The End of the World Probably Began in August 1990
Whenever I recall the recent history of the world, I wonder how strange it is that the world has now a very concerned person, former president of Iraq Saddam Hussein, in custody in Baghdad.
Mr. Saddam Hussein’s army invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. Then the Persian Gulf War erupted. The war had a significant influence on Mr. Usāma bin Lādin.
As if inevitably due to his career and religion, Mr. Usāma bin Lādin at last ordered attacks on New York and Washington D.C. using commercial jet planes in September 2001.
And, the rest of the history up to now is well known.
＊ ＊ ＊
Mr. Saddam Hussein’s decision in August 1990 to invade Kuwait, after the lengthy Iraqi-Iranian War, triggered this chain reaction of international incidents eventually leading to the current, extraordinary hike of oil prices.
Mr. Saddam Hussein’s military adventure took a form of solving a territorial dispute with an underlying issue of oil (fields).
Did the issue of oil and money it generates really mangle his judgment on international situations?
Why, how, and when did then president of Iraq Saddam Hussein reach the conclusion, at the deepest level of mind, that his government had to absorb the neighboring country by force are really interesting. And everybody under any influence of the Gulf War, subsequent terror attacks and the War on Terror including the Iraq War, and higher oil prices had better be interested in them.
＊ ＊ ＊
It is said that oil reserves will be depleted in 50 years; natural gas in 65 years; uranium in 70 years, coal in 250 years, and plutonium available for fuel in fast breeder reactors in 4500 years.
Although they say that they will complete preparation of a nuclear fusion reactor for commercial power generation around 2050, it is very doubtful.
What’s more, we still need crude oils not only as natural resources for power generation but also as materials for production of goods.
＊ ＊ ＊
No matter how indirectly it did, Mr. Saddam Hussein’s decision to resort to military power in August 1990 led to 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. in 2001 through its influence on some Arabs, but it might have still more significant implication even Mr. Saddam Hussein did not realize at the moment of the decision.
＊ ＊ ＊
When we lose all the oil reserves on the earth, it may be called the End of the World, for our civilization depends on oil and iron. Then, the end may be terribly within 50 year range.
Lower the level of our living standard to one tenth of the current one, and we may buy time, for example 500 years, for our children’s descendants to cope with the fate.
“DO NOT BE AFRAID”
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Friday, April 21, 2006
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Newton, Shakespeare, and Empire Facing Oceans
Newton, Shakespeare, and Empire Facing Oceans
Sir Isaac Newton, a genius but also a strange theologist and alchemist, reportedly thought: "I am just a little boy on the seashore who is, while picking up and wondering at pebbles and shells, yet to be fully amazed at the great ocean of truth extending so far away before him. Mysteries leading to God are yet to be comprehended."
William Shakespeare is also a person of great skill, though with a certain sense of pagan due to the era he lived in, writing his poetry titled "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore" which goes:
"Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend…"
* * *
Nowadays, it is said that days of liberal arts have gone. They are teaching children how to make money by buying and selling stocks. Everybody believes that money can buy any commodities and services, including wisdom and refinement.
Most of the so-called IT heroes seem to have failed in developing respect for human value measured by moral obtained through authentic learning and training.
For example, even when a retired politician, who still holds some influence, makes TV appearance taking along famous scholars or pundits, those elite cultural figures usually look embarrassed as if their personality were conquered by those with power in politics. Indeed, those who have enjoyed worldly power never respect cultural figures.
* * *
Immigrants from Mexico, African countries, Asia, or any other places have nothing to do with Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare. Even if they learn those past prominent figures after finding a job and somehow settling down in the U.S., EU or Japan, everybody thinks, their status never changes. People might make a big joke of “poor immigrant workers reading Shakespeare and Newton in vain.”
But, those who control people with power and wealth through which employers of immigrant workers are forced to obey need somebody that is familiar with works of Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare. Otherwise, they will lose the ground for their advantage and dominance.
If such persons as can understand norms and criteria in writing and reading as well as engineering and science all disappear from society, it will no longer be able to maintain law and order, which mostly depends on documents, and will surely stop developing its new forms of wealth.
* * *
Therefore, the Establishment needs to have their children learn Sir Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare before they learn influence of power and money and how to use it to satisfy their desire.
But, it is said that they are now even going to skip this authentic process.
* * *
"Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown’d,
Crooked eclipse ‘gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave, doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,
And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow;
Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
And yet, to times in hope, my verse shall stand
Praising Thy worth, despite his cruel hand."
(Eternal flow of time makes everything impermanence and transient, but there is surely something among people that is worth admiring [against the opposite that often appeals to audiences].)
* * *
Very strangely, there were no records on Jesus Christ standing at the beach of the Mediterranean Sea or the Dead Sea to perform some miracles that could traverse the sea.
Indeed, human beings are not fish to live in the ocean; mankind needs faith and love living in the human world or the sea of people.
* * *
What poor immigrant workers need is the Holy Writ without which any works by Shakespeare and Newton should have been impossible, thus making Anglo-American empires impossible all over the world through the modern history.
Japanese, living on islands situated near one side of a huge, old continent opposite to that for Great Britain, really love to see the sea, but the splendor of viewing an ocean never saves you eventually, as with poetry and science.
And I am afraid that America situated between Japan and Great Britain might lose brightness of its empire before it produces another Newton and Shakespeare despite two oceans it faces.
“I SPOKE BECAUSE I BELIEVED”
Sir Isaac Newton, a genius but also a strange theologist and alchemist, reportedly thought: "I am just a little boy on the seashore who is, while picking up and wondering at pebbles and shells, yet to be fully amazed at the great ocean of truth extending so far away before him. Mysteries leading to God are yet to be comprehended."
William Shakespeare is also a person of great skill, though with a certain sense of pagan due to the era he lived in, writing his poetry titled "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore" which goes:
"Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend…"
* * *
Nowadays, it is said that days of liberal arts have gone. They are teaching children how to make money by buying and selling stocks. Everybody believes that money can buy any commodities and services, including wisdom and refinement.
Most of the so-called IT heroes seem to have failed in developing respect for human value measured by moral obtained through authentic learning and training.
For example, even when a retired politician, who still holds some influence, makes TV appearance taking along famous scholars or pundits, those elite cultural figures usually look embarrassed as if their personality were conquered by those with power in politics. Indeed, those who have enjoyed worldly power never respect cultural figures.
* * *
Immigrants from Mexico, African countries, Asia, or any other places have nothing to do with Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare. Even if they learn those past prominent figures after finding a job and somehow settling down in the U.S., EU or Japan, everybody thinks, their status never changes. People might make a big joke of “poor immigrant workers reading Shakespeare and Newton in vain.”
But, those who control people with power and wealth through which employers of immigrant workers are forced to obey need somebody that is familiar with works of Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare. Otherwise, they will lose the ground for their advantage and dominance.
If such persons as can understand norms and criteria in writing and reading as well as engineering and science all disappear from society, it will no longer be able to maintain law and order, which mostly depends on documents, and will surely stop developing its new forms of wealth.
* * *
Therefore, the Establishment needs to have their children learn Sir Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare before they learn influence of power and money and how to use it to satisfy their desire.
But, it is said that they are now even going to skip this authentic process.
* * *
"Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown’d,
Crooked eclipse ‘gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave, doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,
And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow;
Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
And yet, to times in hope, my verse shall stand
Praising Thy worth, despite his cruel hand."
(Eternal flow of time makes everything impermanence and transient, but there is surely something among people that is worth admiring [against the opposite that often appeals to audiences].)
* * *
Very strangely, there were no records on Jesus Christ standing at the beach of the Mediterranean Sea or the Dead Sea to perform some miracles that could traverse the sea.
Indeed, human beings are not fish to live in the ocean; mankind needs faith and love living in the human world or the sea of people.
* * *
What poor immigrant workers need is the Holy Writ without which any works by Shakespeare and Newton should have been impossible, thus making Anglo-American empires impossible all over the world through the modern history.
Japanese, living on islands situated near one side of a huge, old continent opposite to that for Great Britain, really love to see the sea, but the splendor of viewing an ocean never saves you eventually, as with poetry and science.
And I am afraid that America situated between Japan and Great Britain might lose brightness of its empire before it produces another Newton and Shakespeare despite two oceans it faces.
“I SPOKE BECAUSE I BELIEVED”