Bridging the divide of an upsidedown world: Critical thinking with System Dynamics
Nipawin - Monday - September 29, 2003 - by: Mario deSantis
weapons	I wonder all the time about this upsidedown world as we are experiencing wars, famines, the plague of AIDS, and division of people all around the world. Instead of alleviating people from the ravages of wars the richest countries headed by the hegemonic Americans continue their race to more technological advanced instruments of war and the selling of arms to developing countries.
selfish	Rather than assisting developing countries to help themselves and produce their own agricultural food, the richest countries headed by the hegemonic Americans continue to subsidize their agricultural industry and to charitably donate their food surpluses to the starving people of developing countries.
aid to rich	Instead of haiving compassion for the millions of people afflicted by AIDS in developing countries, the pharmaceutical industry of the richest countries headed by the hegemonic Americans want the enforcement of copyrights at the expense of people's lives.
widening spread	In general, the race to the bottom waged by the hegemonic Americans in the name of the competitive Free Market is furthering the divide between the rich and poor countries, and between the rich and the poor within all countries.
jobs	What kind of social understanding can we make of Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, the richest tycoon in Italy, when he states that :
	"Italy is the most Americanized country of Europe, and thanks to my government it has the most flexible labour market of Old Europe?"
	What kind of social understanding can we make of president George Bush when he states that
	"We must have an economy that grows fast enough to employ every man and woman who seeks a job?"
global	Is the Americanization of the world and the related flexible labour market the answer to our social uplifting? Is the so called high productivity driven American global economy the answer to a living employment for people?
corporations out of control	For me, flexible labour market means the legitimization of the discretional firing of employees for no fault. Again for me, having a high productivity driven economy means the corporative consensus to an ongoing, manageable and recycling displacement of people for the artificial benefit of capital and corporative profits.
inter- dependences	We need a new way of thinking. A thinking based on the understanding of our interdependencies. We must always keep in mind that just because we are all different from each other, as individual people and as communities we still are not isolated and unaffected by each other and the global situations that develop. This understanding is what makes all of us democratic people, that is, working together to understand our differences for the social benefit of all of us.
System Dynamics in NY	Last week, I received an e-mail from the System Dynamics Society and I was invited to visit their web site where they have published the many pictures taken at their annual conference held last July in New York. What was interesting was the theme of this conference: Economic Dynamics. Since I have been most critical of the Bush administration economic policies, here we have an opportunity ot invite economists to use System Dynamics to understand the unintended consequences of the Free Market policies.
time to explore options	I am very partial to the educational efforts of the System Dynamics Society as they provide the tool to help us better understand our problems and find the related solutions. Therefore, it is my turn to invite yourselves, readers, to think in a new way, the natural and intelligent way, the way of critically thinking for the betterment of us all: System Dynamics, that is thinking for yourself along with others.
	Mario deSantis
References:
	Pertinent articles published in Ensign
	Shanker, Thom U.S. Remains Leader in Global Arms Sales September 24, 2003 New York Times, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4826.htm
	US Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Dianne Feinstein Bush's Dangerous Nuclear Double Standard. With the White House pushing for new types of warheads, other nations may not heed the call for nonproliferation (PDF)September 23, 2003 http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-kennedy23sep23,1,5060390.story
	International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Chrétien opens congress with calls for new efforts in world trade September 16, 2003 http://www.iccwbo.org/home/news_archives/2003/stories/chretien.asp
	Global Trade Negotiations Intellectual Property Summary August 2003, http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidtrade/issues/ipr.html
	Ross, Robert J.S. and Anita Chan From North-South to South-South: The True Face of Global Competition September/October 2002, Foreign Affairs, Review
	deSantis, Mario Exporting the American democracy in Iraq: The Free Market of Deregulation and Privatization September 26, 2003 Ensign
	White House President Delivers "State of the Union" January 28, 2003 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html
	System Dynamics Society http://www.albany.edu/cpr/sds/
	System Dynamics Society Pictures from the 2003 International System Dynamics Conference - New York City http://www.systemdynamics.org/conf2003/pictures
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