All posts filed under: World Affairs

Public Policy 101: Understanding Policy

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It is important for the public to understand how to understand policy, especially when it is in the process of being deliberated and adopted. As a policymaker, I want to share some of the finer points of policy making, especially into today political climate. *My views do not represent the City of Los Angeles or the Department of City Planning. Every year, a large number of policies are deliberated at all levels of government. Some are passed, some are postponed, some are dead upon arrival. In a democratic government, almost all of these policies are heard in some form or another by the public. However, there are a lot of nuances to understanding them and because the public are not generally versed in understanding policy, there are ways to get policies passed by influencing public sentiment or despite public sentiment. To make it easier for you to understand policies, especially those you care about, the following are three important things to look for to avoid supporting a policy on misguided assumptions. They are listed in …

Coming Together, Falling Apart

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In reality, equilibrium is only an observation over a large scale of time, but at any specific time period, things are more like a pendulum, swinging from one end of the spectrum to the next. Looking at the world today, and the violent conflicts that seem to escalate in scale, it would appear that the world has forgotten the horrors of war – the incredible devastation of the two World Wars that obliterated most of Europe – and the resulting need for international unity and harmony. As the old Chinese saying goes “after a long time together, it ought to separate, after a long time divided, it ought to come together”. In many ways, if we look at the history of the world, that is exactly how things play out. The world gets smaller, then it divides and feels farther apart. The Macedonian Empire disintegrated into separate polities, only to reunite again under the Romans. The Mongolian tribes were brought together into the largest empire ever seen only to fall apart. In some ways, faced with …

Bombing Oil Fields and Fighting Islamic State

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Has anyone given thought to the political, economic, and environmental consequences of such destruction? Has anyone thought about the devastating environmental impact of bombing oil fields? For the most part, the majority of the people under IS control are innocent. Yet, this sort of destruction and retaliation by the West, is exactly what drives the youth to join in the extremist movement. How can anyone be alright with the destruction of their livelihood and of their environment?