On Sale Now at

New England Press

How to search for scholarships using the Internet
(and which sites are winners.).

In Memoriam:

Robert Ramos, Journalist, Katapat newspaper, Laguna, Philippines.
Born:        November 24, 1965
Died:        November 20, 2005,  at the public market at Cabuyao, Laguna.

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Author's Bio.

Mark Murphy:

Born:	July 25, 1961, at Los Angeles, California.
Education:	B.S. Suffolk University, Boston, Ma. in Criminal Justice. Graduated February, 1986.
Current residence:	Boston, Ma. Lived in Santa Ana, Tustin, West Hollywood, and Hollywood, California at various times throughout childhood and later on, as an adult.

Married: In Manila, Philippines, in a civil ceremony. 15 years later, we're still going strong.

Passions:

• Writing

• Reading (Ah...but perhaps that's obvious?)
  

• Chess

• Music (60s-70s songs, mostly, and not limited to just U.S. music. Flans, Juan Gabriel, and other Mexican artists also rank among this author's personal favorites.), and playing the drums.
  

• Travel. Have been to Mexico and the Phillipines

• Bilingual in Spanish and English, with a vague knowledge of Tagalog, the native language of the Philippines.

• Politics, especially given the state of our nation today and the scandals affecting its politicians.

• Sociology. It was virtually a minor while at Suffolk.

• Social Issues. Too many issues are affecting a good portion of Americans today. The outsourcing of jobs, corporate corruption, political corruption, the indifference of government to the needs of its citizenry are all interests of mine, and can spark a good debate, as to what should be done about it. And I assure you...something needs to be done about it. Quickly. Before we're all left in a sorry condition.

There's a lot to be said about this country, both good and bad. I think we're going in the wrong direction. The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer, to quote the old saying. There's a great divide in this country, because of income and race, and it threatens to destroy our nation, unless it's addressed and dealt with in the coming months and years. It has become more and more expensive to live in this country, and in this city (Boston, Massachusetts) in particular. The high cost of rent must be addressed, and should have been addressed a long, long time ago. Otherwise, I predict this city will end up a ghost town, much smaller than it is presently, because of our inability to pay what are exorbitant prices for rent. Prices that can consume over 50% of a person's net income every month. I am minded that a person can make $40,000.00 a year and still be poor in this city.

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