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Story of a man with multiple careers

Rick Winterson, Senior Editor of South Boston Online

Story of a Man with Multiple Careers

BOSTON- “Who are you Rick Winterson?” The 73-year-old man does not smile, he laughs; out loud.

Winterson would not know what LOL means because he refuses to create a facebook account at the expense of being “hit in the face” to join the network. He does not own a cell phone, a T.V. or a computer but he owns books, a lot, and describes himself as an avid reader.

The former 1960s folk guitar player graduated from MIT University in chemical engineering before entering his service, “it was an obligation at the time,” he says swallowing one by one the handful of almonds he put on a paper towel on a table of his office. He was sent to the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific to test “the so-called weapon of mass destruction,” he says, the Atomic weapon Test, “a weapon that cannot be used in the world, that is just genocide,” he adds.

After spending 40 years all around the world and five years in Europe between 1978 and 1983, Winterson went back to the U.S. “I was not happy,” he says behind his Boston Celtics hat sipping from his Boston Globe mug. So he worked as a consultant in the engineering industry, “it was a novelty,” he explains and because he had the skills, “it was ok,” he concludes.

“I had a beach head,” he says using the military metaphor to mention the opportunity he had working in the German Engineering Plastics Imports named ROHM. Winterson imported the coding of the pills most Americans were swallowing on a daily basis, as well as fake women fingernails, he only imported in salons because of sanitary purposes and plastic tops that were “highly specialized,” he says.

Married with four kids, Winterson describes himself as being for many years a family man. His current co-workers describe him as perfectionist, witty and fun, “he knows something about everything,” says Barbara Caputo, contributor editor at South Boston Online (SBOL).

Fifteen years ago, he went through personal difficulties and decided to change his life.

To change their life, women often start by changing their hair-style from a brunette to a platine-blond, Winterson decided to change careers. He opened a health store in Boston that sold Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM, Indian medicines, plants and herbal based drugs but in the back of his head, his ambition was to be an actor, “which I did,” he says. In the meantime Winterson started in the “Stage Source” company a decade ago.

“We see him all the time,” says Caputo glancing at the screen of her computer, “he is everywhere.” “And is always politically correct,” adds her colleague at the newspaper Jeanne Rooney who yelled at Winterson with irony that he was going to get docked for being late on that day.

Yes, Rick Winterson is a lucky man, he only works with women in his office, “sometimes he fakes he is deaf,” says Roseanne McKeanna contributor at the SBOL.  “Often, we litteraly torture him,” adds her colleague Caputo with a devil smile. Then she sighs, “but we would be lost without him.”

He took courses of voice training admitting that in this business, “you prepare yourself all these years to be unemployed.” But “I had an advantage,” he says in comparison to the young and beautiful actors, “I was already old and ugly.”

Winterson left the herbal store and read in a new publication a job offer as a proofreader. “I have good eyes for errors,” says the engineer.

This is why he circled all of the errors of an article of the publication, went to the office, handed the article full of red marks and said, “Could I have the job?”

In 2000, Rick Winterson started as a proofreader at the South Boston Online newspaper and worked his way up to be now called the Senior Editor. “He is meticulous and very intelligent,” shouts Jeanne Rooney, the publisher and editor of SBOL from the back of the office.

“I never had done journalistic writing before,” explains Winterson, when the editor of the newspaper sent him to cover a Business Article in replacement of one of the reporters who called and said he was sick. But the company he wrote the article on liked the article very much, which allowed Winterson to fully start his third career, in “boasting a good percentage of the writing,” he says.

« I think he’s most effective when he’s doing a human interest story, » says Jackie Rooney, owner of Rooney Real Estate Inc. neighbor of SBOL.

After traveling around the world, Winterson went back to the place he was born, Boston, and got involved not only at the SBOL offices on East Broadway, but also with the South Boston community, the 6 feet tall man uses his energy to help kids on acting work as well as keeping them out of trouble, he explains with a smile.

The Senior Editor kept acting in Independent movies, plays or TV news broadcast, “you get what you can,” he says and joined the Screen Actor Guild of America.

The man with three careers keeps himself busy. He is going to visit his family in England in June because even though he loves acting, reading and writing, Winterson says he loves traveling.

The last British mountain he climbed was 3500 feet high, maybe this time he will try to double the altitude height.

Story of a woman who “had to” kill her husband

By Eléonor Picciotto

BOSTON- “She had no other choice,” Attorney Rosemary Scapicchio began as she defended her client at the Suffolk Superior Court House closing trial on a rainy Monday of March.

Sharon Fitzpatrick was charged with second-degree murder for the fatal stabbing of her husband, Sylvester Mitchell, in their Dorchester home. Assistant District Attorney David Deakin, chief of the DA’s Family Protection and Sexual Assault Bureau, is trying the case with defense attorney Rosemary Scapicchio before Judge Judith Fabricant in courtroom 817.

On May 5, 2007, Sharon Fitzpatrick, 39, had prepared a cake and gotten a bottle of champagne to celebrate the 40^th birthday of her husband Sylvester, who arrived home in Dorchester around 4a.m. that night after she tried to call him several times. About a half hour later the fight that started between the couple degenerated. Fitzpatrick grabbed the knife she had brought to their bedroom to cut the cake, and stabbed her husband twice to death.

Mose Mitchell, who was living one floor above their house, heard the screams, went down, and saw his brother lying on the floor bleeding and repeating, “I love my wife.”  He called 911 and shortly after Sylvester Mitchell was admitted at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, where he died few hours later.

According to her attorney, Fitzpatrick had to kill her husband to save her life. “He was a violent-vicious man, an out-of-control person,” said Scappicchio. “Not that he needed a push, but he had cocaine, alcohol and a history of violence in his system.”

Sylvester Mitchell strangled his ex-girlfriend four years before, and 17 years prior to this incident he shot a man. When her husband came back Fitzpatrick tried to get him to leave, knowing that he was drunk, he had killed before, explained her lawyer to the 40 people hearing the trial, “She had no other choice,” she repeated.

The fingerprint police officials found on the knife was between the blade and the handle. According to the defense attorney, this proved that it was a defensive and not aggressive act. ADA Deakin claimed Fitzpatrick stabbed her husband in anger and not in fear, “when she was asked by the police why she did that,” Deakin said, “Fitzpatrick said she was mad, not afraid.”

“Stop Sylvester. No Sylvester, no!” are the words Mose Mitchell and his wife heard, before the drama.  “Do you yell this unless you are in fear for your life?” asked Scapicchio to the 13 jurors. She continued, “Sharon Fitzpatrick grabbed whatever was available, it was either him or her. She had no time to think.”

“There is a lot of imagination going into the defense,” argued the prosecutor, criticizing his opponent because this “case was based on evidences, not speculations.”

Deakin reiterated the audience the nine calls Fitzpatrick had placed between 2.43 a.m. and 4.10 a.m. yelling at her husband, Deaking said Fitzpatrick was angry, locked him out of the house, then stabbed her mini-van tires, hid the knife behind the bedroom’s mirror instead of calling 911 with the phone that was charging on the bed, and told the police in the presence of the victim who responded “they must have come from behind,” that he had “come home stabbed.”

Deakin said the evidences showed that there was no sign of life and death struggle, the room was not damaged and that Fitzpatrick “lied over and over again to the police.”

She unlawfully stabbed her husband “not once but twice in the chest two to three and four to five inches deep” without justification or excuse. The prosecutor closed his pleading by saying that Fitzpatrick was charged with a second-degree murder because there was no premeditation.

“She is guilty for the killing of her husband and must be held accountable,” responded Deakin after Scapicchio  said that, “we have all made yelling phone calls when people are late, this does not make her a murderer.”

Is Sharon Fitzpatrick is not guilty for stabbing her husband because it was an act of absolute defense? Or was it a deliberate action?

According to the DA on April 4, 2010, jurors sent down a note indicating that they were at an impasse in their deliberations could not reach a unanimous decision.

“We are currently waiting to schedule a new trial,” said DA Jack Wark.

How to and here to get the food– in Boston

We all are surrounded by convenience stores, such as 7-Eleven, but those do not provide real food. They have been implanted for professional microwavers or stopgap solutions. As students or young active workers, those places are great for a gallon of milk with a pack of cereal, not to prepare a real dinner. If you shop smart, two hours every ten days are enough to fill your fridge with healthy and tasty food at affordable price without ordering once.

Spread out nationally, different brands of supermarkets have been established in most American cities. On the East Coast, Shaws Supermarkets prevail. Customers can get anything they want rather cheaply. However, fruits and vegetables stay expensive.

Whole Foods is amazing for its selection of foreign products, cheese, all sorts of fresh bread, meat, and a variety of specific products, but it remains one of the most expensive supermarket. Trader Joes is the perfect mix between the previous two. It combines good products at great prices and for the most part is organic. When the three above are close enough to the place you live, excuses not to feed properly one’s self become hard to find.

Peapod.com has established itself as one of America’s leading Internet grocers. With a few clicks, your food gets delivered almost in your bed.

­­­In a city like Boston, the Hay Market, close to Government Center is a fresh market where you can find great deals for fruits and vegetables. $1.50 for three avocados, or two pounds of oranges. And if you have a car, use it. Russo’s farmer’s market in Watertown, M.A., has a large selection of fresh food; anything from that goes from fruits and vegetables to cheese, soups and a variety of olive oils.

Also, we do not always think about restaurants that have “Fine Fast Food” corners, such as the Italian Restaurant Bottega Fiorentina on Newbury Street in Boston where you can ask for half a pound a thinly sliced prosciuto that will cost less than $5.

Small delicatessens are great places to bring fancy restaurant food home at a lower cost.

South Boston Security

BOSTON- The South Boston Police Station C-6 held its monthly neighborhood Security Advisory Council on Monday and introduced the “Real Time Crime Center.”

On March 2^nd, Mayor Thomas Menino and Police Commissioner Edward Davis explained the new technology the Boston Police will implement to increase the public safety of city residents. The $500,000 Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) is a new division of the Bureau of Intelligence and Analysis that combines police work and technology.

The RTCC is responsible for monitoring ongoing police incidents and events as well as providing relevant information and data in “real time” manner.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino stated,  “the Real Time Crime Center and the reformatted BPDNews.com are two great examples of how the City of Boston continues to use innovative technology to make our city safer.”

The RTCC’s staff has access to crime and intelligence databases, communication and camera systems and a Shotspotter system. All of which are dedicated “to this task fulltime.”

“We need that,” exclaimed Richard Doherty, community service officer, “especially in the coming weeks.” He said that Saint Patrick day was the busiest day of the year for the district. Station C-6 officers said that they have seen the parade getting out of control; this is why Chief Evans is requiring more enforcement.

The second part of the meeting focused on the security of South Boston. « We had a very good month in terms of the Crime Rates in District Six, » said Captain Richard Evans.  In terms of year to date compared to last year, for a variety of « Part 1 crimes, » including larcenies, burglaries, rape, auto theft, the most serious are violent and property crimes.

Most of their statistics are going down, according to their records. Domestic aggravated assaults decreased of 45 percent since February 2009, commercial burglaries decreased of 73 percent, residential burglaries minus 73 percent, larcenies minus 14 percent.

« We will strive to continue our crime rate decline at District Six, » said Evans, « even if South Boston remains the safest neighborhood of the city.”

Food around Sea Port?

BOSTON-  Last February, South Boston was plunged into a Siberian cold ice desert. When the outside temperature hits a minus four degrees wind-chill, the few adventurers walk facing the ground wishing for some heat to come out of the skyscrapers.

Around Sea Port, some parents are walking home or to their cars with their children begging for them to enter the first coffee place or bakery to warm up their little hands. On Dorchester Avenue, there are neither children nor warm cozy places, only supermarkets and little houses.

Mike Kennedy, early 30, has been working at the Flour Bakery near the shore for the past two years. He explains how no students live in the neighborhood, only families or artists who stay in lofts “just for a couple of days,” he adds.

In Sea Port, there are no food shops. Kennedy lives around Farnsworth Sreet bakery, and when he is asked where to find some food, he laughs and says, “no where!”

James Gerki works at Thomson Renters, facing the Flour Bakery. He says he eats daily at the Metro café, two blocks up from his office building. “There is not really elsewhere you can go,” he says. “I think there are not a lot of people who live around here.”

Misinformed, Gerki does not know that this South Boston area has been highly developped in the real estate industry. Sea Port is now a mass of condos, loft and large apartments.

Where do the Sea Porters find to eat? “Maybe they all eat out,” Gerki jokes.

Four years ago, Nam Golder from Nepal oppened a hardware store on Congress Street. Three years later, he was strongly advised by his customers to transform a part of his shop into a convenience store, where chips, cookies, sodas and cigarettes would be available.

“People kept coming in the store asking where they could find food,” says Golder, “I still don’t even know myself.” Living in North Quincy, Golder emphasizes the need to have a car or a bike in order to feed oneself.

On the lower part of South Boston, crossing the Andrew Red Line T-stop, there is the four-miles-long Dorchester Avenue. A lot of small houses and food shops have been built in the last five or six years, according to Rick Patel, worker at Cappy’s convenience store.

When she arrived in the U.S. and started working at the Baltic European Delicatessen, the young blond Anna Nacki realized there were already four Polish food stores in the street.

“We don’t really have American customers, they go more to Star Market, it’s bigger,” she says. Even though Nacki owes a car, she rarely use it to go grocery shopping. “The Stop and Shop has everything you can find, and I can walk there, even in the cold!” says the Polish woman.

While scrapping the ice of his windshield, the old man who “[goes] by Bob M.” as his Sinatra singer name says, “It’s rather pleasant to go to the different food store, just a five minutes walk.”

After expressing a dubious look regarding the questions he was asked to answer, the face of Bob M. got smoother while he started saying he was going to perfom Neil Diamond and Johnny Cash’s music at one of the theaters on Tremont Street on Wednesday night, and with a smile, invited to spread the word, “and you will easily find food there!” says Bob M.

While the lower South Boston is enjoying the sunbeams piercing the top of the roofs, the upper South Boston is waiting for one of the modernized building to be transformed into a food store.

“If one day some people decide to open a supermarket around Sea Port,” says Gerki, “ they would make a killing.”

Is eating organic a symbol of health ?

By Eleonor Picciotto

BOSTON- For the past few years, the discussion around the virtues of organic versus non-organic food has become more popular although the real argument is, does eating organic mean eating healthy?

Mind-set, knowledge, money and time are the main factors determining what people eat at what cost. The debate has been stepped up because people are falsely informed.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), there are different definitions of “organic,” which makes it confusing to many consumers. To use the term “organic” officially, it has to be certified by going through USDA standards. But people are faking the ‘organic’ idea by using the term and by practicing ‘organic methods’ without being certified to do so.

The organic issue has become a hot topic in recent years “because it brings in more money,” explains Ilene Bezahler, publisher and editor of the Edible Boston magazine. “Everybody is using that to sell their products because organic is viewed as higher quality, which it is,” she continues.

Eating organic means eating products grown without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge or genetically modified organisms. For the animal products of dairy and meat, it means that animals that produced them were not given antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic conveys the idea of better quality food, but there is a constant amalgam made between eating organic, eating local and eating healthy because eating organic does not always mean eating healthy. To combine them all, Avital Pato Benari a health and nutrition educator, emphasizes the need to invest time and money.

Eating organic also involves expenses. Organic farmers do not receive federal subsidies, so prices reflect of the true cost of growing. They do not benefit from the economy of scale that large growers receive. Instead of using chemicals to get rid of weeds with massive spraying, organic farmers get rid of them manually, which causes higher labor costs.

“The price of veggies keep going up where the price of Coca-Cola becomes practically free,” argues Benzahler, “Our whole fruit system is totally screwed up.”

It raises the question of how could we properly spend our money to eat organic and healthy?

Health is the No.1 factor, for Christine Mathieu, a French organic vegetarian, mother of four children who probably does not weight more than 110 pounds. “I’m not an ayatollah of organic food, it’s too expensive,” she says. From a health standpoint, she explains that some veggies can be eaten non-organic without putting her “life in danger.” But from a green point of view, “to be coherent I should buy organic despite the price,” she says.

Madeline Lanciani, chef and owner of a bakery in New York, admits that when customers ask if the milk in their coffee is organic, she replies no, explaining that if they want some, they will have to pay double for their coffee. “They want organic, but nobody wants to pay for it,” she says.

Lanciani who says she uses about 10 percent of organic ingredients, would be willing to pay more to bake fully organic, “but the market industry that supply the products for the food industry does not produce bulk quantities that makes it cheaper,” she explains, “otherwise I would get it right away.” At home she tries to eat organic, “ and I don’t care about the price,” she says.

Along the same line, Carolyn Cosgrove Payne, a Boston University student who became almost 100 percent organic at the end of her freshman year, mentions the sense of priority in her expectations, “you know what you are paying for.” Payne says that eating organic is a little more expensive, but she asks “what is your satisfaction to pay four dollars for a gourmet beverage at Starbucks that will last fifteen minutes, when you can use the money for something healthy?” She has a point.

The major problem is not about how much money to spend but where to spend it, she says.  Mathieu brings up a dilemma: spend a lot at Whole Foods on organic products or drive 20 miles to go to an organic farmers market and spend less. Most people would go for the first option, non-organic at the closest supermarket.

Aside from the debate organic v. non-organic, access and proximity are determinant factors. According to USDA, there are 7000 farms in Massachusetts only 150 are certified organic, but more farmers use ‘organic techniques’. Only official labels such as QAI  or USDAprove that the product you are buying is certified organic. Most of the products available at the grocery store Whole Foods are certified.     Payne says that at Trader Joe’s, “everything they sell has an organic version.” And when she does not have time to shop, there is still the option to order online “veggies boxes,” on bostonorganics.com for example, where prices start at $24 a box.

Benari explains how hard it is to eat five vegetables a day, especially in an urban, working or college environment where people do not want to spend much money on food or time to prepare it. This is why, “obesity problems have increased,” she says, “ It is a crappy situation the U.S. have.” Benari promotes the consumption and the purchase of frozen organic fruits and vegetables, because it is cheap, convenient and just as good as fresh ones when cooked.

“It is a hippie thing to eat organic,” says Noah Zaltz, 21, who lived most of his life in Westchester, N.Y.  Although, he does not eat “consciously” organic, Zaltz said he thinks organic prepared food tastes better and fresher than non-organic.

On the contrary, the New York baker Lanciani said she thinks the difference is negligible. “There is no way to find out whether something is organic or not,” she says. The question of the taste is disputable where the question of health is not.

“I am concerned about the health of my family,” says Mathieu, “but also by the health of the workers in the farms.” Because eating organic is scientifically proven to be good for you and the environment, says Benari. It also involves taking more time to get informed and organized about various food places to get the groceries from, to eat organic, healthy and locally at lower costs.

“Anything man makes is processed food,” says Joe Finn, grocery manager at the supermarket Shaws. “The American diet promotes diseases,” he adds. Changing the mentality

towards food should be the first effort people should make. Payne believes that people need to see the after effects of what they are eating now.

Benari says that “the minute you talk about organic, you shut people off.” She explains that the meat and dairy products college students consume without paying attention are full of hormones. She wants to have students more concerned. Ironically she wonders, “they might want to have kids later and we don’t know how fertilizers affect human fertility.”

The effect of non-organic v. organic on the human body has yet to be proven. But “ If you are not eating healthy but organic, it still has an affect on your body,” says Lanciani, “You don’t eat the chemicals.”

Lady B. would not have existed if …

By Eleonor Picciotto

When Mr. and Mrs. Chun decided to leave South Korea for California to get their business degree, they did not know they were going to come back with a child they would name Christine.

On Feb. 14, 1978, Christine Chun was born on American soil. At the age of 3, Christine went to Korea with her parents and her American passport. When she was 13, her father decided to move to Hawaii to accustom his daughter to Western culture and learn English. Two years later she moved back to Korea to go through high school and college.

“ It was a struggle for me to get back to the Asian culture, especially as a teenager,” says Chun.

After college, Chun worked one year in Korea and decided to go to graduate school at Parsons, in New York City to study design and management. Her U.S. citizenship helped her “big time,” to settle in New York, she says.

“ My U.S. passport is the biggest gift my parents gave me,” she said. After her year at Parsons College, the 5-foot

-7-inch Korean girl decided to stay in the city “It is the same story for all New Yorkers, you are supposed to stay for one year, and you end up never leaving,” she says.

Chun interned at the Armani Company while studying and got a full-time job offer when  she graduated. After two years at Armani, she became the buyer of the fashion store Intermix and left after two years to build her own business, called Lady B.

Her company is dedicated to the creation of « classic and stylish apparel for both golf and tennis, » where women can intermingle chic and trendiness while working out.

“Working in the U.S. after working in Asia was very different,” she explains. For all Asians, the business ethic is, “work comes first.” She mentions why companies like Armani liked her; she was devoted to her job, and could work over the weekends. Chun expresses her surprise about “voicing opinion right in meetings.” In Korea, there is a strong hierarchy class where you cannot interrupt or give an idea out loud when you are not the boss.

Her immigration to the United States did not affect her Asian culture, however, and as Chun got used to the American way of life she kept her Asian style of working.

While drinking green tea in her Chelsea apartment on the West Side of Manhattan, behind her dark bangs, Chun gives her opinion regarding U.S. immigration policies with her perfect English accent. She explains how hard it is to be a non-U.S. citizen who wants to work on the states. After she graduated from school, 90 percent of her Korean friends had to go back to Korea because U.S. companies did not want to sponsor them for a visa, it would cost extra money to the company.

Paradoxically, Chun says she thinks the U.S. has more lenient policies for immigrants compared to Asia. Chun notices from her friends, complaints and unfairness regarding their right to stay on the U.S. territory. She refers to the Mexican people coming over illegally in comparison to the people going through the hassle of getting a sponsor or an investor visa to stay in the U.S. legally. “It is unfair,” she says.

“The U.S. was built with immigrants,” she says. As an adoptive New Yorker, she mentions how the population is multi-cultural. Chun does not have any American friends, “ I don’t know who they are!” she says,

When you ask Christine Chun after living seven years in the U.S. whether she feels more like an American or a Korean, she answers with a smile, “ I feel more like a New Yorker.”

–> http://www.ladyb.com

How Do We Attain a Successful Society ?

By Eleonor Picciotto

According to Michele Lamont, Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, wondering “How do we define and attain the Good Society?” is the basic normative question college students should ask.

The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies hosted a talk last Friday afternoon on the “Measures of our Success” to over 100 attendees.

Via a videoconference call from Paris, Jean-Paul Fitoussi, President of the Observatoire Francais des conjonctures economiques, explained how today, nations and societies look to their Gross Domestic Products, social networking and happiness ratings as determinants of success.

Fitoussi said the measures of the societies are imperfect and only partially reflect reality. “The measure of our future is the most important factor,” he said. “Health, education, security, economy and social relations determine people’s capacities of freedom.” Those factors determine the sustainability of life.

He claims that Sophists would have said, “ We want to make out GDP the measure of everything: performance, well-being and quality of life,” and says that measures of performance must be viewed with cautions.

“ I applaude people who don’t think hapiness is not measurable at all,” said Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen. He adds that sustainable objectives and measures of freedom are necessary determinants for mortality, mobidity, literacy and communication.

Sen emphazises the importance of how societies have functioned in the past. “ We have to ask ourselves: What would it be like in the future?” Sen asked. “Once we recognize we are in a crisis, give us a focus on the policies we should follow.”

As Fitoussi mentioned earlier “there is in France a debate about the debate on the question of national identity, whether if its is a positive or negative concept.” On the same line, Lamont addressed the fundamental issue of what is the true definition of a successful society.

“Individual resilience is the wear and tear of everyday lives,” said Lamont. Public policies, social inclusion as well as democratic participation, cultural membership, intergroup relation, collective action based social network, identity and hierarchy and the emphasis on capability shape the emotional and physiological responses to condition the sustainability of our societies.

Marleen de Smedt, fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International affairs at Harvard,  agreed with the panel’s conclusion that “as much attention should be given to social connectedness and social relations as to the effect of the economy on the well-being and success of a society.”

In reference to ethnic boundaries, Lamont asked why does the 38% rate of HIV in Botsuana, considered as the best government in african state is higher than the 8% rate of HIV in Uganda, considered as the most corrupted african governemnt.

The answer to the difference depends on  “How governements have been able to modify their population in the collective sense of who they are together” says Lamont.

“ Wealthier is Healthier,” Peter Hall, member of the Krupp Foundation and professor of European Studies said. “ The multiple dimensions of social relation includes the social resources of a society.”

Miguel Glatzer, a full-time lecturer at Umass Dartmouth, said he was amazed “how important social network and connected relations are to wel-being, independent of income and traditional definition of health care.”

The social network, the social status a person enjoys, the social hierarchy and the symbolic representation that define the purposes of a community of who belongs where are the key dimensions of life’s social relations and social ressources vary on which people draw to cope with the challenges of daily life.

He said the success of societies does not depend on how well they accumulate social ressources, but on how well ressources are distributed.“ Governments should think equally hard of the unattended effects of policy on a structure of social relation instead of focusing on the markets,” Hall said, “Just as we think about the conservation of natural ressources, we should think about the conservation of social ressources.”

The factors of GDP, happiness, social connectedness and dermining carateristics were emphasized respectively by Fitoussi, Sen, Hall and Lamont, for her to conclude that,

“ The secret of successful governements result in the choices we all make.”

Philippe J. Bernard, an utopist, President of the NGO Prospective 2100, was satisfied by the “debate that was not governmental but sociologic and economic in general.”

Martha Ferede, a Harvard Graduate, said she enjoyed the discussion after having listenned to the arguments of all participants, “”the traditional ways of measuring good societies don’t always work, but you can do something about it.” She then compared the quality of the two-hours panel to a “Chef’s top selection.”

« The Measure of Our Success: How Do We Attain the Good Society? »

Center of European Studies at Harvard University

co-written by Peter Hall and Michele Lamont

IS THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN WORTH FIGHTING?

By Eleonor Picciotto

BOSTON- The 27^th Great Debate promptly started at 6:36 p.m. where most of the large majority of the 280 people present at the Tsai Performance center at Boston University, Wednesday night, decided that the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting.

After explaining how theatrically the debate will go, the Great Debate Chairman Professor Robert Zelnick warned the audience to listen closely then decide, while he says, “ I’ll go back there and listen to the World Series Game.”

At 6:47 p.m., the lead affirmative speaker, in favor of the remaining in the war,  Thomas H. Johnson, a member of the Afghanistan Editorial Board of the National Archive, explained how the central policies to secure the country needed revolutionary changes. He said categorically, that if Afghanistan had a nuclear weapon that would be the world’s worst nightmare.

“Elections don’t make democracy. Democracy makes elections,” said Johnson. But Afghanistan is so corrupted and incompetent that it is unstable. Johnson said the ability to change an entire democracy is beyond the American power declaring that the U.S. was failing in Afghanistan for the same reasons it failed in Vietnam.

Reacting on the Commander in Chief in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal’s plan whether the U.S. government should add more troops, Johnson said the issue is not the force size but the distribution of the troops.

Chairman Zelnick rang the twice bell, to have the lead negative speaker, Andrew J. Bacevich started. “War is a great evil, a blight on human existence,” stated B.U. professor and former U.S. armny colonel who fought in Kuwait and Vietnam.

Bacevich said he envisions a counterterrorism and outsourcing approaches as two complementary approaches to keep the U.S. safe at lower costs.

According to Bacevich, there should not be other issues to fight a war. The war must be purposeful and have a chance to effectively settle the issue and the cost of what the war will entail should be proportionate. “It is an unnecessary war,” concluded Bacevich.

Kenice Mobley, a B.U. grad student in film said that increasing troops will not solve the problem in the long term, but will increase violence in the short term.

“We pursue futility at our own peril,” said Mobley.

Marin J. Strmecki, former President Nixon’s foreign policy assistant , said the American Security is in danger. He claims that “the enemy” who conducted the 9/11 attacks is still present. “Al Qaeda is certainly the enemy,” states Strmecki. He believes success is doable. It only depends on how the U.S. mobilizes the troops to win. Strmecki mentions a moral reason why fighting in Afghanistan. He explains how the U.S. has collaborated with Afghanistan to defeat the Soviet Union in 1990, and then made a mistake abandoning them.

All speakers differentiated Afghans from Talibans or Al Qaeda. However, all view a different enemy.

The long time career broadcast journalist, Nick B. Mills, stated that, “We, Americans, never thought it was worth fighting in Afghanistan” and later a member of the audience pointed his finger by challenging that “ the ‘we’ is not us (Americans), but the CIA, FBI and the government.”

Mills maintained the way the U.S. responded to the 9/11 attacks to get the Talibans out was where the mistake began. The first priority of the U.S. was to capture Ossama Bin Laden, dead or alive. “Bin Laden has us right where he wants us,” said Mills.

The associate journalism professor at Boston University described Afghans as “remarkable people” seeking for the help of the U.S. to get rid of the Talibans. But, “ The more we fight for the Afghans, the more we seem to fight Afghanistan,” said Mills.

He concluded at 7:45 p.m. that no matter how many troops the U.S. sends to Afghanistan, insurgents would not give up.

Bacevich stated that the Bush administration never really tried a counterterrorism strategy when the 9/11 attacks took place, he said, “Bush was reading books about goats.”

Bacevich reiterated that the enemy was Al Qaeda and not the Taliban, and stated that entering the ninth year of combat in Afghanistan, invading the country endlessly was not an answer.

The McChrystal plan would exceed the homeland security budget, “Spend the money where it can actually do some good,” concluded Bacevich. The 27^th Great Debate listened to its first “Hear-Hear” from the audience.

Johnson intended to convince his audience arguing that the U.S. needed to fight this war smart, otherwise it was time to get out.

Evelyn Stachel, an elderly woman stopped Johnson in his closing remarks:

“Enough already, you made your point!”