Recession Demands Caution

Recession, Economy downturn etc... are a curse for anybody. Especially for fresh international graduates it is very very devastating, and currently I am in that situation. Surviving in the continuous stress of looking for a career and that too with a piling debt is a mammoth task. While trying to manage this task, imagine yourself being a victim of city crimes. Certainly, its like someone piercing a thorn on your wound. There is a mysterious relationship between recession and a city crime rate. I am just sharing my experiences.

For four years of my PhD work, I was never a victim, but once I started looking for a career without any income during this recession time, I became a victim in the city of Los Angeles. I lost my iphone, it was a gift to me by my brother for my PhD completion. The way I lost is very funny, it taught me not be helpful all the time. It happened in a bus stop during christams time, I was waiting for my bus with a laptop bag while listening to songs through my iphone. A black guy, looks like a high school passed out, approached me and requested me for using my phone to call his brother. I asked him to tell the number, he told some number, I dialed those number and gave it to him. He acted like as if he is going to talk and suddenly changed his look into staring and sped away running with my i-phone. I chased for a few steps and then suddenly remembered my Laptop bag, so I quit chasing and turned back to take care of my laptop bag. That's it my i-phone is lost ..I cant do anything..just cancelled my phone service and made a police complaint.. end of the story ..no feedback so for on that iphone. I lost a cherished gift !!

In my next incident, it was about my first love in the form of car. I was living in SFO in a gated community. Once my car was parked in the same place for many days . One bad day the apartment owner called us and told that somebody broke into my car and took the audio system. Initially I didn't worried that much, but once i saw the damage happened to my car I was shattered. It seems that car license plate from Louisiana coupled with parking at the same place for so many days might have been the invitation for that incident. Due to lack of money I didn't changed my license plate from Louisiana to California. Currently I am in the process of changing the license plate for the safety of my car.

Even in a steady economy internationals are more vulnerable to crime. What happened to me are petty things when compared to incidents happened to Indian PhD students in LSU, Baton rouge and things happening in Australia. So I believe and urge all internationals to be cautious all the time and these recession times demands more than caution.