fixtheworld

Why Politicians Who Talk About Religion Scare The Crap Out Of Me

Posted From The US

Don't they scare the crap out of you?

Here is a sure fire formula for intolerance:

People Soon To Be In Power + Some Religion Where People Claim To Know It All = Scary Bad Stuff.

Why do we confuse Freedom Of Religion with The Freedom To Shove My Religion Down Your Throat?

I'm very nervous about atheists who fanatically claim Darwinism as their religion of absolute faith (heck even Darwin would claim some uncertainty about his theories) and overly sure religions folks who want to blend politics and belief. 

Keep 'em separated people.

What makes America one of the greatest places on earth is that we allow everyone, of every religion and faith and non-faith, to live here, freely. Let's keep it that way.

Politicians pandering to religious groups and adopting the language and trappings of faith are moving in opposition to the founding principles of this country. What are your leadership skills? Your ability to to manage complex data and make decisions? What are your shared values - ones that reach every citizen?

Why are you qualified to have the power of governance over us? 

Your religious beliefs? Keep this to a minimum. Keep that in your private life. Explain how they will not lead you to make decisions that alienate those who do not share your beliefs.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances"

-R

The Yes Men Fix The World

Posted from the US

If you haven't seen the latest film from the Yes Men, please check it out:

http://theyesmenfixtheworld.com/

These guys are the Borat of social activism- and they separate those who get it and those who do not with a sharp and clever knife.

They rock and give us all new hope that we can fix the world, especially when the dark and nasty underbelly is exposed for all to see.

-R

On Global Poverty - 2008 & Beyond

Posted from the US

Some interesting statistics:

Recent World Bank Development Indicators (2008) show that roughly half of the world's population (3 billion people) are living on $2.50 US per day - or less.

Some quick thoughts and ideas as to how we can attack this massive problem:

• The growing concept of blending microfinance through mobile phone networks and interfaces.
• A global, cloud-computing based "poverty facebook" - connect the poorest with everyone else - and leverage the power of personal connections and enlarging the personal sphere of those with the money (in sight can no longer be out of mind).
• Global, low-cost/no-cost peer to peer computing and communications networks - access to open-source information and education is cheap, very powerful, and helps to remove the barriers between those who have and those who have-not.
• Leverage the above to create local, sustainable business that can address worldwide market needs - everyone can be a global entrepreneur.

-R

On Cancer, Wheatgrass, and Robots

Posted from the US

The last year has brought with it the intensity of close relatives, associates, and friends all facing severe forms of cancer - the type where the oncologists have not much to offer other than poor statistics.

A few things learned:

• Oncology, and cancer research in general, is not where it should be.
• Chemotherapy may work sometimes - but the general philosophy of it will probably be looked at one day (maybe 10 years from now, who knows) as poorly as we look at carpet bombing from WW2. Targeting is poor, so blow up everything.
• The worst thing an oncologist can say to anyone is "you only have __ days/weeks/months" to live. I do not believe that this is good for the mind - and it can become a self-fulfilling statement. What they are really saying is "I have nothing more that I know what to do with you - as my primary tool is chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation - if I can't cut it, poison you, or bombard your body with radiation, I'm at a loss". What they should say is "there are many alterantives beyond conventional medicine - and some of these have proven to be anecdotally even more effective than chemotherapy - perhaps now is a good time to try these other systems out".

It may sound like I'm coming down hard on oncology - which is not completely fair. There are good oncologists and many people have been helped by surgery, chemo, and radiation. But the overall toolbox for fighting cancer has been pretty primitive and not as effective as one would wish.

I did find new threads of interest and hope:

• Cyberknife - The is a cool robot developed by John Adler at Stanford, and now commercialized by a company called Accuray. I remember being in Silicon Valley in late 1999, at an angel investor night, where my company was invited to present. There was a discussion among the investors about the Cyberknife, and how this was a poor business model and a bad idea - but any kooky internet idea was worth throwing $5million at without even a thought. Today, in 2007, the Cyberknife is one of the only, if not best ways, to basically zap tumors anywhere in the body, and there seems to be no limit to how often it could be used on the same patient. It kills the tumor and leaves the healthy tissue alone. It is an amazing machine - and I'm glad someone believed in them and kept the company going. This summer I took the close relative out to Stanford where they used the Cyberknife to kill some nasty tumors near critical structures - and it really did the job. The sad part was that I had to push the local doctors into admitting that this was needed - they barely even knew about the Cyberknife and what it could do.
• Wheatgrass - I've stumbled upon an interesting newtwork of raw vegan/sprout/macrobiotic types who have basically been the last hope for people who have been told that there is no more hope and the end is near. There is a massive amount of anecdotal data, and some peer-reviewed level scientfic data, that wheatgrass, combined with a mostly raw, vegan, living sprout based diet can be a major boost to the body and help people fight and recover from the most severe of diseases. I even went to visit one of the motherships of the movement, a place called the Hippocrates Health Institute. They are the Meccas, Medina, and Jerusalem of wheatgrass and being a vegan for health. The vast majority of the people who go there have no other roads - and they appear to have helped thousands. The movie CrazySexyCancer is an irreverant path into this whole world.

Why does any of this matter? I do think that the very high-tech (Cyberknife) can go hand in hand with the seemingly low-tech, even anti-tech, concepts of wheatgrass and being a vegan. One uses technology in a smart way - kill only the cancer, leave the body alone. The other puts a massive filter on your food intake - all bad foods are gone, and massive doses of the most healthy types of foods and juices are what you eat forever more.

So in a short time I learned that the many local doctors have a limit to their vision and understanding - practically everyone in my area was ignorant of the Cyberknife, or only discussed it when I pushed it hard. No one raised the issue of moving off the chemo highway and trying something else. Somehow bombarding the body with massive doses of the most healthy foods has nothing to do with today's medicine. When I visited the people I knew in the hospital, the food they were served was old, grayish, and reminiscent of my high school days (fries and ketchup were considered to be veggies). There is even a McDonalds(!) in the lobby of the hospital - which is essentially insane and hypocritical on all levels. The hospital philosophy is "we'll ram you full of drugs, morphine, and allow/encourage all kinds of junk food - and then we'll tell you there is no hope". I have a hard time understanding the disconnect between a radically healthy diet and utilizing that to fight disease alongside smart, targeted therapies (like Cyberknife). In an onclogy world where some of the best chemo drug trial only extend life statistically by a few months, why is no one seriously looking at the alterantive routes, which have an abundance of anecdotal success?

I did speak to some people on the alterantive side, and the answer was basically that the drug companies can not effectively bottle and market the essence of the radicaly vegan/wheatgrass programs that help people. They fear that something simple and cheap may blow out their costly biotechs. It's not a reductionist concept - it's a whole systemic concept, where the entirety of the plant, in it's live form plays a role. I still think think that it is worth hard core research. From what I have seen to date, I would rather take 500 late stage cancer patients and put them through a raw vegan/wheatgrass program than force more chemo upon them. It would be very interesting to see a double blind study done this way - and to see the outcomes of each group. If a major study was done by reputable groups (say Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Stanford) and the outcome was in strong favor of the vegan/wheatgrass programs, what would that do to modern oncology?

There are a lot of alterantive therapies that are very snake oil in their mumbo jumbo and magnetic healing powers. One of the problems with any alternative medicine system is all of the unncessary and sometimes defeating crap that wraps around it. The good things are sometimes lost in a sea of crystals and quacks. However, even "real" mainstream medicine has many flaws: chemotherapy with poor/sketchy results, no good answers for many cancers and disease, and hospitals that promote a diet that could turn a healthy person sick. I think carefully filtering out what matters and could be relevant from both sides is key.

It has been hard for me to shoot down the concept of a filtered, hard-core, expertly designed raw vegan/wheatgrass programs. There is some primal logic there that makes sense on a fundamental level. It also shows up in many parts of the world, with many different types of people discussing complete returns from the brink. It's worth looking into more deeply. I don't know how or when a serious study could be funded, but it would be quite interesting. Scientists need to learn how to study these things on a major scale, how to get the research funded, and how to co-exist with ideas that may be wild and out there today, but possibly the real deal. After all, penicillin came from mold, and aspirin from tree bark of willow trees. Why can't the cure for cancer be in a blade of grass?

-R

A New Movement?

Posted from the US

It seems to me that a set of ethics is emerging that is universal and global and is going to ultimately bang heads with the older established ways and religions.

Here is what I see:

• A connected, global community - in constant communication with each other
• Tolerance and respect for others - including their different choices
• Color, race, sex, ethnicity - does not matter
• Respect for the environment - stop abusing it
• Overall drive for alternative energy that is renewable and low-impact
• Freedom of expression
• Intellectual property is to be shared (freeware, music, books)
• Wiki-Thought - empower the people but embrace the individual
• Have a wicked sense of humor
• A vegetarian, or semi-vegetarian attitude - eating animals will become so 20th century
• All things organic, natural, healthy
• Processed foods = crap
• Hacker ethics - life is more than a daily grind
• Work - what you do should positively contribute to humanity (bomb builders should become health care workers)
• Most things developed by Apple & Pixar film morality
• Linux and it's ilk
• Politics - an old mechanism - becoming a sad joke
• War - no tolerance for it anymore
• Virtual life - a life lived in second life and games
• The web everywhere - a right like breathing and water
• Healthcare - technology should enable great care for everyone
• Robots - we're not afraid - we want them to clean our house
• Drugs - who needs that when you have VR?

This loosely connected list (incomplete) seems to tie a lot of people together around the world. It's not really liberal or conservative - it's more post-human, or perhaps, neo-human (hey, we're human again folks).

-R

The Torture of Omar Khadr

Posted from the US

The latest edition of Rolling Stone has an article by Jeff Tietz called "The Unending Torture of Omar Khadr". It describes the torture, by the US military, of a teenage POW held at Guantanamo Bay.

One can debate the truth content of the story, which is not what I want to do here. One can also point out the horrible crimes, torture, and executions that Al Qaeda and other terrorists groups have carried out against Americans, other Westerners, and even fellow Arabs.

What I want to understand is what is America about? We should not be like other countries. We are supposed to be the good guys that save the day. Cynics and realpolitik folks would argue that America needs to play whatever dirty games it needs to play to survive. I disagree.

America is not just about survival. America is an idea, a good idea, and one that can not be forgotten. It is an idea that should improve with time. While we may face a ruthless, fanatical and brutal enemy - we do not need to become what we are fighting. America is not about a border - it is about a place of freedom and liberty and acting upon the right thing. Fair play. We fight the good fight. We are not everyone else. Have we lived up to those ideals? Have we lost our soul?

Is there a time and place for torture in a country like ours? Is there a time and place for pointless, senseless torture? Is there a time and place for abuses of power?

No. If something smells wrong, is hidden, if it feels wrong - it is wrong. We know right from wrong and no amount of justifying and rationalizing makes wrong right.

We are at war, we are killing terrorists. But when they are captured and held as prisoner - when they will no longer bring us harm - what we do then defines our soul as a country. It is harder to fight with and hate a country that treats its prisoners well. The moral high ground is a true high ground - it is a rallying point for the citizens and the armed forces.

I do not know the truth of the article - it would be good to understand what really happened. But the point of being an American citizen is not to be okay with torture. We should never become comfortable with things that are wrong. We are judged by a higher standard because America is a higher standard. In an open and free society we need to have an open debate and correct the actions of government - they are after all, only people, for the people, and by the people. The government is here to serve us.

I hope that we, the American people, are not okay with torture, and I hope that we, the American people understand the difference between fighting a just and fair war to prevent terrorism and simply abusing our power. Lastly, I hope that we, the American people, understand that it is our collective voice and morality which should drive, shape, and influence our government. We are active drivers, not passive recipients of policy.

Here is my voice: President Bush, we need to fight the war on terror that is waged against our country. But if we are abusing or torturing prisoners, however hateful they may be to us, that needs to stop. That is not why this country exists. We are about being better, being the enlightened, free, open space for the rest of the world to emulate and want to become. That is our mission and please do not forget why we are fighting this war. We will not win by killing every terrorist and Arab who we think is a terrorist. We will win when we defeat the ideas of the terrorists. We will win by winning the hearts and minds of the world by showing them that America is an idea that makes sense, and that fair play, open democracy, and equitable justice above all things are truths we live by and not just say.

Not by might and not by power alone.

-R

Welcome to FixTheWorld

Welcome to my new blog site, FixTheWorld.

This will be a running supplement to my blogs started at the World Economic Forum Conference 2005. It will be an attempt at open source discussion, posts, and articles on how the world can be fixed.

Thank you,

Rony