Charles Lemos
Since more than a few have asked to know about me here's a quick bio. I am Colombian by birth, but San Francisco has been my home since 1997 though I attended Stanford University both undergrad and grad so I have lived in the Bay Area on and off since 1981 with stints in San Diego, Vietnam, Indonesia, Colombia and Switzerland. I am a historian by training but I also have an MA in International Public Policy and an MBA and that led to a long stint on Wall Street as an equity analyst but I have also found employment as a university professor, an employee of UNICEF doing relief work in West Africa, a food writer, and an export consultant. Now I work for a non-profit that does development/education work in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. I also sit on the Board of Directors of two other non-profits that primarily do community work in the US and abroad. I also write and travel extensively, five months a year. I've been the world over and that tempers my judgment and extends my horizons, oddly enough confirming my earliest suspicions about the beauty and wonder of this one planet of ours.
Politically, I consider myself a progressive Liberal. Once I thought neo-liberal economic theory the key to progress but now I confess my guilt for the evidence does seem to run to the contrary. Globalization in my mind is becoming a race to the bottom for most of humanity. That's quite statement considering I once worked at Wall Street investment banks such Alex. Brown & Sons and Goldman Sachs. I am also a member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and I believe that we live in a world of rapidly diminishing resources that when coupled with unrestrained population growth amidst climatic change and environmental degradation presents significant challenges to humanity. On onegoodmove, Norm asked me to contribute on issues such as the role of corporations in civil society, income inequality, Friedmanism and global poverty, and natural resource depeletion. I may also contribute on subjects such as game theory in regards to politics, geo-politics, evolution and items of historical interests as they arise. I promise that my future contributions while perhaps still provocative will also be less polemical and less full of hyperole. I've read every single comments and I'm afraid that I can't respond to each and every one but I will note that many point out valid and fair criticisms that I have taken to heart. I am also a committed Darwinist. I am currently reading The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David Landes. The most important books I read in 2007 were Naomi Klein's "The End of America: A Letter to A Young Patriot," Naomi Wolf's "The Shock Doctrine," and Alan Weissman's "World Without Us." I have a forthcoming book due out in late 2008 entitled "1859: The Age of Oil and The Age of Darwinism- Shifts in the Human Paradigm. I've written two other books of which one is a cookbook and the other is only available in Spanish. And I've written extensively on the food and drug /supermarket industry and on Wal-Mart. I hope this clears the air somewhat and allows us to move on and discuss how science and progressive liberalism might serve to advance the cause of human progress.
