Tuesday, November 30, 2004
trade
"The world doesn't have free trade, it has corporate-managed trade" (Ralph Nader in John Madeley's Hungry for Trade: 91).
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
new eco tidbits
The Economist, November 20th-26th
Worried by an investigation close to Tom DeLay, their majority leader, House Republicans changed a rule that would have forced any official to step down if indicted on felony charges. And I thought this was purely a Latin American specialty.
UN figures showed that this year's was a bumper opium crop in Afghanistan. The area under poppy cultivation jumped by 64%, and only crop disease prevented this from being the largest opium harvest ever recorded. Did 'we' win the war?
Dieticians and politicians have been banging on at them to skip the chocolate bars, eat up their green veg and do more exercise, but too many still refuse to. What's more, the smokers and chocolate-munchers are disproportionately poor, which makes the left feel especially uncomfortable. If the poor refuse to help themselves, it feels, something must be done to help them. Or should the price of a private trainer, liposuction, a monthly subscription to Fitness and better education be lowered?
[By the way, I went to yet another talk last week which said something that struck me: apparently, democrats are indirectly subsidizing republicans to the tune of $6,000 a year. Ouch.]
Iraq's neighbors are meeting to help bring the country gradually back to normality.
Apparently, in the words of former UN secretary-general, the United Nations were created "not to take humanity to heaven, but to save it from hell." It's interesting when you think about it. And it's a lot more gray than US news tend to report on.
"Lock up your daughters" was the title of a piece on Education. Isn't that a bit much for an article merely on same-sex schools and whether they are providing better success (for both sexes)?
Democrats have come up with lots of crap reasons why Bush won. One of the most popular ones was that Bush won out of fear. Actually, it seems that he won more out of "hope and growth", according to exit polls at least (the same story was picked up by the BCC tonight. It was kind of bizarre to see on the news the same story I had in the paper in front of my eyes.)
And when you thought all was lost for the Banana Republics... For the most part, the [Latin American] region is not relevant to the strategic interests of the US. The main focus is economic." Where's the hope?
[special report to the Seattle-ites:] Most Vancouverites love it when, as frequently happens, their city gets rated as one of the nicest places in the world in which to live. However they're facing an increasingly large problem and the Downtown Eastside is the most concentrated picked of poverty and crime in Canada.
A Chinese herbal medicine (qinghao, aka Artemisia annua) is effective against malaria. But there is not enough of it to go around. And short supplies means rising prices and threaten global efforts to loosen malaria's grasp on the developing world.
[Feel free to skip the Economist posts. I have to read it, and need to vent. Hence the frequency and length. You don't have to.]
Worried by an investigation close to Tom DeLay, their majority leader, House Republicans changed a rule that would have forced any official to step down if indicted on felony charges. And I thought this was purely a Latin American specialty.
UN figures showed that this year's was a bumper opium crop in Afghanistan. The area under poppy cultivation jumped by 64%, and only crop disease prevented this from being the largest opium harvest ever recorded. Did 'we' win the war?
Dieticians and politicians have been banging on at them to skip the chocolate bars, eat up their green veg and do more exercise, but too many still refuse to. What's more, the smokers and chocolate-munchers are disproportionately poor, which makes the left feel especially uncomfortable. If the poor refuse to help themselves, it feels, something must be done to help them. Or should the price of a private trainer, liposuction, a monthly subscription to Fitness and better education be lowered?
[By the way, I went to yet another talk last week which said something that struck me: apparently, democrats are indirectly subsidizing republicans to the tune of $6,000 a year. Ouch.]
Iraq's neighbors are meeting to help bring the country gradually back to normality.
Apparently, in the words of former UN secretary-general, the United Nations were created "not to take humanity to heaven, but to save it from hell." It's interesting when you think about it. And it's a lot more gray than US news tend to report on.
"Lock up your daughters" was the title of a piece on Education. Isn't that a bit much for an article merely on same-sex schools and whether they are providing better success (for both sexes)?
Democrats have come up with lots of crap reasons why Bush won. One of the most popular ones was that Bush won out of fear. Actually, it seems that he won more out of "hope and growth", according to exit polls at least (the same story was picked up by the BCC tonight. It was kind of bizarre to see on the news the same story I had in the paper in front of my eyes.)
And when you thought all was lost for the Banana Republics... For the most part, the [Latin American] region is not relevant to the strategic interests of the US. The main focus is economic." Where's the hope?
[special report to the Seattle-ites:] Most Vancouverites love it when, as frequently happens, their city gets rated as one of the nicest places in the world in which to live. However they're facing an increasingly large problem and the Downtown Eastside is the most concentrated picked of poverty and crime in Canada.
A Chinese herbal medicine (qinghao, aka Artemisia annua) is effective against malaria. But there is not enough of it to go around. And short supplies means rising prices and threaten global efforts to loosen malaria's grasp on the developing world.
[Feel free to skip the Economist posts. I have to read it, and need to vent. Hence the frequency and length. You don't have to.]
gender cup of tea
I've had a fairly frustrating set of meetings with my course director/supervisor so far.
The first one obviously started off on the wrong foot. He started off by saying "I think it's important to state that I do believe in institutionalized racism and sexism." He then went on to say that he thought looking at financial results/economics to analyze whether women were positively impacting the economy was, I quote, "hilarious". Yeah, him and I don't quite get along.
I can understand that as an old British nuclear physicist, gender studies may not be someone's cup of tea. But I was only asking for decency.
Anyhow, second meeting was along the same tone, but I was much more prepared for it, put on my show and got what I needed out of it, which was his recommendation to go find a better suited supervisor (phew!) and a name of someone to contact.
free as a bird...
The first one obviously started off on the wrong foot. He started off by saying "I think it's important to state that I do believe in institutionalized racism and sexism." He then went on to say that he thought looking at financial results/economics to analyze whether women were positively impacting the economy was, I quote, "hilarious". Yeah, him and I don't quite get along.
I can understand that as an old British nuclear physicist, gender studies may not be someone's cup of tea. But I was only asking for decency.
Anyhow, second meeting was along the same tone, but I was much more prepared for it, put on my show and got what I needed out of it, which was his recommendation to go find a better suited supervisor (phew!) and a name of someone to contact.
free as a bird...
ecoethics
My brain stumbled into the obvious yesterday - between a paper on engineering ethics and a class on microeconomics -
Isn't it time for economics to acknowledge and embrace their impact and their social and ethical responsibilities?
Seems to me they've been hiding behind the screen of 'we're purely rational, theoretical, that's what our models say'. Which is a screen scientists found convenient for a while until it came to light that really they weren't doing science in a vacuum and they should become a little more enlightened (cf. Pugwash for instance).
I believe the time is right for economists as well.
Isn't it time for economics to acknowledge and embrace their impact and their social and ethical responsibilities?
Seems to me they've been hiding behind the screen of 'we're purely rational, theoretical, that's what our models say'. Which is a screen scientists found convenient for a while until it came to light that really they weren't doing science in a vacuum and they should become a little more enlightened (cf. Pugwash for instance).
I believe the time is right for economists as well.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
the triumph of the religious right
"It may look like that, but liberals should think again before despairing." (Another article from The Economist of November 13-19th, 2004: 27).
"Secular Europeans wondered whether they and the Americans were now on different planets. The week before the election, Rocco Buttigline had been forced to withdrwa his nomination as a European Union commissioner because he had said that homosexuality was a sin, and that marriage exists for children and the protection of women. In America, he would probably have won Ohio.
Der Spiegel, Germany's most popular newsweekly, put the statue of liberty on its cover, blindfolded by an American flag. Britain's Daily Mirror asked, "How can 59,054,097 people be so DUMB?" And a contributor to Pravda, that bastion of religious expertise, claimed that "the Christian fundamentalists of America are the mirror image of the Taliban, both of which insult and deny their Gods."
(...) The moralists' share of the electorate was only 22%, just two points more than the share of those who cited the economy, and three points more than those who nominated terrorism as the top priority.(...) Moreover, that 22% is much lower than it was in the two previous presidential elections, in 2000 and 1996. Then, 35% and 40%, respectively, put moral or ethical issues top, and a further 14% and 9% put abortion first, an option that was not given in 2004.
(...) What may be changing is that the country is getting a little more intense in its religious beliefs. Also, and this could be more important, it is becoming more willing to tolerate religious involvement in the public sphere. (...) Gallop polls in the 1960s found that over half of all Americans thought that churches should not be involved in politics. Now, over half think that they can be.
(...) This week there was a sign of what may be to come when Republicans threatened to strip Senator Arlen Specter of the chairmanship of the committee that overseas Supreme Court nominations after he said that staunch opponents of abortion were unlikely to be confirmed.
(...) the victory of aggressive social conservatism over the small-government tradition in which morality is not legislated."
"Secular Europeans wondered whether they and the Americans were now on different planets. The week before the election, Rocco Buttigline had been forced to withdrwa his nomination as a European Union commissioner because he had said that homosexuality was a sin, and that marriage exists for children and the protection of women. In America, he would probably have won Ohio.
Der Spiegel, Germany's most popular newsweekly, put the statue of liberty on its cover, blindfolded by an American flag. Britain's Daily Mirror asked, "How can 59,054,097 people be so DUMB?" And a contributor to Pravda, that bastion of religious expertise, claimed that "the Christian fundamentalists of America are the mirror image of the Taliban, both of which insult and deny their Gods."
(...) The moralists' share of the electorate was only 22%, just two points more than the share of those who cited the economy, and three points more than those who nominated terrorism as the top priority.(...) Moreover, that 22% is much lower than it was in the two previous presidential elections, in 2000 and 1996. Then, 35% and 40%, respectively, put moral or ethical issues top, and a further 14% and 9% put abortion first, an option that was not given in 2004.
(...) What may be changing is that the country is getting a little more intense in its religious beliefs. Also, and this could be more important, it is becoming more willing to tolerate religious involvement in the public sphere. (...) Gallop polls in the 1960s found that over half of all Americans thought that churches should not be involved in politics. Now, over half think that they can be.
(...) This week there was a sign of what may be to come when Republicans threatened to strip Senator Arlen Specter of the chairmanship of the committee that overseas Supreme Court nominations after he said that staunch opponents of abortion were unlikely to be confirmed.
(...) the victory of aggressive social conservatism over the small-government tradition in which morality is not legislated."
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
dismantling the economist
[dismantling the economist: the 'rational' person as well as the paper]
Tidbits without much editorial comment from the single issue of November 13-19th.
The Rand Corporation reported that compensation paid out by the government and insurance companie to victimes of September 11th is at least $38.1 billion.
Japan's navy was mobilised for the first time in five years to try to make a submarine, believed to be Chinese, come to the surface.
The head of the panel set up to organise new presidential elections in Haiti for December 2005 resigned, citing presure to manipulate the process. She had opposed a scheme to buy $112m-worth of electronic-voting machines for a country with one of the world's least reliavle electricity supplies.
(The morality article will go in a separate post).
Wal-Mart is already Mexico's biggest retailer.
I couldn't bear to go through the whole of the article on globalisation of outsourcing in India - the subtitle is "the global deployment of work has it critics, but it holds huge opportunities for the rich and poor countries alike"; followed by long paragraphs on how it increases profits. Where's the benefit to the poor? This is after all the magazine which argued not so long ago that it was the rich countries' duty to export their garbage to the poor countries to provide them with an economic oppportunity. no comment on the morality of that.
The new "Blood and Gore" business: Al Gore and David Blood partnering to set up a investment-management firm integrating sustainability research.
Are you surprised that only 9% of the traditional rational economists felt that including non-financial measures (such as social and economic sustainability) made for an "appropriate valuation" of their company?? Power of the incumbents...
These guys are masters of under-statements.
"Greenland may be melting faster than previously thought." "Like a canary in the coal mine, the hypersensitive polar regions may well experience the full force of global warming before the rest of the planet does." "One of the report's most confident predictions is that the break-up of Arctic ice will open the region to long-distance shipping and, ironically, to drilling for oil and gas. It is surely no coincidence, then, that the Danish government, which controls Greenland, has just declared its intention to claim the mineral rights under the North Pole. It, at least, clearly believes that the Arctic ocean may soon be ice-free. "
[By the way, I'm having a hard time locating the web site lising the current up-to-date readings of atmospheric CO2 concentration, but check out http://www.grida.no/climate/vital/07.htm and http://carto.eu.org/article2546.html if you haven't seen those kinds of graphs before. It's worth a good scare.]
Finally, "Male and female sperm can be sorted using lasers". So rich people won't have to wait for the ultrasound to weed off female fetuses??
Ha... if you can't tell, I'm a bit tense this afternoon ;)
Tidbits without much editorial comment from the single issue of November 13-19th.
The Rand Corporation reported that compensation paid out by the government and insurance companie to victimes of September 11th is at least $38.1 billion.
Japan's navy was mobilised for the first time in five years to try to make a submarine, believed to be Chinese, come to the surface.
The head of the panel set up to organise new presidential elections in Haiti for December 2005 resigned, citing presure to manipulate the process. She had opposed a scheme to buy $112m-worth of electronic-voting machines for a country with one of the world's least reliavle electricity supplies.
(The morality article will go in a separate post).
Wal-Mart is already Mexico's biggest retailer.
I couldn't bear to go through the whole of the article on globalisation of outsourcing in India - the subtitle is "the global deployment of work has it critics, but it holds huge opportunities for the rich and poor countries alike"; followed by long paragraphs on how it increases profits. Where's the benefit to the poor? This is after all the magazine which argued not so long ago that it was the rich countries' duty to export their garbage to the poor countries to provide them with an economic oppportunity. no comment on the morality of that.
The new "Blood and Gore" business: Al Gore and David Blood partnering to set up a investment-management firm integrating sustainability research.
Are you surprised that only 9% of the traditional rational economists felt that including non-financial measures (such as social and economic sustainability) made for an "appropriate valuation" of their company?? Power of the incumbents...
These guys are masters of under-statements.
"Greenland may be melting faster than previously thought." "Like a canary in the coal mine, the hypersensitive polar regions may well experience the full force of global warming before the rest of the planet does." "One of the report's most confident predictions is that the break-up of Arctic ice will open the region to long-distance shipping and, ironically, to drilling for oil and gas. It is surely no coincidence, then, that the Danish government, which controls Greenland, has just declared its intention to claim the mineral rights under the North Pole. It, at least, clearly believes that the Arctic ocean may soon be ice-free. "
[By the way, I'm having a hard time locating the web site lising the current up-to-date readings of atmospheric CO2 concentration, but check out http://www.grida.no/climate/vital/07.htm and http://carto.eu.org/article2546.html if you haven't seen those kinds of graphs before. It's worth a good scare.]
Finally, "Male and female sperm can be sorted using lasers". So rich people won't have to wait for the ultrasound to weed off female fetuses??
Ha... if you can't tell, I'm a bit tense this afternoon ;)
Saturday, November 13, 2004
morning quotes
No sane person seeks a world divided between billions of excluded people living in absolute deprivation and a tiny elite guarding their wealth and luxury behind fortress walls. No one rejoices at the prospect of life in a world of collapsing social and ecological systems. Yet we continue to place human civilization and even the survival of our species at risk mainly to allow a million or so people to accumulate money beyond any conceivable need. We continue to go boldly where no one wants to go. (David Korten, When Corporations Rule the World, 1995)
Ideas, knowledge, art, hospitality, travel - these are the things which should of their nature be international. But let goods be homespun whenever it is reasonably and conveniently possible, and above all, let finance be primarily national. (John Maynard Keynes).
Ideas, knowledge, art, hospitality, travel - these are the things which should of their nature be international. But let goods be homespun whenever it is reasonably and conveniently possible, and above all, let finance be primarily national. (John Maynard Keynes).
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
social capital
I'm reading up on the notion of Social Capital in the hope that it'll weave itself nicely into my dissertation topic (basically on gender-informed tech policies and their potential to help developing countries leap-frog over some of the women issues facing developed countries & ICT companies). The notion comes from Putnam (Hahvahd).
A bit of outrageous facts (you gotta wonder how he measures that), but still, interesting to ponder on. I should declare upfront though that I don't believe in going back to any kind of perceived wonderland in the good ole days, because I do believe that they are in fact myths for the majority of us (i.e. for all those who weren't rich and white and male and born in the right place).
The concept is that social capital describes institutions, relationships and norms, and therefore represents both a positive force as well as a negative, potentially excluding force.
He sees massive downward trend in political and civic engagement, informal social ties (friends at home), trust (massive employment opportunities for security guards for instance).
Here come the crazy quotes...
- 'as a rule of thumb, if you belong to no groups but decide to join one, you cut your risk of dying over the next year in half.
- if you smoke and belong to no groups, it's a toss-up statistically whether you should stop smoking or start joining' (this is probably more relevant to the europeans than the americans in 'the room').
- 'regular club attendance, volunteering, entertaining, or church attendance is the happiness equivalence of getting a college degree or more than doubling your income. Civic connections rival marriage and affluence as predictors of life happiness.'
Morals of the story: they lied to you when they said money doesn't give you happiness. Get married quick. And volunteer - or stop smoking.
Well, I'm rowing, which counts as a social attendance thing. And what makes me very happy these days is that I get to be the 'stroke' of the boat, i.e. the person who sets the pace. Plus the coach gave me some nice confidence boosters compliments, so I'm slowly working my way out of the marasm and sluggishness of the post-election depression (a la post-partum).
A bit of outrageous facts (you gotta wonder how he measures that), but still, interesting to ponder on. I should declare upfront though that I don't believe in going back to any kind of perceived wonderland in the good ole days, because I do believe that they are in fact myths for the majority of us (i.e. for all those who weren't rich and white and male and born in the right place).
The concept is that social capital describes institutions, relationships and norms, and therefore represents both a positive force as well as a negative, potentially excluding force.
He sees massive downward trend in political and civic engagement, informal social ties (friends at home), trust (massive employment opportunities for security guards for instance).
Here come the crazy quotes...
- 'as a rule of thumb, if you belong to no groups but decide to join one, you cut your risk of dying over the next year in half.
- if you smoke and belong to no groups, it's a toss-up statistically whether you should stop smoking or start joining' (this is probably more relevant to the europeans than the americans in 'the room').
- 'regular club attendance, volunteering, entertaining, or church attendance is the happiness equivalence of getting a college degree or more than doubling your income. Civic connections rival marriage and affluence as predictors of life happiness.'
Morals of the story: they lied to you when they said money doesn't give you happiness. Get married quick. And volunteer - or stop smoking.
Well, I'm rowing, which counts as a social attendance thing. And what makes me very happy these days is that I get to be the 'stroke' of the boat, i.e. the person who sets the pace. Plus the coach gave me some nice confidence boosters compliments, so I'm slowly working my way out of the marasm and sluggishness of the post-election depression (a la post-partum).
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
major hurry...
As often, I'm in a hurry, but instead of letting the thoughts pile up, I'll let them out of the bag in a somewhat chaotic fashion.
Under Reagan, the US lost two important principles:
- the Precautionary Principle (which simply states that if we don't know enough, we should be cautious)
- the principle of providing even air/tv time to politicians running for office. (France still has it. )
A bastard tried to steal my bike the other night. It's not worth much, but it looks nice, and unlike many bikes ('cycles' here), it's got a suspension and more than one gear. Thanks to a sturdy cable and lock and a beautiful tie job, he couldn't come away with more than the shafts for the seat and for the back wheel. Still, the bastard could've left all the pieces next to the bike when he realized at three in the morning that he couldn't walk away with either the seat, the wheel or the suspension system. Still, as this is England and the most CCTV wired country in the world, he didn't forget to smile for the camera.
I started rowing again (all the while taking great care of my low back cuz I don't want to go down the cycle of low-back pain for 6 years again). The first time was extremely frustrating, the second much better, and I've impressed the coach who wants me to stroke the boat *grin*grin*.
Plus I'm having fun giving yoga classes to the men's rowing team. Class #2 is coming up.
Tonight is election night (of course). Gotta bake a cake for a housemate's birthday; she's the one organizing the stay-up-all-night-to-watch-the-numbers-roll-in party. Keep fingers crossed.
And on a lighter note, my little brother is coming to visit with his girlfriend. First visitors of our new abode. We'll probably take them punting on the Cam.
Oh and we went for a countryside ride this weekend to an impressive Norman castle dating back to 1140. I feel so cultured ;).
Under Reagan, the US lost two important principles:
- the Precautionary Principle (which simply states that if we don't know enough, we should be cautious)
- the principle of providing even air/tv time to politicians running for office. (France still has it. )
A bastard tried to steal my bike the other night. It's not worth much, but it looks nice, and unlike many bikes ('cycles' here), it's got a suspension and more than one gear. Thanks to a sturdy cable and lock and a beautiful tie job, he couldn't come away with more than the shafts for the seat and for the back wheel. Still, the bastard could've left all the pieces next to the bike when he realized at three in the morning that he couldn't walk away with either the seat, the wheel or the suspension system. Still, as this is England and the most CCTV wired country in the world, he didn't forget to smile for the camera.
I started rowing again (all the while taking great care of my low back cuz I don't want to go down the cycle of low-back pain for 6 years again). The first time was extremely frustrating, the second much better, and I've impressed the coach who wants me to stroke the boat *grin*grin*.
Plus I'm having fun giving yoga classes to the men's rowing team. Class #2 is coming up.
Tonight is election night (of course). Gotta bake a cake for a housemate's birthday; she's the one organizing the stay-up-all-night-to-watch-the-numbers-roll-in party. Keep fingers crossed.
And on a lighter note, my little brother is coming to visit with his girlfriend. First visitors of our new abode. We'll probably take them punting on the Cam.
Oh and we went for a countryside ride this weekend to an impressive Norman castle dating back to 1140. I feel so cultured ;).
major hurry...
As often, I'm in a hurry, but instead of letting the thoughts pile up, I'll let them out of the bag in a somewhat chaotic fashion.
Under Reagan, the US lost two important principles:
- the Precautionary Principle (which simply states that if we don't know enough, we should be cautious)
- the principle of providing even air/tv time to politicians running for office. (France still has it. )
A bastard tried to steal my bike the other night. It's not worth much, but it looks nice, and unlike many bikes ('cycles' here), it's got a suspension and more than one gear. Thanks to a sturdy cable and lock and a beautiful tie job, he couldn't come away with more than the shafts for the seat and for the back wheel. Still, the bastard could've left all the pieces next to the bike when he realized at three in the morning that he couldn't walk away with either the seat, the wheel or the suspension system. Still, as this is England and the most CCTV wired country in the world, he didn't forget to smile for the camera.
I started rowing again (all the while taking great care of my low back cuz I don't want to go down the cycle of low-back pain for 6 years again). The first time was extremely frustrating, the second much better, and I've impressed the coach who wants me to stroke the boat *grin*grin*.
Plus I'm having fun giving yoga classes to the men's rowing team. Class #2 is coming up.
Tonight is election night (of course). Gotta bake a cake for a housemate's birthday; she's the one organizing the stay-up-all-night-to-watch-the-numbers-roll-in party. Keep fingers crossed.
And on a lighter note, my little brother is coming to visit with his girlfriend. First visitors of our new abode. We'll probably take them punting on the Cam.
Oh and we went for a countryside ride this weekend to an impressive Norman castle dating back to 1140. I feel so cultured ;).
Under Reagan, the US lost two important principles:
- the Precautionary Principle (which simply states that if we don't know enough, we should be cautious)
- the principle of providing even air/tv time to politicians running for office. (France still has it. )
A bastard tried to steal my bike the other night. It's not worth much, but it looks nice, and unlike many bikes ('cycles' here), it's got a suspension and more than one gear. Thanks to a sturdy cable and lock and a beautiful tie job, he couldn't come away with more than the shafts for the seat and for the back wheel. Still, the bastard could've left all the pieces next to the bike when he realized at three in the morning that he couldn't walk away with either the seat, the wheel or the suspension system. Still, as this is England and the most CCTV wired country in the world, he didn't forget to smile for the camera.
I started rowing again (all the while taking great care of my low back cuz I don't want to go down the cycle of low-back pain for 6 years again). The first time was extremely frustrating, the second much better, and I've impressed the coach who wants me to stroke the boat *grin*grin*.
Plus I'm having fun giving yoga classes to the men's rowing team. Class #2 is coming up.
Tonight is election night (of course). Gotta bake a cake for a housemate's birthday; she's the one organizing the stay-up-all-night-to-watch-the-numbers-roll-in party. Keep fingers crossed.
And on a lighter note, my little brother is coming to visit with his girlfriend. First visitors of our new abode. We'll probably take them punting on the Cam.
Oh and we went for a countryside ride this weekend to an impressive Norman castle dating back to 1140. I feel so cultured ;).
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