dianas dynamic reviews

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

~ Henry David Thoreau

The UN’s General Assembly 64th session met on July 20th, 2009 to address the progress on the eradication of poverty throughout the world. The report that was generated from this meeting speaks about macroeconomic and social policy and how the constructs within these elements directly or indirectly effect the multidimensional aspects of what poverty really is.  The statistics tell us perhaps one thing, and the reality tells us another.

According to the World Bank, the bottom line dollar amount of what constitutes the poverty line in 15 of the poorest countries around the world stands at 1.25 a day per person, per day. This World Bank criteria is not based on The United States rate of inflation, for if it were, the estimates for what constitutes poverty in the world and within the US would probably be much greater than the statistics that have been compiled to date would have us believe. (I won’t include charts and graphs from the UN’s report)
What relevance does this have to the US poverty or not, according to the people who met in Geneva on that July day, and who met 8 years previously to discuss such topics. Their goal in all of this reporting is to halve the global poverty rate by 2015, not in the reporting, but in discussing the specifics of what has been accomplished, and what still can be accomplished to reach this elusive poverty free world. We are 5&1/2 yrs away from this ‘goal’ as a global world, do they think we will reach this goal?

That is their question, mine is: Do we rely on the statistics to tell us the reality, or do we compile the truth in a much different way. I’m all for statistics in as far as giving us a gauge, one tool, in our understanding, and efforts to work towards change–I loved my “Psychological Statistics” class in my Junior year of college, which was ironic since I was horrible at many other forms of math. I did in fact enjoy this class, understood it, therefore did well and succeeded, earning an A. Again, somewhat ironic since I was never considered particularly adept at ‘math’. (Sarcasm intended)
However, as the author of the UN report points out, the multidimensional aspects of poverty can be gauged in many ways that go beyond statistics. People are obviously at the root of what we are talking about here, so it stands to reason to obviously look at how people are living, and why they are living the way the are. The political systems of the 15 poorest countries have only empowered their citizens to a certain extent. The intrinsic worth of a person no matter where they reside, either by choice or default cannot possibly hold a monetary value currency. Can it? This is only one aspect of the multidimensional layers of what constitutes poverty around the world, within the US as well. Can we place a value, the intrinsic value of a person, and that one person who makes up ‘whatever percentage’ of their individual community around what the World Bank deems that person to be worth or not to gauge the poverty line of those 15 poorest countries?

Based on this article, according to the author, the growing inequality between the richest countries in the world and the poorest has widened significantly since 1980. We’re talking 29 yrs here folks. So, macroeconomics that take into consideration aspects such as training unskilled laborers, educating women in country’s where they may not have made it a priority to be educated, individual land ownership, and of course, sustainable employment to boost the local economy helps to reduce the overall poverty of these countries as well the overall statistics of what poverty really is?

Is the Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty by 2015 realistic, and how does the USA factor into this goal according to the Geneva UN committee who compiled this report? We are presumably one of the richest countries in the World. Other countries look to us as an example of what is possible, and what should be possible for all people?

Based on all accounts we are in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and what we do here in the USA affects people elsewhere? Where do we find the balance between helping ourselves here, and abroad?
Not knowing enough about the laws of import and export through these 15 poorest countries and how that relates to the USA, I question what other political regimes are doing in their country to affect their citizens, and how the non-free societies will evolve, progress or regress prior to 2005 levels, and 1980 levels of what constitutes poverty, and how the politics of, quite often, what are dictatorships within these poor countries, affect US policy makers and the people who directly decide what macroeconomic factors prevail.

More on this later.

Dynamic Diana 12:11am EST 10/18/2009 (10/17/2009)

According to many, Columbus was not the first to discover our great land, although many history books tell us differently. He had set out to find a route to east Asia, not knowing that the Pacific ocean existed–many only believed the Atlantic ocean lay between just two continents thought to exist at the time, he landed in the Bahamas and inadvertently and I suppose serendipitously ‘found’ the America’s.

Much negativity has apparently surrounded his legacy in recent years concerning his place in our history books and collective hearts of what it means to have discovered America and the possibilities that exist when we venture out on any new quest. The explorer, adventurer and American individualist in us can relate to his need to see what was beyond his own shores and set out into the unknown to improve his life and the lives of his fellow countrymen, and the world. Presumably this was the case according to what I remember learning years ago in school. In ‘googling’ to refresh my memory of the roots of why and how we celebrate or not this day, I happened upon a few articles and websites that are, what may be considered controversial surrounding how this day is viewed very differently by many indigenous peoples throughout our great and diverse land.

There is a movement of sorts, and I personally don’t know how long or fervently this has been taking place, by indigenous people to not celebrate Columbus day, which to many of us in the non indigenous population–which probably would mean everyone who is not of native American origin– has simply become a paid day off from work. I’m currently one of the unemployed so I, today anyway, I am looking at it differently.

I suspect that many of us do not reflect more than a moment or so how this day, from some 517 odd years ago–according to an article from the library of congress– on the meaning and how ones’ individual or collective actions can affect a population of people for generations. Their cultural, historical, economic, and anthropological implications is abstruse, and reflective from particularly 2 perspectives.

What prompted my research, if you can call it that, was an email that was sent via a singles social group whereas this person wrote about setting off on an adventure and not finding what they thought they would find, but rather, something different, perhaps better than what they originally thought they were setting out to find, specifically with regard to their own personal ‘list’ if you will regarding finding the attributes they desired or thought they desired and found something different, something better, a path that was leading them to a different set of outcomes in their life. Now, it may seem a stretch on comparing Christopher Columbus’ journey to someones’ own personal love life quest, but I found this persons’ perspective interesting, and thought provoking to the point of attempting to write my own article, in keeping with my goal of becoming a political opinion writer, or op-ed I guess is the correct way that professional, well written experienced opinion writers call themselves.

This pondering on the meaning of Columbus day lead me to numerous articles written by various people. An article written back in 2006 in a publication in Colorado, by what appears to be a man of native American decent piqued my curiosity with regard to how ‘they’ view this day, compared to –I’m assuming– most of the rest of the country. His article spoke about “the myth keepers of Columbus day” and how “The League of Peace and Power” which was known to the native American people as The Iroquois Confederacy, which stems from Native American writings, in part helped our forefathers write The Constitution has become misconstrued and bent to justify occupying and taking over other countries. The analogy that he makes speaks about how-according to him-our democracy is becoming myth according to the Patriot Act perverting it and reasoning to dominate, subjugate, and colonize countries such as Iraq and Palestine. I’m not sure I believe this, or not. So if we are to compare Columbus’ travels to America 517 years ago to Americas’ ‘travels’ to Europe, and middle eastern countries for the purposes of plundering, and forcing ‘our’ ways onto a seemingly very different culture that views their world from a different construct, can we, do we, how do we, work towards peace throughout the world.

Again, in keeping in part with the theme in my other previous articles on this blog, the questions are: How does President Obama, and other peacekeepers in this country and other pan-American countries, and all the countries that recognize Columbus day, how do we, they, whomever, work for peace while respecting cultural and historical aspects of ones’ culture that we are trying to help all in the name of world Peace? That is my question, dear reader. Please, express yourself. For if the beauty of our Constitution is to remain the way I believe our well meaning forefathers intended, it is called Free Speech!

However, small or large a part that Columbus set out on 500+ years ago with perhaps one goal in mind, and not knowing the profound implications his desire to utilize Ferdinand and Isabella’s money to discover a new world would take him; it took him to places he probably couldn’t have imagined it would and probably never new the enormous impact his fleet of 3 ‘little’ ships sailing off into the sunset would take him.

Nevertheless, if he brought disease back to Europe, he may unknowingly set off a chain of events that lingers 500 years later affecting many lives, hopefully more positively that negatively.

Here is to Columbus, the Constitution, Native Americans, non-native Americans, and the ability for anyone to write what they want without fear of being thrown in jail.

My question to you Dear Reader, again is: do we work for true Peace, or do we sail off into the sunset and hope we find what we think we will find?

Dynamic Diana’s Reviews 1:10am EST 10/13/2009 (10-12-2009)

Just for fun

2:43 am EST Dynamic Diana

“No good deed goes unpunished”.

I wonder what this really means?

Some would know I suspect.

Spying is not a loving act.

Love is Love, and Hate is Hate.

Peace. 4:08 EST

Dynamic Diana

To quote a line from a song by the group ‘Nickelback’:

“Each day is a Gift and not a Given right”.

4:03pm EST

Dynamic Diana

“So you think I’m less than cute these days, you used to think I was beautiful, adorable. I thought you hung the moon and stars. Would have followed you anywhere in the world, a young girls fantasy I suppose.

I had long brown hair, puppy dog eyes you called me-scared to love you-I loved you anyway. Love as always, always as love.  Beautiful body, you looked; they looked, they longed, you did too.  I had chosen you.  You chose me, for awhile anyway.

Years later, nostalgia, longing;  one minute I absolutely loath you, the next I wish I could look into your eyes and tell you to let me love you like I wanted to all those years ago. Were you ever mine? Very briefly, a long time ago.  I waited–sort of–thought you’d come back for me, you didn’t.  I longed, you didn’t  show back up.

I moved on, for a long while, loved another man, a few other men, never thought I’d see you ever again. You showed back up, too many years later. You couldn’t speak to me, why?

Again, you broke my heart, why?

In my heart there will always be a place.”

3:45pm EST 10/10/09

Dynamic Diana

Dear Reader,

I’d like to get a conversation started on ‘class’ or lack thereof that exists or doesn’t in our country. My ‘play on words’ is intended, and I’m speaking with regard to a class system: rich, middle class, poor and the various apparent, or not, levels within each of these classes or levels so to speak.  I’m also referring to class in as far as how having it or the lack thereof  may affect ones’ status in life.

There is so much, in my opinion, that I could write concerning this topic but I will start with the simple question to whomever is reading this:  do you believe that a class system still exists in America today, or is it just a myth. Is there unspoken communication that needs to be addressed moreso within the current state of our economy–to use an overused expression that I often hear on various news shows–with regard to how one views money, personal wealth, or a lack thereof and how it relates to what is possible in life and what may not be.

I am viewing this of course from my own personal position in life, where I’ve come from, traveled to literally and figuratively speaking, and what I wish to accomplish in life.  I’m a big believer in the psychology of ones’ cultural background and how it relates to the psychology of money.  To give some background on my life, and to quote and/or paraphrase my own personal mantra that I’ve been ‘stuck on’ over the past few years, I’ll just say:  I am a college educated white woman who was born and raised in the later half of the 20th century into a middle class suburban neighborhood/upbringing who is currently basically poor, monetarily, which I suppose is my own ‘fault’–and I’ll get into more of what I mean about that a bit further along, who thought her adult life would be different than it currently is.  I am the youngest of four children, four girls, and I grew up with the absolute belief that I would be married, have kids, own a home, have a good job that I could be proud of and basically have a great adult life that was reflective of my ‘good catholic’ upbringing. How does this relate to ones’ own economic position in life, well……no one was raising me to be barefoot and pregnant and standing in the kitchen- as I call it–cooking meatballs for the rest of my life, nor was I raised thinking a man would just ‘take care of me’, yet at the same time I never in a million years thought I’d be single going it alone for very long, or at 43 years old.  I used to have class, the kind where you have an open mind and listen to people without judgement, confidence whereas I never felt the need to speak badly about anyone to make myself feel better about myself. I knew I was young, kind of cute, I articulated myself in a certain ‘manner’ because I didn’t have anything to be bitter about, wasn’t predjuidice, or rude to any demographic. I can say without any shadow of any doubt, and I don’t care whatever conversation any one in this world had heard with regard to anything I’ve said that is questionable, I know I was born straight, am straight, will always be straight; I feel I used to be the embodiment of all things good–I believe it was, and still perhaps is, a gift from God. I was never a jealous person, didn’t the need to be greedy in any way, wasn’t slothful, had a pure and contrite heart.  So, in the nature vs nuture aspect, experiences can and will change a person into something they know in their heart they are not.  Not many people will admit to being jealous of anyone for anything, but these days I don’t feel like I fit in with other college educated white people who are assumingly living the life they deserve, and have supposedly worked hard for.  I have gained due to living a poorer life over the past few years a ghetto mentality, which is sociological and cultural in it’s roots, is it not? The how can I make something of my life if people see me one way and I know myself to be another on so many different levels? You’re driving down the road so to speak, adn literally speaking and you see someone driving a particular vehicle and you may assume without even realizing you’re assuming they must live in such and such neighborhood, have such and such type job, education? You see someone driving down the road and see them driving a differnet type of car possibly indicative of any type of neighborhood? Are these old fashioned notions? How many people live within their means, how many live beyond their means? I’m sure I’m not the first to ask these questions out loud or think about it at the very least. Who amongst us hasn’t thought we are considered ‘better’ or other people will view us ‘better’ if we live in a particular house, or drive a particular car, or vacation one place as opposed to another??  I have experienced I feel reverse discrimination with regard to a few profound things.  I’ll get into that later.

Now don’t get me wrong, being single isn’t necessarily a bad thing entirely.  I pretty much can do what I want when I want, and I still do hope to meet someone to spend my life with, but it’s tough being single, and unemployed.

How does this relate to the psychology of money as I call it?  Well, how does one shift their mindset to one of being a main bread winner in their life, after they spent 14 years living with a man–my mistake for not leaving when I realized he had serious committment issues–to one of getting a fire under the preverbial ‘you know what’ to know, really know that one is going to be able to support themselves ‘in this economy’  going forward and ‘be alright? It does get back to the psychology of money and how one was raised to believe what is true about possibilities for the future. I wasn’t raised with any ghetto mentality–for lack of a better way to verbalize it, no offense to anyone that was born and raised into unfortunate circumstances, particularly since I wasn’t raised ‘with a silver spoon in my mouth’ either; however, those earlier examples and experiences of what one  should and can expect for their adult life gets ingrained, I believe, from an early age.

Lately I’ve been reading, viewing on You Tube, and have recently attended a seminar/conference to listen to a well-know “motivational” speaker, and I’ve often heard –what I call–’people like that’ speak about their less than happy childhoods and how they’ve ‘pulled themselves up by their bootstraps’–to use what I suppose would be considered a very old fashioned expression–and become what appears to be very successful people, financially and otherwise.  It seems to me, maybe not true in today’s economy, that the rich, or really rich stay rich, the really poor stay very poor, and the middle class for the most part stay what would be, might be considered middle class–however we are defining that monetarily or otherwise ‘these days’.  So, my question is this: in the interest of wanting to model so to speak people who have achieved success, particulary financially, what is the formula if any. “Slow and steady wins the race”, “You have to believe in yourself”, “Just do it”, “Attitude is everything”.  All these are true I suppose; however, if one’ mindset was one way early on and now is another way, the question is , again: how to change this.

We could talk nature vs nuture all day.  So, if ones’ upbringing by all accounts should have them believe that life willbe one way, and it is now another, and just the opposite if by all accounts one should be living a certain lifestyle based upon certain factors-education, positive experiences, how to amend this?

To quote all day long so to speak the motivational speaker that I recently heard at this conference: “If I’m contemplating the conditions that I wish to surround myself with”, and the life I believe I should be living is not happening for me, how much responsibility  do I accept for the good or not so good transpiring in my life.  This gets into more profound topics  such as what one believes religiously speaking. Is there ‘free will’, or is  everything predestined and no matter what we do to affect,  positively affect our life, or anyone elses life going ot happen anyway. Are these boring existential questions that philosophers have been contemplating for years, and why ask these questions, they’ve been asked before?  It’s all unfolding as it should?

Love is as perennial as the green grass grows–or when there is the right amount of sunshine and water, even in spite that love as it appears right now, has left  some of us empty handed? Sorry to be ‘corny’ metaphorical, but if the right amount of sunshine and water is  there and the flower doesn’t grow, then what? Or if the flower grew beautifully, and then transformed due to being replanted in a place it wasn’t meant to be in in the first place.  Laugh, roll your eyes…..if you feel the need, write a comment. Express yourself.  Is this being classless, rude, arrogant?

That’s all I got right now.

Dynamic Diana

Dear Reader,

I read an article today in a political commentary section–on my cell phone– and I’m confused.  Can someone please tell me what the criteria is for winning a Nobel peace prize? Like the author says in this article I read, I don’t have anything personal againist President Obama; however, doesn’t one need to work more than 8mths to prove they are deserving of such an award? Is there a website, book, outline in a publication in a library somewhere that describes how the nobel committee (I suppose it’s called) decides who receives these awards? I’m not being flippant, I’m truely curious.

The author of this article writes that similar to paraphrasing Winston Churchill’s , “he, meaning Obama, has much to be humble about”–with regard to winning and possibly accepting such an award.  I’m wondering also, in the interest of understanding politics better,  and how we as a country, and human race are going to sustain peace where peace currently exists, and eliminate hatred and war where it currently resides, why are we not focusing on what is specifically being done, if anything, via not only by President Obama’s apparent efforts, but via perhaps the UN’s peace keeping efforts so that we can help effect that change in however small a way possible?

Not that I have any particular affiliation with Winston Churchill’s line of thinking, or the British monarchy; I am an American without a doubt. I remember writing a paper in college and having to research him and reading through various quotes of his which encapsulated the politics of the day well in my opinion. So, I can see why the author of the article I am referencing choose to paraphrase one of his quotes in his analogy of being humble to such an honor.

It concerns me greatly if anyone in a position of power is winning something without knowing why.  It’s important to tell the truth; I am referring to the media when I say this; however, we all know the ‘truth’ is spun by whomever is spinning it, and in doing so the media’s agenda is the focus and discerning truth from fiction can leave a person’s head spinning.  Informing the public concerning the happenings so to speak of non-peaceful activities throughout the world is valid, but do we, can we, focus on the specifics of what is being done by people, in addition to the president, who are trying to focus on peace keeping throughout the world?  I’m not neccesarily referring to the military.

Perhaps if it doesn’t exist already, a category on the white house website that lists humanitarian efforts taking place around the world.  Is  there any information that exists on the UN’s website? I suppose I should research this and find out, maybe they would apply my suggestions.

The author of the article I’m referencing mentions and paraphrases also another political opinion writer within this same article that apparently mocks–have’t read this article–the award to the president as similar to Sarah Palin getting an award for promising “to read a book one day”.  Wow, a particularly harsh analogy; however, valid I suppose just the same from the political spin machine.  I’m confident President Obama is working towards peace, and has, just as I’m sure Sarah Palin has read a few books.  If either of these two people, who I’m guessing are not fond of having their names mentioned within the same sentence, haven’t worked for peace, or read a book, I suggest they do so–however simplistic that sounds.

I’m a novice aspiring political opinion writer–if I can call it that–and I’m looking to open up thought provoking positive discussions. And to quote, however lamely Mr. Churchill: I am humbled.

College was a while ago so I’m a bit rusty so to speak writing ‘papers’.

Please post comments so that we can get a dialogue started.

Dynamic Diana’s Dish

Hello fellow writers:

I found this (copied and pasted below) within the “O” list in Oprah’s website today and thought it was ‘thought provoking’ and profound. Take from it what you will so to speak. I know it ‘spoke’ to me on a few levels.

Honestly I wish I wrote it.
Mary Gaitskill
Writer

With her 1988 story collection, Bad Behavior—a devil’s catalog of wanton sex, betrayal, and profoundly flawed people—Mary Gaitskill, now 54, established herself as a writer sensitive to the deepest cracks in the human psyche. Storyteller and memoirist Pam Houston appreciates her…

Mary Gaitskill knows it is a writer’s job to never look politely away from weakness, darkness, frailty, ours or her own, because this is the only level of interrogation where what is authentic, and therefore luminous, may be revealed. She knows also that one human being is not as distinct from another as skin and skeleton would have us believe, that the fluidity between us is expressed continuously, in sex and similar acts of soul stealing, in words and sometimes in their absence. She knows that sometimes we collect objects from the physical world into ourselves and leave essential pieces of ourselves discarded among them. When I read her fiction, it reminds me that I know these things, too, but the difference must be that she knows she knows them, and I am standing tentative, with my fingers crossed.

Her intelligence is holographic, what is ground will not stay still and is made, at best, of fragments, memories and mirages, Rorschach inkblots that reveal now a waitress, now a soldier, now a hammerhead shark. Morality is both undeniable and always subject to revision. Instead of offering protection from the world, she offers us the tools to take a kind of pleasure in its difficulty. She knows it is possible for us to come into a certain power, an intuition that sings, that is not squeamish, that travels through self-obsession to someplace beyond it, that employs narcissism in the name of compassion and courage. She sees among and between layers of so-called reality and feels the world spinning, faster, faster
feels herself sliding sideways, throws her hands in the air and gives in to gravity. She is ruthless and merciful. She tells a whole truth.

10/7/2009 11:55pm EST almost midnight………….. Dynamic Diana