One of the mixed blessings of the aging process is that I’m prone to remember things. Of course I’m prone to forget things from time to time too, but we won’t talk about that right at the moment.
There are times that my memory and my grasp of the past is so comprehensive that I even remember things that didn’t happen 😉 or so it seems at times.
I was born 10 days after World War II officially ended. Therefore, my “real” memories of WWII are a bit suspect. But since, in my formative years it was the most common shared experience of all my family and adult friends, I feel I am pretty well connected to the War. I also am a real history buff and I majored in history at university, so, at least in my own mind I have a pretty good concept of what went on and how people reacted.
What am I really writing about here, today? Well I’m attempting to tie this into several of my preceding posts on the role of government .. and actually close that subject out. It’s getting perilously close to a political discussion to me, and the only thing that bores me worse than ballet or American football is, political discussions.
So in WWII, as a couple examples might make us believe, were the people, the John Q. Public or the Juan de la Cruz walking down the street in Manhattan or Manila a better class of folks than we see walking those streets today?
My thesis is, no they were not, but it’s easy to see why that assumption could be made. AMericans stopped driving their cars, planted victory gardens, collected scrap metal, bought war savings bonds, enlisted in droves and accepted all sorts of really strict government controls on life in order to ‘do their bit’ to help win the war.
Filipinos went off to war in huge numbers too. they slipped into the jungle and formed effective guerilla units also, even though in the days leading up to the war the Americans (it was US territory, remember) couldn’t even supply decent tennis shoes for the volunteer soldiers, let alone weapons. I could go on as well with stories I pretty much know to be true regarding heroics of Filipinos under Japanese rule but never giving up their cause.
Point being, do we see anything like that today? hardly. The ideal in the US seems to be get a degree in some kind of scammy futures marketing, pile up all the debt that you can (fake it ’til you make it), make the Columbian drug lords rich buying crack, bet whatever money is left over on football, and drive the biggest, most gas guzzling car that can be bought.
In the Philippines it isn’t a lot different. there’s anew bribery scandal every other day. The same people are fighting over the same ground with the same rhetoric in Mindanao as they did 10 years ago. The former deposed president, hounded out of office and saved from a death sentence by presidential pardon (which included a prohibition on political caparisoning) is busy running for office. A pack of cancer sticks costs 40 cents US, a 500 ml bottle of 80 proof whiskey costs 80 cents US, but the birth certificate a parent needs to send their child to primary school costs more than $13 USD .. several days pay for many people here.
Has the population in general just gone downhill in the days since World War II? I don’t think so.
But our leadership certainly has. And I think that’s a key. Anybody seen anything resembling Churchill’s speeches to the British (who were so close to being knocked out of the war that it boggles the mind). How about Wilson’s Fireside Chats, or Truman’s “the Buck Stops Here” slogan. Hardly.
The US economy is being brought to it’s knees principally by gas prices aided and bettered by the current president’s hand holding (literally) with mid-east oil barons. The prospective successors have no energy plans to speak of either. Has any of these so called “leaders” even done the obvious and used the free TV time he can have by snapping his fingers, gone on the air and said, “hello, stop buy those stupid Hummers, we’re in a tight spot and we need to pull together.” Nope. Any statements that do get made are only to try to spin things to “prove” to the American public that it has to be someone else’s fault. What has the average American been asked to do .. to improve the economy or to even fight the ‘war on terror’? Not a damn thing. Business as usual.
here in the Philippines we have our own crises. there is shooting war fighting going on in Mindanao as we speak. Know when I last saw the prudent on TV? meeting with executives who own private jets at the Baguio airport, assuring them that she will keep the airport open with government funds so that they don’t have to use ground transportation like the “common folk”.
In the meantime the country is routinely down to a few weeks supply of rice … while thousands and thousands of hectares go vacant and hundreds of thousands of able bodied men who need work .. so why are we buying Philippine-developed rice from Vietnam instead of calling out to people to get busy and raise their own?
I don’t know. reading back over this I’m not sure if I am making a point. But really, I think people in any country today are every bit as good as the people of the 1940s … they will respond if asked to do what is needed. What we (both the US and the Philippines) really need is a president who will ask.
Hello Dave,
Or should I call you Frustrated Dave, I see where you are coming from.
Those two world wars vertually changed the world and has so many other things like the Black Plaque, Industrialization and one of the biggest changers of life today computers. The world is always changing, some of it good and some of it not so good.
Corruption has been with us since the day somebody decided we need to create civilizations. Where there money and power there will be corruption, not sociaty or culture is free from it.
To me I do think we as a civilization will ever be at peace, all wars are a much bigger version of a conflict between neighbours in any suburb or town.
Leadership to me means looking after the interests of the people under you, listening to what they have to say, providing a moral standard and most of all providing a sense of direction, preferably a good one.
Unfortunately anybody with political asperations needs to satisfy the vocal minority groups before the majority to think of being elected into power. So good leadership in politics is already compromised before it even starts.
The with a lot of western countries today is it is controled by marketing people, these people seem to have control over just about everything from the milk you buy for the baby to who you elect into politics. These people have the true power over just about every one who has a TV or computer. They can create or destroy an image at the stroke of a pen.
They make you think that happiness comes from having the latest and greatest, to the food we eat.
There is my thought for the day.
Steven
P.S can we have some happy thoughts next time, as there is a good side to life as well. For example what do bald men do to polish their heads to make it shine so much. Do not worry Dave I am bald too.
@Steven: Hi Steven. You certainly grasped one of my ponts very well … exercisinf leadership calls for the act of providing a direction for your 'leadee's. A good leader doesn't have to _solve_ every problem … indeed he or she likely can't solve every problem … but giving folks a sense of directon in finding their own way through difficult times is what a leader does.
As I said, this will closee out my political career here, it's time for new groundto pow …and perhaps plant rice on 😉
bald men's heads are shiny? Him I guess I never knew that … I'll have to look closer next time I see one 😉
Here is a story of one Philippino man who is doing something for his country…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVhXrvCCILw&fe…
Unfortunately that is not what the governement wants.
@Robert: I'll leave this link in here in the interests of fairness. My considered opinion:
1. This guy doesn't even have his politics straight, re. Eddie Ramos, coups, etc.
2. It is possible to make hydrogen from elctrolosis, indeed I am a big supporter of hydrogen fule, but part of what you are watching is a series of cheap parlor tricks. There is no where near the volume of hydrogen in a liter of water to run a car for an hour. There are oil companies, there are governements and there is simple physics. Only one of the three is truthful.
3. Regardles of wha you believe, this car is not running on water, it is alleged to be running on hydrogen. Not at all the same thing.
4. This seems to be a political essay rather than an invention. "the government holds me back since Ramos's time". Bull. Who needs the government if you really can do as he says. This guy apparently wants a Foundation for the Filipino People (with him at the head, no doubt). Be careful to separate political and personal claptrap from fact.
5. What he is actually doing, based on his statements and my observations is water injection. This is an old, tried and true technique. You can buy water injection systems from many sources and it does improve engine efficiency, in some cases, and allows much higher combustion chamber pressures before detonation occurs. It's nothing new, in fact when airliners used piston engines water injection was an essential part of the aircraft's operation. To take full advantage, you'd have to rebuild the engine with a significantly increased compresison ratio (likewise if you were actually runnng on hydrogen). To simply hook a hydrogen feed pipe to a common car engine will be horribly inefficient, the engine needs a compression ratio in the diesel range to effectively use hydrogen as a fuel.
There's a huge difference between getting an engine to tolerate a certian fuel and to perform efficiently n that fuel. You can pour Channel No. 5 in your gas tank and I guarantee the engine will run … may not be cost effective though 😉
In short, I wish him well, but read up carefully on basic physics before believing everything you see on You Tube.
Hi Dave
Interesting what you say and I don't desagree with you.
What really bothers me is something that I know that could be done. And that is the use of electrolysis inside of the car engine compartement on most diesel engines.
That much I know, because I have seen it in real life on a Winnebago with diesel engine. IT SAVES FUEL !
For the rest of the story… let's wait another 150 years for the answer. 🙂
@Robert: I fully agree there are anumber of 'gimmicks' sold on the market that absolutely _do_ aid in gas or diesel mileage. And it is not only the oil companies, or 'government conspiracies' that hold back their use. Years ago I had my own company selling GPS fleet tracking which has been proven to save fuel. Even though I offered money back guarantees it was a tough market. I had a friend who had a diesel fuel additive that would save fuel … the cost of the additive was 50% or less of the cost of the fuel that wuld be saved. He had a terrible job selling to fleet managers also.
In many cases the problem boils down to this … fleet managers get paid/earn promotions and company prestige based on how much money is handled, not on how much they save. In government especially, cutting a budget often downgrades the pay level of a job … so, no incentive.
We, each of us, has along way to go. If I were the fellow in the video, I'd find independent investors and sell the product and forget about government bureaucrats. Ties right in to what I said a few posts back about the right and wrong place of government. We, US, Filipino or whatever nationality should rely more on ourselves and stop waitng for 'the government to do something'.
Thanks again for reading and commenting.