Posted in February 2009

Banksters!

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Tuesday 3rd February 2009, 3:32pm

Emerging Americanisms, banking and Wall Street with a hint of Scarface...

Traditionaly in American history only two industries have been recession proof; certain aspects of the entertainment industry and of course La Costa Nostra, otherwise know as the mafia. After the creation of the RICO predicates in 1970 the American La Costra Nostra began to diversify and turned to new and previously unexplored forms of criminal activity. This included money laundering, insurance scams, currency fraud and the exploitation of the pinnacle of America's financial institution... Wall Street. Enter the Bankster! Nowadays the bankster is not necessarily connected to the mob, but its clear that hedge fund managers and certain corporations have recently, literally, made a killing!

OMG the federal reserve is cash-strapped and the bank treasury is empty!

Everday news reports fly in and out about the continuing effects of a global downturn, recessions and potential depressions throughout the G8 nations, collapsing banks, businesses and a growing unemployment rate throughout the world. It's enough to scare anyone... it certainly worries me. Potentially what frightens me the most is the growing notion that everything will improve and the whole alarming "it will be alright" idea just because things improved after the last recession. If you look at the historical trend of recessions, it is clear that the time distance between each downturn is getting closer and closer together. Perhaps indicating that as time passes we will experience more and more recessions within closer time intervals. This combined with the clear greed evident in the system and the unethical and deregulated banking regulations which allows practices like short-selling shares clearly indicates massive problems with our current banking and economical systems.

Business, ethics and potential factors effecting climate change.

As the global downturn continues and more and more companies cut jobs, make redundacies and various other cutbacks, it is easy to imagine companies dispensing with their PC enforced enviromental and ethical doctrines in an attempt to save expenses and make a quick buck! Why attempt to produce a more enviromentaly friendly product when consumers are having to save and reduce their weekly budgets. Supply and demand has always driven business and this can severely damage our world's climate and enviroment. Although it is difficult it remains up to us as consumers to drive the demand for enviromentaly friendly products on an increasingly shrinking budget. Thou the onus is on us, the corporations also have a responsibility to maintain their obligation to mother earth and look at the big picture rather than sacrifice the world for a few dirty crumpled dollars.

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Weather Report - Climate Change

Source: Current Affairs Blog
Monday 2nd February 2009, 12:45pm

Not so hot - impact of the global climate.

Interesting feature on Wiki Travel about ecotourism that suggests the term global warming should be used more carefully and perhaps more accurately the term climate change is more appropriate.

Climate change is more reflective of the effects of CO2 emissions and the consequences of greenhouse gases affecting global weather patterns.

The magnitude of climate change should not be underestimated and high on the list of priorities should be to understand the causes and effects of global climate change. In this list of recession proof jobs is Climate Change Advisor - a worthwhile job that should also include educating ways of developing sustainable energy, reduce pollution and generally clean up our act.

If a picture can paint a thousand words what can a video achieve? This climate change video is a jolly animation that highlights the way that poor people in developing countries are hit by climate change even though they are unlikely to have contributed to the causes.

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