The "News" and What I would buy with US $87 Billion (Campbelltown, Australia)
I remember making a few comments about the start of the recent "Iraq conflict" when I was down in Latin America. As I said then I wouldn't make many more comments about it -- I think I've been true to that pretty much. But, recent news events do make me want to open my mouth again about the subject - although briefly.
I've kept up loosely on the mainstream "news" (Again, lots of things that are news are never reported and lots of things that aren't news are reported as news) since I've left on this RTW trip. My TRIP TOOL-NEWS section has been invaluable in providing me quick access to various web news sources and perspectives to get a more complete picture and reduce the impact of bias from any one source. Some people try to escape news when they travel, fine if you're on vacation, however, I don't think that is very smart considering I will be going to so many points on the globe. (Although one could make the case than claiming ignorance is the best way, if confronted, - which I will surely use at some point)
The recent bombings in Turkey (Where I will be in May 2004) comes to mind. Of course the recent bombing at the Marriott in Jakarta comes to mind too (I'll be in Jakarta in a few weeks). Neither of these are very unsettling to me. So like I say -- Meet Me in Yemen!! I repeat the odds of getting in a car accident and being injured badly or killed are much higher when I was living in California than in having a travel incident (Knock on wood). Although I'm not sure if the statistics apply to someone traveling for this long and as wide. Robert Young Pelton's book - "The World's Most Dangerous Places" has a good overview of statistics. I'll create a digital version someday hopefully. Something about going to the source rather than reading a compilation seems to be more convincing to me - like when I provided the link for US Passport Statistics.
Anyways...before I get off track the reason I'm writing this is because my (I can't say our - because of the foreign audience) US Government recently approved $87 Billion dollars towards Iraq and related military activities. I thought about this and wondered what else one could buy with $87 billion.
Here it is:
A $100 bicycle (or tricycle) for EVERY SINGLE person in the US (0-120 years old) = $28.5 billion
$50 in related safety gear, accessories, etc = $14.25 bilion
Adjustments to city layouts for dedicated bike lanes (ala the Netherlands), aid stations (For those bad weather days), and training courses = $45 billion
The bike would be better than you think because mass production of 285 million bicycles would get the cost down real low. It would be a pretty decent helmet, etc...
Maybe if we did this we could reverse the weight gain trend in the US, reduce our dependence on oil, and have more livable communities. We could probably even figure out a way to get reduced cost electric bicycles for those people who have a few minor hills to deal with. Of course this spending bill wouldn't apply to those in heavily mountainous, hilly regions, kids under X years old, and seniors over X years old so the amount of $$ spent / resident would actually be considerably higher. Of course I am giving a gross over simplification here.....but I guess the same would hold true that using force against force will solve our problems too...
Of course riding a bicycle doesn't fit with the manly tough guy image that the automakers project.......anyways...
Maybe if we reduced our oil dependence we wouldn't need to be in Arabia. Maybe we wouldn't need to have such a strong military presence there. Maybe it wouldn't incite the flames of hatred. Maybe I wouldn't need to pay attention to the news at all.
I've kept up loosely on the mainstream "news" (Again, lots of things that are news are never reported and lots of things that aren't news are reported as news) since I've left on this RTW trip. My TRIP TOOL-NEWS section has been invaluable in providing me quick access to various web news sources and perspectives to get a more complete picture and reduce the impact of bias from any one source. Some people try to escape news when they travel, fine if you're on vacation, however, I don't think that is very smart considering I will be going to so many points on the globe. (Although one could make the case than claiming ignorance is the best way, if confronted, - which I will surely use at some point)
The recent bombings in Turkey (Where I will be in May 2004) comes to mind. Of course the recent bombing at the Marriott in Jakarta comes to mind too (I'll be in Jakarta in a few weeks). Neither of these are very unsettling to me. So like I say -- Meet Me in Yemen!! I repeat the odds of getting in a car accident and being injured badly or killed are much higher when I was living in California than in having a travel incident (Knock on wood). Although I'm not sure if the statistics apply to someone traveling for this long and as wide. Robert Young Pelton's book - "The World's Most Dangerous Places" has a good overview of statistics. I'll create a digital version someday hopefully. Something about going to the source rather than reading a compilation seems to be more convincing to me - like when I provided the link for US Passport Statistics.
Anyways...before I get off track the reason I'm writing this is because my (I can't say our - because of the foreign audience) US Government recently approved $87 Billion dollars towards Iraq and related military activities. I thought about this and wondered what else one could buy with $87 billion.
Here it is:
A $100 bicycle (or tricycle) for EVERY SINGLE person in the US (0-120 years old) = $28.5 billion
$50 in related safety gear, accessories, etc = $14.25 bilion
Adjustments to city layouts for dedicated bike lanes (ala the Netherlands), aid stations (For those bad weather days), and training courses = $45 billion
The bike would be better than you think because mass production of 285 million bicycles would get the cost down real low. It would be a pretty decent helmet, etc...
Maybe if we did this we could reverse the weight gain trend in the US, reduce our dependence on oil, and have more livable communities. We could probably even figure out a way to get reduced cost electric bicycles for those people who have a few minor hills to deal with. Of course this spending bill wouldn't apply to those in heavily mountainous, hilly regions, kids under X years old, and seniors over X years old so the amount of $$ spent / resident would actually be considerably higher. Of course I am giving a gross over simplification here.....but I guess the same would hold true that using force against force will solve our problems too...
Of course riding a bicycle doesn't fit with the manly tough guy image that the automakers project.......anyways...
Maybe if we reduced our oil dependence we wouldn't need to be in Arabia. Maybe we wouldn't need to have such a strong military presence there. Maybe it wouldn't incite the flames of hatred. Maybe I wouldn't need to pay attention to the news at all.
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