ARGONZA BACK FROM THE HOLIDAYS, EXTENDS GOODWILL!

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

 

Good day to all ye global citizens, readers, friends & fellows of this enthused analyst from Manila!

I’m back from the holidays, recharged and refreshed. I haven’t returned though to my gym works, so I promise myself renewed gym burning late this week.

Ye fellows of mine who did intake so much food inputs this past holiday season, don’t forget to burn down those extra fats, cleanse away excess bad cholesterols, and regain back your regular weight. Go back to your physical regimen, or develop one if you have been neglecting your physical wellness in a long time or so.

There are so many exciting things to talk about this year, more so from where I’m located: Asia. Just sit and relax, sip coffee or beverage while you browse over my coming notes, share comments every now and then. We will be together in the excitement, like riding our roller coaster of blog thoughts.

Goodwill, good health, prosperity to all of you for the year 2011!

[04 January 2011, Philippines]

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Come Visit E. Argonza’s blogs anytime!

Social Blogs:

IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com

Wisdom/Spiritual Blogs:

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com

Poetry & Art Blogs:

ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com

Mixed Blends Blogs:

@MULTIPLY: http://efdargon.multiply.com

@FRIENDSTER: http://erleargonza.blog.friendster.com

@SOULCAST: http://www.soulcast.com/efdargon

 

$100B MEKONG INTEGRATED PROJECT TO BOOST ASEAN POTENCY

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Magandang araw! Good day!

Around two (2) years ago, I articulated in one article the gigantic project that will rise in the Mekong River very soon. I was at that time already very supportive of the project, a support that I will re-echo at this moment.

For those unfamiliar with the project, a plan was hatched at the middle part of the decade for an integrated project along the Mekong River. Since the river begins upstream at the China side, China logically has to be involved in it. Finally, with blueprints for implementation on the go around 2007 yet, China committed to fund the projected cost of $100 Billion.

So huge a project, it will have couples of components into it. Power generation, irrigation, flood control, transportation, and tourism comprise the core sector components. A project of that size is four (4) times bigger than China’s own 3-Gorges Dam (it cost $23 at 2000 price index) and could be the largest that the world will ever have experienced once fully accomplished.

Benefiting approximately 300 million beneficiaries along its courses, the project is bound to spur development and generate incomes many folds larger than its total investments. If we use the econometric index of annual income yield that is 10X, then we can expect an annual income yield of $1 Trillion from out of the upstream and downstream industries induced by the project.

Since China is involved in it right now (as implementation is going on), then we expect China to receive the ROI (return on investments) in the widest expanse of benefits possible. That means, once fully operational, China will infuse more investments in the region to fully benefit from the project alone. The ROI will then be much greater than the original $100 accruing to China alone on an annual basis.

We can therefore hope for an excellent win/win situation for China and the ASEAN countries involved (Vietnam is the lead country executor). In the long run, we should hope that the same project would accrue to the growth & development of the entire ASEAN region that is bound to institute an economic union by 2015.

A win/win formula for the ASEAN itself is for it to use the Mekong project as exemplar to design and implement similar projects in other member countries, particularly in island southeast Asia. A particular office can be created in the ASEAN secretariat to oversee and help similar projects that can spin off in other parts of the region.

Since an ASEAN central bank is due for institution by 2015, let us expect that monetary instruments for financial packages can be had for gigantic infrastructure projects of the magnitude of the Mekong project. Probably an ASEAN Development Bank can also rise alongside the central bank, thus reinforcing the potency for launching gigantic projects that will be financed internally by the region itself.

If ever the ASEAN will wish to tap other countries for co-financing of the projects, it should be the emerging markets as top priority such as China, India, and Brazil, countries that will be more sympathetic to regional development. The option will help us veer away from the mal-intents of Northern banks that tied up developing countries in debt peonage and won at the expense of the developing countries.

As a matter of goodwill, ASEAN should better enter into the picture and look at other facets of the project that the future union can fund. The expansion phases of the Mekong project, for instance, can be taken over by the ASEAN itself, thus lessening dependence from external funders.

There are always pains to any large project, these being part of the costs of any undertaking. Nonetheless, the Mekong project should be supported and must go on until full completion. This will render it as an exemplar just right in time for the creation of the ASEAN economic union by 2015.

[Philippines, 05 November 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

FOR CITING MY WRITES AMONG TOP BLOGS, GRATITUDE!

FOR CITING MY WRITES AMONG TOP BLOGS, GRATITUDE!

Prof. Erle Frayne D. Argonza / Guru Ra

Felicitous greetings to you all!

I hereby extend my most heartfelt gratitude to enthused readers and fellow writers who appreciated my notes about social life, wisdom and arts.

Just about three (3) years ago, there was very little information about my person on cyberspace. Today, as I’ve spread my messages of Light and hope to all of the corners of the globe via the blogs and social networks, many enthused souls responded through reading, exchanges of notes, and citations of my works. Finally, after your appreciation and support of my cyber-crusade, information about me on cyberspace increased by gigantic strides.

Special thanks to the following online news, magazines and portals for citing my notes as among the top blogs on cyberspace:

• http://thedailyreviewer.com
• http://humanitariannews.org
• http://www.nonprofit.org
• http://sociology.alltop.com
• http://clpl-india.com
• http://pul.se
• http://asiafinest.com
• http://newestnews.net
• http://topcityblogs.com

Thanks too to the following sites that have cited, discussed and debated on various notes of mine about a diversity of topics and themes:

http://adamsmithlegacy.com

http://alltop.com

http://asean-society.org

http://blog.searchaid.info

http://awakento1.org

http://boardreader.com

http://cantbustme.com

http://castasiaforum.org

http://conceptsinproduction.com

http://deepmarket.com

http://eeeph.netbooks.ph

http://globalbalita.com

http://leathernews.myip.org

http://mixx.com

http://mmsnews.cz.cc

http://nuip.net

http://online-profitsnow.com

http://origin-bx.businessweek.com

http://peacocksandlilies.com

http://petites-phrases.com

http://pipl.com

http://pirs08.webs.com

http://www.rehabfromdrug.com

http://revspeech.proboards.com

http://surchur.com

http://www.toluu.com

http://trendbuzz.com

http://webpac.lib.nthu.ed.tw

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com

http://www.answerbag.co.uk

http://www.ask.com

http://www.blogged.com

http://www.blogsope.net

http://www.carboncapturereport.org

http://www.cnn.com

http://www.deepmarket.com

http://www.familycommitment.org

http://www.finir.org

http://www.icerocket.com

http://www.iyou.me

http://www.mynewsdigest.com

http://nisim-tw.com

http://www.onlineobchody.com

http://www.pointsdevente.com

http://www.psychantenna.com

http://www.pubsub.com

http://www.samepoint.com

http://www.spiritbond.com

http://www.tapatt.net

http://www.theakan.com

http://www.topix.com

http://www.usforcenews.info

http://www.wealthyauthority.com

http://www.westpalmferrari.com

http://www.wopular.com

http://yoga-experts.info

Maraming salamat! Thank you very much! Love & Light!

September 2010

CHINA’S 3-GORGES DAM: DAMNING ECO-FASCIST CATASTR0PHE DISCOURSE

CHINA’S 3-GORGES DAM: DAMNING ECO-FASCIST CATASTR0PHE DISCOURSE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good morning to all ye global citizens! Goodwill and peace to you!

For this day I chose to peregrinate on the 3-Gorges Dam of China, a project that cost a whopping $23 Billion to build. The eco-fascist detractors of the project raised the specter of catastrophe that could result from a collapse of the dam infrastructure, so maybe its time to reflect about the giant energy project.

I just arrived from overseas assignment in 2002 when I had the opportunity to discuss the 3-Gorges dam in my social science classes in Manila. At that time, I was offered a Director post in a think-tank of the Augustinian sisters, a stint that gave me opportunity to mine enormous data about the latest development engagements nationally and globally. I also taught as lecturer while directing research, which surely offered me a privileged position to reflect about global issues.

Being one who has been involved in the planning works on ambitious development projects (e.g. industrial estate/free trade zone, economic support projects for marginal sectors worth hundreds of millions of dollars) as a practitioner, I was truly appreciative of the efforts of China’s state to tame the Yangtze and tap its power-packed waters for electrification, irrigation, and subsidiary purposes. Though environmentally-driven myself, I am not wont to deliver satirical and destructive remarks about such a project as the 3-Gorges Dam that can benefit a greater section of China’s population and economy.

There are always negative trade-offs to any big endeavor, such as the displacement of 1.4 million folks along the reservoir area of the dam. What project of such a stature in the world doesn’t have a downside to it anyway? The downsides are the ones highlighted the most by paid hacksters of the West’s financier oligarchs, notably the political greenies whose obsessive-compulsive reflexes are unmatched anywhere in the world.

The USA had its own taste of baptism of fire from destructive commentators when the FD Roosevelt regime built the Hoover Dam. A pioneering infrastructure and energy project during its own time, the project received enormous media detractions that were paid by Nazi  oligarchs in the homeland who, not to say the least, owned and controlled America’s giant media outfits (they own media till these days). The detractors did everything in the books in fact to destroy FDR for his innovative New Deal measures that included massive infrastructures as pump priming tool to take out America from the Great Depression towards recovery and prosperity.

As one can see, the Hoover Dam stood the test of time, and it remains as one of the marvels of America’s public works. It is too early to say about what can happen to the 3-Gorges Dam, but it has parallelisms to the Hoover Dam and other ambitious infrastructure projects of the New Deal heydays, projects that the predatory financiers in America couldn’t play their hands with as they are primarily state-sponsored.

Understandly, the West’s financiers can not benefit directly from projects initiated by China’s government, even as it is now too late for destructive Western forces to take down China’s economy through massive looting of the financial markets the way they’ve done to their own domestic economies in the EU and USA. So they employ those civil society groups that receive funds from the financiers’ ‘corporate social responsibility’ coffers, with the expectation that the activist funds recipients would drum up the destructive impacts of projects they cannot control such as the 3-Gorges Dam.

In the event of heavy rainfalls however, there is reason to keep watch over the waters’ possible exceeding the 175-meter limit of the dam’s reservoir. As shown by our own precedents in the Philippines, the dam’s administrators used the contingency tool of releasing parts of the waters before the same could ever do damage on the dam through an overflow that could trigger a catastrophic burst of the infrastructure.

With decades of hydraulics experience behind our local experts here, this much I can say: so far so good! True, there were casualties who suffered from the inundations caused by the contingency releases of the rising floodwaters. But no single dam ever burst catastrophically yet, a catastrophe that could have resulted to higher casualties of at least a couple of millions of folks.

It’s now the start of the ‘ember’ months, and so far we are witness to the 3-Gorges Dam standing tall. So far so good! There are still three (3) more months to hurdle before the storms will bring heavy rainfalls, but so far the indications are the dam administrators can manage the hydraulic flows efficaciously.

If there is any message I can deliver to the eco-fascist blabbermouths, they should spread themselves across the world’s continents and plant trees in the de-forested boondocks. This behavior would be truly exemplary, as it will show that sociopathic groups and persons can also exhibit productive behavior during times of crisis.

[Philippines, 15 September 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

ENLIGHTENING ARGONZA WRITINGS SURGE WORLD TOP BLOGS!

ENLIGHTENING ARGONZA WRITINGS SURGE WORLD TOP BLOGS!

Good day to all endeared readers, friends, fellow global citizens!

A truly gladdening news has been breaking the cybersphere of late. Prof. Erle Frayne Argonza, a social analyst and self-development guru from Manila, has been continuing to gain mileage in his magnanimous efforts to enlighten humanity about the current social and cosmic issues.

To date, dozens of online newspapers and magazines across the globe have featured Prof. Argonza’s writings on their very own websites. Championing the causes of peace and global cooperation, Prof. Argonza has continued to reach out to enthused readers, writers and spiritual seekers. The latter contributed to the upsurge in the numbers of citations of Argonza’s writings aimed at accelerating awareness-raising.

For your reads and exchange of notes about Prof. Argonza’s blogs, please visit:

SOCIAL WRITINGS:

https://unladtau.wordpress.com, http://erleargonza.blogspot.com

WISDOM WRITINGS:

http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com

ART & POETRY:

http://erleargonza.wordpress.com, http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com

Join now the growing numbers of global citizens who find Light in Prof. Argonza’s englightening blogs!

Argonza & Associates Consulting

September 2010

TOP BLOG SITES:

v  http://thedailyreviewer.com

v  http://humanitariannews.org

v  http://www.nonprofit.org

v  http://sociology.alltop.com

v  http://clpl-india.com

v  http://pul.se

v  http://asiafinest.com

v  http://newestnews.net

v  http://topcityblogs.com

CITED ARGONZA BLOGS FOR DIVERSE THEME DISCUSSIONS & ANNOTATIONS:

http://adamsmithlegacy.com

http://alltop.com

http://asean-society.org

http://blog.searchaid.info

http://awakento1.org

http://boardreader.com

http://cantbustme.com

http://castasiaforum.org

http://conceptsinproduction.com

http://deepmarket.com

http://eeeph.netbooks.ph

http://globalbalita.com

http://leathernews.myip.org

http://mixx.com

http://mmsnews.cz.cc

http://nuip.net

http://online-profitsnow.com

http://origin-bx.businessweek.com

http://peacocksandlilies.com

http://petites-phrases.com

http://pipl.com

http://pirs08.webs.com

http://www.rehabfromdrug.com

http://revspeech.proboards.com

http://surchur.com

http://www.toluu.com

http://trendbuzz.com

http://webpac.lib.nthu.ed.tw

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com

http://www.answerbag.co.uk

http://www.ask.com

http://www.blogged.com

http://www.blogsope.net

http://www.carboncapturereport.org

http://www.cnn.com

http://www.deepmarket.com

http://www.familycommitment.org

http://www.finir.org

http://www.icerocket.com

http://www.iyou.me

http://www.mynewsdigest.com

http://nisim-tw.com

http://www.onlineobchody.com

http://www.pointsdevente.com

http://www.psychantenna.com

http://www.pubsub.com

http://www.samepoint.com

http://www.spiritbond.com

http://www.tapatt.net

http://www.theakan.com

http://www.topix.com

http://www.usforcenews.info

http://www.wealthyauthority.com

http://www.westpalmferrari.com

http://www.wopular.com

http://yoga-experts.info

FUEL SAVING SHOWS ASIANS AHEAD OF EUROPEANS

FUEL SAVING SHOWS ASIANS AHEAD OF EUROPEANS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good Day from the suburbs south of Manila!

Another gladdening news for us global citizens just came out recently from the heraldry mills: that of Asians leading the way to fuel-saving behavior. For those advocates of mitigating ‘greenhouse effect’ gas emissions through direct motorist interventions, the news surely comes as a refreshing one.

In a report summarized in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (by Amy R. Remo, 22 August 2012), the Shell corporation accordingly conducted a research which shows the greater inclination of Asians for fuel saving then the Europeans. 3,300 drivers across Asia and Europe served as respondents, and was released by the Shell FuelSave Report.

The motivation for fuel-saving, as validated by the research, were (a) the prospect of saving money and (b) being environmentally responsible. One can see, from the report, how economics has been merging with ecological balance concerns for the entire Asian continent, a reality that wasn’t there two (2) decades back.

The increased awareness of Asian motorists towards fuel utilization efficiency clearly deconstructs those contorted notions that developing countries are too low in environmental awareness. It’s plain stereotyping, this protestation from Western/Northern countries that Asians can’t commit to cutting down fossil fuel emissions as their development path still lingers on in the phase of ‘smokestack economy’ of yesteryears.

Fact is, the research findings coincides with the recent manifestation of exemplary behavior by Asian countries in re-engineering their policy environments to shift their power production and fuel consumption towards more clean energy in the foreseeable future. It is the Northern/Western countries that have been remiss in this regard, as one can see, with the USA leading the way to stubborn non-commitment to international protocols on cutting down fossil fuel emissions.

The report accordingly conducted online interviews beginning March 21 this year in the following countries: Philippines, UK, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Turkey, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.   

My own country, the Philippines, has been among the most applauded internationally as it had reshaped its policy environment to develop and mass produce green energy fuel sources. Hybrid engines are now available in the country that utilize a combination of alternative and fossil fuel sources, while solar-powered vehicular prototypes are being designed across the country (even university students are vying for exemplary prototypes that can be mass produced locally and abroad).

The resort to fuel saving is a transitory phase towards a shift to total clean energy sources (solar, fuel cells, to the more ambitious gravitic and plasma technologies) that will be the viable option in the near future. My own forecast is that it won’t take till 2025 when the total shift can be accomplished across Asia, with the emerging markets of today leading the way towards that ambitious goal.

[Philippines, 12 September 2012]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

 

ROBOTS BETTER DO MINERS’ JOB IN NEAR FUTURE

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good evening from the suburban boondocks south of Manila!

It’s playing Latin music in my multimedia at home right now. As I play the danceable tunes by Buena Vista Social Club, my eyes are focused on the news “Some Chile miners showing mental crack” in the world news of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Aug. 29, 2010).

Let me then dedicate this piece to the task of mining as a way to honor the miners of the world. Honoring them means that eventually the human miners will retire from the job, with robots taking over those rather hazardous tasks related to mineral extraction.

To quote the report’s inception, “Five of the miners trapped underground in Chile for months to come are struggling psychologically, officials said on Friday, as engineers prepared to start drilling an escape shaft.”

The news coming from Copiaco, Chile further heralded, “While the rest of the 33 trapped miners were happy to take part in a video to show families they were bearing up despite what has so far been a three-week ordeal, the smaller group refused and were exhibiting signs of depression.” [AFP Report]

Well, what else can we expect from toiling workers trapped deep down underground, with hardly much hope for coming back to the planet’s surface till after months of hard rescue operations to come. Even a person who doesn’t suffer from manic-depressive disorder can crack up and manifest depression.

If we go back to the times of the Roman republic, and maybe backtrack 2,000 years earlier than Rome, we can review their mining practices then. Mind you, contrast our mining extraction today with those of ancient times, and you just might have the shock of your life to find out that there isn’t much contrast really.

The technology of extracting minerals down underground remains to be dependent on human or anthropocentric labor for thousands of years now. Not even the impressive engineering works to dig the minerals from rocks down under can impress me much at all, they remain the same technology: human-driven extraction.

While the miners of antiquity were slaves of the imperial deus ex machina, today’s miners are cogs of the business empires’ deus ex machina. Marginal or small-scale miners, like the ones we have in the boondocks of northern and southern tips of the Philippines, are all the more risk-prone to the appalling extraction conditions and technology as they can be buried anytime by mining-related calamities without healthcare or ‘life plan’ to compensate them.

A cursory examination of the Chilean miners’ condition allows this analyst to facilely forecast that at least 1/3 of them (around 2 persons) will be in advanced form of depression and nervous breakdown as soon as the rescue operators reach them. Sad!

That’s how human labor is treated by corporate capital since the birth of the money economy anyway: mere objects worth throwing away if they die during production operations. Miners are among the most classic cases of how capital treats human labor as cheap dirty eater stuff.

If indeed corporate capital—and its cultural deodorant ‘corporate social responsibility—has the sanguine love for human miners, it should strive pronto to innovate on robotics that can do the work for the miners. Retire all the miners of today pronto, compensate them for social security and healthcare, and then gradually employ the robot miners.

Only token labor—comprising of technicians and engineers—are needed to operate robotics-driven mining. Robots won’t suffer from depression in case of mishaps, they won’t require healthcare and social security but rather maintenance expenditures appropriate and sufficient for their upkeep.

Retired miners can then afford to exhibit more productive engagements such as to serve as eco-tourist guides for students and visitors who may wish to examine former open-pit mines that have been re-greened with lush vegetation. They can likewise do some tour guide tasks for mine visits that would be as less risk-prone as their previous jobs.

Meantime, let me share my own lines of solidarity to all those suffering miners in Chile and the rest of the planet. May they find light at the end of the tunnel of oligarchic pseudo-slavery down shafts and pits, and tell their narratives to the planet as part of our human history heritage.

[Philippines, 10 September 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

$2000 CAR FROM INDIA SLAMS NORTHERN AUTOMAKERS’ RENT-SEEKING

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good morning from the suburbs south of Manila!

To continue with our exciting news for the ‘ember’ months, let me share some reflections about the recently released people’s car from India. The array of new innovations goes longer than that, with the car serving as the icing in the cake.

Beth Day Romulo, international journalist who’s the other half of the late Carlos P. Romulo who is one of Asia’s greats in the foreign policy field (former President of UN), featured the Nano car in her regular Sunday space at the Philippine Panorama, dated July 25, 2010. The Nano was engineered by the giant Tata group of companies of India, and sells at a very affordable $2000 apiece.

As Beth Day Romulo aptly titled, “In India, cheap doesn’t mean shoddy.” A sleek yet classy looking prototype, the Nano would surely be an envy of many countries up North who just couldn’t think of a car unless it sells past $25,000 apiece. Accustomed to the corrupted status-seeking behavior, the North’s customers would do everything in the books (e.g. get credit) to acquire flashy Mercedes Benz or Porsche and brag the same to their family circles and peers.

Mass markets are the in-thing in automotive industries as far as the bankrupt or near-death Northern car manufacturers are concerned. Flashy cars & SUVs would be okay for the fractional upper middle class markets up North and their clones down South, but for the larger billions of workers & professionals in emerging markets utility is the yardstick, hence the affordable folk car suits them well.

Before I venture into other thoughts, let me declare my own deep admiration for the Tata Group over its feats across the decades. I encountered this group during my own research on the steel industry in the late 90s, and in 1999 their representatives presented papers in the Manila-held conference of the Asian Iron & Steel Institute (I participated in that conference held at the Shangrila Plaza in EDSA).

From Tata Steel to Tata metallurgies and now to automotives, what can I say but SALUTE! With top-of-the-line scientists among their design innovators, including the world-renowned steel expert Dr. Mukerjee, the only way for Tata to go is to jettison upwards in a very exponential fashion.

What the Tata Group is silently proclaiming to the world is that the price policy of Northern car makers is pure and plain rent-seeking practice. Look at the Volkswagen beetle for instance, a people’s car that is now priced at past $23,000 apiece, and that surely makes one have doubts about the ‘people’s car’  facet to the Volkswagen.

It’s all pure and plain rent-seeking. Profiteering is a more palatable term for the layman. Just like those Western pharmaceuticals that are produced for a mere $0.01 apiece but sell for over $1 per pill, rendering the pharmaceutical companies the top-gun of obnoxious rent-seeking firms.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we’d find out that a people’s car up North should be selling at merely $4000 apiece, using factors of production costs in their own backyards. A Beetle should be selling at $3000 or even lower, come to think of it.

At any rate, the peoples of the emerging markets have lives of their own, and they set the patterns of consumption on the basis of their own needs. Such as the need for utility cars that are truly ‘utility’ and not luxury items masquerading as utility.

As per report, the German engineering company Siemens had jumped the gun, by committing to mass produce and market the Nano in India, China, Russia, and Brazil. The Mumbai subsidiary of Siemens alone will produce half of the Indian innovations (Nano’s just one of them) that they’ve committed to produce and market.

As Beth Day Romulo reported, “While western engineers work on highly sophisticated products, the Indian engineers, who focus on high quality but low cost, aim at simplification and adaptation to the environment.”

Stressing on the infusion of social technologies to the engineering works, Madam Romulo concluded that “all of those devices and products are the result of local innovation, the engineers on the ground who study and recognize the needs of the Indian consumer.”

Not just the Nano car but also a whole array of innovations from India have been showing the way to the fusion of quality and consumer sensitivity in the product prototypes. This is what true development should be in terms of technological innovations: driven by people’s needs rather the pockets of greedy corporate executives and owners.

[Philippines, 02 September 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

ENERGIZING HINTERLANDS: DILEMMA OF ISLAND REPUBLICS

ENERGIZING HINTERLANDS: DILEMMA OF ISLAND REPUBLICS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good morning from the Philippines suburban boondocks!

Erecting energy grids is the main thing in energy distribution and could be so for some decades to come. The Philippines has been among the most notably advanced in building a grid infrastructure in its large islands (Luzon, Mindanao), a precedent that has been emulated by other developing countries.

Observably, power production had somehow followed the course of grid infrastructures. That is, it had been facile to install and operate energy production plants for many countries, including island republics, following the distribution lines of energy grids.

The dilemma in power production comes with the hinterlands of developing countries. Situated too far distant from grid lines, energizing hinterland villages had proved to be a daunting task particularly for island republics.

Ironically, the Philippines has been one of those countries where many hinterland villages remain without power. The key reason is that tapping power along the grid lines for the hinterlands is simply un-feasible from a marketing sense, and so the solution is to build small-scale power plants in or near the villages themselves.

Even that option—of installing micro-power plants in situ—proves to be un-feasible using standard yardsticks of economies of scale. The solution adopted by RP’s energy experts is to innovate on hybrid technology, with clean technologies such as solar power on the frontline.

Two (2) years ago, the state’s energy department pronounced that merely 900+ barangays (villages) out of the country’s over 42,000 barangays remain without electricity. The regime of the previous president Gloria Arroyo promised to energize the said villages before her term ends in May 2010.

Alas! Arroyo’s term had already ended and a new president—Noynoy Aquino—has been installed to power, but the electrification of the said villages is nowhere in site! Just exactly what ‘barriers to entry’ continue to hound the hinterlands electrification program seems to be kept as tightly guarded secret by the energy department, a fact that is tainted with transparency questions (the mass media is a bit silent about the matter).

I do recall that the contemporary hinterlands electrification program in RP began yet with the incumbency of then Secretary Vince Perez, an investment banker, who sat in the post for four (4) consecutive years. He was later replaced by Popo Lotilla, a laywer and economist, with similar pronouncements made by his office regarding the matter. Angelo Reyes, former defense secretary, then replaced Lotilla as energy secretary, and heralded the same pronouncements about electrification targets for the hinterlands.

Secretaries Perez and Lotilla are brilliant minds no less, as I recall both gentlemen pretty well during our freshmen years at the University of the Philippines (Diliman, the flagship campus). They were my former dorm mates at the Kalayaan Residence Hall for freshmen, we were then the first batch of residents, and at that time I could already sense the aura of brilliance in the two gentlemen.

The energy sector surely grew more robust and dynamic during the incumbency of the energy secretaries Perez and Lotilla, and the patterns they set were then followed by those who replaced them later. I just hope that the visions and program targets their respective offices have set will be followed without reserve, as time had already elapsed since they left their respective offices (they are now back to their private practice).

With a new president now sitting in power, the question remains the same: will the 900+ villages see the electric lights at night very soon? Or, will the same villages continue to wallow in the ‘dark age’ of zero electricity?

Meantime, let us hope that the situation for other island republics isn’t as bad as it is in RP that leads the world in grid technologies yet is lackluster in electrifying the hinterlands. What sayeth New Zealand and its development experts concerning the matter? [NZ is an island republic too, and it seemed to have made enormous mileage in total electrification.]

[Philippines, 31 August 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

FUSION NUCLEAR ENERGY: CHINA TAKES R&D LEAD

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good afternoon!

Large swaths of lands in Asia were recently flooded, which paints a gloomy landscape in China, India, and Pakistan. Flooding, however, doesn’t kill civilizations, and floodwaters should be viewed on the positive side as providing, after calamities, much needed water and energy source.

As history has shown, it is the sudden absence of water, via large-scale calamity, that had killed many civilizations in antiquity. For as long as we have plenty of water reserves in the planet, civilization will continue. As energy source, water has provided hydro-electricity, geothermal (heated water from underground sources), and fuel cell medium (electrolysis).

The present onrush of waters could, in fact, serve as blessing to crack the news of a new form of energy: fusion nuclear energy. Talked about for decades as mere theory in classroom chemistry and physics and in coffee shops, fusion energy is now becoming more of a reality each day.

China unquestionably leads in the research & development efforts on fusion energy. Sometime in mid-2008 yet, the news leaked out to the world that China’s research scientists were able to make a breakthrough in the research phase of fusion energy. As per information leaking out, China is ahead of the rest of the world by at least a decade.

Reports had it at that time that a commercial breeder plant was still around ten (10) years in the offing. That means the earliest time for the release of such a breeder plant will be around 2018 yet. A tedious process indeed it is to perfect a model for commercial usage, but time runs fast these days, so let us anticipate the formal release of the first prototype just couples of years away from now.

The era of clean energy will surely receive a boost when fusion begins to roll, and by next decade we can safely forecast that fossil energy will rapidly decline in importance leading to its demise before 2030. I just wish the time table for burying fossil energy could be shortened, and like everyone else who is tired of the machinations of the oil oligarchs and financier-speculators in spot markets, I could hardly wait to offer dirges to fossil fuels.

[Philippines, 30 August 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,

UNLADTAU: https://unladtau.wordpress.com,

COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,

BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,

ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]

CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY: CAN IT SURVIVE THE COMING ‘TECHNOTRONIC’ CAPITALISM?

Erle Frayne Argonza

‘Late’ capitalism, this current phase that replaced the ‘monopoly’ capitalism of the pre-war era, is now DEAD. As elucidated by Jurgen Habermas, thinker of the Frankfurt school, capitalism was able to move to its present state but only with massive state planning/intervention. State intervention had since the early 70s been relaxed, via globalization, but this only created monstrous predatory finance that hastened the collapse of the system.

As already elaborated in previous articles, the system is now DEAD. In the late 1990s yet, we Fellows of the Independent Review (a circle of economists and experts in Manila) were of the opinion that the system will be dead in couples of years. The ‘virtual economy’ based on magical statistics, speculation, fictitiously valued investments, and conspicuous consumption, can never be sustained, and is bound to crash and die. It was just a matter of time, as we all noted in 2000 (the last time I met the Fellows), before the bubble will burst somewhere (we forecast it will the USA) and the global economy will come crashing down…And it did, beginning last 2007 yet. That descent to the marshes of death is still going on today.

As I also declared in some previous articles, capitalism can still survive, though no longer the ‘late’ capitalism of state planning-to-globalization era. It will be a capitalism in an era of state terror heretofore unparalleled: ‘technotronic’ capitalism in the aegis of global police-state. Nation-states are enemies of the global oligarchy which will re-engineer the world by destroying nations (aftermath of atrocious World War III and global synarchy) and replacing them with city-states and region-states.

If corporate social responsibility or CSR will survive the times, it must be re-tooled at this juncture when the tumultuous changes are gathering winds. Failure to do so, many CSR pursuits will disappear in time, while only those CSR platforms of the most powerful and wealthy oligarchs can survive. All the CSR formats of today can last in relevance maybe till 2040 at the most, after which my forecast is their relevance will have reached its end.

By the year 2050, when populations will have leveled down to a census target of 2 Billion warm bodies, a figure that will be more manageable to the global elites, every member of society will be chipped and provided for. By that time, there will be no further need for ideological movements as Pied Pipers of the new system. Everyone else will be programmed by the system, from cradle to grave the chipped Manchurian Candidate or MC will be provided for. Poverty will end by then, the Millenium Development Goal of the UN will be finally met (the UN will be transformed into the tyrannical global state headed by a global Bonaparte, armed with its own police/military forces), and then will end the ‘sustainable development’ or ‘social development’ pursuits of ‘late’ capitalism.

The chipped Manchurian Candidate or MC will be half-human half-machine hybrid, and will be well provided for as mentioned. Population will be totally controlled, weak and senior members of the population will be ‘oven-baked’ or eliminated, natality will be controlled following China’s pattern of today, criminality will be almost nil, and no one will ever be poor again. Hybrid-human behavior can be easily modified using those advanced cybernetic prototype programs past 2050, and so nobody can fool around with the system.

Tell me, fellows, in a situation such as that coming context of advanced cybernetics or ‘technotronics’ (machine-controlled humans), what need will there be for CSR? Maybe CSR will go back to Victorian Era philanthropy practices, whereby wealthy sponsors will fund the theaters and chipped performers whose performances will be perfected all the more by cybernetics. The staff of the CSR formats of that era, if indeed applicable, will be chipped as well, like those outfits that will be funded because they will perform before the oligarchic-intellectual crowd by then.

When that next capitalist system comes, there will be no more activists or revolutionaries save for those who will proclaim Hallelujah forever to the radically altered, new system. Libertarian activists will be the species of yesteryears, the CSR proto-activism of today will be consigned to history, and anybody who will go against the system will be easily eliminated by sentinel robots of the most advanced prototypes.

Let me end with the challenge: CSR better retool now and reshape its image if it desires to exceed its institutional career. Now is the time.

[28 August 2008,Quezon City, MetroManila]

TESTING NEW EARTHQUAKE-CAUSING WMD ON CHINA

Erle Frayne  Argonza

As I was browsing through the pages of the newspapers this morning, my eyes immediately caught the item about the China earthquake update. The latest quake flattened many towns to ground level, killing over 22,000 folks, and destroyed infrastructures thus cutting off the affected areas from outside relief operations. The quake registered 7.9 magnitude on Reichster.

That quake was 2000 times more powerful than the Big One that struck Luzon in the early 1990s and caused extensive damages across couples of regions and cities. Obviously much bigger, the China quake must be expected to wreak greater destruction than Luzon’s (Philippine’s) big tremor.

The difference between the Luzon and Sichuan (China) quakes is not just magnitude and damages however. The Luzon quake was natural, as it had got to do with tectonic plate movements. Past the Luzon quake came those secret innovations on building a new weapon of mass destruction or WMD, the leading one being the Tesla Earthquake Machine or Tesla-EM (my own term for it). China’s quake has got to do more with the latter, though its own authorities may keep mum about their findings.

Remember the big quakes that struck Japan and Indonesia lately, killing thousands and flattening towns and cities? The Indonesia quake even ignited tsunamis that devastated coastal towns and establishments across many countries? These two Asian countries were the first to taste the Tesla-EM, and Establishment media did what it can to deodorize and cover up the story, the byline being that it is ‘natural’ (sic!).

The great mind Tesla, world-class physicist and inventor-wiz, left behind so many of his innovations and R&D materials without formal publication. That is because he feared the implications of his findings, and so he rather chose to shut his mouth about them. The documents were then secured in the archives of the US Library of Congress (X1) and elsewhere (X2), leaving them largely unnoticed, until some techie-savvy   ‘Indiana Jones’ would appear to immerse in them and find out for themselves the practical uses of those innovation designs.

One such design innovation has got to do with inducing earthquakes so powerful that even in areas without histories of quakes or located far away from quake fault lines, high magnitude quakes will be generated. Certain countries silently conducted their R&D about the matter, and must have been horrified about their outcomes that they kept the results (and the product prototypes) highly secretly guarded.

It was obviously the most promising WMD (in the perspective of madmen), as it pathetically downgraded the thermonuclear devices into kids’ toys. This is the real one, and the “beauty” of it all is that a prototype machine is so small it can be loaded entirely in a mere passenger luggage.

Aware of such a possibility, the leaders of the Aum cult of Japan did their own surreptitious networking and found some contacts (possibly yakuza and overseas mafia) to procure the new WMD. They then sent their guys to Australia  that became their initial lab. Possibly realizing the unquestioned efficacy of the machine (after doing a micro-test down south), they reported the results to their central bosses in Japan… Onwards till the leadership was captured, allegedly for poison gas attacks in a railways area that killed thousands. The gas attack was possibly a mere cover up, to mask a possibly heavier onslaught—the big quake that struck Kobe.     

After the Japan quake came the Indonesia quake & tsunami. Remember the 300,000+ dead and millions left without homes by this incident? The sinking of the affected island too? ….Then here’s the China quake, which came right after (1) the Tibetan fiasco and (2) the US discovery of an underground submarine base in the southeast (along sea lanes).

Just exactly what group unleashed this WMD on China? Was it the same group that struck both Indonesia and Japan? Were they the intelligence agents of certain powers that possess the WMD? Or is it a terrorist group, such as the Aum cult in Japan that may have been the culprit behind the big quake there?

Meantime, let us watch for more frequent big quakes to come whose magnitude and damage scales will boggle our minds. Every interest group will use the event for their own filthy propaganda for sure. But let us please watch and record, and do our research homework. My own country could be next.

[Writ 15 May 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]