Libertarian Rants

The world watches on as one of the most sinister and repressive regimes shoots and burns protester and monks this week. Welcome to Burma where communism, dictatorship, central government control are still alive in this day and age, doing what they have always done, murdering. China refuses to intervene and Russia shows all the cowardice common to its foreign policy, these are two nations that absolutely should not hold permanent seats in the UN Security Council. Meanwhile the president of Russia is becoming its prime-minister after bringing back the old Soviet anthem, and Russian journalists and civilians once again disappear in the middle of the night. 

Big government has decided it is a better arbiter of science than scientists! It’s absurd! Marc van Roosmalen is a Dutch scientist that has been living in the Amazon for 20 years, he finds new species and names them after his patrons. He is brilliant and is considered by many environmentalists to be one of the defenders of the Amazon. Now the Brazilian government has decided to arrest him on trumped up charges that he had been illegally studying Amazonian species.

Brazilian laws created to protect the nation’s “patrimony” have been stifling research by local and foreign scientists for decades. This absurdist notion that a government should get paid for a larvae’s secretion is at the heart of Lula’s populist politics who in fact has sanctioned more draconian laws than ever in order to tax science. Butterflies, monkeys, and plants do not have passports! They have no nationality and therefore are not subject to our human laws. Butterflies migrate, seeds are carried for thousands of miles in the wind or inside a bird’s stomach, how can one be sure that a Brazilian monkey wasn’t born atop an Argentinean tree before he crossed the border on the back of a Paraguayan turtle?

How incredibly arrogant that a government, with an illiterate president, believe it can dictate science to men and women who have dedicated their lives, intellect and talent to learning and teaching us about our world. Big government, out of control once again, has shot itself in the foot. This obviously seems to be its past-time of choice. Foreign scientists unable to do research in the Brazilian Amazon will go to Suriname or Peru and spend their dollars, euros and pounds over there, and work with scientists from those countries instead, it’s a lose-lose situation.

A blow against science is a blow against all of humanity. Free Marc van Roosmalen!!!

This new Unity ‘08 campaign has the potential to be either a gift or a disaster. The Unity ‘08 movement is attempting to foster a relationship between a Democrat and a Republican canditate so they will run together on one ticket. The thought behind this is that this will end partisan bickering in the Congress and bring the nation together, sounds naïve but very nice on paper. A perfect ticket would have a fiscally responsible Democrat (good luck) and a socially liberal Republican (snowball in hell). The worst-case scenario would give us a tax-and-spend Democrat and socially conservative Republican, or more of what we have in Congress right now. 

An absolute desert of imagination and intelect is spreading across the Americas. Chavez has shut down a TV station because his enormous ego feels threatened by the airwaves. Censorship is not exactly a new idea. Can you imagine Bush shutting down Comedy Central because of Stewart, Black, Colbert and Little Bush? As ignorant and incompetent as Bush is, this would never happen. Unfortunately across South America the crazed red-shirt fascists are applauding Chavez. Communism is the religion of the state and like all religion, should be kept out of political debate. Journalists in Venezuela are threatened, sometimes hurt or even killed and Chavez is hoping to “reclaim” Guyana which according to him belongs to Venezuela. He asked the Mercosul  countries to condemn RCTV (the station he shut down) all the countries opposed condeming the channel, but not one has come out strongly criticizing Chavez for his barbaric act. 

Today is also my birthday and I have received a Tintin ‘album de jeux’ or game book as a gift from my wife. I started reading Tintin in Portuguese when I was a boy in Brasil and now that I am fluent in French, I own the whole collection in it’s original language. Tintin has endured because he represents the best in us. That part of us that we so rarely show these days; corageous, compassionate, endearing, and noble. Hergé’s artistic talent is magnificent, one only need to look at the beautiful detail in all his panels and his choices of tone and shading. His gift for storytelling is rare and while the 3d monsters of today, with their cheap jokes and computer generated frills, will pass into oblivion, count on Tintin to live on forever.

Everyone always talks about a two state solution for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and a unified Iraq. How about a 3 state solution for both?! Delaware senator Biden proposed a 3 state solution for Iraq, did anyone listen? No, and now we have a war that will according to my history professor, soon dislodge Vietnam as America’s greatest international policy mistake. I think Iraq could use a 3 or even better 4 state solution, and I do mean independent states. One tiny state the size of San Marino or Andorra for the Assyrian Christians, a nation for the Sunis, one for the Shia (a little Iran is better than 2 big Irans) and one for the Kurds. Maybe Turkey would finally agree to a free and independent Kurdistan if it could “re-patriate” its Kurdish citizens to an independent Kurdistan just south of its border. What about Israel? One state is already established, the other one could be set up almost immediately in the West Bank and another one in Gaza.  The West Bank would become independent, Israel would pull out every last settler and military personnel left behind, and nations would recognize this new state immediately and begin trading with it bringing prosperity and development to it. Gaza, seeing the success of the West Bank would opt for independence and follow suit. Small countries generally fare well economically, whether it’s Monaco or Liechenstein in Europe or Singapore or Taiwan in Asia they tend to have a better track record than their larger counterparts.

Zimbabwe has reached a critical point. Central planning gone awry (as it usually does) has brought the country which was once called “the breadbasket of Africa” to a new level of misery. South Africa has deported over 57,000 Zimbabweans this year that have illegaly crossed the border escaping Mugabe’s rule. Now the government has imposed power cuts and power rationing, it reminds me of being a kid during the dictatorship in my country when we would have “brown-outs” and cuts in our water supply. That was of course when the government ran the waterworks and the electricity distribution, before the private sector was allowed to jump in and save the day. I remember helping my mother fill pans with water to be used for cooking, drinking and bathing the next day. I remember candlelit nights on my uncle’s porch and the insecurity of not having lights at night. But mostly I remember a little Samba tune that said “de dia falta água, de noite falta luz,” which means, “by day we lack water, by night we lack light.” Brown-outs and water shortages are unheard of in Rio now. Governments running utilities lead to inneficiency, cronyism and corruption. When utility companies compete for costumers, the costumers win. Only those of us who have lived it can know for sure, privatization was the panacea of our “public works” problems. Too bad Mugabe has decided to horde the power to turn lights and water on and off, he has decided to decide what is best for his people. And they in response are fleeing the country.

First and foremost let me dismiss the hysteria over Friedman having gone to Chile. Before ever going there, he had refused 2 honorary Chilean university degrees from schools that received government money in order to make it plain and clear that he disapproved of the Pinochet dictatorship. Secondly, he took it upon himself to explain, in person, to the Chilean administration that free markets don’t work without democracy and that democracy doesn’t exist without a free market.