We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
|
Condoleezza Rice has an audience with God No, George W. Bush’s ego has not in fact got out of hand. The US Secretary of State was in fact welcoming the President of Equatorial Guinea, who was described on state radio in that country as “like God in Heaven, with power over men and things”.
Lucky him.
Not so lucky are the rest of the people in Equatorial Guinea, who get the short end of the stick when it comes to liberty and the like.
I can understand the need of the United States to maintain influence over a place like Equatorial Guinea, which has a great deal of oil reserves. He’s a sunofabitch but he’s our sunofabitch. Or something like that. Realpolitik will be with us for a long time to come. However, that doesn’t mean that such a slimebag should be given the five-star treatment in Washington. Or, indeed, anywhere outside his own wretched balliwak.
(Via Passport)
|
Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
|
Not ‘sonofabitch’, then?
“Balliwak”… WTF!
“Bailiwick”…district, jurisdiction of bailie or bailiff; (colloq.) person’s sphere of operations. This is from the Oxford Dictionary.
Thankfully Obiang only has a few months left and apparently spends each and every minute in total agony due to his prostrate cancer. The problem IMO is with his truly horrendous son Teodorín Nguema Obiang, reputedly a psychopath, as well as known for blowing countless millions of dollars on his Hollywood parties – why do Democrats love those evil despots so much?
This is a Dogs Of War just waiting to happen.
Just some added info:
From Wikipedia: (Equatorial Guinea) Despite a per capita GDP (PPP) of more than US$30,000 [7] (CIA Factbook $50,200[8]) which is as of 2004 the sixth highest in the world, Equatorial Guinea ranks 121st out of 177 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index.
Presumably for much the same reasons that private companies love them – you can bribe your way to whatever you want, whether that’s political influence or corporate profit.
EG
I don’t think we are going to be invading a whole lot more countries for awhile. Iran is probably the next one on the list or something.
Euan: Do private companies really “love” despots? Despots who, at a whim, kick them out of the country or nationalise their investments?
They’ll deal with them, because they want the business. But love them? Show us some argument for it, or I’ll be chalking that up to blind anti-corporatism.
There’s a reason companies (and their investments, including in capital and development) do far better in stable democracies than under despots, and companies know it – after all, being concerned with the bottom line means being concerned with keeping it, too.
… after all, being concerned with the bottom line means being concerned with keeping it, too.
Great quote! Utterly insightful yet totally obvious at the same time.
Prostrate, Julian Taylor???…………..He obviously takes his problems lying down!
EG: Realpolitik
Dealing with a despotic regime is, from a corporate point of view, often easier than dealing with the rule of law. The reason is that inconvenient laws can be circumvented by means of a cash payment to the despot or, more often, his underlings, which can be cheaper than obeying the law.
In the case of Equatorial Guinea, the lure is oil, and in the oil business very large profits can be had, especially at today’s prices. A barrel of oil currently costs between 3 and 10 dollars to extract, depending on location. This cost is unconnected with the “market” price for oil, of course. Even after official royalties and taxes, repayment of capital expenditure, transportation and so on, you have a very tidy profit, and thus most oil majors have substantial amounts of money to chuck around. It’s often cheaper to buy a lack of law enforcement than to, say, upgrade plant and equipment to meet theoretically required environmental rules. A certain oil major in a West African state used to helicopter sackloads of banknotes – literally – once a month to the appropriate individuals for exactly these purposes. Another one used to invoice twice for the same thing, splitting the double-dip with useful people in the appropriate government ministries. Unfortunately, I do know what I’m talking about – this stuff actually happens on a regular basis.
Many despots are not interested in ideology or political theory. They are interested in money, and will quite often *not* bother nationalising foreign interests because all this does is take away the cash cow and force spreading the profits wider.
Indeed, and when cosying up to a despot can increase the bottom line, what do you think a company is going to do?
EG
EG, you suffering from Samizdata fatigue. I’m away a few days, and you’ve got the last word on everything! Sheesh… And as ever, it’s mainly bollocks, interspersed with nonsense.
Dealing with a despotic regime is categorically not easier than dealing with a regime based on the impartial rule of law.
With a despot you never truly know where you stand, you could be arbitrarily cut off if a competitor pays a bigger bribe or provides more attractive hookers to the power brokers.
From a corporate point of view despotism sucks.
Condoleezza Rice George Bush United States of American USA White House allies
Iran Iraq 9/11 september leadership
Donald Rumsfeld secretary of state
policies zinni.
http://www.MikesAmericanBlog.com
http://www.MikesNewsBlog.com