Which Is More Important: Endangered Animals or Endangered Languages?

Shouldn't we strive to preserve both equally? In a perfect world: yes. Extinction usually occurs as a result of intolerance against the native language or species. Even the British Empire itself grew to be successful due to their intolerance of the native language of the invaded country; often allowing only English to be spoken and taught. Most languages cannot be preserved for a lack of time or finance; saving a language takes expensive amounts of both of these. On the other hand however, language is the medium of communication between humans, even sign language. Language is necessary among humans to prevent conflict and to develop themselves. There are hundreds of endangered languages which should be preserved. Here are some examples:

· Helambu Sherpa. This is believed to be extinct since no native speakers exist. It originated on Nepal.
· Squamish. This is spoken by Native Americans of the Suquamish Nation, and is sourced from British Columbia, in Canada. However, less than twenty native speakers remain in this nation.
· Awjila. This was traced back to the Oasis of Awjila in Libya wherein the 2,000 native speakers live.

In addition there are also many thousands of endangered and extinct animals which we have to fight for. Some unusual examples include:

· The Cassowary bird. This bright, blue bird is closely related to the Emu, but is incredibly close to extinction.
· The Tazmanian Tiger. Last known of in 1937, when the last one died on the 17th of September, then dubbed the day of Endangered Species.
· Lesser Bilby. The smaller breed died out in the 1960's, while the Greater Bilby is critically endangered.

More emphasis is placed on endangered animals but why is this? What is so gripping about animals that languages just don't have? Well, for a start, humans themselves are not endangered, and so culture doesn't seem so important in this ever changing world. When commercials request aid, they often use cute photos of animals like Pandas, Tree Kangaroos, Snow Leopards and most commonly Polar Bears. Language cannot be shown as cute in pleas for help in the same way, and so cannot attract our attention as easily.

We are also encouraged to preserve wild life because of our dependence on other species for our own survival. When a language becomes extinct, it does not affect mankind in the same way. Moreover, it does not affect all of mankind, only a minority of the population. Many people are of the opinion that language is language. As long as everyone can communicate, who cares about different dialects and idiolects? They argue that it would be easier to speak just one language throughout the world, to globalize and prevent destructive language barriers. To these people, the preservation of language is considered a waste of money, paper, ink and time.

Is extinction permanent? Apparently not. Extinction is dangerous, careless and often sad. Indeed every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, approximately half of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today will disappear, according to the National Geographic. In Australia before colonization there were around 250 indigenous languages, while after colonization there are only 20 constantly used languages. The statistics are similarly depressing for animals. The rate of extinction in mammals has increased up to 120% in 2005 since the 1600s, according to research by UCR. Nearly 20,000 animals are considered critically endangered in the world today and three new, dying species are discovered every week.

Despite this, sometimes success stories emerge through perseverance. For example the Muwekma Ohlome tribe of California has revitalized their moribund language Chochenyo, last spoken in the 1930s. As of 2009, the tribe was able to teach their students and carry out fluent conversations in Chochenyo. Furthermore, the Woylie, one of the smallest marsupials in the world was reintroduced onto small, predator-free islands following a decline in their primary hunters, foxes.

In my opinion, we should try to make more effort to revitalize languages. If we're willing to spend millions on saving endangered insects like the 12 species of Cape Stag Beetle currently being preserved, surely we can afford to save a few interesting and culturally significant languages such as Squamish. I found an article which said that "When a language dies a specific understanding of the world and a culture formed over centuries dies with it." Each language has a different influence on society, as well as on the syntactic structure of the brain. The study of neurological patterns gives valuable insight into complex neuro-linguistic conditions, which could lead to a greater understanding of strokes and dyslexia, perhaps even providing a cure in the future.

Language is a main repository of human development and should be preserved as such. Language is one of the things that made us the way we are today; if we keep stuffed extinct animals in Natural History Museums, why shouldn't we hold onto languages as well? Language also represents identity for many minority tribes and races of the world, and gives each a unique inner-connection with them-selves. Finally I believe that it is more inclusive to have a polychromatic world of linguistic diversity than to have a monochromatic world of dullness.

I believe that language should be placed at a higher importance than animals because we live in an anthropocentric and secular world wherein we only care for ourselves. We ruin the world with our development and globalization, but even if that weren't to happen, the animal cycle would still lead to extinction for many animals, such as the Dodos in the Pleistocene epoch. Language represents us in a way that animals do not, and I believe that as many as possible should be saved from extinction.

Two Terrorist Organizations - How Hamas and Hezbollah Maintain Their Public Support

Are some terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah really social organizations bound by hatred? I would submit to you that this is the case. From Lebanon, Hezbollah started a war with Israel, when Israel retaliated, Hezbollah became a construction organization and rebuilt people's homes, built mosques and schools. They even gave hundred dollar bills to anyone whose home was destroyed during the fighting. No matter that Hezbollah started the war by shooting missiles into Israel, often using private property, schools, and even hospitals to launch their weapons from.

And the hundred dollar bills they were giving to people, they were counterfeit US currency. Can you believe it? Hamas, in many regards is using about the same strategy. Why are they using this strategy you ask; because it works, and they are able to gain support from the public. If they are in the cities helping out with community projects in between the next round of attacks, they can win friends and influence people. Once they have the popular support, they also have a nice recruitment tool.

It's often been said that to build a team you have to pick an enemy. The enemy has to be something terrible, mean, evil, and unjust. By firing rockets into Israel they can get Israel to retaliate. When it does they can use the media, and such events to show that Israel is evil to their local people; therefore justifying their existence as the resistance against evil. Very convenient isn't it? So how do you defeat a group which has united their community in hate, and is constantly picking a fight with its neighbors in order to label itself as the solution? It's your basic baiting technique.

You may not have thought of this, but this is very similar to how street gangs operate in the inner-city. One street gang does something to cause conflict with another, then the other street gang attacks them, this unites the first street gang through adversity, and gets them to work together as a team becoming stronger against the other gang. Then they go on the offensive again, and then you have a never ending circle of violence. The trick would be just to stop fighting, and this would diffuse the power of the instigators.

However, when one gang is terrorizing your neighborhood, you must defend yourself, but in this case when Israel defends itself this just gives more fodder to the media to uplift the notoriety of the terrorist organization. Amazing isn't it? Please consider all this and think on it.

An Arab Spring in Argentina

Perhaps, it is good that the Arab Spring protests have ended for a while, but in many regards they haven't, they are ongoing. It's as if it is a wildfire which has been put out, but it's still smoldering waiting for the next breeze to come along. Where will it flare up next time? Currently, it appears that Syria is in serious territory, and the Assad regime may eventually fall meanwhile, until it does things are totally chaotic, society has crumbled, and the civilization is being destroyed. That's the worst scenario of an Arab Spring gone bad, I'd say.

What other nations may fall during the next Solar Storm X-Flare like flare-up? Well, we might see a problem in Jordan, as the demonstrations are getting larger, and there is more discontent this time. Last time Jordan had let go some of the top people in its government to appease the masses, but back then the demonstrations were quite a bit smaller, today they're incredibly large. When the weather gets better and the springtime comes it will be hard to contain all that animosity.

Of course, Jordan is not alone, there are other nations in the Middle East and on the African continent that also look ripe for their own Arab Spring, perhaps even a rekindling by the masses who are not happy with what happened in the last Arab Spring riots and protests, some would call them revolutions. We have turbulent times ahead and speaking of other continents, how about in South America?

It seems as if the socialist government of Argentina has run its course as well. They've run out of money, and can't deliver on all the promises they made. There were two interesting pieces in the Wall Street Journal recently about Argentina's growing economic challenges;

1.) An editorial titled; "Argentina Runs Out of Other People's Money," by Mary Anastasia, November 19, 2012.
2.) An article titled; "Argentina Battled by Labor Unrest," by Ken Parks, November 21, 2012.

The first piece noted the largest demonstration since 1983 in Buenos Aires, and the second showed the on-going protests with pictures of civil unrest and fires with the situation quite out of control, similar to those in Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The rioters were union members and very anti-Kirchner (the President there).

Are we about to see the equivalent of the Arab Spring in Argentina? And if so what will they call it? Will they call it an Argentina Spring, because more than just a leak has sprung in Argentina's economy. The dam has burst, and socialism has run its course, as it always does. Just as it is now also running its course in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece.

It looks as if the humans on planet Earth are not all that happy, and many of them have learned that protests and riots are one way to get their voices heard and toppling their governments - "just don't bring that spring here," I was thinking to myself while doing research to write this article.

Will these masses of people destroy their own civilization and society in the process of trying to overturn their governments, and demand either democracy, or more services from the government - perhaps some of both? Time will tell, and 2013 will be in interesting year around the globe. Stay tuned. Please consider all this and think on it.

China Appoints a Minister of Propaganda - The US Already Has A Better One

Well, I love the United States, and I surely love what we stand for even if we don't always completely live up to those high ideals that we proclaim. I love the freedom, liberty, and the ability to pursue happiness even if I realize there are many barriers in my way to fulfilling those wonderful rights. Yes, the United States could do better, but luckily we are doing better than most.

As I watch our State Department travel around the world and ask for human rights, democracy, and liberty for all, I often wonder why our government doesn't do more here at home to build upon the freedoms we have here. I am equally bothered at times by our politics and the intense level of propaganda they promote, which is also evident by the podium pushing politicians reading from their teleprompters. I think we can do better than this, and I don't believe we need to lie to the American people.

Some folks would say that with 300 million people in our country we do need at least a little bit of propaganda to hold the fort together. The only problem with that is it is a slippery slope and promoting a lie only causes you to tell more. We certainly aren't the only nation with a huge population and the need to create a stable society. Indeed I suppose all nations promote propaganda to serve their will and to push their agenda forward. I believe that's fine as long as the agenda serves the people, rather than those who are in power.

Nevertheless, we shouldn't be naïve to think that those powers that be in our own country and especially in other nations see things slightly differently. Let me give you an example; Reuters had an interesting article posted on November 21, 2012 titled; "China promotes conservative to propaganda minister," by Sui-Lee Wee and Ben Blanchard which stated;

"While media-savvy, Liu is unlikely to loosen media controls as China's leaders, nervous about stability and the need to ensure one-party rule, are likely to keep domestic media on a short leash and clamp down on China's increasingly unruly Internet, which has over 500 million users."

As bad as that sounds, because it seems like we are not making any progress in the world, perhaps it's time for us to look in our own mirror first, and look at the direction we are headed, and how we are pouncing on our own ideals, and shredding our Constitution in the process, not to mention the Bill of Rights. I'm not going to sit here and justify what China is doing, but I understand why they believe they must.

In China it's about centralized control, but in the United States it was never supposed to be. Perhaps someone needs to do a little "knock-knock" on this skulls of our leadership, and duly ask them; "is anyone home?" Please consider all this and think on it.

2012 Chinese Politburo Elections Amidst Global Financial Crisis

The new Politburo Standing Committee is a leaner 7 member group with an average age of 63.4. I guess the red "princelings" in China are more in Prince Charles style. Whereas the average age in legislatures and highest committee bodies has been falling in the wider Western world (with an exception of United States), the new Chinese leadership will be prone to gerontocracy along with its tied at the hip American tango partner.

Xi Jinping, one of the youngest at 59 is a trained chemical engineer (which is serious business much like Angela Merkel's doctorate on quantum chemistry and people with such backgrounds are often benefit to the public). Another old member, 67 year old Yu Zhengsheng, has missile and electronics engineering training. Two engineers and the rest of the 7 member group are economists, statisticians, and propagandists. All very wealthy of course. This is going to be a very cautious status quo bunch and the generation that will finally start making major mistakes. It is irrelevant whether mistakes will stem from general generational/class divide, overconfidence, above mentioned gerontocracy and cautiousness, or having to make the first major uncertain step into the darkness as a regional hegemon. No country has gone longer than 30 years on such a breakneck pace and on such scale without a major misstep or at least slide into some stagnation. Even with Washington DC and Moscow "reorienting" towards the far east, a vacuum will still be opened in the region due weakness of both powers in the area (US navy is currently being gradually strategically pressured/forced out of Western pacific with Chinese "carrier killer" and "satellite killer" missiles).

Many analogies can be thrown around concerning China. Here are some of them that we're all familiar with at this point:

1) The ruling center finally effectively centralizing after warlordism chaos period of the 1920s-1940s which is reminiscent of unification of large pieces of feudal France under 18th century monarchic absolutism. Thus effective first time creation of a modern nation state for China.

2) The current rapid Chinese industrialization and neo-mercantilist rise reminiscent of rapid rise of Germany within a multipolar world of the 1870s-1914 period. With current Anglo-American empire of today naturally playing the role of a deindustrializing British Empire hegemon of yesteryear.

3) The neo-mercantilist practices from Beijing attempting and aiming to be futuristic, evolving, and cutting edge (Deng Xiaoping was mentored by Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew [who is still alive!!] on Asian illiberal capitalism of the future). Thus Beijing aims to borrow and improve on the best of evolving neo-mercantilism of pre-1990s stagnation Japan, Kaiser's Germany of old, and of course smaller neighboring modernizers like Taiwan, South Korea and survivalist dictatorial city state of Singapore. Mercantilism, state sponsored industrialization, and protectionism have been observed to work again and again historically and so the previous article saw most of the world being pulled into the Chinese system and orbit.

[Sidenote: we may even add a new analogy of China partially learning from desires of Hamilton and Quinsy Adams in terms of development and rapid achievement of autonomy from a global hegemon. In any case, Beijing learns and absorbs from all corners much like Moscow does. This is a sign of health. The mass scale chaos and butchery from mid 19th century lasting into the 1960s taught them to never repeat such a time of troubles at any cost.]

The conclusion that could have been drawn at the start of the financial crisis in 2008 was a cold and geopolitical one since it was assumed China is becoming predictable along its heavy great power path much like Britain became predictable in 19th century. This would allow the Western progressive elites in conditions of a global crisis to out think and outmaneuver Beijing since they would know where Beijing would want to head next. The advise could have been to use the rather narrow 10-15 year widow of opportunity for the West to get its act together and to co-divide the world in terms of influence on the southern hemisphere countries (to put it in the crudest terms).

The window of opportunity refers to time period from the present to when China moves up the value product chain and begins to effectively compete with Siemens, IBM, GE, Boeing, and EADS when it comes to manufacture of advanced value added complex products like transatlantic super heavy passenger jets, high speed electric cars, high speed train wagons (and not just construction of amazing rail lines with Western assistance), super computers, rocket engines, small next generation fission reactors, tanks, robotics, stealth jetplanes, genetic medicine, etc. Even if a second wave of the financial crisis in the Western world triggers an American 1930s depression style event in China, such harsh transition and taking advantage of Chinese window of opportunity for West to unite remain relevant suggestions. Regional, semi-global, and global unification and globalization (taking new forms) remains inevitable but it would be nice for various unifications to have more individual and human friendly political ideology. Current Chinese state capitalist illiberal dictatorship model must be resisted and much of humanity should have access to alternatives. It is up to large swaths of the Northern Hemisphere (even totally stagnant regions) to develop such alternatives.

Admittedly back in 2009, the goal should have been to make Europe the "first among" equals" pole in a multipolar world arrangement (with best case scenario being Europe on friendly terms with both US and Russian Federation and perhaps even gently playing them off against each other the way Yugoslavia did with Americans and Soviets). The focus on preserving Europe as island of stability was because of European elites still having energy and desire for experimentation (unlike Americans) due to the sophisticated supranational nature of project they were engaging on (similar to what American elites of early 19th century faced). In a world of great paradigm shift due to automation, third industrial revolution, and very slow paradigm shift to post-scarcity, it was and still is very important to keep one continent as a fortress of civilizational safety with a dynamic cluster of elites overseeing it.

Now of course that was before the beggar thy neighbor currency wars between US and EU and the rest of the world, before the perpetual debt crisises born from private debts being socialized, and before it became clear of the sheer paralysis within American and European politics (although much less so in Brussels than in DC). China has moved along swiftly since then, bypassing Japan as #2 economy, humiliating Western powers at Copenhagen conference, and beginning to compete in high end products like solar panel technology with dramatic increase in subsidies. In global conditions where Western leaders decided to kick the can down the road, it is not surprising that China decided to do the same with election of the current Politburo Standing Committee. It appears Western elites don't yet fully appreciate the historical magnitude and paradigm shifting nature of the financial crisis they are facing and will not make major moves for another few years allowing China to bypass US by 2015 (the most recent estimate). Then we may see history repeat itself as a farce with Westerners asking to be financially bailed out (it has already been indirectly happening at G20 meetings) by the Chinese development and foreign investment banking organs. A Politburo with a lower average age might have stirred some worry in Brussels, DC, and Moscow.

The Chinese "overconstruction" has not been an issue so far (it is rather hilarious when economists are puzzled why China is building entire cities with nobody yet living in them). Considering how many Chinese still live in medieval conditions of poverty, eventually this infrastructure and residential areas will be filled. Yes, Japan dumped a lot of money into infrastructure in the 1990s to get its GDP and stock market growth back up without results but it didn't actually hurt the people since they got newer and faster roads, tunnels, transport, shelter, etc. In fact, preemptive dumping of mass resources and/or fiat wealth into seeming infrastructural bubbles of residential "ghost cities" is rather prudent considering robotic workers will soon make the concept of the "cheap Asian laborer" obsolete (and cheap African laborer and most of humanity for that matter. AI software and miniature electronics are finally catching up to make practical cheap robot workers possible and ever-present). These obsolete humans will need to live somewhere and Chinese may as well construct the shelter during the current paradigm. Talk of residential housing bubbles is as ridiculous as talk of bubbles in food production and such talk is a product of a sick global socioeconomic system (consider the millions of houses sitting empty in United States and the amount of the homeless). That is a story for another day but China may be one of the first countries facing the brunt of a new automation paradigm shift first and head on and with potentially the most painful of consequences.

The average age of the new politburo doesn't help with bringing potential flexibility and finesse when it comes to reacting to major issues. The accumulated wealth buffer (to be readily dumped on the problem as in 2009) is being relied upon instead of having rapid reaction flexible human leadership tools. Although most of the members of the new Politburo were not born directly in coastal provinces, their upbringing and the great power trajectory of the country will still push them to favor more resource expenditures on coastal integration than Western provincial development. The focus on the Chinese coast may allow China to play a civilizational role within trans-Pacific space that America played in trans-Atlantic space in later half of the 20th century (and that China could have played as far back as 500 years ago if it chose to). However, it will be very important for them to not forget infrastructural links with Central Asia, not forget to increasingly allocate resources to the Western provinces to create a societal shape more like Japan's than Brazil's or America's (olive shaped as one Politburo member said), and to push forward with high speed rail towards Europe.