Mucho Trabajo Poco Dinero

We live in a neighborhood of San Francisco called Monterey Heights. It was built in 1928-29 and has about four hundred, mostly large homes. From time to time, some of them go on the market. Since the original buildings are old, they need to be updated, which sometimes involves stripping it down to the studs. Lately, when I’ve walked in the neighborhood with our dog Max, I saw quite a few remodeling projects going on. Passing by, I was not surprised to hear that the construction workers were speaking in Spanish, the language that I’ve tried to learn over the years; particularly before traveling to Spanish speaking countries like Mexico and recently to Spain. But I never progressed very far, probably because in every country we visited, people spoke in English. Nevertheless, I remembered a few phrases. While walking by one of the construction projects, I greeted the foreman, ”Buenos dias, mucho trabajo.” To which he responded, “Mucho trabajo, paco dinero.” A lot of work, but little pay.” But then he added in English, “Thanks God, there is work.” According to linkedin.com, there are 2000+ Spanish jobs in San Francisco. About 10% of the Spanish speakers, close to 90,000 people reside in San Francisco. It is one of 112 languages spoken in the Bay Area.

P.S. I do not know where the four people I encountered came from, but all of them spoke Spanish and English.

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Why It Is Good To Drink More Water

When I googled “How much water do we need to drink?” I found quite a few articles, which stated that there is an 8X8 rule, which translates to eight 8 ounces glasses, which equals about 2 liters, or half a gallon; all intended to maintain good health. As it relates to our current concern over the Corona Virus,  there might be at least a few more reasons why we should use and drink more water.

I do not want to diminish the potential threat of the epidemic, which, it seems, can be eliminated or at least reduced by such small measures like washing hands and drinking water, but those simple steps seem to be logical. Meanwhile, through my research, I learned there are other bigger common threats to our lives, which are not mentioned in the media, and which can also be reduced by simple measures like drinking water. When I googled “How many people died from the flu”, I found the numbers were staggering. And then when I checked “how many people died from car accidents”, the number blew my mind. You might have heard the advice to drink more water when you get common flu, but what do car accidents have to do with that? I know from personal experience that if I am tired while driving, I drink water from my reusable bottle, which is always in my car, and it helps wake me up a little, until I can safely stop. 

We are exposed to a lot of misinformation and negative publicity. Nevertheless, I am sure something good is going to happen, which will save more lives in the future. Since more money is poured into research for the cure, many countries will come with up unconventional solutions through their joint efforts, which will help not only deal with COVID-19, but with other medical issues as well.

P.S. Up to 60% of human bodies are made up of water, we are surrounded by it, and I like to photograph water in its different manifestations, like these four images you see now. You can find more images of the blue water on my website mannykagan.smugmug.com.

  

The Day of Eighth of March

We didn’t have Valentine’s Day when I grew up in Riga, Latvia; however, we celebrated Women’s Day, which was commonly called “The Day of Eighth of March”. Women were honored with flowers and candies, and men would get drunk to honor the women in their lives. The holiday, which is known as International Women’s Day is celebrated as a focal point in the movement for women’s rights. The event started in New York in 1909, but in 1910, at the International Socialist Women’s Conference, German revolutionary Clara Zetkin proposed that the 8^th of March be honored as a day annually in memory of working women.

The book she gave me was written by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton titled “The Book of Gutsy Women”. It shares stories of about 120 remarkable women from all over the world. After Hillary Clinton ran for the President of the United States in 2016, she paved the road and in 2019 there were six women who followed her footsteps. There are many remarkable women in the world besides those who were mentioned in “Gutsy Women”. Thirty-four years young Finland’s new female prime minister, Sana Marin, leads a coalition government made up of five parties, all of them led by women. Four of those women are under 35. We do not have to travel too far to find gutsy women. In July 2018 London Breed, became the first black female Mayor of San Francisco. But I would like to go even closer. Since my birth seventy-three years ago, I have been surrounded by gutsy women. After giving birth to three children, my mom went back to school while still working as a teacher. When I met my wife Elfa fifty-two years ago, I also met her mother, another gutsy woman, who survived two World Wars, starvation, losing her infant son to hunger during the war, and taking care of my wife as a single parent (her husband died when Elfa was 10). And of course there is my wife, who not only was gutsy to marry me when we were both twenty, but as a life partner, we’ve traveled together through a challenging life, overcoming two emigrations and for over thirty-five years running a mortgage company together. And of course both of my daughters, Alona and Tamar, who are gutsy women in their own way.

March 8^th is the date of the celebration. I am sure you know at least one woman (does not have to be gutsy, though many of them are) who deserves your special attention.

P.S. Flowers are always appreciated, and this is why I am sharing these four beautiful images with you. To get them, I went to Golden Gate Park, where they were planted in front of the Flower Pavilion.

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What is Your American Dream?

When we moved to San Francisco in August 1980, as students, my dream was to find a job to enable me to pay taxes. Then after I became a mortgage broker in September 1983, my dream was to buy our family home. It was fulfilled in April 1984 (and we still live there). For many years I thought that the term American Dream referenced homeownership in America. As a mortgage broker, I was proud that for over thirty-six years I have helped thousands of clients reach their American Dream. And then on January 31st, I read an article in “The Wall Street Journal” titled, “The American Dream is Alive and Well” by Michael Strain. It started with the sentence “What do President Trump and Bernie Sanders have in common?” Turned out that they, as many other prominent people, “voiced concern about the death of the American Dream.” Mr. Strain is the Director of Economic Policy at The American Enterprise Institute and is the author of his new book, “The American Dream is Not Dead”. In Wikipedia I found out that “The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals of the United States, the set of ideals (democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.”

The article points out that “presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-declared “democratic socialist” has often said that the United States should be more like Scandinavia”. Actually Scandinavia consists of three countries – Denmark, Sweden and Norway. By adding Finland and Iceland it is commonly known as Norden. These are five completely different countries, with different peoples, traditions and history, with a total population of about 27 million, which constitutes about 8% of 327 million of Americans. There is another statistic. 5.52 million Finnish people are considered to be the happiest in the world. They probably accomplished their Finnish Dream. As far as Bernie is concerned, he reached his American Dream, as it was posted recently in an article in Politico “The Secret of Bernie’s Millions”. If he would move to Finland, he would become an honorable senior citizen, since the Prime Minister of Finland Social Democrat Sanna Mirella Maria is thirty-four years young.

P.S. I agree with Michael Strain – the American Dream is alive. While not everyone can reach it, everyone can dream about, like probably these four young people I encountered.

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What Is Hope?

On February 8^th, we attended the Russian Gala. It was organized by the JFCS, which this year celebrates 170 years. In 1850, three years after a small village called Yerba Buena became known as San Francisco, August Helbing established the Eureka Benevolent Society with the purpose to help new Jews arriving from Europe to settle in the new land. In 1939, the organization was renamed the Jewish Family Service Agency. It not only helped Jewish people; but also helped people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds. In the mid-70s, the JFSA helped to resettle Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees. By the time we arrived in San Francisco in August 1980, the organization, which became known as the JFCS (Jewish Family and Children’s Services) was helping thousands of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union to settle in their new home in San Francisco and the Bay Area. As time passed, many of those Jews who were helped by the JFCS, established themselves, became professionals and entrepreneurs, raised families and started paying back by helping those in need, and by giving their donations. And then nineteen years ago a group of successful émigrés decided to celebrate the organization’s good work with a party. As the years progressed, the event became known as “Russian Gala”, a sold out celebration that drew in many people of various backgrounds; not only Jews and émigrés.

One of the reasons for JFCS’ success, is its leadership. The organization is headed by Dr. Anita Friedman. In her opening remarks, Dr. Friedman pointed out that though the history of persecutions, extermination, pogroms, the Holocaust, and expression of Antisemitism in Europe and extremists’ killing of Jews in our country, the optimism is not a Jewish trait. However, Jews tend to possess a perpetual hope that in spite of the intentions of others, they survive and prosper and always will be in the forefront to make our world a better place to live.

P.S. Instead of showing images of the Violins of Hope, I decided to share with you four special bouquets of flowers to honor the memory of the musicians who played on those violins.

Do not give up hope and Share it with a Friend!