How The
World Really Works by Vaclav Smil – this book may make you do this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world
8 out of 10
This might
be a great book, only to me it recalls a scene from The History of The World as
presented by Mel Brooks, in which we have Caesar played by Dom DeLuise looking
at treasures brought from different lands, and one is about the size of a
bathtub filled with precious stones, jewelry and the emperor looks blasé and
just says ‘nice, not thrilling, but nice’ which is the same foolish reaction I
have when reading this opus, many figures, explanations on How The World Really
Works, but it leaves me out cold in almost all ways that count and it is not
the work, it is just the same silly stance Dom DeLuise has in the comedy…
It could
also be that the manner in which the information is presented lacks some
appeal, at least for readers that are less inclined to take in all the figures
and processes, without something else that would make the engagement enticing –
again, it is my mistake, I should have known better when taking up a material
with this title…I mean, what was I expecting from this, the story of love from
Pride and Prejudice http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/pride-and-prejudice-by-jane-austen-12.html
Yuval
Harari does way better when he presents audiences with Sapiens – A Brief History
of Humankind http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/02/sapiens-brief-history-of-humankind-by.html
and the under signed has been enthused
by this marvelous book, which explains what has happened and looks at the
future and the chances that humanity has, without being a prophet, Yuval Harari
has had incredible insight into what will happen – he has written an article
for The Economist earlier this year and he looked at the threat that Russia is
posing (it was not yet at war, but the signs were ominous) and what will
happen, how the countries will concentrate on defense spending –Germany would
indeed increase it and others as well, just as the luminary had predicted –and
this could lead to a vicious spiral, wherein this could lead to a catastrophe,
as climate change couples with war and the disastrous consequences
The world
is in a crisis right now, with economies slowing down – and quite many, if not
most of the problems analyzed by Vaclav Smil in his work- and inflation is
affecting so many lands, an economic crisis is looming, house prices are
falling in so many places – I have read about that in the aforementioned The
Economist, the best media outlet in the world, if you ask me – and when most of
what people have is invested in homes, that leads to serious consequences…it
was said that most of the value in the world is indeed placed in real estate,
the house market is many hundreds of trillions worth and everything else pales
when set against it, if I am not mistaken, and then we have a supply problem.
This
morning, I listened to the latest issue of The Economist, the first part, in
which they have a lead article on Bidenomics, the policies of the Biden
administration and what the effect will be on trade, keeping China away from
some of the more advanced technology that could assure they lead the world in
robotics, chip making and other sectors that could see us even more dependent
that we are on Chinese imports.
First of
all, let me say that I think Trump is a monster, extremely dangerous and one of
the most repulsive, disgusting fellows in the world – as I am writing this
note, I am listening to the Trump Tapes, released by Bob Woodward, one of the
greatest journalists in the world, famous and portrayed by Robert Redford in All
The President’s Men, he says that Trump is dangerous and these tapes may show
just how grave the peril for the world is and we could see him in the White House
in 2025
Having said
that, the inflation we have to face rests with Biden to a serious degree,
because there had been warnings when they prepared the huge spending package
and now we see that the effect was that prices are rising throughout the world,
although the larger responsibility has to be laid at the door of Putin who has
invaded large parts of Ukraine, after he had taken Crimea some years back and
we have to wonder How The World Will really work after this, because we face an
energy crises and so far the weather has been unexpectedly warm, due to climate
change, which is of course the bigger threat that could reduce all conflicts
between countries to mere squabbles on the deck of the Titanic
One problem
that the undersigned sees today is the way we vote, the people we select to
lead nations, and that is something that cries for attention this morning, as
we hear that Lula has won the elections in Brazil, beating the ghoulish
Bolsanaro, and yes, this looks like a victory for democracy and to a large
extent it is, in that it has eliminated the monstrous alternative, but then
Lula is far from the good option, never mind the great choice, for among other
things, he has said something to the effect of ‘Zelensky is just as guilty for
the war in Ukraine’ and incidentally, he just received a warm congratulations
from Putin, would this mean that we can expect Brazil to change course and
align itself with the butcher from the Kremlin…that would be a terrible, but
given the mentioned statement, possible outcome.
Then the
fellow has gone to jail, sentenced for corruption and released only on a
technicality, he has not been acquitted, and he has had a number of repugnant
policies during his rule, support for Cuba and other leftists…again, Jair
Bolsanaro was a diabolical figure, and just one of the ghastly sides of his
vile character was the carelessness with which he treated the destruction of
the Amazon, a piece of Brazilian property as he saw it, never mind that the world
will be in flames and that country with it, if one of the most vital stops on
the way to planetary calamity will be burned down for plantations
How the
World Works has a few merits, even if this reader has been too lazy,
superficial and busy thinking of other, better reads, such as the
aforementioned Sapiens – A Brief History of Humanity and 21 Lessons For The 21st
Century http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/07/21-lessons-for-21st-century-by-yuval.html by the same phenomenal author,
Yuval Harari
http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html
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