17. NASRUDDIN AND THE SACKS OF WHEAT
Nasruddin was caught taking sacks of wheat from his neighbor’s barn. Nasruddin had done this before, and this time the neighbor took him to court.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” asked the judge.
“I’m just a fool,” Nasruddin admitted. “I get confused about whose barn is whose, which wheat is mine or theirs. I’m not sure how I ended up with my neighbor’s wheat in my wagon.”
“If you’re so easily confused,” said the judge, “why don’t you sometimes put your wheat in other people’s wagons?”
“I may be a fool,” Nasruddin replied, “but I’m not stupid!”
This Tale is from “Tiny Tales of Nasruddin” by Laura Gibbs. The book is licensed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. © 2019-2022 Laura Gibbs.
A collection of essays examines agricultural techniques designed to meet the needs of the people without depleting the land — Very brief book promo @ goodreads.com
I did not like these essays as much as those that Wendell Berry has written. The very last one by Wes Jackson could have been given a miss.I don’t suggest that you read any of them other than the one by Gary Paul Nabhan.
So let me just say a few things to frame what we are going to discuss. In the 1980s, of course, the world experienced a major and very consequential third world debt crisis, which began when Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico declared that they were unable to pay their debts following the Volcker shock.… So are we going to see a rerun of the great third world debt crisis of the 1980s? Are we facing two more lost decades of development in third world countries? Another strengthening of the dollar system on the backs of vast flows of capital from third world countries to first world countries? Another decade of low inflation on the backs of third world producers who are forced to work harder and longer for less and less returns for their labor and products? —Third World-Like Debt Crisis by Michael Hudson
President Joe Biden’s administration removed the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen from the Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist lists in February 2021. That means the attack yesterday against the Houthi was an act of undeclared war against them in support of Israel and the Yemen government. The Houthi are still in a civil war with the recognized Yemen government so the US has intervened again just like it did in Syria however this time against the rebel side. I don’t think a new Biden undeclared war now is in president Biden’s, or the Democratic Party, best interest.
“When in doubt, use brute force.” — Ken Thompson
“I understand power.” — President Biden