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To: Sun Tzu who wrote (69414)	4/8/2003 2:23:23 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Respond to of 70976

I put this on another thread but I think it went unnoticed. It is related to the root of the issue we have. It is from an ASSIST paper (a project funded by the EC), which surprisingly started as part of a communication (read cell phones and what not) related project: ST ...Given that some survive on $500 per annum and others are unsatisfied with less than $500,000 it can be seen that basic needs for food and shelter are a very small fraction of our total needs. Almost all of western GDP is devoted to culturally defined wants that are expressions of fundamental social needs such as status and identity. Such wants are essentially malleable through generational succession. Thus switching from paying millions of euros for an enormous stately home in the country to paying the same amount for a minimal apartment in the most fashionable part of the city contributes to global sustainability and also preserves status, and the status premium is not devoted in material extravagance but can contribute to better transport and services in the same city, benefiting both rich and poor alike. The rapidly dropping cost of IST based goods could lead to developing countries leapfrogging the West. Indeed South Africa is already starting to plan on this assumption and Cambodia was the first country in which the number of mobiles exceeded fixed lines. In the pre-sustainability past Europe leapfrogged the US in the adoption of cars by switching several decades later, when comfort and convenience could be achieved in smaller and more sustainable vehicles. Thus we can anticipate the developing world switching to truly sustainable IST-intensive satisfiers more quickly than a Europe that is embedded in an unsustainable but enjoyable culture of travel and consumer goods. A Wild West frontier mentality has characterised the last 30 years of cyberspace colonisation and trade globalisation. As on any frontier opportunity is the initial driver, not human values. In this 30 years aid to developing countries has halved and the level of inequity both within and between countries has doubled. The extremes have diverged, with more suicides and more conspicuous consumption. Given the weak correlation between standard of living and happiness and the positive correlation between equity and happiness the average quality of life in the West has hardly changed, a depressing result for so much hard work. In many developing countries the gap between rich and poor is already becoming unstable. Those caught in the no-mans-land between traditional values of the populace and the western values of the ruling class become alienated and resort to terrorism and even war. Growing inequity is a characteristic of any lawless frontier, not just the digital one. But our deeper human needs for fairness and equity, law and order, shine through as settlers move in. We could be at such a turning point now with the IST infrastructure shifting from the master-slave paradigm of lawless frontiers (and 500 channel one-way television), to the peer-to-peer paradigm of democracy, regulatory frameworks, trial by jury and two-way broadband multimedia communication with anyone, anywhere. Unfortunately the immature IST-intensive offerings of the past have damaged credibility, partly because they have been over-hyped but also because processors are still not powerful enough, user interfaces not natural enough and databases not rich enough to offer experiences that are truly better than the travel experiences and consumer goods of western culture. Once the IST infrastructure, the ambient intelligent environment and wearable networked intelligences have matured, this persistent digital ecosystem can provide a new glue to hold society together, both in self-contained local neighbourhoods and in global communities. This intermeshed networked society will make it impossible for groups to separate sufficiently for aggressive instincts to take over and demonise other groups, the first step on the exciting path to war. Our needs for competition and excitement will of course continue to find outlets through IST-enhanced competitive sports and other leisure activities... The older generation are right to be wary of their children being seduced by novel integrated lifestyles. Rapid culture change risks destabilising global society (already a serious risk if global inequity continues to increase). Thus it is essential that the implications of future immaterialisation switches are modelled, simulated and tested in advance. This modelling must be based on the new understanding of the dependence of adult personality on attachment processes and belief system development in infancy that is now emerging from large scale longitudinal studies in the human sciences...

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (69414)	4/9/2003 5:17:54 AM
From: E. T.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

U.S. missionaries plan 'spiritual warfare' when fighting ends By DOUG SAUNDERS Wednesday, April 9, 2003 Washington is trying to portray its battle as one of liberation, not conquest, but Iraq is about to be invaded by thousands of U.S. evangelical missionaries who say they are bent on a "spiritual warfare" campaign to convert the country's Muslims to Christianity. Among the largest aid groups preparing to provide humanitarian aid to Iraqis are a number of Christian charities based in the southern United States that make no secret of their desire to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and win over Muslim souls. The largest of these is the Southern Baptist Convention, an ardent supporter of the war as an opportunity to bring Christianity to the Middle East. It says it has 25,000 trained evangelists ready to enter Iraq. "That would [mean] a heart change would go on in that part of the world," Mark Liederbach of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary said in a recent speech to the SBC. "That's what we need to be praying for. That's how a Christian wages spiritual warfare." Such words have caused deep alarm among military and diplomatic authorities. Although Christian aid organizations have worked comfortably alongside secular groups in other conflicts, Muslims around the world are already suspicious of U.S. motives in Iraq, and the worry is that missionaries could reinforce the widespread popular belief that the war is really a "clash of civilizations" between Christians and Muslims. Muslim groups say they believe the presence of evangelists is a sign that President George W. Bush is trying to impose his own evangelical Christianity on Muslims. It does not help that Mr. Bush became a born-again Christian with the assistance of Billy Graham, the founder of the SBC. "This is creating a real serious problem of perception: Here we have an army invading Iraq, followed by a bunch of people who want to convert everyone to Christianity," said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on Islamic-American Relations. "How's that going to look in the Muslim world? And how's it going to look that this guy says Muslims are evil and he's the guy who works with the President?" Mr. Hooper was referring to Mr. Graham's son, Franklin, who runs the SBC. The younger Mr. Graham, who delivered the invocation at Mr. Bush's inauguration in 2001, has repeatedly gone on the record describing Islam as "wicked." Mr. Graham has recently been more tolerant of Islam, but he has made it clear that the conversion of Muslims to Christianity is a goal for his volunteers. "I believe as we work, God will always give us opportunities to tell others about His Son," he told the religious newsletter BeliefNet last week. "We are there to reach out to love them and to save them, and as a Christian, I do this in the name of Jesus Christ." In response to criticism, many Christian aid groups, including Mr. Graham's, have toned down the religious messages. In one major project, Baptist families have been asked to put together "gift of love" food boxes designed to provide a month's worth of basic nourishment to a family of five. "Please do not place any additional items/literature inside the box," the families are told. While many evangelical aid workers are motivated by humanitarian desires, their mission statement makes it clear that they are required to attempt conversions: "It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ." globeandmail.ca