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XI International Colloquium on Global Crisis and Changes of Paradigms: Current Issues
XI International Colloquium
Global Crisis and Changes of Paradigms: Current Issues
Brasília, Brazil, May 6-8, 2014
Universidade de Brasília
As is well known economics has been concerned with understanding how economies work in order to discover which policies could make them work better. Growth, distribution, inflation, trade and employment have been some of the main concerns of macroeconomic theories. Yet few economists foresaw the scale of the financial and economic crisis from 2008, and few have been able to propose alternative economic paradigms to respond to it. The main objective of the Colloquium was to provide a platform for a productive exchange of ideas, theories and policies that might identify such paradigm shifts and better inform policies for both national and global governance.
May 6, Tuesday
08:30 - 09:00 Reception
Welcome session
Gonçalo Mourão (Institute Rio Branco)
Ivan Camargo (Reitor of UnB)
Heitor Gurgulino de Souza (President of WAAS)
Glaucius Oliva (President of CNPq)
Ricardo Araújo (President of the Colloquium)
Joanílio Rodolpho Teixeira (Honorary Member of the Colloquium)
09:30 - 10:50 Plenary session: Joanílio Rodolpho Teixeira (UnB), Chairperson
Uncertainty, Power, Institutions and Crisis: Implications for Economic Analysis and the Future of Capitalism
Amitava Dutt (Notre Dame University, USA)
After Ricardo - After Keynes: Global Asymmetries and a G20 Development Agenda
Stuart Holland (University of Coimbra, Portugal)
10:50 – 11:10 Interval
11:10 – 12:30 Plenary session: Ricardo Araújo (UnB), Chairperson
Between Lévi-Strauss and Braudel: Furtado and the Historical- Structural Method in Latin American Political Economy
Mauro Boianovsky (UnB, Brazil)
Spurts and Lags as Brazil Fell Behind Before 1913: A Puzzle in the Great Divergence
Stephen Anthony de Castro (UnB, Brazil)
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 15:20 Plenary session: António Mendonça (University of Lisbon), Chairperson
The Theory of Global Imbalances: Mainstream Economics as Apologia for Neoliberal Globalization
Thomas Palley (AFL – CIO, USA)
The "Developmentalism" Debate in Brazil: Taking Part
Adriana Amado (UnB, Brazil)
Maria de Lourdes Rollemberg Mollo (UnB, Brazil)
15:40 – 17:00 Plenary session: Silvinha Vasconcelos (UFJF), Chairperson
Export Led Growth versus Growth Led Exports: What Matters for the Brazilian Growth Experience after Trade Liberalization?
Ricardo Araújo (UnB, Brazil)
Joanílio Rodolpho Teixeira (UnB, Brazil)
Cristiane Soares (IBGE, Brazil)
The Verdoorn-Kaldor-Thirlwall's Law: An Empirical Analysis of the Export-Led Growth Strategy Multisectoral at the Brazil–China Bilateral Relationship
Guilherme Jonas Costa da Silva (Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil)
Henrique Dantas Neder (Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil)
Helenise Sarno Santos (Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil)
Scenarios for the Post-Crisis: Declining Single Polarity, Emerging Multi-Polarity and Global Governance
Gonçalo Mourão (Institute Rio Branco, Itamaraty), Chairperson
Clodoaldo Hugueney (Itamaraty- Brazil)
Maurício Lyrio (Itamaraty - Brazil)
May 7, Wednesday
09:00 – 10:20 Plenary session: Marcos Formiga (Ministry of Science and Technology), Chairperson
The Role of Income Inequality and Wealth Concentration in the Recent Crisis
Thomas Goda (University EAFIT, Colombia)
Özlem Onaran (University of Greenwich, England)
Engelbert Stockhammer (Kingston University, England)
Aging and Public Policies in the National and International Domains
Neantro Saavedra-Rivano (University of Tsukuba, Japan)
10:40 – 12:00 Plenary session: Stuart Holland (University of Coimbra), Chairperson
Labour Force Migration in the Context of the Free Movement of Persons in the EU Area Benefits and Costs
Alunica Morariu (University of Suceava, Romania)
Is the Dividend Puzzle Solved?
Maria Rosa Borges (University of Lisbon, Portugal)
14:00 – 15:20 Plenary session: Roberto Ellery (UnB), Chairperson
Global Crisis, Comprehensive Approach: an Interdisciplinary Contribute to the Paradigmatic Change
Augusto Santos Silva (University of Porto, Portugal)
The Paradigm of the Investment Development Path: Does it Holds for Portugal? Evidence for the Period 1990-2011
Miguel R. Fonseca (University of Porto, Portugal)
António Mendonça (University of Lisbon, Portugal)
José Passos (University of Lisbon, Portugal)
New Paradigm- Need for a Comprehensive Integrated Approach
Cristovam Buarque (Senate House, Brazil), Chairperson
Heitor Gurgulino de Souza (WAAS, Worldwide)
Garry Jacobs (WAAS, Worldwide)
16: 10 – 17:50 Plenary session: José Carlos Oliveira (Institute Rio Branco), Chairperson
Towards A Global Comprehensive Context-driven and Decision-focused Theory and Method for a New Political Economy
Winston P. Nagan (University of Florida, USA)
Valeen Arena (University of Florida, USA)
A Structuralist Assessment of the Dynamics of the Terms-of-Trade in a Balance-of-Payments Constraint Growth Paradigm
Marwil Dávila-Fernández (UFMG, Brazil)
17:50 – 18: 20 Closing session
May 8, Thursday
THE WORLD ACADEMY OF ART AND SCIENCE (WAAS)
Main theme: "New paradigm for human development"
You are all cordially invited to attend this Special Session that will take place at the Headquarters of the CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development)
Address: SHIS QI 1 Conjunto B Bloco D 2 andar Sala 203 -Edificio Santos Dumont
09:00 - 09:10 Welcome remarks by Dr. Glaucius Oliva, President of CNPq and by Prof.Heitor Gurgulino de Souza, President of WAAS
09:10 - 09:30 Overview of WAAS Programs by Prof. Winston Nagan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of WAAS
09:30 - 09:45 Questions and Answers by participants
09:45 - 10:05 Comprehensive approach to a new paradigm for human development by Garry Jacobs, CEO of WAAS
10:05 - 10:20 Questions and Answers
10:20 - 10:35 Coffee-Break
10:35 - 10:55 University behind the walls - Relations with local Community, by Dr. Emil Constantinescu, President of Romania (1996-2000), Former Rector of Bucharest University and Member, Board of Trustees of WAAS
11:10 - 11:30 Revolution in Higher Education -World University Consoritum (WUC), by Garry Jacobs, CEO of WUC
Brief presentations of Brazilian Fellows of WAAS attending the meeting.
Special thanks to Prof. Joanilio Teixeira, Professor Emeritus, University of Brasilia and Fellow of WAAS.
12:05 - 12:15 Final comments and Closing of the Meeting
For any additional information please contact: Prof. Joanilio Teixeira
Ph: + 55 61 3366 2045 (e-mail:joanilioteixeira@hotmail.com) or:
Prof. Heitor Gurgulino de Souza - Ph: +55 61 3346 1414 or Cell: 61 8159 9091 (e-mail: hgurgulino@aol.com or heitorgurgulino@gmail.com)
Global Crises & Paradigm Changes by Joanílio Rodolpho Teixeira & Heitor Gurgulino de Souza
Reflections on the Founding and Mission of WAAS by Winston Nagan
Coming Revolution in Higher Education by Garry Jacobs
Human-centered Development Paradigm by Garry Jacobs
Need for a New Paradigm in Economics by Garry Jacobs
Global Crises & Paradigm Changes
Joanílio Rodolpho Teixeira
On the initiative of Joanílio Rodolpho Teixeira, Professor Emeritus at the University of Brasilia and Fellow of WAAS, the Academy was invited to participate in a high level economics conference in Brasilia on May 6-8, 2014 entitled "Global Crisis and Changes of Paradigms: Current Issues". This was the 11th in a series of annual international economics conferences exploring alternative theory and strategy for addressing pressing global challenges.
Economics has been primarily concerned with understanding how economies work in order to discover which policies could make them work better. Growth, distribution, inflation, trade and employment have been some of the main concerns of macroeconomic theories. Yet few economists foresaw the scale of the financial and economic crisis from 2008, and few have been able to propose alternative economic paradigms to respond to it. The main objective of the Colloquium was to provide a platform for a productive exchange of ideas, theories and policies that might identify possible paradigm shifts and better informed policies for both national and global governance.
The event was sponsored by WAAS together with the University of Brasilia (UnB), the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Rio Branco Institute (Brazilian Ministry of External Relations), and the International Celso Furtado Center for Development Policies. WAAS President Heitor Gurgulino de Souza provided an overview of the work of the Academy related to the current global crisis. Winston Nagan, Chair of the Board of Trustees, explored the conceptual underpinnings, legal and human rights implications of the current neo-liberal paradigm.
Emil Constantinescu
WAAS CEO Garry Jacobs provided an overview of the Academy's New Paradigm initiative, highlighting the need for a comprehensive, trans-disciplinary, human-centered approach to human development, the urgent need for new theory and catalytic strategies that could be applied to accelerate the transition toward a more prosperous, equitable, and sustainable paradigm.
A special session on the World Academy was conducted at Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) on May 8 and inaugurated by Glaucius Oliva, President of CNPq, and Heitor Gurgulino de Souza. Winston Nagan provided a historical perspective on the origins and mission of the World Academy. He traced the Academy's commitment to the social responsibility of science back to the invention and first use of nuclear weapons, which raised serious concerns among the founders of WAAS regarding the social implications and policy consequences of knowledge.
Emil Constantinescu, Former President of Romania who heads the Academy's new center in Romania and its Euro-Mediterranean Initiative, examined the importance of fostering close relationships between the university and society. Garry Jacobs introduced the work of the World University Consortium to promote a global initiative to make world-class, affordable, socially-relevant higher education available to humanity.
Fellow, World Academy of Art and Science;
Emeritus Professor, Dept. of Economics, University of Brasilia
Heitor Gurgulino de Souza
President, World Academy of Art and Science
Reflections on the Founding and Mission of WAAS
Winston Nagan
The World Academy of Art & Science was founded in 1960. Its first President, Lord John Boyd Orr of Scotland, was also the first Director-General of the FAO. Today the Academy has more than 700 Fellows from around the world who have been elected on the basis of high professional distinction, a distinctive and comprehensive global vision, and qualities of leadership important for engaging in programs and activities of the Academy.
The Academy is distinctive in that it has an explicit emphasis on the social consequences of knowledge generation and, more importantly, the policy implications of knowledge that is produced. This mandate is further clarified by the motto of the Academy that stresses the idea that leadership in thought leads to leadership in action. The idea of founding an academy with this emphasis percolated in the minds of some of the world's most eminent thinkers and scientists for many years.
This line of thinking was triggered by two distinguished physicists, E. Fermi and L. Szilard, visiting Albert Einstein in the later part of 1939. They came to brief Einstein on the state of nuclear physics and, in particular, the speed with which it might be possible to produce a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, capable of splitting the atom and producing unheard of volumes of energy. The potential destructiveness of these developments was by itself a matter of serious concern, but even more critically, the speed of German advances under Hitler made the matter a top security priority. Einstein wrote his famous letter to US President Roosevelt on August 2, 1939, notifying him of these scientific developments and recommending that the United States make the development of nuclear advances a major priority. Einstein was a pacifist and was a refugee from Nazi Germany. This must have been a difficult letter to write. His letter triggered the executive's commitment to the development of nuclear science from a national security perspective.
The Manhattan Project was launched with Robert Oppenheimer as the lead scientist. Control of the facility was put in the hands of a national security operative, General Groves. The project produced the first two atomic bombs in history. The decision to use the bomb did not concern itself with the views of the scientists as such. However, the detonation of the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki demonstrated that the destructive capacity of these weapons exceeded scientific predictions. Moreover, these weapons of mass destruction put world politics into a new age of weapon systems of universal lethality. Robert Oppenheimer was not obviously a pacifist, but he quickly grasped the moral challenge posed by the atomic bomb. A famous quote on witnessing the first nuclear detonation is from the Bhagavad Gita: "The Lord said: Time [death] I am, the destroyer of the worlds, who has come to annihilate everyone. Even without your taking part all those arrayed in the [two] opposing ranks will be slain!" It became obvious to Oppenheimer that trying to influence further developments on ethical or moral grounds was going to be fiercely contested.
Edward Teller was another physicist engaged in nuclear developments. Teller was a brilliant scientist and an extremely
political ideologue. Teller's great ambition was to build a super weapon – the hydrogen bomb. In his confrontation with Oppenheimer, Teller won and Oppenheimer was deprived of his security clearance. This background and the profound challenges generated by unleashing the nuclear genii motivated eminent men such as Einstein, Oppenheimer, Rotblat, Russell and others to affirm the social responsibility of scientists and other academic researchers for the knowledge they generated and its consequences for humanity. They felt compelled to consider the impact of scientific advances, even though scientists were largely excluded from the political discourse and decisions governing the application of that knowledge. The challenge as Einstein saw it was that "the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind."
Informal networking among major scientists and intellectuals over this issue led to the First International Conference on Science and Human Welfare in 1956. One of the results of this conference was an agreement among the participants to form a world academic international preparative committee. From this development, WAAS (World Academy of Art & Science) was founded in 1960. The charter members of the Academy were a veritable global Who's Who of scientific, philosophical and social scientific distinction. The Academy aspired for a sense of communication regardless of national or ideological boundaries. Its objective was to be the world's first informal university and its mission was the improvement of the human prospect.
The Academy today remains deeply committed to world peace and universal human security, including the concern of its founders regarding the control, regulation, and ultimate abolition of weapons of mass destruction. But in the wider context of the multiple political, economic, social and ecological challenges confronting humanity today, WAAS has set itself the challenge of (a) deeper understanding of the current paradigm that shapes thinking, institutions, policies and the prevailing world order and (b) giving serious thought to the formulation of a new human-centered paradigm for development and global governance. Issues related to the need for a new paradigm have been explored at recent WAAS conferences at Trieste, the UN in Geneva, Library of Alexandria, Washington DC, Ottawa, UC Berkeley, Podgorica, and most recently, Baku. The project seeks a deeper understanding of the place of the individual human being in the global social process and the implications of fundamental human rights when applied on a global basis. Special emphasis is being placed on new paradigm in global education as an essential condition for effectively addressing global challenges, which has led to the founding of the World University Consortium.
Recognizing the enormous scope, complexity and importance of these issues, WAAS is actively promoting close collaboration with other leading organizations including CERN, Club of Madrid, Club of Rome, European Leadership Network, European Movement International, Green Cross International, Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, Library of Alexandria, Mother's Service Society, Partnership for Change and other organizations in an effort to leverage our complementary capabilities in pursuit of common goals.
Chair of the Board, World Academy of Art & Science;
Samuel T. Dell Research Scholar Professor of Law,
Levin College of Law, University of Florida
CENTERS & PARTNERS
The World Academy of Art & Science (WAAS) was founded in 1960 by eminent intellectuals including Albert Einstein; Robert Oppenheimer, Father of Manhattan Project; Bertrand Russell, Joseph Needham, co-Founder of UNESCO; Lord Boyd Orr, first Director General of FAO; Brock Chisholm, first Director General of WHO and many others. The Academy serves as a forum for reflective scientists, artists, and scholars dedicated to addressing the pressing challenges confronting humanity today independent of political boundaries or limits, whether spiritual or physical -- a forum where these problems can be discussed objectively, scientifically, globally, and free from vested interests or regional attachments to arrive at solutions that affirm universal human rights and serve the common good of all humanity. WAAS is founded on faith in the power of original and creative ideas -- Real Ideas with effective power -- to change the world.
 Our motto: Leadership in thought that leads to action
WAAS Fellows come from diverse cultures, nationalities, intellectual disciplines and professions, chosen for eminence in the natural, technological and social sciences; the arts and humanities; different professions and fields of public service. Its focus from the beginning has been to address global social challenges. Its founding motive comes from the knowledge that academic knowledge cannot be separated or divorced from the social responsibility of how the knowledge is used.
WAAS approaches all its activities from a value-based, human-centered, comprehensive and transdisciplinary perspective encompassing issues related to peace and security, human rights and governance, economy and finance, education and human development, society and culture, technology and ecology. It is engaged in a variety of activities with UN organizations. The Academy collaborates with a network of national centers and international partners around the world.
One of the aims of the Academy's founders was to function as "an informal WORLD UNIVERSITY". In pursuit of this goal, in 2013 WAAS collaborated with other organizations to found the World University Consortium(www.wunicon.org). In collaboration with WUC, it conducts a series of international conferences on future education, curriculum development roundtables to develop new transdisciplinary subjects, and pilot projects in collaboration with experimental partnering educational institutions.
WAAS has been accorded special consultative status by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and consultative status by UNESCO.
If you have any questions please write to us and we will reply you.
The World Academy of Art and Science is an association of committed individuals drawn from diverse cultures, nationalities, occupations and intellectual pursuits spanning the arts, humanities and sciences, conscious of the profound social consequences and policy implications of knowledge, and united by a common aspiration to address the urgent challenges and emerging opportunities confronting humanity today. Our mission is to promote cross-disciplinary dialogue generative of original ideas and integrated perspectives that comprehend the root causes and effective remedies for our common problems, while furthering those currents of thought and social movement that affirm the value of human dignity and equitable development. The Academy dedicates itself to the pursuit of creative, catalytic ideas that can provide to present and future generations enlightened leadership in thought that leads to effective action.
The idea of founding an international association for exploring major concerns of humanity in a nongovernmental context grew out of many conversations that took place among leading scientists and intellectuals in the years following World War II. Prominent among this group were people such as Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer who had played a part in the development of the atomic bomb and were deeply concerned about how it and other scientific advances might be used – or misused.
This informal project took a major step forward in 1956, when a meeting – The First International Conference on Science and Human Welfare – was held in Washington, D. C. The organizers were two American scientists: Richard Montgomery Field of Princeton, who had worked for many years as chairman of an international committee on the social values of science; and John A. Fleming, former President of the International Council of Scientific Unions. At the end of the conference, participants agreed to take steps toward the formation of a World Academy, and elected an International Preparatory Committee for that purpose. Its members were: (from France) Pierre Chouard, George Laclavére and G. Le Lionnaise; (from the United Kingdom) Ritchie Calder, H. Munro Fox and Joseph Needham; and (from the United States) Robert Oppenheimer.
The Academy was formally founded (and its first officers elected) in 1960. They were: as President, Lord John Boyd Orr of Scotland; as Vice Presidents, Hermann Joseph Muller of the United States and Hugo Ostvald of Sweden; and, as Secretary General, Hugo Boyko of Israel.
Garry Jacobs
Donato Kiniger-Passigli
Nebojša Neškovic
Ivo Slaus
Alberto Zucconi
Rodolfo Fiorini
Zhanna Kryuchkova
Acting Treasurer
Mila Popovich
Chair, Nominations
The Members of Advisory Council
Hon. President of WAAS
Herwig Schopper
Former CEO of CERN
Federico Mayor
Former Director General of UNESCO
Ivo Šlaus
Hon. President of WAAS Council Chair
Saulo Bahia
Zbigniew Bochniarz
Stefan Brunnhuber
Fadwa El Guindi
Jonathan Granoff
Erich Hoedl
Yehuda Kahane
Nebojša Nešković
Ketan Patel
Remus Pricopie
Janani Ramanathan
Tibor Tóth
Marcel Van de Voorde
Aleksander Zidanšek
Moneef Zou'bi
Partnership Development (Opportunities) Committee
International Governmental Relations
Nominations Committee
ISACCL Scientific Council
WAAS Representatives on World University Consortium Board
WAAS Centers
WAAS Partners
HOW TO DONATE TO THE ACADEMY
The World Academy is incorporated in the State of California and Fellows elected from 86 different countries. WAAS is recognized by the US Internal Revenue Service as a tax exempt Public Charity under section 501(c)(3).
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CADMUS JOURNAL
ERUDITIO E-JOURNAL
Cadmus is a journal for fresh thinking and new perspectives that integrate knowledge from all fields of science, art and humanities to address real-life issues, inform policy and decision-making, and enhance our collective response to the challenges and opportunities facing the world today.
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Eruditio is the electronic journal of the World Academy of Art & Science. The vision of the Journal complements and enhances the World Academy's focus on global perspectives in the generation of knowledge from all fields of legitimate inquiry.
The Journal also mirrors the World Academy's specific focus and mandate which is to consider the social consequences and policy implications of knowledge in the broadest sense. It is a multidisciplinary forum focused on the social consequences and policy implications of all forms of knowledge on a global basis.
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Is democracy in its current form really the most viable and effective system of governance? Are human beings sufficiently rational and selfless to govern themselves justly and effectively? Is the future of democracy at the national level compatible with the persistence of non-democratic institutions at the international level? By what process has the distribution of social power shifted from army, monarchy, aristocracy to democracy and how is that process likely to evolve further in future? To what extent are the institutional problems confronting democracy today reflections of underlying social, psychological and cultural factors and processes? What proven and potential safeguards and remedies are available to address the failures and insufficiencies of contemporary democracies? Is democracy the best possible system or merely a stage in the evolution of governance toward something more stable, an effective and equitable system?
Mind, Thinking & Creativity - Recent Course
Mind is humanity's highest developed instrument for seeking knowledge. It is the master tool that we use to comprehend the present, remember the past, and anticipate and plan for the future. From the act of striking two flints together to create fire to combining strings of 1s and 0s to design the code for supercomputers, mind has enabled humanity to create remarkable technologies and organized global institutions. The mind is the unifying foundation on which humanity's entire social evolution is based. To understand this vital instrument better, the World Academy of Art & Science and World University Consortium have launched a ground-breaking project to explore Mind, Thinking and Creativity. A greater understanding of the nature of mind, its ways of knowing, the limits to thinking and rationality, mind's untapped potential, the workings of creativity and genius are essential for addressing the challenges confronting humanity today.
In April 2016 WAAS and WUC, along with partnering organizations IACP, IUC, DHUC, and MSS organized a four-day roundtable on Mind, Thinking and Creativity 2016 at Dubrovnik, Croatia for to explore fundamental questions. The meeting was attended by experts from different fields of natural and social science, including medicine, neuroscience, engineering, psychology, sociology, economics, law, and philosophy. Video recordings, presentations and papers for the roundtable are available here. The enthusiastic interest generated by the Dubrovnik meeting spurred efforts of WAAS and the World University Consortium to commence work on a on-line course on this subject which is now underway. A report on last year's meeting including videos and presentations was included in the Academy's July 2016 newsletter.
Roundtable 2 -- November 2017 at Dubrovnik
The second roundtable on Mind, Thinking & Creativity is being conducted by the World University Consortium, the World Academy of Art & Science, the Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and the Inter-University Centre from November 6-8, 2017 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Human-Centered Economics - Recent Course
A Post-Graduate Certificate Course in Human-Centered Economics will be conducted by the World Academy of Art & Science, the World University Consortium, The Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia from Feb 1-Feb 3,2017 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.
The multidimensional challenges confronting humanity today are human-made and can be changed by a change in thought and action. Contemporary economic thought is built on a mind-frame that originated prior to the Industrial Revolution when scarcity of goods in a world of abundant resources was the primary concern, economic growth was considered synonymous with human welfare, and impact of humanity on the environment was completely ignored. Without challenging obvious flaws in existing theory, it will be not be possible to significantly alter current policies and practices.
The overall aim of the course is to (a) demonstrate why mainstream neo-classical economic theory is inappropriate for dealing with the global challenges of the c.21st, and (b) explore alternative approaches for achieving ecologically sustainable, human-centered development and welfare for all.
This course will present the findings of a five year research program of the World Academy of Art & Science and the on-going work of the New Economic Theory working group. It will harness the best available ideas and practices on human-centred, sustainable economy to create informative, authoritative and compelling educational and communication tools with the power to challenge and alter university level education in Economics, public policy, business decisions, media coverage and general public opinion regarding how the world economy should and can work for the betterment of all humanity.
Social Power - Recent Course
A Post-Graduate Certificate Course in Social Power, Empowerment & Social Evolution will be conducted by the World Academy of Art & Science, the World University Consortium, The Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia from Oct 31-Nov 4, 2016 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Humanity lives in a time of unprecedented capacity for accomplishment in every field of social life. Never before have we possessed power of this magnitude for good or for evil. Never before has power been so widely distributed within society. Democracy, law, human rights, science, technology, education and many other forms of social organization have generated immense power. Society governs the possession and exercise of this power through formal structures and institutions, such as law and human rights, as well as through both legitimate and extra-legal informal mechanisms including status, wealth, popularity, political influence and corruption. The distribution of power in its various forms powerfully impacts on the functioning of the economy, political system, educational, scientific, religious and and other social institutions, and on the overall productivity, strength, integrity, harmony and welfare of society. This transdisciplinary course will explore the sources, expressions, determinants and consequences of the creation, distribution and exercise of social power in its various expressions in politics, economy, society and culture and its consequences for the evolution of society as a whole.
Mind is humanity's highest developed instrument for seeking knowledge. It is an instrument with remarkable capabilities and characteristic limitations. It is ironic that we invest so little time in education and scientific endeavor trying to understand the nature of mental knowledge and the character of the mental processes by which we arrive at it. The objective of this course is to arrive at an understanding of the inherent limits to rationality and mental ways of knowing, as well as the extraordinary creative and intuitive processes by which mind transcends those limitations and tends toward genius.
Thinking is the activity by which mind associates, organizes, coordinates and integrates information, thoughts and ideas. Creative thinking is the process by which mind extends the boundaries of existing thought and knowledge to connect, reconcile and unify previously unconnected or contradictory perspectives. This course will explore the characteristics of mental knowledge and thought processes, types of thinking, the character of rational thought, the mental and social construction of knowledge, deep thinking, creativity and genius. Rather than focus on abstract philosophical concepts, it will apply this knowledge to understand both the sources of humanity's prolific mental creativity, the characteristic problems it confronts due to irresolvable conflicts and contradictions between mental perspectives, and their resolution in different fields of natural and social science, public policy, collective and individual behavior.
Future Education - Recent Course
A Post-Graduate Certificate Course in Future Education was conducted by the World Academy of Art & Science, the World University Consortium, The Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia from September 21-23, 2015 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Education is our best hope for a better future. Emergence of a new paradigm in education can radically abridge the time required for humanity to address critical issues related to economy, governance, ecology and life-style. Education is the best known instrument for ensuring universal human rights, promoting democracy, enhancing productivity and protecting the environment.There is urgent need to evolve a new paradigm in education appropriate to the needs of the 21st century. Closing the gap between social needs and educational capabilities is essential for addressing pressing challenges confronting humanity today. A review of education today makes evident that there is enormous scope for improving and developing the educational system. Whatever its current limitations in terms of inadequate coverage, quality and content, the means and potential exist for dramatically enhancing humanity's individual and collective performance in virtually all spheres of our social existence by realistic, achievable improvements in education. We need a new paradigm in education capable of more fully and effectively developing the latent capacities of our youth.
Essence of Effective Leadership - Recent Course
A Post-Graduate Certificate Course in Essence of Effective Leadership was conducted by the World Academy of Art & Science, the World University Consortium, The Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia from March 31 to April 3, 2015 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.
This course explored the characteristics common to leaders in business, politics, civil society, science, arts, professions and education and examined methods by which these characteristics can be consciously developed by individuals. The presentations consist of theory, practical strategies, and a wide range of examples drawn from biography, history, management, and literature from movies illustrating the principles under discussion. Apart from the presentations, our faculty interacted with participants to bring home the theoretical significance and practical relevance of the material.
Individual Accomplishment, Growth & the Character of Life in Management, History,
Literature, and Psychology - Recent Course
The Individual is the catalyst of all social progress, the source of creativity, innovation, new ideas and new initiatives. The individual is the genetic source of human diversity. The entrepreneur, inventor, social reformer, revolutionary leader, original thinker and creative artist are a few of individuality's expressions. Yet how little we understand about the characteristics of true individuality, the ways in which it expresses, the means for developing it, and the means for realizing real individuality in one's own life.
History demonstrates that individuals have the power to change the world. This course explored the relationship between personality and accomplishment. It examined the role of Individuality and Values in personal achievement, growth of personality and social progress drawing on evidence from Management Science, History, Psychology and Literature. It explored the relationship between creative individuals and society searching for insights into the principles and process that govern successful human initiatives and their consequences in various fields of life.
The course was intended for both students and practitioners in all fields interested in advancing theoretical understanding and practical approaches to promote the development of entrepreneurship, individuality, creativity, original thinking and other forms of social innovation. It explored the role of the individual in development of society, elucidated the characteristics of true individuals, the source of their amazing power for accomplishment and the process by which they act as catalysts of social innovation. While the presentation was academic, the objective was to impart original insights and practical knowledge for personal growth and individuation.
Toward a Trans-disciplinary Science of Society - Recent Course
Today humanity is confronted by a plethora of serious challenges – political, economic, legal, social, cultural, psychological and ecological. These challenges are complex, interrelated, and global in reach. They are a reflection of the inadequacy of current institutions and policies and at a deeper level the inadequacy of current knowledge. They defy comprehension and resolution based on the prevailing principles of social science. The specialized knowledge developed by separate disciplines is inadequate to deal with the increasingly complex interdependencies of the real world. Knowledge needs to evolve to keep pace with the evolution of society.
The evolution of a complex, highly integrated global society necessitates the development of a more comprehensive and integrated science of society. The division into various specialized fields has been a useful mental strategy for the development of the social sciences, leading to significant advances in all fields – knowledge which needs to be preserved and enhanced by future developments. Yet it is increasingly evident that a more comprehensive and integrated approach is now required. As society evolves, its different functions develop greater complexity. At the same time they become more closely and complexly interlinked and interdependent on one another. Economy today is highly dependent on the political system and laws governing the distribution and enforcement of power in society, legal concepts regarding ownership of property and human rights, public institutions responsible for the creation and management of money, rules for commerce between nations, public policies influencing income and wealth distribution, processes that determine collective decision-making, public investment in education and training, and social expectations regarding economy and the future, etc. A recent announcement by the White House of an 'intention' to examine measures to discourage shifting of US firms to tax havens overseas resulted in a 10% fall in market value for several large firms.
WAAS PROGRAM FRAMEWORK
THE SECURITY & SUSTAINABILITY GUIDE
NEW SCIENCES
GLOBAL RULE OF LAW
Strategic Planning Committee Program Framework
Being a world academy composed of members drawn from the arts, social and physical sciences, humanities, business, public administration and civil society poses fundamental questions. How can WAAS distinguish itself from other national and regional academies? Is there really a common meeting point between art and science? Is there a unique contribution that WAAS can make to the world's knowledge?
At the New Delhi General Assembly, Fellows explored facets of a new program framework developed by the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) which seeks to answer these questions in the affirmative. Rather than distinguish itself by specializing on a particular set of disciplines, issues or geographic area, the framework is an attempt to formulate a comprehensive approach and integrated perspective of knowledge inclusive of all disciplinary perspectives and applicable to social problems and opporunities in all fields.
The core of the framework is a human-centered conception of what constitutes reliable knowing, a question posed to the SPC by Ruben Nelson. In his presentation to the GA, Garry Jacobs explained how this conception applies to WAAS's projects on new economic theory, individuality and limits to rationality. Pushpa Bhargava pointed out that a human centered perspective naturally incorporates ecology, since the survival and full development of humanity depends on its capacity to evolve in harmony with the environment.
Global Leadership in the 21st Century
There is an urgent need to fill the global leadership vacuum in order to address the complex, pressing challenges confronting humanity today. Leadership is needed at all levels in all fields. Leadership is a catalytic process that can accomplish what leaders cannot. The leadership needed must be inspired by universal values and visionary ideas, energized by high goals and awareness of untapped opportunities, given expression by courageous individuals, implemented by innovative organizations, and fulfilled by awakening and unleashing the aspirations of the whole society.
The World Academy of Art & Science, in partnership with the United Nations at Geneva, is conducting a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral project highlighting innovative strategies and effective principles to accelerate the emergence of dynamic leadership for successful implementation of the SDGs. The project will involve consultations with IGOs, nation states, business, scientific research and educational institutions, civil society and youth organizations. It will culminate in a major two-day conference at UNOG in October 2020, followed by a report to the UN, educational and other outreach strategies. The overarching objective of the project is to become a catalyst to accelerate the emergence of dynamic leadership for global development. Its strategy is to consciously apply at the global level essential principles of effective leadership that have previously served as catalysts for rapid transformation at the level of organizations, nation states and international organizations.
New Paradigm Program
Scope: The world confronts multiple crises, each of which resists current efforts at resolution and appears intractable. The environmental crisis of climate change occupied the center stage in the mid-2000s. Fears of nuclear weapons proliferation, which had subsided into complacency in the years following the end of the Cold War, suddenly surfaced with renewed intensity when Korea tested nuclear weapons and long range missiles and news surfaced of Iran's secret nuclear weapons program in 2007.
Then the subprime mortgage crisis exploded in late 2008, spreading havoc through financial markets across the world. It was followed quickly by a sudden and substantial slowing of economic growth in OECD countries, rising levels of unemployment and most recently a crisis of excessive government debt.
In spite of the enormous attention being given to each of these issues by specialists nationally and internationally, progress on all fronts appears to be nearly at a standstill or at least far too slow to meet pressing human concerns. The times we live in are a Wild West of globalization and the unbridled, unregulated expansion of international activities threatens to destabilize and undermine the remarkable progress of the previous five decades.
This project is predicated on the assumption that each of these problems defies solution because they all represent problems that transcend the sovereign powers of the nation-state. None of them can be fully and satisfactorily addressed by nation-states acting individually. All are symptoms of the evolution of world society to a stage where concerted and coordinated global action is required to meet the collective needs of humanity for peace, security, financial stability, economic welfare and sustainable development. This project has been conceived to address the underlying and interrelated issues that all these challenges pose to global governance.
World University Consortium
The mission of World University Consortium is to evolve and promote development of accessible, affordable, quality higher education worldwide based on a human-centered approach that shifts the emphasis from specialized expertise to contextualized knowledge within a trans-disciplinary conceptual framework reflecting the complexity and integration of the real world, from teaching mastery of a field of knowledge to learning that enhances the capacity of students to think and discover knowledge for themselves, from theoretical mastery to acquisition of knowledge, skills and values relevant to each individual's personal development and career – an educational system better suited to develop the full potentials of social personality and individuality for productive engagement, social welfare and psychological well-being. The objectives are:
Identify global best practices and develop effective global models and strategies to improve accessibility, affordability, quality, innovation and relevance in higher education appropriate to the needs of the 21st century.
Develop innovative, open learning systems and more effective models that extend the reach of quality higher education to people of all age groups globally.
Explore new models of online and hybrid delivery systems designed to facilitate learning through teacher-student and student-student interaction.
Enhance the learning process through research, development and application of advanced instruments for measurement and evaluation of educational processes.
Promote person-centered approaches that emphasize self-guided learning, critical and original thinking, inspirational forms of instruction, learning to learn, trans-disciplinary contextualized perspectives, learning by teaching and sharing with others, edutainment and experiential learning.
Develop transcultural and culture-specific methods and content reflecting universal human values.
Create a worldwide forum where all the stakeholders can meet, interact and create new networks, partnerships and projects.
NEW ECONOMIC THEORY
A multidisciplinary group from the World Academy of Art & Science and the Club of Rome are leading a quest for a new human-centered theory of economics that reflects recent changes resulting from the emergence of a service-based economy, globalization, rising social aspirations and changing values, and is integrated with political, social, ecological, technological, and cultural factors from which it is inseparable.
PROGRAM ON GLOBAL EMPLOYMENT CHALLENGE
Access to employment is the most essential requirement for providing economic security to the world's burgeoning population.
This interdisciplinary dialogue explores theoretical and practical aspects of the global employment challenge, including its demographic, economic, legal, political, psychological dimensions as well as linkages with the international financial crisis, social stability, and terrorism.
PROGRAM ON ABOLITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
The devastating consequences of nuclear war and the potential destructive applications of science and technology were paramount concerns among Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Robert Oppenheimer, Joseph Rotblat and others which led to the founding of the World Academy in 1960.
Nuclear disarmament is a sine qua non for effectively addressing other issues of global important – terrorism, financial stability, unemployment, poverty, climate change, democratization of the UN and other aspects of global governance. In recent years, the Academy has conducted numerous conferences, seminars and workshops and collaborating with other organizations in an effort to promote concrete steps toward immediate and total global nuclear disarmament.
Standing Committee on
Government of Indian
Conference and Declaration
Middle Powers Initiative
Disarmament Conference
In Geneva
South East Europe Declaration
World Futures
Society Conference
The SSG, a project of the World Academy & Art & Science, is based on the premise that people and nations cannot be secure without sustainability, nor sustainable if insecure. It responds to the fact that challenges facing humanity such as public health preparedness are greatly understated, and the many organizations responding to these challenges are underappreciated.
TRANS-DISCIPLINARY DIALOGUE ON MIND, THINKING AND CREATIVITY
Mind is humanity's highest developed instrument for seeking knowledge. It is an instrument with remarkable capabilities and characteristic limitations. It is ironic that we invest so little time in education and scientific endeavor trying to understand the nature of mental knowledge and the character of the mental processes by which we arrive at it.
The objective of this project is to arrive at an understanding of the inherent limits to rationality and mental ways of knowing, as well as the extraordinary creative and intuitive processes by which mind transcends those limitations and tends toward genius.
EVOLUTION OF INDIVIDUALITY
Individuality is the crown of human evolution and the catalyst for social progress, yet there are very different conceptions of what constitutes true individuality, the relationship between the individual and society, and whether humanity is inevitably evolving toward higher levels of individuality.
This project will explore the essential nature of individuality, the social and cultural factors that foster it, its role in social development, its myriad expressions in the original thinker, creative artist, political leader, entrepreneur, inventor and social innovator, and the means available to society to foster it.
In 2013 WAAS launched a project to explore important developments in recently emerging fields of science, with e-conferences on the Science of Networks and the Science of Complexity. The project involves an application of concepts and tools from the new sciences relevant to address the global challenges confronting humanity today and to the evolution of a transdisciplinary science of society.
The evolution of international law and human rights represent crucial threads in the progressive development of global rule of law.
This project will explore the relationship between the social, political and legal dimensions of global rule of law in an effort to frame the boundaries of a wider approach to the evolution of global governance. Emphasis will be place to re-examining the concept of national sovereignty and the common rights of humanity in an increasingly globalized world.
WORLD ACADEMY OF ART & SCIENCE
Disclaimer: WAAS accepts the UN convention on the names and boundaries of countries and takes no position of its own.


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"Anti-racism is an active and conscious effort to work against [the] multi-dimensional aspects of racism," Robert J. Patterson, professor of African American Studies at Georgetown University, told Business Insider.Racism scholar Ibram X. Kendi says one is either racist or anti-racist: There is no room for neutrality and there is no such thing as a "non-racist."Anti-racism is…
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Belgium is the latest country to roll out a coronavirus app using the joint Apple/Google contact tracing API. The app is available from today. Belgium posed a particular challenge for a contact tracing app … The country has not one, not two but three official languages: Dutch (often referred to as Flemish within the country),…
@2020 GlobeVisions.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Philippines: Exporter Guide
The Philippines ranks as the seventh largest market for U.S. agricultural exports and the largest destination for U.S. consumer-oriented products in Southeast Asia.
Vietnam: Vietnam Revises the List of Approved Pesticides
Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) issued Circular 19/2022 on December 2, 2022, revising the List of Pesticides Approved for Use and the List of Pesticides Banned from Use in Vietnam.
Philippines: President Marcos Extends Lowered Tariffs
On December 29, 2022, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. signed Executive Order 10, series of 2022, extending lowered 5 percent tariffs for corn imports, 15 percent tariffs for pork imports, and 35 percent tariffs for rice imports through December 31, 2023.
Vietnam: Exporter Guide
This report serves as a practical guide for U.S. exporters wishing to initiate or increase exports of U.S. consumer-oriented and seafood products to Vietnam. It provides an overview of the market potential, practical tips, consumer preferences and trends, food standards and regulations, import and inspection procedures, and useful contacts.
Malaysia: Exporter Guide
Malaysia retail food and HRI sector is expected to grow by 7.8 percent in 2023. U.S. exporters will see excellent opportunities in the retail food and food processing sectors as the country's economy rebounds strongly after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns.
Philippines: Fishery Product Import Regulations and Standards
This report outlines Philippine government requirements for the importation of fishery and seafood products. The report aims to assist U.S. exporters by providing information on labeling, packaging, permitted ingredients, and other relevant information. It also provides points of contact for key Philippine government authorities.
Philippines: Distilled Spirits Market Brief
The United States is among the top five suppliers of distilled spirits to the Philippines, supplying mostly whiskey. Philippine importation of U.S. distilled spirits in 2021 dropped to $4.6 million, 42 percent lower than the pre-pandemic level.
Philippines: Guidance on Shipping Food and Agricultural Product Samples to the Philippines
This report provides guidance on shipping samples of U.S. food, beverage, and other agricultural products to the Philippines.
Philippines: Non-Alcoholic Beverages Market Brief
The United States is the second largest supplier of non-alcoholic beverages to the Philippines and holds a 12 percent market share. In 2021, U.S. export sales of non-alcoholic beverages reached a record $11.4 million, despite strong competition from within the Philippines and from Asian countries that benefit from zero-tariff trade.
Philippines: Wine Market Brief
For the past two decades, the United States has been the leading supplier of wines to the Philippines. In 2021, U.S. wine exports to the Philippines soared to a record $20 million (3.8 million liters at an average cost of $5.20 per liter) as consumers temporarily traded up to more expensive wines during the coronavirus lockdown.
Vietnam: Second-tier City Market Report - Da Nang City
As the economic hub in Vietnam's central and central highland regions, Da Nang has emerged in recent years as a retail market with strong potential. Rapid urbanization, economic development, and a booming tourism sector have created more opportunities for U.S. food and beverage products.


Hi, my name is Mina and I come from Serbia. I recently finished Second Grammar school of Kragujevac and was a part of a specialized philology class which is highly appreciated here in Serbia. My greatest achievement was winning first place in a dance competition making me the best in my country, not once but four times as a solo disco-dancer. I'm in love with reading, listening to music and dancing. I've been a dancer since I was in preschool. I am very optimistic and love helping people, especially with something I'm good at. Also not to forget, I love animals, especially dogs, so my favorite thing to do is to go on adventures with my dog, and meeting new people since I am quite friendly as well.
Teacher Mina comes from Serbia. She recently finished Second Grammar school of Kragujevac and was a part of a specialized philology class which is highly appreciated in Serbia. Her greatest achievement was winning first place in a dance competition making her the best in her country, not once but four times as a solo disco-dancer. She's been a dancer since she was in preschool. She is very optimistic and loves helping people especially with something she's good at. Also not to forget, she loves animals, especially dogs, so her favorite thing to do is to go on adventures with her dog, and meeting new people since she is quite friendly as well.


text:
Blockchain Future: Our Impressions From Consensus 2018 Summit
3 takeaways from CoinDesk's 4th annual blockchain technology summit
Iran Working on National Cryptocurrency
In response to U.S. sanctions, Iran is planning to implement a new national cryptocurrency.
How HTC's New Exodus Phone Incorporates Blockchain Technology
The phone will incorporate blockchain and make it so that data is stored on the device itself rather than the cloud.
Radar Zero recently attended CoinDesk's Consensus 4th annual blockchain technology summit at the New York Hilton, May 14-16. Our take? It was a zoo. The program was slated for 2,000 attendees. More than 8,500 individuals attended.
A client who attended the same event told me it took her two days to get tickets. The line stretched across the 9,520 sq. ft. lobby onto another floor. "We had to squeeze pass those people who lined up past desks. I spent most of my trip on tylenol... More than a zoo. It was chaotic."
Between my client and our own event attendance, we've culled the following separate impressions from the conference:
Crypto and Blockchain Are Bold Business. Just Gearing Up to Change the World.
Think Bitcoin and blockchain are big? They're bombastic. And the journey has just begun. Forget those who call crypto world a bubble. Even if it were - that bubble is nowhere near bursting.
The Consensus chart of the annual conference attendance since 2005 says it all:
Thirteen years ago, CoinDesk attracted 400 attendees to its 2005 conference. The year after, it added 1,000 attendees. And the year after that, 1,300. Last week, it somehow packed in an additional 5,800 participants. That's more than triple the 2,700 attendees CoinDesk reported for the May 2017 conference!
If that isn't enough to convince you, at least 20 "copycats" staged their own events at the same time, also attracting large crowds. Tickets for Consensus ran 2k-3k a piece. Organizers of smaller events ran their tickets from several hundreds to thousands. Most of these organizations reported booming success. Consensus, of course, was packed to the gills.
Blockchain rather than Bitcoin defines the future.
Bitcoin may or may not survive in its current form. It has too many challenges that include Bitcoin fluctuation, low adoption, and stunted mass appeal. Over the last few years, organizations like Microsoft, Wordpress, Mozilla, and Wikipedia that accepted Bitcoin in the past, have hid or removed their Bitcoin donation options. Most of the 45,000 merchants that Coinbase says integrate Bitcoin, stopped accepting it, according to crypto blogger Arcturnus.
Blockchain's smart contracts, in contrast, are another story. To date, blockchain is mulled upon by more than half of the world's big corporations, according to a study by U.K. research firm Juniper Research. Two thirds of firms say they expect the technology to be integrated into their systems by the end of 2018. Governments use it or plan to in the near future.
Consensus put the blockchain genesis story front and center, with a keynote panel featuring the CEO and CIO of FedEx. "Blockchain has the potential to completely revolutionized trade across borders," Frederick W. Smith, Founder and CEO of FedEx told his packed audience, "We think this is potentially a profound technological change."
Robert Carter, EVP of FedEx Information Services and CIO, echoed Smith's words. "This is such a game-changer for us because it extends the boundaries beyond our four walls," Carter said. "We're working with everyone to figure out how best to deploy custody chains."
In addition to the FedEx panel, a handful of enterprise-focused firms including Accenture, Deloitte, and IBM touted their progress with enterprise blockchain solutions on the Consensus exhibit floor.
Crypto was on display: There were crypto wallets, crypto trading platforms, crypto consulting firms, tools for crypto investors, crypto law and so forth. But the emphasis was on blockchain rather than on Bitcoin or any of the other major cryptocurrencies.
The New Crowd. Or, Dreamers become Establishment.
Blockchain started off with dreamers and idealists bent on programming a country-to-country ledger that would change the world. Radar Zero's first few profiles included the Free Republic of Liberland with no tax system, no borders, and no physical currency. We also interviewed David Zimbeck, smart contract pioneer, who spoke of a blockchain-created utopian universe and profiled the crypto-anarchists in Puerto Rico. The days of the indie may be dwindling though. Based on what we saw at Consensus, the mainstream is taking over blockchain.
The speakers at Consensus and the price of the tickets said it all. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, whose mobile payments company Square launched Bitcoin trading this year, spoke at Consensus on Wednesday. Other conference panelists ranged from government officials to start-up leaders. Nowhere in sight were the techno-utopians or techno-anarchists so set and eager to take over the world.
Second, the tickets cost a mighty $2,000 USD per attendee. In the democratic spirit of crypto anarchism, Ethereum's co-founder Vitalik Biturin boycotted the event. Bitcoin and blockchain were developed to level the field. Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's shadowy creator, wanted to gatecrash governments and corporations. For all the hype of blockchain "banking the unbanked," Consensus showed who had won: government, banks and corporations.
The fanciful days of blockchain may be gone for good. Many, like Mainframe's Mick Hagen, lamented the "roadshow mentality" that developed since 2017, where entrepreneurs are expected to conference their way to success with endless presentations, exhibitions, and networking events. Ghaharamani, co-founder of bison.gg, an esports blockchain startup, eavesdropped on an ICO founder who said "Vitalik Buterin didn't build Ethereum by going to 100 events a year, so why are we?"
Good question. The old guard is gone. It's a bold new future, with a blockchain boom and capitalists controlling its purse strings.


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"And Then They Came..." (Chapter LXX)
Chapter LXX
The wind had picked up considerably since Hassam and Rosario had left the others, nearly half an hour before. The sky was crammed with enormous, ominously heavy clouds that had erased most of the sunlight and transformed the late afternoon into an early twilight.
In the back yard of the house invaded by Enrique's group, two small palm trees were mercilessly being whipped and pounded by the storm's unrelenting fury, its few remaining fronds flapping wildly as if overtaken by angry demons. A few plastic pots where the murdered couple had planted some flowers and herbs, had been overpowered and overturned by the hurricane's strong gusts, and bounced awkwardly, splashing over the yard's water-logged grass.
A prodigious amount of rain kept pouring from the sky, falling at an impossible, nearly horizontal angle. It had already dumped more water than the yard could dispose of, quickly converting it into a small, dirt-colored pond.
From behind the dead couple's kitchen windows, Enrique had watched it all with unconcealed fascination, not uttering a single word.
He had seen storms before, but nothing like this. This was nature at its fiercest manifestation, complicating the execution of their impending assault.
They had planned to invade the Alfaro residence by a two-pronged approach.
First, Rosario would open the door to the lower room that faced Alfaro's backyard. If the room was connected internally to the rest of the house, Rosario would proceed inside, killing anyone he met. Otherwise, he would hide inside the room while letting its door open, to lure either Alfaro or his bodyguard into it.
Some five minutes later, Hassam would loosen the second story window's storm shutter, and penetrate the house through it. From there, he would start his raid on the Alfaro residence from above.
Rosario had initially objected to the plan, saying that there was no guaranty that Alfaro would head his way, rather than Hassam's, and that from the outset he had been promised that he would be the one who would kill the overrated Puerto Rican "hero".
He had insisted that if Hassam encountered Alfaro first, he should hold him at gunpoint until Rosario could fight him.
Enrique had called his suggestion "stupid", saying that they were not there to play games, but to kill everyone in the house and make an "example" out of them.
"If you later want to be the one that dismembers Alfaro or rapes his wife, that's fine," Enrique had told him. "But for now, anyone in there is a target of opportunity."
The ruse of opening the yard-level room had worked. Rosario had had no problem prying open with a crowbar a door that had already been threatening to give way. The door had popped open with hardly any resistance.
Free and swinging wildly in the wind, the metal door had begun to bang against the wall next to it, or crash repeatedly against its frame.
The racket it generated had produced its intended effect: some fifteen minutes later, a man had stepped out of Alfaro's kitchen and stumbled into the lower room. Though blurred by the torrential rain, Enrique had recognized the man's figure as that of Alfaro..
Enrique had laughed, shaking his head with delight; Rosario would be getting his wish after all, that lucky dog.
In the meantime, Hassam had run through the rain to the neighboring residence's backyard wall, climbed over it, and leaped onto the roof of Alfaro's back terrace. From there he had quickly disappeared from sight, moving toward his intended target's second story window.
It had been Enrique's intention to keep watching for any signs of further activity, but a few minutes later, his attention had been diverted by a scene occurring on the opposite side of the house.
A loud, scraping, metallic noise had prompted Da'ud to take a peek through one of the house's front windows. After searching for a brief moment, he had begun to laugh outloud.
"What?" Nour had asked him, her curiosity roused.
"Take a look outside," Da'ud had responded.
Nour had walked to her bald, bearded companion, followed by Enrique, and the three of them had watched with amusement at what was taking place outside.
Two houses away, close to the main San Patricio Avenue, a partially destroyed tin shed had crashed into a brand new SAAB sedan parked in an open driveway. Two Chinese men had run out of the adjacent house in their underwear and, in the blinding rain, attempted to dislodge the large piece of scrap metal off the car as smaller pieces of debris and broken branches whizzed past them.
For ten minutes, to the enjoyment of the three terrorists, the Chinese men had struggled to free the SAAB, shouting, stumbling, and slipping as they did so, failing in all of their attempts. Finally, frustrated and exhausted, they had returned to their house.
Enrique had stared at his watch as they left.
"It's 6;15. Time to go," he had said to the others.
Returning to the kitchen, he had been surprised to discover that most of its floor was covered by dirty water filtering through the backyard door. He had looked outside, but could not determine what, if anything, was happening in the neighboring house.
He had asked Hassam and Rosario to call him, once they had captured or killed the occupants of the Alfaro residence. Neither had done so, but that could mean that the cell phones were down.
He felt tempted to call them, but realized that if his two associates were still attempting to surprise the people in the neighboring house, the noise of a cell phone could be counter productive.
Enrique's group would have to move in without confirming Hassam and Rosario's status.
He saw that the Alfaro kitchen's door had still not been closed, and decided to take advantage of the open access before one of the house's occupants decided to close it.
Pushing open the backyard door, he allowed more of the water accumulated in the backyard to rush into the house. With the wind coming mainly from the opposite direction, the three terrorists were shielded from its main fury. That, however, would change as soon as they went outside.
"Let's go," he said to Nour and Da'ud.
As he stepped out, his leather shoes sank ankle deep into the muck that was now the yard, throughly drenching his socks.
Slowly, pulling each foot from the sucking mud below, the three terrorists advanced toward the dividing back wall, and as they did, they began to get buffeted by Fay's overpowering rage.
When they reached the wall, they were thoroughly drenched. They looked briefly into the other home's yard, and confirmed that both the kitchen door and the door to the room facing Alfaro's backyard continued to stay ajar.
"You go first!" Enrique yelled to Nour through the storm's noise.
The female Egyptian nodded, and placing a foot on Da'ud's interlaced hands, she propelled herself upwards, clearing the fence with ease.
She looked into Alfaro's terrace, noticing that it was empty of all furniture. Three ceiling fans were revolving at a lackadaisical speed, propelled by the breeze that flowed under the roof. On the side of the terrace that faced the yard, an orange canvas canopy had been rolled up and tied with rope, to avoid being blown away by the storm.
Like Enrique, Nour had experienced other weather phenomena before. Once, she had been caught in a severe sandstorm that had nearly choked her to death, forcing her to seek refuge in an abandoned car. Another time, she had been inside a supermarket during an earthquake in Italy where, for more than a minute, the merchandise had been strewn in a pell mell fashion all around her, and one of the overhead neon lamps had collapsed next to her.
Nothing, however, had prepared her for what she was witnessing now.
Hurricane Fay affected everything within sight, from the fast moving clouds in the sky above her, to the wind-swept plants crushed and dismantled by the storm's unrelenting force and pressure, to the strange, varied sounds of distant crashing objects. All around her, the world seemed to move as if with a will of its own.
Strangely enough, Alfaro's yard was not as flooded as that of its neighbors. Nour was soaked through and through by the heavy rain that pelted her mercilessly, but a deep culvert bordering the property seemed to provide adequate drainage, almost overflowing with a rushing torrent of rainwater.
Enrique climbed the wall next, landing directly on the drainage ditch and getting splashed up to his knees. Nour watched him with covert glee.
A gradual change had overtaken him since the previous night. The usually animated features of his hatchet-like face had been dulled to a deep-seated, slow-burning rage.
Alfaro had somehow frustrated his master plan.
The perennially practical, dynamic, emotionless little man had been overcome by an irrational desire to harm the person who had interfered with his operation, to make him pay, to turn him and his family into an example of what would happen to those who interfered with his work.
An example that the island--and the world, for that matter--would never forget.
Not that it bothered her. She would enjoy the killing that was about to take place.
Da'ud was the last of the three to climb over the wall, while Nour watched the back of the house for movement. During all that time, nobody—Rosario or Alfaro—exited from the lower floor room.
It did not seem to worry Enrique too much.
"Maybe Rosario killed Alfaro, and is cutting him apart," he said off-handedly more to himself than to the others. "Let's first make certain that Hassam and Rosario finished our business inside the house. We'll post one of you by the kitchen door. If Alfaro tries to walk in, we shoot him. If it's Rosario, we let him in. Now let's get inside."
Nour walked into the kitchen first, gun in hand.
Seeing nobody, she strode quickly into the dining room, then searched the living and family rooms, finding all of them equally devoid of any human activity.
Da'ud followed closely behind her, turning right into the stairway and dashing up to the second floor. In the upstairs corridor, he found the bodies of Hassam and Alfaro's bodyguard, neither of them moving.
It was clear that his associate was dead, both of his eyes gouged out, a large pool of blood, still not entirely congealed and diluted by the water blowing through the open window, spreading out of his back.
Da'ud did not bother taking the pulse of the other man. It was evident that if he was not already dead, he soon would be.
Cautiously, he searched the three upstairs rooms, finding nobody in any of them. Racing back down the stairs, he returned to the kitchen, where Nour was talking to Enrique.
"The front porch door is open," the female terrorist was saying to her boss. "Alfaro's woman and the children must have run away, possibly with the aid of their bodyguard."
"Not the bodyguard," Da'ud interjected, as he approached them. "He's dead. So is Hassam. They killed each other. There's nobody else in the second floor."
Enrique considered the information with impassive, almost resigned silence. However, Nour could see his inward disappointment.
He shrugged. "We still have Alfaro. Either he is dead and Rosario is disposing of him or__"
Enrique stopped.
He had heard a faint, metallic rustle, as if of a kettle slightly clanging on another, followed by an urgent, muted "Shhh!", and a quick whispered exchange of words.
Nour placed a finger over her lips, and slowly walked to the kitchen's sink. Grasping the handle of the one of its two doors, she suddenly pulled it open, and grabbed the small foot of a child.
"Aha!" she shouted in triumph, as she dragged out a screaming, frightened Gabriel.
Nour released the boy's foot while simultaneously grabbing him by his shirt, and roughly pulled him off the floor. She showed him proudly to her two companions.
"It seems there are some weasels hiding in the cabinets."
The opposite side of the doors under the sink burst open, scattering with it several pots and pans that clattered noisily over the kitchen floor, and Sophia clumsily slid out from the open space, holding on to a large pan.
"You leave my brother alone!" she screamed angrily, attacking Nour with her improvised weapon and hitting her several times on the shoulder.
Nour laughed, unhurt, and with one of her hands snatched Sophia's improvised weapon away, while holding Gabriel by the neck with her other arm.
"The mother must be somewhere near," the Egyptian terrorist said to her companions loudly, trying to be heard through the terrified wails of the children. "She wouldn't leave them alone."
Enrique chuckled.
"Do you hear that, Mrs. Alfaro?" he shouted. "We have your children! You'd better come out of your hiding place if you don't want to see them dead!"
Nour released Gabriel, and the four-year old ran to his sister and embraced her, both of them crying.
The three terrorists stopped talking, the only sound coming from the sobbing children and the noise of the storm outside.
After a short wait, the door of a closet at the back of the kitchen began to slide open.
(Chapter LXXI will be posted on Thursday, December 24--Christmas Eve.)