Rebuilding the Infrastructure, One Town at a Time

First Scenario

In Smithville, Nebraska, (not a real place) on the Missouri River, there is the problem of an old bridge.  It handles heavy traffic daily, but engineers have found that is cannot last much longer.  The bridge needs to be replaced.  It is vital that there is a replacement, because the livelihoods of the entire town, bringing goods in and out of Smithville, depends on that bridge.  

The town has petitioned that Nebraska state government to provide the funds to replace it.  The problem is, because of the constant deficits, the state government can no longer afford to provide funding for projects such as this;  and don’t even think of going to Washington.  That plea will be buried under paperwork, and the federal government won’t even think about replacing it.  They are too preoccupied with other projects on the list, so their plea came too late.  The town of Smithville is desperate for a new bridge, but there is no funding.  The old bridge is still in use, but is an accident waiting to happen.

Meanwhile, a millionaire’s son’s father has just died, thereby inheriting a huge sum of two hundred million dollars.  The son has live a secluded and sheltered life, does not know the townspeople of Smithville all that well, and has become sort of a recluse.  His grandfather ran an airline, but that was bought up by a completing company when his father ran it, so the family was left with the money.  Problem for the son is, he has a college degree in the Liberal Arts, is intelligent, but inexperienced, and he doesn’t know what to do with the money.  He is tempted to move out to California and live a lifestyle of parties and women, but somehow, he knows that it would destroy him.  

He sees that the town needs a new bridge, and he starts to think.  If the state or federal government can’t pay for it, perhaps he could move in?!  He goes down to city hall for a talk with the mayor and the city council…

Second Scenario

The place is New York City.  A railroad starting from New York, extending out across the country is in shambles.  The track supports mostly freight;  food and goods flowing into New York from the rest of the country.  Not only is the track in tough shape, but there are bridges that haven’t been replaced for almost a century.  The railroad is needed and it still used, by accidents do happen somewhere along the way, and the bridges are in danger of collapse.

Again, the neither the state nor federal government can afford to rebuild, especially a project as massive as this.

New York is full of millionaires;  not only businessmen, but actors, theater owners, retirees, all sorts.  Suppose they are called to city hall to contribute, and get money out of their offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland.

These are two examples of what can be done if the one percent is willing to help rebuild what the United States desperately needs, a new infrastructure.  

There is the surplus wealth, wealth that these people would never spend, or even touch, not money that is reinvested in business to make it grow.

The U.S., supposedly, has over $1.1 trillion in offshore accounts, money that the owners sneak out of the country into these tax havens to prevent paying taxes on it.  Meanwhile, the money accrue very little interest, literally around 0.01%.  It just sits in a vault, doing nothing, helping nothing or no one, not even those who own it.  If it is invested by the banks, the money helps the country that it is in, not the U.S.

What the one percenters can do is to take this money and start projects that would help American society.  This does not mean giving out money to anyone who has his hand out.  If one gives money to street beggars, there is a good chance that they would use it to be alcohol or drugs, or spend it foolishly on some other pleasure.  

Investing the projects means helping society as a whole, or, as illustrated in the first scenario, helping the local society in which one lives, such as building a new bridge to replace one that is falling apart, or help pave new roads, replace and upgrade a sewer system, a water distribution system (pipes, water filtration and purification plants), or the upgrading of a plant processing of solid wastes.

One might ask, why should he?  First, I would like to state that I am one of those people who believes that nobody owes anybody anything.  One must know that the world does not owe him a living, even if that person has had a hard life.  If one makes a billion dollars, honorably, it is his money and that person is free to do what he wants with it.

However, if one does have excess wealth that he is never going to use, I do feel that that person should at least help the society in his own locality;  i.e. Charity begins at home.  The reason being is because that society, in a way, has supported him, in providing a good place to live in the form of a safe environment, with good local police and fire departments, a good infrastructure (roads and bridges) which that person used in order to move his goods, and a good social position within his community.  That said, I feel that the prosperous individual, when his community is in great need of something and cannot be provided by the local, state, or federal government, that person should step in and help to provide that need with his excess wealth.  Should he do so, like build a bridge, repair roads, repair and upgrade a water and sewer system, that person will be in better standing with his community.

In the process of building, a lot of jobs will be created, even if only on a temporary basis.

For the son from the fictitious town of Smithville, paying for a new bridge when the government can’t afford to will no doubt bring him a lot of attention from the town, in a good way.  He would be invited to parties and functions, get interviewed in the local newspaper, and may even be asked to give a speech or two.  His reputation will then spread statewide, perhaps even receive national attention.

The son would have the privilege of naming that bridge.  He could name it after himself, a member of his family, his town, the street the bridge is on, or whatever.  

The son would be in good standing, and possibly invest more of his money in other municipal projects that the town badly needs, such as fixing the town’s streets, or upgrading the water distribution system, for examples.

His one problem would be his affordability on fixing the entire town, a burden he should not have to have if it requires on spending beyond his ability to pay.  He should either have a big moneymaking venture, or make investments so that more money would be coming in, so as to be able to provide for the town’s needs.  Obviously, his paying for the replacement of a new bridge and/or roads and water systems would be a temporary basis.  From that point on, the town itself would have to maintain these systems. 

One pitfall in all this;  whoever would be the benefactor would have to be on the lookout for scoundrels pulling scams on that person to take his money.  The benefactor has to be in the right place, perhaps going to City Hall, where he can see city officials to oversee his investments.

New York may run a little different since it is a city.  Here, as in any city, many wealthy men and women will have to pool their resources, each individual or group of individuals deciding to choose on project.  I put an example of railroad bridges, and there are railroad bridges that badly need to be replaced in the New York - New Jersey area, but this is just a fraction of what needs to be upgraded.

There are streets with potholes and other signs of deterioration, the subway systems, the sewer systems, the water supply, the electric grid (money can be made here), and just about everything else one can imagine in municipal systems.

If there are enough wealthy people in New York, and I’m sure there are, the needed projects can be listed with each individual choosing one for them to help upgrade.  Divide the work, share the load, anyway you want to state it.  Jobs will be created, although only temporarily, but those hired without skills will have on the job training, acquiring experience for employment in similar jobs in the future.

I have covered a small town and a big city.  There are companies with facilities accessible by roads that are deteriorating.  Here, the company/corporation/factory may have to take on the task and improving these roads, and their connections, themselves, for easier access;  shipping goods in and out of their locations.

The hardest part are the highways, be they states, U.S., or Interstate, along with long distance railroads.  This can be a problem because fixing even a mile of some of these highways can amount to over a million dollars.

On a state by state basis, it is estimated by the FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) that for the repairs and maintenance of highways and roads, the average need for each state is $844 million a year.  This is average; each state varies in difference costs.  For the entire U.S., this means a total of $43.03 billion is needed annually, to repair, then maintain our badly damaged roads and highways.

Obviously, there is not enough private money available to complete fix our highways, even if every wealthy person contributed all their surplus money in order to accomplish this task.

Should we concentrate on one state at a time, there may be private money to fix the highways, bridges, and railways completely in some individual states.  Like anything else, the responsibility to maintain these highways, as with the rest of the infrastructure, falls with the local, state, and federal governments.

In other states, private money can partially pay for the upgrading of this roads and highways.  From here on, the remaining cost will have to be left up to the taxpayer/government to raise the money, through higher gasoline taxes, for example.  Other ways include cutting wasteful spending and through the traditional tax funding by the respective governments.

The big catalyst here would be different philanthropists starting out in donating what money they can, starting with local roads, bridges and railways.  Once that is initiated, governments can start to fill in, at a cost much lower than originally anticipated had it not been for the help of the contributing wealthy.

It is the philanthropists that can ignite the movement to repair our infrastructure, and create jobs for the millions of otherwise unemployed people.

Alastair Browne

Book Review: The End of the Asian Century - War, Stagnation, and the Risks to The World's Most Dynamic Region by Michael R. Auslin

Don’t Look Too Close

The world sees the “Asian Miracle,” where the economy of Asia, especially China, is continually on the rise soon to surpass the United States as the world’s strongest economy.

Looks are deceiving.  

The author, Michael Auslin, has been to Asia and looked beneath the surface and interviewed different people from all parts of the continent.  What he found was a very different Asia, with staggering economies, democratic and tyrannical governments with rampant corruption, invest pollution and the destruction of the environment, demographic pressure, a clinging to the past, and potential conflicts that can lead to war, war involving the United States.

Back in the 1980s, it was believed that Japan would soon dominate the world’s economy, but it stagnated in the 1990s due to overbuying, bad investments, and deep debt, and Japan has been fully recovered.

Then it was China, but their (overheated) economy also stagnated, with over investing (e.g. building hundreds of square kilometers of literally emptm cities), companies moving out of China for cheaper labor, intense pollution, corruption, and a tyrannical government interfering with private businesses.

There are up and coming economies like that of India, but their problems of poverty and overpopulation has to be confronted.  

All this is just the tip of the iceberg and does not involve the economy alone.

Asia, unlike Europe, cannot unite into a single “Asian Union” or “Asian Common Market.”  There is ASEAN, the Southeast Asian Association of Nations, but it does not include China or Japan, and they just talk, with little action, if any.  The problem is differences of customs, cultures demographics, and ancient feuds, dating back to World War II, and earlier, that were never resolved.

One example is that women are still considered culturally inferior in some countries and treated as such.  China, Japan, Korea, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam (to name a few) are all distinct and separate identities which they will bend to the modern world, nor to each other.  Pollution in China is destroying their environment on a massive scale, poisoning drinking water and the air, killing people in the cities.

Most of all, there are unsettled disputes, where no one will bend, that can lead to wars, possibly nuclear war, involving the U.S.  This is scary and needs to be studied greatly.  Chapter 6, “The Clouds of War,” presents these threats, and they will scare you.

North Korea, under the regime of Kim Jong-un, has or will have nuclear tipped missiles that can hit South Korea, Japan, and the United States.  China and Japan are fighting over claims in islands in the East China Sea, and China’s building bases on reefs in the South China Sea.  Countries on the South China Sea are threaten and are turning to the U.S. for protection, that can lead to war.  China has a non-negotiable claim to Taiwan, which desires to be a separate country, and China has actually threatened to destroy U.S. cities with nuclear missiles should they protect Taiwan in a Chinese invasion of that island.  

China simply intimidates the rest of Asia, violating the territorial integrity of other countries, and the rest of Asia is turning to the U.S. for help.

All in all, Asia, the economic miracle that it is, is also a powder keg with the potential for self-destruction, taking a lot of the world, especially the U.S., with them.

The end of the book does not pose solutions, but does cover possibilities on how strategically these conflicts can be dealt with, minimizing the risks Asia faces today.  

There would be alliances of trade and militaries, providing a counterweight to China, that would include the U.S.  There are also ways to continue relations with China, for they remain an economic powerhouse, and the U.S and China are interdependent.

Asia may not dominate the world, but it is still an indispensable part of it that cannot be ignored.  One must look at all of Asia, every country, and find out how to deal with each one, both within and without.  Each country, many not mentioned in this review, is vital to Asia’s stability, for the region is not as stable as one may believe.

Alastair Browne

Book Review: It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

The story takes place in 1936 during the depression and Hitler’s rise to power.  There are the problems of high unemployment, mass and unwanted immigration, loss of morals, welfare cheats (“freeloaders”), liberals, a lack of religion, and crime.  Sound familiar?  It gets better.  A demagogue named Buzz Windrip from the Democratic party comes to dump Roosevelt. 

He appeals to the masses and gets nominated for President.  He forms his own militia called the Minute Men, or M.M. (Nazi S.S.) for short, to whip up support and deal with any despondents.  Windup wins, neutralizes the Congress and the Supreme Court, and establishes a dictatorship.  Concentration camps are set up with torture, censorship, and the system of states are abolished, replacing them with eight provinces, and terror ensues.  Ethnic groups such as the Jews and the Negroes are “put in their place,” and women are confined to the home, as housewives, nothing more.  Major institutions such as the banks and oil fields are nationalized.

The story itself takes place in Fort Beulah, Vermont, with one professional journalist, Dormeus Jessup and his family who observe all this, yet write articles and editorials condemning this.  Naturally, the regime catches on and starts to terrorize Dormeus and his family.  A resistance is formed, and one of their major operations is smuggling refugees to Canada, where they carry out their planning and operations.

This book was written in 1935 during the Depression and the rise of Hitler and the author got his plot from observing the rise of Nazi Germany.  A close friend of his was even in Nazi Germany and provided Lewis with information about the Hitler regime, becoming the basis for this book.  The story takes place in 1936 but don’t be misled.  This is NOT alternate history.  It’s of a tyrannical regime that can rise here in the United States, and this book can be right at home in 1936, 2016, or 2036 equally, and bears parallels with what is happening today in 2016, especially during the presidential election.  

An irony here is that this fictitious regime was spawn from the Democratic party rather than the Republican party, as we would see it today.  Don’t forget, most racist politicians up until the 1960s were Democrats.

You will see the same problems then as today being the cause of America’s transition to a tyranny, and you will see that things really weren’t all that different back then.  Only the names have changed.  For example, the immigration problem back in the 1930s were the Jews, Italians, and the Chinese as opposed to the Mexicans, Syrians, and Africans of today.  We are still racist, and we still have the same economic problems with the same institutions, with people making the same proposals in dealing with them.  

You will see interesting parallels to Nazi Germany:  President Windrip’s book “Zero Hour” as opposed to Hilter’s “Mein Kampf”;  the Minute Men or M.M. as opposed to the S.S.; the Corpos as opposed to the Nazis; censorship, extreme brutality, confiscation of property, concentration camps, mass slaughters, racial persecutions, and the list goes on.

I think the main point of the book shows how fragile democracy really is and how we need to remain vigilant in order to protect it.  We need to watch our government, our institutions, and our businesses, especially big business, to make sure they never get beyond our control (as if they haven’t already, but people in this institutions still go to jail if caught at certain crimes, although it’s becoming rare).  If we slack off in our vigilance and actions, we just may end up like the regime depicted in this book.

Ironically, I found copies of this book at a coffee shop, left by someone eager to “get the word out” about what is going on today, and I see the point of that person who left them.  Note the title.  Many have said in the book, and in real life today, that what happened in Nazi Germany, the swaying of the masses and them giving a country over to a tyrant could never happen here in the U.S.

It can.  This book is timeless and serves as a warning to us all, even now.  Especially now.

Should America Fall

What if America should fall?  What if the United States should be reduced to just a backwater country, or should break up into smaller countries, all separate from each other.  This essay is about how this event, should it occur, will affect the rest of the world.  The effect will be huge, adverse, and catastrophic.

Here is the scenario.  The United States has ceased to be a world power.  At this time, the U.S. no longer has any influence on the world stage.  What will happen? 

In the Middle East, Iran, the strongest and most stable country, no longer has the U.S. as an obstacle.  If they have the atomic bomb, they will either use it, threaten to use it, or allow terrorist groups to use it.  It is difficult to say if they have any territorial ambitions.  

 At present, Iraq and Syria are already divided countries with Sunni, Shi’ite, and Kurdish factions.  Tensions will escalate causing the destruction of the countries and the deaths of innumerable citizens.  The outcome will be determined by the most powerful and organized state.  Without the intervention of a powerful U.S. presence, chaos will ensure on an insurmountable degree.  

Without U.S. support, the fate of Saudi Arabia will be in the hands of an ineffective royal family and the Wahabbi extremists.

Israel will be surrounded by massive hostility and their fate will depend on their ability to withstand these hostilities.  Israel is an extremely strong and stable country, and their prospects for their future appear promising.  Israel is a country known for both brilliance and resilience.  These attributes will serve them well when dealing with the many Mid-Eastern threats in the absence of a strong U.S. support.  

Israel and Palestine will continue their unresolved dispute, and many lives, on both sides, will be lost.

Without a strong U.S. intervention, China will inevitably annex Taiwan and claim the entire South China Sea.  These actions may necessitate an alliance between Southeast Asia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and perhaps India to secure their own safety and protection.

It is not unimaginable that North Korea will attempt to attack South Korea and Japan due to the lack of a strong global superpower intervention.  

Russia will have the opportunity to take back the former Soviet republics, now independent countries of Ukraine, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and Kazahstan.  All of these states, along with the rest of Europe, will have no choice but to fight back, but they will have an unlikely ally: China.
The alliance between China and Russia will be gone, because they would no long have the U.S. as a common enemy to fight.

Russia is not strong enough to fight a two front war and this could possibly give China the opportunity and advantage to take Siberia and all of Asiatic Russia while Russia tries to take back the former Soviet Republics.  

In the event of global chaos due to the lack of a global superpower, Central and South America, along with the Caribbean Islands, will fall prey to drug lords and many other fighting fiefdoms.  The general public will be subject to atrocities on a daily basis.  The citizens will pledge their loyalties to their respective regions - they will have no choice if they want to survive.

Canada and the U.S. will become closer allies vying for mutual survival.

Africa is even at the moment consumed with tribal wars and chaos.  Other countries will most likely try to take advantage of their vast mineral wealth causing yet more strife.  

Many nations feel that the powerful U.S. is policing the world, and we have made a few foreign policy blunders, the biggest being Iraq.  However, without these interventions, perhaps there would be even more political unrest .  As Colin Powell once said, “One of the fondest expressions around is that we can't be the world's policeman. But guess who gets called when suddenly someone needs a cop.”

Some important questions to consider if the U.S. should fail to remain the imminent world power are:

1. Who would take the place of the U.S.?
2. How will the political border of warring countries be decided?
3. Who will fight, or at least stand up, for the freedom of the individuals and their ruling powers?
4. How will the global community deal with the valuable resources of the planet?
5. What will happen to the citizens whose freedoms are infringed by extremists, facists, and totalitarian regimes?
   

There are so many more questions that will need to be addressed.  The U.S. government may have made many political errors, both by accident and by personal gain, but another question is, what is the alternative?  

This is a question that should be asked by everyone.  A unified planet is perhaps the only answer without the greed and selfishness of petty minded politicians.  Co-operation is the only true solution whether the U.S. remains the chief superpower or not.  

Here in the U.S. there are many problems to address both within and without the borders of this country.  Doing nothing is not an option.

Alastair Browne

edited by Rachel Maloney

An Appeal to Philanthropists and the Immensely Wealthy: Use Your Excess Wealth to Save America, Starting with Flint, Michigan

As we all know, the people of Flint, Michigan are suffering lead poisoning in their water supply system.  Between six and 12 thousand children drank this contaminated water with these higher level of lead, causing health problems, both physically and mentally, especially mentally.  Their development slows down, sometimes permanently and they also develop behavioral problems.

Today, the people of Flint are relying on bottled water, many donated from the outside, for all their needs, from cooking, to washing, to drinking.  Even though it has faded from the news, the crisis has not ended.

How did this come to pass?

The entire piping system in Flint, both residential and industrial, was installed between 1901 and 1920.  In those days, cast iron water pipe were used, and iron was the general element used.  Lead pipes were used to pipe water into the home, because they were cheaper.  I’m sure they knew that the leaching of lead would occur, but back then, it was considered acceptable.  They knew little of the adverse effects back then.

In 1967, water treatment plants considered a certain amount of the leaching of leading into drinking water acceptable.  Today, no amount is acceptable, because we now know what happens when even small amounts of lead is absorbed into the human body.  

Now to the present.  Before this present problem started, the water source for Flint was Lake Huron.  The water was treated and able to flow through Flint’s present piping system uncontaminated.  There was an idea in the city council for the City of Flint to save $5 million over two years, so it was decided to switch the water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River.  So, in April, 2014, that is what the city did, with disastrous results.

The water from the Flint River was contaminated, and corrosive to metal pipes.  Pipes, especially lead pipes, corroded, and more lead seeped into the drinking water, and the residents drank it, unwittingly poisoning themselves, and their children.  

The city council knew about this early, but did nothing.  They even covered it up for two years.  This news reached all the way to Governor Rick Snyder.  They did nothing.

When the news broke, all hell broke loose.  The scandal made national news, the residents found out they were poisoned, and the whole city reverted to drinking bottled water.  Naturally, a lot of anger fill the air, and rightly so.  Many of these residents are poor and are unable to leave the city for any amount of time.

There have been proposals to coat the lead pipes, and repair the old system.  But we know what’s really involved.  People don’t want to spend a huge amount of money to replace its piping system. 

The entire piping system in Flint, and the outskirts, has to be replaced, and it will cost billions of dollars.  High quality water pipes must be installed, old pipes need to be removed, and there is no other solution to this problem.

The problem is money.  City, state, and federal funds are low, one no one entity can pay for the entire process of ripping out old pipes and replacing them with new ones, including all pipes to lead to each individual house.  We can no longer borrow the money, from anyone or anything, to finance this massive project.

Who is going to pay for it?   Where are we going to get the money?  The job HAS to be done!

May I suggest the extreme wealthy?  Those who have made money off of Wall Street, those who have an excessive amount of money they can’t even begin to spend, stored in a vault in Switzerland or the Cayman Islands?!  There are also movie stars, sports figures, rock musicians, and CEOs.  All those who are rich, but especially those who live in the Flint area, or anywhere in Michigan.  

Now to speak directly to them.

The City of Flint needs your help!

If you have all that money, money that you will never spend, what do you plan on doing with it?  Do not spoil your children, for they will end up becoming lazy and non-productive, with nothing to show for it but empty lives.

You don’t seem to pay taxes on it.

Why not put that wealth somewhere where it can do humanity some good.  Do America some good, since it was this country that provided you with the freedom and opportunity to produce all your wealth.

Give back to your community!  Give back to your country.

The U.S. government, because of its massive debt, can no longer afford to rebuilt the entire infrastructure:  Bridges that need to be replaced;  Tunnels that need to be reenforced;  Roads that need to be repaired;  an electrical grid that needs to be upgraded, to a new, and smart grid;  Railroads need to be improved;  and piping systems in cities that need to be replaced, completely.

The piping system in Flint, Michigan is one place to start.  All pipes need to be replaced with stronger and safer pipes for water.  If the City of Flint, or the State of Michigan, or even the United States cannot afford to do so, I suggest that the very rich come in and help pay for a brand new piping system.  We ask all of you to DONATE money to replace it.  

Especially those who live either in Flint, or near the city, or even in Michigan proper, can anyone with a huge amount of money step in and donate the money to completely replace the piping system?

What I suggest is that any one individual, or even group of individuals, go to Flint City Hall and talk to the Mayor and the City Council about this.  After that, go to the state capitol in Lansing to announced it to the governor and the state senate and representatives about funding, or sponsoring a project such as this.  

The results will be phenomenal, with many others inspired to do the same thing in other places.  If a rich person lives in a small town, and the town’s bridge needs to be replaced, or roads need to be repaired, perhaps that person can step in and offer to pay for a new bridge or to fix the roads, saving both the save and federal government money.  Jobs would also be created, though they be temporary in some cases.  

This also applies to cities like New York, that need tunnels, bridges, railways, and roads to be replaced.  There are enough of the rich living in New York alone to collaborate on the financial aspects of a project such as this.  

This could be a way to help rebuild the country, by setting off a positive chain reaction in the wealthy helping to rebuild their localities all over the U.S.

In the early 1900s, Andrew Carnegie, founder of Carnegie Steel (renamed U.S. Steel) wrote “The Gospel of Wealth.”  In it, he wrote that when one has acquired a massive fortune, he should give it away, to help benefit humanity.  If one were to keep it, they would indulge and overindulge in it, basking oneself in luxury, drinking, and drugs, and, as previously mentioned, spoil their children.  

Neither Carnegie nor myself are Socialists, and this is not a socialist doctrine.  We are not saying to give one’s wealth to anyone on the street who has their hands out, for they would spend it on drugs and alcohol to their own detriment.  No, one uses it to benefit society by going to the right places, building libraries, schools, theaters, parks, and, with the problems we have now in the 21st century, help rebuild our infrastructure.

A word of caution:  beware on scam artists, for they may find ways to take advantage of this by setting up dummy organizations (corporations, charities, etc.).  There is that side of the coin, so go into places like city hall and state capitols and talk to the right officials.

Also, one does not have to give ALL their money away, just the excess amount that they will never spend or even invest.  Use the bulk that just sits in a bank, doing nothing and benefitting no one.  One can still keep a sizable chunk of their fortune to live comfortably, have a home in an exotic part of the world, and enjoy life, doing what one likes to do.

This is the problem with America’s wealth.  We may have economic problems, with the deficit and massive debts, but the U.S. remains the richest country in the world.  The problem is that our wealth sits in a bank somewhere, either in the U.S., or in offshore banks such as the Cayman Islands or Switzerland, doing nothing, benefitting no one, with no plans for it in the future.  

If we were to reinvest all that money into not only infrastructure, but new industries, technologies, and medicines, to name a few, the U.S. and its people, of all classes, would get out of the rut we are all in, economically and otherwise, and soar to new heights of prosperity, competing with countries like Germany, Japan, China, and South Korea, giving them all a run for their money.

All I’m saying is to take your excess wealth stashed away and put it to good use, serving your community, state, and country.

You (We) can start with Flint, Michigan.  You will be honored greatly by the people of Flint, and be remembered with greatness, for saving a town and the lives of its people.

I’ll end with a quote by John F. Kennedy:  “Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country.”

Alastair Browne

Book Review: Prelude to Foundation

After 35 years of the original “Foundation Trilogy” and a few years after the two sequels, we go back to the origin, meeting Hari Seldon as a young man as he presents his thesis of psychohistory, and “predicting” the future.  Note the quotes.  He doesn’t exactly predicts, but sees the future based on present circumstances, based on mathematics and history.  Here, he is not quite so confidant in his new theory or thesis, not so sure if it will work, he is not yet aware of the downfall of the galactic empire, and that’s how the situation is as he arrives to Trantor, from his home world of Helicon, to meet with the emperor of the galaxy, Cleon I.

You will note the differences from the original trilogy, written in the early 1950s, to this book, released in 1988.  In the trilogy, Trantor is just one big city covering the entire surface of the planet.  In this new book, Prelude to Foundation I’ve noticed that Trantor is covered with glass domes on different sections of the planet, and Seldon ventures on top on one of them.  You would never imagine this in the original trilogy.  There are open oceans, originally though to be completely covered with all the water in pipes.

Also, new characters and friends of Seldon are introduced:  Dors Venibili, the historian Seldon needs for his discipine; and a very tough woman, Raych, a little street wise urchin in one of the sectors (Dahl, a very hot section of Trantor, with the heat used for an energy source), and we meet Yugo Amaryl for the first time, a mathematician later to be of great value to Seldon.  At the end of the book, we meet one more character by surprise, someone familiar is Asimov’s other books.

Other than this, we see how Hari Seldon journeys from being very unconfident of himself and his works and gaining the knowledge he needs to pursue his discipline, the hard way.

As Seldon presents his theory to Cleon I, the emperor wants to use Seldon to make predictions to keep him and his family on the throne indefinitely.  Seldon tells the truth, but not what Cleon wants to hear, so Cleon and his aide Eto Demerzel (note the name, it become vital in the story) dismisses Seldon from his palace.  Seldon runs into Chetter Hummin, and leads him on a flight across the planet, to different sectors and cultures, some having strange customs.  

He is also warned by Hummin that the empire is dying, the main theme of the book.  The question is how and when.  As Seldon travels across Trantor to see these cultures and their people, he slowly learns how they, and all 25 million planets, are connected, and examines their attitudes and the infrastructure of these places, and the planet as well.  Many of these are parallel to what the United States is experiencing today.  Asimov states that this series is based on the fall of the Roman Empire, not the U.S.

There is plenty of action in Prelude.  One cause is that other than Cleon, one mayor of a sector wants Seldon to use psychohistory for her own benefit.  That is, having Seldon tell both her and Cleon what they want to hear, which is one of the main plots of the story.

At the end, you will see how this all comes together, leading the way to the original trilogy, but rounded out with Seldon having an (adopted) family and how it was decided to have two Foundations rather than one.  Other novels outside of the trilogy are also referred to, such as “The Robots of Dawn.”

After Prelude, Asimov continues the story, published after his death, in “Forward the Foundation.”

Book Review: Forward the Foundation

This is Isaac Asimov’s last science fiction novel, completed, and released one year after his death in 1992.  It is the final volume of the Foundation Series.  Chronologically, it’s really the second book in the series, if you count “Prelude to Foundation” as the first, and “The Foundation Trilogy” as the third, fourth and fifth books.  You will not be disappointed.  The questions of how the two foundations were formed, especially that of the Second Foundation, are answered.

The story opens 12 years after “Prelude,” and Professor Seldon is settled at Streeling University, on Trantor.  He has not perfected Psychohistory, and he is trying to perfect the Prime Radiant, the complex mathematical formula that can predict how humanity, throughout the entire galaxy, will react in certain crisis as the Galactic Empire falls and a long period of interstellar barbarism takes place.

This book is divided into four sections, four separate stories that are connected, one happening right after another as Seldon, and his family, lives at Streeling.  Each section revolves around a certain character, and at the end of each, reveals their fate.   Does Venabili is now Seldon’s wife.  Their adopted son Raych is now in his twenties, and Eto Demerol, a.k.a. R. Daneel Olivaw is now first minister, and friends with Seldon.  The Emperor Cleon I also develops a kinship with Seldon.  

Seldon, however, is not without his enemies, and that’s the plot of the book.  His Psychohistory has become well known, and many people think that is not only predicts the future, but the use of it by the right would place control of the future into their hands, so they go after Seldon for the “secret,” never realizing that there is none.   They never know until it’s too late for them.  

Laskin Joranum is the first villain, a cult like figure with his followers who think that by getting control of Psychohistory, they could rule the galaxy.  Even after his downfall, his followers do not give up on his plan.  The military thinks the same thing, and later, thugs are sent after Seldon, with the law supposedly on their side.

Seldon, meanwhile, tries to get help with his complex equations, and discovers the key to the Second Foundation (Terminus is already assigned to the First Foundation, supposedly to write the Encyclopedia Galactica, composing of all human knowledge.  What’s wrong with the library at Streeling University, I might ask?!  That question is answered in “Foundation.”).  

His own granddaughter accidentally finds out the answer to the Prime Radiant and discovers that she has a gift of controlling minds in making certain decisions, and Seldon capitalizes on this.  She soon discovers other people with the same abilities, and that is the birth of the Second Foundation.

There is action in this book, although they don’t travel around Trantor like in the first, but I think that’s the idea.  The adventures are over, and now it is time to get down to work, but other people, greedy for power through Seldon’s psychohistory still have to be dealt with and stopped, and many pay the ultimate price.  

The book ends, where “Foundation,” the first book of the trilogy, begins, except for the Epilogue.  

This is the link between “Prelude to Foundation” and “Foundation,” and should be included in reading the series.