Power to the People Discussion
Interesting discussion taking place in the comments (24 so far) at the Oil Drum regarding Robb’s article in Fast Company.
Lind on Multiculturalism
Bill Lind, for reasons unbeknownst to me,continues his tirade against multiculturalism . If it weren’t different cultures, languages or colors, it would be different economic brackets, geospatial locations, sexual preferences, ages or genders maybe even schools of thought, education levels, ideas of the perfect race.
Homogeneity can combat 4GW, theoretically it increases one’s ability to get inside the enemy’s OODA loop. But the dark side of homogeneity is it does not allow for a full understanding of the environment, which in turn skews the Orient link.
Differing Cities
WaPo – Wisconsin referendum portrays Iraq gap among cities –
An “out now” proposition was passing 70 percent to 30 percent in Madison, the most populous of the 32 venues voting on the question. The state capital, with a population of about 219,000, is a long-time liberal seat.
But the 22,000 residents of Watertown, located between Madison and Milwaukee, rejected a similar measure 75 percent to 25 percent.
Robb, in a related story revolving around illegal immigration, touches on this as well.
Decline
NYT –
In the chaos, he said, “We see a slow, steady loss of confidence, a growing process of distrust which you see day by day as people at the political level bicker. Everything has become sectarian and ethnic.”
The false state of Iraq is devolving into Sunni, Shia, Kurd -istans, and they will fight over nonexistant oil revenues.
Gas Prices
Linda Cook reports gas prices are up 560% in Iraq –
…prices have ballooned from a government-backed 5 cents a gallon last summer to a less-subsidized 33 cents a gallon.
By year’s end, Iraqi gasoline is expected to cost about 50 cents a gallon, according to Robert Silverman, director of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Iraq Economic Affairs.
And the State Department is clueless as to what repercussions this will have in its rebuilding efforts –
Silverman lauded the Iraqi government’s move to make drivers pay more for gasoline as a way to help lure outside investors to the country’s flagging refinery infrastructure and to stop fuel smuggling across the border into Iran and Jordan, where it can be sold for a higher price.
Dead wrong. This will actually be another in a long line of things that undermine the fledging government. In an effort to achieve its own ends (US goal is to encourage foreign investment) the government is morally isolating itself from the population (which wants cheap gas to make a living).