AOL TIME WARNER AND THE DALAI LAMA'S MILLENNIUM GREETING
Ten days into the year 2000, as the media were abuzz with the merger of
America Online and Time Warner, the Internet wafted to me the Dalai
Lama's millennium address. It's a strange global info-world that brings
those two pieces of information to one's attention on the same day.
The Dalai Lama remarked that there is nothing special about a new
millennium. The ticking over of zeroes doesn't change anything. "If we
really want the next millennium to be happier, more peaceful and more
harmonious ... , we will have to make the effort to make it so."
He listed six arenas of effort:
1. "While engaging in material progress and taking care of physical
well-being, we need to pay equal attention to developing peace of mind."
2. "We need to develop more altruism and a sense of caring and
responsibility for others.... One could call this 'secular ethics,' as
it consists of basic human qualities such as kindness, compassion,
sincerity, and honesty."
3. "We must seriously consider the concept of non-violence," starting,
said the Dalai Lama with internal disarmament. "By internal disarmament
I mean ridding ourselves of all the negative emotions that result in
violence." Only from there, he said, can we work toward eliminating
nuclear weapons, stopping arms trade, total demilitarization. "Human
problems will, of course, always remain, but ... the next century should
be one of dialogue and discussion rather than one of war and bloodshed."
4. "We need to address the issue of the gap between the rich and the
poor, both globally and nationally. This inequality ... is not only
morally wrong, but practically also a source of problems. Equally
important is the issue of freedom. As long as there is no freedom in
many parts of the world, there can be no real peace."
5. "We need to take care of our earth and of our environment."
6. "Lastly, one of the greatest challenges today is the population
explosion. Unless we are able to tackle this issue effectively we will
be confronted with the problem of natural resources being inadequate for
all the human beings on this earth."
What does this message have to do with AOL Time Warner?
Absolutely nothing. That was what struck me, as I read the Dalai Lama's
words while pondering the $183 billion deal that would combine the
access point for more than half the nation's Internet users with nine
cable channels, a major movie studio, 33 mass-market magazines, several
large book publishers, and 13 million cable customers. This combination
could determine, in the assessment of the Washington Post, "who controls
access to the Internet as it becomes increasingly central to much of
American life."
The Internet through which a friend sent me the Dalai Lama's message.
The media giant that did not see fit, as far as I could tell, to make
any mention of that message, though it broadcasts world news 24 hours a day.
Media powers like Time Warner not only ignore speakers such as the Dalai
Lama. They not only avoid mentioning in any serious sense the Dalai
Lama's six critical issues. Worse, more disheartening, they broadcast
into millions of minds and hearts messages that disparage those issues.
With consummate skill they whip up material longing, destroy peace of
mind, direct our attention only to the external aspects of our being.
They mock the possibility of kindness, compassion, sincerity and
honesty. They demonstrate and celebrate vanity, greed, falsity and deceit.
They glorify violence on every level, from the incessant depiction of
fist fights and car chases and casual shootings to the drama of war.
Even in the more sober spaces of news broadcasts, if people who take the
idea of nonviolence seriously are heard from at all, they are subtly
demeaned as deluded idealists.
The gap between the rich and the poor is either invisible in the media
information stream, or it is inevitable, a law of the universe, beyond
anyone's power to question or change.
The environment is present in the form of cute nature shows. It is
absent in the form of straight information about what is actually
happening to nature and why.
The population explosion is sometimes mentioned, but again with that
strange mixture of distance, apathy and cynicism with which the Time
Warners see the world. Something to tsk tsk over. Not something to
think hard about. Nothing to be done.
Sometime in the latter half of the past century, right in front of our
mesmerized eyes, the RCAs and Zeniths agglomerated into the CBSs and
Disneys and Time Warners. Astounding communications capacities that
could carry the ideas of our most noble minds fell under the control of
ignoble minds. Global information streams could have shaped global
culture in any direction and could still. The direction they followed
was cramped and cheap. Mass communications have eroded to the delivery
of ears and eyes, minds detached, to the manipulations of commercialism.
The Internet still allows everyone with a computer to be a broadcaster.
It is the only place where big issues and real thinkers and the thoughts
of the people can be transmitted. Now the providers of Internet access,
the keepers of the on-ramps to the information highway, are merging with
the "content providers" who clog the lanes with clown tricycles, Good
Humor trucks and bumper cars.
Why on earth should those of us who would like to hear the Dalai Lama
and work on his issues -- those of us who by law own the communication
channels -- permit this to happen?
(Donella Meadows is an adjunct professor at Dartmouth College and
director of the Sustainability Institute in Hartland, Vermont.)
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No, elenkulunk.
Kapasbol ket helyreigazitast kaptam - jogosan - CO2 ugyben.
Elnezest a kifogasolhato gondolatmenetert (a jobban futott
uveghazrol), az tenyleg nem volt jo.
De (mert itt is van de) most jon az en fukar, kufar termeszetem.
Szamolgassuk a penzt. Ha az informacioim helyesek, kb. 50 Ft/liter
az onkoltseg tobblete a biodizel eseten. Miutan kb. 0.6-0.7 kg/l C
tartalommal lehet szamolni, az elert CO2 csokkenes ugy 2,2-2,5 kg-
ra teheto. A fajalgos ara tehat 20-22 Ft/kg CO2.
Gondolatkiserlet: adjunk mindekinek ingyen (azaz allami
tamogatassal) 20W-os 10 000 h elettartamu kompakt fenycsoveket a
100 W izzók helyett. Megtakaritas 80W*10000h=800 kWh vagy az
eloallitasahoz szukseges kb. 8 GJ tuzeloho. 55 g/MJ fajlagos CO2
kibocsatassal (ez a foldgaz erteke, szennel ennek a duplaja)
megtakaritottunk 440 kg CO2 kibocsatast, mondjuk 2000 Ft-ert, azaz
nem egeszen 5 Ft/kg egysegaron. Es lehet, hogy nem is a legjobb
peldat talaltam meg. Es emellett meg mennyi SO2, NOx stb
kibocsatast is megsporoltunk ugyanevvel.
Persze vizeromuvek eseten a gondolatmenet nem ervenyes. Meg
atomeromuvek eseten sem.
Turelmetlenul varom a helyreigazitasokat.
Üdvözlettel
Gács Iván
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