Well, as far as I know there isn't a soul aside from myself who reads anything I write here (all the more likely because I don't really tell anyone that I write stuff), but it's somehow gratifying all the same to write something that shows up in the public domain.
Just back from a year in China. I have more to write about than I could possibly ever have the time or inclination to put down. I think I might start writing a bit more again though. Possibly even with some conscious effort to develop some writing style?
How about something simple to start with.
If I have been impressed by an idea in the last little while, it is this: eradicating world poverty is not such a complicated matter, even in consideration of population growth and environmental concerns associated the rest of the world leaving poverty to the dustbins of history.
It would take a serious pessimist indeed to read "The End of Poverty" by Jeffrey Sachs and "Banker to the Poor" by Muhammad Yunus and not think that eradicating poverty is not only possible, but something that can be attained in our lifetime. By poverty, of course, I mean the kind where you don't eat much, or take the kids out of school at the age of 6 or 10 to help at the family farm.
I mean, if the ultimate goal of our time here is enlightenment, or at least some degree of higher development as a human being, well, how can that be attained by a hungry person who never had a chance to learn much of anything outside of fighting for basic survival? (Of course, hard times may also be a stimulus to personal development as well, but generally through the desire to improve one's economic or social circumstances, rather than an effort at improvement in of and for itself). And how could the rest of us suppose we were much at all further along the way if we did not want to at least put our two cents (or preferably dollars) into enabling others to do the same? Sachs and Yunus have convinced me that some degree of optimism on this front is very much warranted.
Leave the brutish and short life to the animals. Let us welcome the remainder of homo sapiens to join humanity in the fullest potential that can be made of it.
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My lengthy ponderings of current issues, usually in an effort to break new theoretical ground with respect to economic, political or metaphysical problems. Fundamental flaws in current mainstream analysis of the issues are often emphasized before proposing solutions that make an effort to unite contradictory arguments to reach productive and new conclusions.
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