An Inconvenient Box (that we live in)

              You've all probably seen some melodramatic climate change documentary or presentation, if not Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.  Chances are you've all felt that rush of motivation and activism that comes alongside the dramatized images of polar bears and rescue efforts. Unfortunately in real life there isn't a full orchestral ensemble and a news crew commissioned to commemorate every effort you put forth to "save the planet." Your "recycling" and "carpooling" efforts won't yield tangible results any time soon and seldom, if ever, will you receive recognition  from others so its hard understandably hard to stay the course right? I argue that the reason many of us are unable to prolong our environmental consciousnesses is not because our journeys are not romanticized [glorified] but rather because its difficult to envision the the world to be anything different than it is right now. We struggle with the scale of the concept that we can actually have an affect on the direction of this planet.

[Al Gore's presentation An Inconvenient Truth, was received with significant indifference]

What Ishmael does so well, and why i believe it to be an effective narrative, is allow me to see that our reality is not the singular possibility. Many spiritual ideologies assert existential explanations for questions without answers and often can do no better than, "This is the way it is," or "This is how god willed it." Now eventually this creates the sentiment that our world is the way it is for a reason, independent of our daily to day manipulations and influences.Barring telepathic gorrilaz,  Ishmael is most likely one of the most unique books I've ever read, in that the message and ultimate take away of the book is not a moral or a message but a conversation. Daniel Quinn wrote Ishmael in an attempt to encourage and incite controversy, to bring about questions and start an on going dialogue.  Allen Downey, author of Ten things I hate about the first have of Ishmael, states in his 9th and 10th grievances that the book [and author] completely ignore any empirical evidence and uses blind assumptions as fact. This he argues is why the book[first half] is ineffective for him. I like to think the complete lack of quantitative values, empirical conclusions leaves room for the reader to believe the world is anything we make it to be; not a bunch of symbols and numbers.

Technology Reform

Technology Reform

Growing up as the eldest child of first generation immigrants weariness and most times resistance have become the commonplace attitude towards, "American Culture" in my household. Today's American Culture is dominated with technology (the latest of it at that) and this further forms disconnect between my parents and I by perpetuating a generational gap alongside the negative (foreign/alien) cultural stigma. Now as I (sometimes) drive myself to school, use my Iphone and Toshiba notebook computer, and watch Netflix on the 60" HD TV in my basement it’s quite clear of late the anti-American culture resistance has been faltering. However, I'd argue these changes are out of necessity rather than results of a slow and gradual acceptance of technology and American culture. Technology moves so fast in the US that in order to stay connected, to stay relevant submission to new age communication is inevitable. As my family looks back to the days of flip phones and VHS (lol) tech firms and the Gov’t look to the future by looking over-seas.  Given the certain topical discretion that a blogpost affords its author I’ve decided to speak on the subject of the technology gap between recent immigrants and their US “native” counterparts. Now it has been well chronicled that the US is always in demand for highly qualified mathematicians and computer scientists and that many of these are young students from foreign countries however the NYT recently published a video that elaborates on the significance of over-seas tech-wiz’s’.

[http://www.nytimes.com/video/technology/100000002218717/high-tech-immigrants.html]

Foreign students at the UC Berkeley share their experiences and cite that immigration laws make it quite difficult to pursue their dreams to eventually start up their own companies. The video shows that albeit all the reform surrounding immigration, especially in regards to highly skilled workers that there is still a lot of room for improvement (Ferrell).  Tech Giants have recognized this and in May of last year taken it upon themselves to push for continued immigration reform by pushing forward a bill proposal. Rob Jesmer is a former Senate strategist who is know spearheading a lobbying campaign backed by Mark Zuckerburg, “It will give a lot of people who are educated in this country who are already here a chance to remain in the United States,” Mr. Jesmer said, “and encourage entrepreneurs from all over the world to come to the United States and create jobs.(Lipton 1) This has been an issue longstanding in our society but now it has escalated to another level due to the exponential growth of the technology industry and the never ending technology job market.  Eric Lipton writes in his NYT article, “The immigration fight, which has unified technology companies perhaps more than any other issue, has brought the lobbying effort to new heights. The industry sees it as a fix to a stubborn problem: job vacancies, particularly for engineers” (Lipton 2). Even established giants like Microsoft and Google have a plethora of vacancies at the top of their development departments. Brad smith of Microsoft’s general counsel spoke to the Senate judiciary committee, “We are not able to fill all the jobs that we are creating,” (Lipton 3).

 [Senator Marco Rubio has recently become the face of new-age immigration reform 

[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/us/politics/tech-firms-take-lead-in-lobbying-on-immigration.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0]

TL; DR: Immigration reform is coming and now that the rich white dudes are on board its coming fast.