It's a holiday here today - got a nice sunny day in the park with the dog, some brownies in the oven. Heading over later to visit one of my childhood bestfriend who is a Muslim and get my beef rendang fix. To all celebrating, Eid Mubarak!

What's on your reading list at the moment ? I've got 'The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom' on mine for this week.

Fiat has clearly not worked for the people of Puerto Rico. This island belongs to the United States but is far away in the Caribbeans with 3.15 million population and tangled in a web of debt and extreme poverty (45% living below the poverty line). It amassed massive debt through some bond scheme interlocked with some sort of Madoff scheme which made the debt get bigger and bigger. That and bad economic policies, fiscal mismanagement, structural issues within the gov't, natural disasters, and Covid-19 contribute to the island's debt crisis. Puerto Rico became a territory of the US in 1898, and its residents were granted US citizenship in 1917 - well sort of - Puerto Ricans do not have full voting rights in federal elections, and they do not pay federal income tax if they reside in Puerto Rico. I think to rebuild, there has to be a focus on innovation as a fundamental driver of economic growth. But I can’t help but wonder, can the Bitcoin economy and libertarianism work here? If so, how?

" I hurt my ankle. Badly. This was Game 2 of the 2000 NBA Finals—the worst sprained ankle of my career. From there, it was on me to figure out a way to play and be tactical. I knew what I could and couldn’t do, which directions I could push off and how much force I could apply. After establishing that, it was just a matter of altering my game within those constraints to continue dominating. To do that, despite the injury, I had to maintain control and dictate where I was going to go with the ball and how I was going to play. I had to, even on one ankle, keep the advantage in my court and never let the defense force me to do something I didn’t want to do. That was the key here, and that’s the key always. " From the book 'The Mamba Mentality' by Kobe Bryant

3rd world county (also known as developing nations / global south) were originally defined as countries that were not involved in the US / Soviet drama. There were recuperating slowly in the 40s - 70s post independence. In the 70s, with the rise of power and new ways to increase wealth - world bank, IMF etc came about. Debt packages were sold to 3rd world countries through fancy marketing schemes : In the 70’s, the big powers sold this idea of “infrastructure development”, and in the 80s and 90s it was called “sustainable development” , “millennial development in the 2000” and each time, countries were convinced to take on more debts to rebuild. A lot of this development were bogus, not needed or overly hiked up through partnership with corrupt gov’ts of the 3rd world. And every time there was an economy crisis, 3rd world country took longer time to recover leading them to widen the debt trap. Eventually 3rd world countries were so poor that they were redefined from the non US/Soviet interfering countries to poor countries because that’s what they became. The recent “climate change development” is another interesting topic - based on historical bluffs it makes you wonder who is scheming what. I believe in climate change, I struggle with extreme heat everyday, but I am also curious on the 1% of global power behind this marketing wheel. An irony - the initial debts in the 70s were to build energy related industry specifically nuclear power plants - which is now aggressively being eliminated, and hydro dams which became abandoned projects in many countries. And I’m guessing there is a global discouragement towards bitcoin mining because really - If your energy infrastructure can now self sustain based on the rewards, that means you don’t have to take on debts for it. The corrupts lose. Keep in mind also that millions were killed because they fought back against these unwanted developments which caused them to lose their homes. A lot have died trying to survive from the corrupts. This has never been an easy battle. If you are looking for a book to read this weekend, ‘The Blood Bankers : Tales from the Global Underground Economy” by James S.Henry , with foreword from Senator Bill Bradley is a good one. I’ve read it twice and I’ll still read it again, so much info to grasp and research on. The book provides ties between banks, corrupt gov’ts and the political perks, wars , CIA to various countries and presidents involvement, private companies - the list goes on and on. If you have read it already, would love your take on it

A Wolf, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea, which should justify to the Lamb himself his right to eat him. He then addressed him: "Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me." "Indeed," bleated the Lamb in a mournful tone of voice, "I was not then born." Then said the Wolf: "You feed in my pasture." "No, good sir," replied the Lamb, "I have not yet tasted grass." Again said the Wolf: "You drink of my well." "No," exclaimed the Lamb, "I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother's milk is both food and drink to me." On which the Wolf seized him, and ate him up, saying: "Well! I won't remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations." The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny, and it is useless for the innocent to try by reasoning to get justice, when the oppressor intends to be unjust. Aesop's Fables (1884) The Wolf and the Lamb

“as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously” Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin was an early advocate of open source technology in the 18th century. He invented the Franklin stove, lightning rod, bifocals, flexible urinary catheter, glass armonica (rubbing glass with wet fingers to produce sound), carriage odometer among others, and patented none. He owned a printing press (that would be considered high tech then) and wrote as anon often, as freedom of speech was limited then as it still is 3 centuries later. He published controversial topics that society was not ready to talk about but he was a funny guy and helped ease societal tensions and stimulate conversation on important issues through his wit, humor, and satirical writings. He only had formal education until the age of 10, and started working in his dad’s shop to help support his family. Eventually he picked up knowledge and traits through experience, through the people he met, through circumstances and needs. He went on to become one of the most influential figures of American history as the founding fathers of the United States, contributing significantly to the American Revolution, and one of the people who drew up the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. My wild guess is, if he was around right now, he would have liked Nostr very much. And worked towards the independence of the world from tyrannical pursuits.

Reading In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam by Robert McNamara, the secretary of defense under JFK and Johnson. He stopped the Cuban Missile Crisis but spent many years of his life regretting his actions or inaction in Vietnam. The book speaks about the mistakes and misjudgments made by policymakers, including himself, that led to the escalation of the Vietnam War and its tragic consequences. Eventually he went on to run WorldBank but the Vietnam war kept hounding him. I thought it's interesting that he started off as a statistics professor from Harvard. I may not agree with the book in depth but it's interesting to understand the perspective of decision making and complexity of war laced with lack of tech at that time.

If the internal conversations that Twitter had was called the Twitter Files, what would the internal conversations that X has with gov'ts around the world called ? X- Files ? (Mars makes sense now)