Thursday, January 31, 2008

Ordinary People of The City


Just read a story about a local tradition celebrating the life of a woman named Felicitas. After she came to an untimely death her parents funded a church in her honor. Here's what happened outside that church today.

line of sight » hoy es el día, no?
…today’s the day, right?

No. The official day for Saint Felicitas is November 23rd… not today. We priests only worship the one, true God. We don’t pay tribute to ordinary people of the city.

But on the radio they said…

Well, that’s why people come here & do this nonsense [pointing to the ribbons]. And I have to come out here & remove them.


Tip-o-the-hat to Robert Wright.

Friday, January 25, 2008

What's Good for the Goose

What's up with smart people talking about reworking capitalism? How about enforcing rule of law and dispelling w/ corruption?


Gates calls for creative capitalism to help poor | Business | The Guardian
Gates
insisted that this was not dumping the basic tenets of capitalism but
argued market forces must be better used to address the needs of those
left behind by advances in technology and healthcare.
Seems like hubris to me. And on a related note:

Economist's View: I See What You Mean, It Is Broken
However, when executives face the same dynamism and their income falls (so that they also face a reduction in their income, say from a million to half a million), global capitalism is broken and needs to be fixed (e.g. "Market Bloodbath Highlights Cracks in Capitalism," one of many along these lines).




Thursday, January 17, 2008

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Mean Time To Failure

Lately it seems like the mean time to failure here in Buenos Aires is about 4 hours.



  • Massive leak in the kitchen
  • OS X updates hoarked my Mac
  • Fibertel internet access won't stay up
  • Two of the Air conditioners aren't producing cool air

I just got my Mac working again...

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Selling Crazy Abroad

I find statements like the one bellow deeply troubling.


Martin From the comments section : Varsavsky: Is There Something the U.S. Can Learn from Argentina? - Business on The Huffington Post

AMERICA and it's CIA created the crisis in Argentina. The CIA helped oust Allende in the 1970's and put Pinochet in to run Shock Therapy economics created by Milton Friedman.

Milton Friedman economics has systematically destroyed country after country since the 1970's with it's Shock Therapy economics.

Milton Friedman's economic plan was put into fast forward mode in America after

9-11. 9-11 was the shock.

Since 9-11 BUSH has paved the way for Corporatism, privatization of services and free market economics - all espouted by Milton Friedman and neo-conservatives.

Milton Friedman economics creates '' rich get richer'' society and the rest fall into state of poverty.

Americans need to realize that this economic meltdown we are teetering on has been planned for a long time.



Thanks a lot, Naomi. Nice job muddying the water.

Okay, so have a look at this and tell me if this man even approaches evil. For crying out loud, don't lie to people. There's a real debate to be had and spreading lies and misinformation doesn't help.


Friday, January 4, 2008

Dennett Singer, if you hear this...

"Dennet singer, if you hear this, I have lost your address and I will like to reply to you"




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John Frum



John Frum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In 1941, followers of John Frum rid themselves of their money in a frenzy of spending, left the missionary churches, schools, villages and plantations, and moved further inland to celebrate traditional custom through feasts, dances and rituals. The movement gained traction in the 1940s when some 300,000 American troops established themselves in Vanuatu. The islanders were impressed both by the egalitarianism of the Americans and their obvious wealth and power. This led them to conflate perceived benefactors such as Uncle Sam, Santa Claus and John the Baptist into a mythic figure who would empower the island peoples by giving them cargo wealth. Followers of John Frum built symbolic landing strips to encourage American aeroplanes to land and bring them "cargo". In 1957, a leader of the John Frum movement, Nakomaha, created the "Tanna Army", a non-violent, ritualistic organisation which organised military-style parades, their faces painted in ritual colours, and wearing white t-shirts with the letters "T-A USA" (Tanna Army USA). This parade still takes place every year on February 15.



Sorta hard to believe ain't it?


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