---------------------------------------------------------------------------
**** http://www.GOANET.org ****
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Happy New Year Twenty-Ten
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 20:53:03 -0500
From: "manuel tavares" <duk...@bell.net>
We have the capability, but do we have the will or as Floriano says, are we
going to beat around the bush? Time will tell.
Mario responds:
We don't have to wait for time to tell. This same discussion has been going on
for years. All the biggest chest-thumpers do not even live in Goa. But they
serve a useful purpose whether they live in Bengalooru or Blighty, Canada or
California. Without them everyone in Goa would be asleep. Once in a blue moon
everyone wakes up and jumps up and down. The CRZ protests a few years ago
showed you are right about the capability. What happened after that? It was
siesta time again.
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 12:55:57 +0000
From: Carmen Miranda <carmitamira...@gmail.com>
No one denies that development is essential for poorer nations...
Mario observes:
I must be missing something here. In a previous post we were told that the
FIRST STEP before doing anything else in Goa was a massive re-education plan to
teach Goans that "consumerism is not the path towards real meaning in life and
contentment, and that their very survival as a species depends on changing
direction from short-term gains and rampant consumerism that leads to
corruption an greed, only than can we really hope of reaching and achieving
governance that is for the benefit of the majority and policies that are
sustainable."
Now we are being told that development is essential? Why not prevent them from
becoming rich in the first place through the re-education programs? That's
what the enlightened leaders in Cuba, N. Korea, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, Nicaragua
and Venezuela are doing to ensure that their people are permanently happy,
aren't they?
Haven't the Americans already shown everyone how terrible their unsustainable
consumerism is, at least until Obama came along and is thankfully taking the
country backward to make it more sustainable? He has even increased the
unemployment rate so that mortality rates would decline we can see from the
information below. What a guy. His heart is as big as all the other
humanitarians like Castro, Jong Il, Mugabe, Morales, Ortega and Chavez.
Imagine how terrible it would be if India's GDP became like those greedy
Americans. The whole country would look like those Goan mines and the kachra
piles all over Panjim. There would be chaos in the streets when every family
has two or more cars. The electricity will be shutting down every few minutes
when everyone has two refrigerators and air conditioners in every window, or
(gasp) central air. The earthly virtual greenhouse would become like a real
greenhouse and keep in heat while keeping out rain. Sea levels would rise.
Sangolda and Pilerne would replace Calangute and Candolim. Aye, aye, aye.
That re-education better start right now.
Carmen wrote:
But in the advanced economies there is mounting evidence that ever-increasing
consumption adds little to human happiness and may even impede it.
Mario observes:
This is absolutely correct and some of the mounting evidence was on display
last month in Copenhagen. Brilliant and benevolent leaders like Robert Mugabe
and Hugo Chavez received standing ovations when they said that capitalism was a
failed system, and suggested that we all become more like Zimbabwe and
Venezuela, two countries with highly sustainable consumption rates and
tremendous happiness as a consequence.
Someone needs to warn all those immigrants pouring into the US from poorer but
happier countries with lower levels of consumption that a special kind of
unhappiness that comes from greater consumption awaits them. Why are they
rushing in, any way they can, legally and illegally, often risking their lives
to do so? They have no idea how bad it's going to be until Obama makes the US
just like their countries. Then everyone will be much happier. In the
meantime they should go to Zimbabwe and Venezuela.
Carmen wrote:
1) Several of the world"s longest-lived peoples eat just 1,800 - 1,900
calories a day, no processed foods, and minimal animal products. By
comparison, the average American consumes 3,830 calories a day.
Mario responds:
Absolutely correct. An illegal alien was caught sneaking into the US and was
being questioned by the immigration authorities. "Why do you want to come to
America?" the impoverished and starving alien was asked. He replied, "Everyone
in American is fat. I want to be like them.":-))
The poor guy has no idea what misery awaits him from all that food and fat he
will be carrying around once he finally succeeds in eluding the immigration
authorities.
Carmen wrote:
2) In the United States, the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) neared its per
capita peak in 1975, at a time when per capita GDP was about half what it is
today.
Mario responds:
Since 1975, India, Russia and China mistakenly decided to achieve unsustainable
growth rates and their GPI has been declining ever since and the latest
research shows mounting unhappiness and misery among their populations as a
result.
Carmen wrote:
3) U.S. researchers found that for every 1 percent increase in unemployment,
U.S. mortality declined by half a percent.
Mario observes:
Correct again. We are seeing this in India, China and Russia too, where
mortality rates are increasing because of decreasing unemployment rates.
