tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50133822837775966972024-03-04T21:59:39.336-08:00In the Arena with Eli BermanEli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013382283777596697.post-28177744359409771052009-08-15T11:58:00.000-07:002009-08-15T12:04:06.276-07:00A Vegetarian's Manifesto, Part 1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh25Lmrh5kpQkq6_zo74wwWYHj39c4ANRikNkyQdn1P2R04P1vk6xWFQsoEGEoxOPPM4KCCpmuC3QJEQ_Z-RepbUNoHenhSQ-gkoM3apES4iOUbgVyRN-FwFTUmxpUaHqxn_AJDDlaU-d5l/s1600-h/taco_bell_chihuahua.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 248px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh25Lmrh5kpQkq6_zo74wwWYHj39c4ANRikNkyQdn1P2R04P1vk6xWFQsoEGEoxOPPM4KCCpmuC3QJEQ_Z-RepbUNoHenhSQ-gkoM3apES4iOUbgVyRN-FwFTUmxpUaHqxn_AJDDlaU-d5l/s320/taco_bell_chihuahua.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370267540484100962" /></a><p class="MsoNormal">Our small and abused little Chihuahua, ironically named Lassie, is in heat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Although I’ve never really taken her for a looker, wherever she’s gone lately, a group of three or four dogs has followed her, sniffing her here, licking her there, lipstick extended, attempting to spend a few minutes (is that how long dogs take?) in doggie-heaven.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps it’s because she’s only two and just not ready for motherhood; maybe it’s that the dogs haven’t shown that they’re father material; it could be that the shear size of two of her suitors, a Great Bernard at least six times bigger and a sweet, black mutt, only 4 times bigger, makes her shudder at how such a union might work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For whatever the reason, Lassie wants nothing to do with anyone in her eclectic group of suitors: she barks for hours on end in fear, runs as fast as her little legs will carry her, attempting to hide from then, and, perhaps saddest of all, appeals to her human owners for protection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">She should know better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is no surprise that the same people who hit her and kick her (in their defense, not too hard, but hard enough), have ignored our little dog’s search for safety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Instead, titling the somewhat comic escapades as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Lassie’s Search for a Husband</i>, they have imported a skinny Chihuahua from another farm to get the deed done, and, whenever they can, lock the two <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“amantes</i>,” or “lovers,” in a small shed to facilitate the completion of the dirty deed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>After about twenty minutes, Lassie’s scratching of the wooden door and her high-pitched barking subside, and we are only left to speculate.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Why are you doing this to Lassie?” I ask my colleagues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“It’s seems pretty obvious that she’s not interested.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Why not just let her be?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“Do you know how much Chihuahua pups sell for?” They ask me excitedly and without pause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“Almost 4,000 pesos,” or a little over $100.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“The rich people <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">love</i> these dogs.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">-------------------------</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Whether it’s for money or entertainment, to release aggression or just because we can, we, as a society, have condoned the maltreatment of animals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Examples range from forcing sex on defenseless dogs to cock fights, to the gruesome, inhumane way that animals are raised, slaughtered, and processed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The subject for today’s post is not a description of these practices (which, if interested, can be found in many, many books such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Fast Food Nation</i>, feature length films, such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Food Inc.</i>, or in undercover reports on the PETA website), but rather an investigation of how we justify the abandonment of some of the principles that we hold most dear in the treatment of other species.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>The most common arguments I’ve heard in defense of our treatment of animals are remarkably simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>First, they’re not human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Many of the people who contend this, not religious, claim that we, as humans, have a celestial quality that separates us from the other members of the animal kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There’s something about us—created on the 6<sup>th</sup> day, maybe, not the 3<sup>rd</sup>, 4<sup>th</sup>, or 5<sup>th</sup>—that sets us apart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The difference cannot be scientific: the more we study animals’ DNA, we learn that is strikingly similar to our own; the more we learn about animals, the more we understand that many have eerily advanced communication systems and that much more is happening in their brains than we can detect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The second argument I’ve heard, also surprisingly simple, is that, as part of the animal kingdom, we are at the top of the food chain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is the natural order of the world, they contend, and we’re just doing our part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This second argument is made by many who have just bought their shrink-wrapped hamburger patties and hotdogs at Shop and Fresh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It ignores the fact that, naturally, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">mano a mano</i> with many of God’s creatures, we don’t stand a chance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The real justification, the assumption underlying all of the other arguments, is that we treat animals like they were unfeeling, unthinking, inanimate objects because we can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Because they are smaller, weaker, less expressive, or less powerful than us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Because there’s no one whom they can complain to, the consequences few and far between for their abuse.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">This same reasoning—that we can treat other beings that might not be as smart, as evolved, as expressive—when applied to people holds no water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is cruel, unusual, inhumane, and completely unjustifiable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Such ratiocination helped justify the infamous abuses at Abu Ghirab (to the abusers), where American servicemen and women treated suspected terrorists as if the language and cultural barrier converted the prisoners into lesser beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In the DR, much less blatant but all the more pervasive, husbands, who go out dancing and drinking whenever they please, play baseball and dominoes at all hours of the day, apply the same principle to their wives, whom stay at home doing laundry and take care of the children, because men, the reasoning goes, are more fit for most things than women; sexual abuse is supposedly rampant here, as one generation feasts on the next in actions which they know lack reprisal; fathers take switches to their children for minor infractions; kids regularly mock Christian, the handsome, strong, and smart deaf-mute who lives here, who can’t hear when people call him names and couldn’t respond even if he did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What all of these examples have in common is that people feel like they can take advantage of others because the victims have no recourse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>No matter the context, no matter the victim, no one should remain silent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>On the contrary, we have a responsibility to say something and to act against those who can’t speak up for themselves.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The way I see it, then, being a vegetarian is about many things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In addition to environmental and health reasons, which I will cover later in the week, it’s about standing up for those who can’t stand up for themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Some may try to paint such a position as extreme, that we should abuse animals, only less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Maybe I’m missing something, but whether it’s 9 times a week or 4, I just can’t remain silent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But maybe you can.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">*An update: There’s no question about what went down in the shed: Lassie and spouse had a good time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’ll update you on her condition as the year progresses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Is anybody interested in buying a pure-bread Chihuahua?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Know anyone who is? I can get you a good deal!</p> <!--EndFragment-->Eli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013382283777596697.post-13491300881474903892009-08-08T07:33:00.000-07:002009-08-08T07:42:21.548-07:00Eat Your Vegetables!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN-6SQsvixPjXen7jvmqeUC8tie2Z6OwkNLrQbCXUZlZrND3hNasfJ2l-r0Qt91PSKb-awFcKbrYi5dttoKIUPs0BQ0cQm428ttyahT_nT0wu0OXIEvKbpdeYL1EcRiZ49GYONwotRwYwH/s1600-h/sancocho.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN-6SQsvixPjXen7jvmqeUC8tie2Z6OwkNLrQbCXUZlZrND3hNasfJ2l-r0Qt91PSKb-awFcKbrYi5dttoKIUPs0BQ0cQm428ttyahT_nT0wu0OXIEvKbpdeYL1EcRiZ49GYONwotRwYwH/s320/sancocho.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367602800213636722" /></a><br /><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I will preface this post with an admission: I am no longer a vegetarian.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The reality of life on the farm, where Charo, a genius in the kitchen, cooks for us, simply does not permit the lifestyle choice that, with the exception of a few (now much questioned) months, partly define my teenage years and early adulthood.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">It’s not that food is scarce here, exactly; there’s almost always enough rice and beans, the staples, to leave you full.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">But after 6 hours of </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">chopeando</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> or even a day without snacking, sometimes the body is screaming for the sustenance that </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">habichuelas con arroz</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">, or </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">moro</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">, just can’t provide.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">So, with this post now prefaced, I can still draw from years of vegetarian experience and post-vegetarian guilt to finally answer that question, the one that people ask us (can I say “us” anymore?) and then immediately stop listening, eyes glazed over, waiting for you to just finish already, they were just being polite; that surefire conversation killer, that seeming obligation that, by its nature, must be filled over a meal which features meat on everyone’s plate but your own; that cannot be answered 100% truthfully, or surely your friends, meat left untouched, would be partly responsible for the pointless death of an animal or, were they to keep eating, would be heartless, ice-blooded </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">pendejos</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> who didn’t respect your opinion; that question, seemingly so innocent, that reveals 1) that your friends are judging you and 2) that you have already judged them: </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Why are you a vegetarian</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">?</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Oh the disappointment when I hear those horrible words! A wonderful date ruined (who am I kidding? I should say “a wonderful </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">time</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> ruined)! A lovely dinner disrupted! A quick shudder, a falter, an attempt at a witty response: “Oh I like to </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">kill</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> animals, I just don’t like to eat them;” no, no, that’s just creepy; “have you ever read that story where the father makes his son eat roadkill? You know, how in the end the kid, so terribly shaken, waits with a fork and knife for his father to run him over?” No, that won’t work either, even creepier.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Because you’re eating flesh of another being.”</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">No, too obvious, too honest, even creepier still.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Oh what to say! What to do!</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Michael Pollen wrote a supposed eater’s manifesto in </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">In Defense of Food </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">(a book so disappointing, so poorly written and researched that I could barely get through 100 pages); the series of posts that follow will feature a vegetarian’s manifesto, a defense of what seems like a noble diet but which, to its followers, is really just obvious and no big deal.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">My hope from the entries that follow is twofold: first, that omnivores will read this site and decide to pose diet-related questions more carefully or not at all: “You really like your vegetables, huh?” or, “I’m a big fan of salad, too.” I’m not trying to convert anyone, I promise, although I wouldn’t object were someone who, after reading these posts, to agree to do the right thing (I joke. Or do I?),</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Second, I seek to give vegetarian’s confronted with this question, surely by troglodytes, locked in caves for years, unenlightened and uninformed because they don’t know about this site, a ready response.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Wonderful question, (insert favorite curse word here).</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Just read ’In the Arena with Eli Berman.’</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">He, like always, says it all.”</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">So, brace yourselves, lettuce lovers and meatheads alike, for what’s to follow.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">It really could be a game changer.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">By the end of my series of entries, people won’t be asking “Why are you a vegetarian?” but rather, “why aren’t you?”</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Email me your thoughts, and I’ll be sure to include them over the course of the week.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Until then, eat as much meat as you can.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">You may never have the justification to do so again.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Unless you’re on a farm in the Dominican Republic….No, I don’t think that works so well, either.</span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Eli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013382283777596697.post-15397912821554646932009-08-02T12:21:00.000-07:002009-08-02T12:32:13.157-07:00A New Promise!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB2wXp1nBRp1k8LzHoiGuV4Fr-bapnYDEmyQ6AUIkzyr4CEq-g7AgPCPOZLOfH4LqrZzKhC8lHUd85PAlG2uneastNwnzTIPmg2OoTLkpmnVpbZzDjDNWD6OhHf8JvC_n3Qy20Fi3Hz7e9/s1600-h/fina+alta+gracia.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB2wXp1nBRp1k8LzHoiGuV4Fr-bapnYDEmyQ6AUIkzyr4CEq-g7AgPCPOZLOfH4LqrZzKhC8lHUd85PAlG2uneastNwnzTIPmg2OoTLkpmnVpbZzDjDNWD6OhHf8JvC_n3Qy20Fi3Hz7e9/s320/fina+alta+gracia.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365450081373229618" /></a><br /><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A note to my many and influential readers:</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">What follows below is my first blog entry written in the Dominican Republic.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Although placing it first on this website is not chronologically correct, I did so in order to maximize your experience on </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the Arena</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, for it was meant to be the first entry read by you.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Clearly, I’ve done my part; in order for </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">you</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> to maximize your experience, follow the instructions below:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Step 1: Read an entry.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Step 2: Leave a comment.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Step 3: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 throughout the website.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This installment includes 4 entries, each of which I consider unique, fun, and thought provoking.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I’m sure you’ll feel the same way.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">-----------------------------------------------------------------</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Yes, I admit it, this site has made some brash pronouncements over the past two years. I don't, of course, refer to my prediction that "the Orioles will win the World Series in 2007, 2008, and 2009" (April, 2007) or that "George W. Bush will run for a third term and win" (May 2007).</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Nor do I refer to my all too well informed observations that “Jessica Simpson is </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">so</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> too good for Tony Romo” (January, 2008) or that “</span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Bruno</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> will be a great movie” (March, 2008).</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I refer to my various—in hindsight empty—promises that I would "post often" and "check in with you soon." My frequent silences and inconsistency is downright inexcusable, and I apologize to anyone and everyone who has been waiting for me to solve their innermost crises, to help them be better people, to give them cocktail conversation, or to just know what the heck is going on in my life. I promise to do better.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But what makes a now familiar vow so very different from those of years past?</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">If anything, keeping you informed from Los Marranitos, a community of around 100 people in rural Dominican Republic, will be my most difficult task yet.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The community is neither on the grid nor (GASP!) has internet, and only a 10 mile, 45 minute journey over bumpy, hole filled, twisting, and (sometimes unintentionally) one-laned roads towards that oasis, that Eden of a city, Jarabacoa, where internet connections abound, allows me to connect with you.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But this time is different.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Maybe it’s that, unlike Fairfield, CT and Madrid, I truly feel that living in the rural Dominican Republic offers me a unique take on some of the most important issues of our time.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Maybe it’s that, for the first time in my life, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, and racism are no longer key terms for tomorrow’s midterm exam but rather problems that I encounter on a daily basis.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Maybe it’s that, when we pull up to McDonald’s and order a large Freezy Freeze®, most of us have no idea where the ingredients that made the drink came from, how they got there, and what effect their cultivation (if it’s real food) has had on the people who helped produce them (although they are delicious!), but I’m seeing those effects now.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Maybe it’s that, without facebook, </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Simpsons</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, The Orioles, </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">People</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> and </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">US Weekly</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, I actually have time to devote to what I love most but don’t have the discipline to do—to read, to write, to experience new things, to always be learning.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Maybe it’s a combination of all those reasons.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Maybe I just don’t think that you can make it without me. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Whatever it is, after an all-too-long hiatus, </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the Arena with Eli Berman</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> has returned, with a vengeance, and I look forward to helping you grow along side me in my wonderful, fantastic, unique journey.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">How could you not be excited?</span></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Eli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013382283777596697.post-49109434574335183162009-08-02T12:20:00.000-07:002009-08-02T12:25:19.467-07:00A Changing View of Education<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuyAn23OqVnEQKEUui8xEA5aJWq6_H0pFci_tNBibO6KBRVOYQdFKSsuymEFGNQs8vRoC2Wci1kLXNDkB-WzRiHXpXm6p8str-lb1KpaYjvA-EPEx4e6SBxz52ZmqyN1oOqJ09bxg3v5C1/s1600-h/kids.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuyAn23OqVnEQKEUui8xEA5aJWq6_H0pFci_tNBibO6KBRVOYQdFKSsuymEFGNQs8vRoC2Wci1kLXNDkB-WzRiHXpXm6p8str-lb1KpaYjvA-EPEx4e6SBxz52ZmqyN1oOqJ09bxg3v5C1/s320/kids.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365449637058785554" /></a><br /><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As soon as I got home from Madrid, I enrolled myself in </span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Introduction to Macroeconomics</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> at American University.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A few</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">observations:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style=""><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Internet is changing the way that young people learn.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">OK. Insert sarcastic “wow, you’re so perceptive” joke here.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Are you done yet?</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Let me explain.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I once heard computers and, most importantly, the Internet, described as an “imagination machine.”</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I was at an education conference that focused on technology in the classroom.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The leader of this lecture, a teacher, couldn’t have been more eloquent in describing the potential of arming each and every kid with a laptop. </span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The internet creates, he argued, a democratic classroom, where the student often has more access to information than does the teacher, where everyone can learn from everyone, where hard questions can be answered in seconds.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“You want your class to build robots?,” the presenter asked, “well that’s only a Google search away.” </span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I left the conference wondering how I could justify building robots in my Spanish class.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">My experience in </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Macroeconomics</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, however, provided a far different interpretation of this “imagination machine.”</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Many students had ditched their notebooks and pencils and transitioned to note taking on the computer.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">They brought their computers to class—I assume that students at AU are not the only ones in the country now doing this—but they were not looking up the GDP of Guatemala or the comparative advantages of growing coffee in Vietnam.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Rather, they were on Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and whatever the new thing is that has popped up since I left the country.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The computer in the classroom was not the gateway to wisdom that the teacher at the conference explained; instead, it was sucking the imagination out of the classroom, one gamma ray at a time.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style=""><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Education: both a birthright and a privilege </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.25in"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I’ve started some informal English classes.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The plan was to start next week, and I would lead classes alongside the other volunteer, Ria Shroff, who is the head of the library here.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But many of the community members—and most of them Haitians—wouldn’t allow me to wait.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">They demanded that I go down to the library with them and begin classes.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">That very day.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Right now.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">How could I possibly have said no?</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.25in"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Half way through a lesson, a young, Haitian man entered the room.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">He wanted to learn, he said, not in an informal way, with attendance optional and no expectations set out, but instead with everything structured, with tests, quizzes, and exams.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The grade didn’t matter; he just wanted to learn as much as he could in the best possible way.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.25in"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I couldn’t believe what I was hearing for two reasons: 1) this young man, Ramón, incredibly bright, literate, fluent in Creole, French, Spanish, and with a solid command of English, didn’t have more than an 8</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> grade education and 2) where I come from and from what I saw in AU (and I think that it was the same at Middlebury), most of the students (including me) did the most we could to find the easy way out.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It was like how health insurance companies dedicate along the lines of 1/3 of their expenses to not paying health claims.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Where they fight tooth and nail to pay the least they can, we fought, and hard, to work as little as possible.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style=""><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">·</span></span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">An “A” is a “B” and a “B” is a “C”: A birthright and a privilege, continued</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.25in"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I did, of course, ace my Econ class, but my lack of effort should have knocked me down more than few points.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I didn’t recognize that, although I firmly believe that education is a birthright, it is also a privilege.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.25in"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Maybe the worst part is that, my attitude and those of my classmates had seeped into the system.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Our teacher, a wonderful, kind, highly intelligent former economic advisor at the Fed, must have known that her students were not putting in their all.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">She must have seen vacant stares and furious typing and concluded that students, physically in their seats, mentally had left the building.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Instead of increasing the difficulty of the class, however, or even calling them out, she made the class easier, catering to these students.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">While my transcript will now include that AU “A” on it (it actually most definitely won’t) I didn’t perform at that elite level either, and anyone could have told you that.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Especially Ramón.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Eli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013382283777596697.post-55762862689648605172009-08-02T12:16:00.000-07:002009-08-02T12:19:59.563-07:00Felito, El Gatito<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2wzLbHnERcdUHmNdfGoFusigF_DDdDD4B7HB2QvlHYeOAAAnXxvTBmjrVUuRJrBeJoOIgEvtJu5gsDupfqur_T6W86it15Lv5ds_xhuCgL8tMM2RuNDJ1QSykN7X3O4cdMnC39KDUoPX_/s1600-h/felito2.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2wzLbHnERcdUHmNdfGoFusigF_DDdDD4B7HB2QvlHYeOAAAnXxvTBmjrVUuRJrBeJoOIgEvtJu5gsDupfqur_T6W86it15Lv5ds_xhuCgL8tMM2RuNDJ1QSykN7X3O4cdMnC39KDUoPX_/s320/felito2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365448083750901314" /></a><br /><br /><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So I wish that I could write about something else right now (</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">chopeando</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> the whole day, for example, cutting down beautiful trees and plants in order to plant a monoculture </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">canuco</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, a garden of one or two starchy vegetables, or a baseball game played a few days ago in between a river and on a hill, the clear objective hitting it on the hill, shrubbed and totally indefensible, or the stoning of a beautiful baby bird by a grou</span></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1350BdCUfnX18HrNqaNJXj5dwvBOZqkLswymzps6-kBdjQmNvzIM7PwwdAPIW9ibXmq3BRb3S2O5fAKLYQwzyD586s00iApmWv-3sQi0pFUCGNd0cidSqU1ctv5EPVZ0fq8zG_1_yxjK4/s320/felito1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365448079889713858" /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">p of Dominican adolescents) but my cat, Felito—on my lap, </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">````````````now on the keyboard (yes, his contribution), now back on my lap, now eating the computer wires—has made an exploration of any other subject impossible.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This is my first cat (he’s now licking his privates), and he serves the indispensable purpose of keeping the rats away (he’s the first defense, the mosquito netting, I’ve heard, is not for the mosquitoes).</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But the cost of his being here could outweigh a visit or two from Ratatouille.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Let me explain:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1)</span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">He eats through my mosquito netting, creating holes for who knows what to get in at night.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">2)</span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">He “does his business” in the shower and then, I’m convinced apologetically, curls up in my lap, leaving behind on my shirt evidence of his indiscretion.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">3)</span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">He jumps on my head while I’m sleeping, trying to get into my bed, a right reserved for my dog in Chevy Chase, Shadow. At first, terrified that a giant animal was eating my face, isn’t it amazing what human beings can become accustomed to?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">4)</span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">He enters our food container every time we open it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">5)</span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">His cat food, in that very container, has made everything else smell like dried disgustingness, or whatever it is these creatures eat.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">6)</span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">He’s too smart: every time I throw him out of the house, he finds some way to get back in (we do have various holes in the house, but we can’t figure out how’s he’s entering).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">7)</span><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">He’s not a dog.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">OK cat lovers, give me your best shot.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Why should I keep him around and not give Felito to a group of Haitians whom, according to Dominican lore, will cook him for dinner?</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As Ratatouille would most certainly say, “</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">bon appétit</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">!”</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">He’d also surely have a great recipe…</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Eli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013382283777596697.post-51937217195233343852009-08-02T12:12:00.000-07:002009-08-02T12:16:07.169-07:00Two Roads Diverged<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Oh fair and gentle reader! Thou hast choices to make!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In a world of competitive cable news and innumerable Internet sites, one simply lacks the time to pursue all his fancies.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But trust my honest and unbiased opinion: my site is your all-in-one destination for the latest news and opinion. </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">DrudgeReport</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Washington Times</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> be gone!</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Choose to spend more time on </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In the Arena</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I had to make a difficult decision with my time today, but unlike yours, I’m still not so sure that it’s the right one.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Down to my last pair of pants and second-to-last shirt, the inside-out trick just couldn’t cut it anymore. The solar panel on my house is not quite big enough for a washer and drier, not even one of those two-in-one energy saver models (I know, right?), so I instead began to wash the clothes by hand.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I started at 7:00, the perfect time to wash clothes.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It’s not so hot early, and it gives you the whole day to let the clothes dry in the sun.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Today was a clear and, never knowing when the rain could envelop the mountains and refuse to depart, I took advantage.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I can imagine the scene well through Dolores’ eyes.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">She, a 55-65 year-old-woman who lives across the street, was sweeping her immaculately clean dirt front yard when a tall and awkward </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">gringo</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, clothes spilling from his laundry bag (what she could not have known was that the bag was from the Middlebury laundry service, to which I subscribed for two years) onto his trash-ridden dirt yard, tried to be a </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">campesino</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">He filled his </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ponchera</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, or bucket, with too little water, stared at the back of the detergent, scratched his heads, sorted his clothes, began talking to himself, dropped his now wet clothes on the ground, and spoke louder to himself, this time in short, anger-laden words, and looked puzzled as clothes once brilliantly white now had streaks of red, green, and orange.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Dolores offered to help,</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">but I tried to be a </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">tigre</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, the word that Dominicans use to describe a player, someone who doesn’t need help, a little distant, always cool.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">She, as well as most people who have ever met me, saw through that thin, thin façade. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">She took a break from sweeping and grabbed the clothes out of my hand.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Tiene que hacerlo </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">así</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,” she told me, as she rubbed the clothes more vigorously than I ever could.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Laughing, completely incredulous that I hadn’t ever done something like this before, Dolores was clearly looking for an explanation.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">My possible defense consisted of two options: 1) I had washed my clothes by hand before.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I spent 8 weeks living with an indigenous community in México, and there I had to wash clothes by hand, too.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There, however, by the end of the trip, the clothes had taken on a what would turn out to be permanent mildew smell which made me, I’m convinced, sicker then I think I’ve ever been; or 2) I had always used a washing machine.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Both answers seemed less than convincing, and I remained silent.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The short of the story is this: Dolores taught me how to wash the clothes, I did so, it took the better part of the morning, and I doubt the clothes are really even that clean.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Now, at 12:30 pm, knuckles raw and biceps soar, I’m finally on to other things. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What’s a man to do?</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And would partial dependence, paying someone else to take care of my dirt laundryy, be OK?</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Your thoughts, oh humble reader, would be greatly appreciated.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Eli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013382283777596697.post-21363388329792095322008-09-22T02:19:00.000-07:002008-09-22T03:01:52.663-07:00El Cambio Grande<img style="border:1px solid;" src="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:Tvx9v4su0KppxM:http://www.ear.fm/Encyclopedia%2520P/Proclaimers.jpg" width="116" height="116" /><div>Well here´s a thought: time flies. I know you´ve heard it before, but it bears repeating once more. </div><div><br /></div><div>The last time I wrote, I was probably grading papers, coaching cross country, and yelling at 7th graders (I hope all is well, Mr. Miller). It would have been cold: February in Connecticut is not an easy month. I would have been thinking of the promise of another Orioles season -- that this is would be the one -- and cheering for Hillary Clinton, who still seemed to be the sure fire Democratic nominee (Barack <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">who?</span>). Finally, I would have been thinking about people and situations that, for better or for worse, have long left my daily thoughts.</div><div><br /></div><div>As I write now, I´m currently on Calle Prim in Madrid, Spain, in the headquarters of Middlebury´s Spanish program. For the greater part of the past four months, I have sworn to speak only Spanish, and I have done so. This post, the final in my mother tongue (at least for some time) is to tell you that, in order to read my insights from here on, you will have to follow me in my quest to master the Spanish language. And I´m asking you to do so, more for your sake than for mine, because in your learning of another language, you will be able to read Borges and Cortezar and Cervantes but more importantly me. And this, I tell you, is worth every cent you pay to Rossetta Stone (or, if you´re interested, I can provide you material). So let´s just get this straight: I´m not asking you to walk 1,000 miles. I´m asking yo to straighten up, fly right, and pick up that 9th grade introductory to Spanish book that has been gathering dust under your couch and to learn some Spanish.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What can you expect from E<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">n la arena con Eli Berman? </span>Well, the same that we can expect from a Sarah Palin/John McCain presidency -- or change that, McCain/Palin: more of the same. I will continue to deliver you wonderful, insightful observations as I have ¨consistently¨done. I will, of course, comment on the upcoming elections. I will also try to explain a grammatical concept or word of the day that has captured my attention (this is as much for graduate students as for a 72 7th-10th graders in Fairfield, CT). And I will fill you in as I continue to understand my first language, the language of love. So, my friends, this edition of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">In the Arena With Eli Berman </span>will now sign off and a newer, better, and far more exciting edition will herefore commence. Entonces, mis amigos, disfruten esta nueva avenutra. Abróchense, tengan cuidado, buena suerte y buenas noches.</div>Eli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013382283777596697.post-77265081332603212722008-02-10T16:55:00.000-08:002008-02-10T17:11:40.953-08:00A new postSo much has happened over these past few weeks -- or is it months? -- I don't even know where to begin. First and most importantly, I apologize to my subscribers that I haven't written sooner (but i have been able to cash those checks.) For some reason -- does anyone else have this problem? -- I can't write on the computer. Just can't do it. I try and try but always wind up reading about Barack Obama or how terrible the Orioles are. But even when I'm not distracted, there's something about the white screen that interrupts the message from head to hand. So I have to copy that long-thought-exinct, laborious drudgery of writing down my thoughts in illegible long hand and retyping them on the computer. And that's exactly what I'm doing right this second. <br /><br />Which brings me (or brought me a few minutes ago) to a thought: however unique (or odd?) I may be, I know that I am not the only person in the entire world to suffer from typetile dysfunction (you don't have to laugh), and I wonder how much creativity is lost because of this "problem." I mean really, who's going to take the effort to handwrite notes and then type them up? Most of the people I work with don't even know how to use a pen. And looking at their handwriting and my own -- it's an art that seems to have had it's hey-day.<br /><br />At a recent conference I attended, a speaker called computers "imagination machines." I think that for so many things this couldn't be truer. When I open up Google Earth, when I type anything into a search engine, when I listen to pandora.com, when I see kids programming computer games, I couldn't agree more. But with so many games online and articles about Brittney Spears, computers may have become just another means to escape from our imaginations, rather than something that could spur us to actually <em>think</em>. And we spend so much time staring at the computer screen, we miss all of the wonderful things going on around us...<br /><br />OK, I can't read my writing anymore. But I'll check in again soon.Eli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013382283777596697.post-70067491900319345922007-12-19T17:42:00.000-08:002007-12-19T17:50:08.693-08:00What we've all been waiting for...A poem I came across the other day:<br /><br />The Quality of Love<br /><br /><br />In the throws of the affair<br />I was surprised to learn<br />I could love two women<br />With intensity<br />At the same time<br />One with whom I’d spent many years<br />And one recently met<br /><br />Now<br />The quality of these loves<br />Is best described by the difference<br />In my bathroom behavior—toilet procedure<br /> At home<br />Though the room was occupied<br />(my wife in the tub)<br />when ya gotta go<br />Ya gotta go—and I always went<br /> But in an apartment near chicago<br />I would carefully close the door<br />Run the water<br />And turn the fan on<br /><br />During this time<br />If a doctor had informed me<br />I had but six months to live<br />Looking back<br />I think<br />I would have chosen<br /> The apartment<br />For the first three months<br />But I know now<br />I would have wished to go home<br />To die<br /> With someone who knows just<br /> How full of crap<br /> I really am<br /><br />And an excerpt from the book, Still Life With Woodpecker, by Tom Robbins:<br /><br />"Albert Camus wrote that the only serious question is whether to kill yourself or not.<br />Tom Robbins wrote that the only serious questions is whether time has a beginning and an end.<br />Camus clearly got up on the wrong side of the bed, and Robbins must have forgotten to set the alarm.<br />There is only one serious question. And that is: <em>Who knows how to make love stay?</em><br />Answer me that and I will tell you whether or not to kill yourself."Eli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013382283777596697.post-74017380699712077892007-12-15T07:11:00.000-08:002007-12-15T07:12:58.700-08:00Who am I? Let me tell you...In my first ever visit to the social networking site "myspace.com," I learned some interesting things:<br /><ul><li>Tash is a 35-year-old single woman. Her faith in God is only paralleled by her love of the Denver Broncos. At this very moment (as I can tell from her recent last login), she is feeling thankful (probably because the Broncos haven't lost yet this week).<br /></li><li>"Mizz Tina Marie" is just divorced, even though she's only 21. She lives in Connecticut and is interested in using myspace to find a potential date. She does warn, however, that "I'm flattered that my page is so entertaining, that you come by everyday to see it, and you aren't even on my friends list, can you say STALKER!!!" </li><li>Finally, there's Elvis, 21 and from Bridgeport. One click on his page and Vodka bottles start falling from the top of the page. One of his buddies said that, in a conclusion I have yet to understand, all of the alcohol on his site makes Elvis' profile "gay." Maybe such a comment fazed the young man and pushed him to the bottle. Right now, he's listed as "drunk."</li></ul><p><br />Tash, Miz Tina Maria, and Elvis' profile in no way standout; the three do not provide more information than other people (in fact, they were the first three profiles that I looked at before I got bored). In what the Economist calls a "dictator's dream," people are putting more and more information about themselves on the Internet for all to see. Relationship status, sexual preference, likes, dislikes, groups of friends, telephone numbers, location, status -- listing personal information online is not the exception but the rule. Never before, the Economist continues, has so much personal information been in one place. And people are doing this voluntarily.<br />Social networking sites like facebook are not the only venues in which information we provide personal information. Each search we enter into Google is saved, possibly forever, so that the company can, at best, market to us better and at worst, sell information to curious governments spying on its own people. (In China, Google has been accused of "collaborating" with the government over search results.)<br />Each purchase we make with a credit card is stored on company servers. Not only do we allow these people to know what we're buying (which for some is scary enough), but also where we frequent.<br />Some of these conveniences make our lives better. We just need to make sure that we know precisely the consequences of using these services.<br /></p>Eli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013382283777596697.post-79687089575061072412007-12-12T17:22:00.000-08:002007-12-12T17:31:34.282-08:00Facebook FiascoWell, I've always been wary of facebook, but now I'm wary of our whole generation. So much has changed in the way we communicate with each other, and based on responses I got to an email the other day, I'm convinced that we aren't quite aware of what exactly these changes mean. <br /><br />The original email is the one pasted below. I sent it to Facebook, and I blind carbon copied many of my closest friends. Instead of outrage, the common response was, "who cares?" Over the next few weeks (not tonight, I'm going to bed), we'll explore first why the changing ways we communicate are so important and second why I'm now shifting from online back to the hand written letter.<br /><br /><br />To Whom It May Concern,<br /><br />Facebook disabled my account last night because I would not submit additional personal information about myself, namely, my birthday. I write today so that the operators of Facebook might reconsider both its recent actions and also the overall direction of the site.<br /><br />Here's the story: for months, Facebook has sought my birthday for “security reasons.” The site placed a yellow box at the top of the "newsfeed." Such a request was fine: I simply ignored it. Last night, however, Facebook's approach became more intrusive: a popup box appeared on each page I clicked. Incredibly obnoxious, I grumblingly submitted to Facebook’s incessant requests by setting my birthday as “January 1, 1910,” making me a young and healthy 97 and eagerly awaiting my 98th birthday. For whatever reason, the site rejected my submission. I then tried a date a little bit closer to my real birthday (how much closer I still will not say) -- “January 1, 1976” -- but Facebook still somehow knew that this was not quite right. I tried again, and again, until I could try no more; Facebook disabled my account. Whether this action will be temporary or in perpetuity, I now inquire.<br /><br />To what ends Facebook wanted personal information about me, I do not know. Maybe the site will claim that it simply wanted to confirm that I was over 13, the minimum age which Facebook allows membership. But maybe – and much more plausibly – Facebook sought my birthday because such information is useful for, at best, making money and, at worse, because it understands that users’ favorite books, movies, and education, which profiles people look at, their sexual preference, and their religion is information valuable in its own right. What a far cry from the original aim of Facebook, and how very, very scary.<br /><br />In writing this letter, my goal was to ask for my account to me reactivated. But I am now more seriously considering, especially as new networking sites are born, whether I want to be part of the Facebook community even if reinstated (I think that I do). Kicking me off sets a bad precedent, and worse, makes me -- and I'm sure when others hear about this and other similar actions (and they are already hearing) -- concerned that Facebook is no longer an online social networking community but instead a marketing, money-making, information-collecting machine. We will see whether, if it ever reaches that point, Facebook will even be trusted with a valid email address.<br /><br />Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.<br /><br />Best,<br /><br /><br /><br />Eli Berman<br />eli.berman@yahoo.comEli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013382283777596697.post-1419729630464323412007-10-31T17:02:00.000-07:002007-10-31T17:36:57.199-07:00Let's Go O'sI'd just like to start this second blog with a little quip I've heard a few times: great men realize when there is a need; true leaders recognize that need and fill it. The phone calls, the emails, and the posts have started rolling in; I'll let you, my closest followers, decide if I'm just a great man or a true leader. And one more thing. You're welcome, all of you, my loyal supporters. Really. You're all welcome, and I'll continue to do my best to serve you (as long as you keep on mailing me those checks).<br /><br />A few years ago, on the website sta.cathedral.org/~eberman, a young man who called himself "Thunder Thighs" left some disturbing messages on the "town hall" section of the page. Those comments closely mirror the comments (or should we say <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">graffiti</span>?) left on this blog a few days ago. Let's take a look at those <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">un</span>-American, I-don't-support-the-troops words and see if they have any credibility.<br /><br />From 1918-2003, Boston Red <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Sox</span> fans claimed that their team was "cursed." I neither have the time nor the desire to rewrite the history of that sorry franchise, but I will mention one thing. Red <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Sox</span> fans traced that curse back to the sale of Babe Ruth, that famous slugger, to the New York Yankees. The ghosts of baseball, Babe Ruth, or whoever, Red <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Sox</span> supporters cried, cursed the Red <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Sox</span> for doing something so very stupid.<br /><br />But even a quick look at baseball history, any knowledge at all of Red <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Sox</span> history, completely rejects such a simple interpretation of the past. Anyone who knows anything about baseball knows that the Red <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Sox</span> were in danger of folding. The money the Yankees gave to the Red <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Sox</span> for Babe Ruth kept that franchise afloat. There was no curse, ever, there was just a terribly managed franchise. So in four years they've won two championships. Impressive. In 85 years they've won that same amount. Not so impressive. In fact terrible. But not as terrible as the Chicago Cubs.<br /><br />The Cubs have not won a championship since 1908. Almost 100 years. They have a nice stadium, they had Harry <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Caray</span>, and they...well I guess that's about it. So in 2007 they had a better record than the Orioles. 1908 says it all.<br /><br />Thanks for checking in, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Dsyntax</span>. I hope all is well with you in Cali. I also hope I've clarified some things for you.Eli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5013382283777596697.post-44896781162194183822007-10-28T19:03:00.000-07:002007-10-28T17:27:13.367-07:00A Falling TreeMatt Drudge offers links to breaking news; Arriana Huffington offers her opinion on pressing political matters of the moment; others are a lot smarter, funnier, and better writers than I (you don't have to believe it, but I have to say it). I don't know if anything I have to say is enough to generate a blog. So, if you're unsure about whether or not his posting has any value to you, if you're moving your cursor to that red "x" at the top of the page, itching to check out who won the Redskins; game (they probably lost) or Chad's latest profile change (oh my god! he's now "it's complicated") I'm fine with that. If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Who knows? (And really, who cares?) But you will certainly take comfort--or change that, maybe I will--in the fact that, if I write a blog and you don't read it, it will still be here.<br /><br />So what can you expect from "Eli in Fairfield?", the new and exciting blog from Eli Berman? Well, I wouldn't expect too much. But if you'd like to stay in the loop about current issues in education, politics, sports, and (of course, last but not least) love, this blog just can't be missed. So tune in, log on, or do whatever young people are saying these days and check out this site. Oh, I almost a forgot. A message to Drudge and Huffington: Watch out. Berman's coming.Eli Bermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13238006302517803022noreply@blogger.com2