A Day in the Life of a Williamsburg Hipster

[A creative writing piece]

Hey There! This is Kenny, also known as Willieburg’s best known DJ/producer/artist/photog/liveblogger/singer-songwriter.  You gotta admit Brooklyn is one of the coolest places in the world next to Japan.  I mean, it’s totally open, rootless, and full of adventure unlike that podunk suburb that I grew up in over around Michigan or something.  It’s totally corporate and lame compared to the gnarly chicks, fusion restaurants, and retro trends all over Brooklyn.  All people ever care about in Michigan are gas-guzzling anti-environmental cars, eating bbq beef that harms our carbon emissions, and these people never even heard of Rosa Luxemburg!  How lame is that?

So where was I? I was liveblogging about how awesome it is living in Williamsburg. You see unlike those midtown drones that have to wake up everyday at 5 in the morning to commute and drone for that corporate machine, I can wake up whenever I feel like it. Whether I had a night out drinking glasses of soy milk-vodka bombs, or live tweeting the American Apparel-themed loft party at Zero’s place, I really don’t need to get all worked up about taking the lame 4, 5, 6 or the uncool A, C, E trains to work for losers.  Oh and by the way, the coolest trains running in New York are the L-train, ’cause it goes through Williamsburg and Union Square (which is the only coolest place in Manhattan if a place existed); and the G-train since that’s the only train that never touches any part of the phony, superficial island called Manhattan.  So anyway, I don’t have to worry about stressing over a lame commute and enjoy whatever adventures the night beckons on me.

I am still smashed from those glasses of soy milk-vodka cocktails at that fusion vegan restaurant.  What do I do now?  It’s only two days away before I call my parents to get me some support money until I get my big break as a DJ/producer/artist/photog/liveblogger/singer-songwriter.  It’s really tough getting money to do fun stuff when my parents are always complaining about the economy and their just-over-broke jobs. But I did my part by buying that Obama “Change” t-shirt from Urban Outfitters and Obama is doing awesome in my book.  The only loony thing I could do to get some extra change is to work 8-hours on random days serving Fair Trade coffee to strangers in a cafe. That is just insane?  Who in their right minds would want to slave away 8 hours in a random week for strangers can get Fair Trade coffee?  I worked too hard as a free spirit to get shacked into being a corporate slave.  Some of my roommies weren’t so lucky; Skadoo, who fronts a band called Bones of Green was once funemployed and enjoying life before he started interning at some office. Yuck!

In a few minutes, I gotta catch up with my photo shoots with some hip girls down the block.  One is like a model and the other says she is going to grad school in Brooklyn College. Brooklyn represent! I really hope my bike is can take me there. It’s been getting rusty in the past few months and I think I might have been gypped ’cause I had to pay some guy $500 for this fixed-gear bike even though Robby across the hall said he got his for like $300 and his was legitimately retro.  Oh wells, at least my loft was a steal in Williamsburg compared to my bike; I only had to pay like $2500 per month instead of $5000 like the girls I am snapping up later.  It was a really good deal and I think my fans and parents would be proud!  I think I’m going to tweet that later.

Now I gotta run and get ready for that photoshoot with two foxy ladies.  Then at night it’s up for another rad party celebrating the grand opening of that vintage typewriter store with free PBR and then a midnight yoga session at the rooftops of an abandoned warehouse.  It’s gonna to be totally awesome!

Conan O’Brien Statement: I Will Not Follow Jay At 12:05

People of Earth:

In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.

There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.

Yours,

Conan

Parental Lifelines, Frayed to Breaking

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

For the past five years, Ernie DiGiacomo has been able to count on parents to guarantee the $1,500 to $2,500 rents he charges for the 15 apartments he owns in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. When he called renters who had missed payments, he often heard, “My parents will send you a check.”

But in the past six months, the parents are pulling back financial help, he said, and as a result, he has watched more renters move out.

“Most of them are moving back with parents,” Mr. DiGiacomo said.

Luis Illades, an owner of the Urban Rustic Market and Cafe on North 12th Street, said he had seen a steady number of applicants, in their late 20s, who had never held paid jobs: They were interns at a modeling agency, for example, or worked at a college radio station. In some cases, applicants have stormed out of the market after hearing the job requirements.

“They say, ‘You want me to work eight hours?’ ” Mr. Illades said. “There is a bubble bursting.”

Famed for its concentration of heavily subsidized 20-something residents — also nicknamed trust-funders or trustafarians — Williamsburg is showing signs of trouble. Parents whose money helped fuel one of the city’s most radical gentrifications in recent years have stopped buying their children new luxury condos, subsidizing rents and providing cash to spend at Bedford Avenue’s boutiques and coffee houses.

For 18 months after graduating from Colby College, Jack Drury, 24, lived the way many Williamsburg residents do: He followed his passions, working in satellite radio and playing guitar. He earned money as a bicycle messenger and, on occasion, turned to his parents for money.

But as the recession deepened last fall, his parents had to cut the staff at their event planning company to 30 workers from 50. Asked for his help, Mr. Drury cast aside his other pursuits and started work as a project manager for his parents. But he still plays the guitar in two bands, Haunted Castle and Rats in the Walls.

“My future is in the family business,” he said. “Music is just for fun.”

The real estate market, too, is shifting as wealth evaporates. Ross Weinstein, a managing partner of the Union Square Mortgage Group, has worked with hundreds of Williamsburg apartment buyers in the past two years.

“A lot of the money came from family,” he said. “That piece, it’s gone for a lot of people.”

In the boom years, Mr. Weinstein said, 40 percent of the mortgage applications he reviewed for buyers in Williamsburg included down-payment money, from $50,000 to $300,000, from parents. About 20 percent of the applications listed investments that gave the young buyers $3,000 to $10,000 of monthly income.

But in the past two months, Mr. Weinstein said, he has handled two to three deals a week in which the parents cut back their down-payment help.

The number of sales in Williamsburg dropped nearly a quarter in the first three months of this year compared with the same period a year ago, according to HMS Associates, a Brooklyn appraisal firm. And in three recent cases, Mr. Weinstein said, owners sold their apartments in short sales — selling for less than the bank is owed, to avoid foreclosure — because they were no longer receiving parental help.

Mr. Weinstein has been advising two brothers in their late 20s who wanted to buy a $700,000 apartment with $250,000 from their parents. But their parents’ investment portfolio has lost so much value that they now can give only $50,000. Since the brothers make about $45,000 a year each, they are now shopping for a $500,000 apartment.

The parents still wish they could help, Mr. Weinstein said, but “right now, they’re in a situation in their life where they need to ensure their own security.”

It is an adjustment that many have to deal with. Eric Gross, 26, a construction worker, was going to buy, with help from his father, a $600,000 one-bedroom condo with city views at Northside Piers, a luxury building, he said.

But his father, who works in the auto industry, said he had to reduce his contribution. “He’s pulling back the lifeline,” Mr. Gross said.

So Mr. Gross is scaling back, shopping for a $300,000 apartment, said his real estate agent, Binnie Robinson of AptsandLofts.com.

It can be hard to see the signs of financial troubles in Williamsburg because residents are so loath to show that they had money in the first place. Robert Lanham, author of “The Hipster Handbook,” said in an interview that many newer residents tried to blend in with the area’s gritty history and dressed “half the time like they’re homeless people.”

But parental help was obvious in the intersection of residents with low-paying jobs and $3,000-a-month apartments.

“You can put two and two together, that they have money coming in from somewhere else,” Mr. Lanham said.

The culture of the area often mocks residents who depend on their families. Misha Calvert, 26, a writer who relied on her parents during her first year in the city, now has three roommates, works in freelance jobs and organizes parties to help keep her afloat while she writes plays and acts in films. There is a “giant stigma,” she said, for Williamsburg residents who are not financially independent.

“It takes the wind out of you if you’re not the independent, self-reliant artist you claim to be,” she said, “if you’re just daddy’s little girl.”

The cutbacks for the more privileged residents are a welcome change for locals who have struggled to support themselves without parental help.

Katie Deedy, 27, an artist, works two bartending jobs to shore up her designer wallpaper business. Gazing out from the bar at the patrons playing darts and sipping bloody marys during a Sunday shift at the Brooklyn Ale House, she described how refreshing it felt not being the only local resident trying to live on less.

“If I’m going to be completely honest, it does make me feel a little bit better,” she said. “It’s bringing a lot of Williamsburg back to reality.”



Why Hipsters Suck

Why Hipsters Suck
By Kerry Da Silva

If you live in a metropolitan city like I do, you start to notice that there are as many hipsters infesting your region as there are cockroaches. Both creatures are equally repulsive and annoying, and once you think you’re rid of them, an entire new community of them comes to life. The only main difference between the two is that you can kill a cockroach legally.

How can you spot the elusive hipster? A clear way of recognizing one is by his clothing, which can include some or all of the following:

* Camper shoes
* Pre-worn jeans/corduroys
* 70’s shirt
* Buddy Holly glasses
* Strategically unkempt hair
* Manhattan Portage messenger bag

“Jeez”, you may say. “I think I’m a hipster! Some of these items are in my closet!”

Number One: When describing yourself, don’t be so quick to use the h-word.

Number Two: Think before you come out of the closet with this admission. There are sizeable consequences (such as losing most of your brain functions).

Here are the hipster deciding factors:

* If you maxed out your credit card to pay for an outfit such as the one above, you’re a hipster.
* If you live in a converted loft with exclusively Ikea furniture, you’re a hipster.
* If you live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; Berkeley, San Francisco; Capitol Hill, Seattle; Allston, Boston; or another similar community, you’re a hipster.
* If you often say the phrase “No Worries”, you’re a hipster.
* If, when asked what you do for a living, you reply: “I’m an artist”, you’re a hipster.
* If you deny the existence of hipsters and hipsterism, you’re a hipster.

Definition of a Hipster (from The Hipster Handbook, freewilliamsburg.com):

One who possesses tastes, social attitudes, and opinions deemed as being cool by the cool. The hipster walks among the masses in daily life but is not a part of them and must shun or reduce to kitsch anything held dear by the mainstream. A hipster ideally possesses no more than 2% body fat.

Let’s dissect this definition, shall we?

One who possesses tastes, social attitudes, and opinions deemed as being cool by the cool.

Are we still in junior high? Who are “the cool”? Do they have a secret handshake? The average hipster’s gravitational pull gathers fellow robot-like cult members who also live off their trust funds and spout out philosophical idiom they learned in Ivy League. If this is considered cool, then I’m proud to be a dork.

The hipster walks among the masses in daily life but is not a part of them…

A hipster is always part of “them” since his style and soul are completely parallel to the hipster next to him, and the hipster next to him, and so on, and so forth, until they become the masses. The Urban Outfitters and Diesels are the K-marts of the future. (Does this mean that “normal”, opinionated people will become the hipsters of tomorrow?!)

…and must shun or reduce to kitsch anything held dear by the mainstream.

Since we’ve already determined that hipsters have definitely become their own mainstream, I think by their definition, working for money is kitschy.

A hipster ideally possesses no more than 2% body fat.

This is true. In between fancy vegan restaurant visits, I’ve seen many-a-hipster sporting a cig or two to maintain that I-don’t-eat-I’m-an-artist weight.

Several researchers and I have been looking into the origin of hipsters and their culture, which, some say, seems to date back to the late 1960’s from a group of people called “hippies”. However, these “hippies” of the past had specific liberal ideals and beliefs, whereas the new hipsters of today have absolutely none and appear to have been seduced by their vanity into actually “buying in” to upscale marketing and culture. This led us to believe that hipsters were not conceived organically from the rank and file of the human race.

Through our research, we have recently discovered that behavioral scientists were employed by the top five U.S. corporations to produce an overall plan that would guarantee profits and alleviate the pressure to advertise. These scientists came up with a plan to create a new, scientifically engineered breed of human that would specifically buy high-priced label merchandise and also act as supposed “models of fashion”. They referred to these new humans as “hipsters”. By creating more hipsters and exclusive “models of fashion” hipster circles, scientists correctly predicted that those who enviously aspire to belong to that group are therefore enticed to purchase similar material possessions gain access to these circles. The profitable benefit to these top companies has been unsurpassed.

In conclusion, hipsters are mindless pawns used by greedy corporations, and they suck.

http://www.hybridmagazine.com/culture/0902/dasilva.shtml

Great rant on Craigslist.

Here is a great reply from someone to a lifeless hipster defending piece of shit on craigslist who scans the boards day and night for the word “hipster”, then replies with the same copy and paste. He used to frequent my old site and has even visited this new one already. I think some of you know who I’m talking about.

So here is the hilarious reply:

It is comments like this that only prove me to be as incredibly self-involved as even I suspected..

Anti-hipster sentiment is really based on a love of people who have jobs, careers, pay taxes and contribute to the general public welfare by good citizenry. Although the hipsters think they have healthier and more fulfilling social lives, this stems from their adolescent weltanshaung, where superiority is perceived rather than achieved.

But this is not their fault. Since their mommies and daddies for the most part scrimped, saved and borrowed to give them fine liberal arts college educations, they never suspected that the foul and degenerate state of academia would produce a generation of ‘beta-minusese’ such as we behold today, totally devoid of any socially-redeeming values.

Judging from their comments, a lot of pro-hipster sentiment evidently comes from “poseur” proto-intellectual homo-erotophyte types who feel that the more sensitive, intelligent, physically slimmer, and culturally aware hipster ideal of so-called of masculinity is the epitome of ‘metrosexuality’. And of course this is as right as it is also utterly meaningless.

The ‘culture’ that they are ‘aware’ of is unrelated to anything which has the slightest contribution to society, since it is based on the hipster’s own narcissistic self-exploration with it’s central focus on purchasing the next size smaller hat or jacket when it is not engaged in masturbatory acts with an Apple product of some sort. It is goals like this which not only define the hipster, but help to identify these simpleton exhibitionists.

At some point in their lives hipsters probably got mocked and ridiculed, or even had the crap smacked out of them by their own former classmates & families for acting like the sarcastic smug little adolescents they are and are no longer welcome in their own home towns, never mind home.

Hence they come to NYC like the rest of the world’s unwashed, but unlike the hard-working foreigner (illegal or not) who within a year or two of landing here has a job, or a business or both and is working hard to acheive something, the hipster lays about diddling with it’s cellphone and or laptop, sucking down “free trade” (WTF?) coffee and has maybe a part-time gig or gigs in things like ‘urban design’ and ‘media’ or some such other sophomoric aphorism when it is not seen smirking behind a copy of the local free newspaper.

If you think about it, the rest of the City, never mid society are well aware the sum total of the hipster ‘contribution’ a/k/a “revolution” is about mocking and ridiculing the rest of society and their mentalities. It’s not about meat and muscle anymore. Hipster sentiment often comes from people who simply can’t keep up with normal activities and and imagine some vague, undefined “social change” where the lazy, unproductive and indolent will continue to consume like parasites in the fantasy world they have made for themselves,

In this self-delusional world they actually beleive others are envious of them

Remember, the hipster will always come up with syllogisms such as “you can always rate the amount of insecurity someone has by the amount they rant about hipsters” because that’s all they can do in defense of an empty existence.

They’re always trying to school everyone else, no matter how little they themselves know…

Signed/The Gothamist

it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

http://diehipster.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/great-rant-on-craigslist/

Why I hate Hipsters

Why do I hate hipsters? This will be one of the questions I will answer in this creative writing piece. First, I need to explain what a hipster is since there are many ways to describe this subculture. Another piece to exploring my dislike of this group will analyse their contribution to our society.

A hipster usually refers to a subculture that considers themselves to be a counterculture to the corporate excesses of the early 21st century. Hipsters claim to be nonconformists, bohemians, and free spirits who are trying to break the mould by pursuing the simple pleasures of life in their own right.

Well, how can hipsters be nonconformists if they mainly buy their clothes from American Apparel, Urban Outfitters, and marked-up thrift shops? Most of these hipsters ironically conform to trends by getting their fashion sense from established and corporate retailers like American Apparel, Urban Outfitters and “high-end” thrift shops around their hipster neighbourhoods. If these people were truly living like the working class they admire and claim to be living outside of the “corporate world”, they would have purchased their clothes from real thrift shops run by groups such as the Salvation Army and the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints (Mormons); or get them from discount retailers like Wal-Mart, Kmart and Khols because that’s where real working class people shop for clothes. After all, real working class people buy their clothes out of necessity instead of relying on corporate retailers to tell them the correct way to look “poor”.

Now here is another question: what kind of jobs do hipsters have that sustains their lifestyle? If your answer is “nothing” you’re probably right. Hipsters will claim to do real work by claiming to be freelance artists, actors, musicians, or students. The reality is that the older hipsters who claim to be students are lying their asses off while the rest don’t have real jobs. If you see people working in cafes, clothing stores, or in an office, just be aware that these people are not hipsters. People you see on tv or film, performing in a busy schedule or getting their work exhibited outside of Williamsberg, are also not hipsters because they’re actually self-employed. Hipsters are the ones who will shun real work because its “uncool”, “corporate” or “hard”. These hipsters can be seen performing around subways for some dollars, frequenting Willamsberg art exhibitions, parties around Brooklyn, playing kickball or loitering in a Starbucks drinking Fair Trade coffee. In other words, living like college slackers without the classes, exams or care of debt.

If these hipsters don’t work and simply loaf around, then how in the hell can they afford it? The common answer to this happens to be that most of these hipsters depend on their parents for money. Some of them may come from wealthy families who gave them trust funds to live like idiots (such as Paris Hilton) while the rest are really good at persuading their parents that they will eventually get their big break in music, film, or art, so long as they get money to keep going. As a result, some of these hipster neighbourhoods have practically become “gentrified ghettos” as a result of the large injections of cash into the area, which led to new development and increased cost of living. All of these changes would not have happened if parents didn’t give their slacker children money to live carefree lives at the expense of themselves and others.

Some people say hipsters are no different from the hippies in the 1960s, but I beg to differ. You see, unlike the hippies of the 60s, hipsters aren’t really raging against anything or strive to improve society. Hippies in the days of yore had a reputation for supporting progressive movements such as civil rights, ending the war in vietnam, and became associated with liberals. Hipsters on the other hand don’t really support anything unless American Apparel makes it cool (refer to the “Legalize Gay” fashion line), they don’t vote (wearing Obama “Hope” t-shirts isn’t voting), and appear indifferent to social issues that aren’t related to Williamsberg/Brooklyn seen by the fact hipsters shop at Urban Outfitters even though that company is against gay marriage in California. Ironically, hipsters are actually influenced by corporations and behave similarly to the point where they are considered nonconforming conformists because they don’t stand for anything or made any meaningful impact on society.

I hate hipsters because are phony, lazy, spoiled and apathetic groups of people who pursue a carefree, fruitless lifestyle at the expense of others while arrogantly claiming to be a new counterculture free from corporate influences. These people have done nothing to improve society while living off the backs of others despite giving lip service to social causes and claiming to be struggling artists.  They need to stop pretending be “down with the poor” because their behaviour is really insulting to real poor people and they need to stop appropriating culture from other groups just for the sake of being hip.  Give me a break and go back to school/work/reality instead of slacking around while the world becomes poor and miserable.

The Cove: Disturbing and Embarassing look at Japanese Dolphin Slaughter

I just finished watching the documentary “The Cove” about the Oceanic Preservation Society’s attempt to secretly document dolphin slaughter in Taji, Japan while evading local authorities and their fisherman’s union. I had known about the documentary since this summer but I never got around to watching it until I saw the South Park episode “Whale Whores” which poked fun at Japan’s obsession with whaling and the environmentalists’ feeble attempts at curbing whaling. Although, references to “The Cove” were vague in that episode, much of the issues explored in both “South Park” and “The Cove” do raise concerns about Japanese whaling policies and how they handle the issues surrounding it.

The team assembled by the filmmakers is impressive given they and the film were funded by a billionaire environmentalist. Nonetheless, the footage caught by the filmmakers is a gruesome look at how dolphins are savagely slaughtered by local fisherman in the name of local tradition and to sell whale meat to a niche market. In addition to criticising the brutal slaughter of dolphins, the film makes a point that much of the dolphin and whale meat available in the Japanese market is heavily tainted with mercury, which makes it unsafe for consumption and increases the risk of neurological damage. What was more surprising was that the Japanese interviewed in the film seem to be either apathetic or disgusted at the idea of even eating dolphin meat, which seems to weaken the cultural justification for dolphin slaughter.

As a result of “The Cove”, the Japanese town of Taiji has received much unwanted attention from environmentalists and foreigners to the point where they have made changes to their traditional dolphin slaughters. The fishermen now are reported to cut the bottlenose dolphin culling, while continue their process of killing less appealing dolphins and whales. Many japanophiles and Japanese right-wing male virgins have condemned “The Cove” as a racist movie for only focusing on Japanese whaling while dolphins and whales are regularly hunted by Iceland and Norway. Although this is a valid point, Japanese whaling has come under greater scrutiny because while Norway and Iceland regularly slaughter dolphins and whales, they are not accused of exceeding international whaling limits, making baseless justifications that whaling is a form of oceanic pest control, hiding their slaughtering techniques from the public and buying support from current or new member-states in the International Whaling Commission.

Some pro-Japan supporters even complain that the movie was unjust because Korea regularly slaughters dog for food and no one complained when China was having issues with their baiji dolphins. This is really a weak point because there are regular complains that Koreans slaughter dogs for food along with countless documentaries on the process, while the issue with baiji dolphins was more of an environmental concern dealing with the destruction of towns, historical sites, ecosystems and the fact that Chinese don’t slaughter their dolphins for food. In any event, I strongly recommend viewing “The Cove” if it is available in stores or online.

What US Economic Recovery?

Struggling in a recovering economy

By Michelle Fleury
Business reporter, BBC News, New York

America slowly appears to be emerging from recession, rebounding from its worst slump in decades.

“ I’ve been out of work a few months here or there but never like this ”
Jon Polis

New figures to be released on Thursday are expected to show that the US economy grew between July and September.

But for many Americans the pain is still dragging on.

More than 200 years ago, Slater Mill in Rhode Island helped kick-off America’s industrial revolution.

For centuries, manufacturing, mainly in textile mills, provided jobs in this small north-eastern state, but not anymore.

Rhode Island now has the third highest unemployment rate in the country, after Michigan and Nevada. According to the US Labor Department, the rate of unemployment climbed to 13% in September.

This does not come as a surprise to Jon Polis.

Each day, he searches for work on his computer and in the local newspaper.

He says his eight years working for a medical supplies company was over in eight minutes. He was laid off a year-and-a-half ago. Now his benefits have run out and he is living on his savings.

“I can last maybe next March or April,” says Jon. “After that I’ll just have to go to my family and ask for money.”

At age 53, this is not the first recession he has lived through, but it is the worst.

“I’ve been out of work a few months here or there but never like this,” he says.

Back home

It is not just the more experienced members of the labour market who are being affected. The recession is also hitting the young, potentially creating a lost generation.

“ I’ll get kicked off my parents health insurance [in December]. Then I’m on my own ”
Colleen Riley

Recent graduate Colleen Riley starts most of her days eating breakfast with her parents. It is a ritual she would enjoy a lot more if she had not been forced to move back home after she could no longer afford her own apartment.

Since finishing university in May she has struggled to find full time employment. In August she took on a part time job, working 20 hours a week at a local communications firm.

But making ends meet is still a struggle. In three weeks time, she will have to make her first student loan repayment.

“I did go to the university of Rhode Island, which is a public institution,” Colleen says.

“With the help of my parents they did pay off a good amount, but I do have about $10,000 in loans.”

Her health insurance coverage, which ends in December, is another source of worry.

“I’ll get kicked off my parents health insurance,” Colleen says.

“Then I’m on my own – so that’s definitely my biggest concern.”

‘Job-ready’

With so many people out of work and for longer periods of time, the staff at Rhode Island’s Department of Labor & Training are rushed off their feet.

Their goal, according to senior manager Scott Greco, is to make sure people are in the best possible position for when companies start hiring again.

“Right now our object with the training is to get people job-ready,” he says.

But for Colleen and for Jon the economic recovery feels a long way off.

“I think a very key ingredient to an economy coming back is employment coming back,” says Jon.

“The last thing that is going to come back is employment.”

America’s economy may be improving, but with so many people still searching for work, a return to prosperity looks like a distant dream for many.
Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/8331110.stm

 

Obama’s stimulus plan props up big businesses without helping the workforce.

Native Chinese responds to Chinese-American on Xinjiang controversy

NOTE: The Chinese-American’s remarks are on brackets followed by the response from a Chinese forum member

<<”I can tell you that the Uyghurs enjoy a very good livelihood in China.”>>

That’s why many Uighur men go to big cities in other provinces to work as street vendors selling lamb kebabs and bread, often living with 10 or more men in a small apartment away from their wives and children for months, just to make a little extra money than they could back home in Xinjiang. That’s why you never see them employed anywhere but Uighur restaurants outside of Xinjiang…

<<”Not only do they not have to abide by the one-child policy, but they can get away with a lot of shit (robbery, rape, murder) b/c of the government’s aversion to incidents like what’s going on in China right now.”>>

There are plenty of photos online of Uighurs being tortured and executed by police. They clearly did not get away with any crime. Even if they steal, there are far more videos on youtube taken by Chinese people of Uighurs being tortured by NORMAL Chinese people, not even police. For example, watch THIS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCv14v-1r1A&feature=related
The Chinese doing the torturing here are the REAL criminals. Also, many Uighurs outside of the provincial capital are forced to have abortions, the same how many Han Chinese are also forced against their will in some villages.
There are far more Han Chinese who commit robbery, rape, and murder than there are minorities. Look at this video from Guangzhou taken on a bridge not too far from the train station: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM7Eq8kIyUE&feature=related

<<”Also, let’s not forget that ethnic minorities in China get affirmative action to China’s best universities.”>>

There is no affirmative action for Uighurs in China’s best universities. I spent a year back in China studying and saw only one Uighur student the entire time. The fact is most Uighurs do not have the same benefits or opportunities as other Chinese, and are often too poor to afford the tuition.
Affirmative action in any form does not exist in China. They are allowed to discriminate based on age, gender, whatever, and they even put signs in the windows of stores saying they’re looking for women or men, young or old, etc.

<<”The Uyghur salesmen were notorious for not pronouncing the prices of their food well on purpose, so that they say “10 yuan” when they’re actually charging 30, so that after they make the food, the buyers have to give 30 yuan.”>>

I have never been cheated by Uighurs, and I frequently buy from them on the streets in any big city I visit. The woman probably didn’t understand their Mandarin, since it can be poor at times, or she herself probably doesn’t speak Mandarin well since she is Cantonese. Anyhow, this actually is often done by Chinese people all over. You mention one incident, but I can personally recount many instances other Chinese have done this to me.

<<”Also, it’s funny that you mention racism from Chinese, when Koreans are much more racist.”>>

The thread is about Cantonese, not all Chinese. I have been all over China, north, south, west, and east, and can say without a doubt, the nastiest, most racist people I have encountered were in Guangdong province and Hainan.

<<”It’s hilarious how so many of you who have been to mainland China once at the most are buying into more white media brainwashing. If you go to China and talk to the locals, you’ll find out that the vast majority of Han and minority Chinese have nothing against one another. But it’s these Uyghur and Tibetan extremists that western media love to portray b/c it’ll stir the most unrest in China.”>>

White media brainwashing? You’re the one talking about the propaganda you see from Xinhua and CCTV. You are either very naive or very brainwashed if you actually believe what the state-operated media in mainland China tells you. I have talked to not only many Han Chinese on the streets, but many minorities including Kazakhs, Uighurs, Hui, Miao, and others. Most minorities do not have nearly as much money as the average Chinese, and almost every Han Chinese will say minorities smell bad, though minorities never have these kind of comments to make about the Han. They only complain about not having the same rights and being oppressed-never say anything about their ethnicity. I have been to Urumqi and Turpan before and have seen kindness frequently exhibited by Uighurs and other minorities in one week that is rarely seen with Han Chinese people. In fact, I visited in January, perhaps the coldest time of year to go. The temperature was -25C out one evening and I had been waiting for a while for a taxi near the Bazaar. An elderly Uighur woman holding two bags had given up the taxi that stopped in front of her and let me take it, even though she is elderly, a woman, holding bags, and was there first. I was stunned. I was also given things for free at stores and invited to sit down and talk with the owners. People on the street would smile and say hello. If you are kind to them, they are kind in return. Also, they may be Muslim, but they are not even that religious. It is a complete exaggeration to call them extremists.
By the way, do you consider Hong Kong news stations as “white media brainwashing” since they report about these things and don’t censor everything like in the mainland.

<<”If you have any experience in China, you’ll know that Han Chinese would rather hit themselves than hit minorities b/c the government cracks down big-time on “hate crimes.”>>

One night in Jianshi liu malu, a Uighur man I often talk to was harassed by several security guards (not even a police) and forced to pay him a bribe to continue to work there. I also saw a Tibetan woman selling earrings and bracelets on yellow rugs on the sidewalk being harassed by a security guard telling her she has to leave. I overheard her telling him it was only 9 o’clock, and she’s allowed to stay until 11, but he was forcing her away. In another instance, in Dongshan kou, 2 Uighur men and a woman were refused by a bus driver, even though they were trying to pay to get on.
Outside my apartment there are usually a few Uighur men who sell lamb and nan, who I used to talk to as I was leaving home. One day one of them was telling me about a Uighur guy who was beaten up by several young Cantonese guys while he was working on the street…he wasn’t even a thief.

<<”They don’t want to stir unrest like what’s happening now. What you don’t hear about are the countless Chinese military personnel and civilians murdered by Uyghur/Tibetan terrorists.”>>

Murdered with what weapons? It’s the soldiers and police that have guns and who are very quick to pull the trigger on people. Last month there was a large riot in Hubei province, with 40,000 people rioting on the streets. The police did not shoot the Han Chinese who threw bricks and bottles at them, nor the ones who beat them with wooden poles. They only shoot minorities who are fewer in number, who could not start a full-scale, nation-wide revolution.

<<”Tibetan guerrillas were funded by the CIA, just like Falun Gong cultists are supported by the US government today. I would not be surprised if there was more shady shit going on right now.”>>

Like China’s involvement in Darfur, for instance? Beijing sells weapons and builds roads and bridges in exchange for oil. Those same weapons are also used to massacre innocent civilians and rape the women.

<<”If Chinese censorship was so good, how would the Uyghurs hear of something happening in Guangzhou if not for western media?”>>

Because Chinese people took the videos themselves and posted them on youku and tudou themselves. You can hear them saying “Beat them, beat them, stop running.” You understand Chinese, go watch the videos I posted above.

You ask Dae where he gets his information from when it is evident that you yourself have never talked to any minorities, nor bothered to learn anything in their language (though they have to learn yours)

An Old Article From The Medium (circa 2003)

A Celebration
By Right-Wing Larry

As you may have known, the Liberal Rutgers University has disbanded an infamous file-sharing network. Why is such a seemingly harmless file-sharing network being destroyed? The answer, you simplistic terrorist-sympathizing liberals, is that not only can these file-sharing programs allow local welfare cheats, bums and pacifists to share liberal, drug-fueled, blasphemous music over the internet such as the Beatles and Johnny Cash; it is also used by Al-Qaeda and their supporters such as the Democratic Party to channel sensitive information and terrorist plans amongst themselves. What is even worse is that these file-sharing programs are used to share pornography, which is an affront to our only true Christian God, promotes pagan values, and attacks our great Western Civilization.

What is so wrong with sharing files among friends? Well, for one thing you misguided liberal idiot, those artists and filmmakers worked hard to produce the trash that you idiots download. Hey liberal bitches, they worked hard, they deserved their tax rebate, why support bums and dirty terrorists by file sharing? Too bad those idiot Democrats do not care about the dangers of file sharing and are being Un-American by not supporting the Patriotic PATRIOT ACT. Besides, the Democratic Party does not listen to Asians or Whites; they only care about liberals, Blacks, Mexicans, Iraqis, bums, hippies, and terrorists. Nevertheless, enough about the stupid Democrats and let’s talk about a true patriot.

The Patriot I am referring about is not our Blessed Commander-in-Chief George Walker Bush, who will be reelected and capture Osama Bin Laden, but a great man as discussed by the Great Daily Targum who wished to preserve his right conservative views in our ignorant, liberal university. As a dedicated college Republican, my hero was first alarmed that such a file-sharing network existed and attempted to reason with the network hosts to stop this blatant violation of our PATRIOT ACT and the spread of pagan values to our fellow Christians. However, the ultra-liberal network hosts repeatedly rejected his pleas and he was even banned from participating in the network, so much for reason and a fair and balanced file-sharing network.

In response for being banned from the network and the failure of Rutgers to enforce the PATRIOT ACT on the university network, our hero did what was only right: he reported this terrorist file-sharing network to the proper authorities and ended their satanic orgy of file-sharing. His act of Patriotism not only destroyed this potentially devastating network if it fell on to terrorist hands, he also ended the mindless proliferation of Satanic music and Un-Christian pornography trading as well. The destruction of Optimus Prime was a great act of true American courage that we have not seen since we have liberated Iraq and I am sure that our Christian God, our only God (to all pagans, please convert or you will go to Hell) will bless his True American soul for this act. Moreover, I am sure “Geo” will truly get the appreciation and love he deserves from his fellow Christian Americans.

So that is the True Patriot, I wish to praise in this week’s opinions page. Before I go, I wish to say the following: Down with the limousine liberals like Kennedy and Kerry! To idiot Democrats, come to the true, divine side of America, the Republican Party; only tax cuts will fuel the economic growth needed to create jobs and the economy for our American Empire!

VOTE BUSH-CHENEY ’04! A VOTE FOR BUSH IS A VOTE FOR GOD!