Africa is targeted to be exclusively the world’s food basket; (Nov. 11, 2009)

If you have lands with no water, if you have water and no fertile land, if you have accumulated enough in your Sovereign Fund then the way to go is to invest in foreign fertile lands for agricultural “self-sufficiency”, which means import food at much lower prices.  Japan, South Korea, China, India, and Saudi Arabia are leading these kinds of joint ventures. For example:

South Korea has acquired a total of 3 millions hectares (three times the superficies of the State of Lebanon); it is growing fields in Russia (500,000 ha), Sudan (700,000 ha), Madagascar (1.3 million ha), Mongolia (300,000 ha), Philippines (100,000 ha), and Indonesia (25, 000 ha).  The Korean agency for international cooperation (State owned) is creating private and public enterprises to invest into agro-businesses by loans or direct governmental investments. Leases of fertile lands are for 60 years and an extension of another 40 years. In return, Korea will extend technologies and development planning.  It appears that South Korea is projecting unification with North Korea and the flooding of North Korean refugees soon.

China has invested for a total of 2 millions hectares.  It has 1.25 millions in South East Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Laos), in Mozambique (800,000 ha), in Russia (80,000 ha), in Australia (45,000), and in Cuba (5,000 ha).

Japan has acquired a total of one million hectares in Philippines (600,000 ha), USA (225,000 ha), and Brazil (100,000 ha).

India has acquired a total of 1.7 millions hectares in Argentina (600,000 ha), Ethiopia (370,000 ha), Malaysia (300,000 ha), Madagascar (250,000 ha), Indonesia (70,000 ha), and in Laos (50,000 ha).  The Indian government has extended loans to 80 agro-businesses to purchase 350,000 ha in Africa.  Ramakrishna Karuturi (the king of rose production in 4 millions hectares) is leasing the hectare for two dollars a year in Ethiopia!

Saudi Arabia has invested in Indonesia (one million ha), Senegal (500,000 ha), and in Mali (200,000 ha).  The Arab Emirates has invested in Pakistan (325,000 ha), and in Sudan (400,000 ha). Egypt has invested in Uganda (850,000 ha).  Libya has invested in Ukraine (250,000 ha), and Liberia (5,000 ha).  Qatar invested in the Philippines (100,000 ha).

Africa is the remaining poorest continent with vast fertile lands and plenty of manpower to exploit for agro-business enterprises. Africa is targeted to be exclusively the world’s food basket in this century. We hope that the world community will pressure these investors to grow food slowly and not ruin the remaining land with fertilizers and pesticides.

The European Union (EU): Modern Europe leading human rights; (Nov. 10, 2009)

The previous post “European Union (EU) describes Modern Europe” covered a few statistics and then a short description of the EU administrative and legislative institutions. This follow up post will cover what is working, then analyzing what need to be ironed out, and then how the world community is expecting modern Europe to lead.

The 27 European States forming the EU counts 6 States among the twenty leading economy in the world.  By deceasing rank we have USA, China, Japan, India, Germany, Russia, Britain, France, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, Spain, South Korea, Canada, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran, Australia, Taiwan, and the Netherlands. Actually, those six European economies constitute about 90% of the EU in economy and in populations.

As a block, the economy of the EU may surpass the USA with a twist: the three largest industrial multinationals in every sector are US.  For example, in aeronautics we have United Technology, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin; in medical materials we have Medtronic, United Health, and Alcon; in Medias we have Walt Disney, News Corporation, and Comcast; in pharmaceutical/biotechnology we have Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer; in informatics we have Microsoft, IBM, and Google.  Besides, the US is the first military power in technology, Navy, Bombers, and aircraft carriers.  The EU is totally dependent on oil and gas energies imported from Russia and elsewhere.  France has adopted a policy of being sufficient in electricity via nuclear energy (60% of the total of France production of energy).  Denmark is 25% sufficient in Aeolian technology and Germany about 15%.

The EU is facing problems. First, the “community vision” is eroding: the decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall and disintegration of the Soviet Union sent the wrong message of jumping in the band wagon of US globalization; thus, the well to do citizens wanted to get rich fast by emulating liberal capitalism. Individualism overshadowed the need to resume a common culture of developing institutions that are trained to work toward the common interest and be reformed to keeping the EU spirit intact in human rights and human dignity.

Second, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 took Europe by surprise.  The euphoric undertaking of uniting East Germany quickly exhausted West Germany with the multitude of social, economic and political problems of this unification and captured most of Germany’s resources and time and prevented it to ponder on the EU necessities.  The opportunity to deepen European consciousness for reformed institutions to expanding eastward was missed.

Third, the EU was discussing the two possibilities: either the strengthening the current union for the longer term expansion or hastily absorbing the many eastern European newly independent States.  The political decision was to go ahead and allowing these tiny states to adhere to the union.  I think that this was the appropriate decision because new States had to root their future into a tangible alliance or fall back into past habit, inclinations, and culture; thus, forming close alliances with Russia. The EU was the appropriate framework for ethnic communication and more democratic realization of social aspirations.  The problem is that these tiny States feel that they should aspire to the same standard of living in no times.  The latest financial crash has left al these States in bankrupt conditions and it is up to the rich EU States to salvage this predicament.  Maybe this fact should remind the EU that not all States should enjoy the same rights until they can show the same capability to shouldering responsibilities.

The actual challenges are many. First, there is a political space to reconstruct:  The budget of the EU institutions is merely 1% of the gross GNP while States allocate over 30% to re-distribute to collectivities, social protection, and welfare. The richer States are not that inclined to contribute heavily to the social stability of the poorer EU State members. Second, the EU has unified its currency (it overcame the States’ monopolies to issuing paper money) but is lacking a unified economic government.  For example, the EU lacks common public spaces, no political party or organization has been created or formed to focus on specific EU interests, and the EU Parliament has no power to raise taxes to finance common policies.  So far, the government chiefs are wary of relinquishing their interstates legitimacy and power.

As a block, the EU is still unable to challenge the US on crimes against humanity committed by the US and Israel;  it is fully cooperating with the US on taking Israel off the hook in the UN for daily crimes against human dignity, rights, and apartheid policies in the West bank and Gaza. There are a few States in the EU that are showing trends to opposing Israel’s apartheid practices and boycotting its products grown and manufactured in the occupied West Bank; it is the people in these States who have set the stage for human rights and dignity reversal toward the Palestinian endemic plight since 1948.

The world community is on its toes: will the EU refresh its initial objective of “community vision” or will it relapse in petty interstates interest of monopolies and idiosyncrasies?  We need the EU to be the caldron of community communication among ethnicities, languages, and cultures. We need the EU to be the social and political testing ground for viable alternatives in vision, institutions, ecological human survival, human rights and dignity. We need the EU to invent new reasons to living together and reducing man inequality.

The European Union is the most striking political and social achievement in the 20^th century.  The backbones of most of the UN peace keeping forces around the world are European contingents; the EU is the highest contributor in humanitarian budgets and for reforming obsolete public institutions in the under-developed States. The EU needs a refresher community vision and the world community should raise its voices and aid Europe in its endeavors.

The two most powerful regional powers: Turkey and Iran; (Nov. 10, 2009)

Turkey is the 16th ranked economy and Iran the 17th with the understanding that Turkey has no oil or gas production while Iran is the second exporter of oil and the second in world’s reserve.  Turkey has a population of 70 million while Iran is about 60 million.  Iran is much larger than Turkey in superficies but they are big enough to be considered self sufficient and independent nations.  Turkey is the turnpike for most of oil and gas pipelines originating in Russia, Iran, and central Asia and converging to Europe.  Russia has borders with both nations that dictated their foreign policies.  Both countries have over 7 States on their borders. Both nations share the Kurdish problem for self-autonomy: The Kurds are about over 20 millions and live in inaccessible mountain chains and high plateaus; they overflow to vast regions in East Turkey and West Iran. Turkey is mostly Moslem Sunnis and Iran Moslem Chiaa since the 18th century. Since antiquity, Turkey influence reached to the Euphrates River while Iran to the Tigers River; both large rivers take sources in Turkey and cross Iraq. The good news is that these two most powerful regional powers have many interests in common that dwarf any petty political divergences; they are the cornerstone for a new economic and strategic alliance in the Middle East.

Brief history:  Throughout antiquity till our modern days three main empires dominated the landscape of the Middle East. Turkey, Iran, and Egypt were vast economic and political empires the advent of Islam. Turkey and Iran managed to enjoy a semi-continuous existence of empires but Egypt had large vacuums of many centuries in between empires since the Pharaohs. Egypt enjoyed special status during the Greek, Roman, Arab, and Ottoman empires and was a world apart as wheat basket and the most advanced in civilization. Turkey and Iran could benefit from stable “national” entities but Egypt experienced foreign leaders as kings or sultans and relied on foreign officers to lead its armies, the latest dynasty was from Albania with Muhammad Ali.

The three empires are currently mostly Moslems and they were in general lenient with the minority religious sects.  The three empires have vast lands, rich in water, and have currently about the same number of population of about 70 millions and increasing at high rates. The Iranian empires relied on Afghanistan’s and the central Asian’s tribes for their armies.  As the frequent Mogul raids descended on Persia its armies went on the defensive. The Turkish and Ottoman empires relied on the Caucasus tribes from current Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia States, and also from Albania and Romania.

As Russia started to expand southward and occupied many of these regions then Turkey curtailed most of its vast military campaigns and went on the defensive.  The Caucasus triangle of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia is still a hot spot for domination among Russia, Turkey, and to a lesser extent Iran, especially with the oil and gas pipelines that pass through them.  My post “Cursed Cities: Cars” would shed detailed historical accounts on that tragic triangle.

Modern Status:

In around 1920’s two military dictators ruled over Iran and Turkey.  Rida “shah” in Iran and “Attaturk” in Turkey were attempting to modernize their infrastructure and civil administrations by emulating the European examples.  Attaturk went as far as changing the Turkish alphabet to Latin.  Both dictators confronted the religious clerics for establishing secular States with unequal long term successes.  Iran has reverted to religious oligarchy after Khomeini came to power.

While Iran was historically more lenient with its minorities it appears that Turkey is practically taking steps to outpacing Iran in that advantage; for example, Turkey is translating the Koran into the ethnic languages such as Kurdish.  Women in Turkey are prominent in businesses such as Goler Sabanji; 9% of women are represented in the Parliament.  In Iran, Shireen Abadi is Nobel laureate for defending women’s rights; Iranian women represent only 3% in the Parliament though they constitute 65% in universities.

In the 70’s, Iran was flush with oil revenue while Turkey was struggling to establish an industrial infrastructure. It appears that in the long term oil is definitely a curse for emerging nations because wealth is not invested on the human potentials and stable modern political structure.

In 2008, foreign investment in Turkey was 14 billions dollars and increasing while it amounted to just one billion in Iran.  Turkey has expanded its representation in Africa by opening 12 new Embassies and 20 new consulates.

Nisreen Ozaimy is from Iran by origin and fled to Turkey; when her family lived in Turkey it was impressed by the confidence that the Turks valued their various ethnic nationalities; they had this implicit feeling that Turkey is in fact a bridge between East and West.  The Turks managed to blend harmoniously the secular and religious inclinations.  Turkey is a member of NATO and has a chance to joining the European Union.  Turkey is out of its 60 years hibernation and is currently very active in Middle East Affairs.  Turkey is on excellent terms with Syria: they recently opened their borders to enter without visas and are conducting joint military maneuvers.  Turkey is about to reach a peace agreement with the Kurdish opposition movement.  Iran is struggling to be incorporated in the world community and the nuclear issue is poisoning its relations with the western nations.

Note:  this is a revised and updated version of my post “Turkey and Iran: Same and Different (April 25, 2009)”

King cobra may kill female if rebuffed? (Nov. 9, 2009)

I watched National Geographic channel at 10:30 pm on Sunday.  I see a couple of cobras copulating.  The story is that the female was mating with a king cobra and a local male challenged the mating cobra.  The two males engaged in a harmless fight: they are immune to their poisons and just entwine for some time; I see their heads dancing close to one another.  The previous mating cobra gives up the fight and sneaks out of the picture. The female was sneaking away because she was either already satisfied or she felt that she had aversion to the intruding challenging vanquisher.

The winning cobra appeared wanting to mate for a few seconds but the female kept sneaking away. Suddenly, the king cobra changed his mind and decided to kill the female; did he smell his rival’s copulation or was he going crazy for the rebuff? The male cobra killed a female cobra after 45 minutes of an agonizing struggle. Before dying the female spins fast clockwise and counter-clockwise for a last attempt to survival. It seems that the female has less immunity than male to the poison and the male is at least a head longer than female. The male then undertook to swallow whole the female; she was too big and he regurgitated her dead body.

What with this game of male challenges?  Couldn’t the mating king cobra resume his job by forgetting the intruder’s presence?  Anyway, I don’t think that the intruder would have challenged the mating king cobra; at least the mating one has this psychological superiority of being more capable of surviving and finding a female partner.  Why would a tired mating cobra endeavor to take chances and then run the possibility of hard scouring process of finding an agreeable and consenting female?

It seems that female cobra build a nest for around 25 eggs to hatch; she pile up a meter-high of tree leaves so that the eggs enjoy a climate of 25 degrees and then hatch after 3 months; the female fast for 3 months because she would not leave the nest.  Immediately after the first egg hatches then the female is out of her obligations; actually, she leaves quickly in order not to start eating her progenies.

The newly hatched cobras are already venomous and can hunt for survival; usually, only 2 out of 25 live to adulthood.  Cobras are attracted to areas where rat snakes abound; thus, rat snakes are attracted to areas where rats come to eat and then cobras follow rat snakes to feed on!

I got in bed by 12:15 am and was terrified by the program on natures.  Luckily, I don’t recall having nightmarish dreams.  What do I know? May be the bad dreams will strike me tonight; then I might sue National Geographic for late horror emissions.

I demand freedom to pay tribute to my Idol

              People are more inclined to be loyal to a saint, a shrine, or an honored Imam, or apostle.  People have need to use their senses to get connected to a spiritual entity: you cannot expect human to think exclusively of an abstract notion without the intermediary of their senses of seeing a representative picture, of smelling incense, of touching a bust, or of listening to a hymn. One God who created man and the universe is fine but is not sufficient for man.  Several Gods doing the job is more convincing and pragmatic: specialization is highly valued.  Monotheism is a totally abstract concept that no human was yet able to feel physically loyal to a one, all encompassing God.

            Ever since man descended from his tree his prime concern was struggling for his freedom to pay tribute to his favorite Idol God.  Fear of the many dangers threatening his survival forced man to seeking a much more powerful ally to protect him and come to the rescue.  Depending on his wide spectrum of phobia, man wanted the total freedom to worship and be loyal to his “loyal” companions in times of imminent dangers; he would not take for granted Idols imposed upon him; he wanted his personal choices that most satisfied his psychological world.  Freedom of belief is not a modern concept; man fought all his life and for millennia for this natural right and is continuing the struggle.

            I noticed that my dad, at each pass in front of the Virgin Mary or Mar Charbel (a Lebanese National Saint), has to touch these pictures in the house with his index, kiss his index, and then sign the cross.  Dad is 85 years old and has refrained attending mass for years.  Mother is also devoted to the Virgin and all the national female saints such as Rafqa; she never misses an occasion to get in the car or a bus going to pay tributes to shrines; she pay money for the Saint that she has not so that the church make “good” use of it; obviously, Mar Charbel is in her pantheon too, along with the newly beatified Hardini.  Interestingly, miracles have a way of occurring at election times.

            In all ages, whether a religion claim to be monotheist or polytheist people end up selecting a particular idol to pay allegiance to and write ex-votos to Him in order to be cured, enjoy prosperity, safety to the family, and safe travels.  Indeed, people are loyal idolater to whom they perceive to be pretty much handy, accessible, and an excellent intermediary to the One God.

            For example, in Latin America people are loyal to the Virgin Mary and cannot think of any other Saint to turn to in time of distress; thus, St. Mary of (name a city or a village), or the Virgin of (name a city or a town) and you have hundreds of Virgin Maries, tailored made to a specific locality, ready to come to the rescue. The Greek Orthodox Church cannot think of more than three female saints to name girls at baptismal ceremonies: it must be either Mary, Ann, or Elisabeth; as for male kids you have an assortment of complicated and long Greek saints with plenty of X and Ch.

            In Moslem Egypt, and generally in North Africa, you have St. Fatima, Aicha, Ali, Hussein, the Imam of the regional legal sect, or the shrine of the veneered Sheikh of a locality is paid more attention and visits to any other worshiping figures. Pictures of Moslem saints are prohibited in public places or in mosques but that do not prevent homes to hang pictures of their preferred saint as relevant to current standards of beauty for both genders.

            There is this myth that the Jewish religion is the first to adopting monotheism; it is just a myth.  Ancient civilizations were never monotheists; they all had an overall God, nominally superior to the other demy-gods but that nobody paid much attention to or prayed to Him or even remembered asking his help in ex-votos. God El was the all encompassing God in the Middle East as was Allah in the Arab Peninsula or Zeus for the Greeks but He never generated a dime to tribes that had exclusive rights to his worship.   People converged to more palpable and understandable demy-gods; cities and towns adopted one of them as symbol and recognition of their trades or power.  In general, more weight was given to the “messengers of a God” (they were written in plural) than to a specific God. 

            Yahweh (God of thunder) was one of the Gods to the Jews after Moses introduced him during the long crossing of Sinai and the worship of the “golden cow”: the Jews had, before and after Moses, many regional demy-Gods who did exist even if at periods were forbidden to worship. Jews might have converged to a unique God in Judea in the second century BC.  Many of Canaan demy-Gods were far more beneficial and interesting than this newly created Yahweh that came into the picture during war periods; then, Jewish mercenaries were asked to support Baal under the banner of the dusted off Temple and bust of Yahweh. Salomon worshipped Ashtarout (the Goddess of Sidon of Lebanon) and Baal had many Temples in Jerusalem while Yahweh had only one.

            One common denominator to all salafist or extremist religious sects (Christian, Jewish, Moslems, or cults) is being totally peeved and obfuscated that the One True God is being sidetracked for substitutes.  Joshua offered the Jews choices of keeping Yahweh as sole God or accepting other demy-Gods.  When the Jews decided to keep exclusively a “tribal” God then Joshua ordered all strangers’ Gods destroyed. In ancient time, destroying the bust of a God didn’t mean that he no longer existed but that the local God was to be more efficient to the survival of the tribe or community. 

            When Prophet Mohammad entered Mecca without a fight, after 9 years of taking Yathreb as his headquarter for his companions, he ordered all the 160 idols destroyed or effaced (pictures) save two: Allah and the Virgin Mary. Mary was not bestowed virginity at all but she was veneered as the mother of the latest great prophet Jesus (Issa).  In Islam, idols were no longer Gods and never existed as was the case in ancient cultures. The early Protestants erased pictures and destroyed busts of all Saints except crucified Jesus.  For the Protestants, erasing pictures of Saints didn’t mean that Saints didn’t exist but they were not that worthy to be worshiped and supplant God through the interceding process.

            The most honest monotheists were the “heretic” Christian sects that the Orthodox Christian Church during the Byzantium Empire persecuted relentlessly.  Most of these sects would not even bestow a divine nature to Jesus and Marie was not virgin by any means; no pictures or drawings were permitted for any Saints.  The farthest that these sects could indulge in is to veneer the apostle whom they claimed to have written the “true” Testament they adopted and read in.  The Nestorian sect proselytized in China and translated its Bible in Chinese in around the year 600; it built churches all along the “silk road”.  Thus, you don’t need to create saints along with pictures and busts to have the faith that travels to China.

            I have noticed that centralized churches promote many saints with pictures and busts; it is a tactic to please the people so that it may enjoy total control over their temporal existence; that these centralized churches inherited pagan religions aided a lot to the widespread propagations of multiple idols for each locality.  Decentralized religions have no urge to promoting idols and pictures such as in Islam: it is the temporal power at every state that appoints clergies, Imams, and sheiks.

            I don’t see why all that fuss for monotheism. If a few tribes still refuse to believe that it is earth rotating around the sun or that earth is flat why then submerge them with an extra abstract notion?  Killing and committing suicide attacks in the name of a God is not an abstract act; this does not mean that human mind cannot reach a level of distortion that far surpasses the mere abstraction of a One God, creator of man and the universe.

Note:  This is a revised version of my post “Mono-idolatry (monolatry) or monotheism? (Nov. 6, 2009)“

Learning paradigm for our survival; (Nov. 9, 2009)

            Einstein, the great theoretical physicist, confessed that most theoretical scientists are constantly uneasy until they discover, from their personal experiences, natural correspondences with their abstract models.  I am not sure if this uneasiness is alive before or after a mathematician is an expert professional.  For example, mathematicians learn Riemann’s metrics in four dimensional spaces and solve the corresponding problems. How many of them were briefed that this abstract construct, which was invented two decades before relativity, was to be used as foundation for modern science? Would these kinds of knowledge make a difference in the long run for professional mathematicians?

            During the construction of theoretical (mathematical) models experimental data contribute to revising models to taking into account real facts that do not match previous paradigms. I got into thinking. If mathematicians receive scientific experimental training at the university and are exposed to various scientific fields then they might become better mathematicians by getting aware of the scientific problems and be capable of interpreting purely mathematical models to corresponding natural or social phenomenon that are defying comprehension.

            By the way, I am interested to know if there are special search engines for mathematical concepts and models that can be matched to those used in fields of sciences.  By now, it would be absurd if no projects have worked on sorting out the purely mathematical models and theories that are currently applied in sciences.

I got this revelation.  Schools use different methods for comprehending languages and natural sciences.  Kids are taught the alphabet, words, syntaxes, grammars, spelling and then much later are asked to compose essays.  Why this process is not applied in learning natural sciences?  Why students learning math are not asked to write essays on how formulas and equations they had learned apply to natural or social realities?

I have strong disagreement on the pedagogy of learning languages.  First, we know that children learn to talk years before they can read; why then kids are not encourage to tell verbal stories before they can read?  Why kids’ stories are not recorded and then translated into the written words to encourage the kids into realizing that what they read is indeed another story telling medium? Second, we know that kids have excellent capabilities to memorize verbally and visually whole short sentences before they understand the fundamentals. Why don’t we develop their cognitive abilities before we force upon them the traditional malignant methodology?  The proven outcomes are that kids are devoid of verbal intelligence, hate to read, and would not attempt to write even after they graduate from universities.

Arithmetic, geometry, algebra, and math are used as the foundations for learning natural sciences. The Moslem scientist and mathematician Ibn Al Haitham set the foundation for required math learning in the year 850 if we are to study physics and sciences: he said that it is almost impossible to do science without strong math background.  Ibn Al Haitham wrote math equations to describe the cosmos and its movement over 9 centuries before Kepler emulated Ibn Al Haitham’s analysis; Kepler is taunted as the discoverer of modern astronomy science.

We learn to manipulate equations; then solving examples and problems by finding the proper equations that correspond to the natural problem (actually, we are trained to memorize the appropriate equations that apply to the problem given!).  Why we are not trained to compose a story that corresponds to an equation, or set of equations (model)?

If kids are asked to compose essays as the final outcome of learning languages then why students are not trained to compose the natural phenomena from given set of equations? Would not that be the proper meaning for comprehending the physical world or even the world connected with human behavior?  Would not the skill of modeling a system be more meaningful and straightforward after we learn to compose a world from a model or set of equations?  Consequently, scientists and engineers, by researching natural phenomena and man-made systems that correspond to the mathematical models, would be challenged to learn about natural phenomena; thus, their modeling abilities would be enhanced, more valid, and more instructive!

If mathematicians are trained to compose or view the appropriate natural phenomenon and human behavior from equations and mathematical models then the scientific communities in natural and human sciences would be far richer in quality and quantity. Our survival needs mathematicians to be members of scientific teams.  This required inclusion would be the best pragmatic means into reforming math and sciences teaching programs.

Note: This post is a revised version of “Oh, and I hate math: Alternative teaching methods (February 8, 2009)”.

Increase your standard of living

How much your standard of living should increase so that you may enjoy a sandwich of falafel for $10?  It is not how much you generate money but how far it stretches.

Sir, learn to slow down your investment money: it is man who generate money. Finance and business are too important to be left to the exclusive experts in finance and doing business as usual contended the British economist Schumacher in his classic book “Small is beautiful”; he expressed the necessity for mankind to rediscover a set of values of higher exigencies than just economy.

In liberal capitalism money came to be viewed as an abstract entity that was represented by derivative products that have no practical meanings even to the experts in finance. Thus, the world was glutted with 50 trillion dollars in paper derivatives that were badly managed and controlled simply because this wealth was fundamentally fictitious until the Big Crash; then fiction translated into miseries.

Since 1920’s, money was perceived as an instrument to gain more money or “money generates money” rapidly and easily. Investors had no idea who is manipulating their money or how: they reached the threshold that investors didn’t care who is managing their money or making it fructify as long as fictitious bank statements told them that their bank account has swollen a bit more. This fictitious wealth didn’t represent accurately real activities around the world of economies.

The same process of abstraction was applied to agro-economy. The founder of Slow Food, Carlo Petrini, wrote: “If you use your money as chemical fertilizers then your quick product grows artificially; the land will require more chemical fertilizers the next year for reduced quantity.  This is not a durable method for fructifying your investment or for saving your land of depletion and of quick death.  Now, if you use your money as natural fertilizer by slowing down the output for a durable and natural recycling of the land and organic product then there is chance for a durable economy based on wholesome and lasting sustainable process for healthy products.”

Sir, if you still have money to invest then look around the businesses in your community.  You need to do your due diligence to get acquainted with the employees and personnel.  You need to know that the products are wholesome and sustainable; that the owners and managers of the business know their business, the products, and the needs of the community. You have to make sure that your community is patronizing the products and that the workers are enjoying their jobs, supportive of the products, and working in a healthy and safe working environment.

Sir, learn to slow down your investment money: it is man who generate money.  You need to become an activist for the welfare of your community.  Pressure the government and financial institutions into aiding your local businesses and local banks that serve the community.  Pressure the your law makers to enact laws that prohibit local banks into lending money to “fictitious” non-local institutions that you have no idea or control over their transactions.

Sir, pressure your local banks to include social experts and community activists to the board of directors and in positions to control the transactions to make sure that another trend of “fictitious money” is not spiraling and taking a life of its own.

Sir, make sure that all these control and management tools are firmly established and then you may claim that “the market will be able to stabilize seasonal or emerging fluctuations”, that you may enjoy a sound and wholesome economy that caters to the need and survival of the community well being.

Woody Tasch in his book “Inquiries into the nature of slow money” criss-crossed the country for six months and noticed strong latent demands for alternative solutions; he wrote “people comprehend that for food to have tangible values then agriculture must be diversified and offer advantages to the environment, health, job creation, and community security.” Tasch has started Slow Money Alliance, a series of lending institutions composed of people in agricultures, in agro-business, donators and investors for soil restoration and products grown naturally. Tasch is encouraging philanthropic institutions with an estimated 500 billions invested in stocks to re-invest into 503 (c) 3i (the i is for integral economy) where the money is not intended for profit and not taxed by the Federal government. Philanthropic money need to be re-invested into social fairness in health, safety, and equity.

Slow Money Alliance is applying the new economical paradigm by investing in small agricultural and food enterprises so that thousands can recover jobs in already existing family lands, biological products, and the restaurants of Slow Food.

The European Union (EU) describes Modern Europe; (Nov. 7, 2009)

The European Union is the most striking political and social achievement in the 20^th century.  The backbones of most of the UN peace keeping forces around the world are European contingents; the EU is the highest contributor in humanitarian budgets and for reforming obsolete public institutions in the under-developed States.

This post will cover a few statistics and then a short description of the EU administrative and legislative institutions.  The follow up post will cover what is working, then analyzing what need to be ironed out, and then how the world community is expecting modern Europe to lead.

The founding six States are Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and tiny Luxemburg; that was in 1951 with the objective of regulating the industrial output of coal and steel and resolving differences on egalitarian terms instead of purely diplomatic processes using the “community method”.  The treaty for Agricultural Common Policy (PAC) intended to insure food sufficiency was signed in 1962 which encourage exportation.  Total suppression of tariff on borders was abolished in 1968. As Nixon floated the dollars and de-linked it from gold in 1972, the EU of the Six created a mechanism to reducing fluctuation among the six States and called the “European monetary snake”.  In 1973, Denmark, Ireland and Britain were included in the union.  The European Parliament was elected by the universal vote in 1979 by the nine States.

By 1986, Spain, Portugal, and Greece adhered to the union of the 12 States and a unique market is launched for free circulation of goods, people, capitals and services. The fall of the Berlin Wall enhanced this union to expand into the east. The treaty of Maastricht opens the way for a unified monetary system; it expands the power of the European Parliament and contemplates extending foreign policies and defense to the union institutions.

In 1995, Sweden, Austria, and Finland enter the union of the 18 States. The accord of Schengen of 1995 eliminates borders’ controls among the citizens.  In 1999, 11 States adopt the Euro for common money which was introduced on the market in 2002.   By 2004, eight central European States join the EU; they are: Estonia, Hungry, Latonia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Cyprus.  In 2007 there was a serious proposal for a European Constitution.

The founding Six States constitute about 50% of the EU population of 330 millions of the 27 current States; over 55% of its total economy amounting to 10 trillion euros.  Germany contains 16.5 % in population, followed by France 13%, then Italy 12%, then Spain 9%.   The economy of Germany represents 20%, France 15.5%, Italy 12.5% and then Spain 9% of the total.  England and France are about equal in population and economy.

The EU established institutions for the union such as The Commission, The European Council, the Council of Ministers, the European Parliament (all located in Brussels), and the Court of Justice. The EU is NOT a Federal State; it is a much better political concept that preserves higher democratic representations and elaborate dialogues that enrich the cultural content of any joint agreement among the States. The institutions are being developed and elaborated toward a more effective executive power in times of emergencies such as defense, finance, and foreign policies.  Currently, the EU has a unified security system and unified money with open borders.

The Commission is constituted by representatives of each States; the members are nominated by each State and it is up to the European Parliament to confirm nominated members; the President of the Commission is selected by the European Council and there is a trend to reducing the numbers for efficient collective work; it has weak executive power.

The Council of Ministers has legislative power and may reject the initiatives of the Commission. The presidency rotates among States every semester.  The voting power of each minister is proportional to the State’s population.

The deputies of the European Parliament are elected based on distinct election laws in each States.  The Parliament shares with the Council of Ministers the legislative responsibilities.

The European Council is represented by the States’ government Chiefs; it has the power of selecting the target objectives for the Commission. The High representatives for foreign policies and common security are members in the Commission.

Each State has a justice in the Court of Justice located in Luxemburg.  The jurisprudence of this Court supercedes State’s jurisprudence in matters proper to its competence.

Food BANG, not the Big One 

            Bits, atoms, neurons, and genes form the acronym BANG.  Several disciplines in chemistry, biology, molecular sciences, pharmacology, genetics, electronics, and physics have one thing in common: nano-particles; it opened wide a trillion dollars industries with no check and balance.  In 1960, many developed nations had surpluses of food stuff; this is no longer the case.  It is predicted that by 2017 famine will be the lot of 70 impoverished States harming 1.2 billion human.

            Actually, antitrust laws are so far not being applied to the six organically modified seeds industries that share scientific discoveries and have sole monopoly of 90% of organic seeds.  Monsano, Dow Agrosciences, BASF, Syngena, Bayer, and Dupont have deposited more than 500 patents on genes “adapting to climatic changes”; in another word, how to profit from degradation of the environment.  In 2008, Monsato has increased by 35% the prices on organically modified seeds that it has exclusive rights to produce and distribute. Monsano and Dow Agrosciences associated to produce in 2010 genetically modified wheat seeds that can withstand 8 kinds of “natural enemies”, mainly herbicides and insecticides; thus, 87% of modified seeds used around the world bear the label Monsano.

            The multinational oil companies of BP, Shell, Chevron, and Cargill are linking up with these nano-sciences of agro-technologies to transform biological matters such as (agricultural harvest, forests, algae…) into industrial sugar; then converting sugar into chemical products and nano-products with high added values. Chemistry linked to oil products could now be adapted to vegetable carbon.  Entire countries such as Madagascar and Angola are now being leased to cultivate modified breeds of harvests.

            The scientific counselor to Barak Obama, John Holdren, is encouraging the application of geo-engineering to fighting atmospheric changes.  Among such engineering techniques is sprinkling the atmosphere with nano-particles of sulfates to veil the sunrays.  Monster farms of phytoplankton are created to absorb or capture CO2.

            The UN views these geo-engineering projects as purely speculative in nature with unknown risks for collateral damages.  A joint Indo-German oceanographic Institute discarded the decision of the Conference of the UN and carried on its project: it “fertilized” a large zone in the Antarctic Ocean by dumping tons of iron sulfates; the microscopic unicellular algae were meant to grow in abundance and capture CO2.  The zooplankton ate the algae and the experiment was not conclusive; this temporary failure is encouraging other multinationals such as Climos Inc. or (Planktos Science) to resume these kinds of projects under the name of “eco-restoration” for substantial financial returns.        

Note 1: 94% of US citizens have the toxic substance biphenyl (BPA) in their system.  This is due to the fact that baby milk bottles were manufactured since 1930 with this synthesized chemical product that proved to render plastic more malleable and supple. A substitute of this product, diethylstilbestrol, that has female sexual hormone characteristics, was widely prescribed to pregnant women in the 70’s with devastating consequences to malformed newborns.

Note 2:  Most of the information was taken from the French monthly journal “Le Monde Diplomatic” of October 2009.

Just men wearing daggers as symbol of manhood: Yemen

There is a devastating civil war in Yemen: Is it of any concern to the UN?  The UN did it again!  Civil wars in non-oil producing Arab States are left to run its natural steam until the State is bankrupt and ready to be picked up at salvage price. The UN tends to get busy for years in collateral world problems when civil wars strike Arab States; occasionally, the UN demonstrates lukewarm attempts for a resolution in oil producing States as long as it is under control.  Lebanon experienced 17 years of civil war.  Morocco still has a civil war in south Sahara for three decades.  Sudan has been suffering of a rampant civil war for four decades.  Algeria is experiencing a resurgence of a devastating civil war that started in 1990 because Europe refused to accept a democratically elected Islamic majority in the parliament.  Iraq was totally neglected while Saddam Hussein was decimating the Chiaas and Kurds in Iraq for three decades, even after the US coalition forced the Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.  Somalia never got out of its miseries for four decades so far.  Mauritania is rope jumping from one military coup to another. The other Arab States are in constant low level civil wars overshadowed by dictators, one party, oligarchic, and monarchic regimes.

A week ago, a few trucks were allowed to cross Saudi borders carrying tents and necessary medicines to stem rampant diseases where hundred thousands of refugees huddle in refugee camps on the high plateau of North-West Yemen by the borders with Saudi Arabia that closed its borders and chased out any infiltration of refugees.

The most disheartening feeling is that you don’t see field reporting of this civil war by the western media.  The written accounts are from second hand sources and decades old. They abridge the problem by stating it is a tribal matter. They feel comfortable blaming Iran; then how this land locked region can be supplied by Iran needs to be clarified. The western media is easily convinced that Al Qaeda moved from Saudi Arabia and was ordered to infiltrate the Somali refugee camps in South Yemen; then how Al Qaeda got to be located in a region of North West Yemen with Chiaa Yazdi population is irrelevant.

The population of North West Yemen forms the third of the total and it is Yezdi Chiia that agrees to seven Imams and not 12 as in Iran; the Yazdi sect does not care that much about the coming of a “hidden” Mahdi to unite and save Islam.  The western media want you to believe that this war, which effectively started in 2004, is a succession problem to prevent the son of current President Abdallah Saleh from inheriting the power. Actually Saleh’s son is the head of the Presidential Guard which has been recently involved in the war after the regular army failed to bring a clear cut victory.

Yemen was a backward States even in the 60’s.  South Yemen had a Marxist regime backed by the Egyptian troops of Jamal Abdel Nasser against North Yemen ruled by an ancient Yazdi Imam; a hereditary regime labeled the “Royalists” and backed by Saudi Arabia. After the Soviet Union disintegrated Yemen unified in 1990.  Since then, South Yemen and North West Yemen were deprived of the central State financial and economic distribution of wealth.  President Saleh could present the image of a “progressist” leader as long as Yemen was out of the screen and nobody cared about this bankrupt State.

Yemen is on the verge of being divided into three separate autonomous States, the South, North West, and Sanaa the Capital.  The problems in the Horn of Africa have migrated its endemic instability into Yemen; refugees from Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan have been flocking into the southern shores of Yemen for same climate.  Heavy influx of contraband products are keeping the people of these two regions precariously afloat. The deal between Hillary Clinton and Israel foreign affairs Levny to patrol the Indian Ocean was not just meant for Gaza but mainly to prepare President Saleh for his 2009 campaign against the rebels in North Yemen by monitoring contraband arms shipments.

Saudi Arabia, during the duo power brokers of Prince Sultan and Neyef (respectively Ministers of Defense and the Interior) did their best to destabilize Yemen on account of fighting the spread of the Chiaa sect in the Arabic Peninsula. Yemen has no natural resources to count on and the population is addicted to “Qat” that they chew on at lunch time for hours.

Yemen was the most prosperous region in the Arabic Peninsula for millennia; land caravans started from Taez and then passed by Maareb from which town the caravans split to either Mecca (then to Aqaba and Syria) or took the direction to Persia and Iraq. All kinds of perfume, seasoning, and textile landed by sea from India and South East Asia; incense were produced from a special tree grown in Yemen and Hadramout. The British Empire didn’t care about this region; all that it wanted to secure were sea ports for commerce and to defend the entrances of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea to Egypt.

The UN is inheriting the same lax attitude of the British Empire; as long as the US bases are secured in this region then the hell with the people. Qatar arranged for reconciliation in 2007 and Saudi Arabia interfered to fail it. Archaic tribes fighting one another wearing daggers as symbol of manhood are all that there is in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia is involved in this war and using its airforce to stem the “rebel hawthees”; it blocked the satellites in the Arab world that cover this civil war.  Is CNN willing to come to the rescue for the world communities to get coverage of the mass massacres going on in this poor country?