What Sovereign Wealth Funds Think Now: Its Land.

03 Wednesday Sep 2014

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From the beginning of capitalism the drive for profits has been the major force in dispossession peasant and small-scale farmers from the land and water.

While we are all consumed by our daily lives the armies of our greatest enemy Greed in the form of money never sleeps.

Now there are many ways to acquire land as Mr Putin see it and you might think that he is the greatest current threat with nuclear power.

You would be wrong in my opinion.

In more stressful times, expect these land deals to lead to unrest and lay the groundwork for wars and national boundary or ownership changes. Any nation faced with civil disobedience or unrest, for whatever reason, might be subject to regime changes which might quickly change foreign land ownership policy. Moreover, political instability elsewhere in the region is pushing oil prices up, thereby increasing and guaranteeing the main source of income of the oil-rich Persian Gulf states.

The greatest threat is the Privatization of our world resources for the sake of profit which is in the not so distant future is going to come back to haunt us all.

It is an existential struggle for the future of humanity.

Unless the resources of the earth can be utilized in an equitable and sustainable way, then civilization itself is under threat.

The main threat are called Sovereign Wealth Funds that are currently plundering the world. There are about 52 sovereign investors who collectively manage $5.7 trillion in assets

( I have addressed the problem in past posted if your are interested.)

Here I want to highlight two aspects of their current activities that we should all be made aware of.

The first is Land and water.

Land grabbing is directly intertwined with the growing scarcity of fresh water resources around the world.

More than 463 projects covering 116 million acres, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa were acquired in eight months during 2008-9.

Perhaps the most famous example of such privatization of water was the infamous purchase of Bolivia’s water supply by Bechtel and the Abengoa Corporation of Spain in the late 1990s

If one needed more evidence that financial and political elites were consolidating their ownership of global water resources, one needs look no further than the Guarani Aquifer in Paraguay.

One of the world’s largest fresh water aquifers, Guarani is estimated as being larger than the US states of Texas and California combined. Researchers have calculated that Guarani could provide fresh water for the world’s population for at least 200 years. It is precisely atop this aquifer that George Bush and the Bush family have purchased more than 100,000 acres, though many believe the purchase to in fact be much larger.

If ownership of water and the farmland of a nation doesn’t define a nation tell me what does.

It is difficult to obtain accurate figures for the amount of land in the global South that is under the control of foreign and local private capital as well as foreign sovereign wealth funds.

Sovereign wealth funds–charged with preserving the accumulated fortunes of their home nations–are well known for their opaque, tightly guarded investment decisions.

Sovereign wealth funds hold about $5 trillion in assets globally, and many, are food challenged, such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, South Korea, and China.

With Climate change the rush for agricultural and water gold is in fully flight. Water “the petroleum for the next century” Future agricultural production will be stressed by climate change and competition for remaining oil and water supplies while population numbers grow will become more intensive.  

A disturbing trend in the water sector is accelerating worldwide. The new “water barons”  — are buying up water all over the world at unprecedented pace. Not only are the mega-banks investing heavily in water, the multimillionaire tycoons are also buying water. 

Unfortunately, the global water and infrastructure-privatization fever is unstoppable:

Here are a few facts that might make you think twice.

There is currently a consolidation of land and resources in ever fewer hands, while the mass of workers and peasants are made dependent on corporations and governments.

Hedge funds, big banks, sovereign wealth funds, are gobbling up the most fertile land around the world, leading many to wonder what the future of food production and land distribution will look like.

By 2020 more that 50 million people will be pushed into poverty because of high food prices, and this speculation will be if not already one of the main causes.

”Today’s emerging new farm owners are private equity fund managers, specialized farmland fund operators, hedge funds, pension funds,big banks and Sovereignty Wealth Funds.”

In Australia more than 800,000ha of prime and fertile land, from Moree in the north to Deniliquin in the south, is foreign owned, with Korea’s Ho Myoung Farm company the largest stakeholder with 500,000ha.  Hassad Australian, a company wholly owned by the Arab state of Qatar, has acquired 730,000ha of farm land in Australia, including 25,245ha in NSW.

There has been more than $1.5 billion in direct investment in Australian agricultural land over the last three years by GLOBAL fund managers and some of the world’s largest pension funds and of course Sovereign Wealth Funds.

The sovereign state of Qatari are on track to acquire a larger area more than the entire Arab state with plans to spend over $350 million on acquisitions. The Qatari government has leased large amounts of land in Kenya. They also have or are working on deals in Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Sudan, and the Ukraine.

They include: Two Swedish pension funds, Första AP-fonden and the Second Swedish National Pension Fund/AP2; the Dutch pension fund Algemene Pensioen Groep; Danish pension fund Danske; Swiss fund Adveq Real Assets Harvested Resources; Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund; and several from Canada including the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, BNY Mellon, the Ontario Municipal Employee Retirement System, and Quebec’s CDPQ fund, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

As of May 2012, it was estimated that between 32 and 82 million hectares (between approximately 80 and 200 million acres) of global farmland had been brought under foreign control, with the amount constantly increasing.Table A6: Top foreign investors in primary production land in regional NSW

Top Ten Land Grab Targets and Investor Countries

Target Countries
(millions of hectares)

Investor Countries
(millions of hectares)

South Sudan

4.1

United States

8.0

Papua New Guinea

3.9

Malaysia

3.5

Indonesia

3.5

Arab Emirates

2.8

DRC

2.7

UK

2.1

Mozambique

2.2

Singapore

1.9

Sudan

2.0

China

1.6

Liberia

1.4

Saudi Arabia

1.5

Argentina

1.3

South Sudan

1.4

Sierra Leone

1.2

China, Hong Kong

1.3

Madagascar

1.1

India

1.3

It is estimated that the amount of global farmland that has been acquired by foreign entities equals about 198 million acres.

In July 2013 the Colombian ambassador to the United States resigned over his participation in a legally questionable effort to help the U.S. corporation Cargill use shell companies to amass 130,000 acres of land.

Sovereign funds loaded with new capital will continue to pour into real estate and are actively seeking out foreign farmland to purchase.

In this age of global uncertainty in the area of food-producing and wealth preservation, productive farmland around the world has been placed into the spotlight by “guru investors,” wealth management funds, growing mega agri-industries, wealthy sovereign wealth funds.

The Saudi Kingdom is behind a seven-year project of acquiring 1.7 million irrigated rice acres in Senegal and Mali, enough to produce 7 million tonnes of rice. Proposals would allow Saudi business groups to take control of 70% of the rice-growing area of Senegal.

Saudi Arabia has farming interests in Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Syria, Turkey and the Ukraine.

South Koreans want to produce rice, corn, sugar, fish, and livestock in the Philippines.

Japan is believed to hold three times the amount of its own farmable land outside of its borders.

Argentina and Brazil have acquired land in Uruguay.

South Korea and Russia agreed to create a $500 million joint fund with their sovereign wealth funds, aimed at increasing cross-border investments in various companies and projects.

Egypt leases land in Uganda to produce rice, wheat and beef.

Nigeria is appealing to the Gulf nations to utilize its land. It has 175 million acres and is only farming half of that. It desires investment in that land, it desires employment opportunities, and it claims that it could provide 100% of the Gulf’s food needs.

Chinese investment in Kazakhstan reached $5 billion by the end of last year, slightly less than 4 percent of the country’s total foreign direct investment. They are buying land in Brazil for soybean cultivation, as part of a $3.4 billion plan to build oilseed and rice production bases overseas including bases for rapeseed in Canada and Australia, palm oil in Malaysia and rice in Cambodia. China is by far the largest investor, buying or leasing twice as much as anyone else.

In January 2012, China Investment Corporation has bought 8.68% stakes in Thames Water, the largest water utility in England, which serves parts of the Greater London area, Thames Valley, and Surrey, among other areas.

Foreign firms have invested in dairies, meat processing, crops and others areas in Serbia and other non-European Union members of the Balkans.

67% of Mideast SWFs plan to allocate more funds to Latin America, while half will do the same to Africa and 60% to India.

In November 2012, One of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), also purchased 9.9% stake in Thames Water.

Food insecure nations such as the Gulf States, China, Japan, South Korea and Western Europe are all interested in increasing their farmland holdings.

Countries need to take control of their agriculture away from international and market forces and support the development of national food sovereignty based on family size farms.

And if all of that is not enough sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East expect to receive more funding this year, providing them with extra financial firepower to raise their investments into emerging markets and asset classes such as private equity and real estate. Slightly Ironically, with instability in the region, the oil prices go up and that gives the governments sometimes a little bit more room to maneuver,” 54% of Middle East SWFs expect an increase in new funding in 2014, higher than the 46% average for all funds.

As much as US$70 billion is up for grabs for global hedge funds looking to raise money in Asia over the next few years.

So the next time you walk into any Sainsbury’s across the UK, remember that Qatar is a major investor.

It owns 20 per cent of the London Stock Exchange and, at the other end of the scale, it owns  20 per cent of Camden market, the biggest grunge emporium in the country. Qatari LNG accounted for 85 per cent of Britain’s liquefied natural gas imports, providing power to homes across the land.

QATAR’S STAKE IN BRITAIN

The tiny Gulf state has snapped up a range of famous British assets, which include:

1. Harrods, the upmarket department store former owned by Mohamed al-Fayed.

2. The Shard, soon-to-be Europe’s tallest building.

3. No 1 Hyde Park, the world’s most expensive block of flats.

4. The London Stock Exchange, which they own a 20 per cent stake.

5. Camden Market, which they own a 20 per cent stake.

6. The Olympic Village, once the games are over.

7. Sainsbury’s and Barclays banks – major investors.

8. Liquefield Natural Gas, Britain’s biggest supplier.

It’s no wonder Scotland wants Independence before the Dragon comes.

ALT

The greater their investment, the greater our dependency. The greater the dependency, the greater the risks.

 

 

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Our MR PUTIN is he Good or Bad.

02 Tuesday Sep 2014

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   I have not got a clue and there is no point telling me or you that history will tell as he is writing it at the moment.

He like most of us will be long departed from this world before the truth is revealed.

Who is Vladimir Putin? Why was he chosen as Yeltsin’s heir?

Mr. Putin is a career KGB officer who spent 16 years of his life in the KGB. … He graduated from then Leningrad State University from the law department, that like many things didn’t prepare laws–since law didn’t exist at the time of the Soviet Union–but prepared governmental bureaucrats.

Russia is a very infantile society. it is accustomed to having a state that was responsible for everything — medical care, schools, even the way they made kids.

The State was responsible for everything; the State got involved in everything. So he was well prepared for this job.

I don’t think that’s a good idea to judge Putin just by his KGB past.

He has this image of this big father, who is ready to take care and that’s definitely had and still has a great impact on Russians.

In Russia Putin is viewed as a dynamic, strong, honest, civil, modest and adequate leader, which is everything that Yeltsin wasn’t.

The war in Chechnya created Putin. It proved that there was someone on stage who can be decisive.

He appeals to nostalgia for the past and being from the KGB, means he supports a strong state.

He is against corruption and NATO which he is inadvertently reinventing.

What does Vladimir Putin want in Ukraine?

The fate of eastern Ukraine in the weeks ahead will help to reveal how far Mr Putin is prepared to go in his burning ambition to restore Russia’s greatness.

What exactly are Mr Putin’s long-term goals?

Either this is part of a long-term strategy to partition Ukraine. Or it’s a series of tactical moves designed to leverage influence over Kiev.

We are now embroiled in a full-scale standoff with Russia not seen since the Cold war.

NATO has been expanded to Russia’s borders and the long feared encirclement of Russia by Russians has already occurred.

No matter what Russia does next, we need not concern ourselves with Putin contributing to NATO new headquarters or the sounds coming out of Westminster or Capitol Hill.

The West will declare itself jolly cross while NATO opens its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, at a construction costs of 750 million Euros  with an overruns that could reach 245 million euros.  

Putin’s theory on Crimea’s place in Russian history makes some sense: The peninsula had been part of Russia from 1783 to 1954, and even under Ukrainian rule housed Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It’s not always a pretty history, though. For example, the entire Crimean Tatar population was deported from Crimea during World War II, and a huge number are believed to have died.

Correcting the historical mistake from 1954 that saw Crimea end up as part of Ukraine. It has always been a bugbear for Putin “Millions of people went to bed in one country and awoke in different ones,” he said, “overnight becoming ethnic minorities in former Union republics, while the Russian nation became one of the biggest, if not the biggest ethnic group in the world to be divided by borders.”

Putin will ask if the West has a right to preach about not invading foreign countries when it has sent in the tanks to Iraq and Afghanistan. The West’s fantasy of acting as world policeman — striking out dictators and returning countries to democracy — is finished.

Ultimately, Putin’s appeal to history makes sense in two strands of his political thought: the memories of a Russian empire that drive his plans for a Eurasian Union and his argument that the West’s international dominance is decadent and undeserved. Under the cover of the UN’s right to national self-determination, he is endeavoring to reassemble the Russian empire.

Perhaps if the Ukraine had not busied themselves dividing the spoils, instead of building a state they would not be in the position they now find themselves. History is often complicated and incoherent:

Europe’s ever changing borders don’t necessarily justify yet another change.

We the great unwashed will just have to wait and see.


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The Production and Consumer Society cannot be sustained by the Planet

01 Monday Sep 2014

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Some time ago I Posted ” The Scramble has begun- is Sustainability still possible” 08/05/2014

Recently I read a poem by Cicely Herbert.

” Everything changes. We plant

trees for those born later

but what’s happened has happened,

and poisons poured into the seas

cannot be drained out again.

What’s happened has happened

Poisons pour into the seas

cannot be drained out again, but

everything changes. We plant trees

for those born later. “

There is no getting away from it one voice can not have much effect other than planting a tree that might grow into a forest of global voice that will have to be listened to.

You will see from my previous blogs that I believe there is only one solution to resolve our global problems and that is the Capping of Greed at it source so it contribute to a World Aid fund with a perpetual funding at its heart.  (See previous postings)

For what its worth here is another look at the question of Sustainability.

European citizens, the vast majority take the view that the current consumer society can “upgrade” to the future.

Meanwhile, much of the planet’s inhabitants hope to get closer to our levels of material well-being.

However, the level of production and consumption has been achieved at the cost of depleting natural resources and energy, and break the ecological balance of the Earth.

None of this is new.

The researchers and the most brilliant scientists have giving warning signs since the early seventies of the twentieth century, that continuing with current growth trends (economic, demographic, use of resources, generation of pollutants and increased inequalities) the most likely outcome for the XXI century is a civilization collapse. If you open your eyes you can see it taking place all around you.

The decline in the availability of cheap energy, catastrophic climate change scenarios and geopolitical tensions over resources show that the progress of the past trends are breaking.

Faced with this challenges there are not enough cosmetics mantras for sustainable development, or the mere commitment to Eco-efficient technologies, or a supposed “green economy” that conceals the widespread com-modification of natural resources and ecosystem services.

Technological solutions to both the environmental crisis and the energy descent, are insufficient to stop it progress.

The ecological crisis is not a partial topic but determines all aspects of society: power, transport, industry, urbanization, war … It is ultimately the basis of our economy and our lives.

We are caught in the perverse dynamics of a civilization that does not grow if it does not work, and if it grows destroys the natural bases that make it possible.

Our culture, as they say in Spanish mercadólatra tecnólatra, another words forget us, our roots, and our dependent and interdependent ecosystems.

The productiveness and consumerist society can not be sustained by the planet.

We need to build a new civilization capable of ensuring a decent life for a huge, still growing human population (now over 7,200 million), which inhabits a world of dwindling resources.

This will be necessitate radical changes in lifestyles, forms of production, the design of cities and territorial organization and especially the values ​​that guide all of the above.

We need a society that aims to restore balance to the biosphere, and use research, technology, culture, economics and politics to advance toward that end.

We need to do all the political imagination, moral generosity and technical creativity to avoid deploy the inertia of the capitalist way of life and interests of privileged groups.

To avoid chaos and the barbarism to where we are today heading, we need a major political break with the hegemonic force, and an economy that is intended to satisfy social needs within the limits imposed by the biosphere, not the increase in profit private.

All this is easier said than done, but I am sure like me you don’t want  the below.

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THERE IS GOING TO BE A NEW WORLD ORDER.

31 Sunday Aug 2014

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WHY?

Not because there are numerous nuttier’s or religions organizations that say so.

But because of power, which is a zero-sum game that takes no account of past or future history.

While the world is choking in the dust of Iraq International agreements are being robbed of their meaning by Russia takeover of Crimea while sitting on the Security Council of the United Nations vetoing all resolutions.

Throughout the twentieth century, the list of the world’s great powers was predictably short: the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan, and northwestern Europe.

Decades of unchallenged supremacy for the United States is now coming to an end. America now has no stomach to get involved in world policing.

China holds over a trillion dollars in hard currency reserves, India’s high-tech sector is growing by leaps and bounds, and both countries, already recognized nuclear powers, are developing blue-water navies.

While the European Union discusses new sanctions on Russia France is selling it Navy War ships, England is welcoming Russian oligarchs money which is permeating the upper reaches of society buying up London Property and football clubs, all before Russia turns off the gas to the European Economy.

You don’t have to look far to see other signs of change.

The Oceans of the world are in a critical state of health.

The death of the Aral Sea has become a never-ending nightmare.

The Arctic — a once pristine wilderness is under siege.

Google had 2,161,530,000 searches.

More than 3 trillion has being wiped off global share prices since the start of January.

Climate change is the biggest single threat.

More than two decades after the Cold War ended, the world’s combined inventory of nuclear warheads remains at a very high level: more than 16,000.

More than a billion people don’t have access to safe drinking water. 2.6 billion people, almost half the world’s population doesn’t have access to adequate sanitation services.

More than 130 million children who are under the age of five will still remain malnourished by 2020.

More than 130 million children who are under the age of five will still remain malnourished by 2020.

If current trends continue, by 2050 something on the order of a third or 40% of all species will either have become extinct or will be on the threshold of going extinct.

The Earth has been sending us distress signals and the distress signals have to do with the pressures of human population and the pressures of the human economy on the ecosystems.

Incredibly, the world’s population grew more in the past fifty years than in the preceding 4 million years .Today our numbers have surged to nearly six and half billion and our population is increasing by nearly 80 million people each year – 220,000 each day.

In the face of poverty people will tend to utilize whatever they can to survive.

The State of the World Finances is in disarray.

world debt infographic

In the mean time Sovereignty Wealth Funds blunder the earth for profit.

Disregarding the current conflicts there are I am sure hundreds of additional indicators that a New World Order is needed.

We can only hope that Social media is not turning us all into morons blindly asking Google for answers.

We need a new world order that has at its heart the concept of ‘needs’, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given;

That understands the requirement for there to be a re orientation of technology the key link between humans and nature.

That understands in broadest sense, the strategy for sustainable development.

That aims to promote harmony among human beings and between humanity and nature.

  • a political system that secures effective citizen participation in decision-making. Democracy as it stands is now a rhetorical device.
  • an economic system that is able to generate surpluses and technical knowledge on a self-reliant and sustained basis.
  • a social system that provides for solutions for the tensions arising from disharmonious development.
  • a production system that respects the obligation to preserve the ecological base for development.
  • a technological system that can search continuously for new solutions.
  • an international system that fosters sustainable patterns of trade and finance.
  • an administrative system that is flexible and has the capacity for self-correction.
  • a new United Nations with all participants on equal terms.
  • a Cap on Capitalist Greed.
  • a watertight ban on trading of arms.
  • a transitioning to clean energy.
  • a move away from the Production and consumer society which cannot be sustained by the planet.

THE BEADY EYE: Was the Iraq war worth it? ( This is a post from unknown quest writer)

29 Friday Aug 2014

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I am sure you have noticed that the above question is making the rounds.

What a load of codswallop is being spouted and printed on the subject.

Firstly it’s the wrong question as the bullets are still flying.

Till they stop there is no answer, and we all know that history is written by the victors.

But here are some hard facts from Saddam Hussein coming of power to what we have today.

1979 – Saddam Hussein succeeds Al-Bakr as president.

1980-1988- Iran-Iraq war.

1988- Iraq attacks Kurdish town of Halabjah with poison gas.

1981- Israel attacks nuclear research centre near Baghdad.

1990- Iraq invades Kuwait, massive US-led military campaign forces Iraq to withdraw February 1991- The Gulf War.

1991- Iraq subject to weapons inspection program.

1991- Kurdish uprising brutal suppressed. UN safe-haven established in northern Iraq to protect Kurds.

1992 – No-fly zones for Iraqi planes.

1993 – US launch missile attack on Iraqi Headquarters.

1995. UNSC Resolution 986 allows the partial resumption of Iraq’s oil export to buy food and medicine.

1995  Saddam Hussein wins rig elections.

The War started long before the USA/British invasion.

They claimed that the war would be cheap, perhaps even profitable, thanks to lower oil prices.costs:

The costs are, alas, all too evident. Nearly 5,000 dead Americans, another 20,000 or more permanently disabled, and $1 trillion in expenses. At least 100,000 Iraqis dead.

The financial costs, including the cost to service the debt, will likely total nearly $4 trillion.

Estimates of the number of Iraqis killed in the sectarian bloodletting that occurred after the collapse of Saddam’s regime exceed 130,000.

The group that emerged in direct response to our occupation is resurgent, not just inside Iraq but as a regional movement, rebuilding its networks in Syria, Jordan, and Libya.

The Iraqi Christian community has been decimated.

By going to war in Iraq, we set the stage for the emergence of an entirely new branch of al-Qaida—al-Qaida in Iraq.

The imperfect and fragile government that has emerged in Iraq was hardly worth the costs incurred.

If the country has salvaged anything constructive from this war, it seems to be a greater appreciation for war’s unpredictability and the limits of American power. Remains an open question.

Iraq is also, right now, the only authentic democracy in the Arab world — is quite true.

Large portions of Iraq have fallen to the murderous Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.

Doesn’t matter whether Iraq stands on its own or collapses into a sea of blood and hate most people want to be masters of their own fate.

Goodwill towards America squandered throughout the world.

The benefits are fuzzy and fragile. Millions were displaced, many still have not returned to their homes.

A U.S. administration forever tarred by an unpopular war.

The burden of proof has shifted toward those making the case for war, in Iran, or Syria, or Yemen, or countless other places.

What will remain is that moment in history when a people who had been subjugated by a tyrant’s whims were no longer afraid of him.

GOD HELP THE ARCTIC.

27 Wednesday Aug 2014

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You would be ever so wrong to think that with all the present problems we have in the world that there could not be another in the melting pot.

The worlds present problems seem all but unsolvable until we learn to share wealth and remove inequalities that plague the earth. ( see previous posts)

For more than 800,000 years, ice reigns over the Arctic Ocean. Forming a layer of reflective protection, sea ice is one of the main earths regulators of our climate and our livelihoods.

Now the melting ice of the Arctic which has the potential to transform global climate and ecosystems as well as global shipping, energy markets, and other commercial interests is at this very moment shaping up to be the next hot spot for conflict.

Arctic permafrost is also melting, changing tundra to wetlands and shrub lands. All of these changes have profound effects on wildlife, and the human communities.

The benefits and pitfalls of the Arctic will have a global impact.

High Arctic sea belongs to no one and should remain the common property of mankind.

Fat chance of this happening.

With oil and gas companies consistently pressure politicians to open the Arctic Refuge to drilling. She is in the cross-hairs of the industrialists who covet her basement rich in oil, one of the dirtiest fuels.

Retreating sea ice is not only restructuring Arctic ecosystems, it is also permitting new industrial access for commercial fishing, offshore energy and commercial shipping on a scale never seen before.

Five countries are already seeking to annex territory that until now were under the authority of any state.

If tomorrow they come to an end, there would be only 9% of open water across the Arctic!

In addition, riparian countries are mobilizing their military capabilities on site, which could threaten peace in the region.

In preserving the Arctic, it is ourselves that we preserve.

In September 2012, the Arctic Ocean ice pack shrank to its lowest extent on record—49 percent below the average over the past 35 years.

The problems to come can only be addressed through a deep horizontal and vertical effort, in order to preserve the sustainability of the Arctic.

We should all be seeking an Arctic region that is stable and free of conflict.

Where all nations act responsibly in a spirit of trust and cooperation, and where economic and energy resources which are going to be developed are done so in a sustainable manner that also respects the fragile environment and the interests and cultures of indigenous people.

It’s rather remorse that Bill Gates is investing millions in the doomsday seed vault in Svalbard. A barren piece of rock claimed by Norway and ceded in 1925 by international treaty which is 1,100 kilometers from the North Pole in the Barents Sea near the Arctic Ocean.

Since early in 2007 Monsanto holds world patent rights together with the United States Government for plant so-called ‘Terminator’ or Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT).

Terminator is an ominous technology by which a patented commercial seed commits ‘suicide’ after one harvest. Control by private seed companies is total.

Such control and power over the food chain has never existed before in the history of mankind existed. 

I diverse, back to the subject.

The EU’s primary interest in the region is economic, as 90% of its trade  happens via maritime routes.

Green Peace is currently looking for 6 million signatures to lobby the United Nations to pass a resolution to Declare Arctic international waters “preserved natural area. ( See Their Web Site)

As they say ” the common and immutable commitment to preserving the planet we leave to our children. This desire transcends all boundaries and makes us stronger than all the armies or petrodollars.” “We will send a clear message to world peace and respect for the planet depend on the preservation of the Arctic.”

“We will resound loudly our appeal to political leaders around the world and when we are millions to stand together, we will ask the UN to adopt a global treaty to protect the Arctic Nations”

“We want to create a” natural preservation zone “around the North Pole, and banning destructive industries in the Arctic.

THE PETITION now has more than 5 million signatures! 

BEFORE IT TOO LATE SIGN UP . I SUPPORT IT. 

FOR IT TO WORK IT MUST BE ADOPTED ALONGSIDE A WORLD AID COMMISSION OF 0.05%. ON ALL FOREIGN EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS OVER $20,000, ON ALL HIGH FREQUENCY  STOCK EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS AND ON ALL SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS ACQUISITIONS. ( see previous posts)  

NO FUNDS NO FREE ARCTIC.

THE DEATH OF THE SEA.

25 Monday Aug 2014

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This post is for my brother a fisherman.

The other day I was standing at a fish counter in the market, and I thought to myself I am not looking at a display of the ocean’s bounty, it’s a Museum – by the end of this century many of these animals may be history, due to man’s reckless abuse of the planet.

I counted ten types of bivalves – creatures like clams, oysters and mussels that use calcium carbonate to make their endlessly varied shells that will be in twenty years in some parts of the world, entirely gone.

Luckily prawns, shrimp, and crabs make their shell out of polymer called chitin, so the rapidly acidifying waters of our oceans won’t dissolve them as it does the bivalves. however the fastest change in the ocean chemistry in 300 million years will change them.

As my brother will tell you the Spaniards eat more fish than anyone else in Europe, monk-fish, hake,sardines,tuna, all of which are on the at-risk list, because of over-fishing or change in the food that supply them, or is it more likely that they will be replaced by the bigger threat of the changing ocean bio-geochemistry.

We now have dead zones that have being multiplying. The emptiest places on the planet. These places have little or no life other than bacteria.

They are caused by one of the worlds must pressing problems climate change.

Our oceans are gobbling up carbon dioxide that is reducing the Ph in their waters. In pre-industrial times the pH was in the region of 8.2 and it is now estimated by the year 2100 it will be as low as 7.7 the lowest in 55 million years.

You might think so what I won’t be around. You would be wrong.

This acidification of the Oceans is already effecting Coral reef which are vital to 25% of all marine life not to mention the 4,000 species of fish that start out from such reefs.

This February 10 million scallops were wiped out of the coast of British Columbia.

All forms of Plankton the base food for every animal living in the sea is already on the way out. Their death produces toxins that kill fish, creating dead zones with over 400 recorded around the world to date. For example the Mississippi Delta, and large sections of the Baltic Sea ( A third of the sea life is dead in the Baltic) is now like the Black Sea a hypoxic area.

If we don’t stop the pollution of our Oceans and Seas there will be only Jelly Fish that enjoy acidification on the tables of Fish Markets of the not so distant future.

Lets hope the Spaniards don’t like them.

ARE YOU A YOUNG OR OLD MUSLIM?

24 Sunday Aug 2014

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If you are reading this I firstly want you to know that I could not care whether you are young or old, a practicing Sunnis or Shias, a Jew, a Christian, or a Muslim from what ever Sect, my only concern is that you have an open mind.

I don’t propose to know much about the roots of pure forms of any religion especially Islam.

However the history of all religions that are based on books, (the texts of which are open to widely varying interpretations, process which often involves outbidding them in a contest for greater “authenticity” ) has led to conflicts and suppression of all other beliefs.

Why do I say this?

Because I am from a country that to this day after seven hundred years of struggle against an occupier and civil war, is still effected by interpretations, bigotry, suffering, and death, that has nothing to do with Muslim who you could count on one hand.

So in this post I am not going to lecture on past history, but suggest solutions to present day conflicts.

My purpose here is to highlight some of the reasons we find ourselves in such a mess with the Arab world.

We all have a right to our own opinions so please feel free to comment.

Religious extremism is a conduit for misery, not its fundamental cause.

The trouble with religious extremism or dictators is when it comes to politics both do not allow the give-and-take of parliamentary discourse. Nor do they protect minorities, allow a free press, create independent courts, universities, trade unions, and support woman emancipation.

Why Arab countries have so miserably failed their 350 million people is down to sharing of wealth.

Economic stagnation bred dissatisfaction, and unemployment, and electronic media allowed the young to see outside stirring up a revolution in attitudes that now cannot be un-invented.

We cannot now simply stamp out the Jihadist cause or impose prosperity and democracy.

We must appeal to the majority to make their voices heard to allow pluralism, education for all, and open markets to be re established, rather than being trapped either in stagnant repression or cycles of strife, that are interlinking.

No conflict since the Second World War has caused such widespread damage to the worlds cultural heritage, not to mention 300,000 dead.

The plantation of a Jewish state in Palestine drove a physical wedge between Arab countries and provided an excuse for the military dominance by Israel destabilizing the whole region.

There is no solution to this wedge other than one state for all.

However three-quarters of the world has suffered colonial rule and it should not now tolerate ISIS.

If necessary the free world( it will not be able to stand by like it did in Rwanda, or hide behind UN resolutions) must come to the aid of its fellow Arab Muslim citizens to stop any form of ethnic cleansing or Extermination.

In doing so we will uphold the sanctity of life, and the values of freedom, not democracy at the point of a gun.

It takes openness for societies to progress, to have closed minds and politics together is a recipe of disaster. War has many components, of which the battle is only one element.

Jihadists that declare an eventual global caliphate that knows no borders which is led by a former student theology and warlord that has given himself the title the successor to the PROPHET MUHAMMAD UNDERLINES THE SORROWFUL CONDITION INTO WHICH ARAB POLITICS HAS SUNK.

ALL I CAN SAY IS INSHALLAH TO US ALL.   History rarely sleep securely.

HERE IS ONE OF THE GREATEST QUESTIONS OF OUR TIME.

23 Saturday Aug 2014

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Some time ago I posted:

Big Data is leading us to Cultural De-Acceleration.

We are becoming increasingly “digitized.”

When you ask somebody from the industry, “What is Big Data?” they will usually reply that this describes the challenge that companies that collect and analyse the high volumes of Internet data face. This “big data” technically refers to the specialized tools required to store and analyse.

However, this response says very little about the significance of today’s digital revolution.

When the Sloan Digital Sky Survey started in 2000, its telescope collected more data in its first week than has been amasses in the entire history of astronomy.

Wall-Mart in the USA handles more than 1 million customers transactions every hour, feeding its databases with 2.5 petabytes- the equivalent of 167 times the books in the America’s Library of Congress.

Facebook has over 40 million photos and God only knows what Google is up to.

The point is that the world now contains an unimaginably vast amount of digital information which is growing bigger and more rapidly.

In recent years Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, and there like have spent $15 billion buying up software companies specializing in data management and analytics.

Data has become the new raw material of big business.

The trail of clicks is valuable and can be sold and you would indeed be an idiot to think that it is having no effect on your life.

The way that information is managed touches all areas of life.

What is true now is that more of our lives and activities are being stored digitally.

Like any technology, knowledge can be used for social good or to make things worse for people. Digital monopolies will wield considerable power.

There is likely to be a power imbalance if this kind of new capability of “knowing” is not well-handled by society.

There is no reason to think that the changes we are witnessing today will be any less disruptive than the Industrial Revolution.

We’re going to end up reinventing what it means to have a human society.

Who you actually are is now determined by where you spend time and which things you buy.

Big data is increasingly about real behavior and by analyzing this sort of data, scientists can tell an enormous amount about you. They can tell whether you are the sort of person who will pay back loans. They can tell you if you’re likely to get diabetes.

I am not a Edward Snowden.

If we handled Big data correctly it will bring massive benefits to us all – to our cities, to our environment, to our health, to almost everything.

Yet we also need a system that is flexible and adaptable enough to allow for bright ideas and social, business, and research entrepreneurship to build a better future, i.e. without getting tangled up in unthinkingly risk-averse bureaucracy and red tape. Without the rich getting richer and the poor living in a desert of ignorance.

We want to ensure that there is a high trust system for data sharing, not one that mitigates many of the risks.

We need to think of solutions that are sound and strong, but not brittle.

What kinds of principles and solutions are they?

There are many problems to be resolved. 

Who owns, controls, or has decision rights about data? Is it the collector of the data? Certainly they may have a financial interest.

The person who the data is about?

They certainly have an interest.

In order to reap the benefits of the data revolution, it is clear that existing databases will be re-used and new databases will be created.

But then, who owns the resulting data? The re-user?

Will they be owned by the entity disclosing or collecting the data, or will they be open by default?

What about collective ownership of data, such as IWI data?

How are intellectual property rights arrived at from the data managed?

Who has decision rights over data? The collector? Provider (if different)? The person or entity that the data is about? If there is a data commons, who makes decisions.

Who is the data custodian and what are their obligations?

Who will look after the (newly created) databases?

For instance, who is responsible for the processing and storage of the data?

Where and how will data be stored, and for how long?

Who will provide safeguards for data quality and data accuracy?

Who is accountable when data gets stolen?

Who will have the authority to decide on those data access rights?

What happens to data if the custodian gets liquidated or sold off (to another
business overseas)?

Can the liquidator on-sell the data to pay off creditors?

How do we protect the digital rights?.

We are living in a pluralistic society with differences in cultural backgrounds and value perspectives,which are spread all over the world and exposed to different cultures. These cultural differences influence our privacy perceptions and the types of data we are willing to share.

How could we maintain our cultural diversity and be an inclusive society in which the digital rights of ever one are protected?

What will be the social contract for a data-driven future?

The value of data no longer resides solely in its primary purpose. Value also resides in the re-use of data.

What do you give consent to when we cannot even imagine what possible future value that data may have?

Most data re-uses haven’t been imagined when the data is first shared, which raises the question of how individuals can give informed consent to an unknown.

Do individuals need to opt-in to an open-ended, multi-purpose arrangement?
Or are there perhaps other possible arrangements for informed consent we might be able to create?

Do children have digital rights to consent before a certain age?

What about you, and your family’s, rights when you die? Do we need digital wills?

Do we need the ability as individuals to opt out in the digital age, similar to how we can decide to opt out of target marketing campaigns of telemarketers?

Do we have a right to revoke our consent with the use of our personal data? How could this be arranged?

Will the digital footprints and breadcrumbs you have left earlier in your digital life, such as the public posting of sensitive pictures, haunt you for the rest of your life or even beyond?

How do we ensure the best outcome in a global environment where digital data crosses borders?

The Internet has, with a few notable exceptions, no borders and the digital world is truly global.

There are major questions, even on a domestic scale about the provenance and ownership of data, but these are amplified when global sharing is considered.

There are times when governments do not want your consent.

This is obvious in cases like policing and protecting children from child abuse.

There is no need to protect the privacy of some individuals.

But there are more challenging cases.

What if we could use personal health data to do research, to save lives?

What about when governments and insurance companies want to use shared data to manage their own interests?

Perhaps there is a life-threatening medical condition that a small number of people have. We want to profile them and compare them to others without the condition. But nobody wanted to opt in to share their data, though the risk to their privacy is small.

When do your interests in privacy outweigh other people’s interests or the collective interest? To track pandemic outbreaks. Who would give emergency consent to open all personal data to help stop the spread of this deadly disease?

Big data is big business for the criminal fraternity too who are adapting well to our digital future. Identity theft is increasingly common.

Like most things in this world the management of Big Data it is beyond control.

Along with Science and technology Big Data is out running our Morality.

There are a host of challenges and tensions for any society that wants
to play in this space; the sorts of challenges that we need to consider when people come asking to have and link up your data.

Challenges to safety from theft, bullying, or persecution; challenges to your autonomy and choice; challenges to freedom from interference from well-meaning (or otherwise) businesses and governments.

What can we do about it?                   You tell Me.

 

Both “good ” and “evil” are human creations.

21 Thursday Aug 2014

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Now before I start getting hate mail let me state I know little or nothing about Evil other than the greatest evils in the world are those inflicted by man upon man. 

For me the wrong that we do, though, the suffering that we cause, great though it may be, is a price worth paying for something that is profoundly valuable: genuine freedom.

I believe that much of the evil that we see around us is a consequence of the abuse of this freedom.

It is therefore impossible for us to know, with any degree of certainty, whether any given instance of suffering is unjustified, or whether it serves some greater purpose.

Each of us has tragedies in our lives, and it seems to us as though the world would have been a better place without those instances of suffering.

The problem of evil is that the existence of evil is a necessary condition for the existence of certain kinds of good.

Compassion, for instance, is of great value, but can only exist if there is suffering.

Bravery, too, is a virtue, but only if we sometimes face danger.

Self-sacrifice is another great good, but can only exist if there is inter-dependence.

The problem of evil, then, must be recast as the problem of unjustified evil.

It is only the existence of unjustified evil, evil that serves no greater purpose, that presents a problem. 

Today it is the nature of this change in evil that has become harder to ignore as circumstances turn more critical.

Everyone has a conscience even if he or she does not follow a sense of morality which comes from a source outside of individuals. Once acquired the belief systems function as a basis for the acquisition of additional beliefs.

When the nature of the Evil and its creation are properly understood the conflict between evil and good dissolves.

Morality itself cannot easily be proved to exist / morality is socially defined rules / laws/ developed to control people / morality is part of evolution / survival depends on cooperation with others

It is not possible to make a world without evil, for its creation depended on the free will. 

So it seems at the moment that if there is a God he did not choose the best in creating this world.

We all know that there are many forms of evil, and I have no intention of addressing them all here. These few written words on the subject only add to the billions written down through the centuries.

However if we as the current caretakers of earth want to address one of the main underlining causes of evil we must tackle Inequality.

The distribution of wealth, health, and education all the seed beds of Evil.

There is no point in being abhorred by what you are allowed to see on the media, or living your life in denial in the Cyber world.  As long as there is massive Inequality we will have acts of evil.

It does not have to be like this. We the people must table a motion in the United nations to pass a resolution of behalf of earth to place a 0.05% Aid commission on all High Frequency Trading, on all Sovereignty Wealth Funds Acquisitions and on all Foreign  Exchange transactions over$2,000.  ( See previous posts)