My encounter with Central Perk

We went to Stanley Sheinbaum's house for lunch. Sheinbaum is the most accompolished man I've ever seen. He convinced Yasser Arafat in 1988 to recognize Israel as a country, he brought Human Rights Watch to the west coast, he is the published of New Perspectives Quarterly. He is the kind of man who did so much for others in his life.

His wife is called Betty Warner. Her father was one of the founders of the warner brothers studios. Betty and Stanley seemed like the perfect couple. They are both accomplished in their own way. Betty is a painter. What makes her paintings more appealing to me is the simple fact that most of them are of people. Individuals in their daily life, talking,walking,having coffee. They are real, they are easy to understand and they represent things you do daily in a beautiful way. During our conversation with Betty Warner, I expected her to ask me an interesting question about Africa since she found out earlier that I have an interest in African affairs. Instead, she expressed afro-pesimism by saying does anything god every comes out of there. I'm not in denial about my continent's problem but I'm just hopeful. Our problems are not impossible to solve but they are difficult. I'm aware of the enormity of the situation but at the same time, if we all sat down with our hands in our pocket and started complaining about the corrupt governments,disease and illiteracy,conflicts and poverty, things are never going to change. China faced many problems 30 years ago but they worked hard to change things.They implemented a successful economic reform program and started benefiting from the greatest natural resource ever, humanbeings. If we showed afro-pesimism then Africa will remain the poorest continent on earth. If others show pesimisn, it affects me because there are afro-pesmists than optimists.

The warner brothers studios are not owned by the warner family anymore however, Betty Warner was able to get us on a VIP tour. I saw things I never dreamed of seeing. The cafe where many episodes of Friends were filmed, the streets where they walked, the park where they sat. I saw the hospital where Chicago Hope was filmed. It was amazing to be there and to see the places where my favorite actors and actresses spend many hours for many years.



After eating lunch with such important figures and visiting Warner Brothers. I felt grateful for being on this trip because I'm doing things I will never be able to do with parents.