NPR round up

I realized I have been hoarding quite a few pieces on my iPod, so I thought I better share them so I can clear out my playlist's history.  Here you go...in no particular order.

I have not especially been following NPR's Hard Times series ... but this one is a keeper.  It is about Berea College.  Unfortunately, for me, I didn't find out about this place until I had finished undergraduate work. I wonder how my life would have been different had I attended a place like this instead of Princeton.  This was my favorite quote:

She recalls coming with her mother for her first visit to the campus.
"I finished my tour, and my mom turned to me and said, 'If you choose this school or any school, I want you to be as proud of what you're doing as these students seem to be. I don't care what school you choose, but this is the only one I've seen where people seem to love what they're doing,' " Nugent remembers.

I love this story of resilience.  It's about how an area in Greece is making barter a larger part of their economic system in order to cope with the economic crisis.  This is the kind of subversive action I can get behind in these troubled times.  If only our Occupiers were putting forth good ideas of how to subvert capitalism in order to help ourselves!

I don't think I ever got around to sharing this one, but if I did, it's ok... it's worth a second listen.  This is J Cole, a rapper I have never heard of, but that is not surprise. I generally don't listen to rap music.  So, it is part of NPR's desire to reach into the younger demographic, but it a genuinely interesting story.  And there's this little piece of metanarrative near the end of the interview that tickled me.  Here's a snippet where he describes his mom putting his drive into perspective:

"My mom tells this story of when I was in the second grade or first grade, and I would be at the teacher's desk, asking her, 'Can I get my average?' " Cole recalls with a laugh. "And the teacher would be like, 'Man, you're in the first grade! Why do you want your average?' But it was a competition for me — like, I really want to be the best. Anything I do, I want to do it well."

Another old one that has been gathering dust about the *war* on drugs and thinking through what might be termed a new kind of surge.  I enjoyed the author's take on how linked Juarez and El Paso are in reality despite being on either side of a border.  I think you have to respect people who change their opinion after recognizing the damage a moral stand can take when it doesn't take into account the real pain the moral stand ignores.  Here's a taste of this editorial like piece:

"El Paso knows how Juarez works and how it suffers, for El Paso bears firsthand witness to the bloody drug gang carnage in its neighbors' streets. In January 2009, the El Paso City Council toyed with the idea of recommending drug legalization as a means of crippling the finances of Mexico's criminal organizations. The City Council requested a national U.S. dialogue on ending the prohibition of narcotics. The council's resolution (which El Paso's mayor vetoed as unrealistic) upset several Texas state representatives. The state representatives argued the resolution indicated El Paso had surrendered in the fight against illegal narcotics."

I am not sure how I feel about this policy as a long term solution to our college graduation rates, but I salute Tennessee and CUNY for making a real effort to help students get through community college.  I think the jury is still out on the final question about whether or not four year colleges have something to learn from this model.  But even recognizing how students spend their time fumbling around in their first two years might bring us to better results.  What do you think?

This one is added to the pile on unlikely dating schemes (that is with the CL missed connections and various dating sites, etc).  Who would have thought that the IKEA would become the hook up hub?  You have to listen in on this one.  If you don't have time, here is a good part:

"You can find a boyfriend or girlfriend, or just make friends and chat. It makes you a little bit happier," says Ge, a smartly dressed 50-year-old woman who retired this year.
Ge's friend, ... a retired bus-ticket seller ... says IKEA is a good place to meet people if you're divorced or widowed, because there is so much matchmaking going on.
"If I meet a guy and he's appropriate for me, we can call each other," Ge explains. "But if he finds someone more suitable for me, he'll help and introduce me to the other guy."
...
"When we go out, we don't tell people we're going here," Han says. "We tell them we're going to a tea house. We don't tell them we go to IKEA, because IKEA is the place to find boyfriends and girlfriends."