politics/economics

Now that's a book I want to read:

Christian Siefkes.
From Exchange to Contributions: Generalizing Peer Production into the Physical World.

Structure of the documentary:

• Introduction to the sad state of humanity: Krishnamurti.
• Description of the current debt-based monetary system: from the Fed to economic hitmen.
• Technology as the answer to scarcity: the Venus project and the resource-based economy.
• Change of the individual from submissive to ideologies, to active actor in the "emergent", "symbiotic" universe.
• A call to action: stop supporting the system.

One core tenet of media is "the more you repeat something, the more people will believe it." This is why we are bombarded with advertising - so that the brand name occupies a larger region of our minds.

Unfortunately, whereas advertising is simply driven by the desire for profit, other applications of media are even less commendable. I am referring to the political uses of media, that have given us among others the first tragedy of the 21st century, 9/11, as the century had just been born.

How does media - the discipline - manage such success?

It's all about timing.

Say you want to hit your enemy hard, but fear the repercussions with the world community? Choose the moment when the world will care least, or be absorbed with other issues, to make your strike.

It worked beautifully for Israel's attack on Gaza. Choosing the period between Christmas and the new year ensured that the Western world would be on vacation and half-drunk, unable to respond coherently to this event. Only this week, 10 long bloody days since the start of the campaign, are reactions starting to emerge worldwide.

What do you do when your government exerts a regime that is unacceptable to its people, and to you as a citizen? The historic thing to do is to start or participate in a revolution, but that can only be a temporary event, after which we must attain a better sociopolitical state. It helps to have a desired state in sight beyond the revolution.

This vision, or cause, is what must be supplied in order to rally the people, who are in everyday life a scattered, non-cooperative bunch.

Before me, on public TV, is unfolding live the fire of the Egyptian Parliament's building.

The Nile News channel is filming the building on fire. Here's what I learn:

10:30pm (Egypt time, GMT+3)

• the fire started at 5:45pm.
• it is now 10:30pm and the fire is still going strong inside the building.
• the explanation for the rapid spread is that the strong wind and the wooden structure did it.

I've read so many endless threads of political discussions on forums and blogs that I'm nauseated. Here's an open letter to netizens who take sides.

"Your economic theory makes no sense".