Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Summary of economist may21 2005

For 2 hours (it is now 18 minutes to midnight) I have sat swallowing the
may 21st 2005 Economist.

My heart is beating. I am flush. I open the back door to cold wet night
to cool down.

Fury. War. Greed. Hundreds of thousands dead.

The battle over judges in the US senate - abortion - freedom, liberty,
justice - religious intolerance - the end of a 200 year old tradition of
filibustering?

Selling wine store software - US supreme court rules for free trade,
over turning protectionist rules from 1933's constitutional amendment 21
ending Prohibition.

Gays in Mexico's pink district. Will american mexicans stay conservative
the way the quebecois have?

South korean assasinated dictator responsible for economic miracle and
trampling human rights daughter shakes hands with north korean dictator
who tried to kill her father but killed her mother instead.

Chinese water problems increasing. PM Wen to spend $240m on clean water.
1 in 3 country dwellers lack access to safe drinking water. 100 big
cities short, 50 seriously threatened. Water tables dropping 1m per year
or more in northern china. Beijing has only 300 m^3/year/person.
Guangdong 110m people 40% less rain. Prior 1985 water free, now most get
40% below cost, beijing hesitates to breakeven at $0.72 m^3. John
McAlister aquabiotronic.com makes water recyclers which china won't buy,
says price should be 3 to 7 times higher per m^3. How long will the
party last? How long till the rioting in Neal Stephenson's the Diamond
Age? When the party is over who pays the bill? The US still busy with
too many of its ground troops in Iraq? Japan could follow with a similar
war deficit by similarly liberating China? Will what will be left be
worth fighting for?

ConocoPhilips.com - elevate. A vacant (the smoke and flame stacks are
not vomitting) oil rig stands in the sea with white fluffy clouds on a
sunny day. Ultra-deepwater drilling and production technology. Waves are
measured in meters. How often are there storms? Would the oil rig look
demonic on a dark and stormy night all lit up with it's smoke and flame
towers pouring poison gas into the atmosphere? But perhaps oil rigs are
good for hosting? For banking? For data storage? For fresh water
production if parked off china's coast?

Hyundai builds factory in Montgomery, Alabama, no unions, no healthcare,
and no pensions. Did my brother in law work on their on SAP systems?
Consumer Reports rated the 2004 Sonata the most reliable car in America.
JD Power rates Hyundai's defect rate 2nd lowest tying with Honda, just
behind Toyota.

Zhang Chunqiao, one of the Gang of Four, died april 21st 2005 at 88.
Rich family, good school, intellectual, communist 1940 at 23. 1966
deputy head of cultural revolution group, purges artists and
intellectuals to work the fields, 729,511 persecuted, 34,800 dead. 1967
as head of revolutionary guard in shanghai uses red guards to burn
books. 1976 elite unit of people's liberation army arrested him and the
other gang of four, to be scapegoats for driving out neighbours,
bureaucrats and artists.

In china, during 60s and 70s the majority persecuted the minorty and did
this not dumb the nation down?
Is there not a cultural revolution in US?
Are not both the republicans and the democrats two factions of the
communist party of the usa?
Don't both factions swear allegiance to the american dream and try to
outdo each in patriotic acts?
Isn't george bush, chairman bush? Not president?
Aren't the party institutions being purged of intellectuals, bureaucrats
and artists?

And an hour later I have finished making a few notes and many, many
questions.

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