Monday, June 28, 2010

Soren Chapter 4 The 1950's

As promised this is another decade of my life I promised for my Great Grandson Soren.

The fifties, sometimes called the Golden Age.
For lefties like us, the Hell on Earth Age.
The joy of defeating fascism was swamped,
War in Korea, at home witch hunt for lefties.
Senator McCarthy, red scared the country hysterical.

Korea a “domino war.” It held,
One country fell to communists the next one would.
Until the whole world a colony of Russia,
People would lose their jobs for thinking.
Hollywood actors. Name names of reds or blacklisted.
Fear sends some friends out of the US.

GG (Great Grandpa) Working for Miners Union
In the dead of winter sent off to Butte Montana.
Mission, Save the Union. This was IWW country.
Frank Little IWW Organizer hung from a railroad trestle
One of my Papa’s great heroes.

Learned about mining and freezing 20-30 below zero.
“Don’t feel the cold when it’s dry.’
Soren, don;t ever believe that bullshit.”
It’s cold enough to freeze your lungs.
We won the union back. I learned about mining.
We humans are using up our planet.
Butte, now the just a contaminated lake.

Rock and roll music helped us through it all.
Our family blessed with our boy, your Uncle Fred.
Under the dark clouds of fascism a ray of light.
A giggling baby tickled by his sister Liz.

Salk Anti Polio vaccine, an end to crippled kids.
Watson Crick discover DNA. They forget Rosalind Franklyn
Without her they would be nobodies.
She never got a mention. That will change.
General Eisenhower elected President.
Ends the Korean War. North South still divided.
Why? I don’t know.

Hillary and Tenzing make it to the top of Everest,
Hillary a true Englishmen, “I made it first.”
Tenzing just a Nepalese Sherpa.

A giggling baby tickled by Liz.

Television breaking into every home.
I’m up on the roof turning the aerial.
“How is it now” I yell, “It’s still snowy” Edith replies.
French are pulling out of Dein Biem Phu, Viet NaM
Domino idea about to suck us in again.

“When will they ever learn?” Song we’ll soon be singing.
The Russian rocket Sputnick into space.
We have to catch up with NASA. Maybe a war in Space?
My Papa died, I had to help his way out. So sad.
He said “Never knew what mother was going to do?”
She dies from a back-street abortion.

The best of the fifties. The arrival of Uncle Fred.
Tickled and giggling.

Like you, he gave us so much fun and reassurance.
That someway somehow life near the Bronx Zoo.
Goes on and on and on as we kept singing.

.


Saturday, June 19, 2010

"Not My field" Are We Over Experted?

It was at a dinner in New York City some years ago. Nor sure of the occasion. There were about 8-10 of us around a dinner table. There was an ongoing conversation about a variety of world problems including Israeli, the Balkans and the Bush administration. Amongst the guests was an Editor for one of the New York Times sections. As we talked around the Balkans I asked the Times guy his opinion re. the Kosovo problem. He thought for a moment, replied “Thats not my field.” I said, “well, it’s not mine either but that doesn’t say I can’t have an opinion.” That went over like a dead mackerel. Somebody hastened to explain that his job was “editing. We just went on to something else. That statement, “That’s not my field” has really haunted me.

Here was a pretty smart guy working for the Times at a very informal dinner who could not express an opinion because it wasn’t “his field.” I thought is this where the experteeism of TV brought us? All those pundits who are endlessly explaining to all us dunderheads what is going on in the world. Supposedly the TV pundits are experts in the politics of Washington. Of course that primarily has to do with “hot air” or better still very heavy doses of bullshit. Being an expert in that stuff is relatively easy as one doesn’t have to know much about anything except perhaps gossip
.
A few nights ago I was treated to a good example of where that expertism has gotten us. Charlie Rose had an interesting group of people responding to Obam’s speech on the “oil crisis in the Gulf.” There was Al Hunt, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Mark Halpren. Kevin Sheekly, James Leilman John Hoffmiester and maybe a few others. These are people who I like to think are a cut above the usual blowhards that give opinions following a Presidential talk. It’s a sort of a report card that tells us how we should score the speech.

Here’s what got me thinking. John Hoffmiester is the former CEO of Shell Oil. Of all the folks in that world, I have often found him a cut above the rest, in his ability to understand our love affair with oil. In the course of discussing the consequences of the Gulf oil spill he says. I’m paraphrasing.” Yes there are many ways to use oil tankers to scoop up that oil that is contaminating the Gulf. A major problem is the Jones Act. But the President can get around that.” I jump out of the chair as I am anxious to hear what he has to say. (Remember I wrote a blog about this very subject a few weeks back,)

I did not believe it then and as I write this I don’t believe it now but not one of that group of ostensibly smart people stopped Hoffmiester in his tracks to say, “yes tell us how does the President get to do that?” No, you see that was a technical issue and that was just another example of “thats not my field.” Those folks sitting around Charlie’s table don’t know beans from sauerkraut about how ships with vacuum suction ability could scoop up millions of gallons of that oil before it left the water. But it wasn’t their field. This is how the disease of expertism is effecting everything we are trying to do that might get us out of the dependence on oil rut that we have been stuck in for decades.

If you look at what is going on right now in the Gulf you would see a lot of local folks doing their best to clean up the oil. That’s the gap I have been complaining about. There just don’t seem to be anybody in that White House crowd who have a clue as to how one goes about getting the technology required to begin to deal with the mess. Even when some Middle Eastern folks offered to help there was no one smart enough about technology to say, “yes tell us how do we do this?”

We are in critical need of people who are able to think across specialized fields because we live in a complex world. It’s a world in which technology, morality and simply to know what to do will constantly cross our decision making paths. With an absence of some rudimentary knowledge of technology we are the blind leading the illiterate. A recipe for disaster in a world hurdling into the era where technology is king.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Mexico A Failed State?

I have been gathering data on the impact of the illegal drug business in Mexico. In today's paper there is another report of the ongoing killings that this time left 85 people dead in the last 24 hours. President Calderon keeps insisting that the “war” is the only way to go. This “war” is destroying Mexico. Back in the sixties I did two stints in Mexico evaluating the Vocational Training Programs of the Instituto Nacional La Juventud. Though I had some problems with the programs I had none with the country. I drove freely from one small mountain town to another. Sometimes lost in unmarked mountain roads but never feeling any danger. I would often rush back to Mexico City so I could hangout at Garibaldi square with the Mariachi Bands. After their gigs at the clubs they would come there to play for each other. One night even played with them. As people yelled “Come see the Gringo playing with the Mariachi.” I just loved that country.

From what I hear and what I read all that is gone. The Country is being taken over by the drug Mafia. Kidnapping is now an everyday occurrence. Doesn’t matter either for a few thousand or a million, whatever the family can afford to pay. But pay you must. Of the 31 States that make up the Republic I figure that close to half are being run by the drug Cartels. In many of the States if you want to get anything done you don’t bother with the government. You go directly to the Cartel bosses and you cut a deal with them. it’s a quid pro co. They do for you and soon you will do for them.

You ask, “how did this happen?” When Philipe Calderon took office as the President of Mexico in 2006 one of the first promises he made was to eradicate the Drug Cartels. Another dreamer going to “war” with the drug trade, Fifty thousand soldiers and twenty thousand Federal Police are assigned to this war and so far mostly what has happened is an increase in the blood letting in the streets. More than 25 thousand people have died in Mexico’s drug war since Calderon’s declaration. About 3500 so far this year. Things have gotten decidedly worse.

The crime syndicates that run the Cartels earn billions from production to the marketing of the drugs. Where is the biggest consumer demand coming from? Of course you guessed it. The good old USA. In the State of Michocan a recent estimate indicated that 85 percent of legitimate businesses are in one way or another connected to the Drug Cartels. Some years ago when the heat was on the Mafia here in New York there was a movement into legitimate business. Today it is very difficult to disagregate the Mafia or La Familia, as it is known in Mexico, from business activity that is legal to the criminal.

Recently, Robert Mueller director of the FBI said, “We have dealt a substantial blow to a group that has polluted our neighborhoods with illicit drugs and has terrorized Mexico with unimaginable violence.” This has got to be the umpteenth time in my life that I have heard that indignant self righteous crap in response to the drug trade, There have been an endless number of announcements about how we “have dealt a major blow. It is all bullshit.

The fact is that the drug trade in Mexico has infiltrated major parts of the government both locally and nationally. The country is reaching a point where the people no longer trust the local police anymore than they do the Federalies. That leaves a vacuum of authority.In many of the 31 States in Mexico that vacuum is being filled by LaFamilia.

In a small way this was already beginning to happen when I worked in Mexico back in the 60ies. I was given a phone number by the wife of the Deputy Police Chief in Mexico City. She explained saying, “Roberto if you get in any kind of trouble out there in those mountain towns you are not to try to deal with the locals. You are just to call this number.” “Whose number is this?” I asked. Never mind these are the people who really run this country.”

In a small mountain town, sure enough, I got clobbered. Well, not exactly me but the car I was driving. I had spent the afternoon observing some training programs, had dinner with some of the locals. Went to go back to Mexico City. Turned the key. Nothing nada. Picked up the hood and low and behold. Carburetor, distributer, battery, starter, alternator etc. all gone. Ahaa, the phone number, Made the call asked for english por favor, explained my predicament. Was instructed to stay right there with the car and it would be taken care of. Sure enough within minutes a guy pulls up in a pick up gets the parts out of the truck and puts them all back. I offer a tip. Absolutely not, no nessarrio. Wouldn’t take it. Unheard of in my experience down there. It was explained to me that this was the shadow organization that was already springing up as an alternative to a dysfunctional government.

This whole story of the drug Cartels tells me that Mexico is on the threshold of becoming a Failed State. Daily it is becoming clear that the agencies of government that are there to service its citizens are increasingly unable to do so. That is the definition of a Failed State, What’s Calderon to do? As I write the US is busy giving Mexico more helicopters as well as “training” on how to fight the drug cartels. Oh yes, this is like hiring the weasels to teach the fox to stay out of the chicken coop. Maybe when we figure out how to reduce the demand for the drugs in the US we might be in a position to help. Until then we should shutup and mind our own business of how to reduce the demand for drugs in this country.

President Calderon does have a golden opportunity to really change this whole Kabuki called “The War Against Drugs.” Please Mr. President just go ahead and LEGALIZE IT. That would be world shaking. It would put the responsibility squarely where it belongs on the user market where the demand comes from. Mexico could make a major step toward financial stability by taxing the hell out of the legalized drug. Not unlike alcohol and cigarettes. It would be equal to our repeal of Prohibition back in the 30ies. It works in Turkey where they sell Morphine to the US pharmaceutical companies to make pain killers like Oxycodone. The third biggest selling prescription drug in the US. President Calderon once and for all stop this Kabuki called the “War on drugs” Good luck, you will need it.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Just Another Saturday?

Oh! what a day

Just another Saturday?

Mama, Papa, Great grandson Soren

Dropped in for a visit.

Just another Saturday?

The Rocking Horse was finished.

Soren went straight for it,

Howed he know? “this is mine.”

Grandpabob in tears of joy,

All the hours of “no more of these, never again.”

Swept away, as Mama Amritta

Daddy Robert, proudly put him in the saddle.

Rockin to the plains of Abraham

It does make it all worth it.

A long haired little boy

A happy great grandpa

A family overflowing with joy.

Also part of the human condition.

Just another Saturday?