Excess Arms Sales!

Even in depressed times the US is the leading seller of arms, despite a hint of refrain in the headline of the NYT here which also says that "Russia was a distant second" in the arms sales in 2009. This coupled with the fact that the US has plans to sell more arms to Saudi Arabia, which is not a regime that really respects and promotes human rights and democracy. The US also wonders how arms end up in the hands of insurgents and extremists, but never wonders as to how these arms are in the market place in the first place. Despite the exaggerated threat of WMDs, reports have shown that deaths caused by small arms are more in number as emphasized in the Report of UN Secretary General and compiled by the International Action Network on Small Arms.

The shortsightedness of congressional leaders who are swayed by the number of jobs the arms industry brings to their constituencies, misses the point that these very weapons could in the future cause more harm around the world, and sometimes at home in the US.

One more in the list of excesses by the US.

Freedom Fries: And Other Stupidity We'll Have to Explain to Our Grandchildren

The movie "Freedom Fries: And Other Stupidity We'll Have to Explain to Our Grandchildren" presents a whole list of excess activities that the US indulges in. Spending/consumption, debt, trade-deficit, prisoners (in numbers and percentage-wise), travel etc. are just a few more areas where the US shows such excess that will put all other countries to shame. Some more to come along.....

Can preschoolers be depressed?

Looking at the story, Can preschoolers be depressed? I can't think of a better situation to place this to an excess nation. The questions raised in the story,
"Is it really possible to diagnose such a grown-up affliction in such a young child? And is diagnosing clinical depression in a preschooler a good idea, or are children that young too immature, too changeable, too temperamental to be laden with such a momentous label? Preschool depression may be a legitimate ailment, one that could gain traction with parents in the way that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (A.D.H.D.) and oppositional defiant disorder (O.D.D.) — afflictions few people heard of 30 years ago — have entered the what-to-worry-about lexicon. But when the rate of development among children varies so widely and burgeoning personalities are still in flux, how can we know at what point a child crosses the line from altogether unremarkable to somewhat different to clinically disordered? Just how early can depression begin"
strike at the whole issue of what is 'normal' or a 'standard' and appears to be a slippery slope to 'explain' the behavior of human beings. This raises a question in my mind, is it necessary to account for everything about humans? In this particular story, and in psychiatry in general, we have a whole terminology about egos, alteregos etc. which form the basis for the whole field, and this leads another question of language itself! We have based a whole profession on a language, which then becomes a basis for all the measurement afterwords.

I understand that the thoughts are very rudimentarty and might not be related to the original purpose of excess nation, but I am starting to wonder if my terminology and understanding are adequate or not.

........

The ISSUES!

Sex
Violence
TV viewership
Expenditure on Lingerie
Prisons
Pollution per capita
Bombing in Cambodia/Vietnam/Laos/Aghanistan - http://mail.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2006.10-history-bombing-cambodia/2/

Prescription Drugs
Hygiene vs chemicals in water!

more to come....

Cancer Rates!

It was a shocker to know that "some 41 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives" and part of it is attributed to the number of chemicals that are approved for use within the US. According to the same article, there are 80,000 chemicals that are in use in the US and one only wonders if this is not excess, what is?


This is just a start to keep a log of the stories and if time permits I will post some comparative statistics between the US and the other developed countries.

Examples

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/8/18/how-dangerous-are-ipods-for-teenage-ears

Excess Nation!

I view the United States as an "excess nation" and what do I mean by that? It means that if an outsider has to summarize the US in one word, then it would be excess. I view the US as an excess nation because the US as a model presents excess in almost all (yet to verify!) areas of life. Lets start with the fact that US is the world's largest donor country, but at the same time it is the country which manufactures the most amount of arms and ammunition; is the most obese nation while at the same time putting out the 'hollywood and model" figures; has people who work the most (at least in number of hours) and parties the most; eats a lot and exercises a lot; views itself as the world's peacemaker while at the same time waging war; etc.

Towards this end I intend to document the "excesses" in the US in this blog!