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| March 2004 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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ISSUE #72 - 28th March 2004 [127]
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The vaporisation in Gaza by three helicopter-borne missiles of the wheelchair-bound Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder, spiritual leader and commander of the radical Islamic group Hamas, came as no surprise. I wrote in January that he
But I was simply going on the advice helpfully provided by Israel's Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim :
The public outcry and condemnations that followed implementation of this threat were larded with hypocrisy, especially in the case of Western leaders such as
For Israel have carried out many other “targeted killings”, with little outcry. And certainly any outcry against attacks on Israeli citizens by Palestinian militants has been muted by comparison. America has had a go at such assassinations too, which is one reason it had to veto a condemnatory UN resolution. During the Iraq war It twice bombed buildings believing Saddam Hussein to be inside. And before that, in 2002, it used a remote-control aircraft in Yemen to track and bomb a car blowing up the six Al-Qaeda suspects inside. Compared to other methods of stopping a terrorist, this pinpoint technique has a certain humanitarian ring to it, for it kills only the target and perhaps a few others nearby. The alternative is to carpet-bomb the area or else try to arrest the suspect and put him on trial. But an arrest can entail sending in an armed squad and inviting a firefight that can leave a lot of people dead on both sides. Indeed, you could argue that America launched a war that killed over 5,000 innocent Iraqi civilians partly in an attempt to apprehend Saddam. In 1960, Israel was able to kidnap the Nazi Adolf Eichman in Argentina, ship him back to Israel where they tried, convicted and executed him. But that was in a pre-terrorist age and Eichman was not surrounded by armed loyalists, so no bloodshed was involved in apprehending him. Try that in Gaza ! Some - including Hamas - argue that the Sheikh's assassination will increase the violence against Israel. These are thin words. Israel has been under sustained attack ever since Yasser Arafat torpedoed Bill Clinton's Camp David peace negotiations with Ehud Barak. Quite simply, it can't get worse. Hamas, Fatah, Al Aksa etc are already doing everything bad they can. (And by the way, steadily regressing the welfare and cause of the Palestinian people, about whom they care so little.) So why the big outcry over Yassin, who blessed and dispatched countless youths to their homicidal suicides and as such was arguably the most evil of all the terrorists killed in recent times ? Why do some people think that only front line terrorists should be assassinated, that it is unfair to go after commanders ? Had DNA evidence shown that the occupant of the wheelchair was none other than (the late) Osama bin Laden, the cheers would have rung to the rooftops. Just as they would had Hitler or Mussolini or Hirohito been assassinated. Yet Yassin was Israel's Osama, the prime orchestrator of dozens of vile suicide attacks on innocent civilians - men, women and children, Israeli and Palestinian, Jew, Muslim and Christian. How can the world think that assassinating him is worse than assassinating other terrorists responsible for only a handful of murders ? I am left to conclude the reason for the outcry is simply that he was a leader. Leaderlessness makes people nervous, and it especially frightens other leaders. They prefer it when the footsoldiers take all the hits. Anyway, good riddance Sheikh Yassin.
In contrast to Israel's direct action, the EU last week held an anti-terrorism summit in the wake of the Madrid Massacre, and published an eighteen-page “Declaration on Combating Terrorism” (127 kb PDF file). Opening with, “There will be neither weakness nor compromise of any kind when dealing with terrorists”, the European Council then calls for the development of a long-term strategy to address all the factors which contribute to terrorism. It takes the remaining sixteen pages to propose a number of good measures to continue the fight against the terrorism, which can be boiled down to this shopping list. Member-states are called on to -
This is an admirable list except for the glaring omission of the most important anti-terrorism activity of all. For there is
not a word to say that the terrorists will be ruthlessly pursued to their
lairs to be captured or killed. The word “military”
is mentioned but once and that's on page 18. Despite 201 innocents slaughtered by Al Qaeda in Madrid plus 1,500 maimed and injured, not to mention 9/11, the EU still doesn’t seem to realise we're in a war situation not a crime scene.
When a multi-murdering tyrant or terrorist decides to go straight, provided he is important enough, he gets welcomed back into the human race, and no-one is so crass as to suggest he should be punished for his erstwhile crimes. Thus, shaking a hand stained with the blood of innocent victims becomes part of the job description for Western leaders. But it generally makes them pretty uncomfortable, especially when cameras are around. Bill Clinton had to do it a few times.
Curiously, no-one had the slightest compunction in shaking Nelson Mandela's hand, and indeed embracing him, when he emerged from 27 years of imprisonment in 1990. He too had been a terrorist, bombing and killing, which was why he was jailed.
Mr Blair's his most noxious handshake, however, took place just the
day before he met Mr Qaddafi, when he was greeted - through gritted teeth - by Al
Qaeda's newest best friend, that master appeaser
José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, new prime
minister of Spain. He it is who
had just promised to do Al Qaeda's bidding by withdrawing all Mr Zapatero might not have direct blood on his hands, but that was nevertheless a welcome Mr Blair would certainly have preferred to hide from the cameras.
Rich World Attitudes to Rich World Poverty An interesting new study, “Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe : A World of Difference” was recently reported in the (subscription only) Economist. It attempts to explain differences in attitude towards home-grown poverty as between America and the EU, and to connect this to welfare, charitable donations and racial diversity. The chart below summarises it. Compared to EUropeans, Americans
The authors conclude that the poor gain more understanding from their own ilk, but less so from those of different ethnic background. Thus the less diverse EU pays out more state welfare and has a more generous outlook towards its poor. But when it comes to actually putting your own hand into your own pocket (as distinct from allowing the government to put its hand into your pocket through taxation), Americans are twelve times more generous than those tight-fisted EUropeans. But the figures also point to the general Statist attitude of EUropeans - namely that the State is responsible for my problems - not I. This in turn goes some way to explaining differences in GDP per head - $37,500 in the USA vs $30,000 in the EU.
On Monday 29th March, Ireland will become the first country in the world to introduce a ban on smoking in all workplaces, though individual entities (eg California, New York) have already done so. The science of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS, or passive smoking) was discussed extensively on this blog last October and November. Ireland's ban is underpinned by an Irish study (PDF, 253 kb) on passive smoking dated December 2002, which showed that environmental tobacco smoke increases by 20-30% the risk to non-smokers of cancer and heart disease. The objective of the ban is therefore to protect non-smoking workers. Its most controversial aspect is that it will include
pubs. The Irish vintners have been up in arms, fearing a mass loss of
business if their smoking customers exit in droves in order to drink at
home where they can have a cigarette; and so have the cigarette
manufacturers fearing a loss of sales. Indeed the cigarette industry, which has spent a lot of money lobbying to prevent and delay the ban, has a wider agenda. Its nightmare scenario is that where Ireland leads, the rest of the EU will follow, then the US then, who knows, the world. The main evidence that specifically
bar workers are endangered by ETS comes from an authoritative if rather
limited California study,
“Bartenders'
respiratory health after
establishment of smoke-free bars and taverns”,
published n 1998 based on an assessment of 53 workers before and after a
similar smoking ban was imposed in California on the 1st January that
year.
It showed that
Ireland is at present involved in a similar research experiment, but applying a more rigorous
scientific methodology. A large
number of bar workers, both smokers and non-smokers, has been given
equipment to measure and record their lung function at various times of
the day, during both working hours and on time off.
The purpose of the current phase is to establish a pre-ban
baseline. The tests will
continue in the months that follow the ban, with a view to measuring any
improvement in lung function. By end 2004 or early 2005, the results will be published, which are expected to provide among the world’s first definitive, quantitative answers as to whether banning smoke from pubs has measurably improved the health of bar workers. Removal of the unpleasant smell and the contamination of clothing will be a bonus. Watch this space for the outcome of the research.
George Bush displayed his jokey side last week in a most unpresidential, self-parodying speech and slide-show at a dinner hosted by the Radio and Television Correspondents Association in Washington. It had the diners in stitches.
The John Kerry campaign chose to get upset when he quipped,
as a slide flashed up showing the President looking under furniture in the Oval Office. It's worth reading the whole speech, though unfortunately the accompanying slides have not been published. It's nice to think there is sometimes a bit of levity in the White House in these grim times.
Quote : “What happened on the commuter trains in Madrid was an affront not only to the Spanish people, but to all right-thinking people everywhere.
It runs counter to all the values on which the European Union is founded.” President of the EU and Taoiseach of Ireland, Bertie
Ahern, Quote ... quote : “It is clear that using force is not the answer to resolving the conflict with terrorists. ... Although nothing can justify terrorism, the issues of poverty and injustice, which fuel terrorism, have to be addressed.”
EU Commission President, Romano Prodi
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ISSUE #71 - 21st March 2004 [155]
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Pro-Business
Governments Fear Governments are good at lecturing business about the merits of being businesslike and competitive (except of course those few businesses - agriculture, aviation, steel, movies etc - they favour with unwarranted subsidies and loopholes). Yet those same governments are last in line when it comes to applying business principles to their own affairs if this involves a measure of pain, risk or inconvenience. PRI is something that every politician PRIfers to avoid at all costs. Three current examples. 1 Electronic Voting with Eyes Closed In Ireland electronic voting will be introduced later this year. This is totally laudable because, assuming it works correctly, it will improve the accuracy and speed of producing election results, whilst reducing costs (no need for an army of human counters). It will also provide means for analysis of voting patterns in excruciating detail. Electronic systems in all walks of business are widely accepted worldwide and prove their worth every second. Each of us, for instance, happily allows banks to manage our finances through utter reliance on computerised systems, even though we don't understand those systems and would have great difficulty detecting all but very obvious mistakes. However, as anyone in business will know, when a new system is introduced, it is always run, for a while, in parallel with the old system to ensure it is working fine. Then the old system is discontinued for all time. In Ireland, on the other hand, electronic voting will be introduced for elections to the European parliament in June, but with no parallel run whatsoever, though it would be straightforward to engineer.
But this straightforward, confidence-building verification is seemingly too PRIful to implement (for perhaps the machines will fail the test). Thus the Government PRIfers that the electorate simply trust that the digital technology will render the correct result, though no-one - no-one - will ever know if this is true. The CEO of a business would lose his job for such a cavalier attitude. 2 Get Paid First, Perform Later Meanwhile, in UK, Gordon Brown has just delivered his eighth budget. Both it and the seventh contain a truly egregious flaw from the business point of view. Last year, he promised huge, unprecedented increases in funding for schools, hospitals, the police etc. In exchange, the respective providers were told to improve the efficiency of their services so that the extra money would translate into more quality and quantity. Fair enough, except that it's the wrong way round. Providers need to earn the right to greater funds by delivering the efficiency gains first. Otherwise, they'll say thanks for the dosh and carry on as before, or more likely get even flabbier. And that's what seems to be happening. Newspapers have been full of advertisements for public service jobs of dubious function, whilst wails of poor service continue barely abated.
So the extra money gouged from taxpayers is largely going to waste, because insisting that providers first earn it is just too PRIful for Mr Brown. This year, Mr Brown has promised yet more money for so-called front-line services (schools, hospitals, police again), but to pay for it has nicked the opposition Tories' idea of cutting 40,000 civil service jobs. A fine idea but equally delusory. Once again, if this were a business, the tough part - cutting the jobs - would have to come first. Only when the savings were seen to have been delivered, perhaps a year later, would the cash be released for other use. The truth is, an old Labourite such as Mr Brown is viscerally incapable of sacking 40,000 union members, especially as a general election draws close. His pretence to do so his deliberate dishonesty. He will PRIfer that these extra costs will come, as the others before them, from further taxation. For him, the associated PRI is less. 3 Harmonise, Don't Cut Finally, much favoured by Old Europe, there is tax harmonisation, which I've written about before. Countries like Germany, France, Belgium thoroughly dislike the relatively low corporate taxes of the UK and Ireland (15-20%) because it attracts investment away from them (with their 35-40%). When Ryanair and Easyjet pioneered low cost air travel, the state-created behemoths like British Airways, KLM, Aer Lingus, etc responded by slashing their own costs and fares. This is normal business behaviour - except for Governments. They abhor the idea of
Too PRIful. That's why they demand instead that the UK/Ireland, increase, or “harmonise”, their taxes. We are fortunate that the demands are being ignored. The Role of Governments Governments really have only five main roles, if they could only stick to them -
A sixth could be added : to copy the business practices of businesses. "England and Wales have the highest crime rate among the world's leading economies, according to a new report by the United Nations." Daily Telegraph Dec 02
In mediaeval Europe, though aristocrats and warlords held the wealth, it was the Catholic clergy who held sway on knowledge and truth. For only they were educated enough to read and write, and thus only they were in a position to convey the word of God from the Bible to the peasants, and that word included even scientific knowledge. Not only was religious debate forbidden, but there was nothing to debate anyway because all knowledge came from the priests and they dealt in certainty. Wider education and free thinking were the undoing of them during the Renaissance. People like Galileo began to challenge concepts such as that the sun and universe revolve around the earth, while others, now able to read, began putting their own interpretations on what the Bible meant. Similarly, the Renaissance also liberated the human spirit to an unprecedented degree, and eventually paved the way for scientific exploration, the Industrial Revolution and the massive improvement in human welfare that it fostered and that we continue to enjoy today. Islam today bears many resemblances to mediaeval Catholicism, in that adherents are not allowed to debate and question what the Koran says : the mullahs and scholars make their interpretations and nobody may argue. You cannot even pray in your own language - you must use Koranic Arabic even though you don't understand a word you are reciting. Let me share one extraordinary example of how ferocious consequences can follow the suppression of Koranic debate. Would be suicide-bombers are told repeatedly that they will die as a Shahid (Martyr) and as such receive numerous heavenly rewards, including 70 “Dark Eyed” Maidens (or Virgins) of Paradise.
Ishad Manji, in her book “The Trouble with Islam”, points out that the Koranic word for these ladies is “hur”, which appears in the Koran's account of heaven. But this description actually traces back to a Christian work written in Aramaic three centuries before the Prophet Mohammed was born. The original may have been inspired or written by God, but the Koranic version would have been translated into Arabic by human hand. The Arabic word for “virgin”, by the way is “houri”, which is not quite “hur”. Research a couple of years ago by Christoph Luxemberg, a scholar of ancient Semitic languages, has indicated that a more accurate translation for “hur” would in fact be “white raisins”, a delicacy in seventh-century Arabia. Maybe this is true, maybe not. But because free debate on Koranic interpretations is ruthlessly suppressed (the reason that “Christoph Luxemberg” is in reality a pseudonym), the conventional translation of “hur” as the Maidens remains unchallenged within Islam. It is widely disseminated and exploited for political and military ends.
When it comes to religious matters, today's suppression by Islam of open debate has repercussions that, just as in Mediaeval Catholic times, go far beyond mere intellectual curiosity.
Those of you who think the French are soft on terror (as if !) will be heartened by last week's story of a robust Frenchman taking the war on terror direct to the terrorists in the South of France. Whilst driving his car in Montpelier recently, whom did he spot walking down the road in front of him, but the late Osama bin Laden in person. So he did what any red-blooded Frenchman would do - he jumped the lights and ran him down with his car. Sadly however, it turned out to be an innocent pedestrian, who happened to be sporting a long black beard - any of us could have made the same mistake. A court sentenced the driver to
Beware, O terrorists (and terrorist look-alikes). You are not safe in France.
The
March 2004 edition (print-only) of the Irish
Dentist reports that in a bid to rid themselves of dental problems,
thousands of people have been visiting the graveyard shrine of a Muslim
saint in Pakistan. Pakistan’s
Daily Times tells us that Saint Amir Ghazi Baba’s shrine has been
inundated with people suffering from toothache. After
developing pain in one of his teeth, Abdul Majeed was advised to go to the
shrine and put a nail in the plank of wood. He said, “The shrine is
so famous now that people in the area don’t bother consulting dentists
and prefer coming here.” While the history of the shrine is still unclear, local Murad Ali, who claims to have seen the saint in his dreams, is convinced he’s the best dentist in town.
The UK has, for hundreds of years, a thing called a Poet Laureate, with a salary of £5,000 and a personal supply of sherry. Today's is Andrew Motion and he's just written a poem surprising in two respects. It's about England's World Cup rugby triumph in winning the rugby world cup, and it actually rhymes. Maybe there's something in this poetry guff after all.
TV Debate on George Bush's Visit to Ireland Ireland currently holds the EU presidency, and in this capacity will host a visit by George Bush in June. The idea of the two presidents of the world's two biggest trading blocs (with annual GDPs of €9.7 trillion and US$11.0 trillion) talking to each other on Ireland's soil has raised a lot of anti-war and anti-Bush hackles. The Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who is the EU's current de-facto president, has even appealed to would-be protesters not to, as Blog-Irish delightfully puts it, “parade on his reign”. I've been invited by RTÉ, the national broadcaster, to join a TV debate on its “Question and Answers” programme on Monday evening 22nd March, on the pro-visit side. I'll report back.
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And
of course In February last year, there was Jacques Chirac's infamous
glad-handing of Robert Mugabe, 
Spanish
troops from Iraq, berated Messrs Bush and Blair
over Iraq, and declared his intention to embrace fellow appeasers Messrs
Chirac and Shroeder. 
