The world's priorities? Tom Livanos: Hi everyone, May this message find everyone well. A few years ago I came across a rather sobering data table, titled 'The World's Priorities?' from a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report published in 1998. This is a sobering set of dollar amounts so if you are angry with the world then best not to read this, at least until some other time. I appreciate your interest should you decide to read on. Okay, more specifically, the data comes from the 1998 annual edition of the 'Human Development Report (HDR)' which is published by the 'United Nations Development Program (UNDP)'. This report is accessible in full at http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-report-1998 Here then is the table: All amounts are annual, in United States Dollars (USD): Basic education for all (required): $6 billion Cosmetics in the USA: $8 billion Water and sanitation for all (required): $9 billion Ice-cream in Europe: $11 billion Reproductive health for all women (required): $12 billion Perfumes in the USA and Europe: $12 billion Basic health and nutrition (required): $13 billion Pet foods in Europe and the USA: $17 billion Business entertainment in Japan: $35 billion Cigarettes in Europe: $50 billion Alcoholic drinks in Europe: $105 billion Narcotic drugs in the world: $400 billion Military spending in the world: $780 billion Amounts with (required) next to the item show the estimated additional annual cost to achieve universal access to basic social services, in all developing countries; Source: Euromonitor 1997; UN 1997g; UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF 1994; Worldwide Research, Advisory and Business Intelligence Services 1997 Thoughts welcome. Tom Livanos: Thanks for replying. Obviously no-one planned this - I see it as being symptomatic of underlying wants, fears, attitudes... in turn feeding into laws and systems... in turn creating a dominant paradigm which then perpetuates itself. What are your thoughts? I welcome anyone and everyone to chime in. Tom Livanos: How has/did this come about? Is it, as I have suggested, symptomatic of something deeper and, if so, what? Or perhaps you - and/or others - may believe that a group of people planned this (see next paragraph)? I suppose in general... the numbers are what they are... is there anything 'behind these numbers'? What may that something be? I, for one, am not at this time ascribing to a view that some small cabal of people come together once a year or once every 40 months or what-have-you to somehow design a world in which these spending amounts come about. That there is some vault hidden deep in the Alps or the Rockies to facilitate meetings which result in these spending outcomes. That, however, is my view. I welcome people's thoughts - including yours - on what may be taking place here. WHlSKY: And to be clear, the ‘it’ you are referring to is what? (I just want to be sure that I understand you thoroughly before adding anything further) WHlSKY: If there is some cabal, I’d need to know specifically what/which group makes up the cabal. Is it as organised crime with mafia groups, etc. From the view where I am at, it all looks like something not preplanned. And a bit unrelated. People will gravitate towards what will make them the most money in a capitalist society. If cigarettes make a lot, then they’ll focus on how to market that. But it is not new but was a gradual growth. With some contributions by Berneys and the ‘torches of freedom’ campaign. So companies focus on growing their impact even bribery maybe to influence legislation. It’s as something that kept growing. As with Narco, it too started small and gained influence via corrupt political figures and in part organised groups like the mafia. So the Mafia can work in Europe/Italy by liaising with the cartel groups in Latin America. The military spending will be unrelated to this trade or group but may operate slightly similar with main countries selling military protection/weapons/ contracts to other countries. As that issue France had with the US over Australia. In some cases using propaganda to create a threat. What are your thoughts? (Edited by WHlSKY) Tom Livanos: Hi, and to clarify... there is no cabal. The only reason I mentioned cabal in the first place is to emphasise the point that these spending amounts are totally unplanned. It is fair enough to say that they are unrelated as well. I do not know who it was within the 'United Nations Development Program (UNDP)' that decided to focus on these amounts. I suppose to provide cause for pause. I mean all this spending on the military, narcotic drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, ice-cream, perfumes... when so little is required to meet the basic needs of everyone in the world... the tabulator's intention seems to be to have people stop for a moment and think about it. I know that that is precisely what happened when I first came across it. I see what you mean with 'small beginnings growing constantly' until it reaches the point shown in the table. I am familiar with Edward Bernays's 'Torches of Freedom' campaign to advertise cigarettes. It was in the early 1920s if I remember correctly. I agree that the table is a reflection of capitalism. Capitalism is something that I have been giving an increasing amount of thought to recently in my life. My thinking is that capitalism, what it means, is the ability to own things. It is placing capital - be it financial, land, factories, housing, personal belongings - at the centre of how we organise human affairs. The operative word here - at least as I see it - is centre. Capitalism, at its essence, is all about ownership. It is only in this 'frame of mind' that it makes sense to have homeless people sleeping on the streets while homes nearby sit empty and decay due to no-one living in them. It is only under capitalism that this makes sense i.e. the system needs to be upheld (or chaos is what results.. as the argument goes). I have taken a step back in my thinking on this topic... ... Growing up in the 1980s, I often heard that if planetary history was compacted into a 24-hour time period then we humans first *appeared* at 2-3 seconds to midnight. How is it that we may then come along and claim ownership of the planet? That is utterly absurd. Biologists or geologists do not make such a claim. No religion or indigenous creation story makes such a claim. It is only the laws - and right around the globe no less - which are based on a premise that we human may lay claim to... well... the Earth. In other words the laws fly in the face of reality itself. They flip reality back-to-front, upside-down and inside-out! No-one's ancestors laid down the continents or filled in the oceans. No-one alive today did so either - definitely no banker ever did! Again, the very idea of that is so absurd that no-one is even attempting to argue it. I therefore think that... well... to begin with the entire world is essentially capitalist. I include North Korea, China and Cuba in this as it matters not whether land is privately owned or owned by a/the government - either way it has ownership at its centre. Secondly this is what then leads to the military spending shown in the table. Once you start saying this is mine and that is yours then it comes with a need to defend one's area/territory/nation/location/place etc. And it seems that the need for this is so high that it results in the spending which is shown in the table. I look at the table and see that the sum of the required amounts is USD40 billion per year. That is 5.13% of the USD780 billion per year which is spent on the militaries of the world. I consider this to be tragic. I mean the militaries do not even need to be disbanded. 94.87% of spending could still be kept and, with the other 5.13%, all people in the world - according to this report - could have their basic needs met. Physiological needs. For whatever it may be worth, I would feel - and actually be - safer in a world where everyone's needs are met than a world in which we could blow ourselves up a nonsensical multiple number of times over. Yet it is the latter world which we live in. I remember reading many many years ago that uranium needs to be enriched every 20 minutes so that nuclear weapons may be launched at a moment's notice. In the case of the United States of America and Russia (the first two nations to have them), that has been going on since the 1940s. It continues to this day. It continues in all countries which have nuclear weapons. I think this is madness. If it is a result of capitalism - which it is - then capitalism is madness as well. I have additional thoughts i.e. about what an alternative may look like. I have written them on my feed here on wireclub. That aside, I do not think it is too much to ask that 5.13% of military spending could be redirected to meeting the needs of people around the world. It is what we are. People. Each and every last one of us. I think that the other big spending amounts i.e. narcotic drugs, alcohol, cigarettes... these things have to do with reverence for nature and confidence that we are living in balance with nature... both these things are lacking in the world today. This is a big topic. I leave it here as I think this is enough for one post. I welcome additional thoughts from you, as well as anyone/everyone else. All the best, Tom WHlSKY: Yes, capitalism or a caste system too. It can be strange how we are normalised to seeing poverty existing right next to an over abundance of wealth. But it might also be due to human nature, because before the capitalist system we’ve been shooting ourselves in the foot.  Sir Loin: Hi Tom, are you sure those figures came from UN? They look more like some 3 year olds Xmas wish list. Tom Livanos: Malvado, As much as I dislike it, we continue to kill one another. Humans killed more humans in the 20th Century than in any other 100-year period. Saying that land is owned may actually increase the motivation to take land - or try to take land - from other people. I only say this latter point as a layperson looking at the world. This, in turn, may cause more killing rather than less. Again that is more an opinion than anything I can back up. On an individual - even personal - level, I abhor violence... including Australia's violence which, theoretically at least, is done in my name. It is part of the reason why I am calling for a more sane and rational look at the situation we were all born into. Sir Loin, As stated in my initial post, the numbers come from the 'United Nations Development Program (UNDP)'. The link to the 'Postable Document Format (.pdf)' report, repeated for your/everyone's convencience, is http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-report-1998 As per the 'Portable Document Format' file, go to page 49 / 145 within 'Adobe Acrobat'. This equates to the page numbered 37 if the report is printed out. The table, numbered 'Table 1.12' appears on the right hand side of the page. At the bottom of the table are the sources of information used (which I included in my initial post). At the beginning of the report, the contributors and acknowledgements are listed... there are many names there. I confess that I am not familiar with the workings of the 'United Nations Development Program', or the 'United Nations' itself for that matter. Is there any reason you see to doubt that it comes from the 'United Nations'? Is there data that you (or someone else) is aware of to contradict or bring into doubt the data presented in this table? To each of you as well as everyone, I write here as a layperson. I have not verified the accuracy of the numbers. I write as an everyday person who has no position of authority in society. You are welcome to view my profile to learn more about me. If you want me to clarify anything in relation to who I am then I am open to doing so (within reason). Writing as an individual, I have not come across any reason to doubt the information which is posted in my initial entry above. However, if such a reason exists then I welcome clarification on it. Indeed I request that that reason be provided (and indeed publicly). For whatever it may be worth, I compare two worlds. The first is a world in which everyone's basic needs are met and women have confidence that they may give birth in a healthy manner. The second is a world in which we may blow ourselves up a nonsensical multiple times over. I would feel - and indeed be - safer in the first scenario than what I feel - and am - in the second scenario (i.e. present day reality). Yes there may be people who are predisposed to harming others. Even if that is the case, I do not believe that that is what humanity as a whole wants i.e. in essence to end the human story, at our own hands. If one looks at this situation on a sufficiently wide scale then... I believe at least... we want to live. It may not be that way for everyone and for each moment of each person's life but this will to live is nevertheless within each one of us. At the same time life thrives with... even depends on... other life. We humans are no exception to this. Anyhow it is getting philosophical here. I was actually torn between entering this data table in a forum within politics or philosophy. Well it is where it is now. There seems to be a mismatch between this wish/yearning for peace... or at least coexistence... and where our collective human efforts are directed. Perhaps it is simply ignorance on a mass scale which is causing this? If so then perhaps my bringing all this to your attention is worthwhile. If so then I would consider that to be a success i.e. for everyone. As always reader, thank-you for your time and attention. Replies are always welcome. All the best, Tom Sir Loin: Ok Tom, I did as you suggest, read your profile..... Like what I see so sent you an invite 😃  lori100: the illuminati run the world, keep countries in poverty and chaos, control drug and sex trafficking, debt slaves.... Tom Livanos: Okay Sirloin, that is fine. Accepted (since we have had contact). Ummm... who was the three year old who... well what... sent this data table to Santa Claus at the North Pole? There is nothing easier than to question the veracity of new information i.e. in a non-specific manner. Easiest thing in the world. What is the more adult thing to do is to analyse the information, to be specific, perhaps provide alternative or additional information... lori100, okay sure everyone by now has heard of the illuminati. I have not read anyone explain who is in the illuminati, what have they done in life, what do they do in life, how do they run the world... because it seems to me that it has become a 'go to' argument for absconding one's own responsibility. I can assure you and everyone reading this that there are people in this world in much deeper poverty than what we are in. People who simply do not have the means to express themselves anywhere... let alone in a place which is publicly accessible on the internet. Yeah let's pin it all on this unknown illuminati. I mean is that what passes for responsible citizenship nowadays is it? I do not like the information presented in the above table any more than the next person, and perhaps even less so. Still, I present it to... well... provide a snapshot of this world. So that something may be done about it. I presented it to each parliamentarian in Australia's national parliament. Did that back in July (2021). Trying to get a conversation started. I know that no-one can change all this individually - and I am not excluded from this practicality. Still, I would have thought that I am not totally powerless. Even if I only have a 0.00...01% probability that I will change things, well, that is still something. I knew there was a chance that this topic would go down this path. What I did not know was whether it actually would or not. Well, that question has now been answered. I see a lot of people on 'Wireclub' professing how intelligent they are. I do not know if anyone reading this is amongst them. Okay well now is the time to show it. Show me/everyone this intelligence. "That's the way it is" is not good enough - intelligence is about moving through and improving a situation rather than throwing up one's hands. So go for it. Let your light shine. This is the time and place to do it. Sir Loin: How about we avoid buying things on credit or borrowing from the bank to buy a home? Every bank transaction Jacob Rothschild gets a cut of. Every international trade involving transfer of money, he takes more off. As of today the Rothschild family has assets exceeding USD 500 trillion. Life doesn't have to be a cycle of debt, it can revolve around a system of barter and self sufficiency (Edited by Sir Loin) Tom Livanos: The trouble is that we need a place to live. This need is what allows banks to have the power which they have. What is one to barter so as to have a place to sleep? I have an idea myself on how we may take back power from the banks but I would like to read from you. Any ideas? For whatever it may be worth, I like the thrust of what you are saying. Sir Loin: Absolutely anything can be bartered from fixing someone's car to tutoring their kids for math, even babysitting in exchange for say, fruit and veges from your garden. Some other ideas on taxation reform coming later Tom Livanos: Okay that is fine for fruit and veges from a garden, or even a bed for a night or two. Does it allow a person to escape debt/the banking system? Even if one kept it up for one's lifetime, would it remove the stranglehold which the banks have over global society? In the interests of disclosure, I am at a time in my life where I am looking to team up with anyone I can in any way that I can to meet common interests, objectives etc. Given my background in economics and financial services, I am thinking that I am best placed to operate in that sector. My aim is to bring about sustainability - with nature and within society. Leave behind a world which is at least as liveable as that which I was/we were born into and, preferably, more so. A world which is healthy - physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally... ...A world which may operate with reverence for the life support system which we have i.e. nature. This, in turn, brings confidence that we are doing what is right by future generations. This is not an ideal. If anything, it is the rawest form of pragmatism. Honouring that which allows (human) life to continue is a need rather than some luxury. lori100: “There exists a shadowy government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself.” – Daniel K. Inouye, US Senator from Hawaii, testimony at the Iran Contra Hearings, 1986-----------------------------“The depression was the calculated ‘shearing’ of the public by the World Money powers, triggered by the planned sudden shortage of supply of call money in the New York money market….The One World Government leaders and their ever close bankers have now acquired full control of the money and credit machinery of the U.S. via the creation of the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank.” – “My Exploited Father-in-Law,” Curtis Dall, 1970, son-in-law to FDR----------------------------“These international bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of the newspapers and the columns in those papers to club into submission or drive out of office officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government.” – Theodore Roosevelt as reported in the New York Times, March 27th, 1922 | Politics Chat Room 73 People Chatting Similar Conversations |