Tag Archives: Climate change

THE BEADY EYE TOLD YOU SO. THE PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT IS A JOKE.

03 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by in Artificial Intelligence., Climate Change., Environment, HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Sustaniability, The Future, The world to day., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Organisations.

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( A twenty-second truth read)

 

Long before the Paris Agreement I posted an open letter to the delegates, which fell on clogged ears and blind eyes.

The 2 degrees limit agreed is unenforceable, joining the ranks of 500 similarly powerless global and regional environmental agreements.

So despite aspiring pledges we are now well on the way bequeathing an fucked up planet to our grandchildren not to mention robots.

As it speeds up the world will be torched not just by the sun but by migration and water wars.

The full impact of climate change is totally underestimated. We are going to see unimaginable refugee problems never mind sea level rising. Afficher l'image d'origine

You don’t need Artificial Intelligence to realize that humanity as a whole is incapable of  acting for the common good, or that little can be achieved without someone paying for it.

These two realizations are the main reasons that there is only one solution.

What caused the problem in the first place and what continues to deny the problem must pay.

But how to implement a paying system that is fair to all.

We place a World Aid Commission on all activities that create profit for profit’s sake.

An 0.05% Commission on all High frequency transactions, on all Foreign Exchange transactions over lets say $50,000, on all Sovereign Wealth Acquisitions, on all World Lotto Draws.

This will produce a perpetual Fund of trillions to tackle climate change. It will allow poorer countries to catch up with richer.

The Fund to be managed Independently of governments with total transparency.

Global climate is projected to continue to change over this century and beyond.

The magnitude of climate change beyond the next few decades depends primarily on the amount of heat-trapping gases emitted globally, and how sensitive the Earth’s climate is to those emissions.

Will it happen.  The future won’t happen on its own.

Our task  today is to create it, to preserve it for the future.

Afficher l'image d'origine

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THE BEADY EYE ASKS: ARE YOU INTERESTED IN DOING SOMETHING POSITIVE TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE.

07 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by in Climate Change.

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Every day we are warmed and warned by Earth’s stormy heat source the sun.Afficher l'image d'origine

As you all know these days there is little point in proclaiming the rights of ordinary citizens to establish governments to protect human Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness – which are all by-products of the sun energy stream!

To save humanity from the scourge of war and to reaffirm rights, dignity and worth of humans we must all contribute to making the world realize that climate change will if not tackled head destroy this plant.

The Paris Climate agreement has somehow or other created a false illusions of control, which in the long run will be either distorted or compromised by our own human weaknesses.

Last year, more than 32 million people around the world had to leave their homes because of climate-related disasters.

If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth’s physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are more than likely to occur.

Our attitudes will only result in awareness.

The Sun correctly describe our relationship to the creative force of every atom, life and world in the Solar System.

sun_cme.jpg (1024×1024)

With social media sites virtually becoming a cross-platform of exchanging ideas with many TV programs are now using Facebook and Twitter. Even the government has realised its potentiality and set up twitter and Facebook accounts, presenting in imitative like MyGov web portal which can help in citizen interaction.

Television has a very strong role to play when it comes to reach and address a large target group or audience. However it is sad to see often media is engaged in trivial matters that appeals to masses forgetting the real issues that haunts nation of the world.

When it comes to Climate Change Society is so distracted by technological, physical connections that our deeper, more fundamental spiritual connections to reality are mostly ignored – except when we are individually alone with Nature.

If we define the future as a time that looks different from the present, then most people aren’t expecting any future at all; they expect coming decades to bring more globalization, convergence, and sameness.

They may be right, but when it comes to Climate change it is already affecting the planet and society and will continue to do so for generations to come. The physical and chemical changes of human activities are being felt in natural ecosystems on land and at sea, on farms and ranches, and in cities and suburbs, but the changes are not happening uniformly.

Predicting the long-term consequences is complicated in part because choices we make as individuals and as a society will change those outcomes.

This is where you can make a positive difference:

By promoting Awareness.

To make informed choices about the climate, and prepare for the results of those choices.

You can do this by lobbing you TV station to include in their weather forecasting a section that addresses the problems related to climate change.

By asking your readers or friends to do the same. 

Send the below open notice to you TV Station:

 OPEN NOTICE TO ALL TELEVISION STATIONS.

 Dear Sir or Madam                                                                            6/Nov/2012

As a viewer:

I wish to bring to your attention the need for your, Weather Forecast slot to address to following:

Surely it’s time that your MAIN WEATHER FORECAST SHOULD BE INCORPORATING SOME INTERACTIVE MAPS showing Global Sea Level Rise or Ice melting;  Instead of posting Weather photographs from social media weather watchers.

You have a social responsibility to make your viewers aware that observations throughout the world are making it clear that climate change is occurring. 

To build understanding: Media acts as watchdog to protect public interest against malpractice and create public awareness.

With your help society as a whole will be able to face challenges more successfully. 

Human’s would no longer be human with the future of climate laid out before them.

I wish you well in this challenging, but necessary task:

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THE BEADY EYE LOOKS AT THE CASE FOR AND AGAINST PRICING CARBON DIOXIDE AND OTHER GREENHOUSE GASES (GHGs)

02 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by in Climate Change., Paris Climate Change Conference 2015, The Future, Where's the Global Outrage.

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THERE NOT A DAY THAT GOES BY WITHOUT HEARING THAT THE WORLD CLIMATE IS ON THE VERGE OF DISASTER – A TIPPING POINT.

 As of 1 November 2016: 192 Parties signed the Agreement, 92 Parties ratified.

Done and dusted.

Not on your Nelly.Afficher l'image d'origine

Let’s cut the crap about carbon tax.

 

(Carbon tax for a broad range of fossil fuel intensive industries, exemptions which have been principally motivated by concern about competitiveness. The primary environmental objective of a tax on carbon is to set a price that reflects the “real” costs such emissions impose—accounting for the damages that are expected to arise from global warming, including effects on agricultural productivity and human health, coastal inundation, and other changes.)

The only problem is:  THAT IT DOES NOT – AND WILL NOT WORK.

Why?

BECAUSE:  It would need to operate (i.e. centuries).

Another words all countries will have to act in unison to increase the optimal carbon price periodically and continue to maintain the carbon price at the optimal level for all of this century (and beyond).

It cannot succeed unless it is global but global carbon pricing is unlikely to get implemented, let alone sustained for the time required to deliver the projected benefits.

A further difficulty that I see is. In reaching an International Agreement on Carbon Tax – how do you reflect the cost from country to country.  Is it to be a new tax or in place of an existing tax.

Can you see either happening?

The world is unlikely to agree to carbon pricing.

Donald Trump god forbid the next US President says he doesn’t believe in climate change.

With Carbon Tax : Nearly two hundred sovereign governments do not have to somehow coordinate their climate policies. The assumptions that underpin the economic analyses used to justify carbon pricing are appropriate for a theoretical modelling exercise but unrealistic, impracticable and highly unlikely to be achieved in the real world.

Future economic damages from carbon dioxide emissions can only be estimated in conjunction with forecasts of climate change.

IT WILL NEVER BE A FAIR TAX.

It’s a regressive tax that benefits big business and the wealthy at the expense of lower and middle-income earners.

There is no pledge to offset the carbon tax with reductions in other taxes.

Millionaires got a big tax break to buy a new $100,000 Tesla electric car,The

U.N.’s own report shows that aggressive emission cutbacks—even if achieved through an ‘efficient’ carbon tax—would probably cause more harm than good.

First, it is very hard to target subsidies and mandates toward the most cost-effective abatement, both because the government does not know which
technologies will be least costly and because it is hard to implement a program that is not prone to political favoritism.

Second, it is nearly impossible to preclude subsidizing abatement that would happen anyway or mandating activities that are more costly than the avoided damages to the environment. Clean energy subsidies can also have the perverse effect of increasing the overall supply of energy and making prices fall, partly offsetting the benefits of the TAX.

The amount of revenue raised depends on the level of the tax, how broadly it is applied, and other factors. Most experts suggest a tax of around $25 per ton of CO2, which would raise approximately $125 billion.

Exempting some sectors or categories of emissions sources may create perverse economic incentives.

There is a better way.

It is to deregulate so the cost of low-emissions energy can come down over time, especially in developing countries. With this approach there would be no need for carbon pricing, emissions monitoring, or enforcement mechanisms involving policing, disputation, conflicts and international courts.

According to the World Bank, about 12 percent of the world’s global emissions of greenhouse gases are subject to a carbon price — either a tax or, more commonly, a levy under a regime of cap-and-trade like that in California and Europe, in which permits to emit are auctioned among THE POLLUTING companies.

There is no way that a carbon tax is going to be yielded significant reductions in gasoline purchases. It will however increase energy prices—the amount of increase would depend on the size of the tax and the extent to which it is passed forward to consumers.

A carbon tax could lead to overall economic growth, if the tax revenues are used in a way that promotes economic growth, such as cutting other taxes or reducing the deficit, WHICH WILL NEVER HAPPEN.

The road the World must travel to reduce global warming is to spread the cost fairly by making Profit for Profit sake pay (See previous Posts)

IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS RELATED GLOBAL WARMING.

HAVE A LOOK AT : BEFORE THE FLOOD.  https://youtu.be/90CkXVF-Q8M)

Before I wrap this post up.

Here is a message for Leonardo and Fisher just in the off-chance either of you get to read this post.

With your influence you could get the medium of World-Wide Television to include in their Weather Forecast a section showing the Global warming. They have a social responsibility to highlight the problem BY DOING SO THEY WOULD CREATE AWARENESS THAT COULD TRANSLATE INTO ACTION.

 

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ALL SENSIBLE COMMENTS WELCOME.

 

 

THE BEADY EYE ASKS:WHAT IS IT ABOUT US THAT MAKES US WHOLLY INCAPABLE OF RESPONDING? TO CLIMATE CHANGE- IS IT GREED OR ARE WE JUST PLAIN STUPID.

13 Saturday Aug 2016

Posted by in Climate Change., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Paris Climate Change Conference 2015, Sustaniability, The Future, The world to day., Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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It’s a beautiful hot day, 34 celsius.

The Olympics are in full swing with its opening message long forgotten by those how win a medal.

The world since the first farmer grew two carrots has had its winners, losers, wars, famines, rich, and poor, you name it the World has weathered all.Afficher l'image d'origine

You could be a faitheist  and say  “What happens happens”  but as Lone Man ( Isna la wica) ( late 19th century Teton Sioux said ” I have seen that in any great undertaking it is not enough for a man to depend simply upon himself.”Afficher l'image d'origine

I have written on Climate Change before the Paris Agreement and after.

Since then every day of the week there is some new evidence that the climate is changing.

The global meltdown has begun.

Long predicted and long denied, the effects of climate change are arriving faster than even the gloomiest prophets expected.

The earth is dying, yet those who spread this message are treated as dangerous and mad.

This week we learnt that the Arctic ecosystem is collapsing.

Three weeks ago, marine biologists reported that almost all the world’s coral reefs could be dead by the end of the coming century.

One month ago, the Red Cross reported that natural disasters uprooted more people in 1998 than all the wars and conflicts on earth combined.

The demographer Dr Norman Myers calculates that 25m people have already been displaced by environmental change, and this will rise to 200m within 50 years.

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine reports that nine of the 10 most dangerous diseases carried by insects and other vectors are likely to spread as a result of global warming.

You would think that with our combined World Intelligent we would be by now well beyond the point of discussing the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Not on your Nelly.

And yet, far from addressing this coming catastrophe, we curse or mock anyone who draws attention to it.

What is it about this pattern of living that demands that those who challenge it must be treated as if they were dangerous or mad?

Is it just plain stupidity or that we have found the key to undying happiness, the transactable elixir of life?

What is it about this crisis, what is it about us, that makes us wholly incapable of responding?

Is it the drive to make more money than you could possibly need, to buy more goods than you could possibly enjoy, is a species of mental illness. Success in this system brings not happiness, but, at best, an alleviation of the pain required to sustain it. Even its beneficiaries are also its victims.

Climate change is perhaps the gravest calamity our species has ever encountered. Its impact dwarfs that of any war, any plague, any famine we have confronted so far. It makes genocide and ethnic cleansing look like sideshows at the circus of human suffering.

To date we have not reached the necessary number of countries to represent 55% of global emissions to sign up to the agreement to implement the Paris Agreement. (Which I advocate will have little effect as the agreement has no means of enforcing anything agreed.)

Negotiations and meetings have been marred by special interest groups trying to prevent effective action to combat climate change. In addition, there has been a lack of political will to take effective steps and measures.

Many large corporations, have opposed climate change treaties seemingly afraid of profit impacts if they have to make substantial changes to how they do business.

All countries are affected by, and contribute to, the buildup of greenhouse gases, and should be willing to join in the effort to stop it. However, it is far from easy to agree what to do, and how to do it….

Because : Poor countries face the brunt of the problems caused by global warming, and point out that most of the current global warming are the results of the rich countries’ pollution.

Current consumption patterns also see far more greenhouse emissions per person in the rich countries than the poorer ones.

As evidence of climate change mounts the impacts will be worse for more vulnerable people around the world, and could destabilize the world economy.

However, some are ( Donald Trump) still trying to undermine climate change action through deception.

The EU is in crisis, and the USA will be soon.

Brazil’s “interim” government, led by Michel Temer, signed an emergency loan to the State of Rio de Janeiro to help finance infrastructure for the 2016 Olympics. The bailout was conditional to selling off the State’s public water supply and sanitation company, the Companhia Estadual de Águas e Esgotos (Cedae).

What will it take to persuade us to stop using the world as our punchbag?

Many are agreed that climate change may be one of the greatest threats facing the planet.

All the words, pledges, agreements mean nothing without the political will, and financial backing.

There is only one way to make any difference worthwhile happening world-wide and that is to tap into World Greed.

Profit for Profit sake.Afficher l'image d'origine

By placing a World Aid commission of 0.05% on all High Frequency Financial Transactions, on all Sovereign Wealth Funds Acquisitions, on all Foreign Exchange transactions over $20,000, on all Lottery wins over $100000, on all gambling.

This would create a perpetual Fund of trillions to tackle Climate Change.

Will it happen.

Not without all of us demanding it of the United Nations.

The Earth is the mother of all people and all people should have equal rights upon it.

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THE BEADY EYE ASKS: IS OUR PRECONDITION OF IGNORANCE GOING TO BE OUR DOWNFALL.

16 Monday May 2016

Posted by in Climate Change., Environment, Humanity., Natural World Disasters, Sustaniability, The Future, The world to day., Where's the Global Outrage.

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We all live our own lives but we are all subject to consequences of our own and each other’s ‘ignorance’.Afficher l'image d'origine

The problem is that we are literally ‘born in ignorance’ and raised in a world of people likewise born and raised which means then, that there is a very nearly overwhelming amount of misinformation, opinion, predisposition et cetera regarding what we ‘know’ about ourselves and how we ‘should’ deal with each other or there wouldn’t be the mass of troubles there is in the world today.

The human condition in this especially negative sense is a measure of our ignorance with respect to what we know about ourselves as ‘a life-form in its configuration space’ -biology, anthropology, the resource/environment, government/economy and ‘the nature and course of human evolution and progression’, as the idea of that whole and its parts varies throughout the world.

This has led us to a point that the idea of wealth and ownership beyond ‘base-domain human requirements’ is fundamentally antithetical to best well-being and viability in the nature and course of the life-form’.

Not only is there something of ‘a human condition’ endemic (the individuals) of people’s and nations, but one compounded by typically profound differences between their ‘autonomous’ governments and economics due to natural resources, geography, climate et cetera.

Up to now our attempts to understand nature and generally to know about things not produced by man, have turn us instead exclusively to things that owed their existence to man.

As I have said we are evolved out of ignorance and continue to be born in ignorance, and that means that even as we discover and amass knowledge – the ‘if this, then that-ness’ of matter and existence, ‘new situations’ and ‘new ignorances’ will always present something of a problem to someone as long as we exist.

Unfortunately, the new Technological age is adding to this and contrary to what is currently assumed about the proverbial ivory tower independence of thinkers, no other human capacity is so vulnerable, and it is in fact far easier to act under conditions of tyranny than it is to think.

We have entered the age of Igorance-Smart phone.

The action of the scientists, since it acts into nature from the standpoint of the universe and not into the web of human relationships, lacks the revelatory character of action as well as the ability to produce stories and become historical, which together form the very source from which meaningfulness springs into and illuminates human existence.

If like me you ponder on why it is that we seem incapable of grasping that human activities in the last two centuries have effected the Earth’s climate.

We have taken all the carbon from hundreds of million of years which had been locked up in fossil fuels and stuck it into the atmosphere in a time of two hundred years.

We don’t need to wait for the Paris Climate agreement ( Which is just a joke) there is a Methane nuclear boom under the Arctic that we could see our temperatures go up by 6c in the next 30 years.

We have buggered around with the atmosphere beyond a joke or promises.

We need some Big decisions to stop the march of climate change.Afficher l'image d'origine

Surely we are not going to wipe ourselves out through ignorance when they are so many choices but if we do at least most of us will still be ignorant.

To address the problems that derive from the grotesque Inequalities and structural poverty of our world.  Quite as hoc diplomacy is not enough. Some thing more structured is needed. Like an World Aid Commission of 0.005%. (See previous posts)

Click the Ignorant like button or make an intelligent comment.

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: HERE WE GO AGAIN. THE COTTON WOOL BEING PULLED OVER OUR EYES.

24 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in Climate Change.

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Yesterday we told that 175 leaders signed an agreement to limit future global warming be least 2%

Ban Kimoon says this is a moment in history, which I agree but signing the Paris Agreement doesn’t mean emissions will go down. Afficher l'image d'origine

Are we being hoodwinked or Shakespeare by worthless words on paper that don’t come into effect till the year 2020.

By then the great barrier reef in Australia will be a bleached dead sheet.

THE FIFTY FIVE COUNTRIES THAT ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR 55% OF THE WORLDS GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS WILL HAVE BY THEN PUMPED ENOUGH CO2 INTO THE ATMOSPHERE TO NULLIFY ANY REDUCTIONS. 

NOT FORGETTING THE AMOUNT OF METAIN THAT THE OCEANS AND THE ARCTIC ARE GOING TO RELEASE.

HERE ARE A FEW HARD FACTS:

No country has shared a detailed, credible strategy to achieve what scientists think is necessary: Ending the era of fossil-fuel emissions and converting entirely to clean energy no later than the middle of this century.

Not one country has said where is the Money coming from. If we want change we have to pay for it and there is only one fair way of doing this. (SEE previous posts)

There are 195 countries in existence. This does not include Kosovo (disclaimer), or  Palestine or Western Sahara or Taiwan or  Greenland or many other partly recognized states .

UN Members: 193
UN Observer States: 2
Total: 195

Whether they make good on their pledges to slow dangerous greenhouse gas emissions will depend in large part on the actions in the years ahead by the world’s largest polluters.

The United States, pledged was thrown into question in February, when the Supreme Court unexpectedly put a hold on implementing a major environmental regulation aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. Now it remains in limbo until all legal challenges have been resolved, which is likely to take at least another year.

China, has pledged to have its emissions of carbon dioxide reach a plateau or decline “around 2030,”

The European Union’s, pledge to cut emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030. Member states still must reach consensus in important areas on climate policies.

Perhaps the most significant pledge by India has been to increase solar power generation to 100 gigawatts by 2022, up from about three gigawatts generated in India last year. “That’s an earthshaking commitment,”

Russia has yet to make any binding pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff committed to an ambitious plan to reduce her country’s emissions 43 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.

Indonesia, one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas polluters due to mass deforestation, pledged under the Paris Agreement to cut its emissions 29 percent from a business-as-usual scenario by 2030, or by 41 percent if it receives substantial assistance from the developed world.  But even with those pledged reductions, Indonesia’s emissions would still soar, nearly doubling from 2010 levels.

After a quarter-century of failed diplomatic efforts, big uncertainties hang over the climate deal even as the wording oil and gas companies continue to invest billions of dollars a year searching for new reserves of fossil fuels.

The announcement of 175 countries signing the Agreement hide’s the true position and gives the impression that the problem is being tackled.

It is already too late to eliminate the risks entirely.

We are looking at climate effects so severe that they might destabilize governments, produce waves of refugees, precipitate the sixth mass extinction of plants and animals in Earth’s history, and melt the polar ice caps, causing the seas to rise high enough to flood most of the world’s coastal cities.

So speaking up and exercising your rights as a citizen matters as much as anything else you can do.

The signing ceremony on Friday is only an intermediate step. After, countries will still have to present formal ratification documents, and the Paris Agreement will not take effect until 55 countries representing 55 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions have done so.

All the World’s a stage– and some people are desperately unrehearsed. The US secretary of state, John Kerry, holds his granddaughter for the signing of the accord at the United Nations Signing Ceremony for the Paris Agreement climate change accord in New York.

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S GOVERNMENTS ARE FAILING US.

18 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by in Capitalism, Climate Change., European Union., Humanity., Modern Day Democracy., Paris Climate Change Conference 2015, Sustaniability, The Future, The world to day., Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Organisations., World Politics

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WHY?

Because they no longer guarantee life and the pursuit of happiness.

I am not talking about you can’t please all the people all of the time.Afficher l'image d'origine

I am talking about when they come together in the United Nations an out of date organisation with no secure means of funding other than begging. Only when signatory nations are prepared to follow suit with firm domestic policies is a UN aspiration somewhat effective. This never happens on global issues as they are afraid of paying the political price.

On something as fundamental as changing the source of energy which is going to cost trillions. Only governments coming together will there be any effect.  They are supposed to be a trustee of the natural resources that citizens depend on for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

In modern society, of course, much of the complexity in our lives is placed there by governments, supposedly acting to “help” us avoid failure or to “protect” us from failure.

Instead they are eroding our liberties by collecting reams of information from your digital footprint. Our societies where you’re free to be whatever you want, feels less and less so each year.

They are selling climate dispensations, flogging off natural resources and revenue earning industries to sovereign wealth funds for short gain profits.

Some failures were obviously. They are failing to adequately address global warming.  It seems to me that Politicians seem to think that the Marketplace will take care of it.

More visible recently were the bailing out of  high-profile banking institutions which are still considered by the government to be too big to fail without threatening the long-term well-being of consumers and the broader economy.

They have created confusing missions that are not be communicated and embraced, and are were easily undermined by rank corruption and unethical conduct, or are beyond careful monitoring through performance measurement and management. They don’t  ‘know’ enough to enable them to make effective decisions about the best way to allocate scarce resources with the top appointees unqualified to lead.

The days are gone when many economists believe in the efficient market hypothesis, which assumes that the market will always contain more information than any individual or government.

The implication is that market prices and market movements should be free from interference because markets cannot be improved upon by individuals or governments. However we all know that the invisible hand of the market place will not bring about the changes necessary.

Which brings us back to the United nations. An organisation so infiltrated by lobbying groups that it is danger onto itself.

The world is in a mess due to greed, and democracy as we know it is under attack from unbridled consumerism and Social Media. We have to accept the reality that markets are not motivated by the priority of care. Nor is it the United nations.

Why don’t we the voters demand better representation?

We must demand that the United Nations pass  binding people resolution placing a World Aid Commission on all High Frequency Trading, on all Sovereign Wealth Funds Acquisitions , on all Foreign exchange transaction over $20,000 on all other form of Capitalist Activities that function for profit for profit’s sake.( see previous posts)

This is the only way we can take care of our world make Greed pay for it.Afficher l'image d'origine

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: THE NIGHTMARE IS WELL ON THE WAY.

24 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by in Sustaniability, The world to day., Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Organisations.

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( A one minute obligatory read if you are interested in the planet you live on) .

It is not amazing that the contemporary world is marked by a growing number of problems that are genuinely Global in scope.Afficher l'image d'origine

Yet instead of addressing them we spend our time discussing ISIS, North Korea, Mr Putin, Worthless Trump, Air Brain Palin, The price of Oil, Stem cells, New Planets billion of light years away, the list is endless rubbish.

In the mean time we have the spread of Zika virus, a blizzard to beat all blizzards, thousands of Refugees, billions being spend of Presidential Campaigns while Inequality spreads like a cancer.

So forgive me for thinking we must be one of the most selfish, stupid, technology driven like button idiots that ever existed on this planet.

Based on the Best current science we are looking down the barrel of a gun with the bullet fired.

There could be no more extreme than current weather patterns, melting glaciers, sea level rising, megadroughts, desertification, deforestation, food supply disruption, famines, infectious disease, mass migration, social upheaval, economic distress, political instability.

All conflict multipliers that will turn Earth into an unlivable cauldron of I am alright Jack.

It seems that few realise how dire this situation has become or is becoming.

All down to human activity that continues to prune the evolutionary tree of life with gay adabondament.

And if that is not enough evidence that we are heading full speed to oblivion. The last Global Biodiversity Report presented some hard facts that the population of vertebrates that include mammals, birds, reptiles, sharks, rays, and amphibians – living within the tropics declined by 59% from 1970- 2006.

Just in case that has not sunk in what they are saying is that more than half of the vertebrate population between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer has disappeared in the last 36 years.

They also found that birds in Europe declined by 50% since 1980. Birds in North America declined by 40%.

Just one more hard fact that it is time to open our eyes. All plants species the foundation of the food chain upon which we depend – are currently ” threatened with extinction.

Yet humans around the world are either unaware of the situation or have their heads buried in the sand, when we should be taking immediate action.

Our consumerist economy that promotes the endless acquisition of products over the conservation of nature would need 1.5 Earths to meet the demands we currently make on Nature.

You might not still appreciate just how bad things are. By 2048 there will be virtually no more wild caught seafood. Our oceans are dying from Lake Erie to the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Mexico the coastal water of Australia New Zealand, dead zones are growing. The Baltic is already Dead.  60% of all coral reef have being turned in to white ghost towns.

I have being lucky in my life to have traveled both by sea and land extensively.

Experiencing nature first hand let me tell you that there is a critical threshold that once crossed will result in a sudden and irreversible change. A tipping point that will arrive overnight.  There is no technology that can restore it to its original state.

I might sound overblowing and alarmist but look around you. We have little real knowledge of how the ecosystem works but just because we can’t see the catastrophe doesn’t mean it not real.

After all 99.9% OF MATTER is empty space, yet no amount of squinting will reveal this fact to the naked eye.

What does matter is that our fears accurately track the totality of the evidence presented.

This is why solving the problem ought to be on the top of the list of all superpowers in the world.

The likelihood of this happening is the same as asking is the Pope a Catholic.

Even if it does happen, nobody, no Government, no World Organisation, no Country, no Economy, no joe soap has the will or money to rectify a world that is bent on self-destruction.

This is why we must create a World Aid Fund. ( see previous posts)

It is the only solution that is non Political, spreading the cost across all beliefs all colours evenly.

Go on press the like button if you are one of the Googlefied that think you are living on the Planet. If on the other hand you are truly alive get involved and leave your thoughts. Afficher l'image d'origine

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S: WHY IS IT WE CAN’T ACT FOR THE COMMON GOOD?

17 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by in Humanity., Modern Day Communication., Politics., Sustaniability, The world to day., Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World

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( A four-minute Read.)

Whatever Happened to the “Common Good”?

Our politics have become so polarized and increasingly volatile; and our political institutions have lost the public trust. 

There is (Almost) No Such Thing as the “Common Good”

We face a choice between a society where people accept modest sacrifices for a common good or a more contentious society where group selfishly protect their own benefits. Our most fundamental social problems grow out of a widespread pursuit of individual interests and greed.

Recommitting ourselves to the general welfare could solve the deepest problems the world now face.

The very idea of a common good is inconsistent with a pluralistic society like ours.

Different people have different ideas about what is worthwhile or what constitutes “the good life for human beings”, differences that have increased during the last few decades as the voices of more and more previously silenced groups, such as women and minorities, have been heard.

Given these differences, some people urge, it will be impossible for us to agree on what particular kind of social systems, institutions, and environments we will all pitch in to support.

It might seem that since all citizens benefit from the common good, we would all willingly respond to urgings that we each cooperate to establish and maintain the common good.

Examples of particular common goods or parts of the common good include an accessible and affordable public health care system, and effective system of public safety and security, peace among the nations of the world, a just legal and political system, and unpolluted natural environment, and a flourishing economic system.

Because such systems, institutions, and environments have such a powerful impact on the well-being of members of a society, it is no surprise that virtually every social problem in one way or another is linked to how well these systems and institutions are functioning.

So why is it that we are unable to act for the Common Good of humanity and the Planet?

Our culture views society as comprised of separate independent individuals who are free to pursue their own individual goals and interests without interference from others.

In this individualistic culture it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to convince people that they should sacrifice some of their freedom, some of their personal goals, and some of their self-interest, for the sake of the “common good”.

This combined with the fact that we have turned everything into a commodity to be bought or make profit on has blurred our values of the common good.

These days one might describe the common good as “certain general conditions that are…equally to everyone’s advantage”.

Even if we agreed upon what we all valued, we would certainly disagree about the relative values things have for us.

Such disagreements are bound to undercut our ability to evoke a sustained and widespread commitment to the common good.

In the face of such pluralism, efforts to bring about the common good can only lead to adopting or promoting the views of some, while excluding others, violating the principle of treating people equally.

Moreover, such efforts would force everyone to support some specific notion of the common good, violating the freedom of those who do not share in that goal, and inevitably leading to paternalism (imposing one group’s preference on others), tyranny, and oppression.

We left with cultural traditions, that in fact, reinforce the individual who thinks that she should not have to contribute to the community’s common good, but should be left free to pursue her own personal ends.

WHERE DOES ANY OF THIS LEAVE US?

A good questions but complicated because complete societies all with different laws, rules, and beliefs,(which we can call ‘polities,’ or ‘countries’) take many forms in different times and places but they always include some kind of rule ordering them to the common good.

This may well be so but the overriding self interest   Resulting in a planet of Inequalities, rampant climate change, conflicts, wars, pollution on a massive scale, corruption, and profit at any cost.

Not all people live under a state, but every [complete] human community by definition is a polity.» Polities enable families, local communities (‘villages’), and associations to flourish by realizing many common goods, but polities also allow for the achievement of greater common goods.

The good news is with modern-day technology we are on the threshold of discovering a new way.

  • It is possible for acts of individual humans armed with powerful technologies to make decisions that may affect the future survival of the whole human race.
  • We can imagine the possibility of extinction (whether by our own efforts or due to some external cause), and we can agree to work together to prevent such an eventuality.

Of course, even while we work on a common goal of preserving the species, we will still all be competing to maintain a larger share of descendants within the future population, and this may still result in technological developments that threaten the extinction of everyone.

Whether one goal (survival of the species) can win out against the other goal (relative reproductive success of the individual) is not a fore-gone conclusion.

For me it consists primarily of having the social systems, institutions, and environments on which we all depend work in a manner that benefits all people.

The internet revolution is transforming the way knowledge is disseminated and how people unite over causes. ( see post: The Beady Eye asks: Are we condemned to reaction politics for the foreseeable future)

This means that our out of date world organisations need to come up to speed.

Establishing a pro active chamber of Governance with non political expert representatives, immune from lobbing, that would be concerned with the long-term view to avoid potential threats or to capitalize on potential opportunities.

This Chamber actions subject to Social Media network electronic voting by the tax paying citizens.

Placing a World Aid Commission of 0.05% ALL HIGH FREQUENCY STOCK EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS. ON ALL FOREIGN EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS OVER $20,000. ON ALL SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS ACQUISITIONS . ON ALL NEW DRILL LICENCES.

THIS WOULD CREATE A PERPETUAL FUND FROM PROFIT FOR PROFIT SAKE TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE AND ALL OTHER WORLD PROBLEMS OF INEQUALITY.

WHY SUCH A FUND? Because appeals to the common good are confronted by the problem of an unequal sharing of burdens.

Our desire or desires are personal incapable of being satisfied because of our internal sense of imagination.

If good is the cause of desire, how can it be that people do not want what is good?

Indeed, all sense pleasures seem to be intended by nature to be connected to actions that lead toward the lower and more basic of the honorable goods such as the preservation and reproduction of life.

This is lost in large complex societies.

Is this the reason we are unable to act for the common good.

To define the good as ‘what all want’ is therefore a definition not of an effect by its cause, but just the opposite: a definition of a cause by its effect. The good is a cause. It is the final cause, the end or purpose.

If you get what I mean.

Hunger is the desire for food, but food is not good because there is hunger. Rather, there is hunger because food is good and necessary for the preservation of one’s substance.

The good is desirable as known, and therefore as long as it is unknown it is powerless to cause desire.

Many economists claim that in any free exchange each party must think that they are getting something better out of the deal.

But people are not such fools.

Whoever wins, others must lose.

Therefore, for humanity, there is no “Common Good”.

Other than the continued survival of the human race as a species.

Unless, perhaps, we can avoid the finiteness by expanding into outer space.

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Historically, our darkest hours on Earth have given birth to some of our most brilliant moments—our brightest ideas and most illuminating conversations.

The challenges we’re facing can spur us towards brilliance—and prompt a course correction. We must be both far-sighted and courageous in our thinking.

Our house is on fire. What will we save?

Not the redistribution of wealth by governments Tax to create greater equality.

Especially insofar as they are only concern with interior acts power rather than the outward behavior which directly affects other people.

We must also support thinkers and leaders who can help expand our collective understanding of what’s valuable beyond the narrow one-dimensionality of a profit margin.

We may never find a truly satisfying and conclusive answer.

Maybe its the wrong question altogether.  You will never really know what it is to be me and I will never really what it is to be like you. And this very unknowability of other humans beings is what is the common good.

The human common good—now understanding that phrase without restriction to the state’s or political community’s good is impossible.

ALL COMMENTS WELCOME.

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S RECENT EVENTS IN PARIS SHOWS ITS TIME TO FOCUS ON THE BIG PICTURE.

14 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by in Climate Change., Paris Climate Change Conference 2015, Paris terrorist attack., Politics., The world to day., War, Where's the Global Outrage.

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We must focused on the “big picture” exploring all avenues for influencing humans everywhere.

How societies have developed through all of human history – from Neanderthals to i Phones.

At the rate things are going, the Earth in the coming decades could cease to be a “safe operating space” for human beings.

The question is why a pretty small group of nations around the shores of the North Atlantic had come to dominate the planet in the last 200 years in a way that the world’s never really seen before is now rapidly becoming irrelevant.

Since no CLARITY is being provided by any of our World Organisations or Political leaders regarding a solution I will offer in this post the reasons why this is true and a solution that is achievable in our life time.

We have four primary issues that must be addressed for us to live in harmony with nature: Overpopulation, Over consumption, dependence on fossil fuels and our harmful and wasteful typical western consumerism.

We have already crossed four “planetary boundaries.”

They are the extinction rate; deforestation; the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; and the flow of nitrogen and phosphorous (used on land as fertilizer) into the ocean.

The urgency now is driven by the fact that we simply don’t have the necessary time to address the first three. They will take many decades (if not centuries) to resolve and we may be down to just a few years as the experts agree that we’re rapidly approaching or passing certain tipping points, beyond which there is no possibility of avoiding the worst effects of crossing all these planetary boundaries.

In the end of all of this mess amounts to simple massive transfers of wealth from the middle classes and the poor to the rich.

Because whatever you’re fighting for: Racism, Poverty, Feminism, Gay Rights, or any type of Equality. It won’t matter in the least, because if we don’t all work together to save the environment, we will be equally extinct.

It has brought us to a situation of the greatest schism between rich and poor in history. The utter breakdown of democratic government in favour of the new technological driven Feudalism.

As our social development continues to accelerate, we continue to change the meaning of the word poor.

We are not apart from nature, we are a part of nature.

I’m sorry that we paid so much attention to ISIS, and very little how fast the ice is melting in the arctic.

It is imperative now than ever that France in honor its recent unnecessary lost of innocent lives insures that the Climate Change Conference is not effected.

Unfortunately we must tried to see beyond the horrific events in Paris – into the misery beyond.

If we cannot see something, it is difficult to know how we can possibly begin to devise ways to avoid it.

It is time to attend to this generation’s apocalypse, and to do so we must recover both the fear and the hope of early ’80s politics.

There has to be another way, and this time it must include all of humanity, and all of our planet.

So far, few works have managed to put the unthinkable in front of our eyes –

The Internet, is the public face of globalization.  Corruption is not only thriving online, but winning. The digital revolution has degenerated into an underworld of organized crime, dirty tactics, black ops and terrorism.

There is no such thing as “national cyberspace.” International cooperation will be needed, but be warned that the Internet will not go away in any place it touches.

“Lets just say that today’s Internet is a dirty mess waiting to be cleaned up.”

I am sure that there is no need to give a history lesson but here is one that tells the truth and which I admire.

Written by Roberto Savio.

It out lines why we are in the current mess and if you want to understand why it is so it is compulsory reading.

Roberto Savio, founder and president emeritus of the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency and publisher of Other News, offers ten explanations of how the current mess in which the world finds itself came about.

1)  ” The world, as it now exists, was largely shaped by the colonial powers, which divided the world among themselves, carving out states without any consideration for existing ethnic, religious or cultural realities. This was especially true of Africa and the Arab world, where the concept of state was imposed on systems of tribes and clans.

2)  After the end of the colonial era, it was inevitable that to keep these artificial countries alive, and avoid their disintegration, strong men would be needed to cover the void left by the colonial powers. The rules of democracy were used only to reach power, with very few exceptions. The Arab Spring did indeed get rid of dictators and autocrats, just to replace them with chaos and warring factions (as in Libya) or with a new autocrat, as in Egypt.

The case of Yugoslavia is instructive. After the Second World War, Marshal Tito dismantled the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and created the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. But we all know that Yugoslavia did not survive the death of its strongman.

The lesson is that without creating a really participatory and unifying process of citizens, with a strong civil society, local identities will always play the most decisive role. So it will take some before many of the new countries will be considered real countries devoid of internal conflicts.

3)  Since the Second World War, the meddling of the colonial and super powers in the process of consolidation of new countries has been a very good example of man-made disaster.

Take the case of Iraq. When the United States took over administration of the country in 2003 after its invasion, General Jay Garner was appointed and lasted just a month, because he was considered too open to local views.

Garner was replaced by a diplomat, Jan Bremmer, who took up his post after a two-hour briefing by the then Secretary of State, Condolezza Rice. Bremmer immediately proceeded to dissolve the army (creating 250,000 unemployed) and firing anyone in the administration who was a member of the Ba’ath party, the party of Saddam Hussein. This destabilised the country, and today’s mess is a direct result of this decision.

The current Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, whom Washington is trying to remove as the cause of polarisation between Shiites and Sunnis, was the preferred American candidate. So was the President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, who is now virulently anti-American. This is a tradition that goes back to the first U.S. intervention in Vietnam, where Washington put in place Ngo Dihn Dien, who turned against its views, until he was assassinated.

There is no space here to give example of similar mistakes (albeit less important) by other Western powers. The point is that all leaders installed from outside do not last long and bring instability.

4)  We are all witnessing religious fighting and Islam extremism as a growing and disturbing threat. Few make any effort to understand why thousands of young people are willing to blow themselves up. There is a striking correlation between lack of development/employment and religious unrest. In the Muslim countries of Asia (Arab Muslims account for less than 20 percent of the world’s Muslim populations), extremism hardly exists.

And few realise that the fight between Shiites and Sunnis is funded by countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran.

Those religions have been living side by side for centuries, and now they are fighting a proxy war, for example in Syria. Saudi Arabia has been funding Salafists (the puritan form of Islam) everywhere, and it has provided nearly two billion dollars to the new Egyptian autocrat, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, because he is fighting the Muslim Brotherhood, which predicates the end of kings and sheiks and power for the people. Iraq is also becoming a proxy war between Saudi Arabia, defender of the Sunnis, and Iran, defender of the Shiites.

So, when looking at these wars of religion, always look at who is behind them. Religions usually become belligerent only if they are used. Just look at European history, where wars of religion were invented by kings and fought by people. Of course, once the genie is out of the bottle, it will take a long time to put it back. So this issue will be with us for quite some time.

5)  The end of the Cold War unfroze the world, which had been kept in stability by the balance between the two superpowers.

Attempts to create regional or international alliances to bring stability have always been stymied by national interests. The best example is Europe. While everybody was talking about Crimea, Ukraine and Vladimir Putin (who had been made paranoiac about Western encirclement, from the George Bush Jr. administration onwards) and how to bring him to listen to the United States and Europe, European companies continued trade in spite of a much talked about embargo. And now, Austria has quietly signed an agreement with Russia to join the South Stream, a pipeline that will bring Russian gas to Europe – so much for the unity of a Europe which has been clamouring about the need to reduce its energy dependence on Russia.

A multipolar world is in the making, but it has to be seen how stable it will be.

In Asia, China and Japan are increasing their military investments, as are surrounding countries. And while local conflicts, like Syria, Iraq and Sudan, are not going to escalate into a larger conflict, this would certainly be the case in Asia.

6)  In a world more and more divided by a resurgence of national interests, the very idea of shared governance is losing its strength, and not only in Europe.

The United Nations has lost its significance as the arena in which to reach consensus and legitimacy. The two engines of globalisation – trade and finance – are not part of the United Nations, which is stuck with the themes of development, peace, human rights, environment, education and so on. While these issues are crucial for a viable world, they are not seen as such by those in power. Conclusion: the United Nations is sliding into irrelevance.

7)  At the same time, values and ideas which were considered universal, such as cooperation, mutual aid, international social justice and peace as an encompassing paradigm are also becoming irrelevant.

French President Francois Hollande meets U.S. President Barack Obama, not to discuss how to stop the genocide in Sudan, or the kidnapping of children in Nigeria, but to ask him to intervene with his Minister of Justice to reduce a giant fine on a French bank, the BNP-Parisbas, for fraudulent activities. The outstanding problem of climate control was largely absent in the last  G7 meeting, not to talk of nuclear disarmament … and yet these are the two main threats to the planet!

8)  After colonialism and totalitarian regimes, the key phrase after the Second World War was “implementation of democracy”. But after the end of the Cold War, democracy was taken for granted. In fact, in the last twenty years, the formula of representative democracy has been losing its glamour. Pragmatism has led to the loss of long-term vision, and politics have become more and more mere administration.

Citizens feel less and less related to parties, which have basically become self-centred and self-reliant.  International affairs are not considered tools of power by parties, and decisions are taken without participation. This leads to choices which often do not represent the feelings and priorities of citizens.

The way in which the bailout of Cyprus from its financial crisis a few years ago was treated in the European Commission was widely recognised as a blatant example of lack of transparency. Few people certainly make more mistakes than many …

9)  A very important element of the mess has been the growth of what its proponents, especially in the financial world, call the “new economy” – an economy that contemplates permanent unemployment, lack of social investments, reduced taxation for large capital, the marginalisation of trade unions, and a reduction of the role of the State as the regulator and guarantor of social justice.

Inequalities are reaching unprecedented levels. The world’s 85 richest individuals possess the same wealth as 2.5 billion people.

10)  All this brings its corollary. It is not by chance that all mainstream media worldwide have the same reading of the world.

Information today has basically eliminated analysis and process, to concentrate on events. Their ability to follow the world mess is minimal, and they just repeat what those in power say. It is very instructive to see media which are very analytical about national affairs and very superficial about international issues. The media depend largely on three international news agencies, which represent the Western world and its interests. Have you read anywhere about the gas agreement between Austria and Russia?

So, a final point: never be satisfied with what you read in the newspapers, always try to get additional and opposite viewpoints through the net. This will help you to look at the world with your eyes, and not with the eyes of somebody else who is probably part of the system which has created this mess. Do not go with the tide … search for the other face of the moon. And if they tell you that they know, well, just look at the results. So, be yourself and, if you make a mistake, at least it will be your mistake. “

I thank him and I could not agree more with his advise in his summing up. He states what I have being advocating in post after post.

Many factors influenced the civil war in Syria, including long-standing political, religious, and ideological disputes; economic dislocations from both global and regional factors; and the consequences of water shortages influenced by drought, ineffective watershed management, and the growing influence of climate variability and change.

Here is my solution. 

Greed is the real terrorist operating under the banner of Profit for Profit sake.

Make Profit for Profit Sake Pay;

By placing a World Aid Commission of 0.05% on all High Frequency Trading, on all Foreign Exchange Transactions (over $20,000) on all Sovereign Wealth Funds Acquisitions, on all new drilling and mining Licences.

A commission rate ranging from 0.005 to 0.25 percent would generate between $15 and $300 billion per year, of which a substantial amount could be allocated to promote international peace and development and resolving Climate Change.

This would create a perpetual Funded Fund to contributed to rectifying the very thing that caused the problems in the first place.   Greed. 

And as we look forward into a world increasingly dominated by technology, what will geography mean in the 21st century?
Dead Iraq children

A new report claiming the numbers killed by ‘the war on terror’ globally may be as high as 2 million has been met with almost total silence.

What will all the deaths achieve? Every death is a tragedy.

This is a good starting point for a wider debate about the justifications and rationalisations for the great swathe of global violence unleashed in response to the 9/11 attacks.

The under reporting by the media of this human toll attributable to ongoing Western interventions, whether deliberate, or through self-censorship, has been key to removing the “fingerprints” of responsibility.’

The new age of humanitarian war which suggests that war is not as bad as it used to be, or at least that it’s not so bad that the costs outweigh the gains. Is totally naive.

High-tech precision weapons, precision targeting enabled by lawyers, new ethical norms, population-centric counterinsurgency – all this has made it possible to vaporise the bad guys is not true as we all saw up close yesterday in Paris.

Mr Hollands declaration of war is understandable, as was Americas after 9/11. But it should not be the first choice rather than a last resort.

The first choice should be to convince their populations that war will not only be cost-free for them, but that its effects on the countries on the receiving end of it will also be minimal and ultimately beneficial.

This is what we have been told ever since the US invasion of Panama and the first Gulf War and throughout the last fourteen years of the ‘war on terror,’ whenever the US and its allies are considering who next to bomb or hit with a drone.

War used to be a way to learn Geography – Fool me once.

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