Archive for January, 2007
Emperor finance’s new clothes
I can never quite take the high flying world of finance seriously, or worse, I somehow don’t quite believe it exists. I have a sneaking suspicion as I watch the parade of bankers, finance ministers, and industrialists in their beautifully tailored suits, that what I’m really seeing is a bunch of aged and overfed streakers. [...]
Incineration nation: Will the Philippines become Japan’s toxic waste dump?
Japan has little physical space for landfill sites, and seventy percent of incinerators worldwide are located there:
Until recently Japan had one solution to waste: burn it. Over 1800 incinerators burned the country’s 50 million tonnes of solid waste each year. Recycling exists but even some of that ends up in the incinerators. Japan is the [...]
History, hatred, and truth
Human beings are genetically predisposed to find patterns and to assume that events are linked in time by cause and effect, and it’s quite easy to see why. If you assume that a rustling in the bushes means that a tiger is about to pounce, then being wrong nine times out of ten is probably [...]
The myth of selfishness: Part 3 - A new gift economy
If society is in tune with human proclivities it works better, because people enjoy what they do. You only have to look at small boys playing “hunting”, or notice the difference between the incentives necessary to get people to sit in an office shuffling papers compared with those required to get people to dance and [...]
The myth of selfishness: Part 2 - The Rise of Capitalism
Much of this has a European focus, and I apologise for that, especially because colonialism and its devastating effect on the world are consequently not given proper attention. The focus of the article is narrow and designed as a contrast to the situation described in Part 1 - Ancient Economics. By the way, I’m no [...]
