Fortress Of Freedom Board

[Maurice Ali]

Man am I in a bad mood…..



Let me tell you a true story. Just after the Rodney King incident in the States, I was detained by police and fought that in court as a “Charter Application”. Now judges absolutely hate this stuff especially for traffic offences. What you ended up with is something out of the Twilight Zone with the Justice of the Peace - telling me in front of the officer - all the ways he could get me off, due to all the ways the officer screwed up, and all of the charges would be gone if I would withdraw the charter application. You never see this on TV and the movies! And you would never see this in typical court setting either. A case like this usually gets shuttled off to the nearest court that just finished business or ends up at the end of the docket after everyone else has gone.



Anyway I refused walking away “scott free” and so he then got really angry and told us to meet back here on “Halloween Night” of all dates which was a long, long time away. The case had to get kicked up to a higher court. Long story short, the rights I thought I had were a sham, they didn’t exist and the JP knew it and the reason why he got angry.



You would think he got angry because of the hassle and paperwork; but no, the reason he got so angry was because his identity and position in society and worth as a member of the community - is revealed to be a sham when some (scoff law like me) decides to stand on their rights which when tested don’t exist. He got away with this one as when we got back the higher court said “there may have been a violation of one section of the charter”, but the JP said the remedies were draconian (probably for the officer) and he refused to hear it and kicked me and the officer out of the court to figure it out amongst ourselves. We were all tired of it at that point and it was going nowhere so I agree to basically one of the most minor of traffic offences. The cop told me he learned something and asked some questions about the Mustang and that was it. So the JP got away with it by not ultimately having to deal with a situation that would render his position irrelevant. I didn’t even check to see if the offence even registered on my record (if the court gets what they really want these things just mysteriously seem to disappear - and in retrospect for good reason - Hahahaha…..). In another court challenge (that went for about 45 minutes) where I submitted all sorts of motions to quash and such - with a brown skinned JP even telling the other patrons what I was attempting to do (never see this shit on TV), in the end I made a minor mistake and the prosecutor gave me the most self-absorbed smile that she had me and won. So a conviction was registered and later I got a letter from the court that the charge was later suspended and never got registered to my licence record. This shit only happens with me…..



Anyway, our constitution means nothing when tested, veteran cops know it, the judges/defence attorney’s and prosecutors know it - and now I know it. As a citizen you really have no rights - nothing concrete to hold onto. The Positive Mandate for Humanity and Worldwide Vote are ideas that they can hold onto and eventually could become a tangible reality. One vote among 8 billion may not seem to matter, but it is a vote, each individual’s right to self-determination, so it really does matter, and the positive mandate is their key to happiness and happiness for all! This trumps any current constitution - just don’t ask me again how I know…..



In other news….



Nothing special, I’m just pissed off with the way things are in general. In general I mean global. I’m getting old, and guys like me don’t age well - not like fine wine - no, more like that book “Flowers for Algernon”. The twist here is that the protagonist is the same person and never changes in intelligence - but the perception of society toward him changes from looking at him as a “moron” to be scoffed at, to ultimately some kind of genius (as an aside this would make for a more believable story and indictment on our society if it were some black man - wait, that is happening here with these “progress reports” hehehehehehe…..). But for those who know the story - how does this one end. Maybe with the reality being in the end the stereotype that it started with. Not a pretty sight. Anyway, me getting old won’t be pretty, so all this advocacy has to be done quickly.




The Fates!



Physically I should last, but mentally is another question. I may get lucky - it could happen - and have a soft landing. Or the intellectual fall could be spectacular. Just no way to know. I’ll sleep more these days and just do my best. The Fates owe me something personal as everything else is for Humanity. I feel I deserve that much.



But I have to operate under the assumption that there is no god, life is not fair and the only way good can triumph evil is by evil being fought by another form of evil. So think of me as a monster, and so what if I am, if the end result is positive for all…..





Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/1GYLzTM6OMA

[Maurice Ali]

Well it’s Hunger Games 2.0 for those people like me who got vaccines early due to a slip up in our health care system. It’s called by many “Hunger Games 2.0” because they just stuck vaccines in the arms without any forethought as to the second dose! They just make the vaccines available at the last moment and you have to figure out a way to get the shot in competition with others who got the shot at the same time.



Same thing here again as more AstraZeneca vaccines set it expire on Monday so they opened it up for we “chosen folk” to get the second shot before most others. For me and AstraZeneca, I get my second shot about two
weeks before I should while my dad gets his Pfizer shot 9 weeks later than he should have - and that is after the moving up his extra shot a month on Friday!


So Pfizer is a bit of a “shit show” now with most having less efficacy than AstraZeneca due to the delay. How this affects the second dose is anyone’s guess. My idea of mixing doses went out the window as I resigned to wait after it really looked like Hunger Games 2.0 on Friday - and so I decided to wait. Then my Guardian Angel who made it impossible for me to avoid the first shot called me up and told me to get my ass to the SDM pharmacy on Sunday 12 minutes after noon for the second (this guy must know me somehow). I’ll take that as fate injecting itself into the equation.





This second dose matters more for me travelling as the EU looks like it will have the vaccine passport requirement for this summer. I just have this thin sliver of an opportunity to get into places previously shut out to me before, but open now as so many in the world are still stuck where they are. So Geneva and especially the UN in New York this September may be a possibility. The World Bank and IMF in October in Washington. But I need that second shot to travel to and avoid the quarantine getting back.






All the other advocacy prep work is done and with that I am primed to take advantage of anything that comes up. BTW: The Hunger Games 2.0 could also be a metaphor for advocacy when things open up again. It’s everyone for themselves and dog eat dog….. This is for “all the marbles” now. No mistakes cause there is no starting over. I’m nervous - this is happening and the adventure continues…..



Just like that - and it’s “on”…..



Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/C7EIW_C0-9c

[Maurice Ali]

It has begun…..



I have one week to apply for a workshop as a CSO on having general public participation at the WTO via a public opinion world wide vote. I’m doing research to see if this has been tried before but the application for a workshop session will be in by the June 7 deadline for sure. This public forum event will happen in late September. I have almost “0” chance but I will try and play things out as planned. I have the money, time and opportunity to do this, so that is all a go!






I also checked things at The World Bank but nothing yet. I trust you see how razor thin the timelines are here. But that makes what was an impossible chance before - to - “0” possibility! Zero possibility is still a possibility but close to “0”, but still possible and I’ll take it! So if you have nothing better to do, hitch your wagon to my star and see how all this plays out…..






It will be good for a few laughs at the very least - and as the saying goes - You never know….. I expect people to abandon this place and I’ll be on my own in Geneva if we get selected. But this is how it always is and will be. There are rules there but not rights in the way you think of it, this is the world stage and nobody oversees the world stage - in the human sense anyway. I am not “good” - I’m - capable and resourceful and beholden to a moral imperative. I really do have a chance competing against others in this arena. I am in my element here…..




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/buNwwAximcE

[Maurice Ali]

Ok, I just got my second shot of AstraZeneca - so I’m good to go so far…..




Me after my second shot - no blood clotting, everything fine!



As far as the WTO workshop goes, I’ve decided the only way to apply is “from the balls out” so to speak. This is probably my best crack at this - during the pandemic and my chances are still slim; so I want to go out swinging!



What I mean is that the idea is to disseminate the concept of public participation and a global public vote at the WTO. Even getting a proposal with a workshop is disseminating the concept as the act of applying has the ideas and some committee invariably rules on its inclusion - so even in this case you have furthered the agenda by at least applying with the idea in mind. Like what happened with the oral statement about the worldwide vote at the UN. The delegates got disseminated with the message - just don’t ask me how I know…..but guaranteed they did!



So I’m going for it - I’m knocking on their door - and I feel good about it already. Tell them what you want and what you are about - FROM THE BALLS OUT!



Make the play and play it out…..




Later…..





https://youtu.be/vb3NnS_DjGE

[Maurice Ali]

Ok, I’ll rework the UN voting app to the WTO system and release that as another report to support our application for a workshop…..



Next…..


So, using deep radar, the first people’s in British Columbia have found a mass unmarked grave of 215 children at a former Residential School. These schools housed Native American (Indians just to be absolutely clear) children taken from their parents by force in order to be….. Whatever….. Condolences to our First Peoples for this tragedy, it doesn’t matter when it happened or if “we” were even born when it happened. It happened - here - where we call home! As big a tragedy as this is home side, have any of you ever had to represent your country internationally and defend this stuff?



I have to. I learned right quick to not criticize other countries as they all have a black book with all our transgressions to use against us. Now they have this! And what exactly am I supposed to say when confronted with this at an international event?



“Hey Maurice, could you elaborate on that story about that mass unmarked grave with hundreds of Indian children buried and hidden there. I thought I heard it all about the genocide of the indigenous people in Canada, but this news is some really hideous and ghoulish shit!”



What am I supposed to say now? I also considered myself a victim of the Canadian scholastic system and now I have to defend it? What on earth am I supposed to say? It was bad enough that they would ask me about the “concentration camps” in Canada and I would say: “Concentration Camps? Oh, we call them Reservations.” They were not impressed…..



So now they have this bit if ammunition in their back pocket if I get out of line. And I have no excuse to “play dumb” as I’m president of a journalist org! And I can’t dodge citizenship as I’m a born and bred Canadian (warts and all) and internationally I still represent Canada same as the rest in the foreign service. But the worst part (see how I started a sentence with “but” - I don’t care) is that this comes on the heels of our Prime Minister apologizing for the internment of Italian Canadians - in concentration camps during the war. This follows the apology for the internment of Japanese Canadians during the war (and by war I mean WW2 for you Millenials). They were mostly Canadian so they didn’t check citizenship. That’s how my best friend’s Chinese uncle got thrown into one of those internment camps and had his house and business confiscated without remuneration then or now.



I just wanted you all to see what happens when you enter into international circles. And - - - after taking your share of heat for your country‘s transgressions, you come back home to this “collective amnesia” with regard to those skeletons in our closet…..



I just had to get that off my mind. Especially as it had to do with school kids my age being abused! And no retribution possible which makes it even worse! Here we go again!




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/2z4o-jBlqq0

[Maurice Ali]

I’m already working on the WTO workshop, but these people are more business oriented than at places like the UN and certainly UNESCO, so I have to adjust my pitch to them accordingly…..



Another view of the WTO building!


If you want to know what goes on there, here is a quote from a news report that got emailed to me:



“At a meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) on 28 May, WTO members agreed to the establishment of two new dispute panels: one at the request of Australia regarding Chinese anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Australian barley; and the second at the request of Malaysia concerning European Union measures on palm oil and oil palm crop-based biofuels.”



So what I’m really all about is way off field as far as they are concerned. There could be some interest in broadening participation occasionally via a popular vote to aid in policy making, but I would have to tweak it to allow scaling up or down from areas in the world to a true worldwide vote or even using ip numbers or device identifiers or extension addresses to get quick access and participation via a smartphone to aid in policy making among a specific group. That has to be compelling enough for them to at least listen!




We shall see…..




I went over their constitution and while most sections say so and so “shall”; when it comes to civil society it just says “may” - so I have my work cut out for me. Just don’t expect us to automatically get in. But I will try my best given the time available.



In other news…..



So, when I got vaccinated I was there waiting among those my age, but these folk were as a group sort of wealthy, and some who got vaccinated at the same time as me were local celebrities and business people you know who advertise on TV and radio locally. I was embarrassed to be in this group who - let’s face it - got their second shot before anyone else but hospital staff. And who got it close if not just before the recommended date for the second shot, while the rest of the population wait months after the time they should have got their second dose. I got my second shot before my 88 year old dad - how is that right? So these “well off” people are actually better protected than the general population and have money and influence - go figure! But - I am also there (like for the first shot) among them cut chatting away!



Of course it does not help the cause if I got Covid 19 and died, so l’ll take the shot, but I’m uncomfortable with it. I can’t get angry with these people as I grew up with them. Realize that when I grew up it was those two generations older that gave me the most grief. It was the teachers who were young and only a generation older who treated me better and fought for me in high school. I have to remember that it wasn’t the girls who showed interest in me and would probably have dated me if society allowed. They would have spread their legs for me if that society was not the way it was - so I can’t so much blame my cohorts as much as the society that existed and still exists in a modified way.



There is no retribution or vengeance for me at this time, especially those who knew better but just went along. They are either dead or too senile to do anything for anyone. All I can do is try to rectify the matter by global policies that prevent our base natures from taking hold in a bad way. And it is human nature, so fix the problems for the blacks then it is just transferred to a new way to discriminate a different group. But long story short, I can’t hold that woman beside me making small talk before she gets her shot, as a bad person. If society was the way it should have been, I could have asked that woman beside me on a date and taken her to a movie and spent 20 minutes slowly trying to get my arm around her as I used to do. It’s the same person.



All of what I’m doing here is trying to make the world a better place - and right now it’s dealing with the WTO…..




Goodnight…..






(NSFW)
https://youtu.be/i3Jv9fNPjgk

[Maurice Ali]

I tried to “sugar coat” our smartphone app idea for the WTO and it just would not work…..







Try as I wished it just ended up sounding like a joke, while going after it directly does not sound like a joke but would probably get binned immediately. But my hands are tied and I have to make this play. We can apply through IAIJ as a CSO. I advocate “lone wolf” style and normally this is a handicap for acceptance but the pandemic has levelled this issue for this year anyway. There is less competition this year so this type of provocative workshop has its best chance now! This is the moment for this type of play but don’t get your hopes up.



I’ll try to send it in on Friday, but we shall see. There really is nothing more for me to do but sweat the details on the application and send it in.



Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/Jzqwhq5NKEo

[Maurice Ali]

I could send the workshop application in today if I wanted, but I’ll leave it till tomorrow as planned…..




Even if I send it and it gets approved there is no guarantee that the event will still go on - things are still very fluid. But as the kids say “just send it” and that happens tomorrow. Even with the pandemic still around, that idea of mine is still very provocative, a simplistic and juvenile wish that has no chance - well maybe, but my goal is to try and disseminate the idea and start to normalize the conversation. I don’t earn my living doing this - like others do. I can try things, even embarrass myself and I won’t pay the price others will. So I play the “fool visionary” and try to get a voice at the World Trade Organization. And I actually don’t mind the moniker of “fool visionary”, history will put it all in perspective as it always does…..



Talk, talk, and more talk, but it gets sent tomorrow.



Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/Nsrh-tjOP3I

[Maurice Ali]

Sometimes I wonder if you guys look at the world as I
do…..



My radical view is that we perceive things around us not as it actually is, but with what our senses detect, and they don’t detect everything. Then, apart from our animal encoding, we try to make sense of this by “connecting the dots” in a way that relates to the things we perceive and can be manipulated in a way that can be of beneficial use to us. All this is not the way it may actually be or the only way to perceive and operate in the world. Then, if one particular system works, we build on that (science as an example) and build on that till we think there are no other alternatives.



There are alternatives, but the task of building and developing them to compete with the way things are now is almost a fool’s mission. But - in the field of philosophy we can try to play with different ideas. The problem here is that academia is run like a business, it’s a brand (the university) and professors that think out of the box cast disrepute to the brand by the general public, and thus these learning institutions may not be the best place for radical ideas that don’t build on an established science - for example.



So that’s where jokers like me come in. There are other ways to think, other ways to connect the dots in our perception. Those connections are just for our convenience, our physicality and limitations. They are not ultimate reality. Stray too far from convention and you are labeled a crack pot. Stray just a little and your a “fool visionary”. Stray just a little but your ideas can be monetized and you are now a genius!



You get the idea.



There are places in the world that openly look for people with new ideas that can be of help. And it’s surprisingly easy to get in there if you are worthy or have interesting ideas. So you can be totally unnoticed living under a rock and just decide to flip a switch, and there you are at some very prestigious places pitching ideas. The people at these places know all this and the whole thing just flies over the heads of the general public. But humanity needs that source of people who can think outside of the box and come up with ideas to help in any crisis or development going on.



So that’s partly my story here. They gave me a listen, it’s all archived here. Whether they want to keep listening to more of what I have is another matter. We shall see. They probably won’t mind me just hanging around these places just in case I could be of use somewhere, but who knows….



My life story for the past 20 years…..



Anyway - back to the present and the WTO dissemination. They have extended the application deadline for one more week. So I’ll probably submit on Monday with a revised paper specific to the World Trade Organization and a tweaked cell phone app for them as well. There are no guarantees the event will even happen. There could be a another variant wave. Things are uncertain, but uncertainty is advantageous to me. This does not mean I score, but the odds are better than in normal times. You just play it out…..



Even the Olympics in Japan are no sure thing and we are weeks away! There was new Japanese math rock released yesterday and I don’t know if you guys are into that. My tastes in music are eclectic…..



I don’t see things like most of you, or I have more than one way of looking at things. It doesn’t help you get laid, but were you really interested in her mind, or did you just need a “piece of meat” as one girl quipped at me decades ago…..hehehehehe….. Me being myself is an acquired taste, but for some it works….. I do find it interesting that when I close my mind here the traffic goes up and vice versa. Closing your mind to become popular with the general public? Well I’d rather come up with new ideas and have good looking influencers take it from there and make it popular. If you are wondering how a troglodyte like me can have good looking people hanging around him, well they might not be all that dumb. Working for me must be better for these attractive “guns for hire” than pitching the latest man-scape accessories - but I digress…..




Goodnight…..



https://youtu.be/VBTIpDeBQcg

[Maurice Ali]

An end of an era - CDs and DVDS are now a thing of the past…..





The forth of June was the last day to buy CDs and DVDS from Amazon but is now listed as “unavailable”. The music can still be listened to as MP3s on Amazon or Mp4s on iTunes but now the only physical media we sell is books. Speaking of books, look where my last book will be selling:







I’m still waiting for the search engines to really rank up the book so it shows without having to truly dig for it. But this weekend it’s the WTO stuff. Certainly I want the paper done this weekend and to get started with the app. The app doesn’t have to be completely finished but the paper should be out there at least. Then I send the application in.


Apart from that Saturday should see me catching up on sleep with Sunday making the big inroads with the WTO paper. Things are moving ahead…..



Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/9LYEbWnxzYc

[Maurice Ali]

I was in the mood - or in the zone - so I made the WTO cellphone app and also did some more work on the WTO academic paper.



That should mean we are close to sending in the application to the WTO and seeing what happens. But keep everything in perspective as the whole event is easily scuttled with the pandemic is still raging. I got my second shot of AstraZeneca last week, so my fellow Edmontonian (Sir John Bell) and his AstraZeneca vaccine will not cringe at me if I run into him at some event and we reminisce - trust me, the world is smaller than you think, it could happen and guaranteed to happen if I took the Pfizer shot. Even if he was Knighted by the Queen, he still left Edmonton in his mid-twenties, and trust me, he will put the screws to me to find out what shots I got cause I had a choice and I better be “solid” and not a “turn coat” or else….. This is a matter of pride and fidelity to him personally. Trust me on this - this is the way things work…..



I almost slept the whole of Saturday so I should be fresh for a few days. The Mustang is over due for its rad fluid leak, I always think it will go away but it never does. The only question is to live with it if it doesn’t get worse or just fix it myself. I could fix it myself as it’s an easy fix at the front of the engine; but I shouldn’t have to as it’s under warranty. Anyway, this is the most reliable and best built car I ever owned, every other Mustang owner suffers more with these cars, but my experience has been one of the best - go figure…..



Goodnight…..

[Maurice Ali]

For those who know what to do with this - here is the app download:



https://IAIJ.org/WTO_PARTICIPATE.apk



I’m getting my dad his second Covid shot now so I have to be brief. If you have an Android phone, download the program and make exceptions as it’s not from the Google Playstore. I have already submitted the app to be vetted for malware so you can skip that precaution. It works on Lollipop but that is all I know at this moment, so we may have some bugs in there. So give it a try and buzz me at fortressoffreedom@gmail.com if you have an issue especially with the later and present releases!



Thanks in advance!



Maurice





https://youtu.be/azqzgrOLWdg

[Maurice Ali]

Well the weekend was productive…..




The app icon on the home screen!



I got the cellphone app done and the WTO paper done late Sunday night. So all I have to do now is submit the application. I’ll re-read it a few times on Monday but there really isn’t any reason not to just send it in now.




The first page of the app!



Above is the app icon on the Home Screen to launch the WTO app and below that is the fist page of the app. I had to stay with Android as coding and updating for iOS is a royal pain. It I’ll let you iPhone fans see screen shots of the app, it’s very similar to the UN app. I suppose some of you will muse that I’m just wasting my time and even if I do the workshop it has no chance. Maybe, but many things are in flux now, nothing is certain. That pandemic has made it easier for me to get into competitive venues. The Director-General of the World Trade Organization is now not the usual person you would think but instead it is Madam Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and that is her in the app screen shot below.




The WTO page of the app!



So nothing is certain anymore and I play things out. It gets harder and harder for me as we go along but I’m healthy and ready for anything. It is family responsibilities and things around me that make things complicated, but I am fine and 100%. Trade in the world is changing with the African free trade agreement that started this year, and now may be the best time to do this. So we submit on Monday and see if anything happens…..



Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/2W4tLqd8kd4

[Maurice Ali]

So I submitted the application on Monday…..




The proof I applied!



Everything went well until at the end when I had to enter the moderator and participants. For this one it would just be me and a bunch of cellphones but the application needed three names. I submitted my self as just the moderator - it would not submit with red script telling me I needed two panelists. So basically the two “fields” had to be filled and I wasn’t going to lie so I just put myself down as a panelist and punched in “Not Available” for panelist number 2. It worked and I got the successful submission web page and a corroborating email. However, that requirement got me really aggravated!



Holding an event in Geneva is expensive as Geneva is one of the most expensive places to visit. Let’s say it costs you 5 thousand dollars to go there, add two more and you are at 15,00.00 - and who is paying for that? I’m not saying that is happening here, but having the personnel requirement really cuts down in the applications due to cost. So the public outreach is not so public after all, unless someone with money sponsors you, but then there is the aspect of influence and other corrupting aspects at play here. I saw “red” when that happened and the atmosphere became more combative already before I even submitted the application.



The idea that the guy going to the WTO to get the public involved at the WTO’s “Public Forum” would be denied entry like this is truly laughable! It would give me the opportunity to make a “Hail Mary” pass at going to the Director General herself as an FYI on the situation.


Going to the public for consultation and outreach is a prerogative of the WTO - it is true as of its constitution - but if you do go there it should be as fair as possible or else why bother. For me the application deadline was extended because they could not fill all the slots and our application went in a week before it closed as per the original deadline. Then we have our workshop being relevant to this year’s theme, and the legitimate claim that because of Covid, it is no guarantee that I could get other panelists to travel. All this taken together should have our application taken seriously - so we shall see.




Jelleestone's fans at the stage barricades at FOFSTOCK!



So, that done I can take it easy and what do I do? I watch YouTube videos of the worst music festivals of all time - I kid you not! Having done FOFSTOCK is getting me salty for FOFSTOCK 2 before I’m put out to pasture. So I look at what happened to others. Monday night was “Bull Island” where the promoters had a good first experience - like me - and then tried to go bigger and became one of the worst music festivals of all time and basically bankrupted the promoters and sent them to jail. I don’t want that - but I’ll watch it happen to others…… Even the injunction stuff was reflected with us and the rap acts and we got shut down for like 5 minutes till the crowd started to riot, basically you have to get your head examined to do outdoor music festivals…..




Night time crowd!




Goodnight…..






https://youtu.be/RwxcKLN_yrE



https://youtu.be/mN_g1Ml06f8

[Maurice Ali]

Let me add one extra thing about the WTO…..



Intergovernmental entities have their own vibe. UNESCO is probably the most academic and maybe the most idealistic here - from my limited experience.



The WORLD BANK seems much more of international commerce and this will be really challenging for me - but it has to be said that they did credit my involvement there even though I was shut out of a session.



The UN is somewhere in between with idealism at ECOSOC and pragmatism when member nations meet. I get to go to the UN where ECOSOC and similar events are involved but when the member nations have their annual meetings held in September - I am always left out.



The WTO is still a mystery to me. We just have to wait and see what happens even if it is nothing at all. It is what it is and “I” mean nothing there as an individual. If I get a chance to talk then all bets are off. If they deny me the event but allow me at least to state my case for inclusion - that is still a score. They owe me nothing and all I can do is react at this stage. It’s still very much an adventure and for the WTO I would say it is a good thing to let people like me “test” the organization and disseminate new ideas. The WTO is not the UN and it is its own thing. I haven’t a clue what will happen - you just have to wait and see…..


Unlike most idealists, I can still function at the World Bank/IMF and the WTO. I may be an idealist but I’m also a businessman. Where an academic would just toss up their hands in frustration and walk away, I could have a chance to approach it differently and achieve the desired outcome - because I can use self-interest to get what I want - and I don’t mean my self-interest. Academics don’t have this ability as they never needed it in those white ivory towers, it was never cultivated so they are the wrong tool for the job here. Here you need a cultivated savage, someone like me but educated and beholden to a moral imperative, that’s rare but I am one of them. This barbarian is at the gates but he’s no ordinary barbarian! I have a chance at these places…..