The real cause of African poverty

The Ayn Rand Institute has an excellent press release describing the true moral status of the claims of those who want the G8 to bail out Africa's poverty. Africa is not poor because we made it so.

^

It says:

^

"Africa is poor because it is rife with bloody tribalism and superstition--ideas that in the Dark Ages kept the Western world as poor, if not poorer, than today's Africa. If aid advocates were genuinely concerned with helping Africans, they would campaign for political and economic freedom, for individualism, reason and capitalism, for the ideas necessary to achieve prosperity."

^

Indeed, but what happens when Tony Blair meets Thabo Mbeke, a practitioner of superstition and backer (by deed if not word) of the murdering destructive Robert Mugabe? He says very little. South Africa is slowly but surely sliding down the path that destroyed Zimbabwe and did little for the rest of Africa. Talk of promoting property rights, individual freedom and rights is seen as "culturally inappropriate", when it is fundamental to human development, growth and prosperity.

^

Reason will save Africa, superstition, ethnic squabbling and corrupt kleptocracies will continue to milk Western aid for the benefit of few, whilst the majority scratch out a living.

^

Similarly, removing barriers to free trade to and from Africa (which means the West opening up and Africa opening up) will greatly reduce costs of doing business in Africa and open markets to African goods and services.

^

Most of those who say they care for Africa only demand money, money and more money, ignoring the families of African politicians who jet into Heathrow to go shopping at Harrods, staying in 5 star hotels. Wiping debt, only for new debt to be borrowed. Why not? It will be wiped again. As the Ayn Rand Institute points out:

^

"advocates barrage wealthy nations with reproaches and accusations of stinginess. Such abuse is necessary to induce the unearned guilt which impels Western leaders to do penance by sacrificing billions more in aid."

^

There is nothing wrong with private aid, donations through voluntary agencies who do genuine benevolent good work in such things as disease prevention, installing wells, education programmes and the like - directly helping those in need. However, the agenda that should be pursued should be primarily:

- Liberalise trade. The West can open up markets and stop subsiding exports into other markets that African countries cannot compete with;

- Isolate brutal regimes. Don't supply intergovernmental aid to those that do not reform, treat them with contempt and starve them of aid, debt and arms, so they can no longer persecute their people or live the high life off of them;

- Promote friendly relations with those who do work towards less corruption, transparent and independent judicial systems, enforcement of property rights and the advancement of reason.

She said the "n" word

Dare I make a big deal out of this, but UK Big Brother contestant "Emily" has been evicted in short notice from the Big Brother household for using the phrase ""Are you pushing it out, you nigger?" to contestant Charley while she was dancing.

^

Channel 4 is obviously very nervous.

^

On the side, I find it sad because Emily stated that she values education above anything else, and appears quite bright and articulate, and quite hot. Charley on the other hand is the perfect example of a parasitical nobody, unemployed living off of the income of her premier league footballer cousin who makes sure she can buy what she wants and goes to all the right parties. She is completely image obsessed and thinks she is special because she meets celebrities.

^

Here is a summary of the contestants, and seriously, most of them are not worth watching, except of course there is one man and (now) ten women, six of whom he could only even vaguely be interested in, probably one seriously (and she thinks Victoria Beckham is a role model!).

Helen Clark seeking the Pacific Islander vote

Just over a month ago someone very close to me passed away. He worked for many years in Pacific Island communities, working and living in the Pacific, and knew it well. He was a long serving teacher, Justice of the Peace, and known well and respected in various communities, Roman Catholic and Jewish. He worked long and hard hours, enjoying both teaching and his small business dealing in fine arts. Indeed, as a teacher he inspired several thousands over the years, some of whom are now working all over the world. He was a generous man, independently minded, well spoken, but also did not tolerate rudeness or those who wouldn’t take responsibility for themselves. He enjoyed a whisky, loved good food including steak, liked his toast hot fresh and dripping with butter. Indeed, he enjoyed a smoke in social circles.
*
However, Helen Clark didn’t go to his funeral, thankfully. He would have hated it, since she didn’t know him, and he despised her politics. However, he did a lot for the community and others, in fact I think he probably knew more about Pacific Island cultures (having lived on various islands for years) than Helen Clark.
*
No, she went to the funeral of a Pacific Island woman, whose claim to fame is dying because of a combination of her lifestyle (which was not adequately changed to take into account doctor’s advice), the public health system (which let her stay at home rather than remain in hospital, which was probably an error of judgment), and her family’s failure to pay the power bill and preference for praying rather than take her to hospital. A series of unfortunate but hardly unpreventable events.

*

Helen Clark spoke at Mrs Muliaga's funeral, as of course one does when you never knew the person who died. I simply don’t care about Mrs Muliaga’s death, I don’t have enough time or energy to grieve for those I didn’t know. Mrs Muliaga meant as much to me as the other 80 people who die in New Zealand every day. If it were different, I would never live, I’d grieve day after day, and it would show what little value I did have for those I DO love and care about.

*

How many more New Zealanders has Helen Clark met in the discharge of her duties whose funerals she will never go to? People of all ages who may have received awards and accolades, there will be thousands for the years she has been in Parliament.
*
Now you see what value Helen Clark puts on grief – it’s a PR stunt. Not content to let Mrs Muliaga’s family and friends grieve in peace, genuinely and honestly. It became a media circus, which Clark gleefully participated in.
*
A funeral is about grieving for someone you knew, whether close or as an acquaintance, but rather someone who had a personal impact upon your life. You need not have met the person, but you can respect some work the person has done, whether it be literature, art or something that meant something to you. It shouldn’t be about guilt or PR, which is what Helen Clark has done.
*
Clark said “What has been simply inspirational through these sad days has been the spirit of forgiveness that has radiated from this family - far more than could humanly be expected”. Inspirational how? How does Helen Clark intend to use this? Will she forgive Ian Wishart, Don Brash, the exclusive Brethren or anyone else she likes to vilify? I hardly think so. What sanctimonious rot. Will Helen Clark go to the funerals of crime victims? How about the funeral of those killed by dangerous driving? Will she find inspiration with every death?
*
Will Pacific Islanders rally towards Labour at the next election because of this nonsense? Helen Clark thinks so. How despicably patronising that like some colonial mistress she can trot along to a funeral, say some words as if she knew Mrs Muliaga, completely ignore that one of HER hospitals let her be discharged in her condition, and expect the Pacific Island community to go “oh that Miss Clark she’s so caring about us, we will vote Labour again next year”.
*
Regardless of the results of the Police inquiry, and indeed regardless of your personal views on blame regarding the cut off of power, Clark hopped on this sad death as a PR stunt.

*

UPDATE: Apparently Mr Muliaga invited Helen Clark to the funeral specifically. In that case she was welcomed, and it is inappropriate to criticise that specifically. However, outside of that case I do wonder if the PM will attend any funeral of New Zealanders that she did not personally know, that family members invite her to? What is the criteria by which the PM decides whether or not to attend funerals of people she did not know?

5-0

Well done Team New Zealand, winning the Louis Vuitton Cup, in what is almost certainly the first government sponsored syndicate in America's Cup history (which also happens to help Emirates in its publicity efforts).

^

You ought to cheer, it is your victory even if you didn't like yachting, Helen made sure you were forced to pay.

Recycling con - I told you so

Back in July 2006 I mentioned how contaminated paper can't be recycled, and have commented about the fascist lengths that some councils in Britain go to in criminalising people who don't follow the, what I call, faith based initiative of recycling.

^

I asked that it was about time that someone fisked this in the mainstream UK media, and The Times has:

^

The issues are:

- Combining recyclable materials making it inefficient and wasteful to separate them out, leading to cases such as "A paper recycling company in Kent is sending to landfill 9,000 tons a year of cans, bottles and plastics. These have been mixed up with the paper and the firm does not have the capability to process them. " and "A Warrington-based aluminium processor, regarded as a world leader in its field, is regularly rejecting British waste because it is so poorly sorted".

- Contaminated recyclable material which is virtually unusable. "Britain’s biggest glass recycling company is sending tons of glass to roadfill because it is so contaminated. ".

^

Recycling has always happened, it has long been efficient to recycle car bodies, aircraft fuselage, unsold newspapers and magazines, and glass bottles if people hand them in. However, the obsession with recycling has a fervour surrounding it that means if you don't recycle some see you as an "environmental vandal".

^

Don't forget:

- Paper is biodegradable, it is produced from a renewable resource (trees);

- Glass is made from silicon, which the second most abundant element on earth. Silicon comes from sand, ask yourself how scarce that is;

- If recycling everything made economic sense, it would be happening by now, and don't say there is an environmental cost, until you've costed it. The environment cost of landfills is not infinite, despite the Green rhetoric.