New monetary policy

Variable compulsory superannuation is a far better solution to controlling an inflationary economy than raising interest rates. Peter Burgess of Safety Beach wrote to the Age for their 2020 ideas for the future this exact idea, and its one of the simplest and best I have heard. The governement raises and lowers company and individuals compulsory superannuation contribtions, dragging money out of the consumer economy and forcing savings, this doesn't have all the drastic side effects of raising and lowering interest rates, such as people loosing their homes, putting pressure on those on fixed incomes with debt, and putting fear and doubt into lenders and borrowers. It can actually do the more...

Modern values - is being noble one?

Q: So what of nobility, or being noble, what is it? There’s been a lot of conversation in the media surrounding the Australian cricket team and their lack of nobility, is nobleness a thing of the past, a thing for knights of the round table and ancient Chinese warriors? Dave: Well I must admit that when I think of being noble and of what noble is; images of the past, the ancient past, always seem to come to mind. A knight not killing his opponent when he is beaten, someone declaring honourable defeat rather than going to war, of people seeing the bigger picture and the consequences of their actions in the long term, and how those actions effect others around them, rather than just more...

China: splitting hairs over stem cells

This is a conversation through blogs by two Chinese intellectuals Chai Jing and Fang Zhouzi was published on global voiceonline, and has been re-published here with their permission By John Kennedy Chai Jing On the plane.Old Fan and I are going to do a program on traffic in Chong-qing: where the problems in the system are, which depart-ments to interview, as I put our plan down on paper we start chatting up a storm.The man sitting on my right says, “sorry, may I cut in?”We look at him in surprise.“You're from News Probe, more...

The Power and Freedom of money

The life, power and freedom you have are given to you by other people, and theirs is given by you. The way we give and receive power, freedom and the basics we need to sur-vive is with money, and those systems created to exchange it: markets and the economy. So those things we value are quantified by and exchanged for money. In real terms a person's or object's dollar (monetary) value is its real value to people, when that person or object is compared to other people or objects. And those humans we value more have a greater say in whom else, and what else, is valued. There are three things I want to discuss on this topic. One is that money is always being wielded, and it is those more...

And here's the news

P]Do war reporters really make a difference to the way we see our world...? Another Reuter’s employee has bitten the dust that the rotting corpse of US foreign policy has decayed into. In fact another two. Employees that is (not policies). (Reuters) “An Iraqi photographer and driver working for Reuters in Iraq were killed in Baghdad on Thursday in what police said was American military action, and which witnesses described as a helicopter attack. Photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, were killed in eastern Baghdad.” Were killed in eastern Baghdad. Were killed. Heart stopping stuff, isn’t it? But not policy stopping. ep] Is history staffed by idiots? Well yes, more...

Pass The Soap

You put your hero in a tree. You throw stones at him. You get him down from the tree. This is drama. The classic three act structure. You’ll find it in most narrative from anywhere in the world, always. This structure is, possibly, a metaphor for the three stages of mortality: birth (growth), living (adulthood), and death (resolution). It owes its morphology, I’d bet my granny, to the form of years that agrarian cultures are bound by: spring, summer; winter. It’s a mortal thing, drama, or rather, a thing about mortality: it emphasises and explores the certainty of death, and thereby suggests we celebrate life. At least to me it does. But here’s the thing: popular culture has more...

137

S ome while back there was an article on the website by Cameron Solnordal called ‘The meaning of 142’. I believe the number was provided by a computer called Deep Thought in the book and TV serial The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I don’t doubt that its author Douglas Adams was being flippant; but I’d like to think that he also knew he was also making the point that it is absurd to seek a numerical answer (or any other kind of answer) to a facile question, namely: What is the meaning of life, the Universe, and everything? Such seeking is inherently parochial, and oh so human. There is no need for a physical system to have a point. Pencils have them, and so do good stories. But the more...

The meaning of 42.

The principle of mystery is a simple emotion to define. It's that feeling you get between two gaps of knowledge on a progressing line. An example of this is the leap you make when you have the information of seeing and knowing that thing in the sky is flying object but cant identify what it is. Thats your mystery. However, the inclusion of mystery into our emotive system is slowly being eradicated by the two core solutions that we currently base our entire existence on. These systems are fact and belief. This is not another case in point to choose one side or another as to how we should live our lives or how our lives should be incorporated into a universe. The more...

Lex Banning - Nursery Rhyme (crooked but wise)

Lex Banning was a poet who hung out with the Sydney 'push' in the 1950's, he had cerabral palsy but this did not make him a lessor man in the 'push'. As long as his beer was within reach and his conversation was flowing he was as brilliant as all others. An equal. Nursery Rhyme There was a crooked man Who walked a crooked mile, While the crooked hands ran backwards Around the crooked dial. He found his crooked journey Led him through a crooked town, Where all his crooked neighbours Were running up and down, And conducting crooked business In crooked shops and stalls, While their shadows capered crookedly Upon the crooked walls, So he followed their example And, as he passed more...

What is Work

I guess most people may have to travel to and from a job, lets allocate an hour a day (which is conservative) I know some people that spend more than 2 hours travelling to and from their office each day, (9-29). Then people need to wash, well lets hope they wash, and dress themselves, there’s a good 45min a day at least. (10-14). Then there’s eating, breakfast, lunch and dinner, I have a hour lunch break, but some people eat at their desk, all meals sometimes. Others have lunch meetings at a café and call that work, or work from home and eat while more...

The Death Penalty can be humane

The execution of Saddam Hussain last week has brought the issue of the death penalty into the spotlight in Australia, and many other western countries that do not use or condone the killing of those deemed to have done wrong to society. The Australian media has also brought up the execution of Van Nguyen (an Australian citizen) in Singapore last year for drug trafficking. There was much outcry before Van Nguyens execution, predominantly that the penalty did not fit the crime, but also that no crime, no matter how gruesome gives society the right to take a persons life, This second argument could also be used in the case against Saddam Hussein's execution, who by all reports (I have more...

Freedom of speech, why we should save it

The freedom of individuals to speak their minds is being eroded on many fronts, I’ll give a few recent examples from Australia, a country that considers itself to be free, and a place where having your say without repercussions has in the past been excepted as the norm. Recently a retail employee working in Australia was told by her American boyfriend she should stop ‘bagging’ George Bush in her weblog as it may make it difficult for her to enter the USA to visit him. He believed the authorities would have her on a watch list as a risk to national security and would not allow her entry to the country. Whether this would happen or not is unclear but the fear of repercussions is enough more...

The path from enlightenment to aggressive doctrine

You go on a journey, say to India or to the Snowy mountains, or a vast desert and cloister your self of from civilization, the day to day hassles of work and family, the socialising with friends and the humdrum of survival. You take with you some simple questions, what is the purpose of my life? Is there something more than to be born and to die? And how can I avoid suffering and find peaceful happiness? In this isolation you ponder these questions and after many months you return to civilization a different person. You have found more...

Can Democracy be Compulsory?

In Australia every person 18 years and over must enroll to vote, and at each state and federal election each registered voter (everyone baring long term prisoners) must turn up at a polling booth and have their name ruled off the list, collect a ballot paper and vote. I f one is out of the country, an invalid or has other reasons that would make it difficult for them to vote they can do a postal vote or an absentee vote. All must vote, and if one does not financial penalties apply. For all my voting life I have been one of the keenest advocates of this system, especially in a rather apathetic nation as Australia. It meant that those elected could truly say they represented the voting more...

Ultra-modern slavery

Recently there was an article in The Age newspaper by Alain De Botton, regarding work, and the modern perception of its importance. In modern society, he said work has become a symbol of you status in society, one of the first thing you ask a new acquiantance is 'what do you do'. Whereas in times past, even a soon as 200 years ago work was considered a chore and something to be avoided. The Greeks considered a good life to be one lived with plenty of free time, and an independant source of income, in order to contemplate the meaning of it all, life the universe etc. work was something you were forced to do, or endured because of your unlucky lot in life. We now seem completely more...

Stupid People Can Kill You

Idiots in the office are just as hazardous to your health as cigarettes, caffeine or greasy food, an eye-opening new study reveals. In fact, those dopes can kill you! Stress is one of the top causes of heart attacks - and working with stupid people on a daily basis is one of the deadliest forms of stress, according to researchers at Sweden's Lindbergh University Medical Centre. The author of the study, Dr Dagmar Andersson, says her team studied 500 heart attack patients, and were puzzled to find 62 percent had relatively few of the physical risk factors commonly blamed for heart attacks. "Then we questioned them about lifestyle habits, and almost all of these low-risk more...

Jewish values vs World Values

Among the primary factors behind many of the world's problems today are the sharp discrepencies between Jewish values and those of the world. For example: JEWISH VALUES Vs THE WORLD'S VALUES 1. Prophets 1. Profits 2. Love thy neighbor as thyself 2. Suspect neighbor as thyself 3. Just weights, just measures 3. Let the buyer beware 4. God 4. Me 5. People created in God's image 5. People treated as consumers 6. The earth is the Lord's 6. The earth ravaged for convenience and profit 7. People are to be co-workers with God in efforts to improve the world 7. Do your own thing; seek personal advantage 8. Sanctity of every life 8. Lives endangered to increase gain 9. Tzedeck, more...

Flow Taxation

Intro The idea of the perfect taxation system has been a problem for society for some time, most citizens have a hatred of taxation even when it is used to benefit their lives. This may come from historical aspects when feudal rulers would collect taxes from peasants to feed there armies and fill there coffers with riches. And also the lack of control the taxed have over the way their tax money is spent, this has come to a violent head throughout history including the Boston tea party ‘no taxation without representation’ That said taxation is not only necessary but good for the citizens of a group, or nation, for it provides a pool of common money to be spent for the benefits of all, more...

Fortune Favors the Bold: What We Must Do to Build

What We Must Do to Build a New and Lasting Prosperity by Lester Thurow HarperBusiness "Fortune Favors the Bold" is MIT Professor Lester Thurow's latest proposal on how to build a better world order. For Thurow, economic crises are an ever-present reality of increased global trade. He cautions us, however, that in regards to globalization, "those who leap sometimes lose, but those who do not leap always lose." Essentially, Thurow has taken one of his central premises for supporting globalization from the New York State Lottery: "You gotta be in it to win it." With the 2004 presidential campaign season upon the nation, international trade may prove to be a central concern of the more...

Principles of the global justive movement

GRACE Global Justice For All 1. Much wealth creation is now made possible through the inventions and innovations of people who passed on long ago. Without taking anything from anyone, this cultural inheritance makes it possible for each person to: have warmth, clean air, clean water, food, and housing. be respected, equal, free and able to choose their own destiny. fulfill their full emotional, intellectual and spiritual potential. Respect for the Earth[ep 2. Every person must respect the rest of creation and take responsibility for preserving the environment including the fauna and flora, all of which are interdependent and share a divine origin with more...

Conversation with a Stranger

When wandering through the forest, in which I had been for some time, following the same path, I came to a fork in the road. Not knowing which path to take I stopped to ponder my dilemma. I considered turning back, but this seemed an inappropriate answer because I had come such a short way and to return would defeat the the point of leaving in the first place. What was my purpose in leaving? Ah I remember I wondered what lay at the end of the path and believed that somehow it would be better than the place I had left. As I stood there alone at the fork in the road I must have looked peculiar, as I had been standing in the one spot for some time now. A stranger appeared walking more...

The Gods

The Characters: I : Need I say more? Economy : a misty white cloud with invisible hands that grasps at everything ( a la Adam Smith) and two eyes, two black eyes, that are an abyss, eyes of endless nothing. Thinks he is the most powerful God and has convinced most people that he is. Morale : The hammer, the keeper of purity, fought against anarchy in the old times and and won against the shadow, he is the true path, the controller, the saying, the voice, the way, the absolute. Will not be questioned nor denied his say. Has joined with Ideology in the past but knows he is the true god. He will use any means in his power to control and see those under him follow... He is The more...

War... War, what is it good for?

Well quite a lot actually. Provided you accept one premiss, that there is clearly defined good and evil (well badness anyway) in the world, and that it exists in humans. This is the hurdle, but once convinced of this war has many benifits such as: The noble death : Currently it is still impossible for human beings to live forever, this may change in the future, and if immortality is possible we will have to reavaluate a lot of our morals and ethics. Curently though we all die, and most get old and die slowly and decrepidly of debilitating illnesses. Putting the society to great cost and misery as we try and keep a dying organism alive for a bit longer so we can watch the person more...

Are we still Comrades?

This letter was written in response to an article written on the use of the word comrade. Published in an English language chinese paper. Leo Lee resides in Shanghai. Dear Comrade Wendy Liu, Salute to you! Hope you have the time and patience to finish my scribbling underneath as I did to read your article ‘Calling Comrade’ in Issue May 22 – June 4. First of all, thank you for sharing with the readers your thoughts about the undertoned ‘comrade’ issue, an amusing topic probably ignored by the ‘populous’ as the result of the urge for ‘glories of richness’ as you mentioned in your article. Truly it is that the story all happens in the place where it is least expected, and more...

Free will?

Is there such a thing as "free will"? Can it be proved when somebody is "free willing" and not just making a choice like any other animal? This is an old and thorny question which the best minds have pondered for hundreds of years. Despite this I will attempt to give you an answer and then some suggested reading that will let you take the answer further. We can define the concept of free will as the ability to choose without contraints. This is a pretty safe definition and one that is more or less widely accepted. The absence of constraints means the absence of things like moral obligations, bodily needs, legal constraints and desires. Think about something like the bodily more...

Under the Name of Liberalism

Under the Name of Liberalism: Neo-Socialism Part II by Gary Schneider, TheRealityCheck.org 19 July 2003 The top 25% of taxpayers pay 84% of personal income taxes and the top 5% pay for 56.4%. This gradual and sustained shift of the tax burden to a small minority of taxpayers is patent Socialist policy. "The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." - Norman Thomas, Socialist Party Presidential Candidate and co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Whether by design or more...

What you don't know about Australia

Bit of lite reading below These questions about Australia were posted on an Australian Tourism Website and obviously the answers came from a fellow Aussie. Q: I have never seen it rain on Australian TV shows, so how do the plants grow? (UK) A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die. Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? (USA) A: Depends how much you've been drinking Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney - can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden) A: Sure, it's only three thousand miles, take lots of water... Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Australia? (Sweden) A: So its more...

Notes on the Big Blackout

by Alan Caruba 14 August 2003 Who needs terrorists? Our national security is entirely dependent upon safe, reliable and abundant energy. Maybe 8-14-03 needs to be added to 9-11-01 as a reminder of that? Environmentalists have been attacking the economic and energy base of this nation for decades. There’s a very fundamental reason for the latest blackout on the East Coast. The United States of America needs more power facilities. I’m not talking about ten thousand windmills on the coast of Massachusetts or seventy square miles of solar collectors more...

Jewish Values Vs World values

Among the primary factors behind many of the world's problems today are the sharp discrepencies between Jewish values and those of the world. For example: JEWISH VALUES Vs THE WORLD'S VALUES 1. Prophets 1. Profits 2. Love thy neighbor as thyself 2. Suspect neighbor as thyself 3. Just weights, just measures 3. Let the buyer beware 4. God 4. Me 5. People created in God's image 5. People treated as consumers 6. The earth is the Lord's 6. The earth ravaged for convenience and profit 7. People are to be co-workers with God in efforts to improve the world 7. Do your own thing; seek personal advantage more...

Siddhartha - an extract

This is an extract from Siddahartha chap 3 by Hermann Hesse Quoth Siddhartha: "Yesterday, oh exalted one, I had been privileged to hear your wondrous teachings. Together with my friend, I had come from afar, to hear your teachings. And now my friend is going to stay with your people, he has taken his refuge with you. But I will again start on my pilgrimage." "As you please," the venerable one spoke politely. "Too bold is my speech," Siddhartha continued, "but I do not want to leave the exalted one without having honestly told him my thoughts. Does it please the venerable one to listen to me for one moment longer?" Silently, the Buddha nodded his approval. Quoth more...