The Fiscal Cliff

Depending on what happens in its Congress, the US, said by a European think tank to be the most powerful country in the world, could very well be falling off its Fiscal Cliff. Either that or it could agree to end filibustering and work towards  bipartisanship. 

Seemingly impossible as it may seem, what with the recent tight race for the presidency, bipartisanship between the dominant Republican and Democratic parties is very much realizable. 

In 1940, as Hitler's guns pummeled Europe, then US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a democrat, used his political savvy to change partisanship into partnership with the goal of reaching an agreement on US foreign policy. It worked.

United politically, the US led the Allies in halting Hitler's deathly march across Europe and Africa as well as in ending  Japan's imperialistic ambitions in Asia at that time. 

No such overt armed aggression among major world powers currently exists. But the fiscal cliff may well be the one critical battle within the US that could either propel economic momentum or wipe out whatever fragile gains towards recovery so far achieved. 

According to indexmundi.com, the US' gross domestic product grew at an annual average of 2.8% in 2010 and 1.7% in 2011 after a dismal 1.1.% in 2008 which further plummeted to a negative 2.6% in 2009. 

Congress had at least once put its best foot forward and worked together, regardless of political affiliation in the face of threats to national and international security. There is no compelling reason it cannot do the same again.  

As 2012 draws to a close and cognizant of the interrelatedness of world economies,  everyone will no doubt be closely watching how Congress will address the fiscal cliff. 

I thought that there was something about the photo I took below that speaks about this current predicament. 

 

 

- Ariel Murphy

 

 

Naivete and Cynicism

Some would look at the color and shape of clouds and see either forthcoming rain or a rainbow.  

Some would be confronted by a closed door and imagine beyond it either the Pearly Gates or a bogeyman.

 

I wonder at what point a person loses naivete to cynicism; or exactly when death occurs a bit at a time. 

 -- Ariel Murphy

Not the end

Their divorce became final in July.  But by September they were seeing each other again. In October she found out  that cancer was in her brain. It was Stage 4 -- the highest category indicating the spread and extent of the disease. She had no inkling. 

 

There is no telling what the power of the human spirit can do.

 

And so this is not the end of the story.

  -- Ariel Murphy

Two Beautiful Words

Robot Love

While browsing through the web last night I chanced upon a rather interesting news story. An artificial intelligence engineer announced that his company will soon launch a male version of a female life-like sex machine/companion that is currently on the market.

Like its female counterpart, the male robot will be designed to be like a real man and  programmed to "respond" to the physical sensations it receives.  It will also talk about topics geared towards its user's interests.

"Sex only goes so far. And then you want to be able to talk,"  said the engineer, whom I gave credit for being rather thoughtful and caring.

Then my mind started clicking. I wonder what my Romeo-robot will say if I ask: Honey, will you please mow the yard tomorrow?

Depending on Romeo's answer, its reported price tag of from $7,000 to $10,000  just might be worth the investment.  Grass in Hawaii, after all, amazingly grows an inch at the blink of an eye.

And then there are the other benefits to consider.  Move over R2D2!

R2D2 (on the right) and CP3O from the movie, Star Wars. Photo from GoogleImages.

-- Ariel Murphy

Of Survival and Outer Space

Back when my career had to do with public finance, I thought of how public expenditures continue to increase yearly. Revenues are often in a shortfall and either indebtedness has to be incurred or additional taxes have to be imposed to breach the deficit.

I thought of how governments are hard pressed to deliver the goods and services needed by a continuously growing global population. The question is not only in regard to the efficiency (or inefficiency) of the bureaucracy; it also has to do with the availability of needed resources. 

  

How much oil is left to run factories, fly planes, and enable us to go to work? How much land is left to grow food on? How much of planet earth do we have left to exploit? 

Much of the current armed conflicts we see in the world may seem religious or cultural in nature but really, underlying those are economic reasons: the control of vital resources and survival. 

I dread to think of a scenario where more countries or even ethnic groups wage war in the face of diminishing resources and rising population growth. Surely, that can only be a formula for Armageddon.

But there may be hope. Although those pitifully stuck in boxes and labels might either cringe or frantically motion the sign of the cross at the mere mention of a "New World Order," mankind  does need a paradigm shift in the way economies are ran and businesses and commerce, conducted so that we do not drive ourselves towards annihilation.

Perhaps there may be an "evolved" form of capitalism of which the hallmark is authentic cooperation rather than mindless competition and reckless exploitation. Perhaps there is a way we can be selfless and more considerate of the many who lack even the basic necessities of life.

Either that or, as governments and even enterprising individuals have been doing, we continue to look elsewhere for a solution -- outside Planet Earth. 

In 2009, a Canadian multi-millionaire was said to have paid $40 million to travel in space for 11 days aboard the spaceship Soyuz.  Wait, do not be discouraged. Another company will reportedly charge  $200,000 for a seat in an upcoming craft that it is developing. 

Would you prefer to be in First Class or Economy?

Below is a photo of prototypes of space ships in the works.

Source: virgingalactic.com

 - Ariel Murphy

A Bird of Dazzling Colors

The unusually long days of rain and chilly nights late last year did not help any when I was  desolate over a death.  But one morning  I woke up to find  sunlight seeping through my window.   The ice in my veins started  softening.  And then I heard something and  looked out.  "Get out and play," my yard invited.  There,  I had an unusual conversation.  

A bird with colors that shimmered in the sun flew from out of nowhere and impertinently perched itself right in front of me -- on the  waxy blood-red Anthurium that I was admiring. The bird steadily fixed its deep black eyes on me.

Mesmerized,  I whispered: What are you doing here?

 Silently, the bird spoke: "I came to bring you joy"!

A Macaw preening. Photo from The National Geographic

 - Ariel Murphy

Shooting Stars

On a clear night, you might see the heavens in all its glory.  The stars twinkle while planets don't. I was told. And Polaris, the North Star, is always on the same spot. If you're lucky enough, you might  catch a comet as it blazes across the sky and then fades somewhere deep into the universe.

But  I wonder. What are the odds you'll see another shooting star at the same exact space where the other had been?

 

- Ariel Murphy

On the Way to San Jose

Ex GF: "Next time you go to Costco on the other side of the island, please let me know so that I can tag along. I need to buy some stuff."

Ex Bf:  "Well of course; except when I need to take somebody else. Imagine you on the back seat and a girl I am dating on the passenger seat. That would be worse than taking my mother along." 

- Ariel Murphy

Gobbling Turkeys

Yesterday, after going to three Thanksgiving parties one after another, I felt like a dozen turkeys were gobbling inside my stomach.  

But you see, the turkeys have been previously gobbling inside my head. The incessant noise went on as a friend and I were talking about Israel, Hamas and the Gaza conflict. 

 "There's no winner in that situation," my friend remarked. And then she mentioned how a story a friend of hers told her debunked  her mindset of Israel as the dove and Hamas as the hawk. 

The friend witnessed how Israeli soldiers shot a tour guide and an old unarmed woman who was merely showing a centuries old stone mill near where she lives in the Gaza strip. 

After cautioning my friend about sweeping generalizations, I pointed out that the fighting in Gaza is merely a macro representative of the violence that we, as individuals, do to one another and to ourselves. 

Violence comes in  many faces and does not necessarily only happen whenever a soldier or a militant launches a missile or pulls the trigger of a gun. There are  types  of violence that have weakened friendships;  fragmented relationships, marriages and families; and  eroded respect and integrity. Biases, bigotry, selfishness, greed -- all assume the form of guns  that we aim at each other and ourselves.  

Later in the day as I surfed the net, I saw pictures (shown below) that somewhat muted the gobbling of turkeys in my head. Two  of the pictures show both Muslims and Jews enjoying life in peaceful co-existence and even working  together towards an advocacy. The last photo is a representation of the First Thanksgiving when in 1621, both the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians broke bread together. 

The noble in us can and does trounce the beastly. 

 

- Ariel Murphy

A Jewish man from Israel and a Muslim man from Palestine held a cardboard sign that said "why can't we all get along" on a street corner in Midtown Manhattan, November 2012.

Platters of watermelon and Israeli cheeses brought together Jews and Arabs in the Musrara neighborhood as part of the first annual “Between Green and Red” festival in Jerusalem. Photo by Hamutal Wachtel, August 2012

The First Thanksgiving  when Colonists and Native Americans broke bread together. Reproduction of an oil painting by  JLG Ferris, early 20th century