The Blue Tourist

Thursday, 18 March 2010

Cool Aid?

Another good one from Dalrymple, who, like me, is baffled by the belief that foreign aid is a "good thing":

The New York Times on March 10 quoted a United Nations report to the effect that aid given to Somalia was not reaching the people most in need of it, that is to say the malnourished and the starving.
I would not be telling you the truth if I said that, when I read the news, you could have knocked me down with a feather. Can there be anyone left in the world who thinks that aid will go only, or even mainly, to the people most in need of it? By comparison with such a belief, faith in Father Christmas is a model of rational expectation. At least the presents arrive, even if Father Christmas doesn’t.
...It is therefore not in the least surprising that aid to Somalia is not reaching the neediest; it would be very surprising, indeed it would be absolutely astonishing, if it were. Neither is it surprising, however, that it should be reported as if it were surprising (unsurprising news not being news). For otherwise, the fact that aid does not reach the neediest would be a threat to our sense of power, our feelings of omnipotence. How could a few lousy uneducated Somalian gunmen be thwarting our infinite benevolence?

Same goes for charity as a whole. As Camus said, "Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity."
But that's another story.

WA-wah

For all those who think that the housing boom was caused by a "shortage of housing":

With boom times returning to WA, the housing market is once again overheating. The median house price in Perth is now $512,000, according to the December quarter figures from Australian Property Monitors, putting it beyond the reach of any new homeowner without substantial savings or parental support.

It is not difficult to pinpoint the cause of this price escalation.

During the second half of last year, new lots approved for building in Perth and Peel were running at an annual rate of under 9000. This is extraordinarily low. Even in the mid 2000s, when supply was being far outpaced by demand, annual new lot releases were running at more than 15,000.

The reasons for this were shown to lie squarely with the Government's land-starvation policy. The Government just won't allow enough blocks to be developed for housing, thereby preventing competition from driving down prices.

This has stemmed from unfounded fears of the high cost of providing new infrastructure, a mania for central planning and groundless opposition to urban sprawl in a State that has more natural bush and farmland than anywhere else in the world.

Government resistance to allowing land to be used for housing has also been abetted by ministerial dreams of creating a compact city with teeming inner suburbs populated by bohemian theatregoers and by downright contempt for new-homebuyers' preference for McMansions on individual lots.

OK, so we have Western Australia. The most remote least populated area on earth, barring the two poles. All that land, just waiting to be put to use.
But they're not allowed.
So yes, there is a shortage of houses. And no doubt, the government might spin that and say, look, we're going to build a bunch of new houses! In urban areas, so we can all be bohos! But, as with the Credit Crunch and every other damn thing, they were the cause of the problem in the first place. They created a shortage of houses. And they will make it worse with their so-called fixes.

State jobbies

More brilliance from the Daily Mash:

THE majority of the UK workforce do not really know what they are supposed to be doing while they are at the office, according to new research.

The Institute for Studies found that 64% of employees turn up and sit at a computer and then stay there until it feels like it is okay to leave.

Roy Hobbs, a person who turns up most days from Hatfield, said: "I think I'm supposed to be head of, I dunno, some personnel bullshit thing.

"Or maybe team leader, or assistant product supervisor. Fuck knows. To be honest, I can't remember what it said on the advert.

"A couple of years ago I filled in some form, told the normal amount of lies during a 30 minute interview, they said something about pensions and then I went for a couple of pints."

He added: "I get a lot of emails from someone called Tony who goes on about purchasing or something and sometimes asks me about my kids. I forward them to someone called Ian. Or I ignore them.

"Otherwise I just type the names of random dangerous animals into Google. I think it's going well."

Ah, non-jobs. Kind of reminds me of North Korea. That's nice, isn't it?

Cake returns

From The Daily Mash:

Schools urge government to make drug slightly more expensive and a lot more dangerous
"We're only trying not to help," says National Association of Head Teachers

Pretty much sums up my views on drugs, including the Brass Eye-ish hysteria over mephedrone.

Ayn Rand Land

I've never got Ayn Rand, and "followers." To fully disclose, I have not read her, so what I have heard is second-hand. But I've read enough libertarian literature to get what she is about.
And why have I not read her? I started one (The Fountainhead), but it was badly-written, verbose and boring. And for me, that says all I need to know about her. It was self-absorbed, not really interested in the reader. Is that then "noble selfishness?"
Anyway, she supposedly venerated "capitalist" types like railroad owners (railroad owners?!) and CEOs of big corporations. Greed is good, altruism is bad, therefore these guys are heroes.
There's just one problem: Corporations have nothing to do with free markets! Never had, never will. Railroads were built through private funding? No, it was the taxpayer. They were just another piece of state apparatus. I wrote about this before, and it seems to be an idea that needs to be repeated over and over until people start getting it. Worlds such as those described by Rand are not capitalism. It's fascism. The merger of state and corporate powers.
A real free market would look something like a street market: lots of individual stalls, few brands or big hitters. But it would be busy, bustling, self-regulating and - well - happy, and sad, and messy, aspirational, and full of intent.
Dalrymple wrote about Rand, and although his criticism is not the same as mine, he still gets the same kind of vibe from her and her cultish followers. This appatrently led to quite a few hysterical comments. Hardly surprising, as they are a confused bunch. And not libertarians, at all.

ICANN do it

This is interesting:

Canon Inc. announced today that it will begin the acquisition process for the top-level domain name ".canon," based on the new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) registration system.

The non-profit organization ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), which maintains and regulates the Internet's addressing system, has rigorously evaluated the current gTLD string of characters' societal value, utilization purpose, and use in an organization's operations. At its International Public Meeting held in June 2008, however, ICANN approved the relaxation and liberalization of the new gTLD system adoption rules.

And they go on to say:

The new gTLD system is expected to allow a company name, brand name, geographic region, or service type to be used as a gTLD within website and e-mail addresses.

This could change the game further, in a good way too. ICANN is at last allowing some flexibility to the system, and it can only be a good thing.

School's Out

From Personal Liberty:

Public schools today are crime-ridden, unhealthful places where children are exposed to sex, drugs and diseases and taught a sanitized version of American history and a loyalty to and dependence on big government, according to James Ostrowski in his book, Government Schools Are Bad For Your Kids.

Actually, I've got nothing against sex or drugs, except that most drugs these days are pale shadows of what they should be (because they're illegal), and I suspect that most kids at school don't get enough sex - the alphas will be getting it all (see Roissy). But the dependence on Big Government is real, and will kill all that is worth preserving in the human spirit.

It ought to be mentioned that it's not just government schools. All schools in this country have to conform to a curriculum. They're all subsidiaries then really, pumping out the same propaganda.

Homeschool your kids. If you love them at all, homeschool them. Find a way.