The Fog of Fear

The Telegraph in an article from Tuesday, 23 April 2013, warns everybody that Britain and US 'risk repeating Iraq invasion mistake with Iran'. Some would say it is a fair warning. But, is it?

"The same sort of lies and falsehoods are being uttered about Iran as were told about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction ten years ago, and in some cases by the same people."

Manipulation of some kind? Let us take a look at what they are saying.
I would expect a respectable news deliverer as "The Telegraph" to have a clearer picture of the recent past and of the present. The facts are that the Baathist regime in Baghdad had a history of hiding a nuclear program (maybe not at the time of the invasion, but they clearly had a history); attach that history to an almost continuous state of war, repeated obstructions to the IAEA inspection teams, violent suppression of  any political opposition (or, does anybody doubt that?) and a belligerent rhetoric, and you have a loose cannon. Up until now it is not complicated; the complications arise in interpreting all these facts, in developing policies to minimize, eliminate or quarantine the potential "time-bomb". Yes, they chose muscle over diplomacy, they fabricated, manipulated or misinterpreted "evidence" and they pictured everything in the color of "do or die". Divergent reports on WMD programs or connections to terrorist organizations, some of which were really far-fetched, were sidelined or disregarded. There was a huge media offensive in support of a "muscular" course of action. The psychedelic atmosphere was fueled daily, and we were fed tons of assumptions painted as facts. Some of us were able to see behind the smoke screen, but the vast majority bought the story and when majority was won, the ball started to roll downhill.
 Connecting Iraq with Al-Qaeda was a huge blunder; the very idea that a repressive dictator would support an organization that undermined his very own authority is ridiculous.
In the midst of comparisons with those times and those decisions, some are simply not capable of seeing through a new smokescreen, but this time covering the other side. Maybe out of fear of repeating past mistakes, maybe out of an incapacity to see the differences between Baathist Iraq and Iran of now, there is tendency of generalizing instead of analyzing. A generalizing attitude that would induce a a tendency to either put Iran under the same assumption that led to military initiative in Iraq or, on the other extreme, start from a set of opposing assumptions.

"Nobody can say with certainty that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons in secret. But it would be very hard for them to do so. This is because the country is a fully signed up member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has for the most part obediently respected its provisions, and continues to do so today.
This means that Iran's enrichment facilities are open to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA), as are its other nuclear facilities. Over many years the IAEA has verified that no nuclear material has been diverted from these facilities for possible military purposes.
Most experts consider that it would be impossible for Iran to produce weapons-grade uranium for a bomb without being spotted by IAEA inspectors.
It is certainly true that the IAEA is currently in dispute with Iran over some of its nuclear activities. But it is not in breach of its NPT commitments, and here the contrast with India and Israel, both allies of the west, is so very striking. Their nuclear facilities are almost entirely closed to international inspections, and Israel is in open defiance of UN security council demands to make them available for inspection.
The unfairness (grotesque from an Iranian point of view) is glaring.
Iran, which has no nuclear weapons, is the object of ferocious economic sanctions and threats of military action. By contrast Israel (with perhaps 400 nuclear bombs and the capacity to deliver them anywhere in the Middle East) is the object of more than $3 billion a year of US military aid."

Indeed, nobody can say with certainty that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons in secret. Well, they (Iranian government) can tell us all if they do, and even more, they can prove it. Instead, they chose to point fingers at Israel (not that I agree with their nuclear program). Apart from that, Israel is not a party to the NPT, neither are India or Pakistan, so they are not obliged to report to it. DPRK has left the treaty too. Iran didn't.

The Point of No Return?

"Pyongyang, April 18 (KCNA) -- The Policy Department of the National Defence Commission (NDC) of the DPRK released the following statement Thursday:
An acute situation that has persisted on the Korean Peninsula since the end of last year is now putting the peninsula on the verge of war.
Much upset by the development, U.S. President Obama on April 11 reportedly stated in public of his intention to seek a negotiated and diplomatic settlement of the situation, saying that he does not want a war on the Korean Peninsula.
The chief of Chongwadae of south Korea, who is accustomed to currying favor with her master, let the "minister of Unification" make public a "statement". She even loudly spoke of "the authorities' proposal for dialogue to tide over the situation", a U-turn from her previous attitude of stoking confrontation. She used to say that there can be neither dialogue nor dispatch of a special envoy at present.
The rhetoric about dialogue raised by the master and the stooge almost at the same time is a political decision made by them out of their calculation that they can never bring the DPRK into submission with military threats and "sanctions".

Thought of the day 04.17.2013

"You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns."

A Few Good Men, Director Rob Reiner 1992

China has revealed the structure of its military units, in what state-run media describe as a first.
The army has a total of 850,000 soldiers, while the navy and air force have a strength of 235,000 and 398,000, China said in its defence white paper.
The paper also criticised the US's expanded military presence in the Asia Pacific, saying it had exacerbated regional tensions.
China's defence budget rose by 11.2% in 2012, exceeding $100bn (£65bn).

The defence white paper, which state media describe as China's 8th since 1998, emphasised China's "unshakable national commitment... to take the road of peaceful development".

Thought of the day 04.01.2013

“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.” 

Sun Tzu, The Art of War
More: South Korea vows fast response to North; U.S. deploys stealth jets | Reuters

One Language

Imagine!

Just dare to imagine every corner of the world being open to you. Imagine travelling from China to Lithuania, and being able to ask for a cup of tea without the need of an interpreter or book. Imagine, travelling from India to Africa and not feel a foreigner lost in a world of unknown sounds, of unintelligible blab, a planet with a common platform of expression.

A common platform of expression. How realistic is that? How will this concept impact interactions between individuals and between individuals and society? The tool to be used is common sense. Since society has at its core individuals and communication a common platform is essential in reversing social fragmentation. Mind  you, we are talking about a unified means of expression rather than replacing core cultural values.

Tolerating Intolerance

No need to say much, the clip says more about intolerance than I can say in a thousand words.

 It happens in Sweden, the country that offered asylum to many people in suffering (at one point in their life), that became citizens of that country. Now, some of those very people are present in this video, attacking core values of the democratic society that gave them shelter, food, medicine and respect.

LiveLeak.com - Muslim student go crazy in campus showing anti-Islamic amateur film in Sweden 2012

The world is huge, and nobody is forcing you to watch the movie if you find it offensive  You can chose to be a good human being, mind your own business, while others mind theirs, or you can chose to be policing cultural events, like a good fundamentalist muslim.

If you chose to tell me what to say, think or do, than I will say to you "Get over it! Grow up!"
"According to my standards, your prophet, despite his "divine" credentials, is a murderer, pedophile and a rapist. Yelling at me, threatening me, blackmailing me, or attacking me into submission will not work!"

In the Name of Charity

We all heard about refugee camps, we all know they exist, we all know how people live there, or how people die there. We all have been approached by  charitable organisations at some point in our life, trying to impress us with what they want to do for our human fellow. In fact, on brief visit to a European city (name is not important), I was approached too, but I declined. Not because I am bad person or that I don't care, it is just because i don't trust those organisations nor their means. The cause of this mistrust? The Holiest of them all in the past century: mother Teresa! Asking for big bucks to build a house of dying, not just dying, but dying an absurd way that brings salvation.

I do not believe in just feeding and treating. Call me narrow minded, but I believe it is just a waste of resources, it is just a "problem not solved" continuously growing burden on everyone's shoulders. It is just an extension of the suffering of those in need. One case of smiling, fed and vaccinated child is just not enough; a week later he may become a victim of the system, war or religious quarrels he was trying to escape. It looks god on the camera when he receives a loaf of bread, and the kid smiles thinking he has enough for three days, its fantastic when he gets medical treatment, but almost nothing is made to fix things that brought him in that situation, and here is where I think a different attitude is necessary. That leaves out natural disasters, in those cases the best humanity can do is to offer temporary relief and support.

Now, you will call me a war-monger (some might say a "republican"), but democracy can be enforced (even to the middle east), it just takes patience and commitment, and a proper "World Police Organization". You might say we have one: UN. OK, but I don't see them in Syria, they were not very effective in former Yugoslavia, not very effective in Palestine, not very effective in Darfur... and all three of them huge humanitarian disasters. I even dare to ask a question: how would Syria look like today if it was governed by the before mentioned "World Police Organization"?  Disarmed rebels, disarmed army... the only way forward would have been for them to find common ground and move forward, once the armed struggle is eliminated. And all this while cities would still be habitable, and the victims numbers much lower. But we are afraid we will not get the vote next round of elections; we know that many times decisive action is the best answer, but we chose to stay put and pay the charity bill.

World Today: How We Stopped Loving Our Freedom

Arguably, we, as a society, have reached a peak. A highpoint that a century before wasn't even in our dreams. And humanity had its visionary men looking anxiously to the future, pushing it hard, dragging everybody else along with them...

Electricity, road and air travel, the way we made business, or killed each other, art, technology and science, everything had such an accelerated pace, that compared with the previous 6000 years looks like an explosion that keeps growing.

But, there is a black spot, a huge one - stamped on our faith like a tattoo that won't come off. We still didn't learn how to live with each other. An uneducated opinion that "my way" is better than "your way", and "your way" must die, that has its roots in religious or nationalist extremism. Involution? Maybe... The mechanics of hate feed heavily on those two components, and even heavier on our acceptance of it, as part of the freedom culture. By acceptance of freedom of expression, way is given to hate. The hate bubble grows and one day it will burst, straight in our face, and there will be no more liberty. No more liberty to smile when I'm happy, no more freedom to love when my heart's on fire, no more liberty to read, to think... the only way, the only explanation, the only voice will be the sanctioned one. I am afraid of those times.

On the Way to Damascus | Seriously, I'm joking!...

On the Way to Damascus | Seriously, I'm joking!...

"Revolution! Revolution! Revolution!... What a wonderful way to gain freedom!

Hiding in the mountains, harassing the government troops, destroying checkpoints, just like Che Guevara himself would have done it! Confronting tanks without weapons, avoiding capture so many times, what a romantic way to live a revolution! Apart from the thousands of dead, it is the best thing that has happened in Middle East, apart from Israel! And religious extremists... and suicide bombers... and Saddam Hussein... and Iranian revolution... and oil.

We all know what is brewing in Syria, but somehow, one dickhead thinks he can fool anyone. Defending Syrians from a band of saboteurs?!... All revolutionaries are saboteurs until the revolution succeeds, and than, they become heroes. No revolution was legal, until it succeeded.

The voice of the world shouts: Stop the violence! Well, it's a bit late now, isn't it? People died already, and voicing your condemnation is not going to change anything. You can try shaking hands again with Al Assad, giving him praise and support (well, not directly - what is the rest of the world going to say about it?). Just like the world did with Libya, and Egypt. Gaddafi was thought to have converted to western way of thinking when he fell of his horse...pardon, his throne! Mubarak was the great defender from the dangers of extremism (the religious one, of course; policing his great country was never seen by the west) to the last day of his rule.

Yes, the opposition won in both cases, but what part of the opposition? That is the million dollar question! And at what cost for the rest of the world? I know the answer, you know the answer, and I am dead sure Obama knows the answer too. Must be embarrassing to see former allies, regimes you shook hands with, kiss their asses at times, falling like flies, leaving behind them corpses and terror. Terror to see that behind them emerges the very similar kind of idiots, but of different colour (political.... or religious, or... better said, political. Shit, I can't tell the difference anymore between them two!). All that, while holding those many, really wanting freedom, hostages through threat and kidnapping and murder. All that while claiming the heroes to be from their ranks. And they will tell you in your face that you have to obey the rule of God, or your beautiful head will be carefully separated from your body, being filmed in the process. If you're naughty, you might get the massage therapy with stones. Not any stone, only holy stones. Live, on national television! You'll be a star in an educational clip. The education they will want to teach us all."

'via Blog this'

Reading - a dying hobby

  Most of our posts in this blog have been directed towards some problem that we have encountered in day to day life, or something that has annoyed us greatly. But today I'm feeling good. I thought I'd give a go to something that I seem to enjoy a lot, lately. Reading. 


  It's easy, it's accessible, it's free and most of all, it's fun! You don't have to buy books, or spend time at the local library if you don't want to. Get online and you can find anything that you want. I was thinking, since I moved abroad I haven't actually held a book to read. But wait! I do read. At work mostly. In 10 hours of work I think I spend most of them reading something. I read the news, I read scientific articles that interest me, I read forums, jokes. But I also read books. Granted, the last one I read wasn't something published by a known writer, but for me it was still good. My last book was the 3rd volume from the hit game Diablo 3, "The Sin War - The Veiled Prpophet". I love their Diablo series and thus, I enjoy the lore books. Most of the books that Blizzard released I have set time aside to read. It's my thing. Fantasy attracts me. 


 For me, reading is a good way to pass the time and keep my mind occupied. I can imagine the characters, the actions however I want. See the scenery in my mind how I wish. In so many ways a book is better than a movie. A movie will already present you with the details, but it is how the directors saw it, not as you have imagined it. If you have ever read a book before seeing the movie made after the book, you will probably say to yourself :"This is not how I imagined that. Or this...or those." That's because books give us the freedom to use our imagination how we want. And they don't have commercial breaks.


That being said, why do I have the feeling not too many people read in our times? It seems there are no downsides to reading, yet people don't do it any more. Have video games, movies, social networking and all of today's technologies taken up all our time that we don't find any left for something as beneficial as growing our imagination, vocabularies and mind from books? From the looks of it, on forums, boards, comments and such, even typing words correctly or using grammar have become outdated. I really hope that will not be the future for our civilisation. 

Corruption, Meritocracy and the People

   Corruption, seems to have developed a self-sustaining , indestructible system that perpetuates infinitely in the administration apparatus. I cannot help to believe sometimes that a autocratic political system is needed for 10 years during which a corruption-proof administration can be built, with working paths independent of person, with clear processes and procedures, with penalties and responsibilities for each action and each individual involved in it, with control systems that oversees it, making it independent of politics and outside influences. BUT, here lies a bigger problem: finding that incorruptible involved  individual to do it. Humans are subject to corruption and compromise.

   One can argue that some political systems leave less room for it, and it is true (in part). But one loophole is one too many.

   Not advocating extremism here, examples from history cannot be clearer against it, starting with Roman Empire and ending with North Korea, and who forgets history risks repeating history and failures of the past. There must be a way around it. Having shared time with a Process Engineer, I learned that everything can be optimized, everything can be improved, including administration and political environment. But a designer of it is not enough, will is what we lack. When well structured and compartmented governing structures are in place, the influence of political parties are minimized to the point where it doesn't even matter their participation, which will render their existence useless. And if they do not exist any more, what will the structure look like, what will it be, meritocracy? Hmm... there is another aspect, maybe the most important: public opinion. Can it be harmonized with a meritocracy, or better said can one engineer a symbiosis between an administrative system based on merits and public opinion? Otherwise it will be just another dictatorship using a different name...

Follow Your Faith But Don't Push It Down My Throat

    I'm fairly sure many of us have every once in a while encountered the kind of people that take religion a bit too far. The kind that knock on doors too early in the morning, that jump in during a conversation because they heard that someone doesn't share their beliefs, that no matter what you believe in, they still strive to imprint in your mind the beliefs that they "know" are the best. Be it Mormons, Jehovah's witnesses, protestants or just over zealous Catholics, they all have the same thing in common: The belief that their part of Christianity is the correct one and if you follow THEIR beliefs, you will get a big present at the end of your meaningless and pathetic life.
    Why do people that have faith are ever so eager to pile on any atheist that crosses their path? Don't they have something better to do? Something more meaningful than to convert my pathetic life from atheism to believing in magic?
     They do their job very well. I'll give them that. What they don't understand is the fact that they can quote any verse from the bible and explain the bible's inner meanings is as useless to me as being able to burp the alphabet. Sure, it's quite impressive, but it won't really get you anywhere in life. And the fact that you know A book, doesn't really amount to anything when you think about how many books are in the whole world. I could  also recommend a few to these people that seem to enjoy fiction so much that they decide to make it into a religion. It would surely be funny to see some religions based on Tolkien's work. Some 80's hippies knocking at my door wanting to ask me if I accepted the Dark Lord Sauron into my life. I would enjoy a discussion about that, it's more entertaining than a talk about the bible. Plus, maybe you'd get some sweet replica of the One ring with glowing fiery symbols (batteries not included).
       I am well aware that this rant will not change anything about the number of "believers" that will stick their religion in my face, but hey! I can sleep well thinking that all this religious fairytale magic voodoo will probably die out on it's own in about (input obscene amount of) years, when humanity will finally UNDERSTAND there is no proof that there is a god.

Catalyst

Ever since the first signs of civilisation, men have fought. They fought over land, beliefs, sometimes even for fun! There are always by-products of war, two of them being the most advertised ones: Death and Suffering.

But conflict did not develop only plain death and destruction. Call me cynical but anyone can kill! But in war, efficiency is key! And here is where I wanted to bring the discussion: Efficiency! 

At first, it was all about tactics, but soon, everything changed; man has discovered tools, which combined with tactics gave you the edge in every engagement, and that made you more efficient, sometimes very efficient. First spears, swords, arrows, each a step forward, were not used only in conflict, but in hunting too, and hunting became more efficient, more easy... Fishing too!... Agriculture - tools made it, and made people settle down. Revolution started, and continues today.

Now, we cannot say war was the single driving force behind progress, but it was definitely a huge catalyst. The huge drive for better weapons, weapons systems, defense systems, intelligence, logistics, and management was, is, and will be forever a factor in development. Examples are numerous, from expertise in building defense systems which translated in better housing and structures in times of peace, to, probably, the most astonishing development that war was involved with: taming the nuclear power! And this are just examples of direct and tangible products, we can add development of systems (with Henry Ford as his apostle), and product design, technology, industrial process design, encoding... Aviation has made its biggest steps in time of war (World War 2), or in preparation for war (The Cold War).

War has been the additive in the fuel for the engine that kept evolution going. This article is not a cry for war; nobody in his right mind would wish for one, but we have to acknowledge its influence. Yes, we have death, the threat of death, we have genocide, pain and suffering, shortages and irrational behavior, and maybe just a drop of kick forward, but that kick exists, and once it was over, that kick became a boom, and from that boom, we grew stronger, with an insatiable quest for bigger (sometimes smaller), better, faster, smarter.

Sad, but true! We died because of it, we have evolved because of it, reborn from our own ashes, stronger every time!

Single Government

I like Zeitgeist, za movie! It was put together in such a charismatic way, with a lot of sarcasm used, mixed up with facts, historical interviews, and a lot of questions. A lot of questions!... and a lot of answers, some direct, some, well, not so direct... But, hey, it opened more perspective on some events, some of them crazy and ridiculous, while some quite serious and valid. I liked a lot the description of the Federal Reserves explanation, I loved the part about religion, and really loved the part trying to connect some dots about the conflict in Vietnam, and the two World wars. Also, the lobby for sustainable energy is an interesting part, but just a bit unrealistic, and plagued by omission. But, above all, one subject drew my attention, not only because it sparked controversy, but also because of the hypothetical implications over everyone's life: Single Government!


Now, Single Government,
as described in "za movie" is bad, really bad. And, the idea that a group of organized elite can push world politics in a direction they want, it's like Hitler believing the Jews forced the war upon The Third Reich, and only writing about it now makes me laugh. The whole noise about The Bilderberg Group, to me, seems like a paranoid hysteria of a bunch of drunken house-wifes with far too much free time. Yes, New World Order is a legitimate expression, but more into the changing of poles of power, rather than world domination of elitist few. Effectively, after World War Two, the antagonism of two European Powers (or three - including France), represented by British Empire (allied with France) and The Third Reich, changed to a  bipolar world with the biggest winners in the war: USSR and USA. This expression was used by many politicians in that sense, but Conspirational Theorists managed to extract the seeds of paranoia, as they can develop anything into a conspiracy. Oppressive, repressive, secretive and ruthless are the attributes given, and no human would be safe when they are in charge. That would be bad!...Really, really bad!

But, wait!...
Bad?!... Why, bad?!... Why does it necessarily have to be bad?!.... Well, it is, in the version presented to us! But it doesn't have to be like that. Lets just pause, and take things seriously, if only for a moment; when we talk about Single Government, we talk about a single structure, an entity if you will, with the sole purpose of human betterment, society improvement and global unity. What would be the benefits of this? While our most enlightened heads are working for cures to various diseases, renewable power sources, space exploration, explaining the secrets of the universe, our separated governments work for political advantages, economical advantages, remaining blind to the fact that the future should hold not world dominance, but World Unity. I know, it is like asking angels to have sex with demons, a utopia bigger than communism, but the advantages of it are huge! Think about it (and here, I mean about the ideal case), with a single government we get:

• A singe organizational structure to finance.
• A single, unified set of rules governing trade, justice, administration.
• No customs (stimulating trade, production).
• Uniform prices for basic necessities (or very close to uniform).
• No armies. Those huge amounts of money that fund military organizations (most of which having deterrence as a sole purpose), can go into research. No borders, no national interests equals no need for armies.
• Equal living standards (maybe not equal, but more uniform). That would mean a lot for poor Countries and areas.
• A single currency. Now, I don't know much economics, but I tend to think that one currency avoids many problems related to exchange rates between different currencies, with effects in inflation (if you are economist, correct me if I'm wrong).

There are other benefits to this idea that elude me now ( put them in a comment, if you find any ), and, I admit, some disadvantages. World powers will never relinquish their dominant position in the world, but it is because we do not dare to dream and wish such a thing, and some even fear it.

And, yes, it is daydreaming!
But please, let me dream! I thought this to be a good discussion topic and I have put my 2 cents in. I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.