I was once interviewed by someone that asked me what I thought of Kate Moss taking drugs; I rememeber a journalist on the radio explaining The Tsunami of money Western drug consumption brings to developing countries and the bloodshed that inevitably follows.
The BBC annoys me in many ways for its waste of money and the overpaid, underworked faces that peer out from the television seeming to exude self satisfaction, however, from our correspodent is a little gem of a program opening your eyes to the pain and change flooding the world. Recently they had a journalist in Ciudad Juárez one of the most violent cities in the world where the drug cartels rein supreme and the Mayor struggles to keep the grim reaper at bay by surrounding himself with body guards and sending his family far away.
We struggle to grasp complexity we were not created to deal with it, our minds are instinctively lazy wanting to see small details we can easily grasp, yet the complexity and suffering of the drug problem is mind boggling. We watch Opray Winfrey not simply because she is good but because she takes us to a place of security and certaintity that harks back to a less complicated world - a homeliness. The modern world is truly scary in its interconnected complexity and no man is capable of truly grasping how it functions.
We have the natural world that governs us, the climate the patterns of the stars, food, but layered on that are the myriad interconnections that exist around us. The large complex social, economic and political networks we have built.
A Tsunami of money hits the third world and bloodshed rains on the streets corrupting the local societies. Capitilism's dirty undercurrent something distasteful we have exported, that services our stars who we cheer at sporting and music events. We should be telling them to hang their heads in shame for the suffering they inflict by their purchasing habits. Yet what are we to do, we seek security in our backyard, food for our children, we may occasionally reach out financially to help those less fortunate but they are distant and remote our own immediacy cannot be felt by others.
Haiti pains me as i reach for my credit card, i have to give yet i am aware that just giving the money not paying attention to how it is spent, not monitoring, not commiting people to assist in the management can mean needless waste and just featherbed the aid agencies and high ranking officials. Yet if we do what is really required and manage we have to avoid taking over. The solutions are complex they are always are but they must have basic principles. We have to ensure the money is well spent, not corrupting, we look at the short term and the long term and we commit for a considerable length of time.
The solution is to manage until the locals can take over, put in audit committess to make sure the money is well spent and honestly look at long term solutions by using people with significant understanding of the local environment and to be brave when required. The drug problem, oh the drug problem.
The simple principle is we should not leave these cities to rot with the money Tsunami of our creating, we should have an advertising campaign highlighting the damage the stars inflict humiliating them, we should look at long term how to assist and we should be brave. We should help with building schools, training people but they only work long term with appropriate family planning. Extreme wealth how it can make people suffer and complexity how we struggle thinking about it. How can we teach ourselves to deal with complexity? I truly don't know i shout out in anger when i read the newspapers, but it is simply frustration because the very thing that is most important we so struggle with. Everywhere we like to look at one factor, we like to simplify.
We have to move from big picture to detail, we have to simplify and then complicate we have to think around the problem, so, so difficult and we are largely failing, that is at the root of our present issues. Our inability to deal and think about complexity in the appropriate fashion and our innate short-term selfishness - we are a naked ape.
I answered the interviewer with a,
"Kate you should hang your head in shame I don't care what you do to your body but i care about those people gunned down in a developing country and so should you. Being cool, looking good suddenly has no meaning when you are laid in a pool of blood, your parents lamenting the could have been!"
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Development of Thought
We all occasionaly consider what separates us from other animals and there are those that would point towards small percents and the great length of time we have had to evolve. Others would point to language, our ability to use tools, the development of agriculture perhaps simply luck.
Yet, yet in the argument over religion the origin of man the passion that inflames both sides we fail to see the obvious. A zoologist would say perhaps as religion exists in every corner of the world in every culture some belief system to hold us together is necessary. I don't believe in god i think Islam is largely failing its people at the moment but it binds them together.
Marx tried to replace religion with another belief system but it failed, we sometimes have coffee with people that are searching for something, people always say searching for something don't they, yet really life is very simple at the basic level but the simplicity of life isn't enough to motivate people, to bind them together. They need more, they need to feel special, they struggle to accept you are just a naked ape, put here to breed the next generation. There is no fate, there is no god, there is nothing you are simply alone on this planet with the faculties you have been given and you will be dust when you die. If you get crippled in a car crash there will be no divine retribution against the criminal but society will try and punish him. If he escapes the law beyond his guilt he has escaped.
So the fundamental question in a world with no god is how do we bind people together, how do we draw them closer and motivate them? We may all mock the flyover states in the US yet their religion binds them together it gives them a fervour, a passion that has strength. You may dislike how it is directed and their ideas but one should not ignore the strength it gives them.
Unfortunately it is the case with Islam as well and anyone that frequents the streets of the UK on a Saturday night can see that a godless society with no restraint, no values, no code feels a little lost. I have talked to very sexy girls, yet one can feel they are lost. A sophisticated Atheist argument about learning is beyond them, they need a simple morale code that can be followed and by the elite removing religion, for many worthy reasons, has left them in a void and many do not have the intellect or the desire to fill it with learning and philosophy.
What should we do then? How to give someone who lacks the motivation to learn or the intellect the morale compass and meaning they desire and require. We need to adopt a strong civil code that has to be taught in our schools and unfortunately that means the end of relgious schools as it has to be universal, it has to come with clear punishment and we have to have community activities that everyone participates in such as national service. Minority views will have to, on occasions, be eschewed for the larger civil code. In some instances things may even need to be prohibited IE the burkha.
What should it contain i do not know. We have to choose though, we either all follow a relgious code or a strong civil code needs developing.I don't see any other way and religion has always existed, it may not be the truth, but man has needed it for a reason. That reason was to service a need. If there is no universal code in a country or a code the majority follow then bloodshed always, but always follows. The most difficult and perhaps most important balance we have always struggled with between conformity or uniformity and diversity.
Yet, yet in the argument over religion the origin of man the passion that inflames both sides we fail to see the obvious. A zoologist would say perhaps as religion exists in every corner of the world in every culture some belief system to hold us together is necessary. I don't believe in god i think Islam is largely failing its people at the moment but it binds them together.
Marx tried to replace religion with another belief system but it failed, we sometimes have coffee with people that are searching for something, people always say searching for something don't they, yet really life is very simple at the basic level but the simplicity of life isn't enough to motivate people, to bind them together. They need more, they need to feel special, they struggle to accept you are just a naked ape, put here to breed the next generation. There is no fate, there is no god, there is nothing you are simply alone on this planet with the faculties you have been given and you will be dust when you die. If you get crippled in a car crash there will be no divine retribution against the criminal but society will try and punish him. If he escapes the law beyond his guilt he has escaped.
So the fundamental question in a world with no god is how do we bind people together, how do we draw them closer and motivate them? We may all mock the flyover states in the US yet their religion binds them together it gives them a fervour, a passion that has strength. You may dislike how it is directed and their ideas but one should not ignore the strength it gives them.
Unfortunately it is the case with Islam as well and anyone that frequents the streets of the UK on a Saturday night can see that a godless society with no restraint, no values, no code feels a little lost. I have talked to very sexy girls, yet one can feel they are lost. A sophisticated Atheist argument about learning is beyond them, they need a simple morale code that can be followed and by the elite removing religion, for many worthy reasons, has left them in a void and many do not have the intellect or the desire to fill it with learning and philosophy.
What should we do then? How to give someone who lacks the motivation to learn or the intellect the morale compass and meaning they desire and require. We need to adopt a strong civil code that has to be taught in our schools and unfortunately that means the end of relgious schools as it has to be universal, it has to come with clear punishment and we have to have community activities that everyone participates in such as national service. Minority views will have to, on occasions, be eschewed for the larger civil code. In some instances things may even need to be prohibited IE the burkha.
What should it contain i do not know. We have to choose though, we either all follow a relgious code or a strong civil code needs developing.I don't see any other way and religion has always existed, it may not be the truth, but man has needed it for a reason. That reason was to service a need. If there is no universal code in a country or a code the majority follow then bloodshed always, but always follows. The most difficult and perhaps most important balance we have always struggled with between conformity or uniformity and diversity.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Richard Dawkins a clever man but we all make mistakes
Richard Dawkins is a wonderful writer articulate clear thinking but no man is infallible. Given the entrenched traditional views of creationism in the US I feel he is fighting yesterday's battle.
However far we push our understanding of the planet of the universe there will always be questions that remain unasked and unanswered. Let's assume for one second there is no creator but other intelligent life forms in the universe have existed. If we found another planet that could support life millions of years away, if we were aware it was in its early stages would we not be tempted to send perhaps bacteria to assist the process?
Given the craters so evident on the moon indicating the many collisions objects suffer is it not probable that some alien bacteria may have found its way onto planet earth, how would we know and detect it?
Richard Dawkins in his own book says that in the future how would an alien life know what was natural and influenced by our own intelligent design through GE foods and other tinkering of the biological code. How do we know that some other intelligent life forms have not tinkered with our code not influenced the development of life on this planet?
The universe is very lonely would we not be tempted to assist its development on another planet?
So my question to the scientists is can bacteria survive on an asteriod? How could we tell if something had come from another planet? If we found another planet in the universe able to support life how would we assist in its development? Perhaps Crick who looked at this was wrong in one aspect life did not come from other planets but has it influenced us? Do we have some alien genes?
However far we push our understanding of the planet of the universe there will always be questions that remain unasked and unanswered. Let's assume for one second there is no creator but other intelligent life forms in the universe have existed. If we found another planet that could support life millions of years away, if we were aware it was in its early stages would we not be tempted to send perhaps bacteria to assist the process?
Given the craters so evident on the moon indicating the many collisions objects suffer is it not probable that some alien bacteria may have found its way onto planet earth, how would we know and detect it?
Richard Dawkins in his own book says that in the future how would an alien life know what was natural and influenced by our own intelligent design through GE foods and other tinkering of the biological code. How do we know that some other intelligent life forms have not tinkered with our code not influenced the development of life on this planet?
The universe is very lonely would we not be tempted to assist its development on another planet?
So my question to the scientists is can bacteria survive on an asteriod? How could we tell if something had come from another planet? If we found another planet in the universe able to support life how would we assist in its development? Perhaps Crick who looked at this was wrong in one aspect life did not come from other planets but has it influenced us? Do we have some alien genes?
Monday, February 15, 2010
The climate controversy the real truth - The Islamic world
The real truth is very simple. When your child asks you what it takes to be rich and famous and asks for a guarantee can you give it, can you? Of course you can't. You can tell them the right things to do, but you can not guarantee it. The world is too complex, there are too many factors at play and so it is with the planet we really are not quite sure what will happen we can guess. Societies collapse they always have and they will. There are huge numbers of people on the planet and increasing; there will surely be some payback for christ sake economists do we ever get free rides? Are you assuming we will have a free ride on this planet can that really be the case?
The myopia of the papers so obsessed with one report, with global warming misses the larger point.
Man to live requires:
1) Water
2) Oxygen
3) Food
4) Land
Advanced civilisation is more fragile and requires:
1) Fuel which are FOSSIL, meaning they come from ancient remains, meaning they run out. Why do people use the term fossil and not think; argue about when, they will run out we really will never precisely know when we just have to take sensible decisions now to minimise the impact.
2) Highly educated population.
3) An interconnected planet, people moving, resources moving
As population numbers increase stress is placed on the other areas making our survival more challenging, however, if global warming doesn't occur we will still have a huge problem supporting our population as ground water runs out as we over farm the land and over fish the seas and resources diminish as they are fossil after all.
We argue about precise figures let's just be sensible. Why is thinking deeply so hard, were we not created for thinking so we avoid it as soon as we leave university? Why do intelligent people not think, not read, not consider? It is so damnable obvious. 6 billion and increasing, never before seen on planet earth, what will they eat, where will they go, where is the fuel coming from, where is the water coming from?
We are not quite sure why the jet streams move, the world could get warmer but one of them permanently moves and and an area of the world will have more water, we are just not sure, it is too complex however, let's be sensible do the commonsense things and look at the whole of the problem.
The Islamic world, how can we help them? They are bringing about their own Armageddon. Oil is their curse, their populations are increasing the ground water will run out, they need an agricultural miracle otherwise when the world turns away as the FOSSIL fuels diminish which they surely will, assuming no change in climate best case, then they will not be able to feed their populations, their radicalism means they will not be accepted in neighbouring countries, they will perish. In turning to radical Islam they are bringing about Armageddon, it impoverishes them intellectually, economically and ensures their populations become too vast. Perhaps a change in the jet stream will save them, perhaps they will be able to invade a country and usurp the locals, Russia is empty and agriculturally rich, perhaps world food production will rise. If they don't get lucky with one of the above they will die in their millions.
God help them.
The myopia of the papers so obsessed with one report, with global warming misses the larger point.
Man to live requires:
1) Water
2) Oxygen
3) Food
4) Land
Advanced civilisation is more fragile and requires:
1) Fuel which are FOSSIL, meaning they come from ancient remains, meaning they run out. Why do people use the term fossil and not think; argue about when, they will run out we really will never precisely know when we just have to take sensible decisions now to minimise the impact.
2) Highly educated population.
3) An interconnected planet, people moving, resources moving
As population numbers increase stress is placed on the other areas making our survival more challenging, however, if global warming doesn't occur we will still have a huge problem supporting our population as ground water runs out as we over farm the land and over fish the seas and resources diminish as they are fossil after all.
We argue about precise figures let's just be sensible. Why is thinking deeply so hard, were we not created for thinking so we avoid it as soon as we leave university? Why do intelligent people not think, not read, not consider? It is so damnable obvious. 6 billion and increasing, never before seen on planet earth, what will they eat, where will they go, where is the fuel coming from, where is the water coming from?
We are not quite sure why the jet streams move, the world could get warmer but one of them permanently moves and and an area of the world will have more water, we are just not sure, it is too complex however, let's be sensible do the commonsense things and look at the whole of the problem.
The Islamic world, how can we help them? They are bringing about their own Armageddon. Oil is their curse, their populations are increasing the ground water will run out, they need an agricultural miracle otherwise when the world turns away as the FOSSIL fuels diminish which they surely will, assuming no change in climate best case, then they will not be able to feed their populations, their radicalism means they will not be accepted in neighbouring countries, they will perish. In turning to radical Islam they are bringing about Armageddon, it impoverishes them intellectually, economically and ensures their populations become too vast. Perhaps a change in the jet stream will save them, perhaps they will be able to invade a country and usurp the locals, Russia is empty and agriculturally rich, perhaps world food production will rise. If they don't get lucky with one of the above they will die in their millions.
God help them.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
The Stupidity of Economics/Extinction
Economics is a mind numbingly simple and straight forward profession. Knowing the right economic decisions, given the correct information, is extremely simple the difficultly is receiving the information and in implementing given the sensitivity. It is so closely linked to individual welfare, equality that individuals become overemotional and compromises are made in the delivery of information and implementation.
I could within one month come up with a program that would transform the fortunes of the UK .
1) Introduce Grammar schools to every town above a certain size.
2) Increase tuition fees emphasize science and technology within education as countless surveys over the last 100 years have indicated.
3) Only provide state funding for one child in any family, above that no additional funding whatever the circumstance. If they are unable to support the children they will be removed from the family or they will be given the ability to be sterilized.
I could go on the point is our problems are well known but democracy is struggling to deliver the reforms required. China challenges us not just economically but also politically. We are fast reaching the point where democracy is no longer the most economically successful system. Economic success may lead us to environmental ruin as our population increases past the point where resources and climate can support; however, economic wealth always leads to power which enables you to enforce your will in the world for the betterment of your country. Just ask those African countries who are now suffering the influence of Chinese power as they once suffered imperial European influence.
Blair is a failure on the British education system as much as a failure of morals; he could have been great truly great, but he lacked a broad education allowing him to make balanced decisions, he was too persuasive given his excellent legal education but with minimum understanding of the world and he was surrounded by many poorly educated individuals. Our political elite are an embarrassment not because they feed ravenously on any rule they are able to bend for personal benefit but because they are broadly poorly educated. The collapse of the state education system and the narrowness of experience delivered by the private sector means they are broadly unfit to rule.
How many politicians read regularly, how many politicians are studying for a qualification, perhaps it is our fault relentless wanting a view and opinion from them, allowing someone like Prescott, who is a well meaning man, but plainly not particularly bright to effect key decisions.
We should be challenging them to read, to study, to travel to understand the world, to perform the most important management task, which is gain a high-level understanding from key experts, then perform a deep detailed deep dive focusing on one issue, don't push it on consultants do the deep dive yourself, do they I don't think they do.
So Harriet Harman pushes through her equality legislation someone needs to be brave enough to say we are not equal and quite simply men are paid more because they are generally worth more to an organization as they have fewer days away from the office. Someone needs to say the Eiffel tower was not built working fu*king working 9-5 and going home and being a decent father, our society depends on difficult problems and solutions being solved men are more able to do that as they are more likely to sacrifice for work, work which someone needs to do.
So as we perhaps look upon the dying embers of advanced civilization; societies have repeatedly collapsed through the millennia and listening to 'From Our Correspondent', it is clear globally there is increasing stress on resources our elite seem poorly educated and democracy is struggling to deliver. The giant in the East rises as competition for those resources increases and we turn inwards and fail to see the coming battle. Food, water, oil, land very simple really.
The average animal has lived on planet earth for 5 million years and one day we will become extinct, how ironic that we are still so chained by our pre-19th century mindset. The Victorians gave us so much allowing us to understand the world like never before, to construct and develop the planet like never before yet we failed to understand some of the simplest details, the influence of the bible meant the end result of everything was man destined to rule for ever more, always present on this planet. We know it is not true academically but emotionally we have not accepted it. Man's existence depends on several simple details, food, water, appropriate atmospheric composition. The climate will change it always has, the earth is in constant change and our numbers will swell beyond what the Earth is able to sustain and there will be a population collapse without doubt it will happen, the question is when as we are all in the long run dead and perhaps Keynes was more right than he truly realized. The planet is 4.7 billion years old the average animal lives for 5 million we will evolve into something else as the planet changes or we will become extinct it is truism the question is when and in the short-term are we about to suffer one of the many population collapses that afflicted man. I challenge you post Victorian person, hope you like that Harriet, to see it and understand it, to take a view of deep time can you truly escape the bible can you truly see it. We haven't yet have we? No you will look at 200 years of history forget the plague of 1347, forget the population collapse in Vietnam etc. Chained you are by the bible still.
Whatever may happen though, we should not succumb to stupidity and for that I cry out for a better educated population, a better educated and read political, academic and business elite. Without that we will succumb to stupidity and we will create an embarrassment that is Mr. Blair, shame on you Mr. Blair and shame on us for creating you.
I could within one month come up with a program that would transform the fortunes of the UK .
1) Introduce Grammar schools to every town above a certain size.
2) Increase tuition fees emphasize science and technology within education as countless surveys over the last 100 years have indicated.
3) Only provide state funding for one child in any family, above that no additional funding whatever the circumstance. If they are unable to support the children they will be removed from the family or they will be given the ability to be sterilized.
I could go on the point is our problems are well known but democracy is struggling to deliver the reforms required. China challenges us not just economically but also politically. We are fast reaching the point where democracy is no longer the most economically successful system. Economic success may lead us to environmental ruin as our population increases past the point where resources and climate can support; however, economic wealth always leads to power which enables you to enforce your will in the world for the betterment of your country. Just ask those African countries who are now suffering the influence of Chinese power as they once suffered imperial European influence.
Blair is a failure on the British education system as much as a failure of morals; he could have been great truly great, but he lacked a broad education allowing him to make balanced decisions, he was too persuasive given his excellent legal education but with minimum understanding of the world and he was surrounded by many poorly educated individuals. Our political elite are an embarrassment not because they feed ravenously on any rule they are able to bend for personal benefit but because they are broadly poorly educated. The collapse of the state education system and the narrowness of experience delivered by the private sector means they are broadly unfit to rule.
How many politicians read regularly, how many politicians are studying for a qualification, perhaps it is our fault relentless wanting a view and opinion from them, allowing someone like Prescott, who is a well meaning man, but plainly not particularly bright to effect key decisions.
We should be challenging them to read, to study, to travel to understand the world, to perform the most important management task, which is gain a high-level understanding from key experts, then perform a deep detailed deep dive focusing on one issue, don't push it on consultants do the deep dive yourself, do they I don't think they do.
So Harriet Harman pushes through her equality legislation someone needs to be brave enough to say we are not equal and quite simply men are paid more because they are generally worth more to an organization as they have fewer days away from the office. Someone needs to say the Eiffel tower was not built working fu*king working 9-5 and going home and being a decent father, our society depends on difficult problems and solutions being solved men are more able to do that as they are more likely to sacrifice for work, work which someone needs to do.
So as we perhaps look upon the dying embers of advanced civilization; societies have repeatedly collapsed through the millennia and listening to 'From Our Correspondent', it is clear globally there is increasing stress on resources our elite seem poorly educated and democracy is struggling to deliver. The giant in the East rises as competition for those resources increases and we turn inwards and fail to see the coming battle. Food, water, oil, land very simple really.
The average animal has lived on planet earth for 5 million years and one day we will become extinct, how ironic that we are still so chained by our pre-19th century mindset. The Victorians gave us so much allowing us to understand the world like never before, to construct and develop the planet like never before yet we failed to understand some of the simplest details, the influence of the bible meant the end result of everything was man destined to rule for ever more, always present on this planet. We know it is not true academically but emotionally we have not accepted it. Man's existence depends on several simple details, food, water, appropriate atmospheric composition. The climate will change it always has, the earth is in constant change and our numbers will swell beyond what the Earth is able to sustain and there will be a population collapse without doubt it will happen, the question is when as we are all in the long run dead and perhaps Keynes was more right than he truly realized. The planet is 4.7 billion years old the average animal lives for 5 million we will evolve into something else as the planet changes or we will become extinct it is truism the question is when and in the short-term are we about to suffer one of the many population collapses that afflicted man. I challenge you post Victorian person, hope you like that Harriet, to see it and understand it, to take a view of deep time can you truly escape the bible can you truly see it. We haven't yet have we? No you will look at 200 years of history forget the plague of 1347, forget the population collapse in Vietnam etc. Chained you are by the bible still.
Whatever may happen though, we should not succumb to stupidity and for that I cry out for a better educated population, a better educated and read political, academic and business elite. Without that we will succumb to stupidity and we will create an embarrassment that is Mr. Blair, shame on you Mr. Blair and shame on us for creating you.
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