Author: badjohn7

Writer and author. Published novel as eBook and print version. - Brownout - a story of life and doom - set in Philippines, Australia and USA. Also published a non fiction work about grief, "Waiting for a Miracle: Life in the Dead Zone" as an eBook and print version. Another non fiction work is, "From Brexit to Brazil via Hong Kong, China, Russia and the USA" available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo etc. This book is a collection of essays that deal with the most pressing issues of our time, including Covid-19 and its political and social ramifications.

Climate Change – a joke or a horrid tipping point:


Dustcover Brownout back 2012Tornadoes of any strength were very rarely experienced outside of tornado alley in the USA. Sure, there were odd whirly whirlys elsewhere and maybe a solid twister once every ten years outside of that chosen territory. However, last week we had 20 people killed by a tornado in Bangladesh and several serious injuries by another one in N.E. Victoria, Australia. The rational mind may suspect that human intervention on global warming etc has come too late and that we are approaching tipping point. Much as I would like to offer comfort and hope, I cannot without lying. No matter how bad things may seem now, worse is surely to come!

Greed + Stupidity = End


While the debate around climate change rages (amidst cyclones, droughts, hurricanes etc.) that is only one aspect of the forthcoming disaster. The global capitalistic order has allowed, even encouraged, the pillage of the earth in the name of profits. No taxes are paid by corporations (or a pathetic amount) for their collateral damage caused to populations, the environment, other species or the rapid depletion of finite resources, such as phosphorous, the major ingredient in many fertilisers and most of which comes from Africa.

There are some eminent scientists and economists who are arguing for rapid change in our economic, world structure. One suggested 2020 as a deadline. However, a person has to be naïve or excessively optimistic to imagine that the rich and greedy (or even the not-so-rich but greedy) will ever change their spots in time. It is no accident that this site has the name it does. I fear we all are facing a situation where the instruction in face of possible direct nuclear attack still applies. Bend over and kiss your arse goodbye. It will take the greatest miracle we have ever seen to avert the coming disaster. Don’t hold your breath too long. If you do you might expire before the apocalypse happens1

China – unbridled capitalism with opaque agendas


China is constantly on the economic march with the excesses of capitalism showing up everywhere. Yet this is a state with many opaque agendas and strict controls over the freedom of its population. The Chinese government is keen to use many tricks to gain what it wants. It tries to increase its territory and power by constantly reiterated definition. The addition of disputed islands to the covers of its passports is one such example.

A more famous and serious one is the labelling of Taiwan as a breakaway province. The Chinese government desires the rest of the world to see its distortion of history in the same way it does. After the communists won the civil war in 1949 and the nationalists fled to Taiwan the Republic of China was reduced to a rump. Taiwan, in fact, was the rump of the Republic of China. Therefore, mainland China broke away from the Republic of China (Taiwan). It would be more correct to call China a breakaway province of Taiwan than the other way round. The Chinese government want to alter the world’s thinking by incorrect use of definition. It wants to possess Taiwan and uses definition as one means of increasing its influence and spurious claims.

Historically, Taiwan was never an integral part of China. The original inhabitants were not even Chinese. They were native peoples more akin to the Malay racial group. The second group of inhabitants were the Dutch who arrived at the end of the sixteenth century. It was only in the last 300 years or so that large numbers of Chinese people settled in Taiwan.

If China were to become genuinely democratic and possessed equal living and social standards to those in Taiwan many of the citizens of Taiwan may well be content to reunite with the mainland. However, as things are there are no valid reasons for China to attempt to coerce such a reunification.

Australia, world’s highest tobacco taxes.


Australia now has, almost certainly, the highest tobacco prices in the entire world. While no one is suggesting that smoking is healthy or not a health risk there are many factors at play here. The Australian government is evidently intent on making poorer people choose between smoking and eating. Unfortunately there will be considerable numbers of people who continue to smoke while their children go hungry and without shoes. I am sure that organised crime is switching its attention from indian hemp and other soft drugs to tobacco. The government is obviously oblivious to these considerations.

Then there are the mentally ill. The vast majority of these people smoke and find it impossible to quit without exacerbating their illness. These are also people who tend to be very low income earners or dependent on welfare. The social consequences of massively higher tobacco taxes has obviously not been considered by the Australian government. From increased crime to greater levels of psychiatric disturbance in the community the dire results of these thoughtless snap decisions are growing in the dark.

There is little evidence that financially destroying smokers causes greater numbers to quit. Other countries (such as Taiwan) that are increasingly banning smoking in public areas, yet do not find it necessary to hugely raise tobacco taxes, would seem to have at least as high, if not a higher, rate of quitters.

Lastly, it is self evident that the Australian government is hypocritical about smoking. On the one hand they are demanding that smokers quit or face utter poverty, so say for concern about their health. Yet on the other hand the government certainly does not want people to live much beyond the retirement age. I for one do want to live long enough to get dementia and be plonked in a nursing home (although I suspect that governments of the future will just give such people lethal injections). It may be cute to be trendy but the Australian government has now crossed the bounds of logic and good sense. Unfortunately, the other political groups are not at all concerned about this. This dictatorial and unwise attitude thus cannot be stopped at the ballot box.

The new global food crisis


The one thing that has been overlooked in the debate about climate change is the impending food crisis. With floods or droughts now becoming the norm there is going to be a huge food shortage in the immediate future. Millions will probably die. Wars are more likely to be fought over water and food than oil.

Truth and trust


As the times march on, technology advances while everything else goes backward and people simply don’t know what to believe any more. Quite apart from the efforts of Wikileaks people know longer tend to be particularly credible about what their governments tell them. Truth is a vague concept and general trust is gone. In the past governments continually lied to their populace and got away with it. The lies were a negative thing but the general community trust was one important glue that held society’s fabric together. It has now gone and we are on are own.

The Effects of Poverty on Greed


Poverty has a relationship with greed. Those severely affected by poverty develop an attitude in the mind as a survival mechanism. This attitude causes them to “get all they can” and to store up as many material goods as possible as a bulwark against future needs. It particularly applies to money and wealth. What then happens if those people are lifted from poverty into a realm of relative material comfort?

The experience of poverty now encourages greed by entrenching these survival ideas in the psyche. However, these ideas are no longer useful but are instead harmful. When individuals amass much more wealth than they are likely to need they, by giving in to greed, are contributing to the poverty of others. This cycle is likely to repeat itself over and over. Thus the divide between the rich and the poor continues to grow exponentially. Only by following the example of people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and deliberately recycling excess wealth into charitable works can the poverty divide ever be overcome.