Year: 2010

The Oil Spill

A rather different view point.

This may not be very Politically Correct but I am getting a bit fed up for the following reasons with Obama’s constant bad-mouthing of BP :

  • If the regulatory procedures were not strong enough then that is the USA’s fault, not BP’s.
  • The USA is glad enough to extract oil from ecologically-dangerous places because it is hooked on oil. That isn’t BP’s fault either.
  • It is bleedin’ obvious that SOONER OR LATER (see previous comments on statistics) there was going to be an accident of this type, yet NO PROPER CONTINGENCY PLAN was in place. That is partly BP’s fault (over-confidence) but also the USA’s fault for not insisting on one.
  • BP is clearly doing all it can to put things right; constantly rubbishing it seems fairly pointless.
  • Nobody knows how much BP was to blame; there were other companies involved, including US ones.
The burning BP Oil Rig

In general, the USA has long been too soft on oil companies because it needs the oil.

Now of course we are going to have a pendulum swing the other way, but rather than knee-jerk reactions why not consult and put in place an effective “doomsday scenario” plan? For example, a 20,000 ton concrete dome that could be lowered right over a fractured well to seal it off?

Of course, Obama’s ranting is political. He does NOT want this to be his “Katrina”. However, nobody in their right mind would blame him personally for this accident and now that it has happened it is pretty pathetic to rant about how evil BP is.

What’s done is done. Statistically, there was BOUND to be an accident of this kind one day. By allowing deep-sea drilling the USA MUST HAVE ACCEPTED the risk. If proper and regulatory contingency plans had been in place then the environmental damage might have been minimised.

In general one must say of the Human Race that we aren’t brilliant at anticipating risks and preparing for the worst. Witness carbon emissions and climate change. As a man-in-the-street, the ONLY change in long-held habits that I have seen to combat global warming is that you can no longer in Europe buy old-fashioned light bulbs. Otherwise life seems to go on pretty much as ever, with all governments desperately wishing for growth because of their idiotic over-spending.

STOP PRESS: Above all a President needs to stay calm and rational. There was no reason to stop all off-shore drilling pending the result of an enquiry. This has put thousands of Americans out of work. No, I am NOT minimising the damage; it is tragic and disastrous, but 80% of Louisiana’s economy depends on the oil business.

And we badly need perspective. This is – as I already said – a terrible disaster, but the record of off-shore drilling is in fact extremely good in ecological terms. One bad experience should not lead to the knee-jerk shut-down of the entire industry. Fascinating article in the UK Guardian newspaper.  That article concludes thus:

In an open letter to Obama published in Louisiana’s Thibodaux Daily Comet newspaper, local resident Stephen Morris vented fury at the drilling freeze: “If it was a knee-jerk response to everyone’s anger about the continued leak and possible annihilation of southern Louisiana’s way of life, you didn’t think it through or your advisers are smoking way too much crack.”

And this article in the UK Independent brilliantly sums up the way Obama is getting this all wrong for superficial, popularist reasons.  Here’s how that article starts:

The evidence is overwhelming. Any fair-minded person who examines the Gulf of Mexico oil spillage is compelled to two conclusions. First, that there is no evidence of wrongdoing by BP. Second, that the President of the United States has behaved disgracefully.

The vessels of the Los Angeles class, the pride of the US nuclear submarine fleet, will not operate below 950ft. If they were to dive to 1450ft, their hulls would implode. The Americans do have three subs which could function at 2,000ft. They cost $3bn each. It follows that drilling for oil below a 5,000ft seabed is a difficult business which involves risks. But it is essential.

By Chris Snuggs

A Way Forward?

Removing the fear of the unknown

I’ve been working with most of my clients recently through painful transformations brought about by the economic downturn.

An interesting metaphor really because since the first wave of uncertainty triggered panic, first noticed in the UK banking system, I have been picking up on that uncertainty that feels like it’s stalking the globe at the moment.

Interestingly, I, too, have been aware of an underlying fear that was difficult either to name or source.

It has been rather like a deep river in that whilst the surface feels slow moving, currents are moving things powerfully below.

So this ‘fear’ has caused a few household changes.

We now are the proud owners of 9 chickens. Our youngest son, Sami, and I have dug up the back lawn and planted vegetables and built a poly-tunnel.

We have also installed a wood burning cooker. Right back down to the base of Maslow’s triangle really!

Maslow’s triangle of needs

These feelings have brought about such change everywhere and I wonder seriously whether we will ever return to what was; indeed would we want to?

I might not have mentioned it in previous blogs but as well as an engineering background, in latter years, I have focused on how interpersonal success in business is linked directly to relationships, integrity and vitally, self-awareness.

To inform this, some 7 years ago, I embarked on an MA in Core Process Psychotherapy, primarily to work on myself so that I could be the best I could be in my relationships, in and out of work.

The point I’m trying to make is that the same panic I notice in many of the companies I work in, and in me, is based on fear of the unknown and on a lack of trust in all its forms.  I’ve deliberately underlined that last phrase because it is so incredibly important.

The truth is that we get more of what we focus on.

So we can choose to focus on the constant news of more difficulties, hardship and redundancies, or we can focus on what is working.

In the workplace this positive focus has been pulling people together across functions and sites and pooling resources and ideas.

A farm evening

When we realise we’re not doing this alone it’s amazing how much lighter a load can feel and how much more inspired we feel.

I also notice how humour begins to flow and what a powerful antidote for doom and gloom that is.

Transformation is never easy but the rewards far exceed the effort put in ten fold.

So what is it going to be? Are we all going to bow down to the god of Doom & Gloom, fear and anxiety, heaping more and more gifts around it, or are we going to start noticing and focusing on the other neglected god – that of relationship, joy, trust, abundance and lightness?

Whatever the future holds for us all a belief in our inherent ability to adapt and change and focus on the greater good rather than fear, anxiety, greed and selfishness is the only sustainable way forward.

By Jon Lavin

[If you have been affected by this Post and would like to contact Jon, he would be delighted to hear from you. Ed.]

Israel and the Palestinians

ISRAEL – Can anyone tell me which of these statements is not true?

  • Fatah, long-time sworn enemy of Israel, no longer sponsors attacks on Israel.
  • Fatah poses no military danger to Israel.
  • Fatah has accepted the right of Israel to exist; threats to obliterate it from the map have come from Iran, but that is not Fatah’s fault.
  • Palestinians in general are among the best-educated and most democratic of Arabs.
  • A democratic Palestinian State trading freely with Israel would greatly increase prosperity in both states, but especially in Palestine.
  • Free, democratic and prosperous states do not in general cause conflict.
  • A free, democratic and prosperous Palestine would cause ordinary people in Gaza and elsewhere in the Arab world to wonder why the hell they were bothering to support extremists and “terrorists”.  Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and Iran would have the ground cut totally from under them. The latter are terrified of anything free and democratic, so it is no wonder that their main aims are to foment disorder and chaos. Israel sometimes seems to play their game for them.

I believe all the above to be true, though am willing to stand corrected. And so the next question is, Why does Israel still occupy the West Bank and impose roadblocks on ordinary Palestinians trying to create some sort of normal and prosperous life for themselves?

West Bank and Gaza

It seems to me that Israel’s policy here is potty. In all walks of life, you encourage good behaviour (assuming you want progress, peace and prosperity). I am unclear how the good behaviour of Fatah in the last few years has been rewarded. On the contrary, there is endless talk as ever but little action on the ground.

One understands Israel’s existential fears, but the dangers no longer come from Fatah and Palestinians in the West Bank. They should and could become the allies of Israel.

Has Israel become so accustomed to battering its enemies with force that it cannot learn the humility of victory and take a longer vision?

The major sticking points?

  • Jerusalem? This has to become a shared city in some form. Israel has no right to claim it as its own. We all share the planet; I can see no fundamental problem with sharing a city.
  • The exiles? There has to be some sort of justice. We – I believe – empathize with Jews. We understand their fears for their existence. We support their right to exist. But they do not seem to empathize with those Arabs whose land was taken from them first in 1948 and then later by conquest. EMPATHY – this is sorely lacking in the current Israeli leadership.

Israel Blockade Challenged

The Aid Ship Fiasco? Once again, Israel is its own worst enemy. The critical thing is to establish the truth, so if Israel has nothing to hide then why does it not permit an independent enquiry?

It seems pretty clear to me that the majority of activists on the first ship were peaceful but you only have to have a few prepared to use violence and this will cause big trouble, which seems to have been the case here. And everyone knows that if Israel or Israelis are attacked then they respond with overwhelming force.

But “winning hearts and minds” CANNOT be done without the truth being known, and nobody who matters (ordinary Arabs, Iranians and Turks in particular) is going to trust an enquiry carried out solely by the Israelis. This is so obvious that one wonders if – as often seems the case – Israel has taken leave of its senses.

by Chris Snuggs

Watch, and learn! Concluding parts

Growth is good?  Good for what?

[Apologies to our readers but a consistent error in all the links to previous posts within this and earlier posts has now been corrected.  You can view all the previous sections of his lecture by clicking the links in this Post. Ed.]

We live on a finite Earth.  But really understanding what that means is difficult.  I guess because most of us think that in our own little way we can’t really be doing any harm to the planet – I mean what’s another few grams of CO2?

Al Bartlet, University of Colorado

Well here’s Dr Albert Bartlett of the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado chatting about arithmetic!  And if you go to his website, you will come across this quote on the home page:

“Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally, or globally?”

Want to sit in on his famous lecture, “Arithmetic, Population and Energy: Sustainability 101”?  Well you can.

The lecture is broken down into 8 10-minute videos, each of them on YouTube.  The first two instalments are here , Part Three and Four here

Parts Five and Six were in this post. These are the concluding two parts.

Part Seven

Part Eight

By Paul Handover

Laughing as you sink!

John Clarke and Bryan Dawe on the million dollar questions – courtesy of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

This sketch is doing the rounds and deservedly so – it’s a very funny skit on Europe’s troubling financial situation.

As ex-Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, is reputed to have quoted, “The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other peoples money.”

By Paul Handover

Watch, and learn, Part Three

Growth is good?  Good for what?

We live on a finite Earth.  But really understanding what that means is difficult.  I guess because most of us think that in our own little way we can’t really be doing any harm to the planet – I mean what’s another few grams of CO2?

Al Bartlet, University of Colorado

Well here’s Dr Albert Bartlett of the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado chatting about arithmetic!  And if you go to his website, you will come across this quote on the home page:

“Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally, or globally?”

Want to sit in on his famous lecture, “Arithmetic, Population and Energy: Sustainability 101”?  Well you can.

The lecture is broken down into 8 10-minute videos, each of them on YouTube.  The first two instalments are here , Part Three and Four here and Parts Five and Six in this post. The concluding two parts are tomorrow.
Part Five

Part Six

By Paul Handover

Watch, and learn, Part Two

Growth is good?  Good for what?

We live on a finite Earth.  But really understanding what that means is difficult.  I guess because most of us think that in our own little way we can’t really be doing any harm to the planet – I mean what’s another few grams of CO2?

Al Bartlet, University of Colorado

Well here’s Dr Albert Bartlett of the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado chatting about arithmetic!  And if you go to his website, you will come across this quote on the home page:

“Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally, or globally?”

Want to sit in on his famous lecture, “Arithmetic, Population and Energy: Sustainability 101”?  Well you can.

The lecture is broken down into 8 10-minute videos, each of them on YouTube.  The first two instalments are here with Part Three and Four in this post. The remaining four parts over the next two days.

Part Three

Part Four

By Paul Handover

Watch, and learn about growth!

Growth is good?  Good for what?

We live on a finite Earth.  But really understanding what that means is difficult.  I guess because most of us think that in our own little way we can’t really be doing any harm to the planet – I mean what’s another few grams of CO2?

Al Bartlet, University of Colorado

Well here’s Dr Albert Bartlett of the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado chatting about arithmetic!  And if you go to his website, you will come across this quote on the home page:

“Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally, or globally?”

Want to sit in on his famous lecture, “Arithmetic, Population and Energy: Sustainability 101”?  Well you can.

The lecture is broken down into 8 10-minute videos, each of them on YouTube.  The first two instalments are in this post with each of the following three days having the next two.

Part One

Part Two

By Paul Handover

BP and the mirror on the wall.

This is very, very uncomfortable.

Reflecting the truth?

Trying to say anything new about the implications of the terrible disaster in the Gulf of Mexico would be impossible.

All I can do is to admit my very great discomfort at knowing that later today, I shall be returning to Phoenix by flying across the Atlantic in a Boeing 747.

A small amount of web research suggests that there are about 600 transatlantic flights a day and that my B747 will use roughly 10 tons of fuel an hour, i.e. conservatively 100 tons for the flight LHR-PHX.

So 600 x 100 = 60,000 tons of fuel every day just in flights across the Atlantic!

So pointing the finger at BP is, in a very real sense, misdirected.  BP are only responding to our need for oil, in all its forms.

Do watch the videos from Prof Al Bartlett being shown on this Blog from tomorrow to understand the mathematics behind our unsustainable way of life.

By Paul Handover

Elliot’s Schooling: The Role of Government

This continues the series of posts on education.

Abraham Lincoln

What is the role of government in education?  The problem of central government power and corruption in relation to education is a cause of great concern for me.  I still remember learning that Abraham Lincoln was a champion of civil rights who wanted to end slavery, and that American exceptionalism defeated the aggressive Soviet Union.  I also now realize that there were gaping absences from my education, like the complete absence of any classes concerning philosophy, even as an introduction that scratched the surface, or any study of the decline of empires such as Rome whose glories I studied so intensely.

Ancient Rome

If there is any quick fix for the problems I am noting, it would be decentralization of power in respect to our education system.  This becomes more problematic on a daily basis, as more and more federal stimulus funds are poured into local education systems.  While the beltway political community often paints this as government helping small communities, I see the benefit of a temporary boost in funding being far outweighed by the cost of our central government grabbing more and more local power.  Education systems will, in the long run, be forced to either permanently entrust more of their budgetary matters to federal power, or suffer the pain of doing away with an infrastructure that big government created and, consequently, only big government can support.  Decentralization would help the education system of the United States to be more diverse as well, as different regions would certainly have different educational programs, and these programs could compete in the form of their graduates to show which programs had the best results.

However, no discussion of education in the United States would be complete without taking a look at the intent of our country’s founders.  Here I must thank Professor Jarrell for injecting this concept into the current discussion.  In a recent LFD post addressed to me and interested others, she wrote:

The Federalist Papers made it clear, to me at least, that our founding fathers believed that the government, our federal government in particular, should have nothing to do with educating the populace.

I realize it sounds a bit radical now, but I believe that any discussion of what is right and wrong about public education today must begin with a healthy debate about whether the federal government should be involved in public education at all.

Your thoughts?  Thanks!

In a very soon-to-come post, I will begin yet another discussion,  one that I hope will heavily involve Professor Jarrell and many others, about the original intent of our founders in relation to public education, and whether or not there is any hope of returning to their proposed system at any point in the near future.

by Elliot Engstrom