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Today, the BBC asked the question: has the world lost faith in the USA?^[1]

Surely, before asking that question, one or two others should be considered, like: has the world ever had any faith in the USA; is the world seriously concerned about the USA; or, is it all just a load of political guff designed to consolidate corporate power both inside and outside the USA?

The BBC is basing its question around the latest report from the US National Intelligence Council, a body composed of representatives from US intelligence agencies, charged with crystal-ball gazing in an attempt to come up with some notion of what the future might hold for the world at large, and America, in particular.^[2]

Apparently, the BBC is keen to emulate the CIA, or perhaps it’s just been watching too many Bond movies, but to access the particular webpage, I had to invent secret questions, passwords, and a whole host of other security items, before realizing this was just to allow me to comment.

Note: I would never consider commenting on anything the BBC has to offer. Mainly because three and a half million seriously deranged headcases, in desperate need of frontal lobotomies, have got there before me. Like, for example, “Out of Touch” from the EU:

maybe the laid back texan just wants to live in peace and be in 22nd position of military power as in 1901. the world needs leadership by western culture developed in europe … intelligent and cultural….they probably have the balance that indians chinese and muslims will respect… europe should abosorbe itself with pride and be inteligent and dutiful…. ameriaca does not want to lead…laid back texan wants to smoke…and the english should speak spanish and italian and french

I’m not totally sure what the “laid back Texan” will be smoking, but “Out of touch” from the EU is obviously an expert, and it sure sounds too good to miss.

Then, of course, there is always the super-nationalist, “American Voice” from San Francisco, who’s not going to let anyone criticize his country:

Even if the US domination goes down by a factor of 20, still US will be 20 times more powerful than the closest competitor…… So don’t count US out !!!

No, don’t dare count the US out, even if it has been comatose on the mat for twenty minutes and shows no sign of ever regaining consciousness.

Why, I wonder, does that last sentence remind me of ex-Israeli prime minister Arial Sharon?

Question: what ever did happen to him?

Answer: he’s still snoring profusely on some hospital gurney in Tel Aviv, oblivious to all but the fact that no-one, but no-one, is ever going to have the temerity to permanently turn him off.

I digress.

The National Intelligence Council today pronounced: “US economic, military and political dominance is likely to decline over the next two decades.” China and India will grow more powerful. The US dollar will lose its status as the world’s major currency, and an increasing scarcity of food and water will fuel conflicts.

While all the above is hardly arguable – unless you happen to be “American Voice” from San Francisco – the report also assumes that a world with more power centers will be less stable than when the planet had only one.

Given that, in the last eight years, George W Bush as managed to ruin the global economy, propagate military mayhem throughout the Middle East, instigate torture and imprisonment without trial as normal procedures, and alienate every foreign power on the planet, that statement may appear a trifle far-fetched. Unfortunately, given that the National Intelligence Council is a US institution, and therefore bound towards bias, and bearing in mind that only four years ago it categorically stated the US was on the up and up and would remain a strong and indomitable superpower ad infinitum, one must regrettably take its utterances with the proverbial pinch or two of sodium chloride.

Let’s not forget, the US intelligence services charged with concocting this report were also responsible for providing the sure-fire certainty that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction stashed away all over Iraq, and – we don’t want the smoking gun to become a mushroom cloud, now do we?

Still, according to Marti, another BBC commentator, we’ll all be sorry:

As an American I would LOVE to see us lose our dominance:
Dominance in Foreign Aid to an ungrateful world
Dominance in Humanitarian efforts that are unappreciated
Dominance in troops defending YOUR countries

I say let someone else have dominance for a bit. Keep American resources in America for 10 years and you’ll have the whole world begging for us to accept the Crown. (What’s left of the world, that is.)

Oh, Marti, you’ve been watching that Fox News again.

Marti was, of course, from – TEXAS.

Where else?

^{[1] “Who will be the next superpower?” BBC “Have your say”, November 21st 2008}

^{[2] “Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World” an incredibly boring, rather egocentric, 120-page report by the NIC, in pdf format}

Filed under: Intelligence – or, lack of it

Many in this world consider the human species way too important to have evolved from a primitive form in the distant past. They believe our intelligence and mental dexterity are so far above even the most advanced of animals, that any suggestion of a connection between the two is absurd.

Though relatively primitive creatures are capable of social interactions with their own kind, many humans fail to accept this is evidence of any evolutionary link between humankind and the animal kingdom.

Take honey bees, as an example. They live in colonies and maintain a rigid social order. A hierarchy exists within the colony, and while there are many varieties of honey bee, only one will be accepted within the colony. Any attempt at intrusion is met with fierce resistance, usually culminating in the demise of the unfortunate visitor.

Manish Kumar was just fifteen years old. He lived in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, and had fallen in love with a girl from his own village. He wrote to her telling of his affections. For this appalling crime he was kidnapped on his way to school by members of a rival caste; his head was shaved, he was beaten, then thrown to his death under the wheels of a moving train while his mother looked on helplessly.^[1]

Manish Kumar was from the Yadav dairyman caste. The girl belonged to a different Indian community – the washerman – considered a lower caste than the dairyman.

Writing a love letter was Manish Kumar’s only crime, for which he suffered horrific torture before being murdered.

Recently, researchers from the Australian National University, working with honey bees, succeeded in overcoming their instinctive impulse to kill intruders and managed to cultivate the first ever mixed-species colony, combining Apis mellifera, the European honey bee, and Apis cerana, its Asiatic equivalent. While the two types each utilize different dialects, the researchers discovered both can communicate the whereabouts of food to the other, by dances of differing duration. Both species of bee can now live within one colony, coexisting in harmony.^[2]

Perhaps, the researchers of the Australian National University should consider turning their attention to the eastern Indian state of Bihar?

^{[1] “Indian boy thrown under train in caste punishment” Daily Mail, November 20th 2008}

^{[2] “Bees Can Count” Live Science, September 26th 2008}

Filed under: Sad state of our species

Daewoo is best known for its automobiles, though GM bought them out and has been rebadging Daewoo cars as low-end Chevrolets and other brands ever since. GM held a stake in Daewoo cars since 1972.

Automobiles only played a minor part in Daewoo’s fortunes, and misfortunes, over the years, for Daewoo is a South Korean chaebol (big business conglomerate) and has been involved in areas of business that include electronics, heavy industries, shipbuilding, and many others.

Now, though, it’s moving into agriculture.

The Financial Times is reporting that Daewoo has gone halfway around the world, to Madagascar, and leased over 99 years an area of agricultural land half the size of Belgium (1.3 million hectares) – free of charge.^[1]

Daewoo intends to produce corn for South Korean consumption, and for export to other nations, using almost half of Madagascar’s arable land of 2.5 million hectares. Daewoo say it will provide employment for Madagascans, along with new roads, irrigation, and grain storage facilities.

According to the FT:

……a European diplomat in southern Africa said: “We suspect there will be very limited direct benefits [for Madagascar]. Extractive projects have very little spill-over to a broader industrialisation.”

South Korea is not the only nation to turn to Africa for its future food supplies. The Guardian’s George Monbiot has long been campaigning against pillage of the continent in this way:

…….we learn that Middle Eastern countries, led by Saudi Arabia, are securing their future food supplies by trying to buy land in poorer nations. The Financial Times reports that Saudi Arabia wants to set up a series of farms abroad, each of which could exceed 100,000 hectares. Their produce would not be traded: it would be shipped directly to the owners. The FT, which usually agitates for the sale of everything, frets over “the nightmare scenario of crops being transported out of fortified farms as hungry locals look on.” Through “secretive bilateral agreements,” the paper reports, “the investors hope to be able to bypass any potential trade restriction that the host country might impose during a crisis.”

Both Ethiopia and Sudan have offered the oil states hundreds of thousands of hectares. This is easy for the corrupt governments of these countries: in Ethiopia the state claims to own most of the land; in Sudan an envelope passed across the right desk magically transforms other people’s property into foreign exchange. But 5.6 million Sudanese and 10 million Ethiopians are currently in need of food aid. The deals their governments propose can only exacerbate such famines.”^[2]

Madagascar, also, is a nation in poverty. 70 percent of its populace live below the poverty line. According to the FT, the WFP presently provides food relief to about 600,000 people there.

As global warming begins to bite, food will become an ever more valuable commodity. The wealthy nations are setting aside grain for the hard times ahead, and are doing so by robbing Africans of the land they need to survive.

The specter of “crops being transported out of fortified farms as hungry locals look on” will likely transform to reality sooner than we think.

^{[1] “Daewoo to cultivate Madagascar land for free” FT, November 19th 2008}

^{[2] “Manufactured Famine” Monbiot, August 26th 2008}

Filed under: Rocking the cradle