Amnesty International released their annual report on human rights. It continues to paint a stark picture of humanity. Violence is the culture of too many places, and of too many rich countries. With the richest countries still failing to respect human life, despite teh intellect and wealth available to nurture, it remains a dream that …
Continue reading Still a primitive world – AI report on human rights 2008
Category:1 Perspective
The uncomfortable view from the top
Today’s BBC article Thailand’s Wealthy Untouchables touched a nerve. It describes the chasm between rich and poor and the failure of the rich to take responsibility for themselves. It is interesting to see the emotions of the downtrodden becoming visible. And it illustrates the motivation for changing my career a decade ago. When I looked …
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We’re running out of planet …
Even the capitalists are beginning to ask if earth’s resources are now being exhausted: BusinessWeek’s article The Age of Scarcity asks if this is our Malthusian moment. They offer evidence to support that point of view but conclude that policy changes will allow new technologies to make resources go further. Unfortunately this is wishful thinking. …
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Stop making babies – Save the planet
When you take an interest in reducing humanity’s impact on the biosphere, it becomes apparent that there are simply too many humans. It is generally accepted that the planet can support only 2 billion people by natural means. The equation is simple: sun’s energy enters the biosphere and is converted to stored energy (by plants), …
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Addicted
I’m addicted, you’re addicted, we’re all addicted. But not addicted to love, sadly. We might like to think that we’re immune, but facing the truth, we must own up that our addictions are open secrets. Let’s touch a few bases to see where addiction might be in our lives. From personal to popular, from body …
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Will truth win over power soon enough?
Although this question crossed my mind in the middle of October, it kept recurring in a range of areas. For those seeking system change it is core to the philosophical question of whether humanity can adapt to systems based on love and sharing instead of greed and fear. While that thought may not bear much …
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A war of virtual imperial powers
It seems that the political dynamic of our world remains dominated by tension between imperial powers. The primitive psychology is the same as any caricature of Romans, Huns or Brits, but the banners under which they march are not so tangible. Today the powers are virtual. They are fighting for minds and souls, rather than …
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A different scale of leverage has accelerated our progress and imbalances
As has been discussed over the past months, the economic imbalances around the world have grown beyond normal measures for some years now. Trade imbalances, government debt, consumer spending have all been beyond expectations in the US and other mature economies. With the tremors of collapse touching many since the cracks in US housing started …
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Hope is not the answer; living in reality is
By coincidence a number of comments received on last month’s musings (both News and Views and Review) drew attention to hope. Whether a quantitative or qualitative observer of life, people seem to want a hopeful sign that everything is going to be alright. It would be fantastic if that could be. But it is only …
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