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It’s one thing to be famous. It’s quite another to be notorious,

21 Saturday Feb 2015

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Some time ago I wrote a post under the Banner  “Adam and Eve were Black. They lived in Africa at the same time – but probably never met. ” Adam and Eve

Although there are much more serious subjects to be addressed for some unknown reason this post seems to be popular with my readers.

So let’s have another look.  Did they exist?  Did they meet?  What did they look like?

The Sumerian records reveal that “Adam” and “Eve” were not created by “God”, but rather they were genetically engineered by an advanced race of extraterrestrials called the Anunnaki.

Right so they did exist in alien form. They certainly did not exist in the form of human as we know it.

Leaving us with perhaps the most convoluted puzzle to ever exist, a timeline which pits some of today’s most dominant dogmas, whether scientific or theological, in an unrelenting war against one another.

The history of human civilization and evolution.

As Far as we know life on Earth began more than 3 billion years ago, evolving from the most basic of microbes into a dazzling array of complexity over time – to life in the universe develop from the primordial soup?

The question is :  Did the Garden of Eden exist before this soup.

Genesis puts Adam and Eve together in the Garden of Eden, but geneticists’ version of the duo — the ancestors to whom the Y chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA of today’s humans can be traced — were thought to have lived tens of thousands of years apart.

There is a saying that if you believe in God, you can’t believe in evolution. If you believe in evolution, you can’t believe in God.

According to the scientific knowledge that we have to-day man fell out of a tree, eventually stood up on two legs and walked out of Africa.

Now the problem is Adam was created as a Selfie of God and if he arrived at the time humans evolved (and I mean on offense to God) God would look like an Ape.

However God created Adam using the lowest element of the Earth, the dust. This part of the account of the creation of Adam being made from the dust indicates that man has a thanatos origin (an unconscious urge to die) being made up of the lowest form of the elements.

If ignorance is bliss, than Adam and Eve were the happiest people ever but they were set up by God.

Adam’s primary loyalty is meant to be towards God, while Eve is meant to submit and be loyal to Adam rather than God. For Adam, the constant gaze of the Other is almost maternal; to live without it would be to cease to exist. He just wants things to stay the same. Adam, who was once lifeless, could now move and speak and becomes a living organism that can learn and progress under the direction of with his newly found father, God.

The fact that God created Adam first “suggests that God saw Adam as having a leadership role in his family” (Grudem, 1994).  According to Genesis 2:18 and 2:20, Eve was created to be a helper for Adam.

So was Adam a superior to Eve?

He was created in the image of God, she in the image of man. Adam and Eve are created by the same God and have nature in common, but in some ways nurture separates them. Adam is given the gift of life and the responsibility of caring for God’s creation. Eve is created shortly thereafter as a companion and partner.

At the point of creation they knew no evil. It simply did not exist in their minds. In essence, children lose their innocence following the acquisition of knowledge. Knowledge is a powerful tool.

So why would God put the tree or the fruit or the knowledge of good and evil in their path unless he had wanted them to partake.

“Good and Evil, if they exist at all, are after all two sides of the same state of being.

Life is mapped out with no regard for individual choice while contrary belief tells us that mankind is capable of free will and therefore has control over his own life and the consequences of his actions. So once God has set things in motion, he pretty much exits.

So how does the story of Adam and Eve end?

They (or shall I say “we”) are still evolving.

If we compare the Bible to the Qur’an, we can clearly see that Eve, the mother of all human beings, has a different standing in each book.

Could that be why there has been so much abuse and disregard in the past for women; or why women have never received full equality rights with men, even if they are more qualified?

Do the men within the Christianity faith blame it on Eve?

Is this where Fundamentalism finds its origins.

Fundamentalism: The belief in old and traditional forms of religion, or the belief that what is written in a holy book, such as the Christian Bible, as being completely and literally true.

The Cambridge International Dictionary of English Fundamentalism: a: a movement in 20th century Protestantism emphasizing the literally interpreted Bible as Fundamental to Christian life and teaching; b: the beliefs of this movement; c: adherence t such beliefs.

Webster’s English Dictionary: Fundamentalism is a religious phenomenon which has taken 20th century politics by storm. As defined by Webster’s English dictionary fundamentalism has a direct correlation with Protestant Christianity; however, it has in the past, and is currently, impacting many other forms of religion. Since the 1970’s many religious movements have emerged into political governments and ideologies all over the world.

The dominating religion in Europe is Catholicism; Hinduism is very strong in eastern Asia; Judaism is the ranking religion in Israel and Israeli’s political decision; and finally, Islam is the principal religion in the Middle East.

According to Kepel (1994) all of these religions share the characteristic of challenging the way society is organized: either its secular foundation, or the way it has deviated from a foundation based upon religion, as in the United States for example. When the American government was constructed by its founding fathers, the guidelines for America’s laws and ideas were based on what Biblical principles, Christian values and morals.

Fundamentalism. How far can each be understood as a reaction to liberal-capitalist modernity?  Islam is the second largest religion in the world, second only to Christianity which has been the main religion in the United States and is actually making a strong comeback in America.

The roles of father and son played by God Adam was created on the 6th day..Gods intentions regarding this human capacity is very much in doubt.

Adam is the first man and the father of mankind. He prefigures the human race, representing the perfect male form. Adam is all fathers, sons and brothers rolled into one. Formed in the image of God, he is God-like, but not a God.

He and Eve are illusions, a Dreamboat of Fundamentalism and the original sin.
 

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Is Britain heading for an EU exit?

19 Thursday Feb 2015

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The issues here are so complex there is a danger that voters may go with their gut instincts and unwittingly take Britain out the EU.

Membership of the EU cannot be weighed solely in pounds and pence. But any decision about membership will inevitably be shaped by the economic costs and benefits. Unfortunately, the British debate has lacked objective analysis of these, with both ‘outs’ and ‘ins’ using evidence selectively to make their case.

Here are some what I consider disputable pros and cons from an outsider.

A Certainty:  In a referendum, the question is simple : Britain will have to choose between national sovereignty and unimpeded access to EU markets.

What exactly would be the consequences be for Britain if it voted to leave the EU.

It would necessarily mean that more than 50% of the population had bought into the vision of a right-wing and isolationist government. So it would do well to ask what kind of national identity would assert itself if it went it alone.

A Probability:  An exit will lead to collapse of the United Kingdom with Scotland separating. Northern Ireland & Ireland Reunited. Wales A Federal UK State.

A Certainty:  After 44 years of half-hearted membership it would be a bleak move in cultural terms – with huge cultural ramifications.

The trade-off that the UK must make is quite simple:

A Fact: It is between regulatory sovereignty – which would not transform Britain’s growth prospects – and unimpeded access to the EU’s single market. At present, around 30% of the UK’s gross domestic product is exported in the form of goods and services. Of that, around 45% goes to the EU. As a result, Britain exports roughly 14% of its GDP to the EU.

A Certainty: If it leaves the EU, the UK will have to negotiate terms. Britain will face an invidious choice: access to the single market, but less influence on the rules that govern it; or freedom from the rules, but loss of access to the single market.

Britain could trade with the EU under WTO rules in order to regain regulatory sovereignty. But its exporters would face EU tariff s, and would have to comply with EU product standards if they wanted to sell their wares on the continent.

A Fact: Britain’s economy is far smaller than the EU’s – and would be less of a priority for the US or China.

The UK would be free to negotiate trade agreements with countries outside the EU. But it would not inherit the EU’s existing bilateral trade agreements that are already in existence: it would have to negotiate new ones. So, upon exit, it would have less access to markets outside the EU, not more. While membership of the EU is as much about broader, political questions as economics, the economic case for staying in the Union is strong.

It is hard to believe that Britain would find it easy to forge new deals.

To persuade a trading partner to start negotiating, it would need to be able to offer something attractive. The UK is already very open to imports and inward investment, so it would have little to offer in return for its demands that other countries reduce tariffs and other trade barriers.

A Fact: Britain benefits from the EU’s size in trade negotiations, which gives it something to bargain with.

And as Britain has one of the least regulated economies in the world, according to the OECD, any economic gains from repealing the EU’s rather limited social legislation would be small.

A Fact : Half of Britain’s FDI stock is owned by companies with headquarters in other EU countries. A sizeable chunk of the rest is from non-European companies who seek a base for their European operations in a lightly regulated economy.

A Probability:  There is the question of London’s huge financial services sector. Will it decides to stay put or decamp to Frankfurt, Dublin or Zürich.

The alternatives to EU membership are unsatisfactory: they either give Britain less control over regulation than it currently enjoys, or they offer more control but less market access. The EU’s single market has brought sizeable benefits to Britain that it could not have won without sharing some sovereignty in the European institutions.

A Fact : Eurosceptics are wrong to say that the EU offers little market access for a good deal of red tape, or that it constrains Britain’s trade with fast growing economies outside Europe. The EU has no tariff s and quotas on internal trade, while common rules have further reduced trade costs

If Britain walked away entirely—the most extreme scenario—it would quickly see some benefits.

A Fact : The country would no longer have to transfer funds to the EU to subsidise farm incomes or poorer regions. Treasury figures suggest it would be £8 billion ($13 billion) better off each year. Food could become cheaper. Under WTO rules, countries may slash import barriers unilaterally as long as they do not favour some countries over others. Britain could do this for agricultural produce. It would regain control over fishing rights around its coast.

Some irksome regulations could be ditched, too.

A Fact : First to go (if the Tories are in power when Britain leaves) would be the working-time directive. This limits how long people can be at work without a break or a holiday and caps the working week at 48 hours. The scrapping of the EU’s agency-worker directive, which gives temporary staff the same rights as regular employees, would be cheered by business, too. Britain would be free to set itself a less exacting target for green-power generation than it is bound to under the EU’s renewable-energy directive. That could mean cheaper power.

If it looks to Norway that is not a member of the EU but is a member of the European Economic Area, which means it is part of the European single market.

They will see that Norway’s access comes at a price: Norway has to accept EU laws and regulations without having a say in how they are made.

Even Switzerland, which has a set of bilateral agreements with the EU, has limited access to those areas of the single market whose rules it cannot stomach, such as financial services.

A Fact : If the UK were to retain some links with the EU in order to benefit from access to the single market, it would find it difficult to avoid payments to the EU budget.  In recent years, Norway has paid £524 million annually (£106 per capita) and Switzerland £420 million (£53 per capita). Since the UK net contribution amounts £117 per capita, if it withdrew to the EEA and paid into the EU budget on the same basis as Norway, it would reduce its contribution by 9 per cent. 

A Certainty:   Immigration to and from the UK will require Visas. The free movement of people – one of the ‘four freedoms’ of goods, capital, services and labour – is a fundamental principle of the EU’s single market.  

A Certainty: Its UN AND WORLD POWER STATUS WILL CHANGE.

A Probability: Sterling could be forces to join the US Dollar if it will have it.

A Certainty:    High Tech Industry will move. Should Britain leave, more research funding will have to be made available to make up the shortfall, to avoid damage to the country’s scientific base.

A Fact:  Say good-bye to the Royal Family as you know it, and the present voting system, say hallow to Proportional Representation and higher taxes. .


 

 

 

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of britain's royal family"

A Certainty:   If Britain seeks a looser relationship with the EU, but one which includes full access to the single market, it will have to pay for it. Both the Swiss and the Norwegians make contributions to the EU budget. If it joins the EEA, it will have to sign up to all new single market rules with little hand in their drafting.

A Fact :  Switzerland provides an alternative model. It is neither a member of the EU nor the EEA, but has negotiated agreements with Brussels that give it tariff-free access to the single market for its exports of goods. Exports of services, including financial services, are not covered.

A Fact : If Spain’s Podemos party continues to grow, then the contrast between northern and southern Europe will be even more striking. Britain would be well advised to put off calling a referendum till the dust from the Greek Crises is well settled – whether Britain should control its own destiny or be part of a family of European nations – rather than rely on a narrow cost-benefit analysis Britain needs to wake up to the real world.

A Result:  HashtagEuropeBritian wins for me.

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Abracadabra – Can 1.3 trillion of Imaginary Money save the Euro.

18 Wednesday Feb 2015

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European institutions appear weak and incapable of defending European principles and the proper functioning of the euro.Euro coins on fire

Greece is on the verge of balking on billions of Euro it has borrowed.

If they do it will trigger a free for all and the end of the Euro.

The euro is seen as the ultimate underpinning for the edifice of European integration. The financial crisis and its aftermath have shown that the euro instead has the potential to destroy the whole project.

Political reform is needed to sustain the euro but this is unlikely to pass the political feasibility test with the current governments of Europe. At present the European Union is a club with virtually no economic union: no fiscal union, no banking union, no shared economic governance institutions, and no meaningful coordination of structural economic policies.

The Greek crisis will pitted debtors against creditors.

Not with standing the deep interdependence between them Debtor countries want salvation through solidarity and are thus committed to policy solutions that distribute the costs beyond their borders. Creditor countries, on the other hand, want to insulate their tax payers from exposure to the debtor states and are reluctant to discuss large-scale burden-sharing.

We all know that Greece cooked the books to join the euro in the first place. However, France and Germany also broke the very rules that they had insisted on for everyone else. In 2004, Greece announced it had lied to get around the Maastricht Criteria. Surprisingly, the EU imposed no sanctions! Why not?

Because the EU wanted to strengthen, not weaken, the power of the euro in international currency markets. A strong euro would convince other EU countries, like the UK, Denmark, and Sweden, to adopt the euro.

Greece has been a chief benefactor of the EU budget; Since 2009, Greece has been kept on life support by two bailouts from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund worth a total of €240 billion ($320 billion).

In 2009, EU transactions summed up to 2.35% of GDP. From 1994-99, about $20 billion in EU structural funds and Greece federal financing were exhausted on projects to urbanize and build up Greece’s transportation system in time for the Olympics in 2004.

GERMANY-ECB-EU-FOREX-RATE-EUROZONE-BANK-MONEY

Would a Greek default  plunge the world into a  financial crisis? No. It prove systemic for the EU as a whole.

Greece, Ireland and Portugal, are already in their fourth year of austerity, face many difficult years ahead, as do states with high levels of debt. 

If the single currency survives, it will survive on the basis of more integration within the euro area as the ‘hardest of hard cores’ and hence deep divisions between the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’.

There is also the deeper question of the consent of the people. If the euro area reaches a federal moment and a federal question, then the consent of Europe’s peoples must be sought at least within the euro area.

Without it the currency the European Union as we know it would not be sustainable in the longer term.

Whether an exit for Greece can be achieved without triggering a massive financial crisis is doubtful. The result will be a disorderly collapse of the euro and probably of the single market as well.

The result of a Greek walk away would be substantial losses for established governing parties and more electoral success for extreme populist parties and National elections remain the most legitimate channel for selecting political office holders in Europe. European parliament elections are second order political events.

Next in  line would be Italy: It is too big to fail and too big to bail.

Greece’s creditors must accept the necessity of a write-off of at least a portion of Greek debt. The current practice of extending the terms of Greek loans and pretending that Greek will – some day – make good on its commitments cannot be sustained.

A Greek default would have a more immediate effect. First, Greek banks — already on the brink — would go bankrupt. Next, losses would threaten the solvency of other European banks, particularly in Germany and France. Even worse, the EU’s central bank (ECB) holds a lot of Greek and other sovereign debt. If Greece defaults, it could put the future of the ECB at risk. Other indebted countries might decide, or be forced, to default. Without a central bank to bail them out, the EU itself may not survive.

The crisis requires collective action from the ECB and the 17 member states in an environment of deep divergence of preferences and interests.

Make no mistake: this is going to end badly. By this time next year, either Greece will be out of the euro – or Syriza will be out of power.

Luckily I have thought of a solution.

Why not give the Greeks a huge pile of imaginary Quantitative Easing Money. Then they can give this imaginary money back to pay off their debts.

Abracadabra the Euro is saved.

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We know what fate we’re going towards.

14 Saturday Feb 2015

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You don’t have to be told that the World is in a mess or for me to tell you why –  it is in this post.

Of all the places in the world you would think that the European Union (which was built out of the ashes and grief of two World Wars) would extend the hand of help to Refugees.

I am not saying that the EU should accept every Tom Dick and Harry on a  Willy – Nilly bases.

I am saying that in order to save lives the EU should have safer routes for refugees run by EU border agency.

Italy Mare Nostrum at a costs 9 million euro per month has now fished out over 150,000 migrants/refugees – mostly from northern Africa and the Middle East.

Italy ended its full-scale coastguard operation known as Mare Nostrum, and the EU replaced it with Operation Triton.  An under-resourced scheme whose primary focus, officials admitted, was securing maritime borders rather than rescuing migrants.  While on the other hand it is commencing to pump billions into the economies by Quantitative Easing.  

Shame on us all.

If the EU is not willing to set safer routes  it needs to get serious about preventing future tragedies, it needs to give Triton the mandate and resources to rescue boats throughout the Mediterranean.

The morality of Europe’s decision to downsize maritime rescue operations last autumn fly’s in the face of everything it stands for.

The drowning of over 400 migrants since the start of the year, once again raises concerns over Europe’s reduced coastguard rescue operations.

If we believed that families drowning in the Mediterranean would be a deterrent to other migrants to attempt the crossing, well it’s not.

People are leaving because they’re being pushed out.”One survivor from Wednesday’s disaster told their rescuers: “We know what fate we’re going towards and [we understand] the probabilities of dying, but it’s a sacrifice we consciously make to have a future.”

God forbid it was one of us.

The Mediterranean Sea is over 2.5 million square kilometers.

The European Union must guarantee that there are no more push-backs at its land and sea borders:

Such refoulement (The expulsion of refugees) is an infringement of international law. Fundamental rights and fundamental values are just that, and should not be modified or curtailed based upon the strength of economic indicators. For if that is the case, they were not fundamental rights or values at all.

The true measure of a country, as well as a person, is how it deals with the most vulnerable. Our children may not consider this one of Europe’s finest hours.

Foreign Office minister:  Baroness Anelay has said such operations can encourage more people to attempt to make the dangerous sea crossing to enter Europe and claims that the demand for smuggling trips will continue despite the cancellation of Mare Nostrum. The UK would not support future search and rescue operations to prevent migrants drowning in the Mediterranean Sea. Migration is seen as something negative.

The UK looks about migrants as a burdens on the labor market, security risks linked to immigration, burdens on the social security system – these are three issues that are immediately brought up when migration is discussed by UKIP. And we can see from the political discussion of the last few weeks with what strength this defense mechanism comes into operation, even though we are talking about such small numbers.

I would suggest that the Baroness should spend a few day on a Life raft.

Since refugees have little chance of legal resettlement in countries such as Britain, which has settled only 90 Syrian refugees.  Europe unlike the UK must open its arms in an act of humanity. The costs will be about EUR 2.8 million per month creating badly need jobs.

Let me tell her that the protection of asylum seekers are shared challenges. The new EU refugee operation “Triton”  will be different in nature to Mare Nostrum, as it does not have a search and rescue function, but it has only a third of the budget of the Italian mission.

The operation has six ships, two planes and one helicopter at its disposal.

The EU needs to reconsider how it deals with refugees. The invasion is a myth which has been encouraged over decades, but it has nothing to do with the reality of the global figures.

Here is what a few that survived say:

Justice Amin, Ghana

“I’m here to find work to do so that I can help my family in Africa. That’s why I’m here in Europe. So I’m not happy. I mean, I like this area, this place I am living. But I’m not happy.

 

Vito, Nigeria

He explained life in Europe isn’t what he was expecting: “They are not treating us well… there is no work for black people, for illegal immigrants, all of them are wandering the street, looking for, begging money.”

 

 

Atiku, Ghana

After be saved, he was buzzing with excitement and ambition, now he’s sleeping rough in a train station, scavenging in litter bins and begging:
“I can’t steal… so begging is better for me.That will be better for me to survive.”
He would still like to go to England, but his priority is finding work and somewhere to live.

 

One idea would be an EU-wide distribution key with clear criteria, including possibly distribution according to population and tax revenue. That way, one wouldn’t always have this jealousy and bad feeling and the refugees wouldn’t be politically instrumentalized.

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Ask Yourself—— Where do my thoughts come from.

13 Friday Feb 2015

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The other day I was sitting in the garden looking at a cherry tree.

I had a though that lead me to another thought – Where do thoughts come from.

How does the cherry tree know when to flower? You can look it up on Google.

Anyway this might be a bit deep for some.

You often hear the expression “I have lost my mind “

The question is where was it in the first place. Your brain is still there.

Back to the cherry tree.

All living thinks on Earth share a basic Mechanism. The tree get its energy from the sun and its mechanism activate the flowers. We on the other hand get our energy like animals from protein and like animals our brains compute data that is controlled based on our Memories, Emotions, and Thoughts that come from the Brain; which cannot be measured directly or objectively.

So where does Ego,Self,Sprite, fit in?

The brain works on information within itself by chemical and electrical transmission which we can these day see on MRI Scans. But it has no muscles, so you can’t see it moving. Its activity is invisible.

So where does the mind get its thoughts from. What is it ?  Where is it ?

Unlike Animals brains our brains allows self-awareness.

Is the mind Independent from the brain. Or are the mind and brain  the same.

To day they say that the mind is a function of the brain activity – as far as I can see there is no physical proof of this fact.

Is the mind located elsewhere? Or is it indeed the sum of the functions of the Entire Brain.

The Egyptians believed it was in the heart and in Babylonia times it was in the liver.

Plato ( c 428 bce- c 247 bce) in the spinal cord.

Aristotle ( c 348 bce- c 322 bce) the heart.

Hippocrates ( c 460 bce- c 377 bce) The mind was a function of the brain.

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) In the Pineal Gland- in the Brain.

Blaise Pascal ( 1632-1662) Man is a thinking Reed.

Robert De Mayo Dillon ( 1947-    ) The mind is just a though it does not exist.

It was the Cherry tree that gave me the thought in the first place.

Your real nature is like the sky, like space. Just remain like the sky and let thought-clouds come and go. If you cultivate this attitude of indifference towards the mind, gradually you will cease to identify yourself with it.

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The limits of my language are the limits of my world.

12 Thursday Feb 2015

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Our physical world is polluted with dangerous chemicals, but our language, too, suffers its own kind of pollution.

Everyone is society is affected by language and communication in some way or other, no more so than Europeans.

So lets ask a few questions;

The Treaty of Rome in 1957 founded what is now the European Union, and was supposed to be the beginning of the end of nationalism in Europe. But over a half-century later, nationalism never went away. Officially, deputies and delegates will only speak in their national languages, as a matter of principle.

You might wonder then, when most, if not all, EU bureaucrats master English, what’s the point in maintaining 23 official languages, especially at such expense? Why not just use a single language and, what’s more, why not use the language all EU bureaucrats master — English?

Within the EU institutions, ideology trumps pragmatism, and the founding ideology of the Union is “Unity in Diversity.”

Back in 1957, when there were only six member states and four languages, it was an easy credo to follow. But fast-forward to today and things are not so easy: 27 member states and 23 official languages. It’s costing the EU a lot of money, it’s having a negative impact on its global competitiveness and it will only get more complex as the union continues to enlarge. Croatia will make 24th official language.

Just imagine a General with an army of 24 different nations all awaiting the order to advance in their own language. The war would be over before it started. God knows we have moved on from Nelson days where every order had to giving in triplicate, but the idea for establishing English as the language of the EU, remains politically toxic. Long live Nelson.

English is the language of the most eurosceptic country — the United Kingdom. What’s more, France and Germany are very touchy when it comes to having their languages eclipsed by English. Any single language wouldn’t be democratic, or in the shared spirit of the union.

So we are left with. Once a delegate or bureaucrat delivers a speech in his or her native language, it’s taken up by dozens of interpreters, who simultaneously translate into their respective languages, or tune into the English interpretation and translate from that. Meanwhile, an official release of the speech is produced and sent to the translation unit and a separate group of text-based translators gets to work.

The process is costly, unproductive, and most of all, unnecessary.

So how are national and European identities tied to language and communication? And what role does power have – power in discourse, over discourse and of discourse?

In our daily lives, we often encounter combinations of words and images of all kinds. We take them as given, we use them to communicate and interpret information.

Just imagine you were born stone deaf. Your language would be based on sight–lip reading which translates to sign language which appears to be on the increase in modern forms of communication.

But we are no longer communicate only in ‘traditional’ written or spoken genres, but also using new ones, such as text messages, e-mail, tweets and Facebook posts. These force us to get accustomed to the reduction of geographical distance and of time-spans due to the GLOBALIZATION OF COMMUNICATION. These day you can get fired by a text while on holidays.

However, in all available genres, the use of language and communication as a ‘social practice’enables dialogue, negotiation, argument and discussion, learning and remembering, and other functions.

Languages and using language manifest ‘who we are’, and we define reality partly through our language and linguistic behavior.

But who determines who can speak with whom, and how? Who decides on the norms of language use; who sets these norms and enforces them; who determines whether languages, linguistic behaviors and identities are accepted?

Who, for example, decides, in the end, which language and which form of language is ‘good’ enough to pass a language test to attain citizenship or resident status? Or look at the other side of the pond. Spanish is like a creeping tide in the USA.

With the recent appearance of new states in Europe and the flow of populations across state boundaries, a new criterion centered on proficiency in the official language(s) of a state has emerged.

The acquisition of language proficiency is apparently frequently perceived as being solely in the interests of migrants and not also in the interests of the host country, as well as being the host country’s responsibility.

Moreover,many politicians still have to be convinced that second language acquisition depends on the availability of professional teachers, good teaching materials and sufficient competence in one’s native language.

Unfortunately, the worlds of language experts and politicians (and their bureaucrats) remain far apart, and much dialogue would be required to bring them together. Parameters for determining exactly who is (or can become) a ‘resident’ and/or a ‘citizen’ are at present unresolved, with little consensus across the states.

In creating language tests of various kinds, language competence has acquired the status of a key gatekeeper – providing access for some and rejecting it for others.

There are certainly no easy recipes for dealing with second language acquisition and migration. However, it is clear that we must acknowledge the close, emotional relationship between language and identity, and take account of it in the many political and educational policy decisions made every day.

All human identities are social in nature, because identity is about meaning, and meaning is not an essential property of words and things:

Two established criteria for determining citizenship, common in policy discourse,are birthplace and bloodline both are indelible printed and cannot be replaced by citizenship.

Language, power and identity’ closely these three are connected. How the discursive construction of  identities is influenced by vested interests, and how identities are thus continually re- and co-constructed and negotiated.

However, these co-constructions operate within clear borders created in politics, in the economy and in legal frameworks. The contrast between policy regulations and the ‘voices of migrants’ allows the exposition of the many inherent contradictions in the search for European identities and related values, as stated in the Charter of Fundamental Rights

Meaning develops in context-dependent use.

Meanings are always the ‘outcome of agreement or disagreement, always a matter of contention, to some extent shared and always negotiable’ (Jenkins 1996: 4–5).

The cost of Translation in the EU is (estimated) — to be €330m a year or some €0.60 for every EU citizen.

According to certain very rough estimates, the cost of all language services in all EU institutions amounts to less than 1% of the annual general budget of the EU. Divided by the population of the EU, this comes to around €2 per person per year.

In 2014 output was 2.30 million pages. Of this, 71% was done in-house and the rest by contractors. A page is 1 500 typed characters not including spaces.

                  The limits of my language are the limits of my world.

                         Learning second language ‘slows brain ageing.

Speaking a second language is better than just knowing how to speak it.

When the world changes, sometimes a new language is needed to handle that change. For instance, telegraphs spawned Morse code, airplanes spawned air traffic control signals, and computers spawned machine language, C++, Java, and many others. You may decide that no existing language can satisfy the needs of your world, and so you may choose to become a language maker, which presents its own challenges.

That leaves us with : Do words make a language or is it the other way around.  Words can be x-rays, if you use them properly- they’ll go through anything, you read them and you’re pierced. Prized possessions  are words are words that are never spoken, sometimes the thought in my head get so bored they go out for a stroll through my mouth.

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Taxation is the Price we have to pay to get it.

10 Tuesday Feb 2015

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A little bit of government is a good and necessary thing and taxation is the price we have to pay to get it. Zurich

Taxation is very much in the lime light at the moment.

One individual:

Hervé Falciani. In 2009 this Franco-Italian systems engineer for HSBC’s Swiss private bank handed over a list of more than 100,000 HSBC clients to the French Finance Minister at the time, Christine Lagarde.

HSBC’s Swiss banking arm helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars of assets, doling out bundles of untraceable cash and advising clients on how to circumvent domestic tax authorities, according to a huge cache of leaked secret bank account files.

Now you don’t have to be a raw prawn to know way most of us would avoid pay tax if we could.

“For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it,” Obama said.

Here is the real reason why we avoid paying Taxes, (apart from Governments spending billions on useless warheads, conducting iff proxies wars, and privatizing national resources for short-term profits)

By taking half of everything that people own in a year the earnings of the 2,654.4 hours of the first 110.6 days go to the government.

Then our earnings can finally be our own.

For every 8-hour workday, we labor for 2 hours and 26 minutes to pay government and local taxes. One hour and 7 minutes goes to corporate and personal income taxes.

Eliminating this tax on productive earnings would eliminate 46.24% of the tax burden.

It would also allow us to keep our finances private. We dedicate an average of 20 minutes of our labor to personal savings. It should be more like 1 hour and 12 minutes.

A total TOT +1.19% of 35 minutes of the 8-hour workday pays for Social Security and Medical Insurance.

If Social Security was privatized, instead of constantly decreasing benefits, personal retirement accounts would be over funded.

An additional 19 minutes goes to consumption taxes like excise and sales tax.

Some people suggest our country could operate on a “fair tax” of entirely sales taxes. But such a method of taxation has its own problems. Critics counter that a national sales tax is regressive, favoring the rich (although this depends on how you measure “rich”). They claim foreign companies would have an unfair advantage in the international market over their domestic counterparts.

Fifteen minutes of each workday goes to property taxes.

Even renters pay this tax as businesses and landlords pass the expense on to them.

Property taxes are highest for city dwellers because real estate assessments increase in proximity to a big city. Thus they tend to be a regressive tax, taxing the poor who live in relatively highly assessed areas and shop at stores with higher assessed buildings whose high property taxes trickle down into their prices.

For the price of property taxes, average workers could purchase all of their clothing. As it is, workers have to labor an extra 13 minutes to afford their clothes.

The final 9 minutes go to other state, federal and local taxes.

So how do we create a stronger, fairer, and more sustainable economic model in which the many and not just the few benefit from rising prosperity now and into the future?

Supplement wages for low-income workers

Increases the wages of low-income workers.

Progressive tax reform.

Payroll taxes are still sharply regressive.

Make housing cheaper.

Keep unemployment low to maintain worker bargaining power.

Deregulate copyright and patent law.

How can this be done in The European Union.

The euro zone debt crisis shows that something is seriously wrong with Europe.

But what is it?

The Euro zone is a heterogeneous federation of independent states, an area of ​​exchange where markets for goods, labor and financial assets are segmented by national boundaries and often scarcely competitive.

European nations have basically been moving apart for centuries, developing their own national languages and cultures.

So far, the organisation’s leaders seem to have shown little recognition of the inherent structural flaws of the currency, preferring instead to prop up failure.

Across much of the continent, the EU’s fatal lack of real popular consent may be catching up with it to the extent that it has actually amplified the differences in terms of income, unemployment, fiscal balances and public debt. The rules for budgetary discipline are imposed from the center and are ineffective, particularly in adverse economic conditions.

The crisis has also highlighted the inadequacy of European institutions and exposed their design faults. Public apathy towards the EU is also increasing, as citizens feel isolated from the institutions in Brussels and see no way to influence European level decisions.

The Euro zone federal budget is negligible and always balanced, so that the burden of macroeconomic stabilization falls on national budgets, which are defenseless against aggregate shocks.

Last but not least, it ultimately requires the Euro zone to move away from centralized system of ineffective and invasive rules towards a system of national ownership of budgetary discipline, combined with a binding no-bail-out commitment by European institutions.

In addition to the solvency risks for states and banks, the return to national currencies carries the risk of taking the continent back to an era of competitive devaluations, trade protectionism and retaliations.

The way to shed the Euro zone from the risk of disintegration is long and fraught with political obstacles. It requires each country to jump-start the path of structural reforms, to eliminate barriers to competition, contrasting rents of firms, trade unions and national banks; it requires Europe to gradually establish a federal budget and inter-state insurance scheme, devolving the proceeds and the administration of a tax base (VAT) to the center.

The integrity of the Euro zone ultimately depends on the political will of each
member state. The benefits of free movement of goods, persons and investments – the factors that could make the EU economy strong –could be at stake.

The mantra that price stability and fiscal responsibility, together with market-friendly micro economic reforms, will not put Europe back onto a path of rapid growth and restore full employment. Nor will Quantitative Easing have the desired effect.

The disintegration of the Euro area, will be quite dire.

Take the Forthcoming Elections in Spain, and the recent Election result in Greece

The Forthcoming disintegration of the UK political system and its promised referendum on staying in the EU.

If the UK votes to leave considering the amount of trade it does with the EU it will still have to follow most of its rules – while no longer having any role in setting them. Reducing social security provisions just when the need for them may be increasing hardly seems wise.

 “We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an European; she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.”

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The excitement and dreams about becoming wealthy.

08 Sunday Feb 2015

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Right if you read the last posts and survived here is something that you might just survive.

A win on the Lotto.

A large number of articles in the press and on TV news are devoted to what people are dreaming to do with the money they could win, or interviewing past winners.

Just in case there is some one reading this and they have won or happen to win I need to say I have never won anything other than a headache from a bottle of whiskey.

Here is my survival plan:

If you win it in the next drawing, you won’t ever have to worry about money again–right?

Wrong.

The first thing to do is:

A lottery ticket is a bearer instrument meaning that whoever signs the ticket and presents a photo ID can claim the prize. So if you haven’t signed the ticket and it blows out of your hand while you are waiting for a bus, or if you show it to a friend in a bar and accidentally leave it on the counter, you’ve lost the loot.

The next move:

Remain anonymous if the rules permit it.

Once people know you’re suddenly wealthy, you’ll be badgered by requests for handouts from everyone from charities to long-lost friends and relatives–not to mention all the financial “experts” who will be vying for your business. So check the rules to see whether you can dodge them all by remaining anonymous.

The next move:

You have the choice between taking the prize money all at once or having it paid out over 26 years in the form of an annuity.

If you didn’t have smart money habits up until now, you could easily turn out to be your own worst enemy by quickly squandering the fortune.

With a lump sum payment, you must immediately pay tax on the entire amount. With an annuity, you are taxed only as you receive the payments. People who have trouble controlling their spending might prefer the discipline of receiving the money as an annuity. But this payout form has other drawbacks.  You will want to compare the effective yield of the annuity with what you could earn by taking the money as a lump sum, paying the taxes and investing the proceeds.

Next:

For the first six months after you win the lottery, don’t do anything drastic, like quitting your job, buying a home in the Caribbean, trading up for a luxury car or building a collection of handbags. Meanwhile, set aside a fixed amount for splurges—it’s only natural to want to celebrate your windfall. Save the big purchases for later.

Next:

There is no better investment than paying off debts.

Next:

Hand pick your own lawyer, accountant and investment adviser, and requiring them to work together.

Putting the money in safe, short-term investments and not even touching it for the first six months. Only spend income–not principal. Especially in today’s investment world, “It takes a lot of principal to generate income and once you start spending principal, the principal quickly dissipates.

Next :

Don’t buy a ticket in an office pool.

You could end up getting unwanted attention if someone believes that they are owed a share, as happened in these cases:

Office pools seem to be a one-way ticket to disaster.

Consider the nine Bell Canada call center employees who sued 19 co-workers for a share of a $50-million prize won in January 2011, claiming to have not been told that they were left out of the group. (A court ruled in their favor two years later.

Last but not least the Bad luck streaks.

Like one that befell 77-year-old Lucient Nault of Montreal — whose daughter-in-law drowned in a pool built with the winnings before his son — who was suing people he said took advantage of his father’s sudden wealth — was hit by a car while chasing a runaway dog. All of this led to Nault’s wife leaving him, make one wonder if every good fortune comes with the risk of a curse.

New Westminster, B.C.: A woman who claimed she was tricked out of her equal share of a $12.6-million jackpot is currently suing her former business partner and the former business partner’s husband over their deal to buy tickets with the money from their delivery truck cash boxes. The couple claimed that the money they spent on this particular 6/49 draw was their own.

Windsor, Ont.: An 83-year-old man sued his wife — plus her two daughters and their spouses — after she cashed in 6/49 numbers worth $3.5-million in 2008, then initiated divorce proceedings. The owner of the Pioneer Snack Express later produced video evidence that the retired carpenter bought the ticket himself and posted a sign with a security camera photo to publicize this fact.

Cambridge, Ont.: A woman who established a long-distance relationship with a man who owned a convenience store, then later moved from Toronto to help him run the business, was dumped right after he scored a $21-million 6/49 jackpot in 2006 — violating a verbal agreement she claimed they had. Right after the win, though, the store owner opted to get back together with his wife.

Burnaby, B.C.: Fingerprints factored into a claim that a man had his $10-million winning ticket stolen by neighbours in 1992 —  the result of losing a wallet and getting it back with one slip of paper removed — even though it took 11 years for an affidavit to be filed in court. The wallet-loser took over a decade to pursue the matter because he didn’t think science could help him.

Winnipeg: A home care worker unsuccessfully sued the elderly wheelchair-bound woman she looked after on the grounds that they had a verbal agreement to split any winnings. But the $11.4-million jackpot winner’s son, who was photographed collecting his prize in 2000, admitted that he initially lied that he bought the ticket himself in order to spare his mother the media attention.

London, Ont.: The Super 7 winner who curiously waited until nearly the end of the one-year deadline to pick up his $30-million prize in 2004 eventually settled out-of-court after a long legal battle with the woman he dumped after one last hotel room romp. The trial involved a detailed deconstruction of their torrid decade-long relationship — and the couple might have even reconciled.

Winning the lottery sounds great on the surface.  But what are the odds that a scenario similar to one of these will happen to you?

Are lottery tickets a good investment? Not really.

A West Virginia man who won a $315 million Powerball jackpot back in 2002. At first he gave millions to charity, including $14 million to start his own foundation. But later, a briefcase with $545,000 in cash and cashier’s checks was taken from his car while it was parked outside a strip club. His office and home were broken into and he was arrested twice for drunk driving. His granddaughter died under suspicious circumstances and by 2007, he had spent most of his money. He told reporters, “I wish I’d torn that ticket up.

To sum up:

Sudden wealth is most likely to exaggerate your current situation, but it won’t fundamentally change your sense of well-being. The overall happiness levels of lottery winners spiked when they won but people tend to return to a set point.

But the good news is that the general mental well-being of winners vastly improved. If you feel fulfilled, you are a careful financial planner and you have strong relationships in your life, a lottery win is likely to build on those strengths.

However if you’re unhappy, you’re not good at managing money and you’re surrounded by people you don’t trust, a big win will probably make your problems worse.

Big winners ruffle spend 44% of their lottery winnings after five years, but only a few spent their entire winnings in their lifetime.

Legal gambling has a net impact on state tax revenues.  There is little doubt, however, that politicians see the potential tax revenues as a key benefit. The purported beneficiaries of state lotteries rarely experience a significant increase in state government expenditures instead, unrelated expenditures increase.

Individuals are merely shifting charitable expenditures to lottery expenditures. This is because of the high level of publicity that lotteries and their intended beneficiaries receive. As a tax, lotteries are highly regressive.

Lotto’s  are now camouflaged by the mass media and advertising as doing good, (“good causes”) without support or highlight any one cause in particular.

There is now a Web site ( www. the Lotto.com) who will buy your tickets world-wide so you can stay anxious and anonymous best of luck.

Powerball Lotto The mother of all lotteries. In less than 25 years it has paid out over $5 Billion dollars in first prizes.

Mega Millions Lotto is the one with the single largest jackpot in the history of North America, at $656 Million Dollars. Subject to taxation both for US citizens and non-US citizens, with the latter category taxed at a flat rate of 25%.

Euro Millions Lotto The Euro Millions Lotto is so loose, in fact, that as of January 2012, there is a permanent cap placed on the jackpot at 190 Million Euros. The second reason the Euro Millions Lotto is so popular is because winners outside of Switzerland are not subject to taxes.

Euro Jackpot designed to service countries not included in the Euro Millions Lotto.

UK National Lotto The UK National Lottery operates in this manner, advertising that the Lottery supports “380,000 … good causes… across the UK.

SuperEnalotto Italian lottery 34.648% of the revenues gathered from ticket sales are apportioned for winners.

La Primitiva Lotto Based in Spain 70% of ticket sale revenue goes into the prize.

El Gordo Lotto the most popular in Spain the win can remain secret the Spanish government allows winners to keep everything.

Are players affected by the attention media devote’s to the game? They sure are. When the jackpot increases the media attention induces players to buy more tickets.

For those of us who dream about becoming wealth the best feeling in the world is friendship.

We’re all gonna die!! Life on Earth has only 1.75 billion years left

08 Sunday Feb 2015

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Sorry for the over the top headline but Scientists have done the maths and according to their calculations, life on Earth has 1.75 to 3.25 billion years left to thrive.

Even short geologic time scales outrun our ability to project human history.

One common, frequently unconscious misconception is that history is linear, progressing toward an inevitable end point.

Our inability to see ourselves as part of a continuum of processes that will continue into the future is also directly linked to our shortsightedness in managing our environment. Human impacts already equal or surpass many natural processes. For example, human earth-moving processes exceed natural erosion in the volume of material moved (Hooke, 2000; Wilkinson, 2005).

Let’s peer into the future.  The reasons for disaster are not hard to conjecture.

Technology might become so advanced that humans will no longer need to modify the natural environment extensively, but any attempt to predict technology far in advance is bound to be almost pure speculation.

Space Weather (which includes any and all conditions and events on the sun, in the solar wind, in near-Earth space and in our upper atmosphere)  can affect space-borne and ground-based technological systems and through these, human life and endeavor.  Not to mention Yellowstone National Park that could decide to erupt.

Even if humans avoid causing a mass extinction, many species will have become naturally extinct and new ones will have evolved.

The truth is we don’t have a particularly detailed idea of what is going on inside out own planet never mind on the surface.

When the Earth’s molten core eventually cools and hardens to the point that there is little or no slip-sliding of different substances, it more than likely its magnetic field will die out as well. The Earth is thought to have begun this cooling sometime in the last billion years.

That’s good, since one way or the other we certainly have a lot of time left; while a magnetic flip is largely meaningless, magnetic death certainly would not be.

In all likelihood, the Sun will swallow the Earth long before then, as it convulses and expands as a part of its natural death throes and that’s if a giant asteroid or a nuclear war doesn’t finish us off first.

However the 92.9 million miles between us and our host star will not be enough to keep us comfortable.

For those of you that need to use Google the Sun is a magnetic variable star at the center of our solar system that drives the space environment of the planets, including the Earth. The distance of the Sun from the Earth is approximately 93 million miles. At this distance, light travels from the Sun to Earth in about 8 minutes and 19 seconds. The Sun has a diameter of about 865,000 miles, about 109 times that of Earth. Its mass, about 330,000 times that of Earth, accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. About three-quarters of the Sun’s mass consists of hydrogen, while the rest is mostly helium. Less than 2% consists of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon, iron, and others. The Sun is neither a solid nor a gas but is actually plasma. This plasma is tenuous and gaseous near the surface, but gets denser down towards the Sun’s fusion core.

Where was I?  The earth will become inhospitable to humans long before the planet enters the hot zone ( Stars like our Sun shine for nine to ten billion years. The Sun is about 4.5 billion years old, judging by the age of moon rocks. Based on this information, current astrophysical theory predicts that the Sun will become a red giant in about five billion (5,000,000,000) years.  So there is not much to worry about.

However I am pushing on in years and I often wonder how my generation will survive the impending climate crisis never mind the future of our planet. There is a tragic alienation between us and nature.

There’s not much money in the end of civilization, and even less to be made in human extinction.” The destruction of the planet, on the other hand, is a good bet, because there is money in this, and as long as that’s the case, it is going to continue. The amount we consume each year already far outstrips what our planet can sustain, and the World Wildlife Fund estimates that by 2030 we will be consuming two planets’ worth of natural resources annually.

Over the course of this century, the relationship between the human world and the planet that sustains it has undergone a profound change. When the century began, neither human numbers nor technology had the power radically to alter planetary system.

We know that in two billion years or so, an expanding sun will boil away our oceans, leaving our home in the universe uninhabitable—unless, that is, we haven’t already been wiped out by the Andromeda galaxy, which is on a multi billion-year collision course with our Milky Way. Moreover, at least a third of the thousand mile-wide asteroids that hurtle across our orbital path will eventually crash into us, at a rate of about one every 300,000 years.

Perhaps Google is a good idea after all to prepare a copy of our civilization and move it into outer space and out of harm’s way—a backup of our cultural achievements and traditions.

There is hope on the horizon during my Nuclear Warheads reading ( See The Series of Posts) I learned that a regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan could decrease global surface temperature by 1°C–2°C for 5–10 years and have major impacts on precipitation and solar radiation reaching Earth’s surface. No much help. We will hit the average of 400 ppm…within the next couple of years.  Arctic permafrost soils have accumulated vast stores of organic carbon—an estimated 1,400 to 1,850 pentagrams of it (a pentagram is 2.2 trillion pounds, or 1 billion metric tons). That’s about half of all the estimated organic carbon stored in Earth’s soils.

In the short-term, we need to make it in the economic interests of people to do the right thing. The chances of that happening in a Capitalist world I will leave up to yourself to decide. 

Here is what is happening.

The signs of a worsening climate crisis are all around us, whether we allow ourselves to see them or not.

Unintended changes are occurring in the atmosphere, in soils, in waters, among plants and animals, and in the relationships among all of these.

Life-threatening challenges of desertification, deforestation, and pollution, of toxic chemicals, toxic wastes, and acidification of carbon dioxide and of gases that react with the ozone layer, and from any future war fought with the nuclear arsenals including increasingly powerful floods, droughts, wildfires, heat waves, and storms are underway.  Evacuations from low-lying South Pacific islands have already begun.

The onslaught of droughts, earthquakes, epic rains and floods over the past decade is triple the number from the 1980s and nearly 54 times that of 1901, when this data was first collected.

Yet we are aware that such a re-orientation on a continuing basis is simply beyond the reach of present decision-making structures and institutional arrangements, both national and international and endure most of the poverty associated with environmental degradation.

The rate of change is outstripping the ability of scientific disciplines and our current capabilities to access and advise. It is frustrating the attempts of political and economic institutions, which evolved in a different, more fragmented world, to adapt and cope.

This planet has not experienced an ice-free Arctic for at least the last three million years. Guy McPherson, professor emeritus of evolutionary biology, natural resources, and ecology at the University of Arizona ” the implications are truly dire and profound for our species and the rest of the living planet.”

We are currently in the midst of what scientists consider the sixth mass extinction in planetary history, with between 150 and 200 species going extinct daily, a pace 1,000 times greater than the “natural” or “background” extinction rate.

The ability of the human psyche to take in and grasp such information is being tested. And while that is happening, yet more data continues to pour in—and the news is not good.

Thanks to climate change oceans have already lost 40 percent of their phyto plankton, the base of the global oceanic food chain, because of climate-change-induced acidification and atmospheric temperature variations.

So you might well ask if some version of extinction or near-extinction will overcome humanity.

It deeply worries many people who are seeking ways to place those concerns on the political agendas. 

Climate-change-related deaths are already estimated at five million annually,

We’ve still got plenty of time left to enjoy planet Earth but we need to know how to respond, to changes that are already happening—and to those coming in the near future. It’ll happen very fast. 

It appears that there is not much hope for the future, nor for a governmental willingness to make anything close to the radical changes that would be necessary to quickly ease the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere; nor can we expect the mainstream media to put much effort into reporting on all of this because we are all more interested in leaving a legacy of material wealth that will be totally worthless.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-08-scientists-earth-deep-future-effects.html#jCp

Climate change and other human influences are altering Earth’s living systems in big ways, such as changes in and the spread of ,”

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-08-scientists-earth-deep-future-effects.html#jCp

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Our Politicians need to wake up to the fact that- Globalization and technology stop at no border.

06 Friday Feb 2015

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After seven or eight post on Nuclear Weapons its back to what’s wrong with Capitalism/ Democracy.

Those of you that have been reading my blog will have already seen that I have advocated that Greed is the root problem when it comes to both the above.

I have suggested that we need to come together through Social media to stop Sovereign Wealth Funds privatizing the resources that we all rely on. To stop Computer Algorithms from plundering the Foreign Exchange, Stock Exchange, not to mention E Bay Auctions.

I have also stated that this is impossible, but that it is not impossible to place a 0.05% WORLD AID COMMISSION TO CREATE A PERPETUAL SOURCE OF FUNDS TO REMOVE INEQUALITIES IN THE WORLD.

Unfortunately to date most of my readers are to busy living their lives to engage in developing such an idea other than pressing the like button.

Not to despair. Today, we are living in the age of globalization and technological revolution.

Both have delivered much benefit to society, but have reshaped the political economy of western industrialized countries in ways that challenge the middle class and those striving to get into it.

THE TROUBLE FOR CAPITALISM IS THAT IT HAS SOMEHOW OR OTHER STOPPED SERVE THE VAST MAJORITY OF SOCIETY AND IT IS THEREFORE TURNING – DEMOCRACY INTO WORTHLESS VOTES –  that are now turning to Internet Petitions and reality TV. 

This sea change has been facilitated by technology that has loosened the connections between top management and ordinary workers. Corporations have become less committed to their work forces and their communities.

Institutions on all levels are deeply mistrusted by the public. However, part of that mistrust has developed precisely because both government and business have failed to offer broadly shared prosperity. Today, the ability of free-market democracies to deliver widely shared increases in prosperity is in question as never before.

So how do we create a stronger, fairer, and more sustainable economic model in which the many and not just the few benefit from rising prosperity now and into the future?

This is not just a question for governments but for companies and citizens as well.

My first contention HAS NOT CHANGED it is impossible to remove Greed but where we see profit for profit sake we should cap it.

We all know what is wrong, but just in case you are a Politician:  It is the GROWING GAP BETWEEN THE HAVE AND HAVE NOT’S ( NOT MONEY BUT INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY)

Confidence in government is at an all-time low, and consequently, the public resists intervention by a government it viewed as incapable of solving its problems. This forces families that could benefit from public support to face the challenges of the evolving economy on their own. It is a vicious cycle — and a cycle we can and must break by renewing confidence through a government that works effectively and efficiently for its citizens.

SO WHAT CAN BE DONE?

While some on the left seek to turn away from globalization and technology, that is not a realistic option. No country can prosper in isolation.

Those on the right who argue for a return to laissez-faire, trickle-down economics — cutting taxes at the top, stripping out regulation, and making deep cuts to public services — do not provide a viable alternative.

Developed countries cannot succeed through a race to the bottom in which companies simply compete on cost as workers see their job security erode and their living standards decline. When democratic governments and market systems cannot deliver prosperity to their citizens, the result is political alienation, a loss of social trust, and increasing conflict across the lines of race, class, and ethnicity.

HERE IS WHAT I SEE THAT NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED.

1) There are still too many people who are unemployed.

2) Minimum wages have lost their real value.

3) Workers must benefit from increased productivity rather than seeing returns accrue primarily to shareholders.

4) Remove barriers to women’s labor-force participation, such as inflexible work environments and high-cost child care.

5) Focusing on early childhood education, increasing the quality of our schools, eliminating financial barriers to higher education, and providing support for apprenticeship programs are all critical to driving higher skill levels across economies in both tradable and non-tradable sectors.

6) Cities and regions must be given the tools to make their own local decisions to help drive growth.

7) Increasing numbers of workers find themselves in contractual relationships that do not guarantee hours worked or provide benefits such as paid vacation, sick days, or pension benefits. No hours contracts are slavery.

8) Large corporate attention has shifted to financial engineering, particularly with the goal of minimizing tax payments. Restoring the integrity of corporate taxation will require more than a simple reversal of the policies of the past 30 years. It will require governments to develop a taxation system that can withstand the pressures of a globalized economy, promote long-term investment, and provide a stable, fair, and predictable policy framework for businesses.

9) Create Profit-sharing and share-ownership schemes provide a direct way to ensure that employees have an incentive to help their company to succeed.

10) Raising skills levels.

 These challenges are formidable, but they must be met, and any politician worth his privileged position would do well to take note.

These are essential for democracy itself. Advocates and apologists for anti-democratic regimes argue that the democracies are no longer capable of managing their problems or creating a sense of social dynamism. For democracies to thrive, rising prosperity must be within reach of all citizens.

The profound technological changes that brought down the cost of many goods and services are also replacing traditional middle-income jobs. It is changing balance of economic power away from domestic workers and toward mobile, international corporations.

Internet and computer technology has made cross-border business organization less costly and more efficient, it has become easier for businesses to outsource or relocate all or part of their operations to countries where wages, labor, and environmental standards are low.

In addition to unskilled labor — which has, in some cases, been squeezed by globalization and off shoring –advances in robotics and artificial intelligence have put intermediate-skill jobs at risk in what economists call a hollowing out of the labor market.

This trend is set to continue with 3-D printers, Google’s driver less cars, and Amazon’s drones. This is creating an even greater premium on higher levels of skills and qualifications, making the returns from ideas, capital, and top-class qualifications greater and greater.

Employment is less likely to be stable or long term.

Powerful forces of globalization and technological change must be navigated or inequalities will continue to widen, and for many, precarious low-skill work will increasingly become the norm. The consequence is that growth will stall.

Finally, it is essential that markets work in the public interest and for the long term rather than focusing only on short-term. Infrastructure investments deteriorating facilities, unpredictable service disruptions, congestion, and higher costs to businessesj and households is the result.

In summary, declining growth, the effects of the financial crisis, and increasing inequality have combined to put substantial economic stress on middle-and low-income families across the developed world.

Poor policy choices have only made matters worse. Concerns about financial instability, immigration, and tax avoidance are not the causes of our problems they are fruits ripening on the tree.

To ensure that all of society’s citizens have a stake in prosperity, and therefore all of  citizens have a stake in the future we need new social and political institutions to make 21st century capitalism work for the many and not the few.

( If you are English reading this blog feel free to forward this post to your candidate in the forthcoming General Election.)

2015 will see the creation of new political parties organised in radically different ways, – See more at: http://www.nesta.org.uk/news/2015-predictions/democracy-makes-itself-home-online#sthash.vxQJ1BiK.dpuf

Five Star in Italy prides itself on its internet-based decision making structure, as do the Pirate Parties in Iceland, Germany and Sweden. Democracy OS in Argentina has designed a sophisticated way for all its members to propose ideas and shape them online. – See more at: http://www.nesta.org.uk/news/2015-predictions/democracy-makes-itself-home-online#sthash.vxQJ1BiK.dpuf

Democracy could be reenergised. There are other possible futures, of course. A sullen anti-political mood could fuel populist demagogues. But there is at least a good chance that those with their eyes on the future rather than the past will have the edge. – See more at: http://www.nesta.org.uk/news/2015-predictions/democracy-makes-itself-home-online#sthash.vxQJ1BiK.dpuf

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The global economy has fundamentally changed over the past 40 years.

As communism collapsed and countries gradually liberalized their economies, rapid reductions in poverty and increases in living standards have taken place in Asia and especially China, in South America, and in Eastern Europe, with growth increasingly taking off in Africa. Some of those countries that have produced economic growth have done so in a manner that has left most of their citizens no better off.

This is an economic problem that threatens to become a problem for the political systems of these nations — and for the idea of democracy itself.

Governments in developed countries must stay open to the world, seek new trade deals and regional partnerships, and continue their commitment to a dynamic market economy. While the economic mission of progressives is unchanging, the means of its achievement change from generation to generation as the economy evolves.

We need a smarter, and fairer society that returns to long-termism which will not only meet our fulfillment of environmental commitments, but will created a world worth living in.

Inclusive prosperity nurtures tolerance, harmony, social generosity, optimism, and international cooperation. Left to their own devices, unfettered markets and trickle-down economics will lead to increasing levels of inequality, stagnating wages, and a hollowing out of decent, middle-income jobs. This outcome is morally wrong, economically myopic, and at fundamental odds with a democracy in which everyone quite reason- ably asks for an equal chance to succeed.

understand and can respond to voters political systems restore their vitality and reclaim their ability to deliver on the promise of prosperity for all.