George Handlery on the week that was. Human rights: the apes are in charge of the bananas. Citizens' rights to enemy combatants and the Supreme Court. Does work for support payments equal racism? What works better, higher dikes or laws against precipitation? State doping. Energy autarchy is not pc but a goal worth pursuing.
 
1. The Irish referendum’s “no” to the Lisbon Treaty is showing an unexpected consequence. Austria might be reconsidering. Instead of safe ratification by parliament, the “subsidy constitution” might be submitted to a popular vote.
 
2. What would you say if, on behalf of the UN’s Human Rights Commission representatives of Nigeria, Morocco, Pakistan and Algeria would investigate your country’s compliance with human rights rules. Absurd postulate? No. You are next in line.
 
3. Retrieved from a forgotten 1970s notebook before its sacrifice on the altar of “order”. “The problem of the West is that that it reacts in confusion when its critique is countered by threats. Instinctively it attempts to ameliorate the response to its impertinence of having raised a resented issue. In doing so, it is inclined to withdraw its complaints instead of pursuing its course regardless of the originally anticipated disapproval”.
 
4. The US’ Supreme Court has decided that Gitmo detainees have a right to question their detention in an American court. The judges ordered to handle enemy combatants captured in the course of their clandestine actions – not covered by the rules of war – as citizens with habeas corpus rights. The decision does not change any facts on the ground but it does bolster a dangerous fiction about terrorism and the ways to deal with it.
 
5. Some immigrants to Western Europe – and recently in the US – have an unusual record. Historic immigrations wished to emulate the success stories of their hosts. That meant that one wished to be successful under new conditions. A mixture of underdeveloped origins and its internalized value-system blocking development, and the context of the receiving welfare-state’s services, lead to an unexpected new substance. In some ways the adjustment to exploit available aid intended for the unfortunate, is commendably rapid. It also comes about by blotting out the positive elements of the hosting culture such as the opportunities it offers to the success oriented. A need arises to choose between the relative comfort of support for failure extended to under-achievers and the chances and insecurities of careers for talents. Some of those that were originally embedded in a static culture are inclined to prefer the bother-free security of the former. The result is a sub class of society. Once politically organized it is prone to assert, in the name of cultural integrity, a right to immunity from the laws and ways regulating the lives of the majority. In this, it is reinforced by its common language or religion. Dealing with the problem is hindered by values such as in “religious freedom” and “discrimination”.
 
6. As a way of life, the security of support can be an attractive alternative to the risks of achievement oriented striving. Self-contained groups create pressures that make their members to adapt and to learn to live “well” on the dole. To fight the trend the burgomaster of a village in Hungary had an idea. It could be called welfare payments in exchange for labor. He decided to distribute support payments only to those career- unemployed that put in weekly some work on public projects. The idea seems to be spreading. Meanwhile the organized interest groups behind the (Socialist) government call the measure racially discriminatory.
 
7. Those asked to contribute their labor are beneficiaries of the measure. Some pursue careers in the black economy. There the profits make the returns of public employment a pittance compared to their effective earnings. Removing them from the list of the supported will benefit the budget and indirectly the lot of real dependents. Another positive result is that those forced to work get a valuable experience. In some clans for generations, hardly anyone who stayed in the group has ever pursued gainful employment. Therefore, participating in public work projects transmits skills that might prove to be useful in getting and holding jobs.
 
8. There is a problem with the phrase “racial discrimination” in the above. If the political class calls work-for-money racially discriminatory then it admits something that PC-thinking demands to be left unmentioned. The unthinkable, or at least unmentionable, is that, after all, certain collective ways ranging from welfare-dependence to criminality as a way of life do, after all, correlate with group membership.
 
9. Entire political parties have been successful using national power to (temporarily) exempt privileged sectors of the economy – and the voters they employ – from competition. A rally to deal with efficient competitors through improved competitiveness – lower prices for improved products embellished by innovation – is a bad vote getter. Alas, this also happens to be the strategy that cannot save challenged industries from ultimate collapse. Higher dikes are a better way to cope with flooding than is legislation to limit rainfall.
 
10. By now, even the stubbornly naïve might admit that sports and politics are interrelated. Regardless of the slogans suggesting that the Olympics overcome political feuds, the games remain a continuation of politics with other means. This characteristic makes doping into more than just a question of the proper personal behavior of athletes and their coaches. Since its collapse opened up some secret files, all who care to admit what they knew must be cognizant that East Germany doped and did so as a matter of government policy. Proving Socialism’s superiority demanded at least that much. While the burned-out athletes are in treatment, East Germany’s state dopers are still around and in demand. Comparable new cases are likely to differ only in the extent of the blown cover. Even Peking’s Olympics, although able to hide Tibet, will not be able to cover up all such team secrets. This will be so regardless of the fact that, first and foremost the host will be motivated to find ways to be discreet in its own behalf.
 
11. As a newly arrived teenager, wishing to learn more about the ways of my new country, I enrolled at in a course of Political Science. The first lecture became a shock. Explaining the construction of the American Union, I heard the term “compromise”. As used, the word had a connotation of approval. The positive coloring contradicted my association that put compromise near “cowardice” and “surrender”. Indeed, in the context of the “West” the ability to compromise proved to be a political pre-condition of success. If, however, the technique is applied uncritically then the consequences are potentially perilous. The problem with a tradition shaped by a constructive use of compromise is that the technique can become a mantra. The compromises I came to admire were agreements between like-minded parties that were seeking rational solutions for the limited problems separating them. This worked with the consent of elements whose strategic goals did not give priority to the ultimate destruction of their opponents. In this sense, the good compromise is the expression of an agreement about a detail between parties that mutually accept and desire their co-existence. We should remember that a real solution through settlement is possible only when the fundamentals are compatible. Without a significant common denominator, compromises are, at best, only an armistice. Some of the foes of liberty in the past century have benefited by being allowed to exploit the desire for a compromise as a weapon. Comparable new challengers relying on an old tactic are again around. The trick seems to work although the new foes demonstrate that they are unlikely to revise their ultimate goals in response to concessions.
 
12. High energy costs have triggered a debate over causes and the remedies. A case can be made that the price-rise is not due to the immediate supply. Nevertheless, exploring alternatives and reducing consumption is prudent, even if the Greens and the Reds advocate it. Besides these approaches based on future technologies, short-to-midterm relief is within the potential of existing methods and supply alternatives. Much of the current price is the result of speculative purchases for future delivery. Such contracts assume a continued rise of the value of the commodity. As long as the trend inflates the bubble, such investments pay – as does the consumer. Ultimately, besides the self-fulfilling prophecy of rising prices, the costs at the pump come from the political insecurities on the global market, the lack of stability of regions where resources are located and the artificial cap on production by some major consumers of petroleum products. Economic and political considerations demand that to avoid blackmail, the national security aspects be considered. If new exploitation is made politically possible then the prices – they anticipate the future – will decline. Energy self-sufficiency will also bolster the position of the US and its allies. Therefore, both the economy and the defense of the industrialized countries demand the increased autarchy of energy supplies. The time gained should be used to reduce consumption and to find ways to make our wheels turn by developing and applying the technologies of the future.