The fact of the matter is foreign aid policy is more political than personal. Often, even if a foreign country has high levels of extreme poverty, other nations will reduce aid if the foreign country’s political leaders act contrary to the prevailing will of the donating country. Read More…
You have love on your jacket,” said a man next to me. I nod and keep staring out the window. He is a foot taller than me. The canvas coat he wears is stained with grease, and he smells like a gutter. Moments earlier, he said he had served in Read More…
In a depressing sign of the times, a survey released this week shows a record number of college-educated Americans self-identify as “lower-class.” This news, sadly, is hardly shocking. It’s just another unpleasant reminder of the challenges millenial UC Berkeley students face as we prepare to depart the Berkeley bubble for Read More…
The percentage of college-educated Americans who identify as “lower class” increased to 3 percent in 2012 according to the General Social Survey, the highest rate since the survey was first taken in 1972. Read More…
“What are you doing?” I turned and looked over my shoulder to where my husband was standing. He was watching me at the bathroom sink as I scrubbed my face with an exfoliating pad covered in toothpaste. “Giving myself a facial. What does it look like?” “With toothpaste?” “Of course.” Read More…
They came to me in the middle of the night. They were young and beautiful and dressed up like they were about to go out. I had about an hour’s warning, and their knock on the door was light so as to wake no one who wasn’t already up. When Read More…
Corn tortillas were being warmed over an open gas burner, perfuming the kitchen with that taco night scent. A simmering pan bubbled and spat, and I spotted a mounded bowl of shredded jack cheese. Tomatoes, lettuce and onions were arranged like birthday balloons in bright colors, and bottle of crema Read More…
“We’re going to go on an adventure.” My mom had woken me up sometime after midnight to tell me this news. I blinked in the low light, trying to wake up fully. “What?” “You’re going to pack up your backpack for a trip. Bring clothes and the stuff that’s most Read More…
If you attended high school in the United States, you probably read a story called “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. It’s a story about a poor woman who borrows a necklace from a friend and loses it. She then panics because she believed the necklace was worth a great Read More…
It is one of the first things that makes students uncomfortable when moving to Berkeley — the widespread poverty. Encountering this social welfare problem tends to be strange because for the majority of students, this level of poverty is only seen on occasion and probably not seen in our hometowns. Read More…