PICTURE THIS GEOGRAPHY
During the period covering 1997-2005, there were 83 countries out of 193 that showed an improved GDP when compared with themselves and also in relation to the rest of the world. During this same period there were 101 countries out of 193 that had a GDP that got worse in relationship to the rest of the world. There were 2 new countries and 7 others that showed no change in relative position when compared to the rest of the countries:
Countries Continents Avg GDPs Total GDPs % By Continent
20 N. America 9985 199,700 11.008%
15 S. America 6646 99,690 5.495%
53 Africa 2673 141,669 7.809%
45 Europe 20,031 901,395 49.688%
46 Asia 8210 377,660 20.817%
14 S. Pacific 6714 93,996 5.183%
____ ______ ________ 193 1,814,110 100.000%
As is seen, Europe contains nearly half of the existing production of goods and services. Although currently, Asia only accounts for about 20% of the world's goods and services, the future looks very bright, because Asia contains more than 60% of the world's people--for production as well as consumption, as the following 2005 populations show:
Continents Populations Population % % of earth's land
Asia 3,913,842,171 60.669% 21.4%
Africa 891,437,541 13.818% 20.6%
Europe 729,341,014 11.305% 15.7%
N.America 512,422,558 7.943% 14.8%
S.America 371,271,037 5.755% 12.1%
S.Pacific 32,744,469 .510% 5.8%
____________ ________
6,451,058,790 100.000%
I hope this helps in your analysis! We clearly have the manpower and resources to get the job done. Now all it will take is the willingness to cooperate with each other. I was encouraged by the 2008 Summer Olympics in China--how about you? Best wishes for a blessed fall and winter, and keep looking up!
Mark Overt Skilbred
Friday, February 6, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
BYE AMERICAN PIE AND HELLO DEPRESSION
BYE AMERICAN PIE AND HELLO DEPRESSION
On February 3rd we celebrated the 50th anniversary of “the day the music died” in Clear Lake, Iowa—commemorated in song by Don McLean and so-named in memory of the three famous musicians who died there in a plane crash—Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Big-Bopper Richardson. We remember these men fondly for the profound impact that each one had on the music of our era, but we are also nostalgic for the wonderful time which they represent in our post-war history—a time that was full of hope and dreams for our nation. Perhaps it is because the present is so dark and the future seems so bleak that we relish the memories of an era when there was joy in the moment and optimism about tomorrow. This winter as we contemplate the collective mistakes that brought on this depression, we remember those who have gone before us and endured worse hardships. Buddy Holly was born in Texas during the Great Depression, at a time when there were few who viewed this “great experiment” of democracy as a viable system. We again find ourselves in a predicament which has been caused by putting too much faith in a financial infrastructure and in the men we have entrusted with our leadership. We have trusted these same men in the pinstripe suits who got us into this crisis to lead us out of our dilemma, and now with no attempt at introspection, they have led us to the mirror. We have been given many reasons for the collapse of our economy: greed, unmanageable debt, overvaluation of property, overstating credit-worthiness, subprime loans, derivatives, etc. In the end, we are asked to tighten our belts and pay our bills, keep our mouths shut and trust our leaders to get us out of this mess. Since they started keeping track of such things, public confidence in leadership has never been this low. When we eventually climb out of the financial canyon we have fallen into, the world will not look the same to us as it did before, and it is safe to say that the world will not look at us the same way either. It is appropriate to ask our leadership some tough questions about what led to this collapse. Even more important is our resolve to restructure our banking system as a strictly-regulated governmental entity which has built-in and verifiable checks and balances controlled and monitored by law enforcement agencies independent of executive, legislative and business oversight. It is clear that the warning signs which preceded this collapse were purposely ignored by every government entity and their proxies, to the detriment of the entire world and nation. Now that we are able to see the results of this misplaced trust, let’s not allow these same agencies to fool us into permitting the same cronyism which precipitated our financial disintegration. We owe it to our grandchildren and the world they will inherit to confront our mistakes and choose to make prudent decisions for our future. These are momentous times, and they require thoughtful planning and careful oversight if we are to avoid catastrophic results.
In the end, we must make the best of a very bad situation. The world sees us as the culprits in a massive financial bait and switch of epic proportions, and those responsible have not stepped forward to admit their deception. They defend their selfish practices by reciting Wall Street dogmas of buyer beware. Those who have been victimized are trying desperately to survive in a world devoid of honesty and fair business practices. We owe them a sympathetic and attentive response which will ensure the enactment of failsafe regulations encompassing all future financial transactions. Nationalize the banking industry!
Mark Overt Skilbred
On February 3rd we celebrated the 50th anniversary of “the day the music died” in Clear Lake, Iowa—commemorated in song by Don McLean and so-named in memory of the three famous musicians who died there in a plane crash—Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Big-Bopper Richardson. We remember these men fondly for the profound impact that each one had on the music of our era, but we are also nostalgic for the wonderful time which they represent in our post-war history—a time that was full of hope and dreams for our nation. Perhaps it is because the present is so dark and the future seems so bleak that we relish the memories of an era when there was joy in the moment and optimism about tomorrow. This winter as we contemplate the collective mistakes that brought on this depression, we remember those who have gone before us and endured worse hardships. Buddy Holly was born in Texas during the Great Depression, at a time when there were few who viewed this “great experiment” of democracy as a viable system. We again find ourselves in a predicament which has been caused by putting too much faith in a financial infrastructure and in the men we have entrusted with our leadership. We have trusted these same men in the pinstripe suits who got us into this crisis to lead us out of our dilemma, and now with no attempt at introspection, they have led us to the mirror. We have been given many reasons for the collapse of our economy: greed, unmanageable debt, overvaluation of property, overstating credit-worthiness, subprime loans, derivatives, etc. In the end, we are asked to tighten our belts and pay our bills, keep our mouths shut and trust our leaders to get us out of this mess. Since they started keeping track of such things, public confidence in leadership has never been this low. When we eventually climb out of the financial canyon we have fallen into, the world will not look the same to us as it did before, and it is safe to say that the world will not look at us the same way either. It is appropriate to ask our leadership some tough questions about what led to this collapse. Even more important is our resolve to restructure our banking system as a strictly-regulated governmental entity which has built-in and verifiable checks and balances controlled and monitored by law enforcement agencies independent of executive, legislative and business oversight. It is clear that the warning signs which preceded this collapse were purposely ignored by every government entity and their proxies, to the detriment of the entire world and nation. Now that we are able to see the results of this misplaced trust, let’s not allow these same agencies to fool us into permitting the same cronyism which precipitated our financial disintegration. We owe it to our grandchildren and the world they will inherit to confront our mistakes and choose to make prudent decisions for our future. These are momentous times, and they require thoughtful planning and careful oversight if we are to avoid catastrophic results.
In the end, we must make the best of a very bad situation. The world sees us as the culprits in a massive financial bait and switch of epic proportions, and those responsible have not stepped forward to admit their deception. They defend their selfish practices by reciting Wall Street dogmas of buyer beware. Those who have been victimized are trying desperately to survive in a world devoid of honesty and fair business practices. We owe them a sympathetic and attentive response which will ensure the enactment of failsafe regulations encompassing all future financial transactions. Nationalize the banking industry!
Mark Overt Skilbred
Monday, February 2, 2009
PUNXSUTAWNY PHIL AND THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT
PUNXSUTAWNY PHIL AND THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT
Being a Scandinavian-American and having spent half of my life in colder climates, I always looked forward to Groundhogs Day as the halfway point towards spring, midway between winter solstice and March 21st. This winter has been especially long, with the bitter-chill of depression keeping so many of us as financial-prisoners in our own houses. The financial geniuses who caused this depression are busy cashing their bonuses and taking winter retreats in warmer climes while they dream of ways to hoodwink their next victims, increase their profits and retire early to some scam-friendly island-or-other. The best way to ensure that their plans go awry is to nationalize the banking industry. They say that banking is too complex for citizens to handle, so we need some experts to do it all for us. These so-called experts have formed an exclusive private club which only allows the banking establishment, Congress and pro-banking advocates to decide policy. This arrangement has resulted in yet another great depression. Punxsutawny Phil would have done a better job of predicting this financial meltdown than the banking regulators. Phil will tell us whether winter will be six weeks longer or less. The regulators wonder how the cronyism which created our banking system can be further-propped up to avoid arctic winter. Let’s send the dishonest bankers packing, fire the regulators, put Congress on unemployment, hire the few honest bankers who were not a party to this fiscal debacle and put them to work running our federal bank. Maybe with our bankers working for us instead of against us, we will stand half-a-chance of avoiding a permanent ice-age.
Mark Overt Skilbred
Being a Scandinavian-American and having spent half of my life in colder climates, I always looked forward to Groundhogs Day as the halfway point towards spring, midway between winter solstice and March 21st. This winter has been especially long, with the bitter-chill of depression keeping so many of us as financial-prisoners in our own houses. The financial geniuses who caused this depression are busy cashing their bonuses and taking winter retreats in warmer climes while they dream of ways to hoodwink their next victims, increase their profits and retire early to some scam-friendly island-or-other. The best way to ensure that their plans go awry is to nationalize the banking industry. They say that banking is too complex for citizens to handle, so we need some experts to do it all for us. These so-called experts have formed an exclusive private club which only allows the banking establishment, Congress and pro-banking advocates to decide policy. This arrangement has resulted in yet another great depression. Punxsutawny Phil would have done a better job of predicting this financial meltdown than the banking regulators. Phil will tell us whether winter will be six weeks longer or less. The regulators wonder how the cronyism which created our banking system can be further-propped up to avoid arctic winter. Let’s send the dishonest bankers packing, fire the regulators, put Congress on unemployment, hire the few honest bankers who were not a party to this fiscal debacle and put them to work running our federal bank. Maybe with our bankers working for us instead of against us, we will stand half-a-chance of avoiding a permanent ice-age.
Mark Overt Skilbred
THOUGHTS FROM ISAIAH 29
THOUGHTS FROM ISAIAH 29
The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.” Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?” You turn things upside down, as if the Potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the Potter, “He knows nothing”?
We see that the attitude of our hearts towards God is infinitely more important than our words. When it comes to God, talk is cheap, but heart honesty, submission and obedience are vital. When God says that wisdom and intelligence will vanish, He is speaking quite specifically to our generation, as well as speaking a warning to all generations. Those who devise clever ways to “hide their plans from the Lord” are singled out for woeful punishment not only for their evil plans and deeds done in darkness, but for believing in their hearts that any plans or deeds are able to be hidden from the One Who hears and sees all things, and especially the attitude of the heart. He calls this attitude “upside down,” because our understanding is so darkened that we believe our Creator is like us. Just like the clay that we are made from, without God’s Holy Spirit within us, we have no senses capable of recognizing our Creator for Who He is. The comparison of a created pot, which is incapable of reason, saying to the Potter that He did not make it and that He knows nothing is comparable to the preposterous human notion that God has not made us and does not see our plans and deeds. By denying their Creator, not only are humans who use this faulty logic inevitably faced with their own inability to rise above the level of mere humanity, but they deny the Spirit of God who is willing to indwell and grant wisdom to His creatures and communicate with them. The human heart is a complex creation which does its best work when exercised. So too is the attitude of the heart which, when exercised often in seeking after its Creator, is better able to communicate, fellowship, enjoy and live abundantly within God’s created universe. God has told us that He is actively seeking those whose hearts are turned towards Him. Earlier in chapter 29, Isaiah tells God’s people that even after they have been destroyed by their enemies that their dust is crying out to Him from the ground, and that He hears them. We know from Psalm 139 that no matter what our circumstances or location, that God is there with us and is helping us. Why do we wait for a problem to develop before seeking to communicate with our Creator? Some of us have a lone ranger attitude which tells us that we can do this on our own, while others question whether there is a God Who cares or is even listening to us. Still others struggle with sorrow, anger and depression, which affect our perceptions and heart attitude. Before you were formed in the womb, God knew you, and after you have returned to the dust, God will still know you and hear you. When will we realize that our Creator is also with us in the here and now? Should it take a foxhole experience before we begin to seek after God? Must a calamity occur in order for us to recognize our need for a Savior? Before our consciousness of being human occurs, God watches over us, and after our physical death occurs God is still caring for us, so why in these all-too brief years of our earthly existence do we fail to trust Him with our care? God longs to fellowship with us like He did with Adam and Eve in the garden before the fall, and is always watching for us like an anxious Father waiting for our return, and running to meet us while we are still far off. Have we said with the prodigal, “I will arise and go to my Father?” Tell Him that you want to come home and live with Him, and tell Him that you are willing to be a servant in His house if He will only accept you. As we are enabled to become Christians through the power of the Holy Spirit, and as strength is given to us on a daily basis to grow in faith, we are expected to “pray without ceasing.” Psalm 19:14 says, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” This is the most beneficial part of life’s difficulties—that we are more likely to have an attitude of prayer and a proper heart attitude during our times of trouble. In addition to our regular prayer time, let’s include God in our daily activities, in our problems, in our successes and in our failures. Would you like to impress God? There is nothing which impresses God more than a growing and vibrant faith. Ask the Holy Spirit to increase your faith!
Mark Overt Skilbred
The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.” Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?” You turn things upside down, as if the Potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the Potter, “He knows nothing”?
We see that the attitude of our hearts towards God is infinitely more important than our words. When it comes to God, talk is cheap, but heart honesty, submission and obedience are vital. When God says that wisdom and intelligence will vanish, He is speaking quite specifically to our generation, as well as speaking a warning to all generations. Those who devise clever ways to “hide their plans from the Lord” are singled out for woeful punishment not only for their evil plans and deeds done in darkness, but for believing in their hearts that any plans or deeds are able to be hidden from the One Who hears and sees all things, and especially the attitude of the heart. He calls this attitude “upside down,” because our understanding is so darkened that we believe our Creator is like us. Just like the clay that we are made from, without God’s Holy Spirit within us, we have no senses capable of recognizing our Creator for Who He is. The comparison of a created pot, which is incapable of reason, saying to the Potter that He did not make it and that He knows nothing is comparable to the preposterous human notion that God has not made us and does not see our plans and deeds. By denying their Creator, not only are humans who use this faulty logic inevitably faced with their own inability to rise above the level of mere humanity, but they deny the Spirit of God who is willing to indwell and grant wisdom to His creatures and communicate with them. The human heart is a complex creation which does its best work when exercised. So too is the attitude of the heart which, when exercised often in seeking after its Creator, is better able to communicate, fellowship, enjoy and live abundantly within God’s created universe. God has told us that He is actively seeking those whose hearts are turned towards Him. Earlier in chapter 29, Isaiah tells God’s people that even after they have been destroyed by their enemies that their dust is crying out to Him from the ground, and that He hears them. We know from Psalm 139 that no matter what our circumstances or location, that God is there with us and is helping us. Why do we wait for a problem to develop before seeking to communicate with our Creator? Some of us have a lone ranger attitude which tells us that we can do this on our own, while others question whether there is a God Who cares or is even listening to us. Still others struggle with sorrow, anger and depression, which affect our perceptions and heart attitude. Before you were formed in the womb, God knew you, and after you have returned to the dust, God will still know you and hear you. When will we realize that our Creator is also with us in the here and now? Should it take a foxhole experience before we begin to seek after God? Must a calamity occur in order for us to recognize our need for a Savior? Before our consciousness of being human occurs, God watches over us, and after our physical death occurs God is still caring for us, so why in these all-too brief years of our earthly existence do we fail to trust Him with our care? God longs to fellowship with us like He did with Adam and Eve in the garden before the fall, and is always watching for us like an anxious Father waiting for our return, and running to meet us while we are still far off. Have we said with the prodigal, “I will arise and go to my Father?” Tell Him that you want to come home and live with Him, and tell Him that you are willing to be a servant in His house if He will only accept you. As we are enabled to become Christians through the power of the Holy Spirit, and as strength is given to us on a daily basis to grow in faith, we are expected to “pray without ceasing.” Psalm 19:14 says, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” This is the most beneficial part of life’s difficulties—that we are more likely to have an attitude of prayer and a proper heart attitude during our times of trouble. In addition to our regular prayer time, let’s include God in our daily activities, in our problems, in our successes and in our failures. Would you like to impress God? There is nothing which impresses God more than a growing and vibrant faith. Ask the Holy Spirit to increase your faith!
Mark Overt Skilbred
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