350 as an Inspiration

There’s so much going on, thanks to everyone who is working on this movement right now.
Keep the good times coming this October 24th, International Day of Climate Action.

Perhaps you’ve seen the news coming up in your feed, but find some Boston action here:
http://theleadershipcampaign.org/participate/
350.org/ is Beautiful today. An inspiration, truly.
Here’s the list of events going on in Boston: http://www.350.org/action-list?country=us&city=boston

There’s a new world order, and it works around the number 350. More than just a number, it’s the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere that we need to achieve by the end of the century. It’s a challenging call to action, seeing as we’re already at 387. We need to stop emitting CO2, and start taking it out of the air in our farms and cities. Clean electricity is a solution, as is reducing the amount each of us use. Hopefully, all of us working on this will be enough to make a difference.

I feel today is an inspirational tipping point in a lot of ways. To the people who are working on the ground, ready to put themselves on the line; to the politicians who are talking about how much we need new legislation; to the economists and scientists who know it’s necessary; Thanks. To the reader thanks for reading, commenting, and sharing. Keep posted for more from around Boston!
-Eddie Miller
Boston University ‘10
440-935-5434

http://www.350.org/
http://eddiemill.wordpress.com/

Visions of a New Moral

The inspiration for this post is as a response to the general feeling of social malaise that a lot of people see in America right now. Not the recession per se, but it’s the changing of a larger cultural pattern. I’m arguing that there’s been a new moral, social and intellectual code forming that governs America, and that the solution is filled by new sustainability. Living things, resurgent connection, the environmental and financial sustainability movement. Feel me? I’ve been writing about this theory for a while, let’s see if it comes out coherent. The story is that influences of the age of tyranny and mass murder, are changing how people feel, which is accelerated and driven by the forces of technology.

Back in Boston

..And loving it.

I´m trying to get accustomed to a new environment after a summer on a motorcycle travelling through Latin America.

Che

New Contact Info, mark it! >>
Ed Miller
74 St. Paul St. #6
Brookline, MA 02446
Phone: 440-935-5434
Email: emiller@bu.edu
eddiemill@gmail.com
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Check them out now!!

In Defense of the Word

Eduardo Galeano, 1978
translation by Bobbye Ortiz.
–excerpts from my mind through his–

In defense of the word.
“One writes out of a need to communicate and to commune with others, to denounce that which gives pain and to share that which gives happiness. One writes against one’s solitude and against the solitude of others. One assumes that literature transmits knowledge and affects the behavior and language of those who reaad… One writes, in reality, for the people whose luck or misfortune one identifies with– the hungry, the sleepless, the rebels, and the wretched of this earth– and the majority of them are all illiterate.
Our own fate as Latin American writers is linked to the need for profound social transformations. To narrate is to give oneself: it seems obvious that literature, as an effort to communicate fully, will continue to be blocked… so long as misery and illiteracy exist, and so long as the possessors of power continute to carry on with impunity their policy of collective imbecilization through… the mass media.

How far can we go? Whom can we reach?
…To awaken consciousness, to reveal identity.

Can a literature serve a better function in these times?
Our effectiveness depends on our capacity to be audacious and astute, clear and appalling. I would hope that we can create a language more fearless and beautiful than that used by conformist writers to greet the twilight.
…
In Latin America a literature is taking shape and gaining strength, a literature that does not propose to bury our dead, but immortalize them; that refuses to stir the ashes of society but rather attempts to light the fire… perhaps it may help to preserve for the generations to come… ‘the true name of all things.’ In an incarcerated society, free literature can exist as both denunciation and hope.”

Original book, it lights my fire: The Open Veins of Latin America

Real lyrics, in hip hop form: K’Naan 2008 (try “If Rap Gets Jealous”)

International assessment on Agriculture Knowledge, Science, Technology and Sustainability

This changes everything.

This April, an independent project involving over 400 full-time researchers and 58 countries published a report. The full scope of the report is enormous, but you can view the summary here:
http://www.agassessment.org/docs/SR_Exec_Sum_280508_English.pdf

Some excerpts, which may echo well with what I’ve been saying here. (In fact the same thing that I observed from the farm 3 years ago, and have since dedicated my life to preaching…)

International Trade doesn’t work for poor people

My mind was blown today with a critical fact of Economics.

Returns to scale are a market imperfection in competitive markets.

The entire theory of competition, markets, and trade is based on the assumption of constant or decreasing returns to scale. This concept defines all trade theory, and largely defines the policy that affects entire countries and allocation of the great bounty of the world’s resources.
But returns to scale are a fundamental aspect of international business. Returns to scale, the idea that cost is cheaper as a firm produces more, is what leads to giant consolidated multinationals, concentrated market power (and lobbying clout), and factory agriculture. These are the industries that dominate in foreign countries, the ones that can take advantage of returns to scale. In fact, when we tell developing countries to open themselves to foreign investment, it’s these types of industries that are built.

Governments acting for free trade is acting for industry.

Then we have returns to capital. The people who own more, are more likely to grow. What if allocation of resources is originally uneven? And information is uneven? That might lead to initial conditions being exaggerated in the form of country inequality: rather than poor countries being able to catch up they are already behind on the big scalable high-wage jobs.

What about comparative advantage? Poor people have no comparative advantage. There is no perfect awareness among non-Americans, as Winters et. al write “there is evidence that poorer households are less able to protect themselves or take advantage of positive opportunities by trade reform” (emphasis mine). Who produces these comparative-advantage goods? Savvy foreign entrepreneurs who CAN take advantage of opportunity. For them, they see cheap labor. And bring in technology that raises total country output/head. The poor not only lose what they were doing to import competition, but get unskilled, low wage jobs, the benefits of which go to capital owners and middle men who understand international systems, and their resources are used more intensively, not for them. Inequality is exaggerated (returns to scale, again) and most of the profit is siphoned into foreigners hands or reinvested in growth (capitalists are rarely satisfied to just make a profit). For what end does this growth aim? “Those that do benefit directly increase their input consumption, production, and consumption of goods and services.” The winners get to consume more. But CEOs and developed countries consistently score the saddest on international surveys! By making money, the poor remain a given (their wage will increase once everyone in the world’s does…) and externalize the things that do matter in the name of increased world consumption.

Jobs do not equal growth. Poor are not creators in capitalism. Those who earn more do not know happiness.

All free trade is based on fundamental assumptions. Decreasing returns to scale is one of them. In International Economics, everyone has perfect awareness of opportunities, and access to international demand if your idea is good enough. Unfortunately they’re stuck behind learning curves, and we tell them not to subsidize their domestic industry. This dynamic inequality impacts thousands of millions of people; the international flow of all goods and capital is based on a lie.

How can this fundamental feature be overlooked at phase 1 of Economic theory? How can the concepts of increasing returns to scale and market power be an oversight before any microeconomics graph is drawn? This changes everything.

I don’t know whether to cry or be angry at the institutions we’ve created. Thousands of people are starving, while their countries make exports for rich people. Poor people are told they can’t farm, because rich farmers and plantation owners are better at cutting costs. Poor people are not creators. And helping them isn’t profitable for business. Then we’d have to pay them more for our jobs.

-Eddie Miller
Boston University
A Global Organic Mindset: eddiemill.wordpress.com/

Talking about end-of-life care

There’s a national movement for bloggers to convey the message of just dying to readers. This is a topic that hits home for me as I’ve seen people dying, but is usually something we don’t talk about. Basically, the question I want you to ask is
“What do you want us to say if you can’t speak for yourself and need care?”

This brings up a couple related issues, namely
1. Could a loved one correctly describe now how you’d like to be treated in the case of a terminal illness?
2. Have you written a living will, appointed healthcare power of attorney, or an advanced directive?
3. Do you know about Hospice possibility for chronically dying or elderly care?

I hope this message finds you able to bring it up at night when there’s a moment.

For more information:
http://engagewithgrace.org
Globe article about the movement:
11/26: ‘Talking turkey about death’
-Eddie