I wouldn't call myself particularly prescient (I'm not an economist, but then again economists haven't been doing so hot, now have they?) but in September 2005, when I'd just gotten this blog off the ground I wrote about the coming collapse of world markets, here.
And here in 2006 I wrote about a life and not a 'lifestyle' which is something that has been sold to us in the name of rampant consumerism and is one of the root causes of all our ills.
Yet all these politicans are 'taken by surprise' at the collapse of the economy. Why on earth do we continue to vote these double digit IQ holders into office?
I watch all the hoopla around the bailouts (both the US and Canada) of failing industries (automobiles, really?) and the criminal banks who fleeced us suckers with the usurious interest rates that funded their CEO's private planes and lavish multi-home lifestyles, and the masses, sedated by endless re-runs of something with an Idol in the title, snore on.
Our tax dollars. Entrusted to our masters. Now bleeding through their pockets and into the ones of those that robbed us. Construction. SUVs. Infrastructure. Insurance. Banking. Oil.
Nowhere do I see, by any politician, even the slightest awareness of the coming food crisis, water shortages, civil unrest throughout the planet, famine, birth control (the current population is unsustainable), economic development for feminine collectives. I could go on. You catch my drift.
No, let's toss the last few of our tax pennies at the robber barons, when community gardening and urban farming might be the beginning of the real solutions to the reality of our predicament. Community stability - what a radical concept!
Nothing a social unrest will not fix.
ReplyDeleteCommunity gardening and urban farming, I saw some examples of this in pictures taken in Cuba. I can't remember where I read and saw it.
Sounds like the way to go.
Also I read somewhere that building roofs were excellent places for growing certain produces. Unlimited source of sunlight being the most important. I would like to see it start to happen. My tomatoes and herbs are doing well at the moment.
Gx
Word verification of the day: Chili! HAH
Yes, Gaye, Cuba, I believe is the only truly organic country in the world, mainly thanks to the US embargoes which stopped Monsanto and their toxic ilk in gaining a foothold of mono-culture and agribusiness there.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a beginning of roof-farming in New York, and some here in Toronto also. It will get much more prevalent, necessity being the mother of invention and all that!!
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The continuing world slump is certainly forcing people to reappraise their priorities and rein in the frenzied consumerism and materialism. The slump might even start to solve the global warming problem without any government doing anything (not that they're doing much now).
ReplyDeleteIt just struck me that the sacred cow of competitiveness is one factor in the banking collapse. All the British banks were competing frantically for customers and market share, which was what led to liabilities soaring way ahead of assets. If only they had stuck to maintaining solid, healthy businesses, this horrific economic implosion might not have happened.
The UK situation is particularly worrisome, Nick, in that it seems to be the canary in the coal mines (as is Iceland for small countries).
ReplyDeleteI think we're all being forced into detox to cure us of our sprendthrift ways and rampant consumerism.
I caught a segment on China's meltdown last night on the news. The poor unemployed there now getting desperate. We are all to blame for this.
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But there's one positive today - Iceland now has a lesbian prime minister. How about that? The first gay head of state in the world it seems.
ReplyDeleteThe UK situation is a worry as most of our banks have lent huge amounts of money abroad, particularly to Russian Oligarchs with no hope of getting the money back. That's the downside of the City wanting to be an International Finance Centre. What do you do when foreign borrowers default? So our Govt bails out our banks to cover the losses not just in the UK but everywhere else as well.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with Nick, part of the problem was by getting rid of a lot of our manufacturing base to much depended on tax income generated by the banks. So they were encouraged to expand their operations into specialised markets most of them didn't understand. End result...they reckon that the £100bn bailout is about the same as all the tax the banks have paid to the UK Govt since Labour came to power in 1997. And what have we got to show for it?
Then Shell announces a £22bn profit today....with petrol prices going up again! With the world in recession what exactly are they going to invest their money into now? More oil fields?
France is going on strike against their government and all across Europe it is the same. They all want to know why are their governments bailing out industry when no-one is buying their products anymore? And unemployments is now at 20% and rising. There is gathering comment that the Euro will collapse and this has to be the end of the EU as Natioanl Govts battle with their own home grown crises.
Talking about home grown, I'm off to sort out my veg seeds and order some fruit trees that my Dad wants to buy me for a birthday present. I'll also check out this roof-farming idea, that could be one to consider.
Nick:
ReplyDeleteI particularly like the fact that on the Icelandic news this fact was smaller than a footnote, but sex-mad biblical Americans are shouting it in headlines.
Gawd, they need to grow up!
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Rossa:
ReplyDeleteOne example, closer to home, of these insane lending practices was the fact that Iceland was advancing loans to Newfoundland fisheries. Duh.
Yes, I'm in the business of fruit trees this year too.
we all need to pay far more attention to our own survival. it is not over by a long, long shot.
XO
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