"Dr. Kamran Mofid is a visionary activist committed to the evolutionary transformation of social, ecological and spiritual values. His is a vision of a healing world, in which justice and peace are increased – rather than diminished – by the process of globalisation." -- Common Ground
http://www.cg.org/news_list.aspx
Alma and Clifford Pearson Distinguished Speakers Series
Location: Samuelson Chapel - California Lutheran University
"Kamran Mofid is founder of the Globalization for the Common Good Initiative and co-founder/editor of the Journal of Globalization for the Common Good. Born in Tehran, Iran, he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Windsor, Ontario, and his doctorate in economics from the University of Birmingham, U.K. In 2001 he received a Certificate in Education in Pastoral Studies at Plater College, Oxford..." http://www.callutheran.edu/calendar/event/1787
To listen to the lecture please click here: http://www.callutheran.edu/CLV/
"Outside ideas of right doing And wrong doing, There is a field I’ll meet you there." -- Rumi
If anyone actually follows this blog, then you'll know my passion to trim the Post Office to mail once or twice a week. So read this.
Finally, enter the top man at the U.S. Postal Service into a fat-cat pay dispute. According to CNN, Postmaster General John E. Potter received $800,000 in total compensation a year ago, triggering howls of protest from critics who point out that Potter recently testified before Congress showing the postal service posted a $2.8 billion loss and might not be able to fulfill its six-day delivery mandate. But the agency's board of governors on Tuesday came to his defense, saying the pay is justified. "Even in these difficult times, the postmaster general continues to exhibit visionary leadership, effecting billions of dollars in cost reductions," said Carolyn Lewis Gallagher, the chairman of the agency's board of governors.
What could he possibly do that justifies that, think up new stamps? No, he probably creates a committee for that. Say, guys lets keep delivering mail; hey why don't we have a monopoly on validating postage, oh wait we do. Lets advertise so some other mail carrier doesn't take our place. No, lets do it to increase demand for more mailers, circulars, post cards, envelopes, and hallmark cards. And lets sell the trees to make it from federal land at $5 an acre. Oh, this will end well.
I'm sorry, but I hold incompetence to be a greater sin than malfeasance. When it comes to the resources of the commonweal. It's one thing to not have any torpedoes on your PT boat because you sold them all, it's quite another if they blow up when you fire them because they were assembled by morons. In WWII an American submarine commander once put 11 torpedoes into a Japanese Transport Ship, 11 duds; he took the 12th back to base for analysis. After sinking the ship with his deck gun.
I try to read Slate.com's summary of the 5 biggest newspapers, and I saw this
In yet another disturbing story about the special immigration-enforcement units that were set up after Sept. 11 to catch dangerous illegal immigrants, the Post takes a look at a raid that took place in January 2007 that detained 24 Latino men. After being admonished for failing to meet their quota for arrests, a team descended on a 7-Eleven in Maryland and just started detaining people, many of whom were in the country illegally but most were not fugitives. One, in fact, had just stopped by to get coffee on the way to the hospital to visit his wife and child.
a poll that said how soon do you think the economy will be fixed; and 24% of the polls respondants thought longer than 4 years. Now it was a CNN Poll, but I wonder if the number of people who took the poll who would identify themselves as Republican, why do I think that number is about 24%? And why do I doubt that's just their way of saying "No, no, you just don't understand when we make a mess, it's a really, really big mess. You can't just clean that up in a year or two, that kind of damage may take decades. Decades to fix, man did we screw the pooch."?
Afghanistan joins war on terror review
"I am very, very thankful that President Obama has accepted my proposal of Afghanistan joining the strategic review of the war against terrorism in the United States," Mr Karzai said.
Kabul would send a delegation to Washington headed by Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta to take part in the reassessment, he said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25059965-12335,00.html
"In his seven years in office, Mr. Karzai has successfully presided over the transition of the Afghan state from the devastated, pre-modern institution it was under the Taliban to the deeply troubled but largely democratic one it is today. Perhaps most important for his future, Mr. Karzai has assembled a team of senior administrators whose competence and experience would be difficult for any challenger to match." New York Times, 2/7/09
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/world/asia/08karzai.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's Interview of 2/15/09 with Fareed Zakaria
Part I:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/02/15/gps.karzai.intv.pt.1.cnn?iref=videosearch
Part II:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/02/15/gps.karzai.intv.pt.2.cnn?iref=videosearch
Interveiw: Hamid Karzai, Aljazeera.net 2/14/09
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/02/2009213193946154689.html
"Hamid Karzai is fluent in English having gone to university in Simla, India where he received an M.A. in the International Relations and Political Science Program"
"Hamid Karzai is said to be fluent in five other languages (Pushtu, Dari, Urdu, French and Hindi) and is comfortable with the electronic media. While at university, the Soviets invaded his homeland."
"Hamid Karzai has an honor doctorate in literature, an honorary doctorate of Laws from Boston University and Georgetown."
http://www.zimbio.com/President+Hamid+Karzai/articles/388/19+Must+Know+Facts+Afghanistan+President+Hamid
But I was just informed that tiny beleagured Haiti is deeply in debt. So here's a little background from Wikipedia. I hope you share with me the compassion that here in the midst of a world economic meltdown, we can let the 1.4 billion the poorest people on the earth owe. And American's I ask you, where would we be without the services of Toussaint L'Overture perhaps the greatest service rendered by a foreign national to the health, wealth, and prosperity of the United States since Lafeyette. Anyway, lets let this one slide.
slave colony. In exchange for French recognition of Haiti as a sovereign republic, France demanded payment of 150 million francs (modern equivalent of $21 billion). [1]
From 1957 to 1986, Haiti was controlled by the father/son dictatorship of Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. For nearly thirty years they diverted foreign assistance towards their own personal interests. While exactly how much money the Duvaliers stole is unknown, after Jean-Claude Duvalier was forced to step down an audit established that at least $500 million had been diverted in just his last six years. Once stolen, the money was used for a variety of purposes. A certain amount went directly to the Duvalier family. For example, Michele Duvalier famously spent $20,000 on a shopping trip to New York in the early 1980s. The money was also used to strengthen the Duvaliers’ control over Haiti, with payoffs to the Tonton Macoutes (Francois Duvalier's personal militia), Haitian soldiers, and local officials. [2]
Haiti has a total external debt of 1.4 billion dollars. 45% of this debt was accumulated under the Duvalier dictatorship. [3] In April, Haiti was added to the World Bank and IMF's highly indebted poor country initiative (HIPC) following the election of new president René Préval. However, the country will not qualify for debt cancellation from the IMF and World Bank until 2009 at the earliest.
Haiti's largest creditor, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is not part of the debt relief initiative. Haiti's debt to the IDB amounts to approximately half a billion dollars with debt service payments projected by the IMF to increase in the following years.[4]
Jubilee USA has called for the immediate cancellation of Haiti's debt to multilateral institutions, including the World Bank, IMF, and the previously excluded lender, the Inter-American Development Bank, based on the argument that this debt is unjust (under a legal term called odious debt) and that Haiti could better use the funds going towards debt service for education, health care, and basic infrastructure. [5]
The Haiti Debt Cancellation Resolution [6] had 66 co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives as of February 2008.
Several organizations in the U.S. have issued action alerts around the Haiti Debt Cancellation Resolution, and a Congressional letter to the U.S. Treasury [7], including Jubilee USA, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti and Pax Christi USA.
Reading Recommendations -- Dr. Kamran Mofid, Economist:
Economists are the forgotten guilty men
Organizing For America
Sign up to host an Economic Recovery House Meeting the weekend of Friday, February 6th.
As many Americans plan to host or attend an Economic Recovery House Meeting and while we continue to struggle with the economic crisis please consider additional opportunities to expand the dialogue, examples are provided below.
California Lutheran University
Admission is free. Visit the CLU web site for more information:
http://www.callutheran.edu/calendar/event/1787
Dr. Mofid will be visiting Common Ground on Tuesday, March 3, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. Dr. Mofid will give the third in the 2008-2009 Common Ground Chair Lecture Series.
Dr. Mofid will also be giving a public lecture at Lake Forest College on Monday, March 2. (Details will be available on the CG site.) The LFC presentation is sponsored by the Department of Religions and the Islamic World Studies Program.
Common Ground is a center for inquiry, study, and dialogue. The primary concern of which is the human quest for understanding and the human pursuit of significance.
"Dr. Kamran Mofid is a visionary activist committed to the evolutionary transformation of social, ecological and spiritual values. His is a vision of a healing world, in which justice and peace are increased – rather than diminished – by the process of globalisation."
-- Common Ground
Common Ground, 815 Rosemary Terrace, Deerfield, IL 60015.
http://www.cg.org/News_View.aspx?Articleid=48
Globalisation For the Common Good Initiative
"Globalization:
The Challenge to America"
May 31 – June 4, 2009
Loyola University • Chicago, Illinois, USA
http://www.gcgchicago2009.info/
.........................................Kamran Mofid PhD (ECON)Founder, Globalisation for the Common Good Initiativewww.globalisationforthecommongood.infoCo-editor, Journal of Globalisation for the Common Goodwww.commongoodjournal.comGlobalisation for the Common Good, Chicago 2009http://www.gcgchicago2009.info/
President Obama's interview with Mr. Hisham Melhem of Al-Arabiya was a refreshing change from the past 8 years. There is HOPE!
“My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy,” Obama told Al Arabiya’s Hisham Melhem in an interview broadcast Tuesday morning.
"... start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating -- in the past on some of these issues --and we don't always know all the factors that are involved. So let's listen."
Transcript:
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/01/27/65087.html#004
