70,000 sign petition for Pervez

Even Condelezza Rice is giving her support to this campaign. Thanks to all who have given their support.

It does/you can make a difference.

Save Pervez: Death Sentence for Supporting Womens Rights

I just finished reading Khaled Hosseini’s follow up novel to the Kite Runner called a Thousand Splendid Suns. It could be called a thousand beatings given the amount of male on female violence in the book. I don’t want to put people off it as he both tells a story and exposes the manner in which many women are treated in feudal based societies such as those operating in some areas of Afghanistan

So it didn’t surprise me when I read about this young man, Sayed Pervez Kambaskh, who has been sentenced to death for daring to download a report about the oppression of women by Muslim fundamentalists and how it was directly against the teachings of the prophet Mohammed.

A huge campaign has been mounted on behalf of Pervez as the continued erosion of civil liberties and human rights continues in Afghanistan. This is what the web is all about so get online and sign the petition, blog about it and generally embarrass Hamid Karzai into action.

Death continues to lie over this country like a dark shadow but its one off events like this that can have huge repercussions.

Basic Income: What’s possible?

I came across this new journal on basic income and thought it would be worth passing. there are many good and thought provoking articles available. What I have found interesting is this political slant given to some of them. Quite frankly who cares?

It actually falls neatly into and out of most of the political spectrum. Where it diverges is on the issue of control. Politics is all about who is in control whether Blue, Red, Yellow or Green or any shade in between. Basic income is about giving everyone access to the financial commons and allowing them the just get on with it. It isn’t a social policy its an expression of freedom and a right.

It will be interesting to see how this debate develops but I’m glad to see it taking on a more formal conversation.

New Political Party for New Zealand: Land and Money Reform

Thank you to Owen McCaffrey for this new political party for NZ focused on money and land reform. Recently born, it focuses on bringing in a land tax and money reform, issues that have been discussed widely on this blog.

Added to that is a citizens income, disestablishment of welfare, better infrastructure and importantly a compulsory health insurance.

It will be interesting to discuss these issues further. I may invite Owen to expand on them here. The name is a bit of a mouthful but that can be worked on.

It’s a very good start though.

Socked: Le Rogue Trader strikes again

Here we go again. Another “rogue trader” strikes at the heart of the capitalist empire this time racking up a fairly impressive $7bln odd loss. No that is completely out of this world. In fact it’s almost unbelievable…..he must have had some serious positions which only the 3 blind mice wouldn’t have noticed. Being French just adds to the frisson given they are supposed to be conservative players (which is not true at all) and gives the Septics something to stick to the Euro mob.
Naturellement the SocGen management disclaim any knowledge of this fraud. What do they think they get paid for? Certainly not for making money because they don’t. Their job is to manage traders and make sure risk limits are being enforced. I know this well since I was a trader who frequently ran up and bust risk limits and without fail would receive a phone call from somebody asking, politely, about the humongous $/Y position I has acquired. Positions always show up somewhere especially big ones. This one was a monster.
Bottom line: this stuff shouldn’t happen without someone knowing about it. Expect the usual cover up.

Nuclear World Order: Strike Hard, Strike First

Two interesting piece of news on the geopolitical spectrum caught me eye this week: Firstly Gordon Brown and his secret talks with other world “leaders” to establish a “new world order”. This will have the conspiracy theorists running amok with versions of the Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg Group stories. Suffice to say that the “New World Order” project has been going quietly in the background for over 30 years.

Alongside this is a new manifesto from top Pentagon, Nato and EU players, past and present. The premise is that a first up nuclear strike is a legitimate and warranted policy option. Their reasoning is that it will be impossible to control the proliferation of nuclear weaponry and that the best approach is to simply nuke those nations who might be a bit aggro with the odd nuclear warhead.

So that probably takes the Middle East, North Korea and other such spots off the tourist map for a while. Unfortunately this sounds like one of those crazy ideas that gets the green light. Time to re-watch “V for Vendetta” and “Children of Men”.

Brave New World and all that.

I guess the upside is that NZ property prices will hold up for some time.