Cavoti's Book Club Ep 3: Bill Maher, James R Clapper, Francis Fukuyama, ...

Life on the Border of Argentina and Brazil

The Origin of Countries Names: North and Central America & the Caribbean

Book Review of Richard Haass's: A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order (2017) (work in progress)

By:  Richard Haass

Why I got the Book: Richard Haass is a pretty important author in the world of international relations, and I remember reading a couple of books of his back when I was studying, especially   The Reluctant Sheriff: The United State After the Cold War. So basically when I found out he was coming out with a new book in late 2017 I was interested in reading.
What I liked :
•    The book has a very well written introduction, Haass explains exactly what he wants to achieve with the book and basically how.
•    The author takes time to explain the title of the book, so we understand also what is the objective of the book and how he's defining the international system, which is not in a situation of anarchy and it is not a new order either, it is the old order that is in trouble.
•    Haass does a good job defining fundamental terms like World Order at the beginning of the book, I as a reader one appreciates this because you understand exactly what the author is talking about.
•    The book can be divided into three big parts, one focused on the history of the international relation of the twentieth century, the second part centers on the state of international relations during the twenty-first century and finally Haass's recommendations on what the United State should do referring to foreign policy from here on out.
•    Book explains the evolution of the international system during the twentieth century especially analyzing WWII, the post-WWII order, the Cold War and the fall of communism, focusing not only of US foreign policy but also the birth of a constellation of International Organization, NGOs and bilateral and multilateral treaties. 
•    The book has at least two filler chapters and the end where the author gets into his recommendations for future US international policy.
•    Haass is pretty critical of Barack Obama the way he telegraphed his intention with withdrawing troops from Irak and Afganistan or with Iran with the nuclear deal. Also criticizing the comment of the red line with Siria, US involvement in Libya and being very inconsistent with the Arab spring affecting the United States credibility across the world. Richard does mention the succes of killing Osama Bin Ladden is one of the few things that the Obama administration did very well.
•    Haass also complains that the George W Bush and Obama administrations had a very informal way of operating that had a negative impact on making mistakes in foreign policy.
Central Thymes:
•    We are living a grand backlash against globalization, international trade, US involvement around the world and the maintenance of alliances. But this is not only in the United States there is a rise of Populism and Nationalism across the world.
•    The United State is still the most powerful State, but it must share more and more power, because of its ever-changing nature of power, but it is losing influence because of a lack of a proper foreign policy.
•    Power is more distributed, and Richard does not talk about World Order but World Orders. Haass define world order as the nature of the international relations it a measure of the world condition that includes the arrangments the promote peace, prosperity and freedom and those actions that promote the contrary. For there to be order the must be legitimacy, an agreement of the parties of the nature of the relations amongst States (and other actors) the can create a workable situation to operate, we still live in a post westfelian world order. The rules must be defined and no order is safe without physical safeguards. Also for Haass Order depends on the balance of power in the international system and respect for sovereignty.
•    This disorder is a product of structural changes in the international system power  has become more diffuse and there is an ever grown presence of new actors
•    People live longer and better lives, they are more people living in the middle class than any other moment in history.
•    A central aspect of the traditional world order is States and their governments are free to act as they wish within their respective borders.
•    The progressive decolonization during the twentieth century created high levels of disorder in the system on a large scale, the emergence of self-determination that was respected ora least tolerated by many States lead to many countries independence that were not ready for. Also after the end of the cold war and the fall of the USSR 15 new countries appeared on the world stage. Also during this time, we had the emergence of failed States like  Somalia and Haiti, and colossal humanitarian disasters like Ruanda.
•    Post cold war order was incomplete and fragile and international organizations were not up to the task into ushering in a new more solid international order. The Unipolarity the US found itself in a progressively eroding consensus and decreasing legitimacy as time past. The United State being viewed as a superpower is a mistake.
•    The idea of Soverine responsibility becoming more and more important to the modern international system. Issues like Terrorism, Refugees, climate change, cyber crimes/ terrorism, pandemics... all international phenomena that can only be addressed by states working together, unilateral action literal go nowhere and is a waste of time and many find their origin within States and transcend them as they grow, putting in debate the concept of State Sovereignty.  States and their government must understand the ever-growing responsibilities that their internal policies may impact on an international level, Haass explain once State assume this  we will have an evolution of the current international order  
What I didn't like or Debatable Stuff:
Overall: 8 out of 10 good for newbies in international relations.    

The Origins of Countries Names: Introduction South America

Book Review of Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus

Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus

By:  Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy
Why I Got This Book: This book popped up in my recommended book in list in my audible acount and I got it just out of curiosity.

Central Thymes:   
•   This  Book is about is about the history of the interaction of humanity as a species with the Rabbis virus and its particular impact on our culture.  But the book also does focus on some other sickness that humans also get from Animals, which the authors mention that 50% of all human sicknesses come from other animals.
•    Among the many animals, rabbis can infect some of the most common are dogs, bats, skunks, rats, and raccoons, elevating their levels of aggression leading to more potential attacks which through bites the virus spreads, and it can cross from one species to another easily.
•    Approximately 50.000 people per year die of Rabbis, mostly in countries where it is difficult to access the vaccines and modern medicine that help stop the virus from taking hold because once it reaches the brain the sickness has pretty much a 100% death rate. Mass vaccination campaigns for dogs (mass castration also helps)  to eradicate the sickness does not get any traction in the developing countries because of a  lack of political motivation, authorities mostly only take action when its too late and there is an outbreak like in the old Soviet republics, southeast Asia and Africa, many times there is a total lack of sanitary policy and protocols if there is an outbreak. But richer countries by no means are immune to a large-scale outbreak even New York city had to deal with a hoard of rabid raccoons a couple of years back in 2010.
•    Rabbis mostly found its way into human society because of the domestication of Dogs, who are the perfect host for this particular virus and this sickness sparks a special fear in people because its potencially their best friends can become their  harbinger of death from one moment to another.   Outside of the danger of death Rabbis was perceived as a sickness that brings out the inner evil animal from inside.
•    Most visible symptom hydrophobia.
•    Louis Pasteur developed the vaccine against rabbis, but the book really makes sure to show the reader how important too since Pasteur was creating the pasteurization proses, a vaccine against anthrax for animals and creating a model for centers of investigation that would reach a global level.
•    Book illustrates how rabbis have had a tremendous impact on human culture from all the way back to Egypte, ancient Greece, Babylon and even India, this sickness appears in all kinds of ancient text, found its way into mythology and language  influencing the creation of words relative to rage and anger. Even in the more modern time rabbis served for inspiration for some very famous monster like werewolves, vampires and to a degree zombies. The bite is the mode of transmission of rabbis and the way these monster created new ones. And in the case of vampires, there is an aspect of hypersexuality related to these characters that sometimes is a symptom of rabbis, even their aversion to holy water can be linked to hydrophobia. But what the book illustrates is how the fear of rabbis like other pandemics feeds into the concept of the undead, because once someone was infected by rabbis literally they were walking dead.
•    All Zoonotic diseases like Rabbis, Smallpox, the Bubonic Plague... like many others thrived with the growth of cities.
   
What I liked :
•    The book itself is a very easy read, very interesting and dynamic at the same time, it got me hooked on a subject that I would not be normally drawn to, and thanks to the fact it straight to the point I finished it in about a week.
•    Each chapter covers a specific moment in history and talks about myths and stories from that era that were fueled by rabbis.
•    I found fascinating that the new testament and early Christians had a poor view of dogs which had a cultural impact heading into the dark ages.
•    I found it very interesting that early myths relative to vampires had no relation t bats, but when vampire bats were discovered in  America, rabbis in a way bridges the gap between these monsters and animals, incorporating bats into the vampire mythology, originally vampire would change into dogs.
•    Book dive into the evolution of dogs as pets all ready in ancient Greece and in the middle ages the  nobility and clergy really appreciated dogs because of the role in the hunt, while peseants had a more negative view of K9s  having to deal with semi wild dogs, rabid dogs and during the plague seeing dogs eat corpses that is way bodies are buried 6 feet under.  But during the industrial revolution and the slow growth of a middle class having dogs as pets became much more generalized.  
•    The book goes into great detail how Pasteur created his vaccine against rabbis.
What I didn't like or Debatable Stuff:
•    The book at brief moments gets a little gory and explicit.
•    The book goes relatively off topic a couple of times focusing on other Zoonitic diseases.

Overall: The book gets a 9 out of 10, it gets you thinking

The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism  (2014)

By:  Jeremy Rifkin

Why I Got This Book: It's pretty curious  that I was drawn to a book that is essentially a publication about economic issues, something I normally stay away from, but after watching Rifkin in a youtube video on the Big Think channel pushing this book and I was fascinated by the central premise of the book which I'm going to share with you guys the thing I found most interesting and I understood, because economy is feild I understand too much.

Central Thymes:
•    The future of Capitalism for Rifkin is a new evolved system a hybrid economy fusing capitalism and collaborative commons. The collaborative commons ( CC) actually predates the representative government and the capitalist market, these social entities formal and informal groups enrich society with its social capital. The CC uses common resource agreed amongst the members to be used collectively, in a democratic fashion. These communes find their genesis in Feudal European society.  This system produces a fascinating economic actor the prosumer and redefines private property. Jeremy establishes the Prosumer and collaborative vs Investors and capitalist.
•    The Internet of Things (IOT) will usher in the change to the economic paradigm, which is composed of a communications internet, a logistics internet, and an energy internet. This will push capitalist economy which is based on scarcity,  will convert and give way to an economy of abundance. 
•    The ever growing trend of sharing goods is taking a deep cut into the retail sector.
•    Author implicitly implies that technological innovation is the true motor of history, which is a very interesting and provocative way of viewing history.
•    Coal leads to steam power and the first industrial revolution, with this new energy matrix brought forth, steam printing making information more accessible and generated the need of a public school system to learn how to read and become professionals that industry  needed, steam trains which compressed time and space and one fundamental aspect they were dependable.     Also, the creation of a national postal service and trains quickened commercial transaction. Later the advent of the telegraphy accelerated this proses even more.
•    In the second industrial revolution was fueled by oil which need high skilled professionals and lots of financial capital, created a new communication matrix with the invention of the internal combustion engine leading to cars and the construction of highway system, which made many people start to move out of cities into suburban lives, especially with electricity becoming more available.
•    The end of the age of privacy and transparency across the board will become the norm. Privacy was a product of capitalism by a life behind closed doors, enclosures and privatization left people fenced off against the world.
•    3 D printers are game changers in the world of manufacturing, the first being open sourced, as they evolve the become more efficient versatile in what the can create and produce much less waste compared to traditional manufacturing. But the most interesting aspect of this invention that thanks to prosumers the cost per unit dropped from 30.000 dollars in 2002 to 1.000 in 2017. It one of the few inventions in the world that it is self-sustainable because it can print its own parts. With inventions like the 3 D printer worker can become owners, consumers into prosumer, with less need to commute to work there for less use of vehicles leading to the decompression of highly dense urban core, people of the future will have less need to cluster.
•    What we call globalization was basically just a phase where the government decided to deregulate international trade and push for the privatization of public services, wrapped in the promise of global connectivity, but the whole process was at the service of privet enterprise, so the author establishes that the Global Commons is something different to Globalization.
•    Cooperatives are major players in the CC, they are none profit are more efficient than the State because they work at a ground level capitalizing on lateral power, and work even better if the State gives it a hand, the book explains how electricity reach every corner of the United State because of the work of Cooperatives. In Europe, Cooperative are pushing the growth of the use of clean energies.
•    Self-driven vehicles that will be a reality sooner than later are another game changers revolutionize human transport and the transport of goods, being a fundamental part of the IOT, once integrated the cost of transport will drop and become much more efficient.

What I liked :
•    Author dives deep into the evolution of Capitalism from a very interesting and unique perspective.
•    Fascinating affirmation that the downfall of Capitalism as we know is a product of its owns downing a natural evolution being push by the progress of cutting edge technology. What I like about the book is an alternative narrative to the end of capitalism, which is pretty much an obsession of the hard left with a revolution against the system and watching it crash and burn. Rifkin illustrates a mutation of traditional capitalism, but I must mention that the transition phase seems to be pretty complicated on a social level, with the growth of unemployment which can lead to social unrest.
•    I found it interesting how the author  gets into  the evolution of privet property, where basically the encloser movement ushered the concept of property  pushing the peasants off the land transformed them into free agents, while at the same time the early phases of the industrial revolution and the market economy, lead to legal protection of property and the right of ownership. This spawn the need for more police and courts.
•    Rifkin explains that companies that own and ran the train are the first modern cooperation, where the owner does not presuppose management, that need highly trained professional and high level of investment that took time to reap the gains.
•    The book  gets into the end a privacy as we know it, and this is something we are dealing with now how every aspect of our lives can be scrutinized from the internet, each person leaves a pretty big digital footprint and much of the information we have given away for dumping all kinds of information in social media pages. 
•    Cars are the ultimate enclosure for the previous generation it was a sign of economic maturity for the economic actor, I was totally surprised of the fact that sharing cars is a thing now, which leads to less carbon emission and fewer cars on the road.
•   
What I didn't like or Debatable Stuff:
The book repeats its self to much and drags in certain parts, I stopped reading it twice.

It hard to debate to many things in this books because I'm not an economist, but I must say that the author mentions how all of these inventions will revolutionize manufacturing and impact tremendously in the labor market, but totally glosses over the social unrest the transition phase can potentially have.

Overall: The book gets an 8 out of 10, it gets you thinking.