of poverty
Today, I went to Borders to read again. It's become a nice little habit of mine to read during my free time and since I was done with my run and denied entrance at a sold-out performance on-campus, I thought I would go do some reading.
On the way, we said our goodbyes.
I was reading Mary Roach's Bonk since schneider recommended it in class. It's really super cool. Mary Roach (who hails from Oakland, the city that scares the crap out of me) writes about everything that's scientific about sex. Yeah, simply put, she writes about sex for the layman by referencing a series of scientific studies. It's absolutely hilarious (especially now I know that most of the sexual studies were done at Kinsey Institute in Indiana, Johns Hopkins, and get this, WashU!) and I now know random stuff like guys who stop thrusting after achieving ejaculation are not being "insensitive" and selfish to their female partners who want them to continue thrusting: quite the contrary, it's actually because they are TOO "SENSITIVE" down there that it hurts if they continue thrusting. Talk about being insensitive/sensitive!
Anyway, when the bookstore closed, I had no choice but to put down the highly addictive book (thrusting alone is insufficient for a woman to achieve orgasm, though we think otherwise in this male-dominated world). When I stepped out and walked towards my car, there was a homeless lady standing right in my way like 10 steps in front of me. It's almost like she was "way-laying" me for money. She was very thin and frail, and obviously hadn't showered for a long time. When it comes to people asking for people, we all think that the "correct" thing to do is to keep looking forward as if they don't exist and keep walking. I do this too, because I do think that giving money to people out in the streets encourages people to remain homeless and not attempt something more productive (or so we are taught). But just as I was about to pass her, she suddenly tripped forward and almost fell onto me. I almost reached out both arms to help her but stopped in time when I realized she wasn't going to fall after all. She signaled for money and I just murmured the standard apologies and walked off. As I was walking, I saw her little "corner" under the walkway of a building which consisted of blankets and a push-cart probably stolen from some supermarket and many many plastic bags. I got to my car and was back at my apartment in less than 10 and feeling all uneasy.
Downtown Palo Alto is indeed a place of irony. Palo Alto is sometimes seen as the most "upscale" city of the whole Silicon Valley, this being where the first startup was born, and the home of Stanford, Facebook etc.. I was shocked to read the other day that in the latest report of median income in California, Santa Clara county (which roughly equates to what we call silicon valley) ranked 2nd with a mean of 87K. Yes, 87K. Marin county took the top spot with over 100K. Oh wait, in 3rd place is San Mateo county! Yes, out of the top 12, there were 8 bay area (greater san francisco) counties. And knowing that California alone accounts for 25% of America's economy, it's probably fair to say that this is the most affluent area in America. I will never forget what this professor told me when she tried to convince me to go to Yale instead of Stanford: "When I (as in the the professor) was a post-doctoral fellow there (Stanford), I felt poor. I literally felt poor." Downtown Palo Alto is this glitzy place with trees dressed in flashy lights and expensive restaurant-bars (whatever you call those fusion places nowadays, with their crappy food and overpriced martinis) and here you have a woman who's shivering in the cold at night. I think it's pathetic. But what do I know? I have never experienced poverty so to speak. Yes, while I've never been "rich", I've never known hunger. The closest thing to poverty I ever experienced was when my parents lost their jobs, and even then, it was more of a psychological thing than actually not having food. And who am I to say that taxpayers' money should be given to her when I don't even know her story.
I really like this "blog" called Stuff White People Like. It's absolutely hilarious (the new ones are not as funny as they used to be, but if you look up the full list on the website and click randomly on things like "dinner parties" or "being the only white person around" or "threatening to move to canada" etc those are priceless). The one that tickled me quite a lot when I was reading it a few months ago is this one:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/02/10/62-knowing-whats-best-for-poor-people/
Yes, Stuff White People Like: apparently "knowing what's best for poor people"! I don't really know what to say. I guess funny things aside, I wish I knew how to "deal" with situations when I see a poor person on the streets. Or even better, how to actually "deal" with poor people. Shouldn't we be helping them get off the streets? Like a warm shelter and food until they can find a job? I mean, the "age-old" wisdom of looking through them like they were made of glass does not seem to constitute much of social compassion if you ask me. And if you ask me more, I think that after all the lambasting of capitalism in America and how America is going to burn in hell for eternity, I actually find the situation in my homeland to be even more worrying. It seems like after all the preaching of not falling in footsteps of some western nations (often used in reference to "moral corruption" like gay people and lifestyle, but occasionally including the financial disparity in America) we are not quite as saintly as we think we are. Yes I know all of this reeks "dangerous socialism" (or even communism? GASP!) that brought some of the western european nations' economies to their knees, but perhaps there is some middle ground that we are somehow ignoring?
Wish I had better thinking skills to dissect this, but right now, all I can say is that hopefully a society doesn't forget fundamental things as it supposedly progresses, because it would be progress without real value.
On the way, we said our goodbyes.
I was reading Mary Roach's Bonk since schneider recommended it in class. It's really super cool. Mary Roach (who hails from Oakland, the city that scares the crap out of me) writes about everything that's scientific about sex. Yeah, simply put, she writes about sex for the layman by referencing a series of scientific studies. It's absolutely hilarious (especially now I know that most of the sexual studies were done at Kinsey Institute in Indiana, Johns Hopkins, and get this, WashU!) and I now know random stuff like guys who stop thrusting after achieving ejaculation are not being "insensitive" and selfish to their female partners who want them to continue thrusting: quite the contrary, it's actually because they are TOO "SENSITIVE" down there that it hurts if they continue thrusting. Talk about being insensitive/sensitive!
Anyway, when the bookstore closed, I had no choice but to put down the highly addictive book (thrusting alone is insufficient for a woman to achieve orgasm, though we think otherwise in this male-dominated world). When I stepped out and walked towards my car, there was a homeless lady standing right in my way like 10 steps in front of me. It's almost like she was "way-laying" me for money. She was very thin and frail, and obviously hadn't showered for a long time. When it comes to people asking for people, we all think that the "correct" thing to do is to keep looking forward as if they don't exist and keep walking. I do this too, because I do think that giving money to people out in the streets encourages people to remain homeless and not attempt something more productive (or so we are taught). But just as I was about to pass her, she suddenly tripped forward and almost fell onto me. I almost reached out both arms to help her but stopped in time when I realized she wasn't going to fall after all. She signaled for money and I just murmured the standard apologies and walked off. As I was walking, I saw her little "corner" under the walkway of a building which consisted of blankets and a push-cart probably stolen from some supermarket and many many plastic bags. I got to my car and was back at my apartment in less than 10 and feeling all uneasy.
Downtown Palo Alto is indeed a place of irony. Palo Alto is sometimes seen as the most "upscale" city of the whole Silicon Valley, this being where the first startup was born, and the home of Stanford, Facebook etc.. I was shocked to read the other day that in the latest report of median income in California, Santa Clara county (which roughly equates to what we call silicon valley) ranked 2nd with a mean of 87K. Yes, 87K. Marin county took the top spot with over 100K. Oh wait, in 3rd place is San Mateo county! Yes, out of the top 12, there were 8 bay area (greater san francisco) counties. And knowing that California alone accounts for 25% of America's economy, it's probably fair to say that this is the most affluent area in America. I will never forget what this professor told me when she tried to convince me to go to Yale instead of Stanford: "When I (as in the the professor) was a post-doctoral fellow there (Stanford), I felt poor. I literally felt poor." Downtown Palo Alto is this glitzy place with trees dressed in flashy lights and expensive restaurant-bars (whatever you call those fusion places nowadays, with their crappy food and overpriced martinis) and here you have a woman who's shivering in the cold at night. I think it's pathetic. But what do I know? I have never experienced poverty so to speak. Yes, while I've never been "rich", I've never known hunger. The closest thing to poverty I ever experienced was when my parents lost their jobs, and even then, it was more of a psychological thing than actually not having food. And who am I to say that taxpayers' money should be given to her when I don't even know her story.
I really like this "blog" called Stuff White People Like. It's absolutely hilarious (the new ones are not as funny as they used to be, but if you look up the full list on the website and click randomly on things like "dinner parties" or "being the only white person around" or "threatening to move to canada" etc those are priceless). The one that tickled me quite a lot when I was reading it a few months ago is this one:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/02/10/62-knowing-whats-best-for-poor-people/
Yes, Stuff White People Like: apparently "knowing what's best for poor people"! I don't really know what to say. I guess funny things aside, I wish I knew how to "deal" with situations when I see a poor person on the streets. Or even better, how to actually "deal" with poor people. Shouldn't we be helping them get off the streets? Like a warm shelter and food until they can find a job? I mean, the "age-old" wisdom of looking through them like they were made of glass does not seem to constitute much of social compassion if you ask me. And if you ask me more, I think that after all the lambasting of capitalism in America and how America is going to burn in hell for eternity, I actually find the situation in my homeland to be even more worrying. It seems like after all the preaching of not falling in footsteps of some western nations (often used in reference to "moral corruption" like gay people and lifestyle, but occasionally including the financial disparity in America) we are not quite as saintly as we think we are. Yes I know all of this reeks "dangerous socialism" (or even communism? GASP!) that brought some of the western european nations' economies to their knees, but perhaps there is some middle ground that we are somehow ignoring?
Wish I had better thinking skills to dissect this, but right now, all I can say is that hopefully a society doesn't forget fundamental things as it supposedly progresses, because it would be progress without real value.