Showing posts with label north korea. Show all posts

Saturday, June 16, 2018

The Trump-Kim summit, more capitalism and commerce, less communism and missiles

June 12, 2018 was a historic day as the leader of the world's biggest capitalist economy met with the leader of a very small yet nuke-armed communist economy, for the first time. Thank you President Trump, Chairman Kim. You are no angels (none of us here) but it is better to have more capitalism and commerce, less communism and missiles, in Asia and the world. Great initiative (photo below from BBC).

"President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have committed to cooperate for the development of new US-DPRK relations and for the promotion of peace, prosperity, and the security of the Korean Peninsula and of the world."

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/12/politics/read-full-text-of-trump-kim-signed-statement/index.html

"The US president said he had invited Mr Kim to visit the White House at “the appropriate time” and that the North Korean leader had accepted his invitation."

https://www.ft.com/content/0342ebf2-6dc5-11e8-852d-d8b934ff5ffa

Poor North Korea but with a medium size population of 25 M people (S.Korea has about 51 M), it is safe to project that after denuclearization, soon Samsung and Apple, Ford and Toyota, BMW and Hyundai, HSBC and Citibank, Marriott and Shangri-la, San miguel and Jolibee, other big globa and regionall brands will soon be setting offices and factories, hotels and banks, in Pyongyang and beyond.

Singapore as host is a good model for NK -- small in both land area and population, previously very poor, no nukes, yet very prosperous and rich.

Trump as long-time businessman and recent politician with little political baggage that many politicians have may have inspired KJU to have more businesses, more trade and investments and less missiles and bombs in his country. The 8 years of "hope and change" leader has no track record of real business. The Clinton couple has politics as business, no real business selling useful goods and services.

US Ambassador to the PH Sung Kim has been with the Trump team in negotiating with KJU. Amb. Kim with US State Sec. Mike Pompeo in SG. Cool guys. (photo from Sec Pompeo's twitter)

I have a S. Korean free marketer friend, Dr. Chung-ho Kim, then Pres. of the Center for Free Enterprise (CFE) in Seoul. We were in an Atlas event in Washington DC in Nov. 2009, 20th anniv of the fall of the Berlin Wall (thanks to the invite and travel grant secured by Jo Kwong, then Atlas VP). Chung-ho was one of the freedom speakers. In front of about 300 people he made a toast, "Unlike in Berlin where they have a wall, in Korea we have a fence separating the N and S. Korea. As Pres. of the Center for Free Enterprise in Seoul, I call on Chairman Kim (il Song) -- tear down this fence." Big applause from the crowd.

"I want to bring our soldiers back home. We have, right now, 32,000 soldiers in South Korea, and I’d like to be able to bring them back home. But that’s not part of the equation right now. At some point, I hope it will be, but not right now.

We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should. But we’ll be saving a tremendous amount of money. Plus, I think it’s very provocative."

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/press-conference-president-trump/

So he wants to pull out his Troops out of S. Korea, mainly to (1) save money, cut US spending, and (2) in line with zero nuke for NKor, zero US troops in SKor.

Good plan then. I think Trump plans to have another round of tax cut so he needs more spending cut.

CN influence over NKor will significantly decline. Soon N. Koreans will fall in love with McDonald's and Starbucks, google and youtube, Apple and Samsung, Toyota and Hyundai, Toshiba and LG.

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Sunday, June 10, 2018

BWorld 219, The US-North Korea summit and the global economy

* This is my article in BusinessWorld last Wednesday, June 6.

The summit meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un (KJU) this coming June 12, 2018 in Singapore is marked with several paradoxes.

For one, the US is the biggest economy in the world with a GDP size of $19.39 trillion in 2017 while the North Korean economy is very small with an estimated GDP size of only $16 billion in 2016, or just 0.08% of the US economic size.

North Korea’s economy is small because it has focused its resources on its military and nuclear capabilities. As a result, most of its 25 million people are starving and are deprived of several basic services, including but not limited to reliable and dependable electricity service.

Last month, a historic summit meeting was held between KJU and South Korean President Moon-Jae In with both parties discussing the formal ending of the Korean War and to finally establish peace and prosperity between the two countries in the peninsula.

An important event aiding this Trump-KJU summit is the renewed vigor of the US economy by which it can reassert its role as main “anchor” of global trade, investments, and economic dynamism. Let us review some numbers as to why this may be possible.

The last time the US economy posted a GDP growth of at least 3% was in 2005 or 13 years ago — it grew 3.3% that year. The eight years of “hope and change” under President Obama did not produce a single year of 3% growth or higher.

During that period, 2009-2016, even anemic economies of fellow rich countries managed to grow above 3%: Japan experienced 4.2% growth in 2010, UK grew 3.1% in 2014 while Germany experienced growth of 3.9% and 3.7% in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

China as second global economic “anchor” continues to grow fast but no longer in double digit figures, owing to the declining pace of its expansion.

South Korea maintains a growth rate of at least 3% and it remains the 11th biggest economy in the world. Japan remains the 3rd biggest economy and India is roaring high and is now the world’s 6th biggest economy. The Philippines has achieved fast growth since the last administration and the momentum is expected to be sustained until this year and the next (see table).

The growth momentum of the US economy is very evident since last year: 1.5% in 2016 or the last year of “hope and change,” 2.3% in 2017 and IMF projection of 2.9% this year. Actual Q1 2018 growth was 2.8% and when the May 2018 unemployment rate further went down to only 3.8%, an 18 year-low, prompting banks and research institutes to revise their growth projections for 2018 Q2 to Q4 of 3.5% to 4.7%.

With the world’s no. 1 economy rolling on high growth path and immediate neighbors being the 2nd, 3rd and 11th biggest economies in the world, the opportunities for North Korea to quickly transition from a hermit-like, autarkic economy to regional and global economic integration is high.

It will not be surprising then if Apple, Samsung, Google, Microsoft, McDonalds, Toyota, Shangri-la, other big global brands will put up offices and factories in North Korea months after the Trump-KJU meeting.

Is a North-South Korea reunification as one country like the East-West Germany reunification, desirable? It will be better if they remain as two separate countries linked by heavy commerce and investments, like Malaysia-Singapore and EU countries.

Bigger countries and economies tend to be more bureaucratic than smaller ones. Compare for instance China-Hong Kong, Indonesia-Singapore, India-Bhutan, Russia-Finland, and so on.

Peace and prosperity, more commerce and trade, more investments and tourism, more sports and cultural exchanges, more energy and electricity, and not more tanks and missiles. This is the kind of economic development in the region that many people and businesses around the world hope to see.

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Monday, April 30, 2018

The Korea Summit, moving to world peace

I like these news reports last Friday, April 27, 2018.

More talks and saliva are a lot better than more bombs and missiles.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Earth Hour 8, Celebrate darkness vs modernization

Earth Hour 2017 by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is two days away and yet last night, while I was having dinner with my daughter at a resto at SM Mall of Asia (MOA), the waiter informed us that they will shut off the lights from 7.30 - 8.30pm, for "Earth Hour", we can transfer to a table outside where the mall's exterior and street lights are on and bright. I said they should have informed me earlier so I could cancel my order because I don't believe in that stupid "celebrate darkness" campaign. Waiter went out, talked to management, came back and said they wont shut off the lights inside, only the shop sign outside. Good.

For me, this is the best EH photo. Celebrate darkness even for 1 hour is idiotic. But since campaigners do not really shut off lights 100%, only about 50% so they can have their speeches and singing to protect the planet from the "evils of fossil fuels" as they went to various venues on cars, buses, motorcycles that run on fossil fuel, it's only a half-idiotic campaign.

If "celebrate darkness" to "save the planet" is a good thing, then campaigners like WWF and Henry Sy family should do it every night, 365 nights a year, not just 1 hour a year. Darkness is the bliss of cave men and women, and double talk people among us who criticize if not hate modernity but cannot shake off their love affair with facebook, youtube, emails, cars, plane rides, etc.

Electricity and modernity allowed us to have a wealthier, more comfortable world. If people think riding cars or buses or jeeps that run on fossil fuel is bad, they should stop riding those vehicles and use only bicycles, skateboards and running shoes.

EH is not an ordinary "awareness campaign", rather it is one of the major anti-fossil fuel, kill coal, over-tax oil campaigns. Which have implicit and explicit ramifications in our energy, transportation and industrialization policies. Expensive electricity from unstable, intermittent sources should be embraced by the public. Even if those intermittent sources can ensure blackouts 100% if back up fossil fuel plants are not around.

Climate change (CC) is about global warming, global cooling, warming, cooling,... endless cycles for the past 4.6 billion years. With or without humans and their cars, malls, boats, planes and coal or nuke power plants. CC is natural or nature-made, not man-made.

One friend complained why I cannot respect the other view. Well for private citizens or civil society actions without national and global coercion, I don't mind. But those campaigns and advocacies have plenty of coercive components, like us taxpayers paying for the endless global climate meetings and junkets by government climate and environment officials and their staff, their offices and perks. Or government forcing us to pay higher electricity bills monthly to give endless subsidies to renewables.

Another friend argued that we humans are "hastening changes that in turn threaten our very existence." Uhmmm, exactly 101 years before Haiyan/Yolanda, Nov. 1912, also in Leyte, when total PH population that time was perhaps only 10M or less, when CO2 concentration was much lower, these things happened.

The WWF, Greenpeace, other groups make huge money by deceiving and convincing the public that if there are less rain, no rain or no flood, there is scary "man-made" CC so people should send them money. If there are more rains, more flood, there is also scary "man-made" CC so people should send them money. They campaign to fight less rain and more rain, fight less flood and more flood, fight less cold and more cold, fight less snow and more snow. Whatever the weather and climate, we should be scared and worried and alarmed, and they are the big planet saviours.

So the EH is part of a global fund raising campaign. WWF positions itself as a big planet saviour so it needs big money. CC alarmism, ditching the natural and cyclical nature of CC is about 95% political science and 5% climate science. The ultimate goal is more government, more UN, more global ecological central planning. That is why it is common to see WWF officials migrating to high government officials and vice versa.
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See also:
Earth Hour 5: Celebrating Darkness is not Wise, March 30, 2012
Earth Hour 6: The WWF can Change Climate Change?, March 29, 2015
Earth Hour 7, Lesson in basic electrical engineering, March 21, 2016

Friday, October 10, 2014

Korea Unification Soon?

Is the North Korea dictatorship crumbling further? Is the N-S. Korea unification happening soon? I really wish so.

Famous investor Jim Rogers, a rich American businessman who moved to Singapore since 2007 as he believed that this is the Asian century, said in 2013 during the Jeju Forum that he believed that a North-South Korea unification is possible by 2018 (+/- one year), and that it will be the "most exciting economy in the world." Yes, about 70 M people, with huge resources rechanneled from military to global trade.

Below are some encouraging news reports from various sources that point to the imminent collapse of the N. Korea dictatorship.

(1) News from The Diplomat, October 1, 2014

K1) “Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, might be leading the hermit kingdom instead of her brother, a recent report from Seoul-based think tank, North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity (NKIS) revealed.

According to NKIS on October 1, Kim Jong-un — who has failed to appear at official events since early September — is getting medical treatment at Bonghwa Clinic from both domestic and foreign medical teams. Meanwhile, in his absence, Kim Yo-jong is charged with handling important government decisions.”

(2) From Vice News, October 2, 2014

“An elite group of exiles from North Korea gathered in September in the Netherlands to discuss the state of the regime they used to serve. The conference included top diplomats, an ex-senior official of the Ministry of Security, and a high-ranking military officer, but the keynote address was given by Jang Jin-sung, formerly a key member of Kim Jong-il's propaganda machine. Included in Jang's speech was a surprising assertion: North Korea is in the midst of a civil war.

According to Jang — a former counterintelligence official and poet laureate under Kim Jong-il — members of the government's Organization and Guidance Department (OGD), a powerful group of officials that once reported only to Kim Jong-il, have stopped taking orders from his son, Kim Jong-un. The OGD, Jang says, has effectively taken control of the country, and a conflict is simmering between factions that want to maintain absolute control over the economy and others seeking to gain wealth through foreign trade and a slightly more open market.”

(3) From WaPo, October 4, 2014, is good. It was the top leaders of the North other than Kim Jong-Un, who unilaterally went to the South.

KYOTO, Japan— North and South Korea have agreed to hold another round of high-level talks after a top-level Northern delegation, including the men thought to be second and third in command behind Kim Jong Un, paid a surprise visit to the South on Saturday.

The unusual and unannounced trip — the first such high-level visit in more than five years — comes at a time of intense speculation about North Korea’s leadership, given that Kim, the third-generation leader of the communist state, has not been seen in public for a month….

“It’s a big deal, it’s really a big deal, because it’s completely unprecedented,” said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea scholar who studied in Pyongyang and now teaches in Seoul.

The 11-strong group from North Korea was led by Hwang Pyong So, widely considered Kim’s deputy. He’s the top political official in the Korean People’s Army and vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, which is led by Kim.

(4) And from The PCMD Gazette, also last October 4, is good news.

"North Korea’s Organization and Guidance Department (OGD), the country’s most powerful group of officials, has stopped taking orders from Kim Jong-un. amid reports that the dictator has been overthrown.

Kim Jong-un has been missing for over a week and authorities originally tried to cover-up his absence by claiming he was recovering from ankle surgery."

Socialism and one-party dictatorship is destined to end wherever they may be, People are generally rationale, they want diversity, they want to be creative and spontaneous. Socialism/communism and one party dictatorship hates all that, they want uniformity, monotony, central planning and absence of spontaneity.

So Jim Rogers and other observers are correct. A unification of N-S Korea is coming soon. The dark horse will be the China commie government -- will it allow such unification and hence, stronger capitalism buffer near its backyard, or will it stage its own puppet regime and retain socialism with limited capitalism system, what it is doing now in China.

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See also:
North and South Korea conflict, November 23, 2010
Criminals 11: Kim Jong Il, North Korea, December 20, 2011
Business 360 7: Jeju Forum for Peace, May 10, 2013
Chung ho Kim, Freedom Factory Ltd., May 28, 2013
EFN Asia 24: Jim Rogers talk at Jeju Forum, June 10, 2013

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Business 360 6: Peace and Prosperity in Asia

* This is the article that I sent to B360 in Kathmandu late last month, for their April 2013 issue.
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Peace and Prosperity in Asia

Asia is in a unique position in the world today in both economic and political parameters. Economically, three of the four biggest economies in the world by purchasing power parity (PPP) valuation of GDP are in Asia – China, India and Japan, ranked 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th, respectively in 2012. South Korea and Indonesia also ranked 12^th and 15^th in GDP size.

Among the fastest growing economies in the world are also in Asia, the five countries mentioned above except Japan, and the industrializing or emerging markets like Taiwan, Thailand, Pakistan, Malaysia, Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Politically, there is slow but continued improvement towards democratization and away from despotism. But there are some serious threats to peace in the continent. Among the recent negative events that developed are the following.

One, North Korea has cut off military hotlines with South Korea and prepared for a "situation where a war may break out any moment.” Earlier, the new South Korean President, Park Geun-Hye declared, "For the North, the only path to survival lies in stopping provocations and threats, abandoning its nuclear weaponry and missiles.”

Two, Vietnam has accused China of opening fire on a Vietnamese fishing boat at the disputed Paracel Island. China has denied the accusation and tension between the two governments has renewed. In early March this year, China announced that it has increased its defense spending to US$119 billion.

Three, the on-going territorial dispute between China and Japan over Japan-controlled islands in the East China Sea, known as “Senkaku” in Tokyo and “Diaoyu” in Beijing. Both sides have sent battle ships and sometimes fighter jets, although these mainly served as “show of force” and no incidence of actual shooting has occurred.

Four, on-going Philippines-China territorial dispute over small islands in the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea, depending on which beach one is standing on. Recently, Japan donated 10 new patrol ships to the Philippine Coast Guard valued at $11 million.

Five, the India-Pakistan tension over Kashmir remains unresolved for many years now. Early this year, Indian Kashmir police instructed the citizens to prepare for a nuclear war.

The list can extend showing political and defense instability in the region and continent. Nonetheless, no actual serious attacks have been committed, so the cause for peace has generally prevailed.

This writer is inclined to believe that many of those reported tensions are more exaggerated than the actual tension. With global commerce and global mobility of people rising every year, it is no longer possible to bomb and inflict military casualties on citizens and civilian structures of the target cities and countries alone, but will affect also companies and expat personnel from many other countries.

These days, if one will bomb one big city like Tokyo or Beijing, Delhi, Seoul, Taipei or Manila, it will also bomb the businesses and nationals of almost all major economies around the world. In short, you bomb one big city, you declare war to all other countries, directly or indirectly.

This alone will restrain the hands of whoever have the control over the buttons of those armaments of destruction. The people who will condemn them if they do so will not only be the residents of the affected cities or country, but even their own countrymen who have long-term trade and investment interests in all major cities around Asia and the world.

Because of global commerce and mobility of people, any World War II type of scenario is more of illusionary than real. It will be prodded more by lobby groups in the security and military establishments, like certain sectors of the academe and media, and the suppliers of those armaments.

Free trade and free people mobility is the best policy to deter war and destruction, and achieve peace and economic prosperity for the people of Asia and the rest of the world.

In a global “Freedom to Trade” campaign launched in March 2009 by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and the International Policy Network, these words reverberate and will remain useful today and tomorrow:

“Two hundred and fifty years ago, Montesquieu observed that ‘Peace is the natural effect of trade. Two nations who differ with each other become reciprocally dependent; for if one has an interest in buying, the other has an interest in selling; and thus their union is founded on their mutual necessities.’

Trade’s most valuable product is peace. Trade promotes peace, in part, by uniting different peoples in a common culture of commerce – a daily process of learning others’ languages, social norms, laws, expectations, wants, and talents. Trade promotes peace by encouraging people to build bonds of mutually beneficial cooperation…. trade unites the economic interests… of the peoples of all nations who trade with other.”

Peace and prosperity for the people of Asia and the rest of the world.

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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Criminals 11: Kim Jong Il, North Korea

North Korea's political leadership since the creation of the country in 1948, only came from one family.

Kim Il Sung, North Korea founder, died in 1994.
Kim Jong Il, successor, died December 2011, 69 years old.
Kim Jong Un, successor, 20 years old; he is one of the 3 sons of Jong Il.

Yesterday, world news bannered the death of Kim Jong Il, the reining dictator of North Korea due to heart attack. The man has ruled North Korea for 17 years (1994-2011) and has engaged S. Korea in several near-war situations.

My good S. Korean friend, Chung-ho Kim, President of the free market think tank in Seoul, Center for Free Enterprise, told me that after the Korean war of 1950-53, almost the whole of Seoul was flat, no big building was standing.

Despite his totalitarian leadership, many North Koreans were greatly saddened and wept at the news of KJI's death. His successor, KJ Un, also shown. A 20-years old boy can lead a nation of 24 million people that is very poor and frequently suffering from hunger? Only a dictatorial government can do that. But we will see, let us give the boy a chance to prove his leadership.

Chung-ho also once showed us this photo in one of his presentations and he asked, "how short is the North?". I think the answer is something like 4 inches, or the average South Korean is 4 inches taller than an average North Korean, even coming from the same genes.

I remember in 2003, I went to Sweden for a 7-weeks international training seminar on "Sustainable Agriculture". I have two batchmates then from North Korea, both from the government of course, their Ministry of Agriculture. They were bright, they can hardly speak English but their presentations were very quantitative. And they were small, average height would be about 5 ft tall.

Early this year, I wrote and showed this satellite photo in Earth Hour lunacy, March 18, 2011:

The Brutal Impact of North Korean Statism

Posted by Daniel J. Mitchell

One hopes that the dictator of North Korea suffered greatly before he died. After all, his totalitarian and communist (pardon the redundancy) policies have cause untold death and misery.

But let’s try to learn an economics lesson. In a previous post, I compared long-term growth in Hong Kong and Argentina to show the difference between capitalism and cronyism.

But for a much more dramatic comparison, look at the difference between North Korea and South Korea.

Hmmm… I wonder if we can conclude that markets are better than statism?

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The world is a bit safer now with one dictator gone. I hope, as we don't see yet how different, or how worse, KJ Un would be.
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See also:
North and South Korea conflict, November 23, 2010
Criminals 1: Killings in Thailand and Military Crackdown, April 16, 2009
Criminals 2: Pakistan, the Criminal state, August 17, 2010
Criminals 3: Kidnappers in Government, August 24, 2010
Criminals 4: Hostage-taking of HK Tourists in Luneta, August 31, 2010
Criminals 5: One Year of Maguindanao Massacre, November 23, 2010

Criminals 6: Bukas-kotse Gang in QC, January 19, 2011

Criminals 7: Illegal Drugs and China Execution, April 01, 2011
Criminals 8: Extortion Culture in the PNP, June 13, 2011
Criminals 9: Crime Wave in Metro Manila?, August 10, 2011
Criminals 10: London Riots, August 10, 2011

Friday, March 18, 2011

Earth Hour 2: "Reduce Consumption of Power" -- WWF

Electricity gives us extra freedom. We can work and have meetings further, or play with our kids, or party with friends, or watch tv/movies/sports competition even until evening. We can build, work and live in high rise buildings and go up and down anytime, 24/7, thereby saving space for roads, playground, farms, urban forest, and so on.

Now there are many groups and people who have demonized our high use of energy and electricity. A few of them have attained high profile global status to peddle their lunatic view that "more electricity = more global warming and climate change." Thus, to reduce the evils of "man-made warming", we should cut our electricity usage. How? Via high energy taxes, high energy prices by forcing us to buy expensive and immature renewable power sources, high environmental regulatory fees.

Some groups go beyond that. After successfully lobbying and supporting many governments on those rent-seeking behaviors above, they go extra by telling us that we should shut down our lights for one hour then reflect, feel guilty how we have "damaged and ruined our planet." Thus, the annual "Earth Hour" campaign by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

These guys are saying that we should use less electricity as much as possible. Perhaps like many countries in Africa. See this satellite picture at night, Africa in the south and Middle East Asia and Europe in the north.

The head of WWF Philippines Climate Unit, Atty. Gia Ibay, put it explicitly: "...the true spirit of the event into our lives – which is to reduce our consumption of power, water and other critical resources." See Earth Hour 2011.

Aside from continental Africa, here's another good model for the WWF and other climate alarmists -- North Korea. In this satellite picture taken in 2003, South Korea is the one with lots of lights, Seoul being the brightest.

The people in N. Korea shut off their lights not only one hour per year. They do it several hours per night, 365 nights a year. See also Earth Hour success in North Korea

For additional arguments why the Earth Hour is a lunatic idea, here are my earlier articles,

After Earth hour, stop breathing for an hour

Human Achievement hour

I am also reposting below a good article by Dr. McKitrrick from his blog.

Earth Hour: A Dissent

by Ross McKitrick

In 2009 I was asked by a journalist for my thoughts on the importance of Earth Hour.

Here is my response.

I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity.

Giving women the freedom to work outside the home depended on the availability of electrical appliances that free up time from domestic chores. Getting children out of menial labour and into schools depended on the same thing, as well as the ability to provide safe indoor lighting for reading.

Development and provision of modern health care without electricity is absolutely impossible. The expansion of our food supply, and the promotion of hygiene and nutrition, depended on being able to irrigate fields, cook and refrigerate foods, and have a steady indoor supply of hot water.

Many of the world’s poor suffer brutal environmental conditions in their own homes because of the necessity of cooking over indoor fires that burn twigs and dung. This causes local deforestation and the proliferation of smoke- and parasite-related lung diseases.

Anyone who wants to see local conditions improve in the third world should realize the importance of access to cheap electricity from fossil-fuel based power generating stations. After all, that’s how the west developed.

The whole mentality around Earth Hour demonizes electricity. I cannot do that, instead I celebrate it and all that it has provided for humanity.

Earth Hour celebrates ignorance, poverty and backwardness. By repudiating the greatest engine of liberation it becomes an hour devoted to anti-humanism. It encourages the sanctimonious gesture of turning off trivial appliances for a trivial amount of time, in deference to some ill-defined abstraction called “the Earth,” all the while hypocritically retaining the real benefits of continuous, reliable electricity.

People who see virtue in doing without electricity should shut off their fridge, stove, microwave, computer, water heater, lights, TV and all other appliances for a month, not an hour. And pop down to the cardiac unit at the hospital and shut the power off there too.

I don’t want to go back to nature. Travel to a zone hit by earthquakes, floods and hurricanes to see what it’s like to go back to nature. For humans, living in “nature” meant a short life span marked by violence, disease and ignorance. People who work for the end of poverty and relief from disease are fighting against nature. I hope they leave their lights on.

Here in Ontario, through the use of pollution control technology and advanced engineering, our air quality has dramatically improved since the 1960s, despite the expansion of industry and the power supply.

If, after all this, we are going to take the view that the remaining air emissions outweigh all the benefits of electricity, and that we ought to be shamed into sitting in darkness for an hour, like naughty children who have been caught doing something bad, then we are setting up unspoiled nature as an absolute, transcendent ideal that obliterates all other ethical and humane obligations.

No thanks.

I like visiting nature but I don’t want to live there, and I refuse to accept the idea that civilization with all its tradeoffs is something to be ashamed of.

Ross McKitrick
Professor of Economics
University of Guelph

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

North and South Korea conflict

Today, the North and South Korean military traded artillery fires, with at least 3 dead in the south, a soldier and two civilians. There were also unconfirmed reports that the South has sent some fighter planes to the North. Here's one report from the NYT.

North Korea's communist government wants an even bigger communist territory. Dictators want a bigger number of people to enslave. This is one big malady of communism and BIG governments.

South Korea's democratic government does not need additional territory to conquer. Hundreds of big S. Korean corporations -- producing telecomms and electronics/appliances to cars, ships and consumer products -- are successful in putting up branches and offices in many countries around the world. The S. Korean people are free to travel and migrate to many countries around the world.

The N. Korean people and state-owned corporations do not have that privilege. The N. Korean government's concept of any expansion is only via military occupation of the south, ultimately.

How short are the N. Koreans? This picture of a N. Korean spy beside an American (left) and S. Korean (right) soldiers provide somehow an answer. When people are starving or are not eating enough, they tend to become shorter, smaller, if not become outright malnourished.

Meanwhile, what could be the solution to the N-S. Korean conflict? Not a war, as much as possible. They went to war in 1950-53 already, and both sides lost. A serious war, should it happen between the two, will however, result in a lopsided loss to the North given the level of economic and technological advancement of the South. But still, a war is a war and millions of Koreans on both sides will die, a prospect that is not acceptable and tolerable.

I am not familiar about the politics and the various international diplomacy options in the Korean peninsula. Nonetheless, I still hope that a serious war will be averted. I'd like to see a "Fall of the Berlin Wall" type of democratization in N. Korea.
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Update: November 24, 2010

The exchange of artillery fire between North and South Korean army seemed to have eased, but the tension remains. The South's fighter planes did not fly yesterday but they were ready to fly and pound Northern targets. See the NYT report here. It should be safe to assume that the North's fighter jets were also ready to fly and attack then. It is good that no further escalation of the conflict happened, and it should not happen as much as possible.

Before the shooting yesterday, the major clash between the two Koreas was the sinking of a S. Korean warship Cheonan last March. The North denied that it was them who torpedoed and sank the ship, resulting in the death of all sailors in the ship, but there was no other possible reason to explain the sinking.

Prior to the shooting yesterday, the North was warming up to the South, especially after a huge flooding that affected the North in early September this year. The North asked for food and other supplies. It also initiated some moves that tended to divert the public's attention away from the sinking of the S. Korean ship. And suddenly, the shooting started between the two sides.

One of our friends in the free market movement in the world is the Center for Free Enterprise (CFE, http://eng.cfe.org) based in Seoul, S.Korea. Its President, Dr. Chung-ho Kim, is a good friend of mine since 2005.

Our picture here during the Atlas round table discussion on Friedrich Hayek's book, "The Constitution of Liberty", held in Phuket, Thailand, September 2005. From left: Dr. Hiroshi of the Institute for Free Economy, Japan; me, Chung-ho, and Mr. You of the Japanese for Tax Reforms.

Last November 9-10, 2009, Chung-ho and I were among the Asian free market delegates to the Atlas Freedom Dinner and conference held in Mayflower Rennaisance Hotel, Washington DC. The event was the commemoration of the 20th year of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of communism in Europe.

Chung-ho was one of two freedom fighters who gave the "Toast to Freedom" that night witnessed by more than 300 people. Chung-ho said something like this.

In Berlin, they had the wall that separated West and East Germany then. When former US President Ronald Reagan went to Europe in the late 90s, he told Mr. Gorbachev of Russia, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down the wall."

In Korea, it's not a wall, it's a fence, that separates North and South Korea. As President of the Center for Free Enterprise in S. Korea, I urge Mr. Kim Jong Il of North Korea, "Mr. Kim, tear down the fence. Let your people enjoy freedom and democracy. Let the people of the two Koreas be reunited."

Chung-ho received a long standing ovation for his short but emphatic statement.

With the recent development in the Korean Peninsula, it seems far out that a peaceful reunification of the two Koreas, similar to the reunification of the two Germanys after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, would happen soon. Such belligerence destroys whatever confidence building that were started in the past.

You don't build confidence by sinking a war ship for no reason at all and making not a single apology after that. You don't build confidence and trust by firing artilleries. You don't build confidence by bragging that you have plenty of centrifuges for your nuclear arms build up.

Communism and statism sucks. This should be a constant and painful reminder to people who harbor that socialism or communism is the way to "humanize the world."
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2 comments:

Filipinofreedomfighter said...: Governments have killed well over 200 million people in the 20th century alone according to statistician RJ Rummel. North Korean socialism would probably have already have collapsed if not for the foreign aid they get from stupid Western governments who are threatened by North Korea's military force. History has proven that the best way to take out communist regimes is to leave them alone.; 11:41 AM
Nonoy Oplas said...: Thanks FFF. On the other hand, the continued existence of N. Korea is a daily reminder to socialists and socialism-leaning people in democratic countries the ugliness and stupidity of a socialist country. We just wonder why they remain enamored to the ideals of socialism, of state ownership of the means of production, of killing the profit motive.

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