TED Community » Marek Kasiak

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Understanding terrorism in the age of post colonial powers and emergence of the 'new terrorism' discours in the early 90's.

An idea worth spreading

creative commons

Talk to me about

politics, international security, multiculturalism, terrorism, role of the media in shaping current CT policies

My TED Story

Sometimes you just need to do sth for other people, rather than only for yourself.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +277.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +3

  A reply on Conversation: What are the best ways to stop wasting water?

  Aug 28 2011: by giving positive example to other communities. When planning to make a change in the world, we need to start by changing ourselves. Cliché, however still actual.

• A comment on Conversation: TED is helpful to us, powerful, great!

  Aug 5 2011: Dear Dong, that's great that you find TED community helpful and interesting. You have to know that you are not alone it this attitude. Remember that TED Conversations can help you in developing some ideas and getting further information. Hope to hear from you often, whether participating in debates, ideas or just asking questions!

• A reply on Conversation: If evolutionary success is analogous with reproductive success, why do men not live longer than women?

  Aug 2 2011: I totally agree with Sabin, at least in the matter of staying fertile till death. Male reproductive system is considerably simple, thus it can stay efficient for a long time, although with some age it gets only worse. It's like with contemporary technology - the more composed it is, the less durable it becomes.
  
  Referring to the men life expectancy, there are various factors that influence it, which are not connected to natural predispositions. First of all, it is cultural position of men in the society. Having position of protector of the family and main provider of money/food/etc (of course in last century it has drastically changed) they were working in worse conditions (e.g. heavy industry). Secondly, the psychological factors cannot be denied. Men are less talkative and as such, have more problems with dealing with emontions. This amplifies the stress factor that seriously impacts the life expectancy.

• A comment on Conversation: Examinations vs. Coursework in Education?

  Aug 2 2011: Well, of course, as you've pointed out, coursework makes students to engage into learning process and definitely is far more effective than only an examination session. However, it seems to be necessary to mark that coursework makes students to focus only on the small part of the module material, whereas preparation to exams require broader knowledge.
  In my opinion British higher education system is one of the best. At my former university (Aberystwyth) 60-50% of my mark was the coursework, the rest of my mark was composed with exam result.

• A reply on Conversation: Should Our Income Tax Be Replaced by a Graduated Consumpion Tax?

  Jul 1 2011: the fact that 20% hold 80% of wealth doesn't mean that they will run more transactions that would be burdened with higher taxes. I'm afraid that income from Richard's proposition wouldn't balanced what is paid by the poorest.

• A reply on Conversation: Should Our Income Tax Be Replaced by a Graduated Consumpion Tax?

  Jul 1 2011: Dain, it is not a case that wealthy people feel they have the right to keep more of the money they make than the poorer. We cannot penalize people for that they produce more goods and as such - earn more money. Productivity (ideas, industrial back-up, ability to invest in projects, etc) shouldn't be limited by higher tax rates. High costs of maintaining workers would effectively repel potential investors to develop their businesses. I would rather argue that what we need is a flat rate tax so the burden would be equal for all parts of the society. I just believe that we shouldn't put different tax rate on people having different salaries or general wealth. This is the wealthiest part of the society that creates new jobs and generally improves the economic condition of the lower classes.
  Furthermore, as I've mentioned above, I doubt if such tax transition - proposed by Richard - could counterweight current state income. Unfortunately, the income of tax from basic commodities (so goods costing less than 100$) plays too important role to be easily crossed off from the budget.
  
  I come from the country where for almost 50year we had socialist system that, at least in its ideological framework, was about to improve condition of the poorest part of the society by putting greater burden on the wealthiest. As probably you know, that haven't ended well.
  
  
  @Mark Meyer - by referring to 'wealthiest' I mean upper-middle and upper class of the society what stands for small, as well as big, companies. There is one more thing that needs to be set up for a framework of our discussion - namely to what kind of the society are we referring? My opinion is based on a structure of societies living within the EU.

• A comment on Conversation: Should Our Income Tax Be Replaced by a Graduated Consumpion Tax?

  Jul 1 2011: indeed, it's interesting. However I'm a little bit afraid that wealth disproportion in the society would seriously undermined state's budget. What do I mean by that? Wealth distribution in the world has very specific construction. The most wealthy stand for small per cent of the society. Although they would pay more taxes, when spending more money, I'm afraid that it wouldn't cover the loss deriving from releasing the poorest from the tax obligation. Unfortunately, financially we cannot let ourselves to lower taxes on the commodities.
  
  Although your idea sounds beautiful and idyllic, it would seriously harass financial stability. Not mentioning that such tax structure would be penalizing the wealthiest part of the society for being successful.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Which video do you recommend to watch on TED website? a one which is really fun to watch and new at the same time.

  Jul 1 2011: If you like talks kept in convention of the stand-ups I recommend you to watch 'Jamil Abu-Wardeh: The Axis of Evil Middle East Comedy Tour'
  
  http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jamil_abu_wardeh_bringing_comedy_to_the_axis_of_evil.html
  
  personally, I find it really entertaining :)
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: [POLSKI] Skad brac liderow wspolczesnego swiata?

  Jun 28 2011: Muszę przyznać, że zaciekawiła mnie twoja odpowiedź. Szczególnie, że została podparta argumentem płynącym z życia codziennego. Niemniej jednak co budzi mój niepokój, to proces 'wyłapywania' osób z cechami przywódczymi i przekazywaniu ich do 'przywódczej' edukacji. Obawiam się, że taki proces prowadziłby do uiszczenia się Wells'owego podziału społeczeństwa na Morloki i Elojów. Zdolności przywódcze nie leżą w genach, a raczej są kształtowane przez środowisko. Tworząc klasę przywódczą, z której rekrutowani byliby liderzy, odebrano by szanse sprawdzenia się ludziom z innych środowisk. Taki podział zaś łatwo może prowadzić do wzrostu rozwarstwienia społecznego. Problem ten szczególnie jest widoczny w krajach trzeciego świata, gdzie dostęp do edukacji nie jest tak powszechny jak w świecie Zachodu.
  Skupiając się jednak na naszym podwórku, tym samym odnosząc się też do twoich doświadczeń, uważam, że problem leży w naszym szkolnictwie ogólnym. Tzn. istnieje potrzeba warsztatów pracy w grupie oraz zarządzania projektami skierowanych do młodzieży.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: How would you descrbe the role of the mass media in our perceptions about inmigration?

  Feb 19 2011: According to constructivists, culture shapes identity, that significantly impacts our goals, aims and interests. By such, it influences our perceptions of politics, of civic life of nations, of society. The role of pop-media in this process cannot be denied. TV-series, Hollywood blockbusters, newsreels, radio broadcasts and even games, play crucial part in opinion-making process. By presenting particular topic in specific way, they creates notions and archetypes. By doing so – the way society perceives the world issues, amongst them the issue of immigration.
  
  As regarding the problem of description of immigration in media, I believe there is no better example than British TV, that is creating an image of bad Muslim immigration. In aftermath of 9/11 and 7/7 bombings, according to recent pools ran in UK, most of news coverage is focused on security/threat issues (‘The British Media and Muslim Representation: The Ideology of Democratization’). It's not hard to find that while describing these issues, media are focussed on Islamic terrorism, Muslim extremism, etc. By giving so big attention to such issues, there emerges direct link between threat and disturbances and Muslim society - thus immigration becomes affected.