GreenBucks

A lot of people aim for “The American Dream”.

What is exactly the American Dream?

Living in the suburbs, having one or two cars, vacation, shopping sprees, credit cards and other luxurious and comfortable ways to live. These are good to do as long as one can afford to pay for all of this. What if one can’t pay for all of these?

But this scenario is changing.

They are losing their homes and their cars. The American government even gave out tax rebates. Fannie Mae, the largest mortgage buyer and Freddy Mac, the second largest mortgage buyer were given emergency rescue plans.

Women who used to be in the workforce are not working anymore. Banks are reporting billions of losses.

This is being forecasted as the “death” of the middle class.

Americans as well as the British are deep in debts and there is more to this than meets the eye.

Why does this happen? It is because they are spending more than they can afford, courtesy of the lending companies.

So what do they do? Get another credit to pay for a credit.

So who is to blame? The credit availability or the mindset of getting things that can’t be paid for in cash but through credits?

Read what happened to Diane McLeod in a NYTimes article entitled “Given a Shovel, Americans Dig Deeper Into Debt”.

May this serve as a lesson to everyone who loves charging their purchases to credit cards.

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Yes, I know I am a day late (Pacific time) with my post but I believe that peace transcends all time and situations, if only we will allow it to happen.

Peace is not the absence of violence but also has the presence of justice, according to Mahatma Gandhi.

Peace is a rare commodity.Its a commodity because it is expensive. Billions are spent to curtail war, to stop terrorism, to have peace. But with all the families broken, the souls destroyed, antiquities forever gone, do we even say that peace has been achieved? Are we even happy with the way things turned out? Can we truly say that we feel safe and secured? Can we really say that justice has been served or is being served or will be served to those who truly deserve it?

I do not understand why people have to fight over territories, why people have to prove who reigns supreme. Maybe I do not want to really understand for if I do, I would believe that this is the right way and therefore would promote the fighting. Why can’t people learn to live with each other, accept each others’ uniqueness and eccentricities and maybe, we would have peace. But this is hard, for everyone has his own agenda, his own reasons for the actions being done, and his own righteous beliefs?

Oppression. Killing. Famine. War. Terrorism. Environmental destruction. Natural disaster. Even family matters that seem trivial, all these and more, cause disturbance of peace.

Through it all, maybe peace is a mindset, a lifestyle and a kind of wishful thinking. With all the negative things happening, can one really have a peaceful mindset? I do not know if I am even making any sense here, I feel like I am rambling.

The Bible says that: For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Romans 8:6).

Thank you, Mimi, for starting this Blog Blast for Peace where bloggers can stand up as one voice and express our feelings about this matter. Here is Mimi’s Blog Blast for Peace Revolution of Words post.

Dona Nobis Pacem

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WHAT: Adventurista, A Mother’s Day Celebration

WHERE: Taste Asia, Mall of Asia

WHEN: May 9, 2008 2 - 4pm

WHAT TO EXPECT:

1. Make-Over session (This is what I need, seriously)
2. Personality Development (Tips on how to control being annoyed by annoying people. Me! Me!)
3. Healthy Meals Cooking Demo (I can cook but I need tips on how-to healthy meals)

To join, just leave a comment with the following details: name, age, civil status, number of kids and their ages and your email address. Or you can email Aileen at her blog. Here is the link to her post:

http://aileenapolo.blogspot.com/2008/05/world-pyrolymics-2008-and-something-for.html

This event is open to Mommy/Women bloggers and non-bloggers with SM Advantage cards.  You can view the event flyer here.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Too bad, I can’t join. We are off to visit my vacationing daughters in the province. Twas supposed to be on Thursday because hubby has a meeting there but it was moved to Friday. Tsk, tsk! Next time…

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GreenBucks was at the iBlog4 Summit held recently at the Malcolm Theater in UP Diliman.

Topics ranged from Blogging Basics for newbie bloggers, going problogger, PhotoBlogs, Blogging in time for the election, Mindanao bloggers and blogging for advocacy.

Could be more topics. Last year, topics about SEO, internet law and copyright issues, problogging, increasing site rank, blogging and the old media, blogging issues and internet issues in other Asian countries, and other technical stuff and other helpful stuff were discussed. I was sure these were helpful, I just didn’t know what these were before. Wouldn’t hurt if these were discussed again, sort of a continuation.

My 2 cents? Do what happened during the earlier iBlog summits, create subgroups where people can choose what they want to learn about.

Here are the other posts about iBlog4 which I got from Aileen’s post “Lessons I Learned…” (thanks, I hope this is just 10% of your post, haha!)

• iBlog 4 and The 88db.com Blogger’s Night: Because I Felt The Need To Embarrass Myself More
• iBlog4 ramblings
• Snippets from the iBlog4 and 88db.com Bloggers Party
• Lost Money But Was Happy
• Being Offline is Fun
• iBlog4 and Morphxchange
• Avi Siwa at iBlog4
• iBlog4 experience
• Morph at iBlog4
• iBlog4 Summit
• iBlog4 Summit bloggers party with 88db.com
• iblog4 Summit
• iblog4 Blogging Summit and Meet Up
• Anger always come from frustrated expectations
• Umleo23.com at iBlog4 Summit???
• Unofficial Philippine Blogger Day
• So wassup?
• iBlog4, Altar Boyz Mosh Pit Party, Nick Weekend Carnival, & 88DB Bloggers Party
• iBlog4
• FilipinaImages.com in iBlog4 Summit
• iblog4 (old friends, new friends)
• Jester-in-Exile Goes to iBlog 4 and the 88DB.com Bloggers’ Party (or, the floppy hat has gone out of style boohoohoo)
• iBlog 4 and The 88db.com Blogger’s Night: Because I Felt The Need To Embarass Myself More
• iblog4 Philippine Blogging Summit
• Of a very long week
• iblog4: the day after
• iBlog4 Summit
• Chickens invade iBlog4
• iBlog4 summit and 88db.com party
• Blog events
• The 4th Philippine Blogging Summit iBlog4
• iBlog4 Experience

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It is not just the Philippines that suffer the rising price of rice (and just about all other commodities, be these edible or not).

Asian states have shortages citing extreme weather, rise in demand for food in fast growing places, price hike due to hoarding , low stockpile and  long term lack of agricultural investment.

The Egyptians are also suffering from price hike of food.

India, with over a billion in population is likely to suffer or has already been suffering food crisis.

Australia’s drought means no food too.

What has been happening to the cost of food across the globe?

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I have heard one time over the radio about the possibility of issuing RICE COUPONS and FOOD STAMPS here in our country when the rice crisis gets worse. Unbelievable to think the government can shoulder these expenses. Maybe they will, but their kickbacks are bigger.I can’t believe I heard that. How can we, a poor third world country issue rice coupons and food stamps? This is not an answer, albeit temporarily that is, to the rice crisis  we currently have.

I don’t know what the answers are, nor will I ever offer one. What I feel we need to do is to work harder to be able to afford what we need to sustain our growing family.

Of course, no other course but to work doubly harder since everything is going up these days. Flour, rice, sugar, pork, electric bills,  fastfood prices, price of gasoline. Will there be no end in sight?

Sigh.

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