Kiribati
Kiribati
Officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation in the Pacific that is home to around 10,000 natives. But this little nation that would normally be just a paradise from the outside world is facing a serious consequence that it has very little to contribute to - global warming.
As an island nation, the coastline is retreating at an alarming rate each year. Trees that were once growing about the beautiful beaches around the country are now dying because of the sea water that is eroding the soil. It's a devastating issue indeed, with local government having plans to migrate the entire population before Kiribati is submerged underwater.
The price of industrial prosperity often comes at a cost on people who are much less fortunate and never enjoyed the benefits that industrialization brought about.
ririamu lite: Southbound to Seattle
ririamu lite: Southbound to Seattle
Wanted to drive down to Seattle in one of these coming weekends where there will be no exhaust fan to fix, no grocery shopping to be done, no church to go to, no status report to do, no translation work, no broadband network problems to fix for my neighbors, just some tranquillity. Next weekend the company Bu is taken though and the family Ri is in use. Anyone is invited of course.
Also need to find a weekend tutoring job (that is reasonably paid) as well. The week day 15 hour plus work + tutor cycle is not sustainable (except for the volunteering one).
The Last of Free Markets
The Last of Free Markets
With the large scale market intervention by the US government on the financial sector, it's natural to ponder if the last of free market is disappearing. The concept of free market, whereby government and regulations allows for natural market adjustments without intervention, has been a main pillar in American value. Traditionally, the American government also forces other markets to open door to American goods and stop subsidies to local industies with the concept of free market. Now that the US government is injecting hundred of billions in taxpayer money into the US financial sector, a) does that mark the disappearance of free market, and will this intervention do good to the US economy in the long run?
As with other US policies of the past decade, this injection of taxpayer's money into the financial sector has been followed suit by other governments to stablize the global economy. A land of the free, at least in the sense of free market at least, is not so free anymore. And once an intervention of this scale has been done, it will be expected that next time the financial sector cries for help that the government has the same "responsibility" again.
More importantly, does an intervention such as this do good to the US and global economy in the long run? The fundamental reason to this near collapse of the US financial sector is the greediness of investment banks and the lack of value these banks create in return. How does the average investment bank create value to society at large anyways? Injection of taxpayer money has the negative effect of encouraging bad credit and investment practices in the future. The average citizen will probably not benefit from this policy either. When the government forcefully stabilize the stock market, other things such as oil and housing prices will sustain as well. The economy isn't really in a good state though, so people suffer from high costs of living while either losing their jobs or not having their salary increases match the increasing living costs.
Fundamentally, one must also ask where the US gets the money from to inject into the market. Recall the US is already running on huge debts from the war against terrorism, so it isn't exactly true that US taxpayer money are being used. Instead, the US will run on more debts, print more money (which will result in inflation if you remember your ECON 101), or sell more government bonds. Is saving an industry that can arguably be said not to be worth saving, and do so on credit, be really worth it? And is this a sustainable practice?