Drunk at work...

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Strange-News/Drunk-At-Work-Peru-Court-Rules-Intoxication-On-The-Job-Is-Not-A-Sackable-Offence/Article/200901315203814

I celebrated this ruling by drinking it up at lunch, stumbling in, but keeping my mouth shut and not "hurting anyone...."

What a dumb ruling. I can't believe the rationale for this ruling!

I don't know the Peruvian Court System well, but I hope there's recourse!

Late Night Work...and a Breaking Story

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14782

Today I continued to work away on fundraising for CNA. I'm making a lot of progress and learning a lot about how foundations operate, who they give money to, and what patterns they demonstrate. It's a bit time intensive, but considering the economic situation we're in, vital to the ongoing viable of CNA.

During lunch I was finally feeling 100% healed from my bout of illness. Because I was so focused on my work today, time kind of slipped away and I didn't get out of the office for lunch until after 1pm. It had been a good 48 hours since my last full meal and I was famished! Jose, my roommate, and I took off to my favorite restaurant and filled up on a 3 course meal (for only $3.30! yes, I'm still amazed at the prices for food here!).

After the fundraising internet database decided to prematurely shut down for the day, I decided to shift my focus to catching up on my news for the day.

At around 6pm my boss yelled, "Holy cooowwww!" and excitedly started typing away at his desk next to mine. I've become used to his animated ways, so I just continued to work away at my desk until he shot me an instant message about a big bust in Columbus, OH. Eric McFadden, the former Director of Faith Based Initiatives for the Democratic Gov. of Ohio, Chief Catholic honcho for Hillary Clinton's campaign, and big time Obama supporter, was busted for running an underground prostitution ring.

My boss needed a picture of this guy for the story we were running on him. So I jumped into action and started searching the net for a picture, a bio, and anything I could find on him. Through the course of 2 hours, we unraveled what was a tangled web of online coded prostitution. We uncovered what looked like jibberish. A combination of some computer language, an asian language, english, and a system of numbers.

After analyzing this for about 10 minutes, it was clear to me that a code was embeded, it wasn't just jibberish or computer code. There were real names, addresses, and descriptions about what type of sexual favors these women would perform. He used this code to solicit sex on Craigslist.

Reflecting on this guy's background, interviews, and experience, it was clear that he was a very militaristic liberal who seemed to be using his faith as a springboard to political success. It's sad to think that anybody can call themself a Catholic, a Luthern, a Muslim, a Jew and leverage that associate for their own good. The result is that it underminds the true faith of the religion they claim to be a part of and gives another excuse for those who do not believe to say, "see, that's why I'm not religious."

Very sad. I'm not sure how somebody can spend so much time working in the public sphere, preaching about the Common Good and then go home and lead people into sexual slavery.

Let's pray for Mr. McFadden and all those out there who have fallen into such terrible straights. Let's also work to make sure that the McFadden's of the world get the help they need and take them away from any opportunity to do others, and themselves, any harm.

Bank of America

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/15/business/15bank.php

Yikes! Looks like the writing is on the wall...

It would be the second bank after Citigroup to receive an additional
lifeline from the government.

U.S. regulators and executives at Bank of America, which has already
received $25 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, have grown
increasingly concerned at greater-than-expected losses in the fourth quarter at
Merrill, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to disclose the information. The move to help shore up Bank of
America comes on the heels of greater U.S. government intervention in Citigroup.
After pumping more than $45 billion in Treasury money onto its balance sheet,
the government has put pressure on the bank to dismantle the troubled empire in
an effort to stem losses and curb capital injections.

While Bank of America was viewed not that long ago as a pillar of
strength in the banking sector, it has seen its stock plummet as investors worry
that it has acquired companies with their own set of
financial baggage.

Too big to fail or too bloated to survive?

Check out this video when you have a chance: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e03c20ba-e197-11dd-afa0-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

This is the exact opposite of what Citi was trying to do 3 months ago. Previously, they were attempting to acquire other banks to become "too big to fail." Now, however, I think their "political capital" has run dry and they're trying to do anything to survive.

This is a big deal because in my mind, it means the bailout has failed. Not just the bailout for Citi, but for all involved.

Financial stocks are down big today because traders fear that "breaking up" Citi is a last ditch effort, and an effort that may be attempted by other floundering banks.

Who could be next? Bank of America?

How does this affect Peru?

The Peruvian economy has been growing like crazy over the last 5-6 years. In fact, they were the fastest growing economy in S. America in 2008 (more than 4x as fast as the US)! On top of that, inflation was held to more than half of what the US experienced.

The issue, however, is that Peru has benefited from a lot of foreign investment (ie. see financial institutions issues above), which will shrink dramatically in 2009. Luckily, unlike the Marxist countries of Venezula, or undisciplined countries like Argentina, the Peruvian government has learned from the mistakes of the past. They have not bloated their budget with transfer payments, or over-extended themselves on expensive programs. Instead, they have tucked away a nice sum of money in their treasury. Peru will be one of the few Latin American countries able to provide a stimulous without pumping inflation up or running a large deficit.

There's little doubt in my mind that the country will get hit by this economic crisis, maybe as soon as 6 months from now, but it seems as though they will be a model for other developing countries to follow.

Spanish Lessons...

Why do spanish programs teach worthless spanish?

I have yet to see a horse here, yet I know "caballo" better than any other word.

Also, I don't talk about people playing the guitar that much, so why do I need to "toca la guitarra" so much?!?

Ahhh, I will never learn!

Maybe I'll meet a guitar playing cowboy soon...?

Loneliness

Last night I ended up getting sick. I ate at a questionable restaurant for lunch yesterday and paid the price. Luckily, I didn't get as sick as some "gringos" that have passed through here, but none-the-less I was fairly miserable all last night and most of the day today.

Even though I was feeling ill, I woke up and headed back to the shanty towns to meet another Peruvian American who was considering working with the CLM. He had just come back from 2 1/2 years in Africa with the Peace Corps. He had a lot of interesting experiences with a tribal village there. His focus surrounded providing basic health care, and as a graduate from Brown in Economic Development, he was fascinated with the operation that is currently underway in his home country.

The guy that picked me up to take me to the shanty towns spoke english, but spanish and portuguese were his main languages, and the Peruvian American we met up with brought his Brazilian girlfriend. So I spent most of the day listening to conversations in portuguese. While the language is similar to spanish, I still had little to no idea what they were talking about 95% of the day.

Today was the first day I really felt lonely. I think part of it was how ill I felt, another part was how lonely it can be when you can't communicate with anyone. For someone who is used to developing a few deep relationships, it's very difficult to have many shallow relationships held back by a language barrier. Knowing so little spanish, I can't really make a connection about who these people are and what they're about until I learn more spanish. It's certainly giving me more motivation, but it's also very discouraging. There are some points during the day when I get frustrated and think I will never learn this language and I end up speaking english to the few english speakers around here.

Political Mudslinging Must End

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14732


Proposition 8, an amendment to the California Constitution to define marriage between one man and one woman, caused quite a stir both in California and throughout the world. People in Peru have even asked me about this issue!

The issue that should concern all Americans, regardless of where they stand on the issue, is how we as Americans have responded since the Proposition was passed:

• Mormans have been targeted and malicious lies spread about their faith
• Individual donors have been targeted, sent death threats, and have been intimidated over the phone
• Extreme political activists are trying to take away the tax-exempt status of the Church

First, let me say that the GLBT group has faced unprecedented discrimination in the past. There is no excuse for physically, emotionally, or verbally targeting a group with hate. Absolutely unacceptable. Yet, that is exactly what vote "No" supporters are now doing to supporters of traditional marriage.

As a nation, we seem not to be making "progress" here, but rather just shifting power. Instead of learning from the mistakes of actions from the past, an old form of hate is re-engineering itself.

Clearly, this is a contentious issue, with people feeling passionate on both sides, but this win at all costs, even with the destruction of friendships, respect, and faith in this country has to stop.

Most Americans agree that the health of the family is in jeopardy, we typically agree that values and respect are being lost, and even though we may disagree on certain values, we must agree that there is a natural law of principles that we must all adhere to in order to sustain our culture, engage in political debate, and form public policy.

Forget about losing our place as the Global Superpower, if we lose these principles, we lose our civilization.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv72urCWJcU

My first projects...

The last few days I've been working on fundraising for the Catholic News Agency (CNA). I've given myself a quick crash course on this database and jumped right into trying to identify charitable trusts that may fall in line with our mission. It's been interesting to learn how non-profit groups like CNA raise funds and try to grow their ministry. Conversely, it's facsinating to learn how charitable trusts change over time. They typically start out with a well defined purpose and set of principles, but as time goes on, and new generations inherit the decision making, they drift away from what their founder believed in.


After our daily Angelous Prayer, I met with my boss and we discussed a host of strategic items that we need to accomplish over the next year. I can't go into details, but it may include a couple of trips to the US for some "International Catholic News" panels at various universities. Needless-to-say, I have a lot of planning and research to do in order to get these things in line.

I was also asked to use my American accent for a podcast tomorrow. For what? I don't know because I couldn't understand all of the Spanish!

More to come on that...

Also, I found out today that Kobe Bryant is a recent convert to Catholicism. Apparently after his rape trial, instead of his wife leaving him, she forgave him and promised to stay with him as long as he changed his life and re-focused it on God. Consequently, he started going to church and became a Catholic. It could explain his maturity in the last few years...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik1EqpUOe9Y

I ate lunch today down the street at "El Patio," and while I was eating, I wondered, "Hmmm...this juice doesn't seem freshly squeezed...I wonder if they made it with tap water..."

What does this mean? It means I'm starting to feel sick...hopefully my next entry won't be describing my sickness...

Venturing out on my own...

Today I decided to take a little trip on my own. I don't feel comfortable with my Spanish yet, but there's only one way to improve it, practice. I've found that it's acutally easier to speak to strangers in Spanish then it is to the people that see my on a more regular basis. Maybe it's just my pride.

So I walked down the street passed the church and took a little walk down the beach. I've never seen so many couples holding hands, and many of the women had roses that the men had purchased them.

I walked around for a couple of hours, ordered some lunch, and checked out some new stores.

It's amazing how tired I get here. Probably because I'm trying to learn a new language, and my little brain just doesn't handle it well. On the bright side, in four days, I can already tell that my vocabulary is expanding. Hopefully, the next time we speak, I'll be able to do more than just speak simple sentences!

Warning: Non-Peruvian Post "Lies, damn lies, and population control..."

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14730

I thought this article was fascinating. I bought a book a few months ago entitled, The End of Poverty. This book was purchased because I thought I could learn a few things about erradicating poverty before coming to Peru. One of the main theses of the book was that by reducing the birthrate in developing countries, we can increase their economic prosperity. This could only be accomplished through the use of artificial birth control and abortion on demand.

The book went on to describe how families with fewer children could spend more time working and educating themselves to become more "productive" in the workforce.

While families with fewer commitments do have more time to educate themselves, there are serious consequences to this approach, many of which were predicted by Pope Paul VI in his Encyclical Humanae Vitae (On Human Life).
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html

1. Higher divorce rates
2. Increased domestic abuse
3. Lowerr birth rates
4. Increased unwanted pregnancies
5. Earlier sex and with more partners
6. Increased abortions

A prophetic excerpt from 1968:

Consequences of Artificial Methods
17. Responsible men can become more
deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this
issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial
birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could
open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral
standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and
to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to
temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to
make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for
alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may
forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and
emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the
satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom
he should surround with care and affection.

Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this
power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the
precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to
resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as
are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family
difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those
contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard
this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well
happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social
life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined
to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to
intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife.

It seems counter-intuitive to think that something created to eliminate unwanted pregnancies and give more "control" over our bodies, has actually given us less control. What was the rationale of the Supreme Court for legalizing abortion? Since we have legalized birth control, we must offer a "safety net" when "the pill" fails.

Some may read this and note that we have almost 7 billion people in this world, and well, we need population control because we don't have the natural rescources to take care of all these people. Well, that is a real concern, but it's not entirely true! If you have read the book, Made to Stick, you are aware that certain urban legends somehow become viral and spread, regardless of their validity. For instance, humans actually use more than 10% of our brains. If we used only 10%, then brain damage wouldn't be as difficult to overcome.

I encourage those of you who would like to learn more about population control, and the objective approach to figuring out how we can value human life AND live sustainably, to check out this website: http://www.pop.org/