Sunflower

Tags

art, colored pencils, creativity, drawing, polychromos, realistic drawing, sunflower

Polychromos on Strathmore paper.

Twisting News

Tags

economy, fake news, Kaczynski, Poland, Trump, USA

It is definitely not news what I noticed recently, but it is something worth being aware of: a lot of so-called news are either fake, or are being twisted towards whoever broadcasts them. One of the areas where that happens a lot recently is economy.

Economy (and I am talking here country economy) is like a big super tanker on the sea. You cannot turn it around on a dime. You cannot stop it whenever you wish. When you turn your steering wheel, it takes some time before tanker reacts. Too much speed, and you end up destroying the port. Too little, and you will never get there. Currents and wind (respective world trends) can help you out or not.

Unfortunately people in general believe what politicos advertise as their success, although in fact it comes from their predecessors. Economy happens to react to changes with some delay, as that big tanker – make a decision today, reap benefits in some years. Or deal with grave consequences in some years. So populists use past decisions resulting in today’s success in their respective countries as their doing. Poland is one example, US is the other.

Trump is using trends in world economy as his doing. Most of the corporate decisions (especially in public companies) are not spur of the moment things, it is not so that on Monday someone decides to build a factory in the USA and on Tuesday same week construction work starts. Mostly those decisions are being carefully prepared. That takes time, often years. People making those decisions (usually groups of them) consider trends and each one is still a risk. Some fail, some don’t. Those which don’t are being advertised as result of something that Trump did. He didn’t. His decisions will show their consequences in years to come, when other president will have to deal with them.

Same in Poland. Mr Kaczynski and his propaganda use current trends in Polish economy as a result of changes he introduces. Not true. Fake news and twisting news to own advantage can only be seen from historical perspective, not from today’s media news. Result of those changes will be seen possibly after current government. It may very well be that those will give good reason for that new government to become unpopular.

Not many people think that way. What counts, is today. Forget the future and the fact where the country goes. Different thinking is required – I dare say, thinking as such is required. People, start thinking. Please.

 

Book of All Years

Tags

book, Cultures and Organizations, Hofstede, Merkel, Minkov

Just finished what I consider the best book for current times, a book which everyone – especially people living in Europe in times of refugees – should read. Ms. Merkel especially. She should actually be required to read it five times. Aloud.

It is a book where I wish I could memorize more and if I will ever read any book again, this should be the one. Will be the one.

The book is called “Cultures and Organizations” by Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede and Michael Minkov. It is so famous that I will not bore you with my unprofessional analysis of its content (a summary of one of the previous editions can be found here). Believe me though when I tell you that it does explain why a lot of policies considering immigrants fail. Not only that – it gives you very good reason to expect that current refugee crisis in Europe and political program related to it will fail too. And may even end up in violence. Reading that book maybe will not help you to avoid that, but it will help you understand and in some cases, it may stop some nonsense. Hope springs eternal.

Red Grapes

Tags

art, artwork, colored pencils, drawing, polychromos, realistic drawing, red grapes

Drawing with colored pencils (polychromos) on strathmore paper, 28 x 35 cm.

Trump. Paris. Moscow.

Tags

coal, gas, green, oil, Paris, Putin, Trump

I am sure a lot of people wrote something recently about the biggest idiot of a president of the United States history in relation to his (confused) backing out of Paris treaty. I didn’t expect anything else from advocate of fake news – he will be convincing you that global warming does not exist and best for you for breakfast is a bit of coal garnished with oil. Well, if you believe him, you deserve it.

I looked at those news from another angle, namely through the Russian involvement in election affair. It may be far-fetched, but maybe it is not: Russian economy survives practically only because of oil and gas reserves, not mentioning vast amounts of coal. On top of that Russia is way behind in new technologies, it would need a lot of catching up which would mean investment. Now imagine that demand for oil goes down because bunch of countries (including biggest pollutants) are now going green. Russia has a problem. No money for new technologies… and no money from oil to fill budget coffers.

And here is the catch: Trump gave Russia fantastic way out of it. Russia can now count on demand staying at least steady for a while when at the same time it can support Paris agreement. Trump is bad boy. Not so long ago Putin told the world that a group of patriotic Russian hackers may have attacked US election. Patriotic? Is this not a definition of defending interests of own country?

Strange world we live in.