Convention speeches

I just managed to catch John McCain's full speech on Youtube. I think he did a reasonable job, and his VP Pick and the convention bump means he's now leading in the polls for the first time. The thing is with Sarah Palin in it, the Republican ticket looks likable, and have this thing going on which Obama had when he first came in. We will have to wait and see how things play out.

My favorite convention speech though is by Ronald Reagan, not his own nomination speech, which is also good, but the speech Reagan gave in support of Barry Goldwater in 1964. I think it eloquently articulates the values and principles which would fundamentally change the way government worked in the U.S. ever since the Reagan presidency.

A small excerpt of the speech is below. But do see the full version (Video| text)



Here's a few quotes from the speech I really liked:

"You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course."

"No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this Earth."

" the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that just isn't so"

"You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery."

"You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

We will keep in mind and remember that Barry Goldwater has faith in us. He has faith that you and I have the ability and the dignity and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny"

Barry Goldwater's son, Barry Goldwater Jnr, himself a former congressman was not at the GOP convention last week. Instead, he was at Ron Paul's convention. Interesting times.

Could Sinhala Rock?

I just finished watching Rock On, which is quite a good hindi movie about four guys and a band. I dont think I like the music all that much, but generally there is a decent hindi rock scene. I'm wondering why there aren't any(?) Sinhala Rock bands. Does certain languages sound better in rock than others? I wonder. But listening to songs like the Nadee Ganga Tharanaye by Chitral Somapala (Lion beer ad.) one would think not. But I wonder.. 

You have free speech, except when you don't

A friend of mine likes to obsess about the article 14 of the Sri Lankan constitution, which according to him guarantees freedom of expression. Here's what Chapter 3, article 14 say,

(1) Every citizen is entitled to -

(a) the freedom of speech and expression including publication;

(b) the freedom of peaceful assembly;

(c) the freedom of association;

(d) the freedom to form and join a trade union;

(e) the freedom, either by himself or in association with others, and either in public or in private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice or teaching;

(f) the freedom by himself or in association with others to enjoy and promote his own culture and to use his own language;

(g) the freedom to engage by himself or in association with others in any lawful occupation, profession, trade, business or enterprise;

(h)  the freedom of movement and of choosing his residence within Sri Lanka; and

(i) the freedom to return to Sri Lanka.

Sounds allright at first glance. But anyone who obsess with this must read article 15, which says:

5. (1) The exercise and operation of the fundamental rights declared and recognized by Articles 13 (5) and 13 (6) shall be subject only to such restrictions as may be prescribed by law in the interests of national security. For the purposes of this paragraph “law” includes regulations made under the law for the time being relating to public security.

(2) The exercise and operation of the fundamental right declared and recognized by Article 14(1) (a) shall be subject to such restrictions as may be prescribed by law in the interests of racial and religious harmony or in relation to parliamentary privilege, contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.

(3) The exercise and operation of the fundamental right declared and recognized by Article 14(1) (b) shall be subject to such restrictions as may be prescribed by law in the interests of racial and religious harmony.

(4) The exercise and operation of the fundamental right declared and recognized by Article 14(1) (c) shall be subject to such restrictions as may be prescribed by law in the interests, of racial and religious harmony or national economy.

(5) The exercise and operation of the fundamental right declared and recognized by Article 14 (1) (g) shall be subject to such restrictions as may be prescribed by law in the interests, of national economy or in relation to -

(a) the professional, technical, academic, financial and other qualifications necessary for practising any profession or carrying on any occupation, trade, business or enterprise, and the licensing and disciplinary control of the person entitled to such fundamental right, and

(b) the carrying on by the State, a State agency or a public corporation of any trade, business,, industry, service or enterprise whether to the exclusion, complete or partial, of citizens or otherwise.

(6) The exercise and operation of the fundamental right declared and recognized by Article 14 (1) (h) shall be subject to such restrictions as may be prescribed by law in the interests of national economy.

(7) The exercise and operation of all the fundamental rights declared and recognized by Articles 12, 13(1), 13(2) and 14 shall be subject to such restrictions as may be prescribed by law in the interests of national security, public order and the protection of public health or morality, or for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others, or of meeting the just requirements of the general welfare of a democratic society. For the purposes of this paragraph " law " includes regulations made under the law for the time being relating to public security.

(8) The exercise and operation of the fundamental rights declared and recognized by Articles 12 (1), 13 and 14 shall, in their application to the members of the Armed Forces, Police Force and other Forces charged with the maintenance of public order, be subject to such restrictions as may be prescribed by law in the interests of the proper discharge of their duties and the maintenance of discipline among them.

In other words you have total freedom of speech, expression and assembly except when they think it conflicts with national security, national economy, public order, health, morality, harmony, disciplinary control, general welfare, etc, etc.. 

Maybe they should have just said something like "you have all the freedom of expression you want, except when you don't".  That would save space, paper and probably help mitigate global warming.

On a related note, take another look at how our right to free speech is worded in the Sri Lankan constitution, 

(1) Every citizen is entitled to -

(a) the freedom of speech and expression..

and compare it with this,

American Constitution, Amendment 1- Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press… 

On the first, the emphasis is on the citizen, while the later puts it's emphasis on the government. The latter puts in writing what a constitution is meant for -- to put limits on what the government can do, and not, as is the case with Sri Lanka, put limits on what citizens can do. 

At least The Sri Lankan constitution is forthcoming about it's socialism and like any good socialist document, assumes state-ownership of our lives and gives us licenses to live, under certain conditions. This is one more reason why we should have a fresh constitution. If you need another good reason, just go through the damn thing. It's really really badly written with tons of redundancies. 

Harsh Gupta, who first did this comparison with the Indian constitution, puts the whole thing more succinctly than I do. Do read it here.

Street food and the Spontaneous Order

Partnhe Wali Gali, Old Delhi. Pic Courtesy: Krishna 1951

Lanka Reviewed has a post on my favorite street food joint in Colombo, "Burger King" in Malay street. Here's a brief about the setting from LR,

Mr Burger King is imaginatively located in Colombo 2 on the pavement next to the intersection of Malay St and Union Place: the one where you can go straight to go to Taj/Holiday Inn or turn right to Trans Asia.

MRBK is a cart with a grill next to it. They have placed a canopy right next to it with four plastic chairs so as to accommodate a more settled dining experience, with the aroma of diesel fumes and sounds of bus engines adding just an ambient touch of class. (It probably also makes the meat taste smokier so it's all good!) [link]

The place makes an awesome chicken Shawarma, the best I've had in Sri Lanka. Shawarma brings back childhood memories from Oman where I lived for sometime and spent all my Christmases till I was 11. Every weekend, or when he was free enough to take me out, dad would get me one of those 'rotating sandwiches'. Shawarma in Oman, If I recall correctly, tasted different and they had this amazing pickle to go with, which local places don't seem to have.

Among my other favorite street food joints are those juice stalls in Pettah, which sells anything from cordial to lime juice. The cordial is best avoided, but the lime juice is unbeatable, especially when you are in frantic Pettah under the hot Colombo sun.

But if you are a street food fan, you can't do much better than New Delhi. Street food is an integral part of Delhi's culture and you get wide range of stuff. The best I've had is possibly at Candni Chowk's infamous Paranthe wali gali or "Partha lane". The paratha joints there have been around since the time of the Mughals and the cooking is exclusively on the street, which frankly, makes me feel safer when trying out street food. Delhi's full of roadside eating joints but I especially recall Cannaught Place (or C.P. for Delhites) where I digged into Momos, corn and masala chai, perfect for the freezing weather, I found myself at that time in Delhi.

Another reason I love street food and the street vending in general, is because it teaches me economics. I'd wonder things like, why lime juice costs Rs.20 in Pettah and Rs. 120 inside say Queen's cafe? Then I'd get it, I'm not paying for lime juice at Queens, I'm paying for the service of getting a lime-juice at a place like queens. I'm paying for the possibility of chatting up with a bunch of friends, munching into a burger while I sip my juice in a comfy, cool environment. Something I cannot get at the Pettah place. The same goes for coffee prices at Barasita's. This realization has lead to my first (untested and probably wrong) theory in economics: There's no such thing called 'goods' in a market place. Only Services to provide goods.

Half-baked theories aside, watching and thinking about the seeming chaos in places like Pettah and Chandni Chowk has helped me visualize a Hayekian insight that a few people understand, and even fewer appreciate. I think Mary Kissel, writing for the WSJ captures it well,

The first time [my friend, Shruti] took me to Chandni Chowk's maelstrom of commerce, my feet froze in fear. She grabbed my hand, I shut my eyes, and we plunged into a bewildering web of weaving couriers, tooting cycle rickshaws, buses bursting at the seams, sacred cows, sari-clad grandmas and the occasional man stomping by with a 100-pound bag of chilies perched on his head.

After a few minutes, I stopped long enough to take a good hard look. And then I noticed it: Order. Not a single laborer walks aimlessly around this place. In every cranny, nook and lane, someone is selling something to someone. Even the men sitting on the sidewalks are ready for work. [..]

There's no government imposing order. And why should it? As Smith said, there's a "certain propensity" in human nature to "truck, barter and exchange one thing for another," so it's natural that a certain kind of system, guided by an "invisible hand," results. Chandni Chowk must be the perfect place to watch it at work. [link]

Hayek would call it Spontaneous Order.

Why Chinese can't speak English and why Singlish rocks

Swaminathan Aiyar offers an explaination:

I was asked once by a Chinese magazine for a ‘short’ article of 3,000 words on the Indian economy. I protested that 3,000 words was much too long. ‘‘No,’’ said the Chinese editor, ‘‘when translated, 3000 English words will shrink to just 800 Mandarin words.’’ 

Every letter in Mandarin is a full concept. That gives Mandarin a totally different structure. So, it is truly difficult for the Chinese to master English, and for the British to master Mandarin. For similar reasons, the Japanese remain weak in English. Some Chinese speak excellent English, but they are so few [..]

It’s much easier for Indians to learn English. Sanskrit (the root of Indian languages) and Latin (the root of European languages) belong to the same group of ancient Indo-European languages. When a Swaminomics column of 800 words is translated into Hindi, the translation is also around 800 words. [link]

Sinhala (and Tamil), like Hindi, have the same Sanskrit roots, which is why Call Centres could have become big in Sri Lanka, had the Sinhala nationalists not abandoned English driven education.  

Swaminathan dedicates the rest of the article to talk about how Hindi-speakers directly translate Hindi to English, producing more than a few chuckles. Sinhala-speakers do much the same. It's common for Sri Lankans to ask 'so so how how?' a direct translation from ' ithin ithin kohomada', a reference to how someone is feeling. 

My favorite phrase comes from my 12th grade physics teacher. One day in class, a friend of mine has not done his assignments and was giving an elaborate version of the 'dog-ate-my-homework' story. Ms.Kumudini listens for a while, but soon looses patience, She cuts him off mid-sentence and yells, "Niroshan! enough! you're lying horizontally and vertically!"

The Brain Drain

Last Wednesday, Anila Banradanike's column for FT focused on Sri Lanka's 'Brain Drain' particularly among urban youth. She complains, rightly, that there are no credible statistics available on how many people go abroad for studies. I agree, all I can say is it's quite a large and growing number. Why do I say this? Let me offer a small anecdote.

After completing up to my O-levels at St.Peter's, a semi-government school in Colombo, I transferred to a so called 'international school' to finish my A-levels. For you non-Sri Lankans, that's a type of schools which offer (mostly) British curriculum of study. My batch consisted of about 70-80 people. Thanks to the weird subject combination I took -- Physics, Economics, Math and Computing -- I took a class with everyone in the batch and now about three years later, I can count only about 6 people in the country. I may have lost touch with a few, but I am quite positive the number remaining in Sri Lanka is less than 15. The rest of them are studying in places like Australia, U.K, U.S., Malaysia and increasingly in China, India and a few medical students in places like Bangladesh and Belarus.

Let's do the math, 15 out of 80 students is roughly about 20% of the batch in my school, that means in general roughly about 80% of most decent international schools (some more, some less) go overseas annually. Add to this the contribution from local schools, we have a significant proportion of some Sri Lanka's best talent going overseas mostly because, higher ed. in this country sucks.

If anyone's serious about stopping (or at least slowing down) the brain drain, they should really think about reforming higher education.

Joseph Stalin is relentless

The story is from Saturday's Daily Mirror,

The Sri Lanka Teachers’ Union warned yesterday that it would go for a massive trade union action by bringing all teachers together.

Charging the government had hoodwinked the union and the general public by stating that it had resolved the salary anomalies, the Sri Lanka Teachers Union President, Joseph Stalin told a news conference under the government’s proposal a teacher would only get a salary increment ranging from Rs. 105 to Rs. 200. [..]

Mr. Stalin said the trade union action of refraining from GCE A/L paper marking had been successful during the past 10 days.

The Union charged the government was provoking the parents and the general public to unleash violence on the teachers. “The government is doing this as it is helpless without being able to resolve the salary crisis,” Mr. Stalin said. [link]

Responding to the charges, The secretary to the Ministry of Education, Winston Churchill said, "Stalin is a pig, but I like him". Ok, not really. But for what it's worth, Sri Lanka's tourism secretary is called George Micheal. I love this country.

[HT on Micheal: one one things]

Sri Lankan PMCs in Iraq

David Blacker has an interview with a Private Military Contractor, who's Sri Lankan-based company operates in Iraq. Interesting.

Who needs Cricket?

Via Hilal's blog, here's a very entertaining video of making something out of a washed out cricket match. It's 13 minutes, but well worth it. The Direct link to the video is here. Also see this crickinfo post, which kind of narrates what went on.

Hilal also runs this 'Aney Yako' video series of cricket goof ups.

Right to Information in Sri Lanka

Finally, a Sri Lankan judge makes an excellent proposal. From LBO:

A top Sri Lankan judge has called for laws such as a freedom of information act to enable people greater access to information to create an 'informed public' that is essential for a democratic society.

Justice Saleem Marsoof, President's Counsel and Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka said most democracies now have legislation providing a mechanism through which the public can have access to information.

These include the Freedom of Information Acts of the United States and the United Kingdom and the Right to Information Act of India.[link]

The Right to Information Act(RTI) is one of the best things that happened to Indian democracy. The act allows ordinary citizens, journalist, civil society organizations to request for and obtain information from any public authority within thirty days.

There are of course many shortcomings in implementation. As my favorite Delhi-based think tank, Center for Civil Society, pointed out in their Duty to Publish reports a couple of years ago, there was low compliance levels for the act at state and municipal levels. But some compliance is better than nothing, a RTI act would definitely be a step in the right direction.

Legislation along the lines of RTI is something the peace-obsessed Colombo civil society should push for. It doesn't seem too unfeasible and definitely improves governance.

In related notes, Amit Varma, one of my favorite sources for Indian affairs, has written quite a bit about the RTI, including this piece for the Mint.

American Imperialism?

The Mises blog points me to this interactive map showing American troop levels. Apparently, Sri Lanka has 7 troops and U.S. pretty much has a presence in everywhere, execept for like 7 countries. Must confess though, I haven't seen a single U.S. troop in Colombo. Go see the map here, no endorsements.

What Desi's are wearing to the Democrat National Convention

For the background, see this and especially this.

Marxism in Sri Lanka, RIP

The museum of Communism in Prague.
The entrance is through McDonald's. (A pic by udijw)

The Rajapakse Administration won, despite some irregularities, a genuine victory over the UNP in the recent provincial council elections. Perhaps the most exciting thing about the last election is how poorly, the Marxist-Nationalist JVP did in the polls. Here's a bit of a summary from the Island editorial on the JVPs plight:

[..]a huge crisis is staring the JVP in the face. Its ignominious defeat has strengthened the hands of its breakaway group. Dissident JVP MP and leader of the National Freedom Front Wimal Weerawansa said yesterday afternoon that he was willing to join forces with the JVP if the present leadership of the party changed. He has pointed out that the JVP vote has dropped in Anuradhapura from 50,000 at the 2006 LG polls to 19,000 at 2008 PC polls within two years. In 2006, it polled 19,500 in Polonnaruwa, 38,000 in Ratnapura and 36,500 in Kegalle but on Saturday it managed to secure only 7,000, 9,700 and 9,000 in those three districts respectively. The breakaway of Weerawansa and others has, inter alia, manifestly taken its toll on the JVP.

The pathetic performance of the JVP where the postal votes are concerned is proof that the JVP lacks following among the public servants in spite of its campaign to obtain a 5,000-rupee pay hike for them. More importantly, the JVP's vote has shrunk despite an increase in the number of young voters.

The indications are that, faction ridden and enervated, the JVP is reaching the end of the road in electoral politics. Another disastrous split is inevitable sooner or later. The JVP must be ruing the day it parted company with the SLFP, which helped it gain benefits disproportionate to its real strength which has now been exposed. [link] (emphasis mine)

and it's worth emphasizing. JVP is no longer, or fast unbecoming the youth party. That's a cause for celebration. Marxism is alive and (somewhat) well in the local universities, but since only less than 2% of the population (pdf source) ever gets to enjoy Sri Lanka's "free" education, and the rest of the 98% has found other ways of acquiring higher education, that's no longer a deciding factor.

True enough, in recent times, portraits of Lenin, Marx and other communist symbols were little more than decorations for the JVP, while most of it's popularity came from it's Nationalist and anti-LTTE rhetoric. But great many JVPers (and I've met some) are Fabian Socialists, thinking of the nationalist rhetoric as a vehicle for some sort of socialist society in the future. And it's agenda, however nationalist, has always contained a very definitive left-wing economic agenda.

Nationalism and anti-LTTEism is alive and kicking in Sri Lanka, but the movement has a different symbol and a leader in Mahinda Rajapakse's coalition. Separating the nationalist lobby from the socialist baggage of the JVP, if and when the party is sufficiently pushed off from the political discourse is definitely a step in the right direction and a happy outcome of this election which will help put Marxist and other leftover socialist thinking to the dustbin of history, where it truly belongs.

Related -- Museum of Communism, the website.

Why we should listen to economists

Scot Adams makes the case. (yes, he's the guy who created Dilbert, but he majored in economics in college and nowadays runs a stellar blog). Scott writes,

If a weather expert tells you what the weather will be on a specific day next year, you can safely ignore him. If he tells you a hurricane is heading your way, it's a good idea to get out of the way, even if the storm ends up turning. That's playing the odds.

Likewise, if an economist tries to tell you where the stock market will be in a year, you can safely ignore that. But if he tells you a gas tax holiday is an unambiguously bad idea, that's worth listening to, especially if economists on both sides of the aisle agree.

If you think it is okay to ignore economists because they are so often wrong, you're looking at the wrong questions. Economists are generally wrong with complicated models but right about concepts. For example, they know that additional domestic drilling won't make much of a dent in the energy problem. And they know that free trade is generally good for all economies. (You can argue with my examples, but the point is that some things are generally known by economists while not being understood by the general public.) [link]

There's much more in his blog. Scott is also funding a survey of what some 500 economists think about some economic policies of the two candidates running for the American presidency. The results will be interesting.

As Scott finds in his survey, most economists are moderate Democrats. But also the kind who likes things like free trade, and in general freer markets than your average democrat. Jagdish Bhagwati, perhaps the one of the world's most staunchest free trade economists is a registered democrat and an Obama supporter from the start, although he disagreed with Obama's populist NAFTA bashing.

My general observation is that if you have a liberal/cosmopolitan upbringing and eventually learn economics, you tend to be more sympathetic to policy proposals and ideas of classical liberalism (i.e. support more individual freedom and freer markets) or as Scott says in the current American political language, be more socially liberal and economically conservative.

Boobs on Bikes

Apparently, theere's a Boobs on Bikes Parade in Auckland, New Zealand. Some kiwi conservatives wants to stop that on legal grounds. But here's what the judge had to say,

It is topless people, men and women, in a public place, which is perfectly legal under our Bill of Rights and under New Zealand law. Mr McCoskrie [director of Family First] keeps harping on that it is pornography. They are breasts; they're not a big deal.

This is probably what The Sri Lankan cultural conservatives say when they want to reconcile the porn ban with the Sigiriya paintings. They are just boobs -- no big deal.

More at reason.

Porn, Dogs, Federalism and other stuff I would have blogged about

I am in London stuck in a 12 hour transit, catching up on some reading I've missed during the last couple of weeks. There's a bunch of people I know in the city, but the immigration chaps won't let me go out, because, I'm um, Sri Lankan. In any case, now that I'm coming home, regular programing on this blog would commence, I think.

What follows is some stuff I probably would have blogged about had I stayed home the last few weeks.

• Just before I left the country, His Excellency (no doubt under the influence of the JHU, the all-monk party in government) banned Internet porn in Sri Lanka. Now they seem to have some adult password, for people who still want to watch porn, going against our Buddhist morals. Or something like that. There's a new satirical blog on the issue. Very entertaining.
  
  
• Zimbabwe, which has the world's highest inflation, has a new currency -- gasoline coupons. More at the Beacon, Independent Institutes's revitalized blog which is latest addition to my 'regular reads' list. (initial pointer via Tyler Cowen)
  
  
• Here's a great video on School Choice from Yes, Prime Minister. British Comedy at it's best. (HT: Club for Growth)
  
  
• The Mint has an article on privatizing dogs as a solution for the problem of stray dogs in India. That is, basically all dogs should be owned by someone and stray dogs should be put on sale by the municipalities to be purchased by anyone including animal rights activists. I agree in principle, although I don't see this happening. That's not a reason for not discussing it though. First step in changing things is spreading ideas.
  
  
• and finally via Amit Varma links to these two very interesting pieces on the Kashmiri Secessionist tendencies. This by Swaminathan Aiyar for TOI and Vir Sanghavi for Hindustan Times. The situation in Kashmir, in my opinion, weakens the case of the Sri Lankan federalists as a solution for the conflict here. For every example of successful integration with greater regional autonomy, there are counter examples. Nation building is indeed a complex science. It's rather fitting then, that I was in Quebec for the last two weeks. More on that later.

Travelling..

I'm in Canada for something. Will be travelling from Toronto to Montreal to Quebec City. Blogging will be uncertain for another couple of weeks..

What's so alarming about the trade deficit? ST responds

This is probably not as a result of my earlier post on the subject, but ST economist's column today addresses the question I posed about an earlier column.

My Wordle

This is kinda cool. It let's you generate your own word cloud for a bunch of text. Here's mine:

It generates the cloud for the current posts in the home page if you give your blog address, you can play with the colors and fonts. Here's one for Kottu :

Go Play.

[Worlde stuff via Atanu Dey]

We report, You Decide Alliance.

Fox News is now on MTV Channel one. I Just watched O’Reilly Factor, which I used to follow through Fox's site earlier. It's good to see good old American-Conservatism on TV, really. Both channels are undoubtedly partisan, one on behalf of the GOP and the other one on behalf of the UNP, GOP's local buddy.

I think that's ok, all media is biased for something. Why not have it in the open. U.S. newspapers endorses candidates, Sri Lankan ones should do the same.