|
RussoByzantine
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Jacob
Country: United States
State: Minnesota
Metro: St. Paul
Birthday: 5/15/1985
Gender: Male
Interests: International Politics, History, Foreign Languages, Poetry, Dinning at $$$$$ restaurants, Hanging out with friends, World Traveling
Expertise: Fluent in Armenian. English and Russian are about equal, followed by Greek(Hey I am Greek Orthodox what do you expect?)
Occupation: Student
Industry: Government
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
10/20/2005
|
|
| I've recently had a lot of time to think. I have come to the conclusion that teaching English in Russia is "What I want to do" with my life for now. I have stated that i desired to work in the FBI, however new realization is realy close to my heart right now. In the end its the pleasure of the job, not how much money I make. Satisfaction and happyness doesnt have a price value. These are the things that I've lacked for a few months. This new hope of mine gives me a nice warm feeling in side. | | |
| I've been grappling recently with the concept of poverty and what country is poor. Basically after consulting I have determined the following list of countries generally incorrectly being put into the under developed category.
Mexico: Cant really be classified as Central American, but rather as North American. Yes there is corruption, homeless, disease and lack of basic necessities according to the West. However, its economy is expanding very rapidly, especially since the PRI lost power. Most political scientists and Economy will classify Mexico as a developed country in the sense that Chile, Turkey, Malaysia are.
Brazil and Chile: The success stories in South America. Chile has the highest standard of living on the continent, while Brazil's is by far and away the largest in all of Latin America. It is essentially a scaled down version of the US economy as it produces the same things we do at a lower level. The problem with Brazil is land dsitribution is not yet worked out, creating a large gap between the wealthy and the poor. yet there is an emerging middle class.
Countries that are poor comparing extreme cases haves vs have nots:
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Moldova: These countries are in a strange position as they have an infrastructure and have well educated citizens something which all others in this category dont have. They are because they are landlocked, have rugged terrain, and ethnic strife.
Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic and DRC: This countries are the poorest of the poor, Niger being the UNs least developed nation in the world. They have been badly governed, have little or no resources, mostly landlocked, no infrastructure, diseases, horrid climate.
| | |
| It turns out that I may need to take another semester of school next fall. I seem to be having credit transfer issues with my 300 level Theology and Art History. The school here gave me 2.7 instead of the usual 4, thus they dont satisfy my requirements. It is a fishy issue, because before I left I went to each department and had the courses approved. I jokingly say that perhaps my 300 Theology choice abroad(The Orthodox Church) didnt fit in with the Catholic University. The more I think about, it starts to seem they are out to "jip" me because of the choice? I am going to speak to the department and complain if necessary.
The more and more I look to graduation, the more nervous about the future I get. I know that I want to travel and/or live abroad. Naturally I would love to return to Russia. I say to the job counciler that I would be willing to do anything just to return back to Russia. Nataliya, the Russian exchange student on campus mentioned something I could do over there and I am waiting for more information about it. I would like to improve my language fluency for that language. Grad school is also an interesting option. Unfortunately I am not sure how I will paotentially pay for it. With my major it almost seems that Grad school is required to get the cool postions within the commanding heights of the government.
Other than that I have had a couple of relevations. I have a desire to learn Persian, but I am scared of the alphabet. If I wasnt Orthodox Christian I'd be a Shia' Muslim...... | | |
| Does true love exist? I think people that are young and naive convince themselves that there is true love, make rash romantic decisions will inevitably wind up being divorced several times by age thirty. You can comment on true love when you are 80 years old and have been married 50+ years to one wife.
| | |
| I found a new interest.... power politics. I now adhere to the theories of Neo-Realism to describe how the world works. Power is finite and someone must lose in order for there to be a gain. It makes explaining why countries act the way they do so much easier.
On Islamic Republic of Iran: I still stand by my judgements about this country. I even did some further researching and discovered that the media takes everything he supposedly says that is controversial out of context or not the full statement. Israel he said would wiped off the map when both sides come together through a democratic process. Also why should the Palestinian people suffer for what the Europeans did against the Jews. No I am not an anti semite, but believe that the Palestinians have more of a right to the land inhabited by the Israelis.
On a related topic in the same class I am currently righting a paper about the five Central Asian Stans. I am arguing the US influence should be very limited in the region. For because the US doesnt have an understanding of the region like Russia or China does. The US doesnt realize that "democritization" would result in civil wars in most of these countries which would kill far more civilians than the current so called dictatorships do. | | |
|
