reed writes

By Lord Anthony

At the risk of boring RW readers with what seems infatuation, I refer again
to Thomas Homer-Dixon, previously endorsed for his "Ingenuity Gap".
This time I
give credit for his identification of a new class in the global community, the
Previously Poor.
In a recent Globe and Mail essay on our current financial
woes, he describes the Previously Poor are the new middle-class in many emerging
nations like Turkey, India and China. They are also the global population-sector
destined to suffer most from deflation.

Compared to historic democracies like
Canada and members of EU which have a relatively long tradition of fairness and
social justice, the looming financial collapse for the Previously Poor will
be like spinning wheels off a cliff.
It is harder to grasp that this will be
the smaller part of their woes. And ours, no doubt.
Having abandoned their
old ways and moved to jobs in hyperurbanised cities, their downward path will be
embittered and resentful of the all-powerful West and its false capitalistic
consumerism. They will be forced to abandon their short stay in the middle class
and will be even more susceptible to fundamentalists and extremists of all sorts,
those who ranted against the lifestyle of the western consumer-oriented
democracies who seduced them with dreams of big tvs and huge cars.

George
W. Bush may by chance  have been prophetic far beyond his collapsing
presidency when he said "they hate us for our lifestyle…" If they didn't in
2004, they sure will a decade later.

Our Wastefulised Industrial
Deomcracies will probably stumble through this mess as they have in the past,
aiming to get things back to the good old days.  But this can't happen when the
previously poor of nations we have plundered and invaded are driven back into
tribalism by the collapsed house of cards WE conjured up for them, although they
didn't protest too much at the seductive opening of the dream.

Our imperialistic
militarisation is just starting to unravel. We have disgraced ourselves as world
citizens. How can our politicians support puppet-leaders in far-off lands who
have no qualms about the death penalty, torture and summary executions? Who
couldn't care less about the environment or womens' rights? Who take the buggery
of young boys as a legitimate pastime, the "bacha bereesh", boys without beards,
teenagers who dress up as girls and dance for male military patrons? 

A senior Canadian defense official said that training of Afghan security forces
is on the agenda for a meeting in Canada, adding that the need for financing for
the effort has risen.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates popped into Ottawa today (Friday) for a quick meeting with his underlings in NATO.

He's looking for 17 billion dollars or so in additional financing to help bring the Afghan armed forces up to their stated goal of 134,000 soldiers.

• Mr. Gates who- by all accounts – is a civilised man in an uncivilised administration is a lame-duck.
• His NATO counterparts are for the most part strapped for cash.
• The war is unpopular everywhere.
• NATO puppet-in-chief Karzai has been pursuing "freelance diplomacy" with the Taliban, who after 7 years of this conflict, have shown little interest in giving up the fight.

In other words, Afghanistan strategy is in tatters.

The meeting, which takes place at Cornwallis in the Canadian province of Ontario, will accomplish what these NATO meetings have accomplished over the years, which is not much. (The difference this time is that at long last civilian politicians have seized the "initiative" from their military commanders).

Still it's a chance for NATO functionaries to enjoy a good meal or two, drink some Canadian beer and exchange pleasantries while our soldiers continue to face death in the Afghan wilds.

The one positive development one can hope for out of the meeting is a move toward a more political approach to the Afghan conundrum.

We're not holding our breath.

It comes from the New York Times

Timothy Egan wrote a column today about how the town of Vallejo California has gone bankrupt.

He waxes eloquent about the ruination of America and he stuck a chord with readers.

One gets the feeling that something earth-shaking is happening, but no one is quite sure just what it will be like in that not-so-brave new world.

Comment of the day by Chris

Read the rest of Egan's blog here.

By Lord Anthony

A highly recommended read is U of T's Thomas Homer-Dixon's "The Ingenuity Gap".

He identifies how our ingenuity has managed to cope admirably with challenges since our beginnings,

but those days are gone. We can no longer handle the outcome of the models and systems we have designed.

There is an ingenuity gap, and it's widening.

Three areas are frightening to read. Our bodies can't be micromanaged as a bunch of slave-systems to "The Brain".
Nor can our environment. Biology, forests and rivers don't work that way, but we're afraid to admit it, regardless of Al Gore's ideology.
But what is spookily topical is his analysis of the huge 1987 stock-market "correction" of Monday October 19th, in the chapter named "Glimpsing the Abyss".

Bottom line?

Nobody had a clue what was happening. Vast quantities of financial data were being fired around the planet, panicking investors and brokers.
The traditional ways of let's give it the weekend, let's meet later this week, let's have coffee, had been trumped by the all-business young cyber-turks whose bosses were embarrassed to admit they hadn't a clue what their subordinates were doing.
It seems the US Federal Reserve Bank under Alan Greenspan did an admirable job of heading off complete collapse of the world as we know it.

My rural paradigm-nightmare for this is my favourite rural market at Keady Ont. where everyone is selling the fruits of their labour but no-one is buying. 

The inevitable nasty outcome would be all that endeavour and genius, produce and goods being bought up at fire-sale prices by the worst kind of opportunistic cockroaches.

Next week, no market. Screw you. You now buy from us, get used to it.

…."Many specialist firms surviving Monday ended the day with stock inventories several multiples higher
than their average holdings, all of which had to be paid within five business days. Prestigious firms turned to their normal lenders, similarly prestigious New York banks, only to find that the banks were not interested in lending…"

What makes ordinary people think banks will support them in tough times? Should taxpayers be cutting some slack for banks whose response if the shoe was on the other foot… foreclosure?