Tuesday, June 18, 2013

devo-loped



It’s strange to be in my 50’s, having been a citizen of two very different countries, and watching both (and the world) change incrementally.  A friend told me we don’t get any wiser when we get older, just older.  I’m not so sure; I guess it depends on what one has in their head to begin with.  The thing I seem to be getting is a different perspective; it’s wider, if not wiser.

Today I heard in the news that a group called Summit just bought a mountain in Utah for what I thought was a very reasonable 40 million dollars.  $40,000,000 sounds cheap for a mountain.  Summit is a company that puts together invitation-only events for leaders in business, entertainment and philanthropy.  They seem to care about the communities, or at least pay lip service to caring about them, and probably even believe that the events they develop benefit the communities in which they insert themselves.  In buying this mountain to develop as a playground for “leaders”, they claim they will be developing it in such a way to benefit the (by choice) sleepy community around the mountain.  One of said sleepy community’s main concern happens to be that they do not want to be priced out of their community; and I am not sure how developing a mountain for the rich and famous fits in with such goal.  I’m sure the legislators and developers will figure something out short term; but from my perspective, the long term does not look promising for this community's "non-leaders".

I was only half listening to this news item as I woke up from a slumber in order to get on my bike for my morning ride.  But as I was biking through a beautiful and unusually cool pre-storm morning, its information kept resonating in my mind.  I thought about our shrinking world, and about free-floating capital, and about the country I was born in, and the one I currently live in; the former labeled these days as “developing” and the latter as “developed”. 

When I was young, what we now call developing nations  were known as “third world countries”, or worse, “banana republics”; one of their main characteristic, then and now, being the existence of a small privileged class and a huge underclass.  The world has changed some since then; communication is instantaneous and capital moves somewhat more freely, but the main structures seem to remain in place.

Americans are indoctrinated with the idea of progress from the moment they are born and throughout their schooling.  I was schooled in several American institutions, so I speak from experience.  We are schooled to believe that progress is inevitable, will mimic the very particular history of this country, and means that eventually there will be justice, political freedom and economic well-being for all.   I was taught to believe this mumbo-jumbo in school, all the while growing up under a dictatorship form of government.  Being young, I believed it.   

The dictatorship is gone in Brazil and now it is illegal not to vote (irony?).  And although there seems to be more money and opportunity, there remains a small privileged class, a merchant class, and a huge underclass.  And as I was biking today, I thought of Summit and the people they cater to; and I thought of the global nature of our world and of free-floating capital.  And as I thought of how the hopeful (and the young) like to see globalization as a vehicle of progress towards justice, and democracy, and economic security for all, I couldn't help but think that lately this here developed nation is looking a lot like the third world country I came from.  That maybe globalization does not mean that eventually all developing nations rise to meet a higher standard, but that some rise and others fall to meet a middling standard where there will always be a small (and in some cases deserving) privileged class, somewhat of a middle class, and a huge underclass. 

...But I am old; and 40 million still sounds damned cheap for a mountain.


Saturday, June 15, 2013

Segurança Pública



The week has been filled with news about the “NSA eavesdropping”, though metadata collection is not quite the same thing as eaves- dropping.  This morning I half heard news on statistics about the demographic who cares and doesn't about this.  Apparently young people are non-plussed, while older ones seem to care more; whatever “care” might mean…  I guess I don’t fit any profile since I am older and could care less; though my good American husband tells me I should care a little.

I stopped even thinking about who had data about me when 20 years ago I tried to apply for a JC Penney card in order to get some discount or another, and was told that the social security number I gave them was different than what my credit report informed them it was.  I informed them that the computer was wrong.  I knew then that data about me, right or wrong, was electronically floating around the universe and paradigms had shifted, at least they had in “the free world”.

I’m not much for social media, since as it is, I waste enough time emailing and occasionally putting words on this here nowhere place whose bits and bytes are being "monitored" as I type (delicious).  But at one point in time, I did put my profile on LinkedIn, whose function in my life I am still unsure of; I probably don’t use it as I should.   I was job hunting and figured “why not?” 

As with any social media, being on LinkedIn means that one gets invited to “connect” with people.  If I know the person who "invites" me, I accept; and when I “accept”, LinkedIn automatically routes me to a page with several profiles it thinks I might want to invite to connect with me.  I've noticed that as time has progressed and I have accepted more and more invitations on LinkedIn, the page it sends me to in order to invite people to connect with me is starting to get crowded with people I've never met and who have very little in common with me.  Ok, the premise of social media seems to be that it is a forum where one connects with known people, as well as, a place to meet strangers and make new "friends"; but LinkedIn is not a social site, it is a professional one, and to link with people who don’t know me from Adam and with whom I have nothing in common makes no contextual sense to me.

This morning, when I accepted one more connection and was sent to my “invite” page, I noticed I knew no one on it.  For “fun”, I spent some time scrolling down and still did not find any familiar face.  Like I said, I see no reason to connect with strangers in industries I know nothing about in a professional site, but it got me thinking of the metadata the NSA has been warehousing.  Warehousing info and being able to use it effectively, much less nefariously, are two very different things.  My husband might be right that one political party or another could get hold of some piece of data in order to pull “a Nixon” or “an Obama” and use the information contained in it to benefit their own party somehow; but it seems to me that there are easier ways to be dirty.  Maybe it is a good thing that the fact of the surveillance has come to light; but as far as I’m concerned: File away. Paradigm shift or not, there is safety in numbers.…