Pol Pot - Dreams Of Nationalistic Communism

 

I just finished watching an A&E biography on Pol Pot and thought I post some things that I found remarkable about his rule.  As a student of history, I try my best to understand the destructive situations that have occurred in the past and see what led to it, so that I may endeavour to leave a more constructive world for those who will live in generations hereafter.

Pol Pot was enamoured by the Communistic or communal promise presented by Marx and Mao’s China.  When he took power, he immediately forced the evacuation of the capital, Phnom Penh, and imposed an agrarian lifestyle for all.  He felt a distrust of Western influences and felt that imperialism/capitalism was just a way to keep the peasants working hard for the rest of their lives for the monarchs in charge.  He ruled by what can be described as a Nationalistic Communism.  Although he was initially guided by a beneficent vision of his country, which emphasized the restoration of the ancient Cambodian culture, I saw once again the same attribute of paranoia inherent in all dictators.  Pol Pot became suspicious of anyone who might challenge his authority, and he executed (estimates vary) about 1.6 million people, or 1 in every 4 Cambodians.  Those targeted specifically included Buddhist monks, intellectuals, etc.  They were led to torture chambers and tortured until they confessed to charges that were alleged upon them, whether they were true or not.  Stalin did the same in his regime.  He became so paranoid in his later years that he even executed an aid of his who had been loyal to him for over 40 years.  The Khmer Rouge eventually arrested Pol Pot and placed him under house arrest.  The UN took over the country hereafter temporarily until new leadership could be established.  I would like you to watch an interview done by a journalist with Pol Pot while he was under house arrest.  It is about 15 minutes long, and the links are provided below:

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQMyX80jCF8

Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qhgmfnRJio

It is interesting to note how soft-spoken he is; he constantly justifies what he has done.  I have to ask myself how these events occur, or where do the roots lie?  If I trace the roots intellectually, I am left with the power that is given to dictators by the people.  It seems to me that nationalism is a very dangerous concept, and when there is tremendous energy given to it, what I like to call the “mob mentality” takes over; and one thing I find very disturbing about a mob, is that is principally guided by emotional motives while leaving reason aside.  I also believe that a population capable of fully using the faculty of critical thinking cannot declare blind allegiance to an arbitrary identity like a state or country; it simply would be incapable, logically, to do so. 

What are your thoughts?  How and why do these events occur?  Please leave your comments and let me know what you all think…

(Please do not comment if you think that violence is an inherent tendency of mankind as we are looking for causes/solutions here.  We are assuming that the human nature is capable of change.)

Meeting Minutes

We had a great meeting!  Turned out we got to use a private hall at Romano's which happened to be available during the time of our meeting:

(From left to right) VJ Arjan, Andrew Wang, Jeff Harrington, Jason Pullen, and Tommy Schultze. (Click on the picture to get a larger image)

GM and Bailout

If GM gets the $25 billion from the government:

a)  A)  Nothing will happen, GM will still go bankrupt.  It has -$60 billion in net owners’ equity, and there is very little chance it can recoup while holding on to the demands of the UAW.  Expected value, therefore, is 0.

b)  B) The bailout will directly finance GM’s investment in future car technologies (alternate fuels, electric cars, etc.), and will therefore serve to bring it to the forefront of the auto industry.

In either case, they will have to wait until the Obama administration gets into office, which is in February.  However, GM has already announced that they will run out of cash by this January.  So, it is a waiting game.  Our consensus is that $25 billion cannot and will not turn around GM entirely, and that the funds are just one of many demands to come.

Stimulus Package

President-elect Obama will probably initiate a stimulus package as soon as he assumes office.  The effectiveness of the package will be determined by how it is distributed.  Jeff Harrington suggested that the stimulus package should go to the essential industries, i.e. roads, bridges, highways (projects that are utilized by everyone).  The construction workers and engineers receiving this money will then spend in other areas of the economy, and essentially stimulate from the bottom-up. Giving funds to corporations will result in what is occurring currently with the financial bailouts, very little. 

It is interesting to note that Jeff’s supposition sounds much like FDR’s New Deal, but it is important to stress that how they go about this will make the most difference.  Jason Pullen brought up economist Friedrich Hayek’s contention that if a central control agency has all available and relevant information, then the execution and the effect is more readily achievable.  He gave an example of the military being such an organization, citing the military’s role in World War II to stimulate the economy.  The lack of information in government administrations and the inefficiencies in the distribution of information  (chokehold of government bureaucracy) may be responsible for government policies being implemented very ineffectively.

FED’s Magic Trick

Up until the 1980’s, corporations would willingly buyout unprofitable corporations to use the losses on its balance sheet to write off their taxes in the future.  This changed with Section 382 in the 80s, which forbade this practice. However, Jeff Harrington noted that the FED has just this September conveniently changed and reversed section 382 to allow the recent mergers of financial institutions (Bank of America & Countrywide, Wachovia and Wells Fargo) so host companies can write off their taxes with the gargantuan losses suffered by its colonies.  Did you see it?

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/09/AR2008110902155_pf.html

The U.S. Debt

The truth of the matter is that a large part of our debt post-WWII has been in the underwriting of securities and emerging technologies worldwide.  Let’s take an example.  The government uses our tax dollars to research and develop a vaccine for cancer.  This is then distributed throughout the world. The world benefits although there is no monetary payback.  Then why more debt? (Hint: Inflate away the U.S. debt with more debt; solve the problem of debt by inflation with more inflation)

http://goldnews.bullionvault.com/inflate_inflating_away_debt_continentals_weimar_inflation_051720082

War In Iraq Is Good News To Russia And China

Russia’s invasion of Georgia while America was at war in Iraq was not a coincidence.  As America is distracted at the moment, Russia has its chance to fool around and bully a rapidly westernizing Georgia into submission.  In fact, many of us feel that Vladimir Putin is striving to impose a stranglehold on former Soviet Union colonies to further his personal ambitions.  His puppet, Medvedev, has recently extended the term for Presidency from 4 years to 6, which means 12 more years instead of 8 for Putin.

China is also doing things it would not normally do.  Andrew Wang talked extensively about mainland China, the country he is originally from.  He also stated that China has been recently paying other countries to stop recognizing Taiwan as a separate entity from China.  For example, it just gave Costa Rica $5 billion to do just that.

Agricultural Foodstuffs

The government’s fling with ethanol may be causing the rise in most livestock commodities.  Corn feeder which was being used to feed animals, is now being used to produce ethanol.  

(http://tfc-charts.w2d.com/)

Corn

Live Cattle

Lean Hogs

Conagra and World Hunger

As I have studied and am very passionate about the problem of world hunger, I thought I’d bring up what I explained to the other members at our meeting.  Currently 35,000 children under the age of 5 are dying of starvation every hour.  When I first heard the statistic, the enormity really did not sink in.  What is more interesting is that the hunger epidemic did not even exist before the 1950s.  So what happened?

Defendants of major corporations usually say that there simply is not enough food in the world and that the high birth rates in hunger-striken countries only make the problem worse.  This is what is not being told.  Let’s take agricultural monolith Conagra, for instance.  It has for the last 4 decades gone into third world countries and has bought up farmland en masse there.  What does it do with that land?  Nothing.  Larger supplies of crops decrease the prices of foodstuff, so by eliminating potential sources of supply, they are able to charge more for their products and be more profitable.  In fact, Conagra is notorious for flooding a market with below-market prices to take out local competitors and then raising the prices once the local farmers are forced to sell their land to them.  Essentially, Conagra and other foodstuff corporations like it, have artificially created a shortage of food.  For more information, please read World Hunger: 12 Myths by Lappe, Collins, and Rosset.

Technology and Work

We discussed extensively the role of technology in our future.  We are at a point wherein a majority of jobs that we have, can be automated even today if corporations put their greed and differences aside and instead work together to do so.  Capitalism functions, however, based on human desire for self-interest, even at the expense of the rest of society.  Corporations have time and again programmed into the system designed obsolescence to maximize profits.  For example, lightbulbs, the patents for which are owned by General Electric, can last lifetimes if they are built correctly.  An original lightbulb produced by Thomas Edison is still burning bright in Washington D.C., a hundred or so years after being created.  To maximize profits, GE has deliberately designed lightbulbs to fail every 6 to 9 months.  The same goes for cars, which are programmed to start failing in about 5 years, the average note on a car loan.  If, however, the world decides to put first the common good and welfare of mankind and use technology accordingly, the standard of living of the entire world would skyrocket.  As one cannot pay a machine a salary and a machine does not tire, it is possible to create things in complete abundance very cheaply.  Everything from homes to clothes to airplanes is currently being built by robots. 

Scarcity is a myth.  There is no scarcity of oil, just as there is no scarcity of diamonds.  Not all of the oil is produced, or all of the diamonds are released, to keep the price artificially inflated.  However, if we indeed move to solar and/or wind energy, how can one control a natural resource as abundant as the sun or the wind?  With the advent and implementation of technology, which actually exists today we can, as a race, eliminate the scarcity of resources. 

What would happen if virtually everything were done by machines?  Well, humans certainly wouldn’t work.  Obviously one cannot automate the function of a politician, etc., but most manual labor or processing/service jobs can be automated.  It is possible, as suggested by some members, that we would just end up like those living in trailer parks, disincentivized, and (pardon the bluntness) have sex all day long.  After we parted, however, Jason Pullen, Andrew Wang, and I discussed Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and predicted that most people after having the necessities taken care of, would look for other things to fulfill them (Love, Art, a hobby, a charitable cause, religion, etc.) until they are self-actualized.  Also, if an abundance of things that provide our necessities exist, why would one country go to war with another?  Usually, countries go to war sometimes because there is legitimate cause, but sometimes because there is a profit is to be made.  Would a country ever go to war for a natural resource like oil, if it could technologically tap the sun for all the energy it needed?

As this topic is certainly an interesting and revolutionary one, I am wondering what you all think about it.  Please leave your opinion in the comments; I’d love to hear your perspective!

My hope is that you may benefit by some of this, and that it may help you develop or further enhance your perspective of the way the world is! Let me know if you’d like to receive an invitation to the next meeting, which will be the Sunday after next, November 30th. I will send out the invitations and details close to a week in advance.

Thank you all and I hope you all have a great week ahead of you!

Meeting Minutes

We had a great time at our meeting!  Although we initially started on the discussion of some global financial and political issues, we certainly ended up on very different tangents!  In total, we had 6 members attend:

(From left to right) Andrew Whatley, Eric Chen, myself (VJ Arjan), Rolando Mestanza, Tommy Schultze, and Jeff Harrington. (Click on the picture to get a larger image)

Our meeting lasted nearly 3 hours and 45 minutes, I think that's the longest it's been yet.  We spent a good deal of time listening to Rolando talk about the financial and political situation in his home country, Peru as well as the rest of the Latin American countries.  We then discussed a little about what would occur if Obama is elected President.  And then we started talking about some really intriguing things and for a good deal of the time, Tommy Schultz, who has spent extensive amounts of time making a study of handwriting, analyzed each of our signatures as well as numerous those for other important figures.  It was lots of fun and I think we spent over an hour doing just that as it was so fascinating how much a signature can reveal about one’s inner character/personality.  As a result of the way this meeting went, I've decided not to limit the topics of conversation to economic, social, and geopolitical issues, but rather to just let it flow as it may.  I feel there is a time for all things, and so it may be for the discussions at these meetings also.

Latin America

Peru

Rolando spoke to us about the Peruvian economy, which is mostly mining gold, silver, and copper.  According to him, Peru is one of the largest miners and exporters of these metals.  Grupo Mexico, the largest mining corporation in Mexico and the third largest copper producer in the world, has been buying up copper ores in Peru.  The Free-Trade Agreements between Latin American counties and America is leading to the outsourcing of American jobs and the outflow of money to poor laborours in Latin American countries.  This is a godsend for most people in these countries who are being kept poor by a ruling elite that is hoarding the wealth. 

Chile

Rolando considers Chile the most advanced of the Latin American counties.  They have privatized retirement funds there, to the point where it comprises 50% of the stock markets.  He noted that President Bush wanted to implement something similar here in the US, but his plan was struck down by both houses.

Venezuela

Since Chavez has taken control, oil production has declined 20%.  The nationalized oil company is now an enormous conglomerate that produces everything from furniture to foodstuffs.  Chavez has implemented a cunning policy there; although he states that he wants to free the Venezuelan worker from the clasp of the ruling elite, he is not providing direct aid to them to help them rise financially.  Instead, he has opened a series of comedars (eating places), where he literally gives away food to the masses.  However, it may be wise to remember the old proverb: feed a man a fish and he is fed for the day; teach him how to fish and he is fed for life.  Chavez wants the keep the people dependent upon him, so that when he decides to abolish the current constitution, which has already tried to once, he will have the willing support of the people.

America

Subprime Continued…

We joked today that Bank of America has become the corporate motto for all companies.  (Merrill) LYNCH (Bank of) AMERICA COUNTRYWIDE!  But seriously, there is outright favouritism going on here.  Essentially the Fed has given the largest banks funds to start buying up the smaller/weaker ones.  Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup are simply too big to fail.  Interestingly, however, the $50 billion provided by the Fed to these banks to start initiating money into the system via loans is going strangely enough to paying out executive bonuses.  In fact, Jeff Harrington noted that $20 billion of the original $50 billion has already gone out in this way.  So much for helping the American people…

Social Security

“Welfare is the Hugo Chavez of the Democrats!” – Jeff Harrington

There seems no way out of the Social Security debacle if the Democrats control all three seats of office (President, House, Senate).  Obviously, if Obama is elected, he will not be able to deliver on all he is promising – no candidate, historically, has every done so.  But if he diligently executes what he has proposed then we will become like Germany, Italy, and Britain, where the government takes on a more dominant role and oftentimes a not-so-efficient one.  Taxes will increase to European levels.

United States v. Tobacco Companies

In 1999, the United States government sued the major tobacco companies for promoting their product while deliberately knowing that nicotine was an addictive substance.  I explained how I saw on C-SPAN History that none of the corporate executives and CEOs of these tobacco firms would admit that nicotine was addictive.  Tommy Schultz then brought up the power of underground marketing.  I admit that I had not known such a method existed.  In essence, it can be a waitress at a restaurant that suggests a certain product, or a pile of boxes in front of a store with a logo that is paid for by companies to promote their product.  This is how the tobacco companies remained profitable while information was publicly available (Surgeon General 1960s) that deemed smoking deleterious and addictive.

If Obama Wins…

In reference to the stock market, if Obama wins:

·         Alternative energy stocks will rise

·         Pour-it or weld-it commodities (concrete, steel, etc.) will rise

·         Oil stocks will rise (many oil companies own alternative energy patents; this will make the   Middle East become dependent upon us, as opposed to the way things are right now.  For example, think if a patent exists on a certain technology that will yield 300 miles per           gallon.)

·         Auto companies will rise (Democrats will support the unions and will, in turn, have to keep the auto companies afloat to do this)

Marriage Paradigm

Most people who practiced marriage in the past had a life expectancy that oftentimes did not reach past 30 years.  The common complaint from those who divorce after decades of marriage is that the other person has changed, etc.  Tommy explained his contention that relationships have become expendable, while before they were perhaps tolerable and held together by a sense of duty or responsibility. Add on top that that many women have built within a biological imperative to be attracted to more aggressive men, the exact trait that does not lend stability and constancy needed in a long-term relationship.  Tommy brought up the practice in the army unofficially termed Army Key Parties.  As those in the army are away from their spouses months at a stretch and know that this gives the other a chance at fooling around, many have decided to knowingly let this occur with other fellow army officers whom they might trust.  Here's what happens.  Let's say army officer Tom from Little Rock, Arkansas has a spouse Amy, and Tom is stationed in Iraq for the next two years.  Well let's assume that back home in Little Rock, he has a few friends that trained with him.  Well Tom would arrange a Key Party at a hotel where these officers would select a key to rooms where various partners of officers overseas are waiting, etc.  It certainly is a unique way to solve a problem and one that I was not aware of at all.  It is conceivable that as relationships become more and more expendable, the concept of marriage could break down completely.  We did not delve into what would take its place.

A Study Of Handwriting

Tommy Schultz explained for more than an hour his lifelong hobby of studying a person’s signature to elicit the personality.  He stated that people’s character traits are naturally and unconsciously expressed through one’s writing, a means of communication.  As there was so much information, I’ve decided not to detail it all as it would take too much time.  I may update this further in the future if and when I have some time, but all I would suggest is to come to the next meeting and ask Tommy yourself to assess your signatures.  His analysis of our signatures was spot on, I believe, and we all very much enjoyed comparing our signatures with each other and analyzing the signatures on the US dollar bills, etc (John Snow, Henry Paulson).  

Simulated Portfolio

I’ve decided to put together an investment portfolio based on suggestions from members in previous meetings and post it online for you all to see how it is doing.  The contention so far is in favour of international ETFs and commodity stocks.  You all are free to submit any suggestions, however, I cannot guarantee any of them will be used.  Email your suggestions to vj_arjan@yahoo.com. So, here it goes!

Date	Security	Entry	Profit/Loss
October 31, 2008	FXI (iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index	$25.16	$0
October 31, 2008	ILF(iShares S&P Latin America 40 Index)	$26.60	$0
October 31, 2008	EWZ(iShares MSCI Brazil Index)	$37.69	$0
October 31, 2008	PBJ(PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage)	$13.27	$0
October 31, 2008	GUR (SPDR S&P Emerging Europe)	$29.74	$0
October 31, 2008	FCX (Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.)	$29.06	$0
October 31, 2008	WLT (Walter Industries – metallurgical coal)	$38.75	$0
October 31, 2008	RIO (Companhia Vale do Rio Doce – gold mining)	$13.12	$0
October 31, 2008	GVA (Granite Construction Inc.)	$35.67	$0
October 31, 2008	MT (Arcelor-Mittal ADR)	$26.25	$0

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My hope is that you may benefit by some of this, and that it may help you develop or further enhance your perspective of the way the world is! Let me know if you’d like to receive an invitation to the next meeting, which will be the Sunday after next, November 16th. I will send out the invitations and details close to a week in advance.

Thank you all and I hope you all have a great week ahead of you!