Fernan's blog

Moya Lázaro, Fernando.

These videos should be watched before reading this essay:

< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWDdcD-1xoo&feature=youtu.be >

< http://youtu.be/ScwGBNMH428 >

If there is someone who can explain the current crisis freely, this is a humorist.

Everyone else would take the situation too serious; there are some angles of the problems that only can be analyzed from the humor. Other way, we would be so angry that we would not be able to breath and finally choked to death on our own bitterness.

The videos show us a good example of good humor. There is no need of strong words or slap faces or people falling or even a bizarre picture. Only two people sitting in front each other talking. These videos are hilarious but they leave a slight aftertaste, you feel like you have been watching something amazing but at the end they were saying the truth as simple as it is.

There are several epic lines, for example:

At the beginning when the banker is recalling the time when his generation had some kind of certainty and order, saying that that time was dubbed “the golden age”. The anchorman asked him when this Golden Age was, 60’s or 50’s; and the banker asked that it was “June last year”.

Then the banker complains about some difficult question as:”Where’s the money gone?” and asked “As if I am suppose to know”.

Finally my favorites are; first the way the banker explains how the market works as a “sophisticated mechanism; sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down. When there is more greed than fear it goes up, when there is more fear than greed it goes down.”

The other is when the anchorman asked if he (the banker) is not worried about not understanding how some formulas work and the banker answered: “Of course, it didn’t (worried). In fact it would have been worrying me if I had. Because if I could understand when anybody could”.

There is much more apart from the humor. There is a criticism of our society; we thought that everything was going perfectly as long as we did not know how it worked. As the banker said in the video:

– “Some idiot somewhere asked the question that should never have been asked”

-“Which which was…?

-“Which was: How much of these things worth?

I wish I were able to explain the crisis so accurate and simple.

To understand this essay it is essential to read this article by Christopher Lawron and Laura Stevens:

<http://fores.blogs.uv.es/2011/06/03/03-how-outsized-ambition-greed-and-corruption-led-to-economic-armageddon%E2%80%9D/>

The news in the article are encouraging and worrying at the same time.

On one hand we have a future vision of recovery, but on the other hand we have a sort of “plunder” of Greece.

A big company would never invest money if they had not measured the profits. So, these German companies foresee a future for their investments. They probably have much more information than the regular people; they have a lot of people working on the future’s companies with privilege information from governments. We can say that there is a light at the end of the tunnel for Greece.

Companies are taking positions in some countries, because they are seeing some sort of signal that anyone can see. Is that good or bad?

Some people think that these companies tried to plunder Greece. Greeks feel some government assets as their own entity; it is unthinkable to privatize them. But the future is not longer in the hands of the government of Greece.

How many of these movements to buy Greece assets are related to the speculator’s movements in the share market? Is the finance situation that bad? Who is taking advantage of the crisis?

From what we have read, companies are taking advantage of the crisis. It seems a slow and smooth movement, because it is something which we do not read on the papers or watch on TV usually. Greece is being looted and there is nothing Greeks can do. It is a pity but it is the reality. No matter how many protests they do or how hard the strikes could become, the completely lack of rules in the EU and in the Greek government are going to allow these practices.

We will have to wait until the new movements of the EU central government; hopefully they will ban bad practices and step up in some rights. Perhaps I am being too naive or too kind but the cards are on the table and finally we will find out who was bluffing.

Moya Lázaro, Fernando.

It is quite difficult to understand this article if we do not know what was the “Ostpolitik” and who was Hegel.

Ostpolitik “refers to the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and Eastern Europe” (Wikipedia). These politicies were implemented from 1969 to 1974.

Hegel (Hegelianism) “in political science and political economy the effect of Hegel’s collectivistic conception of the State supplanted to a large extent the individualistic conception which was handed down from the eighteenth century to the nineteenth.”(Wikipedia)

The ideas of the Ostpolitic and the Hegelianism are all over the article presenting them as a solution or at least as a way out of the crisis. As we can read: “more justice through more Europe” In a European Union where the youth is being hitting harder than any other sectors, the need of more equality is more than needed. The article is showing a youth well-prepared for the future and ready to claim for their rights as part of the society. But who or what is strangling the EU youth?

One interesting point in the article is when the author talks about “taking Europe for granted”. This point of view is very interesting; the behavior of the citizens of the EU has changed. We used to love to be Europeans and now we see it as an inconvenience. The immigration, the unemployment and the economic problems are changing our mind and we are starting to look back over our shoulders to the future with fear. This is not good, fear is what encouraged and promoted past mistakes, as we can read in the article “between the East and the West in the 1970s and between north and south today.” We must tackle these problems as fast as possible but also, as smooth as possible. We should understand the idiosyncrasy of each member but the decisions must be equal for each member. This is going to be very difficult, the time for the great politicians has come, we will see whether the present ones are great or not.

The Hegelianism pleads for the collectivism over the individualism and perhaps it is taking shape thanks to the new agreements in the past EU governments meeting. Although Britain is a stumbling block in the path and the agreements were achieve from the weakness, where the two strongest members did what they had settled in a previous meeting, a new EU is starting to walk. We do not know how far or well it is going to work but I am sure that something is better than nothing.

URL’s:

1. Beck, Ulrich. «Facing the crisis» The Spiegel. Web. 07 Dec. 2011

< http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,782148,00.html>

2. «Ostpolitik» Wikipedia. Web. 07 Dec. 2011

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostpolitik >

3. «Hegelianism» Wikipedia. Web. 07 Dec. 2011

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegelianism >

Moya Lázaro, Fernando.

This study is one more among many about the ocean life. In the study we can read about many problems which affect the ocean’s life but the solutions are really difficult and some of them should mean a huge change in our behavior. I am going to focus on Spain since I have closer knowledge about the issue.

In Spain we have a huge experience about overfishing and other problems of the sea life. Spanish coast was an area where fishing had had an important role in the society, but not anymore. We would be generous if we said that the fishing in the Spanish coast is scarce, it is almost extinguish. There are some factors that made the destruction of the Spanish coast faster and deeper. Like, the construction fever, the use of the Mediterranean Sea as if it were a water park, the bad politics about industrial dumping or the bad usage of fertilizers and bad farming.

The construction fever brought many huge problems for the economy but also for the ecosystem. When a construction site is started the area has to be flattened and that means to get rid of all the trees or bushes of the area, this way the soil lose strength and provoke erosion. When it rains all the forest’s debris and part of the soil end up in the sea and build up at the bottom suffocating all the sea life there.

The Mediterranean Sea has yet a great problem with pollution but we do not realize when we go there. The Mediterranean Sea is a closed sea; it means that it only has access to clear its water through the Strait of Gibraltar in which there is an unlevel because the Mediterranean Sea is in a higher position than the Atlantic Ocean; that plus the narrow space between Spain and the north coast of Africa only allows a small amount of water to be clear up. Despite of that, the Mediterranean coast is where the construction sector has grown faster and bigger than anywhere else, ships do whatever they want there and people use it as their personal rubbish bin. We can also mention the rivers which feed the Mediterranean Sea on which we pour sewage and industrial dumping on them.

Bad farming methods are a problem too, although the agriculture sector in Spain is in decline the use of fertilizers or the way the soil is plowed are really harmful for the ecosystem. The agriculture sector has become a rough sector where farmers fight against each other’s and against middlemen through prices. The cheaper is the winner, so they try to get as much yield as they can, buying worse fertilizers for the environment and transforming the soil quickly through the aeration of the soil what is very useful to oxygenate the soil and to help the land to absorb water and fertilizers faster. Eventually chemical substances, such as fertilizers or pesticides, are drained into rivers and, finally they end up in the sea.

Because of all of those examples and the overfishing, the fishing industry has been forced to move away from the Spanish coast. The government and the fishing companies have been obliged to arrange contracts with foreign countries, usually in Africa, to be able to provide enough fish to the European market. We can say that we have destroyed our coast and now we are devastating other coasts through money on behalf of some corrupt governments.

Moya Lázaro, Fernando.

It is something impressive how companies can be a success at the beginning and in a few months everything is over. The new technology has brought fast communication and interaction between people all over the world. That means that companies, not only social networks companies, but all kind of companies have to be aware of what, how and to whom their products or services are addressed.

The social network companies are much more sensitive to changes than any other services. Social networks are used every second for millions of people and these people are testing every single corner of the websites. It is like being on the spot, checked and tested by millions of people at the same time. So they have to match the demand of the new applications or features of millions of people. The difficult of that makes some companies to lose its clients, although others success because they know how to match the needs of the costumers…

But who is really a costumer or a client of a social network? If you go to Facebook you are not buying anything, the whole immense structure is held by publicity. That makes you think how much money they are making. A company is willing to put its publicity in a social network spending a big amount of money in the internet instead of putting this money in TV commercials or billboards. That shows the power of the social network companies and how important they have become.

Why some social networks did not success? When someone goes to Facebook (for example) he/she wants to spend some time finding out his/hers friends news or mood. No one goes to a social network to learn something or to teach. It is an entertaining and as an entertainment clients do not want to deal with complicated instructions. I have no idea about how social networks work, but fortunately many of my friends, colleagues and family use them every day, so they have given me an overview of the scene. Every one of them told me that it is impossible to spend more than two minutes in front of the computer waiting; if they have to read something in another language they quit rapidly, if they have to read more than 5 lines they give up immediately, if they cannot find an application (no matter how silly it could be) with a glimpse they prefer to do something else.

One company has taken steps to improve its services above its competitors, Facebook. I asked my friends and family about what Facebook has that others social networks lack. They agree that Facebook never stops, this company is bringing up new applications or games or services that everyone likes. A good friend of mine gave me a good example; he showed me a Facebook page in English and with only a click it was translate in seconds. Then he told me to go home and connect to Facebook, I did it and he made a video call for free also with a single click.

I do not really know how invasive are the social networks in our privacy, but I know that every single thing we upload to the internet is uploaded by us. We should be aware about what we are doing and if we would like that some things could be in the “cloud” of the internet for ever. Social networks are strong and powerful tools that can bring down anything or built anything from where nothing there was. We can take advantage of that and improve communications but what is in the internet is taken by internet user as public domain, which is false and dangerous.

For more info about the history of some social networks you can visit this page.

Moya Lázaro, Fernando.

People know that taking apart anything is much easier than put it all together. We have learnt this lesson when we were children, when we dissembled one of our toys and we had to call our father to reassemble it. Politicians were also once children, although sometimes is hard to believe that it really happened, because of that they learnt the same lesson that you learnt; the difference is that some of them are having the same behavior in the political life, while we only have this behavior when we want to fix the remote control, which is impossible by the way.

It is true that nowadays the parties are much more similar in their messages than never, they cannot make a huge difference between them. Politicians have become state workers, when they should be opinion leaders, they should come up with new ideas to develop the society which they are working for. Nowadays they only huddle, throwing some stones from the bunch but not participating in the development of the country only waiting for their opportunity.

And what is the fastest way to reach a society which is sick and tired of their politics? Well, they use simple arguments. They only listen what the citizens are saying and repeat it, aggressively, thousands of times without giving any solutions only complaining about everything. In the case of the Tea Party, they use taxes but we have closer examples like the major of the town of Salt in Spain who is been using the problem of the immigration to get more votes or the voices in the Generalitat Valenciana crying for the imbalance in the money they are receiving from the central government compared with other regions. But we have to take a look to another movements like the 15-M; many of their supporters do not know what they are asking for or what measures the government should take; they only want a change but without knowing what change, how to do it and who does it, make the message is vague and ambiguous. Those weak arguments move the crowd although they do not know where they are really going.

The easiest arguments are always the most dangerous. Focusing on the Tea Party’s arguments we could agree with some of them, anyone likes to pay taxes or being unemployed, but taxes are necessary for the development of the country and to get the society more equal. But if we agree with the political ideas of the Tea Party, we should ask them how they would do it possible and what kind of society would bring up with the new line of thoughts. They want to change the society completely from head to toe, they want to decentralize all the decisions no matter what happen or who pay the consequences provided that they get results. The 15-M movement use some similar arguments, such as every decision has to be made by voting, decentralization or bringing down the government and set up assemblies instead.

In the hard times people think more individually but we are wrong because it is the time where we must think more globally. We have to be very careful because some of the ideas of these movements are valid and promising but they are not the solution. It is the time when the brightest people should come up and lead us, not with easy or fast solutions but good solutions for everyone. We are no longer kids but we still need a “father” to sort out the problems that we are not able to cope with, if we put our faith and fate on other “children’s” hands who only know how to break down the society; we will go back a century in rights, knowledge and well-being.

For more and better info about the Tea Party visit this link:

http://fores.blogs.uv.es/2011/07/31/03-us-economy-the-tea-party-is-a-real-threat-to-america/

Now is the best time to buy a second-home in the countries which are in a worse situation due to the crisis in the EU. It could sound like we were talking like crows waiting for the last breath of who are agonize, but it could be a good deal for these countries’ economy.

The market which I know the most is the Spanish market as I worked in the construction sector for more than 15 years. But as I was reading the article and adding my previous knowledge of the sector, I realized that all the countries have almost the same structure and market, and more surprisingly the same way to take advantage of the foreigners who wanted to buy a second-home.

The article shows the major point of the market, the most popular among second-home buyers from north Europe and also among natives, sun and beach. The closer to the sea the property is the much you can ask for it. Now you can watch on TV a lot of news about the oversupply in the housing market; banks and owners want to get rid of properties which sometimes are driving them to the bankruptcy. So, we have offer and demand. Why they cannot match?

The economic situation is not the best right now, this is one point; bureaucracy is another problem along with taxes and mistrust. The last one is one that we have got by cheating costumers. What we do not realize is that a cheated costumer are actually, a thousand of lost costumers, we do not need more bad press abroad that we already have.

We should open up our housing market to the exterior and try to find new investors. It is not only a matter of the housing market, the sort of people who come to spend their holidays are also people who spend money in other services. It might be very good for some regions, although it is not the best way to develop a country but we have to take advantage of what we have and step up the investments there to fix a regular market in that sector.

It is not good for the country if the government only focus its attention to the holiday market; in fact it is a sign of weakness, poorness and dependency of the others. The government must manage the resources that it has the best way possible and it could get wealth from the second-housing market, but the government should not forget that the development of the country has to move forward not sideways. And also the citizens should not be dazzled of the glow of the big and easy money from beyond our border, we must force the government to invest money and effort in other sectors in the country; public education and public health are the most important foundations of the future, if we want a bright future we need bright people and for that we must seed knowledge before harvest the country’s profits.

This post is based in the following article: http://fores.blogs.uv.es/2011/10/03/04-europe-on-sale/

Moya Lázaro, Fernando.

Newspapers have always had great influence as opinion makers. Knowledge is power; and what Murdock’s empire has been doing is what every dominant culture has been doing since the world is world. Christianity was one of the first to control the information. At that time, if you wanted to know how to read, you had to go where a church was and read what they provided to you. If you wanted to improve your education you have to turn into one of them and belong ever since to the Latin Church. When European countries decided to take advantage of Africa, in what is called Imperialism and what should be called how to rip apart a whole continent to feed big fat greedy bellies, they used the innocence of the natives and twisting the news which they sent to Europe. A new era began with the creation of the USSR, manipulation was worst than never and many has learnt how to do it following the main lines. Like a genius at manipulation and control called Joseph Goebbels.

What do they all have in common with the Murdock’s empire? Well, all of them use whatever takes to achieve their objectives. It is incredible how the empire spread its tentacles in the crow, government and the police and that was in England; what about USA?.There had not been any USA president without the support of Murdock. What a lovely coincidence.

The empire did not stop until it reaches what it wants. But, what was the “empire” seeking?  Money? The empire has enough that is for sure; so what? Power, the empire wants to be the opinion maker for excellence. If we read the articles we realize that the «empire» had nearly had the job done. Murdock has only lost a battle not the war, and he has many resources to make it possible.Yes, he was forced to close down News of the World, but it was a scapegoat like all the people who were arrested. Murdock’s empire has many newspapers, television channels and radios. Murdock’s empire has also many servants everywhere and they are so deep in the mood that they do what their master tells. There is no room for second thoughts in the «empire».

The royal family is a great deal but one can understand some tricks to get information, not all of them but some. But what happened with Milly Dowler is something so dark and dirty. I cannot imagine what crossed through the mind of the responsible of doing that. Playing with the hopes of the family only for… for what? This is my question; Why? It does not make any sense, people who has families, who know how hard is to be waiting for a child because he is two minutes late. But the emperor wants results and he is not going to wait too long for them. They had a choice but when the dark side is calling is really difficult to say no, eh Rupert…

Photo source: http://stevenmarkham.wordpress.com

Moya Lázaro, Fernando.

Giving a speech or a presentation is something really difficult for Spanish people because we have never been taught on how to do it. It is a matter of education; in the Anglo-Saxon education children learn from the very early age how to express their ideas in front of people. In Spain, there are many students that have never  been in front of their class to expose or uphold his work. I know some American people and Canadian, and they told me that they gave presentations when they were at school more than four times a month.

In the web site we can learn useful sentences and tips. But we cannot get confidence through studying. So, we have to get it from ourselves. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, because it is so essential for us that we have to bring down this barrier by all means. When you get confidence, it doesn’t come alone. It comes with fluency, brightness and clarity. Vocabulary is important but firstly, it is better to know how to use properly the vocabulary that you already have. This is a lesson that I must take soon…

One valuable point is also the pauses. A well-done pause points out what you want to communicate, and also gives time to the audience to understand every point and ingrain the ideas. Some of the most shocking words were never said. You only have to remember how your father looked at you when you did something wrong, yes, he did not need words.

Why does it happen more to Spaniards? This fear comes from culture. We are too self-conscious and we are ashamed of what we have not done yet. People from UK or Canada or EUA love accents and mispronounced words; they don’t care whether you make mistakes or not; provided that your message is clear. This is one of the multiple things that we have to learn from Anglo-Saxon culture because if Spanish people were polite, punctual (something almost impossible), confident and good communicators, we would be a major country.

For further information about talking business:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/business/talkingbusiness/

Moya Lázaro, Fernando.

The rights of the authors have ever been important, and a subject of debate. But when the first copyright act was enacted no one could have thought what would come in 200 years.

Although, the changes have been progressive for decades, in terms of copyright, there is a fact that has changed everything, the internet. Before the arrival of the internet, the rights of the author were easily defended, comparing with the situation now a day.

The internet has changed the view of the property of the creative work. People have started to find everything on the internet, sometimes without seeking it. We don’t know how exactly the internet works before trying to download what we want. We don’t consider who has put his effort, his believes, thoughts, money and hours in a work, we don’t care about who the author, the creator is. It is the most unfair deal, you put all your effort and everyone in the world can take advantage of it, no matter if they have paid for it or they only have clicked in a website which is earning a lot of money showing you some porno. You can download the Bible if you agree to see some ads of porno web sites.

We must put ourselves on the spot and consider if we were willing to work for days, or years, and would get nothing because everyone thinks that you don’t have the right to get money nor acknowledgment for your own work.

If it is not reasonable for anyone, why do people still break the law? It is easy, fast and cheap this is the reason. We can put all the excuses that we can make up, but in the end we know that what we are doing is cheating. We would not be able to hold any arguments in front of an author, well perhaps some people could, but not the majority. We would probably say that he is totally right and we would support him in every step he would take, afterwards we would head up home and we would download something because there would be nothing interesting on the TV.

The solution is so far away. The creations are the same everywhere, but the laws to protect them are different in each country. We should not talk only about laws; it would be like saying that if we do not have laws we do not behave as a human being. We have our own fault; if something it is not prohibited that does not mean that it is right. We are always trying to find the tiniest crack to trick.

Downloading copies of a work is part of the society now a day. Authors, companies and governments should try to work each one in its sector to change the trend. I wish I had the answer to change it, but sadly I have no idea. What I know for sure is that authors won’t keep working for free forever and the whole mankind is losing great things every time someone reckons that it is not worth to work for nothing.

For further information about Copyright act and Fair Dealing:

http://uvpress.blogs.uv.es/2011/08/05/03-copyright-and-you-new-requirements-start-sept-1/

Moya Lázaro, Fernando.

To understand this essay it is essential to read this article: http://uvpress.blogs.uv.es/2011/08/09/03-when-knowledge-isn%E2%80%99t-written-does-it-still-count/

Wikipedia is one of the best resources internet has given. It gives so much information that it would be impossible to print out in any way; even more, that information is being renewed every second. And it is so easy to use that even an 8-year-old child uses it with ease; but all of these are not the best about Wikipedia, the best is that is free for anyone.

Wikipedia is where anyone goes when wants to find out something; students, professionals, housewives everyone who wants accurate information goes there. That is a huge responsibility for Wikipedia; the majority of the people who go to Wikipedia don’t check the information. What makes Wikipedia so reliable? People who are working there for free make very little mistakes, sometimes there is something which slips out but that is corrected immediately.

As we can read in the article, some Wikipedia members are trying to find new ways to put all the knowledge in the site. They have really good ideas but they should be done carefully. What Wikipedia has achieved could be easily lost. Wikipedia has been using a true-and-tried method successfully, but the idea of Mr. Prabhala means that this method has to be done in another way, a difficult one.

As a conclusion, I must say that I don’t believe that telephone calls or interviews are the best way to proof that information is true. The vision of the people about the same aspect is very different, for example, I make paella every week, and the way I make it differs so much than how my mother makes it that she certainly thinks that her way is the way it should be made. What I mean is that Mr. Prabhala method is a risk, but if it is done correctly it will be a huge advance in sharing information in the internet.

URL:

http://uvpress.blogs.uv.es/2011/08/09/03-when-knowledge-isn%E2%80%99t-written-does-it-still-count/

Moya Lázaro, Fernando.

To understand this essay is essential to read this article:   http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,781590,00.html

Becoming richer has never been so easy to who were already wealthy. On the contrary, a few years ago we were all rich; at least it is what we thought. Now benefits are not in the subprime mortgages nor in new technologies; now it is speculation.

Speculators play with the money of several investors and get quick and large benefits; no matter who or what is damaged. They also seek for any little crack in the system, and if they don’t find one, well they can create one. Currently, anyone controls the market; every little rumor is taken as a fact. In this jumpy state, speculators play harder than ever to take advantage of the fear and anxiety of the markets.

The governments are unable to do anything against these movements. They have lost their power because they are not blameless; the accumulation of debt left them in the weakest position in front of banks and corporations. Nowadays it is almost impossible to countries to put their bonds into the market. Banks are nearly the owners of countries.

A few months ago, banks were in the edge, but they made themselves essentials for governments. Governments worldwide gave bailouts to banks and save them from where they put themselves. What were governments so afraid of?

Markets should be controlled; they have shown many times that if they are left in their own will the system doesn’t work. Players think individually, and it is normal, and try to get more money, and it is normal too. But what happen when they don’t get the results they were looking for? Someone has to pay, no matter who is swept away, a person, a culture, a country.

Bankers, as players, have been designing complicate product to take out of nowhere as much benefits as they can. They think that a quiet market doesn’t produce quick benefits; they are craving for picks and valleys. But it means that the market is anxious, so a rumor can lead a country or a company to dance on the edge of the bankruptcy. Like Greece, no matter what it does to tame the crisis, because in one second a whisper in Germany could collapse the whole UE. When these actions are bad for countries is very easy to stop them, but governments are always one, or ten, steps behind; and sometimes it seems that they want to be there. As I read that investors are increasingly using computer to predict and move faster in markets, I realized that governments have no chance.

I don’t know how to manage the information about Italy and Deutsche Bank. On one hand, I think that Deutsche bank’s behavior is what anyone expects. If I had been in charge of the bonds’ section and I had known that Italian bonds would fall down; I would have done the same as Deutsche Bank did. But on the other hand, Deutsche Bank could have had privileged information or they could have created the crisis of the Italian bonds intentionally.

Governments have a rough time in front of them. They have to fight against the crisis, while they try not to make big players angry and not leaving them on their own. Also trying to cope with their communities which don’t trust in them, they are not opinion leaders anymore, they are statesmen so far from people that they only persuade them with monetary assistance.

There is no one at the wheel in Europe; we have fewer options as the time goes by. So, or the EU leaders go into a room, seal themselves and they don’t leave it until they reach an agreement to work together or the EU is finished.

URL:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,781590,00.html

Moya Lázaro, Fernando

To understand this essay is essential to read this article: http://uvpress.blogs.uv.es/2011/09/02/04-speculating-with-lives/

I have just started studying this degree and I am realizing that I was living blindfolded. I am the older at class, I had been working since a year ago and I used to think that I was well informed. But reality is hitting me hard. I did not know anything about these “economic engineering”.

People are greedy. It is a human condition but we should try to earn money and try not to hurt anyone (or at least we should do our best). This is not part of the crisis because the movements to change the commodities market began years ago. It is a factor which gets worse the situation of the poorest. The first world would hardly go through a food crisis, but if this happened; what would happen with the third world? I do not want to think about it because there are millions of people starving right now, so it would multiple by hundreds.

The article shows us a view of the market, not only physically but also a moral view. When the reporter describes the place as a big rubbish bin with men who think only in what happens inside their “castle”. We also see their minds which are as dirty as the floor is.

In Africa and Asia they have been fighting against the greed of the “white people” since Europe and United States decided to look for new markets. It was in the 19^th century but we still find ways to make them more miserable, to keep sucking all their resources. They also got improvements, but does it worth? I think it could have been done otherwise. In fact, it can be done otherwise.

The funniest thing is that they know how bad they are doing it. There is a paragraph crystal clear about it in the article. How they manage to leave the discussion about how they are promoting poverty and what measures they could take to change it.

We hear, from time to time, that the poverty is caused by droughts, civil wars,  bad politics in poor countries… Is that all? Is not there anything more? Is it only caused by the weather, or their own problems or the decisions of some natives?

We can not blame the investors about everything. Investors are interested on how quick they can make money and specially a secure place to invest. Governments are guilty, of course, but sometimes corporations don’t give the chance to the governments. And some goverments are in reality corporations.

We know that there is enough food to feed everyone, but there are millions of people starving. Does everything boil down to the speculators? Is the law of the supply and demand obsolete? Were all of us wrong about how the market is suppose to go?

You could think that Adam Smith made a huge mistake, reading an article like this; there is not an invisible hand that regulates the market. There is no mercy, no regret in business; only profit and loss

URL’s:

http://uvpress.blogs.uv.es/2011/09/02/04-speculating-with-lives/

Moya Lázaro, Fernando

To understand this essay is essential to read this article:http://uvpress.blogs.uv.es/2011/09/13/04-how-goldman-sachs-created-the-food-crisis/

Greed is what moves money. Goldman Sachs managers were extremely clever when they saw the opportunities that making a new way of trading in the commodities market would offer them.  But, how did they get it? Wasn’t there an institution to monitor and protect?

Doing a little research, I found out that Goldman Sachs had been disposing their men in the USA governments’ influential positions. Goldman Sachs is not a company that supports republicans or democrats; they have been working and making donations to both of them. They worked with the Clinton’s administration, Bush’s administration and finally they have some people in Obama’s administration.

What are the compensations? Well, the executives return to the firm with an agenda full of influential contacts and they have already ingrained the ideas of the company in the political agenda.

Are we able to do anything? As long as we are in a crisis, we are only concerned about our pocket. We take our hand out of the pocket and see how much money we have left; we don’t raise our head and watch the whole picture of what is happening and why people are starving. In fact, if we had the opportunity of making money quickly, we wouldn’t care about what happened to the others.

We should have done something when we had the chance. The time to do things is when the economy is wealthy, when there is a crisis it is impossible.

Did Goldman Sachs really create the food crisis? Yes, they did the best they could to make it possible, but we are not blameless. We looked aside when we shouldn’t have done it. We can say “I did not know what Goldman Sachs was doing.” But we did not know or we did not want to know.

URL’s:

http://uvpress.blogs.uv.es/2011/09/13/04-how-goldman-sachs-created-the-food-crisis/

http://www.infowars.com/obama-administration-goldman-sachs-from-top-to-bottom/

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0820-06.htm