Tapping into human capital worldwide

I just spent ten minutes on Google blog search attempting to find a blog or blog post that says what I want to say, but I couldn't find one.  Which is unfortunate, but hopefully the ideas I attempt to put forth here will become an increasing motivation of human consciousness in the years to come, as technology, education, transportation, and mass communication continue to penetrate the U.S. as well as the rest of the world.

For humans, progress comes from a single place, and that is innovation.  However, innovation has certain pre-requisites.  These include everything below self actualization on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. For those of you unfamiliar with Maslow's hierarchy, refer Here.  The hierarchy is as follows, from bottom to top:

Physiological
Safety
Love/Belonging
Esteem
Self-Actualization

The two I would like to concentrate on here are physiological and safety.  This is because the scourge that is currently depriving the world of much of the innovation it could potentially have are a failure to fulfill these first two stages.  For instance, the very poor in any country, including developing countries but particularly undeveloped ones, do not have their physiological needs met.  That is food, water, shelter.  No person is going to help discover a cure for cancer if they don't have any food to eat, or clean water to drink.  This also includes health.  No one is capable of working and innovating if they are bedridden with malaria or the later stages of AIDS.

The second level of importance is safety.  This is the degree to which a person is free from the fear that they will be shot, raped, have their possessions stolen, or be evicted from their home.  This, I think, is the key problem of our time to address, because safety is directly linked to the fulfillment of physiological needs.  For example, if there is widespread war, and economic output is directed toward the construction of weapons and ammunition rather than the production of food or the running of hospitals, physiological needs will go unmet.  Additionally, if those who produce the food and run the hospitals are killed or imprisoned, then you have the same problem.  Instability, and unfulfillment of basic needs.

Because I believe that the second level of Maslow's hierarchy, safety, is inextricably linked to the first level, physiological needs, I am going to concentrate here on the problem of safety.

The most violent places in the world, including:

Mexico: drug wars
Middle east and north Africa: suicide bombings, sectarian violence
Africa: genocide, government corruption, dictatorships

deprive the people of the world the innovation and economic output and prosperity that the most talented and driven people in those countries could potentially produce.  For example, the rate of progress of science, technology, and medicine, are inferior to what they could be if only the people in those countries lived in a secure environment where they could focus on achievement rather than survival.

I know there are numerous watchdog groups, such as Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch, who do an awesome job shedding light on violence, extrajudicial punishments, corrupt regimes, and the like.  But where are the international, citizen-run organizations that actually affect change?  That is, where are the citizen-run organizations that actually help create the revolutions, help fund the revolutionaries, and ultimately help protect the people who by themselves are unable to affect the change that would enable them and their families to live in peace?

Right now, the toppling of these regimes and inciting of revolutions take the form of covert government operations.  But why not have an international organization run by citizens, not governments, that engages in these activities instead?  Then the radicals in the middle east with the need for a reason to hate the free world will have to say "death to the people who want to liberate our women and minorities from oppression" instead of "death to America." They can't pin it on one country....  this is the will of everyone in the free world who is safe, altruistic, and has benefitted from the economic prosperity and safety that comes from living in a society that listens to its people.

That type of organization is what I would like to be a part of....  I haven't found anything yet, but maybe there is one out there.  And if not, maybe I can start one.

Terminus

In this blog I will write my thoughts about the endpoint of our efforts as a human race, and what actions we would best be served by.

In the framework of perception I have built up over my lifetime, I am operating under the following assumptions.

1. There is no God
2. Human emotion is an intrinsic reward, and it is the only reason for our existence.  Outside of our own frame of reference, viewed from an objective, neutral universe, our existence does not have value - just as the existence of anything at all does not have value.