Nipawin - Friday, March 29, 2002 - by: Mario deSantis
 
 

 

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."

Mark Twain

 

unequal
society

I am fed up with the business models of the neoclassical economists and their economic predictions. I mentioned in earlier articles that these economic predictions are self-fulfilling prophecies of the free marketeers for a freer market on behalf of the few and privileged. As long as we use economic predictions funded and predicted by Corporate America we will never have a civil society, instead we will have an ever unequal society divided between corporate predictors and everybody else.

 

 

creative
choices

I find the term Prediction and the related emphasis on being rational highly manipulative for directing our social and economic growth. Therefore, we must change our way of using logical and mathematical predictions to support our social and economic growth and we must be reminded that we must create our future through civil participation, listening to one another, learning from each other, and making decisions not because of the results of mathematical formulations, but because of our creative choices.

 

 

Enronization

President Bush is not ratifying the Kyoto's treaty for the reduction of greenhouse emissions since his predictions for complying with this treaty are evidence that millions of jobs will be lost, that the GDP will be cut. Since when did predictions become evidence? So we have Bush's predictions that the Kyoto's treaty is too expensive and that it would cut into the GDP stimulated by waging wars abroad. Bush's predictions and wars go hand in hand and this is terribly wrong, and I wonder if this emphasis in making predictions is the result of the Enronization of Corporate America, the Enronization of business models peddled by Harvard University, the Enronization of economic globalization, the Enronization of our governments, the Enronization of justice.

 

 

echo

In Canada, the copycatting provincial premiers are against ratifying the Kyoto's treaty as these premiers echo in unison Bush's predictions of a decline in the GDP and a decline in business competitiveness at a time of economic recession.

 

 

human
costs

It is not expensive to comply with the Kyoto's treaty for the reduction of greenhouse emissions, and besides, Bush's predictions don't include the social and environmental costs of pollution such as the premature deaths of people, the increase of respiratory illnesses, the contamination of water..

 

 

only too
expensive

President Bush forces his predicted decisions with the supreme power of his private government, with the supreme power of his military, and with the supreme power of his supreme justices at the Supreme Court. But social decisions should not be the result of the Bush administration's supreme predictions, rather, social decisions should be the result of our creative work to look for solutions for a better world. Compliance with the Kyoto's treaty is only too expensive for the few and privileged, it is only too expensive for our energy corporations, corporations which are looking for immediate profits by selling energy on the stock market rather than providing energy services through innovation and alternate sources.

 

 

 

Bush's prediction that compliance with the Kyoto's treaty is too expensive is wrong and to prove that Bush is wrong, John Browne, BP chief executive, has recently mentioned that his company has met its self-imposed target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions nearly eight years ahead of schedule, and at no net cost to the company. And John Browne has stated

 

"that achievement is the product not of a single magic bullet but of hundreds of different initiatives carried through by tens of thousands of people across BP over the last five years."
   
References:
  Pertinent articles published in Ensign
   
 
An Oil Company Proves Bush Wrong On Climate Change. CEO John Browne Demands Government Help. By Seth Dunn, Research Associate at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington DC http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5334
   
 
Mario deSantis' note: if you read the following speech by Sir John Browne, you don't have to remember it: 'THE TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONSHIP - THE NEW AGENDA' http://www.iue.it/RSC/BP/BP-speech.htm