Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio yet

U.S. Job Seekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratio - NYTimes.com

    To quote one of the references for the article “I’ve got October rent. After that, I don’t know. I’ve never lived month to month my entire life. I’m just so scared, I can’t even put it into words.” Hey, tell us about it. It ain't no fun to be living on the edge month after month. And just one extra "push" and over the edge you go. At least in the USA and Europe there is a safety net.  Try living in most of the developing world. We as USA ex-pats at least have "something" to fall back on.  But think about the millions and millions of people around the world who basically have just the shirt on their back.
    As an engineer married to a math teacher, numbers and statistics come with the territory. Being one of the statistics (under/unemployed since layoff in March 2007, no health insurance, etc., etc.) after awhile it gets to be numbing. But 6:1 odds for jobseekers is beyond "numb." How about "deadly"? The USA faces a LONG recovery. And we all know that the un/under employment will only get worse before it gets better.  In the mean time as they say "when Uncle Sam sneezes, the rest of the world catches cold".  Remember the many "Bolivias" of the world that are suffering from unemployment & underemployment that is way beyond 6:1

The central issue isn’t technical but moral

Op-Ed Columnist - The Body Count at Home - NYTimes.com:
If it is not MRSA lapping at our shores, it is moral rot that is killing us, literally. The story is about just one victim of lack-of-insurance-because-of-preexisting-conditions. As Kristof says, the statistics are one more victim each half hour. Denied insurace because of lupus, the end result was virtually inevitable. This story is especially poignant as we lost a college fraternity friend, David Casper to lupus over 20 years ago. Since then treatment options have improved and lupus is not an automatic death sentence. Instead the death sentence comes from faulty morals that condemn sick people to death primarily because their sickness prevents them from participating in health care coverage.
Oh well, maybe we shouldn't bemoan our lack of health insurance since getting laid off in February 2007. If you get seriously sick it would probably get canceled anyway.

Why Bolivia has no seacoast....

AFP: Beaches pose super-bug risk: study
   Here it is folks, the real reason that Bolivia has no sea coast: the oceans and beaches of the Pacific northwest are laced with MRSA super-bug bacteria. I suspect that this story will get a lot of play in coming days. How is it that MRSA has gotten into the ocean from the land? Obviously from water on land that is contaminated. And since virtually nothing kills MRSA, ergo we have MRSA in the ocean. Left unsaid in this article and others early this morning is the concentration of bacteria. Primitive life originated in seawater.  Maybe our doom will come from the same source?
   We long for an ocean outlet, lost long ago in a war that started about guano. But if the seas prove to be dangerous because of MRSA, at least we can feel safe that no one will get it while at a Bolivian beach today.

The Religious Case against Belief-book report

The Religious Case Against Belief.  Kind of a strange title for a book.  By James P. Carse, 2008. Penguin Books.  Carse is professor emeritus at New York University where he's hung his hat for a long time (30 years). The basic idea is this: there is "religion" and there is "belief" and they are mostly orthogonal (they don't intersect). "Belief" in Carse's book is really more towards dogma, a hard edged definition of "what I believe" and don't try to change my mind. The groups attacking the health care proposal, who will earn label the President a "liar" are a good picture of "believers."  He uses the conflict between Luther and the Church in the 1500s as a perfect example of two completely contrasting belief systems who could not agree on any common ground.  I am right, and you are wrong.  End of discussion.  And if necessary we will fight to the death to prove that we are right and you are wrong.  Is that "religion" or is it a clash of "belief."
    Carse spends a lot of time working on a definition for "religion" and can't arrive at a definite conclusion.  But think of "religion" as having its roots more in poetry, admitted ignorance or (better) the notion that there are some questions that don't have final answers. In the contrast that Carse wants to draw between "belief" and "religion" he points out that "belief systems" don't have a long life.  Think of Marxism, Nazism, etc which didn't last long.  Then think of the major religions which have lasted thousands of years.  The youngest of the major religions, Islam, is over 1300 years old.
  Definitely a book that can be read more than once.  Carse's long tenure and exposure to a lot of religion makes this a good read.

Sleeping on the job and getting away with it in Bolivia

Some Latin nations lead world in red tape - Andres Oppenheimer - MiamiHerald.com
The truth is, there is no red tape that I have ever seen. Lots of forms, lots of stickers, seals, stamps but no red tape. Our little business is a sole proprietorship and no, it did not take 99% of the equivalent per-capita income. Maybe a few hundred bolivianos (exchange rate is 7.02 Bs per US Dollar). Frustrating: yes. Impossible: no. Could it be better: yup. And the only employees that get to sleep on the job at our establishment are the dogs on a hot afternoon....

Lithium from the Salar Uyuni

Latin American Herald Tribune - French Company Submits Plan to Develop Bolivian Lithium Deposits
Given the size of the deposits and the strong international interest, it may take some time to sort out the different deals from different countries and consortia. The current government is adamant that the lithium NOT leave Bolivia as a raw material but rather as finished goods. Whether we will see electric car production in Bolivia or not is a longer term question. But there is no doubt that this time for this mineral that we will not lose the total value of the lithium as a raw material.

Brief (Reading) Report: The Future of Christianity

In my list of reading from the winter (summer up North) of 2009 was Alister E. McGrath’s The Future of Christianity-Blackwell Manifesto (Blackwell Publishers-2002).  McGrath is a theologian writing from the U.K. Church of England tradition and well known for accessible writing on theological topics.  He is somewhat unique in that he has an advanced degree in molecular biophysics as well as a Doc. Divinity from Oxford.
    Now somewhat dated from 2002, the work is nevertheless on the mark.  Since 2002 there have been a number of other works indicating the global shift of Christianity from its north European/United States center to the global south. 
    I certainly can recommend the book as it is a short read and certainly not a tome exclusively written to theologians. It is somewhat poignant in that the Church of England / Anglican Church is in steep decline in the “Western” world yet growing vigorously, according to some, in the global south. If you have been following the saga of the Anglicans in 2009 you know that it is in a period of considerable change around the world.  His pick of “winners” for the 21st century: Roman Catholicism, Pentecostalism, Evangelicalism and Eastern Orthodoxy. This largely on demographics. My own research and observation in South America is that the Catholic church continues in decline, probably due to the ever-declining / ever-aging priesthood and the ravages of secularism.  Also we continue to see the proliferation of Pentecostal and Evangelical churches many times at the expense of the Catholics.  And if you see an Eastern Orthodox in Bolivia (not a tourist), let me know.

Generation B - Middle-Aged, Laid Off and Losing Hope Go - NYTimes.com

Generation B - Middle-Aged, Laid Off and Losing Hope Go - NYTimes.com
At 58, a Life Story in Need of a Rewrite. Hey, they interviewed the wrong Mr. B. Only a few differences between that Blattman guy and the "Authentic Mr. B"
1) He sent out a few more resumes than I did, and he beat me with 3 interviews to my zero. [Like "who is going to fly a guy in from Bolivia for an interview when the candidates are falling over themselves for the last few stinking jobs left?"]
2) The Authentic Mr. B is still married to the same college sweet-heart.
3) I beat that other Mr. B by 30:1 in "months without insurance". And given that our lack of insurance is permanent, I will keep racking up the score until some little ailment that I can't pay for plows me under....
4) He was in financial services, I was in telecom engineering. The Great Telecom Bust dates from 2001. Since then the industry that I was in has "restructured" (this is the same word that we use for a scuttled ship as it slowly decomposes underwater). Check out "how many million square feet of telecom space in the Richardson/Plano/Dallas Telecom Corridor" has either a) been converted into a Catholic High School in Plano (previous campus of DSC Communications); b) has some other non-telecom tenant occupying it since the Telecom Bust; c) simply is sitting idle now for years (has someone finally taken the old Rockwell Collins site over just off Arapaho and converted it into a craft mall?); d) demolished it; or e) awaiting the decision of one or another bankruptcy courts to convert it into "one of the above." [For extra points, please indicate the difference between "what has happened to the telecom industry in Dallas?" and "warmed over death". ]
5) NO, I am not writting a thriller about a financial advisor coming back to life as a reincarnated Financial Guru. My book(s) are on completely different topics. How about "Mad Engineer Plots Revenge and Takes Over Entire Eastern Seaboard with Bolivian Political Techniques" (i.e. blocking roads, burning tires and hunger strikes).
And finally:
6) We live in semi-rural San Jacinto, suburb of Sacaba which is itself a suburb of Cochabamba Bolivia. Mr B. lives near New York & goes to town in an old SUV or public transport. The Authenic Mr. B walks about 1 1/2 miles down to the main road and gets on a trufi to ride to central Cochabamba. My guess is that that the other Mr. B doesn't even know what a "trufi" is. But with his health insurance, he can get on and be assured that when / if it crashes that somehow the bills will be paid.