I have listened to Obama probably more than any other mainstream politician. Some of this comes from the nature of Obama's politics. Some of it comes from the youtube phenomena. I was able to listen to his address to congress about an hour after he gave it.
I found his speech only occasionally informative. mostly covering an agenda already familiar to me,and describing a state of the world only too familiar to most of us.
If we had an opportunity to act on his speech, say go out an vote for him, it might have been inspiring. (more on that later). But as the president describing what legislation and policy would do, hoping is now replaced with waiting. Will things work out as we hope?
Let me turn to specifics of his speech:
* The recovery package, will save or protect jobs we are told. And surely it will compared with doing nothing, or only cutting taxes for the rich. But the economy is still shrinking. We don't know how bad it will get or how long it will last.
* The credit crunch is perpetuating the down turn, and the banks seem unwilling to loosen lending. Obama indicated that further funds will be needed for the banks, funds beyond what has already been allocated. This is disappointing not only because the greater price tag, but also because his administration won't consider nationalizing the banks. If as some economists claim the big banks are already essentially bankrupt propping them up is just chasing bad money with good. taking over the banks would allow the government to at least keep the banks functional.
* Budget transparency was on Obama's agenda. This is good but claims about bringing down the federal debt are only guess work. Remember that any calculations about this were made by economists, remember how well they predicted the stock bubble of the 1990's and the housing bubble we just watched pop? A legitimate question is what if the economy doesn't get going again? Peek Oil might be a reason it wouldn't get started again. Oil prices are down because of the recession but the recession may have been effected by oil prices. If the economy gets going oil prices will shoot up even more and this will just put breaks on the economy.
* The president has set out energy goals that are optimistic. Renewable energy includes, bio-fuel, Hydro-electric, Geothermal wind, solar, wood and waste last year that amounted to about 10% of our energy needs. over 60 % of that comes from wood and hydroelectric, but these have been the slowest growing sectors in the past 10 years possibly even shrinking. they are unlikely to grow much in the next few years. Bio-fuel has grown by a factor of 6 in the past 10 years, wind energy production has increased by a factor of 15. For these growth sectors, wind and biofuel to grow at a rate that would double total renewable energy in three years they would each have to nearly triple their output each year.
*Obama recommitted to addressing Health care this year, but here he was perhaps most vague. Sort of the I'll form a committee approach. Unless the insurance racket , and big Pharm are controlled you can reshuffle the deck all you want but the cards will be the same. Mark Hyman MD will be testifying before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions tomorrow, he says he intends to tell congress that "we must change not only the WAY we do medicine, but also the medicine we DO." I think he is right but will anyone be listening? Part of the different medicine we need to do is focusing more on public health oriented interventions (I'll be posting on that in a separate post soon).
*Around education Obama set a goal that I hadn't heard before. "by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world." I'm all in favor of a greater focus on education, but this we're # 1 crap is a mistake. There is no value in being better than others. The goals we should have are just being the best we can be. On education he called on every American to pursue at least one year of college, and he reiterated the importance of individuals turning off the TV. (more on this below).
*Regarding the middle east the message was wait and see, we're reviewing and will soon present our position on Iraq and Afghanistan & Pakistan. Well Afghanistan deserves a longer discussion, but I'm certainly not pleased with the additional troops sent there a few days ago.
OK its not perfect but there are some good goals, can they be obtained? A growing economy frees up resources to do things like address our environmental problems but a growing economy creates environmental problems too. some of how this balance will play out depends on our choices. both our collective choices, policy choices, and our individual choices. Similarly our health care costs are a reflection of our health choices. Obama made a personal appeal to citizens around education, an appeal for direct action, actions that individuals can take that can make a difference in the bigger picture, we should apply the principle of direct action to health care and energy issues. Here we get back to the notion of a movement to change America that is larger than Obama or his administration. Change happens through direct action, in this case it could be the action of weatherizing a house, or switching to compact florescent lights. it could be getting regular exercise and eating right as a step towards health care reform. So I think Obama's speech was important only as a preamble to a call for action.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Marie Mason
Last Thursday my friend Marie Mason received a sentence of 22 years in prison for an act of sabotage against genetically modified organism (GMO) research 9 years ago. This is the longest sentence given to any eco-activist doing time in the US. I am sad about this extreme sentence and I am hopeful that it will be shortened in the pending appeal.
For more information about Marie and her case: http://supportmariemason.org/
For more information about Marie and her case: http://supportmariemason.org/
Monday, February 2, 2009
a groundhogs day leter (the personal is political)
02/02/2008
Dear Friends
February 2nd comes around again, so again I am writing my annual Groundhogs day comments. We a re already a month and a half from the solstice, and equally far from the solar calendars marking of spring.
This letter will include a bit of my life, and then my thoughts on the world.
My life:
A year ago I started a new job, working with a doctor with a holistic practice with a focus that I usually refer to as nutritional medicine. The basic approach of what we do is two fold. We identify and try to eliminate nutritional problems such as food allergies, microbial overgrowths, and poor dietary patterns and choices. We also recommend natural and generally nutrient based supplements that support our patients' internal biological processes. This approach is often called functional medicine. We are an integrative practice, meaning that we also use conventional medications when it makes sense. OK that's not all that we do but it gives you an accurate general picture. The job has been a thrill in terms of all I have learned and am still learning.
My family is strong. Beth and I work well with each other and our love continues to deepen. The struggle is finding time together alone. Teo is now in first grade and Zev is in third grade, they both attend the city's "open school". It's not exactly Summerhill, http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/ but the students do get to make choices about their studies, and generally our kids like it. As the boys grow their personalities also flourish. There was a time when I couldn't tell if differences between them were just related to differences in age, but more and more I appreciate their unique personalities and interests. That said, they are still such good friends, and they both amaze me some times with their kindness to each other and to others.
I continue to enjoy my close association with the cooperative house next door. We share cooking and meals, and meetings, and community. Coop living reminds me that utopia is a constant dinner party. I often live close to utopia.
My year was punctuated by what are becoming somewhat regular events. I had the good fortune to attend 3 co-counseling workshops including a trip to New York and a trip to Vermont (co-counseling http://www.cci-usa.org/ is a peer based emotional support process that I have been involved with for several years now). In November our family went to the demonstration against the School of the Americas http://www.soaw.org/type.php?type=8 at Fort Benning in Georgia. This is an annual action to try to close Americas military training camp for Latin American military personal who too often go on to commit atrocities against their people. Since my parents and sister live in Atlanta the trip is also a good opportunity to visit them.
I went to seminars in San Antonio, in Pittsburg. If I'm going to tally up all my travels, I was in Toledo on Election Day, helping Obama take Ohio. This year included more travel than typical for me.
I was modestly involved with the Obama Campaign, in addition to dragging a couple of friends to Toledo to knock on door, I registered a handful of people to vote, shuffled some papers for canvassing packets and did some door knocking in Ann Arbor to clarify where likely Obama voters lived.
This fall I've found my way a bit more on to the internet. In November I started to blog http://gaiaonpolitics.blogspot.com/ I'm trying to post something every week or so. The energy the blog takes probably exceeds the influence it has, but it's a good way to work on my writing. I always enjoy when people comment on my blog, so if your there leave your two cents. I've also started playing around with facebook. (if your on facebook but not connected to me, please look me up)
The World:
Things are not really improving yet but at least the potential for things to improve has improved.
I worked (to the extent that I did) to get Obama elected so that we would again have a US president who would listen to progressive perspective, and so that grassroots political action would again have some force.
In this first few weeks of the new administration some good thing have happened perhaps most important an order to close Guantanamo and the secrete CIA prisons. But the order hasn't been carried out yet. We will get plans from the generals regarding withdrawal from Iraq, and a man known to successfully negotiate peace is now the US Middle East Special envoy. Again encouraging but still peace is not yet here. It's hard to imagine that the US will change it's relationship to Israel, last year funding the Israeli military at 2.4 billion dollars. It's scheduled to increase to 3.1 billion in the next 10 years http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf . At least a more engaged policy will likely cut down of the violence. Some bad things have continues, for instance, drone planes attacking Pakistan, this being particularly troubling because it continues a policy of preemptive attacks. War is the greatest moral scourge that we face.
At what point does a recession become a depression? And how much can a stimulus packet do? I am glad that there are some funds for green energy, medical record technology may improve the quality of care, and certain infrastructure work is probably worthwhile. I'm not in favor of lots of road work. We need to be moving away from our car and long distance transport oriented culture. While financial approaches to help forestall the mortgage crisis will help people in need, I'd rather see legal approaches to preventing foreclosures. However one chooses to describe our economy it represents the greatest immediate challenge that we face.
I still hold to the understanding that in the big picture the two biggest problems we humans face are the running down of liquid fuel related to peak oil production http://www.postcarbon.org/ and global climate change. As we pass the point of maximum oil production most of the assumptions of modern society will need to be reworked. It is hard to imagine that we will be able to have an economy that continues to assume unlimited growth (and in turn ongoing profits from that growth) since cheep fuel has been the lynch pin for perpetual growth. Those expecting profits will try various destructive strategies. They will try to extract more from the poor, those least able to defend themselves, and to turn to all other energy sources including coal. Coal, of course, contributes to global warming (if clean coal technology is anything more than science fiction it is still costly, and no strategy for profit maximization.)
Solutions may be available, the question is implementation. For instance wind power is an increasingly hopeful alternative energy source but present global production of wind energy amounts to about 1.5 percent of the worlds total electricity production. It has increased by about 30% every year for the last 10 years. By one scenario 50% of the world electricity could be generated by renewable sources by 2017 http://www.wwindea.org/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=224&Itemid=40 . And then there is the need for an electric vehicle fleet…
Politically the capital of the US is not the only place were progressive governments are on the rise. Two days ago Bolivia approved a new constitution by popular vote re establishes water access as a right, and gives national control to natural resources (Bolivia holds over half of the worlds lithium, needed for lithium ion batteries). Amazingly, Obama has congratulated Bolivia for the passing of this constitution.
Yesterday I went to a meeting of grassroots community activists discussing the situation in Gaza. What was inspiring about the meeting was the sense that again there was space for activist movements to grow.
There are also structural forces that oppose change, but even they are changing. Chaos can be the prelude to an emerging, at first hardly perceivable system that is growing up along side the collapsing monolith. Change can some times happen quickly. Problems persist, but we can begin to vision a better world, yes another world is possible, increasingly more possible, and in that things look much more promising.
With love and growth,
Gaia
Dear Friends
February 2nd comes around again, so again I am writing my annual Groundhogs day comments. We a re already a month and a half from the solstice, and equally far from the solar calendars marking of spring.
This letter will include a bit of my life, and then my thoughts on the world.
My life:
A year ago I started a new job, working with a doctor with a holistic practice with a focus that I usually refer to as nutritional medicine. The basic approach of what we do is two fold. We identify and try to eliminate nutritional problems such as food allergies, microbial overgrowths, and poor dietary patterns and choices. We also recommend natural and generally nutrient based supplements that support our patients' internal biological processes. This approach is often called functional medicine. We are an integrative practice, meaning that we also use conventional medications when it makes sense. OK that's not all that we do but it gives you an accurate general picture. The job has been a thrill in terms of all I have learned and am still learning.
My family is strong. Beth and I work well with each other and our love continues to deepen. The struggle is finding time together alone. Teo is now in first grade and Zev is in third grade, they both attend the city's "open school". It's not exactly Summerhill, http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/ but the students do get to make choices about their studies, and generally our kids like it. As the boys grow their personalities also flourish. There was a time when I couldn't tell if differences between them were just related to differences in age, but more and more I appreciate their unique personalities and interests. That said, they are still such good friends, and they both amaze me some times with their kindness to each other and to others.
I continue to enjoy my close association with the cooperative house next door. We share cooking and meals, and meetings, and community. Coop living reminds me that utopia is a constant dinner party. I often live close to utopia.
My year was punctuated by what are becoming somewhat regular events. I had the good fortune to attend 3 co-counseling workshops including a trip to New York and a trip to Vermont (co-counseling http://www.cci-usa.org/ is a peer based emotional support process that I have been involved with for several years now). In November our family went to the demonstration against the School of the Americas http://www.soaw.org/type.php?type=8 at Fort Benning in Georgia. This is an annual action to try to close Americas military training camp for Latin American military personal who too often go on to commit atrocities against their people. Since my parents and sister live in Atlanta the trip is also a good opportunity to visit them.
I went to seminars in San Antonio, in Pittsburg. If I'm going to tally up all my travels, I was in Toledo on Election Day, helping Obama take Ohio. This year included more travel than typical for me.
I was modestly involved with the Obama Campaign, in addition to dragging a couple of friends to Toledo to knock on door, I registered a handful of people to vote, shuffled some papers for canvassing packets and did some door knocking in Ann Arbor to clarify where likely Obama voters lived.
This fall I've found my way a bit more on to the internet. In November I started to blog http://gaiaonpolitics.blogspot.com/ I'm trying to post something every week or so. The energy the blog takes probably exceeds the influence it has, but it's a good way to work on my writing. I always enjoy when people comment on my blog, so if your there leave your two cents. I've also started playing around with facebook. (if your on facebook but not connected to me, please look me up)
The World:
Things are not really improving yet but at least the potential for things to improve has improved.
I worked (to the extent that I did) to get Obama elected so that we would again have a US president who would listen to progressive perspective, and so that grassroots political action would again have some force.
In this first few weeks of the new administration some good thing have happened perhaps most important an order to close Guantanamo and the secrete CIA prisons. But the order hasn't been carried out yet. We will get plans from the generals regarding withdrawal from Iraq, and a man known to successfully negotiate peace is now the US Middle East Special envoy. Again encouraging but still peace is not yet here. It's hard to imagine that the US will change it's relationship to Israel, last year funding the Israeli military at 2.4 billion dollars. It's scheduled to increase to 3.1 billion in the next 10 years http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf . At least a more engaged policy will likely cut down of the violence. Some bad things have continues, for instance, drone planes attacking Pakistan, this being particularly troubling because it continues a policy of preemptive attacks. War is the greatest moral scourge that we face.
At what point does a recession become a depression? And how much can a stimulus packet do? I am glad that there are some funds for green energy, medical record technology may improve the quality of care, and certain infrastructure work is probably worthwhile. I'm not in favor of lots of road work. We need to be moving away from our car and long distance transport oriented culture. While financial approaches to help forestall the mortgage crisis will help people in need, I'd rather see legal approaches to preventing foreclosures. However one chooses to describe our economy it represents the greatest immediate challenge that we face.
I still hold to the understanding that in the big picture the two biggest problems we humans face are the running down of liquid fuel related to peak oil production http://www.postcarbon.org/ and global climate change. As we pass the point of maximum oil production most of the assumptions of modern society will need to be reworked. It is hard to imagine that we will be able to have an economy that continues to assume unlimited growth (and in turn ongoing profits from that growth) since cheep fuel has been the lynch pin for perpetual growth. Those expecting profits will try various destructive strategies. They will try to extract more from the poor, those least able to defend themselves, and to turn to all other energy sources including coal. Coal, of course, contributes to global warming (if clean coal technology is anything more than science fiction it is still costly, and no strategy for profit maximization.)
Solutions may be available, the question is implementation. For instance wind power is an increasingly hopeful alternative energy source but present global production of wind energy amounts to about 1.5 percent of the worlds total electricity production. It has increased by about 30% every year for the last 10 years. By one scenario 50% of the world electricity could be generated by renewable sources by 2017 http://www.wwindea.org/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=224&Itemid=40 . And then there is the need for an electric vehicle fleet…
Politically the capital of the US is not the only place were progressive governments are on the rise. Two days ago Bolivia approved a new constitution by popular vote re establishes water access as a right, and gives national control to natural resources (Bolivia holds over half of the worlds lithium, needed for lithium ion batteries). Amazingly, Obama has congratulated Bolivia for the passing of this constitution.
Yesterday I went to a meeting of grassroots community activists discussing the situation in Gaza. What was inspiring about the meeting was the sense that again there was space for activist movements to grow.
There are also structural forces that oppose change, but even they are changing. Chaos can be the prelude to an emerging, at first hardly perceivable system that is growing up along side the collapsing monolith. Change can some times happen quickly. Problems persist, but we can begin to vision a better world, yes another world is possible, increasingly more possible, and in that things look much more promising.
With love and growth,
Gaia
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