Ray's Blog: April 2008

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

ONE DOLLAR A DAY

YOU got that right. $1.00 per day is all a family of four has to live on in many parts of the world where poverty is the mother and father and the grandparents of all.
Now rice prices have gone through the roof. Drought. Scarcity because of a shift to other crops like corn to produce gasohol, plain old greed, and population growth are at work. People living in poverty spend about 70% of their income on food as compared with 10 or 15% for developed countries. Even less if you are wealthy.
How can these people survive? Will there be a Malthusian contraction of population to offset rice and wheat scarcity? Will there be a massive program of food support from the wealthy 1/3 of the world to the needy? Will a virus or plague wipe out many particularly in the poverty areas where their health is already at risk because of malnutrition?

Will the rains return to Australia so that rice will flourish again and push out wine grapes as the crop of choice? Will alternate energy become a reality to free us from the dependence on fossil fuels? Will we all learn to consume less? How much will global warming contribute to the problem and its solutions?
One dollar a day. Not even a Euro. Hey, buddy, can you spare a dime?

Friday, April 25, 2008

Well, Well, Well, Three Holes in the Ground

I wish I could embrace the day with a really positive attitude; but I can’t. The politics of this country dismay me. Clinton’s mean, nasty, negative campaign is another smear on what used to be a country where decency and civility were the way of life. Not that politics and business were ever clean—they weren’t and won’t be. BUT…… the Clintons both Hill and Bill appear as old, political hacks. We need better than this if we are to survive in this increasingly competitive globalized world.

   We just don’t seem to get it, do we? Obama is a leader like Churchill, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Ghandi and the Clintons rip and tear at him. We don’t want and don’t need more dynasty building--- 2 bushes and 2 clintons would be a disaster.
   Is it time for the nation to split into several different parts? I hope not, but we are creaking along.
   On the other hand, Bucky Fuller in his wide open optimism said something like, “Never has there been a time when humankind could do more for all than now!!!”
   Obama gets it. The Clintons and McCain don’t.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

AT LAST THE SNOW IS GONE!!!!

WHEN I WAS A KID I could hardly wait for the snow to come. Maybe I’m smarter now, I’m certainly older. So, I like to see the first flakes in October but I wish they would just put in an appearance and then go away. This has been a long, nasty winter. I’m glad its done. The skies have been pale blue, few clouds, and the temperature has sucked the moisture out of the snow and sent it downstream to the valley floor. Lake Champlain is cresting now and it’s high---very high. It will be hard to get the boat in at the dock which is under water and will be for a long time.
The fields are flirting with green, and the mountains are preparing for what we call up here The Marching of the Green ---- the leafing out of trees that slowly proceeds up the slopes. It can take weeks. There is still snow up there, and you can ski it if you climb for it. Some of my most memorable days skiing were spent climbing in the spring for the lingering snow. Not this year, I’ve other thing to do. So be it.
I was thinking about Obama, Iraq, global warming, the crooks in Washington and everywhere else, and suddenly I said, hey, it’s spring. Time for renewal, for hope, for change, for growth, for rebirth.
GO OBAMA!!!!!