Two faces of African Hunger

How to solve the world's hunger problem ?

The human way... link

The Banana Republic way... link 1 link 2

Don't pauperise the third world by giving them food, enrich them with the knowledge to be self sufficient. And maybe interest free loans...

One degree of thought

For all of those people who have gone through the wonderful experience, that is science, would know that theory advances, what starts of as ground breaking thought, simple, straight forward ideas. For example, the humble electron. It started as a planetoid particle on a 2D disc and ended up being, to my limited knowledge, a vague cloud whose position we couldn't know precisely, if we also wanted to know its momentum (Yes. I confirmed this from Wikipedia. Just to make sure). We like straight forward things, we like keeping things simple. In fact we have an entire rhetorical argument regarding what Occam's Razor really means...it also doesn't help when the greatest smart ass of all time, Aristotle, is regarded as the father of Modern thought. If you are a lawyer, perhaps, and if your vocabulary consists of either a 'yes' or a 'no'. For the rest of us, who struggle with grey, there is a more pressing matter. When do we start thinking beyond 1 degree of thought. What do I mean ? Well lets tackle inflation. What is the cause of inflation ? People getting paid more money ? Yes. Govt, printing more money ? Yes. Increased demand for underlying commodities ? Yes. All of the above ? Yes. Give people cheap credit ? Yes... so on and so forth... one can research the various schools of thought from the Wiki page if one wanted to.

Ok so we have established the 'causes' for inflation. Now how do we tackle inflation, and why must we tackle inflation in the first place ? Well, unless you can take advantage of the rising prices and the free money floating around in the market place, you are going to be stuck with a fiat currency, a bit like a leaky boat, or an energy system, slowly losing its energy to entropy, in other words, the inherent value of your savings decreases over time. Why does this matter ? After all, as you climb the ladders of society won't you get paid more ? and then, won't you be able to meet the demands of your humanity irrespective of the inflationary pressures ? Yes you would, if you constantly get promoted and if your salary keeps rising beyond the rise in inflation and if you don't get married and have children and don't have rising health costs and you don't have to buy a house and I'm sure you get the picture.

So there is a need for tackling inflation. So, how do we go about tackling inflation ? and is it fair to say that the job of tackling inflation lies with just 1 body, either the reserve bank or the govt. etc... If the cause of inflation if multi factorial then it's safe to assume that the 'cure', too, should have a multifaceted approach. So perhaps if the Govt. was all encompassing, it could, in its infinite wisdom, try and tackle inflation. However, Govt. like any large organisation, is really self serving and panders to either its CEO or it's majority stake holders. Since inflation doesn't really effect any of these people, they aren't too serious about it, unless there is a rising mob demanding blood, hunkering down for a good protest somewhere. Let's be creative in thinking about inflation and tackling it. We should all go on strike. For one day. wouldn't that be an awesome sight to behold. Everyone just stayed at home for one day. Let the homeless people have the city for one day, to ride up and down the streets in their trolleys. What would that achieve ? nothing really, but I just thought it would be cool if that would happen. Ok so mass strike isn't a relevant part of this conversation. What is then ? I mean increasing interest rates is only a single macro economic weapon, which sort of influences the demand and supply of credit and debt, which sort of gets people to start tightening their belts, which sort of eases the demand generated for goods, which sort of makes a few expensive items in the stores to go to waste, ensuring that they get sold in a 'not quite right store', which sort of reduces profits somewhere, which sort of gets pushed onto the consumer... I'm not sure where the inflation is being tackled here and this doesn't work for stagflation. We could pay people less. They would have no money to spend, no inflation. Obviously that won't work, but that is what is happening all around the world. Slowly and surely the earning capacity of each and every individual is declining, and we are working longer hours, except in France. They just keep working less and less, though they are getting clever with ways to pay the rent. And prices keeping rising. You can't buy a house without taking a loan, for most people, you don't get tax benefits if you rent, in most parts of the world, and that new night club isn't ever as exclusive as it used to be on the opening night. So many people everywhere !! Shall we have a mass culling, let's say we get rid of all the Africans and then then carve Africa up into pieces for everyone else to share, increasing the supply side of economics. I still think we aren't being creative enough, I'm sure there are more creative ways to tackle inflation, I'm just limited by my uni dimensional thought process. Its a horrendous position to be in for someone who is a Kantian at heart. If my ability to think n steps into the foreseeable future is greater than that of the other person, then do I get to make the ethical rules that everyone must follow ? Or do I simply become more ethical ? would I be ethical if I took advantage of my foresight ? Mmmm have I digressed from our topic of inflation ? Those fellow Kantians, who know what I'm yammering about, won't think so. But for the others, sorry to say, you are stuffed. Society at large doesn't really think about itself in any meaningful way, it sort of struggles along, limping from one disaster to the next, all the while pretending to have meaningful insights into itself. Like the one you are reading right now ! I like straight forward 'yes' / 'no' scenarios, but lets face it, the time for 1 degree of thought is over, we should at least recognise 2 degrees of thought :) if not three.

to be continued...

Searching... part 2

The 'search' has taken a more serious turn than the light hearted anti corporation mumble that was 'Searching Part... 1'

Why such an ominous turn of tone ?

The 18 month scenario with the Dow and Gold charts is simplistic (given below). In that they view, an upward rise for the Dow based on the 'breakout' from the upward directed channel starting from 2003. It is true that the falling dollar will increase US exports and that the rising currencies of the world will make US manufacturing more attractive. However, what is it that will take the Dow to new highs ? In other words how does one increase the purchasing power of the consumer that is already burdened with debt ? Lowering the value of debt via liquidity is one way to go as suggested in this very interesting article on the 'Global Research' website...

"How Far Will the Crash Go and What Do we Do Now?"
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6575

We are not going to see an increase in interest rates to balance the trigger happy printing presses as individual's stretched by debt cannot afford higher rates. However, this is just a part of the scenario. With an increase in liquidity, resources come into the picture as do resource grabs. The hunt for resources is an ugly business which has involved war on many occasions, and as recently as the Iraq war by the US Govt. There is no other credible reason left for the US Govt's decision to go to war with Iraq apart from Oil and saving the further devaluation of the USD by Iraqi oil being sold in Euro. There were no WMD's, Iraq wasn't buying yellowcake from Niger and there were no links of Saddam's regime to the ex-CIA trained Mujahidin A.K.A. Osama Bin Laden' Al-Qaeda, the database of Muslim Extremists... I cannot put the result of US' interventions in the middle east better than a recent video on Jon Stewart's Daily Show.
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/?lnk=v&ml_video=91998

So, as all of you may have guessed, this was all a build up to writing about the US' annoyance with Iran. With the Bush administration's rhetoric reaching new highs, as evidenced by Greenwald's internet petition video.

http://foxattacks.com/blog/10777-fox-attacks-iran

For those who want to know why Fox is being trumped as the voice piece of the GOP should watch 'Outfoxed' http://www.outfoxed.org/

Now, this is beginning to sound like an anti republican and anti globalisation piece. It isn't, (this might be anti-establishment though) I'll explain why later. Let's get back to Iran. Why is there such a strong rhetoric surrounding Iran ? I would like to warn the war mongers , that though the American Air force is fresh, as is the Navy, fighting a war on three fronts is really a stupid idea. Can it be, that they want to increase pressure on Iran forcing them into a deal akin to the deal with N. Korea ? i.e. decrease Iran's isolation, allowing them to trade internationally. Possible... the new Turkish Govt. has opened up to Iran, though it's a conservative Govt. which has been traditionally opposed by the Turkish Military (who have strong ties with the US) Or could this rise in rhetoric simply be the dear Straussian philosophy trying to distract the public from what is really a horrendous economic system. How dare I attack the Capitalist bastion ? Capitalism ? Mmm will the real Capitalist please stand up ? I'm not sure how a Congress decreed minimum wage, international sanctions, federal bail outs and, my personal favourite, Bankers controlling Monetary Inflation, is Capitalism. It definitely isn't free market economics, it really is Corporatism. Politics and Big Business, always in bed together. This story is really very old. Gandhi came up with a way of dealing with the 'company' back in the 20's and 30's and that, still is, the only way to deal with corporations today. Self Sufficiency. However, let's be honest, there are practical applications of being self sufficient and then there are impractical applications. I mean, I could build a plane for myself, but it doesn't make sense, resource wise, for everyone to have a plane. Not yet anyway :)

So we come back to the original few lines of this piece. What happens to an economy which runs on credit when credit runs out ? This isn't just America's problem. I don't know anyone in the developed/developing world that doesn't own a credit card. The idea of buying on credit itself is really a concept which defeats the consumer in every way. I am told that my purchasing power is increased, that would be true if the price of what I'm buying is static. It never is. You don't need to be a economic whiz to understand supply and demand. If you increase purchasing power of the consumer you also drive up prices because ppl who couldn't afford that 4 bedroom house are now able to buy that 4 bedroom house, who's value has been trumped up because everyone can now get a loan and buy. In other words the conditions that force you to take a loan are forcing subsequent generations to live in debt. How is this possible ? Liquidity and expansion...

No we are not going back to the stone age, if we change the system. There is plenty that can be done and business can be self sustainable too. There will always be need for large businesses but they can be Co-op... more on this soon.

Another act of self sufficiency is brewing beer. I have now bought my own beer brewing kit, Cooper's. I must admit that these guys made a great kit and it really simplifies beer brewing. Cost advantage ? 23 litres of beer for under AUD 80 + cost of water and you get a kit which is robust enough for further use. Subsequent batches can be brewed for under AUD 20 + cost of water.