Finis (probably)

I started the burst valve because I was angry; mostly, angry about people. Gradually, I have come around to a different view of this animal. You see, we have a cat; or maybe the cat has us. Big, handsome, with long dark fur, fond of purring, he will even walk to heel, if he thinks it will be a short walk - imagine a cat with a little puppy in him.

This same rascal is in the habit of using our garden as an open-air mortuary, or, in the case of his less fortunate victims, a kind of feline Colosseum. We do not enjoy this little foible, but we accept it; after all, he is just a cat.

People are people; weak, fallible, irrational, some part angel, some part demon. Nevertheless, this curious species stumbles on, feet in the mud, but eyes perhaps a little higher; and I have decided to like the creature.

New and calmer thoughts on entirely different subject at the new blog...

Duty to Render Assisstance

Article 98 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea confers a duty on the master of every ship to render assistance to "any person found at sea in danger of being lost", where such help can be given without serious danger to his own crew or vessel.

So far, so good - but what if they aren't at sea? What about people "in danger of being lost" to hunger or epidemic? Not a matter for the Law of the Sea, obviously - but what is the moral difference between sailing past a sinking boat, and changing the channels when the latest earthquake/famine appeal begins?

We can't very well toss every tight-of-wallet viewer in the slammer, but shouldn't there be compulsion to help? There are limits to the means of the average viewer - but rich blocs like the EU could stop any famine you care to name without that contribution meriting more than budgetary footnote. Why not a fully-funded international disaster fund guaranteed to provide all necessary assistance in the event of certain qualifying calamities? Seems a lot more sensible than the present arrangement of ad-hoc - or post-hoc fundraising.

Then again, why stop there? Famines and epidemics take lives and waste lives, but then, so do deficiencies in healthcare and education - enormously so. We talk about human rights to this and that - how about putting our money where our mouths are, and providing/enforcing a minimum standard of services (health, education, income) in every country? Like the disaster relief idea, member nations could all contribute to a central pot, according to ability to pay. Instead of piece-meal development efforts, contributors would provide a steady and predictable flow of funding to maintain schools and clinics for the poorest members.

The best part about this scheme is that it would not merely restore some benighted region to pre-catastrophe condition, but instead would continuously improve all those poor and quietly desperate regions where the suffering is insufficiently dramatic or unusual to be newsworthy. With better education and healthier populations, the benefiting members would have a real chance of increasing their living standards to the levels we lucky people have come to think of as the norm. One by one, dependent nations could be converted to paying ones, making the task in the remaining countries easier every time.

This idea isn't without precedence - think of the Marshall Plan, or EU aid to its members. The only difference is the scope - expanding the area of operations from now-wealthy Europe to cover the globe. Can we afford it? Well, I've seen estimates for similar, albeit more limited, proposals that put the bill at 0.7% or so of GDP, assuming we all join. Imagine, say, a modified sales tax - 21% VAT + 2% Global Development Levy - who wouldn't be proud to pay that tax? Finally, I have one question for doubters:

What about our "Duty to Render Assistance" to those "people in danger of being lost"?

Net Benefit

Of those currently alive, some 350 million or so will die of mosquito-transmitted infections (Wikipedia). In Africa, malaria alone kills about 3,000 children per day. I find it hard to image tragedy on such a huge scale. You haven't even heard the worst/best part yet, though: malaria, in particular, is transmitted by the bite of a female mosquito. She feeds only at night, flitting almost silently in to feed on sleeping families.

And that, dear reader, is where you come in: people are dying simply because they can't afford a simple $10 insecticide-treated mosquito net to hang over their bed. Rick Reilly, a writer at Sports Illustrated, has teamed up with the UN Foundation to create a charity called Nothing But Nets. Visit their website, donate $10, and, somewhere in Africa, a family gets a new mosquito net, which will last 4 years. Better still, make it a habit. And tell your friends.

Come on people: where else can you spend $10 with the reasonable expectation of saving a life?

Darfur, Again.

Maybe it is genocide, and maybe it isn't. Either way, Darfurians seem to be having a fairly dismal time of it. The (inadequate) African Union peacekeeping force is about to be withdrawn, and Khartoum is busily preparing for a new offensive. The Sudanese government isn't exactly thrilled by the idea of having 20,000 UN troops in their anarchic south, either; apparently this would constitute colonialism. I'm not fully up to speed with the politics of the region, but it would be nice to think that the international community, would at least be willing to provide an effective defensive force for the unfortunates exisiting in the refugee camps. As it is, I'm not confident that we'll do anything more watch and write a potted record of YAM (yet another massacre).

Oh well... the toll of our neglect will probably not exceed a low multiple of the annual carnage on Iran's roads (circa 31,000 deaths, 300,000 injuries) or a small fraction of the 2.2 megadeaths that Rotavirus & co. inflict on our other neglected every year.

Apparently, if I were an American, I'ld vote...

...democrat all the way. I took this politics test & got an interesting if not very
surprising result.

You are a Social Liberal (80% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (33% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Not the worst news ever...

A fairly precise airstrike has removed Mr. Zarqawi from among those present. What effect will this have? No idea, but it can't be a bad thing.

In a worker's paradise

Last Friday night, I was sitting beside Mr. F, a taxi driver who works on Mahe, the most heavily populated island in the Seychelles group, as he drove me out of the capital, Victoria, and back to my hotel. A minibus which approached us very rapidly from the rear:

"From the cannery", he said. "They take the workers home after their shift".

"Sounds likes a good perk".

Mr. F chuckled. "They are contract workers, from Madagascar. The company gives them food, lodging, transport... and $4 (USD) a day."

I spotted problem with that figure - "But, isn't your minimum wage nearly three times that?".

Mr. F shrugged - "Yes, of course... but they sign a contract in Madagascar, so what can they do?".

Me, full of righteous indignation on behalf of the exploited - "Where I come from, a judge would tear that contract in two!".

Mr. F smiles - "You know which company operates the cannery? [name of major company, a household name in Europe and the US, whose name usually features on the shelves of our own kitchen, withheld until I can fact-check Mr. F's story]!"

Some background: the Seychelles are ruled by a party which staged a socialist coup there some year ago (but converted to a multi-party democracy in the early nineties). Seychelloise enjoy a fairly decent healthcare and education system, and a general standard of living well above the African average. I already knew that the foreign exchange earned by its canneries and tourism industries were used to fund these; what I didn't know, until Mr. F told me, was that both of these industries ride on the backs of contract workers from Madagascar (canning) and India (building).

The next morning, eating breakfast at the airport, I had the opportunity to see Indian contract builders at work. The builders of my previous experience are big, solid, muscular men: those doing the the heavy lifting in the rebuilding of Victoria's international airport have arm dimensions that would not disgrace an anorexic.

A poor African country that repairs the damage done by centuries of exploitation by a priveliged few... by exploiting the hungry men from its neighbours. You couldn't make it up.