With his post On re-thinking immigration, Michael Parekh provides insightful comments on an article from the Wall Street Journal entitled The Coming Crunch where the pros and cons of population growth are analyzed. All this in light of the recent 300 million americans milestone recently reached by the U.S.
Michael, working in the financial industry, has some interesting views about the value of people in the new century:
“The catalyst has already been ignited, when two of the six billion people on the planet switched from the “barely developing” to “rapidly developing” column, just over the last decade and a half.
The milestone reached by the U.S. pales in comparison, but what is even more puzzling is the fact that the politicians are playing the election game with issues that would continue to create bipolar positions on the matter of migration, when it is obvious that the only thing that makes sense in the long run is to allow the large volumes of migrants to participate in the economy.
In countries like China & India, there are millions that still have to make their journey from the country to the big city, without the need to seek foreign nations to [...]
I’m convinced that we have a huge education mission ahead of us. Helping people discover our Global Culture is not trivial when there are so many negative forces at play. The posts in this space refer commonly to migration and globalization as shaping forces that are defining the future of humankind and corporations as the agents taking advantage of the situation.
Thanks to Traviss from THE NEW WRINKLE for their investigative report on what people think about Global Culture. Just a sample, but very relevant.
Thenewwrinkle-eps_53-Global_Culture-Uploaded by thenewwrinkle
It is obvious that should no one care for writing about Global Culture, the term would end up entangled with globalization, imperialism and other influencers perceived as negative. Clearly, someone has to do the writing advocating for a future where Global Culture can strengthen our ability to resist the temptation of consumism.
It is a common trait of corporations to focus on the now. Obsessing about earnings for the quarter, forecast for the year, franchises to open the next year; their ability to think long-term is almost non-existent. This is why it is so easy for environmentalists, anti-globalist, and other movements thinking about the future to find the arguments to fight. Whenever I think about globalization, the image of a rat race comes to mind. A race in which all corporations are running wild through the world marking territory.
Part of the problem may be that our ability to see really long-term implications of our actions today (I mean generations, not years) is nearly impossible with the pace at which we are moving. We would be lucky to get right a forecast of world affairs for the next year.
A refreshing take on this issue was presented by the Long Now Foundation as part of the Long-Term Thinking Seminars by John Baez with his presentation entitled Zooming Out in Time. Most of the presentation is a study of climate change, but not the type we see in the news comparing current temperatures against those last [...]
Immigration is one of the main themes of the Canada in 2020 space, presenting opinions by leading personalities on the issues, events and trends that could transform Canada by the year 2020. With the essay Sao Paulo of the North: The Effects of Mass Immigration, Daniel Stoffman presents a looming picture of the future of major Canadian cities as immigration rates outpace their ability to create the infrastructure required:
In 2020, vast tracts of suburban slums occupy what used to be good farmland on the city’s outskirts. Traffic congestion and air pollution are unbearable. Toronto’s reputation as one of North America’s most liveable cities is a distant memory.
With the most aggressive immigration quota in the world at around 250,000 immigrants per year, is not surprise that many Canadians are feeling their quality of life threatened by the lack of responsiveness to the real issues derived from such an unnatural growth, even questioning whether or not is worth it.
There is no reason why Canada should have far more immigration than any other country. Canada’s existing population is younger than those of most other developed countries and its ratio of working age people to retired ones is higher. If Canada reverted to [...]
The BBC News is running a story as the US population reaches 300 million. With the recent announcement of a fence to be built between US and Mexico, I figured it was only fair to reiterate some of the statistics around migration:
Hispanic population: 4% in 1966, 14% today, 25% in 2050 (projected)
Over the next 50 years there will be more Hispanic births than immigrants
Most immigrants: 1915 from Germany, 1967 from Italy, 2006 from Mexico
With so much growth to take place within one or two generations, it is not hard to imagine how much the latino culture will influence american mainstream.
Although I have to admit that I resent some of the comments that CNN’s anchor Lou Dobbs has made in the past regarding illegal immigration, his recent appearance in The Daily Show to promote his book, “War on the Middle Class“, provided great insight to what is likely the terrible sentiment brewing among middle class families in the U.S. and possibly other rich countries. After decades of abuses by corporations pursuing their global quest, these families are starting to realize how hard they are being hit:
10 million jobs outsourced
4 million manufacturing jobs lost
wages stagnant for the past 35 years
an education system that fails to create the opportunities it should
While corporations have only increased their position of power:
2 billion dollars used by corporations to influence elections & legislations
lowest tax rates since WWII
corporate profits at a record high, while earnings participation are at record low
and some other facts mentioned in the previous post earth inc.
While the middle class continues to be played by corporate america, jobs continue to shift to cheaper regions of the world, corporate lawyers continue to manipulate legislation to create all kinds of tax breaks, boards of directors continue pushing the limits of productivity just to accumulate more [...]
Dr. Clotaire Rapaille uses a combination of phychiatry, physchology and cultural anthropology to provide powerful tools to large corporations trying to understand how to penetrate the minds of their consumers. His approach, Archetype Discovery, allows organizations understand why a certain group of people do what they do, whether the research is related to a particular product or service. To understand how influential his work is, just take a look at his list of clients.
I came across his work through his most recent book, The Culture Code and have to admit how truly interested the reading has been so far. From the description of the methodology and its foundation, to the numerous examples of cultural codes discovered throughout the years the book is easy to follow up.
One particular notion that got my attention was the relationship between emotion and learning, establishing that most people learn the important things about their cultures before age 7 because during that period the process is deeply emotional. Once they start to reason and react logically to new information, the imprint of cultural learning is not as powerful. This may also be the key to understanding the mechanisms that would allow [...]
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