Out of touch with the Times

For the last two weeks, I have blissfully been enjoying my life of freedom from employment. After leaving my job, life has been surprisingly productive -- I have been able to run errands to my heart's content, meet friends for lunch, get in a lot of reading, but the one thing that has been starkly missing from the last two weeks has been my daily obsession, the New York Times.

With no internet at home and no easy access near my house, I have not been able to spend leisurely hours in front of the computer screen catching up on the latest in the American Presidential race or read fascinating articles on behavior or health. I have been blissfully unaware of the status of Musharraf's miliary state, and haven't been able to follow up on the latest Chavez drama. I haven't heard of the latest environmental crisis in China.

For a long time I have mentally chasitised the American youth for being too out of touch with the outside world. Only concerned with what happens on Main Street, or at the very most Capitol Hill, many young Americans today just don't know much about life outside of their surburban bubbles. And isn't it true that the things you fear most are the things you know the least about?

What is the solution to fear of being "Bangalored" (or "Bengalurued," now I guess, but I digress)? What is the greatest weapon in the war on terror? How do we cure the apathy about the environmental crisis our planet seems to be plunging into?

Education. Simple understanding of our own personal universe and the world around us. Time spent with people different than us.

Now, I've got to run, I have a date with the Times.