Oscars night, a night that is driven by Hollywoods consumerist film industry. This is the industry that is designed to make a lot of money and is dictated by the market. As such, I would suggest the movies and actors etc chosen for the award are largely proportional to populations where the wealth is.
The power of various organisations and their influence of huge amounts of the population came to my intention when hearing of the new chief of FIFA. I had never really heard of Gianni Infantino. Potentially his decisions impact on billions of supporters, more than the Pope and up there with Mark Zuckerberg founder of Facebook.
The idea that these corporations, religions and sporting bodies yield so much power over so many people beyond regional boundaries is incomparable to anything that has existed in the past. To think this power has very little of it based on democratic principles is worth consideration.
In light of the closure of electronics shop Dick Smith in Australia and similar downsizing and closures of Tandy and RadioShack around the world, today our infographic looks at Bricks n Mortar versus the Internet. Traditional shops will continue to be swallowed alive by the plagues of minnows in that inhabit cyberspace . Invest wisely.
Yep you can help but admire this. We cannot find a way to deal with a baby in hospital but we can land an extra $30 billion dollars for defence. For Australia, that takes it up to a nice round 2% of GDP. The UN reckons we should all throw in 0.7% of GDP to alleviate humanitarian issues worldwide.
Only a few nations achieve this magical number, but many nations spend ten times more on defence. Defence from what? Defence from the people that could do with some aid. Defence from countries we rely on for cheap plastic, throw away products and fuel that satisfy our consumer lifestyle. Wouldn’t it be easier to buy local and not support regimes we hate via consumerism.
Anyway, much of this information can be found with fellow blogger at Make wealth history (Because the earth can’t afford our lifestyle) Much more can be found of course on Wikipedia. What I would suggest is to look at your own countries actual commitment to foreign aid against the recommendation of the UN of 0.7% of GDP.
Government throw around big numbers to impress and to confuse. We the say we’ll spend this amount here and this amount there. Individuals are impressed by thousands of dollars, start talking billions, we simply cannot cope. But talk about the fact that on average we spend ten times more on defence than we do on foreign aid surely some alarm bells must begin to ring.
End of todays rant. Have a good one this the penultimate day of the week.
As a society, we seek security. A celebrities cloud gets burst we are outraged. Somebody can access our petty parking fine records. OUTRAGEOUS. We expect privacy as a right (and probably a god given one at that). So I hesitantly suggest that if want easier access to criminal events we might have to lighten up on some of our other privacy.
Once my passcode is put into a phone I expect that data to be private. I do not think Oh it’s OK if I lose the passcode, I’ll just get in touch with ?? whoever and ask them to retrieve all my “private data”. No, if I lose my passcode I actually lose the information.
Anyway hope the FBI cracks the code, Justice is done and the world superheroes amalgamate to defeat all the worlds naughty people.
Of course, a good solution that nobody seems to have thought of is to stop selling guns to ##### of all types of loons.
Have a Fantastic Day out there.
And if you need a soundtrack to this you can watch Elvis Costello. Watching the Detectives 1978
Now it seems to me that when the free capitalist system which hails itself self-monitoring cannot address the supermarket plastic bag adequately we have a problem. The plastic bag is a pretty good metaphor for pollution in general as is the great Pacific garbage patch for the concentration of pollution over time. We can see plastic bags in our parks and gardens unlike the pollution that “disappears” into the atmosphere. We can see the ocean creatures strangles the birds it.
This article suggests that the Indonesians are embracing the fee for plastic bags. This will help the Pacific. Anyway, no matter who you are you can reduce consumption. Vote for it, Act on it at any scale that you can actually achieve daily, and make it normal or habitual. There is only one thing that capitalism will understand and that is the Consumer Voice. The thing to grasp is that YOU have the power. Use it wisely.
Below I’ll pass on another link to Tim Minchin. CANVAS BAGS, this song will stick in your head and hound you down every time you use a plastic bag.
Jeb bails out of the Republican race for delegates. Looks like everybody came equal last behind Trump. Is this a sign, the Bush has burned, Trump is the anointed one.
In a world in which we now look at people who believe the world is flat as somewhat backwards, why do we so often look at economic from the idea resources are infinite. Growth = Progress etc.
Have a most prosperous and wonderful day
The Carrot Conspiracy 