Perspectives

Life as we know it is governed by our perspectives. Something can happen that person A and B both experience, but can exist as completely different experiences based on their perspectives. Our perspectives hold great power over the way we interact with the world. Hence, improving our perspectives (in truthfulnes and wisdom) becomes a very worthwhile activity.

A neat site I came across helped me experience a hypothetical perspective, which gave me a better global perspetive. What if the earth only had a population of 100, yet all the proportions of races, religion, wealth, standard of living and the such remained the same. Check it out at www.miniature-earth.com/ which has a neat flash presentation. This topic of perspectives has been on my mind...

in the days before the anniversary of September 11th, 2001. The question came - what do I know of 9/11? Sure I know the surface media story and the basics, and could regurgitate (roughly) what was replayed over and over and over on the news during that entire month. I can't name any of the individuals that were accused. I can't give any clear explanation on how the twin towers could collapse after burning for under 2 hours... (while in 1975 a fire broke out for over 3 hours over 6 floors with virtually no structural damage)

In fact tons of alternative theories began to abound, easily spread by the advent of the internet. The official 9/11 Commission Report was released three years after 9/11. ABC recently also showed a docudrama The Path to 9/11" was then based off of. Still, many people seem quite convinced that something wasn't adding up.

Before we just label these as mere conspiracy theories, consider: these theories are rapidly gaining support from educated people who actually know a bit of what they're talking about. Consider a movement such as the Scholars for 9/11 Truth. They have quite an educated membership of about 300 including people experienced in advanced research, engineering, physics, etc. The wikiepdia does point out however, notably no one from the American Society of Civil Engineers is yet part of this organization.

Haven't caught up on some of the hard criticisms of the official 9/11 Commission Report? Check out some of these videos, roughly handpicked: Jim Fetzer 9/11 Panel Discussion, the popular Loose Change documentary, an MIT Engineer's take on the WTC collapse. There's countless other organizations, websites, and videos, some of which are more reasonable than the others.

I wish I could have the right and truthful perspective on much of the world's happenings. 9/11 had huge repercussions, perhaps giving ease to the American public allowing its government to declare war on Iraq. That was based on one particular perspective of 9/11, that gave sympathy to the Americans and fueled anger towards the "terrorists".

I think exposing myself to more documentaries/movies/etc can help. Best not to shut one's eyes. My problem is more of fear and this is why I have yet to vote - I find myself a paralyzed agnostic when it comes to such matters. :(

Edit (2006/09/12) - Google Video is hosting an area with tons of eyewitness footage, plus a special film called "7 Days in September". Worth checking out - http://video.google.com/911anniversary.html

Click to continue reading...

Globalize this

Heh I being at work on the computer at work means I'm blogging lots...

Wouldn't want to be this guy:

More Pics(BBC)

I've never had any personal encounters with pepper spray but that's gotta be pretty painful... was chatting with rob last night who lives out in HK, and how there are big WTO protests as WTO is meeting there right now. Buses suspended from going to the island where the talks are held... (Edit - BBC put more pictures up here)

Its an issue I wished I thought more about, and knew more about too. I mean the shoes I'm wearing, the clothes I'm wearing, so many of the items around us we have - they were all made halfway around the globe, perhaps in less than pretty circumstances, with barely any benefit to the hands that made them.

I'm no expert, but heres my quick lowdown on the WTO stuff if you haven't heard much about it. WTO is the World Trade Organization, usually associated with globalization. They promote free trade, i.e. opposing trade tariffs, restrictions. The main beef is when you have such powerful and rich people calling the shots in free trade, then the smaller poorer countries are going to get screwed over. Free trade then can create extremely competitive prices that means some producers/growers are going to get screwed over. BBC has an excellent In Depth section on these world trade issues (Link) and Wikipedia has a detailed article on the WTO also (Link)

So what can someone like me even do about such things? Certainly we cannot vote on WTO, etc. Perhaps what we buy becomes our vote? We've all heard of the stories - and many of them true. Nike employees in some south east asian country being paid 2 cents for every shirt they produce. I recently bought a great documentary looking at some of these corporate problems (The Corporation, Reviews). Feel free to borrow it from me.

I think its good for us, especially as citizens of one of the richer countries that historically has gained a lot more from free trade than other poorer countries to be aware of the situation out there. The global economic situation seems dire... still over a billion people living on less than $1USD a day. The fact that free trade might make things WORSE for those people makes some people pretty pissed off. Pissed off enough to protest even at risk of getting a faceful of pepper spray (see above).

Some companies are trying to make a difference, economically and environmentally. One such company I respect is Mountain Equipment Co-op, who in their mission state they specifically seek good and fair compensation and working conditions for those producing their clothing/backpacks. But even then its tough to be competitive - MEC used to have a lot of its clothing and backpacks produced right in Canada, but I guess competition/greed has pushed them back to almost outsourcing all of its production, but it is clear that they are firm on being socially and environmentally responsible, as seen here.

As for me? Maybe I should be a little more pissed off.

Click to continue reading...