Capitalism causes cancer,
both the kind you’re thinking of,
and another kind:
cities.
Cities are tumors on the Earth,
our precious home planet.
Tag: famine
Jul 21 2013
Anti-Capitalist Meetup: Capitalism causes cancer by bigjacbigjacbigjac
Nov 03 2009
Utopia 16: Student Driver
Jul 19 2009
Dystopia 12: The Jaguar People
When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, (1706-1790), Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1746
May 25 2009
Utopia 8: CSA
“In nature’s economy the currency is not money, it is life.”
“You are not Atlas carrying the world on your shoulder. It is good to remember that the planet is carrying you”
– Vandana Shiva
Apr 04 2009
Today Obama changed the World FOREVER
There has been a lot of talk about the G20, solving the world financial melt down and regaining our stature on the world stage. Hearing Nicolas Sarkozy say Obama is the man who can change the world, pretty heady stuff. In fact Obama did change the world today in a far more important way than solving the world financial crisis or bringing an end to terrorism, nope. Follow me below the fold for the single statement that changed everything forever and you may have missed it.
Mar 08 2009
Dystopia 4: The Trainee
“The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but is the Government’s greatest creative opportunity. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest.”
“The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.”
“Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few and the Republic is destroyed … I feel at the moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.” —Abraham Lincoln
Mar 07 2009
Utopia 3: Ms. Grant
There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
Compassion is the radicalism of our time.
Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.
Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
The purpose of our lives is to be happy.
Apr 18 2008
Bush says WE need Pope talk re “right & wrong”!! xk*%#
He says we need to be told by the Pope that people are precious, that right and wrong matter!
And, it’s just a “tough” patch we’re going through. Bush just said so. here. But worse:
Listen up, you utterly deprived (not-fit-to-be) lying president, because you caused a great deal of the pain and suffering Americans are right now encountering. You have caused a war that was unnecessary that killed hundreds of thousands of people and wounded many more. Millions are refugees because of your war. Talk about precious life? “Sacred” life? You don’t know the meaning of the word.
Famines may occur because you were unwilling to act on climate change because you wanted to help the rich get richer. Don’t tell me the Pope needs to talk to me about right and wrong!!!!!
Don’t you hate being lectured by an idiot?
~~cross-posted at orange~~
Apr 05 2008
854 million people in the world go hungry
“Right now most of the world is living under appalling conditions. We can’t possibly improve the conditions of everyone. We can’t raise the entire world to the average standard of living in the United States because we don’t have the resources and the ability to distribute well enough for that. So right now as it is, we have condemned most of the world to a miserable, starvation level of existence. And it will just get worse as the population continues to go up… Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, it disappears. It doesn’t matter if someone dies. The more people there are, the less one individual matters.”
That’s from Bill Moyers interviewing Isaac Asimov in 1988.
fascinating video here – I had never seen this particular show before, did not know it existed until tonight.
What was true 20 years ago has not changed. It has become worse.
* More than 854 million people in the world go hungry
* Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes – one child every five seconds
* Poor nutrition and calorie deficiencies cause nearly one in three people to die prematurely or have disabilities, according to the World Health Organization.
* 35.5 million people in the United States – including 12.6 million children-live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger.
* Undernourishment negatively affects people’s health, productivity, sense of hope and overall well-being. A lack of food can stunt growth, slow thinking, sap energy, hinder fetal development and contribute to mental retardation.
* Economically, the constant securing of food consumes valuable time and energy of poor people, allowing less time for work and earning income.
My concern is that these conditions will be getting much worse, (and from the data see I suspect changing quite rapidly as well), as climate change interferes with normal growing cycles, disease vectors and availability to obtain clean water for billions on this planet: what is an ‘inconvenient truth’ for us is a death sentence for perhaps billions who will not be able to cope.
The political upheaval we see today is nothing compared to what the future holds as climate change destroys the crucial infrastructure of areas where billions live.
Asimov said 20 years ago in the interview ..
.. you get the feeling somehow that Americans somehow are smarter somehow .. that what we consider a decent econmic system, freedom, free enterprise, that that alone “will do it for us” .. but not if we are lazy.
.. mixed in amongst the interview strikingly accurate views of the future
And then, he smacks George Bush for making comparisons between Harvard and Yale ..
..
..
That’s George Herbert Walker Bush, and Mike Dukakis he was talking about.
———–
I wish Asimov were still with us, to hear his wisdom again about where we are now.
We need bold leadership right now to address the issues that face us, and there are still too few voices.
Mar 27 2008
Been on the bread line yet? Food crisis sneaks up on world.
Today I learned the news. The world already has a food crisis, an enormous problem, possible social upheavals, perhaps even a “perfect storm.” Add that to your gas tank!
I’d heard bits about grain prices for a while, been shocked at prices of bread, eggs, flour and cheese–even soup! Silly me, I thought I could stock upon a few items and make do. Just about everything is going up and not just a little. I try not to panic but it’s not easy living on a small fixed income since I rather like to eat.
Frightening implications abound for the poorest of the poor the world over as a new UN Report makes clear. There’s a lot happening that we do not hear about from our pathetic media. Just as one woman says she knew she was poor, but “this is worse than poverty,” a UN official says watch for the “new face of hunger.”
Follow below for a little tour, a tiny glimpse of what’s going on, if you dare, if you care.