One Last Thing

Dear All:

Your posts suggest you all had remarkable summers. You made us proud.

One last thing before it is over,  send me suggestions for next year’s group, including advice and also the names and addresses of favorite places and cheap eats.

Best to you in the coming semester, and congratulations on a successful summer.

Rmm

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Exploring DC Pt. 2

So I wait until the last 2 weeks of my stint in D.C. to fully explore the museums and places that D.C. has to offer, huh? Lol. My friends from home arrived on Friday to visit me and we had a full schedule, thanks to my friend Kathleen a.k.a. Itinerary Maker.

Friday we started off easy and I took them to Georgetown. This time was different for me because I actually went up a side street, lol. The houses and neighborhoods are absolutely beautiful and we all agreed that if we had the funds we totally live there.

Saturday we went to the  Capitol, Union Station, the Library of Congress, and the Air and Space Museum.

Sunday we invited Evan along to visit the National Zoo and the National Portrait Gallery. We also walked by the White House.It was good fun and later on that night I made pancakes for everyone. Yummy!

Monday we went to the National Archives, National Gallery, and the Museum of Natural History.

Tuesday we went to the Holocaust Museum and the monuments, including the Einstein Statue by the science society or something like that. The Holocaust Museum was beautifully done and I am glad I got a chance to see it.

Today, we got up early for a hearing on The Challenges to UN Peacekeeping and the panel we stayed for was the first one with U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice. It was interesting, but not the best I’ve been to. Also, one thing that annoys me about the hearings, and that annoyed my friend to, was that when people are given 5 minutes to ask questions they spend most of the time praising the witness and then getting to poorly formulated questions or ramblings. IT’S ANNOYING! GET TO THE POINT PLEASE! Honestly, every single representative ran out of time for these reasons. Ask the question and move on. The person is glad that you think they  are great, it was already in the opening statement, so just ask your question. Geez!

My friends and I parted ways around 1ish and I headed to a briefing at the Capitol Visitor Center on “Water Is Medicine”, which discussed the need for involvement in providing water and sanitation in developing countries. Ezma and some of her colleagues were there is well.

It’s been a great time, and I am glad my friends got me out to places I otherwise probably wouldn’t have gone. Some things I had done, but most I had not. It was good to have people from home, although it was an eye opener to some of the effects of distance. :-/ Such is life.

I meet Raul who will take over International Programs tomorrow…finally. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Peace!

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Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow….

It saddens me that our time here is slowly drawing to an end. There’s still so much that DC has to offer and I am happy that I got the opportunity to experience a fraction of the fun. DC offers a wealth of knowledge if you’re willing to soak it all up. I am still amazed at the stark differences that exist betwen DC and NY. I never thought I would say this but my heart belongs to NY and DC is a close second. We were all afforded such great opportunities and DC welcomed us with open arms. It’s a great place to meet new people and learn how the real world operates. This surely won’t be my final visit to the city that I have fallen in love with. This summer has proven to be absolutely wonderful thus far….

‘Til next Time…

EzMa!

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Africa Travel Advice: ‘Be the backseat’

I went to the National Zoo yesterday, and despite being bored by most of the animals (in Kenya, monkeys will eagerly snatch food from your hands), I’m proud of myself for walking around in the suffocating heat for 3 hours! I particularly enjoyed the panda and reptile sections. Somehow, seeing 30 foot anacondas made me feel a bit better about braving the heat and humidity. It’s funny. Anyway, the zoo is free and closes at 8 pm daily, so try and make it before the summer ends and you find yourself not having done this or that while in DC.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the title of this post, this blog post just made my day http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/nairobi/2009/07/africa-travel-advice-be-the-backseat.html

Michelle.

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A Farewell To Letters

It is with bittersweet recollection that I write of my experience at the National Center for Public Policy Research. Bitter for two reasons, that I had to leave soon and that I wasnt quite used to sitting in one place, motionless from 9 to 5. Sweet because I got a free hand to contribute in many ways to the efforts at the National Center and because I was treated to an honorary lunch on my departure, alongside a colleague headed off to China, and got the best of wishes while he got a litany of Chinese jokes including that he really wanted to go there to study Communism.

My last week was perhaps the most instructive. I had the honor of attending a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee. I got a good look at my hero and role model, Congressman Barney Frank who is the committee chairman. Rarely do you meet face to face with an individual who played such an important part in bringing about what looks to be the greatest financial crisis of the new century. Unfortunately, I did not get to see Con. Frank at work as the hearing was before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations chaired by Rep. Moore from Kansas. The title of the hearing was TARP: Warrant Repurchases and Protecting Taxpayers.

In summary, what I witnessed were 5 representatives who wanted to know how taxpayers were being protected and another 5 who werent so enthusiastic about getting the details of the process. The first witness was Assistant Treasury Secretary for Financial Stability Herbert Allison. He was called to testify and outline the process by which banks were repaying TARP funds and whether the process was transparent, efficient and for the good of the taxpayers. Like Sotomayor before him, his responses were pretty scripted. He spoke clearly, precisely and voluminously without even answering what he was asked, at least in detail. In short, he was there to dodge questions, talk around the representatives’ requests and drown the audience with convincing “statistics” and explanations.

Im reminded of a quote from Mark Twain. There are three types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.

With all due respect to Mr. Allison, I felt he was enjoying himself at the hearing telling lies of all three kinds. Some would say, he wasnt actually lying, just telling the panel before him only what they needed to know. Some representatives played along with this charade, but I was particularly impressed by Representatives Speier D-Calif and Grayson D-Florida. Their performances reminded me that a genuine desire to serve the public exists in both parties. I felt that only those two made a genuine effort to bring Allison out of his shell, but he was too clever. Representatives Biggert, Kilroy and Marchant also made efforts to get to the bottom of TARP, but my gold medals go to Kilroy and Grayson. This is the kind of stuff that should be on TV, instead of American Idol, Desperate Housewives, CSI and The Real World. Respect to all the fans of these shows; I only request that you take some time to watch your representatives in action and take time to watch 24 and Prison Break as well. I will exempt Robert because he hates FOX.

The reason for this request is that our representatives are more likely to be zealous about doing their jobs if they know their constituents watch them, take notes and expect results. The star of the hearing was Special Inspector General for TARP Neil Barofsky. It is his testimony sometime earlier that got the Treasury in trouble.

All in all, I enjoyed my internship and learned much from my tasks and assignments and expect to carry the experience with me into future endeavours. I also enjoyed the companionship of my fellow interns, especially three homo sapiens that shared the miniscule room 604 with me: Robert, Evan and Bruno. I also enjoyed time on the weeked visiting the various Smithsonian Museums. I will write about them tomorrow.

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Interesting Coincidence indeed

Our Executive Director at GSS, Margarita Rosa is a long time friend of Judge Sonia Sotomayor–over 30 years now–so it was not surprising that she went to D.C for the entire duration of the Senate hearings. She sent us a very interesting email retracing Sotomayor’s ties to GSS. Among other things, she hosted a Girls and Young Women’s Initiative event many years in a row–one of the most successful program that GSS offers for female youths. Our Exec. Dir. is rightfully so very proud and I share her feelings. It is unbelievable that she will be the third woman only to be nominated to the US Supreme Court. Since GSS has been mentioned several times in connection with the nomination, I hope that the agency will get to benefit from that unexpected exposure…They really do good work.

Anyway, aside from that, I am still buried in my writings. I have several proposal drafts that I should be getting back from my supervisor with her corrections/suggestions for change etc. I’ll see how that goes…Until next week.

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More Event Planning

Over the past week  we haven’t had as many as Hearings at the City Hall, because the budget has been passed, so our office  sponsors Jamaica Independence Day event every year, so we are again this year preparing for this event.  Primarily all intern are working together to put this event  together with the help of our Chief of Staff and Legislative Director. So recently we have confirmed some of the people those who will be participating in the Event, for example some performance groups, and some Honorees, but there is much to be done yet and it seems like i will be working on this project for the rest of my internship.

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Senate Hearing

After hearing Evan speak about the hearings he attended I couldn’t let the opportunity pass me by.  I went to the senate confirmation of Obama’s Nominee for the Head of the National Credit Union Association by the committee on Baking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.  The aesthetics of the room was impressive, it was very short.  After words I walked around the capital and visited the library of Congress.  Unfortunately I reached there at 4:15 and they close at 4:30, but it was very interesting, all 15 minutes of it.

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Screen on the Green and the Air and Space Museum

These are must do’s before you leave DC, probably for me because I love the out doors and Science.  The air and space museum was eventful and fun, I felt like such a nerd I didn’t want to leave.  Screen on the Green was an experience to see the Capital and Washington Monument at night, but the movie was terrible ” Close encounters of a third kind.”  We spent three days making fun of it though.

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Happy Hour

I know I’m bout to A-wall with the post, but as we all agree I’m long over due.  I do not know if this is appropriate or not Happy Hour, but happy hour and restaurants has been one of the best experiences in DC.  When i came here I didn’t expect to make friends at work or where I live, but that is exactly what happened.  I have been treated like family everywhere I have been so far.  My co-workers will make any excuse for us to hang out for example Rob’s going away party.  The being around my roommates and co-workers has made this summer worth while.  Mc Cormicks is by far the best happy hour (for thse 21 and older), 1/2 pound burger and fries for 2.95 at Chinatown, Little Turtle 40 cent wings ( who needs McDonalds?)

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