At The Atlantic webiste, I saw a post by Derek Thompson, that is a very, very interesting discussion of fiscal transfers vis-a-vis the EU, the Greek crisis, recalcitrant Germany, etc. It sums it all up very simply and clearly. The key idea, at the end:
When you hear commentators say, "the euro zone must begin to transition toward a fiscal union," what they are saying, in human-speak, is that the Europe needs to be more like the United States, with balanced budget laws for its individual members and seamless fiscal transfers from the rich countries to the poor, to protect the indigent, old, and sick, no matter where they reside.
The Germans call this sort of thing "a permanent bailout." We just call it "Missouri."
We were talking in one of my classes about their mid-term test scores at the public school, in their various subjects – not just English. Then later, I was asking them about their “dreams” – as in their lifetime ambitions. The following conversation took place (with some minor omissions for coherence).
I asked one student, “What is your dream?”
“I need money. A lot of money,” he answered. This is typical for 8th graders. And Koreans. And Korean 8th graders.
“That’s not so easy,” I reflected. “How will you get a lot of money?”
He shrugged.
“That’s difficult,” a second student offered.
The first student said, brightly, “I got very lowest score in 도덕.” [도덕 (do-deok) is mandatory ethics class, in Korean public schools.] This seemed rather cynical, or else it was a clever joke.
He thought for a minute, and the discussion moved to other students’ dreams. But then the first student interruped. “My dream. I want to be a father.”
The room was quiet for a moment. The second student said, “Oh! That’s not so difficult.”
The girls in the back of the room giggled. I decided to change the subject.
…
I went jogging in the park by the lake tonight, after work, under a rising bloody orange gibbous moon. I love to be in the park at exactly 11 pm, when they shut off the outdoor lights. It’s still plenty light enough to see – the city is all around. And they don’t close the park – people are still around. But it’s suddenly much, much darker. It’s like a sudden chord change in some dramatic music. The feel of it changes.
What I’m listening to right now.
Gus Gus, “Starlovers.” Very weird, kind of groovy song. Creepy video. [UPDATE: the creepy video linkrotted into nothingness, but the audio track is restored via a replaced youtube link.]
An utterly unrelated, random picture from my archive, just for whatever. Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, 2007.
