Further Globalization

I am so confused by whether globalization is good or bad. I am getting the feeling that globalization is like communism - in theory it is good but in reality it has a lot of bad side effects. Ideally it should be removing borders, thus allowing knowledge and richs to freely flow about. Something like thermodynamics: money will flow where it is most needed, resulting in a uniform money through out. But in reality it can drain the resources of poorer nations, resulting in extreme contrasts. Ofcourse we can argue that it has been globalization and the out sourceing which has allowed india to gain riches and become its own powerhouse. But it seems to me the Indias of the world are few and far between. More often than not, resources of a country are drained. Look at Iran for example. How much of a knowledge drain has Iran undergone? Unlike India, people do not return to Iran once they become established and wealthy. Money does not really get sent back to iran. So in the right circumstances, globalization can work. But third world nations generally have so many political and cultural problems that the right circumstances are rare. What do you think?

The other thing was the comment of Brinda about why middle east countries are poor. Basically, Juan is correct. They have raw resources but they don't have the technology to develop these raw materials. So they sell them cheaply to other countries and buy back the refined material at a much higher cost. This was what was happening to the petrol industry in iran during the shah regime. Iran was selling raw petrol to england (i think) and buyin back refined petrol at a loss and this was what Iran had!! Jeerjeerak, do you know much more about this?

Sadat Lecture for Peace

Last night I went to our university's Anwar Sadat's lecture for Peace, given by Dr Mohamed El Baradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Before I say more, let me just say that it was a wonderful lecture. His ideas and view of the world corresponded to mine very well, save for the fact that he could verbalize them a thousand times better than me.

El Baradei is from Egypt and has been in his current position for the 2 other terms. Of course anyone who has been in such a position for so long has to be a great politian and diplomat. He won the 2005 Nobel peace prize.

His lecture was about the state of the world today, with special emphasis on the middle east. The following are some of ideas I picked up at his lecture:

- paraphrasing someone else: the world has never been more at peace (ie fewer wars) and yet less secure.

- there are 4 main reasons for this lack of security - for the world to become a more secure place, we need to overcome:
(1) poverty, a necessity for achieving lasting peace;
(2) Corruption and lack of democracy;
(3) Injustice - the balance between the haves and the have nots for wealth and power;
(4) Artificial polarization that is created because of for example, religion.

- The current islam versus the west clash that has emerged is not because of the clash of different religios values, rather it is inequality. It is easy for the downtrodden to blame their situation on religion.

- Globalization and the interdependence of nations that is supposed to brinig opportunities for all, also has the bad effect that it allows the exploitation of the poorer nations. Globalization has also opened a window so that people can see what they can also have, allowing nations to have artificial wants.

- Security organizations must be reformed to match the emerging threats. For example, the difference between nuclear profileration versus nuclear disarmament.

- Threats from the west drive countries such as north korea and iran to have nuclear weapons. (G: I guess this goes back to the disarmament idea)

- Quoting someone else: "Human security is too important to be left to governments".

Who Let the Dogs Out?!

Oh my god, enjoy the following very funny clip!

System Overhaul

I am going to complain only a teeny weeny bit and then go back to my studies.. but. bloody hell, my computers all messed up. I have really been free with what i install on it and now, it complains to me by croaking and moaning and once in a while freezing me out - well more, freezing itself and showing me what it thinks of me. If only it had hands it is thinking.
I need to reformat my computer and re-install everything on it. But I keep thinking too many things to install, its going to take too much time and also how do i know i have all the softwares still which i installed? I am doomed if I do and doomed if I don't.

So I will procastinate.

But seriously, turning this topic to a bit ph philosophical ping pong, don't you wish life had a re-start button and you could re-start when the system just becomes too bogged down. Or maybe you can.
Well you can't restart everything just like the computer (for example, you delete a file and it is deleted..[I don't want to hear any comments suggesting tools which help resurrect deleted files - this was a weak example i know]).. anyway. Do you like my analogy? ;-)

How Polls are Taken

This was interesting, how a recent poll arrived at 655k dead iraqis:

So how has the U.S. media reported on these shocking-albeit-necessarily-imprecise findings, based on door-to-door surveys in 18 provinces, by the experts trained in this kind of thing? The actual methods included obtaining data by eight Iraqi physicians during a survey of 1,849 Iraqi families -- 12,801 people -- in 47 neighborhoods of 18 regions across the country. The researchers based the selection of geographical areas on population size, not on the level of violence. How strict were their standards? They asked for death certificates to prove claims -- and got them in 92 percent of the cases. Even so, the authors say that the number could be anywhere from 426,000 to 800,000.

Borat

Here is the trailer of the new Borat movie:

I am unsure about this movie - i know that i don't like it and the view of Kazakhstan in the eyes of the world is going to be changed forever. Definitely in a bad way. Why would anyone make something so... vulgar? it is a waste of the world's resources - this guy Sacha Cohen is smart so why does he make these kind of movies?

Personally i think this movie needs to be boycotted.

Update

I have not been posting very much lately because, well I have been busy. Today I had a presentation which fortunately is over. The better news has been that my cousin has been here visiting which has been very good. He has been very good to me and helped me with a lot of my car troubles. He'll be staying till monday.
Then my next visitor will be Dazbend dearest on saturday and mozzer dearest on sunday. What else can a girl want? :-)

Meanwhile, check out this cute putty kat!