Friends, a few centuries ago minor scoundrels and wrongdoers were put in a pillory in a public place and, while there, they were humiliated by jeering crowds of local citizens while being liberally pelted with rotten fruit and eggs (see image).

Another version of this punishment was the stocks whereby their legs were held while extended periods of jeering and pelting took place. Another popular punishment was tarring and feathering which is both self-explanatory and, I would imagine, extremely unpleasant.

We look at such punishments now as being rather primitive and uncivilized but surely what happened then was far better than our modern day practice of sending people to jail for minor offences where they mix with other criminals and are sodomized and brutalized by them and frequently come out far worse than they went in.

Why don’t we bring back the pillory? There are all manner of folk who would surely mend their ways after being pilloried.

Continue reading →

A Worthy Icon.

Friends, this morning, on television, I half caught an advertisement the gist of which was that ‘we live in a world shaped by business.’ For some reason, perhaps given the world financial crisis, this disturbing slogan remained in my mind. It is true? Does business shape our world? Does business actually control our world? Upon reflection it probably does!

As I have mentioned before, in Ancient Greece, those who traded and sought to become wealthy were despised and occupied the lowest position in the Greek hierarchy. Scholars, scientists, philosophers, dramatists, athletes, etc, were the people who were prized, who were held up as icons. In our contemporary society the likes of Rupert Murdoch and the Packers are our new icons along with petulant sporting stars who earn millions. My, how things have changed.

Given that the principal purpose of business is to make increasing profits by any means (which is hardly an edifying or uplifting goal), it does seem rather strange that, perhaps stupidly, we humans may have allowed business to shape and control the world we live in and, for the most part, our lives. The reasons?

Continue reading →

Friends, late last night during a period of sleeplessness, I turned on CNN and there, before my very eyes, was a scene of frenzied human activity. There was shouting, clapping, shrieking, animated throwing of pieces of paper, wild excitement. Was it a football game? Was it a revolution? Was it an orgy?

No, it was the reaction in Wall Street when the direction of the fall to minus 696 points began to reverse. Within ten minutes it hovered around minus two hundred points. Would it reached zero, then go up?  Would it, would it? The announcer described the situation as being like the closing period of a horse race.

Here were these ‘intelligent’ humans suffering adrenalin overdoses because the value of a piece of share script were tending towards a point where it might have actually increased in value rather than lost more. It struck me then that this whole frenzied spectacle was enabled and facilitated by one thing: money. And cabbages might be the solution!

It is money, paper money, and the fact that it can be accumulated without doing anything but gamble, that encourages greed in humans, encourages extreme risk-taking. If we had no money or access to money via credit and again went back to the barter system, then less greed would exist. Why?

Continue reading →

Delusions Of Grandeur

Friends, like many around the world, I watched the carefully scripted ‘debate’ There were several things that struck me as it dragged on and on and they weren’t that obvious to the hand-picked American audience. What were they?

There was frequent mention that America was the greatest nation on earth. There was frequent mention that Americans were the best workers in the world, the most innovative, could achieve anything. There was mention of the grandness of spilling blood for the homeland as it went about saving the world from itself. There was mention of America’s devotion to Israel and sweeping statements that it would be protected at all costs. There was mention of nukes remaining on the table regarding Iran. The silliness went on and on while the audience, like good Americans, remained mute and obedient. There was not a murmur of dissent!

These feel-good statements have little or no connection with what is happening to America at this point in time. The reality is that America is demonstrably bankrupt. There is evidence that its greed-based economic system has failed and is also destroying our planet. There is evidence that its financial system is broken and that other nations, burned by the subprime fiasco, are quickly abandoning it.

Continue reading →

Barricades are easily built! Manning them with heroes is harder.

Friends, given the financial and political crisis that is emerging in America, one that is impacting on the whole world, it seems to me that their system is broke and it needs to be abandoned and a new one put in its place.

In France, prior to their Revolution, the system was broke also. The Royals had bankrupted the place and were living a decadent, immoral, elitist lifestyle while the poor peasants starved. Eventually the peasants, stirred up then led by some University radicals, got the show on the road and within a short time had marched the Royals to the guillotine and set up a democracy by the people and for the people which has endured to this day.

In America, the Robber Barons, who are the Neo Royalty and have bankrupted the country with their excessive borrowing and risky investments, are living a decadent lifestyle using money they’ve stolen from the peasants. Meanwhile, the country falls down around their ears.

The Politicians, who are beholden to the New Royalty, have set up a pseudo-democratic political system that is run by the wealthy for the benefit of the wealthy. They have continued on with the farce that has always been American foreign policy and have engaged in more foolish, unwinable wars (that America cannot afford) also using borrowed money. It is said that America is now largely owned by China.

Continue reading →

A Veritable Feast!

Friends, in case the banks go belly up in the next few weeks, I don’t want to leave you in the lurch should you begin to feel peckish. Just grab your butterfly net, an axe and your mattock and get ready to gorge.

People all around the world eat insects. Some do it by accident but others do it by choice. Cockroaches, scorpions, moths, grubs, grasshoppers, caterpillars, large ants, spiders, virtually anything that flies or crawls can be deep-fried or grilled.

You can go hunting during the day or, with a torch, at night. Use your axe to peel the bark back on trees. The mattock can be used to lift large stones or to dig for worms and grubs. The butterfly net will capture all manner of flying thingees if you’re quick enough: dragonflies, moths, butterflies, all manner of creatures flutter about just begging to be caught. If you happen across a snake or lizard or a rat throw that in your game bag too but try to keep them from eating the rest of your catch or each other.

Continue reading →

Aid Queues.

I read yesterday an article on an American website written by an Argentinian writer who was urging people in Western nations to get their money out of the banks while they still can. He cited what happened in his country some years ago where people couldn’t withdraw their funds and had no money to live on. The tale was harrowing.

Then last night I spoke to a cousin of mine and she recounted the story that several of her friends have been buying tinned food, rice and flour, coffee, etc, for some time in case the economy goes down as a result of the sub-prime crisis. Her husband is losing $1,000 a week on his large super payout so she tells me. I’ve been in a state of stress ever since.

In Australia, the government does not guarantee a certain level of lender’s deposits in the banks as they do in Britain and America. In Australia, if the banks goes down you will probably lose all or most of your savings because the banks have loaned most of their investor’s money out and cannot give it back should a run on the banks occur.

In my case, as with many, the money I have in the bank is all I have to provide some modest income for what laughably is called my semi-retirement (anyone who runs an informed blog works quite hard let me assure you). No money -  no income. Images of long soup queues and suited people jumping out of windows in Wall Street keep popping into my mind. It is disconcerting because the fact is that no one knows what the outcome of the largely American-generated financial crisis is going to be, or, if they know, they are not saying.

Continue reading →

Friends, the 700 billion dollar rescue package has been passed. Yeah! We intelligent humans, temporarily, have rescued yet another deeply flawed system. Our world is full of them.

You’d think after ten millenia that the penny would drop, wouldn’t you? I mean, most species, if they got too near a fire, would avoid future fires. But not humans, oh no! We’re too smart for that. Just ask us, we’ll tell you. We just brush off the singed skin, apply a bit of ointment, and put our arm back in the fire again.

That’s why we are still fighting futile wars, destroying whole countries, raping and pillaging, killing millions, seeking power, control and money at any cost even if the victory is always pyrrhic. That why religious fraudsters still continue to battle each other, continue with their divisive, money-making deceptions, continue to enslave the minds of billions. That why flawed political systems are rarely changed or improved because those who profit from them don’t want their lucrative, power-grabbing game spoiled. Then there’s our lamentable financial/economic system.

Continue reading →

Friends, I just watched the V.P. debate. It was unsettling. It was a triumph of style over substance, something that Americans are good at.

It showed a woman who knows very little about anything (but has an engaging personality) appearing to look semi-Vice Presidential. It showed how well she has been coached during the time the media was kept at bay. To her credit, it demonstrates how quickly she can learn to parrot the required answers.

It showed a man who has decades of real experience in economics and foreign policy having to carefully watch what he said for fear he’d be accused of being arrogant or sexist. It showed a man who relentlessly attacked McCain using facts but wasn’t game to tackle Palin head on using known facts about her.

Continue reading →

According to Reuters, Pope Benedict XVI recently condemned unbridled “pagan” passion for power, possessions and money as a modern-day plague as he led more than a quarter of a million Catholics in an outdoor Mass in Paris.

What are we to make of this extraordinary statement? I mean those of us who think about the world and yearn for it to be a better place could hardly quibble with the sentiments he expresses. Certainly those who passionately desire power, possession and money (who certainly are in plague proportions) indeed are evil and have knowingly carried our world towards the edge of extinction.

However, excuse me for asking, but doesn’t the Pope, a Christian man, live in a luxurious Palace? Doesn’t he dress in wonderful finery and hasn’t he got heaps of gold rings and things and doesn’t he have the best care that money can buy (see photograph)?

Continue reading →