Sunday, August 24, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
"Strange Bedfellows"-The Olympics & Presidential Race
What do the Olympics and the U.S. Presidential Race have in common? Both spend a lot of money to win. That's a very simplistic analogy. But it goes much deeper than that, and that's the part that gets scary. If you are my age, you probably recall that hit single of the 60's "The Eve of Destruction". Our current times resemble a another time in our history when everything just seemed to be going crazy, chaotic and out of control.
Fast forward to today's madness and you can see that it's not so much different. The price tag has just gotten higher. To "win" at all cost is a fabric of the American culture, it's in the DNA, and is instilled into every child from the age of five on. It's on every Wheaties box, and it's in their face; at school, from their parents, their coaches, their friends, and every time they turn on the television. The runner up coach from the Super Bowl is seldom interviewed on late night television.
And now we are discovering that this mad race to succeed at all cost is a part of the next great super power, China. Little girls must now have to lie about their age in order to succeed and win. This is encouraged by the government, their parents and their friends. Why, because China wants to be just like America only better and more powerful. And they are succeeding, and not just at the Olympics.
As of yesterday, there should be no remaining doubts as to the tectonic shift in the global economy--the world's largest and most profitable bank is Chinese. While banks in North America and Europe are still counting massive credit crunch losses, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has surged ahead of it's international competitors thanks to a booming economy that has dramatically bolstered profits.
Profits it seems in the eyes of many translates into power, power transforms into greed, greed transforms into corruption, corruption leads to lying and cheating. This is historical, it's even in the bible.
So what to do? Begin at the every fundamental level of teaching your kids that success is not about winning and that attainment is more important that achievement. That becoming someone is far more important than being like someone else. America is consumed with heroes and celebrities; it's an addiction.
By the end of the political campaign for President in the U.S. it is estimated that both candidates will have spent a billion dollars; that will be the most money spent on a campaign in the history of elections in the U.S. Is that something to be proud of or is it pure and utter insanity.
I have always said it is not the American people that have brought them to the "eve of destruction", it is their belief system. The American dream has become it's worst nightmare. And the irony is that neither candidate will have a solution, because they both are willing participants in the madness. What do you think the family who just lost their house is thinking, or the single parent mother who has two jobs, making about $6.00 an hour at each of them to feed her family. They must feel like ponds or fodder for political speeches and promises. "Verbal diarrhea", as my former college professor calls it.
Given that we are at the lowest level of trust of government since the 1930's, why should we believe Obama or McCain. Obama said yesterday to an audience in middle America;"I will wake up each and every morning thinking about each and everyone of you". How narcissistic can you get. How about each and everyone of you should be thinking about how you can help each other. When Obama spends 52 million dollars to get elected and McCain spends $25 million, that should not make Obama's chances of getting elected better, it should send a clear message to all Americans to "stop the insanity"!
Fast forward to today's madness and you can see that it's not so much different. The price tag has just gotten higher. To "win" at all cost is a fabric of the American culture, it's in the DNA, and is instilled into every child from the age of five on. It's on every Wheaties box, and it's in their face; at school, from their parents, their coaches, their friends, and every time they turn on the television. The runner up coach from the Super Bowl is seldom interviewed on late night television.
And now we are discovering that this mad race to succeed at all cost is a part of the next great super power, China. Little girls must now have to lie about their age in order to succeed and win. This is encouraged by the government, their parents and their friends. Why, because China wants to be just like America only better and more powerful. And they are succeeding, and not just at the Olympics.
As of yesterday, there should be no remaining doubts as to the tectonic shift in the global economy--the world's largest and most profitable bank is Chinese. While banks in North America and Europe are still counting massive credit crunch losses, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has surged ahead of it's international competitors thanks to a booming economy that has dramatically bolstered profits.
Profits it seems in the eyes of many translates into power, power transforms into greed, greed transforms into corruption, corruption leads to lying and cheating. This is historical, it's even in the bible.
So what to do? Begin at the every fundamental level of teaching your kids that success is not about winning and that attainment is more important that achievement. That becoming someone is far more important than being like someone else. America is consumed with heroes and celebrities; it's an addiction.
By the end of the political campaign for President in the U.S. it is estimated that both candidates will have spent a billion dollars; that will be the most money spent on a campaign in the history of elections in the U.S. Is that something to be proud of or is it pure and utter insanity.
I have always said it is not the American people that have brought them to the "eve of destruction", it is their belief system. The American dream has become it's worst nightmare. And the irony is that neither candidate will have a solution, because they both are willing participants in the madness. What do you think the family who just lost their house is thinking, or the single parent mother who has two jobs, making about $6.00 an hour at each of them to feed her family. They must feel like ponds or fodder for political speeches and promises. "Verbal diarrhea", as my former college professor calls it.
Given that we are at the lowest level of trust of government since the 1930's, why should we believe Obama or McCain. Obama said yesterday to an audience in middle America;"I will wake up each and every morning thinking about each and everyone of you". How narcissistic can you get. How about each and everyone of you should be thinking about how you can help each other. When Obama spends 52 million dollars to get elected and McCain spends $25 million, that should not make Obama's chances of getting elected better, it should send a clear message to all Americans to "stop the insanity"!
Friday, August 01, 2008
Corruption for the Enrichment of a few.
A guest blog by Bruce Stewart
Corruption has stolen the future of millions of people- Mohan Nepali, Nepal
In Zentrepreneurism and on this blog, Allan Holender has discussed the Enron story, a story of deliberate deception and corruption for the enrichment of a few. In the wake of the collapse of this company, the US Congress passed highly restrictive laws known as Sarbanes-Oxley (after the legislation’s sponsors) designed to ensure another such event could not occur. Anyone investing their hard won savings in a firm regulated in the United States by virtue of being traded on an American investment market would be safe and secure.
Here we are, six years later, and the Enron story unfolds again, only this time in the public sector. Benjamin Franklin reported, as the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, that the framers had built “a republic, if you can keep it”. Apparently keeping to even the shade of the republic is no longer the purpose of those in public life. Instead, the American people have been made milch cows to serve at the pleasure of their corporatist and political masters.
Somehow, “making the Hamptons safe for Wall Street profits” doesn’t ring quite as nobly as “making the world safe for democracy”, although that is precisely what is going on under Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, with the connivance of the President and the US Congress. When President Bush signed into law the “bail out my friends in the name of saving the American homeowner” legislation on Wednesday, July 30 — a 7.00am signing, indicating even he knew how distasteful and subversive of America this is — another large railway spike in the coffin of the Republic was banged home.
While some Zentrepreneurial efforts may well grow to be enterprises of substance, most Zentrepreneurs will build businesses that support their life. They will be scaled to be small and local, where they can ensure their principles are not subverted. To burden people like these with the costs of bailing out the trillions in unfunded liabilities associated with the looting of America in the credit bubble and the bailout of the very institutions that inflated that bubble to a global crisis is to make a mockery of their efforts to build a better world for themselves and those they love.
One might, of course, say “well, that’s America”. Alas, Canada has no shortage of larceny, either: in the country in the G8 that runs trade surpluses, current account surpluses and has a pristine central bank balance sheet with twice the reserves required under the current international regime, Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, has decided to follow the Federal Reserve into the game of contaminating the national currency backing with the liar loan derivatives that have fractured the American banking system. Does Canada or its financial institutions need this? No: but Carney “wanted to be useful”. In doing so, his behaviour corrupted something Canadians count on to be honest, fair and right.
Zentrepreneurs, in other words, have more to look out for than just the achievement of their dreams. These days, the moral framework of the Zentrepreneur is needed more than ever, in a society that wants no part of truth, right action or good behaviour on the part of its officials.
Bruce Stewart is an author, speaker, and futurist who wrote the forward to "Zentrepreneurism". You can visit his website at www.accendor.com
Corruption has stolen the future of millions of people- Mohan Nepali, Nepal
In Zentrepreneurism and on this blog, Allan Holender has discussed the Enron story, a story of deliberate deception and corruption for the enrichment of a few. In the wake of the collapse of this company, the US Congress passed highly restrictive laws known as Sarbanes-Oxley (after the legislation’s sponsors) designed to ensure another such event could not occur. Anyone investing their hard won savings in a firm regulated in the United States by virtue of being traded on an American investment market would be safe and secure.
Here we are, six years later, and the Enron story unfolds again, only this time in the public sector. Benjamin Franklin reported, as the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, that the framers had built “a republic, if you can keep it”. Apparently keeping to even the shade of the republic is no longer the purpose of those in public life. Instead, the American people have been made milch cows to serve at the pleasure of their corporatist and political masters.
Somehow, “making the Hamptons safe for Wall Street profits” doesn’t ring quite as nobly as “making the world safe for democracy”, although that is precisely what is going on under Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, with the connivance of the President and the US Congress. When President Bush signed into law the “bail out my friends in the name of saving the American homeowner” legislation on Wednesday, July 30 — a 7.00am signing, indicating even he knew how distasteful and subversive of America this is — another large railway spike in the coffin of the Republic was banged home.
While some Zentrepreneurial efforts may well grow to be enterprises of substance, most Zentrepreneurs will build businesses that support their life. They will be scaled to be small and local, where they can ensure their principles are not subverted. To burden people like these with the costs of bailing out the trillions in unfunded liabilities associated with the looting of America in the credit bubble and the bailout of the very institutions that inflated that bubble to a global crisis is to make a mockery of their efforts to build a better world for themselves and those they love.
One might, of course, say “well, that’s America”. Alas, Canada has no shortage of larceny, either: in the country in the G8 that runs trade surpluses, current account surpluses and has a pristine central bank balance sheet with twice the reserves required under the current international regime, Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, has decided to follow the Federal Reserve into the game of contaminating the national currency backing with the liar loan derivatives that have fractured the American banking system. Does Canada or its financial institutions need this? No: but Carney “wanted to be useful”. In doing so, his behaviour corrupted something Canadians count on to be honest, fair and right.
Zentrepreneurs, in other words, have more to look out for than just the achievement of their dreams. These days, the moral framework of the Zentrepreneur is needed more than ever, in a society that wants no part of truth, right action or good behaviour on the part of its officials.
Bruce Stewart is an author, speaker, and futurist who wrote the forward to "Zentrepreneurism". You can visit his website at www.accendor.com
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