Bono berates us all for the poverty of Africa.
Yet he doesn't pay his taxes, quoting the Gospel of Saint Matthew:- “Let not the left hand know what the right hand does.”
Someone should tell Bono the full quote:-
"But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth".
This teaching does not provide cover to those wishing to avoid their tax liability. It instructs them to keep quiet about what they give to the poor. It specifically tells the like of Bono to shut their big mouths.
Bono would do better to give to Caesar (the state) what is his, all that filthy lucre.
And when it comes to morality, a humble and broken heart is what God requires.
Tuesday 24 September 2013
Monday 23 September 2013
Merkel in Germany
Angela Merkel and her Christian Democrats have had a good election. 42% of the vote.
Some right wing Eurosceptics got close to representation with over 4% (In Germany, you need a minimum of 5% to get ant representatives into parliament).
But her coalition partners (the Free Democrats) slipped below 5%.
So, Merkel has no one on the right to form a coalition with.
Other people in parliament include the SPD (socialist/social democratic) Green and Lefists.
Between them they have 43% plus.
This is a great result for Merkel, but I do not believe it is quite the kind of result the British media says it is.
Firstly, the leftists and the rightists are pretty much neck and neck. The SPD has not done well, neither have the greens, that makes the German electorate look pretty much left wing, all other things considered.
Secondly, Merkel's victory is more a conquest of the German right than it is of the German electorate. 42% is a great result for the CDU/CSU alliance. But that is the sum of all the parliamentary parties of the right. This is a personal victory for Merkel, not a victory for the right.
Thirdly the British see this election result as a shift to Euro-scepticism, a rejection of the elitist euro agenda. But the Eurosceptic right wingers (AfD) scored as poorly as the Free Democrats.
You could more easily style this result as a rejection of free market neo liberalism as a rejection of Europe. After all, it is a victory for Ms Merkel, who has committee to saving the Euro.
The left is split, with many voters going to the left of the centrist SPD. The greens ran on higher taxes. The SPD leadership was lacklustre. Almost no one goes to the right of Merkel.
Someone from the German left will need to work with the CDU.
If the German left can find itself a leader, it is well positioned for the next election.
Some right wing Eurosceptics got close to representation with over 4% (In Germany, you need a minimum of 5% to get ant representatives into parliament).
But her coalition partners (the Free Democrats) slipped below 5%.
So, Merkel has no one on the right to form a coalition with.
Other people in parliament include the SPD (socialist/social democratic) Green and Lefists.
Between them they have 43% plus.
This is a great result for Merkel, but I do not believe it is quite the kind of result the British media says it is.
Firstly, the leftists and the rightists are pretty much neck and neck. The SPD has not done well, neither have the greens, that makes the German electorate look pretty much left wing, all other things considered.
Secondly, Merkel's victory is more a conquest of the German right than it is of the German electorate. 42% is a great result for the CDU/CSU alliance. But that is the sum of all the parliamentary parties of the right. This is a personal victory for Merkel, not a victory for the right.
Thirdly the British see this election result as a shift to Euro-scepticism, a rejection of the elitist euro agenda. But the Eurosceptic right wingers (AfD) scored as poorly as the Free Democrats.
You could more easily style this result as a rejection of free market neo liberalism as a rejection of Europe. After all, it is a victory for Ms Merkel, who has committee to saving the Euro.
The left is split, with many voters going to the left of the centrist SPD. The greens ran on higher taxes. The SPD leadership was lacklustre. Almost no one goes to the right of Merkel.
Someone from the German left will need to work with the CDU.
If the German left can find itself a leader, it is well positioned for the next election.
Friday 20 September 2013
Overpopulation of Malthusians
There is a conventional wisdom that we are heading to disaster because here are just too man of us.
That we really are undergoing a population explosion.
And if we don't take some sort of drastic action, there will pretty soon not be enough food to go around.
One of the earlier guys to record such an opinion was Rev Thomas Malthus, way back around 1800.
But the evidence does not support such a view.
Not only is there more than enough food in the world to feed everybody, but the nations where people starve are more often than not food exporters. People starve because food is not shared. And because rich countries demand debt payments take precedence over full stomachs.
Furthermore, the rate of population growth has been slowing for around 50 years. Population is falling in China and in Europe. Population is stable in North America. The years of rapid growth are over in Southern Africa and South America.
Only in some parts of the Islamic world does population continue to rapidly expand.
The UN estimates population will cease to grow, and begin to decline, around the year 2100.
More recent estimates are for peak population in the year 2050.
Just think, over half the people alive today will likely live to witness peak population. The issues facing the world are not those of ever expanding population, but of an aging population.
That we really are undergoing a population explosion.
And if we don't take some sort of drastic action, there will pretty soon not be enough food to go around.
One of the earlier guys to record such an opinion was Rev Thomas Malthus, way back around 1800.
But the evidence does not support such a view.
Not only is there more than enough food in the world to feed everybody, but the nations where people starve are more often than not food exporters. People starve because food is not shared. And because rich countries demand debt payments take precedence over full stomachs.
Furthermore, the rate of population growth has been slowing for around 50 years. Population is falling in China and in Europe. Population is stable in North America. The years of rapid growth are over in Southern Africa and South America.
Only in some parts of the Islamic world does population continue to rapidly expand.
The UN estimates population will cease to grow, and begin to decline, around the year 2100.
More recent estimates are for peak population in the year 2050.
Just think, over half the people alive today will likely live to witness peak population. The issues facing the world are not those of ever expanding population, but of an aging population.
Thursday 19 September 2013
Fascism in Europe
Germany has been pretty cautious throughout the Euro crisis, and there are good reasons for this German caution.
Firstly Germany is a democracy, and the voters are feeling pretty cautious. As would the voters of any other country that was being asked to bail out its neighbours.
Secondly there is an election coming. In four days' time.
But also there are other reasons, specific to German history. Because of the second world war, there is still something of a guilt complex in the national psyche. And because of the terrible suffering of the 1930s depression, there is a terrible fear of inflation.
These two things are linked. It is true that Germany was probably affected worse than any other western nation by the great depression, but that is not the only reason the Germans fear inflation. The chaos of the great depression, allied with a ruling elite discredited and largely dispossessed by the disaster of losing world war one, is what left the door ajar for the Nazis in the first place.
So it is not some Nazi like sense of superiority that makes Germany so reluctant to bet the farm on rescuing southern Europe so much as the fearful folk memory of the disaster that unfolded last time the country lost control of its economy.
This is very difficult to understand from a British perspective. I am over 40, I cannot remember a time when I thought we did have control of our economy. Nor point to any such time in the last century.
But today we look south towards Greece, where they have had a real fascist style political assassination. The authorities dress it up as an argument over a football match, but really Golden Dawn have sent a mob down there to cover a premeditated attack.
Now figures on the left speak of 'banning' Golden Dawn. What idiocy. People are turning to Golden Dawn from a sense of hopelessness and alienation. How will 'banning' them help? Will it make the political system more inclusive? Will it spread hope?
There is a potential tragedy unfolding before our eyes. That is in its fear of the fascism of the past, Germany enforces an austerity on Southern Europe which, rather than saving us from the 1930s, creates a new fascism of the 21st century.
Perhaps Ms Merkel can alter course after the election. Perhaps the German electorate will swing further to the left than anyone expects. The tragedy is not yet complete. But we need a change in direction to avoid it. I cannot see that change can come from Greece, or from anywhere other than Germany.
Firstly Germany is a democracy, and the voters are feeling pretty cautious. As would the voters of any other country that was being asked to bail out its neighbours.
Secondly there is an election coming. In four days' time.
But also there are other reasons, specific to German history. Because of the second world war, there is still something of a guilt complex in the national psyche. And because of the terrible suffering of the 1930s depression, there is a terrible fear of inflation.
These two things are linked. It is true that Germany was probably affected worse than any other western nation by the great depression, but that is not the only reason the Germans fear inflation. The chaos of the great depression, allied with a ruling elite discredited and largely dispossessed by the disaster of losing world war one, is what left the door ajar for the Nazis in the first place.
So it is not some Nazi like sense of superiority that makes Germany so reluctant to bet the farm on rescuing southern Europe so much as the fearful folk memory of the disaster that unfolded last time the country lost control of its economy.
This is very difficult to understand from a British perspective. I am over 40, I cannot remember a time when I thought we did have control of our economy. Nor point to any such time in the last century.
But today we look south towards Greece, where they have had a real fascist style political assassination. The authorities dress it up as an argument over a football match, but really Golden Dawn have sent a mob down there to cover a premeditated attack.
Now figures on the left speak of 'banning' Golden Dawn. What idiocy. People are turning to Golden Dawn from a sense of hopelessness and alienation. How will 'banning' them help? Will it make the political system more inclusive? Will it spread hope?
There is a potential tragedy unfolding before our eyes. That is in its fear of the fascism of the past, Germany enforces an austerity on Southern Europe which, rather than saving us from the 1930s, creates a new fascism of the 21st century.
Perhaps Ms Merkel can alter course after the election. Perhaps the German electorate will swing further to the left than anyone expects. The tragedy is not yet complete. But we need a change in direction to avoid it. I cannot see that change can come from Greece, or from anywhere other than Germany.
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