International Aid – Page 8 – Public Intelligence Blog

2010/05/302010/05/30

Reference: Strategic Asymmetry–with Comment

Analysis, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Collective Intelligence, Computer/online security, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Ethics, Geospatial, History, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), International Aid, Key Players, Policies, Policy, Reform, Research resources, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Tools, True Cost

: Full Source Online

Dr. Steve Metz was published on this topic by the Military Review in July-August 2001. A great deal of original thinking came out of the U.S. Army Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) in the aftermath of the 1998 Army Strategy Conference, and sadly, none of it has gained any traction with any Secretary of Defense (or State) since then. Should Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) actually be selected to be the new Director of National Intelligence (DNI), this is a concept he is going to have to integrate into his thinking.

Although Dr. Metz fully understands the asymmetry of will and touches on the asymmetry of morale, he does not address the core intelligence question of our century: the asymmetry of morality. Will & Ariel Durant understood this and highlighted the strategic value of being “in the right” in their capstone work, The Lessons of History. Others, including Buckminster Fuller in Critical Path and Dr. Robert Ackoff (see first link below), understood that context matters, and within context, morality and doing the right thing.

Morale is not the same as moral, and the “collateral advantage” that allows one to harness the distributed intelligence of the Whole Earth–to receive unsolicited warnings large and small, to receive unsolicited good ideas large and small–comes ONLY when one holds the moral high ground. It merits stressing that CONSENSUS is most easily achieved when those striving to achieve consensus share a common faith in integrity–in morality.

America is in the wrong today, because the US Government is imposing on both the domestic public and on humanity at large the wrong policies, the wrong programs, and the wrong acquisitions–as well as the wrong distribution of US taxpayer funds in the service of dictators, cartel leaders, and predatory immoral banks and businesses not at all interested in earning legal ethical profit fully compliant with true cost economics also known as the triple bottom line.

If the next DNI is to be successful, they must:

Continue reading “Reference: Strategic Asymmetry–with Comment”

2010/05/142010/05/14

Search: OSINT software

Analysis, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Computer/online security, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cyberscams, malware, spam, Ethics, Geospatial, InfoOps (IO), International Aid, Key Players, Methods & Process, Policies, Searches, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Tools, True Cost

The search term brings up appropriate results, but the fact of the search gives us an opportunity to provide comment.

1) Nothing now being used by governments, and certainly not iBase or Palantir, both aging technologies that do not scale and have too many fat-finger handicaps, fulfills the originial requirements documents crafted in the late 1980's.

Worth a Look: 1989 All-Source Fusion Analytic Workstation–The Four Requirements Documents

2) The ONLY programs that have gotten anywhere close are COPERNICUS plus plus, and SILOBREAKER. However, both of these have been slow to recognize the urgency of integrating–fully integrating–capabilities that address each of the eighteen functionalities. Below is the list of softwares now in use by US Special Operations Command J-23 Open Source Intelligence Branch along with the STRONG ANGEL TOOZL and a couple of other things.

Memorandum: USSOCOM Software List and STRONG ANGEL TOOZL

Poverty Dichotomies: USAID’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network, & “Dead Aid” (poverty reduction vs. wealth creation)

01 Poverty, 03 Environmental Degradation, International Aid

Poverty was considered the #1 threat to humanity's planetary security by the “High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change” organized by the SG of the United Nations in 2004.

Dichotomies reside within organizations. And the United Nations seems to be at odds over what is more important, poverty or “‘climate change”. And recently expressed at the “State of the Planet 2010” event in NYC, even linking the two. Who is going to say face-to-face with those in poverty not to cut trees or burn coal to cook or heat because they should lower their ‘carbon footprint' because that will “save the planet”? (Side issue: Solar LED lighting, solar battery chargers, water filters, etc have been developed for the ‘rural poor').

USAID, Wartime, & Dead Aid:

USAID's Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net)
Interesting wartime security connection between Kroll Iraq security Pax Mondial & former USAID director James Stephenson (Intel Online issue #609)

Jeffrey Sachs' had closing remarks at the “State of the Planet 2010” event on March 25, stating that those who claim that aid is not helping Africa are saying “absolute nonsense!” (in an almost angry tone) was interesting despite not going into detail. I'm curious what American organizations who are focused on foreign aid have to say about aid for Americans who are homeless/malnourished, etc. Can't domestic and foreign aid groups network, learn from each other, and developed new ideas? (one example).

Examples of opposition to Jeffrey Sachs' nonsense statement:

If seemingly great opportunities such as the March 25 “State of the Planet 2010” event fall short in generating ‘public intelligence' and ideas to resolve global challenges, then we must look elsewhere. Bono and Jeffrey Sachs are limited while ambitious. This creates a lot of attention, funding, and publicity, but is not wholly effective/is not an answer to the world's problems. It's more of a stimulant to come up with better frameworks that involve more people that desire to network empathy, intelligence, and resources. That, more than traditional ideas on “leadership” herding people towards a promise land will do more good.

Related:

EVENT REPORT: State of the Planet 2010 (NYC)
Ushahidi-based Columbia Univ malnutrition surveillance SMS project
Paul Polak talk on his book “Out of Poverty” and why we have failed at poverty (he shows a three dollar drip irrigation system that waters 250 sq feet, and mentions a new fifty dollar water kiosk design being tested). Visit his International Dev Enterprises
Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profit