A 16 year old's view on Moral standards

I received a IM to look at this article. Please read this article HERE

and post a comment about your thoughts.

Below was the email I sent back to the Author:

Urmila,

I received a link to take a look at your article. I was a little dissappointed at your bleek perspective on "our" people. I actually felt the same way you did growing up at Edison High School in Jamaica, Queens and later after attending New York Universtiy I found flaws with this microscopic view of an entire community at large.

Please look at this issue from a socio-ecomonic angle. the Guyanese community that you are referring to have largely settled in a area where the schools are drastically underfunded and resources are less availible to them. As a mid-twenty year old Guyanese man, I have observed that a far higher percentage of West Indians living in Long Island and New Jersey have graduated from the more esteeemed universities and hold top notch jobs for their respective fields.(As well as many who fight the odds and grow up in impoverished neighborhoods but accomplish this feat regardless). U asked someone to list 100 successful guyanese, I'll give you 200 if you like but the facts should be more than i know this person or I see this action. I can reel off names of people in Med school, law school, optometry school, dental school, doing their masters in English, Engineering and so on or working in the business world and making quite a large stamp on it. Do you know we have a west indian lawyer in the DA's office in Queens? The world will be very different place for you in a couple years when you are in college and you see what it takes to be successful and west indian with all the baggage that is often associated with that. I would like you to compare the percentages of Guyanese students who move on to universities in Richmond Hill versus ther percentage of Indian students from Jackson Heights who move on to college, this will help you understand that the limiting factors are not as clear as you make them seem..

Don't get me wrong, I love your message - Do for yourself, and change this trend- , but your presentation is judgemental and agruementative. You are passing judgement on those who drink and curse as those are evil virtues. That may or may not be true. Is that what you judge the character of an individual on? Give me the drinker who contributes to helping people anyday versus the Church goer wouldn't pee on a man on fire.

I actually hope you write me back because I've started a mentorship program recently for Indo-Caribbean Youth and would love your perspective on some of the things we have been working on. If you say that action is nessecary than I would love to see you get involved in this in some manner. I can be reached on AIM at Aluball17 or via email at outram@gmail.com.

All the best,
Christopher Outram

A real world perspective

I figure the most important conversation i've had in a long time should be documented somewhere:


[13:33] alaced16: nothing so new here though...i feel like i've been living here for ever...
[13:33] alaced16: went on a township tour though
[13:34] alaced16: where like 80% of the population lives
[13:34] alaced16: it was serious
[13:34] alaced16: i damn near cried i don't know how many times\
[13:34] Aluball17: what's the deal there
[13:34] alaced16: like...810 kids in this small ass school...
[13:34] alaced16: well...
[13:34] Aluball17: poverty ?
[13:34] alaced16: lots of poverty
[13:35] Aluball17: like we never seen huh ?
[13:35] alaced16: like cape town is gorgeous with excellent real estate beaches etc,. but only 20% of the ppulation lives there
[13:35] alaced16: like never
[13:35] Aluball17: sounds like brazil
[13:35] alaced16: just like brazil...i actually took photos...i felt a way about doing it..but i had to be able to remember
[13:35] alaced16: and i made friends with some lil kids and stuff
[13:35] alaced16: but yo chris...it is soo serious
[13:36] Aluball17: werd
[13:36] Aluball17: are you goin back anywhere
[13:36] Aluball17: like SA
[13:36] alaced16: like would i come back again in the future
[13:36] alaced16: ?
[13:36] Aluball17: yea
[13:36] alaced16: for sure...i have so many mixed feelings about this place
[13:37] alaced16: its too beautiful not to love it..but too impoverished for oyu to ignore how people are suffering
[13:37] alaced16: the class system is absurd
[13:37] alaced16: but the thing about it is that no one seems to be complaining about it...that's what's getting me...and i don't mean it in a negaative way
[13:38] alaced16: but really...people just keep doing them...working hard...trying to maitain for their families
[13:38] alaced16: but its the kids that bug me out though...
[13:38] alaced16: they are really going through alot
[13:39] alaced16: i did the robben island tour to go see nelson mandela's prison two weeks ago
[13:39] alaced16: that was cool...
[13:39] alaced16: choppy boat ride though
[13:40] alaced16: thought i was going to hurl 3x
[13:41] Aluball17: werd
[13:41] Aluball17: but compared to ghana
[13:43] alaced16: well compared to ghana I can't definitively say that the poverty is greater but it seems so because of the way that the living conditions are so segregated...in Ghana people are like 98% black so the disparity between classes although great is a lot less where you have a nummerous amounts of whites, coloured and indian all who are living economically well above the blacks
[13:43] alaced16: so i would say that because of the beauty of the place and the vast development and urbanization, it only makes the poverty look that much worse
.[13:44] alaced16: imagine the slums of brazil right across the street from the opulence of san diego
[13:44] alaced16: and that is cape town
[13:44] Aluball17: i see ... this is gonna be a dumb question
[13:44] Aluball17: but what kinda coruption in the gov't takes place
[13:44] Aluball17: to keep this structure in place
[13:44] alaced16: down here?'
[13:45] alaced16: well not really much corruption is needed...its just not taking active reformation policies after apartheid...the gov has just been slow to reverse the kind of segregation that took place before democracy came here in 94. It really is an issue of no one government wanting to rock the boat to much since racial tensions were volatile in the past
[13:46] alaced16: like right now they are talking about land redistribution and everyone is really timid b/c they are afraid to be too radical

Deal with that

This is a Bill Simmons article I found on ESPN.com and realized shortly after reading this that, a woman will write a letter similar to this one 2 days after the marriage.

Know how Lou Piniella flips out during Devil Rays games? He seems calm compared with the Sports Gal's reaction after she realized the NFL season had started again. "Didn't the season just end?" she yelped. "It's like one of those monsters that won't die!"

I knew there was only one way to calm her down-by handing this column over to her. Jokingly, I offered her 800 words to describe everything she hates about me as a sports fan. She laughed, stopped laughing and quickly disappeared. Twenty minutes later, she returned with a long list carefully crammed onto a single page. I read through it, laughed a few times, then handed the paper back.

"You didn't read the other side," she said.

This seemed cathartic for her, but since she's not a writer, I figured I'd do her the favor of paraphrasing her thoughts:

She hates that I'm always listening to sports radio in the car. She hates that I refuse to throw out ticket stubs, even though they're not worth anything. She hates my WhatIfSports.com addiction (or as she calls it, "playing with dead baseball players") and that I have as many as four or five fantasy teams going at once. She hates peeking over my shoulder when I'm "writing a column," only to find that I'm actually changing pitchers on one of those teams. She really hates hearing me make trades on the phone, especially when I'm talking to a friend who is at work. That, she says, is "truly pathetic."

She hates watching a TiVo'd program that I'd watched live, during which I flipped back and forth to a game, ensuring a weirdly edited version for her viewing. But not as much as when she's happily watching a show and the TiVo changes channels to start recording a random NBA game from 1982. Wow, does she hate that.

She hates that I keep buying sports pictures for my office when I have 20 other pictures gathering dust in our garage. She hates that whenever we go to a game together I have to check the seats first before we buy food and drinks. She hates when I turn on Cheap Seats, because she can't stand those guys, and she feels like I'm antagonizing her. She hates that I leave USA Today sports sections everywhere so she never knows which ones to throw out. She hates-hates-hates that my closet is filled with jerseys and T-shirts I never wear, and that every time she tries to chuck them, I react like she's ripping my heart out.

She hates that I can't find any of my own stuff, especially when I ask for her help locating my lucky Pats ski cap. Actually, that makes her doubly crazy because she hates that I think my clothing affects the outcome of games. She hates when I want to scrap plans we've made after I belatedly realize there's a good fight on (probably because I pull the wouldn't-it-be-more-fun-to-stay-home-together-followed-by-wow-I-didn't-know-there-was-a-fight-tonight routine).

She hates when I gamble, hates that I scream at the TV and really hates when I sulk after my team loses. She hates that I play Madden on the treadmill and that I honestly care about my team's record and stats. Last week, she happened to be watching when one of my guys intercepted a pass and streaked down the sideline for a sure TD, until I made him run out of bounds at the 2. When she asked why, I casually explained, "I'm trying to break the touchdown record with Dillon." I can't begin to tell you how much she hated that.

She hates when I yell for her to come into the room to watch a replay and make her sit through it even though she's told me she doesn't care. She hates when I toggle between channels, and she really hates when I then get sidetracked by a game and don't return in time to the show she likes. She hates that I'm convinced she times her entrances for the biggest moments of games. She hates when my friends leave sports-related messages on my answering machine, especially the ones who don't identify themselves first before ranting like lunatics. And she really hates when I'm excitedly talking to my friends about sports in what she calls the Annoying Voice, the one that is 50 decibels above my normal one. She really, really hates the Annoying Voice. She'd murder the Annoying Voice if she could.

More than anything, she hates that I wake up on Sundays and watch football for 14 straight hours without showering, changing or leaving the house.

Well, you know what? I'm throwing her a bone this season. Instead of pulling that routine every weekend, I'm cutting it down to every other one.

And she thinks I don't care.

This email drama continues

During the first week of football (where I planed my day around 8 hours of nonstop football), I saw a disturbing commercial that I had to share in a email to Andrea S. Donkor

"So there is a new Sprint commercial – “hey if the BLT has Mayo shouldn’t it be the MBLT?” They then went on to argue about the logic in calling it a BLT not unlike our email conversation.

I don’t know if you feel as hurt as I do about this turn of developments but it hit me hard. So I realize that my email is being tapped. So please speak to me in code and remember the revolution will not be televised.


C.outr – ( the code for Christopher Outram )"

I received a reply:


"C.outr,
"Ti ash omec ot ym antoentit ahtt uyo mya eb ghirt. Ew rea ni raveg rngade fi tahw uyo ays si erut. Eyambe ew houlds ylon ueresm uro mnmoticaucin avi het iorda qyencrufe hatt 'Oamsr ylovngirewmhe reagle srea tiem. Uyo d'tinn alryl seoth sgthin reew nahum idi uoy? Ywanay, itlun enth, ekat arce nad I liwl itawa ruoy ristf assegam."
Assuming that the "powers that be" crack my very complex syntactic code, it will be no problem since my message doesn't say more than:
"It has come to my attention that you may be right. We are in grave danger if what you are saying is true. Maybe we should only resume our communication via the radio frequency that Omar's overwhelmingly large ears emit. You didn't really think those things were human did you?
Anyway, until then, take care and I will await your first message."
Now the only thing we have to worry about is "them" finding Omar. But alas, I am not concerned since there are virtually one million and one strip bars in New York City.
Over and out,
Dredonk (code name for drea donkor).
P.S. Far too much time on my hands...i swear. Can you believe that I manually scrambled that entire message?!? It gave me a headache. I am a loser. Peace."

Andrea "Keep hope alive" Donkor,
1) Can __________________________
2) yuo __________________________
3) eeelbvi __________________________
4) I __________________________
5) tptdmetae __________________________
6) to __________________________
7) cpriedhe __________________________
8) it __________________________
9) dna __________________________
10) het __________________________
11) helow __________________________
12) leami __________________________
13) ebfreo __________________________
14) ealgiinzr __________________________
15) hte __________________________
16) rset __________________________
17) fo __________________________
18) ti __________________________
19) aws __________________________
20) ni __________________________
21) hlsniE.g __________________________
22) We __________________________
23) ashll __________________________
24) allc __________________________
25) rOma __________________________
26) ruo __________________________
27) dcoe __________________________
28) eamn __________________________
29) rof __________________________
30) imh __________________________
31) ... __________________________
32) Te"h __________________________
33) Bi"hct __________________________
34) mdea __________________________
35) veen __________________________
36) mreo __________________________
37) oncrupeodn __________________________
38) by __________________________
39) hte __________________________
40) tounma __________________________
41) fo __________________________
42) oalcohl __________________________
43) eh __________________________
44) nesmousc __________________________
45) oerfeb __________________________
46) gttigne __________________________
47) erdi.bainte __________________________


I found a word scrambler online and tweaked it to handle a whole paragraph. Thought you myte appreciate the many ways of doing this exercise.
It should read:

'Can you believe I attempted to decipher it and the whole email before realizing the rest of it was in English. We shall call Omar our code name for him ... "The Bitch" made even more pronounced by the amount of alcohol he consumes before getting inebriated. '
Yours truly,
The man, the myth

Lol...
I am so angry that there was an easier way to scramble that message....damn...
Dredonk

The Email with Growing Infamy

So i Sent an email to Andrea S. Donkor who is studying in South Africa.

" I need to talk to you about something important: BLT’s. I think the acronym is really misleading because I expect a sandwich to have Lettuce and Tomato meaning a BLT is really just Bacon on the original sandwich. I wud love your thoughts "

And Received a Response of

" There is a time in every individual's life when they must acknowledge that something profound has been revealed to them...when someone else's words are nothing short of a divine revelation...and when another person's original thoughts evince innovative mental exercise at its best. However, your thoughts on the BLT is not quite that moment in time for me. Please let me elaborate...
Although it is true that one would expect lettuce and tomato on any common delicatessen sandwich, this does not mean that the whole sandwich industry as a whole should not be condemned for their broad assumptions. Who is to say that "it goes without saying" that there should be lettuce and tomato on MY sandwich? In fact, what makes lettuce and tomato so phenomenal that it should be presumed as a sandwich element over another condiment/vegetable like olives or even a pickle?
For too long sandwich makers have applied their own laws on what is and is not the desire of the common sandwich consumer. I'll have you know that I know plenty of people - PLENTY! - who do not adore the lettuce and tomato. On occasion, I have watched these very people say clearly in a loud and boisterous voice "hold the lettuce and tomato!" They are annoyed when they arrive at their home only to find that the Burger King employee carelessly disregarded their plea, and that they must now suffer the labor of picking out the lettuce and tomato that is laden betwixt the sesame seeded bun of their whopper. At that very moment, the sandwich consumer curses the employee with feelings of annoyance and shame. They feel annoyance because they are convinced that the employee is an idiot. They feel shame because they are forced to feel like outcasts in a world that assumes that lettuce and tomato are the norm.
But no more - no