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Monday, January 10, 2005
Politics?
I am not sure if *DEAR HUMANITY* will entirely agree with my slight melding of this blog into a more geopolitical vein, but I will do so none the less, it interests me.
I advise readers at all interested in geopolitics, especially those of the oceana region to check out this post by Jeff Vail, I am not sure whether I agree or whether I am pissed off, strange?!
check it out
Views?
... ¶ 8:31 pm 0 Comments
I advise readers at all interested in geopolitics, especially those of the oceana region to check out this post by Jeff Vail, I am not sure whether I agree or whether I am pissed off, strange?!
Views?
... ¶ 8:31 pm 0 Comments
Globalisation & the Internet (Internment)
-This Blog Inspired By Comment: A Continuation Of Discourse-
Far be it from me to disown the traits of globalisation - for i indeed enjoy globalisation and its ability to bind people. However what i am opposed to and vent arguments against is the form of globalisation known as market globalisation. AKA Economic Globalisation.
This sort of globalisation has had such marvellous affects such as placing a McDonalds and KFC in pert near every country in the world. It allows Shell Petroleum to own a standing army in some African Nations, on the basis that the political atmosphere is dangerous to their American Employees and their product. Economic Globalisation also justifies a global marketplace that within such a framework allows for the creation of EPZ's (economic protection zones) that are reknown for their sweatshop labour, no union, land / production / export tax free havens, and below poverty wages. For example if you were to support an African child on the "Dollar A Day" donation (AUS Dollar), you would be paying that person more than large companies (such as Nike, Reebok) pay individual employees per a working day within EPZ's. And remember that most of these companies are dealing with the US dollar!
Now i dont ever like telling people what should and shouldnt happen - for the most part i think that is pretty obvious and people just ignore it. I prefer to compare and contrast what is and what could be. This is usually the most effective way of changing people's perspective. As Lenin has said (in russian of course - probably also german) "Only when you show the people what they could have do they begin to achieve it".
The internet has the potential to be a new public space - something untouchable by private hands, thus leaving all direction to the people who use it, allowing everyone to benefit from this global discourse. It is a mindspace where laws of censorship can become non-existent and every voice may have an equal standpoint. This is what the erasure of identity allows for. ¶ 11:16 am 0 Comments
Far be it from me to disown the traits of globalisation - for i indeed enjoy globalisation and its ability to bind people. However what i am opposed to and vent arguments against is the form of globalisation known as market globalisation. AKA Economic Globalisation.
This sort of globalisation has had such marvellous affects such as placing a McDonalds and KFC in pert near every country in the world. It allows Shell Petroleum to own a standing army in some African Nations, on the basis that the political atmosphere is dangerous to their American Employees and their product. Economic Globalisation also justifies a global marketplace that within such a framework allows for the creation of EPZ's (economic protection zones) that are reknown for their sweatshop labour, no union, land / production / export tax free havens, and below poverty wages. For example if you were to support an African child on the "Dollar A Day" donation (AUS Dollar), you would be paying that person more than large companies (such as Nike, Reebok) pay individual employees per a working day within EPZ's. And remember that most of these companies are dealing with the US dollar!
Now i dont ever like telling people what should and shouldnt happen - for the most part i think that is pretty obvious and people just ignore it. I prefer to compare and contrast what is and what could be. This is usually the most effective way of changing people's perspective. As Lenin has said (in russian of course - probably also german) "Only when you show the people what they could have do they begin to achieve it".
The internet has the potential to be a new public space - something untouchable by private hands, thus leaving all direction to the people who use it, allowing everyone to benefit from this global discourse. It is a mindspace where laws of censorship can become non-existent and every voice may have an equal standpoint. This is what the erasure of identity allows for. ¶ 11:16 am 0 Comments
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Are you doing AnYthing?
I have come to the realisation that i am part of something very horrendous. AND there is very little i can do about it...you see i am a victim of circumstance (along with many thousand others). Social circumstances have me in need of a job - and after many years of profiteering there are major brands out in the Western World that are creating a vicious circle that will ultimately lead to a destruction of unknown proportions - and i am bereft to say that i am now part of that.
Large corporations, such as Shell (petroleum), Coles Myer Group, Walmart - the list goes on....create unique low skill service jobs (lets not forget the fast food companies here because they are forerunners in this problem) that underpin and undercut any local - independant competition due to market saturation and being able to run at individual store loss to run at company gain - expansionism. However the problem lies within wages and the workforce. The idea - phrase - is that those who work in these small service industries are students who dont really need a job and are in a midpoint of sorts - a stepping stone if you will. Now the problem is that the companies pay the minimum wage and the students do not complain, thus there is no Union - because the thought is that the workforce is forever lucid and there is no real need for job security or representation.
Here, in the lack of knowledge, the first step to the cycle begins. The job that some people are willing to keep - and others must keep because there is nowhere to step onto (these larger companies now outsource all of the manufacturing and assortment to cheap labour in the third world and are downsizing middle management to bare bones) - has nowhere to go, no up position, and does not pay living wages. Therefore the argument that the low wages are justified because the workforce moves onward is self justified in as much as the wage cannot support a parent or single student living in a city.
The service industry is forever growing larger in today's first world nations due to the economic globalisation process that sees production, modification, manufacturing, and assembling done in sweatshops within EPZs (economy protection zones) that benefit no economy nor pay any taxes to any govt. Slowly the first world's corporate giants. of brand and image, are claiming no longer minds and dollars but space and law. Society itself is shaping toward the efficiency of the corporate dollar - society is losing its power to shape because people are now buying their identity and losing their ability to come together within their own terms under their own banner. The Marxist argument of production and people is defeated by not removing the two but making their relationship obsolete. ¶ 11:09 pm 0 Comments
Large corporations, such as Shell (petroleum), Coles Myer Group, Walmart - the list goes on....create unique low skill service jobs (lets not forget the fast food companies here because they are forerunners in this problem) that underpin and undercut any local - independant competition due to market saturation and being able to run at individual store loss to run at company gain - expansionism. However the problem lies within wages and the workforce. The idea - phrase - is that those who work in these small service industries are students who dont really need a job and are in a midpoint of sorts - a stepping stone if you will. Now the problem is that the companies pay the minimum wage and the students do not complain, thus there is no Union - because the thought is that the workforce is forever lucid and there is no real need for job security or representation.
Here, in the lack of knowledge, the first step to the cycle begins. The job that some people are willing to keep - and others must keep because there is nowhere to step onto (these larger companies now outsource all of the manufacturing and assortment to cheap labour in the third world and are downsizing middle management to bare bones) - has nowhere to go, no up position, and does not pay living wages. Therefore the argument that the low wages are justified because the workforce moves onward is self justified in as much as the wage cannot support a parent or single student living in a city.
The service industry is forever growing larger in today's first world nations due to the economic globalisation process that sees production, modification, manufacturing, and assembling done in sweatshops within EPZs (economy protection zones) that benefit no economy nor pay any taxes to any govt. Slowly the first world's corporate giants. of brand and image, are claiming no longer minds and dollars but space and law. Society itself is shaping toward the efficiency of the corporate dollar - society is losing its power to shape because people are now buying their identity and losing their ability to come together within their own terms under their own banner. The Marxist argument of production and people is defeated by not removing the two but making their relationship obsolete. ¶ 11:09 pm 0 Comments
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
The Internet: Part I
Far from common belief the internet is not a mess of mindless blather.
Yet again due to Capatalist consumerism and itemisation, large sections of the internet have become haven for the corporate world - yet another medium to deprive humanity of space - free space. A corporate push into the trendy and stylish imaginings of merchandise, objects that are not necessary to life; but ARE a LIFESTYLE.
The internet is a fertile place for the growth of ideas and a global (post-structural discourse) of free information - without the burdening problems of identity.
How is it that the internet - the people who use such a device allow for a user pays environment. That licensing terms, agreements and conditions are fashioned on such nebulous creations such as code. Surely mathematical equations cannot be owned by anyone. Of course certain works can be admired and the diviner respected for what s/he is. In such similar vains that great mathematicians are recognised and become household names - so too are artists - and so (eventually) will be mathematicins (engineers if you will) of the virtual world. That is of course if they can maintain a certain user friendly access to their tools and allowed to freely express themselves.
"One must remember there are many forms globalisation can take - but not all are as damaging as the corporate globalisation that is taking place now"
- Noam Chomsky
'Manufacturing Consent'
Free Expression.
Corporate Greed.
Branding.
Mental Space. ¶ 12:21 am 2 Comments
Yet again due to Capatalist consumerism and itemisation, large sections of the internet have become haven for the corporate world - yet another medium to deprive humanity of space - free space. A corporate push into the trendy and stylish imaginings of merchandise, objects that are not necessary to life; but ARE a LIFESTYLE.
The internet is a fertile place for the growth of ideas and a global (post-structural discourse) of free information - without the burdening problems of identity.
How is it that the internet - the people who use such a device allow for a user pays environment. That licensing terms, agreements and conditions are fashioned on such nebulous creations such as code. Surely mathematical equations cannot be owned by anyone. Of course certain works can be admired and the diviner respected for what s/he is. In such similar vains that great mathematicians are recognised and become household names - so too are artists - and so (eventually) will be mathematicins (engineers if you will) of the virtual world. That is of course if they can maintain a certain user friendly access to their tools and allowed to freely express themselves.
"One must remember there are many forms globalisation can take - but not all are as damaging as the corporate globalisation that is taking place now"
- Noam Chomsky
'Manufacturing Consent'
Free Expression.
Corporate Greed.
Branding.
Mental Space. ¶ 12:21 am 2 Comments