Olga Belogolova

Upstairs, Downstairs

For some reason, as I read the Atlantic’s January/February 2012 cover story from Adam Davidson about jobs and America’s changing economy, I can’t help but think about this exchange from the highly celebrated Masterpiece series Downton Abbey:

Matthew (third cousin, heir to the estate and basically simple self-made dude who doesn’t think he needs a servant to dress him):  I’ve been meaning to speak to you about Mosley (his valet, who is meant to dress him).  Would you find me very ungrateful if I dispensed of his services?

Lord Grantham (benevolent head of the estate):  Why?  Has he displeased you in some way?

Mathew:  Not at all ~ it’s simply that he’s superfluous to our style of living…

Lord Grantham:  Is that quite fair?  To deprive a man of his livelihood when he’s done nothing wrong?

Mathew:  Well, I wouldn’t quite put it~

Lord Grantham:  Your mother derives satisfaction from her work at the hospital I think, some sense of self worth…

Mathew:  Well, certainly -

Lord Grantham:  Would you really deny the same to poor ol’ Mosley?  And when you are master here ~ is the butler to be dismissed?  Or the footman?  How many maids or kitchen staff will be allowed to stay or must everyone be driven out?  We all have different parts to play Matthew.  And we must all be allowed to play them.

Matthew, a middle-class solicitor who knows what a “weekend” is and has never had anyone prancing around him in his life, is thrust into a world where butlers, valets and ladies maids wait on his every word. The new heir to the Downton estate is slightly perturbed by this development. Why should he pay someone to dress him when he can do it perfectly well himself? “It seems a very silly occupation for a grown man,” he snaps at his valet at one point. “Surely you have better things to do?” he tells him.

After Lord Grantham explains the reasoning behind employing a valet to the amateur aristocrat (above), Matthew sees the error of his ways and allows ‘poor ol’ Mosley’ to do his job.

Can manufacturing or other jobs disappearing from our economy be compared to those of estate servants and valets in 1912? Is our modern “aristocracy” not as benevolent as it used to be?

at least once a year

where should I go this year?

Stay Hungry; Stay Foolish

There are times that I forget. I forget that I want to be, I’m going to be, one of the crazy ones that changes the world. I forget not to settle. There are times that I let the noise of others’ opinions drown out my own inner voice. I forget that somehow, somewhere, within I already know what I want to become. I forget to be fearless and shun embarrassment and failure.

But a man who loved what he did, loved his life and brought to the world some of the most beautiful and creative products it has even seen died today. I don’t have a Mac and I don’t have an iPad and even my iPod died a year ago and I have yet to replace it. Still, I recognize that this man changed the world, changed music, changed movies, changed (and will continue to change) journalism, changed our culture and all because he woke up every morning, looked in the mirror and carpe-diemed the crap out of that day. He woke up every morning knowing that he was going to love what he did and who he came home to.

All of us aspire for that. No, not the inordinate success that comes with being the co-founder of Apple (though it wouldn’t hurt), but the simple happiness of loving our jobs and our lives. It’s not just luck that makes that happen. It’s, as Henry David Thoreau put it, learning to “reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.”

This morning, my phone wasn’t plugged into its charger, my alarm didn’t go off and I overslept. Tomorrow I will wake up, look in the mirror and ask myself: ”If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”

Like everyone else out in the world today, I saw the news that Steve Jobs died this evening. I saw it in my work email – something about a news alert – and I saw it explode on Twitter and Facebook. Like the many millions, I wondered how to process this. How did this affect me? This man that I didn’t know, but somehow found his way into all of our lives. I told a friend earlier tonight that I want to feel inspired again. Watching Steve Jobs address the the graduating class at Stanford in 2005, I got the message: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

Now I remember.

Sailing to Byzantium

When my plane landed with a thud in the Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday, it felt as though I was waking up from a wonderful dream. The plane sped off on the runway in the all too familiar race-car like manner, while the passing scenery crumbled in my periphery. Raindrops splattered and spread against the passenger window as I reluctantly confronted that – Toto, I wasn’t in Istanbul anymore.

In the last week, which felt like a lifetime of it’s own, I would wake up each day to the astonishing view of the Istanbul skyline. Peppered with mosques and tightly packed, colorful, apartments, the view from my friends’ apartment didn’t cease to amaze me. Every day, like clockwork, I would wake up, step out on the balcony and relish in the magical city I saw in front of me. Perhaps no other words could come to mind in the face of such beauty, but all I could think of was “It’s just so beautiful!” And I said it every single day.

This place of history and rich rich culture. It could have been overwhelming, but I truly felt…at home, alive. It’s no wonder to me now why this city has drawn such a vast array of expatriates from all over the world; why so many poets have tried to capture it in their work.

Perhaps in a selfish attempt to nurture my post-travel depression and nostalgia, I will try to capture it in my own work.

July articles

Just updated my portfolio page with my July work. Here’s the most recent stuff from this month:

NRC Commissioner Defends Slow Safety Review (subscriber, July 2011)

Insiders: U.S. Will Achieve 2025 MPG Goal (FREE, July 2011)

Obama Touts Economic Gains in Fuel-Efficiency Deal (FREE, July 2011)

Presidential Commission: Interim and Long-Term Storage Needed for Nuclear Waste (FREE, July 2011)

Insiders: Giving States a Cut of Offshore Drilling Revenue Would Help Reform Effort (FREE, July 2011)

House to Vote on Controversial Oil Pipeline Measure (subscriber, July 2011)

Bloomberg Targets Coal with $50 Million Donation to Sierra Club (FREE, July 2011)

DOE and NRC to Model Fukushima Accident (FREE, July 2011)

Top Nuclear Regulator Calls for Prompt Post-Fukushima Reforms (subscriber, July 2011)

BP to Implement Voluntary Safety Standards (FREE, July 2011)

Virginia Dems Introduce Offshore-Drilling Measure (subscriber, July 2011)

Most Recent Work

Aside from kayaking on the Potomac, I did some work in June.

Since I write so much and so often for various platforms at National Journal, I am posting some of my more recent work here. This is some of what I’ve been up to in June:

Clean-Energy Standard Stalls in Senate (subscriber, June 2011)

Here Comes the Sun (subscriber, June 2011) PDF link here.

Ethanol Compromise Might Be Close (subscriber, June 2011)

Kerry: Pakistan Is Key to Reinforcing Withdrawal (FREE, June 2011)

NJ Insiders Say All Fuels Should Be Examined for Greenhouse-Gas Footprint (FREE, June 2011)

Ethanol Subsidies Survive Senate Vote (subscriber, June 2011)

Dems: Oil and Gas Tax Breaks Need to Be on Table for Budget Talks (subscriber)

Insiders Say Ethanol Subsidies Should Go; Split on How Quickly (FREE, June 2011)

Hastings Unveils Alaska Production Bill (subscriber, June 2011)

OPEC Refuses to Increase Production Output (FREE, June 2011)

Report Says Full Withdrawal Could Trigger Afghan Economic Depression (FREE, June 2011)

EPA Tells State More Study Needed on Oil-Sands Pipeline (subscriber, June 2011)

State Department Nears Final Stages of Oil-Sands Pipeline Assessment (subscriber, June 2011)

Supreme Court: EPA, Not Judges, Should Regulate Emissions (subscriber, June 2011)

The Four Oxen and the Lion

Photo by Olga Belogolova (05/01/2011)

“So did they actually think this changes everything?” my mother asked me this afternoon, puzzled as I recalled joining thousands of jubilant people in front of the White House late last night following news of the killing of the butcher of 9/11.

Perhaps our spirit has not yet been wrinkled by the rough and cynical hands of time, but for a moment, it felt as if we had won.

No, the monster is not gone. Years of fighting, lost lives and the dangers of terror have not washed away with Osama Bin Laden’s body in the North Arabian Sea.

But for a moment, the partisan bickering came to a hush. Pundits took off their hats and stood shoulder to shoulder, congratulating one another for a change. Honking along the way, cab drivers picked up every straggler in their path, forgetting to run the meter. Service members, families, college students sprinting from libraries, all stood together as one, singing “God Bless America” at stadiums, memorials, monuments and in front of the very television sets where they once witnessed a plane crashing into a tower.

For just that fleeting moment, as I took a sip from a stranger’s bottle of Veuve Clicquot, I thought “United We Stand.”

Sometimes the best beat…

…is experience.

Here’s a story I wrote for The Atlantic. It went up today marking the 25th Anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine. Also available from my very own and favorite newsroom at National Journal.

It’s about the decisions my family had to make in the weeks, months and years following Chernobyl.

I was also on NPR’s All Things Considered talking about the story today. Check it out here (on or around 7 pm ET).

With my grandparents before leaving Kiev (I’m the one making a face in the red)

State of the Union

I have the coolest job. EVER.

Reporting on the State of the Union Address in Statuary Hall; Photo by Richard Bloom

Sweet Disposition

They say that the best relationship involves finding someone who inspires you to be the best version of yourself. I guess the same can be said for jobs. After all, your career is a lifelong, dedicated relationship and finding the “right one” can often prove difficult.

As uncharacteristically sappy as this is for me to say, my job makes me the best version of myself. I am surrounded by kind, smart and giving people and it makes me want to be the same. Since I have moved to D.C. almost three months ago, I have done more volunteer work than, sadly, I can count in the last several years of my life. And it really hasn’t been that much. Kindness is contagious and I am both lucky and proud to be working with a group of people who not only inspire me to be a better person; better journalist, but also whom I genuinely enjoy spending time with.