Finalist-PhilBlogAwards 2010

Finalist-PhilBlogAwards 2010
Finalist for society, politics, history blogs

BrightWorld

Pages

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

RUDD AS AUSTRALIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER: A RUDE CHOICE!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Good Day from the Pearl of the Orient!

I am having a great time as storms haven’t come our way yet for almost two (2) weeks now. Showers do come once a day, and I’m glad the streets are swept clean by the cascading tropical waters. I just wish that the waters here can cleanse the political dirt down south too, and by south I mean the Australian subcontinent.

The news of former premier Rudd getting appointed as Foreign Minister of the new dispensation (premier Gillerd’s) in the southern Saxon country has already been out for some days. Knowing the hubris and arrogance of Rudd, exemplified by his rather shoddy treatment of Australia’s neighbors that he regards as huge backyards of ‘brown monkeys with no tails’ worth Australia’s Bomb preparations for future attacks, I find nothing worthwhile about Rudd’s comeback.

It seems we’re witnessing a series of premiers of the southern Saxon land who have begun to show the true colors of Anglo-Saxon imperialism, racial arrogance and fascistic hubris that lie underneath the genes and collective unconscious of the White occupants of the subcontinent. The premiers have been behaving as potentates of the Queen of England rather than the chief executives of a sovereign country.

While manifesting a modicum of cooperation towards their northern neighbors (largely Malayan and Indo-Mongolian populated ASEAN countries), there also is the overt exhibition of ambivalence about the latter. Why not examine for yourselves the heavy military preparations of Australia, prepared with the presumption of enemies to their north, the offensive planning thus rationalizing the acquisition of huge stockpiles of intermediate-range ballistic missiles?

We can only surmise, in fact, that the Australo-Saxon leaders’ behavior has been one of reptilian character that always regards its neighbors as pesky underlings. It is outright predatory behavior to even think of preparing for a large-scale war, when the international norm in the region has been one of cooperation marked by trade and cultural exchanges.

Australia indeed has failed to develop a true identity of its own, even as it continues to be administered by the governor-general representing the Queen of England. Australia remains as Saxon as ever, a truism that is shared by the USA, Canada and New Zealand, the very same Saxons that its own neighbors in ancient Europe dreaded for their predatory behavior.

If only Charlemagne were alive today, the world press should corner him for series of interviews to find out why the Franks were so ambivalent if now outrightly dreadful of the Saxons whom they chased and slaughtered with impunity and drove outside of the consolidated Frankish empire. The world press should likewise interview the Celtic king Arthur of Camelot, who was determined to hold back the Saxon occupation of parts of Britain during his aegis.

But destiny had its way, and destiny had built appendages of the British empire to the south of Southeast Asia. Those Saxons down there are cultural-psychic clones of the Anglo-Saxons, and like their Father race they can take the rouge step of plundering and marauding their neighbors if left unchecked by the norms of global civility and ‘dialogue of civilizations’.

As far as the financial-monetary markets are concerned, we can already see the shadow of a future looting of the Asian bourses and purses by Australian oligarchic operators upon the behest of the Anglo-European financiers. That is why Australia’s arrogant leaders are hurrying up the formation of APEC through which they can manipulate, loot and plunder Asia on behalf of their British sponsors.

Australia is pretending to be an Asian country which it is not, as its oligarchy and culture trace roots from the all-powerful British empire and its omnipotent oligarchic royalty. Australia’s leaders are prone to doublespeak, to Machiavellian pretensions of solidarity with their neighbors, a solidarity that is viewed from the ethnocentric Victorian hubris of White culture as the nadir of the long process of cultural evolution with the mission of civilizing other cultures.

To re-instate Rudd to government, more so to install him at the helm of foreign relations portfolio, is to bastardize the very norm of civility that we Asians have so cherished and fought for with our blood for so many millenia. Rudd is classic Saxon operator who knows only the language of bullying as a way to establish relations with non-White countries.

Rudd is the rudest choice for foreign policy post and should resign from his post, if he is sensitive at all to the opinions of ‘brown monkeys with no tails’ to the north of his deluded throne.

[Philippines, 17 September 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

Saturday, September 25, 2010

FOR CITING MY WRITES AMONG TOP BLOGS, GRATITUDE!

FOR CITING MY WRITES AMONG TOP BLOGS, GRATITUDE!

Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza / Guru Ra


Felicitous greetings to you all!

I hereby extend my most heartfelt gratitude to enthused readers and fellow writers who appreciated my notes about social life, wisdom and arts.

Just about three (3) years ago, there was very little information about my person on cyberspace. Today, as I’ve spread my messages of Light and hope to all of the corners of the globe via the blogs and social networks, many enthused souls responded through reading, exchanges of notes, and citations of my works. Finally, after your appreciation and support of my cyber-crusade, information about me on cyberspace increased by gigantic strides.

Special thanks to the following online news, magazines and portals for citing my notes as among the top blogs on cyberspace:

http://thedailyreviewer.com
http://humanitariannews.org
http://www.nonprofit.org
http://sociology.alltop.com
http://clpl-india.com
http://pul.se
http://asiafinest.com
http://newestnews.net
http://topcityblogs.com

Thanks too to the following sites that have cited, discussed and debated on various notes of mine about a diversity of topics and themes:

http://adamsmithlegacy.com
http://alltop.com
http://asean-society.org
http://blog.searchaid.info
http://awakento1.org
http://boardreader.com
http://cantbustme.com
http://castasiaforum.org
http://conceptsinproduction.com
http://deepmarket.com
http://eeeph.netbooks.ph
http://globalbalita.com
http://leathernews.myip.org
http://mixx.com
http://mmsnews.cz.cc
http://nuip.net
http://online-profitsnow.com
http://origin-bx.businessweek.com
http://peacocksandlilies.com
http://petites-phrases.com
http://pipl.com
http://pirs08.webs.com
http://www.rehabfromdrug.com
http://revspeech.proboards.com
http://surchur.com
http://www.toluu.com
http://trendbuzz.com
http://webpac.lib.nthu.ed.tw
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com
http://www.answerbag.co.uk
http://www.ask.com
http://www.blogged.com
http://www.blogsope.net
http://www.carboncapturereport.org
http://www.cnn.com
http://www.deepmarket.com
http://www.familycommitment.org
http://www.finir.org
http://www.icerocket.com
http://www.iyou.me
http://www.mynewsdigest.com
http://nisim-tw.com
http://www.onlineobchody.com
http://www.pointsdevente.com
http://www.psychantenna.com
http://www.pubsub.com
http://www.samepoint.com
http://www.spiritbond.com
http://www.tapatt.net
http://www.theakan.com
http://www.topix.com
http://www.usforcenews.info
http://www.wealthyauthority.com
http://www.westpalmferrari.com
http://www.wopular.com
http://yoga-experts.info


Maraming salamat! Thank you very much! Love & Light!

September 2010

Friday, September 24, 2010

CHINA’S 3-GORGES DAM: DAMNING ECO-FASCIST CATASTR0PHE DISCOURSE

CHINA’S 3-GORGES DAM: DAMNING ECO-FASCIST CATASTR0PHE DISCOURSE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza



Good morning to all ye global citizens! Goodwill and peace to you!

For this day I chose to peregrinate on the 3-Gorges Dam of China, a project that cost a whopping $23 Billion to build. The eco-fascist detractors of the project raised the specter of catastrophe that could result from a collapse of the dam infrastructure, so maybe its time to reflect about the giant energy project.

I just arrived from overseas assignment in 2002 when I had the opportunity to discuss the 3-Gorges dam in my social science classes in Manila. At that time, I was offered a Director post in a think-tank of the Augustinian sisters, a stint that gave me opportunity to mine enormous data about the latest development engagements nationally and globally. I also taught as lecturer while directing research, which surely offered me a privileged position to reflect about global issues.

Being one who has been involved in the planning works on ambitious development projects (e.g. industrial estate/free trade zone, economic support projects for marginal sectors worth hundreds of millions of dollars) as a practitioner, I was truly appreciative of the efforts of China’s state to tame the Yangtze and tap its power-packed waters for electrification, irrigation, and subsidiary purposes. Though environmentally-driven myself, I am not wont to deliver satirical and destructive remarks about such a project as the 3-Gorges Dam that can benefit a greater section of China’s population and economy.

There are always negative trade-offs to any big endeavor, such as the displacement of 1.4 million folks along the reservoir area of the dam. What project of such a stature in the world doesn’t have a downside to it anyway? The downsides are the ones highlighted the most by paid hacksters of the West’s financier oligarchs, notably the political greenies whose obsessive-compulsive reflexes are unmatched anywhere in the world.

The USA had its own taste of baptism of fire from destructive commentators when the FD Roosevelt regime built the Hoover Dam. A pioneering infrastructure and energy project during its own time, the project received enormous media detractions that were paid by Nazi oligarchs in the homeland who, not to say the least, owned and controlled America’s giant media outfits (they own media till these days). The detractors did everything in the books in fact to destroy FDR for his innovative New Deal measures that included massive infrastructures as pump priming tool to take out America from the Great Depression towards recovery and prosperity.

As one can see, the Hoover Dam stood the test of time, and it remains as one of the marvels of America’s public works. It is too early to say about what can happen to the 3-Gorges Dam, but it has parallelisms to the Hoover Dam and other ambitious infrastructure projects of the New Deal heydays, projects that the predatory financiers in America couldn’t play their hands with as they are primarily state-sponsored.

Understandly, the West’s financiers can not benefit directly from projects initiated by China’s government, even as it is now too late for destructive Western forces to take down China’s economy through massive looting of the financial markets the way they’ve done to their own domestic economies in the EU and USA. So they employ those civil society groups that receive funds from the financiers’ ‘corporate social responsibility’ coffers, with the expectation that the activist funds recipients would drum up the destructive impacts of projects they cannot control such as the 3-Gorges Dam.

In the event of heavy rainfalls however, there is reason to keep watch over the waters’ possible exceeding the 175-meter limit of the dam’s reservoir. As shown by our own precedents in the Philippines, the dam’s administrators used the contingency tool of releasing parts of the waters before the same could ever do damage on the dam through an overflow that could trigger a catastrophic burst of the infrastructure.

With decades of hydraulics experience behind our local experts here, this much I can say: so far so good! True, there were casualties who suffered from the inundations caused by the contingency releases of the rising floodwaters. But no single dam ever burst catastrophically yet, a catastrophe that could have resulted to higher casualties of at least a couple of millions of folks.

It’s now the start of the ‘ember’ months, and so far we are witness to the 3-Gorges Dam standing tall. So far so good! There are still three (3) more months to hurdle before the storms will bring heavy rainfalls, but so far the indications are the dam administrators can manage the hydraulic flows efficaciously.

If there is any message I can deliver to the eco-fascist blabbermouths, they should spread themselves across the world’s continents and plant trees in the de-forested boondocks. This behavior would be truly exemplary, as it will show that sociopathic groups and persons can also exhibit productive behavior during times of crisis.

[Philippines, 15 September 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

ENLIGHTENING ARGONZA WRITINGS SURGE WORLD TOP BLOGS!

ENLIGHTENING ARGONZA WRITINGS SURGE WORLD TOP BLOGS!

Good day to all endeared readers, friends, fellow global citizens!

A truly gladdening news has been breaking the cybersphere of late. Prof. Erle Frayne Argonza, a social analyst and self-development guru from Manila, has been continuing to gain mileage in his magnanimous efforts to enlighten humanity about the current social and cosmic issues.

To date, dozens of online newspapers and magazines across the globe have featured Prof. Argonza’s writings on their very own websites. Championing the causes of peace and global cooperation, Prof. Argonza has continued to reach out to enthused readers, writers and spiritual seekers. The latter contributed to the upsurge in the numbers of citations of Argonza’s writings aimed at accelerating awareness-raising.

For your reads and exchange of notes about Prof. Argonza’s blogs, please visit:

SOCIAL WRITINGS:
http://unladtau.wordpress.com, http://erleargonza.blogspot.com

WISDOM WRITINGS:
http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com

ART & POETRY:
http://erleargonza.wordpress.com, http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com

Join now the growing numbers of global citizens who find Light in Prof. Argonza’s englightening blogs!


Argonza & Associates Consulting
September 2010



TOP BLOG SITES:

 http://thedailyreviewer.com
 http://humanitariannews.org
 http://www.nonprofit.org
 http://sociology.alltop.com
 http://clpl-india.com
 http://pul.se
 http://asiafinest.com
 http://newestnews.net
 http://topcityblogs.com

CITED ARGONZA BLOGS FOR DIVERSE THEME DISCUSSIONS & ANNOTATIONS:

http://adamsmithlegacy.com
http://alltop.com
http://asean-society.org
http://blog.searchaid.info
http://awakento1.org
http://boardreader.com
http://cantbustme.com
http://castasiaforum.org
http://conceptsinproduction.com
http://deepmarket.com
http://eeeph.netbooks.ph
http://globalbalita.com
http://leathernews.myip.org
http://mixx.com
http://mmsnews.cz.cc
http://nuip.net
http://online-profitsnow.com
http://origin-bx.businessweek.com
http://peacocksandlilies.com
http://petites-phrases.com
http://pipl.com
http://pirs08.webs.com
http://www.rehabfromdrug.com
http://revspeech.proboards.com
http://surchur.com
http://www.toluu.com
http://trendbuzz.com
http://webpac.lib.nthu.ed.tw
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com
http://www.answerbag.co.uk
http://www.ask.com
http://www.blogged.com
http://www.blogsope.net
http://www.carboncapturereport.org
http://www.cnn.com
http://www.deepmarket.com
http://www.familycommitment.org
http://www.finir.org
http://www.icerocket.com
http://www.iyou.me
http://www.mynewsdigest.com
http://nisim-tw.com
http://www.onlineobchody.com
http://www.pointsdevente.com
http://www.psychantenna.com
http://www.pubsub.com
http://www.samepoint.com
http://www.spiritbond.com
http://www.tapatt.net
http://www.theakan.com
http://www.topix.com
http://www.usforcenews.info
http://www.wealthyauthority.com
http://www.westpalmferrari.com
http://www.wopular.com
http://yoga-experts.info

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

ANOTHER STIMULUS PACKAGE BY OBAMA?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Good evening from the paradise boondocks south of Manila!

The weather in this tropical area where I reside right today has been so fine for almost two (2) weeks now, and this is unusual for the month of September when four (4) storms pass over the country on the average. At any rate, this makes me a bit happy, enough to ruminate again about the global economy specifically the White House policy pronouncements.

I was among those analysts and development experts in my country who made a go for stimulus packages as core ‘pump priming’ strategy for staving off the ill effects of the global recession. To recall, I even went to the extent of saying my kudos for America’s own stimulus package that was pronounced late by then president Bush and then extended by the new president Obama.

Being all to familiar with pump priming, as I had been witness to how this tool was wielded every time we experienced the pains of spiraling crash right in my own country, I have been all too eager to see the tool be employed judiciously in the Northern countries (EU, USA-Canada, Japan) that have either remained flat growth-wise for successive years or crashed calamitously such as what the USA went through in 2002 and 2007.

The Obama administration had its chance of employing this tool, with no less than $800 Billion as war chest for its execution, and somehow the pump priming proved to have stopped the catastrophic collapse that went on after the implosion of the realty bubble in ‘07. As per my own textbook orientation in macro-economics, it takes two (2) years for a stimulus program to optimize the economy back from appalling sub-optimal performance accountable to a recessionary crash.

The two (2) years since the package was begun by Bush yet will end this month, as far as I can recall the beginnings of it. After the two (2) year gestation period is over, it is standard task for policy-makers and stakeholders to evaluate the overall performance of the measure. The evaluation will unveil what kinks remain that were largely un-addressed by the measure.

It is surprising on my part to learn of the latest pronouncements from the White House that the US president is again ready to launch a new stimulus package on top of the existing one, coming at a time when the first package has never been evaluated to the fullest. The next package includes tax cuts that are but a rehash of the Bush-era stimulus for big business.

I just hope that the pump priming won’t be misconstrued as rendering the stimulus tool into a permanent policy tool. Just by pronouncing that a new stimulus package is on the drawing board can already send jitters to business stakeholders as the pronouncement is a tacit acceptance of the failure to revive the economy as a whole, and that a new round of recession could be in the offing.

Maybe the White House has in mind not only the US economy but also that of its Atlantic partner Europe. Hasn’t the USA been handling fresh cash to Europe to mitigate the bursting of bubbles and gnawing crisis there? Did the White House or Federal Reserve even bother to submit a report to the US Congress about the subsidies to Europe, subsidies that should be hands-me-down to America’s laborers who continue to suffer from the ballooning unemployment in the homeland?

The White House pronouncement is also sending bad signals to Asia’s emerging markets that have already been growing appreciably over the past eight (8) months of the year. Asia’s own stock markets, financial and money markets are trembling over the Obama stimulus news, and there are now silent moves inside board rooms to map out contingency measures in case that the USA will go thru another round of recession in the aftermath of the failure of the first stimulus package to induce totally recovery.

If there is anything I can advise to the White House and Federal Reserve technocrats at this point, it is to desist from making such an untimely measure. Ensure that the most optimal results from the first stimulus package were achieved first of all, report the results to the US congress and the world community, and show clear patterns of transparency in the dealings regarding the pump priming.

If a stimulus package is utilized largely to fatten the purses of corporate executives and owners, who will then use the same to buy new yatch and spend most luxuriously for their board meetings, then the clear message is this: forget about stimulus package!!!

[Philippines, 14 September 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

Sunday, September 19, 2010

FUEL SAVING SHOWS ASIANS AHEAD OF EUROPEANS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good Day from the suburbs south of Manila!

Another gladdening news for us global citizens just came out recently from the heraldry mills: that of Asians leading the way to fuel-saving behavior. For those advocates of mitigating ‘greenhouse effect’ gas emissions through direct motorist interventions, the news surely comes as a refreshing one.

In a report summarized in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (by Amy R. Remo, 22 August 2012), the Shell corporation accordingly conducted a research which shows the greater inclination of Asians for fuel saving then the Europeans. 3,300 drivers across Asia and Europe served as respondents, and was released by the Shell FuelSave Report.

The motivation for fuel-saving, as validated by the research, were (a) the prospect of saving money and (b) being environmentally responsible. One can see, from the report, how economics has been merging with ecological balance concerns for the entire Asian continent, a reality that wasn’t there two (2) decades back.

The increased awareness of Asian motorists towards fuel utilization efficiency clearly deconstructs those contorted notions that developing countries are too low in environmental awareness. It’s plain stereotyping, this protestation from Western/Northern countries that Asians can’t commit to cutting down fossil fuel emissions as their development path still lingers on in the phase of ‘smokestack economy’ of yesteryears.

Fact is, the research findings coincides with the recent manifestation of exemplary behavior by Asian countries in re-engineering their policy environments to shift their power production and fuel consumption towards more clean energy in the foreseeable future. It is the Northern/Western countries that have been remiss in this regard, as one can see, with the USA leading the way to stubborn non-commitment to international protocols on cutting down fossil fuel emissions.

The report accordingly conducted online interviews beginning March 21 this year in the following countries: Philippines, UK, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Turkey, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.

My own country, the Philippines, has been among the most applauded internationally as it had reshaped its policy environment to develop and mass produce green energy fuel sources. Hybrid engines are now available in the country that utilize a combination of alternative and fossil fuel sources, while solar-powered vehicular prototypes are being designed across the country (even university students are vying for exemplary prototypes that can be mass produced locally and abroad).

The resort to fuel saving is a transitory phase towards a shift to total clean energy sources (solar, fuel cells, to the more ambitious gravitic and plasma technologies) that will be the viable option in the near future. My own forecast is that it won’t take till 2025 when the total shift can be accomplished across Asia, with the emerging markets of today leading the way towards that ambitious goal.

[Philippines, 12 September 2012]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

Thursday, September 16, 2010

INFRASTRUCTURES FOR PEACE: COMMENDING MINDANAO’S LANAO PROJECTS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Peace be with you! To all devout sons and daughters of Allah, love and peace!

Permit me, through this note, to commend an ongoing project in Mindanao (Philippines) that showcases the theme of ‘infrastructure for peace’. This is the GEM Project, short for Growth with Equity in Mindanao. Funded by the United States A.I.D., the GEM will ensue till 2012 yet.

A report titled “GEM program continues in Mindanao” (Manila Bulletin, 25 July 2010) gave a brief update about the GEM situation particularly for the province of Lanao del Norte.

To reminisce a bit, Lanao was among the provinces where the insurgent MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) operated most actively, and was among territories that could have seceded from the Philippines. A peace pact was signed between the MNLF and the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) in the 1990s, during the incumbency of Fidel V. Ramos as president, thus ending decades of conflict.

The conflict down south led to casualties of over 100,000, while another 500,000+ Mindanaoans (mostly Muslims) migrated from the island to more peaceful areas across the Philippines and in Sabah (over 250,000 alone ran to Sabah and are still residing there). That conflict explains why there are so many Muslims in Manila today.

The GEM infrastructures, dubbed as BIPs or Barangay Infrastructure Projects, are showcases of development engagements that were able to take off and prosper largely due to the cessation of hostilities between state and rebel armies. As reported in the news, there are 44 BIP projects alone in Lanao del Norte, all of which are proceeding well thanks to the strategic peace in the area.

What the GEM narrative is telling us is that total cessation of hostilities is a pre-requisite for development engagements to prosper in any given area particularly in the hinterlands. There is no chicken-and-egg debate whatsoever when it comes to development work: build and cement peace in the area as sine qua non, and development engagements can take take off to induce growth in the affected area.

Having been a development worker for so long in my life, a work that almost got myself dead after contracting falciparum malaria in the early 80s, I resonate with those stakeholders who opine that development cannot proceed in an area where violence prevails as the norm. Such violence could be due to insurgency, warlordism, clan wars, and/or upscaled criminal activities (e.g. drug cartels and gambling chiefs lording it over in the area).

I have already gotten tired of the psychopathic propaganda of rebel Pied Pipers who peddle the lie that “insurgency has been caused by poverty, by the absence of development projects” verbiage, which is toxic mental junk. Certain insurgent groups are no revolutionaries but criminals cashing on the support of patrimonial interest groups, and role-playing social predators in their areas of operations.

A cursory psychoanalysis of the individual members of those insurgent groups would reveal psychopaths or sociopaths who are acutely sick of personality disorder, or at the minimum possess what Theodore Adorno termed as ‘authoritarian personality’. They are drawn to fanatical movements that cohere with their psyche and warped sense of justice, such as racist, jihadist, and communist groups.

Such persons, to my mind, are no longer humans in the truest sense of the word but are rather demoniacs who prey on helpless folks that suffer the most from their violent operations. Possessing borderline personalities or intelligence levels (sub-human levels), they are likewise those who join mafia groups.

Absent those demoniacs in the area, and you would have the environment for building peace, cooperation, and growth. That experience is what is now happening in Lanao del Norte where the BIPs of GEM are now going on.

To date, 23 BIPs were already accomplished (finished contract) and are now usable, comprising of slab bridges and solar dryers for grains. You could just imagine the glee of the village folks currently utilizing those infrastructures, folks who for so long had no access to simple infrastructures such as slab bridges.

Let me re-echo my commendations to the GEM project and the stakeholders directly involved in their planning, implementation, and utilization. Let the GEM story reach the widest latitudes of Mindanao and the planet to remind warring stakeholders of what zero hostilities can do to build life in their given areas of operations.

[Philippines, 12 September 2010]


[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

MARIKINA SHOES: GLOBALIZATION’S CARCASS RE-SURGES

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Good evening from the Pearl of the Orient!

Marikina shoes, the top pioneering shoe industry in Southeast Asia after World War II, has been among the carcass industries in the aftermath of globalization. Lately though, the industry has been re-surging from the doldrums, so let me share some notes about the matter.

Marikina is a city to the east of Old Manila and is among the model cities for couples of reasons. It’s former administrators, the Fernando couple (a developmentalist couple), were able to tap official development assistance (ODA) funds directly for local infrastructures without needing securitization from national government, thus kicking off a new trend in development financing and urbanization pursuits.

Officially a part of metropolitan Manila that is the ‘Manila of the present’ (old Manila is ancient and diminutive in size), Marikina had been emulated for its cleanliness, efficient traffic management, and participative local governance. It had set off a trend for local governments to embark on ambitious projects without being subsidized by national government.

Those feats are part of the new image of Marikina, just to make it clear. For Marikina also has an older image as the home of the Philippines’ pioneer shoe industry. At one time the exemplar of Asia in shoe-making, Marikina’s exquisite shoes have straddled the planet like conquering commodity champions worth the possession of rising middle class members aspiring to acquire apparel items worth their pockets’ powers and esteem.

Marikina shoes have thus enabled the flourishing of backward linkages such as leather tannery, dye industry, and shoe accessories. Upon attaining industrial maturity circa late 60s through the 70s, product quality was at par with the best that the West can manufacture. And, Marikina shoes were priced so affordably, selling at around merely 1/5 to 1/3 of the western counterpart items.

Trade liberalization however struck a bitter chord in the 1980s, and down came Marikina shoes with globalization’s ascent. Former shoe factories closed shop, tens of thousands of shoe workers were laid off, and shoe retail shops followed the pattern of foreclosures. At the end of the day, only a few notable Marikina brands stood tall amid the storms caused by trade liberalization and serial recessions.

I won’t be surprised to find out that similar industries elsewhere, inclusive of the USA’s, will be shutting down due to the same reason: globalization. The trend is now hitting shoe factories in the USA that closed down production in the homeland as the same (production) were outsourced to developing countries where labor and capital goods (leather, dyes, chemicals) are priced cheaper than the homeland.

As Europe’s economies literally burn, its consumers are cutting down on luxuries, thus opting to buy essentials that are more affordably priced, such as garments & apparel. We shouldn’t be surprised if the prime shoe brands of Italy and France would be knocked out cold turkey by the economic storm in the continent.

Incidentally, Marikina’s local stakeholders were able to address some core social issues concerning their dying shoe industry in the 1990s yet. Those strategic measures, such as relief funds for affected industries, are now reaping fruits for the industry players.

As a whole, Marikina’s show industry was reduced to carcass indeed, but a carcass that is able to stand up at certain junctures. With the wave of China shoes conquering so many shores worldwide, Marikina shoe industry is again getting whacked heavily and paying the price of slow adjustments to make their products more competitive (i.e. attain greater comparative advantage)

Another tranche of relief subsidies for affected industries, akin to a stimulus package on a local level, is now out-flowing from the city government’s coffers. Whether the said funds are able to stave off potential deaths on specific factories and outlets remains to be seen.

For the moment, let me declare that all of my leather shoes are Marikina products. I’ve already decided to shy away from Western imports, and I’m saying no to China shoes that suffer from quality problems. This is my own way of appreciating the craftsmanship of Markina’s shoe designers and the labors of shoe workers in the city.

[Philippines, 11 September 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

Monday, September 13, 2010

ROBOTS BETTER DO MINERS’ JOB IN NEAR FUTURE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Good evening from the suburban boondocks south of Manila!

It’s playing Latin music in my multimedia at home right now. As I play the danceable tunes by Buena Vista Social Club, my eyes are focused on the news “Some Chile miners showing mental crack” in the world news of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Aug. 29, 2010).

Let me then dedicate this piece to the task of mining as a way to honor the miners of the world. Honoring them means that eventually the human miners will retire from the job, with robots taking over those rather hazardous tasks related to mineral extraction.

To quote the report’s inception, “Five of the miners trapped underground in Chile for months to come are struggling psychologically, officials said on Friday, as engineers prepared to start drilling an escape shaft.”

The news coming from Copiaco, Chile further heralded, “While the rest of the 33 trapped miners were happy to take part in a video to show families they were bearing up despite what has so far been a three-week ordeal, the smaller group refused and were exhibiting signs of depression.” [AFP Report]

Well, what else can we expect from toiling workers trapped deep down underground, with hardly much hope for coming back to the planet’s surface till after months of hard rescue operations to come. Even a person who doesn’t suffer from manic-depressive disorder can crack up and manifest depression.

If we go back to the times of the Roman republic, and maybe backtrack 2,000 years earlier than Rome, we can review their mining practices then. Mind you, contrast our mining extraction today with those of ancient times, and you just might have the shock of your life to find out that there isn’t much contrast really.

The technology of extracting minerals down underground remains to be dependent on human or anthropocentric labor for thousands of years now. Not even the impressive engineering works to dig the minerals from rocks down under can impress me much at all, they remain the same technology: human-driven extraction.

While the miners of antiquity were slaves of the imperial deus ex machina, today’s miners are cogs of the business empires’ deus ex machina. Marginal or small-scale miners, like the ones we have in the boondocks of northern and southern tips of the Philippines, are all the more risk-prone to the appalling extraction conditions and technology as they can be buried anytime by mining-related calamities without healthcare or ‘life plan’ to compensate them.

A cursory examination of the Chilean miners’ condition allows this analyst to facilely forecast that at least 1/3 of them (around 2 persons) will be in advanced form of depression and nervous breakdown as soon as the rescue operators reach them. Sad!

That’s how human labor is treated by corporate capital since the birth of the money economy anyway: mere objects worth throwing away if they die during production operations. Miners are among the most classic cases of how capital treats human labor as cheap dirty eater stuff.

If indeed corporate capital—and its cultural deodorant ‘corporate social responsibility—has the sanguine love for human miners, it should strive pronto to innovate on robotics that can do the work for the miners. Retire all the miners of today pronto, compensate them for social security and healthcare, and then gradually employ the robot miners.

Only token labor—comprising of technicians and engineers—are needed to operate robotics-driven mining. Robots won’t suffer from depression in case of mishaps, they won’t require healthcare and social security but rather maintenance expenditures appropriate and sufficient for their upkeep.

Retired miners can then afford to exhibit more productive engagements such as to serve as eco-tourist guides for students and visitors who may wish to examine former open-pit mines that have been re-greened with lush vegetation. They can likewise do some tour guide tasks for mine visits that would be as less risk-prone as their previous jobs.

Meantime, let me share my own lines of solidarity to all those suffering miners in Chile and the rest of the planet. May they find light at the end of the tunnel of oligarchic pseudo-slavery down shafts and pits, and tell their narratives to the planet as part of our human history heritage.

[Philippines, 10 September 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

Saturday, September 11, 2010

$2000 CAR FROM INDIA SLAMS NORTHERN AUTOMAKERS’ RENT-SEEKING

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good morning from the suburbs south of Manila!

To continue with our exciting news for the ‘ember’ months, let me share some reflections about the recently released people’s car from India. The array of new innovations goes longer than that, with the car serving as the icing in the cake.

Beth Day Romulo, international journalist who’s the other half of the late Carlos P. Romulo who is one of Asia’s greats in the foreign policy field (former President of UN), featured the Nano car in her regular Sunday space at the Philippine Panorama, dated July 25, 2010. The Nano was engineered by the giant Tata group of companies of India, and sells at a very affordable $2000 apiece.

As Beth Day Romulo aptly titled, “In India, cheap doesn’t mean shoddy.” A sleek yet classy looking prototype, the Nano would surely be an envy of many countries up North who just couldn’t think of a car unless it sells past $25,000 apiece. Accustomed to the corrupted status-seeking behavior, the North’s customers would do everything in the books (e.g. get credit) to acquire flashy Mercedes Benz or Porsche and brag the same to their family circles and peers.

Mass markets are the in-thing in automotive industries as far as the bankrupt or near-death Northern car manufacturers are concerned. Flashy cars & SUVs would be okay for the fractional upper middle class markets up North and their clones down South, but for the larger billions of workers & professionals in emerging markets utility is the yardstick, hence the affordable folk car suits them well.

Before I venture into other thoughts, let me declare my own deep admiration for the Tata Group over its feats across the decades. I encountered this group during my own research on the steel industry in the late 90s, and in 1999 their representatives presented papers in the Manila-held conference of the Asian Iron & Steel Institute (I participated in that conference held at the Shangrila Plaza in EDSA).

From Tata Steel to Tata metallurgies and now to automotives, what can I say but SALUTE! With top-of-the-line scientists among their design innovators, including the world-renowned steel expert Dr. Mukerjee, the only way for Tata to go is to jettison upwards in a very exponential fashion.

What the Tata Group is silently proclaiming to the world is that the price policy of Northern car makers is pure and plain rent-seeking practice. Look at the Volkswagen beetle for instance, a people’s car that is now priced at past $23,000 apiece, and that surely makes one have doubts about the ‘people’s car’ facet to the Volkswagen.

It’s all pure and plain rent-seeking. Profiteering is a more palatable term for the layman. Just like those Western pharmaceuticals that are produced for a mere $0.01 apiece but sell for over $1 per pill, rendering the pharmaceutical companies the top-gun of obnoxious rent-seeking firms.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we’d find out that a people’s car up North should be selling at merely $4000 apiece, using factors of production costs in their own backyards. A Beetle should be selling at $3000 or even lower, come to think of it.

At any rate, the peoples of the emerging markets have lives of their own, and they set the patterns of consumption on the basis of their own needs. Such as the need for utility cars that are truly ‘utility’ and not luxury items masquerading as utility.

As per report, the German engineering company Siemens had jumped the gun, by committing to mass produce and market the Nano in India, China, Russia, and Brazil. The Mumbai subsidiary of Siemens alone will produce half of the Indian innovations (Nano’s just one of them) that they’ve committed to produce and market.

As Beth Day Romulo reported, “While western engineers work on highly sophisticated products, the Indian engineers, who focus on high quality but low cost, aim at simplification and adaptation to the environment.”

Stressing on the infusion of social technologies to the engineering works, Madam Romulo concluded that “all of those devices and products are the result of local innovation, the engineers on the ground who study and recognize the needs of the Indian consumer.”

Not just the Nano car but also a whole array of innovations from India have been showing the way to the fusion of quality and consumer sensitivity in the product prototypes. This is what true development should be in terms of technological innovations: driven by people’s needs rather the pockets of greedy corporate executives and owners.

[Philippines, 02 September 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

Thursday, September 09, 2010

EID’L FITR SOLIDARITY

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Solidarity and peace to you all on the occasion of Eid’l Fitr!

The Philippines officially celebrates Eid’l Fitr, the Muslim post-Ramadan celebration, on this day of my writing this piece. Solidarity to all Muslims of the Philippines and the world!

We have about 7 Millions of Muslims in the Philippines, a fact that qualifies this country to be represented in international bodies for Muslims such as the OIC. Just being considered an observer in such bodies already brings forth glad tidings of peace and cooperation for the country.

For the record, Islam was instrumental in creating centralized forms of governance (principalities, sultanates) in the country. Likewise did it contribute to revolutionizing agriculture from simple commodity production to intensive plantation system.

I need not belabor the point that Islam also brought interest-free banking to the country. I could only do guess work on the earlier forms of Islamic finance around the 14th and 15th centuries, but what I can infer facilely is that Islam introduced the concept and practice of finance as early as that period in antiquity.

Let me also cite that Islam was instrumental in the take-off of systems of rational casuistry for thought-systems of antiquity, notably those affecting devotional practice (religion), governance, family and kinship. Rational codifications were seeded with the ideas of Aristotle and Greco-Roman philosophers, moving on through Avicenna and Avineroes of Cordoba-Cadiz fame, and it is gladdening to note that Islam brought such casuistry to the Philippines way ahead of Western powers’ commission of the same.

Among other things, there are Arabic numerals, geometry, algebra, civil works, and architecture that Islam likewise brought to the Philippines. The Western cultures borrowed extensively from Muslim Arabs those same sciences & arts cited, which they then brought to the Philippines to expand on what the Muslim principalities & sultanates have already begun much earlier.

On the historical-archeological facets of life, Muslims (notably the nobilities) have accumulated a huge amount of relics that are awaiting the scholars who would tap the same for deeper studies of Philippine history, culture, economy, governance, and institutions during past epochs. The Philippine state should prepare enabling measures that will protect the Muslim nobles (their lives are at risk from marauding criminals) who are the repositories of high culture, and help preserve the relics cited.

Thus, so much reason abounds that justifies the Philippines’ celebration of Eid’l Fitr. Never mind if the country is predominantly Christian. Islam and Arab culture contributed immensely to political, economic, and cultural development of the country, even as the country had evolved into a multi-cultural, global nation as a whole, and so the country should recognize such contributions by co-celebrating the Eid’l Fitr with the rest of the world.

Praise be the Almighty Allah for the enormous blessings poured unto this beloved country over its so many centuries of existence!

Love and Peace!


[Philippines, 09 September 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

Sunday, September 05, 2010

NERO SARKOZY EXPELS GYPSIES: PRELUDE TO BONAPARTIST EUROPE?

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Good Day and goodwill to you fellow global citizens!

It is now September as I write this piece. September is the end of summer up North, while here in the tropics it is another month of monsoon rains and powerful typhoons.

Well, in France it is summer for the legitimate scions of the Republic and Caucasian Europeans, while it is typhoon season for the Gypsies. Ethnic groups that are migratory bands don’t have a place at all in Sarkozy’s France and the likes of him who are indubitably Nero types of leaders that burned Europe’s economy while they fiddled in their palaces.

Actually, if you take a cursory look at all the planet’s regions, indigenous peoples or IPs have been effectively excluded in the development game. They are the labor robots for Big Business mines and forestry enterprises who are expendable as flies. Never mind if they die by the thousands in mishaps or dreaded viral epidemics in the boondocks, their value is as low as a cheap cyborg that can be decommissioned anytime.

Lucky are those IPs up the boondocks as there are too many feel-good urban habitués who have taken up the cudgels of IP advocacies. After the Western anthropologists over-studied the highlanders for the purpose of acquiring data for the corporate oligarchs to control the said IPs (while anthropologists fatten their purses with research funds and academic promotions), here comes the feel-good urbanites who can perhaps balance the dark machinations of Western-cloned anthropologists and oligarchic patrons.

The Gypsies just don’t have such a luck it seems, and so are those migrating bands of IPs in Africa and Brazil. Ambulant IPs are not to be found in the notebooks and databases of anthropologists, or if they do, they are programmable for expulsion if not physical elimination.

Gypsies just don’t possess the combat prowess of the once mighty Sioux and natives of America, for if they did, they could have shot down so many robbers, psychopaths, cops and soldiers. They carry along with them their baggage and cultural wealth, and no more. They are not up to hold on to any piece of territory in the lands they occupy for a while, they don’t have visas or passports to show to immigration cops as these documents are alien to their ‘system’, and they come in peace and harmony with those whom they interact with.

Sarkozy and his ilk are scions of the Jacobites of pre-Bonaparte heydays, and should not be perceived as ‘democrats’ in the true sense of the term. Sarkozy, Merkel, Barroso and company are of the same mold of Nero leaders who would have no second thoughts in expelling migrants in the continent through miniscule expulsions of the nature of Gypsy kick-in-the-ass as pilot ‘project’ for a forthcoming grand scale of expulsions.

If there is any word of advice I can give to my fellow Asians in Europe right now, better depart in peace while there is time. Thou art the worthless Mandingos of a forthcoming Bonapartist gendarme state based in Brussels, and you can be butchered like fried chickens if the tide will turn the clock towards a full gendarme state indeed.

Sarkozy is a mere Robespiere, a pawn in the dangerous games being hatched by the oligarchs there. Sooner or later he’ll be booted out of office, replaced by one who would advance the Bonapartist agenda for a nation-less unified Europe. Merkel, Cameron, Barroso and their likes are going that path too, as more fanatical Bonapartists will be installed to power.

The Gypsies’ expulsion could very well be the ‘handwriting on the wall’ of neo-Mandingos of all hues (including White Mandingos from Eastern Europe), a prelude to a larger crackdown forthcoming.

[Philippines, 01 September 2010]


[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

Friday, September 03, 2010

ENERGIZING HINTERLANDS: DILEMMA OF ISLAND REPUBLICS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Good morning from the Philippines suburban boondocks!

Erecting energy grids is the main thing in energy distribution and could be so for some decades to come. The Philippines has been among the most notably advanced in building a grid infrastructure in its large islands (Luzon, Mindanao), a precedent that has been emulated by other developing countries.

Observably, power production had somehow followed the course of grid infrastructures. That is, it had been facile to install and operate energy production plants for many countries, including island republics, following the distribution lines of energy grids.

The dilemma in power production comes with the hinterlands of developing countries. Situated too far distant from grid lines, energizing hinterland villages had proved to be a daunting task particularly for island republics.

Ironically, the Philippines has been one of those countries where many hinterland villages remain without power. The key reason is that tapping power along the grid lines for the hinterlands is simply un-feasible from a marketing sense, and so the solution is to build small-scale power plants in or near the villages themselves.

Even that option—of installing micro-power plants in situ—proves to be un-feasible using standard yardsticks of economies of scale. The solution adopted by RP’s energy experts is to innovate on hybrid technology, with clean technologies such as solar power on the frontline.

Two (2) years ago, the state’s energy department pronounced that merely 900+ barangays (villages) out of the country’s over 42,000 barangays remain without electricity. The regime of the previous president Gloria Arroyo promised to energize the said villages before her term ends in May 2010.

Alas! Arroyo’s term had already ended and a new president—Noynoy Aquino—has been installed to power, but the electrification of the said villages is nowhere in site! Just exactly what ‘barriers to entry’ continue to hound the hinterlands electrification program seems to be kept as tightly guarded secret by the energy department, a fact that is tainted with transparency questions (the mass media is a bit silent about the matter).

I do recall that the contemporary hinterlands electrification program in RP began yet with the incumbency of then Secretary Vince Perez, an investment banker, who sat in the post for four (4) consecutive years. He was later replaced by Popo Lotilla, a laywer and economist, with similar pronouncements made by his office regarding the matter. Angelo Reyes, former defense secretary, then replaced Lotilla as energy secretary, and heralded the same pronouncements about electrification targets for the hinterlands.

Secretaries Perez and Lotilla are brilliant minds no less, as I recall both gentlemen pretty well during our freshmen years at the University of the Philippines (Diliman, the flagship campus). They were my former dorm mates at the Kalayaan Residence Hall for freshmen, we were then the first batch of residents, and at that time I could already sense the aura of brilliance in the two gentlemen.

The energy sector surely grew more robust and dynamic during the incumbency of the energy secretaries Perez and Lotilla, and the patterns they set were then followed by those who replaced them later. I just hope that the visions and program targets their respective offices have set will be followed without reserve, as time had already elapsed since they left their respective offices (they are now back to their private practice).

With a new president now sitting in power, the question remains the same: will the 900+ villages see the electric lights at night very soon? Or, will the same villages continue to wallow in the ‘dark age’ of zero electricity?

Meantime, let us hope that the situation for other island republics isn’t as bad as it is in RP that leads the world in grid technologies yet is lackluster in electrifying the hinterlands. What sayeth New Zealand and its development experts concerning the matter? [NZ is an island republic too, and it seemed to have made enormous mileage in total electrification.]

[Philippines, 31 August 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

FUSION NUCLEAR ENERGY: CHINA TAKES R&D LEAD

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Good afternoon!

Large swaths of lands in Asia were recently flooded, which paints a gloomy landscape in China, India, and Pakistan. Flooding, however, doesn’t kill civilizations, and floodwaters should be viewed on the positive side as providing, after calamities, much needed water and energy source.

As history has shown, it is the sudden absence of water, via large-scale calamity, that had killed many civilizations in antiquity. For as long as we have plenty of water reserves in the planet, civilization will continue. As energy source, water has provided hydro-electricity, geothermal (heated water from underground sources), and fuel cell medium (electrolysis).

The present onrush of waters could, in fact, serve as blessing to crack the news of a new form of energy: fusion nuclear energy. Talked about for decades as mere theory in classroom chemistry and physics and in coffee shops, fusion energy is now becoming more of a reality each day.

China unquestionably leads in the research & development efforts on fusion energy. Sometime in mid-2008 yet, the news leaked out to the world that China’s research scientists were able to make a breakthrough in the research phase of fusion energy. As per information leaking out, China is ahead of the rest of the world by at least a decade.

Reports had it at that time that a commercial breeder plant was still around ten (10) years in the offing. That means the earliest time for the release of such a breeder plant will be around 2018 yet. A tedious process indeed it is to perfect a model for commercial usage, but time runs fast these days, so let us anticipate the formal release of the first prototype just couples of years away from now.

The era of clean energy will surely receive a boost when fusion begins to roll, and by next decade we can safely forecast that fossil energy will rapidly decline in importance leading to its demise before 2030. I just wish the time table for burying fossil energy could be shortened, and like everyone else who is tired of the machinations of the oil oligarchs and financier-speculators in spot markets, I could hardly wait to offer dirges to fossil fuels.

[Philippines, 30 August 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]