I had to re-read my last post[Link to previous post] another time to get in touch with the angst that was eating me from the inside ever since I wrote the post. I realized that what was bothering me was the fact that in my mind, as I was writing that post, I had demonized everyone in the biotech industry and made them all wrong. I recognized that I was making everything a bit too black or white. In my path to raise my consciousness, I have worked very hard to entertain the world of greyness. I know and knew then full well that not everyone in biotech is evil, nor is anyone who is looking to genetically modify corn, but it was nonetheless a great experience to see myself go to a place that I think we all go to in times when we need assurance for our point of view. My ego definitely took the best of me and wanted to protect my stance at the cost of truth. I ultimately believe there are no bad people in the world-at most misguided ones.

Now that I can write with a bit more presence and humility, I do want to point out that today we still as a species need to bring greater awareness to our acts in the name of progress and sustainability. I don’t know what is the right balance when it comes to bio-fuels, the subject of my last post. Do we want to see the earth, its resources in the form of the soil to be depleted so that our cars are fueled? Do we want to see the same pesticides and herbicides that have been devastating the farm lands of the world to be used once again in creating bio-diesel? Is this where food needs to be diverted to for progress? What is progress and who decides if we’ve attained it? I find in times like this it helps to listen to as many sides as possible. In the following excerpt, wisdom from indigenous people of the world is one such viewpoint I’d like to share with you.

Last week 3000 worldwide delegates met at the seventh session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues where Bolivian President Evo Morales gave the keynote address. I wanted to provide you with an excerpt of an interview session with Democracynow.org and Evo Morales regarding bio-fuels:

[Link to entire interview - text and audio/video]

JUAN GONZALEZ(Interviewer): You have raised some criticisms of some other Latin American leaders. You didn’t name any, but it’s obvious to many that some of your questioning is directed at presidents like Lula of Brazil, who has pushed biofuels. Have you talked to President Lula about this? And what’s been his response, if you have?
PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: [translated] We have had discussions at summits of heads of states, sharing some of our experiences. I am certain that these presidents will understand the cry of the people of Bolivia, of the people of Latin America and the whole world, which wants to have more food and not more cars. First food, then if something’s left over, more cars, more automobiles. I think that life has to come first.
But the most important thing—and this is the first time that I find I’m in agreement with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund—they’ve publicly stated that if food prices are going up, it’s precisely because of the biofuels question, and it has a major impact. So if we have these points of agreement, then we have an obligation to together explain and persuade these international organizations, together with the social movements, so as to be able to change the policies of some governments or some presidents.

-See Embedded Video-
It’s a refreshing day when you hear a stock market commentator talk about saving starving children around the world while relating this state of affairs to the dropping value of the US dollar. After seeing his Sunday video, I thought today was a fitting day to bring this particular commentator Don Harrold to your attention in case you haven’t heard of him(don’t be thrown off by his outfit of the day!).
As a long-time stock trader and not really a successful one at that, I have to say that today I am actively working very hard to figure out my relationship with the stock market in it’s current instantiation. I’m trying to consciously put a framework together by which I can feel comfortable with how my money lives and breaths within the “system”, not simply choosing to shift money from socially irresponsible to responsible companies but actually deciding whether the current Stock Market is aligned with my values and the aspirations I have for my money’s work in the world. By bringing this commentator to your attention today, I’m not suggesting that you listen to Don Harrold or take his advice on the stock market, in fact I am not. I simply want to point out a beautiful shift that I see where a new bread of stock market “players” are calling it the way it is, at least to a greater degree and possibly making an impact on those who are listening to them. I have particularly found Don’s comments on the economy, unfettered consumption, the banking and the US financial system, all refreshing because you don’t hear this slant in mainstream financial media(perhaps that’s the trade offs between broadcasting via YouTube vs. Network TV). The reasons why I choose not to endorse or recommend him are 1)I don’t know him well enough 2)I have only been watching him from a purely analytical perspective and not for trading purposes and 3)because much of what I find that he gripes about is a direct result of the industry in which he is making a living at. Ultimately he is helping people “take advantage” of the market, ironically an institution which he feels is not all that healthy. He’s definitely in a different class than the CNBC-Cramer’s of the world and clearly on a more wholesome path. In future posts I hope to talk more about my views of the stock market. Nonetheless, if you are trader, he may be worth looking into(check out his other videos on YouTube.. you will be entertained) … if you’re out of the market, this may give you some hope that there are individuals doing their best to bring about positive changes in our financial systems, and at best give you motivation to go out and be the change yourself!

Yesterday, on a local SF bay area radio station, I heard an interview with Martha E. Gimenez, a retired professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The interview centered around her essay in the December 2007 issue of the Monthly Review magazine titled “Self-Sourcing: How Corporations Get Us to Work Without Pay!”. I’d like to preface that I am not endorsing this particular magazine, the radio program on which this interview aired or for that matter the author. I say this because I wouldn’t want the left leaning, pro-labor ideologies that may surround this person or this magazine distract you from the point that I’m wanting to make or for that matter the key points that she tries to make(not to mention that I know very little about this magazine).

We’ve all used self-checkout systems at grocery stores, Homedepot, even airline counters by newcomers like Virgin America. We’ve fumbled through the learning process of (more…)

Adam smith’s notion of the “invisible hand” has been quoted and misquoted many time in popular media and by many of our dear friends who wish to hold on to the belief that “capitalism” is the best institution in the world and that “market forces” are natural and necessary for a healthy society.  In cases where a specific industry is in a dire need of government regulation, opponents are quick to say that businesses must be left alone to self-regulate because the tenants of capitalism, supply and demand will fix all quarks in the system.  Those of us who don’t buy the text-book ideology are often ridiculed , but today on the heals of an “economic stimulus package”, we can once again point to how we do not, nor can we fully practice capitalism in the truest sense of the word. What is about to happen in the congress and with the help of the president and the Fed is an artificial manipulation of the markets in order to satisfy the status quo of wealth, consumerism and ultimately unfettered greed. Sure the package will have various ramifications, short term, long term, some positive and some perhaps negative, some intended and some unintended. None-the-less, we are once gain reminded that what we’ve been led to believe about our financial systems for years is in fact an illusion. Institutional economic collapse has happened before the reality of “globalisation” and it is happening again today with the complexities of globalisation… We don’t need a PHD in economics or listen to CNN to figure this out. The underlying human suffering and the desire to backfill happiness with wealth and power in an unprecedented rate globally I feel is closer to the truth of our current situation, and only once we are able to truly internalize this can we create solutions that will bring prosperity for everyone.

Its another fitting occasion today after the meltdown of global financial institutions that we are once again reminded that the way to get us out of the mess caused by the sub-prime loan fiasco is to increase our individual spending.. Is it me or everyone who has their fingers on the monetary policy of this nation(an other global financial partners) are out of sync with reality. It was greed and the desire for consumers to want more “stuff” that got them into trouble in the first place. How quickly we forget the true reasons behind the sub-prime meltdown..it wasn’t people with bad credit but people who had eyes bigger than their stomach… Somehow we are told that the way to fix the current problem is with a solution that caused the problem in the first place… What are we going to hear next from the Fed : “we must relax lending policies so that we can bring back more sub-prime loans?” We are ripe for a change in how we consume, how we measure health of our societies, how we take care of everyone so that artificial financial situations don’t devastate us? Remember the time in human history where the only societal crisis was a natural disaster like a volcanic eruption or a flood? I think we all know how we got ourselves into this current mess…