Sunday, November 30, 2008
100B Guys in Kathmandu
Rabin (122), Rajendra (136), Biswas (105), Raghav (233) and Santosh (142) hanging out at a Kathmandu bar.
Monday, November 24, 2008
The Big Daddy of Nepal's Continuous Political Movement
Claiming Relevance
Mr. Paramendra Bhagat
My Relevance To Nepal Peace Process:
The Butterfly Effect
There is a concrete mathematical theory called the butterfly effect. You have to have some understanding of that theory to appreciate my contribution to the Nepal peace process.
When Baburam suggested multi-party democratic republic as a meeting ground between the Maoists and the Democrats, Prachanda had him arrested early in 2005. Girija and Madhav Nepal were both opposed to the idea of a constituent assembly back then. The idea of a unilateral Maoist ceasefire in late 2005, I authored it. I am the father of the concept of continuous movement in the Nepali context. As late as March 2006 Baburam was pushing for an armed revolution by the eight parties.
And there are idiots out there who want to know why I claim I have played a central role to Nepal's three mass movements.
Other Postings from Mr. Bhagat
1-Jun-08: June 4, 2008 Court Appearance: Prepared Statement: Final Draft
12-Nov-08: Letter To The Department Of Homeland Security
Mr. Paramendra Bhagat
My Relevance To Nepal Peace Process:
The Butterfly EffectThere is a concrete mathematical theory called the butterfly effect. You have to have some understanding of that theory to appreciate my contribution to the Nepal peace process.
When Baburam suggested multi-party democratic republic as a meeting ground between the Maoists and the Democrats, Prachanda had him arrested early in 2005. Girija and Madhav Nepal were both opposed to the idea of a constituent assembly back then. The idea of a unilateral Maoist ceasefire in late 2005, I authored it. I am the father of the concept of continuous movement in the Nepali context. As late as March 2006 Baburam was pushing for an armed revolution by the eight parties.
And there are idiots out there who want to know why I claim I have played a central role to Nepal's three mass movements.
Other Postings from Mr. Bhagat
1-Jun-08: June 4, 2008 Court Appearance: Prepared Statement: Final Draft
12-Nov-08: Letter To The Department Of Homeland Security
India Calling
The World: India Calling
The New York Times; November 23, 2008
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS; VERLA, India
“WHAT are Papa and I doing here?”
These words, instant-messaged by my mother in a suburb of Washington, D.C., whizzed through the deep-ocean cables and came to me in the village where I’m now living, in the country that she left.
It was five years ago that I left America to come live and work in India. Now, in our family and among our Indian-American friends, other children of immigrants are exploring motherland opportunities. As economies convulse in the West and jobs dry up, the idea is spreading virally in émigré homes.
Which raises a heart-stirring question: If our parents left India and trudged westward for us, if they manufactured from scratch a new life there for us, if they slogged, saved, sacrificed to make our lives lighter than theirs, then what does it mean when we choose to migrate to the place they forsook?
If we are here, what are they doing there?
They came of age in the 1970s, when the “there” seemed paved with possibility and the “here” seemed paved with potholes. As a young trainee, my father felt frustrated in companies that awarded roles based on age, not achievement. He looked at his bosses, 20 years ahead of him in line, and concluded that he didn’t want to spend his life becoming them.
My parents married in India and then embarked to America on a lonely, thrilling adventure. They learned together to drive, shop in malls, paint a house. They decided who and how to be. They kept reinventing themselves, discarding the invention, starting anew. My father became a management consultant, an entrepreneur, a human-resources executive, then a Ph.D. candidate. My mother began as a homemaker, learned ceramics, became a ceramics teacher and then the head of the art department at one of Washington’s best schools.
It was extraordinary, and ordinary: This is what America did to people, what it always has done.
My parents brought us to India every few years as children. I relished time with relatives; but India always felt alien, impenetrable, frozen.
Perhaps it was the survivalism born of scarcity: the fierce pushing to get off the plane, the miserliness even of the rich, the obsession with doctors and engineers and the neglect of all others. Perhaps it was the bureaucracy, the need to know someone to do anything. Or the culture shock of servitude: a child’s horror at reading “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in an American middle school, then seeing servants slapped and degraded in India.
My firsthand impression of India seemed to confirm the rearview immigrant myth of it: a land of impossibilities. But history bends and swerves, and sometimes swivels fully around.
India, having fruitlessly pursued command economics, tried something new: It liberalized, privatized, globalized. The economy boomed, and hope began to course through towns and villages shackled by fatalism and low expectations.
America, meanwhile, floundered. In a blink of history came 9/11, outsourcing, Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, rising economies, rogue nuclear nations, climate change, dwindling oil, a financial crisis.
Pessimism crept into the sunniest nation. A vast majority saw America going astray. Books heralded a “Post-American World.” Even in the wake of a historic presidential election, culminating in a dramatic change in direction, it remained unclear whether the United States could be delivered from its woes any time soon.
“In the U.S., there’s a crisis of confidence,” said Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies, the Indian software giant. “In India,” he added, “for the first time after decades or centuries, there is a sense of optimism about the future, a sense that our children’s futures can be better than ours if we try hard enough.”
My love for the country of my birth has never flickered. But these new times piqued interest in my ancestral land. Many of us, the stepchildren of India, felt its change of spirit, felt the gravitational force of condensed hope. And we came.
Exact data on émigrés working in India or spending more time here are scarce. But this is one indicator: India unveiled an Overseas Citizen of India card in 2006, offering foreign citizens of Indian origin visa-free entry for life and making it easier to work in the country. By this July, more than 280,000 émigrés had signed up, according to The Economic Times, a business daily, including 120,000 from the United States.
At first we felt confused by India’s formalities and hierarchies, by British phraseology even the British had jettisoned, by the ubiquity of acronyms. We wondered what newspapers meant when they said, “INSAT-4CR in orbit, DTH to get a boost.” (Apparently, it meant a satellite would soon beam direct-to-home television signals.)
Working in offices, some of us were perplexed to be invited to “S&M conferences,” only to discover that this denoted sales and marketing. Several found to their chagrin that it is acceptable for another man to touch your inner thigh when you crack a joke in a meeting.
We learned new expressions: “He is on tour” (Means: He is traveling. Doesn’t mean: He has joined U2.); “What is your native place?” (Means: Where did your ancestors live? Doesn’t mean: What hospital delivered you?); “Two minutes” (Means: An hour. Doesn’t mean: Two minutes.).
We tried to reinvent ourselves, as our parents had, but in reverse. Some studied Hindi, others yoga. Some visited the Ganges to find themselves; others tried days-long meditations.
Many of us who shunned Indian clothes in youth began wearing kurtas and chappals, saris and churidars. There was a sad truth in this: We had waited for our heritage to become cool to the world before we draped its colors and textures on our own backs.
We learned how to make friends here, and that it requires befriending families. We learned to love here: Men found fondness for the elusive Indian woman; women surprised themselves in succumbing to chauvinistic, mother-spoiled men.
We forged dual-use accents. We spoke in foreign accents by default. But when it came to arguing with accountants or ordering takeout kebabs, we went sing-song Indian.
We gravitated to work specially suited to us. If there is a creative class, in Richard Florida’s phrase, there is also emerging what might be called a fusion class: people positioned to mediate among the multiple societies that claim them.
India’s second-generation returnees have built boutiques that fuse Indian fabrics with Western cuts, founded companies that train a generation to work in Western companies, become dealmakers in investment firms that speak equally to Wall Street and Dalal Street, mixed albums that combine throbbing tabla with Western melodies.
Our parents’ generation helped India from afar. They sent money, advised charities, guided hedge-fund dollars into the Bombay Stock Exchange. But most were too implicated in India to return. Our generation, unscathed by it, was freer to embrace it.
Countries like India once fretted about a “brain drain.” We are learning now that “brain circulation,” as some call it, may be more apt.
India did not export brains; it invested them. It sent millions away. In the freedom of new soil, they flowered. They seeded a new generation that, having blossomed, did what humans have always done: chase the frontier of the future.
Which just happened, for many of us, to be the frontier of our own pasts.
The New York Times; November 23, 2008
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS; VERLA, India
“WHAT are Papa and I doing here?”
These words, instant-messaged by my mother in a suburb of Washington, D.C., whizzed through the deep-ocean cables and came to me in the village where I’m now living, in the country that she left.
It was five years ago that I left America to come live and work in India. Now, in our family and among our Indian-American friends, other children of immigrants are exploring motherland opportunities. As economies convulse in the West and jobs dry up, the idea is spreading virally in émigré homes.
Which raises a heart-stirring question: If our parents left India and trudged westward for us, if they manufactured from scratch a new life there for us, if they slogged, saved, sacrificed to make our lives lighter than theirs, then what does it mean when we choose to migrate to the place they forsook?If we are here, what are they doing there?
They came of age in the 1970s, when the “there” seemed paved with possibility and the “here” seemed paved with potholes. As a young trainee, my father felt frustrated in companies that awarded roles based on age, not achievement. He looked at his bosses, 20 years ahead of him in line, and concluded that he didn’t want to spend his life becoming them.
My parents married in India and then embarked to America on a lonely, thrilling adventure. They learned together to drive, shop in malls, paint a house. They decided who and how to be. They kept reinventing themselves, discarding the invention, starting anew. My father became a management consultant, an entrepreneur, a human-resources executive, then a Ph.D. candidate. My mother began as a homemaker, learned ceramics, became a ceramics teacher and then the head of the art department at one of Washington’s best schools.
It was extraordinary, and ordinary: This is what America did to people, what it always has done.
My parents brought us to India every few years as children. I relished time with relatives; but India always felt alien, impenetrable, frozen.
Perhaps it was the survivalism born of scarcity: the fierce pushing to get off the plane, the miserliness even of the rich, the obsession with doctors and engineers and the neglect of all others. Perhaps it was the bureaucracy, the need to know someone to do anything. Or the culture shock of servitude: a child’s horror at reading “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in an American middle school, then seeing servants slapped and degraded in India.
My firsthand impression of India seemed to confirm the rearview immigrant myth of it: a land of impossibilities. But history bends and swerves, and sometimes swivels fully around.
India, having fruitlessly pursued command economics, tried something new: It liberalized, privatized, globalized. The economy boomed, and hope began to course through towns and villages shackled by fatalism and low expectations.
America, meanwhile, floundered. In a blink of history came 9/11, outsourcing, Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, rising economies, rogue nuclear nations, climate change, dwindling oil, a financial crisis.
Pessimism crept into the sunniest nation. A vast majority saw America going astray. Books heralded a “Post-American World.” Even in the wake of a historic presidential election, culminating in a dramatic change in direction, it remained unclear whether the United States could be delivered from its woes any time soon.
“In the U.S., there’s a crisis of confidence,” said Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies, the Indian software giant. “In India,” he added, “for the first time after decades or centuries, there is a sense of optimism about the future, a sense that our children’s futures can be better than ours if we try hard enough.”
My love for the country of my birth has never flickered. But these new times piqued interest in my ancestral land. Many of us, the stepchildren of India, felt its change of spirit, felt the gravitational force of condensed hope. And we came.
Exact data on émigrés working in India or spending more time here are scarce. But this is one indicator: India unveiled an Overseas Citizen of India card in 2006, offering foreign citizens of Indian origin visa-free entry for life and making it easier to work in the country. By this July, more than 280,000 émigrés had signed up, according to The Economic Times, a business daily, including 120,000 from the United States.
At first we felt confused by India’s formalities and hierarchies, by British phraseology even the British had jettisoned, by the ubiquity of acronyms. We wondered what newspapers meant when they said, “INSAT-4CR in orbit, DTH to get a boost.” (Apparently, it meant a satellite would soon beam direct-to-home television signals.)
Working in offices, some of us were perplexed to be invited to “S&M conferences,” only to discover that this denoted sales and marketing. Several found to their chagrin that it is acceptable for another man to touch your inner thigh when you crack a joke in a meeting.
We learned new expressions: “He is on tour” (Means: He is traveling. Doesn’t mean: He has joined U2.); “What is your native place?” (Means: Where did your ancestors live? Doesn’t mean: What hospital delivered you?); “Two minutes” (Means: An hour. Doesn’t mean: Two minutes.).
We tried to reinvent ourselves, as our parents had, but in reverse. Some studied Hindi, others yoga. Some visited the Ganges to find themselves; others tried days-long meditations.
Many of us who shunned Indian clothes in youth began wearing kurtas and chappals, saris and churidars. There was a sad truth in this: We had waited for our heritage to become cool to the world before we draped its colors and textures on our own backs.
We learned how to make friends here, and that it requires befriending families. We learned to love here: Men found fondness for the elusive Indian woman; women surprised themselves in succumbing to chauvinistic, mother-spoiled men.
We forged dual-use accents. We spoke in foreign accents by default. But when it came to arguing with accountants or ordering takeout kebabs, we went sing-song Indian.
We gravitated to work specially suited to us. If there is a creative class, in Richard Florida’s phrase, there is also emerging what might be called a fusion class: people positioned to mediate among the multiple societies that claim them.
India’s second-generation returnees have built boutiques that fuse Indian fabrics with Western cuts, founded companies that train a generation to work in Western companies, become dealmakers in investment firms that speak equally to Wall Street and Dalal Street, mixed albums that combine throbbing tabla with Western melodies.
Our parents’ generation helped India from afar. They sent money, advised charities, guided hedge-fund dollars into the Bombay Stock Exchange. But most were too implicated in India to return. Our generation, unscathed by it, was freer to embrace it.
Countries like India once fretted about a “brain drain.” We are learning now that “brain circulation,” as some call it, may be more apt.
India did not export brains; it invested them. It sent millions away. In the freedom of new soil, they flowered. They seeded a new generation that, having blossomed, did what humans have always done: chase the frontier of the future.
Which just happened, for many of us, to be the frontier of our own pasts.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Baglung women work on AIDS prevention
Baglung women work on AIDS prevention
NepaliTimes, Issue #423 (31-Oct-08 to 6-Nov-08)
Besides remittances, migrant workers are also bringing back HIV
Baglung is called the 'District of Lahures'. It has more migrant workers in proportion to the population than any other district in Nepal.
In villages after villages between Baglung and Beni, houses are shuttered up, and there are only women, the elderly and children to be seen.
The Baglung district administration estimates that 65 percent of the young men in the district live and work in Qatar or Malaysia. They send home an estimated Rs140 million a year in remittances. If the money from Baglung migrant workers in India and soldiers in the Indian Army are added, the total is much more.
But there is more than just cash coming back to Nepal, workers are also bringing home HIV and infecting their wives. Although the Midwestern hill districts of Achham and Doti are worse off because of the higher proportion of unskilled workers in India, the epidemic is spreading in Baglung as well.
Sita Pathak of Balewa in Baglung was happy when her husband moved to India. He came home for holidays and brought back his earnings, but she only realised later that he had also infected her with HIV. By the time she got her test, it was too late.
Her husband died three years ago, and despite the stigma Sita has now turned into an activist to help spread awareness to other women like her whose husbands work abroad. "I only have my daughter and other sisters like me, I will live for them," Sita says.
Devi Pathak is also from Balewa and was also infected by her husband who works in India. When she found out, she contemplated suicide. But like Sita she has dedicated herself to helping others like her.
Sita and Devi work with a local AIDS awareness group that has 70 members, of whom 50 were infected by husbands working in India. At least five of the women were infected by husbands who worked in the Gulf.
"Stigma and ostracisation means that it takes a lot of courage to come out openly to admit they have HIV," says Sitaram Thapa, who works with the AIDS awareness group which works with prospective migrant workers, with their families back home in Nepal and with the general population.
On the main street of Burtibang village there are only old men and women and children on the streets. "If there were jobs here, they wouldn't have left," says 70-year-old Santosh Pun, whose only son when to India to work as a porter and never returned. He was diagnosed as HIV positive and died last year.
Pun's eyes glisten as he tells us: "I have lost my son, but whose duty is it to protect the other sons and daughters of Nepal?"
NepaliTimes, Issue #423 (31-Oct-08 to 6-Nov-08)
Besides remittances, migrant workers are also bringing back HIV
Baglung is called the 'District of Lahures'. It has more migrant workers in proportion to the population than any other district in Nepal.
In villages after villages between Baglung and Beni, houses are shuttered up, and there are only women, the elderly and children to be seen.
The Baglung district administration estimates that 65 percent of the young men in the district live and work in Qatar or Malaysia. They send home an estimated Rs140 million a year in remittances. If the money from Baglung migrant workers in India and soldiers in the Indian Army are added, the total is much more.
But there is more than just cash coming back to Nepal, workers are also bringing home HIV and infecting their wives. Although the Midwestern hill districts of Achham and Doti are worse off because of the higher proportion of unskilled workers in India, the epidemic is spreading in Baglung as well.Sita Pathak of Balewa in Baglung was happy when her husband moved to India. He came home for holidays and brought back his earnings, but she only realised later that he had also infected her with HIV. By the time she got her test, it was too late.
Her husband died three years ago, and despite the stigma Sita has now turned into an activist to help spread awareness to other women like her whose husbands work abroad. "I only have my daughter and other sisters like me, I will live for them," Sita says.
Devi Pathak is also from Balewa and was also infected by her husband who works in India. When she found out, she contemplated suicide. But like Sita she has dedicated herself to helping others like her.
Sita and Devi work with a local AIDS awareness group that has 70 members, of whom 50 were infected by husbands working in India. At least five of the women were infected by husbands who worked in the Gulf.
"Stigma and ostracisation means that it takes a lot of courage to come out openly to admit they have HIV," says Sitaram Thapa, who works with the AIDS awareness group which works with prospective migrant workers, with their families back home in Nepal and with the general population.
On the main street of Burtibang village there are only old men and women and children on the streets. "If there were jobs here, they wouldn't have left," says 70-year-old Santosh Pun, whose only son when to India to work as a porter and never returned. He was diagnosed as HIV positive and died last year.
Pun's eyes glisten as he tells us: "I have lost my son, but whose duty is it to protect the other sons and daughters of Nepal?"
Capital’s gangsters align and realign
Capital’s gangsters align and realign
ekantipur, 15-Nov-08
In the world of the capital's gangland, relationships between the dons and their cronies can often be volatile. Gangsters often ditch their group leaders and join another criminal gang or form criminal group on their own in Kathmandu Valley.
Police say the capital's gang members have always been on the move. They cut off their connection with former bosses -- be they politicians or local goons-- and search new avenues to smoothly operate their underground business.
If police records is anything to go by, some top gangsters, who are the most notorious among dozens of gangsters, had close connections with one another in the past.
But over the last few years, with new gangsters joining the fray, there is more than usual realignments, say police.
"The gangsters in the capital have always been breaking their links with their gang leaders and forging new relations with another group or powerful people," said Senior Superintendent of Police Upendra Kant Aryal. "They are doing this to fulfill their vested ambitions. They cannot remain loyal to anyone, they only look after opportunity. "
Some of the gangsters associated with Deepak Manage 'Rajeev Gurung' and Chakre Milan, two of the most powerful gangsters, have already ditched these dons and established themselves as gang leaders in different parts of the Valley, says an inspector from the Metropolitan Police Crime Division.
For instance, Kumar 'Ghainte' Shrestha has formed his own gang after he developed a bitter relation with Manage. Police said the old-time rivalry of these gang members also prompt gang fights and criminal activities.
On Nov. 9, Ghainte shot Amit Lama, owner of Club Platinum, a discotheque located at Durbar Marg, for no apparent reason. But actually, according to the police, Ghainte had aimed at Dawa Lama, a member of Manage group, who was with Amit Lama. In fact, according to police, Amit Lama had a good rapport with Ghainte.
Extortion from businessmen, submitting tender bids and sand mining from different parts in the capital are the main sources of income of these gangsters. They also run business establishments like restaurants and dance bars in the Valley.
Police say gangsters are also allied with powerful political parties -- some are in contact with the Maoists, CPN-UML, Nepali Congress, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and others.
But like opportunist politicians, gangsters too break their alliance with one political party and get close to another one in search of better opportunities and income. Police sources said some of the top gangsters had come in contact with the Young Communist League (YCL) in the past. Now the same gangsters are in contact with the Youth Force, police claim.
Ghainte is said to be close with Nepali Congress, Chakre Milan with CPN-UML, Deepak Manage with Nepali Congress. Manage was also close with RPP and Maoists in the past, according to the inspector who did not want his name to be mentioned.
ekantipur, 15-Nov-08
In the world of the capital's gangland, relationships between the dons and their cronies can often be volatile. Gangsters often ditch their group leaders and join another criminal gang or form criminal group on their own in Kathmandu Valley.
Police say the capital's gang members have always been on the move. They cut off their connection with former bosses -- be they politicians or local goons-- and search new avenues to smoothly operate their underground business.
If police records is anything to go by, some top gangsters, who are the most notorious among dozens of gangsters, had close connections with one another in the past.
But over the last few years, with new gangsters joining the fray, there is more than usual realignments, say police.
"The gangsters in the capital have always been breaking their links with their gang leaders and forging new relations with another group or powerful people," said Senior Superintendent of Police Upendra Kant Aryal. "They are doing this to fulfill their vested ambitions. They cannot remain loyal to anyone, they only look after opportunity. "
Some of the gangsters associated with Deepak Manage 'Rajeev Gurung' and Chakre Milan, two of the most powerful gangsters, have already ditched these dons and established themselves as gang leaders in different parts of the Valley, says an inspector from the Metropolitan Police Crime Division.
For instance, Kumar 'Ghainte' Shrestha has formed his own gang after he developed a bitter relation with Manage. Police said the old-time rivalry of these gang members also prompt gang fights and criminal activities.
On Nov. 9, Ghainte shot Amit Lama, owner of Club Platinum, a discotheque located at Durbar Marg, for no apparent reason. But actually, according to the police, Ghainte had aimed at Dawa Lama, a member of Manage group, who was with Amit Lama. In fact, according to police, Amit Lama had a good rapport with Ghainte.
Extortion from businessmen, submitting tender bids and sand mining from different parts in the capital are the main sources of income of these gangsters. They also run business establishments like restaurants and dance bars in the Valley.
Police say gangsters are also allied with powerful political parties -- some are in contact with the Maoists, CPN-UML, Nepali Congress, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and others.
But like opportunist politicians, gangsters too break their alliance with one political party and get close to another one in search of better opportunities and income. Police sources said some of the top gangsters had come in contact with the Young Communist League (YCL) in the past. Now the same gangsters are in contact with the Youth Force, police claim.
Ghainte is said to be close with Nepali Congress, Chakre Milan with CPN-UML, Deepak Manage with Nepali Congress. Manage was also close with RPP and Maoists in the past, according to the inspector who did not want his name to be mentioned.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Kathmandu goes digital with online city-guide
Kathmandu goes digital with online city-guide
Nepalnews, 2-Oct-08
Savant Associates has unveiled mapmandu.com, the first online city-guide of Kathmandu. Mapmandu uses an interactive mapping engine to facilitate localized search of destinations in Kathmandu on a digitalized map. It provides the users with up-to-date online information and other extensive services on various aspects of city life in Kathmandu.
Mapmandu can be used by everyone as a comprehensive online directory of all destinations in Kathmandu. Users can navigate and pan through various levels of map or tap into Mapmandu's search to show local points of interest and their detailed information. Mapmandu combines satellite imagery, digital maps and search to put information on Kathmandu at your fingertips.
CEO of Savant Associates, Lokesh S. Shrestha, says Mapmandu is an attempt to organize and digitize information on various aspects of the city, and at the same time, have Kathmandu enthusiasts share their views and experiences on those aspects of city life.
Nepalnews, 2-Oct-08
Savant Associates has unveiled mapmandu.com, the first online city-guide of Kathmandu. Mapmandu uses an interactive mapping engine to facilitate localized search of destinations in Kathmandu on a digitalized map. It provides the users with up-to-date online information and other extensive services on various aspects of city life in Kathmandu.
Mapmandu can be used by everyone as a comprehensive online directory of all destinations in Kathmandu. Users can navigate and pan through various levels of map or tap into Mapmandu's search to show local points of interest and their detailed information. Mapmandu combines satellite imagery, digital maps and search to put information on Kathmandu at your fingertips.CEO of Savant Associates, Lokesh S. Shrestha, says Mapmandu is an attempt to organize and digitize information on various aspects of the city, and at the same time, have Kathmandu enthusiasts share their views and experiences on those aspects of city life.
Friday, November 14, 2008
NYC’s ice rinks offer chilly fun
NYC’s ice rinks offer chilly fun
amNew York
BY ElaiNE PaoloNi
Spinning on the ice in Rockefeller Center or Central Park may be what winter dreams are made of. But if you forego the iconic imagery, you can also escape the tourist crowds. So whether you can land a double axel like Michelle Kwan or are more of a human Zamboni, sweeping the ice with your rear, check out some of the city’s “other” ice rinks.
Long Island City
47-32 32nd Pl.
718-706-6667
Around Thanksgiving through May
$5 weekdays, $8 weekends; $6 skate rental
Set up on a rooftop, the brand new City Ice Pavilion is an NHL sized ice-skating dome. Public skating will be offered daily, and open hockey sessions will also be scheduled. In addition, there will be skating classes and a youth hockey league. Individuals and organizations can rent out the space out for special events, including birthday parties. And if you’re worried about running out of energy on the ice, rest assured there will be a coffee bar and a snack bar to refuel.
South Street Seaport
Pier 17, South and Fulton streets
212-661-6640
Nov. 28 to Feb. 28
$5; $7 skate rental
The plans to redevelop South Street Seaport may still be in the early stages, but this season’s addition of Seaport Ice is already a big change. The 8,000-square-foot rink — large enough for 325 skaters — will be open to the public seven days a week. An adjacent 3,500-square-foot heated tent area will include lockers, a bag check and a snack shop. Private and group lessons will also be available. Non-skating events include live music and the annual lighting of the Seaport Chorus Tree.
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Avery Avenue and 131st Street, Queens
718-271-7572
Year-round (scheduled to open mid-December)
$5 weekdays, $8 weekends; $7 skate rental
The ice may have melted for good at the Worlds Fair Ice Skating Rink earlier this year, but the park’s new aquatic center and 85-by-200-foot, NHL-standard indoor rink (still under construction) is gearing up for action. The World Ice Arena, just a short walk from the No. 7 train, will be open 365 days a year for general skating. It will also host a number of hockey leagues under its super-high ceilings.
American Museum of Natural History
Columbus Avenue and 79th Street
212-769-5200
Nov. 21 to Feb. 28
$10 adults, $9 students and seniors, $8 children, $2 less for members; FREE skate rental
For an arctic-like experience, check out the museum’s new outdoor Polar Rink. Situated on the Arthur Ross Terrace, the 150-by- 80-foot rink will accommodate 200 people during 45-minute skating sessions. The synthetic ice will be visually anchored by a 17-foot, stainless steel polar bear. And, of course, the rink will be educational: Skaters will whiz by information about polar bears and the polar regions, as well as tips on environmentally responsible living. There will be benches surrounding the ice for those who want to rest; those who want to warm up can head inside for hot chocolate and other snacks.
Prospect Park
Near Parkside/Ocean Ave. entrance, Brooklyn
718-287-6431
Nov. 19 through March
$5 adults, $3 children; $6.50skate rental (cash only)
Although construction on two new rinks is expected to begin next year, you can still spend an afternoon at Kate Wollman rink skating with friends. Sign up for a group or private lesson; for those looking for a starry-eyed “Serendipity” moment, rent out this Wollman rink for just you and your sweetheart. Snacks and beverages are sold on-site. Free lockers are also available, but bring your own lock.
Bryant Park
Sixth Avenue at 41st Street
212-661-6640
Through Jan. 25
FREE; $12 skate rental
The combination of The Pond at Bryant Park, its heated rink-side lounge and the surrounding market stalls (from Nov. 22 to Dec. 28) make this a fun holiday destination. The 17,000-squarefoot ice rink can accommodate 500 people. A number of special performances and events, including live music and wine tastings, are also part of the spectacle.
Chelsea Piers
Pier 61, West Side Highway at 23rd Street
212-336-6100
Year-round
$12.50 adults, $10 children; $7 skate rental
Ice-skating gets comprehensive coverage at Chelsea Piers’ indoor Sky Rink. In addition to general ice-skating, you can go to skating school, join youth and adult hockey leagues and send the kids to summer ice-skating camp. There’s also a shop that offers skating apparel and equipment, and skate sharpening and repair. From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays through Nov. 23, check out the rink’s Fall Family Special, which includes admission, skate rental, a slice of pizza and a fountain drink for $15 per adult and $10 per child.
Riverbank State Park
679 Riverside Drive at 145th Street
212-694-3600
Mid-November through first week of April
$5 adults, $3 children; $5 skate rental
Although this alfresco rink has a roof to protect skaters from the harsh winter elements, you still have to bundle up when you’re out on the ice. Beginner kids and adults can start with basic skating lessons and progress to more advanced levels. Other programs include ice hockey, ice dancing and figure skating. In the off-season, the neighborhood arena becomes a roller/ inline skating facility.
amNew York
BY ElaiNE PaoloNi
Spinning on the ice in Rockefeller Center or Central Park may be what winter dreams are made of. But if you forego the iconic imagery, you can also escape the tourist crowds. So whether you can land a double axel like Michelle Kwan or are more of a human Zamboni, sweeping the ice with your rear, check out some of the city’s “other” ice rinks.Long Island City
47-32 32nd Pl.
718-706-6667
Around Thanksgiving through May
$5 weekdays, $8 weekends; $6 skate rental
Set up on a rooftop, the brand new City Ice Pavilion is an NHL sized ice-skating dome. Public skating will be offered daily, and open hockey sessions will also be scheduled. In addition, there will be skating classes and a youth hockey league. Individuals and organizations can rent out the space out for special events, including birthday parties. And if you’re worried about running out of energy on the ice, rest assured there will be a coffee bar and a snack bar to refuel.
South Street Seaport
Pier 17, South and Fulton streets
212-661-6640
Nov. 28 to Feb. 28
$5; $7 skate rental
The plans to redevelop South Street Seaport may still be in the early stages, but this season’s addition of Seaport Ice is already a big change. The 8,000-square-foot rink — large enough for 325 skaters — will be open to the public seven days a week. An adjacent 3,500-square-foot heated tent area will include lockers, a bag check and a snack shop. Private and group lessons will also be available. Non-skating events include live music and the annual lighting of the Seaport Chorus Tree.Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Avery Avenue and 131st Street, Queens
718-271-7572
Year-round (scheduled to open mid-December)
$5 weekdays, $8 weekends; $7 skate rental
The ice may have melted for good at the Worlds Fair Ice Skating Rink earlier this year, but the park’s new aquatic center and 85-by-200-foot, NHL-standard indoor rink (still under construction) is gearing up for action. The World Ice Arena, just a short walk from the No. 7 train, will be open 365 days a year for general skating. It will also host a number of hockey leagues under its super-high ceilings.
American Museum of Natural History
Columbus Avenue and 79th Street
212-769-5200
Nov. 21 to Feb. 28
$10 adults, $9 students and seniors, $8 children, $2 less for members; FREE skate rental
For an arctic-like experience, check out the museum’s new outdoor Polar Rink. Situated on the Arthur Ross Terrace, the 150-by- 80-foot rink will accommodate 200 people during 45-minute skating sessions. The synthetic ice will be visually anchored by a 17-foot, stainless steel polar bear. And, of course, the rink will be educational: Skaters will whiz by information about polar bears and the polar regions, as well as tips on environmentally responsible living. There will be benches surrounding the ice for those who want to rest; those who want to warm up can head inside for hot chocolate and other snacks.Prospect Park
Near Parkside/Ocean Ave. entrance, Brooklyn
718-287-6431
Nov. 19 through March
$5 adults, $3 children; $6.50skate rental (cash only)
Although construction on two new rinks is expected to begin next year, you can still spend an afternoon at Kate Wollman rink skating with friends. Sign up for a group or private lesson; for those looking for a starry-eyed “Serendipity” moment, rent out this Wollman rink for just you and your sweetheart. Snacks and beverages are sold on-site. Free lockers are also available, but bring your own lock.
Bryant Park
Sixth Avenue at 41st Street
212-661-6640
Through Jan. 25
FREE; $12 skate rental
The combination of The Pond at Bryant Park, its heated rink-side lounge and the surrounding market stalls (from Nov. 22 to Dec. 28) make this a fun holiday destination. The 17,000-squarefoot ice rink can accommodate 500 people. A number of special performances and events, including live music and wine tastings, are also part of the spectacle.
Chelsea Piers
Pier 61, West Side Highway at 23rd Street
212-336-6100
Year-round
$12.50 adults, $10 children; $7 skate rental
Ice-skating gets comprehensive coverage at Chelsea Piers’ indoor Sky Rink. In addition to general ice-skating, you can go to skating school, join youth and adult hockey leagues and send the kids to summer ice-skating camp. There’s also a shop that offers skating apparel and equipment, and skate sharpening and repair. From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays through Nov. 23, check out the rink’s Fall Family Special, which includes admission, skate rental, a slice of pizza and a fountain drink for $15 per adult and $10 per child.
Riverbank State Park
679 Riverside Drive at 145th Street
212-694-3600
Mid-November through first week of April
$5 adults, $3 children; $5 skate rental
Although this alfresco rink has a roof to protect skaters from the harsh winter elements, you still have to bundle up when you’re out on the ice. Beginner kids and adults can start with basic skating lessons and progress to more advanced levels. Other programs include ice hockey, ice dancing and figure skating. In the off-season, the neighborhood arena becomes a roller/ inline skating facility.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Fired Wall Street Workers to Seek Jobs at `Pink Slip Party'
Fired Wall Street Workers to Seek Jobs at `Pink Slip Party'
Bloomberg, 11-Nov-08
By Elizabeth Hester
As many as 500 fired Wall Street workers will pay $20 tonight to network, commiserate and drink discount beer for a good cause.
The Pink Slip Party, to be held at midtown Manhattan bar Public House, will also feature at least 15 recruiters and performance coaches, according to one of the organizers, Rachel Pine. It aims to raise $10,000 for Ronald McDonald House of New York, which provides temporary housing for pediatric cancer patients and their families.
``I'm absolutely going to sniff around and see if I can pick off some talent,'' said Joseph Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading LLC, an eight-person firm in Chatham, New Jersey. ``If I see somebody who lives out in our area who is interested in setting up, we'd give them a shot.''
The party, sponsored by Wall Street blog Dealbreaker.com and TheLadders.com, a job search site, mimics events held after the Internet bubble and the Sept. 11 attacks. The credit crisis that claimed Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co.
and Bear Stearns Cos. may cost New York about 45,000 finance- related jobs, according to Governor David Paterson.
``If you've got misery, we've got company,'' is Dealbreaker's way of advertising the party on its Web site.
Resumes to Collect
Stacy Lentz, managing director at recruiting firm Taylor Grey Inc., said she plans to attend the party to help fill about 20 positions. Her company works with clients in financial services including hedge funds and private-equity firms.
``I want to collect as many resumes as possible because I may not have a job today, but I might tomorrow,'' said Lentz, who has been recruiting for 15 years.
Ronald McDonald House already had a brush with the fallout from Wall Street's meltdown. Its gala fundraiser in May honored Alan Schwartz -- the Bear Stearns chief executive officer who was forced to sell his firm to JPMorgan Chase & Co. in March.
That event met its goal of raising $3 million.
Like many non-profits, Ronald McDonald House expects fundraising to slow next year as the economy enters recession, said Rick Martin, the director of development. Its $13 million annual budget is funded almost entirely by donations.
``We're kind of starting from square one for next year on a few things,'' Martin said. About 80 percent of its board members, such as Kenneth Langone, former head of the New York Stock Exchange compensation committee, work in financial services, Martin said.
Charitable giving rises about 4.3 percent in a year when the economy is strong and drops by at least 1 percent when a recession hits, according to a four-decade study by Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy and the Glenview, Illinois- based GivingUSA Foundation, which tracks U.S. trends in donations.
``The idea was charities are going to be hurting this year,'' Pine said. ``People have much less money to give and we wanted to help a great New York charity.''
Bloomberg, 11-Nov-08
By Elizabeth Hester
As many as 500 fired Wall Street workers will pay $20 tonight to network, commiserate and drink discount beer for a good cause.
The Pink Slip Party, to be held at midtown Manhattan bar Public House, will also feature at least 15 recruiters and performance coaches, according to one of the organizers, Rachel Pine. It aims to raise $10,000 for Ronald McDonald House of New York, which provides temporary housing for pediatric cancer patients and their families.
``I'm absolutely going to sniff around and see if I can pick off some talent,'' said Joseph Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading LLC, an eight-person firm in Chatham, New Jersey. ``If I see somebody who lives out in our area who is interested in setting up, we'd give them a shot.''The party, sponsored by Wall Street blog Dealbreaker.com and TheLadders.com, a job search site, mimics events held after the Internet bubble and the Sept. 11 attacks. The credit crisis that claimed Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co.
and Bear Stearns Cos. may cost New York about 45,000 finance- related jobs, according to Governor David Paterson.
``If you've got misery, we've got company,'' is Dealbreaker's way of advertising the party on its Web site.
Resumes to Collect
Stacy Lentz, managing director at recruiting firm Taylor Grey Inc., said she plans to attend the party to help fill about 20 positions. Her company works with clients in financial services including hedge funds and private-equity firms.
``I want to collect as many resumes as possible because I may not have a job today, but I might tomorrow,'' said Lentz, who has been recruiting for 15 years.
Ronald McDonald House already had a brush with the fallout from Wall Street's meltdown. Its gala fundraiser in May honored Alan Schwartz -- the Bear Stearns chief executive officer who was forced to sell his firm to JPMorgan Chase & Co. in March.
That event met its goal of raising $3 million.
Like many non-profits, Ronald McDonald House expects fundraising to slow next year as the economy enters recession, said Rick Martin, the director of development. Its $13 million annual budget is funded almost entirely by donations.
``We're kind of starting from square one for next year on a few things,'' Martin said. About 80 percent of its board members, such as Kenneth Langone, former head of the New York Stock Exchange compensation committee, work in financial services, Martin said.
Charitable giving rises about 4.3 percent in a year when the economy is strong and drops by at least 1 percent when a recession hits, according to a four-decade study by Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy and the Glenview, Illinois- based GivingUSA Foundation, which tracks U.S. trends in donations.
``The idea was charities are going to be hurting this year,'' Pine said. ``People have much less money to give and we wanted to help a great New York charity.''
Wall Street's Jobless Try Cupcakes, Cheap Haircuts, Maybe Omaha
Wall Street's Jobless Try Cupcakes, Cheap Haircuts, Maybe Omaha
Bloomberg, 15-Aug-08
By Caroline Salas and Pierre Paulden
Jessica Walter didn't go to Harvard University to study cupcakes, but they're what she does since losing her job as a vice president in credit strategy at Bear Stearns Cos.
``I want to teach kids to cook,'' said Walter, 27, who founded Cupcake Kids! in New York to provide birthday parties and cooking classes for children. ``The goal is to have this be my full-time job and make enough to live.''
Wall Street professionals are trying new careers, and fetching smaller salaries, amid the elimination of 76,670 investment jobs in the Americas following the global credit crunch that started a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Bankers are ``buying businesses for themselves, moving west or to Europe, including Russia, or to Dubai,'' said Jeanne Branthover, managing director of Boyden Global Executive Search in New York. ``They're also moving totally outside what they do, buying a retail store or a ranch.''
About 33,300 finance jobs in New York City, or 7.1 percent of the 2007 peak, will be cut by June 2009, the Independent Budget Office, a non-partisan monitor of city finances, estimated in a May report.
Expansion Plan
``The job market is in the worst, most chaotic state I've ever seen it in fixed income,'' said Michael Maloney, who recruits finance professionals for Maloney Inc. in New York.
``I've been doing this for over 30 years and I've never seen anything like this.''
Half the people working in debt sales, trading or research in New York at the beginning of 2007 will have been fired by the end of this year or won't get a bonus, Maloney estimated.
Jeff Salmon said job jitters prompted him to swap investing in asset-backed securities at Bank of New York Mellon Corp. for keeping the books at a hair salon. He and his wife, Olga, opened a Great Clips franchise in Mercerville, New Jersey, that offers
$12 haircuts for both men and women.
``The structured finance market is so bleak right now, it makes sense for us to focus our energies on this,'' said Salmon, 49. ``It's refreshing to not have to worry about whether I am going to have a job next week.'' The couple plans to open another Great Clips in October.
Pay Cuts
Traders and bankers who leave finance can expect to earn a fraction of what they used to make. Compensation for employees on Wall Street averaged $399,360 in 2007, compared with $62,390 for New York City jobs outside the securities industry, according to the state comptroller's office.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which has cut 1,500 jobs, paid its employees an average of $661,490 last year, company filings show.
Walter, who studied economics at Harvard, is among those welcoming the opportunity to try something radically different.
``The biggest thing that I enjoy is being the jack-of-all trades of having my own business,'' she said. ``It's a challenge.''
Bear Stearns, where Walter worked, was facing bankruptcy before being acquired in May by JPMorgan Chase & Co., which fired 55 percent of Bear's 14,000 employees. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has eliminated 6,390 employees and Citigroup Inc.
has cut 14,100, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Turning to Teaching
``The most affected areas are structured finance, CDOs and mortgages,'' said Arturo Cifuentes, managing director of New York-based R.W. Pressprich & Co., which trades derivatives.
``Over one-third of jobs in this area are gone for the next five or ten years.''
Gary Witt left as a managing director in structured finance at Moody's Investors Service to teach finance and statistics at Temple University in Philadelphia.
``It's hard to say if things were going well would I have left,'' said Witt, 49. ``It didn't look like the industry would be any fun for the next few years.''
Moody's, the oldest credit-ratings company, eliminated 275 jobs, or 7.5 percent of its workforce, to cope with a plunge in bond sales that sliced revenue from credit ratings.
Bond salesmen and traders are trying everything from bartending to real-estate sales to make insurance and tuition payments for their families, Maloney said.
``I know a few guys that started gambling, playing poker to pay the bills,'' he said. ``Especially ex-traders.''
Joshua Perksy took to the streets after being laid off as an investment banker at Los Angeles-based Houlihan Lokey. He strolled New York's Park Avenue in June wearing a sandwich board reading ``Experienced MIT Grad For Hire.''
``It's been slow and frustrating,'' said Persky, 48. ``The only places to turn are hedge funds and boutique banks. I've never been unemployed this long.''
While his gambit generated some job leads, none has panned out so far, Persky said. He's considering a move to Omaha, Nebraska.
Bloomberg, 15-Aug-08
By Caroline Salas and Pierre Paulden
Jessica Walter didn't go to Harvard University to study cupcakes, but they're what she does since losing her job as a vice president in credit strategy at Bear Stearns Cos.
``I want to teach kids to cook,'' said Walter, 27, who founded Cupcake Kids! in New York to provide birthday parties and cooking classes for children. ``The goal is to have this be my full-time job and make enough to live.''Wall Street professionals are trying new careers, and fetching smaller salaries, amid the elimination of 76,670 investment jobs in the Americas following the global credit crunch that started a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Bankers are ``buying businesses for themselves, moving west or to Europe, including Russia, or to Dubai,'' said Jeanne Branthover, managing director of Boyden Global Executive Search in New York. ``They're also moving totally outside what they do, buying a retail store or a ranch.''
About 33,300 finance jobs in New York City, or 7.1 percent of the 2007 peak, will be cut by June 2009, the Independent Budget Office, a non-partisan monitor of city finances, estimated in a May report.
Expansion Plan
``The job market is in the worst, most chaotic state I've ever seen it in fixed income,'' said Michael Maloney, who recruits finance professionals for Maloney Inc. in New York.
``I've been doing this for over 30 years and I've never seen anything like this.''
Half the people working in debt sales, trading or research in New York at the beginning of 2007 will have been fired by the end of this year or won't get a bonus, Maloney estimated.
Jeff Salmon said job jitters prompted him to swap investing in asset-backed securities at Bank of New York Mellon Corp. for keeping the books at a hair salon. He and his wife, Olga, opened a Great Clips franchise in Mercerville, New Jersey, that offers
$12 haircuts for both men and women.
``The structured finance market is so bleak right now, it makes sense for us to focus our energies on this,'' said Salmon, 49. ``It's refreshing to not have to worry about whether I am going to have a job next week.'' The couple plans to open another Great Clips in October.
Pay Cuts
Traders and bankers who leave finance can expect to earn a fraction of what they used to make. Compensation for employees on Wall Street averaged $399,360 in 2007, compared with $62,390 for New York City jobs outside the securities industry, according to the state comptroller's office.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which has cut 1,500 jobs, paid its employees an average of $661,490 last year, company filings show.
Walter, who studied economics at Harvard, is among those welcoming the opportunity to try something radically different.
``The biggest thing that I enjoy is being the jack-of-all trades of having my own business,'' she said. ``It's a challenge.''
Bear Stearns, where Walter worked, was facing bankruptcy before being acquired in May by JPMorgan Chase & Co., which fired 55 percent of Bear's 14,000 employees. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has eliminated 6,390 employees and Citigroup Inc.
has cut 14,100, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Turning to Teaching
``The most affected areas are structured finance, CDOs and mortgages,'' said Arturo Cifuentes, managing director of New York-based R.W. Pressprich & Co., which trades derivatives.
``Over one-third of jobs in this area are gone for the next five or ten years.''
Gary Witt left as a managing director in structured finance at Moody's Investors Service to teach finance and statistics at Temple University in Philadelphia.
``It's hard to say if things were going well would I have left,'' said Witt, 49. ``It didn't look like the industry would be any fun for the next few years.''
Moody's, the oldest credit-ratings company, eliminated 275 jobs, or 7.5 percent of its workforce, to cope with a plunge in bond sales that sliced revenue from credit ratings.
Bond salesmen and traders are trying everything from bartending to real-estate sales to make insurance and tuition payments for their families, Maloney said.
``I know a few guys that started gambling, playing poker to pay the bills,'' he said. ``Especially ex-traders.''
Joshua Perksy took to the streets after being laid off as an investment banker at Los Angeles-based Houlihan Lokey. He strolled New York's Park Avenue in June wearing a sandwich board reading ``Experienced MIT Grad For Hire.''
``It's been slow and frustrating,'' said Persky, 48. ``The only places to turn are hedge funds and boutique banks. I've never been unemployed this long.''
While his gambit generated some job leads, none has panned out so far, Persky said. He's considering a move to Omaha, Nebraska.
Saturday, November 08, 2008
One of the better commentaries on Obama Victory
Obama Takes His Outside Game to the Inside
Bloomberg, 6-Nov-08
By Margaret Carlson
How fast we journalists move so as not to be left behind or be seen as sentimental.
I expect a story any minute that President-elect Barack Obama is moving too fast, or not fast enough. That his first hire, that of Representative Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff by way of the Clinton Administration, is a sign he's just a hack. That he isn't doing enough to grasp the gracious olive branch extended by the man he defeated, Senator John McCain. The puppy he promised his daughters is the wrong breed.
It's coming. It always does.
For a day at least, let's stop and celebrate the improbable assumption of the highest office in the land by this outsider with no birthright, no connections, no mentors. Lyndon Johnson had Sam Rayburn. Harry Truman had the Pendergast gang. Dwight Eisenhower had George Marshall and the Lodges. John F. Kennedy had his dad. Ronald Reagan was mentored by an entire movement looking for a new face.
Obama's would-be rabbis came to him in Chicago and tried to persuade the community organizer to abandon his first bids for office. He once went to a Chicago bigwig and was asked who sent him. ``Nobody,'' Obama answered. ``We don't want nobody nobody sent,'' he was told.
At the 2000 Democratic convention, he couldn't get a floor pass. He couldn't even cadge an invitation to the Illinois delegation's parties. He watched most of the speeches on television. He left early.
Unknown Obama
In 2004, he got a speaking part at the convention but not when the networks were broadcasting. Still, the speech was so captivating, he entered the Fleet Center in Boston unknown and left a local hero. The delegates cheered. Cops reached out to shake his hand. The party sent money for his Senate race.
His 15 minutes was interrupted as he made his way home the next day on the $285 ticket he had purchased himself. He was pulled out of line to be frisked for flying while black with a Muslim name.
Even as he won his Senate seat, the skinny kid with the funny name was an island of one belonging to no easily recognizable group. His father grew up in a tin hut in Kenya. His Kansan flower-child Mom, who rose at 4 a.m. to tutor her son, turned him over to his grandparents at age 10 while she finished a graduate degree in anthropology.
They were Kansans who ended up in Hawaii: Obama's grandfather, who fought in World War II, was an outgoing furniture salesman; his grandmother, whom he spied watching him shoot hoops from their two-bedroom condo, worked her way up from secretary to vice president of a bank, saving enough along the way to send Obama to the best private schools.
Role of Race
In his early days running for president, the party and the presumption of success belonged to Senator Hillary Clinton, who initially claimed the lion's share of the black vote as well. He was too black for some in the white power structure, too white for many African-Americans who couldn't identify with someone nobody in the civil-rights movement sent. Obama pointed out that when he hailed a cab, he was black.
Race played a role in the election, but not the one we expected. Obama won more than 90 percent of the black vote, but Al Gore came close to that, the difference being how many cried casting their ballots Tuesday. People who said race was important to them, voted for Obama. People who said it wasn't important voted for Obama. He won more white votes than John Kerry.
Somewhere some couldn't bring themselves to vote for Obama because he's black, but they are a minority in this country now.
Avoiding the Personal
As a loner, Obama didn't run a predictable campaign, mouth the standard lines, get personal. In September, he passed up an easy three-pointer as the momentum was shifting to McCain, and Governor Sarah Palin was a fresh shooting star. When asked about the newly revealed pregnancy of Palin's 17-year-old unwed daughter, he didn't sniff ``no comment'' as if a pile of manure beyond acknowledgement had been set before him. He said it had no relevance.
``My mother had me when she was 18,'' he said. ``How family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn't be the topic of our politics.'' It didn't matter that Republicans would have had a field day had positions been reversed. Whoever started the dirty fighting, someone had to stop it.
He had help in toppling the barrier as old as America itself: from McCain who lost his way with a running mate 60 percent of the country didn't trust to be president; from two wars; and from a crumbling economy. A friend said that if the cost of electing Obama was losing 80 percent of her 401(k), it was worth it.
All for One
On the eve of the election in Manassas, Virginia, where battles once were fought to keep blacks as slaves, almost 100,000 people came to an open field to hear Obama. The remarkable part of the evening wasn't Obama's speech but that a fully integrated crowd in the Confederate home state of Robert E. Lee heard it.
Unlike a high-school cafeteria, a church, or many neighborhoods, blacks and Latinos were sprinkled throughout, elbow to elbow, mingling happily. It was a county fair without the prize bull and cotton candy, a wedding without the bride, the Fourth of July and the World Series rolled into one.
And so it was Tuesday night in Grant Park in Chicago, as the outsider became the ultimate insider and begins the humbling task of repairing the country. We are not ``red states and blue states,'' Obama said. ``We are and always will be the United States of America.''
Margaret Carlson, author of ``Anyone Can Grow Up: How George Bush and I Made It to the White House'' and former White House correspondent for Time magazine, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
Bloomberg, 6-Nov-08
By Margaret Carlson
How fast we journalists move so as not to be left behind or be seen as sentimental.
I expect a story any minute that President-elect Barack Obama is moving too fast, or not fast enough. That his first hire, that of Representative Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff by way of the Clinton Administration, is a sign he's just a hack. That he isn't doing enough to grasp the gracious olive branch extended by the man he defeated, Senator John McCain. The puppy he promised his daughters is the wrong breed.
It's coming. It always does.
For a day at least, let's stop and celebrate the improbable assumption of the highest office in the land by this outsider with no birthright, no connections, no mentors. Lyndon Johnson had Sam Rayburn. Harry Truman had the Pendergast gang. Dwight Eisenhower had George Marshall and the Lodges. John F. Kennedy had his dad. Ronald Reagan was mentored by an entire movement looking for a new face.
Obama's would-be rabbis came to him in Chicago and tried to persuade the community organizer to abandon his first bids for office. He once went to a Chicago bigwig and was asked who sent him. ``Nobody,'' Obama answered. ``We don't want nobody nobody sent,'' he was told.At the 2000 Democratic convention, he couldn't get a floor pass. He couldn't even cadge an invitation to the Illinois delegation's parties. He watched most of the speeches on television. He left early.
Unknown Obama
In 2004, he got a speaking part at the convention but not when the networks were broadcasting. Still, the speech was so captivating, he entered the Fleet Center in Boston unknown and left a local hero. The delegates cheered. Cops reached out to shake his hand. The party sent money for his Senate race.
His 15 minutes was interrupted as he made his way home the next day on the $285 ticket he had purchased himself. He was pulled out of line to be frisked for flying while black with a Muslim name.
Even as he won his Senate seat, the skinny kid with the funny name was an island of one belonging to no easily recognizable group. His father grew up in a tin hut in Kenya. His Kansan flower-child Mom, who rose at 4 a.m. to tutor her son, turned him over to his grandparents at age 10 while she finished a graduate degree in anthropology.
They were Kansans who ended up in Hawaii: Obama's grandfather, who fought in World War II, was an outgoing furniture salesman; his grandmother, whom he spied watching him shoot hoops from their two-bedroom condo, worked her way up from secretary to vice president of a bank, saving enough along the way to send Obama to the best private schools.
Role of Race
In his early days running for president, the party and the presumption of success belonged to Senator Hillary Clinton, who initially claimed the lion's share of the black vote as well. He was too black for some in the white power structure, too white for many African-Americans who couldn't identify with someone nobody in the civil-rights movement sent. Obama pointed out that when he hailed a cab, he was black.
Race played a role in the election, but not the one we expected. Obama won more than 90 percent of the black vote, but Al Gore came close to that, the difference being how many cried casting their ballots Tuesday. People who said race was important to them, voted for Obama. People who said it wasn't important voted for Obama. He won more white votes than John Kerry.
Somewhere some couldn't bring themselves to vote for Obama because he's black, but they are a minority in this country now.
Avoiding the Personal
As a loner, Obama didn't run a predictable campaign, mouth the standard lines, get personal. In September, he passed up an easy three-pointer as the momentum was shifting to McCain, and Governor Sarah Palin was a fresh shooting star. When asked about the newly revealed pregnancy of Palin's 17-year-old unwed daughter, he didn't sniff ``no comment'' as if a pile of manure beyond acknowledgement had been set before him. He said it had no relevance.
``My mother had me when she was 18,'' he said. ``How family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn't be the topic of our politics.'' It didn't matter that Republicans would have had a field day had positions been reversed. Whoever started the dirty fighting, someone had to stop it.
He had help in toppling the barrier as old as America itself: from McCain who lost his way with a running mate 60 percent of the country didn't trust to be president; from two wars; and from a crumbling economy. A friend said that if the cost of electing Obama was losing 80 percent of her 401(k), it was worth it.
All for One
On the eve of the election in Manassas, Virginia, where battles once were fought to keep blacks as slaves, almost 100,000 people came to an open field to hear Obama. The remarkable part of the evening wasn't Obama's speech but that a fully integrated crowd in the Confederate home state of Robert E. Lee heard it.
Unlike a high-school cafeteria, a church, or many neighborhoods, blacks and Latinos were sprinkled throughout, elbow to elbow, mingling happily. It was a county fair without the prize bull and cotton candy, a wedding without the bride, the Fourth of July and the World Series rolled into one.
And so it was Tuesday night in Grant Park in Chicago, as the outsider became the ultimate insider and begins the humbling task of repairing the country. We are not ``red states and blue states,'' Obama said. ``We are and always will be the United States of America.''
Margaret Carlson, author of ``Anyone Can Grow Up: How George Bush and I Made It to the White House'' and former White House correspondent for Time magazine, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
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