Munro Blog

Here's an excellent new blog with loads of pictures of Munros, and their shorter neighbours.

These Munros are not to be confused with the Monroe Doctrine.

Rethinking Marxism 2006

I was always intrigued how the RCP always had their week of fun filled intellectual revolutionary frolics adjacent in the calendar to the equally fun filled revolutionary frolics of the SWP.

"Get down all those posters".

"Put up our posters".

Anyway, I've found this conference in October 2006. The plenary session is headed "Imperialism and the Fantasies of Democracy". Because it's such a spiffing read here's the abstract.

Many of today's left analyses of imperialism make note of the neoconservative turn to democracy. At the same time, such analyses are often too quick to discard this reference to democracy as empty rhetoric, as a mere cover for the real imperial economic interests (generally centered on oil). Parting ways with such simple critiques of imperialism, this plenary recognizes the constitutive role democratic discourse plays in structuring today's imperial vision and poses the following questions: How does taking the rhetoric of democracy seriously (and conceiving of it as fantasy) aid us to understand what is new and different in contemporary imperialism as well as to grasp the ways in which neoconservative hegemony elicits popular consent? The reason we use the term "fantasies" is to introduce a deliberately ironic and also a disputed term in making the connection between imperialism and democracy. That is, we think that "fantasies" could be read, alternatively, as connoting a source of desire/pleasure, an ideological formation, a possible "illusion," and much else. What kinds of economic, political, legal orders are formed and imposed through imperial fantasies of democracy? What kind of new and unique contradictions are spawned by them that disrupt their smooth functioning? What are the material practices by and through which determinate democratic movements have been able to articulate their projects in the midst of, in spite of, or in conjunction with the forms of imperialism that are currently in play? Does the contemporary turn toward religious and ethnic ideals and movements attest to the failure of these particular democratic fantasies? Or are they conditioned by the inherent limits to the democratic promise?

Alternatively, to the extent that democracy exceeds its articulation to imperialism, it also becomes a potential to mobilize the growing reactions to imperialism in the form of diverse anti-globalization and peace movements. The question then becomes: How can the left critiques of imperialism rethink the promise of democracy that animates the desires of many who wish for economic and political justice, drawing, partly, from rich traditions and current new thinking stemming from Marxism?

At least it doesn't take the, all too common, approach of rejecting democracy as it is used for purposes we do not agree with. If there are "inherent limits to the democratic promise" what do Laclau, Shohat and Callari, propose to do about them? What is the alternative to democracy? Are "religious and ethnic ideals and movements" considered a valid progressive alternative to democratic movements?

Or is it just

"a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing"?

Economists and Immigration

Like most right thinking people I've always thought that immigrants to a country increase the labour supply but in needing goods and services they also create an increased demand for labour.

Today I have discovered the technical term for this is that the "demand curve also shifts out" [registration required after first read], or so says labour economist David Card. Back in 2005 Card produced this research to ask "Is the New Immigration Really So Bad? In his abstract he says

This paper reviews the recent evidence on U.S. immigration, focusing on two key questions:

1. Does immigration reduce the labor market opportunities of less-skilled natives?
2. Have immigrants who arrived after the 1965 Immigration Reform Act successfully assimilated?

In his conclusion he finds that the relationship between the wages of American born high school dropouts and American born high school graduates has remained fairly constant since 1980. This suggests there is no negative impact of immigration on wages.

He also concludes that while the 40% of U.S.A. immigrants having no High School diploma will find it difficult to catch up with the average wage of native-born Americans, their children find it increasingly easier to earn similar sums to the children of those same native-born Americans.

Card's final sentence is worth quoting: "The relatively strong educational progress of second generation immigrants, together with the limited evidence of adverse effects on less skilled natives, suggest that the new immigration may not be so bad after all."

There's an interesting article, by Roger Lowenstein The Immigration Equation, [registration required after first read] discussing these issues, the work of David Card and the conflicting work of George Borjas. Borjas asserts, contrary to Card, that President Bush's proposed guestworker programme will lead to more foreign born workers.

The typical rationale provided for the guestworker program is that the country "needs" immigrants to keep many of its industries running. After all, many immigrants "do jobs that natives do not want to do."

These assertions are among the most persistent and hard-to-shake myths regarding the labor market impact of immigration. Supporters of the guestworker program argue that entire industries would vanish if American employers did not have access to cheap foreign labor. The vast majority of cab drivers in New York City are foreign-born (82 percent in the 2000 Census). Would all those yellow cars be piled up in some junkyard if those immigrants had not been admitted? Of course not. Fewer than 10 percent of the cab drivers in Cincinnati and Detroit are foreign-born. Nevertheless, the cab industry in those cities manages to survive and provide services to the local communities. It may cost a little more to ride those cabs, but the jobs get done.

What past immigration has done — and what the temporary worker program will continue to do on a potentially larger scale — is to depress wages and increase the profits of the firms that employ the immigrants. The labor market effects documented in this paper suggest that the proposed temporary worker program will expose many more Americans to competition from foreign workers, will generate higher earnings losses for workers, and will lead to an even greater redistribution of wealth from labor to those who buy and use immigrant services.

Even though Borjas's work is well researched and sourced, his examples of cabbies in Cincinnatti and Detroit may not serve his purpose. If people previously employed as cabbies can get better paid, less stressful employment with other benefits elsewhere they may well take it. It is sometimes the lack of decent other options that keep people in a type of work. Are there better opportunities for people with the typical background of an American born cabbie in cities such as Detroit and Cincinnatti? If those other opportunities existed would the jobs still be taken by American born workers? I think the answer is probably not, which would lead to a readjustment in the local cabbie industry.

I think Borjas's work falls down on his belief in labour mobility. Is, as Borjas argues, a building company in Michigan really going to relocate to California because of the availability of cheaper, immigrant labour? Some may do. But the majority won't. And that's because many companies are run by people who have ties to an area. People who don't want to move. People who would only move for substantial advantages and a substantially better life. If you owned a reasonably profitable construction company in Michigan would you move, for slightly more profit, to California? Who would do the construction in Michigan?

If Borjas is right, and immigration adversely affects the wages and employment prospects of the already low waged should immigration be reduced? Is it just my own liberal prejudice saying that immigration is a G-O-O-D thing and should continue? Is my support for immigration screwing over the already low paid?

Fundamentally I believe that mobility of labour is a good thing. Diversity of communities is a good thing. Any change disproportionately affects the low paid. Isn't it better to campaign for the better treatment of immigrants ***and*** an end to seeing labour as just another cost to be lowered as much as possible?

Lake Tekapo

A picture of Lake Tekapo taken a couple of days ago.

Practical Action

There's a small charity (NGO) called Practical Action who do a lot of good work in providing appropriate technology for developing nations.

Practical Action – with the strapline, Technology Challenging Poverty – sums up what we do, making a practical difference in the lives of poor people. We recognise the importance of technology and hands on work. We share knowledge and work together with communities. In policy debate, our work focuses on delivering practical changes that positively impact on the lives of poor people.

They're well worth supporting.

... Practical Action takes on the following challenges:

• To work with women and men living in poverty on the management of technical change for sustainable livelihoods, while the economic and technological forces around them are affecting those livelihoods with bewildering speed;
• To research, test and analyze the impacts of new technologies on the lives of people in developing countries, suggesting ways to use them ‘appropriately’, or proposing alternatives
• To demonstrate to others the potential of appropriate technology as a key element in an alternative, sustainable model of development
• To demonstrate the continuing role of direct, practical answers to poverty in local partnerships with women and men living in poverty
• To link the lives of its local partners to the remote policy frameworks which condition their livelihoods and environment, and to change those frameworks in their favour.

Practical Action's Vision

A world free of poverty and injustice in which technology is used to the benefit of all.

Practical Action's Mission

Practical Action aims to eradicate poverty in developing countries through the development and use of technology, by demonstrating results, sharing knowledge and influencing others.

Go on. Make a donation. You'll sleep better.

Death to Van Gogh's Ear!

Via Scribbles I have found this quiz. Very simple. Very cool. Well, it's definitely cool in my case. Some people chase cool while others just have it.

Neil -- [noun]: A beat poet working the streets 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Beat poet working the streets says to me Ferlinghetti, Corso, Ginsberg but to you it may say ranting person with mental health issues. Whatever.

Amnesty International on Gilad Shalit

Amnesty has issued a statement on the abduction of Gilad Shalit:

Corporal Gilad Shalit was abducted in the early morning of 25 June by Palestinian gunmen in an attack on an army base on the Israeli side of the fence which separates the Gaza Strip from Israel. Two other Israeli soldiers were killed and a third wounded in the attack.

Hostage taking, that is threatening to harm or continue to detain a detained person in order to compel a third party to do or abstain from doing something as a condition for their release, is expressly prohibited under international law. Such practice threatens the fundamental right to life, personal integrity and liberty, and is expressly prohibited by international humanitarian law. Under no circumstances is the taking of hostages justifiable.

Armed groups have an international legal obligation to respect the principles of international humanitarian law, including Article 3 common to the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949, which reflects customary international law, and which prohibits the taking of hostages, murder and cruel treatment and torture. Amnesty International calls on the armed groups holding Corporal Gilad Shalit to comply with these principles.

Indeed. All governments and extra-governmental bodies should respect the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949. That would be a G-O-O-D thing.

Bombing of civilian facilities

The Israeli Humna Rights group B'Tselem has raised concerns over Israeli attacks on civilian facilities in Gaza.

B'Tselem today [28th June 2006] sent an urgent request to Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz to instruct Israeli forces to refrain from bombing or deliberately damaging in any way facilities that supply indispensable services to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

B'Tselem added that Israel has the right to all legal measures to free the abducted soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit. However, Israel must refrain from using measures which contravene International Humanitarian Law, which categorically prohibits all sides to a conflict from attacking "objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population".

The article specifically mentioned the bombing of the central electricity relay station to the south of Gaza City. When the Israeli government engages in such actvities against the civilian population of Gaza it is in danger of being accused of war crimes. It is also in danger of losing support from supporters outside Israel. And it is danger of pissing off any possible support it may have in Gaza or the West Bank.

Amnesty International USA says:

Israel must now take urgent measures to remedy the long-term damage it has caused and immediately restore the supply -- at its own cost -- of electricity and water to the Palestinian population in the affected areas," urged the organization. "As the occupying power, Israel is bound under international law to protect and safeguard the basic human rights of the Palestinian population."

The deliberate destruction of the Gaza Strip’s only electricity power station, water networks, bridges, roads and other infrastructure is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and has major and long-term humanitarian consequences for the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.

Almost half of Gaza’s inhabitants are now without electricity and water supplies have also been cut in several areas both by the lack of electricity, necessary to operate the water pumps used to extract and deliver water, and by the destruction of water mains as a result of the bombings of bridges and roads.

The extensive damage caused by Israeli artillery and air strikes against these facilities in recent days is estimated at several millions of US dollars and will require months of work to repair. Unless alternative emergency measures are promptly put in place to restore electricity and water supply the consequences could be dire for the health of the Palestinian population.

In a statement the Israeli army said that it had: “…carried out an aerial attack on an electricity transformer station south of Gaza city….” and that “ The IDF will continue to employ all means at its disposal against Palestinian terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip in order to ensure the quick and safe return home of Corporal Gilad Shalit.”

Amnesty go on to argue that "destructon .. of .. bridges and roads is slowing down, but not preventing movement" across the Gaza Strip but it does not stop armed groups moving across the region. Stopping armed groups was a stated ojective of the Israeli military, an objective that is not being met.

Amnesty continue

As the tension between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) and armed groups continues to mount, there is growing concern for the safety of the civilian population. High numbers of Palestinian bystanders, including women and children, have been killed and injured by Israeli artillery shelling and air strikes in recent weeks and months. This situation looks set to worsen in light of the end of the unilateral cease-fire which the armed wing of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups had been observing since last year.

"The hostage-taking of Corporal Gilad Shalit, and the killing of Eliyahu Asheri, the 18 year old settler, by Palestinian armed groups violate fundamental principles of international law. Corporal Gilad Shalit should be released immediately and unharmed."

"Both sides to this current stand-off should refrain from taking actions which violate international law and should take steps to provide redress for the abuses they have committed. The international community, also has an obligation under the Geneva Conventions, to act," said Amnesty International

Such is international opinion.

Four more years of disappointment

The excellent Hak pointed me to this excellent post of George Szirtes.

So then
Farewell Sven
and the occasional ibroglio
with or without Nancy dell'Olio

Farewell the vast forehead
with acres of space for looking thoughtful yet worried.

Farewell the noble belief in Beckham
despite tabloid oiks bellowing, 'Sack'im!'

The tidy suit, the buddhist calm,
one showing faint cracks, the other minus an arm,

The caution, the mild words, the golden boys dumped
Gerrard exhausted, Beckham weeping and even Hargreaves slumped.

And as these lines grow ever longer and ever more barren
Hail the dead lions. Hail penalty shootouts. Hail dull old Steve McLaren

Pomes. Penyeach!

Mishegas

A sudden flush of blood to the wallet led me last night to a shed of a computer store. Three quarters of an hour later I walked out with a laptop and a wireless router.

Now, on possibly the hottest day of the year, I'm thinking through my next actions.

The intention is to allow Rullsenberg to work upstairs, on this machine, while I work elsewhere on my new laptop. Now setting up the network involves disconnecting cables and jiggery schmiggery pokery. I don't do that.

Regular expressions, Perl, SQL, database administration and *nixie administration is what I do. And I do it with no qualms. Just get on and do it. Unplugging physical stuff that works, changing its state, and plugging it back in puts the fear of figgy pudding into me. What if it stops working? Have a Plan B. What if that doesn't work? Go and have a damn fine cup of coffee.

Neologism alert: As an aside I've just googled "fear of figgy pudding" and got the message "Your search - "fear of figgy pudding" - did not match any documents." End of neologism alert. Let's hope that's not like you tube maury pickles.

So here I am putting off doing the deed. Drinking coffee. Eating figs. Listening to Orishas "A Lo Cubana".

Once it's done I've promised myself a cool glass of Ricard.

Now all I've got to do is do it.

*** I think this post has been dreadfully self indulgent. But that's just the kind of self indulgent crap people like Simon Hoggart get paid shedloads of money to produce. ***

Private reasons great or small

Mark Thomas hits the nail on the head.

"Is it tolerable that we have this many weapons out there? Is it tolerable that there are people who live on a dollar a day? Is it tolerable that we have this society where people at the bottom, the working class - in fact, the people below the working class - that class of people who were just written off at school and stayed written off and stuck there, who are now fucking Asbo fodder, and are treated like scum by comics like Jimmy Carr, who fuckin'...?" He stops to catch his breath. "Is it tolerable that that exists? No. Those facts have never changed. And my belief that we should change them has never changed. It's the approach to how we change it that has changed it. Sometimes, I think you have to be on the outside of all of it, and sometimes you need to be on the inside, and sometimes I just haven't got a clue. There's a lot more ambiguity in my life, and I like that."

Bingo.

Good interview by Simon Hattenstone.

Catching Up II

And those things that happen, shish, it takes time to catch up with.

Friday night went to see Simon Callow give a splendid actorly talk on the second volume, "Hello Americans", of his three part Orson Welles biography. This review gives a flavour of the book and Callow's talk:

Hello Americans picks up the 26-year-old Welles in 1941. Covering six extraordinary years, it addresses 'the most persistent question asked about Orson Welles: what went wrong after Citizen Kane?' There is no simple answer. From the start, Callow dismisses as glib and untrue two frequently advanced explanations. The first is that Welles was self-destructive, the second that he was the victim of a conspiracy on the part of unimaginative, envious and vindictive studio heads and their contacts in the press.

The question everyone asks, "how did Orson Welles get so fat", got the answer "volume three".

Catching Up

When you're busy things really start to happen, don't they?

A week ago went to hear Mike Marqusee talk on his excellent updated book Wicked Messenger. It's a very enjoyable performance and you'll leave knowing more about His Bobness than when you arrived.

About the Dylan whose songs covered politics, protest, civil rights and just being alive.

About the Dylan who rejected the title of "protest singer" and the title "voice of a generation".

About the Dylan whose lyrics say so much about globalisation (before the term was conceived).

About the Dylan who treated people like Wooody Guthrie and Joan Baez so shoddily.

About the Dylan who sells his image, time and music to Victoria's Secrets and Starbucks.

About the Dylan who likes pissing people off.

About the Dylan who dislikes anyone claiming to know "the real Dylan".

It's about Dylan.

And the book's good too.

Jerry Springer the Raffle

On Friday I discovered I had won a raffle for two tickets to Jerry Springer the Opera.

So last night Rullsenberg and I went along. Outside the venue were a group of protesting Christians singing hymns and generally praying for the souls of those who entered the theatre. From inside we saw the protesting Christians joined by a counter demo protesting the right to free speech. This was a cue for an argument between a senior woman and the teenage free speech protestors. But hold that thought a minute. Surely the free speech protestors were also about protesting the senior woman's right to protest, because that's what free speech means, so why argue?

Anyway, on with the show. It's bawdy, irreverent, scurrilous, filthy, scatalogical and a morality tale echoing a long history of religious themed morality tales dating back to the York Mystery plays.

In summary, it's very enjoyable. Go see.

Wiki and Wicked Thoughts

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is interviewed in the latest print issue of The Chronicle.

He claims to receive about ten emails a week from students complaining about Wikipedia .

"They say, 'Please help me. I got an F on my paper because I cited Wikipedia'" and the information turned out to be wrong, he says. But he said he has no sympathy for their plight, noting that he thinks to himself: "For God sake, you're in college; don't cite the encyclopedia," the journal reports.

If it's not good enough for students, according to Jimmy Wales, in a Ratner moment, what is it good for?

Beau Coupe de Monde

Kofi Annan writes

[The World Cup] is an event in which everybody knows where their team stands, and what it did to get there. They know who scored and how and in what minute of the game; they know who saved the penalty. I wish we had more of that sort of competition in the family of nations. Countries vying for the best standing in the table of respect for human rights, and trying to outdo one another in child survival rates or enrolment in secondary education. States parading their performance for all the world to see. Governments being held accountable.

And what's wrong with that?

Be Realistic. Demand the Impossible

Here's Gary Younge on political activism today.

The people involved in the demonstrations today are in general younger, poorer and darker than those of 40 years ago. Young women are more likely to take a leadership role; their parents are more likely to support them. These are not middle-class students seeking an alliance with the workers; they are working-class students seeking passage to the middle class. In Chile, 87% of the public supported them. "These are not crazy revolutionaries," wrote Patricio Fernandez, an influential columnist in the Clinic newspaper. "Their parents support them. Their cousins, their neighbours, their old aunts. They are bored that the wealthy schools educate those who will be boss while their school trains them to be workers. More than combating Chilean authorities, they are convincing them."

What do we want? Middle class jobs. When do we want them? Now!

On the Beach

Sometimes you just like that feeling of sand between your toes. That feeling of the waves coming to the shore. That feeling of being bombed. Can there be any excuse for the bombing on the beach at Gaza?

To open fire on an area where there are members of the public is inexcusable. Whether by negligence, carelessness or deliberate act this is just morally wrong. For further coverage see Norm and also Lisa Goldman. Ha'aretz's Bradley Burston has this to say:

For every Mohammed Dura, there have been hundreds and hundreds of Palestinians killed by the IDF in error, in conjunction with the killing of terrorists, or because overwhelming force and remote technology was applied in order to minimize the risk to Israeli troops.

There was no news crew to film them, so the world cares nothing for them. And neither do we. Their tragedies are no less unbearable, surely no less unbearable than the hundreds of our own the world cares nothing for.

We can live with it, as we live with the idea of sending thousands and thousands of artillery shells into one of the most crowded districts on the planet, in order to try to hit three-man mobile crews firing a rocket not much bigger than a broom - the equivalent of going after a fly with a pile-driver.

We live with it because we Can't Just Do Nothing, as if thousands of shells, many of them directed at open spaces calculated precisely to hit nothing, are the only possible alternative.

We can live with it, fundamentally, because we don't know what else to do, and because the only thing left for us to believe, is that it's wrong to negotiate.

Side A lobs bombs into the are controlled by Side B. Side B retaliates by lobbing bombs into the area controlled by Side A. Side A retaliates by lobbing bombs into the are controlled by Side B. No matter who started the damn thing everyone is now retaliating.

The tricky thing about negotiation is deciding who to negotiate with. Whether or not to negotiate is an easy question to answer. Except in the extremest of circumstances you find someone to negotiate with, (assuming there is someone with the authority to take a negotiated settlement and get it agreed by their people). If there isn't a candidate then find one.

Lowdham Book Festival

There's a splendid festival taking place in a week's time in Lowdham, Nottinghamshire.

We're off to see Mike Marqusee on Bob Dylan; and Simon Cowell on Orson Welles.

(No? Really? That can't be right. Let me check my notes. Oops. Simon Callow. Wrong bloody Simon.)

Anyway it looks a good festival so if you're in the neighbourhood, drop in.

Who do I support?

Should an accident of geography dictate who you support in international sporting contests?

Under late Capitalism support in the World Cup is just another commodity choice. You are fully justified in supporting who you damn please.

If that's England, well somebody has to. An accident of birth shouldn't dictate where you live your life (even if it so often does) so why should it dictate who you support in international sporting contests?

It's just so difficult to get hold of Paraguay and Serbia-Montenegro flags in Nottingham.

Serbia-Montenegro must be the first country which no longer existed at the time the tournament started to play in the World Cup Finals. If they win the tournament will there there be two victory parades?

And I still haven't said it. Several nights ago the media coverage of Shrek arriving in Germany was like the coverage you would expect for the First Coming (or Second Coming depending on your ideological and religious preference). In England's first game isn't any savvy defender going to tread on Mr Rooney's foot at the first corner? Wither England's chances?

England should really have chosen SWP (no, this one).