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Showing posts from September 18, 2005

Poverty is not an excuse for stupidity

Practical and theoretical applications aside, Robertson has much to large of a big mouth . Of course, the media is only happy to serve as a bullhorn for his mouth-offs. Like I said before, who needs TeleSur when you have CNN en EspaƱol. The only bigger fools are the Venezuelan underclass that supports Chavez and have undermined the rule of law. Then again, perhaps corruption played a part. Nevertheless, poverty is not an excuse for stupidity. In today's world, information is always readily available even to the poor. Looking back to American history, even in the old days of the American Revolution, people stayed informed one way or the other, and made moral,intelligentt choices. Again, poverty must stop being an excuse for anarchy, crime, corruption, and the many other ills the world faces. We do the underclass injustice by giving them a way out of their own personal responsability. Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan president may very well have made a new best friend in television evangelist

Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity

South Africa is enchanting. I just got back from visiting a small private game reserve in the outsides of Durban, and just the landscape is amazing. It feels like you are live on the set of Lion King. The diversity in the culture, the richness of languages, and the history--both good and bad--is quite evident all around me. I do hope I have the opportunity to return some day soon. I had some time, so I thought I would check in and post some thoughts. I was doing some of my regular reading, and I came across this interesting book by Phillip Longman on birthrates and its effect on global economy. The book is called " The Empty Cradle:How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity " and it is next on my must-read list. This is interesting when you consider the traditional Hispanic family has much more children than most other cultures. I wonder what this is going to mean as far as helping Latinos move forward economically, in societies that are largely ignoring the problem of

The Beauty and Contrast of South Africa

Just wanted to take a quick second to say helo. South Africa is beautifull, and yet, in contrast with the poverty and suffering, very sad. This entire continent has so much resources. I will have to make the effort to return some day just for fun. I am still welcoming guest blogs--please refer to previous posts to get an idea of what I want. Best Regards, JMS

Not So Common Sense: the Amazing Story of a Hurricane Survivor

Adam Graham of Adam's Blog has this guest post. I wonder what makes this man different from the rest of the survirvors? Survival instinct? Sure, but I would suspect there is a lot more to this man than a desire to survive. *** MSNBC has the amazing story of a hurricane survivor: Day after day, for more than two weeks, the 76-year-old man sat trapped and alone in his attic, sipping from a dwindling supply of water until it ran out. No food. No way out of a house ringed by foul floodwaters. Without ever leaving home, Gerald Martin lived out one of the most remarkable survival stories of Hurricane Katrina. Rescuers who found him Friday, as they searched his neighborhood by boat, were astounded at his good spirits and resiliency after 18 days without food or human contact. This is an amazing story, but it wasn't by chance that he survived. He lived to be 76 and continue to survive through common sense which isn't too common. The man had a water supply that last him 17 days. N