"Shrinking Democracy" - Arend van Dam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Showing posts with label suffering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suffering. Show all posts
Monday, July 6, 2015
Friday, June 19, 2015
Burma's rush for economic growth leaves its villagers homeless & jobless
Isn't it ironic that as more & more wealth is being created around the world, more & more people are suffering?
Be it Myanmar, Cuba or Iran (& one day, most likely, North Korea), there is such a hurry to open up these countries for foreign investments. As soon as these countries open up, national leaders (political & business elites) benefit greatly with the huge pouring of money from foreign lands, but poor of the country suffer the most. So what's the point of this development when the most vulnerable of the country suffer?
The most common reason is given then is providing jobs. That's a funny answer, since the jobs are the one thing, which are not created. Foreign companies are businesses, after all. They will still look for the cost & benefit. They are still responsible for one thing & one thing only; increasing their net incomes. They will still look for paying a minimum wage (as low as possible ... perhaps, nothing) to manufacture products for the worldwide markets & all the profits go into the pockets of the business elites.
As I have said in another post, money is the new "religion". It requires no ethics or morals. It requires no sense of any humanity. It requires ruthlessness & treating another human with such disdain that even pet animals are treated far better than another human.
And then, people wonder, rather foolishly or perhaps, naively, why is there so much pain & suffering in the world?
No God / Allah / Yahweh / Waheguru / Brahman created this pain & suffering. We, humans, ourselves, created this pain & suffering.
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Less than an hour south of Rangoon, Burma’s bustling commercial capital, Aye Khin Win sits cross-legged in the middle his small, makeshift house on the edge of a vast construction site. Sipping a cup of traditional tea, the 29-year-old farmer is asking how he & hundreds of neighbours have ended up impoverished & without hope in the midst of his country’s historic economic transformation.
Mr Win grew up just a few kilometres from where he is sitting. But last year he was evicted in the name of development, resettled after his family’s plot became prime real estate & part of a flagship project part-financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) that coordinates developmental projects for the Japanese government. The Thilawa Special Economic Zone, which has taken over the land Mr Win & his neighbours used to farm, has been billed as a key pillar of the country “big bang” economic transformation & a project that could create tens of thousands of jobs. Dozens of foreign corporations have already signed up to open factories here.
But for Mr Win it has been nothing short of a disaster. “All we have ever done is farming. And now we have no land,” he says. “We have no hope, only despair.”
The Burmese government has offered the farmers compensation for the loss of their land, but many are still unclear how much, & whether it will be enough.
“I can’t even sleep at night, because of the stress,” adds his neighbour, Daw Win. The 56-year-old said she used to grow fruits & raise livestock, but now lives “day to day, worrying about meals. I have a lot of stress.”
The villagers’ plight is not unique in Burma, where a clamour to reintegrate the country into the global economy has created what some call a “two-speed” transformation. While there has been a historic rush by foreign investors to set up shop in the country, increasingly in cooperation with aid agencies & NGOs, there is growing concern that Burma’s economic metamorphosis has far outpaced its transition to democracy. Local activists say it is difficult to oppose the economic programme in any respect, as many remain fearful of the government.
The attraction of Burma for big business is not hard to understand. The country, one of south-east Asia’s poorest, is the ultimate “frontier market”. It sits between India & China, the world’s two most populous countries, & is rich in natural resources such as oil & gas, as well as precious stones such as jade.
“Everyone wants to have an influence & get in, in terms of business. Whether it’s China or the UK or the US, I think everybody is looking at opportunities,” says Keith Win, founder of the Myanmar-British Business Association, set up to help British firms move into the country. Foreign investment in Burma reportedly rose to a record high in 2014-2015, reaching $8bn (£5.47bn).
The Burmese government, for its part, is rushing through dozens of new laws & programmes to make the country more “attractive” to foreign capital. Aid money & agencies have also flooded in, announcing enormous spending plans. But in a report last month, Global Witness warned that new investment flows, in the context of a repressive political system, risk “fuelling human rights abuses”.
One local aid worker, who is supporting the farmers displaced by the new Thilawa economic zone but did not want to be named, said there is a sense of fear.
“The villagers feel they cannot go against the government,” he said.
Some are concerned, too, about the ideology guiding the “transformation”. In addition to supporting the Burmese government’s market-based reforms, the World Bank’s private-sector arm has invested millions in luxury real-estate & hotel projects.
One investment is in the Shangri-La, a five-star hotel in downtown Yangon, where the buffet costs $40, more than the average Burmese citizen will earn in a week.
Like the farmers at Thilawa, the Shangri-La’s expansion is also displacing people who work in the area. One woman, a street hawker who also did not want to be named, said she had sold coffee in this spot for 7 years. “I can make a living here & support my family. But I will have to move when the construction is over,” she said. “I don’t have any idea of where to go.”
When questioned, the World Bank says such investment is vital for Burma. “It’s not about poverty eradication, it’s about creating jobs, it’s about shared prosperity,” said Vikram Kumar, the bank’s top investment official in the country.
Back at Thilawa, U Mya Hlaing believes his home will soon be bulldozed. The 69-year-old insists he is not against the Thilawa project, but says that too many locals are suffering as a result of it.
“It’s true that it is good for the development of the country,” he said, “but the people are suffering.”
Matt Kennard & Claire Provost are fellows at the Centre for Investigative Journalism. Travel funding for this article was provided by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Kennard’s new book The Racket is out this week.
Be it Myanmar, Cuba or Iran (& one day, most likely, North Korea), there is such a hurry to open up these countries for foreign investments. As soon as these countries open up, national leaders (political & business elites) benefit greatly with the huge pouring of money from foreign lands, but poor of the country suffer the most. So what's the point of this development when the most vulnerable of the country suffer?
The most common reason is given then is providing jobs. That's a funny answer, since the jobs are the one thing, which are not created. Foreign companies are businesses, after all. They will still look for the cost & benefit. They are still responsible for one thing & one thing only; increasing their net incomes. They will still look for paying a minimum wage (as low as possible ... perhaps, nothing) to manufacture products for the worldwide markets & all the profits go into the pockets of the business elites.
As I have said in another post, money is the new "religion". It requires no ethics or morals. It requires no sense of any humanity. It requires ruthlessness & treating another human with such disdain that even pet animals are treated far better than another human.
And then, people wonder, rather foolishly or perhaps, naively, why is there so much pain & suffering in the world?
No God / Allah / Yahweh / Waheguru / Brahman created this pain & suffering. We, humans, ourselves, created this pain & suffering.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Less than an hour south of Rangoon, Burma’s bustling commercial capital, Aye Khin Win sits cross-legged in the middle his small, makeshift house on the edge of a vast construction site. Sipping a cup of traditional tea, the 29-year-old farmer is asking how he & hundreds of neighbours have ended up impoverished & without hope in the midst of his country’s historic economic transformation.
Mr Win grew up just a few kilometres from where he is sitting. But last year he was evicted in the name of development, resettled after his family’s plot became prime real estate & part of a flagship project part-financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) that coordinates developmental projects for the Japanese government. The Thilawa Special Economic Zone, which has taken over the land Mr Win & his neighbours used to farm, has been billed as a key pillar of the country “big bang” economic transformation & a project that could create tens of thousands of jobs. Dozens of foreign corporations have already signed up to open factories here.
But for Mr Win it has been nothing short of a disaster. “All we have ever done is farming. And now we have no land,” he says. “We have no hope, only despair.”
The Burmese government has offered the farmers compensation for the loss of their land, but many are still unclear how much, & whether it will be enough.
“I can’t even sleep at night, because of the stress,” adds his neighbour, Daw Win. The 56-year-old said she used to grow fruits & raise livestock, but now lives “day to day, worrying about meals. I have a lot of stress.”
The villagers’ plight is not unique in Burma, where a clamour to reintegrate the country into the global economy has created what some call a “two-speed” transformation. While there has been a historic rush by foreign investors to set up shop in the country, increasingly in cooperation with aid agencies & NGOs, there is growing concern that Burma’s economic metamorphosis has far outpaced its transition to democracy. Local activists say it is difficult to oppose the economic programme in any respect, as many remain fearful of the government.
The attraction of Burma for big business is not hard to understand. The country, one of south-east Asia’s poorest, is the ultimate “frontier market”. It sits between India & China, the world’s two most populous countries, & is rich in natural resources such as oil & gas, as well as precious stones such as jade.
“Everyone wants to have an influence & get in, in terms of business. Whether it’s China or the UK or the US, I think everybody is looking at opportunities,” says Keith Win, founder of the Myanmar-British Business Association, set up to help British firms move into the country. Foreign investment in Burma reportedly rose to a record high in 2014-2015, reaching $8bn (£5.47bn).
The Burmese government, for its part, is rushing through dozens of new laws & programmes to make the country more “attractive” to foreign capital. Aid money & agencies have also flooded in, announcing enormous spending plans. But in a report last month, Global Witness warned that new investment flows, in the context of a repressive political system, risk “fuelling human rights abuses”.
One local aid worker, who is supporting the farmers displaced by the new Thilawa economic zone but did not want to be named, said there is a sense of fear.
“The villagers feel they cannot go against the government,” he said.
Some are concerned, too, about the ideology guiding the “transformation”. In addition to supporting the Burmese government’s market-based reforms, the World Bank’s private-sector arm has invested millions in luxury real-estate & hotel projects.
One investment is in the Shangri-La, a five-star hotel in downtown Yangon, where the buffet costs $40, more than the average Burmese citizen will earn in a week.
Like the farmers at Thilawa, the Shangri-La’s expansion is also displacing people who work in the area. One woman, a street hawker who also did not want to be named, said she had sold coffee in this spot for 7 years. “I can make a living here & support my family. But I will have to move when the construction is over,” she said. “I don’t have any idea of where to go.”
When questioned, the World Bank says such investment is vital for Burma. “It’s not about poverty eradication, it’s about creating jobs, it’s about shared prosperity,” said Vikram Kumar, the bank’s top investment official in the country.
Back at Thilawa, U Mya Hlaing believes his home will soon be bulldozed. The 69-year-old insists he is not against the Thilawa project, but says that too many locals are suffering as a result of it.
“It’s true that it is good for the development of the country,” he said, “but the people are suffering.”
Matt Kennard & Claire Provost are fellows at the Centre for Investigative Journalism. Travel funding for this article was provided by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Kennard’s new book The Racket is out this week.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Life of Pi (Quote 4)
Spoiler alert: Pi is a raised in a predominantly Hindu family.
However, this quote / line is universal across religions, ethnicities, & races (for believers in a higher power).
However, this quote / line is universal across religions, ethnicities, & races (for believers in a higher power).
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Sweden shooting puts focus on life in 'ghettoes without hope'
As I have blogged before with the story about French ghettos of immigrants & their children who feel marginalized, & are ready to follow anyone who make them feel like family & falsely promise a future, for committing violence, in return. Sweden is also going through the similar problem.
Primary problem is once again marginalization of immigrant youths from the mainstream society. Be it North American or Western Europe or Northern Europe countries, immigrants are welcome with both arms, but they are made to feel second class citizens. Older immigrants accept their fate. But the young ones, who are growing up with their mainstream / indigenous friends start to see the discrimination when they see their friends moving onwards & upwards, & those kids of immigrant backgrounds feel left behind.
The main reason is that they were always come to expect that their new homes are in fair & just societies. But then the ugly head of discrimination rears up, which is very much rampant in these societies. They see the garbage hiding under the nice carpet. Some immigrant youths drink the Kool-Aid & will vehemently oppose any such idea that there is any discrimination in their new homes, but most don't.
Those youths then either suffer silently & become mentally & physically ill, or they hit back. Violence is never the answer to resolve these problems, but then problems cannot be solved from merely saying nice words to immigrants, either.
These problems, which will only going to get worse, since more & more immigrants are flowing in North American & European countries, can only be solved in 2 ways:
1. North American & European countries completely ban the sale of any & all arms & weapons sales to corrupt, authoritarian, & developing countries in Africa & Asia. A blanket ban on all such sales, no ifs & buts.
The immigrant wave will start to abate by itself, since their corrupt governments don't have weapons to kill innocent civilians.
2. Whatever immigrant populations are already in their countries, help them integrating through objective, merit-based qualification process; be it for education or jobs etc. Abolish the practice of networking. That will in itself help diversify the talent pool & the economy will improve. Immigrant youths will see a bright future that if they work hard, they will achieve something in the mainstream society, instead of working hard & achieving something in a gang or radical religious group.
These suggestions are simple & will only help the North American & European societies. The question is are the leaders willing to take such steps, since arms sales increase GDP & exports of the country, & immigrant populations create a silent 2nd class of people who will do the dirty jobs, while nice cushy jobs to the indigenous population.
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As drinkers watched the final minutes of the Barcelona versus Manchester City football match in the Vår bar in Gothenburg on Wednesday night, all hell broke loose. Two masked men opened fire with automatic weapons, killing 2 & injuring a dozen more.
Petar Petrovic, 20, a Swede of Serbian origin, died in the storm of bullets. A DJ at the bar, he was due to start university in London this year.
The other dead man, aged 25, was a leading figure in a local gang, the Vårvädersligan, named after the square where the shootings took place. With a string of convictions, including drug offences, he had only recently left jail, according to press reports.
Sweden has been shocked by the barbarity & indiscriminate nature of the Gothenburg shootings. Gang violence has featured occasionally in local news, but this was the first time an innocent bystander had been killed. Regional police chief Klas Friberg called it a “heartless attack with no human feeling”.
The tragedy has also shone a spotlight on a hidden aspect of Swedish society that reads like the sub-plot of a Stieg Larsson novel, in which poverty, racism & segregation are driving young men from immigrant backgrounds into gangs & gun crime.
A few days before the shooting, police had arrested another member of the gang after he was observed in a railway station handing over a shoebox stuffed with 500,000 krona (£39,000). A third figure in the gang had left the Vår bar shortly before the shooting took place.
The killings broke a 9-month period of relative calm in Gothenburg. After a double murder in early 2013, police poured resources into Biskopsgården, the deprived borough where Wednesday’s killings took place, which has high levels of recent immigration & overcrowding. Entitled operation Safe Gothenburg, the police targeted 9 gangs across the city involved in turf wars over drugs, weapons & contraband.
... After 57 shooting incidents & 8 fatalities in 2013, there were 4 deaths last year, while arrests led to the jailing of key gang leaders. The trend seemed to be clear.
In December, a dozen members of the Bergsjö gang were jailed & only last month, the leader of Bulls motorcycle gang started a 10-year sentence for violence. He had an earlier conviction for “crucifying” a man by strapping his wrists to a plank & leaving him hanging.
However, fears of a flare-up of gang crime lingered when the leader of the Bandidos gang was released from jail last summer after a 7-year sentence for a bomb attack.
“We have groups that are really marginalised, cut off from mainstream society, dropouts with no work,” says Sven-Åke Lindgren, professor of sociology at Gothenburg university who last year authored a report on gang crime. He sees Wednesday’s attack as a show of power in a battle for supremacy between gangs.
“These are ‘radical losers’, more desperate, more angry & frustrated, who are prepared to use weapons & violence that is really shocking to Swedish society, to compensate for their loss of status,” Prof Lindgren said.
Gang crime is not confined to Gothenburg – 22 Swedish cities are affected, said Magnus Lindgren of the Safer Sweden Foundation. This is a “new Sweden”, he said, which means new methods of crime fighting are needed.
I love this area, but we have a problem with young people feeling they can’t share the aspirations of the majority.
“The main problem is the Swedish model of crime prevention which dates from the 1960s, trying to build a good society with good education & child care. That’s all very well, but we are fighting the crimes of yesterday, not necessarily the crimes of today or tomorrow.”
Friberg, the police chief, said police were working “to do as much harm to the individual criminals as we can” while trying to halt the trade in illegal weapons. Interior minister Anders Ygeman called for a doubling of sentences for gun crime.
... There was also a sense of fear – the library was quiet because parents had kept their children at home, locals said.
“This is a ghetto,” said Nora, 25, who was born of Saudi parents who moved to Biskopsgården when she was just a few months old. “There is racism & young people can’t get jobs; they feel they have no future in Swedish society.”
Now studying to be a nurse, she is worried what may happen to her brother, aged 10, when he gets a little older. “The gangs make boys feel like family, they look after them,” she said. She wants her brother to go to a school outside the borough where there is no drug dealing.
Katarina Despotovic, a researcher who has chronicled what she calls the neglect of boroughs such as Biskopsgården, said Gothenburg was concentrating resources in the city centre, creating suburban satellites “that no one cares about”.
“I love this area & its people, but we have a problem with young people feeling they can’t share the dreams & aspirations of the majority,” said Ulrika Stöök, 45, who works for the local council in Biskopsgården.
“We need to give young people hope. We can do a few things locally but now we need help.”
Primary problem is once again marginalization of immigrant youths from the mainstream society. Be it North American or Western Europe or Northern Europe countries, immigrants are welcome with both arms, but they are made to feel second class citizens. Older immigrants accept their fate. But the young ones, who are growing up with their mainstream / indigenous friends start to see the discrimination when they see their friends moving onwards & upwards, & those kids of immigrant backgrounds feel left behind.
The main reason is that they were always come to expect that their new homes are in fair & just societies. But then the ugly head of discrimination rears up, which is very much rampant in these societies. They see the garbage hiding under the nice carpet. Some immigrant youths drink the Kool-Aid & will vehemently oppose any such idea that there is any discrimination in their new homes, but most don't.
Those youths then either suffer silently & become mentally & physically ill, or they hit back. Violence is never the answer to resolve these problems, but then problems cannot be solved from merely saying nice words to immigrants, either.
These problems, which will only going to get worse, since more & more immigrants are flowing in North American & European countries, can only be solved in 2 ways:
1. North American & European countries completely ban the sale of any & all arms & weapons sales to corrupt, authoritarian, & developing countries in Africa & Asia. A blanket ban on all such sales, no ifs & buts.
The immigrant wave will start to abate by itself, since their corrupt governments don't have weapons to kill innocent civilians.
2. Whatever immigrant populations are already in their countries, help them integrating through objective, merit-based qualification process; be it for education or jobs etc. Abolish the practice of networking. That will in itself help diversify the talent pool & the economy will improve. Immigrant youths will see a bright future that if they work hard, they will achieve something in the mainstream society, instead of working hard & achieving something in a gang or radical religious group.
These suggestions are simple & will only help the North American & European societies. The question is are the leaders willing to take such steps, since arms sales increase GDP & exports of the country, & immigrant populations create a silent 2nd class of people who will do the dirty jobs, while nice cushy jobs to the indigenous population.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As drinkers watched the final minutes of the Barcelona versus Manchester City football match in the Vår bar in Gothenburg on Wednesday night, all hell broke loose. Two masked men opened fire with automatic weapons, killing 2 & injuring a dozen more.
Petar Petrovic, 20, a Swede of Serbian origin, died in the storm of bullets. A DJ at the bar, he was due to start university in London this year.
The other dead man, aged 25, was a leading figure in a local gang, the Vårvädersligan, named after the square where the shootings took place. With a string of convictions, including drug offences, he had only recently left jail, according to press reports.
Sweden has been shocked by the barbarity & indiscriminate nature of the Gothenburg shootings. Gang violence has featured occasionally in local news, but this was the first time an innocent bystander had been killed. Regional police chief Klas Friberg called it a “heartless attack with no human feeling”.
The tragedy has also shone a spotlight on a hidden aspect of Swedish society that reads like the sub-plot of a Stieg Larsson novel, in which poverty, racism & segregation are driving young men from immigrant backgrounds into gangs & gun crime.
A few days before the shooting, police had arrested another member of the gang after he was observed in a railway station handing over a shoebox stuffed with 500,000 krona (£39,000). A third figure in the gang had left the Vår bar shortly before the shooting took place.
The killings broke a 9-month period of relative calm in Gothenburg. After a double murder in early 2013, police poured resources into Biskopsgården, the deprived borough where Wednesday’s killings took place, which has high levels of recent immigration & overcrowding. Entitled operation Safe Gothenburg, the police targeted 9 gangs across the city involved in turf wars over drugs, weapons & contraband.
... After 57 shooting incidents & 8 fatalities in 2013, there were 4 deaths last year, while arrests led to the jailing of key gang leaders. The trend seemed to be clear.
In December, a dozen members of the Bergsjö gang were jailed & only last month, the leader of Bulls motorcycle gang started a 10-year sentence for violence. He had an earlier conviction for “crucifying” a man by strapping his wrists to a plank & leaving him hanging.
However, fears of a flare-up of gang crime lingered when the leader of the Bandidos gang was released from jail last summer after a 7-year sentence for a bomb attack.
“We have groups that are really marginalised, cut off from mainstream society, dropouts with no work,” says Sven-Åke Lindgren, professor of sociology at Gothenburg university who last year authored a report on gang crime. He sees Wednesday’s attack as a show of power in a battle for supremacy between gangs.
“These are ‘radical losers’, more desperate, more angry & frustrated, who are prepared to use weapons & violence that is really shocking to Swedish society, to compensate for their loss of status,” Prof Lindgren said.
Gang crime is not confined to Gothenburg – 22 Swedish cities are affected, said Magnus Lindgren of the Safer Sweden Foundation. This is a “new Sweden”, he said, which means new methods of crime fighting are needed.
I love this area, but we have a problem with young people feeling they can’t share the aspirations of the majority.
“The main problem is the Swedish model of crime prevention which dates from the 1960s, trying to build a good society with good education & child care. That’s all very well, but we are fighting the crimes of yesterday, not necessarily the crimes of today or tomorrow.”
Friberg, the police chief, said police were working “to do as much harm to the individual criminals as we can” while trying to halt the trade in illegal weapons. Interior minister Anders Ygeman called for a doubling of sentences for gun crime.
... There was also a sense of fear – the library was quiet because parents had kept their children at home, locals said.
“This is a ghetto,” said Nora, 25, who was born of Saudi parents who moved to Biskopsgården when she was just a few months old. “There is racism & young people can’t get jobs; they feel they have no future in Swedish society.”
Now studying to be a nurse, she is worried what may happen to her brother, aged 10, when he gets a little older. “The gangs make boys feel like family, they look after them,” she said. She wants her brother to go to a school outside the borough where there is no drug dealing.
Katarina Despotovic, a researcher who has chronicled what she calls the neglect of boroughs such as Biskopsgården, said Gothenburg was concentrating resources in the city centre, creating suburban satellites “that no one cares about”.
“I love this area & its people, but we have a problem with young people feeling they can’t share the dreams & aspirations of the majority,” said Ulrika Stöök, 45, who works for the local council in Biskopsgården.
“We need to give young people hope. We can do a few things locally but now we need help.”
Friday, May 8, 2015
Water crisis coming in 15 years unless the world acts now, UN report warns
It's funny how humans themselves are causing more crises in the world than the nature ever could. And it's happening more & more in this modern world, when a great majority is supposed to be educated. Although, a lot of developing countries have a large mass of poor who are not educated, but they are not cause of this crisis but they are the first ones who will suffer from these water & general environmental crises. The developed countries, which are educated & much better technology to help resolve these crises, are the ones which created these environmental problems & are willing to do more harm than good.
Some will counter with the argument that the world has too many people now & population control is the answer to resolve these problems. Increasing population is not the problem & controlling it won't resolve the climate change problem. Primary problem is the concentration of resources in a very few hands & those hands are misusing those resources.
For instance, the developed countries (e.g. G8 countries) could've used the opportunity of recession as the impetus to invest heavily in alternative energy & consumer products using alternative energy, e.g. transportation systems using alternative energy. That would've solved the problem of job creation & perhaps, could've took the world out of recession much more quicker.
Now, cars (e.g. Tesla) are being made to work on alternative modes of energy, but those won't be affordable for the general public for, at least, 10-20 years. Plus, in the race to becoming energy independent, America is allowing fracking all over the country to extract oil & gas, & turning a blind eye to the problems of polluting little clean water the country has, which is getting polluted because of fracking.
These water crises could have been managed much more astutely in the past 10-20 years where we wouldn't be having these reports of impending doom & gloom. Science was much farther ahead in coming up with products to counter the problems of climate change, but the leaders of developed countries never took any meaningful steps towards resolving these crises.
Now, the problems have snowballed to where the poor masses of the developed & developing countries, alike, will suffer the most & eventually, the rich will feel the pressure & pain of neglecting the suffering of the poor. Water, unlike oil, is much more vital resource & people will rise up, much more violently, when they are robbed off this basic vital resource to keep themselves alive.
On a side note, Islam told its followers 1,500 years ago to use water very carefully because you will be questioned, on Judgement Day, for each & every drop of water.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The world could suffer a 40% shortfall in water in just 15 years unless countries dramatically change their use of the resource, a UN report warned.
Many underground water reserves are already running low, while rainfall patterns are predicted to become more erratic with climate change. As the world’s population grows to an expected 9 billion by 2050, more groundwater will be needed for farming, industry & personal consumption.
The report predicts global water demand will increase 55% by 2050, while reserves dwindle. If current usage trends don’t change, the world will have only 60% of the water it needs in 2030, it said.
Having less available water risks catastrophe on many fronts: crops could fail, ecosystems could break down, industries could collapse, disease & poverty could worsen, & violent conflicts over access to water could become more frequent.
“Unless the balance between demand & finite supplies is restored, the world will face an increasingly severe global water deficit,” the annual World Water Development Report said, noting that more efficient use could guarantee enough supply in the future.
The report ... calls on policy makers & communities to rethink water policies, urging more conservation as well as recycling of wastewater as is done in Singapore. Countries may also want to consider raising prices for water, as well as searching for ways to make water-intensive sectors more efficient & less polluting, it said.
In many countries, including India, water use is largely unregulated & often wasteful. Pollution of water is often ignored & unpunished. At least 80% of India’s population relies on groundwater for drinking to avoid bacteria-infested surface waters.
In agriculture-intense India, where studies show some aquifers are being depleted at the world’s fastest rates, the shortfall has been forecast at 50% or even higher. Climate change is expected to make the situation worse, as higher temperatures & more erratic weather patterns could disrupt rainfall.
Currently, about 748 million people worldwide have poor access to clean drinking water, the report said, cautioning that economic growth alone is not the solution – & could make the situation worse unless reforms ensure more efficiency & less pollution.
“Unsustainable development pathways & governance failures have affected the quality & availability of water resources, compromising their capacity to generate social & economic benefits,” it said. “Economic growth itself is not a guarantee for wider social progress.”
Some will counter with the argument that the world has too many people now & population control is the answer to resolve these problems. Increasing population is not the problem & controlling it won't resolve the climate change problem. Primary problem is the concentration of resources in a very few hands & those hands are misusing those resources.
For instance, the developed countries (e.g. G8 countries) could've used the opportunity of recession as the impetus to invest heavily in alternative energy & consumer products using alternative energy, e.g. transportation systems using alternative energy. That would've solved the problem of job creation & perhaps, could've took the world out of recession much more quicker.
Now, cars (e.g. Tesla) are being made to work on alternative modes of energy, but those won't be affordable for the general public for, at least, 10-20 years. Plus, in the race to becoming energy independent, America is allowing fracking all over the country to extract oil & gas, & turning a blind eye to the problems of polluting little clean water the country has, which is getting polluted because of fracking.
These water crises could have been managed much more astutely in the past 10-20 years where we wouldn't be having these reports of impending doom & gloom. Science was much farther ahead in coming up with products to counter the problems of climate change, but the leaders of developed countries never took any meaningful steps towards resolving these crises.
Now, the problems have snowballed to where the poor masses of the developed & developing countries, alike, will suffer the most & eventually, the rich will feel the pressure & pain of neglecting the suffering of the poor. Water, unlike oil, is much more vital resource & people will rise up, much more violently, when they are robbed off this basic vital resource to keep themselves alive.
On a side note, Islam told its followers 1,500 years ago to use water very carefully because you will be questioned, on Judgement Day, for each & every drop of water.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The world could suffer a 40% shortfall in water in just 15 years unless countries dramatically change their use of the resource, a UN report warned.
Many underground water reserves are already running low, while rainfall patterns are predicted to become more erratic with climate change. As the world’s population grows to an expected 9 billion by 2050, more groundwater will be needed for farming, industry & personal consumption.
The report predicts global water demand will increase 55% by 2050, while reserves dwindle. If current usage trends don’t change, the world will have only 60% of the water it needs in 2030, it said.
Having less available water risks catastrophe on many fronts: crops could fail, ecosystems could break down, industries could collapse, disease & poverty could worsen, & violent conflicts over access to water could become more frequent.
“Unless the balance between demand & finite supplies is restored, the world will face an increasingly severe global water deficit,” the annual World Water Development Report said, noting that more efficient use could guarantee enough supply in the future.
The report ... calls on policy makers & communities to rethink water policies, urging more conservation as well as recycling of wastewater as is done in Singapore. Countries may also want to consider raising prices for water, as well as searching for ways to make water-intensive sectors more efficient & less polluting, it said.
In many countries, including India, water use is largely unregulated & often wasteful. Pollution of water is often ignored & unpunished. At least 80% of India’s population relies on groundwater for drinking to avoid bacteria-infested surface waters.
In agriculture-intense India, where studies show some aquifers are being depleted at the world’s fastest rates, the shortfall has been forecast at 50% or even higher. Climate change is expected to make the situation worse, as higher temperatures & more erratic weather patterns could disrupt rainfall.
Currently, about 748 million people worldwide have poor access to clean drinking water, the report said, cautioning that economic growth alone is not the solution – & could make the situation worse unless reforms ensure more efficiency & less pollution.
“Unsustainable development pathways & governance failures have affected the quality & availability of water resources, compromising their capacity to generate social & economic benefits,” it said. “Economic growth itself is not a guarantee for wider social progress.”
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Doubtful Intelligent People & Confident Stupid People
Possible Translation: Stupid people don't know they're stupid, so they make decisions without hesitation. Intelligent people recognize that they might be lacking knowledge, so they wait before acting.
And that creates quite a few problems.
And that creates quite a few problems.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Joseph Conrad on people in this world
That's exactly how the majority of this world are living now. They are the real "walking dead" or zombies. Well, when the majority shuts its eyes off, covers its ears, & becomes mute at the evils & injustice happening all around it, then expecting anything other than chaos & suffering in the world is utter stupidity & nonsense.
Monday, February 9, 2015
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