Will it or will it not rain?

Surely, the day I leave my umbrella at home will be the day it rains. Oh gosh, as I began typing this, it has begun raining! Why I don't stop these thoughts from happening before I jinx myself, I'll never know. . . . .



So, life has mostly been settling in. School is full underway, I am studying/looking for a job/ trying reallllllly hard not to spend money and yet I think I'm making myself spend money more. . . .



Like shopping- it always starts off as a good idea because you have a need, and then you go and you realize there are a lot of things you think you "need". Today's needless item: nail polish remover. Do I need this? No, I don't really need to paint my nails either, but that didn't stop me from buying nail polish . . . .



In world news: Sweden is burning bunnies as a form of renewable energy. . . . .

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8309156.stm

Check it out

To be a Radical or Not to be a Radical

Here is the project my classmates and I have been given:
We are part of 4 different organizations that are either for/against the expansion of Heathrow Airport (this is a current topic in England right now. The UK agreed to stop carbon emissions by 20% and now they are actually trying to expand the airports in London and add more terminals and runways which would increase the amount of carbon emissions the UK emits).

The four groups are:

The Aviation Commission: You are for the expansion. It creates jobs, will allow more planes to fly to your airport, creates more money for you as well (you own planes and now more people will fly them).
The local police: You are against the expansion but for alternative methods of increased transportation (buses) because the expansion takes away the people that fill the jobs in the community and you would have to increase taxes on the residents to pay for this.
GreenPlanet: You are an international Non-Government Organization that is against the expansion because it creates health risks, destroys the earth yada yada yada (green planet). You have tons of money from donations, are completely successful, and you know people in government (so you have a lot of pull).
CleanAir: A super tiny Non-Government Organization that is against any form of increased transportation (expansions, new airports, extra buses or undergrounds). Think of a radical group that chains themselves to airplanes to stop them from creating carbon emissions. . . . .

Guess which group I am in :D I'm a radical :D Now where did I put those chains . . . .

Honestly, would I have chosen this.... this is not an easy one, and I got put in this group because of where I was the last to get the sign up sheet for the group choices. But this is excellent.

Each group has to come up with a strategy to influence public policy that would benefit their group. The Clean Air radicals don't have money for advertising, only have a few people in the organization, and don't have any links to government to get our word across. OH I should mention that the current government in power is FOR the expansion- lucky for those in the Aviation Group. But that means I will learn the most out of this project, we'll have to be extremely creative to develop our strategy, and look at all kinds of small NGO's and how they were effective.

The easy answer is to bribe Green Planet to allow us to be part of the their committee since we support similar things, but is the easy answer the right one? I will go with no on this one.

Which would you choose? And how could you be effective? This is really interesting if you are into governmental affairs because you really have to follow whichever government is in power and change your strategy based on it.

Things I have learned

Things I have learned while being in the UK:

I look old enough to buy liquor (hoooooray)
I do not look old enough to buy scissors. . . . . hmmmm

The trouble with rain isn't the occurence of it, but the fact that when I have to go to classes, everyone else and I all have umbrellas. I am worried about the life of my umbrella because everyone bumps it when I go to class, it's just a sea of umbrellas. Try moving with an umbrella (without harming it) when everyone else has one. I have almost resigned to put mine down and just hope that I am protected my the sea of umbrellas. Still gets me wet. . . .

I will not get anywhere in a conversation if I talk about "Football". As much as I try to say American football, it just doesn't stick, and ultimately, me and everyone else ends up having two entirely different conversations.

I still haven't had English food. I really want to! However, I have learned they have AMAZING chinese food. Also, the luxury of living with so many different types of students (my apartment or flat has 3 guys from saudi arabia, a guy from Turkey, a guy from Nigeria, 2 girls from the UK, one girl from S. Korea, and one guy from Switzerland) is that we all cook a lot and I get to try a lot of their types of food. The roommate from Turkey and his friends made us all pasta with Ketchup, beef with eggs/onions/yogurt for dinner tonight. Twas wonderful :) Yes, ketchup on pasta and beef with yogurt, you read that right.

Classes are going well so far. Democracy prevailed and I was elected the student representative for my masters program as I was the only one to raise my hand. So without opposition, I won :D Keep in mind, this was how Hitler rose to power, and I must have intimidated my classmates early :D Just kidding should this post ever come public.

Enough for tonight, I will have a political prose tomorrow for you to read and share your opinion on. Thank you for the e-mails/facebook messages on my last political post.

Centralized vs. Decentralized

In my "Influencing Public Policy" class we were comparing two different models the UK government has used - the Westminster Model and the Differentiated Model.

We split into groups and argued which model is better. Simply, the Westminster model is the older model in favor of a more centralized government, and the Differentiated Model is a more evolved model that promotes decentralized government for the sake of a society that is primarily diverse. Granted, there are many more points to each model, but for the sake of this post- I elected the argument of centralized vs decentralized.

Centralized
This type of governinig is seen more in a capitalist or communist country (ie. north korea, china, etc). And you see all the internal issues there. The governing comes from one place, and it has a top down type of governance ( all ruling evolves from one person, so a president, prime minister, all similar types qualify). The argument for is that information is not lost between each sector and it all comes from one place. It is easier to implement things nationally, there are less government workers to pay for, so it is more cost effective and traditionalists (those against change) argue that if you are looking at a government that meets the needs of the general interest, a central government is better because it looks at the country and makes broad laws that are able to be molded at times of specific situations (simply the government is not as involved with the people, there is less regulation, and the "laissez-faire" concept is dominent). This is the heart of what a centralized government should look like- however if you look at the governments taht are primarily centralized- "laissez-faire" really only truly exists in non-sovereign states (which are building today).

Decentralized
A more modern approach to governing many different types of people. It allows local and regional governments to govern their areas, and leaves the national power to really deal with foreign policy issues and issues that are posed from the regional level. The "for" stance is that this approach is better for the type of world we live in today; where there are many different types of people, and broad laws do not govern the immigrants in a nation. Setting up local and regional governments allow people in specified areas to be governed the way that works for those areas while still adhering to national law. It's more specific to the needs of the different types of people. The argument against is that once you decentralize the government, it looses power, and reversing that authority may not happen. Giving independence to an area may make the area shy away (which is essentially how we get different countries and governments).

If you consider that the ultimate goal of a government is to secure the interests of its citizens (or people within its borders) and to protect them, which government would be more successful?

My answer is that a decentralized government was created in response to a centralized government, and the lack of regulation is what has helped cause a recession. Public policy should not be created as a response to what our government has done wrong, but rather it should be a preventative step. Allowing people to govern themselves could work if their combine interests do not infringe upon the rights of other territories or persons. The reason this does not work is that people are motivated by power, and if why just govern myself if I could govern my neighbor too. Negotiations take place as a form of compromise- sure I will give up my right to these decisions, if you promise to protect me, type thing. And voila- we have a government. Decentralization gives up a lot of rights because more government is involved- but with a diverse crowd, how will anyone's voice be heard. If you look on an international scale, governments give up power to higher treaties (E.U., UN, NATO) and in favor of alliances. Without these alliances, governments will be able to govern themselves until some sort of problem arises that they can not handle. (war, poverty, something they can't fix by themselves).

Centralized governments do have alliances- but if you agree with my stance, then you can see how difficult it would be to help govern a country- say as big as China that is centralized. And expensive.

Thoughts?

From the Majority to the Minority

Good Morning!
I have finally settled in, and will explain everything that has happened thus- as I have had quite a bit of emails from people wanting to know everything.

I arrived via Heathrow (an hour early) on Wednesday, and took a twenty minute bus to my school (yes, that is all it took :D). To be clear, I am NOT in London, I am in Uxbridge, which is similar to Arlington to DC. The first bit of excitement came when I saw the lines for customs- there are 2: the "EU"- people with passports from the European Union, and "Everyone Else" haha that's me. The line for the EU was nearly 3 times my line, and so naturally, my first moment of being a minority was exciting- until I realized that their entire line went through customs before I even went through half of my line. "everyone else" gets to answer lots of questions. . . . . .

So my mom's friend met me at the airport and she travelled with me to my school. Immediately went to the accomodation office, dropped my luggage off, went to Finance which cleared me to enroll, went to registration, went to the graduate studies office to get my course outline, and made it to my first class at 2 :) After class, I went and registered my computer- and voila. It was just that easy. Nothing- nothing at all- has been easy to get to this place. And now that I am here, I feel as if I am being rewarded ............. or there's a catch ............. it can't be this easy . .. . ... It is though! Everything is done- set up

Let's see, classes: I take 4 classes this semester and 3 next semester. This semester I am taking International Relations, Globalization, Influencing Public Policy, and Intelligence and Non-Criminal Threats. Every single one of those classes are SOOOOOO interesting (I am putting up a political post separate from this, and you'll understand what I mean). To say I am on the edge of my seat is an understatement. I was mad that in my first class I had to sit in the back of the room (I was twenty minutes late due to getting things set up) because all the front seats were taken. My classes do not have tests- and I will be graded on 2-3 different essays per class that judge my intelligence on a given topic. Most of the essay's will be opinion based- where I will have to choose a stance and argue it to death. The trouble for me is that though I can do that (which most of you have been subject to), I cannot help but look at the opposition- it's the diplomat in me, and understand their argument. My goal is to use the understanding of the opposition to prepare me for future studies. Anywho, my teachers are hot too. And beyond interesting. I am surprised by the lack of work. They trust all masters students to take their education to the height of the individuals' ability. With all the preparation mom has helped me with ( ;) wink) I will be able to complete these essays without trouble. I have class almost every day from 9-12, Tuesday no class, my monday class is every other week, and wednesday I have class from 2-5 instead.

English humor is fantastic! I was worried that I would want to mock them or that I wouldn't be able to talk back to them in my american accent because it is funner to speak in an English one- but that isn't so. I am nearly the only one with an american accent, and I am surrounded by dozens of accents. The English do let me mock them- in good fun though haha that's how I have made most of my "chums". They mock me, I mock back. Additionally, I get to say words like compulsory (mind you, spoken without the pronunciation of the o if you want to say it properly) instead of the word required.

Food isn't bad- ketchup isn't good here. Then again, I haven't had a real english meal yet (I have had chinese and generic cheap food). The beer is good. I drank last night for the first time, and unfortunately, it stays with you despite how little you drink. So even though I stuck with beer, this morning was a little rough, and I only had 3!!!!! I made the mistake of challenging some english guys to darts. I was great (they would have happily had me on their team), but my poor judgement came in choosing another american as my teammate (he's odd because he grew up in England but moved to America when he was 12, so he is like a crossbreed or something). We got our asses beat. At least the first two games. The third game I recruited a guy from iran and we won- my american pride is saved :D

I get food at Tesco (it's like walmart style)- and it isn't much to boast on yet. I don't know where I can place food in my fridge yet, so I have only bought non-perishables. And I was exhasuted when I was selecting my food, so I stuck with things I know. American packaging is more exciting- even on the generic stuff. One thing I find abroad is that the packaging generally has a picture of the food cooked and it never really looks appetizing. So you just have to trust it's good. Or atleast trust that it will fill you up- despite the low satisfaction.

The greatest thing about this place is the feeling I have from it. Being able to bounce my ideas off of people like me, and hear their ideas, and to be in a state of constant learning--- it's one of the most peaceful and comforting feelings I have ever felt. It's as if I have just started breathing, when I never realized I was holding my breath. It was worth every bit of frustration and heart-ache to get here. The elation I feel is beyond anything I put words to- words give no justice to the feeling. Thank you for all the support you guys have given me. I couldn't have been here without my friends and family- some of you disagree, but you have helped to shape and mold me to this place. And in a more tangible example- being able to borrow $25,000 from friends and family to bulk up my account so I could get a VISA- welllllll I wouldn't have even been able to leave the country- so thank you.

Today I am heading into Uxbridge to do some exploring and get more than just essential items for survival. I still need books and whatnot- to fill my huge bookshelf :D This weekend I am going to London on Saturday- and on Sunday---------------- FOOTBALL- or American Football if you will. They have told me they will speak "americanese" (pro. like chinese) when they are in America, but here, I am required to speak English. Definitely one of those, "I thought I was speaking English until I went to England" type moments haha.

I have made excellent friends with some English guys, a guy from Norway, and Brazil. They affectionately call me Little Bit..... or yank . . . (short for yankee). I am going to Norway at some point so it's good to have friends from there that can show me around.

Me and Jaimeson are meeting for christmas- somewhere in between England and Japan. We were thinking Russia, kazahkstan, I dunno- we are comparing budgets. But I will keep my adventures updated.

If you have made it through this entire post- Bless you...... hopefully that covers everything. I am not nearly as detailed as amber- so if there is more you want to know, just let me know.