gfc and the zuvuya

it is easy enough to say .. too much debt. but what is not easy to face is that the debt is tied up in non-performing assets.. overvalued property to be more accurate. both residential and commercial. its a bitter pill.. and one that will have to be swallowed .. sooner or later.
debtors (and anyone who buys into the debt-funded consumer model) will have to face that fact that a can of worms is only worth what someone will pay for it.. its a tough one. but its the lesson many who gambled their childrens' future away have yet to learn.

recently i came across a work of art by josé argüelles.. surfers of the zuvuya. it was written in the late 1980s. (20 something years ago now but still cracking). it is largely about mayan time. or time-space. the 4th (and 5th) dimension. the spirit world .. the sphere of the buddha (and of nirvana.)
the mayans are the adepts who living in the 4th dimension and beyond, order the galaxy. time in the forth dimension is not linear but cyclic/fractal. here in the three worlds of human endeavour it is of course, linear.. or percieved so.
time unrolls in periods.
according to the mayan calender or perception of time which takes the 4th dimension into account, a new period will begin in 2012 (it is well known).. the surfers of the zuvuya describe it as a colonisation of the planet (earth).. not a land grab or a people grab.. but a new consciousness.
erstwhile humans will develop an earthling consciousness in distinction to a human consciousness. or they will be sidelined. healing the planet or else! coz otherwise the mayans may scrap the experiment of humanity. uncle joe says so..

well.. i reckon the so called gfc is part of this unfolding..there are clear signs that the monstrosity of global industrialism has begun to grind to a halt. (to put it politely).

so ...there is much to look foward to.. turning parking lots into rose gardens.. poison factories into landfill. making degraded land bloom... choked polluted rivers into clear streams again. there is real work out there for those with real vision. real merit to be acquired. believe it.

hu goes there.

hu goes there.

so.. its not totally clear what happened to stern hu. he was found guilty of something and sentenced in a shang hai court . it is clear that it has something to do with the price of iron ore which is at an all time high (140 a tonne or something.)

the fact is at this (high) level of business involvement---billions of dollars and the supply of vital raw materials to china--- the distinction between what is criminal and what is sound business is not so clear....

it would be as big a mistake to condemn the chinese justice system as to affirm the innocence of rio tinto, bhp or any player in this market. it is a poker game. the clenliness of players' skins is not really what its about.

oligopsony .. (isnt a pretty word in any language.)

the chinese will learn that the way to keep the price down is to get hold of the mine. sooner or later. one way or another. but if they think they will be let in on their terms alone, theyre dreaming.

thats my reading of it at least.

australians are fools to sell off unprocessed raw materials. it is what has caused the environmental catastrophy that the good earth has suffered. its not stern hu who needs to be made an example of in particular.. he is but a fall guy. its written all over the contract.

dr. jim cairns and the psychopaths next door.

over easter i went to the d.t.e. festival (down to earth). its a mission to get there as i dont have a car---- a 10 hour drive from here.. most of the people there are from melbourne, the other major capital of the australian continent. its only a 4 hours from there.

(one slight hitch.. i hitched a ride with a dude .. his engine blew out just as we got there.. i had to get the train home.. never mind.. it is a good rail service on offer though it only runs once a day. (i missed it the first and stayed in the deniliquin camping ground. but it was ok.)

confest (which was set in motion by the late dr. jim cairns) was/is an awesome event . many workshops.. drumming/dancing.. exchange of ideas. sweat tent. river to swim in. good weather.

jim cairns (1914 - 2003) came from a rough enough school. after a stint as a detective in the victorian police force (1933-1944) he got an economics degree and went into politics . they wouldn't accept him into the communist party.. he was actually a socialist. his spot was in the left faction of the australian labour party. he became deputy prime minister and treasurer in the whitlam government. (seat of yarra)

it is said that the main reason he didnt lead the party is because most of his efforts in the early 70s was towards protesting against the vietnam war. he organised resistence and gained a deal of credibility. he was an ideologue and a writer.

he was criticised for falling in love with his personal secretary--- some people are so critical they will even condemn a man for loving a (beautiful) woman. its extraordinary. others remember him with varying degrees of affection.

what makes me think of the psychopaths next door is this:-

oh.. the people next door are psychopaths. i'm not sure if i mentioned it. here in sydney the local government sold off the mental hospitals/asylums and placed the inmates in "the community'. the result is that the state gets a cash injection from the sale but the poor lunatics get some cheap accommodation in some cheap suburb.. like the one i live in. and the debt (mortgage on the house) or rent gets paid off in the future.. but it isnt the lunatics who get my sympathy.. so much as the community actually. so how would you like to live next to a psychopath who maybe is or maybe isnt on his/her medication..?? if they go off it maybe they will come through the door with an axe .. or maybe they wont.. you dont know. it could certainly happen. and even if it doesnt, it can ruin your peace. which is probably all the unfortunate is interested in anyway. who knows?

so.. my psychopath neighbors pied à terre is the result of neo-liberal policies.. 'placing the mentally ill into the community' is the lubricant expression.

the fact is that many psychopaths need asylums where they can be monitored..

so.. the last generation not only squandered the kids inheritance, they have put them into debt in so many, many ways.

it is the socialist policy that protects both the psychopath and the community. .. so 'placing the mentally ill in the community'... may sound better than a glib comment.. and maybe even appear to work in the short term.. but psyhopaths need asylums. the neo-liberals have sold the community out. the bastards.