Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Obama, Trump And Greta



Trump mocks teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg By late Tuesday morning, she had updated her Twitter bio to read: "A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future." ....... "Parents in America and around the world: he went after a 16 year old girl yesterday. ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ unfit to serve," Scaramucci tweeted on Tuesday. ...... crossed paths with Trump at the UN General Assembly. Video captured her staring down the US President. ...... The young Swede has been open about her diagnosis of Asperger's, calling it a "superpower" that helps her activism. ....... "My diagnosis has definitely helped me keep this focus. When you are interested about something you just continue to read about it and you get super focused"



at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Monday, September 23, 2019

Howdy Modi, Says Imran

at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Imran Wants To Lift 100 Million Pakistanis Out Of Poverty



So says Imran. I think he can get it done. Not only that, I don't see anyone else on the horizon who can get it done. How will he be able to get it done? Here are my ideas.
  1. Peace with India. This is the most important thing. Unless India and Pakistan can figure out a way to create lasting peace, Pakistan will have it tough. And the formula for peace is that both agree that the Line Of Control will be the final border, and both will compete with each other to bring democracy and human rights to Kashmiris on both sides. Then they have to focus on trade and gradually, over time, get the troops away from their borders. 
  2. Peace in Afghanistan. I'd say to Imran, break the rule and talk to the Taliban. There is something about this Pathan Saheb that the Pakistani Army Chief plays ball with him, and looks like the Taliban want to respectfully talk to him. Let them. The formula for peace there is like what happened in Nepal. The Maoists and the Nepal Army were at war. Peace meant the two armies got combined and became one. Incorporate the Taliban fighters into the Afghan Army even if that means a huge defense budget. Peace is worth the price. 
  3. Peace between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The status quo is unsustainable. And this is way beyond the scope of Imran's capabilities. The PMO office in Pakistan has a hard enough time dealing with internal villains. But in a 10-year timeframe I hope he does play a role here, a role there to bring about a fruitful outcome. 
  4. Law and order inside Pakistan. This means unless you are a soldier or a police officer, you don't get to carry a gun inside Pakistan. Zero tolerance for terrorist groups. He really has to lead the Pakistani army here. When Imran's hero and role model Nitish Kumar came to power in Bihar in 2005, he only said, "Law and order!" That is all he said when he ran for office, and that is all he worked on for the first few years. Nitish knew that unless he could restore law and order, nothing else he does really matters. Next thing you know, he had put 70,000 people behind bars. 
  5. Infrastructure. That road that China is building is key. It will transform Pakistan. It will unify Pakistan. I am for robust federalism in Pakistan. I am not for breaking Pakistan into smaller pieces, a fantasy of some Hindu fanatics in India. After law and order, Nitish focused on building roads. Roads, roads and more roads. When Deng Xiaoping started his reforms in China, his first mantra was, lay down train tracks everywhere. Infrastructure is important. 
  6. Health and education. This is another place where Bill and Melinda Gates are huge fans of Nitish Kumar. I believe Imran Khan is making all the right noise here and making the right moves. I wish him all the best. 
  7. 5G. This is where you want to take your bathroom trip when Donald Trump starts talking about Huawei. If the Chinese want to steal Pakistani secrets, let them. That might be a stealth way of forcing them to learn Urdu. But get 5G done. And Huawei has the best deal in the market by a wide margin. Blanket Pakistan with 5G. This is more important than train tracks and roads and bridges. 5G is the most important infrastructure today. If you blanket the land with 5G, you will be able to do in 10-15 years, what China did in 30. 
  8. Ease of Doing Business. Here, learn from Modi. The guy has helped India climb up the ranks. 



at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Greta Thunberg For Nobel Peace Prize

She deserves it more than Al Gore. 
at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Hong Kong: The Power Lies In Non-Violence

Even when the Hong Kong Police might engage in police brutality, even when Beijing might see fit to encourage vigilantism, it makes sense for the Hong Kong protestors to stick to non-violence. Do not damage property. Do not engage in violence.

The movement is being called leaderless. But there is as much order and organization to the movement as there is in a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. There is purpose. There is defiance. There is thought. There is discussion. There is mission. There is action.

Hong Kong leads. I don't see Hong Kong clamoring for what others have but they don't. I see Hong Kong leading. I see Hong Kong demanding for what other big cities don't have either. Hong Kong leads New York. Hong Kong leads DC. Maybe this is how Washington DC will gain statehood and due representation. Maybe this is how residents of New York City will gain voting rights. 40% of New Yorkers do not get to vote in the city elections.

Hong Kong leads the way.

Bu the method is important. Non-violence is the only good option. Not because the Hong Kong protestors are weak, but because that is how they keep their moral high ground.

The entire world is watching in real time.

The Hong Kong protests should become better organized politically. There is need for political conversations. Options have to be explored. If a near total shutdown of the city is not working, maybe a total shutdown has to be attempted. Because the current protests can not go on forever.

And the nuclear option is organizing for independence. I hope things don't go that far. But Beijing might not budge otherwise.

It is best that the five demands are met and one country, two systems is maintained. That is what is best for Hong Kong. That is what is best for the Chinese mainland, and the cause of democracy there.

But organizing for independence will take greater political sophistication. Millions of Hong Kongers will have to become active members of political parties. Leaders will have to emerge. Political strategies will have to be discussed.

Organizing protests does require conversations and strategies. But organizing for independence is a whole another level. Right now that political organization is lacking. Unless Beijing feels it might lose Hong Kong altogether, it might not budge. So that threat has to be created.

The world stands by Hong Kong. If Beijing attempts military action in Hong Kong, the world will shut down the Chinese economy. Chinese exports will come down dramatically. Beijing knows that to be the case. And so a credible threat for independence has to be created. That is the only way Beijing will come around to accepting the five demands. Hong Kong deserves nothing less.

The police have to be investigated. Only an independent commission could do that. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong has to be directly elected. It is going to be one of the leaders of the movement. All members of the Hong Kong Legislature need to be directly elected by Hong Kong citizens. A vast majority of them are going to be those who are currently part of the movement.

That is the way forward. The earlier Beijing makes peace with that, the better.

One country, two systems. Really.





Young Progressives Making Mistakes
Capitalism's Own Propaganda Machine
How Will Democracy Come To The Arab Countries?
Kashmir: Not Normal Yet
Trying To Understand Hong Kong And China
News: Hong Kong, Kashmir, Vigilantism, Curfew, Terrorism, Diaspora
Hong Kong, Non Violence Works
Globalization 4.0
News: Hong Kong, Vancouver, Diaspora Nationalism
News: Hong Kong, October 1, Protest Slang, Mental Conditioning
Xi Jinping Should Act
The Asymmetry Between Beijing And Hong Kong Is On Hong Kong's Side
Defiant Hong Kong
Microsft, Huawei, Trump, 5G
The Two Wangs
Hong Kong: Antennae Problem?
Hong Kong: No Police Solution, No Military Solution, Only A Political Solution
Hong Kong: Let The Dragon Grow Up
Navigating The Hong Kong Protests

at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Young Progressives Making Mistakes






Hillary Clinton wanted to become the first female President Of The United States so bad that she decided on the self-goal of not putting Elizabeth Warren on the ticket. Donald Trump did not make her do it. She did it herself.

A Clinton Warren ticket would have been the Clinton Gore ticket. It would have won in a landslide. But, hey, hooray for self goals.

These four are the real squad. But they don't know how to get along to go along. They don't know how to join forces. Only one will run for office. And we know ultimately it is about running for office. If you don't run and win, you are left petitioning.

Just like Hillary needed to put Warren on the ticket in 2016, these four need to merge their two organizations Justice Democrats and the Sunrise Movement into one organization to be called Green New Deal Nation and they need to really organize. This requires accepting AOC as the mascot. She is first in class. She is the natural political leader. And she is ready.

The planet is not going to run on your schedule. So you better run on the planet's schedule. The time is now. It is already late.

These three firebrands run around like headless chickens. They don't realize their work becomes so much easier if they can only learn to get along.

AOC's committee work in Congress is death by a thousand cuts. She needs to get out there, and she needs to get out there in a big way.

Political leadership is not about saying I have written the most research papers, or have read them, it is not about saying I have organized the most rallies, or even addressed them. That is where the other members of the squad come in.

Political leadership is saying I ran for office and I won. That is AOC.

Capitalism's Own Propaganda Machine
The Blockchain Will Make A Global Wealth Tax Possible

at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Capitalism's Own Propaganda Machine

Look at this.

News: Hong Kong, Vancouver, Diaspora Nationalism

Over a hundred million Chinese travel outside China every year. And, out of their own seeming free will, they travel back. China, obviously, is no North Korea. A lot of them will tell you, they support their government. They will line up arguments in its defense. What is going on? It is conditioning. And it is so total.

There is a similar conditioning in America. It is capitalist conditioning. The corporations that so own the political process, that so own the media, have also similarly conditioned 300 million Americans.

China needs a heavy dose of democracy. China needs to open up. That is the only way it will avoid the middle income trap. The only way China can hope to become a high tech superpower that it aspires to be is if there is free speech in China.

America also needs a fair dose of democracy. Right now it is not a democracy. America is corporate socialism. It is a corporate welfare state. It is a political system designed to work for the biggest corporation and its richest citizens. Not even the top 1% but 1% of that 1%.

The CCP has a political monopoly in China that needs to be broken. Similarly, the stranglehold of the 0.01% in America has to be broken. Then America will become a democracy.

There is need for triangulation. We want post-capitalism. We want post-communism. We want democracy. We want a market economy devoid of monopolies and oligarchies and one party ownerships.

Hong Kong should not try to imitate America. Hong Kong needs to show America the way.

at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday, September 21, 2019

The Blockchain Will Make A Global Wealth Tax Possible



Nobody is saying American Basic Income (ABI). The term is UBI, or Universal Basic Income. It necessarily has to cover every human being on the planet (and any other planet, should Elon Musk get his way).

Universal Basic Income (aka Freedom Dividend) Is Not Free Money

Forget robotics, forget automation, forget artificial intelligence, forget technology. The wealth inequality on its own is as big a problem as the climate crisis. The threat is existential. Unless the wealth gap in this country and around the world is significantly reduced, ahead lies mayhem. Human civilization will not work if the gap keeps widening. Right now it is widening.

The globe is warming. The wealth gap is widening. And the two are two sides of the same coin, like electricity and magnetism.

Inequality And Climate Change Are Existential: A Blueprint For Survival



How do you put in place a wealth tax? You need to know who everyone is. You need to know what everyone owns. You need to know what the sum total of wealth on earth is. The data on each of that is scant right now. It is certainly not in any one database.

That is where technology comes in. Look at how easy it has become to send anyone text and photos these days. We think of it as free. In 1990 it was not free. It was not possible. If you wanted to share pictures, you needed to use postal mail. It cost money. It was slow. It was not done much.

The Blockchain is the Internet on steroids. The Blockchain is going to be 100 or 1,000 times more impactful than the Internet. The Blockchain will do to money what the Internet has done to media. Everyone on earth will get a biometric ID. What every person owns in terms of wealth will get recorded on that Blockchain. And then the wealth tax is easy. According to one proposal, that of Senator Elizabeth Warren, you simply pay 2% every year on all wealth you own above 50 million dollars.

That sounds like trickle-down economics to me. Unless your wealth above 50 million is generating at least 3% income, or likely 5% or more, why will you want to keep it? And so the idea of parking money will no longer be in vogue. Right now the ultra-wealthy have trillions of dollars in parked money, wealth that exists, but that is not invested in anything productive like clean energy, or a new generation of jobs.

The global wealth tax is coming. It is unstoppable. The Blockchain does not belong to any company or country.

The Blockchain: Fundamental Like The Internet



You are looking at a world government.

Towards A World Government



All the grand challenges in the world today are global in nature. Only a world government can tackle them.









at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Twitter: AOC, Yang, Climate Strike, Pete, Slack, Hong Kong, Greta, Trump

at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Friday, September 20, 2019

How Will Democracy Come To The Arab Countries?

While we are on the topic of China is an excellent time also to talk about Arab countries. How will democracy come to Arab countries? Most of them are monarchies.

There is the Bhutan way where the monarch decides he has been king long enough. Now he should choose to become a constitutional monarch and let an elected parliament run the show. That is the least disruptive path for all parties concerned. The people get their rule. The monarchs keep their wealth and respect. Although it should be noted, some of these royal things have obscene amounts of wealth. Nobody really needs that much money.

They should pay a generous wealth tax.

But this option does not seem on the horizon. I don't know of any monarch who is considering it.

But the current arrangements are inherently unsustainable. They will not go on forever.

2010: Bridging the Gulf: Bahrain's big experiment with democracy Though more liberal than its neighbours, the country is feeling the impact of political Islam. ........ Saudi Arabia. The two countries are linked by a 16-mile toll road, the King Fahd Causeway, but Khadija would not be welcome on the Saudi side where women are not allowed to drive even private cars. In Manama City, she bowls around in a stylish white London taxi, wearing a black hijab and grasping the steering wheel with white gloves........... worried about being cheated. "They pay or I drive on," she says bluntly........ "One hundred per cent of the male drivers see her as a threat" ........ a modernising experiment which was begun by the royal family a decade ago. ....... Eight years ago, Bahrain underwent a startling transition from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy; this archipelago with a population of around a million people is still getting used to political campaigns and four-yearly parliamentary elections. It's an experiment that has some limitations: political parties are not allowed and most candidates belong to political "societies" which function like parties in all but name. Ministers are appointed by the King and after the 2006 elections just over half the cabinet were relatives of the royal family; the long-serving Prime Minister, Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, is his uncle........ But while the royal family retains a great deal of power, political exiles have been allowed to return home, newspapers have more freedom than in most Middle Eastern states, and there has been a concerted attempt to give women more rights......... It's a standing joke that wealthy Saudis barrel across the King Fahd Causeway in gas-guzzling limousines, eager to enjoy the bars and casinos that are banned in their own country......... Bahrain has a history stretching back several thousand years. The glass-and-steel towers of Manama City are joined by another causeway to the old capital, Muharraq, where wood-shuttered pearl merchants' homes are being turned into museums. Bahrain Fort is a restored 15th-century complex at the northern tip of the archipelago, near Bahrain airport, but the site on which it stands has been occupied for almost 2,500 years. What looks like a set from Lawrence of Arabia was once the capital of the Dilmun, one of the most important ancient civilisations in the region........... Bahrain's pearl-fishing industry, which fell into disuse when oil was discovered in 1931. ........ The Khalifa family has ruled Bahrain since the 18th century and the present king, 60-year-old Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, has been in power since the death of his father in 1999. As in many Muslim countries, the ruling family follows a different branch of Islam from the majority of the population; the Khalifas are Sunni, while most Bahrainis are Shia. It's hard to believe that this wasn't a factor in the King's decision to start introducing political reforms, and the success of Islamist "societies" in parliamentary elections has exposed – and thus far contained – profound underlying tensions. Official briefings are at pains to characterise the royal family's modernisation programme as the result of "a genuine benevolent attitude towards citizens", but the government has benefited enormously from its support for the US during the Iraq and Afghan wars............ In 2002, the results of the first parliamentary elections in Bahrain were ominous for secular politicians: the elected lower house was immediately dominated by Islamist parties and not a single woman candidate was elected. The same thing happened in 2006, when the Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society took almost half of the 40 seats, although on that occasion one woman was successful.......... Dr Salah Ali, a former political exile who now chairs the Al-Menbar Islamic Society, a Sunni group which has seven seats in the lower house and is widely believed to have close links with the Muslim Brotherhood.......... there has been a ferocious campaign by Islamists in the lower house to ban alcohol in Bahrain ........ Mohammed Khalid, an outspoken MP from the Al-Menbar Society, who has made a name for himself as an opponent of anything he regards as un-Islamic. Mr Khalid embarrassed the government when he hailed terrorists fighting American forces in Iraq as "heroes"........... Diplomatic and business sources confirm that Bahrain is under pressure from political Islam, suggesting that the Shia parties in the lower house are worryingly close to Iran. That isn't much comfort to Bahrain's small Jewish population, although the government is fighting back; this is the only Arab nation in the world whose current ambassador to Washington, Houda Noono, is a Jewish woman........... One of the ironies of Bahrain's democratic experiment is that it depends on the unelected upper chamber, the consultative council (Shura), to defend the state from political Islam and a socially conservative electorate. ........ 45 per cent of public employees are female. Recent laws have given women paid leave to look after their children while the Shura is trying to establish workplace nurseries "with some resistance from colleagues" ........... This is the problem of the Middle East writ large. In the West, it goes without saying that democracy means respect for the rights of the individual, but across the region,

Islamist parties are attracting support on programmes that deny the most basic human rights.

......... the Al-Menbar Society vociferously opposed government plans to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which allows individuals to change their religion. "This means that Muslims could convert to another religion, something against Islamic law, since those who do so should be beheaded," declared a leading Al-Menbar MP, Dr Salah Abdulrahman........ Opposition to the protocol was eventually defeated, allowing Bahrain to ratify the treaty in 2006, but the episode demonstrates the difficulties facing the royal family's modernisation project. ........

Bahrain's experiment with democracy is being watched closely across the Middle East.

"It's having a positive effect on the region, including Saudi Arabia," Dr Haffadh told me. What is undeniably true is that

Saudi women, who are among the most cloistered in the world, now have only to cross a bridge to see Bahraini women dress as they wish, enjoy the same legal rights as men

– and even drive taxis.......... Iran... A woman's testimony in court carries only half the weight of a man's.

at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Kashmir: Not Normal Yet

at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)