Watering Our Humanity

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Watering our Humanity  9/29/12

            A recent Charlie Rose program included Muhtar Kent, CEO of Coca Cola, and Dean Kamen, founder of DEKA Research & Development Corp.  They have teamed up to help provide clean water to African communities.  Big deal?  Well, yeah, it’s a big deal.  One startling statistic: a child dies every few seconds because of lack of clean water.  Kamen and Kent have come up with a service module based on a standard shipping container (widely available) fitted with a water purification module, and a communications center.  They also plan to deploy these to locations in Asia and parts of India and Latin America.  The purification device is simple.  Stick an input hose into the contaminated water you have.  Pour potable water from the output hose. 

Kent suggests that the big societal issues can only be solved by what he calls “the golden triangle” of government working with business working with civil society.  This raises questions.  What do we think the big issues are?  How can business help?  What should our government be doing?

While inequality and instability are surely 21^st century mega-concerns, the gorilla in the room is unsustainability, and he needs water.  Clean water for everyone takes a step toward equality and stability based on sustainable technology.  Kudos too, to Matt Damon and Gary White, and water.org. for making a difference.      

            Around here, we are BIG fans of Charlie Rose, and we are getting a glimpse of the work of some real live 21^st century heroes.

The Algebra Of Deceit

The Algebra of Deceit  9/25/12

            We hear about the need to reduce the deficit because it unfairly burdens our grandchildren—that we must balance the federal budget.  As with most plausible deceptions, this one contains an element of truth.  We do need to reduce it.  We don’t need to require a balanced federal budget.  Our economy runs quite efficiently with moderate deficits, and the last thing we need is to preclude any federal deficit or surplus, i.e. require a balanced budget.  The fed gov’s economic requirements are not the same as our personal ones, nor are they comparable to state budget needs.  Grapes plus apples do not equal cantaloupes.  The formula goes like this:  g + a ≠ c.

            Here is another element of truth.  The next time you hear somebody whining about the cost of EPA regulations, ask yourself if eliminating them would not pass a horrendous cost on to your grandchildren.  All the cheap food and energy we now enjoy is being, or will be paid for by someone.  It may be the collateral dead in some far-off country, or it may be the children of your children who will have to pay for the damage done by the mining, fracking, and farm chemical consequences that taint your grandkids’ lives.  That formula is: (cheap food & fuel) + (no regulation) = Your Grandchildren get Screwed !

            Around here, it seems the least we can do is tune up our B.S. meters, think carefully, and waste not.

Truth Hides Better Than Money

Truth Hides Better Than Money  9/22/12

“…we both know the truth is hard to come by…”  Dick Feller, Some Days are Diamonds, 1976

            If as I.F. Stone said, “All governments lie…” and news media repeat whatever the government says as true, then why would intelligent Americans not be skeptical about what the news media report as fact?  For instance, do you really believe thousands of Muslims would destroy life and property over a stupid film clip?  Is our hatred that great?  Really?  Has our dehumanization of the people of the Middle East gone so far that we would believe that load of crap?  Is your lie detector ‘broke’?  Someone here and/or over there is lying.

            Well, but it’s fact!  I heard it on the news!  Hold it!  Let me ask you: When is the last time you heard the word ‘terrorist’ without the word ‘Islamic’ on the news?  When is the last time you heard the word ‘Islamic’ without the word ‘terrorist’ in the news?  What really is the nature of ‘collateral damage’?  Around here, it means innocent people, injured or dead as a side effect of some usually deliberate act.

            Here’s the deal.  It’s war.  It’s nasty, full of blood and consequences.  Why try to hide the murder and maiming like the super-rich hide money from the tax man?  Harry Truman said it, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”  Well, if you can’t stand the war, get out of the war!  Otherwise, go have a cheeseburger!  Go hide some money! 

Burning The Flag Of Hatred

Burning the Flag of Hatred  9/20/12

            Think about the violent Arab-world response blamed on that anti-Muslim hate film.  One source posits, credibly, that a strong religion shakes off insults of this kind.  So we wonder what is really behind the violence.  Wonder if people are not striking out in anger and frustration over other issues, like lack of dignity, lack of hope, and inability to hurt back for all the death and suffering readily available in their world.  This violent response seems like the angry over-reaction encountered when a school-yard bully’s victim has finally had enough.

            But it is more than that.  It is carefully incited by radicals who profit from hatred.  They try to foment violence; promise that it will assuage the problem.  It never does.  The inciters then argue that we need more violence, or that it’s our destiny.  The only sure result is perpetuation of the hatred-violence-hatred continuum.  It is neither warm, nor fuzzy, nor useful to human progress.

            Beware!  Inciters are everywhere, looking for scapegoats.  Whether it is a bully in a film studio in La La Land, or a bigoted back-woods pulpiteer, or an “AK” wielding third-world manipulator with angry mobs to feed, they all traffic in hate.

            Around here, we’ve had enough hate-speech.  We’ve sharpened our hate recognition skills, filtering what we hear.  We don’t need hate-speech from America and we don’t need it from the Middle East.  We don’t require warm, or fuzzy.  But we are fans of things that engender human progress.