Iowa: Time to rock out with your caucus out!

One aspect of American politics I do not understand is the primaries and intra-party elections prior to the presidential election. In particular, I do not understand why Iowa has the title of being the graveyard of political ambitions by holding the esteemed round one in the presidential race. CNN tried to explain it to me why Iowa always goes first - but it still does not make sense. Not that I have anything against Iowans - in fact, Des Moines is on my bucket list (purely because of its name and nothing else). 

Moving from the geographical aspects of the Republican campaign to the actual candidates lined up, it is despairing to see how battle-tired the American people are and how uninspiring their leaders on both sides  look.  The Republican candidacy has been tainted by Charlatans and controversial characters that try to emulate but somehow lack the charismatic roles of Reagan or even Obama (yes, Obama). Two potentials stand-out though - Romney and Santorum. While Mitt may have been down the pecking order in the 2008 campaign, he is the only one bar Santorum who has not been riddled by scandals, outlandish comments and other politically suicidal moves that other Republicans have made in the past year. 

I do not know much about Santorum, but from the little that I have seen, I am reasonably impressed. Although Santorum is a little too ideological in some respects, he and Romney seem the most reasonable and trustworthy out of the whole bunch. Both he and Romney seem like decent hard-working guys that the American public is yearning for as their leaders. They are not uber-macho men like Perry or riding on the coat-tails of Reaganomics (which worked in the 80's and not now). 

I would be happy to see a Romney Santorum ticket in this year's elections. 

Moving to a bluer shade - Obama is in trouble in the months ahead. He set the bar so high in his 2008 campaign that he was bound to fail in delivering his promises. His re-election campaign will ride on the laurels of inspiring his waves of formerly loyal 2008 voters but his pizzazz will not get him through alone this time. He needs a game changer if he wants to keep the White House. That game changer is Hillary. Already posed to move out of politics to positions like "President of the World Bank", Barak should re-assess his key piece in the Democrat arsenal. Hillary, liked or not, is respected by both aisles and has the credibility to carry Obama on her back to reach a second term. Without her, Obama will lack that anchor which is crucial in the mid-western states.  Of course, Joe Biden does have the experience, but he is rather stale in wooing potential voters.

Americans are tired of wild card candidates. The Tea Party and Occupy movements, as popular as they both may be, are too far right and left of the political spectrum for actual progress in America. The nation needs pragmatic and experienced leaders. This does not mean grey-haired passed-their-sell-by date Washington politicians. Rather, the presidential ticket needs a little grey hair, innovation and flexibility.  Although not the most inspiring bunch, a show-down between Obama/Clinton and Romney/Santorum will be a respectable fight for the 2012 elections. 

Then again, understanding US politics and who will run is as complicated as understanding why little Iowa, a state where hogs outnumber people 5 to 1, is the opening act for what will be a great show. Rock on, Iowa! 

7 Billion is Not Just a Number

31 October 2011, the day the world population hit 7 billion.

In a flash of a generation, our world has harboured an extra billion people. Books from twenty years ago, giving population estimates, Africa 500 million, India 800 million are now outdated. (Mind you, so are books outdated as well.)

This is not a birthday or milestone to celebrate. With the world hitting maximum capacity, this century will be defined by tugging and pulling for resources, which will become scarcer and scarcer, leading to more conflict.

How did we hit this red line? Is it a rise in population growth through longer life expectancies? Is it increased birth rates? It is a mixture of everything, but the cause of sharp increase lies in the hands of growing countries like China and India. The western world's population, all things relative, has hardly grown. Of the billion people added to our planet in the past twenty years, Europe had an meager increase of only 1% to this billion figure.

India and China are the main population centres of the world today. In fact, the most common looking human being is a 28 year old Han (Chinese ethnicity) male. There are 9 million people who match that  exact profile.

An almost instinctive reaction to this demographic threat is to encourage forced population control as they partially do in China, stop large families, tax breaks for smaller ones and so on. While this may sound enticing, it is not going to solve our resources problem. The developing world is not to blame for our increasingly rationed resources. Consumers in America and Europe can waste up to a 100kg of food per person per year. In Africa, that figure is 6 to 11 kgs per year.

The real menace to our future is a growing population in the east coupled with an increasing universal standard of living. What will happen when the Chinese find western tastes of having massive cruise liner holidays, with dozens of ships leaving from Macau a day, wasting tons of everything from smoked salmon to watermelons?


This 7 billion mark is astounding but also may trigger new innovations. Perhaps it will force an industrial renaissance of re-usable energy and create streamlined efficiencies in the way we consume goods. Or maybe, the exact opposite will occur. A global village, where overcrowding will lead to pushing and shoving, will become a far more fragmented place, with each clan scrounging for its own food security and general stability.  Our environment could react to us as a hostile alien where pandemics will be the only way to bring back an environmental equilibrium. We have seen this with avian and swine flu already in the past few years. What's not to say that this is just the start.