I think many will find this newspaper opinion piece of interest. It’s straight out of Iraq, by and for Iraqi’s.
It’s good to see the local view point of current events. I recommend reading other articles as well.
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Here’s an interesting titbit of news, which I just got from following a trackback to something else to this guy (and his blog). The Guardian is starting a blog devoted to the single issue of abolishing agricultural subsidies.
This is, you might say, lefties giving leftism a libertarian hook, to refashion one of Perry de Havilland’s most favoured memes. I say, good for them. I’ve always felt that in the long run (okay, the very long run), if libertarianism (okay, the Samizdata meta-context) were ever to triumph in the UK, it would be via the Guardian and by outflanking the traditional right, which has always had a lively sense of the revolutionary and hence to them regrettable nature of the free market. Guardianistas are trouble-makers first and only socialist centralists second and because this makes trouble for smug establishmentarians. If there’s libertarian (Samizdata meta … etc.) trouble to be made, they’ll make that too. The message is bound to get spread around in some very unlikely places, many of them very angry and hostile places for such a message, that state spending doesn’t work at achieving its publicly stated goals and most especially doesn’t work at making poor people richer. I expect a lot of regular Guardian readers to be angry about this. Good. August 18th, 2003 | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)
 I have been reading a remarkable book about a remarkable period in British history – the mid- to late 18th century – when a group of entrepreneurs, gifted amateur scientists and political radicals helped create the foundations of much of our modern industrial world. The Lunar Men by Jenny Uglow, looks at the lives of a small but amazingly influential group of men, particularly the ceramics genius Josiah Wedgewood, pamphleteer and scientist Joseph Priestley, engineer Matthew Boulton, steam engine king James Watt, and medical doctor Erasmus Darwin. What jumps off the page is these men’s tremendous sense of drive and enthusiasm for acquiring and sharing knowledge. They were great polymaths, seeing no division between the pursuit of abstract knowledge and practical concerns of money making. Most of these men were consciously outsiders, eccentrics and radicals ill at ease with the Anglican establishment. That sense of being ‘on the outside’ I think partly explains their drive to succeed. Most of them notably were unable for religious reasons to attend the main English universities of Cambridge and Oxford, often attending Scottish academies instead or bypassing such places altogether. And I was also struck by the sense of limitless possibility afforded by a country which at the time imposed very few restrictions and taxes on the public. 18th Century Britain was a bit like the Silicon Valley of the 1990s, with powdered wigs. Of course there were restrictive practises such as merchant gilds and duties on some imports, but that period surely came about as close to a genuine model of laissez faire capitalism as we have ever seen in our history. There was much that was very bad and ugly about that period in our history, but also a great deal worth preserving and emulating today. The entrepreneurial gusto of these men is something we could surely use today. Glorious geeks indeed. August 18th, 2003 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
Here’s one trend that’s going the opposite from the US that’s actually good news for the Brits. A new private Accident & Emergency unit is to be opened this October in Brentford, West London. To non-British readers, that’s a private Emergency Room. This has been widely reported as the first attempt to set up ER in the UK wrongly as it turns out. I contacted the BBC and the wording has changed to it claims to be the first. Obviously emergency healthcare in Britain existed before the state nationalized hospitals in 1948. This report from 1998 shows that at least one serious attempt has been made to charge people for access to emergency healthcare in Britain. It failed for two reasons: the location was not ideal. The middle of Hampstead Heath is not the most obvious demand area for ER services and the Manor House Hospital (owned by a trade union) was sold to property developers. The other interesting point in the BBC report is the view of the British Medical Association, the monopolistic body that represents the producer interests of doctors in the UK.
So let me see if I have this straight – doctors believe that reducing the amount of time patients lie on trolleys or blood-splattered chairs in the waiting-room (I’ve sat on some of them), from 12 hours to four hours, being denied treatment, will damage patient care. Dr Shipman I presume? August 18th, 2003 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
The BBC reports that two young British soldiers have saved the life of an abandoned newborn Iraqi girl after finding her in an ammunition dump. Private Damien Kenny and Private Jonathan Hunt of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment were searching a house in Basra after rounding up five terror suspects when they found two days old baby in a dusty 3ft-long padlocked metal box and nestling among rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AK47s and ammunition. Tightly swaddled and prematurely born, she was no longer breathing. The squaddies began giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and a few minutes later Rose – named by the soldiers after the red rose of their Lancashire regiment – squeezed Private Kenny’s finger. The Army was able to track her down and mother and daughter have been reunited in hospital. Lieutenant Craig Rogers, who is in charge of the unit which found Rose said:
Four soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment had chased armed Iraqi men into the house in the Al Jubaylah area of Basra early on Sunday following reports of looting at a local water treatment plant. They were arrested and the baby was found – along a large white bag containing one million Iraqi Dinars – in the subsequent routine search of the house. And all this without a search warrant…! Update: The first commenter in a fit of otherwise commendable paranoia against the BBC wants to wait for a confirmation. So far I have found Annanova reporting the same story pretty much verbatim. I shall keep searching… Another update: And here is SkyNews with the same story. Here is CNN’s version of the same event. Update: Ignore the previous updates. The author of this post has gone off the rails. August 18th, 2003 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
Who would have thought it? One of the main nutrition-industry opponents of the Atkins diet has had some of her research sponsored by the flour industry. Remarkable. They really don’t like it up ’em, do they?, these nutritionists, who for years have been ordering us all to eat more low-fat (i.e. high carbohydrate) foods. And the Atkins diet is the bayonet up the bum they all secretly dread. For an entire industry of do-gooders, sponsored by the NHS and other tax-funded bodies, have made a fabulous living in the UK over the last two decades by sticking their noses into the things we eat, the fluids we drink, and the way we live. And the news they don’t want anyone to hear is that it may be their advice, which has been causing all of the increasing obesity, because of their obsession with low-fat food. Manufacturers pack out these products with sugar, rice, and all the corn-syrup they can get their hands on. These overwhelm the poor old insulin-creating Islets of Langerhans, in the pancreas; the effects of this, according to Dr Atkins, are that we pile on weight and become addicted to carbs (sweets, beer, etc). As well as causing obesity, particularly amongst children, the nutrition industry may also have created the huge rise in that dreadful silent killer disease, diabetes. It’s not a pretty picture. And neither was I. Just after Christmas this year I topped 17st and 10lbs, and I was exhibiting what doctors call a pre-diabetic tendency (e.g. chain-eating packets of sweets). By God, that was some stomach, and in Winston Churchill’s famous phrase, that was some neck. But now, because of the late Dr Atkins, I’m 16st and 1lb. I was even better than this, at 15st 10lbs, but a recent reversion to ‘normal’ carb-loaded eating sent me back over the dreaded 16st barrier. So it’s back to Atkins, starting today, till we hit my fighting weight of 14st, though I’ll probably have some carb-relapses on the way, involving lager and curry, and it may take me a while. So, to any anti-Atkins nutritionist, is it better I be nearly 18st, pre-diabetic, under blood pressure strain, and eating carb-laden low fat snacks, or 16st, not eating carbs, and a with significantly decreased obesity-related health risk? Hmmm…it takes me about 3.9 nanoseconds to work that one out. → Continue reading: Anti-Atkins do-gooder working for the flour industry August 18th, 2003 | 29 comments - (Comments are closed)
Salaam Pax is covering the story of how his friend, Baghdad photo blogger “G” was knocked about by US soldiers. Those in the know around the blogosphere have enjoyed “G’s” candid shots around Baghdad. Here at Samizdata we don’t take kindly to our fellow bloggers getting roughed up. So whoever did it, go and apologize to him. NOW! Well, I’m waiting! August 18th, 2003 | 42 comments - (Comments are closed)
Words from the streets of Basra:
From local Sheikh.
After US killed Uday and Quasay and first time I heard anyone say we should be more like the Americans!
The people here really hate Saddam and all his family and friends. It’s about the one thing everyone agrees on. When the news was confirmed that the evil sons were dead, the whole place was like 4th July in South L.A. In fact it was like watching TV footage of the nights Baghdad was bombed, there was tracer arching up into the sky from every direction you looked. Quite pretty to watch it sailing overhead, but a little worrying to see how many places all around us have automatic weapons to fire off, as well as all kinds of flares. And no shortage of ammo either. On the other hand these people must like us really, because we don’t get all that fired at us, and there’s a lot more civilians with guns here than there are soldiers. But basically, Saddam’s sons dead – party time. The only down notes I heard from anyone was “let’s get the rest”, and “pity they didn’t suffer more”. A lot of people wanted them put on trial but I don’t think a few years in prison and early parole for good behaviour was ever an option. Incidentally, one 12 year old boy sleeping on a roof seems to have been killed by falling fire, though we can’t be certain that was the reason – we had a few near misses. This prompts the thought that one of the first things Iraq really needs is some decent fireworks for celebrations. And don’t worry too much about the safety regs, just make them loud.
By bad men this man meant Ba’athists, anti-CF, sheikhs, criminals and religious fundamentalists. There are quite a lot of anglophiles in Basra from the last time my Regiment was here in WW2 but of course you have to allow for them telling you what they think you want to hear… August 17th, 2003 | 27 comments - (Comments are closed)
Many of you probably know Burt Rutan drop tested the second stage of his suborbital passenger spaceplane on August 7th. You might be interested in some of the details of this historic event. White Knight, the first stage, was piloted by Brian Binnie with Cory Bird as co-pilot. SpaceShipOne flew with Mike Melvill at the controls. The flight report states:
The test flight time was 1.1 hours for White Knight and 19 minutes for SpaceShipOne. The biggest thing between them and a first suborbital private launch on the Wright Brothers First Flight Anniversary in December is a pile of US Government forms. These will hopefully be processed in time as the bureaucrats involved are, from what I have heard, doing their best within what the system allows. The process was begun very late… I will not go into details as I believe Rand Simberg may have discussed this earlier in the summer. August 17th, 2003 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
Blogger and Canadian writer Colby Cosh tells us why he is a libertarian in one of those don’t-know-whether-to-laugh-or-cry stories.
Read, as the man says, the whole thing. August 17th, 2003 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
In 1702, King William III was riding his horse around the gardens of Hampton Court Palace when the horse stumbled on a mole-hill. William was thrown and suffered injuries from which he did not recover. From then on, his Jacobite foes celebrated the event by raising a toast to ‘the little gentleman in black velvet’. Fast forward three centuries and another species of native British wildlife could be the cause of a government tumble. When supporters of the Countryside Alliance marched through London last September in protest at HMG’s plans to abolish fox-hunting they said they were ‘Born to hunt, ready to fight’. Now, according to the UK Times [no direct link], some of them are about to make good on that threat:
Of course, this isn’t really all about fox-hunting. It’s a cumulation of deeply felt resentments about a lot of things (see our archives for details) and, probably above all, about a government which rules rather than represents. Still talk is cheap and fighting talk is wholesale. Do the countryside rebels have the grit to actually do it? Or sustain it? Marching up and down with placards is one thing, but actual tax rebellion is hitting the state where it hurts and that means that the state is certain to hit back. Only through a willingness to accept the consequences can the rebels hope to succeed. But what if they do succeed and large pockets of the countryside become, in effect, ungovernable? What if they succeed thus and it spreads? Too early to tell yet but I find the editorial position taken by the Times to be of considerable interest:
Succinctly put and admirably correct. Nonetheless we’re not just talking about a sit-down demo or a campaign of fly-leafleting here and while the editorial doesn’t quite go as far as condoning the rebellion they only stop just short, leaving no-one in any doubt as to where their sympathies lie. When an institution as reliably august and reputable as the Times gives an approving nod and wink to a campaign of civil disobedience then you know for sure that there is a whiff of real excitement in the air. August 17th, 2003 | 28 comments - (Comments are closed)
On BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme (on Monday’s show – if my memory serves) there was a story about the destruction of the forests of Eastern Europe. The BBC journalist would refer to forests in country after country and talk about how the trees were “illegally cut down” and the timber “illegally imported into Western European countries”. I noticed something about the BBC man’s remarks. In each Eastern European country he discussed he talked about the ‘national parks’ or the ‘national forests’ – never once did he talk about privately owned forests being destroyed. Whether forests are owned by old aristocratic families or by private companies (as in the State of Maine) there is no question of them being destroyed for a quick buck – ownership (as opposed to licences, or ‘rights to’ or other nonsense), brings concern for the long term. Of course the BBC man did not notice this – he just claimed that ‘things’ would be improved when the Eastern European nations joined the European Union and there were even more regulations than there are now. August 17th, 2003 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
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