I posted a link to a video like this, from the same show, almost 2 years ago. Well, here's another moment of sheer inspiration, discovery and joy.
Why do I--like so many others--feel for this kind of moment? Because it reaffirms the power of hope, dreams and desire.
Enjoy.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
Here are some phone calls I'd like to make and how they might turn out:
To Our (non)governor, Luis "The Larva" Fortuño: "Hello? Can you describe your current administration in terms of measurable positive results in terms of leadership?... Hello? Hello?"
To the local sheep We call media: "Hello. When was the last time you asked any significant local leader a probing, well-researched question challenged their expressed views?... What do you mean that's a trick question?"
To nominated Education Secretary Carlos "Limbaugh's a Liberal" Chardón: "Hello, Carlos. How many days left before you split that wreck of a department and go back to slinging hash with the national Republican Party?... Less than 51, but more than 1?... Can you be more precise or are you talking about statehood?"
To Head Beggar Pedro "Justice is (Conveniently) Blind" Pierluisi: "Hello. What's on your agenda for today?... Okay, how about tomorrow?... Next week?... I see.... When will you have something useful to do?... Good. What will you be doing then?... That's all? You're not getting paid for this vacation, are you?"
To the main offices of the Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico party: "You have reached a number that has been disconnected and was never really in service. Don't bother looking for another number: there won't be one."
To former (un)governor Aníbal "The Jellyfish" Acevedo: "Hello. You've spent 16 years in public life spinning everything related to you into your own angle. Why have you been so quiet after your "not guilty" result? Is it because you are very very aware that it was dismissed on technicalities and you want to make sure nothing else is coming back at you? Or have you been warned the other shoe is about to drop?"
To government employees: "Hell, you guys aren't going to allow 30,000 of your fellow parasites to get lopped, will you? You want this bloated gravy train to keep lurching along, don't you? So let Me guess: your plan is to slow everything down so that even less gets done, right? Nobody told Me...but you just confirmed it."
To those of Us who get it: "Hi. What are We to do now? Short of a coup, what options do We have? And why are there so few of Us left?... True, but if We don't make an honest effort, are We really the kind of person We think We are?... Hey, tough times require tough questions. Now ask yours."
The Jenius Has Spoken.
Following up on the Education theme of My last post, I partially quote this article by Dr. Judy Willis, in--of all things--Psychology Today. Seems to sum up what's needed now in exemplary fashion:
Top Ten Necessities of Education Reform
"...1. Collaborate: Students in the U.S. need new skills for the coming century, not to be superior to students worldwide, but to be ready to collaborate with others on a global level to find creative solutions to problems now and in the future.
2. Evaluate Information Accuracy: ... Students need to know how to find accurate information and use critical analysis to assess the veracity/bias and current/potential uses of new information. These are the executive functions students need to develop and practice in school today, or they will be unprepared to find, analyze, and use the information of tomorrow.
3. Teach Tolerance: In a global world of collaboration communication and tolerance (openness) to unfamiliar cultures and ideas will be the educational currency for the jobs and problems of the future. School needs to provide opportunities for experiences and discussions to help students learn about and feel comfortable communicating with people with other cultural norms and practices.
4. Assessing Student Knowledge: Standardized tests for federal NCLB funds test rote memory of isolated facts. Assessments need to include ways for different types of learners to demonstrate their knowledge. Once teachers do not have to teach-to-the-tests of rote memory, classrooms can become places of inquiry, student-centered discussions, and active, engaging learning.
5. Beyond Differentiation to Individualization: ...One size does not fit all in assessment and instruction. The current testing system and the curriculum that it has spawned is unidirectional and leaves behind the majority of students who do not do their best with the linear, sequential instruction. With greater differentiation of instruction we can lower the barriers, not the bar as all children learn to their full potentials.
6. Inspiration and engagement open the brain's information filters (reticular activating system and amygdala) to accept sensory input. In the absence of these qualities at the beginning of a unit of instruction the brain, at an unconscious level, does not admit the input that is not determined valuable to survival or pleasure...
7. Lower Stress. React or Reflect? The amygdala is an emotion evaluating structure through which all sensory input must pass. The state of stress or well-being determines if the input is directed to the reflective, higher cognitive "conscious" decision-making brain, or to the reactive brain where the only "choices" at this unconscious level are fight, flight, or freeze. These are often misinterpreted by teachers as ADHD, acting-out, or signs of low intelligence. The students are not consciously misbehaving. Their brains are simply in the reactive state in which they have no conscious control.
8. Using Learning Beyond the Classroom. New "learning" does not become permanent memory unless there is repeated stimulation of the new memory neural pathways. This is the "practice makes permanent" aspect of neuroplasticity where neural networks most stimulated develop more dendrites, synapses, and thicker myelin for more efficient information transmission. These stronger networks are less susceptible to pruning and become long-term memory holders. Students need to use what they learn repeatedly and in different, personally meaningful ways for short-term memory to become permanent knowledge that can be retrieved and used in the future.
9. Teach students (and educators) the Brain Owner's Manual. The most important manual students and educators can read is the owner's manual to their own brain. When we understand how our brains take in and store information, we hold the keys to operating our brains most successfully. Understanding that they can change their own brains and intelligence (neuroplasticity) builds students' resilience and willingness to persevere through challenge.
10. Teaching is not brain surgery. It's Harder. When teachers receive the recognition, status, and more of the autonomy I receive as a neurologist, we will attract the best and brightest to teaching and keep professional educators longer than the current five year average."
Feel free to discuss and count Me in as agreeing with Dr. Willis.
The Jenius Has Quoted.
From teacher Dean Shareski, in his blog Ideas and Thoughts:
"While I do my best to provide you with some outcomes, indicators, rubrics and feedback I still feel my assessment of your learning is fairly trivial or at best a thin slice indicator of what you’ve learned. I realize many would love to believe that the number or grade you get is pure, accurate and will provide future instructors, institutions or employers an indication of your proficiency, understanding or knowledge. If anyone of these groups were to ask me about you, I could tell them what I’ve seen and observed. That may have value, the grade, not so much...
...At the beginning of the term I told you I had 4 goals for you. I wanted you to see that:
++ Learning is social and connected
++ Learning is personal and self-directed
++ Learning is shared and transparent
++ Learning is rich in content and diversity"
In a time where the U.S. of part of A. Education Secretary is bleating about "longer hours" in school, where the Orwellian doublespeak No Child Left Behind program has further crippled an already paraplegic educational system and the effective methods of physical education and arts exploration are deemed "useless," is it any wonder Our children are getting the poopy end of the learning stick?
I'd love to homeschool My son, to extend the frequent, albeit brief conversations We have on history, languages, math, sciences, geography and just plain "what, why and how" to a deeper exploration of the world and its fascinations. That would let Us focus on Shareski's second and fourth points, that learning is personal and self-directed and rich in content and diversity.
We would continue to espouse his third point, learning as shared and transparent, because I would be directly involved in the learning process and have yet to deny My son the right to ask a question, even if My answer is "I don't know." Questions are at the very heart of learning, and blocking questions out of fear or ignorance--or as My son's current school proves, both--is the very opposite of education.
And to those who claim that homeschooling "isolates" kids, longitudinal studies dating back to the early 1980s show that homeschooled kids are actually more involved in community and social activities. Why? They have the time and freedom to to do so. Some of it may be due to income level, but much of it is due to simply being able to pursue their own interests rather than be smothered by the school system's blockheaded indifference.
School is not--and never has been--the place where a person learns the most. It is a place where one goes to become indoctrinated in a certain methodology, a way of thinking and a way of behaving that "makes sense to society." You are told what to learn, how to learn it and sometimes given false reasons as to why. Is this the kind of institution We want for Our children? Or do We want them to actually learn?
Indoctrinated teachers marching zombie-like to waste the time of Our children who struggle heroically to rise above the zombies. "Education administrators" and "lawmakers" snuffling like pigs around truffles to uncover more money aimed at "helping" Our children, but ending up somewhere else. Our children spending more time with the boob tube and its brainless messages than with Life and its lessons. That's the non-educational system We--at least some of Us--agonize over.
But just as a democracy deserves the government it elects, doesn't a society deserve the educational system it allows to happen?
The Jenius Has Spoken.
Companies around the world are closing facilities due to economic strife. Even blue-chip companies are getting hammered, with cash-rich titans such as Microsoft announcing cutbacks.
Except in Puerto Rico.
Uh-huh.
For some reason (stick around and you'll find out a few), Microsoft announced a $640 million expansion in Puerto Rico. In typical Microsoft-in-Borinquen fashion, the dollars are flashed, but the specifics are unflashed. All that's trumpeted is the $640 million, which could turn out to be nothing more than warehousing some 160,000 useless Vista installation CDs. (The CDs work: Vista doesn't.)
Now why would Microsoft pony up--in these times--a staggering amount of money to expand in Puerto Rico? Is it because We are "tax haven deluxe"? No. Is it because We are "megaproductive central"? No. Is it because We are "global strategic nexus"? No. We are none of those things (and We should be.) But what We are--mark My words here, folks--is for sale.
Not as in My "bid for Puerto Rico" sense, but in the "bribe a Fool" sense. For you see, the Puerto Rican (non)government is in the midst of acquiring technology, lags far behind State developments in that realm, lacks the widespread technological know-how to properly evaluate technology and the decision-making purseholders are rampant thieves.
In other words, Microsoft sees in Puerto Rico a cretin with plenty of cash. And by Jove's left testicle, they are smack-dab right.
The process is as old as the hills: Pretend to offer a lot in order to get a lot. Flash "$640 million" that never gets spent to secure licenses and dependency worth twice that. Use Puerto Rico to bolster an increasingly-shredded reputation versus opens source-based e-government success and if a double handful of Fools makes a few scattered million dollars in illegal payments, who cares? Everybody wins, right?
Of. Course. Not. What's happening here, with the (non)governor Luis "The Larva" Fortuño practically slithering on his own saliva around Microsoft's boots, perpetuates three obstacles:
1) Our idiotic pay-for-play excuse for an economic development plan, based more on "who pockets the up-front cash" than "what We build for Our future."
2) Our idiotically-willful ignorance about technology, its power and uses, relying instead on slavish aping of others.
3) Our idiotic reliance on morally-defective mental defectives to handle situations that require supra-canine intelligence to at least understand properly.
Don't be surprised if Our next brilliant economic move is Our government's purchase of a fleet of Edsels. Hey, GM is a blue-chip company, too!
The Jenius Has Spoken.
[My Thanks again to Janine Mendes-Franco for picking up two more of My posts for Global Voices Online. I'm beginning to feel like saying "You read Me! You really read Me!"]
Our (non)governor, Luis "The Larva" Fortuño, a man I'd describe as "overmatched" if he actually had any chance of ever being "matched" in his job, is facing increasingly open challenges to his (non)leadership by irascible senate president (I don't capitalize a word I have no respect for) Thomas "Tantrum" Rivera and by greedy house (ditt0) president Jenniffer "Gluttonny" González.
What. A. (Non)surprise.
Stick a feeble excuse for a leader in a highly precarious position that has long been utterly bereft of effective resources amidst a ravenous horde of carrion-feeding vermin who can't wait to rip the feeb a new one so they can become the next feeble excuse and you have Our progress-paralyzing media-based melodrama in an adjective-laden nutshell.
Here We are, entering April, with a (non)governor who flopped into La Fortaleza on January 2nd, and how many of his "Key 3 Nominees" (Treasury, Health and Education) have been confirmed in Tantrum's Toilet?
One. Treasury. And that because without a Treasury Secretary, the Fools don't get paid.
So far, the noise is that the Health Secretary nominee is going to be rejected because he has too many ties to the leading opposition party. Maybe so, but his real mistake is that of getting caught between (wait for it...wait for it...) a crouching larva and heretofore hidden vermin.
The signals are now becoming evident to the less-perceptive amongst Us: the (non)governor says one thing, Tantrum says another and Gluttonny speaks for a while and ends up saying nothing. The Tantrum says something, Gluttonny says another and The Larva still another. The latest outbreak comes as The Larva tries to push the idea of Public-Private Alliances (privatization with Downs Syndrome) to revamp government and Tantrum plays the "We'll hang your Health nominee and maybe Education, too" card.
And suddenly, it's 2005 all over again, only then it was Aníbal "The Jellyfish" Acevedo butting (soft) heads with opposing party legislative Fools. This time, it's the same thing.
Why opposing? Because Tantrum represents the party-controlling hyena herd of Pedro Stupid Rosselló supporters who see The Larva as worse than opposition: they see him as a traitor. Tantrum is even pushing the idea of naming the Puerto Rico Convention Center after Stupid, making it the Stupid Convention Center, which is perfectly apt as the damn thng is too small to attract mega-conventions, too big to adequately serve a majority of local expos, has lousy architecture that makes it non-modular and is saddled with too many parasitic employees to make it cost-effective.
So, yes, it makes perfect sense to name it the Pedro Stupid Rosselló Convention Center, but by ramming that down The Larva's throat and by making the naming of the white elephant an equal-par issue with The Larva's cabinet--key players in any chance We have of making progress in the here and now--Tantrum is flexing political muscle in brainless fashion. Nothing new there. And The Larva is waffling and sidestepping. Nothing new there, either.
And yes, all this was predicted by Yours Truly. Except for the part about The Jellyfish getting away, but that only adds problems to The Larva and makes the Tantrum and Gluttonny even more aggressive in their efforts to stomp him. It. Whatever.
How will this play out? Health nominee hung, Public-Private Alliances tabled, Convention Center named Stupid, Education nominee confirmed and the sequel "Cringing Larva, Horrid Vermin" playing out before Our bloodshot eyes...
The Jenius Has Spoken.
Our (mis)educational system loses too many of Our students, under-teaches the majority of those who stay and frustrates the living bejeezus out of the ones who truly want to make progress. This failure leads to a sub-segment of Our population lacking the basic mental and emotional tools to face the challenges of creating a future for themselves, leaving them with the options of welfare parasitism, fringe economy or illegality.
Within that illegality, the drug wars to control product distribution are shredding lives, most of them young men whose potential, even at that point, is still worthy of proper development. The rest of Us act like the deaths happen “over there,” because--in essence--they do, what with Our homes behind gated entrances, fences and security guards. We’ve become a country of medieval villages, fortresses dotting the landscape, and the sojourns “out there” are dealt with as if with the wilderness of yore: go out and get back quickly.
The “Us/Them” mentality is but a variant of the "Us vs. Them” mindset, the notion that it’s either Me or The Other, that My gain has to come at the expense of some Other person(s) and that his/her gain is a ripping out from My hands. That zero-sum mentality means We can talk about unity--talking means We’re nice, doesn’t it?--but when push comes to shove, We are not going to be unified. Even when Our path is clearly leading to widespread loss and the solution cries out for immediate action, even then We turn our backs on making a mature decision and pull away from it all.
Happens with status. Will happen with reducing Our government’s emasculating bloat. We need to bring Our government’s size down. Government jobs don’t increase an economy’s productivity: they detract from it, the same way blowing money on crack ultimately reduces your personal worth. Will We be able to reduce that bloat by the projected 30,000 jobs? Of course not. We’ll be lucky if We make it to 4,000.
Unions, those hypocritical bastions of non-unity, are already rumbling about strikes. In Education. In the Electrical Power Authority. And the Aqueduct Authority. It’s only a matter of time before the government employees’ own union--as useless an appendage as Nature ever gave a fungus--starts raising its hackles. These unions aren’t considering the long-term implications of their proposed “defense” of jobs: they don’t care about the long-term consequences. They only care about “Us.” If “They” lose jobs, great! But don’t you dare take jobs from “Us”!
Multiply that by several dozen other government unions and employee groups and what’s left in government without a “protector” are temps, contractors…and legislators. The same legislators who were ordered 5 years ago by the electorate to merge two outhouses into one…and have done squat about it. (Yes, pun intended. I must amuse Myself.) That legislature is their gated community, a near-impregnable fortress of doom to Us that is unassailable so long as We act like “Our elected leaders" are better than “Their thieving idiots." Meanwhile, all of them wreck Our economy like mad cows staggering drunkenly through a pottery shop. (Pottery, because We haven’t stepped up to china, yet…)
Our economy is stacked with talented people--many of them actually stay here to work on Our Island of (Some)Enchantment. But even amongst the talented there’s the sense of “I’d rather go it alone,” with entrepreneurs practically bending over backwards to avoid “giving anything away.” Toss into that brain spasm the equally-stringent delusion that Puerto Rico is “the whole market” and you get…more zero-sum mentality. When your bright lights act like dim bulbs, is it any wonder there’s darkness?
We look around and see nothing more than what We want to see. Thus We see too little and feel too much for ultimately not enough. We rabidly enthuse over a tin-plated beauty crown while hundreds bleed to death on Our streets. We disgustingly throw money at political hacks who invest the money in their own interests, while they seldom do anything more than pay harelip service to Ours. We wring Our hands about Our children’s education, while acting like consumer zombies who believe learning happens only in schools and only up to age 18. We decry the many killed, but only because it increases the cost of Our fortress villages and the stress of leaving them. We moan about the economy and those who run it into the underground, but We’d rather follow it there than build a new and truly productive one.
And yet the head-kicker, the blow-your-brains-out-with-plastique cranial wallop is that We really--deep down and in every way--We want it all. We want the Dream Life in a Dream Society. We want it all, We want it for nothing, We want it now and We don’t want to lift a goddamned finger to earn it.
We want, but don’t act to make it happen. We wish, but expect others to make Our miracles happen. We could, but We don’t bother to try.
We should learn. We really should. But who knows if We ever will.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
The murder rate in the U.S. of part of A. averaged 16,979 killed per year in 2006-2007, placing the U.S at 24th in world rankings for this kind of violence.
Over the same two-year period, Puerto Rico registered an average of 733 murders a year. Its rankings were included within the U.S.
An average day in the U.S. of part of A. sees almost 47 murder victims added as statistics. In Puerto Rico, the average is slightly over 2. But, and some of you are way ahead of Me on this, the population "up there" is 75 times higher than Ours, which means that by equivalency, Our murder rate is 3 times higher than theirs.
(For you statehooders and math teachers out there, if Our population were 75 times larger--300 million instead of 4 million--Our murder rate would be over 150 killed a day, all other things being equal. 47 (the U.S. rate) X 3 is 141. You're welcome.)
Go back to the rankings, where the U.S. of part of A. is 24th. Multiply the rate there by 3. The answer is 0.128406. Where does that rank Puerto Rico?
Seventh. Seventh. In the freaking world.
Ahead of Estonia and just behind Mexico, which We may have caught in 2008.
I just threw up a little bit. Because, you see, We don't give a damn about this. At all.
Oh, We care when someone from "good people" gets gunned down, you know, middle- or upper class, preferably white. But when its in the projects or Our drug war streets, or some poor woman whose ex-husband or ex-boyfriend (too often a cop) decides he can't let the woman live because he "owns" her, well, We tut-tut and shake Our heads and then flip on the TV to see what celebrity is having plastic surgery or publicly fondling himself in a 767. (In first class, of course...)
We. Don't. Give. A. Damn. Because it isn't really "Us" getting killed, it's "them."
And that's why We are all too often idiots: We don't see the obvious. There is no "them" on an island. There's only Us.
Now let's offer a solution: The Education Equality Project has a link to a study reporting that a 10% increase in graduation rates can reduce murder rates by 20%. Note this isn't a 20% or 40% increase in graduation rates, a percentage that teachers would scream is unreasonable without having a fershlugging clue as to what it really means. It is but a mere 10% increase in graduation rate, an extra 2-3 kids per classroom...to help reduce the murder rate by 20%.
In Puerto Rico We have a dropout rate of 50% or more, which means Our educational system is scraping the bottom of the industrial world's barrel. We have a murder rate that rivals open gangland warfare. Fixing one--just partially fixing the first--will go far in helping assuage the second.
More graduates. And some 140-150 fewer deaths a year. Let's ask the people here who think there's an "Us" and a "Them" if We should not do this, for after all, helping "them" is wrong, right?
Idiots.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
I overheard a person commenting that "Puerto Rico is approaching 70% Internet penetration."
HAHAHAHAAHahahahahahaharounduperror
Yes, "approaching" if you you choose to round up 27% to 70% as your nearest "significant lame guess."
Despite once having the worldwide lead in digital infrastructure for communications, Puerto Rico has not embraced the power of the Internet to a significant degree. I define significant as 50% or more of the population, for though the oft-mentioned "tipping point" may be less, the fact is that once "50% plus one" is achieved, a "tendency" becomes a "sociocultural platform."
The Internet is the broadest, most flexible sociocultural platform ever created by humankind. But to Us, it is more a foreign land with a porn industry and shopping malls than it is a platform, i.e., a place to develop what Our minds conceive.
I have stated a number of times that whereas the Anglo-Asian world prefers science fiction over fantasy, the Latin mind prefers fantasy over science fiction. The key difference is the role of technology: in fantasy, technology is never an issue. To the Latin mind--and rest assured, in this We are very much Latin--technology is something from "other places," and unless We can gesticulate with it (cell phones) or dance with it (MP3 players), We ain't that interested.
Oddly enough, I began this blog because of this dichotomy in what I lived and what I saw around Me. I spend too much time living and working on the Web, but too few of Us do and too many of Us don't spend anywhere near enough time with it. Total Internet penetration in Puerto Rico (in terms of percentages) still lags significantly behind the ratings for Top 10 TV shows, even one where a cowardly transvestite pretends to be an old lady while spewing gossip with a witless sidekick also lacking in dignity and self-respect. A dim-witted doll is the fantasy; the plasma screen is science fiction without any thought.
Will We ever see the numbers for Internet usage rise to 55%, 60% or praise the microchip, 75%? Not anytime soon...unless We catch on to its power as a tool for sociocultural and socioeconomic growth. And even then, the acceptance curve will be more related to age groups than to insight. But I've come this far with the disappointment and I can certainly--along with more brilliant colleagues than Me in this realm--be patient as the growth (eventually) comes.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
Back in WWII, the British Navy was concerned about its lack of aircraft carriers, those American and Japanese behemoths of the sea that allowed nifty fighter planes to launch and engage the enemy in new ways. Since building one (or a few) would take years and the German threat was literally days away, the British were brainstorming for ideas.
One did come up: Use icebergs. Drag one out of the North Sea, flatten the top to accommodate airstrips and several buildings and tow it into position. You'd have a massive unsinkable aircraft carrier in weeks rather than years and save tons of (British) pounds to boot.
Quoting the source I read this in: "The idea was too lateral for the British Navy to accept!"
We in Puerto Rico have lateral thinking. Tons of it. Megatons of it. I'm talking metric megatons of lateral thinking that We couldn't throw away if We ever set Our minds to it.
That is, We have all that if by lateral you mean "stepping to the side." Lateral as in "moving aside." Lateral as in "dodging or avoiding." And I might add "Like Satan flees from holy water." (I had an metaphor here about the Pope and his kidneys, but passed [water] on it...)
Yup, We sidestep thinking. Not all of Us, but almost all of the people who should be thinking, like legislators and business leaders and mayors and governor-plus-staff, etc. You see, to engage in lateral thinking you have to at least have some modest acquaintance with actual thinking, with peering deep into a problem and finding a reasonable solution. Once you can do that, then you can toss in some imagination and let your thoughts romp like fluffy lambs in fragrant clover and pretty soon, something new and clever will appear. Might not be reasonable, might not even work, really, but it will be different. And different--when things are looking damn bleak--is very good.
Instead, what We have leading the Charge of the Light(Weight) Brigands is a posse of flatliners with self-delusions of adequacy, burnt-out sparkplugs in an engine crusted through and through with decades of sludge. If these lead-heads had been faced with the British aircraft carrier problem, they could have never come up with an idea as quirkily brilliant as that of using icebergs. I'm not talking about lack of brainpower, in this case: what Our so-called leaders lack is the will to see beyond the obvious.
It takes a mature mind--or a child-like one--to blend imagnation and thought into a powerful process for creativity. We can blame the educational system for quashing creativity--for destroying that most powerful of tools--because creativity is hard to control and hard to control means threatening. So Our children are bashed over the head with "facts" that often resemble "crap" and when too many questions are asked (and one is often too many), the response is to stop that nonsense right now.
Then Our business environment takes the tone of "the boss knows best" when it is often patently evident that "the boss has no clue and given a map to a stapled clue on his right butt cheek, s/he couldn't find it in a month of Mondays."
And finally, Our political swamp has the heightened awareness of a dozing sloth clinging to a mossy rotted branch, and woe betide any upstart who deems to bring new ideas to the political swamp for s/he shall be drowned in mustiness and kicked over to dry land.
No one needs to wonder why We are stuck where We are once boricua "lateral" thinking is explained. As Einstein is reputed have said: The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them. If idiots created them--and they did--then idiots will never--never--be able to solve them.
Quoting the inimitable Linda Ellerbee: And so it goes.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
I was wrong.
Former (un)governor Aníbal "The Jellyfish" Acevedo was found not guilty by a jury of vertebrates on the 9 remaining fraud charges pending against him (24 were filed in 2008.) In a case that seemed to melt in the light of the courtroom, the result clearly upsets a series of (road) apple carts:
1) The want-more-for-nothing party The Jellyfish once led can now gloat and scream its Fool head off that the case--actually, cases--were nothing more than political persecution. Most likely not true, but then again, what other argument has equal force now?
2) The want-something-they-can't-get statehood party is now sitting on the horns of three dilemmas: Their party's "parallel" case--that of former senator Jorge "Il Castrao" De Castro--ended in serious jail time; strike one. They also claimed that The Jellyfish's case was vindication for what didn't happen with their former (faux)governor Pedro Stupid Rosselló; strike two. And their political advantage gained via the elections, one that left the w-m-f-n party in shadows has now been seriously undermined; strike three.
3) (Non)governor Luis "The Larva" Fortuño was enjoying a rare moment in local politics: no serious opposition party challenger. The feckless Hector "Huh?" Ferrer, who wasn't smart enough to avoid being elected current party president, is--sound of total shock here--even less charismatic than The Larva, making the two of them Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dead. Even without that opponent, The Larva was struggling, playing Blindman's Bluff with the executive position. Now with The Jellyfish freed from his glass jar, The Larva is definitely in for some political heat. Political only, because The Jelyfish has no original ideas, anyway.
4) The federal judicial system, specifically the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, are in for a major heap of sass in the coming months. For decades, the feds have acted like they walk on water and We drink their piss. But after all this, after daring to take on a sitting governor, even one as useless as The Jellyfish--but still Our own--they have fallen flat on their dimwit faces. And We will not let them forget that. Oh, no We won't.
5) And once again, a high-profile judicial case is larded over with money, much of it requested of supporters, seemingly indicating that enough money can buy a verdict. Don't ignore this aspect, but more than the other four, which play in limited arenas, this one plays at every level of society...and it doesn't play well in most of it.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
I just have to get a few things off My chest...
First of all, take a peek over at Dondequiera, where Don Dees is picking up on dying canaries in Our coal Mine. (Er, I mean "mine." Force of habit...) Although he's a Genius, it doesn't take that or a Jenius to see the economic writing is on the wall, fence, street, telephone pole and stripper's butt: We are killing Our economy by not making it more accessible.
Flea markets proliferate. Street vendors pop up like mushrooms. Work-at-home is now an open venture, not a secret to be hidden for fear of appearing "unprofessional." If you have a job in these troubled times, you are clinging to it like a barnacle on the Titanic. If you're smart, you're looking for a revenue stream, not a job.
The problem is, most people aren't smart, at least not in that sense. They want the "security" of a steady paycheck, though that "security" comes at the cost of being under-valued and treated like a throwaway commodity. And when throwaway time is here--and you bet your bottom dollar it's here in spades--your "security" is now as valuable as a politician's last dozen lies.
So opening a business, starting a new revenue stream, selling your talent, time and/or some products becomes a truly viable option. Except. Except that Our Fools have made going into business an absolute enema of a nightmare.
Nothing We haven't discussed before. But now, when the time has come to open up the economy to those who seek to make something good happen instead of sidewinding through the rotting carcass of a busted system, Our "leaders"--The Larva (non)governor We elected and his opposing-though-allied Fools--are trying to make the whole damn process even harder and more expensive.
Idiots.
Meanwhile, take a gander at this little snippet of information I just found: Ireland has launched an Ideas Campaign aimed at getting citizens to propose solutions to rebuilding the country's economy. In essence, a nationwide Brain Squad.
Why does this also cause Me to vent? Because My post was going to answer My Brain Squad post's closing question on how to launch such an effort without government money. In other words, I was beaten to the punch on what I was going to propose. By Ireland.
Geniuses. The same kind of Geniuses We could be if We did the same.
And if you think We have a real choice in this matter, that We actually do have other ways to drag Our butts out of this mess, please join the idiots and leave the rest of Us alone.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
To wit: two charts that say much about the U.S. of part of A. and by Jupiter's right kneecap, I don't think any of it is good. Chart #1 tells Us something horrendously wrong happened in 1980-1981 and Chart #2 tells Us where monies are going that make...no...sense.
On to the next subject: leadership. Or lack thereof. From Slow Leadership, a blog that's much better than the title might imply, comes this essay on "The Mark of a True Leadership Role." A couple of quotes suffice:
"The distinguishing mark of a true leader is the ability to function where all existing ideas and past experience stop being any help.
It’s pretty obvious, once you think about it clearly. For any role to be a leadership role, or for any situation truly to demand leadership to deal with it, it needs to be solvable only by thinking the answer out for yourself. If you can deal with it on the basis of applying a known rule, technique or approach—or you can find the right thing to do by copying what someone else has done before you—it isn’t a true leadership situation...
...Faced with this kind of situation (an unknown), it’s little wonder that the most visible characteristics of many leaders are acting ability and fear. They become good actors (after all, they’ve studied the part extensively), but they’re terrified most of the time. When things are humming along nicely, they can maybe get by through their acting. There are no genuine leadership situations to be dealt with. It’s all management and administration. But when things go wrong and the only way forward is through true leadership—thinking out the answer for yourself—they are lost. All they can do is repeat what they have learned, copy what others have done or look for someone ‘safe’ to tell them what to do. That’s not any kind of leadership."
Now Carmine Coyote's take on leadership (and yes, that is the author's real name) is not only sensible, it is downright abusive of the so-called "leadership" We "enjoy" now. Though the essay is primarily aimed at business leaders, one can clearly see the application of this very basic trait to political leaders; in Our case, to a Jellyfish and a Larva.
The Jellyfish, former (un)governor Aníbal Acevedo, whose fraud charges trial is pretty much in a jury's hands right now, couldn't think his way into a paper bag, for though his political savvy is regarded by even enemies as top-notch, that save-the-skin knack had nothing to do with true save-the-nation thinking skills. In one you seek to avoid drowning; in the other, you build a lifeboat.
The Larva, current (non)governor Luis Fortuño, who could face impeachment if We get (non)lucky, couldn't think his way out of a paper bag. Lacking political savvy, he deems it enough to have dozens of people tell him what to do and then...nothing. He can't make a decision simply because he can't think "out of the box--bag--whatever." Where The Jellyfish had "survival imagination" to keep his fraud-filled political career going, The Larva is lucky to have any imagination whatsoever, and what little he has seems to be used to pick a new tie every week.
Why are We--in Puerto Rico and the rest of the world--saddled with half-half-wit leadership? Because We train people to rely on "experience and expertise" rather than "facts plus imagination." The first is subjective layered with subjectivity; the second is reality layered with "what could and should be." The first is--at best--mechanical; the second can be magical. The first is id-based, with vices as often primary movers; the second is rational and demands virtues to make its impact. We teach and train and trundle under the first; We seek and strive and seriously need and should have the second.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
Allow Me to throw some now-connected quotes at you, carefully chosen to not only make My point unassailable, but also make a case for anarchy.
(Yes, I wrote anarchy. Some days I just feel like that...)
"The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies is a 2007 book written by Bryan Caplan challenging the notion that voters are reasonable people that society can trust to make laws. Rather, Caplan contends that voters are irrational in the political sphere and have systematically bad ideas concerning economics."
Welcome to Puerto Rico. Please clear the platform in order to accomodate further mass stupidity. Thank you.
"Caplan refers to the make-work bias as a “tendency to underestimate the economic benefits from conserving labor.” (p. 40) People tend to equate economic growth with job creation, even if those jobs are wasteful or outright detrimental to growth. Economists argue that this is precisely wrong: growth comes from increases from the productivity of labor. The resulting increase in productivity, (other things being equal), causes people to be fired and allows them to accomplish other things."
How do We get 24% of Our workforce jammed like wretched sardines in a rancid thimble called government? Yeah-huh.
"Caplan refers to the anti-market bias as a “tendency to underestimate the benefits of the market mechanism.” (p. 30) The populace tends to view themselves as victims of the market, rather than participants of it. Corporations, and even small-scale suppliers, are greedy monopolists that prey on the consumer. Economists argue that all trade is a two-way street. A company will only sell someone a product if that person buys it from them. Cheating people is bad for business and the existence of multiple firms offering similar products demonstrates there is competition, not monopoly power."
Market competition in Puerto Rico is viewed as a "We are weak and need protection" keening whine rather than an "I can sell to My people better than any outsider" rise to the challenge.
"Conventional public choice either emphasizes the efficiency of democracy... or, more commonly, democratic failure due to self-interested politicians, bureaucrats, and other rent seekers... Caplan, however, emphasizes that (a) democratic failure does exist and (b) it’s the public’s fault."
Oh, rats. And here We are blaming Fools of every stripe. You know, those politicians, bureaucrats and...
"Rent seeking generally implies the extraction of uncompensated value from others without making any contribution to productivity, such as by gaining control of land and other pre-existing natural resources, or by imposing burdensome regulations or other government decisions that may affect consumers or businesses."
Oh-ho! Bryan Caplan, meet the Fools of Puerto Rico! Here's the useless ideal commonwealth party, the idiotic wannabes of the statehood party, the craven sell-outs of the independence party and the limp-wristed lackwits of the latest party to go down flaming--I mean, in flames. And over here We have Banco Popular, El Nuevo Día, Cemex, Verizon...
"Most studies of rent seeking focus on efforts to capture special monopoly privileges, such as government regulation of free enterprise competition, though the term itself is derived from the far older and more established practice of appropriating a portion of production by gaining ownership or control of land. The term "monopoly privilege rent seeking" is an often-used label for the former type of rent seeking. Often-cited examples include a farm lobby that seeks tariff protection or an entertainment lobby that seeks expansion of the scope of copyright. Other rent seeking is held to be associated with efforts to cause a redistribution of wealth by, for example, shifting the government tax burden or government spending allocation."
In the absence of Our own economy, dependent little trolls that We be, and incapable of mustering the will, imagination and vigor to create Our own, I can confidently say that We didn't invent rent seeking, but by Jove's left butt cheek, We damn well perfected it!
"The concept of rent seeking has been applied to corruption by bureaucrats who solicit and extract ‘bribe’ or ‘rent’ for applying their legal but discretionary authority for awarding legitimate or illegitimate benefits to clients."
I love how My observations are proven so quickly...
My point? We are responsible for Our own situation, whether We look at being irrational voters or We look at Our vice-addled, self-serving "leaders."
Why the appeal to anarchy? We already have it, so why not crank it up to 11 and see what shakes out? Can it really be worse than We have? Or will continue to have?
The Jenius Has Spoken.
---Jenius Thanks to Janine Mendes-Franco for selecting another of My posts for Global Voices. New item (long overdue) on My agenda for 2009: Meet Janine Mendes-Franco.
Here's an idea from the "What the hell" file:
Because one of the very few absolutes in economic theory is the high-return impact of government-sponsored research and development (averaging 25% with highs of 155% in numerous global studies), I propose that Puerto Rico launch a "brain squad" initiative to develop ways of radically transforming Our economy to not only compete but dominate in world markets.
In other words, pay some of Us to make Our economy what it should be. With government money.
Now this goes against one of My basic tenets, which is that government money should not be part of a business plan, but I'm not talking about a business plan: I'm talking about doing the job the government should have done decades ago.
If We had implemented My Talent Bank suggestion of a year ago, the selection of the people to carry out this R&D project would be easier. But I'll do My part (like you can stop Me) and flesh out what We'd need to make this work:
1) An eclectic group of 60-80 persons that would serve as the "core" group, and the criteria for selection would include nothing more than interest. No minimal degreees, no minimal amount or kind of experience, no track record except lack of criminal record, nothing but the desire to make a true difference. One week to submit bona fides and then a lottery to select the core group, with 20 "reserve list" names in case some of the selected are unable to participate.
2) A one-year contract per person for $36,000. Everybody gets paid the same, from "director" to "associate." No exceptions. The director and 2 sub-directors are chosen from within the Brain Squad by vote. Their initial task is to start the brainstorming process and settle intransigence issues. These three directors are re-elected as needed. Not enough salary to attract top prospects? Most of the so-called "top prospects" are already esconced in the system; the Brain Squad is about breaking new ground and having a burning desire to do so.
3) At the end of each year, there will be a peer review and evaluation for all associates, no exceptions. The bottom 20% in overall scoring are released. No exceptions.
4) Review and evaluation are based on two simple questions: (1) Is this person working well to achieve the goal of radically transforming Our economy? (scale of 1-100) and (2) How much do you estimate this person's work will generate for Our economy? (in dollars). Multiply the two numbers and drop the lowest 20%. Fuzzy? Yes. But it forces an analytical thought process that doesn't lend itself well to tit-for-tat nonchalance.
5) Additional people are added to the core group in a three-step process: (1) Only people who provide volunteer work first can be recruited for a one-year contract; (2) At least 3 Brain Squad project teams must request the person and (3) Each recruit gets paid $36,000 a year, just like the core group associates; no exceptions.
6) The Brain Squad is given one month to list initial ideas or angles for R&D. In this case, R&D is brainstorming, modeling and planning, not product development. The entire corpus of internally approved ideas and angles is presented to the public and then the Squad has 2 months to narrow the list down to a Priorities Plan. How that'a done and what that turns out to be is up to the Brain Squad. Every six months after that, the Squad must present three simple reports (prepared by volunteer college students who collect the data and prepare the narrative sections): New Ideas/Angles, Current Project Results and Questions. The Questions Report is the Brain Squad's "idea magnet" combining "what We see" with "what We wish We knew" to stimulate greater participation in its central mission.
7) The Brain Squad is assigned a 5-year budget, but associates can change every year (or every month, with recruits.) At no point can the Brain Squad have more than 140 associates. Fiscal oversight on the budget will be in the hands of a 3-person Board representing government, business and industry. The Board only has fiscal oversight powers, to ensure that monies are spent according to regulations; they have no say in Brain Squad R&D development processes.
8) Brain Squad project teams compete for funding at three levels: $50,000, $200,000 and $500,000. Projects are approved by non-involved associates, meaning that Brain Squad members are both developers and approvers of projects. Projects must present clear objectives and goals and provide a range of expected measurable results. Projects with outstanding merit can receive additional approved funding once early-phase objectives are reached, thus avoiding another project review.
9) Projects must be reviewed and decided upon within 10 business days by the randomly-assigned 5-person Review Team. The Review Team can seek outside help to evaluate the project, but can only ask for one 5-day extension. If after 15 days the project has not been decided upon, Review Team members are docked 5% of their respective salaries to provide seed money for the unreviewed project.
10) Companies whose employees provide in-house assistance (minimum 20 hours) to the Brain Squad receive a tax credit equal to 1.5 times that person's wages for the time provided.
11) Brain Squad initiatives for economic change are presented to the government, leading business organizations and industry groups, as well as citizens. Initiatives are evaluated as "Pass-Fail" within government and commerce groups. Any "Failed" initiative can be re-presented for a populace vote, and if it receives 300,000 votes in a 10-day period (secure online process), it must be implemented. Even so, many initiatives will not require direct government or commerce group intervention to make happen.
12) No Brain Squad associate can become an immediately salaried or fee-based asset to any business or entity launched from developed initiatives (for a minimum of one year after leaving Brain Squad.) However, the associate may become a partner and receive deferred compensation if s/he invests at least 30 hours a week for one year in that business or entity.
In salaries and project budgets alone We're looking at about $60 million for 5 years. Throw in infrastructure and operating expenses (low, but 5 years' worth) and We can put the Brain Squad together for well under $75 million. Call it $80 million just in case.
The Department of Education has a $1.4 billion budget and all they produce is crap. Three weeks of their annual budget would fund the Brain Squad for five years. And I guarantee that the Brain Squad would return far more than the current $600 million thrown away every year like shredded lettuce in the maw of "Education" sycophants.
Then again, do We really need the government to fund the Brain Squad? Discuss.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
