Too Important Not to Read

Selling women in ancient Babylon

Long Pross, Trafficking Victim

Actress Maggie Grace (L) and jounalist Nicholas Kristof present Somaly Mam of Cambodia with the Human Rights Award at the Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on March 19, 2009 in Washington, DC.

This week I have posted a few reads that delve into the nature of culture, women at risk and how we all can make the world safe for women.

Leading off is this post from Steve DeAngelis who blogs about the power of culture to either hinder or advance the human experience.

The Victorian Scottish historian and essayist, Thomas Carlyle, once wrote: "Culture is the process by which a person becomes all that they were created capable of being." In past posts, I've noted that culture can either be used as a platform for progress or it becomes an anchor that keeps people mired in the past. According to a recent study, culture has played a more important role in humanity's evolution than once thought ["Human Culture, an Evolutionary Force," by Nicholas Wade, New York Times, 1 March 2010]. Wade explains:

Read the rest:
The Power of Culture

Related to culture is how women are treated in this world. For those of us living in a society that protects and values women, it is vital to read these next two posts to see how we can contribute to making the world safe for women.

Steve DeAngelis continues in this post to introduce Nichlos Kristof whom I have written about here and here.

One of the oldest objects of worship known to man is small figurine carved out of oolitic limestone that has been labeled the Venus of Willendorf. Displayed at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, the Venus of Willendorf was created sometime between 24,000-22,000 BCE. The figurine was probably carved by a man. Although it is not a particularly flattering depiction of a woman, it reminds us that men have always been in awe of the power of creation. Unfortunately, the awe that mankind has demonstrated for the process of procreation has not extended to the women who carry it out. When it comes to history, might makes right and the gentler sex has felt the brunt of that might for far too long.

Facts don't lie. Only one percent of the landowners around the globe are women. Widespread participation by women in politics is a modern development. Often in the past the only way that women could influence politics was between the sheets. The Greek comic playwright Aristophanes knew this and penned his famous play Lysistrata to demonstrate that although they were under-appreciated in the male-dominated Athenian society, women were nonetheless well-informed and capable of pursuing political agendas. The play was performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. The play is a comic tale of Lysistrata's mission to end the Peloponnesian War. Her strategy is to convince the women of Greece to withhold sexual favors from their husbands and lovers until they agree to negotiate peace. At the beginning of the play, Lysistrata says to her friend Calonice, "There are a lot of things about us women that sadden me, considering how men see us as rascals." To which Calonice replies: "As indeed we are!" Even back then, women were more appreciated for their beauty than their brains and more for their sexual prowess than their other life skills. Twenty-five hundred years later the world's women are still suffering at the hands of men.

The husband and wife team, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, remind us that women continue to be ill-treated in many places around the world ["The Women’s Crusade," New York Times, 23 August 2009].

Read the whole post:

Making the World Safe for Women



Finally comes this post from the outstanding blog and online magazine devoted to military matters Small Wars Journal who turned their attention to spotlighting an organization that is making a difference.

Innocents at Risk is a 501©(3) nonprofit founded to fight child exploitation and human trafficking. Our mission is to educate citizens about the horrific global and local problem of human trafficking and work to prevent it. In order to increase the visibility of the severity of the issue, Innocents at Risk established partnerships with the Department of State, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Custom Border Patrol and the D.C. Task Force. We work with a vast number of non-government organizations and service providers.

Human Trafficking is 21st century slavery. It is happening throughout the world in every country and across the United States in every major city and small town. According to the Department of State, every year over 2,000,000 men, women and children are taken, trafficked and thrown into this cruel world of slavery. Traffickers use force, fraud or coercion to obtain their victims.

Read the whole post.
Very Good People Doing Great Things

If any one is serious about stopping this scourge, please visit the links under Honoring our Commitments links on the right of this blog. As Steve DeAngelis noted in the end of his post on culture, none of us will live to see the results of how the information age will influence future cultures, but properly used it can be a powerful tool for doing good and making the world safe for women.

Dispatches for a Wednesday Night

The trio of images that introduce the reads for this week, provide a hint of what is to come; Marines building a nation one family at at time; an empty library; and Queen Elizabeth I, who died four hundred and seven year ago today.

Mid-week brings forth this small but worthwhile selection of posts that deserve a careful read. First off is this from Steve DeAngelis, whose blog should be on everyones daily read list.

Steve's post expands on the message that his collegue and fellow blog friend Thomas Barnett has been evangelical about for a decade.

Because of Enterra Solutions' continuing interest in helping develop economies in emerging market countries, I have written a number of posts that have discussed the System Administrator concept proposed by my colleague Thomas Barnett. Tom has long argued that the U.S. is second-to-none when it comes to winning wars; but it has demonstrated much less acumen when it comes to securing the peace. The SysAdmin force (as Tom likes to call it) is envisioned as an interagency organization that brings to bear all of the nation's toolkit (from force to diplomacy to economics) to either prevent conflicts or secure the peace in the aftermath of conflict. The SysAdmin force would have a security component but it would primarily consist of non-military personnel conducting non-military activities. When Tom first proposed this concept, there were more snickers than cheers. Over time, however, the concept has become increasingly embraced by military, government, non-government, and commercial organizations.

Steve builds on current events and topics that this blog has recently written about, to present a clear proof that someone inside the halls of the Pentagon has taken Tom's message to heart. One of the great things I enjoy about Steve's blog posts is that they build on ideas and use articles to build a concrete argument supporting the topic. Take the time and read about the new version of what could be described as a post "Combat Town" outside of Indianapolis, or what major defense contractor has gone full bore into the "soft power" business.

Read more:
Nation Buiidling Approaches Continue to Evolve

Next Mark at Zenpundit get this nod for this focus on disappearing school libraries.
Education,Books and the Digital Age

Rounding out the night, a little history from the U.S. Naval Institute Blog.

Four-hundred seven years ago on this day, March 24th, 1603, Queen Elizabeth I breathed her last. Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and the unfortunate Ann Boleyn, and when Good Queen Bess died, the relatively brief but celebrated Tudor Dynasty died with her. Yet, Elizabeth I’s significance in the shaping of the England, and the Great Britain that followed, is difficult to overstate.

Read more:
Englands First Queen of the Seas

The Medici Effect Meets Haiti

Eleven days ago, the world's attention was drawn to the impoverished nation of Haiti as its buildings and its corrupt and fragile infrastructure collapsed as a result of an earthquake. The outpouring of first responders, led by our own nations armed forces and joined by countries as far away as China is to be honored as a mark of the finest of traits in caring for your fellow human in need. The problem now has turned from rescue to sustaining the survivors until the country can be rebuilt. But, therein lies the question, how do you rebuild something so broken as Haiti,  Economy of Haiti.  The last two decades saw a resurgence in U.S. military intervention trying to stabilize the government and the economy. The United Nations has been on a concurrent track lending peacekeeping forces and economic aid in the billions with almost naught to show. What then is the path that the United States and the World can take to ensure the future for Haitians is better than being kept alive until the arrival of the next natural disaster scythes down more souls.

Astute minds have been asking that question this past week. I felt it best to provide an intersection here on the blog to allow those ideas to come together in the best tradition of the Medici Effect.

Author and grand strategic thinker Thomas Barnett along with his business associate Steve DeAngelis have gotten out in front of this story and begun a series of posts asking that very question, what comes next? In this first post, Tom Barnett comments on a post penned by Galrahn for the U.S. Naval Institute Blog.

Reader Gerry left this link after commenting on my somewhat acidic interpretation of Bret Stephen's truly acidic piece on the disutility of foreign aid. It is a very informative blog post from Galrahn, who appears to be doing a yeoman's effort on Haiti, a subject I have yet to gain any serious traction on due to recent nonstop travel.

Gerry's comment was to the effect that the Haiti response could be a Katrina-like, politically damaging affair for Obama--quite possibly true.It could also reveal, a la Galrahn's observations, that SOUTHCOM was ill-prepared for this sort of thing.

Read more:
Do We Require Catastrophic Faiures to Change?

Barnett continues his commentary in this next post on why Haiti remains disconnected.

...if your take is that globalization crushes local cultures (and it sure does when they have nothing useful to offer, but then again, check out the Japanese as slick mega-exporters of an isolated culture and wonder why they succeed where others fail), then be prepared to keep on paying while the glory that is Haitian stay-at-home culture (as opposed to that which comes along with immigrants to America and adds to our mixing bowl) is given free reign to prove its disutility yet again after this disaster.

Read more:
Haiti's Cultural Poverty

In this post, Barnett comments on two articles that support the idea that capitalism has done more to restore societies after disasters than any other economic system.

By definition, Haiti's in for a bad time, because it's capitalism was stunted (especially in its rule sets) and highly criminalized and informal prior to the disaster--hence a city not built to anybody's code and thus the profound destruction at merely a 7.0 quake level (bad, but not off anybody's charts).

But since there seems to be equal camps on the question of "is capitalism/globalization the answer" or "the culprit," there's unlikely to be any renaissance in Haiti, as it'll remain the sole, exclusive property of the NGO/PVO crowd.

Read more:
Shocking capitalism! It actually helps after disasters!

Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions, a company devoted to helping countries develop a more resilient rule set has been way out in front of thinking about how to help Haiti. In this post, Steve tries to answer the question, can Haiti bounce back, or will she do as she has always done, slide back to the bottom of the pyramid and be ignored until the next wave of disasters strike.

The outpouring of concern for Haiti has been remarkable. The American Red Cross, for example, has been amazed at the amount of money that has been donated through mobile phone contributions (over $22 million was the last figure I heard). There is a nagging suspicion, however, that once the bodies are buried, the wounded attended to, the streets cleared of rubble, and the rebuilding process begins, that Haiti will return to its status as a failing and fragile state. New York Times' op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof reports that some people have actually had the courage to state what many others are obviously thinking ["Some Frank Talk About Haiti," 21 January 2010].

DeAngelis goes on to discuss Kristof's article and points out several areas where he feels Kristof misses the mark.

I think Kristof is confusing humanitarian assistance with developmental aid. Only the most calloused soul would opt to withhold humanitarian assistance to a suffering nation. Humanitarian assistance, however, is in intended to relieve suffering not foster development. Even though Kristof claims that the debate about whether foreign aid fosters development remains "a bitter and unresolved argument," most people in the development community understand that foreign direct investment is much more important than aid in helping a country grow its economy. That is not to say that foreign aid doesn't play a role.

Steve's post is rather long and deserves a careful read as well as the linked articles. As many of us have been moved to contribute to helping rescue and sustain the Haitian people in this time of need, we owe it to them to help build a better future, than just a short reprieve from an early grave.

Read more:
Can Haiti really become resilient?

As I read Tom's and Steve's posts and pondered the merit of what they argued, I was reminded of a similar line of thought that was the main theme of Howard K. Bloom's latest book The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism.  Bloom argues that capitalism is a product of human evolution and is the perfect vehicle for repurposing ourselves after a bust or fall from grace. This concept seems to dovetail perfectly into what Tom and Steve's posts allude too. Bloom writes that the Panic of 1857 and the American Civil War, combined to be our greatest social and economic upheaval and brought about a new form of social consolidation; the modern nation, capable of sustaining itself through the kind of trials that before had led to total collapse of society. Tom Barnett wrote of this very example, in his latest book, Great Powers: America and the World After Bush where, in chapter three he recaps how America, continually repurposed itself after each crisis, to grow stronger and more resilient as it spread it's unique brand of economic system worldwide.

Much ink and megabytes have been used to describe what happened in Haiti and prophesize the future. Sadly, as the stench of decomposing bodies wafts away on the trade winds, so will the world's attention. That is, unless heed is taken of men like DeAngelis, Barnett, Kristof, Bloom and Collier who have devoted much thought to the benefits of connectivity and social and cultural responsibility. Hopefully my little effort will stimulate some thought about how we of the developed world can provide a lasting connected future to those left swirling in the back wash of civilization.

UPDATE-
What to do about Haiti-Los Angeles Times

Comment Upgrade-more Haiti data-Thomas PM Barnett-blog

How America Can Grow 20 Million New Jobs in A Decade

Bell Labs

Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions can always be counted on to produce some of the most thought provoking and timely blog posts of anyone in the game. These next two posts address a favorite subject of mine, innovation and how in relates to education.

Steve opens with this troubling news.

"New York Times' columnist Bob Herbert claims "the biggest issue confronting ordinary Americans right now — the biggest by far — is the devastatingly weak employment environment. Politicians talk about it, but aggressive job-creation efforts are not part of the policy mix. Nearly 15 million Americans are unemployed, according to official statistics. The real numbers are far worse. The unemployment rate for black Americans is a back-breaking 15.1 percent. Five million people have been unemployed for more than six months, and the consensus is that even when the recession ends, the employment landscape will remain dismal. A full recovery in employment will take years. With jobless recoveries becoming the norm, there is a real question as to whether the U.S. economy is capable of providing sufficient employment for all who want and need to work. This is an overwhelming crisis that is not being met with anything like the urgency required" ["It’s Time to Get Help," 8 September 2009]. Adrian Slywotzky, writing for BusinessWeek, asserts that we are looking in the wrong direction for help. He insists we need to stop looking at politicians and business leaders for help and start looking to scientists instead ["How Science Can Create Millions of New Jobs," 7 September 2009 print issue]."

Steve's post is long and deserves a full reading as well as the articles he linked. The most troubling data comes from the second article where Slywotzky's lays out the following.

"Name an industry that can produce 1 million new, high-paying jobs over the next three years. You can't, because there isn't one. And that's the problem. America needs good jobs, soon. We need 6.7 million just to replace losses from the current recession, then an additional 10 million to keep up with population growth and to spark demand over the next decade."

Slywotzky points to a massive drop in R and D by almost every major industry in the country as the root cause of a decline in innovation and cutting edge inventions. The follow statistics should make every American sit up and take notice.

"The PC, Internet, and cellular industries, born in the 1980s and 1990s, more than offset the loss of high-paying jobs in consumer electronics, steel, and other sectors. But in recent years, outsourced software and manufacturing jobs have largely been replaced by millions of low-wage service jobs in fast-food, retail, and the like. Compounding the effects of outsourcing and extended recession, the ongoing destruction of old business models (think print journalism, the music business, and landline telephones) will slash a large number of high-value jobs in the coming decade. The result? A broken demand structure. Of the roughly 130 million jobs in the U.S., only 20%, or 26 million, pay more than $60,000 a year. The other 80% pay an average of $33,000. That ratio is not a good foundation for a strong middle class and a prosperous society. It's time to identify—and fix—the root of the problem."

That last statistic should run tremors up the spine of everyone on both sides of the political spectrum. How can 20% of the population continue to carry the tax burden as spending explodes in all sectors? Currently over 40% of tax filing Americans have no tax liability, leaving a smaller and smaller percentage to carry the water for everyone else. Our middle class is shrinking along with the dollars spent to develop new products. One thing not mentioned in this article is the fact that much of the money for research and development since World War II was fueled by the World War II and the Cold War. The Microwave was developed from a magnetron invented in the 40's for radar. The Internet was developed for military communication. The list goes on to include almost every major innovation in the past fifty years. The answer is not a return to that kind of military industrial complex system, but as Steve paraphrases.

"Slywotzky says today's situation is analogous to that found in America following the Second World War. America's best minds had been put to work trying to produce materials that could win the war at the expense of basic research. The country was able to turn around because it was able to redirect its efforts following the war. As a result, America became the anchor of the global economy. China, which hopes to become the anchor of the global economy, has also committed itself to research and innovation. If America hopes to keep up, it needs to follow a strategy similar to that recommended by Slywotzky."

Read the rest:Science and Jobs

Steve continues to focus on this important message in this next post where he writes.

"Luke Johnson, who runs a private equity firm called Risk Capital Partners, recently published an op-ed piece in the Financial Times in which he claims "Inventors are our greatest heroes" [2 September 2009]. He explicitly makes the claim because he believes that society under-appreciates the people who spend their time inventing the things that make our lives better."

We have lost our focus when our greatest heroes are those who entertain us with sporting exhibitions, musical notes or outrageous behavior.

Read more: Inventors as Heroes

Illustrating that this issue has finally gotten the attention of the White House is this from my blog friend, the intrepid Dan of tdaxp.com, who offers this in summation of his post on education.

"By encouraging (through various means) schools to focus on core classes, we can move away from teaching mere hobbies into creating a strong, 21st century workforce."

Read more: Better Curricula.

I have written at length about the challenges facing America. We face the kind of crossroad that Poet Robert Frost wrote about in "The Road Not Taken" (poem), when he took the road that appeared more difficult, only to find in the end it was worth the journey. A refocusing on our future and a real commitment to send more future captains of industry to the engine room, instead of sending thousands to the bridge, armed with only an MBA.

Brain Food Tuesday

Changing the pace from the previous cordite and sulfurous fumes coming from the post on Afghanistan. I am gratifed to share this next post from Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions.

Steve writes:

Nowadays an oft-heard complaint is that we are being bombarded with so much data that we are being overloaded. Humankind has always struggled with how to make sense of the world around us. We draw pictures, develop taxonomies, create graphs, generate maps, and so forth. Good visualization of data helps us draw the maximum amount of benefit in the least amount of time from a large amount of data. Often in my business meetings, I use a white board or grab a scrap piece of paper to draw out an idea I'm trying to explain. These doodles often find their way into more formal PowerPoint presentations. Using visualization to enhance understanding is a tried and true method of knowledge transfer. Hence, the old adage, "a picture is worth a thousand words." Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been particularly useful for visualizing data associated with particular locations. Visualization can be so powerful that The Economist reports "interest groups around the world are using mapping tools and internet-based information sources to campaign for change" ["Mapping a better world," 6 June 2009 print issue].

Read more: Visualizing a Better World

The stand out find in Steve's post is Gapminder and their youtube video 200 years that changed the world. watch it and be amazed and informed.

This graphic illustrates how the world has changed in the past 200 years and puts a graph to the map that grand strategist Thomas Barnett created to define the gap and core states.

Reads of the Week

A writer finding his voice

Steven Pressfield

Cpl. Joseph Etchells from 3 Plt, 2 Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was attached to 1 Plt, 2 Rifles

Cpl. Benjamin Kopp, United State Army Ranger

This weeks recommended reads will take you from how to put your thoughts to pen, to the challenge of Afghanistan and our growing peer competitor China. Then on to the sea, before pausing to ponder the personal cost of war.

It's The Tribes Stupid! founder, author Steven Pressfield has been offering up priceless jewels that anyone who wants to write well can take to the bank. For a taste I am highlighting and link the latest.

Steven begins:

I’ve been lucky in my career in having a few really terrific mentors–just guys who’ve taught me stuff about writing and work. The best is Norman Stahl, the cosmically brilliant documentarian, novelist and military historian. Do you know people who’ve got a lot of bullshit? Norm has the least of anybody I’ve ever known. In [...]

Read more:

“Writing Wednesdays” #4: On Research, Or What I Learned from a Single Sheet of Fool’s Cap

And this week he serves up a lesson in finding your "writer's voice."

How do you find your writer’s voice? A lot of humbug has been written on this subject. The myth is that in finding that voice, the writer achieves a kind of personal enlightenment. She discovers “who she really is.”Not in my experience.This is not to say that voice is unimportant. It’s crucial, make-or-break. Without [...]

Read more:

“Writing Wednesdays” #5: The Writer’s Voice

Weighing in on today's election in Afghanistan is Thomas Barnett direct from his World War Room at Esquire.com with his thought provoking views.

Because Karzai's probably going to win, and Obama's still going to trust another puppet. Because so-called democracy may take the vote, but the Taliban's still going to rule many hearts and minds. Because more U.S. troops may fight harder, but Pakistan's got the last word. To America, at least, Thursday is just another day in another long, unpopular war. And that's why Obama should be worried.

Read more:

Why the Afghanistan Election May Not Really Matter

Turning to China, Tom links an article by Henry K Kissinger that follows by 2 days a similar piece by Barnett.

Read more:

HAK on the Pacific

Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions can always be counted on to produce some of the most thought inspiring and informative posts. In this one he tackles to sea.

William Shakespeare once penned: "My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep. The more I give thee, the more I have, For both are infinite." We are fast learning that Shakespeare might have been right about love but he was wrong about the ocean. Neither the sea nor its bounty is infinite. Since a portion of my business involves port and harbor security and international supply chains, I pay attention to events in the maritime realm as well as events on land. For example, in another post that drew from Shakespeare entitled A Rose by Any Other Name Might Smell as Sweet, but Would It Sell? Consider the Slimehead, I discussed the issue of collapsing fish stocks in the world's oceans.

Read more:

The Not So Infinite Sea

Michael Yon closes out tonight's recommended reads with this reminder of the sacrifices made by men most of us did not know, but own a moment to pause and reflect on their lives.

Benjamin was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates quietly attended the funeral, as did my good friend, Colonel Erik Kurilla, the new commander of Ranger Regiment, where Kopp served until America lost one of its finest Sons.

Yet the effect of Corporal Kopp did not end on the battlefields of Afghanistan; he only regrouped and continued to serve. Corporal Kopp had volunteered as an organ donor and his heart was transplanted. Two days after most people would have died, Benjamin Kopp’s heart was transplanted into Judy Meikle. According to the Washington Post, Meikle said, "How can you have a better heart?" said a grateful Judy Meikle, 57, of Winnetka, Ill., who is still recovering from the surgery. "I have the heart of a 21-year-old Army Ranger war hero beating in me."

Other organs were also donated for other recipients.

And of Joseph Ecthells:

On August 11, I attended a small ceremony for a British soldier from this base in Helmand who was killed in combat the day after Benjamin passed. His name was Joseph Etchells. I was told how Joseph died in a bomb ambush, and that his last request was to be cremated, loaded into a firework, and launched over the park where he used to play as a kid. When Joseph’s last request was explained, I burst out laughing and the British soldier who told me also was laughing. The absurd humor of Joseph’s request was familiar, and it was as though Joseph were standing there with us, laughing away.

Steel your hearts and read more as you gaze on the incredible photos that accompany this post:

The Kopp-Etchells Effect

Hump Day Reads

Brooklyn Navy Yard Cemetery

Admirals Row Brooklyn Navy Yard

Genographic journey

Leading off is this from 1776 online history magazine a site that offers book reviews and articles about American history. This post links a video about the old Brooklyn Navy Yard and is worth a look.
The Decay of Brooklyn Navy Yard

Next is this from Zenpundit. When I spied this post Forensic Paleo-Anthropology and the Last Man, I was reminded of my recent quest to trace my genographic history back to the beginning, HG's Long Journey into His Past.

Fabius Maximus offering a provocative post that has more that a measure of truth ringing like a fire bell in the night. One of America’s few wise men tells us about Mexico.

The United States Naval Institute Blog contributor, Jeffrey Withington a midshipmen at the Naval Academy posts this interview. VADM John Harvey: On Nuke SWO, Serving Under Charles Krulak & Mentorship

Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions invites readers to consider The Amazing Mind

Thinking like A Fox

Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions has up an insightful post that challenges us all to become fox's in our pursuit of learning to think for ourselves. Steve introduces this topic with this poem, part of which I have posted below.

Little known poet Walter D. Wintle wrote only one poem of note. The poem is best known by the title “The Man Who Thinks He Can.” It goes like this:

If you think you are beaten, you are;

If you think you dare not, you don’t.

If you’d like to win, but think you can’t,It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,For out in the world we find Success begins with a fellow’s will;

It’s all in the state of mind.

Steve continues his essay by drawing from an op-ed piece in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof about thinking, specifically about the often errant thinking of so-called experts ["Learning How to Think," 26 March 2009]. He then turns to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to illustrate how politicians lead us down paths without telling us about the landmines of contradiction strewn about. "I’m Not Running for President, but ..." New York Times, 28 February 2008].

Read more:Learning to Think for Yourself

Supporting today's focus on thinking is this post from Mark at Zenpundit is this post entitled.

Excess Complexity is the Route to Extinction. It is a post filled with links and an excellent analysis of the value of "keeping it simple stupid."

Finally, Thomas Barnett weighs in on what he describes as President Obama's wasteful and foolish dream of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. The logic of Dr. Barnett's comments are deafening is one stops to apply the lessons conveyed in Steve DeAngelis's post and seek the simplicity of evidence offered by Mark.

Barnett begins:

Obama's team proposes a replacement to START that would limit both sides to 1k nuclear warheads (not weapons, warheads). We currently have about 4k and Russia has 5k. Bush-Cheney had an agreement with Moscow to go down to 1700 US and 2200 Russia by 2012.

I could live with both sides dropping down to maybe 2500 a piece, but to me, 1k is too low. I like a big, "unthinkable" lead on the rest of the world and I don't worry about having Russia along for that ride, because we cancel each other out in that regard.

But we can argue over the best long-term number. What we should not argue over is this notion of trying to get the world to zero. Since that simply will not happen for rising great powers any time soon, we need to remain many-fold larger than their current/desired arsenal levels, and we need to keep our arsenals in solid shape.

That's why Obama's rejection of the Reliable Replacement Warhead (simple updating) program is deeply flawed. Gates wants it and so does the military. Without it, our arsenal degrades and becomes less safe and less operationally sound.

Read more:Again, banning nuclear weapons is a foolish dream and a waste of Obama's limited political capital in national security affairs

Taken altogether, learning to apply critical thinking is a tool once learned, must be sharpened constantly in order to cut through the rhetoric and gibberish offered by self-serving politicians, many in the MSM and self appointed experts. I confess to being like most, getting my news and information via the MSM. Reading two newspapers a day and watching several news shows, not only consumed a large part of my day, but limited my exposure to important views that time did not permit pursuing. Today, with the Internet, it is possible to peruse dozens of sources offering a broad spectrum of ideas. Using my own mental Medici Effect of letting the convergent ideas intersect in my brain, I am able to form an opinion that I can support mentally and emotionally.

Reads For A Saturday Night of Contemplation

Maghreb

14th century dress

William of Ockham

Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions leads off tonight with a trio of posts that show some countries are emerging like the ancient Phoeinx to rise above the swirling fears about a global economic recession

The Emergence of North Africa

For decades, the Maghreb has been best known for being part of the arc of crisis that begins at Gibraltar and ends in Pakistan. Maghreb is an Arabic word meaning "place of sunset" or "western." Traditionally it refers to a region in North Africa that includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and, more recently, Libya. At a time when Western suspicions have deepened about Muslim countries because of the activities of radical Islamists, there is a remarkably upbeat report in BusinessWeek about the Maghreb ["The Rise of the Maghreb," by Carol Matlack and Stanley Reed, 16 March 2009 print edition]. Matlack and Reed note that in the immediate post-Cold War period, a number of automotive parts suppliers set up plants in Eastern Europe, but many of those same suppliers are now shifting their facilities to the Maghreb.

China Grows Stronger during Economic Bad Times

The best time to have money is when nobody else does. Head to any foreclosure sale and you'll understand what I mean. Chinese companies, which have amassed fortunes during past couple of decades, are now starting to spend some of that cash looking for bargains ["China Gains Key Assets In Spate of Purchases," by Ariana Eunchung Cha, Washington Post, 17 March 2009]. What's most interesting is where they are looking for those bargains and what they are buying.

Innovations from Emerging Market Economies

As labor costs increased along with infrastructure modernization/replacement costs, economies of scale became less of a differentiator for developed countries -- which is why so much manufacturing has moved to so-called "low cost" countries.

Fabius Maximus never fails to stimulate my brain cells and this post does that along with visiting my favorite subject history.

Fab introduces it this way.

This is the title of a post by Brad Delong (Professor of Economics at Berkeley), about Buying Power of 14th Century Money, posted by Will Mclean at A Commonplace Book — Deeds of Arms and Other Matters Medieval and Otherwise, 3 July 2008. As the economy slides backwards, it is important to remember how far we have come. Almost every American is rich compared to the average person of 1776 — and perhaps even richer than almost everybody in the 14th century.

Read more: The Singularity is in our past

And weighing in or President Obama strategic plan for Afghanistan is abu mugqawama with his always logical manner. Take the time to introduce yourselves to William Ockham courtesy of Abu.

Sharing a car back from the wilds of Virginia yesterday, I had a long conversation with Dave Kilcullen that improbably ranged from Herodotus to William of Ockham to, finally, appropriate metrics in Afghanistan. (Fun fact: Dave's medievalist father is one of the world's leading experts on William of Ockham. Who knew?) As I joked on the blog a few weeks ago, the Marines used rice production as a metric in Vietnam in place of enemy body count, but we can't very well use poppy production as our metric in Afghanistan.

Read more: On Metrics in Afghanistan

T'was The Day After Christmas, and Reality Sets Back In.

Benjamin Franklin

No caption needed!

The blogworld was resplendent with Holiday and Christmas greetings this year. Those of us who blog, post a greeting and wishes for their friends and readers in lieu of sending the time tested greeting cards. One post caught my eye for it's simple message to make a difference in someones life.
Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions wrote this:

During this holiday season, I encourage you make a difference in someone's life. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Well done is better than well said." Franklin also said, "A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle," which is one reason why so many people who selfishly focus on "finding themselves" get lost in the process.

Read the whole post Happy Holidays.

Steve's post about so many people being selfishly focused on themselves casts it's shadow on something that Dan of tdaxp.com posted about the Competing Views of Education where he asks the question.

So should our education system concentrate on a ‘next generation’ of scientists and engineers, lawyers and MBAs, critical theorists and community activists, or something else?

Dan linked an article by Thomas L. Friedman: Time to Reboot America. Dan copied an important paragraph that explains what Friedman see wrong with Americans today. I think that Dan and Thomas Friedman are really on to something here. We as a nation need to reboot, or jump-start for those who are tech challenged. Living off the fat of the past half century has left us a nation of consumers, and micro managers, who have indulged in mental masturbation to achieve instant gratification at the cost of our souls and the financial future of our children and grandchildren.

Here is what Friedman thinks should be done.

For all these reasons, our present crisis is not just a financial meltdown crying out for a cash injection. We are in much deeper trouble. In fact, we as a country have become General Motors — as a result of our national drift. Look in the mirror: G.M. is us.

That’s why we don’t just need a bailout. We need a reboot. We need a build out. We need a buildup. We need a national makeover. That is why the next few months are among the most important in U.S. history. Because of the financial crisis, Barack Obama has the bipartisan support to spend $1 trillion in stimulus. But we must make certain that every bailout dollar, which we’re borrowing from our kids’ future, is spent wisely.

It has to go into training teachers, educating scientists and engineers, paying for research and building the most productivity-enhancing infrastructure — without building white elephants. Generally, I’d like to see fewer government dollars shoveled out and more creative tax incentives to stimulate the private sector to catalyze new industries and new markets. If we allow this money to be spent on pork, it will be the end of us.

Friedman still thinks that American has the stuff to rise to the challenge.

America still has the right stuff to thrive. We still have the most creative, diverse, innovative culture and open society — in a world where the ability to imagine and generate new ideas with speed and to implement them through global collaboration is the most important competitive advantage. China may have great airports, but last week it went back to censoring The New York Times and other Western news sites. Censorship restricts your people’s imaginations. That’s really, really dumb. And that’s why for all our missteps, the 21st century is still up for grabs.

John Kennedy led us on a journey to discover the moon. Obama needs to lead us on a journey to rediscover, rebuild and reinvent our own backyard.

Looking back two hundred and fifty years, Benjamin Franklin's words still ring true and are a guide for all to follow when charting their personal life's course. Some of our most trusted institutions have strayed from that path. We the citizens have a moral obligation to demand accountability and leadership that puts unselfishness first.

Economics! The Glue That Holds Our World Together

The people have spoken and we prepare to usher in a new administration. On first blush, it is impossible to guess with any certainty how great the course changes will be for our ship of state.

My blog friend Dan of tdaxp.com who was just as sceptical of Obama as I, wrote this post,Change.gov.

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Dan said:

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This is a good sign. Hopefully the transition from the Bush and Obama Administration goes well. The creation of the Office of the President-Elect and creation of the .gov domain name for it, imply that both the Bush and Obama teams are working hard to transition from one set of political appointees to another, but also demonstrate regime continuity to other countries, as well.

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I note that our nation has peacefully changed regimes 43 out of 44 times during our history. This change seems to be off to a smooth transition.

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Turning to the biggest challenge facing both the United States and in turn the nations of our shared World is the economic crisis. It is the first, and most important challenge for our new President and his team. As in past major System Perturbations, working together in a bi-partisan way is the only tactic that works. In our connected world this now means everyone.

To help illustrate my point, I will highlight a series of post this week by Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions.

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Steve wrote this the day after the election.

On the day after elections in America, it seems like a good time to talk about democracy elsewhere. Politicians like to talk about politics and the ideologies behind their particular brand of politics. In the West, we are fond of democracy -- especially representational democracy -- and we try to spread the gospel about it wherever we go. Often we hear it in speeches like the one President Woodrow Wilson gave before Congress in April 1917: "The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty." Over a decade and a half before that speech, Wilson had defined what he meant by democracy.

.....My colleague Tom Barnett and I have preached that if you want to instill democratic principles in governments then improve the lives of the people in autocratic countries. Economic progress almost always precedes political progress. Asia provides two good examples of economics racing ahead of politics: relations between North and South Korea and relations between Taiwan and China. In both cases, economic ties are much stronger than political ones and economic policies in North Korea and China are much more liberal than political policies...

Read the whole post here: Economics Drive Political Change.

Steve then writes about how the effect of our own lax credit rules caused a butterfly effect that has spread it's effect across the globe.

We've all heard about the butterfly effect -- the notion that a butterfly can gently flaps its wings somewhere in the world and set in motion a series of events that result in catastrophic wind damage thousands of miles away. The current financial crisis is something like that. It began with easy credit being given to people who couldn't afford it and with so-called "liar loans." The simple act of lying on a credit form -- repeated hundreds of thousands of times -- set in motion a series of events that has resulted in catastrophic financial damage thousands of miles away in emerging markets. These emerging markets represent the future of the global financial system and governments are trying to find ways to throw them a lifeline.

Steve ends this post with these words of wisdom for our new administration.

Fear must be replaced with hope. At the same time, credit must be extended in an economically sound way. Consumption based on risky credit creates rather than solves problems. Romania sits on the cusp of prosperity and letting it slide back into the morass of poverty that gripped it while it was part of the Soviet bloc would be unwise. The same can be said about most emerging market countries. Financial isolation is no longer an option in a connected world. In the NBC television series Heroes, characters were told, "Save the cheerleader and save the world." Today's heroes need to save emerging market countries to save the world.

Read more...Trust and Credit in Emerging Markets.

In this last post, Steve DeAngelis explains why Americans should be concerned with economic conditions outside their own country.

He writes:

Many Americans who are worried about their economic futures wonder why they should be concerned about someone else's financial crisis half a world away. There are a number of reasons. It was the building boom in China that resurrected the slumping heavy machinery business in the United States. It has been consumers in emerging market countries who have helped ease America's trade deficit over the past several months. Emerging market countries are the West's best hope for reigniting a growing global economy and keeping them afloat so that they can continue to progress is critical.

The anger that has risen among the general public in the U.S. about the government's rescue plan demonstrates that they don't understand the difference between liquidity and solvency. The Treasury is trying to ensure liquidity so that insolvency doesn't become a bigger challenger than it already is. Insolvent companies are going to fail, but they need not drag down the entire economy. President Bush has called for an international meeting to address the global crisis; but Landler notes that "there is a limit to what the United States can do to solve the problems of these countries" because it is wrestling with major financial problems of its own.

"'The most important thing the United States can do is stabilize its financial system,' Mr. Lowery, of the Treasury, said. 'The other thing we can do is to support the actions taken by emerging-market countries.'"

Writing from the eastern side of the Pacific, Shawn of Asia Logistics wrap, has this post about our economic connectivity with Asia.

He begins:

Although most people understand that U.S. trade with Northeast Asia is quite large and significant, it is only tangible for many of us when you begin to break that trade down to a more local level. By using the term tangible, I am referring to the goods and services we buy, the companies or organizations with which we are employed, and the people with whom we interact on a regular basis.

Over the next few posts Shawn will offer a case study of a tangible economic connection between Korea and our own state of Georgia.

Shawn explains his motive this way.

My goal is to provide study material for those interested in better understanding the positive impacts of FDI on local, U.S. communities and also touch on what makes communities successful in attracting FDI. I believe the effort to educate others on the positive impacts of FDI is extremely important at a time when trade with other countries, including countries friendly to the United States, is more and more perceived as a negative for the U.S. economy.

Read more:

Case Study: South Korean FDI in the State of Georgia, Part I

At the top of this post I wrote that economics would be the most important task facing the new administration. To further illustrate that I offer this post by Thomas Barnett, who in this latest Sunday column, makes this observation and prediction about the legacy of the Bush-Cheney administration.

Tom writes:

Barack Obama's victory presents to America a wonderful opportunity to redefine our engagement with the world's rising great powers.

Along those lines, it's worthwhile to remember what Bush-Cheney got right with China.

....We were told by international affairs realists at Cold War's end that America would not be allowed to continue owning the world's largest gun, that other great powers would necessarily balance us symmetrically by creating one of their own.

This has not happened and isn't close to happening anywhere, not even with "rising China," whose military build-up specifically targets our ability to target their ability to target Taiwan's ability to defend itself....

Tom wrote that the most important non-issue since 2001 was:

The lack of a serious U.S.-China confrontation in the years since 9/11 is the most important dog that did not bark across the Bush-Cheney administration.

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In the grand sweep of history, this is arguably George W. Bush's greatest legacy: the encouragement of China to become a legitimate stakeholder in global security.

In true non-partisan form, Barnett in his sweeping grand visionary view made this comment.

Indeed, history will likely judge this success as greater than the Bush administration's failures in Iraq.

Barnett, who has publicly backed the change that he felt Barak Obama would bring to American leadership, ended with this important advice to the new government.

Democrats, who now control both Congress and the White House, would do well to retain the Bush administration's long-term perspective on China, especially during this moment of profound global economic uncertainty, when we need Beijing's help almost as much as it needs Washington's calm leadership.

Barnett: What Bush- Cheney got right with China .

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No nation can rule the world and try and impose it's will on others without unintended consequences coming back to haunt them. Our nation has been the catalyst for change that has benefited not only Americans, but people in every corner of the world. Let us hope we set our course carefully and sail on to meet the challenges and overcome them as we have been doing for the past 232 years.