StraightGoods.ca

"Global Zero" goal about keeping fissile material away from terrorists.

by Gwynne Dyer

We have just had the second Nuclear Security Summit, in Seoul. It got surprisingly little attention from the international media although 53 countries attended. For the media, nuclear weapons are yesterday's issue, because nobody expects a nuclear war. But a nuclear weapon in terrorist hands is the defining nightmare of the post-9/11 decade, and that's what the summit was actually about.

"It would not take much, just a handful or so of these (nuclear) materials, to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and that's not an exaggeration," said US president Barack Obama on his way home from Seoul. "There are still too many bad actors in search of these dangerous materials, and these dangerous materials are still vulnerable in too many places."

Continue reading »

Global civilization could collapse, without proactive steps.

by Gwynne Dyer

Reporter: 
"What do you think of western civilization, Mr. Gandhi?"

Mohandas Gandhi: 
"I think it would be a good idea."

The quote is probably apocryphal, but if the Mahatma didn't say it, he should have.

Now we have something close to a global civilization: most of the world's people work in similar economies, use the same machines, and live about as long. They even know most of the same things and have the same ambitions. So we need somebody to ask us the same question. Do we really think a global civilization is a good idea? And if so, have we any plans for keeping it going beyond a few generations more?

History is full of civilizations that collapsed, and often their fall was followed by a Dark Age. In the past these Dark Ages were just regional events (Europe after the fall of Rome, Central America after the collapse of Mayan civilization, China after the Mongol invasion), but now we are all in the same boat. If this civilization crashes then we could end up in the longest and worst Dark Age ever.

Our duty to our great-grandchildren is to figure out how to get through the 21st century without a collapse…

References 

  Original article

Country is on an unsustainable spending spree.

by Gwynne Dyer

Building a skyscraper is the ultimate expression of economic confidence, and more than half of the 124 skyscrapers currently under construction in the world are being built in China. But confidence is often based on nothing more than faith, hope and cheap credit, and a frenzy of skyscraper-building is also the most reliable historical indicator of an impending financial crash.

Continue reading »

Venezuala strongman is sick, but not out.

by Gwynne Dyer

"Nobody said it was going to be easy" is the campaign slogan that Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski chose for the presidential election next October, and that remains true. Taking on incumbent President Hugo Chavez, an accomplished populist and self-styled "revolutionary," is a tall order: for 13 years, he has seen off all comers. But challenging Chavez is getting easier.

Continue reading »

President Cecile Richards' brilliant strategy countered a setback.

by Elizabeth Mitchell

Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards heard whispers that the Susan G Komen foundation would stop funding Planned Parenthood's breast cancer screenings from an anti-choice blog in early December. But she shrugged it off as the kind of bullying rumor that often circulates in her world. (Until Planned Parenthood, she says, "I had never worked with an organization where there were people that literally got up every day trying to figure out how to keep us from doing our work.")

Then the Komen foundation president called just before Christmas to say it was true. "It came as a total surprise," says Richards, who requested a meeting with Komen's board to revisit the matter but was denied.

It was only after an Associated Press reporter broke the story in late January that Richards let loose the deluge. "Disappointing news from a friend" was the subject line on Richards's January 31 late afternoon e-mail to more than a million supporters. The first Facebook posting on the subject received 2,438 shares.

Four days later, Planned Parenthood boasted $3 million in new funding; 32,000 new Facebook fans; 22,000 people who "shared" the freshly inaugurated Planned Parenthood Facebook badge, leading to upward of 100,000 new viewers of the site; the very public support of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who donated $250,000 to the organization; vast television and radio exposure; and… the Komen funding back in place.

How exactly did Cecile Richards pull off this trick?..

References 
  Original article