I do, however, have some serious hopes for you, President-Elect. I don’t know if you’re really going to change things, but with a new House and Congress you don’t really have an excuse not to. A lot of people have been waiting, myself included. Here’s what I’ve been waiting for:

I’ve been waiting for a tremendous improvement in education, and I don’t take the word tremendous lightly
I’ve been waiting for an increase in public health spending,
for real change in our antique election system,

but more importantly than anything,
I’ve been waiting for us to be connected with the rest of world.

McCain said that being ‘American’ was his highest association - admirable words towards a united country - but what we really need is to understand what it means to stand united with ‘Humans’ everywhere. It’s time to stop treating the world like our stomping grounds, to realize that winning is not always about getting the gold medal. You motivated hordes with your call to change, but let’s see you act that out. What kind of place are you going to carve for us in this world?

A shining star on the hill demonstrates not only what it means to be a model of opportunity and growth, but also what it means to truly act compassionately towards those who are not yet your friends. Barack Obama, you do what it takes to get us there. I’ll back you all the way, if you keep us on the right track.

Thanks,
Jimmy

Illustration: Ole Könnecke

Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power…

Article

It said the companies had been chosen because they had been advising the ministry without charge for two years before being awarded the contracts, and because these companies had the needed technology…

The companies provided free advice and training to the Iraqis. This relationship with the ministry, said company officials and an American diplomat, was a reason the contracts were not opened to competitive bidding.

A total of 46 companies, including the leading oil companies of China, India and Russia, had memorandums of understanding with the Oil Ministry, yet were not awarded contracts….

This same thing happened with British American Tobacco in the former Soviet Union. BAT offered up leaf production and processing advice in an effort to demonstrate good faith to the government. As soon as conditions were ripe though, BAT started developing their own tobacco production centers and buying out existing ones. They aided in “general transit” (smuggling) in order to help tobacco cross borders duty free, thus avoiding paying taxes to the government. Same shit.

Which of the following assumptions is required for the statements to be true:

SMBC

Here are my goals for the next few weeks:

• Apply for passport - CHECK this morning!
• Catch up on international blogs RSS
• Finish grading, write up practicum report, finish tobacco report
• Do stellar presentation at the MPH symposium
• Get 177+ on LSATs
• Apply to some global health jobs that make my heart thump
• Read ‘the 10 most underreported humanitarian stories of 2007‘ and maybe the archives

Happy Birthday Carol Shu!

PS. If any social responsible fashion companies want a exquisitely creative, big hearted, good-taste-in-music having person to join their group, let me know, I know just the person for you.

The idea behind this is to distinguish between URGENT and important.

URGENT is all caps and in red because it screams at us. We feel compelled to do URGENT things, either because there is an impending deadline, or because we are weak, easily tempted, beings.

important is in lower case and in green because although it does not always feel very compelling, it needs to be done.

Not URGENT/ Not important: Taking out the trash. It rarely screams at you to be done, and it doesn’t fulfill any long term goals. That’s not to say it shouldn’t be done.

URGENT/ Not important: Reading the next chapter of Harry Potter. Seriously, who can wait another day to find out what happens to Harry?

Not URGENT/ important: Building friendships. Crucial to anybody’s welfare, and yet often times we still feel antisocial, and our body compels us not to put ourselves out there.

URGENT/ important: Working on your resume for a position that’s due in 2 days. Building friendships might be crucial, but so is making yourself eligible for that position you’ve been salivating over.

I personally try to spend as little time as possible in the first two categories, but it’s hard. It’s easy to say, “What does it hurt to spend another 10 minutes reading Jimmy’s website, why limit myself?” It doesn’t hurt technically, it just takes away from time you could be spending on important things.

That’s the biggest limitation of all.

So I signed up for this website, which is really a fantastic concept. To give credit to the design team, it’s actually a very polished, feature-robust site. However, I’m not really sure what to do with it. The goal, it seems to me, is to foster youth awareness about global issues, and promote collaboration. I don’t see a lot of action going on, but that may be because I’m an english speaker in the US, which seems to be a minority on the site. I’ll toy around with a bit, maybe start a couple of projects.

I also put up a twitter plugin, so the most neurotic of you can keep more detailed track of me. Sorry I haven’t been posting lately. Thanks for visiting regardless.

Anyways, we have these towels in the kitchen I’ve been using as handtowels since we moved in. They’re stained, and a little dirty at times, but the stains don’t really impact the handdrying ability, so I have no qualms. Today, I couldn’t find the handtowels…they’re usually right on the oven handle. I asked around for them, and Helen asks me incredulously “Do you actually wipe your hands with those?”. I think for a second. And then Helen bursts out in laughter, because she knows I’ve figured out what she does with them.