Recent Reads - Gang Leader for a Day

Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh is a truly amazing, frightening read. Venkatesh spent almost ten years visiting Robert Taylor, a housing project encompassing 28 high rises, 16 stories tall, with more than 27,000 residents total. At times more than 95% of the residents were unemployed, and there were various turf wars for gang members.

The author chronicles his attempts to get a sense of how people lived in this home, how the gangs functioned (they were at a very high level of organization and business-sense because of the high concentration of people) how people were in finding ways survive; barter, scrambling for ways to earn extra income, stay safe, get things fixed when you didn't have the ability to pay bribes in order to get things fixed, etc.

The title actually applies to only part of the book, specifically the time that he spent with J.T. He examines the business and violence of gangs, disects the community benefits and well as the harm caused by the gang activity, as well as the amazing poverty of many of the lower level gang members - and the high level of obedience expected by gangs.

Other sections examine the hustlers, how people make money by repairing things, finding ways to steal electricity, fix cars, etc. in order to survive. It also examines the way many women work together, sharing baby-sitting, cooking, etc - often sharing several apartments since one may have hot water, another cable, a third heat, and a fourth a working stove.

It is hard not to question the author as his observations are so amazing, that said he shows us (he makes no conclusions himself) that all too often those in power cause harm by igoring the problems of the low-income people, then compounding the sin by ignoring what they have built when tearing it down. The demolishing of Robert Taylor removed any support system these people had.

A powerful and painful book to read, but an important one.

Others follow Blackwater's Lead

Blackwater recently changed it's name to Xe (pronounced Zee) in an effort at 'rebranding. You can read all about it in the article below, but I imagine that if Xe is successful, then we will see a veritable avalanche of name changes - er rebrands.

General Motors in the process renaming their company Wal-mart in hoping to turn their profit margin around, Chrysler, as always confused on the concept is looking at the names Woolworth, Montgomery Wards, and Venture.

The World Coal Institute has renamed Coal -  "Clean."  So now instead of Coal Powered Plants, they will be referred to as "Clean Powered Plants."

Roland Burris is supposedly considering the names Honest Abe Burris, Integrity Burris, and Morgan Freeman (without the Burris).

Citigroup is hoping to use the name Make a Wish Foundation (after all they are wishing for more capital) while A.I.G. is hoping to change it's name to the Unsinkable Molly Brown... though many of us would recommend the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

Newt Gingrich is looking into Ronald Reagan, or at least Knute Rockne, Tom Daschle is wondering if a name change will result in tax forgiveness, while a number of GOP office holders are wondering if they call their party the Democartes they can confuse some people into votes.

The final one, Bernard Madoff is changing his name to Pizza.  After all Everyone Loves Pizza!!!

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2009/02/behind_the_blackwater_name_cha.html

Stress Test

As Many of you know, Obama, Geithner and Co. are about to put the banks through a stress test, I really can't imagine how they are going to put the banks through a stress test, but here is an excerpt from my experience...


I recently went to the doctor for the euphemistically called stress test. The test is designed to give you a heart attack so doctors can decide how likely you are to have another heart attack. It would be more accurate to call it a stress adventure, something akin to scaling El Capitan or swimming the English Channel.
Since doctors originally developed the concept of over-booking (before licensing it to the airlines) I arrived for my 11am Thursday appointment on Monday morning, complete with reading material, back pack, sleeping bag, tent, iodine tablets, camp stove, and rations. Unfortunately a man much too old to still drive rolled right over my tent, camp stove, and portable game system when he misread the “Patient Drop-Off” sign, thinking it was “Patient Drive-Thru” so I was forced to really rough it.
On Friday afternoon they finally “prepped” me. The test requires 50 little electrical lines to be attached to sticky pads placed on your chest. The pads are designed to fall off if even one chest hair touches them, but will remain sealed to bare skin for up to two years. This means the prep for most men includes shaving big patches of hair off your chest.
They use really dull single use razors without any moisturizer or shaving cream. You have to wonder why Bic and Gillette spend fortunes developing new razors when there is a big market for single use, very dull, disposable razors. I imagine that somewhere in the world there is a factory dedicating to making these “ultra-dull” razors complete with a foreman shouting, “We’re not Shick! Keep those blades dull!”


After dry shaving large swaths of hair off me, the “prepper” (I, of course, was the “preppie”) found two young ladies to examine the end result. They laughed and giggled, and one mentioned something like “he looks like a dog with mange”.
Shirt off, chest hair removed, I was moved to a closet so cold that Iditarod sled dogs would stay in their tents. Cables were connected to each of the sticky pads, and it all went to a mess of electrical equipment making it impossible to escape. A technician gave me an Echo-cardiogram - sort of a pre-test - which basically means that you get lathered in really cold goo then jabbed in the ribs with a plastic rod. I was then left, without even chest hair to keep me warm.
Four hours later 10 people crammed into the room. All were dressed in Antarctic cold weather gear. The doctor told me -through his muffler - to get on the treadmill and start walking. I hadn’t noticed the treadmill before because I never expected to see a treadmill mounted on a wall.
The nurses helped me onto the treadmill, telling me “it’s okay to hold on to the rails.” Of course I’ll hold on to the railing, how else was I going to stay on this torture machine. They start it up, and there I am, death grip on the railing swinging my legs like crazy. After a couple of minutes one nurse takes my blood pressure, while another cranks up the speed.
For the next ten minutes you flail around as the treadmill keeps getting faster and faster while everyone laughs at you. Periodically the doctor asks, “How are you doing?”
You naturally reply, “Awful, You’re making me run straight up a wall.”
His response is usually “Great! They need to take your blood pressure, so you will have to let go of the ceiling tile. Then we will speed it up, okay?”
My response at this point is, “GAAAAaaa.”
After ten minutes of this, they let you down – put you back on a table, and rub you down with more cold gel so a technician can do another sonogram. What was the result of all this misery? A couple of really strange, fuzzy sonogram pictures of my heart. 20 feet or so of butcher paper with some little squiggles – imagine a three year old with a pencil and an unlimited supply of paper, multiple bald spots on my chest…. and an appointment to do it all over again in 6 months.