Ruminations

John Kenneth Galbraith, 1908-2006

Image source: www.dradio.de

The great John Kenneth Galbraith died yesterday at the ripe old age of 97. An intellectual hero of mine, Galbraith is up there with Herman Daly and Joan Robinson in terms of people who have most influenced my thinking. This ABC Late Night Live podcast on J.K. Galbraith is well worth listening to. A short video clip from the BBC also gives a good overview of his contributions.

Apart from his prolific writings as an academic economist, Galbraith also served as a public servant and as an advisor to a number of Democrat presidents. As Ambassador to India he once described the Indian polity as "functional anarchy". More recently, when asked his opnion of Dubya he said: "I never thought that I would yearn for Ronald Reagan."

Anzac Day 2006

Kranji War Memorial Cemetery, Singapore

On Tuesday, before dawn, I made my way to Kranji cemetry once again to pay respects to the war dead. I always find this a very humbling and moving experience, but at the same time very annoying. I've blogged about this before, so I won't go over old ground in detail, but it was a repeat performance of last year. The priest and the Australian High Commissioner seemed to go through the motions, while the Turkish Ambassador stole the show with his moving rendition of Kemal Ataturk's poem now inscribed on a memorial at ANZAC Cove. Most surprising was the Australian High Commissioner's failure to mention the Australians that have been killed in Iraq. The fact there is only a small number (two according to the latest Iraq Coalition Casualty count) is hardly an excuse. All the other conflicts in which Austalians have been involved since Gallipoli were mentioned except this one. Maybe it was too politically sensitive for him to mention. Anyway, I plan to write to him to ask why. Watch this space.

Kudos to Cold Storage

Before

One of my pet hates is plastic bags. They add millions of tonnes to landfill each year and can take up to 1000 years to decay. In some European countries you have to pay for them, and in other countries there are campaigns to get rid of them or reduce use. Singaporeans, meanwhile, seem to love them. It therefore came as a welcome surprise a month or two ago when my local supermarket introduced reusable shopping bags. The only problem was that they were located beyond the checkout (see above). I walked through to get some and put them on the counter and then, to my astonishment, the woman on the checkout promptly put them inside a plastic bag! I'm not much of a consumer activist, but I couldn't let this matter drop. I contacted Mr Dennis Tan at Cold Storage Customer Service and he has very kindly intervened. As of last week the environmentally friendly shopping bags are in a prime position (in between the milk and chocolate). All Cold Storage has to do now is train its staff to encourage customers to use these bags.

After

Moral high ground?

Image source: www.geopolitica.info

The Guardian has a headline today that reads: Human rights concerns threaten to sour US-China Summit. No doubt President Hu Jintao plans to bring up capital punishment in the US, Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

No politics please, we're Singaporean

Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Image source: Channel NewsAsia

In the so-called knowledge economy, where the source of international competitive advantage is creativity of thought fuelled by the free exchange of ideas, the PAP Government in Singapore seems intent on remaining firmly ensconced in the 20th century. The latest public pronouncement on freedom of speech might easily have come out of China or North Korea rather than a country that aspires to the 'Intelligent Island'. Speaking in the Singaporean Parliament, Balaji Sadasivan (Junior Minister for Information, Communications, and the Arts) declared on Monday that political debate on the Internet could fuel "dangerous discourse" in Singapore, warning that people who post political commentary on Web sites could face prosecution. "In a free-for-all Internet environment where there are no rules" says Balaji, "political debate could easily degenerate into an unhealthy, unreliable and dangerous discourse, flush with rumours and distortions to mislead and confuse the public."

Apart from the insinuation that Singaporean voters cannot be trusted to make their own choices, it is a statement that is hardly conducive to the promotion of a culture in which people will be encouraged to take risks, to think outside-of-the-box, and to contribute to the free flow of ideas that are so essential for the formation of a vibrant, innovative economy.

Thanks to Before I Forget for the FT story tip off. The full story from Reuters is cut-and-pasted below.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Political debate on the Internet could fuel "dangerous discourse" in Singapore, the government said on Monday, warning people who post political commentary on Web sites could face prosecution.
Speaking in parliament, senior minister of state Balaji Sadasivan, said anyone using the Internet to "persistently propagate, promote or circulate political issues" about Singapore during election periods was breaking the law.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, whose People's Action Party has dominated politics in the city-state since independence in 1965, is widely expected to call early elections in the coming months.

"In a free-for-all Internet environment, where there are no rules, political debate could easily degenerate into an unhealthy, unreliable and dangerous discourse, flush with rumours and distortions to mislead and confuse the public," Sadasivan said.

The tiny island-republic's laws require political parties and individuals to register if they want to post political content on the Internet.

Print media in Singapore are tightly controlled, but the Internet is rife with Web sites that discuss Singapore politics, from the critical newsgroup sg_review to the comical www.talkingcock.com and blogs such as singabloodypore and www.yawningbread.org.

It is not clear whether any of these sites have registered with the government.

While Sadasivan said the government's approach was to take "a light touch" in regulating the Internet, political activists have complained that the rules are too broadly defined, preventing an open debate. He said a change of the law was ruled out.

The rules also apply to "podcasting", an increasingly popular medium through which audio files are made available for download on the Internet, allowing Web surfers to listen to them at their convenience.

Last year, opposition politician Chee Soon Juan launched a podcast on the Singapore Democratic Party's Web site in an attempt to reach a wider audience and bypass the pro-government media.

Dubya: "I got a comprehensive plan"

I know some people worry about US energy policy but I think we can relax following Dubya's press conference the other day. As GWB makes it abundantly clear: "We -- first of all, there is -- the globe is warming. The fundamental debate: Is it manmade or natural. Put that aside."

For the full statement take a look at mobjectivist who value-adds with annotations of the non-sequiturs (Bushisms).

Too little too late for GM?

Image source: BBC news

A couple of my bloggerbuddies have recently taken up the cause of pictorially documenting the irresponsible behaviour of Singapore drivers. It is fortunate I don't drive here as I think they would have a field day following me around the place. Driving one-handed and blocking the thoroughfare are minor offences, however, compared to amount of carbon monoxide churned out each day by 'careful' drivers. The amazing thing is that fuel cell technology has been around for years and, with a few exceptions, it is only now that car manufacturers are starting to wean themselves off fossil fuels. For GM it could be their last roll of the dice.