UndercoverElephant wrote:I'm implicated in that, am I?
I take it to mean how we, as voting blocks, constantly and reliably put into power people who lie as part of their job..........
Yes, but that implies that after the MSM has effectively excluded all voices other than those of the mainstream political parties and after those parties have effectively screened out all "unsuitable" candidates from the selection process and after the "approved" candidates have been put before us, we have any real voting choice other than to simply not vote at all.
biffvernon wrote:Anybody with a stake in pension fund is pretty directly implicated and the rest of us benefit from exploitation of the poorer parts of the world by the affluence we enjoy, however drippy the trickle down effect may be.
I've never heard say it's politically incorrect to expose corruption and bad governance in African countries. It's less easy to know how to deal with it in practice.
Affluence we enjoy?
What the F--k are you on about Biff Vernon?
Get you head out of your arse. Most people in this country can't afford a pension. That luxury is reserved for smart-arse baby-boomers like you.
Polite as ever, Steve, but last time I checked, water came out of my tap that was fit for drinking. That's what I call affluence; something that a large proportion of the world's population do not enjoy.
(And we all get a state pension when we reach a certain age.)
UndercoverElephant wrote:I'm implicated in that, am I?
I take it to mean how we, as voting blocks, constantly and reliably put into power people who lie as part of their job..........
Yes, but that implies that after the MSM has effectively excluded all voices other than those of the mainstream political parties and after those parties have effectively screened out all "unsuitable" candidates from the selection process and after the "approved" candidates have been put before us, we have any real voting choice other than to simply not vote at all.
We don't
Agreed. The answer is, of course, stand for election or, at least, work damned hard to support people who don't lie. Then make sure they keep their promises. I'm well aware of the naivety of this statement.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Not sure why we are allowing flights into the UK from the contaminated countries.
Because the anti racism industry is so powerful that any effort to restrict flights would be regarded as racist.
Likewise any form of health check or screening that was targeted at higher risk persons or groups would be considered racist.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
SleeperService wrote:Declining wealth for the majority of the world population
Is that really true? I thought the last decade had been characterised by most people (China, India, Africa, Indonesia, Brazil etc) getting richer at the fastest rate ever. It's only really, Europe, Japan and the majority of Americans that have got a bit poorer.
SleeperService wrote:Declining wealth for the majority of the world population
Is that really true? I thought the last decade had been characterised by most people (China, India, Africa, Indonesia, Brazil etc) getting richer at the fastest rate ever. It's only really, Europe, Japan and the majority of Americans that have got a bit poorer.
The regions you mention are in decline already. The effects will become apparent soon enough. Growth slows then stops while prices rise to stem demand. Ergo most people will see their wealth peak and then fall back. We peaked in about 1977, the rest of the world will follow the same path. It's the inevitable result of a capitalist system wherein short term results triumph over long term planning. So a 'game changing' technology gets no investment while resources are expended on incrimental improvements even if the long term payback is negligable.
I haven't read the site, but anyone who's read Le Carre's The Constant Gardener will know that a lot of "ordinary" drugs tests (e.g. to find out which dose is best trade-off between effectiveness and dangerousness) are done on African "volunteers" (who take part either unknowingly or for much-needed pennies).
It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that some biological agent has been tested and got out-of-hand.
I've read 'year of the flood' by Margaret Atwood, in which a psychopath engineers and spreads a lethal virus that wipes out almost all humans.
If we look through history it usually is infectious disease that finally kills the most people even if the contributing factors are wars, famines, or economic collapse. Influenza in 1918 is a case in point.
I very much doubt even in this technological age we could engineer the virus which will kill the most in the coming pandemics. Nature is just too good at doing it herself for us to get there first. As the hungry spread ever deeper into the forest and eat ever more dubious bushmeat, we are flushing out nature's remaining pathogens who have not yet crossed from their adapted hosts to our unprepared immune systems.
Tell me it isn't true......