I’ve been extremely busy lately (meaning work until 4 am frequently, plus travel) and have been behind on some writing projects, but I am really, really pleased that I brought along on my trip to China James C. Scott’s The Art of Not Being Governed. It’s a remarkably interesting treatment (I’m only a bit more than 100 pages into it at present, so I’ve got more stimulating reading ahead of me) of the nature of “ungoverned” regions of the world, with a focus on various hill peoples of Asia. To put it in a nutshell, he argues that the traditional view of such ungoverned people is that they are holdovers from previous civilizations, or representatives of how people lived before states, etc., etc. Scott looks at them in a very different way: they live in ways that have enabled them to elude capture or domination by the state, and those ways of life (including agriculture, settlement patterns, kinship systems, religion, etc.) have been deeply influenced by the proximity of predatory states. They have, in effect, evolved in ways that elude being ruled by states. When you think about it for a few minutes, it certainly seems a more fruitful way of understanding such peoples and their ways of life than the dominant mode. And it should tell us something, as well, about the likely success of the Pakistani government in extending its writ throughout the Northwest Frontier Province or of the Afghan government extending its writ from border to border of the territory of Afghanistan. (That said, Scott’s thesis should not be confused with fantasies or romantic notions about how the most wonderful thing imaginable is to live without a state; some — not all — forms of statelessness, such as those that have emerged among groups that have avoided being captured by states, are remarkably brutal and savage, and there are some stateless populations [think contemporary southern Somalia] who are fare worse off by most criteria, including freedom, than people who live under relatively limited government.)

Still reads well: “Why Socialism Collapsed in Eastern Europe”

(I gave it as a lecture at a Cato University summer seminar on political economy in California during the summer of 1990, after having spent a good bit of 1989 and 1990 in Central and Eastern Europe.)

EurasiaNet.org: GEORGIA: SAAKASHVILI WANTS TBILISI TO BECOME “GOVERNMENT-LITE”

Ilia Chavchavadze

The Georgian leader used a reference to a national cultural icon, the revered 19th century novelist Ilia Chavchavadze, to sway any doubters who believe that liberalism is “a non-Georgian word.” Chavchavadze, a nobleman who led Georgia’s 19th century national movement and was later canonized, was “the first Georgian libertarian,” Saakashvili claimed, the Civil.ge news service reported.
“By choosing liberalism, we are choosing Ilia’s way,” Saakashvili said.

His speech is available in Russian here. (I will search for English.)
More information: “Saakashvili Lays Out ‘Act on Economic Freedom’”

Nobel Peace Prize winner President Obama is escalating the war in Afghanistan and has made no additional moves, beyond what the Bush administration had planned, for any withdrawal from Iraq. He has done nothing to move the world, much less the US, toward peace. It seems he got the “I’m not a Republican” award. This has got to be the greatest cheapening of an international award since, um, Henry Kissinger got it for “peace in the Vietnam.”

Note the CNN comment:

Unlike his predecessors, Obama was selected not for substantive accomplishments, but for his “vision” and inspiring “hope” at the beginning of his presidency.

BBC: “Turkey, Armenia to restore ties”

Arguing over the nature or magnitude of crimes in the past is not necessarily a bad thing, unless it gets in the way of peace and freedom. It’s time for the people of Turkey and Armenia to discuss the past openly, through private discussion and through the institutions of civil society, and for their governments to make peace and allow peaceful exchanges among their people.

Los Angeles Times: “Obama and free trade: What’s the deal?”

Nine months into his administration, Obama’s trade policy is a pastiche of pro-trade rhetoric, violations of international agreements and protectionist bobbing and weaving. That’s why the U.S. can expect rebukes from its economic allies when the Group of 20 meets in Pittsburgh today. Obama’s recent decision to impose stiff tariffs on tires made in China is a clear violation of the vow made by all G-20 members not to raise barriers to trade, goods and investment.

on CNN iReporter

Yes, if done according to the law. (Richard Nixon was certainly impeachable, and would have been impeached had he not resigned; the articles of impeachment were drawn up and voted by the House Judiciary Committee.)

Here’s the analysis in the case of the removal from office of the former Honduran president José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, prepared by the Directorate of Legal Research of the U.S. Library of Congress:

Conclusion:

V. Was the removal of Honduran President Zelaya legal, in accordance with Honduran constitutional and statutory law?

Available sources indicate that the judicial and legislative branches applied constitutional and statutory law in the case against President Zelaya in a manner that was judged by the Honduran authorities from both branches of the government to be in accordance with the Honduran legal system.

However, removal of President Zelaya from the country by the military is in direct violation of the Article 102 of the Constitution, and apparently this action is currently under investigation by the Honduran authorities.

Hat tip: Daniil Gorbatenko

Miami Herald: “They’re torturing me, Honduras’ Manuel Zelaya claims”

Honduras’ fallen leader told The Miami Herald he is being subjected to mind-altering gas and radiation — and that `Israeli mercenaries’ are planning to assassinate him.

The fact that the US State Department revoked the visas of a group of Hondurans tells us a lot. It was the membership of the Honduran Supreme Court. Get it?

BBC: “Russian tower plans cause alarm”

Unesco has warned the building of the skyscraper, which would tower over the city’s Neva river and surrounding low-level buildings, could mean St Petersburg is added to the agency’s list of endangered world heritage sites.
“We’re hoping the (federal) decision to build it won’t be taken,” said Grigory Ordzhonikidze, the secretary-general of Unesco’s Russian commission.

It may be a while elephant, but it’s pretty clear that threatening to add St Petersburg “the agency’s list of endangered world heritage sites” will not, in the Russian climate, help with any plans for saving the beauty of old St Petersburg. This is certainly not a matter for the UN. (That said, it’s almost certainly going to be a temple to the new Russian state socialism, as it will house Gazprom.)

It’s easy!

You can join the free trade fan page and join thousands of people, including over 1,000 economists, who’ve stood up for free trade by signing the petition that “Free Trade is the Best Policy.” (It’s available in 32 languages.) And strike a blow for the freedom to trade.

(Don’t forget to visit YouTube.com/freedom2trade for a lot of videos on peace, free trade, and justice in English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Bahasa, Russian, Arabic, Kurdish, Portuguese, and other languages; expect a lot more in the near future!)

Brian Doherty on Reason.com: “Obama’s Iraq Pullout on Schedule; 1,000 More Troops on Their Way!”

Takis Michas is a very brave Greek journalist who is not afraid to point out the idiocies of extremist nationalism and xenophobia and their awful consequences, especially in the Balkans.

He has suffered quite serious death threats for pointing out the craziness of threatening war over the name of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and now he is being sued for pointing out the presence of Greek nationalist paramilitaries in Bosnia during the Srebrenica massacre. Here’s an interview with him on the case on the website of the Congress of North American Bosniacs: “Greek journalist sued for writing about the presence of Greek paramilitaries in Bosnia”

More on the case from the Srebrenica Genocide Blog.

AP: “Washington, Colombia near deal on base access”

The “War on Drugs” is a prime reason for the success of the military groups that are attacking the government and civil society in Colombia; it provides a comparative advantage in fundraising to groups that are well organized at brutality and violence. The best friends FARC in Colombia and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan have are in the US Drug Enforcement Agency. Without US drug laws, it would be much harder for them to get money to pay for weapons, soldiers, etc. And now, in an example of Ludwig von Mises’s insight that one intervention begets another, we have military interventions to combat the well financed forces that are financed so well because of the earlier intervention. More interventionism of this sort will raise the rents to the purveyors of violence who, under violent conditions, dominate drug markets, leading to more financing for narco-terrorism. To get rid of narco-terrorism, we need to get rid of the prohibitionist drug laws that make it possible.

From Forbes: “It Wasn’t A ‘Coup’”

Article 239 says that any person who has held the office of the presidency cannot be president or vice president again. Furthermore, it states that the officeholder “that violates this provision or proposes its reform, as well as those who support such a violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years.”

I added the italics for emphasis. Note the use of the word “immediately.”

Also, the Honduran constitution stipulates that the only mechanism through which it can be amended is by two separate votes in Congress by absolute majority (two-thirds). However, Article 375 states that under no circumstance can the constitution be amended to allow for presidential re-election.

The purpose of such congressional power and limits on presidents remaining in office beyond one term was and is to keep out dictators, tyrants, caudillos, “strong men,” and coup leaders, such as Zelaya, who initiated a military coup when he ordered the military to use force to override the decisions of the electoral court, the supreme court, the congress, and the attorney general that his plans were illegal. Zelaya was, accordingly, removed. Whether it was the best way to remove him is certainly debatable, but that he was removed legally, after an arrest warrant from the supreme court, is not in doubt.

“Democracy” is not about following mad leaders who seek power forever, but about, in Jefferson’s phrase from the Kentucky Resolutions,

…free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power: that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go; …. In questions of powers, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

The media discussion of events in Honduras is remarkably confused. Here’s CNN:

The president of the U.N. General Assembly scheduled a noon session Monday to discuss the situation in Honduras, following a military-led coup that ousted the sitting president.

and

Micheletti, the head of Congress, became president after lawmakers voted by a show of hands to strip Zelaya of his powers, with a resolution stating that Zelaya “provoked confrontations and divisions” within the country.

….

The coup came on the same day that he had vowed to follow through with a nonbinding referendum that the Honduran Supreme Court had ruled illegal.

Imagine that George Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan or some other American president had decided to overturn the Constitution so that he could stay in power beyond the constitutionally limited time. To do that, he orders a nationwide referendum that is not constitutionally authorized and blatantly illegal. The Federal Election Commission rules that it is illegal. The Supreme Court rules that it is illegal. The Congress votes to strip the president of his powers and, as members of Congress are not that good at overcoming the president’s personally loyal and handpicked bodyguards, they send police and military to arrest the president. Now, which party is guilty of leading a coup?

This is another example of populist, dictatorial, anti-democratic thought parading as “democratic.” I discuss the issue in my recent lecture on enduring democracy in New Delhi.

BBC: “Asia takes first step on modern ‘Silk Route’”

This is very positive. Trade creates not only prosperity, but peace. Removing barriers (such as requirements that goods be unloaded and loaded at each political border) improves the chances of both prosperity and peace.

….from the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy

Read their final report: “Drugs and Democracy: Toward a Paradigm Shift”

It is long past time to end the destructive, wasteful, and unjust policy of prohibition. It fuels terrorism, empowers and funds the most violent criminals, and ruins the lives of millions of people. Enough!

Senior Saudi royal calls for political reforms

8 yr. old Saudi child bride granted divorce

The article by Raja Kamal of the University of Chicago and myself on the need for reforms in the Arab world (focusing one education) from the Beirut Daily Star: “Arab education displays its discontents“

From the London news conference at the offices of the Legatum Institute to launch the FreedomToTrade.org campaign.