A Dictator’s Tantrums

From the desk of George Handlery on Sat, 2008-08-02 22:28

George Handlery on the week that was. The visiting kin of dictators are dangerous guests. Russia protects. Inventing the surge retroactively? How to save us from timely success in Iraq? Talk loudly and carry a big toothpick. Wanted: forgers of Zimbabwe dollars.

1. There was once a dictator. Luckily he found a country to kidnap. He liked to sit clad in a fantasy costume in a luxury tent and wrote a book. His subjects had to read it. In time a spoiled son was added. Also a lot of money flew in because under the ground there were liquids. Foreigners could find, tap and a use it so that they were eager to buy it. Much money could be piled up: those who have power never forget themselves. The rotten kid (RK) went abroad to spend some dough before it would get mildewed. In the city known for its iron tower he ran into problem when he beat his pregnant wife. The multiculturally insensitive police fined Mr. First Son, a suspended jail term was added and, unimproved, the RK was sent home.

Then the Favorite Kid – actually he is one of seven – came to the Land of Holed Cheese. Perhaps it was the weather, anyhow, RK had a mood. So he beat up an ethnic brother and a sister. Shocked, the hotel called the cops. (The “bro” and the “sis” are about to receive refugee status.) Lacking diplomatic standing, Mr. Son and his wife were taken away. They could choose their place of detention and got luxury treatment. After two days of this they posted half a mill for bail and flew home. Dad was shocked. Not sufficiently though to have the derelict RK whipped. But enough to throw in jail (no luxury version) citizens of the offending country who were recruited to work in his kingdom. Initially even the customary privilege of consular contact had been denied. Then oil deliveries to the insolent country that dared to apply its own laws were cut. In exchange the boycotted state let it be known that it shall not resort to counter measures. It plans to “negotiate”. This is hardly the end of the story. Still, some lessons emerge. One is to be careful where you work as an expert. If you still take the job, be sure a country is behind you that sends missiles and not diplomats to get you out. By the way, see to it that your essential energy needs can be covered from secure, that is national sources. So, do not get gored because of Gore: drill now! (What happened since then? After ten days, thanks to the negotiations by the extorted, the accused Swiss are out on jail but unable to leave Libya.)

2. July 22. Chavez signs a deal with Russia and declares that Russia is protecting Venezuela against the Yankee invasion. How right can a demented Leader be? No invasion is planned. This makes the protection perfect.

3. Insanity in world politics. Ortega has posthumously decorated Honecker for his merits. (Automated killing machines on his border, the Berlin Wall, and ruining the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany beyond the wildest dreams of its foes.) Good job, Comrade Ortega. Apply again the old medicine to cure Nicaragua. If the patient survives, he will be protected against handing power voluntarily to fruit-cake-fillings, such as Ortega. In some cases, your enemy turns out to be your best helper.

4. Strange things happen once reality sets in. Remember the “surge”? It was not to work so that defeat seemed to be a secured outcome of the Iraq war. Now, without admitting error, it is declared to have worked. Sufficiently so, to bring the stability that allows for a reduction of troop presence. A good thing even if accepting non-defeat might be forced upon “us”. Give it some time and Obama will claim credit for the surge. Like Gore for the invention of the internet.

5. Surge-caused security in Iraq can mean (A) the coalition is winning so the winding-down operation is to continue on a desired level. Alternatively, it is (B) which is that a window of opportunity to withdraw has opened. If you say “A” you intended to prevail and then go home. If it is “B” you wish to use the chance to extricate before the conflict ends with your threatening victory. This opens the door to alternative “C”. That one completes “B” meaning that, regardless of success, the US prematurely accepts a reverse before it is not too late -and will have to fight another day in another place.

6. The writer has responded to the questions of a European business journal. It wished to know, whom would the respondent give money to, Obama or to McCain? 12 per cent chose McCain, 37 % Obama. This makes the man from Illinois not only the choice of the people but also of the capitalist class. The preferences displayed have more to do with Europe than with Obama. The support he can count on will shrink once it is discovered that, ultimately, he is the President of the USA and not just the “buddy” of Sarkozy.

7. Iran and its efforts to build the ultimate bomb. Some claim to be smarter than the warmonger Bush and pretend to apply a carrot and sticks policy. Never mind that the beast to be tempted is a carnivore. Beyond that, once you do not stick to your stick because, in misquoted TR-terms, you prefer to carry a toothpick and talk loudly, the offering is all carrot.

8. Can imperfect individuals create a perfect society? Unlikely. However, the population of an entity might be able to achieve consensus of what the “good” and the “desirable” are. These people might manage to agree that they wish to form a special body called a society and to enable it to pursue, with limited means, the narrow ends arising out of the consensually achieved definition of the “desirable”. Having done so they are likely to create a body politic that is able to secure some of the “good” that fallible beings are made capable of attaining. Important is that the absolutes, such as the power of the state, the perfection of the laws as they are written, and the infallibility of men in and out of power not be assumed. In fact, the good – but not perfect – society has as its precondition the general consciousness of its own fallibility and therefore of the limits on the power of those that act in its behalf.

9. The problem of Socialism is that it holds freedom and the (ultimately state-provided) equal fulfillment of material aspirations equally high. Freedom, if it means the ability of individuals to pursue their personal goals, creates inequality in knowledge, skills, prestige, and access to goods and services and even of goals. This anticipated inequality should not be allowed to have a major impact on basic rights that are to be left accessible to all. At the same time, we tend to want to transmute our achieved status into a special right. Therefore, the postulate of equality is difficult to realize beyond the “first generation.”

10. Does anyone that reads this have Czarist uniforms, ordnance or medals? The writer is glad to tell you that you are rich in case your junk is genuine. Again, this confirms the thesis that lost causes are attractive. The cult around the murdered “Autocrat” – one of his official titles – and its culmination in his sainthood confirms this. The pretension that partly supports the new title is that Nicholas was better than the Bolsheviks turned out to be.

11. Some time ago, it was reported here that in Hungary someone was fined for displaying a prohibited totalitarian symbol. The symbol happened to be a red star. The indicted person appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. Now, as reported on July 17, we have a decision in the matter. The law that forbids the display of swastikas, red stars and arrow crosses (a Magyar Nazi symbol) is illegal. Hungary will have to appeal and failing that, she will have to change her laws. The millions of victims created by movements advertising themselves with proscribed symbols are ignored by Brussels. May they rest in peace if they can even if their suffering is apparently forgotten.

12. There is a world record held by Hungary that stands in danger of being broken. It is history’s highest rate of inflation. Gloriously, Zimbabwe with 1.2 million per cent is closing in. A German firm supplying the paper has stopped deliveries. Indeed, printing Z$s must cost more than their nominal value is by the time the ink is dry. Obviously cheaper money is needed. Let this writer help Zimbabwe to cope with its predicament by using an apparently forgotten solution. To save a lot of money on grinding out new money, Zimbabwe could put a stamp on its larger currency denominations. The text shall state that the sum originally printed on the bill is multiplied by, shall we say, a billion or so. Oh, one more thing! There is no need to worry about forgers. In fact, the Z$s might be the most forgery-proof currency on earth. Forgers are too smart to waste their time on stuff that imitates money without convincing anybody