Third World to bailout Europe?

The IMF's list of 'participants' - new and old...


(Source: zerohedge.com)

According to the Wall Street Journal the IMF is reactivating a 'New Arrangements to Borrow' (ironically, NAB) to keep Europe's soverign-debt crisis from bringing down the entire usurous global financial ponzi-scheme. The panacea (or is it just a bandaid) that the IMF is looking for: A credit pool of $580 billion.

Incredibly, besides India and other financial heavyweights like Cyprus and the Philippines, it also looks like Greece and Portugal will now be called on to bail themselves out! (Hmm, I wonder what the cold steel of a monetary gun to the temple feels like.)

As usual, there is an incisive, insightful and rather alarming analysis on Zerohedge. It's a must-read.

Let's hear about the seriousness of the issue from the head of the IMF...

In the opening remarks of her talk on “The Challenges for the Global Economy”, delivered at the Royal Institute for International Affairs - Chatham House, London, on 9 September 2011, Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the IMF, said: "The bottom line is that global activity has slowed, and downside risks have increased. At the same time, the global rebalancing of demand needed for sustainable global growth has stalled."

In plain English, it means, "Welcome to the Edge of Monetary Apocalypse" - or in simpler terms words, "It's time for the proles to get used to the Age of Global Austerity."

Of course, the esteemed financial and political 'leaders' who participated in the discourse at Chatham House cannot be inconvenienced by the loss of either power or pelf as a result of a disaster they are complicit in - wittingly, or only half-wittingly... It is the citizen, the taxpayer, the worker, the employee, the small business-owner, and his progeny who must be made to pay - and that's what our alphabet soup of 'security agencies' are for anyway.

Is it 1984 quite yet?

Does the future belong to Freelancers?

Welcome to the 'Freelance Economy' - the world's new economy...

HERE'S BOTH AN UPDATE AND A FLASHBACK...
And when it comes to the Advertising Industry, my readers (yes... those brave, intellectually tenacious and precious few souls who somehow manage to glean substance from my rambling) may recall a few - and at that point in time, borderline blasphemous - blog posts from early 2010.

17 Jan 2010 - What if you don't need an Ad Agency to do Advertising?

25 Mar 2010 - Freelancing in the plug-and-play economy

For an Ad Agency, a plug-and-play model has its advantages...
1. It takes domain experts to create a truly effective marketing exercise for a specific medium
2. There is a plethora of media available today - e.g. Print, TV, Direct Marketing, Internet, Public Relations / Advocacy, Social Media or Digital Networks Marketing, etc.
3. It is unviable for an Ad Agency to retain experts in every domain

For the Advertiser, the pressure to opt for a flexible plug-and-play model come from various corporate levels...
1. The Board and the CFO want cost-reduction
2. The CEO and the CMO want expertise, effectiveness and measurability
3. The Sales Team and Dealers want high visibility, high impact and rapid tactical responsiveness (quick turnaround)

The plug-and-play model has its charms for the Creative-types too...
1. Without hierarchy, talent and skill can quickly command it's deserved price (and respect)
2. Talent and passion can be developed into specialisations - viz. writing, photography, illustration, digital animation, etc.
3. Assignments can be chosen based on how well they align to talent, skill and passion... Meaning, you can decide you'll never do another corporate newsletter again as long as you live unless the price is right

Advertising: The Naked Truth

We've managed to capture all the nudity and veracity in stop-motion animation too...



If you like it, please share it. And if this video goes viral, I'm holding a LUCKY DRAW for those who shared it...

First Prize: All-the-cheap-liquor-you-can-drink-in-an-afternoon at Khyber
Second Prize: Two (ok, three) decent Hangover Shots for a Morning After
Third Prize: One bottle of bottom-shelf Vodka of your choice from BrandsElite

Please Note: If you're a teetotaller, you can exchange your prize for an equivalent amount of Eternal Gratefulness. And I will also redeem your prize for you!

Did world governments begin preparing in 2008 for social chaos in 2011?

My previous post was titled "Has London been preparing for riots since 2008?" And in August 2011, we see the possibility of the army being deployed London.

The following videos are from 2008 too... This time it's talk from Washington DC on using US troops on US soil!

Uploaded on October 7, 2008...
Part I


Part II


An RT report on the US troop re-stationing, says that 20,000 battle-hardened troops are scheduled to finish their 'training' by 2011!

Well, I'm sure this is all just a wild coincidence - but I'm going to hazzard a guess anyway...

It looks - to me - that in 2008, at the height (or is it, depth) of the previous 'economic crisis' when governments gave away the future earnings of taxpayers as 'bailouts' and 'stimulus' to the Global Finance Cartel and Oligarchs, the powers-that-be in multiple nations (G8?, G20?) also came to understand the massive scale and inevitable social consequence of the NEXT financial crisis.

They probably realised that the biggest threat to their hold on power and the status quo came from WITHIN their boorders!

I'm also beginning to think that they possibly know the approximate TIMING of the next financial chaos... In effect, we may not merely be seeing the makings of the next financial crisis, and it's societal fallout (as in London)... We may be actually witnessing something much, much more profound!

Could this be the dawn of an Age where its citizens are a nation's (read, the rulers') greatest enemies?

I'd posted that India's governing apparatus too makes it clear that the growing youth population is a serious concerns.

And if you read my post, you will see another interesting coincidence - that much of the 'homeland security' infrastructure even in India is privately-owned and seems to be globally inter-operable too. Government merely lends a convenient facade of legitimacy.

Take Home Minister, Chitambaram's pet NatGrid project. NatGrid is India's mass surveillence network aimed at citizens - and it was created using the Information Technology Act, which was passed through parliament without debate - in 2008!

NatGrid is set to be fully operational in - did you guess it? - 2011! Too many coincidences, perhaps?

Has London been preparing for riots since 2008?

Maybe it's just a creepy coincidence... Or maybe it's not.

Watch the following videos in any order - and draw your own conclusions.

Uploaded on August 31, 2009.


Uploaded on August 9, 2011.

India leading market for outsourced pharmaceutical 'guinea pigs'

Clinical Research on new drugs is worth about $30 billion. That is a whole lot more than the life of a few illiterate Indians.

The equation according to the Association of Clinical Research Organisation (ACRO) couldn't be simpler: "Greater population = faster clinical trials = new treatments available sooner. It really is a simple equation. In fact, studies show that the research time needed for cancer clinical trials can be cut in half by conducting the trials globally versus solely in the U.S."

But 'population' is not the only business advantage that outsourced clinical trials in India offer... The cost is low. Regulation is lax. Corruption is rife. Patients are desperate. And the penalty for using human beings as guinea pigs is minimal - or indeed, non-existent.

As the Al Jazeera TV reported implies, what besides profits could motivate the testing of exorbitantly expensive drugs on illiterate slum-dwellers and farm labourers who can never afford it?



The 25-min version of the episode (below) answers the question adequately. Particularly illuminating is improper testing of drugs on people in Bhopal who are already suffering from the debilitating after-effects of corporate greed and official apathy.

If you are not hypertensive, I recommend you watch.


P.S: Also watch out for the part covering the 'demonstration project' for Merck's Cervical Cancer drug, funded by a $27 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that was shut down by the Indian government after public furore over the death of several girl.

Are you pondering the obvious question: If efficiacy and safety in badly conducted clinical trials are largely undependable, how do they get released in the Big Pharma's home markets?

Well, let's just say that India obviously does not have a monopoly on corruption.

How TV is programming our children

There is a study by psychologists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) "to document historical change in the values communicated to 'tween' audiences, age 9-11, who are major media consumers and whose values are still being formed."

Researchers analyzed 16 values projected by the Two Most Popular TV Shows for 9 to 11-year-olds in the U.S. every decade for 50 years, from 1967 through 2007.

Their findings shocked even them. 'To be famous' is the No. 1 value emphasized by popular shows on TV (biggest change from No. 15 in 1967) and 'To make money' is value No. 5 (up from No. 12 in 1967). The distortion becomes even more obvious when we consider that 'being kind / helping others' is No. 12, down from No. 2 in 1967.



How did 'Fame' and 'money' become the most emphasised values on TV programmes for kids?

Well, else what can we expect with the countless 'Reality' shows on virtually every popular TV channel baiting teens (and greedy parents) with million-dollar prizes and instant fame?

Sadly, few bother to understand the warped intentions and cold commercial agenda behind the hyped-up publicity, cheering fans, glittering stages, celebrity judges, and blinding arc-lights...

In reality... Reality Shows - especially 'talent' shows - spawn an assembly line of superfical 'young icons' held on a tight contractual leash by the commercial 'entertainment' machine to be ruthlessly used and sold as advertisement tools. It has little to do with 'talent' - and everything to do with 'marketability'.

Everyone makes a quick buck hawking stuff to fawning 'fans' - before the icon is chewed up and spat out into the real world. While, the phony fans go crazy over the 'next big thing' on TV.

But what really hightens the reach and impact of the new breed of Reality Shows on TV on impressionable children is the spread from the idiot box onto the Internet - especially on social networks.