Jojo sez:
> Seems to me that a prize for Alternative Energy from a Shiekh who got > his riches from oil, appears a little suspicious. > > If you ask me, the Arabs just want to know who has the best technologies > for Alternative Energy so that they can spend some of their oil money to > paint a bulleye on your back. Since you are openly discussing an issue that strikes me as bordering on a controversial Off-Topic subject with political overtones... let me make my own contribution: According to a recent Kiplinger Letter the leaders of many oil producing Arab states have indeed become concerned about the economic harm alternative energy technologies could wreak on the economic health of the kingdoms they rule. It has become evident to many that these economies have transformed into welfare states. The ruling class coddles their population base by feeding them a steady stream of addictions in the form of goods and services which can easily be purchased on the global market because of the high price of oil they sell. Few are inclined to protest in large unruly groups when shopping malls stuffed with affordable clothing, large screen TVs, and x-Boxes. Few are inclined to protest when practically free health care and education is available to the masses. The economies of these countries have essentially become addicted to the price of oil remaining alarmingly high. When Cold Turkey comes, and such a reckoning most likely will, it will not be a pretty sight. Revolutions will occur in kingdoms that had based their economies on the price of oil remaining very high. One can expect the overthrow of the ruling class and the political parties they manage. It could be a treacherous time for many common ordinary citizens who are doing their best to eke out a decent middle-class living. In the ensuing economic collapse, there will be confusion, fear, and outrage. There will likely to be a string of manufactured scapegoats as well. In the ensuing chaos perhaps the populations of certain countries will vote in the equivalent of their own version of a brand new "governor" who promises to root out economic waste. They will promise to root out individuals and institutions they claim are taking unfair economic advantage of the suffering masses. They will sell a "conquer and divide" scenario - sort of like what happened in Wisconsin, when Scott Walker got elected and then re-elected during the failed recall effort. As long as an elected leader can sell the belief that he knows who the real enemy is and that he will "conquer and divide" them, a population base that feels both financially compromised and helpless is very prone to re-elect them. In the ensuing economic chaos of many collapsing oil producing economies I expect many in the ruling classes (along the institutions of power they manage) will do their best to manufacture a bunch of externalized scapegoats that hopefully deflect much of the outrage away from their own activities, which is essentially to stay in power. In pre-WW2 time the elected rulers of Germany managed to sell to the population base the need to hate Jews on the premise that a specific socio-economic class of people had somehow taken unfair economic advantage of everyone else - and it was now high-time to do something about them. On an obviously much smaller and less deadly scale, a similar scenario happened in Wisconsin when Scott Walker's financial backers helped the governor sell a belief to Wisconsin voters that state unions had for too long taken unfair economic advantage of everyone else in the state. They lined the unions up, just like what Russia did with the Czar and his family, and shot them all dead. Whatever Cold Fusion eventually morphs into, and as the technology begins to decimate petroleum based economies right and left, not only will it be perceived with extreme dread, how can it not end up being perceived as "the enemy". It will be interesting to see what straw dogs the ruling classes of these countries will attempt to manufacture in an attempt to stay in power. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
