Saturday, January 01, 2005
FINE START
The minor United Nations official who accused the United States of being “stingy” with reference to humanitarian contributions toward world-wide problems could not have picked a better theme to make the New Year a difficult one for the U.N. Organization. What a way to start the bright new and supposedly wonderful of 2005!
Statistics have been flowing freely since the moment he said that word :”stingy”. It is being quoted extensively both in and out of context and it can only do harm to a UN reputation which many people consider million to be in tatters and tangled shreds anyway. Just when the oil-for-food rumpus was quieting down a bit this disquieting voice pipsqueaks a petty accusation and lights the anti-UN flame in the hearts and minds of thousand of critics.
The League of Nations suffered the same slings and arrows after World War I. That organization, however, was officially located in Switzerland and, since it was powered from afar it was easier for us to say we were not going to have much to do with it and its ingrown problems. We used our “remote” abilities to dial up only those area which were of interest and concern. Born in California and planted in New York City, the United Nations is a different the of the same flower of potential peace and understanding. Many of those who run it and have ruled in roles of authority in maintaining the Garden of Eden attitude for such a haven for all nations, could have made use some words of Thomas Jefferson. He spoke of himself as being “an old man, but a young gardener.” The care and nurturing of the United Nations has been haphazard and often in the hands of some willing, eager but unqualified,inexperienced “gardeners.”
The rebuttal figure being bandied about claims that we, with only a small percentage of the world's population, give over forty per cent of the humanitarian aid contributed by nations. That's “stingy”? Compared to what? The critic seems to have considered President Bush's initial figure of $35-million as being too low. It was just the beginning and after more estimates of what the gigantic tragedy was going to cost, you will recall, the ope-end sum was set at 350-million dollars. The critic and others who joined him grabbed, from habit at something which seemed to be a political opportunity for their own use. Our President George W. Bush rightly chose to see it in the light of a humanitarian gift to the suffering people of, a least, eleven nations.
A.L.M. January 1, 2005 [c445wds]
Friday, December 31, 2004
WITHOUT WARNING
Well over a hundred thousand people have died during the last few day of this year. The tsunami caused by the eruption of a volcano under the Indian Ocean brought death and destruction through a series of water which swept into eleven different nations without warning in most areas.
Certainly this disaster will bring about some changes in our ways of predicting the course of such unusual storms. Our weather people do a fine
job as it is in forecasting the usual storms and changes in weather conditions, but this situation involves a combination of detailed knowledge about vulcanology as well as some very special combinations of fine-tuning and logistics for it to be effective within the short span of warning time available.
We have facilities for doing such a job quickly and efficiently. Using the present system of seismographic images we can pinpoint the epicenter of the quake, and within moments, have either manned or unmanned aircraft over the site taking photographs TV footage and gathering statistical aids such a temperatures, wind directions, and make some judgments as to the velocity the storm will have. Waves were estimated moving at around six hundred mile per hour in this week tsunami and few coastal town are not constructed to take that sort of punishment. Such information can be instantly transmitted to ships at sea in the area as well as to coastal installations.
Lest you get the idea all of this is something for people who live afar off, may I remind you that reputable geologists tell us that a major - they have used the term "gigantic" - geological fault is located just a hundred or so miles off the coast of Virginia.
Imagine what it might be like if such a fault should shift suddenly. Fatal wave could sweep[p on Hampton Roads and destroy everything in sight; they could billow up and crossover low-lying Eastern Shore in to the Chesapeake Bay and come to roiling halt in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. The Northern Neck of the Old Dominion would be radically changed; Richmond would seem odd as coastal port for time; and to the south the Outer Banks would be stripped, torn apart and scattered over Charlemagne Sound. The Great Dismal Swamp would become an inland salt sea.
Thus far, we haven't even touched on the number of human lives place in peril! Whatever you write down about such a day it is going to read like a kindergarten exercise some day.
What do you know about such a fault in the Atlantic waters just off of our shores? Shouldn't we be told? What about early warning plans, if needed? Better yet, will a complete study of the alleged fault show it be benign and harmless? Why not make that a special wish for our New Year of 2005!
A.L.M. December 31, 2004 [c484wds]
Thursday, December 30, 2004
FEAR LIST
I have never been one to make a long list of New Year's Resolution promises which I know perfectly well I am not going to keep.
You may be one who tabulates them carefully every year, but it strikes me that we have enough concern for our own well-being that, if we really want to, we can do those things anyway. Most of them are common sense precautions we take to avoid stumbling over our own stupidity.
You may be one who needs to write them down, but I don' t et that far. Most such resolutions say I am going to change my way about tending to my health I'd say that was the subject for most with older people, but young persons feel a more general air permanency while oldsters look forward to that inevitable end. The longer we can put it off, it seem, the better. One can resolve that pleasant circumstances and beneficial patterns for the coming year and though out a brighter, happier and a more responsive life. That's all commendable, and wise. If I had keep a childhood resolution to brush my teeth, I would have to spend far less time cleaning my dentures today.
Many have financial wishes. Those thinking along social lines wish for a bit of an increase their activity along social lines.. They are keeping up with the Jones' and don't realize that the Jones' are keeping up with the Smith's who are following the Rocker fellers and Microsoft millionaires..
Many have other worries and care, I suppose, and so many of them deal with fantasy life styles, too. We live a- la-Disney now-a-days so potentially exciting event in our future - such as being at home when the Publishers Clearing House van shows up at our house.
The worst fear, it seems, are the loss old family and friends, perhaps, though social differences or through some strange erosion of religious certainties.
We quote Emerson as have said: "What I have seen readies me for those things I have not seen." Our proper point, then for judging the future, must be to study our past ...appreciate it and grow our better future upon its merits.
A.L.M. December 29, 2004 [c423wds]
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
TOMORROW'S VIEWING
As television matures is becoming more-and-more of an "on order" programming service for individual subscribers, elements of the system now in use as "channels" will be available for other uses. and one has to wonder how they may best be made useful for the public good - if that term is to keep it's intended meaning.
One such possibility comes to mind at once. Seek ways to use the channels to beef up our national home defense plans. That, in itself. could take multiple paths dealing with flying, for instance, the protection of our natural resources and utilities, overseeing large gatherings of people, and a host of other dangers which face us with enemies such as we have today.
a way to
It ,my well be that some business-minded entrepreneur will find a way to make such channels commercially viable. We would be wise to set aside some of them for, let's, a viable tsunami alert system in certain, high-risk areas.
The devastation we are viewing this very morning from eleven different nations in the Indian Ocean area should be enough to alert us to the potential dangers we face in other seas. It now appears hat the list of dead will exceed one hundred thousand as reports "continue to filter through crippled communications systems".
When will all of this channel changing come about? No one knows ,for sure, but you can watch for specialized channels in present use to go through the usual pattern of consolidation with stronger units buying up the less prosperous ones; the strong buying out weaker units. This a sure sign that they are on the wane. We have,in many areas, specialized ourselves right of of business. In an area where you can count on a million or so people having kindred preferences and "all anything" stations still makes sense but many areas are at risk.
TV has weathered some rather violent changes since the early days of sardine can-sized screens; cameras the size of a delivery van, and jittery cartoon characters which could appear and disappear by mechanical magic of some strange sort.This change is a cosmetic one for TV, not a live-threatening change. TV,in its rapid growth, left behind armies of fine technicians who are now more or less hanging on and wondered where the whole thing is going. We must not make the mistake of thinking TV has gone as far as it is going. It is still, very much, in progress toward a goal far beyond our expectations.
What idea do you have ready to launch when this change in TV's structure may make it possible?
A.L.M. December 29, 2004 [c480wds]
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
ENDANGERED SPECIES
Our unit is called the “dollar” and it ain't what it used to be.
It has been a trustworthy standard for several hundreds of years now and has served us well and been a useful guide and protector for money systems in other lands, as well.
The values of currency, of course, vary all over the world and may be related to all sorts of conditions both man made and otherwise. The devastating tsunami flood conditions which are this very morning killing thousands of people in six different nations around or in the Indian Ocean, is a prime example of the extreme conditions in which a money system must adjust itself. There are times when even the best of money systems will be dependent on others.
The death statistics are,of course, far from being complete and shows about 44,600 dead at the moment. The figure will climb and so will the millions of dollars worth of property damage in the stricken areas climb to new totals for the stricken areas. I International aid programs are all ready in action, and radical changes can be expected in money markets around the world because of this sudden, extreme pressure.
That care has part of our system since it was started and it has worked well. Some adjustments have been required during times of recession, depression war and economic doldrums. The unit has even changed in physical appearance and is currently much more colorful, about two-thirds the size it was when I was a youngster ear earning my first dollars.
It has held the international spotlight for many years, but there have been times when others dominated the world's markets ...the British “pound”, for instance. France's “franc” and monies from Spain, Holland, Portugal, Greece and Rome. Each has held sway for many years in various areas and coins of China, Japan, Egypt and many other nations as well. Prior to time on the start of our dollar system we used a polyglot collection of coins from other lands.. .mainly n English, Spanish, French and Dutch.
Why do I say it is being “threatened”...“endangered”?
By the manner in which it is currently being used.
More and more the American worker is being paid - not with bills and coin - but electronically by the transfer funds from the employer's account to that of the worker. The worker, then, in paying his bills, hands the merchant or service attendant a plastic card which enables him to receive another transfer of such funds as are needed to settle his account. No one touches printed dollar bills of minted coins.
They are of use in machines which accept dollars bills of coins in exchange for products or services. The Treasury Department doesn't print anything higher than one hundred dollars. Counterfeiters can do better faking credit cards than paper money and coins.
Think about it. Other than for coin operated machines, door-to- door sales persons, Salvation Army bell ringer's pots and church collection plates, how often do you actually handle “real” money?
A.L.M. December 28, 2004 [c517wds]
Monday, December 27, 2004
..THINE ENEMIES.
I have mixed feelings when I see the current most-used photograph of Saddam resilient on TV.
The crumpled, sad looking man sitting there behind the bar reminds you of the active ruler of Iraq but you wonder if he could now lift a rifle – much less fire a charge into the air one handedly as was his usual mode of showing power and leadership qualities.
Now we see a crumpled little man who still has an ability to contend and he will most likely explain his actions at length in the forthcoming trials wherever and whenever they take place.
The somber man we see sitting there appears more or less as the shell of the man we once viewed as a active person, somewhat brash and he perhaps lacking in some of the finer, more diplomatic stances usually found in many rulers of his type. Whatever he had in power, prestige, wealth and a following came to a sudden end, I think, when he chose to be hidden away in a narrow, little hole in the ground instead of engaging in a showy last stand action – either genuine or faked – against his encroaching enemies.
To b e dragged from such a petty hiding place marks the change which had come over man when he agreed to such confinement. He chose to go out as a whimper albeit a live one. He Iraqi people were content to tear down statues of their former dictator which I count as a mark in their favor – far better than the actions of an Italian mob who beat and battered Il Duce and his mistress naked and upside down from the beams of an auto service station by the Italian roadside.
In the months ahead we , or someone, will be holding do with the prisoner. It has not yet been been decided if it is something the newly constituted Iraqi courts should decide or if we ought to undertake such a task. It is not going to be an easy task for either party. Saddam himself must be wondering if he will be judged by people from a Christian country or his own land. He certainly must be weighing possibilities either way. “Love thine enemies” is not a teaching of his cultural background and may seem, to him, the ultimate in stupidity, but he is, I should think pondering that point day upon day. He could be exiled rather than executed, but where does one send an exiled man today?
I have a strong feeling we will be better off if we insist that the Iraqi people decide what the future of their deposed ruler is to be.
A.L.M. December 27, 2004 (c454wds]
Sunday, December 26, 2004
ON TRANSITION
I sense a strange feeling anticipation or movement in our national self at the moment, as if we are waiting for something to happen.
It is natural, I think, for us to think it might it has something to do with our 9-11 tragedies. That may well have some merit because we do wonder what the next attack may be - when and where, in particular.
It is good that we are aware of the fact that such a thing might well occur in our future but, by and large, we are not a worry-wart type of people. We have some individuals who will dwell on worst case examples but most of us are willing to prepare for whatever seem possible with the best defense arrangement we can make.
On the whole Christmas shopping was down this year and that is viewed by some as indication of a lack of confidence in our future. Could be, but it could also mean the we're making preparations for the future far more seriously than we may have in past years. We have just come through an election cycle in which almost half of the population was evidently led to accept the politically pontificated idea that we were a nation on the very edge of financial ruin and likely not to outlast the year. If it could be shown on a graph we would see such a loss of direction following most national elections which dwell to party-rigidly on a poor economy. We are, on might say, in that doldrum of post-election droop during which people have to regain confidence in their nations money.
The recent clearing of the decks for Term Two with new members of the President's cabinet being put in place is indicative of the transitions taking place all around. Advisers, remember, come in various types. There are some who are especially fitting for take-over and start-up times; but there are others better qualified to deal with continuing relationships.
There is a positive fact or associated with the choice in the Department of State, where Rice will continue and augment that Powell helped to put in place. She has analytical expertize he did not count among his many talents. Those talent he does possess will be used elsewhere and his work will be nourished, sustained and brought to maturity. Defense has had to defend itself, which is not all that unusual after of our wars. Ashcroft remains, however and that is a firm choice.
You see, we are, indeed, “in transition”, with even the usually cocksure media attempting to define what it is the ought to be, wants to be or will have to be to survive. It is almost as if we have suddenly realized that the “terrorist” threat is not the only one that places our future in hazard, but the inept ways in which we have dealt with our problems in recent decades.
Religious groups, business establishments, social organizations,recreational havens and many individuals are in self-study state right now. Many of us are making plans to ensure the future will be better. They will be expressed verbally as we arrive at the happy new year marked “2005!”
A. L. M. December 26, 2004 [c549wds]
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