Civilized Are We?

Modern Slavery

And from the New York TImes

Sometimes it depresses me to learn things - Pandora taught me to never open some boxes...

"3. Slavery still exists in the US.

Estimates by the US State Department suggest up to 17,500 slaves are brought into the US every year, with 50,000 of those working as prostitutes, farm workers or domestic servants.

According to the CIA, more than 1,000,000 people are enslaved in the US today. Thousands of cases go undetected each year and many are difficult to take to court as it can be difficult to prove force or legal coercion."

China - Good Lord

I don't believe we individual citizens of the USA give China the appropriate attention. Recently it executed its former "chief drug regulator" for taking bribes and allowing them to fall into the current international furor related to fake products. The government stated the individual had taken bribes in and allowed "six types of fake medicines" to be approved. The interesting part of the whole issue, to me at least, was the response by China to this issue.

1. They did EXECUTE the person who the blame was placed upon. Now, take this with a grain of salt, in that complicity of an issue like this is far greater than a single individual. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people in government who probably knew of the issues and that doesn't even count the people who were actually making the fake products. This person was executed as an example.

2. One particular set of words stated was that by 2010 China would have markedly increased its ability to monitor fake products, but that it would take at least five years (2012) for them to make a serious dent and be able to control their manufacturers. The acknowledgment of the issue. The realization of the significance of the issue. And the measured reaction that shows a considerable understanding of the situation. With the MONTHLY surplus of goods traded to the US topping $26 Billion, and the legislative branch of the US fighting for the yuan to be let free to trade in the international monetary markets, China must take action in order to feed it machine.

As a good friend of mine tells me continually, the Chinese history is full of ups and downs and the US is still Number 1. As I tell my friend, do not let that history satiate you adn make you lazy. The Chinese are serious about this world. They are going to be the largest economy in the world. I recently read an article where a comment was made about the inroads that Chinese politicians have made in Asia and the reactions by the peoples there. A particular quote stood out that went something like -

China's Asian partners see the United States as a passing fancy. The US has only been around for about 200 years. China has been here for 3,000 years and they expect China to be here for another 3,000 years.

This is a grand world we live in. Down with the Humans! Long live the Humans!

The Lard of the Land

The Food Supply will Change

"Rice prices are climbing worldwide. Butter prices in Europe have spiked by 40 per cent in the past year. Wheat futures are trading at their highest level for a decade. Global soybean prices have risen by a half. Pork prices in China are up 20 per cent on last year and the food price index in India was up by 11 per cent year on year. In Mexico there have been riots in response to a 60 per cent rise in the cost of tortillas."

What this really means for us is that economics is coming back into play. Maybe this is the best thing for our obesity problem. Life in this universe wasn't designed. It comes through struggle against the continual oncoming rush of entropy in the universe. Change is the only real constant. Maybe we should eat a little less. Maybe we should save some of that food for a meal later on. Maybe we should be a little more mindful.

As we contemplate further action...

Remember, Iran, historically has been our friend. It is a great country to have on your side. Don't listen to the empty rhetoric.

September 18th, 2001.

Charity As it Should be Done

Kiva is something I have harped on in the past (here and here). I like it because it allows me, on a very micromanaged level, to choose how I wish to develop the world within a set of pre-chosen receivers. Kiva gives me a list of potentials who would like to receive a loan and it gives me a description of them. What there busness will be. A very slight snippet of their life. A talk about where they live. And possibly something of their ambitions. I donate there because I trust. Yes, I do know there are potential risks associated with giving money to groups in far away countries (419) but the risk of me losing my money versus a single individual losing the potential of a proper existence doesn't compare. I like giving. It makes me feel a little more relevant. It almost makes me feel as if I am, in some way, part of the solution. Ode to my emotions...as wild as they might be.

One thing I hear a lot from people is that they don't give because they think their hard earned money will go to inefficiency. Most people don't mind paying taxes. They receive services as a result - roads, police, protection from foreign invasion all the way down to social security, a certain level of available public health and a space program. I like to pay my taxes when I see the deal I get is worth it. I have in the past not donated to churches or groups like the Red Cross because of all of the lacking care I see in spending my money. How much money goes to pay for the executive's suite or the pretty leather chairs located in the Manhattan offices of whomever is collecting my hard work? I work hard and sacrifice for that money and as a result, I want it to be looked at and cared for in a similar manner as I do my own money. That money represents my productivity in life. In the American economy that I exist in, it represents my life's work (in the working sense of the word, my life will one day encompass helping the future of my planet through the raising of healthy children one day). It does matter.

What I would like to see created (or, lord knows, help create) is a tool, similar to Kiva in a few ways, to allow me to donate money to groups like the Red Cross but to donate money only to very specific places and parts of that process. I do know on the Red Cross' website they allow for you to specify where your donations go on a very high level (for instance when the Asian Tsunami destroyed so many lives I was able to choose from a drop down menu where I wanted my money to go). But that isn't enough for me. I want to be able to choose to allow my money to go specificially for the blankets of a child in a hospital located in Indonesia or the formula for a baby in the Sudan. Let every cost that is associated with a particular project around the world be paid for on an individual level. Quite possibly we might not choose to give money to the salaried employees of these groups, but I have a feeling that over time these positions will whither away as the collection of monies becomes automated and private enterprise then steps in. If I have chosen to pay for the blankets and you choose to pay for the air transportation from the factory that makes said blankets then what else is needed? I know that is an oversimplification but the world can be that easy if the time is taken in terms of programming the software and the end users appropriately invest their time.

Hospitals in Jakarta should explicitly define their needs. Locals associated with the website should invest their time to check up and verify the quality of the work done by the group and that the product is being appropriately applied to where it is needed. yes, there will always be risk but that is part of the equation when knowledge isn't perfect.

Just an idea at a loony hour of the weekend.

News from afar...

The Tribe's Revolt

There has been conflict all over the world for a long time. Foolish sentence to say... The dynamics of those conflicts can sometimes be quite interesting. Here we see the infighting. Maybe there is a bit of unraveling. There must be a reason to kill a person of significance.

But the current "tribal uprising" is not against all foreigners. It appears to be confined to the IMU. Other aliens -- Arabs, Chechens, Central Asians and Chinese -- have been left untouched or been the targets of the Uzbeks. For example, it was the killing by the IMU of Sheik Asadullah on 13 March that tipped skirmishes with the tribesmen into war. Asadullah was a Saudi and said to be the main financier for the Araba Al-Qaeda allied groups in the tribal areas. He was also a lucrative source of trade and patronage for the tribes.

When it snows forever and never...

Walking in the cold...

Interactive and pretty (all of this via a good blend)

Why should a scientist study the desert landscape of Antarctica? Because there is the possibility that a large portion of this planet will have that type of an environment in the future. Snowball Earth is another happy theory in the news today. They speak about how some people think the past Earth one time froze up so much that even the oceans were solid.

Our Solar system is very interesting to look at. You wonder if Venus has always been as clouded as it is. You figure it has always been to warm for life, as we know it of course, but maybe there can be continual high level compounds that can come into life where it is so hot. Mars is the figment of many a dream, as it is so very similar relative to our other neighbors. It even has water. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune are all giant balls of gas, with Jupiter being so very close to igniting on its own. There are a few moons that are of great interest as well. Methane oceans. Frozen lakes of liquid. An alien landscape.

We would be able to survive on certain level. And we would eventually leave this planet. It would take a while.

America Assists Illegal Arms Purchase Involving N. Korea

"Ethiopia bought arms from North Korea with U.S. assent"

Wow. This reminds me of the many known instances of action in opposition to what we might normally consider the good of the general population in order to get certain things done (Pinochet, Castro, Pahlavi, Hussein, Iran-Contra...I could go on, but I am tired). Now, much like many of the things in our sordid American history, the actions can easily be rationalized to make sense. In order to appease a nation we truly believe, in he end, will bend to our will we allow some money to support the people. And the money they are receiving comes from a country fighting the evil terrorists. It is a bit (a lot more than abit) idealists to believe that countries will act in the best interests of the humans that live on the world, but I think idealism should at least be reached for. Missiles for money...

"Nor is this the first time the Bush administration has made an exception for allies in their dealings with Pyongyang. In 2002, the Spanish military intercepted a ship carrying Scud missiles from North Korea to Yemen. At the time, Yemen was working with the United States to hunt members of Al Qaeda operating within its borders, and after its government protested, Washington asked that the freighter be released."

Iran let the Brit loose, eh?

Just imagine the Iranians caught the Brits for the purpose of letting them go so they could in some way make even the British government not support a war with said Iranians.

Iran might conjure at the broad table that they are in fact an active participating member of the international community and, as seen by our recent activity in the region, always follow our acts with appropriate action in regard to international law. By the way, what happenned to our Iranian brethren in the hands of the American government? How do we negotiate? And when do the Afghanis and Iraqis and all the other folk that are part of the war on terror get trials?

The world is fickle.

Read the article...if I had read it first I would have noticed they said all that I said...

Japanese Business Owners Kidnapped in Paraguay

Taken at gunpoint, ransom apparently called in

Traveling in all kinds of places in the world is scary. Not just the United States. :-)

Reality

I try to think along ideological lines. I think there is value to it. The excuses I give myself include:

1. There are a large number of people who don't think ideologically. There patterns aren't based upon any particular of thought (be they famous or not). They simply live day to day. Breath to breath.

2. The average of the all comes from many different parts moving in a general direction. When viewed from he ground we see amazing varience, from above, the herd I would guess. I am but one of many lines of thought. It is part of my duty to think how it is that I think...

3. There is purity in the universe. By purity, maybe I mean perfection. By perfection, maybe there is an idea that is constant. A constant could be thought of as a rule. A rule could be determined to be right or wrong. Ring and wrong could be defined as truth. Maybe I am hunting for my own sort of God. My own something to believe in. Maybe in all of that I am looking for a purpose. A purpose being defined as a place.

I am sure over time I will gain other rationlizations that convince me logically.

Of course, I begin to attack my own thoughts...

1. Who am I to define a pure logical thought? Maybe every single person in the world lives an ideological path that is truly independent of all others. And maybe everyone of us runs along a line that ties directly to something...sorta like "Who the fuck am I?" Maybe we never deviate from our own ideological paths. All decisions come from something.

::immediate thought in relation to that...we don't always act how we want to, we are always in a compromise, or being forced into action::



I try to act upon an ideological belief because I believe by injecting my little piece into the system I can push it toward a better result. There are plenty of realists and darwinists in the world. I guess there are plenty of idealists as well...

The World Economic Tail

Kiva – The purpose of this website is to help The Long Tail of the human race to develop. The idea of Kiva is based upon MicroEconomics (a recent winner of the Nobel Prize solidifies the world opinion of microeconomics – it is here to stay, at least for a while).

I have always thought that helping out people far away was good. But I never really put the numbers to it.

Lets say (all of these numbers come from the CIA Factbook..heh)…

(Notable issue with numbers – nothing reported for the Vatican City)

US Economy = $12,982,323,352,500/year
World Economy = $79,422,560,891,818/year
Per Capita World: $11,327
Per Capita US: $43,500

If we remove 300,000,000 Americans from the math we are left with:

World Population = 6,712,879,586
World Economy = $66,440,237,539,318/year
Per Capita = $9,897

If we remove the top 40 countries, we are left with…

World Population = 5,619,236,117 (80% of the people)
World Economy = $32,895,685,600,218 (41% of the business)
Per Capita = $5854.12


Imagine…bringing up the poorest 80% of the world simply up the to average of the entire world ($11,327)…

80% at $11,327 = $63,653,332,143,109


New Grand Totals
World Economy = $110,180,207,434,709
Per Capita = $15,714

The world Economy grew 72%. Even the rich should want this…

The Intricate Web of Reason: Just one TINY piece

Ode To All That is Good

I read an article somewhere today that was speaking about Iran’s new position of power in the Middle East now that Saddam and the Taliban are no longer players in the arena (at least for the short term with the Taliban holed up in Pakistan). Another opinion I read is that Iran is much less amicable to speaking at round table discussions now that General Bush’s teeth hang been sheathed by the Congress and the seasonal winds of the politician and their job. I see the helicopters are being sot down at a greater rate. I see our numbers re not great enough, nor well versed enough in local civilities and customs to truly apprehend those who are running the show (back when the children of Saddam were being round up I remember one of the brothers making reference to times when he drove by troops in cars looking right at them point blank). I see Saudi Arabia building a fence as well as Israel. I see Palestine stabbing itself over and over. Syria ever intertwined in Lebanon. Beirut is torn again. She will rise again. Her beauty is far deeper than skin. Jordan has been touched by the terror as well. Each of these countries now discuss a nuclear alliance in order to counter the nuclear threat of Iran. An arms race has already begun now that the plans have begun to be drawn (in this world the plans were probably drawn 5 years ago). I bet the United States sells the tech to the Saudis. Fuck ‘em. And the Chinese. Business is good. Why hasn’t the growing threat pushed Egypt to do something more? The squawking country is doing its best to fan the Israelis. So when is the Middle East going to raise a tactile force of all local soldiers from some magical place and lend a supporting hand. Yes, they will be in harms way. That is war. And yes their particular motives may all be different, and some potentially evil, but we cannot let a country like this with such a history in such a place, be destroyed as it is and will be. A surge will simply make them hide better. Hidden away in a culture that we can’t seem to get. Now…the countries in arms possibly might not due to the price of oil being so much a boon to some economies, and unsteadyness breeds good pricing. But the demand from China is now growing madly, with the rest of the world just getting going a little better every year, business should fade away in the name of a true threat. A wild, deadly armed, ultra powerful and widely spread enemy that you have no defense from.

I have slowly become more and more in line with the nuances of the grand negotiating table and how the world really is…versus how it might be. Countries really do attempt to take over others and influence their politics. Vacuums of power cannot exist as there is too much at stake (trillions of dollars, defense to your position and family). One group will always rush in to quell the situation as man without government has not proven himself free. We still need our shackles otherwise we tear down on each other.

Just a rant of sorts I guess…

Why Social Security "disappearing" in 40 years doesn't worry me.

I won't need it. Simple answer - technology. In 1900 the average age was 47.* Today greater than 75 in America. The world changes. By the year 2040 I am thinking that at the age of 71 I will be going strong and I won't tap into my $$ until I am ready to retire around 85 or so. Cus I will still have another 15 years to jack around playing golf after that. At least. Additionally, the quality of the medical help will be of a different sort as we learn to use robots to do the busy work and allow our professionals to really take care of the people and the pressing needs. The quality of life is always improving. We learn to do things better all the time.

I do actually believe in a small central government and strong state governments, as our states are now turning into mini economies all their own (CA would be the WORLDS 6th largest). The variety is what allows for growth and change and mix. The freedom to move among is what keeps it fresh.

*Source: The Mercury, 11 November, 1997, p.26-27