Worldsong

Apr 30

What I’m Reading: Interesting Articles

I was able to use some of the downtime last week to catch up on reading.  Some interesting articles:

AMERICA

• I have been researching the roots of the OWS (Occupy Wall Street) movement for some time.  This excellent article on the staggering growth of inequality in America (where the upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year, and in terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent) by Joseph Stiglitz led me to this equally interesting article by him last year

EUROPE

Two articles, one looking to the past and the other to the future, both agree that financially the euro has proved a disaster and that its survival will depend on political factors, but come to different answers as to whether the euro can survive:

• this article (part of the superb Five Books series) argues that the euro is fundamental to Europe’s dream of unification to escape the terrors of the past, and that “Europe will be forged in crisis” and that the euro will come through this
• the chief foreign-affairs columnist at the Financial Times argues that northern Europeans, especially Germany, will baulk at continually bailing out weaker members unless they can exert more and more control over those countries’ finances.  Meanwhile their southern neighbours will resent ‘jackboot Germans’ infringing on their national sovereignty until things reach a breaking point (see already the rise of nationalist-sentiment parties in these countries)

AFRICA

• superb article by Richard Dowden (author of Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles) on the state of Africa today
• for a different take from an old Africa hand, see Paul Theroux’s take on “What’s Really Wrong With Africa”.  (I’m looking forward to reading his new book The Lower River when it is released at the end of May)

HEALTH

• superb NYT article surveys the very latest thinking on depression, which goes far beyond the role of serotonin.  See also this WSJ article on how depression is now being seen as an illness of the whole body
• in an age where more and more viruses are becoming antibiotic-resistant, it is good to know that an alternative approach developed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War may now be able to help
• the classic killer diseases - cancer and heart disease - are rapidly being joined by a third: diabetes.  The CDC predicts that by 2050, one in three Americans will develop diabetes if current trends continue.  Diabetes can silently lead to a slew of serious  health problems: dental disease, kidney disease, nervous-system disorders, blindness, limb amputation, heart disease, and strokes.  So it is great to see innovative work being done on diabetes treatment

YOUTH

• new research shows that many kids diagnosed with ADHD may in fact be suffering from sleep deprivation, whose symptoms resemble those of ADHD.  The treatment for ADHD may then exacerbate sleeplessness, the real problem, as the drugs used to treat DHD, like Ritalin, Adderall or Concerta, can cause insomnia - causing a vicious circle.  Hopefully this will lead to increased screening for sleep disorders like snoring
• this comes as no surprise to me, given the already extensive literature on the effects of even small amounts of sleep loss (with texting a frequent culprit) on the moods and capabilities of teenagers - research that has led many high schools across America to now start later in the morning

TECHNOLOGY

• this Atlantic article says it’s “Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future” - a refreshing viewpoint in an era where as a mentor to many tech startups I grow increasingly weary of hearing yet another social networking idea
• in this vein, it is good to look back and revisit the original thinking by Kuhn on how paradigm shifts occur - they are not single ideas, but whole new contexts that come into view…

Apr 29

Wiped Out!

Drove back from Cape Town to Knysna on Wednesday, feeling terrible by the time I got home, spent the next two days battling a killer gastro virus.

Back on my feet now but still feeling totally exhausted.

Apr 21

What I’m Watching: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Warm, witty, wonderful movie about a group of older Brits who end up up living in a hotel in India has great characters and acting, lots of laugh-out-loud humour and some profound moments.

Apr 20

Great evening learning to cook pizza with the latest Bandwidth Barn VeloCITI Y group at their graduation evening

Apr 18

Start of another day consulting

Apr 17

Early start! In at 6.45 for another day of consulting at the Bandwidth Barn.

Apr 10

The Two Economies -

David Brooks of the NYT speculates that today’s economic problems are rooted in growing structural rifts between “two interrelated American economies:

On the one hand, there is the globalized tradable sector — companies that have to compete with everybody everywhere. These companies, with the sword of foreign competition hanging over them, have become relentlessly dynamic and very (sometimes brutally) efficient.

On the other hand, there is a large sector of the economy that does not face this global competition — health care, education and government. Leaders in this economy try to improve productivity and use new technologies, but they are not compelled by do-or-die pressure, and their pace of change is slower.”

The Gullible Center - a budget proposal that would worsen the inequality in America -

NYT editorial by economist Paul Krugman on a supposedly centrist budget proposal that would deny health care (and many other essentials) to millions of Americans, while lavishing tax cuts on corporations and the wealthy — all while failing to reduce the budget deficit.

Apr 09

Can Coffee Kick-Start an Economy? -

Tremendously inspiring story about one African entrepreneur’s long journey to selling his coffee internationally while helping to uplift the farmers who supply him, and about the the bigger picture of “trade vs aid” and the implications for Africa…

Well worth reading!

What I’m Watching: Midnight in Paris

I don’t like most of Woody Allen’s movies, but this lighthearted comedy was a delight.

A young American writer (Owen Wilson) holidaying in Paris with his fiancee, finds himself transported back into 1920’s Paris during his midnight strolls, in the company of the Fizgeralds, Cole Porter, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Picasso … and a bewitching young woman.  Witty and wonderful, and a paean to Paris, one of my favourite cities.