Una vida realizada

Gimme yo money!

Greetings all,

You can tell you’re ready to be in a classroom setting when you avidly take notes on books you read for leisure. Over the past year or so, I rediscovered my love for learning and have been reading all kinds of books that…well….interest me. I’ve read books on topics such as political philosophy, Ugandan political history, alchemy, argumentation, writing, and even food policy. 

Right now, I am reading through an international economics textbook recommended to me by a professor. I figured that since my sojourns through the world have ended…and will be on pause for the near future….I could begin to use this blog to address some topic relevant to what I’m reading. I’ll wrap this econ book up before law school starts - you can probably imagine that my writings will likely (if I ever have time to write, lol) focus on legal issues from here on out. 

Anyway, today I’ll be talking about the topic for the latest chapter in my econ book, exchanging foreign money.

When talking about exchanging money, I’m talking about foreign exchange (or forex). Whatever the term, we’re talking about trading money from different countries (i.e. changing dollars into British pounds).

One way to exchange money is using the spot exchange rate. This rate tells you how much it costs to exchange money immediately. For example, if it costs $1.60 to buy 1 British pound today, that would be the spot exchange rate. That’s how much I have to pay to scoop a British pound right now. If you’ve traveled to another country and have had to exchange money at the border or a Forex office, this rate is your frieeeeeend.

A second way to exchange money is by entering a forward exchange agreement. In such an agreement, parties agree not to exchange money immediately, but at a later date (say 1, 2, or 3 months down the line). This would happen in cases where payments are made for products that originate from a country with a different currency (or any million other cases, haha). Let me just keep this ish simple. I’ll use an example. Say I want to buy a banana rocket from this guy in England and he wants his payment of 10,000 British pounds in 30 days. I would have to sell US dollars (about $16,000 worth) to scoop 10,000 British pounds. But how do I do this if exchange rates change? 

If you want to know exactly how many US dollars you need to scoop this collector’s rocket, you can enter an agreement with a bank that will allow you to purchase 10,000 British pounds in 30 days, BUT at the spot  (current) exchange rate of $1.60 per pound. This eliminates almost all risks of the exchange rate going up over the course of the month. This decreasing of risk is known as hedging. I’ve heard the term many a time, but had no clue what it meant until now.

Speculating, on the other hand, would be allowing the rate to do what it does until the 30th day, and THEN buying the 10,000 pounds at whatever the exchange rate is. This would be a good idea if you have some genius rationale that says the British is going to do worse over the next month. 

Let’s say you guess right. On the 30th day, the exchange rate is not $1.60 per pound, but $1.20 per pound. To buy that same 10,000 pounds for the car will now cost you $12,000, saving you around $4,000 on the purchase. 

Let’s say you don’t guess right, and on the 30th day the rate has gone up to $2 per pound. Now, you are paying $20,000 for that same car. Thus, you can either win, lose, or even out when you speculate. The idea, though, is that you hope to net a profit. Thus, some cats look for opportunities, like with any product, to buy a currency when it’s low and sell it when it’s high. The laws of supply and demand, allegedly, apply to currency. Crazy…

Okay, I think that’s about as much detail as I’d like to go for today. If this was boring to ya…eh…you’ll get over it maybe. I think it’s valuable to know how these international economic transactions work (hence me reading this crazy book). The more I read, the more I understand how and why greed has left so many countries and pockets of people in other countries, poor and underresourced.

Off to the next chapter…

Peace and Love,

Julian 

(SOURCE: Pugel, Thomas A. and Lindert, Peter H. International Economics. Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill, 2000.)

Selfish citizenship

I am selfish. All of the time. I wonder if you are too. Hmmmm. 

During a stint working at a hostel in Mexico, the family of a co-worker, Evan, came to pick him up due to his bouts with drug abuse. I was relieved. He was in bad shape. I knew it. He knew it. Everyone knew it. There was little doubt that at the rate he was using drugs that he would eventually kill himself. Obviously, I felt good that such a tragic end was avoided.

Subconsciously (or consciously?), I was even more pleased that I had a small part in the storyline. I did write the explicit Facebook message to Evan’s sister that basically said, “Get your brother before he dies from an overdose.” Of course, that is a slight paraphrase. In essence, though, the idea was to rattle his family members enough that they would physically rescue Evan. 

I felt good about my little deed. Who knows what role my note played in the whole thing. The the most important thing is that Evan is, presumably, going to have more support in getting over drug addiction. But was his safety what mattered most to me?

I  remember contemplating how bad I would have felt had something happened to Evan. “If he dies of some drug-related incident,” I told myself, “I would feel terrible knowing that I did nothing.” I almost felt a duty to act. Yet, I am not so sure it was for altruistic reasons. I mean, not only would I have felt bad about something happening, but other people would likely have had an ill opinion of those who knew something was wrong and did nothing. Not only was I looking to pat myself on the back (perhaps) - I may have been looking for others to pat me on the back as well for my doings.

Perhaps doing something was me acting out a sort of enlightened self-interest. This idea, coined by de Toqueville in describing Americans of the early 19th century, posits that we are concerned with helping others mostly because we think it helps us as well. Obviously the idea has been wrangled and battled with and reformed a bit, but I keep coming back to the idea that “everything we do is for our own self-interest.”

I would imagine that some acts do not appear as such because we hide our true self-interest on dark side of our mind’s moon (that Transformers 3 was…..decent). I would gather, though, that if you did anything in life that you thought was selfless, there is a trace of something there where you thought you would somehow benefit even if that benefit never came to fruition. For example, you might do 100 hours of community service with the idea of winning an award from your high school. Even if you don’t win the award, the true (or at the very least partial) motive is still self-oriented. 

However, I am open to any arguments to the contrary.

Peace and Love,

Julian

Got yo’self a passport?

greetings family,

since i returned to the states, i’ve had a number of people who say, “man, i wish i could travel like you.” for many, it seems like what i did was such an impossible feat for them. perhaps going on a 7-month tour of latin america is stretching it for most people who work or may even have property, but that doesn’t stop you from being able to enjoy your vacation in a new and exciting part of the world. 

so….guess what? you can leave the country more easily than you think. i bought a ticket to guatemala for less than $300. i bought a ticket to colombia for less than $350. we’re talking round-trip tickets here. i paid more than that to fly from los angeles to san francisco back when i was teaching in compton. okay, not really, but a flight to chicago from LA was usually pushing $300 for sure.

this post is dedicated to the first step in getting out of the country - scooping a passport. i breakdown the steps for you, though the state department site explains as much at: http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/first/first_830.html

1) fill out form ds-11: http://travel.state.gov/passport/forms/ds11/ds11_842.html. you can (1) do this online and print it out or (2) print it out and complete it by hand

2) find your evidence of u.s. citizenship: this can inclue birth certificate, previous passport, naturalization certificate, consular report of birth abroad, or certificate of citizenship. regardless, you have to GIVE the government this document and it will be mailed back to you.

3) make sure you have ID: drivers license, military or gov’t ID, or naturalized certificate suffice.

4) make a few copies of your ID: make sure each side of ID is on separate pieces of paper.

5) come up on money needed for processing: it costs about $110 for a passport (see other fees: http://travel.state.gov/passport/fees/fees_837.html)

6) get a few passport photos made: you can do this at a walgreens or local pharmacy most likely. 

7) look-up a local passport accepting facility: you can search one up via your zip code at: http://iafdb.travel.state.gov/

8) go there with materials from steps 1 to 7

9) let me know when you get your passport!!!: i would love to know. putting it off until “next year” is a lame excuse. i hopefully made it easier for you to finally get up and get one (or get your old one renewed). 

speaking of renewals…i need to get mines renewed soon…

peace and love,

j

the end…again….

greetings family,

my trip to east africa has ended. i returned to the states this past monday after a night on the town wherein i slept a total of 1 hour (minus 1). exactly. i went to a place called fat boyz just north of the wandegeya area with my friends gina, maureen, and aurora. it was a good way to bring home my time there especially since we had just been ripped off by the restaurant in the kabira country club.

(lucky me, right?)

rephrase: wherever you decide to eat if you ever end up in kampala, DON’T EAT AT KABIRA COUNTRY CLUB. this is only my opinion, of course. the service was slow, if at all, and the manager there was a major jerk.

anyways…where was i? yes. i spent my last hours in kampala making last minute purchases [one of which was a kanzu (traditional gown worn by men for various events)]!!!!!! 

the flight home was fine minus the inspection i underwent for “having been on a farm during my trip.” at least i didn’t get inspected for drugs like i did coming back to the states from mexico. i would also minus the layover in washington, d.c. due to weather, except i got a chance to hang out with the big homie, christien, from the institute for responsible citizenship. friends…mines are the best in the WORLD!

so….now i’m back…changed…and expecting more changing as i re-adjust to the life of the spoiled and (all too often) brainless. below i outline my…

biggest adjustments:

1) why are the sidewalks in d.c. soooo wide? (the ridiculous ‘waste’ of space)

2) why is the sun still out at 7 pm? (the fact that the sunsets much earlier in uganda)

3) why is everyone so serious? (self-explanatory)

and now i outline my biggest lessons:

1) it is unfair to expect someone to pull themselves up by their own boot straps when YOU took their boots in the first place

2) this world is incredibly unjust, and certain hypocritical countries do so well at convincing the majority that it is

3) i can live off of much less than i ever thought

4) more people than i thought enjoy their ignorance

5) the self-hatred of my fellow brothas and sistas manifests itself in the most bizarre and saddening ways

6) my people are BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!! (got me looking for an african queen….)

tis all. if you know me well, you know that it is only due time before the next adventure ensues. for now, i have to find a summer gig before i start law school. 

love yourself so you can love others so you can rebel with them.

peace and love always,

j

On Kenya and keeping it real

Greetings family,

This past Friday I made a 13-hour bus ride to Nairobi, Kenya. Luckily, I had the company of a fellow NU ‘08 alum (did I mention 08 is great?), Gina. As we reflected on life and our summer plans (I didn’t get into SEO’s Corporate Law program in NYC; she did…womp!), a conversation we’d had a few weeks prior about Black men dating white women came up. Though I will reserve my extended thoughts on this for a later post, the takeaway from it was that I should share my feelings on that and a range of topics instead of over-thinking them to the point where I end up not saying anything. I’ve wanted to write about why I think Uganda’s President is a coward; why the dams near Jinja, Uganda are examples of external attempts to derail the country; and even my thoughts on Black philosophy. One day they will go from “Drafts” to “Posts.” Though I think that careful editing and wording is important, I look forward to carrying on more of these conversations in the coming months. You never know when you’ll draw your last breath, so until then you gotta tell people how you feel and keep it real.

Aaaaaaanyway, Nairobi has been dope. I type this from the apartment of my friend and fellow NU ‘08 alum (isn’t 08 great?), Aneesa, where I crashed a few nights. Friday we just got some bomb dinner at what is allegedly Nairobi’s best Ethiopian restaurant (see pic below) and rested after that ungodly uncomfortable bus ride.

Saturday we went to an unnamed zoo where we bribed an unnamed worker to let us into the cage of the cheetahs to pet them. As Aneesa’s friend Aseef (pic of him below) hung out with us Saturday, remarked, “You can do anything here if you have a little money.” Sad, but true.

i

That night we went to this lounge Mercury and a club called Gallileo where I got…it….in. After taking about 7 breaks (which equates to about 8 rounds on the dance floor), I did not stop dancing to smooth Reggae tunes until around 4 in the morning. It was a good way to de-stress since I’ve been working on publishing a few articles and finding a few summer gigs over the past few weeks.

Sunday we spent with Aneesa’s other two friends, Waqas and Saqib (shout out to them for a woooooooonderful afternoon), doing some lunch, windowshopping, and soccer watching (Manchester United vs. Chelsea). Good times. I am actually starting to get into this whole soccer thing. 

After some good convincing by Aneesa, I made the 8-hour bus trip from Nairobi, Kenya to the coastal city of Mombasa on Monday.

In part, I made the trip to calm my nerves and relax after a few fun-filled days in Nairobi. I pretty much got to Mombasa, took a little van to Mtwapa to the north, and plopped at a beachside hostel and chilled for two straight days. I walked along the beach to the Jumba ruins which apparently was a slave port for Muslim slavers, chowed on various fish dishes with the sand meters away, and worked leisurely on a few books (one for learning Luganda and the other about Argumentation). 

My 2nd day on the coast I trailed up to Kalifi to visit with another NU ‘08 alum, Catherine. She is working there with an organization that provides support to local farmers. We caught up on the past two years and went out to a local bar where we danced for hours to some old and new school reggae hits. Good times….

Welp, now I have a few days left before I come back home. Look out for pics and my last post from the motherland!

Peace and Love,

J