Digital Ink Los Angeles

The 2009 World Drug Report says that Afghanistan, which produces more than 90% of the world’s poppy for heroin production, had a decrease in opiate production of 19% in 2008.

The U.S. Marines have attempted to commandeer the Helmand province in order to stifle the increasing insurgency and violence in this area, funded completely by the sale of this beautiful poppy.

Estimates as high as 35,000, including British Special Forces, are rumored to be accurate in terms of the number of high-impact, heavily armed troops that are currently roaming these Taliban strongholds. Not to mention the DEA, who are supervising the efforts in the poppy trenches.

The upcoming August 20th elections — with newcomer Dr. Abdullah Abdullah leading a charge against incumbent Karzai and James Carville-backed challenger Ashraf Ghani — will be a tipping point in this region.

Digital Ink Los Angeles picks Abdullah-Abdullah, who was a commander of forces led by Afghan warlord and national hero, Martyr Ahmad “The Lion” Shah Massoud, against the Soviet occupation in the 80s.

Massoud (seen at left) is legendary for his heroics leading fierce, horse-mounted warriors against the Taliban, but was assassinated only days before the events of 9/11 by Al-Qaeda henchmen led by Osama bin Laden.

“Know your enemy” is an oft-used warning to troops in combat situations. In Iraq, U.S. Armed Forces occupied oil reserves and refineries. In Afghanistan, Marines are in poppy fields.

Abdullah-Abdullah might be a political solution to a difficult U.S. drug problem.

Administrator Earth, New America, Social Responsibility, The New World Afghan, Afghanistan, America, democracy, drugs, global, heroin, Marines, narcotics, opium, peace, poppy, solution, terror, troops, war

Six months into his presidency and Barack Obama has seen his share of bad and good press.

This third week of July has been a reality check for Obama and his administration, with healthcare taking a detour on the legislative trail, and Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. staking a racial stance that sent Obama flailing with his new-found powers.

The summer session is over in Washington, and business starts again with the upcoming fall session. With all the hot smoke in the air, it’d be nice if the new president can begin to settle in to expected great achievements.

It’s now or never. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire? Puff-puff, Mr. Obama.

Administrator 21st Century Culture, New America, New Economy, Social Responsibility, The New World cigarette, democracy, Executive, GOOD, habits, healthcare, legislative, Obama, politics, power, president, smoking, social, summer, Washington

According to the NY Times article on February 1, 2009, ExxonMobil:

“…beat its own record for the highest profits ever recorded by any company, with net income rising 3 percent to $40.6 billion, thanks to surging oil prices. The company’s sales, more than $404 billion, exceeded the gross domestic product of 120 countries.“

With the onset of the worst domestic economy in 80 years, and plunging balance sheets at Wall Street banks, ExxonMobil managed to return “highest profits ever recorded by any company.” They must be great businessmen and astonishingly good at their jobs.

Bernie Madoff was arrested on December 11, 2008, for charges of securities fraud and outright theft, constituting the largest investor fraud ever perpetrated in history, to the tune of almost $65 billion.

Bernie Madoff had a keen business mind and was really good at his job: theft. On June 29, 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed. At the rate of ExxonMobil’s current profit return, by the time Madoff gets out of jail, they’ll have profited $65 trillion from consumers. Profiteering is good. America was founded on this, right Mr. Gecko?

“The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.“
– Gordon Gecko, Wall Street (1987)

Pumping Profits or Ponzi Ploys, which is worse?

Administrator 21st Century Culture, Art and Justice, New America, New Economy, Social Responsibility, The New World, Wall Street business, capitalism free market, crook, democracy, economy, equality, greed, Madoff, New America, New Economy, oil, poverty, profit, revenue, scam, wealth

Shepard Fairey Enters Burmese Politics

Shepard Fairey has been quite busy over the last two years — between helping get Obama elected and fighting vandalism charges in the Boston courts — but not too busy to embrace the cause of one Aung San Suu Kyi.

Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the preeminent human right activists in the world today. Her father, Aung San, founded the modern Burmese army and negotiated Burma’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1947; he was assassinated by his rivals in the same year. She has opposed the military junta quasi-government of Myanmar (Burma) since they nullified her election as the democratically chosen Prime Minister in 1989.

An Oxford-educated aristocrat, Aung San Suu Kyi helped found the National League for Democracy on September 27, 1988, and was put under house arrest on July 20, 1989. She was initially offered her freedom if she agreed to leave the country, but she refused. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for almost twenty years. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and remains a figure of social upheaval and human rights in the country of her birth.

Hats off to Shepard Fairey for his recognition of Aung San Suu Kyi’s plight, and the profound relevance of her struggle to the current events in Iran.

Administrator 1%, 21st Century Culture, Art and Justice, Heroes, The New World art, Burma, democracy, Fairey, fear, hero, human rights, military, Nobel Peace Prize, peace, power, social

20 YEARS of CHINESE DEMOCRACY

The simple description, “Tank Man,” is all that’s known of this scene as nothing certain has been produced to validate the man’s identity or that of the commander of the lead tank. The People’s Republic of China has refuted claims, many of them dubious, but it is certainly possible that the man would have faced some serious government-sponsored rehabilitation, if not a sudden, permanent disappearance. For his courage, his unashamed protest in the face of military might, Tank Man is a hero to me.

The 20th Anniversary of the Student Protests at Tiananmen Square marks a change in the global structure we live in, as paradigms have shifted, balances have tilted, and democracy has entered the 21st Century, with Chinese commerce and business leading the universe in total output and wealth.

One person in the middle of it all as bullets started flying in that first week of June 1989, was John Simpson, BBC World Affairs Editor. You can read his full article and remembrance here.

Administrator 21st Century Culture, Art and Justice, Heroes, The New World China, courage, democracy, economy, freedom, hero, protest, society, violence

He’s a man of controversy, but not because he foments hate or preaches anger, quite the opposite. Cornel West, like Toto in the Wizard of Oz, is responsible for pulling back the curtain, revealing the inner workings of our U.S. mythology. Here’s a link to his website.

In the current Zeitgeist Films release, Examined Life, Cornel West opens and closes the show like an intellectual entertainer with the bravado of a professional athlete — he knows this is his time, and he relishes his time in the spotlight. The film’s principal focus is contemporary philosophy, and its title is a play on the Socratic quote, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”

His important works would be Race Matters (1993) and Democracy Matters (2004). Some critics, like The New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier, accuse West of opportunism, crass showmanship and lack of serious scholarly endeavor. His answer is always the same — he believes academics have an important role to play in promoting public discourse that “cannot be achieved if professors lock themselves in their ivory towers instead of engaging society-at-large and the relevant issues of the day.”

The oft-quoted Cornel West has become known for a singular sentiment that President Obama has latched upon in his campaign and subsequent administrative focus: “You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people, if you don’t serve the people.“

As a man who is willing to stand for his beliefs and promote a better democracy in the face of these turbulent times, Cornel West is a hero to me.

Administrator Art and Justice, Heroes, Movies and Cinema, New America, The New World Cornel West, courage, democracy, hero, intellectual, intelligence, philosophy, race, thinker

As of April 7, 2009, the total U.S. federal debt was $11,152,772,833,835.89 ($11.2T), or about $36,676 per capita. Of this amount, debt held by the public was roughly $6.869 trillion. That means, each and every citizen in the U.S. owes a public creditor, basically the Chinese government, approximately $20,000 to pay for our accumulating “U.S. Government Public Debt.”

Do you know what the U.S. Department of Treasury does? Let’s consider the Treasury’s central task to be what they are good at: printing money. In addition, when printing money becomes functionally impotent, we must seek funding for public programs — stimulus packages, military theaters, healthcare for kids — from ulterior sources.

Check out the PBS FRONTLINE special at this link: TEN TRILLION AND COUNTING!

This story commences with PBS FRONTLINE correspondent Forrest Sawyer escorting viewers to a secret location: the Treasury’s debt auction room, where the U.S. government sells securities backed by the “full faith and credit of the United States.” On the day FRONTLINE’s cameras are in observance, the government is auctioning $67 billion of Treasury securities. The money borrowed, or auctioned, will be used to fund services and programs that the government cannot pay for through tax revenues alone.

Observers warn that the United States’ reliance on borrowing to fund essential programs is a dangerous gamble. For the first time, investors are beginning to question the ability of federal government to meet its growing financial obligations, and fading confidence can have dire consequences.

“You might have a situation where there is one day when the government says we need to sell several billion dollars of bonds, and nobody shows,” Economist reporter Greg Ip tells FRONTLINE. “No money to pay the Social Security checks, no money to give to the states for their Medicaid programs.”

Yet more borrowing is exactly what the Obama administration plans to do: hundreds of billions to bail out the banks and other financial institutions; tens of billions more for the auto industry; $275 billion for homeowners and mortgage lenders; and a giant $787 billion stimulus package to jump-start an economy spiraling downward. Just like the Bush administration before it, Obama and his team are going to borrow big.

“That’s the paradox of the situation that we’re in now,” observes Matt Miller, author of The Tyranny of Dead Ideas. “Government has got to run big deficits to stimulate the economy, deficits that would have been unthinkable … because government’s the only entity with the wherewithal to prop up a demand in the economy when businesses and consumers are all pulling back.”

The question is, what’s the end game? Who’s going to explain this to the next generation, hell-bent on saving our global climate and dominating the global interface of our digital world? This is a very interesting New Economy we’re developing. I don’t speak Chinese, but my kids might.

Administrator New America, New Economy, The New World, Wall Street China, debt, democracy, Frontline, New Economy, Obama, public, stimulus, taxes, United States