Inspired by: Slyfox
Blogging has allowed people to revisit open-mindedness. Where media and their upbringing had previously shaped their thoughts, they have been able to express themselves in a secure environment where oppression is rare.
I had thought I had an open mind, until I began blogging. Then through the help of hundreds of people, I've learned so much more about the world, and myself, than I had previously considered.
Taking action is commendable. But each person has limited resources and needs to focus on only a few issues at a time; so that they have a sufficient knowledge base to make informed decisions about a topic.
Blindly throwing money at a problem does no good at all, and may make the problem worse.
For instance, in South America, the people were educated on how to farm so they could feed themselves. But they weren't given an awareness of the value of rain forests or how to make money in other ways than agriculture. They continued to strip away hundreds of acres of rain forests per day. Yet the soils of rain forests were not suitable for agriculture. The people could have raised rare birds, plants, and animals in the rain forests. Created tourism opportunities. Established research institutes. Harvested mushrooms for export. ..... But they were just taught how to raise melons, corn, and cattle.
Instead of the rain forrests helping reduce global warming, they have cut the forrests and are raising cattle which contributes to the methane (cattle) and carbon emmissions (burning the forrests down).
Population boomed uncontrollably and the number of urban homeless people increased a hundred times. More pressure was put on agriculture, deforrestation of the rain forrests has increased to thousands of acres per day.
Good intent made the overall problem worse than it was previously.
People have limited mental faculties and are impulsive. We need to Think more about problems before we Act to solve them.
However, we need to associate ourselves with groups of people who are Actively thinking and developing overall solutions to problems that concern us.
I oppose the Feed the Children charity groups, because they only create more homeless children in the next generation. I personally put 3 people through school in the Phillipines and none of them did anything with their education.
For me:
We need to focus on promoting Ethical Consideration in Government EVERYWHERE. I feel that this one issue is more important than any other issue. If ethics is a part of every persons values, than corruption is stifled.
Without corruption, Governments attempt to provide the greatest good. War is eliminated, justice is equitable.
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/jamesbdunn?p=57
In Iran the Mula (also spelled Mola) control the country. They are NOT religious persons of faith, they are corrupt and self-serving politicians; very similar, if not identical, to the Dons of the Italian Mafia ( http://people.howstuffworks.com/mafia11.htm ).
Mula claim to have direct guidance from God, but everyone in Iran knows that is a farce. But the Mula control a large number of private mercenaries to enforce their will. The Rich in Iran pay the Mula to be left alone; protecting their own assets.
The Rich in Iran can easily produce businesses throughout Iran to provide employment for the poor; so the poor can feed themselves. However, the Mula prevent the Rich from establishing businesses that would employ the poor! This is intentional. By having malnourished poor people, the Mula maintain a resource of cheap thugs for doing their will. The poor only want to eat, and the Mula are the only source for bread crumbs.
The Rich control the Mula to some degree by keeping their businesses out of poor areas, and providing strictly controlled access to education. If the Rich do not comply, then the Mula have to step up their destructive actions towards the Rich. So a balance is maintained between the Rich and the Mula.
The whole system of corruption is held in place by the glue of money and starvation. If the poor people were reliably fed, the system of corruption would fall apart. If the flow of money was stopped, the system of corruption would fall apart.
When dealing with Iran, the actions taken must be within the context of dealing with Organized Crime.
