Commentary by Lenko Grigorov
My commentary
After some deliberation and inspiration from other people, I decided to start this commentary section on my website. It will follow the blogging format, but I'd like to call it commentary rather than a blog because I plan to post my comments about current issues rather than to describe events happening in my own life.
This is the first posting so let me explain why I'm starting this commentary and let me define some kind of scope for it.
I have been interested in global social, economic and political issues for some time. I try to understand the processes that lead to these issues. I also try to imagine where these processes will lead us. Certainly, one can argue that some of the issues have great importance to humans and the future of humanity.
One such important issue can be represented trivially as a graph:
In words, the issue is about the increasing tension between the the size of the human population and the availability of non-renewable resources. Specifically, the population keeps growing, while the amount of non-renewable resources keeps diminishing. Note that the latter is a non-reversible trend, by definition.
I believe that many of the problems faced by people nowadays, such as economic and social stagnation, overpopulation, political tensions, etc. are early indicators that we are approaching the point when we start to experience acute lack of the resources we are used to consuming.
Where will this lead us? What can we do? What will we do?
It is easy to ignore the big issues and focus on the everyday problems. Indeed, we are quite adept at coping with everyday problems. Since early age we observe the adults and we learn how to do cope with such problems on our own too.
In my opinion, however, it is necessary to think about and to discuss the big issues as well. Governments are not some infallible entities that can solve all the big problems for us. It is not comforting to ignore the impact of our own actions. It is not safe to turn off our brains.
In this commentary, I would like to share my thoughts about current issues. I will discuss a variety of topics, mainly revolving around
- Equality,
- Education,
- Employment and
- Economy.
Not having formal education in the above fields, I'm well aware that my discussions will be tainted by a certain degree of naïveness. However, I should ask: Is it better to remain silent?
I hope that this commentary will inspire other people to think deeper about the bigger issues and to share their thoughts as well.
— London, ON, Oct 2012