Warmongering Nations: The Philippines

Analysis and Opinion
By Joe America
One of the hardest arguments for me to deal with, as an American, is the fact that the US has engaged in so many bloody wars. Pro-China trolls certainly harp on the matter, or Filipino leftists, them, too. Well, it’s undeniable. The US was formed by war, divided and put back together again by war, and industrialized by war. It’s had wars here, wars there, wars all around the globe.
The best I can do is take each war, understand its context of origination, and debate “what would you have done in that circumstance, without the ability to use today’s perspective as a guide?” Because leader’s were without today’s perspective. Well, people resist changing their minds, so it’s futile. But I do find some peace in my own mind by understanding how most of the fighting had a legitimate basis.
Most don’t think of the Philippines as a warmongering nation. It has peace written into it’s Constitution. But very clearly, under today’s government, it is a warring nation. The enemy is the nation’s citizens.
Here are the wars currently underway:
- War against drugs with an estimated 30,000 casualties.
- War against citizens fighting the virus, driven by lockdowns and military control rather than scientific and health wisdom. 29,000 deaths and counting.
- War against communism or ‘reds” which has spilled over onto University campuses. Awful anecdotal killings.
- War against international terrorism and religious extremism; Marawi, destroyed in 2017, is not rebuilt even today.
- War against critics as brigades of storm e-troopers infest social media and billions of pesos are spent on propaganda.
- War against cities as funds are aligned with friendlies and all kinds of hostilities are directed at cities that do their own thing well. And shun the brutal, corrupt ways of so many.
Oddly, there is no war or even pushback against China as her fishing boats steal Filipino fish. Filipino food.
The National Government’s hostility is directed mainly against Filipinos, almost as if Government hated its own citizens.
Well, that’s deeper than I am psychologically qualified to go, but it is very, very, very peculiar.
War is destructive. It tears things down. The Philippines is already torn down, and it seems to me that it would be better if Government were to respect and help citizens. Not war on them.
_________________
Photo: Marawi, May 2017, by Al Jazeera
There must also be a war on poverty
War on hunger
War on anti-knowledge
War on ignorance
It does not help that the bureaucracy is populated by active and former military men who are not exactly trained to think critically or even along the scientific method. This includes the social services and welfare department, the environment department and even healthcare services where a former general heads critical vaccine distribution logistics.
In the energy sector, I am especially concerned with a general heading the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) operations and has his paws on a yearly billion peso purse where he has had absolutely no experience, no training nor even a basic understanding of spot market trading much less the marginal pricing mechanisms that the WESM employs. Remember, energy costs are almost in every link in any value chain.
The use of the word “war” in almost any endeavor as Karl and Joe pointed out is not simply because they are used to applying it on all and sundry and confronting challenges as “wars”‘ on everything, it reflects both their myopia and the lack of any sophistication and thinking when coming up with solutions.
Correct Dean, To declare war is not to think of solutions, but just shortcuts and excuses.
Thanks for your valuable insight.
One sure way to stop these wars, is to not make it a war.
Make it free. So no one has to fight for it.
Today at least in California, the drug war is pretty much done, marijuana’s now legal, soon psychedelics, but more importantly its the sentencings and convictions. Crack cocaine, meth, all treated as sickness now not crime. Heroin , fentanyl , especially.
Since all this is now sickness, then the issue of health care as human right comes to play, meaning follow the example of socialized medicine, seems to be working everywhere its applied.
Thus if medicine is free, and clean air and water is protected by environmental laws, one has to ask why then water is not free? is this not also basic human right? related to health care? Why’s air free?
Only difference is you can package up water, harder to do with air.
Which brings us to the internet and electricity, for internet to be free and basic human right, electricity has to be free. For electricity to be free, the middle men, the folks making these electrons move around, up and down voltage, etc. have to be rendered obsolete,
which means better storage capacity, which means batteries, its all about warehousing electricity, done by the gov’t, for free , as basic human right. Thus all the commanding heights of economy must fall under the purview of gov’t. The people.
The only war to be had is the war against Economists, karl. Those are the folks telling us nothing can be free. Free ridership is a fallacy. Nor is it a problem. Public good is public good.
Remove money look what hapoens. The air we breathe is free but ocygen is mot, we have a war for oxygen nowadays.
The plants and cyanobacteria don’t charge us for oxygen, karl.
But I agree, tech and services like these have to be paid for, for those that want more than the basic human rights.
p.s.— if one’s elected not to get a vaccine then no oxygen, save the oxygen for those who’ve gotten it; and those that cannot.
So no oxygen for chempo. Triage is triage.
You cant intubate covid patients with plants
You can and you are, karl. All oxygen comes from them.
Plants as is you could not, how do they treat suffocating patients in when oxygen tanks were not yet invented or during somekind of pre-spanish flu? Serious question. I need your phd in google.
People die, karl.
Creative Destruction.
More robust individuals survive, humanity is hardier.
Without any medical degree, just my PhD in Google, I’m gonna assume that most that are intubated actually end up dying anyways. Success rate so minimal, that one has to wonder how they’d survive, meaning maybe w/out intubation they’d fair better.
Just a hunch. But basically, like Fr. Austriaco, I’m gonna propose intubation is just as successful as prayers in those situations, karl. God’s will.
Thanks, now go back to i7sharp without mongering.
Don’t encourage us, karl. We’ll get in trouble again.
______________________________________
Matthew 7:1-3
King James Version
1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
_______________________________________
In Visayan, eye booger is mota, what is it in Tagalog?
Elizabethan English is very similar to Visayan then.
Muta
@Karl,
Intuitively, the immediate cause of death was suffocation & oxygen-starved respiratory organs then nervous system via the brain, aorta (heart), etc. hence their pandemic numbers similar to our Covid19 numbers.
1918 Spanish Flu dead from 3 waves: 21,642,274. unknown origin and just as quickly, disappeared. (lifted from THE 20TH CENTURY, 1999 JG Press). 15 million+ from Asia alone.
war on variant, and we are being warred. dont know if this is okay, but I’ll shoot anyway.
it’s apparent foreign sec locsin is warmongering, lol! many ofws covid vaccination cards are ridiculously not up to scratch, not standardise and comes in many forms and sizes with no uniformity. and now, said cards are stopping them from going back to work in hongkong.
teddy locsin is known for dropping balls, lol! 2x the vaccine consignments from international suppliers, the seaman’s eu certification drop ball looming and now, the hongkong ofws vac cards fiasco. weird, locsin did not see this coming like has not seen what a standard covid vac card looks like when he often moves in diplomatic circles and receives missives of concern.
not all things nice are happening under locsin’s watch; and I thought it was just health sec duque.
That’s an interesting point. I have an acquaintanceship with Sec Locsin on twitter based mainly on his belief in strong US military ties and China’s shenanigans in the WPS. And reading and concepts. I’m not clear on his role on OFWs versus the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency. He got involved rescuing OFWs who had to leave their countries, and his department issues passports, a functional responsibility that is hugely messed up. Vaccination cards are the responsibility of Duque I believe. He’s being criticized for the absence of a unified card. Locsin stepped in to get Pfizer vaccines because the US Sec of State was here so he asked a favor. Otherwise it’s not his baliwick. The one area he might have been more foresighted on, as should Duque and Galvez been, was recognizing that Sinovac might not be accepted by some countries.
like what leni said, anything you started, you finish. not half done, half finish and half bake. or maybe it’s just the bisaya in me.
and locsin has further said he’s going to ask hongkong to accept the multi-multi-multi, multo covid vac cards of our hapless ofws, lol! if I was locsin, I’d ask WHO for the standard vac cards that all other nations are using, filipinos maybe unique, but sometimes we have to toe the line and do as others. or, locsin can ask his hongkong counterpart to see the template of hongkong’s standardized vac cards. and that should give locsin idea of how to format our very own. and can then informed both immigration and doh. team philippines is as strong and as weak as its weakest link.
war on presumption! apparently, the bigwigs and the mighties assumed their rank is uber status weighty and would not ask questions that make them appear they’re from crete, hence cretins, lol! okay, me friends tol’ me, people from crete are called cretans, not cretins. alright, there is no harm in asking questions that may make one appear they’re from the greek isles. and the mega fire going on there is frightful.
hongkong should accept sinovac, it’s from china and hongkong is now well and truly china. I think, majority of hongkongers are also vaccinated with chinese vaccines.
Ours look like this,
Obviously it won’t take a genius to counterfeit the card, plus populate the info above w/ fake information.
There’s nothing “official” about these cards really.
yikes! I ask and I saw and was flummoxed. apparently, there is already a passport size, WHO issued international certificate of vaccination or prophylaxis. it is colored yellow and got several pages attached where all vaccinations received by the passport holder are noted therein. example: vac for malaria, tb, thyroid, etc. it is signed by the administering clinician, duly stamped and dated.
My kid’s vaccines are recorded in a “My baby” book with pictures of babies and and various health tips. The current disease is the first disease with such hard-hitting social impacts. So everyone is figuring it out on the fly.
I’m not sure if Americans are required to provide the WHO yellow card for int’l travel,
but looking at this, looks like it too is easily counterfeited and populated w/ fake info. Just need stickers.
Same same as our CDC cards really.
apparently, anything written on WHO’s international vac booklet can stand up to scrutiny, immigration has copy of documents and entries therein.
and apparently again, doctors designated by immigration are the ones allowed to sign in the booklet. it’s common to have stickers on the booklet, but it must have overseeing signature next to it.
international travelers can fake the entry if they must, be prepared for the consequences though.
Bureau of Quarantine will issue a ‘national’ yellow card to try to satisfy Hong Kong’s rules.https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/12/21/who-needs-an-international-certificate-of-vaccine-card
If its just stickers and signatures, and stamps and handwritten notes, how are these vaccine passports actually verified? is there some sort of data base or validation system?
I mean if 12 year old Filipinas can fake actual Philippine passports, this vaccine passport is a piece of cake I’m sure.
OT. Crypto currency heist. https://www.reuters.com/technology/how-hackers-stole-613-million-crypto-tokens-poly-network-2021-08-12/
they could not find a fence. half of the stolen was returned.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/defi-platform-poly-network-reports-hacking-loses-estimated-600-million-2021-08-11/
corporal, all I can say is that we now have e-passports and e-health records and talking about them is totally out of limited knowledge.
I’m just glad joeam’s friend, teddy locsin, has been pointed to the right direction. cheers.
joeam, I hope our hongkong bound ofws realise that the innocuous looking yellow vac card is not only official but a legal travel document. making false declaration and tampering with the card may well carry penalty and can cause delay at border security; in worse cases, ofws are sent back home.
Yes, I’m sure fixers are at work as we speak. The need is moving faster than the technology or laws to assure proper verification.
I saw the French, they have vac cert on their mobile
chem, smartphones covid cert vac is certainly handy. I dont know how foreseeable sa atin yan. our country is so far behind that even our national ID cards that cost the govt bigger bucks to implement and apparently work hard to promote – are not honored by local banks.
said card kasi does not carry specimen signature of the bearer like the bearer is not bound by the rules and regulations of having the card; and, is probly not also aware of associated duties and responsibilities pertaining the card.
so used to dealing under the table, signature is not required, lol!
I’m Googling stats that support my hunch, and nothing so far. But I did find this article on proning and how its better than intubation. But there are older non-COVID19 related articles on the efficacy of intubation.
Proning I think is more doable in the 3rd world,
just get those bamboo and rattan manufacturers to devise a turning bed, very similar mechanism to a lechon pit. I’m surprised this is considered a new idea in the 70s, before even receiving my PhD in Google, I growing up knew to toss and turn and sleep prone when I had a bad cough.
I would venture to say that most doctors who succumbed to COVID last year in the Philippines were intubated too early– since intubation was seen as the best care, so doctor to doctor they thought they were helping out their colleagues.
Here’s the article.
“Proning, as an emergency medical procedure, is far from new. In 1976, a community ICU nurse in central Michigan named Margaret Piehl and Robert Brown, a doctor who had served in Vietnam, co-authored a paper detailing their observations that prone positioning benefited five patients with a potentially deadly fluid build-up in the lungs known as acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS for short. âItâs about as low tech as you can get,â says Brown, who first came up with the idea and is now 83 years old. He and Piehl used an electric, rotating bed mounted on hoops to flip their patients overânot that low tech, perhaps. Today, hospital workers work together to move patients in regular hospital beds first onto their sides, and then their fronts, with a rolled blanket underneath a leg and an arm to alleviate some pressure.
The method is thought to work by using gravity to pull fluids away from the back of the body, where thereâs generally more lung tissue, thereby clearing up more space in the lungs for oxygen. Since the lungs of patients with severe Covid are at risk of fatal fluid buildup, nurses and doctors realized early on that the same approach might be very helpful. Proning has another benefit, too, according to Andrea Armani, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California who has written on simple innovations in the Covid-19 pandemic: For health care workers who are trying to avoid contagion, itâs safer to turn someone onto their front than it is to do an intubation, which is an invasive procedure carried out near the patientâs face.”
https://www.healthline.com/health/lung-cancer/prone-position
sorry, this is the link to the article:
https://www.wired.com/story/proning-covid-patients-seems-to-save-lives-but-how-many/
you are right, karlG, and I say not all plants are of much use to humans. some are poisonous and some got sharp thorns that tear flesh, they also dropped filaments/hairs that makes skin itch. their annoying pollens cause hayfever, headaches and sinusitis, makes breathing difficult too.
Pollen is problematic for asthmatics and leaves with caterpillars too.
true, the air we breath is free, but oxygen in tanks and cylinders for medical purposes are not free. and ought to carry warning, oxygen is highly flammable, wont cause explosion but can spark fire. no smoking near oxygen tanks pls, and dont store them in the kitchen where it’s hot and there is naked flame.
oxygen in tanks is to be treated as drug, it’s use ought to be regulated. self medicating with oxygen is risky. administration of oxygen above 4lt/min dries the airways and painful. in hospitals, patients dont feel pain dahil they’re given the painkiller morphine.
How about nitric oxide? It’s effective against the SARS-COV and also for the many inflammatory diseases.
Evidence?
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326381#benefits
more on nitric oxide
https://www.news-medical.net/health/How-Could-Nitric-Oxide-Treat-Severe-COVID-19.aspx
Basically, its effect is not tested and therefore not known. The hypothesis is that it could help the patient oxygenate, but can also irritate lung tissue, and it has no effect on stopping the virus.
I would add that no one contributing to the blog is a doctor that I am aware of. So these are just musings, not medical advice.
Yes just musings.
“I would add that no one contributing to the blog is a doctor that I am aware of. So these are just musings, not medical advice.”
Perhaps Sonny can invite some people?
x-
Our Team of Dominican Friars and Scholars
As a team of Dominican friars and scholars committed to the preaching of the gospel, we are convinced that the Thomistic intellectual tradition can provide insightful and compelling responses to these questions.
Each of us brings specialized training in biology, physics, philosophy, or theology to our collaboration.
Our Team
Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., Ph.D., S.T.D.
…
-x
@ i7,
you can’t go wrong with prayers and angels and saints.
LOL! that’s the movie “The Happening” in which the bad guys are the plants trying to kill Markie Mark and his loved ones.
Google Hogweeds. Now those are truly bad plants. Evil. But they still make oxygen. So not all together that bad.
weeds destroy the ecosystem. self propagating and prolific spreader, weeds readily choke off other vegetation, depriving them of space, nutrients and sunlight.
and much like trolls, weeds are best eradicated.
@kb
“A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, “a plant in the wrong place”. Examples commonly are plants unwanted in human-controlled settings, such as farm fields, gardens, lawns, and parks. Taxonomically, the term “weed” has no botanical significance, because a plant that is a weed in one context is not a weed when growing in a situation where it is wanted, and where one species of plant is a valuable crop plant, another species in the same genus might be a serious weed, such as a wild bramble growing among cultivated loganberries.” from Wiki
Weed is a human construct. Plants grow. Nature procreates. Life spreads. Which is valuable and which is not , well that’s a very human definition, conditions dependent on time and place.
This is one hardy and nutritious plant. I’ve have dandelion salad, and drank its root as tea, also the flower is edible, the ball of pappus and seeds when blown into the air is both fun for kids and rich in metaphors.
Difficult to eradicate is its very definition. I love weed. đ
glad to know you enjoy your weed.
My dad’s musings about our different wars and our war budget.
https://web.archive.org/web/20011230184539/http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2001/sept/29/opinion/20010929opi4.html
A short excerpt.
==
Alas, we have too many wars. Our war against communist and separatist insurgencies is only in peace-talk recess. The old and new wars against terrorism and transnational crimes are assuming a more perilous twist. Now the worst kept secret is out. Filipinos trained and fought, and some are still with the Taliban. We were glad enough that the ASG, the second in alphabetical order of 30 world terrorist organizations after Al Queda, are still on ransom-terrorism. Was the Rizal Day 2000 bombing a test practice mission? Surely we cannot fight terrorism alone. Not even the worldâs only military superpower with a lot of intelligence funds could. A coalition war budget is in order.
Over and above, we have many permanent wars. These wars, like the poor, will always be with us. Our flat economy bedeviled by a threatening global recession and internal problems can only take so much. Yet we truly need the right âwar budget.â
This happens when the peoples only option is the power in the ballot which can easily be manipulated. The one thing missing is the RIGHT to bear arms to fight against a tyrannical government thats killing its own masters, the people.
Excellent points. I think the right to fight is problematic, but the weakness of Philippine institutional integrity – COMELEC, Ombudsman, House, PNP, IBP – really hurts.
Alas! “the weakness of Philippine institutiional INTEGRITY!” But the RIGHT TO FIGHT is always there — for as long as it is ground on what is true and just (AYE, here one must look inward, reflect, listen to one’s spirit/soul: what truly is your sense/consciousness of what is real, true, right, just?)
… corrections: institutional! … grounded! …
The right to fight is indeed there, so thank you for that bit of corrective wisdom. And those of great conscience are the heroes.
The current blog topic, in a nutshell:
– The US has engaged in many bloody wars â its current status (economic and military power) a product of those wars. But for legitimate reasons (me: some?).
– The Philippines too is a warring nation, but warring on its citizens, not on China as her fishing boats steal Filipino fish. Filipino food.
– War is destructive.
No wonder then that instead of rising in stature and status, it is headed to the garbage pit — warring on its own citizens.
The intellectuals and activists who call the Philippines a “postcolonial state” are right.
A colonial state is by definition one run by foreign occupiers that makes war on natives.
A postcolonial state is run by natives in power who make war on other natives not in power.
Thanks for the explainer on colonial, postcolonial states.
â[the Philippines] will, perhaps, enter openly the wide road of progress and will work jointly to strengthen the Mother Country at home, as well as abroadâŠâ — Jose Rizal
“The enemy is the nationâs citizens. …” –JoeAm
“A postcolonial state is run by natives in power who make war on other natives not in power.” –Irineo
“Spain, 333 yrs, America, 44 yrs, Japan, 3 yrs; Philippines, 74+ yrs.” — Anonymous
A postcolonial state usually has its conflicts in a formative period and then is finally consolidated.
India and Pakistan separating were a postcolonial conflict, so was the Indian annexation of Sikkim. Indonesia had conflicts in the Moluccas and East Timor.
The question is why stability evades the Philippines inspite of reforms and peace processes.
Keep in mind also that the US was also a post-colonial state;
And Britain too was of Rome;
And Rome was also of the Phoenicians and Greeks.
Then the Egyptians.
Then delving into pre-history, tracing everything back to Turkey– all domestic cats come from this area, thus domestication in general must have started here.
Maybe the Bible was right the Garden of Eden was somewhere around Iraq and Kuwait.
But then our genetic roots come from southern Africa.
Thus the uncolonized colonists must be Africans!
That’s critical race theory in a nutshell, so too post-colonial states origins.
So it s like asking why the Negritos and Aetas escape stability and reforms.
Answer has to be that in the bigger scheme of things, nothing’s permanent.
The ones on top will be in the bottom and vice versa. Warmongering is part and parcel of that big process.
Correct in principle, but 75 years of an independent Philippines isn’t long, why so quickly?
Or could Manolo Quezon’s article on 500 years of staying the same (since 1521) be right?
In that case “war” would just be the natural state of an archipelago with myriad tribes as soon as central power loses control.
“War” is a good way to look at it, not necessarily bullets and bombs; but politics,
when Mar Roxas approached Poe to consolidate, and they did, there would be no DU30.
Same-same for 2022, instead of VP Leni and Inday Sara; you’ll have vote splitters again.
The question is will vote splitting affect Leni positively or negatively?
Post-colonialism or critical race theory are beside the point, The principle is as old as humanity itself,
That’s it in a nutshell.
The gist is also that when comparing to the US , the destruction is also creation.
All the various wars that the US has started or responded to, can be juxtoposed on that graph.
When the leadership lean on China, did he adopt CCPs genocidal control of her people?
Duterte is exagerating his power. As Saguisag had said, we elected a president not a king. But he didn’t only act as a king but he thinks he is above God. He is but a psycho that should not had been qualified to lead us to perdition.
Hard to fight his well funded troll army were most of them are brainless low life creatures.
I think you are right. I suspect the pushback against his authoritarian ways will build as elections near. Whether it implodes or explodes is yet to be seen.
There are wars … and rumours of wars.
——-
Matthew 24:6
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars:
see that ye be not troubled:
for all these things must come to pass,
but the end is not yet.
Mark 13:7
And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars,
be ye not troubled:
for such things must needs be;
but the end shall not be yet.
——-
There is
war against COVID,
war against the Delta variant,
and even …
“war against ourselves.”
Even war against God, as a matter of fact:
Romans 8:7
“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God …”
How will, would, shall … or, SHOULD … “Christian” Philippines cope with this?
She must have heard of “the whole armour of God”?
She must needs consult/obey the “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.”
It will add to her “knowledge.”
Ban the KJV!
@LCX
God forbid!
As the clergyman/soldier in John Wayne’s best movie(?) “The Searchers” said.
Here’s numerology in LCX’s eyes:
24 occurrences of “God forbid” in the word of God.
Shakespeare, who is not God, used the phrase about twenty times.
Question to LCX:
In place of the KJV, name an alternative.
I am NOT demanding that you reply.
You can keep *skirting* this matter if you wish.
I already said, the Hebrew Bible, any.
Even the Samaratan pentateuch.
Stop warmongering!
All these folks are Christians, Catholic irish, Anglican protestant English and then Dutch. Makes no difference because war is everyones proclivity, the only question is can one create from destroying.
the KJV is no more, just like no one reads Shakespeare, its 1600s crap; prose has moved on. There are no more unicorns and no more must needs. Only simple prose. and clear poetry. Like this guy,
x-
the KJV is no more, just like no one reads Shakespeare, its 1600s crap; prose has moved on. There are no more unicorns and no more must needs. Only simple prose. and clear poetry.
-x
LCX,
Quote your Hebrew Bible for its “simple prose and clear poetry” … in English, please.
Provide the link for good measure.
In the world of LCX, there will be no wars or warmongerings?
Because AOC, Bernie Sanders, to name just two … will be its leaders?
For those who don’t know or Adore, … ADORE! her as Lance says he does:
————–
AOC is “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez”
————–
Right, Lance?
i7sharp, Hebrew is not English.
And yes, adore.
You two stop mongering đ
Perhaps it is time to look for another source – a source other than LCX?
the thomisticevolution.org team
Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., Ph.D., S.T.D.
Robert Barry, Ph.D.
Fr. James Brent, O.P., Ph.D., S.T.L.
Brian Carl, Ph.D.
Fr. Richard Conrad, O.P., Ph.D.
Fr. Thomas Davenport, O.P., Ph.D.
Daniel D. De Haan, Ph.D.
Fr. Simon Francis Gaine, O.P., D.Phil.
Raymond Hain, Ph.D.
Sr. Stephen Patrick Joly, O.P., Ph.D.
Fr. Humbert Kilanowski, O.P., Ph.D., S.T.L.
Fr. John Baptist Ku, O.P., S.T.D.
Sr. Mary Elizabeth Merriam, O.P., Ph.D.
Fr. Isaac Augustine Morales, O.P., Ph.D.
Fr. Jordan Schmidt, O.P., Ph.D.
Daria Spezzano, Ph.D.
What, if any, would they recommend in place of the KJV?
They’ll say read more than one book, i7sharp.
That’s what smart people with PhDs do.
Which all of them have, which I have, in Google. đ
They have multiple sources and compare and contrast.
And make conclusions and propositions from them.
Thus not believing ever that unicorns and must haves are cool.
Well… unicorns are cool actually.
… and must needs too. LOL!
@LCX
x-
Theyâll say read more than one book, i7sharp.
Thatâs what smart people with PhDs do.
-x
To Lance, anyone:
Name at least one evolution “fact” (that is likely agreed upon by the most number of books) that tries to refute the KJV.
i7sharp, KNY
If one extends the reach of lessons found in the Bible, one tends to become rather contemplative, assumes the lotus sitting position, drapes one’s arms upon the knees, empties the mind, and finds that perfect note of pure peace. Anything beyond that is manmade and always arguable. Normally, one arises from the position with a smile and somewhere to go. Why you want to drag everyone down your path, Sharp? Is it the only path on earth?
x-
Why you want to drag everyone down your path, Sharp? Is it the only path on earth?
-x
Joe, “drag”?
Anyway, I simply ask for one evolution “fact” that seems to refute the truth that these people probably believed:
x-
DISCIPLINE / SCIENTIST
—————- —————————–
ANTISEPTIC SURGERY / JOSEPH LISTER (1827-1912)
BACTERIOLOGY / LOUIS PASTEUR (1822-1895)
CALCULUS / ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727)
CELESTIAL MECHANICS / JOHANN KEPLER (1571-1630)
CHEMISTRY / ROBERT BOYLE (1627-1691)
COMPARATIVE ANATOMY / GEORGES CUVIER (1769-1832)
COMPUTER SCIENCE / CHARLES BABBAGE (1792-1871)
DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS / LORD RAYLEIGH (1842-1919)
DYNAMICS / ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727)
ELECTRONICS / JOHN AMBROSE FLEMING (1849-1945)
ELECTRODYNAMICS / JAMES CLERK MAXWELL (1831-1879)
ELECTRO-MAGNETICS / MICHAEL FARADAY (1791-1867)
ENERGETICS / LORD KELVIN (1824-1907)
ENTOMOLOGY OF LIVING INSECTS / HENRI FABRE (1823-1915)
FIELD THEORY / MICHAEL FARADAY (1791-1867)
FLUID MECHANICS / GEORGE STOKES (1819-1903)
GALACTIC ASTRONOMY / WILLIAM HERSCHEL (1738-1822)
GAS DYNAMICS / ROBERT BOYLE (1627-1691)
GENETICS / GREGOR MENDEL (1822-1884)
GLACIAL GEOLOGY / LOUIS AGASSIZ (1807-1873)
GYNECOLOGY / JAMES SIMPSON (1811-1870)
HYDRAULICS / LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519)
HYDROGRAPHY / MATTHEW MAURY (1806-1873)
HYDROSTATICS / BLAISE PASCAL (1623-1662)
ICHTHYOLOGY / LOUIS AGASSIZ (1807-1873)
ISOTOPIC CHEMISTRY / WILLIAM RAMSAY (1852-1916)
MODEL ANALYSIS / LORD RAYLEIGH (1842-1919)
NATURAL HISTORY / JOHN RAY (1627-1705)
NON-EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY / BERNHARD RIEMANN (1826- 1866)
OCEANOGRAPHY / MATTHEW MAURY (1806-1873)
OPTICAL MINERALOGY / DAVID BREWSTER (1781-1868)
PALEONTOLOGY / JOHN WOODWARD (1665-1728)
PATHOLOGY / RUDOLPH VIRCHOW (1821-1902)
PHYSICAL ASTRONOMY / JOHANN KEPLER (1571-1630)
REVERSIBLE THERMODYNAMICS / JAMES JOULE (1818-1889)
STATISTICAL THERMODYNAMICS / JAMES CLERK MAXWELL (1831-1879)
STRATIGRAPHY / NICHOLAS STENO (1631-1686)
SYSTEMATIC BIOLOGY / CAROLUS LINNAEUS (1707-1778)
THERMODYNAMICS / LORD KELVIN (1824-1907)
THERMOKINETICS / HUMPHREY DAVY (1778-1829)
VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY / GEORGES CUVIER (1769-1832)
-x
You are the densest box of rocks, Sharp. You are peddling your bible, not listening to the editor, challenging others, wasting space, contributing no insights, and not helping the Philippines. Back into the pit until you come up with something to give in ordinary, earnest conversation.
https://joeam.com/2019/04/24/ist-gott-tot-is-god-dead/
i7sharp, refer to that thread. if you have a specific question, I’ll be more than happy to elaborate. But your questions have to be smart, and specific. As I have no idea what you are asking.
Different people seem to have different anchor posts and they change with time. School is the anchor early, then a job, the family dominates through middle age, then the intellect takes over for educated people growing older. Or hobbies, painting, collecting, traveling. In the Philippines, power is a dominant anchor. For Sharp, it’s his bible. Well, you peddle ideas and I peddle conversation, both directed to help the Philippines. Sharp is selling magazines.
True that.
Sharp, leave the librarian stuff to the resident librarian. Please kindly return the indexed card catalogue you keep on using.
FYI: https://www.reuters.com/technology/white-hat-hacker-has-returned-nearly-all-600-million-crypto-tokens-taken-tuesday-2021-08-12/
yes Joe , it would be hard to find a fence for the stolen goods. Every transaction will be monitored, so better just return half of it.
the forever wars in Mindanao coupled with the federalism proposals rang the alarm bells for civil war talks. good thing it is far from the agenda of the so called king makers.
if a civil war happens if it is hard to rise from that, looking at the pace of marawi recovery.
No to civil war.
Click to access Gardner_berkeley_0028E_18407.pdf
Dynastic conflics and Civil war violence.
We have dynastic conflicts very elections we stiil are lucky to have no civil war yet.
Great read, karl. Essentially this is the reason why I think 1Sambayan is one big ploy by the DU30 camp, given the relationship of the families involved.
Makes sense that VP Leni would want to stay clear of them. Talk to folks who are not DU30’s in-laws forchrissakes.
No way for have a Carpio dynasty with the Dutertes as their proxies. But if that happens let it be on record that Lcpl_x predicted it.
Speaking of family ties. Going back to the cavemen days before Darwin, it was always the alpha male wars survival of the fittest. War is in our blood and genes or our biology.
https://securityanddefence.pl/Review-of-the-book-by-Norman-Walter-1950-The-Sexual-Cycle-of-Human-Warfare-Being,138290,0,2.html
Get that cheddar cheese ready, karl. đ
I’m pretty sure if you trace it all the way back, it was all about who got cuckold. And how badly they felt about it.
If you look at chimps and monkeys, when alpha males looked away, beta to omega males were always getting some. Albeit quickly as to not get caught.
Trojan war. In Afghanistan its bacha bazi, which I’m sure they got from Alexander the Great. Which also was his downfall.
They say Genghis Khan accounts for about 1% (give or take) of the world’s DNA,
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/other-men-who-left-huge-genetic-legacies-likes-genghis-khan-180954052/
“We have identified a Y-chromosomal lineage with several unusual features. It was found in 16 populations throughout a large region of Asia, stretching from the Pacific to the Caspian Sea, and was present at high frequency: âŒ8% of the men in this region carry it, and it thus makes up âŒ0.5% of the world total. The pattern of variation within the lineage suggested that it originated in Mongolia âŒ1,000 years ago. Such a rapid spread cannot have occurred by chance; it must have been a result of selection. The lineage is carried by likely male-line descendants of Genghis Khan, and we therefore propose that it has spread by a novel form of social selection resulting from their behavior.”
Yeah, it’s called raping and pillaging. it’s all about sex , karl.
Gold (and silver) is the reason for the wars we wage. The long term effect is a debt trap for your entire dynasty.
Exhibit A: The Hasbergs (This includes Charles V and Philip who is forever etched in our nationhood)
https://www.pri.org/stories/2013-10-15/when-superpowers-default-history-remembers
For the African warlords, they organize a concert in the guise of humanitarian efforts.
first it was live aid then it evolved to Live8 (representing G8)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/24/g8.debtrelief
karlG, isasabit ko ito rito, sa cebu kasi, ang land of the morning ko is going gwen garcia humanitarian covid crazy, lol! dolomite must have gotten gwen so bad, kaya ito bumuwelta siya at napag-initan ang mga jeepney drivers at mga proprietors of public utility vehicles. gwen strongly suggested for them not only to install air purifiers but hepa filters in all pampublikong sasakyan.
sumubra yata ang knee jerk reaction ni gwen, cebu kasi is having ultra ultra surge of covid.
if gwen is really that serious, she ought to insists all trains, taxis, airplanes, office buildings, supermarkets, malls, restaurants, military camps and academies, as well as police stations dahil maraming mga polis ngayon ay covid positive na, and all such places where people are bound to congregate to install air purifiers and hepa filters as well.
thank the lord, gwen did not insist all cebuanos carry tuob with them at all the time of the day and night.
p.s, gwen might as well take undertaking that all hospitals in cebu have air purifiers and hepa filters too. maybe then less medical staff get infected and killed by covid, lol!
I lost it when she explained how the ions from the air purifiers repel the virus or somesuch. I do think oxygen is a good thing but I’d rather hear about ions from scientists.
me too.
gwen is probly aware personal air purifiers may interfere with personal care products like perfume, spray deodorants, hair spray, etc. could well cause the pollutant formaldehyde to form and when formaldehyde sticks to your face and clothes, you may well get tigyawat.
plants are best air purifiers, as well as opening windows to allow air to flow freely: stale air out, fresh air in. as for the virus, using face mask, keeping distance and washing hands still are the universal pangontra.
Gold wars, oil wars, diamond wars, cyber wars. F and B wars (food and beverage)
Nah this is not about hunger games, but water wars.
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/resources/periodical/a-world-of-science/vol-11-n-1/in-focus-water-cooperation/water-wars/
For now our world war on Cyber is on a detente. So no shooting war because of cyber unless China goes on a kill joy mode.
https://www.diplomacy.edu/blog/what-future-cyber-detente-after-biden-and-putins-geneva-summit
OT (On Topic) – warmongering
Joe,
How’s your man (of character), Joe, doing on the war front?
“Biden Orders Thousands of Troops Back to Afghanistan
as Taliban Sweeps Country”
by the way, …
“Well, you [LCX?] peddle ideas and I [JoeAm?} peddle conversation, both directed to help the Philippines.”
“… help the Philippines”?!
Praytell, name your best idea that has helped/could help the Philippines.
Well, Sharp, you persist, a box of rocks, challenging credentials of others, contributing nothing original yourself. Short links, KJV, numerology, and mind-boggling lists. Like, you just. don’t. get. it. It’s about being genuine, thinking, offering ideas and resources.
I wrote some blogs that got the attention of President Aquino. Lifted him up when he was down. That’s probably the biggest.
If you look at Joe Biden through political eyes, you will always be able to criticize. If you look at him through American eyes, you’ll wish him, and Americans in Afghanistan, well in a dicey situation.
“I wrote some blogs that got the attention of President Aquino. Lifted him up when he was down. Thatâs probably the biggest.”
Noted.
Just an update.
x-
Afghanistan Collapse: Taliban on Brink of complete Takeover
GHANI Flees Country
Kabul Surrounded,
Air Base Surrendered
Bidenâs Vietnam: Historic Humiliation Unfolds
TOPSHOT – Taliban fighters sit over a vehicle on a street in Laghman province on August 15, 2021. (Photo by – / AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)
Afghanistanâs Khaama Press reported on Sunday that Taliban leaders are in Kabul negotiating the end of the legitimate government of the country and its handover to the Taliban.
-x
x-
BIDEN: ITâS TRUMPâS FAULT
‘I inherited deal cut by my predecessor,’ president says as Taliban take over Afghanistan
-x
I suspect this is what Biden is referring to. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51689443
My view on this is that Americans will support Biden but political opportunists will attack. Even the former Secretary of State agrees with getting out. https://youtu.be/_257PvRXKXE
seems to me afghanistan is back to square one. USA spent nearly 87billions and 20yrs teaching self sufficiency to afghans, only for afghans to hand in their country to the talibans with barely a shoot fired. as well, the sophisticated military hardware left by uncle sam for afghans to use to defend their own country, the afghans handed them over to the talibans with nary a 2nd thought.
For one, Joe has provided a gathering place to conduct conversations from many disciplines and informed, intelligent, well-traveled minds and explore angles of insights that should concern and enrich us as civic-minded Filipinos.
Thank you, sonny. Some of my best work today is on twitter where ideas cross-pollinate quickly and who knows where they end up. I can nudge leftists, probe the Admin via Sec. Locsin, nag on closed-minded yellows, and inspire constructive thinking through a new insight. It’s like an atomic powered grain of sand unleashed in Philippine social seas.
It’s the least I could do for such a productive endeavor – sharing a gift of communication with others.
Write on!
đ
To be clear, Joe. It’s your gift not mine.
“Think on!”
There, that’s yours.
Joe, YOU – the man!! đ
đđđ
For me, it was how to both solve the over population and nutrition problem in one gulp.
But I’m sure there were plenty of other good ideas there. Like ACLU and BBL (well not really but titled Islamic Renaissance) articles
https://joeam.com/2015/11/22/the-islamic-renaissance-in-the-philippines/
De-growth is one I’m peddling now, but that’s not really my idea, just one I like. Free electricity is related to that. Again not mine. But ACLU and that BBL article I can proudly call my own.
Over population and nutrition solution is more like a pipe dream. The ultimate propaganda if I woke up the next day and was told that I ruled the world. That’d be my first executive order.
I’m very much intrigued by the idea of a de-growth economy, which is tied to your depopulation and nutrition interests. It fits with a world on the brink of climate collapse. The era of capitalistic growth has run its course. Definitely worth some time and attention.
Also Google global climate change niche zones change,
Suitability means more moderate of temperature and therefore better? The Philippines is in the “suitability’ zone.
Very informative, Dr. Lance CPL. Thanks.
NH, Joe,
I think this all is more about agriculture and the types of plants that will sustain humans going forward, though also about migration.
For example , the trend is more Americans to migrate to the sun belt, but if you look at that map, they are headed the wrong direction. In 10 years or so they’ll have to do a U-turn back.
So corn and soy in the sun belt will be less hardier vis a vis the climate models, so look into other staples like chickpeas. Perfectly, designed to be harvested when dry. But also delicious when green.
The chickpea plants variety grown in the Oregon, WA and Idaho area, are specifically from Syria.
Also from Syria is Shih (SheeH, pronounced w/ the H at the end), from Wiki– Artemisia herba-alba, the white wormwood, is a perennial shrub in the genus Artemisia that grows commonly on the dry steppes of the Mediterranean regions in Northern Africa (Saharan Maghreb), Western Asia (Arabian Peninsula) and Southwestern Europe. It is used as an antiseptic and antispasmodic in herbal medicine.
I’m moving to Idaho.
I’m not so sure about plant choices in the Philippines though. But if the experiment in in-door farming in Singapore works, then maybe that map above will be irrelevant.
FWIW: (Dated material but some interesting points)
Julian Simon – (February 12, 1932 â February 8, 1998)[1] was an American professor of business administration at the University of Maryland and a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute at the time of his death, after previously serving as a longtime economics and business professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[2]
Simon wrote many books and articles, mostly on economic subjects. He is best known for his work on population, natural resources, and immigration.
Q. You have written extensively on the subject of population growth. Could you explain the thesis of your argument that population growth and density are beneficial for countries in the long run.
Julian Simon: Population growth does not have a statistically negative effect upon economic growth. We know that from 30 years of careful quantitative scientific studies-just the opposite of what the public believes. Because human knowledge allows us to produce more finished products out of fewer raw materials, natural resources are becoming more available. The air and water in rich countries are becoming cleaner. Most importantly, human beings are living much longer than ever before.
Q. Yet we hear the fear that if there are too many people who consume the resources of a given society, life there will become untenable.
Julian Simon: You say this while we are here in Cannes, a densely populated city, measured by the number of persons per square mile. But if we were to look inside those hotel rooms to see how much space those people have, we would see that they are living with luxurious amounts of space. People have more and better living space than ever before. If we array the countries of the world according to population density, and then look at the rate of economic growth, we see that it is the more densely-populated countries-such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Holland, Japan-that are growing faster, and that the less-densely populated countries-such as those in Africa-are growing at slower rates.
The view that I have expressed to you thus far is precisely the view held by experts on these topics. Every agricultural economist knows that people have been eating better since World War II, the period for which we have data. Every resource economist knows that natural resources have become cheaper rather than more expensive. Every demographer knows that life expectancy in the wealthy countries has gone up from under 30 years at birth 200 years ago to over 75 years at birth today. And life expectancy has risen in the poor countries from perhaps 35 years at birth only 50 years ago to 60-65-70 years at birth today. Those are the facts which are known by the economists and demographers who study these subjects..
Q. If that is the case, then how do you explain the popular view on that subject?
Julian Simon: For the past 25 years, whenever I would give people the facts about population and resources, they would say, âWell then, why do we hear so much bad news?â And for 25 years I have been struggling to work out the answers. The question is extraordinarily complex. The influences range from a genetic propensity deep in human nature to prophesy bad news to a lot of everyday factors such as the media’s tendency to seek out and report bad news.
Q. Share some thoughts on your debate with Paul Ehrlich, who made the âpopulation bombâ thesis popular.
Simon: I remember my reaction in 1970 when seeing Ehrlich for a full hour on Johnny Carson’s television show. Carson said something like, âPaul, explain the population problem to me.â And Ehrlich answered, âJohnny, it’s really very simple.â At that time I was not sure exactly what the answer to the problem was, but the one thing I was absolutely certain of was that it is not simple. As a result of that debate I began to see that part of the problem is our âcommon-sensicalâ approach to problems which inevitably over-simplifies a complex problem like this.
Malthusian common sense is a very attractive idea. But the heart of the growth of civilizations and economies is the non-Malthusian adjustment process that is inevitably complex, and indeed counter-intuitive. The common-sensical Malthusian view sees only the short term rather than the long term. But in the long term these adjustment processes tend to produce opposite results to what the short term results happen to be. Here we should note that science is only interesting when it produces results which are the opposite of common sense. Otherwise you wouldn’t need scientists at all.
Q. It is rather similar to the difficulty of making classical liberal ideas popular as compared to statist or socialist ideas. The latter seem more easily condensed to a bumper sticker.
Julian Simon: Absolutely. That is one of the reasons for their great success. The underlying ideas of socialism are marvelously attractive-for example, the idea of economies of scale that bewitched Marx: Remove the waste of having six competing steel mills and the advertising and marketing which accompany them. Combine them sounds good. But the opposite results occur. Yet this simple-minded idea bewitches people such as Andre Sakarov, Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell and others who are marvelously clear and penetrating thinkers in other spheres of life. But in this sphere-if you will permit me-they are just plain stupid.
Q. What indications of coercion in family planning do you find in the official Cairo Conference documents?
Julian Simon: The UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) people have learned over the years to be extremely careful to frequently mouth platitudes such as âeverything is voluntary.â At the same time, they espouse goals in population growth. The idea of goals and the idea of voluntarism are fundamentally contradictory. If you are attempting to require some level of population growth, whether it be zero population growth or two percent population growth, inevitably you will have to do something to people to get them to that stage, unless they will do it themselves. If they will do it themselves, then you do not need a population conference or UNFPA. So inherent in the idea of stabilization of population, or any positive growth rate, is the idea of coercion.
Q. In China there have been coercive family planning policies in place for some time, including forced abortions. What kind of arguments do you give against state efforts to coerce couples into having families of a certain size?
Simon: The first reason I oppose these coercive policies is because they are morally wrong. They deny individual liberty in one of the most important choices a couple may make-the number of children they will have. So I would be against this coercion even if there were an economic rationale for it. The most tragic aspect of the matter is that there is no economic warrant for forcing people to have fewer children.
It may be true that under socialism or communism, as in China, it takes longer for additional people to receive benefits, and the benefits of additional people are less than those in a capitalist system. It would be better if China would shift to a system where people were free in all ways, including economically free. Additional children then would more quickly benefit others then now. Still, there is no economic warrant to limit population growth even in contemporary China.
Q. What are the main causes of poverty in developing nations if population growth is not a major factor?
Julian Simon: By 1994 we have solid statistical evidence about the determinants of economic development. What could only be said on economic faith 30 years ago, we can now document scientifically. We now know statistically that what David Hume wrote on the subject in the 1700s was exactly right. When identifying why Holland was the richest country in Europe, Hume said that âLiberty, necessity, and a multitude of peopleâ were the causes.
A free society with social rules enables people to exercise their talents for their own sakes. This inevitably benefits others by bringing forth prodigious productive efforts which cause growth. And each generation creates a little bit more than it uses. Hence each new generation is richer than the previous generation.
This process is made more rapid by a free society. We frequently hear in the press how people in rich countries, such as the United States, constitute only five percent of the population and use up 40 percent of the resources. That may be true, but people in rich countries make available even more than 40 percent of the resources.
Q. Give us an overview of your thoughts on immigration policy.
Julian Simon: Immigrants are human beings above all, and more human beings are beneficial because of their minds and the goods their minds produce. Immigrants also have additional beneficial properties because they usually migrate when they are young and strong. Therefore, in a welfare society such as the United States which taxes some and gives others benefits, immigrants are large net contributors to the public coffers. Thus we benefit greatly from immigrants.
Sonny, interesting read. Thanks.
You gave the birth-death years of Julian Simon as 1932-1998. If that interview was circa 1998, that is still 23 years ago. He may not be a man of science, but if he were a fair-minded economist or academician, he will now know — if still alive today — of the scientific facts about the urgent issues of climate change, finite resources, and sustainability.
It is in that context that I am not sold to the idea implicitly or explicitly stated that humans left free to grow productively as individuals as they see fit, are good for planet earth and consequently, humans. In short, there is a limit. The world today is very different from the world of the 1990s.
Humanity has always been stretching Malthusian limits. Take swidden, slash and burn farming as practiced by early Bavarian settlers in the 6th or 7th century, some centuries after the Romans abandoned the province of Rhaetia to its own devices. Swidden was called kaingin in the Philippines and practiced by simpler communities in the mountains until the early 20th century, notwithstanding more sophisticated technology like the rice terraces in the North or localized irrigation in the Bikol River basin even five centuries ago. But yes, people developed technology and organization to grow more food to sustain larger population as millennia passed.
Same with disease. The pandemic of the growing cities of the early 19th century in Europe was cholera. No toilets yet, no sewerage systems, animals were killed in one’s own backyard, so growing towns had sudden issues with disease they never had before, and more travel due to the incipient industrial revolution meant waves of cholera passing over Europe once every ten years or so, based on my somewhat morbid personal research looking at gravestones in the Munich Old Southern Cemetery. Middle class families with around 7-8 kids on the average had 2-3 who died young. The man who had the Munich sewerage system built, hygiene pioneer Dr. Max Pettenkofer, has a quite humble grave in that cemetery too, humble for one who helped beat back cholera.
Asian cities have been crowded ever since, one wonders if customs have developed as a result of that. Like Japanese who always wear masks if they have a bit of a cold to not infect others on the way to work, or the Filipino habit of NOT coughing at people, putting one’s hand before one’s mouth – NOT a matter of course in Germany, I always found people who cough in other peopleâs direction or worse not even cover their mouth quite awful over here. I think certain cultural habits of not hogging space, even making usog in jeepneys are related to space constraints too, while Europeans and (my observation) even more Americans tend to use more personal space. QED that people always adjust.
Of course the limits are being pushed even more nowadays. Allegedly the Green Revolution increased the Malthusian limits from 2 billion people max to way more.
Some years ago it was all about peak oil but fuel efficiency and fracking seem to have “solved” that for now maybe. The limit being pushed now is carbon dioxide creation per person. If new technology helps manage that, what is the next limit?
It might be potential pandemics due to viruses hidden in rain forests that are being exposed to human encroachment including livestock at a growing rate, for instance. Something may yet come that makes Covid look harmless, we never know.
So yes, Sonny’s source is right mankind is clever, but the caveat is to beware. The Plague of Justinian for instance prevented that emperor from reconsolidating the old Roman Empire, it was the clear end of the ancient world – not the last Emperor of Western Rome being deposed by the Visigoths, not the abolition of the Roman Senate by the Visigoths some generations later, not the razing of the library of Alexandria and the murder of the librarian Hypatia by Christian fanatics who saw ancient writings as unholy. One might also wonder about when the Phoenicians had logged away too many cedars to build their ships. The cedar is in the modern Lebanese flag, the vast cedar forests of old are gone. Mankind tends to keep going the same way as long as possible, ignoring warning signs.
Irineo, thanks for the perspective from history on “the limits.” After reading your comment, I say — maybe not yet. We may yet extend our limits if the entrepreneurs with sights to space travel become serious.
Growing mushrooms too, consuming it as staple, might be good strategy.
So many plans, all moon shots
Direct Air capture
We have a climate change problem and it’s caused by an excess of CO2. With direct air capture, you can remove any emission, anywhere, from any moment in time â Steve Oldham
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210310-the-trillion-dollar-plan-to-capture-co2
Seeking the large amounts of methane leaks. I am afraid vertical farming equipped with methane ingesters will only work for those who can afford them.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210805-the-search-for-the-worlds-largest-methane-sources
Not really, karl.
If you look at the vertical farming design, you can do that with pulleys and bamboos.
it’s like 1st class, 2nd class, 3rd class, then steerage and stowaways,
Look at the design and see if applicable w/ lower budget. Beggars can’t be choosers.
I’m sure the Philippines can’t do any trillion dollar projects; so maybe partner up.
For example, I really am curious if mushrooms can replace animal and plants. There are different types.
That’s an experiment that can be done with little budget really, just spores, and those can be gotten for free I’m sure.
Looks like chickpeas are being tested for viability in the Philippines,
@Lance,
“For me, it was how to both solve the over population and nutrition problem in one gulp.”
1. Do you have an “optimum” population in mind?
If so, how/when do you like to reach that figure?
2. The nutrition problem … hmmm, never mind for now.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_population , but I think its dependent on the type of energy being utilized. So clean fusion or better batteries to capture energy from nature and Sun, would allow for more people on Earth; but then again if more people still kill the life forms that make oxygen then its all moot. Thus synthetic photosynthesis must also be in that mix.
But balance is the point. Degrowth being the opposite of growth, tips the scale to the other side.
Today we are approaching 8 billion which is already multiples of some estimates of sustainable population, so it becomes, ‘okay, let’s agree to target 6 and figure out how to get there without turning people into Soylent Green’.
Agreed, I don’t wanna eat people either. If they consume only chickpeas for about a month, maybe. I’ll have to consult a chef. Human flesh is suppose to be similar to swine.
Would you eat a burger from the air? Or it must be mushrooms and chickpeas?
https://www.fastcompany.com/90372330/would-you-eat-a-burger-made-out-of-co2-captured-from-the-air
@lcplx
This is a thread were Pinoyineurope (irineo)mentions soylent green and Joe saying how he hated the script.
https://joeam.com/2015/03/01/the-philippines-myth-of-sovereignty/#comment-111664
Haha! My, we were chatty! đđ€Łđ
đ
I probably missed Lance’s “optimum” population figures.
Now, about the “nutrition problem,” …
This excerpt was gathered from an article that was published today, 08/12/2021 PDT
x-
You probably know that breast-feeding boosts a babyâs health. But, who knew how dramatically it benefits a mother? I didnât until I read a new Swedish study of 18,326 women, showing that mothers who breast-fed infants for 13 months or more were about half as apt to develop rheumatoid arthritis as those who did not breast-feed. Breast-feeding for one to twelve months reduced RA risk 26%. Thereâs more: A large analysis last year concluded that breast-feeding also might protect mothers against type 2 diabetes and breast and ovarian cancer. [End of quote]
In a December 2006 issue of Science News, under the title âMilk Therapy,â the following paragraphs were found:
When scientists started analyzing breast milk, they found that the third-largest constituent of breast milk, making up about 1 percent by volume, is a mixture of indigestible sugars known as oligosaccharides. Many of these sugars occur only in human milk.
Initially, the scientists thought that these were useless by-products of milk production. But why would mothers expend so much energy creating compounds that their babies canât use?
-x
Lance, using your PhD Google, I am sure you can trace where the above came from.
If you were a President AOC’s Health Secretary, what would you say?
You are not reading, Lance explicitly stated that so long as he would not have to eat people that is the figure.
Would that be 10 billion or 10 million that would depend on Lance’s intestinal fortitude.
Lance,
I read Karl’s comment just now about your intestinal fortitude.
Lance, can you address AOC’s statement as related to de-growth and/or optimum population?:
“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘World will end in 12 years’ if climate change not addressed.”
Lance, sorry if I missed it if you had already covered this, but if so, how about a sentence or two for those who like me had missed it too.
Lance I wrote this before. A penny for your thoughts.
https://joeam.com/2020/10/06/regenerative-development/
@Lcpl_X, The Philippines like the world is not poor, it just have too many poor people.
If this works in the UK, we will copy it.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/carbon-dioxide-capture-test-britain-ukri/
“Would that be 10 billion or 10 million that would depend on Lanceâs intestinal fortitude.”
Also the type of sauce available. đ
As to your blog, I think i was still banned then or heavily moderated, karl (as killer bee). Let me revisit. I’m really intrigued now with this CO2 capture, and CO2 burger. This is the first i’ve read this.
Yes, I do understand that theres people in the philippines that have never ridden jeepneys, and people with personal helicopters, etc. so I agree. About too many poor people.
âAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez: âWorld will end in 12 yearsâ if climate change not addressed.â
Theres plenty of projections and rhetoric to go around, IMHO the world will be more like Mad Max. or the Book of Eli, carrying his Braille KJV to Alcatraz.
i7sharp,
That “end” should read more like the end of the world as we know it. It could be better or worst, but I think theres utility in assuming the worst, makes people mind their actions. Or not.
As for milk, I remember in the Philippines most babies were being fed formula, I think that trend largely came from the US, doctors are dumb— Michael Crichton’s autobiography covered this, same with nurseries.
He thought they were stupid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travels_(book) ( a great read, i7sharp, much better than the KJV )
Lance to Karl and i7sharp:
x-
Yes, I do understand that theres people in the philippines that have never ridden jeepneys, and people with personal helicopters, etc. so I agree. About too many poor people.
âAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez: âWorld will end in 12 yearsâ if climate change not addressed.â
Theres plenty of projections and rhetoric to go around, IMHO the world will be more like Mad Max. or the Book of Eli, carrying his Braille KJV to Alcatraz.
i7sharp,
That âendâ should read more like the end of the world as we know it.
-x
TEOTWAWKI
https://www.shtfblog.com/what-is-teotwawki-a-complete-explanation/
Before we can dive deeper into the concepts of TEOTWAWKI, we have to take a step backward and look at another popular prepper acronym â SHTF.
SHTF?
How about AMOY SUKA?
Karl, Lance, without googling can tell/smell that this term – “amoy suka” – is an epitome of the Pinoy’s flair for creative wackiness?
(Will I get credit for *originality* here?)
But back to war …
Nigel Cliff, the writer I mentioned in a previous post, wrote “Holy War”:
x-
Nigel Cliff’s Holy War is a reinterpretation of the explorations conducted by Vasco da Gama. Specifically, he tells the story of the deeply flawed, fanatically religious, but very brave but edacious men who first sailed around the Cape of Good Hope from Portugal to India, and in the process broke up the monopoly of the spice trade that the …
-x
“As time goes on, more and more people will die and there will be more space for you to move through and less pressure on natural resources, but anything man-made will have to be fought over or youâll have to come up with natural alternatives. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of survival strategies. Many of them work on a short-term basis but quickly become less useful as time goes on. Intuition and creative problem solving will be some of the most important skills in a new world.
TEOTWAWKI Conclusion
People spend a lot of time fantasizing about the many ways that our society will eventually fall apart, especially when it comes to plotting out the more exciting aspects of gear and technicalities of surviving drastic circumstances. I can promise you this, however, TEOTWAWKI will be anything but a cakewalk. The day that we have to leave behind the life we knew will be the worst day of our lives. There is no real way to prepare for the mental and emotional impact, or the decisions that we will have to make after that to ensure survival.
Not everyone will be ready, or capable of accomplishing this. In fact, much what determines how we do will be determined by luck, not preparations. Most of us will be caught up in the pandemonium and destruction; but collectively, we are a capable people. There have been great feats performed by even the humblest of individuals. The more you put into the preparing for the end the more likely you are to rise above the chaos.”
I’ve bolded the points I think are most important, luck and intuition. that was a fine read, i7sharp, thanks. I know prepper buddies who I’m sure are salivating over this probability, but they’ve not accounted for both luck and intuition. Nor creativity. Nature is all three, more than anything.
Here’s an even better blog, tapping the same vein, https://www.ecosophia.net/the-future-is-a-landscape/
last paragraph first,
“What Iâm suggesting is that we need to think of the future as a landscape: not a single place where only one thing happens and nothing ever changes again, but as a vast and unmapped territory with many different kinds of terrain, where many groups of people live in many different ways, some more successfully than others. Remember, too, that most of the people who live in that landscape will never have heard of us and wonât care about what we thought or said or did. I suspect that thatâs the thing that galls our collective sense of entitlement most bitterly and generates the shrill self-pity so common these daysââbut weâre special!â
No, not to the landscape of the future, we arenât. The sooner we let go of our overinflated sense of importance and grasp that weâre just one civilization out of many, going through the familiar arc of rise and fall, the sooner we can get to work on the possibilities that are still within reach.”
from Google,
“Vinegar can be produced slowly from fruit juice or fermented juice or quickly by adding a culture called Mother of Vinegar to alcoholic liquid. Mother of Vinegar is a slimy, harmless substance consisting mostly of acetic acid bacteria (Mycoderma aceti) and cellulose. Acetobacters are microscopic bacteria that live on oxygen bubbles.
The transformation of wine or fruit juice to vinegar is a chemical process in which ethyl alcohol undergoes partial oxidation that results in the formation of acetaldehyde. In the third stage, the acetaldehyde is converted into acetic acid. The chemical reaction is as follows: CH 3 CH 2 OH=2HCH 3 CHO=CH 3 COOH. “
History has examples for civilization going towards de-growth, usually forced though. People are clever, but also creatures of habit and comfort.
One could take the period after the retreat of the Roman Empire from Rhaetia as one such period. Romanized Rhaetians and incoming Bavarian settlers found new ways of getting things done with what they respectively knew and had. Some more “advanced” Roman agricultural implements were adopted by Bavarian settlers, some weren’t, based on the known archeological evidence.
As for Byzantium, an old research article about how it survived for so long – a millennium after the Western Roman Empire fell – said that it wasn’t too demanding in terms of tribute from the farming communities of the Balkan, which lived quite austerely. Probably Constantinople earned enough as a chokepoint for trade to afford that, don’t know.
Filipinos probably still were more resilient in the days the urban poor still had space to raise pigs and chickens, plant kangkong, and when people were ready for brownies and water shortages the way we were back in the 1970s, candles always ready, water in large pails and we were used to bathing with tabo not showering, yes I like it better how I live now and I guess entire summers without water, brown outs every two weeks or so ain’t Manila today, but yes we were used to a certain austerity because we just had to be.
One wonders how a dystopia after our present civilization ends would look like, with bits and pieces of technology and knowledge we have today still in use, other stuff gone. Well it took Europeans centuries to reinvent cement and sewerage systems the Romans had.
So true and it took even longer to expand minds via St. Thomas Aquinas.
It can be also argued that Roman concrete is still not mastered really (see Florida bldg collapse), even their sewage system. Both Machiavelli and Da Vinci attempted to control the Arno river, to give Florence a leg up on the competition and a seat at the new world game, but their construction just wasn’t up to par. So much was lost, which was perfected by the Romans.
IMHO its probably gonna be more like Elysium, our hope is located in CERN and Fermilab, so long as they keep their doors open and keep knowledge flowing, we should be fine. Physicists are now getting into Economics and Biology, sub-atomic is the new frontier. So theres a good chance every thing we know at this point will be worth forgetting too. i dunno.
We struck the first blow, now its almost one year and a day, Ireneo. We have to finish the game we’ve agreed upon with the Green Knight.
Yup, lots of religious wackos out there getting pumped up and would gleefully welcome the armageddon. Most dangerous bunch are those who hold positions in the military high command with access to launch sequence of nuclear missiles.
https://theanalysis.news/the-threat-of-war-nuclear-with-china-col-lawrence-wilkerson/
I am glad the discussion includes the larger world problem of climate change, sustainability, de-growth. Chickpea.
Don’t forget cannibalism, NH.
Still on war …
http://www.nigelcliff.com/
x-
In 1958, a twenty-three-year-old piano prodigy from Texas named Van Cliburn traveled to Moscow to compete in the First International Tchaikovsky Competition. The Soviets had no intention of bestowing their coveted prize on an unknown American; a Soviet pianist had already been chosen to win. Yet when the gangly Texan with the shy grin took the stage and began to play, he instantly captivated an entire nation. Nigel Cliff recreates the drama and tension of the Cold War era, and brings into focus the gifted musician and deeply compelling figure whose music would temporarily bridge the divide between two dangerously hostile powers.
-x
However Russia is characterized in international politics and other areas, Russians love music, poetry, and artists.
“The Russian Formalistsâ concept of âDefamiliarizationâ, proposed by Viktor Shklovsky in his Art as Technique, refers to the literary device whereby language is used in such a way that ordinary and familiar objects are made to look different. It is a process of transformation where language asserts its power to affect our perception. It is that aspect which differentiates between ordinary usage and poetic usage of language, and imparts a uniqueness to a literary work. While Roman Jakobson described the object of study in literary science as the âliterarinessâ of a work, Jan Mukarovsky emphasized that literariness consists in foregrounding of the linguistic medium, as Viktor Shklovsky described, is to estrange or defamiliarize, by medium. The primary aim of literature, in thus foregrounding its linguistics disrupting the modes of ordinary linguistic discourse, literature strangeâ the world of everyday perception, and renews the readersâ lost capacity for fresh sensation. A similar technique deployed in drama was âalienation effectâ introduced by Bertolt Brecht in his Epic Theatre, to disrupt the passive complacency of the audience and force them into a critical analysis of art as well as the world.”
NH, if you get a chance watch this movie,
“David Loweryâs new film, The Green Knight, is an adaptation of the wonderful 14th-century chivalric poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, only, in the nature of many of the best adaptations, it revises the material freely, leaning into a revisionism that amounts to a daring act of interpretation. Lopping the titular hero off the title, letting the villain of this quest loom as the sole bearer of the movieâs name, is one hint of that, though like so much of what Lowery does with his source material, it largely heightens an idea that the poem had already asserted. Heroes and villains â figures of note â get titles. The Sir Gawain at the start of this film, as of the poem, is no such figure. Not yet.
Hence the slick curiosity of the game that the Green Knight has come to these decorated halls â full, in theory, of worthy men â to play. A beheading game, as itâs known: a hero-making ordeal that is also, deliciously, a guarantor of death or something close to it. It goes like this. Take the Green Knightâs giant axe, deal him a fearsome blow, and in a year and a dayâs time, meet him on his own grounds, at the Green Chapel â he will not give directions; youâll have to journey into the wilds to find him â to return his axe. At which point, he will return the blow â the same blow â in kind.
The Green Knight creaks and crackles with the cumbersome heft of an animate tree trunk, yet is somehow light, witty in intention if not in tone, and all the more terrifying for the lively spark in his eyes â the devious tell of a born trickster. No reasonable person, no proven hero with nothing to prove, would take him up on such a deal. But Gawain â not a boy, yet not a knight with any tales worth telling â volunteers, eager to make something of himself. And so The Green Knight proceeds with the first of its many startling, titillating, unreal scenes. ” ———————– from Rolling Stone magazine
Defamiliarization, as a concept to appreciate the already familiar — to appreciate literature, the arts, the humanities. You got a buyer here, Lance. Thanks.
The recent movie (i’ve not read the JRR Tolkien interpretation/translation yet) , encapsulates Joe’s current blog pretty well both the human and environmental side of our discussion also. Very timely adaptation of an ancient morality play. With more at stake.
OT, speaking of Russian musicians, check Leonid and Friends cover of Chicago.
Thanks. I should do a music blog. It’s the opposite of warmongering. I recommend Stairway to Heaven, Kennedy Center tribute to Led Zepplin, featuring Heart.
Yes, she’s quite good , amazing .
đ
My first contribution:
Thank you Mr. Sonny. Dean Martin is one of my father’s favorite besides from Diomedes Maturan. Most played vinyl record at home during my younger days.
@ isk
Ray Conniff is my sentimental favorite. His vinyl 33 1/3 rpms were gems in the ’60s.
Irresistible, enjoy:
@sonny, That old drunk could really sing. What a lifetime of parties they had! I watched his roast of Don Rickles the other day, with about 15 comedians doing short skits. Great uplift!
Oh happy stupor! đ đ (Thank you for getting me started)
Very nice! đ Thanks.
An excerpt from a video I viewed earlier today:
x-
…
this cutting-edge research
14:12
brought about a major unexpected
14:14
discovery
…
-x
About “discovery,” …
Does man ever discover anything that does not exist yet?
By the way, the “major unexpected discovery” is about those biblical (fictional?) locusts!
Fighting Back Against 2020’s Massive Locust Swarms
21,148 views
Aug 10, 2020
CuriosityStream
Devastating swarms of locusts are devouring everything in their path from Africa to India. Scientists and citizens are waging a massive war with cutting edge technology to stop the infestation from becoming a deadly plague.
There! Man’s war – during this age of Big Tech and Cutting-Edge Research – against a tiny critter.
Just keeping tab.
locust* – 28 occurrences in 24 verses in 17 chapters
Note: “east wind” and “west wind”
Exodus 10:13
And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an
east wind
upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
Exodus 10:19
And the LORD turned a mighty strong
west wind,
which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.
critter.science/the-african-desert-locust/
Daily Critter Facts. The African desert locust, aka plague locust, seems to be here to stay. Locusts were a plague of Biblical proportions in 2020, and it’s bad. They arrive, seemingly out of nowhere and drive through farmlands and croplands, wiping clean the hard work of farmers; who can do nothing but watch in horror.
Good source of protein; delicious when fried.
Don’t they eat these in Pampanga, i7sharp?
Lance,
I loved eating kamaru (mole cricket), especially the small ones, those that I myself as a youngster had caught in the flooded ricefields near our house as farmers prepared the area for rice planting.
I don’t remember eating locusts but I might have (unknowingly).
I would have no qualms about eating them cooked as below:
adventuringfoodie
x-
This is a guest post from Paula of Magalang, Pampanga.
I grew up here in Pampanga, the culinary capital of the Philippines where both gourmet and indigenous food ingredients exist. I was once a picky eater, but being Kapampangan taught me to eat anything edible and enjoy the abundance of fresh produce in our province.
And yes, I can even feast on exotic foods.
I went to the wet market to buy these creepy-looking insects which we call kamaru or mole crickets. Some refer to them as rice field crickets since they are found mostly on rice fields. They basically feed themselves with the rice grains and leaves. These insects are packed with protein and B vitamins and a lot of people love eating them.
Kamaru or ricefield crickets
A kilo of kamaru costs about a dollar. I bought one kilo, and did the traditional way of preparing this dish. I washed them thoroughly first, removing all the soil covering them. Then I braised them with vinegar and tomatoes, and sautéed them with a small amount of oil.
When my sizzling sautéed kamaru was done, I immediately indulged into this sumptuous meal. I must say that eating it is an acquired taste. At the first bite, I have sensed some crunchiness and a little mushiness. I could taste the juices coming out.
I do admit that eating crickets is a little gross, but maybe I am just used to munching on these weird-looking creatures already. For adventurous foodies, I highly recommend kamaru. It will tickle your taste buds and will definitely widen your gastronomical experience.
-x
I ate kamaru in Guagua, Pampanga during WWII. [My father was a Kapampangan.] I remember liking it.
https://magilas.me/uaua
x-
Guaguaâor uaua–meaning âmouth of a riverâ, has been called as such since 1590 owing to its location along the river which played a role in turning it early into one of Pampanganâs most prosperous towns. The affluence of the twon led to the erection of some of the most stunning ancestral residences in the province.
-x
The link shows Stars and Stripes front page with huge banner headline “It’s Over” above a photo of a chinook helicopter over, what, the US Embassy?
No, the image was captured in a video footage with the transport chopper flying over that building. The evacuation should have been in an orderly manner . The Afghan and the US government failed miserably in handling the security during the withdrawal IMHO. Anticipation is the keyword.
Click to access Agreement-For-Bringing-Peace-to-Afghanistan-02.29.20.pdf
Thank you.
> The evacuation should have been in an orderly manner .
It should have been. However, the blinding speed of the Taliban takeover and the determination of the militants was such that it shocked the foreign parties, unable to prepare well for their inevitable unopposed arrival. Kabul literally became an open city.
The US trained up 300,000 Afghan forces, all of whom laid down their guns. So let’s blame Biden. Ahahaha.
20 years we were there; overnight the Taliban simply gave an ultimatum, go home to your families or we’ll kill you and your families.
Laid down their guns.
We were propping them up, we leave they fall. 4 administrations took part, but only 2 decided that nation building was viable. Now Malala is crying.
The only anticipation to be done is how not to make Malala cry. Impossible.
But that new embassy was billions of dollars of US taxpayer money. Down the drain.
As to the hudna (cease fire), it says it right there in the Quran, that hudnas are to be used to get a tactical advantage; but that calculus of the state or your family and you, that’s as basic as they come. You gotta respect that. Only 3% or so of Americans fought the British crown.
But understand how these treaties are viewed by the other side.
https://newrepublic.com/article/41239/hoodwinked-hudna
The original state that should prevail between Muslims and non-Muslims is that of peace, not war. If an armed conflict breaks out, then this state should be considered temporary; efforts should focus on restoring the original state of peace. The ethos that should prevail between all the members of the human family is that of cooperation. The Islamic worldview advocates all of the above in a context of convivencia – civilizational coexistence and cooperation, rather than in a context of a “clash of civilizations.”
While I would like the above version of the Islamic worldview to be the only one, there are Islamic groups, though not all of them, who do not subscribe to a paradigm of convivencia. Their worldview would ensure a continuation of conflicts with the rest of the world, not that the world is leaving us alone, either.
In order that we know and engage each other for the good of humanity, international relations should be regulated. In this context, international law and treaties become imperative. Ultimately, to sustain international peace and order, international laws and treaties require a combination of just conditions on the ground, good intentions, and a democratic (e.g., no veto rights) international body that has the mandate to stop the violators without discrimination. If not, conflicts might continue to erupt.
Honoring Treaties
The Islamic worldview advocates respect for treaties signed with other states or parties. In fact, the Qur’an makes it a religious obligation to fulfill them:
Successful indeed are the believersâŠwho faithfully observe their trusts and their covenants(Qur’an 23:1-8).
The Qur’an considers any covenant, including that with the other, as if it is concluded with God Himself, as long as it is done without violating Islamic principles:
And fulfill the covenant of Allah when you have made a covenant, and do not break the oaths after making them fast, and you have indeed made Allah a surety for you; surely Allah knows what you do (Qur’an, 16:91).
The traditions and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) confirm the Qur’anic dictum vis-Ă -vis the fulfillment of covenants, treaties, and promises. It is reported in two independent compendia of Hadith that the Messenger of God said:
The signs of the hypocrite are three: when he speaks he lies; when he makes an oath he breaks it; and when he is entrusted with something he betrays that trust.
The Prophet emphasized that fulfilling covenants is imperative; he said:
I do not renege on a covenant and I do not imprison envoys.
Moreover, whenever the Prophet concluded a treaty he used to say:
We fulfill the covenant for them, and we seek help from God against them [if they have ill intentions!]
The relationship with the other is based on respect. Unless there is a declared act of war or hostility, Muslims are required to be humane and caring:
God does not forbid you [to respect] those who have not made war against you on account of [your] religion, and have not driven you forth from your homes, that you show them kindness and deal with them justly; surely God loves the doers of justice.
God only forbids you [to respect] those who made war upon you on account of [your] religion, and drove you forth from your homes and backed up [others] in your expulsion, that you make friends with them, and whoever makes friends with them, these are the unjust.
In the case of a potential or an actual armed conflict, Muslims should be looking for signs that the enemy is looking for a political solution, an inclination to peace:
And if they incline to peace, incline thou also to it, and trust in God (Qur’an, 8:61).
Classical Muslim scholars of the philosophy of law (Usul Al-Fiqh) found that the aims of Islamic Law (Maqasid al-Shari’a) are five: life, religion, intellect, progeny, and property. Modern Muslim scholars included “freedom” and “justice” among the aims of the shari’a. About 10 years ago, I added “protection of the environment” to the list. It is obvious that a state of peace is directly related to the fulfillment of Maqasid al-Shari’a.