Monthly Archive for November, 2009

The "personal" goes "global"

Published on November 28, 2009 in Global Communication. 0 Comments

quotes to tickle thought: On this shrunken globe, men can no longer live as strangers (Adlai Stevenson); Every advance in civilization has been denounced as unnatural while it was recent (Bertrand Russell)

in the news: Kenyans draw weapons over shrinking resources (cattle, water, land); Dubai (economic) jitters spread; Apple’s iPhone arrives to rousing welcome in SKorea; Honduran economy faces challenges; White House party crashers fit a new mold: fame at all costs; terrorism suspected in Russia train crash; spin on (golfer Tiger) Woods’s story takes on a life of its own; Commonwealth backs quick start climate change fund; (French) Sarkozy secured (Polish-American) Roman Polanski’s release (in Switzerland as he awaited extradition to US)

in perspective: No man is an island, nor is any city, country or region in a global world where the common thread among the people of 200 countries is shared humanness. Cultures vary in levels of development in the cultural, economic and political spheres. The unifying element is centred on the principle that all growth at every level starts with the personal.

The question of whether “nature” or “nurture” is the more important in the determination of a human personality has not been determined. It is not known whether inherited characteristics or environmental factors are most prominent in shaping an individual character and life.

A fact that is known, however, is that two are inextricably intertwined, like the double helix of the human chromosonal strands. Inheritance comes from two parents and is incubated in every-broadening arenas of social interaction.

In the year 2009 when the US has broken global glass ceilings in the areas of race and gender with its 2008 election, some regions of the world and countries within them are in privileged situations relative to others due to geographical and historical circumstances. But in a period of a technological and communications revolution involving all the world, the best guiding principle for the ground-breaking US and the rest of the world is to “keep it simple, stupid” and remember the personal element in a global world.

Financial security, social standing and personal pride through integrity are commonly embraced human goals. Greed, resentment, hostility and undue grabs for power are common human failings.

To nurture global growth both economically and culturally, individuals need only to foster the positives across cultural differences and join in with each other on the commonalities to defeat the negatives. Recogning the personal thirst for personal power at every social level in every society is the key.

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America at the Crossroads of a Global World

Published on November 23, 2009 in Global Politics. 0 Comments

quotes to tickle thought: You can’t create a monster, then whine when it stomps on a few buildings (Lisa Simpson in Matt Goering’s The Simpsons); We live in a world that has narrowed into a neighborhood before it has broadened into a brotherhood (Lyndon Baines Johnson)

in the news: Thousands line up in Michigan for Palin; Hundreds Cheer Palin in Michigan book tour; McCain defends campaign team against Palin; New poll shows Americans like Obama as a person but aren’t too fond of his policies

in perspective: A global economic crisis in 2008 shocked America out of its complaisance as a blessed country when core financial institutions themselves were threatened. America responded by making a radical break with conservative isolationism and electing a world savvy leader.

By then, conservatives had formulated their response. That was to promote self-reliance, primitivism and nuclear family values in which a fierce female held the clan together against a hostile world.

The man who won America’s faith for leading it forward in a global world was exceptionally charismatic, in part because of his own personal experience. His breadth of vision was reflected by his nod to convention at the same time that he implemented new policy, holding his ground against critics on both left and right who viewed him as a sell-out.

By contrast, the other star of the 2008 American election was a provincial female conservative who magnetized a large portion of the near-half of the country that had voted against the progressive leader. She continued to make her “rogue” mark long after defeat, so intent on pursuing her own course that she resigned her elected office.

Thus, the 2008 American election really took America to the crossroads of a global world. The country stood there at the crossroads in 2009 as its two sides waged an indecisive battle. At issue were questions of substance weighed against glitz, generosity against selfishness, compassion against meanness and “bigness” against “pettiness.” In short, the dilemma was to choose between growth or stagnation.

Given the reality that America’s moral and financial mortgages are held by foreigners, America would be wise to mend its internal divisions and go forward as one unified personality. Interacting with other countries as equals would benefit America. In that broader context for self-perception, America could learn to tell the difference between real gold and fool’s gold.

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the face of change in the 2009 global Obama era

Published on November 10, 2009 in Global Communication and Global Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

quote to tickle thought: I’m convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile (Thomas Clark)

in the news: (filly) Zenyatta races into history books by beating the boys in classic (Breeder’s Cup race); the shame of the 2009 U-17 World Cup (in Nigeria); Obama draws criticism for sitting out Berlin Wall anniversary; unemployment in US reaches 10.2 per cent; teen boys drink, fight more, girls less, when playing sports; hunger is Afghanistan’s biggest killer

in perspective: The western world’s first non-white leader was elected to bring about change a year ago in the midst of a global economic crisis brought on by a “pale male” ethic dominating human interaction throughout modern history. The specifics and the dire level of the threat were quickly diffused in the typical American attention span of short duration. Griping and blaming the new administration took over the headlines in the arguments over what “change” actually met, which obscured the fact that the change had been accomplished simply by the election.

The change that election of a non-white leader brought to America and to the world was simply a change in values. Paradoxically, that is the most difficult undertaking to accomplish at any level, whether by an individual, a family, a community or nation. Change at all those levels must now be nurtured if America is to cure itself and all its woes, from moral, social and cultural to economic and political.

That task may seem daunting on the surface, given America’s violent disagreements over issues such as health care and fiscal reform. At heart, however, the way forward is straight-forward. That is to make a platform out of America’s strengths and then project them out onto the world so as to put the modern America into a solid perspective for its people.

Damned Yankees was the title of a Sunday op ed piece by Ari Flreischer, the former George W. Bush press secretary, pointing out that his beloved Yankees hadn’t won the World Series under a Republican administration since 1958. The study on teen jocks being more aggressive than non-athletes may say more about American high school culture than about serious sports players. The 2009 U-17 World Cup played in Nigeria was handicapped by structural weaknesses in the arena that could use the help of American industry to improve.

Addressing the hunger and poverty in Afghanistan could also use American help, not on the small scale of organizations such as Doctors without Borders, however large and important they are, but at the level of American national policy. That was the way to open doors for American industries to partner with others who could help implement programmes for delivery of products.

Finally, the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communism should be the ultimate message that America’s values are rapidly changing. After all, there really was little to celebrate about the world having allowed half its population to live under totalitarian tyranny until the system self-imploded.

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The new family of America with 2009

Published on November 5, 2009 in Global Communication and Global Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

quote to tickle thought: None so blind as those that will not see (Matthew Henry)

in the news: Danish PM optimistic on climate deal; Kilimangaro’s famous icy peaks are thawing fast (may disappear in 25 years); US Senate panel approves climate change bill despite GOP boycott; US Republicans try to rally resistance to health care bill as House vote nears; US Democrats downplay election losses as GOP celebrates

in perspective: As with any issue on a global scale, a December climate summit in Copenhagen needs US backing for an agreement on how the world can deal with unnatural climate change after 150 years of uncontrolled industrialization. America, however, cannot commit to working with the world because its conservatives will not give up an Ameri-centric reality as mythical as Pilgrims and Indians at the first Thanksgiving.

Yes, America is blessed by geography, history and ideology to the point that it broke the global glass ceiling on race with its 2008 election. Yet the predictable pendulum swing of conservative reactionism obscured the central point of the 2008 election. America had acknowledged the world was global.

By definition, a global world is governed by a different set of values than a fragmented one, just as a family leads a different lifestyle than a lonely single. On large scale or small, the difference is social consciousness and conscience.

In essence with the 2008 election, America grew up, got married and accepted adult responsibilities toward family at every level. Moreover, America did that as a statement of policy, proclaiming it had married its better half, the one with a conscience.

Conservatives may continue to deny the permanence of America’s new character. They may continue to insist that the 2008 election was a mere dalliance with virtue.

In truth, however, the global economic crisis that had led America to elect the first non-white leader of the western industrialized world had also snapped America out of its self-absorbed extended adolescence. America had settled down, as judged by outrage over the family budget used to pay big bonuses to failed financial institution family members. Compared to the volume of those outcries, the din of tea-party conservatives is barely a whisper. Shrieks of panic about socialism are as laughable as the family dog hiding a bone in the back yard for safekeeping from other family members.

America’s blessings are its assurance that it will not devolve into a dysfunctional family and that it can start living by the true family values of warmth, friendliness, curiosity, healthy competition, generosity and compassion. It can also start to truly thrive by turning a deaf ear to the curmudgeony old bachelor uncles of the family who gripe about missing the old days when children and women were seen and not heard.

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