My favorite Poems written by my Idol: Edgar Allan Poe

I am sharing these classic poems from the American literature hoping to ease out momentarily our pain, a break in between a serious and heavy discourse on needs, problems and solutions:

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.



The Raven


Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more,'

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
`Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'
Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more!'

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -
Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as `Nevermore.'

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
`Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of "Never-nevermore."'

But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking `Nevermore.'

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
`Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee
Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -
On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting -
`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!

Lets agree on a working definition of terms....

The questions that i asked myself before i started doing research on the twin problems are as follows:

1. What exactly do we mean by consumer debt?
2. What is global warming and climate change?
3. Why are they considered twin global crises?

First, let us look at the definition of consumer debt.

InvestorWords.com came out with a definition of consumer debt as debt that has been incurred primarily for the purchase of consumer goods and therefore on which interest payments are not deductible (unlike mortgage debt).

Callcredit.com in UK came out with another definition of consumer debt as debt incurred for intangible investments, e.g. car loans, credit card debt and loans made by family members.

Another similar definition is there from Wikipedia.org:

“Consumer debt is consumer credit which is outstanding. In macroeconomic terms, it is debt which is used to fund consumption rather than investments.

The most common form of consumer debt is credit card debt, pay day loans, and other consumer finance, which are often at higher interest rates than long term secured loans, such as mortgages.”

For our own purpose, I would like to use the definition from Wiki which defines as debt used to fund consumption rather than investments. This definition fits well with my earlier contention that consumers are actually being enticed by creditors to use credit cards to increase consumption – this is public knowledge anyway.

Credit cards and personal loans, in effect, are themselves a commodity and everyday we are bombarded by advertisements from TV, billboards, Internet, and bus adz persuading consumers to avail and sign-up for credit card in fact they are almost giving away this type of commodity nowadays.

Looking at it from a different lens credit card is like any other commercial product and as such, creditors have a social and moral responsibility to educate the consumers of its use and possible misuse just like educating the public about the dangers of cigarettes, alcohol and drugs abuse.

Recently, major newspapers in US came out with stories about subprime lending.In fact this is a major concern in US economy today.

Subprime lending [Wikipedia] also called B-paper, near-prime, or second chance lending, is a practice of making loans to borrowers who do not qualify for the best market interest rates because of their deficient credit history. The phrase also refers to paper taken on property that cannot be sold on the primary market. Subprime lending is risky for both lenders and borrowers due to the combination of high interest rates, poor credit history, and adverse financial situations usually associated with subprime applicants.

Subprime lending encompasses credit cards, subprime mortgages, car loans among others.

US is now in the edge of recession because of credit crisis. I will not be surprise when one day we will hear the same sad story in UK, Australia, Singapore, Canada, and other major cities around the world. This is globalization of credit crisis. A pattern of overconsumption using borrowed money.


What is global warming and climate change?

Global warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation. The global average air temperature near the Earth’s surface rose 0.74 ± 0.18 0C during the last 100 years (source: Wikipedia).

Climate change, on the other hand, refers to the variation in the Earth’s global climate or in regional climates over time. It describes changes in the variability or average state of the atmosphere over time scales ranging from decades to millions of years. (Source: Wikipedia ).

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, global warming is caused by carbon dioxide and other air pollution that is collecting in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun’s heat and causing the planet to warm up. Coal-burning power plants are the largest U.S. source of carbon dioxide pollution – they produce 2.5 billion tons every year. Automobiles, the second largest source, create nearly 1.5 billion tons of CO2 annually.

The effects of climate change includes rising sea levels, forest fires, glacier retreat, altered patterns of agriculture which has impact on food production and distribution, extreme weather events such as Katrina and the tsunami, and the expansion of tropical diseases.

Addressing this complex issue of global warming and climate change requires careful consideration of its economic as well as political implications. Is the world prepared to sacrifice the wealth of nations and the ambition to conquer the space in exchange for a reduction in carbon dioxide emission?

If ever there is any serious effort put into developing alternative solutions it has to be in a way that will not drastically cause the economy to collapse.

Probably the best way to solve the problem is to find alternative economic or human activities that do not depend on fossil fuels and when that matures into an industry or so, we can slowly move away from the traditional fossil-fuel dependent activities. How long it will take, nobody knows, one thing is sure of, oil is no longer plentiful, China is now consuming oil more than what is being produced every day by OPEC.

The middle class, the work force who are well educated and the ones that really made it happen to increase the wealth of nations plays a significant role in addressing the crises. Like the owners and investors in the credit card industry, the middle class workers have the social and moral responsibility to help reverse the trend of global warming and climate change (globally and exponentially) and at the same time help themselves get rid of the episodic cycle of credit card debts.

How? Good question, I don’t have the answers yet. I can help facilitate the thinking process through open dialogue and collaboration either via physical or virtual channels. There is hope in the middle of the pyramid, we need change and the first step in the process is to change the perception of the reality of our situation and accept that we are in deep deep trouble as a human race. If we have a dream, we don’t sleep on our dream; we chase it and make it happen. And one of this dream is to become debt free.

Why are they considered twin global crises?

They are twin tower crises because both problems surfaced at the same time in the same year and both of them are adverse effects of globalization. Both problems feed on each other in a morbid chain of causal connection, and the solution to consumer debt may turn out to be a solution to global warming.

Why consumer debt is global problem? Consider the following facts:

BBC.com.uk came out with an article published on 13 September 2007 entitled “Chancellor warns on consumer debt”. Chancellor Alistair Darling has urged Britain’s banks to take a more cautious approach to lending, and also added that banks themselves may bear some of the responsibility for people getting into problems with debt they cannot handle.

Ben Woolsey’s article entitled “Credit Card Industry Facts and Personal Debt Statistics (2006-2007)” published in CreditCards.com stated that the total US consumer debt reached US$2.46 Trillion in June 2007, up from US$2.398 Trillion at the end of 2006 (Source: Federal Reserve).

There is another story from Frank Walker entitled “Card debt hits $41bn as banks lift rates” of Sydney Morning Herald at www.smh.com.au published in September 23, 2007 and I would like to quote his article en toto:

CREDIT card debt has reached record levels with more Australians using cards to meet mortgage payments.

And in the past month, several banks have pushed up card interest rates way beyond official Reserve Bank increases.

Interest rates on some cards went up by as much as one percentage point when the Reserve Bank increased official rates by only 0.25 percentage points.

Australians owe a record $41.02 billion on credit cards. For the first time the average debt on a credit card account has passed $3000.

A near record total of $1.08 billion was borrowed on cash advances in July. A record $16.4 billion purchases were put on credit cards, an average of $1197 per card.

Interest was levied on $30 billion in unpaid credit card bills. Credit card debt has increased by $10 billion in a little over two years.

Despite the increasing level of credit card debt, banks are enticing people even more.

The total amount of available credit pushed out to a record $110 billion in July as banks increased credit card limits, now an average of $8000 per account.

Financial experts are predicting the average credit card interest rate of 16 percent will increase by two to three percentage points over the next 18 months, pushing rates on low-interest cards up to 13percent and top rates to 22percent.

"People are being sucked in by low-interest credit cards and then being squeezed dry by the banks," Credit Line financial counsellor Wendy Luckett said. "I have been doing this for 17 years and it is the worst I have ever seen."

She said banks were less willing to negotiate with people trying get out of overwhelming credit card debt.

In March 31, 2005, Gary North wrote an article entitled “Consumer Debt: Not an American Monopoly” published at LewRockwell.com:

Consumers have bid up the prices of goods with fiat money. Then they go into further debt to buy more of these goodies. This is ratchet phenomenon. The restraining factor is upward interest rates. This process has begun in the short-term debt markets in the United States, but it has not yet affected consumers’ desire to buy more goodies by going into more debt.

The decision of millions of consumers, all over the world, to raise their level of debt has created what the Griffiths Committee calls time-bomb conditions….

Some finance experts are warning, Canadians must wean themselves off debt otherwise they face a major shock if interest rates rise. “It could be catastrophic in terms of the whole economy, “ says financial counselor Allen MacLord. Interest rates have been quite low in Canada for the past several years.

But Canadian pay cheques have grown very slowly. To prop up their standard of living, many Canadians have resorted to cheap credit and stopped saving money. Lines of credit have grown at record pace in Canada, up 30 percent in 2004 alone.

Holly McIntosh and Frank Lestage’s bank offered them a line of credit a few years ago. “They just give you money and people spend and spend, “ Lestage said. “It doesn’t take long to get it under control, but you have to realize what you’re doing and that it takes a while. You have to get in trouble to realize what’s going on.“

“Consumers worldwide are being lured into more and more debt. They will have to reduce spending. This has not happened yet. But as the FED tightens money, allowing short-term demand for loans to push up rates, the traditional response is a falling stock market.” Gary concludes.

This is another interesting and thought provoking article by former Governor Mario Cuomo and I would like to quote him in part to stress the fact that America the “World’s Reigning Empire”, more than any other nations of the Earth, is in huge consumer debt.

“We need to start a new era of opportunity in America particularly for the middle class and poorer population, going back to the kind of enlightened ideas that spurred our progress in the past by uniting us instead of stalling progress by a return to our first century elitism. The failure to do so has been particularly apparent in the first years of this 21st century. Only seven years ago it appeared that we had the wherewithal to correct major problems and to move boldly up the ladder to a richer, stronger and more inclusive union. When George W. Bush was elected in 2000 we had just completed eight years of economic growth, the four best years in market history, the creation of 22,000,000 new jobs, a balanced budget, a potential $5.4 trillion surplus, an ascendant middle class and a shrinking poor population. All of that progress has been reversed. Job creation is weaker; we have record setting deficits, a growing poor population and a middle class that is sliding backwards…although we do have more millionaires and billionaires than ever.

Measured by traditional econometrics, the current economy is said to be “growing.” That’s good; it means there is increasing production and distribution of goods and services and consumption of them at a profit that benefits owners of businesses and shareholders. What those econometrics do not tell us however, is whether the jobs that are created are here or overseas and how much most Americans are benefited as a result of our growing economy. In fact, it is an economy that has been wonderfully rewarding for high level corporate executives and big stockholders but not for most other Americans. If consumerism is high it is because people are spending more than they earn: they have a negative savings rate and are increasing their debt dangerously.”


All the above literatures are lifted from the articles available in the Internet. Countries like Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and the third worlds are definitely not spared from the specter of consumer debt crisis. It is just that the information from the Internet is not openly available.

Consumer debt is indeed a global menace and because the problem is inherently a personal problem, very few people are willing to come forward and discuss their problem openly. Except the credit counseling agencies where information are freely available in the Internet, support groups and social network groups seldom exist.

I hope one day, people who are severely affected will work together on a common solution communicating globally using tools available in the internet.

Chapter Two: Consumer Debt and Global Warming: Twin Global Crises

Technorati Profile

The standard format of zenduse is Needs, Problems, and Solution. I discussed in chapter One about Needs - the four areas of needs as far as "Consumer Debt and Global Warming" is concern. In this chapter and the succeeding topics, I will touch on the problems associated with the global crises. I will define what is consumer debt and what do we mean by global warming and climate change.

Then, I will proceed to present some factual and anecdotal evidence about the crises. This will be followed by a more critical root cause analysis of consumer debt.

The past is intelligible in the light of the present and the present can be best understood in the light of the past. And so, I will present some historical facts and trends derived mainly from my research (in the internet) on the topic at hand.

This will be followed by a chapter conclusion.

Please do read my blog and share with us your thoughts and let us compound our knowledge about consumer debt and global warming as twin global crises, and together we build new actionable information, insights on how do we proceed to address the complexity of the problem situation.

As mentioned somewhere in my zenduse blog, we have to change the perception of the reality of our situation before we can be effective in introducing meaningful change to the problems at hand.

You can send your comments and ideas to lonesto_oidem@yahoo.com.sg or Nes_oidem@hotmail.com.

Climate Change: Eye of a deadly storm

The worst is yet to come if we dont do something...

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Our Needs: The Conclusion

Is there a causal connection between consumer debt crisis and global warming?

There are four areas of needs this chapter articulated well. The need for exponential increase in human activities as a way to increase wealth, the urgent need for global action to reverse the trend of global warming, the need for the middle class to generate multiple streams of residual income, and the urgent need to adjust lifestyle and spending habits.

Increase in human activities means more factories processing consumer goods, growth in sectors that provide services, building of more and more and more energy-dependent shopping malls not only to encourage consumer spending and lifestyle change but also to showcase the latest technology and gadgets with never ending product versions and releases.

Increase in human activities means exponential increase in the innovative use of technologies, innovation and widespread use of automation that eventually results in unemployment, retrenchment, underemployment, which in categorical term means decrease in the earning capacity of workers and employees.

Increase in human activities also sets the trend that results in the globalization of economic activities from the developed countries of the world to the crisis-wracked countries in South East Asia.

One of the most obvious trends that marked the regime of globalization is the deregulation of the financial services that resulted in the entry of global financial institutions encouraging the middle class to spend more and more and more using borrowed money.

Another obvious event happening in the period of rapid globalization is the liberalization of imports eliminating in particular the restriction on the quantity of imported goods that enters a country.

All these global events started in 1995 during the start of the dot-com bubble that put most of the countries especially the South East Asia in recession starting 2000.

The outcome of these entire consumer driven activities is increase in the accumulation of wealth amongst industrialized nations, increase in the accumulation of debts among middle class consumers in most cities of the world, and worst of all increase in the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other industrial waste in the surface of our mother earth.

The following words from Mario Cuomo, former Governor of New York (1983-1995), has reinforced the truth about consumer debt crisis especially in US:

“Measured by traditional econometrics, the current economy is said to be “growing.” That’s good, it means there is increasing production and distribution of goods and services and consumption of them at a profit that benefits owners of businesses and shareholders. What those econometrics do not tell us however, is whether the jobs that are created are here or overseas and how much most Americans are benefited as a result of our growing economy. In fact, it is an economy that has been wonderfully rewarding for high level corporate executives and big stockholders but not for most other Americans. If consumerism is high it is because people are spending more than they earn: they have a negative savings rate and are increasing their debt dangerously.”

(You may want to visit DMI Blog and read his article at http://www.dmiblog.com/archives/2007/09/cuomo_3_where_we_are_now.html)

Consumerism is not at all bad. In fact it is good. We just need to make a change, some adjustments in the way we look at our needs - the need to increase our source of residual income and the need to adjust our lifestyle and spending habit.

There is hope in this kind of change and every reason that tells us things will never change will have to disappear.

In chapter two we will take a closer look at the twin problems by defining them, setting some measures of success, analyzing the root causes of the problems as well as understanding and misunderstanding our strength and weakness that brought us to this crises.

In chapter three we will come out with a common frame of reference in addressing the roots of the problems, and suggest various options of solving the twin problem of consumer debt and global warming.

Chapter One: Our Needs

The Need for an Exponential Increase in Human Activities


Is there a causal connection between consumer debt crisis and global warming? What happened to the resonating principle of corporate responsibility? Before I answer these two questions, let me tell you a story.

In 1993, I came across a TV program entitled “Beyond 2000”. In one of its episodes, a documentary film featured a story of a government agency’s space program (it probably started in the Reagan administration) – the ambitious plan to colonize the space, set up a permanent settlement complete with establishments such as banks, agriculture, engineering infrastructure, restaurants, villages, and many others, and designed a blueprint on how to harvest hydrogen gas and other minerals from Mars and create an artificial orbit that would transport those minerals to the planet Earth.

The impressive blueprint of tomorrow’s hope may indeed solve our problem of over-dependence on limited fossil fuels from the Earth’s crust. At the tail end of the show, it laments that the project needs funding and resources the cost of which is currently beyond our imagination. Combine all money in the banks all over the world and money will still not be enough.

To my mind, what I saw was a need. A need to increase the wealth of the first world nations sufficient to build up the confidence in financing the ambitious plan to acquire ownership of the space or part thereof.

Indeed, to increase the wealth of nations we need an exponential increase in human activities – production, distribution, consumption, and labor.

Every corporate entity should endeavor to push the productive levers of its organization harder and harder, like they are in a crisis situation, to generate more wealth. Along with the exponential growth in the production of goods and services is the corresponding need for exponential growth in the distribution and consumption of goods and services as well.

Consumers are encouraged to consume by increasing their purchasing power using plastic cards if they don’t have money in their savings accounts. The commercial establishments need to promote and advertise their financial services (credit cards and other personal loans) and generate insatiable consumer appetite to buy more and more, and more, compulsively.

Fulfilling the need to achieve exponential growth in human activities through increased production, distribution and consumption of goods and services, the wealth of nations increases - measured in terms of Gross Domestic Product or GDP- and of course everything that goes with it including exponential increase in carbon dioxide emissions coming substantially from burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal as energy consumption raises the bar to produce electricity that heats up or cools down our homes, ignite our factory engines, transport millions of commuters to and from their offices and homes, and maintain a vibrant energy-heavily-dependent city.

But many of us are probably less interested to know that, driven by uncontrollable consumer spending, consumer debts have become a global concern incurred mostly by middle class workers in major cities drowning in huge debts just to fund consumption beyond their means beyond their needs. Economic growth spurred by the middle class and at the expense of the middle class until this same middle class shrinks and settles down to the bottom of the pyramid.

The ambitious plan to put up a space colony and exploit the unlimited resources from other planets is a dream and a hope for mankind. There is no question about the need to increase human activities provided that all the outcomes lead to a sustainable, environment-friendly, and socially beneficial end results.

We dream of dreams there no one dares to dream. Should I rather say it is more realistic (than space colony) if the indebted population of the middle class, the knowledge workers of the world would now re-direct part of their time and effort on activities that would help speed up the search and development of alternative sources of energy, generate global warming awareness and openly campaign and help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and other activities aimed at reversing the effects of global warming.


The Urgent Need for Global Action to Reverse the Trends of Global Warming

According to the U.N. Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change, if the global community today especially US, India, and China, will not make a significant move to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as early as 2020, 75 million people in Africa will suffer water shortages, residents of Asia’s larger cities, Singapore included, will be at great risk of river and coastal flooding. Europeans can expect extensive species loss, and North Americans will experience longer and hotter heat waves and greater competition for water.

Here I quote in part an article from Arthur Max from Associated Press in an article published November 17, 2007 at Yahoo News:

The panel portrays the Earth hurtling toward a warmer climate at a quickening pace and warns of inevitable human suffering. It says emissions of carbon, mainly from fossil fuels, must stabilize by 2015 and go down after that.

In the best-case scenario, temperatures will keep rising from carbon already in the atmosphere, the report said. Even if factories were shut down today and cars taken off the roads, the average sea level will reach as high as 4.6 feet above that in the preindustrial period, or about 1850.

"We have already committed the world to sea level rise," the panel's chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, said. But if the Greenland ice sheet melts, the scientists said, they could not predict by how many feet the seas will rise, drowning coastal cities.
Climate change is here, they said, as witnessed by melting snow and glaciers, higher average temperatures and rising sea levels. If unchecked, global warming will spread hunger and disease, put further stress on water resources, cause fiercer storms and more frequent droughts, and could drive up to 70 percent of plant and animal species to extinction, according to the panel's report.

The report was adopted after five days of sometimes tense negotiations among 140 national delegations. It lays out blueprints for avoiding the worst catastrophes — and various possible outcomes, depending on how quickly and decisively action is taken.

"The world's scientists have spoken clearly and with one voice," Ban said, looking ahead to an important climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, next month. "I expect the world's policy makers to do the same."

The report is intended to both set the stage and serve as a guide for the conference, at which world leaders will begin discussing a global climate change treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

That treaty, which expires in 2012, required industrial nations to reduce greenhouse gases and a smooth transition to a new treaty is needed to avoid upsetting the fledgling carbon markets.

"This report will have an incredible political impact," Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate change official, told The Associated Press. "It's a signal that politicians cannot afford to ignore."

The United States opted out of Kyoto in 2001, arguing that the science was unproven and that the burden of mandatory emission cuts was unfair since it excluded fast-growing China and India.

Chief U.S. delegate Sharon Hays said doubts have been dispelled. "What's changed since 2001 is the scientific certainty that this is happening," she said in a conference call late Friday. She did not indicate that Washington would abandon its policy of voluntary emission cuts.

China and India have said any measures impinging on their development and efforts to lift their people from poverty were unacceptable — a point likely to be heeded at the Bali talks.

The report offered dozens of measures for avoiding the worst catastrophes if taken together — at a cost of less than 0.12 percent of the global economy annually until 2050. They ranged from switching to nuclear and gas-fired power stations, developing hybrid cars, using more efficient electrical appliances and managing cropland to store more carbon.

Ban said a new agreement should provide funding to help poor countries develop clean energy resources, adapt to climate conditions and give them the technology to help themselves.

He said he witnessed the devastation of climate change in disappearing glaciers of Antarctica, the deforested Amazon and under the ozone hole in Chile.”

The need to find as soon as possible alternative sources of energy is no longer just an option. It is the only choice that we are morally bound to make.

Let us know your thoughts and lets build on it...



The Need for the Middle Class to Generate Streams of Residual Income

We are all drowning in huge debt and nobody is going to be there to help us except ourselves. Nobody owes us a living.

Failures and frustrations, no matter how many times we experience them in life, they shouldn’t stop us from chasing our dreams. Never ever give up!

Let me share with you these inspiring stories of ordinary men and women who failed miserably in their lives, and later made a difference to the world they lived, their names carved in granite stones and enshrined in the annals of human history:

President Abraham Lincoln, in his youth, went to war a captain and returned a private. Afterwards, he was a failure as a businessman. As a lawyer in Springfield, he was too impractical and temperamental to be a success. He turned to politics and was defeated in his first try for the legislature, again defeated in his first attempt to be nominated for congress, defeated in his application to be commissioner of the General Land Office, defeated in the senatorial election of 1854, defeated in his efforts for vice-presidency in 1856, and defeated in the senatorial election of 1858. At about that time, he wrote in a letter to a friend, “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel where equally distributed to the whole of human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth.”

Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He was subsequently defeated in every election for public office until he became Prime Minister at the age of 62. He later wrote “Never give in, never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never, Never, Never, Never, Never give up.”

Sigmund Freud was booed from the podium when he first presented his ideas to the scientific community of Europe. He returned to his office and kept on writing.

Robert Sternberg received C in his first college introductory-psychology class. His teacher commented that “there was a famous Sternberg in psychology and it was obvious there would not be another.” Three years later Sternberg graduated with honors from Stanford University with exceptional distinction in psychology, summa cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. In 2002, he became President of the American Psychological Association.

Charles Darwin gave up a medical career and was told by his father, “You care for nothing but shooting dogs and rat catching.” In his autobiography, Darwin wrote, “I was considered by all my masters and my father, a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of intellect.” Clearly, he evolved.

Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything. “He was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive.” As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail, 1,000 times? Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4-years-old and did not read until he was 7. His parents thought he was “sub-normal”, and one of his teachers described him as “mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams.” He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. He did eventually learn to speak and read. Even to do a little math.

Louis Pasteur was only a mediocre pupil in undergraduate studies and ranked 15th out of 22 students in chemistry.

Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he succeeded.

R.H. Macy failed seven times before his store in New York City caught on.

When Bell telephone was struggling to get started, its owners offered all their rights to Western Union for $100,000. The offer was disdainfully rejected with the pronouncement, “What use could this company make of an electric toy.”

Rocket scientist Robert Goddard found his ideas bitterly rejected by his scientific peers on the ground that rocket propulsion would not work in the rarefied atmosphere of outer space.

Michael Jordan and Bob Cousy were each cut from their high school basketball teams. Jordan once observed, “I’ve failed over and over again in my life. That is why I succeeded.”

There are countless stories told, foretold, and untold about people who never gave up hope and became triumphant in the end.

By the way, I did not fabricate those stories. I lifted them word for word from the digital corridor. Follow this url: http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/OnFailing.html, surf inside and pay tribute to the website owners who has intellectual property right to the contents.

No matter how big or gigantic your problems are, most likely you will survive. You will thrive. There are millions of people on earth who are in worst situation than you. You just have to put yourself in a situation of real serious crisis, have a strong faith in yourself, and start doing something different.

This reminds me of the famous Chinese scholar Confucius, who once said, “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.”

Broaching the idea of generating multiple streams of income, the best and most effective way to reduce debt is to increase your capacity to pay. The banks, when you applied for loans and approved, it only means something, you have the capacity to pay your debts by increasing your sources of income. If you owe 5 banks money, you need to have at least 5 different sources of residual income. Residual income means you do a one time effort or activity and money will keep on flowing exponentially.

The most exciting human activity that is becoming hit among today’s knowledge workers who are capitalizing on the sea of opportunities available on the internet is infopreneurship which refers to entrepreneurs who makes money by selling/sharing information or knowledge on the World Wide Web.

As an Infopreneur, you can both be someone who sells information you created yourself or you compound existing information derived from different authoritative sources, build on it, and sell it. Information in the Internet most of the time is free to be read by anyone. Hence, revenues are earned through advertisements.

Infopreneurship will become the next big thing. Millions of people from all over the world are using mobile phones. Once majority of mobile phone addicts are connected around the world, people can start connecting their computer devices and applications to share real-time data and knowledge enabling you to enjoy the benefits of increased residual income derived from the acts of information sharing. You can sell information products in variety of formats as well including books, e-books, special reports, audio and video formats, workbooks, booklets or pamphlets and any virtual modes of delivering contents to the world and for the world.

Curtis R. Carlson, et all, wrote elegantly about the convergence of information and entertainment:

The fragmentation and decline of major television news media, national newspapers, and movie studios will continue. The current hierarchical media industry is literally being turned upside down as computer and interactive games, blogs, websites, and millions of individuals around the world produce new form of info-entertainment content.”

“The internet is used by less than 20% of the world’s population. Within just a few years, more than 2 billion people from all over the world will use cellphones. Once we have connected the majority of the people around the world, we will then begin to connect our computer devices and applications to automatically share data and knowledge. This is referred to as the “age of ubiquitous computing.”

The most interesting event that is happening in the world today is that information and entertainment is converging which reduces to a large extent the stickiness of knowledge where people can easily visualize complex ideas represented in simple images and metaphors of multimedia formats; hence, problem-based experiential learning becomes effortless. This is also one of the primary motivations why ZendUse is conceived around the framework of active problem solving. I will discuss this extensively in the next chapters.

Middle class trapped in huge debt need to demonstrate infopreneurial behavior where the outcome is measured in terms of significant increase in their source of income, multiple streams of income. This is a “must” to survive in today's high cost of living.


The Urgent Need to Adjust Our Lifestyle and Spending Habit


Recognizing early on and being aware that you are in a crisis situation is the first step in the process of change. You will never be successful in enabling change if you don’t change twice, change the reality of your situation and change the perception of that reality. Being in that state of believing that you are in crisis situation will make it easier to move to the next level of change – demonstrating certain behavior that addresses the root cause of consumer debt. I know this is easier said than done.

I know of families who consistently spend their time over the weekends in shopping malls. There is nothing wrong spending your leisure time and relaxation in those places but mind you the temptation to buy compulsively things you really don’t need but dictated by your wants is undeniably strong.

Due to intense business competition, commercial marketing has perfected the art of manipulating our minds to be in that state of an irresistible urge to throw away your money on something that you don’t really need in life. Then a moment later when you are back in your senses and take a second look at your purchases, in your mind you begin to rationalize and ask yourself why did you buy it, and start to feel remorseful. This is called compulsive shopping.

The bad news is you need to adjust your lifestyle and spending habit. You need to communicate to your spouse and to your children that you don’t have enough money to spend. Stop using your credit card or personal line of credit now.

One of the root causes of consumer debt is the absence of “no money communication skills”. Spouses have differences in the way they spend their money. Most of the time spouses are hiding from each other their expenditures.

Another cause of consumer debt is addiction to entertainment including but not limited to watching in cinemas every weekend, playing computer games, video-karaoke, night clubbing, and spending too much time on the Internet for entertainment of some sorts.

Since the invention and commercialization of mobile phone devices, people have considered the device as fads and craze rather than a necessity. I for one, I upgrade my hand phone almost twice a year, and its not cheap. Because you saw a friend with a new gadget with cool features and accessories, you are also tempted to upgrade your hand phone as well. This is another unnecessary expense that drains your wallet.

Other behavioral characteristics that you need to be aware of, if you happened to exhibit this behavior, is financial phobia where some people keep on denying their indebtedness, and the other one is always banking on windfall which simply means believing that next month or two there is money coming such as bonus, annual wage supplement, or even inheritance. The moral lesson here is don’t depend on those future income. Spend money that is already posted in your bank account, otherwise you continue to be in cycle of indebtedness.

People who are living in the city really find it extremely inconvenient to adjust especially when you know that your friends and associates are living according to the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Unfortunately, in today’s period of global warming and dwindling fossil fuel reserve we are morally and ethically obliged to reduce our consumption of goods, services, and energy use. There is no distinction between rich and poor. The signs of our time are painted all over the walls. The climate change, the extreme weather conditions such as Katrina, Tsunami, the burning of rainforest and melting of the glaciers in the polar region causing the rise in sea level. Not the richest man on earth will be spared when the acts of nature strikes. The natural calamities that happened in the recent years will be followed by more destructive trends and climate crisis of catastrophic proportion, and we cannot wait another 100 more months to reverse this trend. It will be irreversible.

Your indebtedness including those millions of consumers all over the world who are equally drowning in huge debt (credit card as well as personal loans and car and home mortgage loans) is no longer a personal problem. It has become a socio-economic as well as political problem of global proportion and the first step towards the solution is stop using your credit card, start looking at your very basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, health and education, and exhibit positive outlook in life. You are not alone in this crisis; everyone in the middle of the pyramid in one way or another is in the same boat with you – we are all onboard the “Titanic”.

In the chapter that will follow we will take a cursory look at the problem - the twin problems of consumer debt and global warming. Are the two problems linked together by correlation? Will solving the "personal" problem ease out the pain in the other more global problem? Find out in the next chapter….