Monthly Archives: December 2014

When we face our own mortality, accomplishment does not always equate to meaning.

29 Monday Dec 2014

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Here is your New Year Resolution’s.

My purpose in life is to create something of beauty and meaning that will change the world for the better. My life is made more meaningful by sharing my skills and resources to help marginalized and powerless people.

I’m better as a “do-er”.

What you most not do is to throw up our hands in despair and believe that you can do nothing.

So where to start.?  How about with my new year resolution.

” I really hope after reading this you’d get inspired to join a global war against Inequality.”

 We can change the moral landscape of our time. The global meltdown, the Euro zone crisis, and increased unemployment have all added to the rise in poverty around the world. It is obviously when people are desperate for work or food and are trying just to survive, they may agree to take risks that might make them vulnerable to being exploited.

Human capital takes many forms, including:

Terrorism.  • Labour exploitation, where victims suffer mental or physical abuse or threats. • Controlled or owned by their ’employer’, who may withhold pay and/or dehumanise. • Bought and sold as commodity, often in exchange for services or money. • Freedom of movement is restricted or victims are confined to their place.

One of the most important steps each and every one of us can take is to make sure we educate ourselves and inform others about how our actions can end modern-day slavery. The decisions and choices we make about the produce, clothes, and technology we buy have far-reaching impact on the lives of poor, vulnerable people across the world.

All of these and many other problems sets challenges for us all — for governments, for companies and for consumers.

 It is estimated that forced labor generates over $150 billion a year worldwide in illegal profits. Money made on the back of vulnerable people’s misery.

To put this amount into perspective, it is the same amount of money that the iPhone has generated in revenues since 2007! It’s more than the annual GDP of Rwanda, Iceland, Kenya, Jamaica and Croatia combined! The obscene amount of money generated by forced labor is one of the main reasons of why it’s so hard to eradicate.

It can be easy to fool ourselves into believing that slavery, while repugnant, has nothing to do with our own lives, that it has been either eradicated from all but the most remote places on Earth.

It’s not here a few examples

Thai fishing industry, a $7-billion business that provides seafood sold in major stores such as Walmart, Costco and Tesco across North America and Europe use forced labor on fishing boats and inhumane treatment of crew from neighboring countries like Cambodia and Myanmar.

There are 29.8 million people in the world waiting for a time when they no longer survive in slavery, but thrive in freedom. Slavery to exist today, in every country, 150 years after we thought it had been abolished.”

Europe is home to 1 in 8 trafficking victims.

India topped the Global Slavery Index 2013 with the highest number of enslaved people, estimated at 14 million, which is nearly half the total world-wide. The index indicates that India exhibits the “full spectrum” of the different forms of modern slavery.

The average U.S. citizen eats over 11 pounds of chocolate per year but many are unaware of the rampant practice of child slavery involved in more than 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa production.

In mines in eastern Congo, children work exhausting hours to extract minerals used in electronics industry.

Mauritania still has one of the highest rates of slavery in the world, with the U.S. Department of State estimating that up to 20% of the country’s population is enslaved.

There is only one way to make a change and that is to Cap Greed at the heart of Capitalism( See previous Posts)

Lets hear your views: Get involved don’t just tick the like box and close your mind.

 

Knock, Knock, Who there? 2015

24 Wednesday Dec 2014

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Happy New Year to one and all.

As a species, we are social beings who live out our lives in the company of other humans. We organize ourselves into various kinds of social groupings, such as nomadic bands, villages, cities, and countries, in which we work, trade, play, reproduce, and interact in many other ways. Unlike other species, we combine socialization with deliberate changes in social behavior and organization over time.

Consequently, the patterns of human society differ from place to place and era to era and across cultures, making the social world a very complex and dynamic environment.

The ways in which people develop are shaped by social experience and circumstances within the context of their inherited genetic potential.

We are increasingly dependent on one another through international economic systems and shared environmental problems. The growing interdependence of world social, economic, and ecological systems makes it difficult to predict the consequences of social decisions. Changes anywhere in the world can have amplified effects elsewhere, with increased benefits to some people and increased costs to others.

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All year I have advocated that Greed is the curse of Capitalism. It is at the root cause of Inequality.

One hundred and six billion of us have being born since the dawn of the human species. Making the current population 6% of all the people who ever lived on the planet. ( 7,283,314749)  With 2.8 Billion of us living on less than two dollar a day, with over a billion not having access to healthy water, with 876 million of adults illiterate, with ½ a million murders a year, with 30,000 children under 5 die every day from avoidable diseases it’s no wonder we have terrorists.

Currently we have 20% of the global population with 90% of the wealth.

Christmas is over and all the words of peace to mankind have been sung once more, but the canvas of the World remains weeping. It is time to return dignity to the world. Which can only be achieved by capping greed to create a perpetual fund. ( see previous postings)

Here is the current painting.

A round revolving ball in the vastness of space teaming with life, with 1.35 billion of us spending 20 minutes each day of Facebook each month. The new slavery of our age leading us to the globalization of indifference, born out of ego selfishness, removing our sense of compassion and dignity.

A world on which we have 26 countries in a state of conflict , with 170 Militias, Guerrillas, Separatist, Anarchic, are all represented by a world of 31% Christians, 23% Muslims, 15% Hindus, 7% Buddhists, 6% Folk religionists, 1% Others and 0,02% Jews.

A Disposable world full of Ego Centrism in which man was probably happiest when he was swinging from tree to tree.

A world with 20/30 million in modern-day slavery ( A slave in 1850 in America cost the equivalent of $40,000 in to days money, to-day an average of $90.)

A world that has this much fresh water.  

Fresh groundwater and surface-water make up the bubble over Kentucky, which is about 252 miles in diameter. The sphere over Georgia reresents fresh-water lakes and rivers (about 34.9 miles in diameter).

This much gold. 171.300 tons.

Gold piled up on Wimbledon's centre court

Just enough oil to last the world 53.3 years at the current production rates.

Just enough gas in proven reserves to meet 58.6 years of global production at the end of 2010.

That will run out of phosphorus in 50 to 100 years unless new reserves of the element are found.

That has enough coal to meet 188 years of global production.

A world that when you take a deep breath the chances are, the air filling your lungs is far from pure. Even if you live in a clean, ecologically conscious area, you may be inhaling pollutants from faraway, less-pristine locales. Your hometown air may contain microscopic particles of mercury-coated coal dust from China, diesel from Europe, ozone from Los Angeles, or carbon monoxide from India—or possibly a cocktail of all of the above.

Where Scandium and terbium are just two of the 17 rare earth minerals that are used in everything from the powerful magnets in wind turbines to the electronic circuits in smartphones. The elements are not as rare as their name suggests but currently 97% of the world’s supply comes from China and they can restrict supplies at will. Exact reserves are not known.

Where we are told by the Artists not to don’t worry,( the Artists being our World Leaders places in power by us the people with black x’s in square boxes) because the Economy and World Trade, is turning people into merchandise for trade while depriving its victims of all dignity.

Where there is 75 trillion dollars in circulation. A billion Cars. With roughly 10/11 million standing soldiers between 10 countries.  While 86%-91% of the 8.7 million(± 1.3 million) species that we share the world with still await description before we are all swimming.
Photo: Woman wading through flooded Venice plaza

Where Scientific research indicates sea levels worldwide have been rising at a rate of 0.14 inches (3.5 millimeters) per year since the early 1990s.  The trend, linked to global warming, puts thousands of coastal cities, like Venice, Italy, (seen here during a historic flood in 2008), and even whole islands at risk of being claimed by the ocean.

A world where we now need more than ever to apply different brush strokes if the painting for 2015 is to have any chance of been appreciated in the future.

Day after day I follow news reports of the enormous suffering endured by many people in the Middle East. It is not enough to contain wars, or international terrorism, which displays deep disdain for human life and indiscriminately reaps innocent victims we must stop the bankrolling of these conflicts by the unchecked traffic in weapons.

There seem little point to continue to catalog the illnesses that are plaguing the world. You could continue to list all the shortcomings till the end of the earth.

Communications is about informing people – not collecting “hits.” In order to progress towards the future we need the past. However in doing so we need to move away from the present World model that is more prone to make demands than to serve humanity. 

We all know that the human family, must be grounded on respect, cooperation, solidarity and compassion. That it must be built on justice, socio-economic development, freedom, respect for fundamental human rights, and the participation of all in public affairs and the building of trust between people’s.

None of our present political systems are coming up to the mark ( Democracy, Republic , Monarchy, Communism , Dictatorship) because of Greed.

If we are to break out of the structures that hold us back from a recognition, we must share and share a like. Update our out of date World Organisations that are unable to function due to lack of funds, United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF, the World Health Organisation,that are run by our of date Government Systems (see post: Is Democracies outdated and Disfunctional)

If we are to reduce the Inequalities of the future a Global ethic is needed.

We all deserve a peaceful world order based on unity of purpose. Their dignity is your dignity.

As Pope said. ” It (the earth) is the greatest resource which God has given us and is at our disposal not to be disfigured, exploited, and degraded, but so that, in the enjoyment of its boundless beauty, we can live in this world with dignity.”

We need profound roots, sustainability, not a disposable society, which can only be achieved if we use the power of social media to effect change (see previous posts)

So there you have it a master piece deserving of to be hung in the Louvre, beside the Mona Lisa.

If your have by any chance read this post, I am not interested in receiving your like tick. I am Interested in any suggestions as to how we might go about setting up a grass roots Organisation to apply pressurize where needed by using the power of Social Media ( Not a Petition site.) more a name and shame site.    Happy New Year.

 

 

Painting the snowflakes red: The insanity of capitalism in 500 words

24 Wednesday Dec 2014

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Good on you honeythatsok. Happy Xmas. The battle will be long. Unfortunately there is only one way to make Capitalism contribute and that is to cap it cold heart as I suggest.

honeythatsok

Alice in Wonderland strikes again. Over the past 65 years, millions of children have marveled at the absurdity of the Red Queen making her minions paint the white roses red, or lose their heads. Unfortunately, the same children grew up and became mindless consumers of plastic junk, not giving a second thought as to who made their peculiar trinkets.

But this Christmas, a stunning article by Oliver Wainwright at The Guardian made it impossible to ignore. No art director in the world could come up with more unforgettable images of Santa’s workshop from hell. Wainwright writes: “Wai is 19. Together with his father, he works long days in the red-splattered lair, taking polystyrene snowflakes, dipping them in a bath of glue, then putting them in a powder-coating machine until they turn red – and making 5,000 of the things every day. In the process, the two of them end up…

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Why put up with a world you would be ashamed of to show to anyone.

19 Friday Dec 2014

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In a few days time if you are lucky you will be celebrating Christmas oblivious to the world you live in.  May the Blessings of the season be on you as it not intention to spoil your Christmas by reminding you that we live in a world where inequality is deeply entrenched and widely supported, and where most efforts seem to contribute to the efficient management of inequality.

The path of economic development that defines early 21st–century globalization is associated with growing inequalities of wealth and power within and between states and it is a path toward greater and greater inequality.

In other words, the current direction of globalization is increasing the economic and social injustice being done to the vast majority of the human family today.

Billions of people trapped in poverty worldwide feel the injustice intensely as they glimpse the lifestyles of the rich and famous of the world.

And you ask why is Terrorism growing, and what can be done about it?

In fact, the question, “what causes terrorism?” is not quite the right question to be asking, because we will never be able to answer it.

Since the 1960s a plethora of studies have been published on the topic. However, despite the proliferation of academic studies and political discussions calling for a closer look at the root causes, there has been no real improvement in understanding.

Kofi Annan said it best – “[w]e should not pretend that […] the decision to resort
to terrorism is unrelated to the political, social and economic situation in which
people find themselves.

Many people around the world perceive an unjust social and economic order imposed on them by forces that are, at best, indifferent to their needs. But we would be mistaken if we assume, equally, that terrorists are mere products of their environment.

Now don’t get me wrong I am not highlighting or justifying terrorism in all its barbaric actions. I am interest in removing it from the face of the Globe and how it might be possible to achieve steps in the right direction.

It is by no means a new phenomenon and “today society faces not one terrorism but many terrorism.

”Terrorism is considered one of the gravest dangers to our society, particularly because the highly publicized events of 9/11 demonstrated the consequences of terrorist acts.

Extremist ideologies of a secular or religious nature are at least-an intermediate cause of terrorism, serve to dehumanize the enemy and justify atrocities.

It may be true that religious fanaticism creates conditions that are favorable for terrorism. But we know that religious zealotry does not ’cause’ terrorism because there are many religious fanatics who do not choose terrorism or any form of violence. Although many people today believe that religious fanaticism “causes” terrorism, it isn’t true. We cannot say that the presence of one factor provokes terrorism in the same way that we can say with scientific certainty that certain toxins cause diseases.

Terrorism is a complex phenomenon; it is a specific kind of political violence committed by people who do not have legitimate army at their disposal. People that have become violent criminals, or nut cases using political arguments to justify their pathological need to be violent. A recent example in Australia where a certified Iranian nutter was classified as a terrorist by the world media, when in fact he was a deranged dangerous criminal.

Political terrorists are driven to commit acts of violence as a consequence of psychological forces, and that their psycho-logic is constructed to rationalize acts they are psychologically compelled to commit” terrorists live in the
divinely decreed future, a point in time where the ultimate realization of their
political destiny can be attained. This is the reason that we will never be able to eradicated it completely.

So what can be done?

Lessons from the past will provide a manual for handling the present challenges appears to be unrealistic with “knee-jerk” responses.

We all know the Illegitimate or corrupt governments frequently give rise to Terrorism. Repression by foreign occupation, unwillingness by the state to integrate dissident groups ethnic minority discriminated against by the majority lack of opportunity for political participation revenge or action, may trigger terrorist action.

However I believe that a large part of the real causes can be found in other quarters.

For instance;  Free media helps perpetuate terrorism in a society; without publicity, the actions of terrorist groups may ineffective and counterproductive in achieving their end goals. a free press will almost always assure maximum returns for terrorism and in turn will overestimate the relationship between democracy and terrorist activities. They should stop labeling ever violent act as terrorist. Remove the description and revert to naming the group.

If we can remove black money from this world and reduce poverty, terrorism disappears.

Terrorists can do nothing without money. All their purchases and transactions are illegal. For illegal purchases, they need to pay more than market price. Terrorists cannot operate without support from local people who are purchased. Poor people are the low-cost manpower for terrorist groups.

Education as the key to eradicate terrorism.

The United Nations should pass a resolution that all Companies commercial or otherwise quoted on the stock exchanges of the world  (with a value of £1 million and over) must provide two free Apprentices places at the start of their financial year.

The United Nations should get all the nations that it represent to agreed to a free United Nations Youth Touring Visa. To enable all University Graduates in the world to travel for two years.

And last put not lest.

The United Nations should pass a people’s of the world resolution’s to Cap Greed. Creating a perpetual source of funds so it does not have to beg. ( see previous posts: 0.05% World Aid commission)

The United Nation could open an App Called The UN Role of Shame. In which it could track and name countries/ organisations that commit human abuse, sell arms, don,t pay their subscription. make promises of Aid and don’t deliver.

The fertilizers of terrorism is poverty, poor people or hungry people who can do anything for food. we need a sincere effort to reduce inequalities and particularly opportunity inequalities. This can only be achieved by tapping into Capitalist Greed.

So when you lift that glass of Champagne to ring in the new  year  ( 110,000,000 bottles world-wide) you toast should be  ” Here to the future World a place we are proud of and willing to share with all.”

When we experience a life changing event the universe gives us a peek to who we are and what we are made of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MY CHRISTMAS CARD 2014 – TO ALL WORLD ELDERS.

17 Wednesday Dec 2014

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Xmas WallpapersFrom space, we see a small and fragile ball.

All nations have a role to play in changing trends, and in righting an international economic system that increases rather than decreases inequality,.

There are no military solutions to ‘environmental insecurity’.

We’ve never been on a planet with no Arctic ice.

Changes in climate may trigger transformations that are simply not reversible within our lifetimes.

The only way that a 2015 agreement can achieve a 2-degree goal is to shut down the whole global economy.

National and international law is being rapidly outdistanced by the accelerating pace OF GREED.

GET REAL AND PASS A RESOLUTION PLACING AN 1% AID COMMISSION ON ALL

– HIGH FREQUENCY STOCK EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS

– FOREIGN EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS OVER $ 20,000

– SOVEREIGNTY WEALTH ACQUISITIONS.

MAY THE BLESSINGS OF ALL GODS BE ON YOU.

In the short-term,

If you can make it in the economic interests of people to do the right thing HAPPY CHRISTMAS.

 

FEEL FREE TO PASS IT ON.

 

IS DEMOCRACIES OUTDATED AND DYSFUNCTIONAL ?

16 Tuesday Dec 2014

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As far as I know I have written on this subject before.

Although Democracy may be a universal aspiration it is a culturally rooted practice.

Perhaps it time to recognize that its aspirations (especially presented by American Democracy which is for sale by lobbyists and donors) is not an expression of free speech and is causing extremism.

Here is short overview at where we at.

The Euro was introduced by technocrats in 1999 only two countries held referendums Sweden and Denmark both rejected it.

Italy and Greece have replaced democratically elected leaders with technocrats.

The European Parliament is both ignored and despised. It is a breeding ground for extreme parties such as Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France, Golden Dawn in Greece ( A Nazi Party) U KIP in England, a Raciest party hiding behind the very word Democracy.  There are plenty of other examples.

Democracy is clearly suffering from serious structural problems which can be seen in its institutions that are meant to provide models for new democracies.

It has been infiltrated by big business money with voters becoming if not all ready disenfranchised.

Globalisation is and has changed national politics.

More and more power is surrendered to trade and financial flows resulting is Manifesto promises not been kept. Not surprising.

Single countries can not deal with Climate Change never mind micro powers within their boundaries which are disrupting traditional politics. (NGO’S , brake away’s such as Catalans, Scots, city mayors etc.)

The Internet is making it easier to organise and agitate while people are vetoing on reality TV. With a click of a mouse you can support a petition.

Elections are no longer the biggest challenge to Democracy the deficits are.

France and Italy have not balanced their budgets for more than thirty years.

England and America can only watch as their debt clock tick fast and faster fostering unsustainable. While Sovereign Wealth funds compete for limited resources world-wide.

In the mean time Western population are getting older and more expensive creating a future between inherited entitlements and future investment.

World wide membership of political parties is falling. (1% now compared to 20% in 1950 in England.) More than half of the votes in Europe have no trust in their Governments. 62% of English votes consider there politicians to be liars. A quarter of the votes in Italy recently voted for a party founded by a comedian. In Iceland they voted in the Best Party to run the Reykjavik’s city council a party that openly proclaimed itself to be corrupt.

Across the water President Obama can even pass a budget, paralysed by 9/11, rogue regimes and Jihadists he has no choice but to swallow the ISSI Pill and look on while Mr Putin calls the Worlds bluff.

Not good reading any of it.

So the questions is what can be done.  Here a few suggestions.

  1. Change the vote system to reflect the people and not Majoritarianism.
  2. Put limits on the power of Governments, by written constitutions that reflect the rights and protects individual rights.
  3. Stop Corruption by Lobbyists.
  4. Up date our world Organisations.
  5. Name all donors to Political parties.
  6. Stop handing or selling off resources to profit.
  7. Introduce Fiscal legal rules to balance the budget.
  8. Transparency.
  9. Introduce e Democracy to create direct democracy where the Government is obliged to consider any citizens initiative that attracts 50,000 signatures.
  10. Cap Greed ( See previous Posts)

Democracy has always been a powerful but it has always been imperfect due to human creativity and perversity. It will remain so till we remind our leaders that they only borrow power.

With the state of the world and where it is going we are already in need of bright ideas. 

 

 

Did September 11th 2001 put a lasting dent in civil liberties? Welcome to Legal Torture

15 Monday Dec 2014

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As we all know Torture comes in many forms. Is sleep deprivation torture? Is a prostate exam or a colonoscopy torture? Is going to the dentist torture?

What I want to address here is premeditated torture inflicted against your will.

This is a Tortures subject to write on. Forgive the Pun:

How does one approach it without being bias. If you are the bloke on the receiving end it goes without saying that you would say never. If you are the one that has had your love one blown to pieces you more than like say Yes.

I can envision situations where, as a last resort only, it is probably warranted. The problem is how does one define this threshold of acceptability?

May be the acceptance threshold for the application of torture is best defined in a similar manner as justifying going to war.

This is where I think I stand.

Torture cannot be justified because I would not justify torture for myself.

Why?

Because it’s not just the thought of the extreme physical suffering I don’t want to be tortured and I don’t want others to be tortured in the name of ideologies like “the greater good”, or “the ends justify the means”. No amount of lives saved is worth our humanity.

However people are for the most part constrained by the attitudes of their society and their times. So, what we may hold as immoral in our society may not necessarily be true, but only appears true in our time.

Protection against torture is a universal and non-negotiable human right and its use is prohibited by international law without exceptions.

To date, 144 countries have ratified the Convention against Torture. (The hold-outs include such usual suspects as Sudan, North Korea, Myanmar and Zimbabwe, but also India.) And yet, the UN’s special rapporteur told the Security Council in June, torture remains widespread. Amnesty International noted cases of state-sponsored torture or other inhumane treatment in 102 of the 153 countries included in its 2007 report. The worst offenders were China, Egypt (both of which are parties to the convention), Myanmar and North Korea, along with several African countries. America’s transgressions are trivial by comparison. The worry, argues Kenneth Roth, director of Human Rights Watch, is that when America breaks the rules it encourages others to do the same.

The United Nations Convention Against Torture bans torture of all civilians, combatants, prisoners of war and terrorists alike. This is an unambiguous piece of international law, which forbids the use of torture in all circumstances;

The Geneva Convention ban the use of “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture. It applies to prisoners of war not to spies or terrorists.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights does not approve torture. “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

To day 66 percent of Americans believe torture can be justified — either “always,” “sometimes,” or “rarely.”

In England, torture was outlawed in 1660, and for most of the past 350 years, that seemed to be a final verdict. In 2004 Britain’s Court of Appeal ruled that information acquired through torture was admissible as evidence in court. David Blunkett, then Britain’s home secretary, welcomed the ruling. Although the government “unreservedly” condemned torture.

Torture had been a barbarous relic of the dark ages. But the dark ages are not over.

Could torture ever be justifiably made Legal?

There many who insist that the answer must be an emphatic ‘No’: that if we were to use torture, we would destroy any claim the West might have to moral superiority.

We cannot torture, in other words, because of who we are, we hold ourselves to humane standards of treatment of people—no matter how evil they may be. In other words, it undermines some of the key foundations and values democratic societies rest upon.

In the Middle East, there are fanatics who seem to despise death as much as they despise the West. Their challenge has to be confronted, and it would be fatuous to assume that this can be achieved within the constraints of the Geneva Convention.  ISIS – Al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies are not a states party to the Geneva Conventions. They were not covered by its ban on torture and other maltreatment.

For those who hold that killing is not an absolute moral wrong, it is very difficult to see how torture could be an absolute moral wrong, given that killing is sometimes morally worse than torture. (The Electric Chair for instance )

The use of torture in order to protect human rights from terrorist threats leads to the paradox that human rights are violated by their protectors themselves.

The protection of human rights from terrorist threats, and the counter terrorism efforts that follow from it, needs to be in accordance with human rights standards in order to keep their legitimacy.

If the terrorist sees some moral point that we do not in our society, then he cannot be tortured on the presumption of guilt.

Justifying torture in exceptional cases bears the risk of dissolving its moral dam ability and undermines the rule of international law and human rights standards, a very dangerous slippery slope. Those who employ the methods of barbarism to deal with barbarians, themselves become barbarians.

While torture is not an absolute moral wrong in the sense that the evil involved in performing any act of torture is so great as to override any other conceivable set of moral considerations, nevertheless, there are no moral considerations that in the real world have, or ever will, override the moral injunction against torture.

The principle of refraining from torture has always, and will always, trump other morals.

Is this true?

Consider this well-worn real-life example of the five sailors on a raft in the middle of the ocean and without food. Four of them decide to eat the fifth—the cabin boy—in order to survive. This is a case of both murder and cannibalism. Was it morally excusable to kill and eat the boy, given the alternative was the death of all five sailors? Arguably, it was morally excusable and the sailors, although convicted of murder and cannibalism, had their sentence commuted in recognition of this.

Right I know that the above scenario is not torture but it shows the moral dilemma we face if lives are in stake.

The present day scenario in favor of legalizing torture is:

What if a bomber had placed timed bombs in public places? If the bomber is captured. Is torture justified to stop the bombs exploding in order to save innocent lives.

This is where it becomes difficult, putting aside morality I think torture would be necessary and justified as I can’t imagine knowing that the bomb could kill not just Innocent bystanders but perhaps your nearest and dearest love ones.

We would not only have the right to use torture. We would have the duty to do so.

Where does that leave me. In favor.  No.

There may well be one-off emergencies in which the use of torture is morally justifiable but there simply are no real or imaginable circumstances in which torture could be morally justified.

We should not look at the justifiably of torture based on our emotions but rather on the “net benefits” gained from torture. E.g. information retrieved from interrogation. Torture is way more effective that other interrogation techniques with the exception of use of leverages. E.g. threatening to rape/kill their wife and kids if they don’t cooperate. nobody has the right to deliberately harm another human being with the intention of causing the maximum physical and emotional pain. No, because people will say anything to get the torture to stop, rendering it useless.

The Convention Against Torture only applies on a country’s own soil, which is why torture of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay is legally acceptable.

The concept of autonomy, somebody being in control of their own life, is a major part of our concept of what it is to be free. When you use someone as a means to an end, the way torture uses a terrorist as a means to finding information, you take away from that person’s autonomy. They are no longer ruling themselves, but being used for a gain that is not their own.

Nelson Mandela was famously considered a terrorist by the elite in apartheid South Africa, but he was another man’s freedom fighter.

The terrorist may be right when he say’s that it is a false assumption to claim that any act of terrorism is necessarily unjust. The terrorist may have a utilitarian calculus of his own, that the benefit of achieving their goal benefits everyone overall and is worth the cost of a number of other people’s lives.

Torture is the ULTIMATE violation of another human being’s basic human rights, and nothing and nobody has the right to violate them.

Imagine torture being legally implemented?  The USA is one of the most powerful and influential countries in the world, that does not give it the right to torture for information?

Along with genocide, torture is the only crime that every country must punish, no matter who commits it or where.

Different people will have different definitions of morality but we all live within the sanctity of life.

In my opinion, torture can be both justified and unjustified, depending on the situation it can be used on a  judgment call based on the situation at hand to avoid tragedy.

Where do we go from here?

I do not find myself equipped to answer the question.

There may well be one-off emergencies in which the use of torture is morally justifiable namely that torture is morally permissible in some cases and on the other hand torturing anyone—however guilty they might be—is never morally justified or become legal.

Despite there being too numerous reasons for forbidding torture, both practical and moral, for me it all comes down to this.

Ethics and morality is subjective, we humans have being torturing each other nearly since time began and we will continue to do so till time ends.
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What makes a good politician?

13 Saturday Dec 2014

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There is no answer to this question as Politics is a word with multiple meanings.

The definition of a “good” politician is therefore highly subjective.

It is therefore very difficult to know whether current cohorts of politicians are the best that society has to offer, and if not, who else might be a better prospect.

The dead giveaway of a political person is when they rarely share information.

Information is power and politics equals power.

” He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.”― George Bernard Shaw.

So what makes a good Politician ? What makes a good candidate for electoral office?

Is it someone that nails his or hers colors to the mast.

Is it understanding what it takes to represent others.

Is it someone who acts for the greater good of the country,

Is it someone who defends the interests of the constituents who elected him.

Is it someone who has virtues of fair-mindedness, critical trust building, and good gate keeping.

Is it someone who finds peaceful resolutions to conflicts and enhancing the legitimacy of democratic institutions.

Is it someone that allows citizens a maximum of autonomy and self-governance.

Is it someone with Professional experience.

You could go on asking till the lights go out.

I suppose the only all round Politician is a biennial Dictator with the only remaining loaded gun. Flippant answer I know.

So we left with someone with excellent interpersonal skills, who is able to fight for a cause and influence others while also being able to listen to others and negotiate compromises with the powers of communication and persuasion.

Unfortunately these are traits rather than objectively measurable qualities.

Where does this leave us.?

If we focus on management of the economy as the central role of parliaments, rather than thinking about making effective policies across the full policy spectrum, we subscribe to the dominant masculinity model of politics and hence perpetuate the status quo.

Correct me if I am wrong that’s what we got. Career politicians who are disconnected from reality and from their constituents.

These politicians are only concerned with securing their seats in Parliament and gaining power. They aren’t willing to take a stand on certain issues for fear it’ll cost them votes in the next election. Career politicians lose interest in the people who got them into in the first place. They lose sight of the fact that many people are living paycheck-to-paycheck and struggling to make ends meet because of failed policies their very representatives failed to stop. Yet, they end up re-elected because they know that the people are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and must simply resort to voting for the lesser of two evils.

So what we get is a endless war where the weapon of choice is words before breaking promises.

How do we change this?

Rather than elite politics we should open the opportunity to be elected to people from all walks of life by allocating a realistic salary sufficient to the elected individual from our taxes.

Career politicians who run retail politics which is about who you know should be made to stand down for at least two years between terms.  Make them return to the real world, before standing for re-election.

Then you might get a Parliament that represents the people and the country and not the Economy.

The public, simply want someone who can recognize, understand and defend their views.

Everyone benefits when those who represent us are the best
possible people for the job. How are they? Your guess is as good as mine.

Part Two. Here’s a Question. Is it time to redefine what it means to be a Nation.

12 Friday Dec 2014

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Part Two:

Right:  In this post lets look at the question from a different angle, and I have to say that there are so many components to this subject that it is difficult to stay on one track at any given time.

The Statement below confirm the above.

The first democratic government was established in Athens in 490 BCE and we are still embroiled in the same controversies that have raged from the earliest days of the Holy Roman Empire. How much power should the church influence on the state? Where is the balance between personal freedom and interests of the state? How much regulation of religion should government impose?

I think it is reasonable to say that we will all agree that the role of the state has changed profoundly in recent years. So much so that it is insufficient that we simply need to find a new language to describe the changing interface between democracy and collective identity?

National identity has also been weakened and is now just one of a number of significant ways in which people think about themselves.

Why should nationhood be understood as intrinsically tied to hegemonic notions of identity?

Are we all going to end up as Digital Citizen?

The worsening crisis of austerity is coming hand in hand with a collapse in democracy and the erosion of freedoms effecting  the very constitution of our identities, national or otherwise.

As second and third generation of immigrant children are born it modifies the political vision of nationhood – citizenship is the last step in the journey from immigrant to identity and there are a 1/4 million a year in the UK alone looking to do just that each year.

We need to think outside of the state and we need ‘the nation’ to do it.

States have become much more interdependent and are no longer able to regulate political, economic and social processes within their borders, despite a continuing pretense of sovereignty they are driven more and more by their Economies rather than by their people.

This also means that nation-states may constitute a terrain upon which the increasingly autonomous nexus of state and corporate power can be challenged, and some measure of democratic agency reclaimed.

If the nation-state can embody a heterotrophic space that permits identification through processes of willed negotiation and division, guaranteeing the possibility of the present to always be changed, then it might still serve as a tool for resistance against states becoming Corporate Bodies driven solely by profit at all costs.

Oil is what drove the industrial revolution and since then the world has already consumed half the available supply on the planet. Portable water is also running out, as are other raw materials.

In this scenario rags to riches story is the icing on a cake that few will actually taste. For those seeking to construct an alternative against the determined pursuit of infinite growth? We need to look into our own religious and national identities to find pathways toward peace and equality in the world.

Why?

Because Sovereignty of nations and Citizenship rights gained now present an impediment for profit-mongering for global business. They are a threat in the path of wresting complete control of fast dwindling resources. Sovereignty Wealth Funds are the glowing example of what is going on.

The ‘New World Order’ under WTO-GATT was launched to ensure that the rich would continue to get richer even as the pie began to crumble.

The destructive power of neoliberal globalization—which confidently pronounced nation-states to be redundant along with the modes of political agency associated with them—now seems not only willfully blind, but recklessly passive and reactive in the face of neoliberalism’s agenda-setting activism.

Nation-states are used by elites as key drivers of neoliberal globalization, often in concert with (rather than in opposition to) transnational structures and institutions.

To ignore the protestation over what it means to be national, is to play into the hands of those across the political spectrum who, precisely because of the two-faced trickery of the ‘neoliberal nation’, have found themselves abandoning democracy for the imperial illusions of certainty, security and purity.

Ever since 9/11 a new public enemy had to be invented. Islamic jihad stepped up just in time. Overnight, friends became foes and vice versa. The Bin Ladens were partners with George Bush Sr. in an oil company in Texas. Osama Bin armed and abetted by the CIA became a champion jihadi in the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

After the defeat of the Soviets, Osama turned against America and soon graduated to the post of the elusive arch-enemy, taking care to pop up on videotape a few days before Bush’s precarious re-elections, to guarantee him victory.

In oil rich countries that dared to nationalize, the fatwa was out. So fell Mossadegh in Iran in 1956, Saddam Hussain in Iraq in 2003, and Gaddafi in Libya in 2011.

The coup in Venezuela to displace Hugo Chavez failed but in the Middle East the sectarian conflicts of Islamic jihadis could be used to weaken any nation-state.

Today Osama is dead but his Al Quaeda, morphed into ISIS, can still be used in various theaters to serve the interests of America, Saudi Arabia, Israel and their allies, as it was in Libya and now in Syria.

If occasionally they behead some white reporters it only adds to the dread of the Jihad and serves to sell weapons, or buy sovereignty.

In the 20th Century, of the estimated (and this is hardly a firm figure, understated if anything) 120 million people who were killed in wars and war-like acts (terrorism is war, generally upon civilians, by a non nation-state)

So faced with the fluidity of neoliberalism, what role remains for the nation?

These hasty observations of mine fail to acknowledge the continuing role of Capitalism in propping-up invisible forms of state domination and its function as part of a critical bio politics of the world.

It has being my option in other postings that the power of Social Media is going to lead to more integrated forms of urban protest and industrial action to combat the flexibility of neoliberal capitalism:  

As frustrating as it can be to define, and particularly for those ashamed to belong to a particular nation, ignoring the national as a key political category per se is to fall for a trick that the global citizens of the 1% have exploited in securing their version of globalization.

Take Europe for example.

Here we are all continuing in denying the basic reality that Europe’s tomorrow depends upon how immigrants and their children experience Europe today.

The functioning of the European welfare state depends upon the labor and indeed the civic good will of immigrants—which in Europe often means Muslim immigrants.

The problem for modern states is to reconcile state power and social diversity, so that the relation between the state and the individual can be more direct.  This is what Social Media is capable of achieving.

In the meantime we have Fundamentalist movements with symbiotic relationship with modernity. They may reject the scientific rationalism of the West, but they cannot escape it. Western civilization has changed the world. Nothing – including religion – can ever be the same again.

The global modernizing forces of technology and commerce are locked in a profound struggle against the backward-looking ethno-religious forces of religion and localised culture (“Jihad”).

Identity within a society provided people with a context that made sense of their day-to-day lives.  The more people manage to have their basic needs met, the more interested they become in actively self-governing themselves.

Another example is the birthplace of modern democracy. America It is systematically being dismantled through a crises of identity that is defining it image in the world.

Unfortunately its recent wars, torture, drones and the continuing existence of Guantanamo Bay all contribute to its present day image in the world as no longer a super power. Aquatically displayed by Putin in the Ukraine.(which by the way is a sovereign European country.)

To be fair previously displayed by the US and UK over their invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Because of this America seems unable to collaborating together to stalemate any functional democratic process that could substantially improve people’s lives and move towards a just, peaceful and fear-free future.

The very model of how democracy is supposed to work in America is not allowing it to be America again.

There is no argument that our Identities need to be reconfigured, as do our world organisations in order to put people first and material wealth second. (see previous posts)

Evolution requires us to demand more and better all the time.