A most interesting read on how Canada explores solutions to close the  increasing gap between the country’s richest & the poorest.  http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/how-paying-peoples-way-out-of-poverty-can-help-us-all/article2011940/?service=mobile

Finally I was able to take some time today and start to give form to some of the thoughts and now, I’m verging on the edge of Charlie Sheen-esque verbal diarrhea (feel free to make comments about prior post today on Black Bean Brownies  ). 

With the multiple crises cascading on each other’s back across the Middle East,  to my Western eyes, it feels like watching a tidal wave — a human tsunami–of radical change. The thing that has caught my attention more than any other world crisis is the way that the changes in our modes of communication have helped to mobilize or galvanize these actions.

The US political machine was caught of guard when Barack Obama effectively used internet communication to deliver his message of change and reach the youth population in a way that had not been done before.  Again, in Egypt, internet was shut off in hopes of staving off Egyptian revolt (which only fueled the fires further).  In Tunesia, Libya, and the surrounding countries that are all having their foundations shaken, we are seeing first-hand, through cell phone communications, videos of what is happening on the streets of these countries, taken, not by journalists, but by citizens.   Cell phones have reshaped communications so that even a Libyan family is shut away in their home can call (when they have signal) to a relative in another country for information, or get on the internet and see what the world, and the US in particular, is saying and doing to help with the instability.

Journalists have unparalleled access, like CNN Ben Wedeman’s report on Libyan planes bombing their own people this morning.

How can the world stay the same when the dark ages are no longer dark?  It cannot.  Every human is born with certain instinctive truths.  Humans need their connections.  Humans need freedom.  Humans need communication.  The tiny little handheld we hold so casually in our Western hands, is literally seeding collective desire for forging freedom and changing bonds in countries, where tribal affiliation rules and where they have been forced to stay in the dark for a long time.

Their conversation questions how organizations are getting help to Haiti and just not understanding so many of the challenges, when they were able to hop a flight to the Dominican Republic and drive across the border to Haiti.  They don’t talk about the heavy equipment that is needed (and that IS a challenge getting in due to the destruction of the roads), but question why truckloads of antibiotics can’t be easily brought in.  Bottom line is we aren’t there…we’re watching clips from the eyes of the reporter.  But if you haven’t watched this segment, then you should.

Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta talk about bringing commonsense to bringing aid to Haiti.

I’ve been getting emails from readers who are so disappointed the Obama hasn’t already “fixed” this crisis.  There are certainly problems with how our 2-party system in the US makes it very easy to become paralyzed and road-blocked.  But, this economic freefall isn’t even a question of how our federal government works — because the economic challenges are global.  The world financial leaders allowed this to happen by a serious lack of oversight combined with a Roman Empire style greed and love of excess.  So it is no surprise that the cards are not just tumbling, but rather cascading down. 

We are in absolutely in crisis and according to Obama, possibly heading into catastrophe.  It is dire.  We are all scared.  And we have to get cracking… as a people and not counting on government alone…to get innovative and find the ways to cauterize the bleeding.   The newly signed stimulus package is, to my mind, like half a cauterization.  The artery will stop projectile bleeding (so hopefully we, the patient, won’t bleed out in 4 minutes) but there is a gaping, seeping wound. 

I have the urget to go off ona tangent here (but there is a point, I promise):

A couple of years ago, I re-fractured my navicular bone (a small, but critical bone near the ankle) in my left foot.  I went to a highly recommended orthopedic surgeon, Clifford Kahn. I remember meeting him for the first time.  Very tall, attractive in an unusual way — with a very unorthodox full Z-Z-Top beard and cowboy boots peeking out from under the scrubs.  I’d never met a doctor who didn’t actually look like a doctor, but he was incredibly brilliant and incredibly kind and he was able to put me on the right path to fixing my teeny, tiny little injury.  That is not what this tangent is about.  It is about the other part of Dr. Kahn’s practice — that of wound healing and care.  He specialized in trauma to the foot and circulation to the feet tends to be poor as we age…resulting in very slow wound healing.  Part of wound healing, as I learned, requires taking off unhealthy flesh to the point of leaving only healthy flesh, so that the wound will bleed freshly and allow nature to heal the diseased area.  And often, it was necessary to work on the wound with no freezing so that the doctor would clearly know where diseased flesh ended and clean flesh began.  Imagine having a deep wound cleaned with no anaesthetic.  Yes, people scream in pain.  I heard it…not good for a gal with a weak stomach.  When I asked Dr. Kahn about that, he told me that the patients understand why the rot needs to be cut out and that they also understand why they need to communicate the pain.  So that they can ultimately and hopefully heal — without amputation.

I’m not a doctor, so perhaps I didn’t understand the explanation perfectly, but that is the image I carry around in my head regarding our economy.  Our government is trying to figure out what the extent of the rot is, what is salvagable and what needs to be amputated.  Obama is the new head doctor and he’s hearing the screams of the patients whose rot developed on another surgeon’s watch.  He took over the job, he wanted the job and now he’s got to get us out of the mess.

We are all realizing that is not going to be a short-lived crisis.  Speak to any older person, let’s say 70 years and older.  They will all tell you they see a struggle for the next 3-5 years until we can feel a bit of economic confidence.  I agree with them.   I also believe that our carbon-fuel economy will ultimately be replaced by renewable and alternative energy solutions.  But that also will take a ton of time and new infrastructure building.

We all know that housing is a disaster and will be the next big item on Obama’s plate.  Right next to the auto industry.  If you were watching the news yesterday, both Chrysler and GM had to present their viability plans.  It’s pretty bad.  A big restructure is in the cards for GM and Chrysler.  And a painful restructure this will be.  Here is a link to the GM press conference.  It will be available as of Wednesday at noon. You’ll have seen the sound bytes, but what CEO Rick Wagoner put forward in terms of the viability options is that GM projects it will cost much less to support the plans for restructure than to support a bankruptcy.  47,o0o employees will be terminated at GM and about 3,000 at Chrysler.   Additionally GM and Chrysler may need $22 Billion now and ultimately as much as $39 Billion over time to bail them out. 

I cannot see how we can let any of the Big 3 can go into bankruptcy.  Their effect on world economy is so huge that the ramifications of letting any of these companies fail are beyond imagination.  We need them to take the lead, on a global level, on renewable and alternative energy solutions, do it well and do it as quickly as they can.

Today we’ll hear the next pain solution as Obama lays out what he’s looking at regarding the housing market.  Crikeys.  Can’t wait.

But it still doesn’t scare me, yet.  Having lived multiple corporate lifecycles, I’ve seen big business tighten and loosen the reins.  In that cycle, a company will decentralize to be more nimble and give great latitude to field operations.  As soon as profits start to shrink (which is inevitable), the company will again centralize, taking away operational privilege from field directors and managers.  Purchasing will become centralized, expense accounts downsized and for a period of time, there can be intense scrutiny on all aspects of remote operations.  And, then, when the burden of handling all operations and control internally at corporate headquarters, the cycle will begin again — more control and responsibility will head out to the field.  Some unprofitable operations will be shut down, corporate headcount will be streamlined and it’ll be sink or swim for the field leaders. 

If you are in a corporate structure for any period of time, you’ll see the same pattern repeated.  Each time the pattern is re-shaped, with a new leader, new CEO, new director, there will be many fancy names attached to the activity: downsizing, right-sizing, change management, restructure, etc, etc.  But if you take all the fancy, scary names away, really, you just have natural expansion and collapse.  Companies with enough support survive the collapse.  So right now, we are in an elevated state of collapse and the restructure is nationalization.  It’s the business reaction to a disastrous economy. 

Is there any silver lining to this current cloud?  I don’t really think so.  But I do believe that the innovators and inventors will find their way to invent and innovate new ways to rebuild economy.  Israel created farms out of desert through creation of irrigation and solar systems, when there was no other way to fuel their own need for a level of self-sufficiency.   We, the boomer generation, the “me” generation, the post-hippie Yuppie, found ways, as a whole,  to create wealth…to the point of fabricated wealth for which we are all suffering greatly now.

Obama’s mantra of “Yes, we can” is not about the government “doing” for us.  The government must and will shore up deficiencies by making more money to keep us afloat until the “we” in “yes, we can” actually get squeezed into invention.  That invention will come from our demographic and the invention of the millenials, our echoes.  Of that I have no doubt.

This is really exciting.