Quote of the day -- On Our Modern World

And our screwed-up distribution and priorities

Quote of the day -- Right out of the Republican Party pllatform

To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less. 

--Oscar Wilde, "The Soul of Man Under Socialism"

Water, oil, food--will humankind cooperate together or fight to the death?

I saw this headline last evening and it rather concerns me:

Global Fight for Natural Resources 'Has Only Just Begun,' say Experts

From the article:

"Better economic incentives, rather than ethical considerations and appeals to human morality, are needed to encourage investment in a more sustainable economy, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen.

Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen told the conference that governments would need to step in, to ensure resources were best distributed.

Speaking at the Re|source 2012 Conference in Oxford, Sen said that so-called 'free markets' could not be counted on to meet all fundamental human needs nor could the private sector be trusted to efficiently allocate the world's natural resources.

“The way to make the financial sector respond is not through moral exhortation, but by increasing incentives,” said Sen. 'The market will respond to price increases,' but world governments are required to intervene and address 'inequality and iniquity' that the market inherently generates."

The way our Capitalism is set up and the way the Republican Party, the Libertarians and far too many Right Wingers and Americans in general see the world and the world economy at present, they wouldn't get this.

Far too many of us wouldn't understand, at least at present, that whether you're talking about water or oil or corn or virtually any other commodity, once there are shortages, the item in concern can't be left to "free markets" alone unless we are willing to literally let people go without and that can, in fact, mean going without food.

Morally, we just can't let it end up being "every man--person--for themselves." We can't.

Besides being immoral, it would inevitably mean the deaths of at least thousands of us, if not millions, nation- and world-wide.

Surely we owe our fellow human beings more than that.

Rather naturally, it reminded me of this quote from the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr:

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

And the thing is, we'll have to agree to that cooperation across all nations, worldwide.

This will not be easy, ladies and gentlemen.

Link to original article: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/07/12-5

Crazy priorities

We need to cut defense spending in half, at least.

Then we need to spend at least some of that on people and food and clothing and shelter and medical help.

THOSE are wise priorities.

Quote of the day

"The rich swell of pride, the poor, from hunger." --Sholom Alecheim, Russian and Ukrainian (March 2, 1859 – May 13, 1916). The pen name of Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, a leading Yiddish author and playwright. The musical "Fiddler on the Roof", based on his stories about Tevye the Milkman, was the first commercially successful English-language stage production about Jewish life in Eastern Europe. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholom_alecheim

Quote of the day

"It's interesting how we understand secrets of the universe, but we do not now how to make good functional society in which all people have food to eat and roof on there heads." --Tomislav Veg (Friend of a friend on FB from Croatia).

Famine--the real obscenity

So what are we going to do about it? Link:

Quote of the day--on China

"Basically, people now feel nothing is safe to eat. They don't know what choices to make. They are really feeling very helpless." --SANG LIWEI, director of the Beijing office of the Global Food Safety Forum, on rising food safety concerns in China.

Between this--food safety, nationwide over there--and their gross, wholesale pollution and the inability to grant true free speech in China, you have to wonder: these are the people we have to fear?

Links:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/world/asia/08food.html?scp=1&sq=chinese%20food%20safety&st=cse
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/world/asia/10writer.html?ref=world

Coming soon to a planet near you: more ethanol, higher food prices and starvation

An article out yesterday pointed out that a "US Program seeks to increase use of E-85 fuel":

By MICHAEL J. CRUMB, Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa – The federal government wants to increase production and use of a higher blend of ethanol fuel by giving financial assistance to gas stations that install more pumps for the fuel, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in advance of a formal announcement planned for Friday.

Vilsack said President Barack Obama wants the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help ensure 10,000 flex-fuel pumps for E-85 are available across the country within the next five years.

E-85 is a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Current ethanol blends contain 10 percent ethanol. There are 8 million flexible fuel vehicles currently on the nation's roads and 2,300 stations where people can get E-85, Vilsack said.

"The president was pretty clear that he wants to reduce our nation's net dependence on foreign oil by one-third by 2025," Vilsack told The Associated Press. "One way to do that is to increase production and increase use of renewable biofuels."

The "renewable biofuels" are, mostly, to date, made of corn grown here in the US.  That's why the news is out of Iowa, of course.

When I was in college, back in the 70's (note:  40 years ago), my political science professor at the time mentioned how crazy and irresponsible it would be--is--to tie food and food prices to energy and energy consumption.

And you know what?

He was right.

It's crazy that countries all over the world and so, Third World countries, too, would pay higher prices so we can drive our cars in this country.  

As it turns out, it's not just corn, either, but cassava, too, and many populations depend on cassava for food.

The end result?  Here is what is happening:

There is an absolute and direct correlation between the increased use and consumption of crops raised for fuel and their prices, worldwide.

It's insane.  It's irresponsible.  It's misguided and it's dangerous to and for the world's poor and there are millions of them across the planet.

This is yet one more reason we need to do far more research on clean and renewable energy sources, particularly and especially having to do with both passive and active solar through solar panels (passive) and photovoltaic cells (active).  They are, in fact, cleaner and don't cause this kind of gross disparity in food prices across the planet.

Pushing biofuels in order to decrease our dependence on foreign oil made me think of the following picture I saw on Facebook recently:

This is what the effect of pushing biofuels on the markets, in effect, has on the Third World.

I think we want to be better people than this, don't you?

Links:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_vilsack_e85_incentives;_ylt=AiulmHBKdtam1I7Z8PwGAg8V6w8F;_ylu=X3oDMTNkaGZxc2NrBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwNDA4L3VzX3ZpbHNhY2tfZTg1X2luY2VudGl2ZXMEY2NvZGUDbXBfZWNfOF8xMARjcG9zAzYEcG9zAzYEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawN1c3Byb2dyYW1zZWU-

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2011-02-09-corn-low_N.htm

http://www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2008/update69;

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=ethanol+and+price+of+food&aq=o&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=384aef4afa8e1652;

http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/04/foods-hijacked-by-ethanol-its-not-just-corn/236988/

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/37019/page1/?a=f

From a distance the world looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
and the eagle takes to flight.

From a distance, there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace,
it's the voice of every man.

From a distance we all have enough,
and no one is in need.
And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease,
no hungry mouths to feed.

From a distance we are instruments
marching in a common band.
Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace.
They're the songs of every man.

God is watching us. God is watching us.
God is watching us from a distance.
From a distance you look like my friend,
even though we are at war.

From a distance I just cannot comprehend
what all this fighting is for.
From a distance there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.

And it's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves,
it's the heart of every man.
It's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves.
This is the song of every man.

And God is watching us, God is watching us,
God is watching us from a distance.
Oh, God is watching us, God is watching.
God is watching us from a distance

Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.  Keep warm.

Food prices: Boon for US, starvation for 3rd World

When I first read of the severe drought in Russia and the loss of approximately 20% of their crops, I also read--immediately and more than once--that it would be a boon for America and American farmers. In other words, it would be a boost to and for business. Some of our pocketbooks. What I also knew it would do, however, is be a burden to the poor of the world who depend on food commodities for survival. So what do I see today? An article pointing out just that: UN to Hold Crisis Talks on Food Prices as Riots Hit Mozambique; After violence in Africa and protests in Egypt, Serbia and Pakistan, the UN are to urge action on the rising cost of food The UN has called an urgent meeting on rising global food prices in an attempt to head off a repeat of the 2008 crisis that sparked riots around the world. A demonstrator throws a tire on a burning barricade during riots in Maputo, Mozambique, on Wednesday. Police fired rubber bullets and teargas during protests against rising prices. (Reuters)Seven people, including two children, were killed in Mozambique this week during three days of protests triggered by a rise in the cost of bread. There has also been anger over increasing prices in Egypt, Serbia and Pakistan, where floods destroyed a fifth of the country's crops. So bully for us, right? It's good for our business and money. To heck with the Third World and those poor beggars. Literally. Link to original article: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/09/04-1

More reasons why, maybe, we should also "come down a few notches"?

Thanks to Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and his blog for this.

A "Twilight Zone" someone should make

A "Twilight Zone" episode I'd like to see because it would be fun and provocative and, hopefully, educational for all of us is one where the director/producer assume, to begin, that the universe is huge (as it is, of course) and that there is life out there.

In fact, there's life on multiple planets. Different life forms on each.

And guess what?

They're all advanced.

And they all know each other.

And they communicate with each other and have incredible transportation between one another's planets that we can only dream of.

And they have all their energy and production and pollution (there isn't any) and all other "problems" worked out and all of them live in what we'd consider to be Nirvana ("heaven" for the Americans out there reading this).

They all live in these perfect worlds. They're perfect unto themselves and each one works completely.

And the reason is because on each planet and in the rest of the universe, so the movie goes, they've all learned to cooperate with one another.

Everyone on every living system is educated (as educated as they need and/or want to be) and healthy (they have universal health care in all situations because they accept it should be a right instead of a privilege) and they share all land and resources--everything.

And the thing is, they've been aware of our little green planet earth for millenia.

And guess what?

To all of them--all the "perfect worlds" and perfect being out there--we are the "white trash" of the universe.

Think about it.

We view each other with only suspicion--individually and collectively.

All we do is fight each other. Heck, there are whole races that have spent hundreds and thousands of years just fighting and killing each other (e.g., Jews/Gentiles/Islamists, Catholics/Protestants, Catholics and everyone else, Muslims and virtually everyone else, etc., etc.).

We don't share anything. We pollute everything. We don't work together on enough things AT ALL.

Heck, all the "big religions" have fought and died and killed each other for thousands of years over what they all perceive to be the "holy ground".

We let people create artificial entities (read: corporations) just so those same entities can exploit people--both their own workers and their "clients" or customers. We let those same corporations kill other people so they can get natural resources like oil or whatever (e.g., Nigeria right now, etc.).

We let certain people and groups become obscenely wealthy (in terms of money and goods) (e.g., the Cote du Zur in Southern France and too many other wealthy enclaves around the world), but we let many more millions starve or die from disease or just be killed for one insane reason or another, rather than help them.

And we're okay with this system.

So in the movie, we see all these planets and beings and civilizations and societies getting along and existing and having a beautiful, big old time--but they merely observe and avoid us, here on planet Earth, until such time as we realize we're all in this together and that we could feed, clothe, house and nurse each other if we would but choose to cooperate, share and help one another.

Instead we exploit the planet and each other, as much and frequently as possible.

And we think we're civilized and intelligent.

Insane imbalances

I've been convinced that some of the worst things humankind ever did involved creating the nuclear bomb--of course--the automobile and the television, not necessarily in that order.

These things have created a great deal of our problems--the nuclear blast, pollution, I can't even think of what TV has done to us but it hasn't been good.

But I recently came across what I think is one of the number one things humankind has created that has caused so many problems and unfairness and inequality over time.

Ironically, I learned of the formal name for it on my first ocean cruise, last March. While on this cruise, I read a bit of a book about Central America and what had happened to it. It was then and there I learned the term and siituation.

Mankind's "downfall", if we can call it that here, is is "the monopolization of land."

It's the monopolization of land that inflicts the huge, gross inequality between "have" and "have not" people and groups.

Think of it.

Abotiginal groups--be it in Australia or in the United States with the indigenous, native Americans (that term doesn't seem appropriate, frankly), all functioned as one people, all utilizing what they had and all of virtually equal material status.

Very natural. Very fair. Very equal.

Then, the white, "New world" people came in to whatever area they were occupying, be it Australia or some portion of America or wherever, and divided areas up into "yours" vs. "mine".

Instead of all sharing all the resources, it was divided up into people's individual interests, resulting in some with a great deal of resources and wealth and others with less, little or not much at all.

Later, then, this could and did feed into the corporation and its ability to own items and people and productivity, distorting wealth even further.

This is the way you create people with outrageous amounts of wealth (google images of the Cote d'Azur) vs. poverty, starvation and other degradations of imbalance and unfairness.

It has been happening down through humankind's time. It's happening now in Nigeria, with their new discoveries of oil, for instance.

Most people, sadly, won't understand what I'm even saying here.

The land and earth should be and should have been for all of us--not just some small, self-selected few, be they some "royalty" or oil firm or what- or whomever.

Food, clothing, healthcare and a good, basic, healthy way of living should be for all of us, not just some small few.

Just received this

As I said, I just got this from a friend, Preston, and had to put it up:

Maybe if we read and thought a little more before we acted?

The following is from an essay written in 1998 by John Basil Utley.

More starvation and disease or bombers and cruise missiles--these are the only actual choices Washington offers Iraq. No wonder Saddam will risk being bombed to end the economic blockade.... Also Washington demands "proving a negative," that Iraq has nothing hidden and will not in the future rebuild its weapons of mass destruction. At other times it says the blockade must remain until the starvation ridden Iraqis succeed in overthrowing their dictator.

Yet Iraq has only refused the continuation of inspections until the lifting of the blockade, one of the most severe in modern history, according to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The blockade prohibits almost all imports except food and medicine and then leaves Iraq with barely half the proceeds of its limited oil export revenue, and the money is allocated by a United Nations' bureaucracy (slowly while the people starve)....

Washington keeps moving the goal posts demanding an interminable blockade for the nation where already in the last 8 years 1,200,000 have died from starvation and disease. This after the American bombing of the sanitation, electric, and economic infrastructure of the nation in l990. Even now Washington prevents Iraq from obtaining repair parts for its oil production so it can sell some oil for food imports and to repair its irrigation and sanitation systems....

Bombing will generate more hatred for America in the Moslem world and badly weaken our moral authority in the world as we are seen mainly as hypocrites. Also it will cause other nations' terrorists to claim justification for killing American civilians anywhere and cause them to try to develop biological and chemical weapons as the only way to be able to fight back against us, possibly by bringing the battle to the American homeland.

One of the first casualties will be our own freedoms, as the government chases threats of terrorism here. Already the FBI was just legislated "emergency" warrantless wiretap authority to cover whole regions. Two years ago the Clinton Crime Bill (supported by the Republican leadership) proposed gutting the 4th Amendment which prohibits warrantless searches of private homes.

Iraq never harmed America and is no threat to America. As far as the defense of Israel, that nation has atom bombs and the most modern weapons in the Middle East. It has often proven that it can well defend itself.

Yet it is above all a moral question for Americans. Never before have we put such a blockade to leave millions of innocent people in starvation and misery for years on end. Publicly Washington calls on the Iraqi people to overthrow their dictator, Saddam Hussein, as the price of relieving sanctions. But they obviously can't.

Yet America's Secretary of State explained that "yes, we think the price is worth it" when asked on CBS 60 Minutes program (5/11/96) if maintaining the blockade was worth the death of half a million children.

It is high time to question the cost of what we are doing to the Iraqi people....