51st State

Okay, there are many jokes about Canada, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel etc... being the 51st state of America. But I just found an article that says otherwise. I've been doing some research and the voting population of America is roughly 215 million people. However, that the amount of Americans who are over 18. 75 % are actually registered to vote. That's 161 million people. But people who actually vote (because in our wonderfully enigmatic governing practices, voting is on a TUESDAY!) is about 57% of that number. So the grand total of 92 million people actually decide who "the leader of free world" Scary thought huh? But maybe an extra 4 million can make a difference.

A legacy

85 days and counting until we can vote out history's garbage. I'm holding my breath and hope to God that all Americans abroad have registered and will get their absentee ballots in time. (Including me!) But something happened to me the other day that just made me cry. I was out doing some shopping and passed by the local Indian Store to buy some of the dry goods I needed. There was a mother in there who wanted to buy her monthly sack of rice. 525 Meticais, or about $25. She was arguing that the price was going up too high and that last month it was 450 Meticais. Totally true, but the Indian shop owner couldn't budge because he would be losing money. The woman wanted to pay the 75 mets difference over the course of the next month. The shopkeeper couldn't except. The shopkeeper was explaining that because of oil prices, gasoline was expensive and the transport of his products was too expensive. Wasn't the invasion of Iraq supposed to insure low oil prices? I just got home and cried. I hope George Bush is proud of himself. This woman just wants the simple pleasure of being able to feed her family for the month. It got me mad that in 162 days Bush will leave to a comfortable retirement where he won't have to worry about $3 price difference in food to survive, he won't have to worry about $4 a gallon gas...


Some say that history will be the ultimate judge of this presidency. After seeing this woman in a shop in Maxixe, on the other side of the world from this man, I don't think we have to wait that long.

VOTE!

The Prophet or Malcolm

Things get better with age!

So my sister paid me an ultimate compliment last night, I think. She had just received my brother and Samantha back from Africa and they told her about the Marcos phenomenon I experience everyday. Thanks to the wonders of Google, she was able to look up a picture of this guy on the internet. You can too. I want to start taking a poll of all that read this to see if I really do look like this guy or it’s just a case of all white people looking the same. The show is called o Propheta (the prophet) and the character’s name is Marcos de Oliveira. I don’t know the actor’s name. Anyway, Jess looked him up and said it’s a good thing I look like him because he’s hot. It’s a lot better than Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle. As soon as I can figure it out, I’m going to put pictures of the two characters up on this page. Hopefully that won’t take me too long. Along the theme of the title, apparently I’VE gotten better with age. I no longer look like a pubescent teenager who talks in a squeaky voice. I look like a Brazilian soap star that is apparently pretty famous. Most of the characters on the show like him too, except when he was beating up his girlfriend Sonia – that was a sad day when that story line showed up because I thought I would lose some street credential but thankfully, that didn’t happen! I do find it strange though that my growing up is mirrored by television shows from around the world. But look at the pictures, have a few laughs and leave some comments about the similarities.

With this past trip though, (I’ll blog more about that later) the most important thing was seeing my brother and Sam in my environment. Lots of things happened in the two weeks they were in Africa, but the thing I noticed most is that things get better with age. My brother and I tolerated each other when we were younger, but now I think we actually enjoy each other’s company. He flew to the other side of the world to hang out with me I think that shows he likes my company now!!! He and Samantha were kind of advocating for me to come back to America (at least for grad school) because I’ve never experienced the States as an adult. I don’t know if they are saying the country gets better with age. J I was also very happy seeing Noel and Sam over here because, as they said, it was an eye opening experience. They are already planning for next year’s trip to who knows where… maybe things do get better with age.

Marcos Oliveirs or Thiago Fragoso

The scrawny one on the right is Malcolm. Thanks Jess!!!!

Let the voting begin! :)