to reach out to my Senators. And it sounded like such a great idea. What home owner wouldn't welcome that huge a reduction in their mortgage rate? Think what spending that additional money might mean to the faultering economy. And then tonight, an update from our new mortgage officer: "Senate amendment 353 has been defeated." I had to do some research.
It turns out, amendment 353 wasn't just an amendment to reduce mortgage rates with federal subsidies. It also included provisions for capital gains and small business tax cuts, and some other verbiage I lack the legislative training to decode along the lines of a "5-year Carryback of Net Operating Losses and Delayed Recognition of Certain Cancellation of Debt Income". Sponsored by a relatively obscure Republican Nevada Senator, and hidden under the attractive title of "Fix Housing Now", it looked to contain the kind of tax breaks and loopholes the Republicans were thrown out of office for in the last election. These are the people who bring you logging in National Forests under the Healthy Forests Initiative. Reduced air quality standards under the Clear Skies Act. We got rid of them but we really didn't -- they spent the months between November and January sharpening their rhetoric and they will do just about anything to get back into the political picture.
While Barack Obama was preaching a politics of inclusion, going so far as to reach out to his opponent through a face to face meeting (what incoming president ever did that before?) the Republicans were doing what they do best, strategizing how best to buzzword and slogan their way back into the hearts and minds of frightened populace.
So my fellow citizens, be wary. Expect to have your emotions and fears manipulated by the same people who created the mess within which we find ourselves. Read between the lines when you're urged to support something. Ask to see the fine print. If something sounds too good to be true to fix the mess, it probably is.

Cambodian Children's Art Project Outline

The Project
Have students in the U.S. draw and color personalized, visual language cards for Cambodian students. Focus on simple nouns and concepts such as:
My family
My favorite food
My favorite toy
My house
How I get to school (bus, walk, parent's drive you)
My favorite season
Things I like that are red (or blue, or yellow, or ...)
If I could be an animal I would be a ....
When I grow up I want to be ...
Have students write a simple description in English on the reverse.
Students in Cambodia will respond with their own drawings and descriptions in Khmer, These drawings will be returned to the class in the U.S.

Cafepress.com -- a Good or Bad Idea ?

I suppose I could blame it all on the Arcade Fire concert at Radio City last Wednesday. Women my age shouldn't be going to rock concerts. We get goofy afterwards, start remembering our more idealistic, less materialistic youth.
When I was 15, I saw a film about creativity where a gentleman by the name of Arthur Koestler postulated that creative thought was like a "dance of the hooked atoms". I still remember that swirling, tornado-like animated vortex of creative possibility projected on the pull down screen in our darkened science classroom. I wanted to hook atoms, I wanted to dance, I wanted to have a creative life.
But back to Arcade Fire, the Montreal band of the anthemic vamp song "Wake Up" used by U2 during their Vertigo concerts, of Fashion Rocks with David Bowie, of indie album fame. You never know for sure how a band's live music will move - or fail to move - you until the stage lights come up and the first notes ripple out to touch your eardrums and your head starts to dip and sway wildly. I was 15 again last Wednesday night, and the hooked atoms were dancing on the stage, playing their hearts out.
It was on their fan site's forum that I happened onto a discussion about the controversial stage-rushing that took place that night, and some thoughtful posts by a young cameraman whose web site led me to Cafepress.com. For the past few years, I've been trying to find the head space to hook my atoms around a non-profit project to fund the charities I believe in in South East Asia; suddenly, well it was not unlike the adage "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear."
I know there will no doubt be controversy about my decision to use my travel photo images on consumer products. But if I can spread the word, raise funds for my favorite charities, and hook a few atoms on the way, so be it.

Back from Bali

It's a crazy snowy day just outside New York, and one month back from our trip to Bali (view from the Lotus Pond Restaurant in Ubud to the right) and Singapore, I'd be singing the blues in a volume to rival Jennifer Hudson if it weren't for emails today from two wonderful people I met during my last two trips to SE Asia. They both have their own blogs here -- Dean, our driver for four days in Bali, who became so much more than a driver, a real friend and Susan Stem, an amazing collector of tribal textiles and artifacts available through her web site Tribal Trappings, who lives outside of Chiang Mai.
I am so glad we live in a global village; I'm trying to remember life pre-internet (we wrote letters, then, that's right !! Sent each other duplicate photos of our adventures). But for all the too-fast, need it now, instantaneous aspects of life the net has foisted upon us, the ability it has given us to share what we love best with others no matter which time zone or continent they live in has to be one of the real miracles of the 21st century. I've put together a web site about our most recent trip to Bali and one for last year's trip to Thailand. This year I also added a blog of the posts I've written for my trip report at Fodor's forum, with shopping ideas and pictures of "loot". Remember that bit about the buddha being happy when I try ?? I'm hoping a small amount of consumeristic tendencies will be offset by spreading my good old US dollars around.
Other news: Lori Carlson, who founded the Ponheary Ly Foundation, has been in Siem Reap visiting schools -- so there will be new pictures and possibly new projects coming up on her web site soon.
And here's to Al Gore pointing out (on all places, the Oscar broadcasts last night, but then who can argue with a means to reach an audience of 1 billion) that the environment is NOT a political issue. Or shouldn't be one, probably closer to the truth, as I don't know much that isn't political in the world today. A few months ago, I pulled out some of the activist coloring books I produced in the early 90's to send to Lori to show her how we worked with children's drawings then, and it drew me down a memory lane of the amazing time before the Brazilian Earth Summit when it seemed possible that interest in rainforests, protecting diverse habitats and indigenous people and their cultures could paint large brushstrokes on our foreign policy. Times have changed. Sting is back in the Police while the Rainforest Alliance he founded is working with Michelob on a fundraiser, The Rainforest Alliance is promoting McDonald's "certified" coffee (I guess we have Starbucks to thank for that?), and The Rainforest Action Network, god bless Randy Hayes' soul, is still mounting protests.