UN, Scandal, Aid, Gov. Control, Christians-Muslims

UN-usual:

An UNwelcome scandal -- Fresh off the oil-for-food fiasco, the world body finds itself mired in another apparent multimillion-dollar fraud Nathanial Gronewald, Feb. 27, 06, Western Standard

Search: Office of Internal Oversight Services , Deptartment of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Management , bribes



Daimnation: Why are faith-based politics wrong for Christians yet fine for Muslims? via Shotgun, Feb. 9, 06 -- trackback

Our punditocracy and many politicians condemn "faith-based politics" as illegitimate when some Christians try to shape public policy in accordance with their religion (abortion, same-sex marriage). Yet when Muslims do the same thing (demands not to publish images of Mohammed, Sharia law) we are urged to pay respectful attention to their wishes--and to feel their pain at times.

Why not just say to members of all religions: faith and public policy are not a good mix? Or is there an exemption for non-Christians? [. . . . ]

Good questions. Memo to governments, politically correct spokespeople, self-selected elites and mainstream media, it doesn't work. We are not going to fall into line ... particularly in this madness.



Aid

Do-good goals, do-bad outcomes Peter Foster, Financial Post, February 15, 2006

These issues are the subject of devastating analysis by Professor William Easterly of New York University in a forthcoming book from Penguin Press: The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good.

"[A]id," he notes, "shifts money from being spent by the best governments in the world to being spent by the worst. What are the chances that these billions are going to reach poor people?"

The policy focus of Prof. Easterly's critique is the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the massive do-good package unloaded on to the world by the United Nations in 2000.

The MDGs represent the top-down planning ideal that theoretically collapsed with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

[. . . . ] So what's Prof. Easterly's answer? Stop "coddling the warlords and kleptocrats." Top-down Planners must be ejected in favour of on-the-ground "Searchers" who concentrate on specific, quantifiable goals for which they can be held responsible via external auditors. Get donor countries more interested in what happens after the fat cheques are cut. Ask poor people -- not their governments -- whether their lives are improving. Above all, notes the professor, since the whole aid sector is in a hole, it should stop digging. Canadians, meanwhile, should stop paying for the shovels.

A reader wrote a response to Professor Easterly to which he responded. Note the UN-SPEAK. It's another chuckle for the day.

Related: Letter: UN 'fantasies' won't feed poor

[.... ] "These estimates cover hundreds of interventions ...that need to be provided to meet the Goals. ...The second stage of the planning process will be for each country to develop a long-term (10-12 year) framework for action for achieving the MDGs, building upon the results of the MDG needs assessment. ...This MDG framework should include a policy and public sector management framework to scale up public spending and services, as well as a broadly defined financing strategy to underpin the plan. The third stage of the planning process will be for each country to construct its medium term (3-5 year) poverty reduction strategy (PRS) and, where appropriate, its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) based on the long term MDG plan ... and should be attached to a Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) ... Fourth, both the 10-year framework and three-year PRS should include a public sector management strategy... Bringing together a wide variety of inputs from expert resources, the Millennium Project secretariat has been co-ordinating a multi-step process to develop a methodology for country-level MDG needs assessments."

If this is not a top-down Big Plan, it could definitely play one on TV. [....]

Alas, the United Nations planning fantasies hold nobody accountable for anything, and thus do nothing to immunize a single child or get clean water to a single adult. Such good things will only happen when individual officials and aid agencies are held responsible for delivering the goods, to help the world's destitute help themselves.

William Easterly, professor of economics, New York University,
New York

Related to government control and planning: Chairman of Quebec liquor board resigns as pricing scandals grow

QUEBEC (CP) - Raymond Boucher, the chairman of Quebec's liquor commission, resigned Friday as controversy surrounding the Crown corporation's policies grew.

The SAQ (Societe des Alcools du Quebec) ... inflating the price of certain products.

... revelations of a wine-pricing scandal at the liquor board that saw the departure of two vice-presidents and price reductions involving several European wines.

... the province asked the auditor general ...

The Parti Quebecois is also calling for Toutant, another Charest appointee, to step down.

Why was Boucher allowed to resign if he were involved? But, of course, business as usual ...

When governments control a monopoly, even to who gets to work for it, there is scope for corruption. This applies to all areas. Get government out of it and much else! Let the market into play.



Terence Corcoran: Hewers of wood, drawers of subsidy Financial Post, February 25, 2006

Thousands of Canadians and their companies run into headwinds of one kind or another every year. They survive through innovation and by adapting to new circumstances. Those that don't or can't adapt move on to other opportunities. Many forest sector communities have already made adjustments, even to the point of ceasing to exist. Confronting change has been as much a part of life in Canada as the forest industry.

Corcoran's had an eye-opening list of the groups and organizations formed to agitate for "investments" and "initiatives" which really means "give us more taxpayer money". This is a thought-provoking article, worth reading.


Now, would someone write and publish an article on some of the other subsidized industries -- auto sector, planes, liquor and wines, Bombardier, et cetera. How much help does SNC Lavalin get? What rules and regulations are in play that skew the marketplace? Get government out of the business of promoting one business over another using other people's and other businesses' tax money. While we're at it, the feds should get out of gerrymandering and involving itself in what are provincial matters , education, health, et cetera.

Let public (run by those who teach it) and private schools proliferate; let teachers be tested for knowledge of their subject matter and demonstrate some basic skills for how to handle a class. Then let them teach and let parents vote by removing their children if they wish. That would separate the sheep from the goats, over time. Let teachers advertise whether their philosophy lends itself to the child's feeling successful no matter what--self-esteem building in hope that the child will learn (not necessarily completely negative, either) or academic rigour (which may not feel as good to the student, since failure is part of it, though, in the long run, it should be positive if the child works harder to achieve) ... or whatever. Let the market decide, not a bunch of "experts" who may have little experience of the current situation in classrooms which teachers say privately is becoming too unpleasant -- that they cannot cope with all the demands made of them, are expected to ameliorate the woes of the world in one classroom, face rude and bullying children and are expected to be "positive" about progress when children are simply not doing very much to help themselves, et cetera.

Let parents look after their own or send their children out for care if and where they wish. Let all parents be given a stipend or tax break which they may put toward whatever they need for their children. It might help if we stopped funding the ill-educated and ill-prepared who thoughtlessly reproduce if we want not to have so many young single mothers who need daycare. Children deserve two caring parents and funding the opposite gives us just that, single parenthood and children raised with one parent.

There is health care where innovation is required and provinces need freedom to innovate.

You have your own get-government-out-of-our-lives ideas. There are several articles at the following link and links to others.

[http://choiceforchildcare.blogspot.com/Goldhawk live on Sunday CPAC,, childcare debate but no parents with small children!!! ]

Government(s) have had too much opportunity to stomp down the best, the most innovative, anything that would stick its head up, above the rest, in the interest of preserving and expanding its power. Bring on the power of private citizens and private enterprise ... or has government run everything and dispensed favours for so long that Canadians have no initiative left?



This came from a friend -- thanks.

The Hill Times, February 27th, 2006
By F. Abbas Rana, Kate Malloy, and Mike De Souza

Tories poised for a two-way street fight with Bloc in Quebec ridings

Conservatives are 'scaring the hell' out of the Bloc Québécois, says Tory organizer as Conservatives set their sights on winning 30 seats in the next federal election in Quebec.

[....] Sen. Rivest said that Mr. Harper's decision to appoint Michael Fortier to the Senate and to the Cabinet was a "good decision" as it would give a voice to the voters of Montreal where the party failed to elect any MP. He said that unlike the rest of Canada, Quebecers are not concerned about the inclusion of Michael Fortier into the Cabinet and Senate.

But Sen. Rivest said he's not surprised that the Bloc is suddenly interested in supporting the Conservatives because the Bloc does not want another election before the next election in Quebec. Premier Charest has until 2008 to call the next provincial election, but another federal election in the near future could be tricky for sovereigntists to handle, both politically and financially, he explained.

Book: Rod Dreher: Crunchy Cons

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