The Bewilderness

Putin's Embarrassment

Now that the Belarussian President, Lukashenko, has lived up to the thuggish reputation that he hoped to preserve, the tools of those denied the space to speak, can be deployed. Lukashenko was a manager of a collective farm, and like all civil steroids from the communist era, he had become sensitive to those who ridicule his status.

Back in the days of the early communist regime in Russia, the newly promoted apparatchiks emulated the mores of their leaders, the sons of Russia's minor landowners and professional classes. They displayed all the pride of a newly promoted insurance underwriter keeping up with the neighbours, except they had the power to send their neighbours to hell. Lukashenko's conscious awareness of his own status is a minor echo from this earlier time, perhaps directed at the communist copies of the haute bourgeoisie, the nomenklatura,  that never adapted to the free market in Belarus like their brethren in other transition economies.

Now, the strong tradition of satire is directed at the President of Belarus. Cartoons can be found in both Russian and English at the multclub site, which Lukashenko wished to close down in August 2005. Let us not forget that human rights organisations in Minsk are estimating that four hundred and eighty protestors have been arrested. Most are serving sentences of about ten to fifteen days, since they will probably be expelled from university and rendered unemployable.  The withdrawal of such opportunities increases the probability that they will seek employment in the West, and Lukashenko will view the removal of these dissidents as a bonus.

Unlike the totalitarian predecessors of the Belarussian rump state, dissidents are encouraged to leave, sapping the strength of the democratic movement in the country. However, forced to adopt more brutal methods than previously, leaves Belarus more of a thorn in relationships between Russia and the West.

One small prediction: Poland will prove far more effective at fostering the necessary opposition than the European Union. Once Lukashenko falls, documents will show that France and Russia found this blank space in the international map useful.

Statist Science and the decay of Education

The decay of British education is not a joy to behold. The rapid descent under the farcical 'audit economy' of Labour , with its Stakhanovite targets and 'we've never had it so good' examination results, bodes ill for those who welcome such attentions. Elite scientists are nothing if not Establishment. Having spent their professional careers assuring that they will receive a constant stream of state funding for research, their goal as scientific cheerleaders is to raise taxes for science and technology. Any attentions from the state are welcomed, as the President of the Royal Society, Lord Rees, noted:

"The Royal Society is particularly encouraged by the ambition to step up the recruitment, retraining and retention of chemistry, physics and maths teachers. It also welcomes the Government's aspiration of achieving by 2014 a 44 per cent increase in the number of A-level physics students, an 11 per cent increase in A-level chemistry students and a 21 percent increase in maths A-level students.

"The Government has clearly listened to the science community on the need for radical action in the face of the serious declines we have seen in the up take of maths, physics and chemistry after the age of 16. It must now work together with the science community if these laudable ambitions are to be achieved."

But if we could just have a little bit less of the regulation when you are assessing us:

Lord Rees also said: "The way that the quality of scientific research undertaken by our universities is evaluated, in order to determine how funding is distributed, has been due for a really radical review. The Royal Society welcomes the Government's intention, as stated in today's budget, to move towards, "a simpler and less burdensome system".

Lord Rees welcomes a simpler system of regulation (possibly involving fewer targets!). Yet, he is willing to subscribe to the suspect increases in student numbers within science subjects that some fat civil service plucked out of the air, massaging funding and demography.

Isn't this the government that has presided over a steep decline in science education, that created internal incentives within higher education rendering science far more expensive to teach at degree level, in comparison to equine studies (or other nonsense) and replaced traditional laboratory education with the multiple choice social responsibility of science. And Lord Rees believes they will help... 

Why can't I choose a healthy baby?

Welcome news from the Telegraph yesterday, as a new clinic opening in Nottingham will provide test  for genetic disorders in embryos. This ensures that the parents have the choice of selecting a healthy embryo and can bring the child to term. The price of the test is six thousand pounds. This will also allow parents to conceive "saviour siblings" who hold the potential for curing their sick brothers and sisters through transplants. It is overdue for such facilities to be established in Britain.

The opposition was opposed to family values. They accused any parents exercising this choice of eugenics.

But campaigners last night said it represents a further step by the IVF industry on the slippery slope towards eugenics and parents being able to choose characteristics for their children such as blue eyes or blond hair.

Josephine Quintavalle, of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "Paying £5 million for a state-of-the-art centre in order to eliminate more embryos with disabilities sounds like aggressive eugenics. We need to develop real cures for genetic diseases, not kill the carriers."

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority continues to exercise unnecessary regulation on parental choice. They should have no say over this matter.

A spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said: "A small number of centres are licensed for genetic screening but each patient's case is approved separately by the HFEA, based on its own merits."

Todd 1: Demography

This week, I completed the recent translation of Emmanuel Todd's "After The Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order", the demographer's ruminations on the decline of American 'imperialism'. The quote marks are advisory. In summary, the text is a wishlist of the French to the United States and globalisation: points that I will come back to in a later post.

The first point that Todd addressed was the explosive consequence of an increase in literacy around the developing world. The demographer tracked two effects of this: one was political upheaval, once a significant proportion of the population experienced the psychological disruption of literacy; the other was the decline in birth rates as literacy took hold amongst the female population. According to Todd, the forms of political disruption were conditioned by the kinship patterns of each society leading to egalitarian universalism (France, Russia) or fraternal ties (Arabic terrorist groups). Anomalies like the totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein or the modern political party of Congress in India are ignored.

Todd's account of literacy as a factor in political upheaval is important, and provides a valuable precondition for the dissemination of the Salafist ideology. A new breed of literate Islamists have proved the bedrock of  the madressehs over the last twenty years. Yet, the rote learning and narrow constitution of the education does not lead to the development of a political movement predisposed towards Islamist solutions. The lack of alternative political outlets and the neutering of traditional tribal, national and cultural identities may play a far bigger role. The inability to find a job the biggest one of all.

Todd's understanding of demographic structures and their role in fostering political change is important. Yet, his theoretical extrapolations from kinship to ideology, stretch any possible relationship far beyond the foundations of data. What is left is still important: a growing wave of dispossessed Muslim youth, increasingly literate, denied economic opportunity and prone to follow the calls of their heroic cause, Salafist jihad.

All Roads Should Lead to Moscow

A more important rally was taking place eastwards in Minsk, where Lukashenko's thugs predictably broke up the protests for a new election. Protestors have been arrested, the election was rigged, and Russia has encouraged the regime to use violence in order to quash dissent.

"Long before the elections, the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights had declared that they (the elections) would be illegitimate and it was pretty biased in its commentaries on their progress and results, thus playing an instigating role," the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying.

These events, and the pathetic sanctions regime proposed by the United States and the European Union,  provide a real opportunity to disown the myth that Russia is a democracy, liberal and beholden to its citizenry. NuLab scum may view the Putin regime as a model to follow, given their erosion of our civil liberties, but the time has now come to break the institutional links that recognise Russia as part of the West. It clearly is not a liberal democracy, but an authoritarian warmonger, with nuclear weapons.

Those democratic revolutions need to flow eastwards....to Moscow

A Small Victory

Suffering a heavy cold left me unable to support the protest for freedom of expression in person that took place in London yesterday. Photos and an account can be seen at Samizdata.

The protest did run into flak, due to rumours that elements of the British National Party hoped to be represented on the day. That was clearly not the case. The BBC News quoted police estimates of 250  protestors at the peak  of the march, although there may have been a throughput of people. Samizdata quotes a thousand.   

Thankfully, the cartoons of Muhammed were presented, ensuring that the whole point of the exercise was recognised. The Muslim Action Committee blog derides all who defend freedom of expression. All who attended did something right then:

MAC's success in pressuring the organisers of the March for Free Expression to tell people not to bring placards and t-shirts of the cartoons (see below) has resulted a poor turnout of no more than 300. For a nationwide demonstration which had been campaigning for over a month to raise supporters, this is truely pathetic. The reality is despite gaining support from a wide range of speakers and organisations, support for the demonstration had been growing amongst only one section of the community- those who hate Islam and say this demonstration as an opportunity to attack Islam and Muslims publically by parading the Danish Cartoons.

Haven't they ever heard of home schooling?

The Islamic Human Rights Commission has opined on the House of Lords ruling overturning an appeal that allowed a school pupil to wear a jilbab to her school. They denounced the ruling as Islamophobic and an attack on the human rights of Muslims. What was the cause of this institutionalised Islamophobia?

But the IHRC said the decision was "indicative of the level of Islamophobia in British society and institutions that a school's denial of a pupil's right to education is upheld by the highest court in the land."
"Current race relations law would have rightly made it impossible for the same school or any school to prevent a Sikh or Jewish child to be prevented from wearing religious attire to school," it said.

The secret desire of a Muslim human rights group is to be treated as a race in law, not as a  religion.  Thanks for pinpointing the anomaly but this is an argument  for repealing  the farrago of nonsense, not extending the same 'protections' to the Islamic communit

Lucky girl. Home schooled, they might have made something of her.

Ahoy Rebate!

Do you remember the debacle last December when Blair traded the rebate for a budget? The horsetrading continues, as our parasites in Parliament are not satisfied at such fudge. All must have candies, no less than they decree...

Reimer Böge, the MEP leading the parliament's negotiations, said that extra money was needed for cultural and educational programmes, consumer protection measures and assistance for candidate countries. Parliamentarians also want greater powers to reallocate funds between different programmes.

While MEPs privately concede they are unlikely to gain much extra money, they hope to secure greater powers in future budget negotiations and influence the way funds are spent.

Is it for the good of the taxpayer? Of course not, it is designed to flush more cash their way for the 'good of the EU' (re "themselves", their kin, their dentists, etc etc). No hope for our rebate anyway...

Not Good

There have been plenty of articles covering Alan Given's extraordinary interview, in retirement, of the events covering the death of De Menezes. Perhaps it is an attempt by a loyal police officer to defend his superior by providing independent corroboration of his story although this would have a counterproductive effect. In the short-term, it would be considered an effort that undermines his position; in the medium term, perhaps a valuable support. Or it may have been another spin campaign to the newspapers, setting the agenda: though this obvious ploy has done the opposite.

Whatever the motive, the interview has not enhanced Sir Ian Blair's reputation amongst the public or commentariat in the short term. Therefore, was it aimed at a more select group? The Police Authority considering Blair's position, as a counterweight to reports that some of the group wish that he was ousted.

Another small point: if the officers were buoyant after they shot De Menezes, in the belief that they had  killed a terrorist. Their commanding officer did not identify the mistakes that were made in identification that led to this death. But, most damning of all, there was no awareness that a mistake might have been made, that the procedures had not been followed as they were supposed to. Not good.

Save Belarus! Depose Lukashenko!

Tonight there are protests in Belarus. I have posted a longer piece on Samizdata and other updates can be found through the links on here.

However, I am quite pessimistic about the outcome. Lukashenko has the support of stagnation amongst the majority of the population. Only those whose future hopes have vanished under this regime will be in the square tonight.