Why democracy is not THE answer

It is generally a truth that democracies don't wage war - this is one reason why the US and its allies have been promoting democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere. Open transparent democracies do provide A check on government's abusing their authority and attacking their citizens and neighbours. However, many democracies are not open and transparent (South Africa is slipping down that path, Egypt isn't much of a democracy and neither is Russia), and it is A check not THE check. You see, it is fine if the majority want peace and to live in harmony with each other and their neighbours - but what if a democracy votes to destroy a neighbouring democracy? This is what the Ayn Rand Institute rightly points out in its latest Op-ed - because the US promotion of democracy is entirely consistent with Hizbullah being part of the Lebanese government, and with Hamas running the Palestinian Authority.

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"The essence of democracy is unlimited majority rule. It is the notion that the government should not be constrained, as long as its behavior is sanctioned by majority vote. It is the notion that the very function of government is to implement the "will of the people." It is the notion espoused whenever we tell the Lebanese, the Iraqis, the Palestinians and the Afghanis that the legitimacy of a new government flows from its being democratically approved.
And it is the notion that was categorically repudiated by the founding of the United States."

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Exactly. The US was founded on having a constitutionally limited democracy.

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The op-ed continues:

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"America's defining characteristic is freedom. Freedom exists when there are limitations on government, imposed by the principle of individual rights. America was established as a republic, under which the state is restricted to protecting our rights. This is not a system of "democracy." Thus, you are free to criticize your neighbors, your society, your government--no matter how many people wish to pass a law censoring you. You are free to own your property--no matter how large a mob wants to take it from you. The rights of the individual are inalienable. But if "popular will" were the standard, the individual would have no rights--only temporary privileges, granted or withdrawn according to the mass mood of the moment. The tyranny of the majority, as the Founders understood, is just as evil as the tyranny of an absolute monarch. Yes, we have the ability to vote, but that is not the yardstick by which freedom is measured. After all, even dictatorships hold official elections. It is only the existence of liberty that justifies, and gives meaning to, the ballot box. In a genuinely free country, voting pertains only to the means of safeguarding individual rights. There can be no moral "right" to vote to destroy rights."

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Germans elected Hitler and his allies, and they then destroyed German democracy, freedom and went out to destroy millions of people.

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Democracy is now being used against the US and the West, because it has handed to people on a plate, the tool to legitimise their murderous intent.

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"But then, if a religious majority imposes its theology on Iraq, or if Palestinian suicide-bombers execute their popular mandate by blowing up Israeli schoolchildren, on what basis can we object, since democracy--"the will of the people"--is being faithfully served? As a spokesman for Hamas, following its electoral victory, correctly noted: "I thank the United States that they have given us this weapon of democracy. . . . It's not possible for the U.S. . . . to turn its back on an elected democracy."

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So is it any wonder that some in the Muslim world believe the US is hypocritical. It has been pushing the wrong barrow. It is harder to promote individualism is a world dominated by nationalist, religiously inspired tribalists dedicated to bullying their way around the lives of others.

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The point about democracy has been made by PC several times and myself. Democracy is not THE answer, at best it is one small component. Government is like an engine on a car, democracy is a steering wheel, but without individual rights - there are no brakes on it.

Indonesia tsunami

On Monday afternoon, in less than an hour, Java gets hit by a Tsunami that has killed 500 and 50,000 are homeless. You see according to the BBC "It currently takes scientists up to 60 minutes to receive and analyse the data from 30 seismological stations and send out a warning. ".

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Well that's helpful. Tsunamis should always be well over an hour from shore.

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"We were told that there had been an earthquake and the tsunami might come in a couple of days... we never expected it." said one local.

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So even when the information is disseminated it is wrong. Yes, it is difficult to get this right under short notice, but the excuses are appalling. Broadcasting messages across all radio stations is easy, sending police vehicles with loudspeakers around villages is easy.

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"US and Japanese agencies issued tsunami alerts for parts of Indonesia and Australia, but the Indonesian government says it was unable to relay the message to the coast. "

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Funnily enough, while Indonesia is now relatively free and open, totalitarian societies very quickly round up dissenters and put down demonstrations because it is in their interests to do so. Presumably it wasn't sufficiently a priority for the Indonesian authorities to warn their people of the tsunami. Hopefully there wont be a third time.

Hotter still

35 degrees where I am, which is why the Daily Express (ugh) printed this photo. Predicting 37 degrees. Smart people are leaving dogs in closed cars or sheds without water - something which should be done back to them.

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Nice to see British roads being torn up too, maintenance on many London roads is utter crap because it is decided by politicians who prefer to direct funding to largely empty buses.

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The Daily Mirror reports that London public transport is experiencing temperatures illegal under EU regulations for transporting animals:

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"One bus hit 126F(52C), while 117F (47C) was registered on the Central Line Tube. EU guidelines say animals should not be transported above 81F (27C)."

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Of course the fun Nazis are out in force, including the school that banned pupils taking sunscreen to school in case it gives any of the other kids an allergic reaction. "We have over 200 children and some might have allergies to nut oils and other allergens. They'd go into each other's drawers, share it and might even eat it." said the HeadMistress, who to be fair was only following "health and safety rules". Well maybe the teacher could have it and apply it, nooo that might be sexual abuse rubbing sunscreen on a child's legs - what is a teacher to do?

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Damn Britain is weather obsessed, I wont blog about this again!

What Lebanon is really about

Tony Blair has railed against Syria and Iran’s proxy war being waged with Hizbullah.
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Blair is quoted by the Daily Telegraph this morning:

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“At root, we need to recognise the fundamental nature of the struggle in the region, which has far-reaching consequences far beyond that region and even in countries like our own. All over the Middle East there are those who want to modernise their nations, who believe as we do in democracy and liberty and tolerance. But ranged against them are extremists who believe the opposite, who believe in fundamentalist states and are at war not against Israel's actions but against its existence."

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He has been supported by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (not exactly a paean of freedom and democracy, but Egypt too has faced Islamist terror). Mubarak considered the actions of both Hamas and Hizbullah as " losing sight of the main Palestinian goal of obtaining an independent state." He is right. There wont be a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza as long as Israel is getting attacked directly by the terrorist wing of the Palestinian government.

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Meanwhile, Syria and Iran have issued a joint statement calling on Israel to withdraw completely from the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Jerusalem (the last mentioned so that the Palestinian government led by people committed to wiping out Israel can have a capital there), get rid of its nuclear deterrence and let Iran do as it wishes with nuclear technology. None of it says that Israel will then be secure, none of it calls on Syria and Iran to recognise Israel's right to exist, none of it says that terrorist groups Hamas and Hizbullah would then be disarmed, none of it says that Syria's one-party state will be open to political plurality and freedom of speech. Interesting that an Islamic fundamentalist state (Iran) and a secularist one-party dictatorship (Syria) are such good friends.

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The funniest part is this "The two sides expressed concern over continuation of foreign intervention in the internal affairs of the countries in the region drawing attention to the negative repercussions of such intervention on stability and security of the region." Funny that they are concerned about something both of them do regularly, but then this is how Syria treats those who might raise this issue in Damascus:

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"A metal seat with movable parts to which the detainees feet and hands are tied. By bending the chair’s main frame to the rear so that immense pressure is exerted on the neck and joints. This creates great difficulty in breathing and may lead to unconsciousness. One version of these chairs is called the Syrian Chair, where the metal parts are fixed at the front chair legs, to which the detainee’s legs are tied. This leads to the bleeding of the ankles, and is accompanied with beating."

Hysterical Greens says Federated Farmers President

Stuff reports that Federated Farmer’s President Charlie Pedersen has been laying into ecologists saying:
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“I say shame on the people who elevate environmentalism to a religious status, shame on you for your arrogance, shame on all of us for allowing the environmentalists' war against the human race to begin, and take hold,"
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Quite right. It is a war against the human race. What human beings create and consume is bad, whereas what nature creates and destroys is good. Most environmentalists think they are at tune with humanity, but the “it’s compulsory or banned” ethos of many of the Greens reveals this attitude that the Green’s interest in democracy and peace draws the line when the majority choose to buy what the Greens don’t like (e.g. cars), or grow what they don’t like (in which case peace is the last thing on the mind of ecologists).
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Unfortunately Charlie Pedersen hasn’t heard of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT) otherwise he wouldn’t have said "I am yet to hear any environmentalist admit that rolling back agriculture's intensification would have to be matched by worldwide starvation or a matching reduction in population”. Because VHEMT believes that world population should reduce, not to 5 billion or 1 billion or even 1 million, but zero. These perverts think that which was created spontaneously by nature is beautiful, but the only creature on the planet that understands how it was made, how it works and can harness it to do things that defy nature (e.g. travel beyond the speed of sound, communicate vast distances showing images and sound) are bad. This is the natural endpoint to radical environmentalism - killing off humanity.
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The key difference between many ecologists and the likes of Pedersen (and myself) is that we don’t believe that preserving nature is, by itself, of inherently greater value than any other activity. After all, New Zealand would be a third world nature park if much of its land hadn’t been cleared for agricultural use. This is not a “pave the world” argument, it is moving from the extremism that says that (to borrow from Monty Python):
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every tree is sacred,
every bird is great,
if a dune is built on,
Greens get quite irate.
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every bush is wanted,

every swamp is good,

every bug is needed,

in your neighbourhood.
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To recognition that sometimes people value nature, millions like tramping, sightseeing, have their own gardens, visit parks in cities and national parks. Those are activities that (assuming those that value it pay for it) demonstrate that many people in the capitalist developed world value nature, enormously.
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Pedersen continued “Many ordinary citizens had bought into the environmental teachings that the world was on the road to ruin, and with it, mankind. They were adopting these teachings without proper scrutiny because of the "green" movement's momentum.” This is all true, the Greens have an Armageddon mentality. It is one that the media loves to use, because it sells papers and gets attention on broadcasts - in addition, most reporters aren't very bright. They take what lobby groups tell them and don't do any investigations themselves - this is why the word nuclear is a synonym for hysteria in New Zealand, but not France or Japan.

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The current fads for the "end of the planet" are peak oil and global warming, past ones being overpopulation, water “running out” and a new ice age. Now if human induced global warming is happening, it is NOT the end of the world, humanity wont die out – it doesn’t mean that roads will be empty because nobody will have a car, it doesn’t mean mass flooding and bad weather everywhere. It may be cheaper to do nothing about global warming that to undertake interventionist measures that reduce net welfare (e.g. focusing on expensive local production of goods rather than cheaper more efficient imports, which may exacerbate poverty in poorer countries). Technology already means that new cars today burn less fuel and burn it cleaner than ever before, and that power generation is equally more efficient and cleaner - in other words, economic efficiency can be parallel to environmental efficiency. However you can hardly plan it, like the Green obsession with trains.
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A key problem is the shrill loud voice of the irrational emotive environmental lobby. One of those is Cath Wallace, who is reported as describing Mr Pedersen's comments as "hysterical" and said he had missed the point of debate about sustainable development. Cath Wallace would know about hysterical – she waged a hysterical campaign against National’s relatively minor proposed tinkering of the RMA in the late 90s. Check out this quote from an article written by her:

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“We could aim to maintain and protect natural, cultural and social capital – and to be as vigilant about these as we are with public and private financial capital. This means that we would maintain the environment intact, with limits to protect natural processes, systems, places and ecosystems. Decision rules such as the precautionary principle that suggest that we avoid actions with significant irreversible adverse consequences or consequences which we cannot predict.”

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So you see she knows the value of natural capital or even cultural and social capital. Meaningless concepts being thrown about. Her advocacy of the precautionary principle would have seen aviation banned from the start because planes could fall out of the air and set some bushes on fire, or the electric light (who knows what damage that could do to plants photosynthesising at night) or antiseptic in hospitals (the disposal of antiseptic could damage all sorts of precious ecosystems). Avoiding actions with consequences which we cannot predict would stop almost everyone doing almost anything interesting - don't set up a business, don't meet new people, don't invent something new, don't develop a new drug - just be a sticky beak taxpayer tit sucking econazi telling people what not to do because of the "intrinsic" value you place on anything not produced by human being. Absolutely absurd.

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A more recent press release from her and one of her supporters commenting on the 2006 Budget says:

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“In stark contrast there is no major increase in public transport funding, yet this is urgently required. This does double harm. We will have more greenhouse gases, more lethal air pollution, higher future health costs from vehicle pollution and from the spread of infectious diseases as our climate becomes more mosquito friendly to spread diseases like Ross River Virus, dengue fever and other nasties."

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There is no evidence whatsoever that subsidising public transport reduces greenhouse gas emissions. None. There is evidence that building some road projects reduces greenhouse gas emissions, by easing congestion and eliminating bottlenecks. So because public transport isn't getting more subsidies, New Zealand might get dengue fever. A flyover on the Western Hutt Road gets built getting rid of two annoying sets of traffic lights on a 4-lane highway, and fuck me silly but the Tropic of Capricorn is now the Tropic of Milford and dengue fever is rife along the Manawatu River.

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What’s more hysterical than that?

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The education system has inculcated this guilt trip for a good generation now. This is why as Pedersen puts it:

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"They often give support to relieve themselves of any guilt about their lifestyle. Kiwis must understand that ill thought out environmental controls based on emotion rather than science will inevitably lead to a reduced standard of living."

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Indeed!