Jean Lievens: Thomas Malone at MIT on Collective Intelligence
Collective Intelligence4th Media: Der Spiegel Interviews Bashar al-Assad: WEST Supported al-Qaeda For 10 Years
Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence
Der Spiegel Interviews Bashar al-Assad: WEST Supported al-Qaeda For 10 Years
President Bashar al-Assad said that all the political decisions that have been taken by the west in the last ten years have been in support of al-Qaeda, intentionally or inadvertently.
In an interview with the German Der Spiegel News Magazine, President al-Assad said that through Western support, now there are thousands of al-Qaeda fighters from 80 countries in Syria.
Following is the full text of the interview:
Der Spiegel: Mr. President, do you love your country?
President Assad: Of course, and in this I am no different from most people. This is not merely about emotions, but rather about what one can do for his country if he has the power and especially in times of crisis; and at this particular time, I realize more than ever how much I love my country and so I must protect it.
Der Spiegel: Wouldn’t you be more patriotic if you stepped down and allowed for negotiations over an interim government or for a cease-fire with the armed opposition?
President Assad: The Syrian people determine my fate; no other party can determine this issue. As for the armed opposition or factions, who do they represent – the Syrian people? If so, this can be proven only through the ballot box.
SchwartzReport: American Snap-Shot (Working and Homeless, Abandoned Homes)
Cultural Intelligence, Gift Intelligence
Read this story and then the next one, and think about what they are both saying. This is how badly out of whack our economy has become serving the purposes of the uber-rich.
NYT Profile of Employed & Homeless New Yorkers Is a Warning for America
DAVID HARRIS-GERSHON – Tikkun Daily
And here is a second waypoint on the course of our decline. It is all the more tragic being entirely self-inflicted.
Abandoned Homes Are the Future: Imaginative Ideas Turn Blight Into Beauty
HENRY GRABAR – Salon
NIGHTWATCH: Pakistan Generals Roll Over, Germans Go to <20% in Afghanistan
Cultural Intelligence, Peace IntelligencePakistan: Pakistani media reported that the retirement announcement by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani was a surprise. Kayani said, “My tenure ends on 29th November 2013. On that day I will retire.” He made the public statement to quell speculation that he might seek extension.
The post of the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) also is vacant. The outgoing CJCSC General Khalid Shameem Wynne retired on 7 October, after 42 years of service.
In the statement today, Prime Minister Sharif said that while expectations regarding the announcement of the successor to the outgoing CJCSC before 8 October were reasonable, the issue needed comprehensive consideration due to the fact that the office of the COAS also was becoming vacant on 29 November.
Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Pakistan Generals Roll Over, Germans Go to <20% in Afghanistan”
SchwartzReport: Could Libertarian Party Rise from the Ashes of a Divided Republican Party (The Rich and the Insane?)
Cultural IntelligenceHere is an excellent fact-based assessment of what has happened to the Republican Party. It confirms what I have been saying for several years now, and presents the facts as to why I think these gerrymandered districts — the Suicide Caucus, as Lizza calls it — are going to present a permanent minority. And why I believe the Republican Party may well schism into two parties. The party has created a mons! ter that may devour it.
Where the G.O.P.'s Suicide Caucus Lives
RYAN LIZZA – The New Yorker
On August 21st, Congressman Mark Meadows sent a letter to John Boehner. Meadows is a former restaurant owner and Sunday-school Bible teacher from North Carolina. He’s been in Congress for eight months. Boehner, who has served in Congress for twenty-two years, is the Speaker of the House and second in the line of succession if anything happened to the President.
Meadows was not pleased with how Boehner and his fellow Republican leaders in the House were approaching the September fight over spending. The annual appropriations to fund the government were scheduled to run out on October 1st, and much of it would stop operating unless Congress passed a new law. Meadows wanted Boehner to use the threat of a government shutdown to defund Obamacare, a course Boehner had publicly ruled out.
Berto Jongman: Food Security — Rotten Intelligence, Worse Ethics
01 Agriculture, 05 Energy, 11 Society, 12 Water, Collective Intelligence, Earth Intelligence
Uncertainty on figures hampering food security efforts
Mark Kinver
BBC News, 4 October 2013
More than 600 scientists gathered in the Netherlands for a global food security conference, described as the first of its kind.
Organisers said science could help end uncertainty surrounding efforts to meet the food needs of future generations.
They added that, until now, there were many policy debates on food security but there was no scientific forum for researchers to share knowledge.
The next food security conference will be held in the US in 2015.
“A really key message from the conference for us is that we have got lots of estimates about needs of population growth etc, but at the moment we are so uncertain of the exact numbers – the uncertainty is really very high,” said conference co-chairman Ken Giller, professor of plant production systems at Wageningen University.
“We talk about the current population being seven billion, moving to 9.2 billion in 2050 and the estimate is that we need to increase production 70% or more.
“But there are many different ways of addressing that. If we don't know what the problem is then we can't get started in addressing them.”
Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Food Security — Rotten Intelligence, Worse Ethics”
Berto Jongman: Postwar Model
Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence
Robert Chesney
University of Texas School of Law
September 27, 2013
Harvard National Security Journal (2014 Forthcoming)
Abstract:
Does it really matter, from a legal perspective, whether the U.S. government continues to maintain that it is in an armed conflict with al Qaeda? Critics of the status quo regarding the use of lethal force and military detention tend to assume that it matters a great deal, and that shifting to a postwar framework will result in significant practical change. Supporters of the status quo tend to share that assumption, and oppose abandoning the armed-conflict model for that reason. But both camps are mistaken about this common premise. For better or worse, shifting from the armed-conflict model to a postwar framework would have far less of a practical impact than both assume.
