Cities Must Secede - One By One

I found Obama's comment that "Gadhafi's death is a warning to iron-fist rulers" a BIG JOKE. The USSA is in Big Trouble - internally and externally - and they are essentially Hard-Fisted Rulers everywhere, internally as well as externally.


Here is a chilling account of a Police SWAT Team "drug raid" on a Mayor's house, and the article is titled "The War on Drugs has become a War on the American People." Of course - and this is an American War being fought against people all over the world, from South America, to the Caribbean, to Afghanistan and Burma, and even India. There are iron-fisted rulers everywhere - but the good thing is that people are wising up.


Lew Rockwell's column today is well worth reading. He points to the "evil 1%" - who are the personnel of The State. They are NOT the Rich Capitalists - and do also read the great George Reisman's article "In Praise of the Capitalist 1 Percent."

The real Evil 1% is The State.

In our own country, this is becoming increasingly obvious. The CONgress, the BJP, the DMK - the whole system stinks of corruption and sleaze. And as for the Anna Hazare Movement - this editorial from the Express on Kiran Bedi's "corruption" says it all. 


So where do we go to from here?


I suggest Free Cities. Let Indian cities secede from our The State one by one - and engage in trade with the world in freedom. 


Karnataka, whose BJP chief minister has just been arrested for corruption, has two cities that can easily compete with Singapore and Hong Kong if they are free: Mangalore and Karwar. Both have deep water ports. And as for Karwar, it is such a beautiful place, gifted by nature, that it could easily become one of the world's greatest cities. Of course, it won't happen overnight. Rome was not built in a day. 


But there are riots in Rome these days.


Riots in London - and do read this blog post on inflation in the UK. This paragraph is telling:

Since 1998, Britain has lost 40% of its manufacturing jobs and added 35% to its roster of public sector workers, increasing the ratio between these two classes of tax-payers and tax-eaters from 60 drones per 100 bees to 160! And now, despite the highest level of joblessness since 1994, we have the highest gain in the Retail Price Index in 20 years, with the Bank of England actually easing as it rises!

The word "easing" means QUANTITATIVE EASING - better known as PRINTING PAPER POUNDS.

Just as the "hard-fisted" Obama is printing paper dollars.

And chacha manmohan is printing paper rupees - his "inflationary finance" of welfare, and idea he got from the UK and the USSA.

And there are riots in Athens - where "democracy" began.

Yes, let Indian cities secede from our The State - one by one.

Mangalore, Karwar, Pondicherry - and finally, Srinagar, Kashmir.

Secede from the Indian Rupee too - and embrace gold: Honest Sunnah Money.

And let the rest of the world learn.

Incidentally, rahul gandhi is pointing the other way. He gave a speech opposing globalisation. He says "it excludes more than it includes." 


Well, were the ports of Karwar and Mangalore and even Goa "included" in globalisation? Or were they just exporting iron ore of low grade? 


Do we want free trade? 


Or do we want CORRUPTION? 


Some politicians get rich (in Goa it is the CONgress chief minister who is deep into mining iron ore) while those of us who could gain from foreign trade are "excluded" by the guns of the Customs Department sent there by the "iron-fisted rulers" from Nude Elly?


You decide - and act!


I am just your friend, philosopher, and guide.

Your Crisis, My Opportunity

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, the State-owned intellectual, has concluded his latest column, titled "This moment of crisis," on the Occupy Wall Street movement, with these words:

The terms of the social contract have to be rewritten. Capitalism has to justify itself in terms of social gains, and democracy in terms of empowerment. But at the moment no one quite understands what all of this might mean.

First, there is NOTHING called a "social contract" - because contracts are private law. Individuals sign contracts with each other - like rentals or labour. I did not sign any contract with any MP to outlaw ganja. And anyway, these guys had MGNREGA right to work, right to education and right to food - and this "social contract" - which I did not sign up for - did not work, did it? Note - no right to property!


Second, only the Market can deliver private gains - out of which taxes can be paid for security and roads. Government does not produce "social gains." Government is a cost. The Science of Economics is best defined as the study of market transactions based on money. Government is something else - to do with Law, with Politics, with Public Administration. Since Economics has nothing to do with government, laissez faire is best. Private gains are what we all need, without any State interference. Money must also be private - GOLD.


Third, democracy has NOTHING to do with "empowerment." Democracy means nothing but more and more legislation - which empowers bureaus and bureaucrats. Democracy gives them fat budgets and draconian powers. The voters get screwed. India is very low on "economic freedom." What empowers the voter is LIBERTY. This requires the Inviolability of Property. Put that in a New Constitution, Professor Mehta, and all will be well.

For The Inviolability Of Private Property - Worldwide

Let me begin with History - an editorial from an English newspaper, The Morning Post, dated 10 July, 1860. This was brought to my attention by a friend - and it shows clearly how the English mind looked at the concept of Private Property in that Golden Age of Classical Liberalism, the age of Queen Victoria and Gladstone:

Every Englishman is accustomed to pride himself with more than usual complacency upon what is called the sanctity of an English home. No soldier, no policeman, no spy of the Government dare enter it... Unlike the tenant of a foreign domicile, the occupier of an Englsih house, whether it be mansion or cottage, possesses an indisputable title against every kind of aggression upon his threshold. He defies everybody below the Home Secretary [what we in India call Home Minister]; and even he can only violate the traditional security of a man's house under extreme circumstances, and with the prospect of a Parliamentary indemnity. It is with this thoroughly innate feeling of security that every Englishman feels a strong sense of the inviolability of his own house. It is this that converts the moorside cottage into a castle. The moral sanctions of an English home are, in the nineteenth century, what the moat, and the keep, and the drawbridge were in the fourteenth. In the strength of these we lie down to sleep at night, and leave our homes in the day, feeling that the whole neighbourhood would be raised, nay, the whole country, were any attempt made to violate what so many traditions, and such long custom, have rendered sacred.

"Life, Liberty and Property" - this was the mantra of classical liberalism. But the US Declaration of Independence went for a different wording:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Never mind the fact that all men are NOT created equal - and that classical liberalism only meant "equality before law." 


But never forget that without the Inviolability of Property there can be no Liberty to Pursue Happiness as one's subjective mind sees it - like cannabliss.


But things are much worse in the USSA today. It is not just that cannabliss farms are being burnt and homes raided by police SWAT teams looking for "drugs" - there is a huge amount of "eminent domain" abuse. Property in the USSA is no longer secure from State predation.


This was brought home to me when I went through Bruce Benson's (edited) new book titled Property Rights: Eminent Domain and Regulatory Takings Re-Examined published in association with The Independent Institute (free download here). It seems the US Supreme Court took a decision in the Kelo vs City of New London case that favoured eminent domain - and this led to a political backlash, and many US States, led by Oregon and Nebraska, passed "measures" to curb the misuse of this power. A conference was later held in which many leading scholars participated - and Professor Benson concludes that the papers presented - all compiled in this book - deliver the verdict that "much more significant limitations on government takings must be imposed."


Of course, not all the scholars are of this view. I found one paper by Steven Eagle of George Mason University' School of Law quite unsatisfactory. He argues that, in the case of assembling parcels of land for urban redevelopment, transaction costs are too high, and eminent domain is therefore justified. He argues for equity participation of owners in the new development. This is what we have tried in India - unsuccessfully.


In reality, transaction costs can be both "good" as well as "bad." If eminent domain was unconstitutional - if property was inviolable - any private developer wanting to assemble a large piece of land for whatever purpose would have to hire property agents as well as lawyers, and these would be "good transaction costs." If eminent domain is allowed, then he would pay off politicians, bureaucrats and policemen - and these would be "bad transaction costs." In the latter case, there would also be a "political backlash" - with further "social costs," like social unrest, demonstrations and the like. This is what we have seen in Mayawati's UP.


What I liked best about Benson's conclusion - that "instability, inefficiency, and inequity are the inevitable result of government planning and regulation" - are his quotes from Mises: like when Mises says that all arguments in favour of government intervention assume that the State is "benevolent and omniscient." Of course, it is no such thing. Politicians and bureaucrats have their own interests. And "knowledge" is fragmented in society. Another quote, from Mises' Omnipotent Government underlined the fact that State personnel HATE and DESPISE private property rights - because it strictly limits their powers. Just as the Gold Standard limits their budgets.


Anyway, whether Proudhon or Marx like it or not - ordinary people in both the USSA as well as India are fighting for the preservation of their properties. In India, Singur and Nandigram brought the Commies down! And their replacement is totally against eminent domain!


It is therefore pleasant for me to conclude with a piece of news from our own Supreme Court that says that these "socialist" dudes have passed a ruling on eminent domain that says "government is guilty of fraud if property acquired for public purposes is given to private firms."


Looks like we might get to inviolability before the USSA does :).


Life, Liberty and Property - that is the mantra. 


When your property is inviolable - when, as the editorial quoted above says, "no soldier, no policeman, no spy of the Government dare enter it," only then will the "pursuit of happiness" be free.


Think about it.

Saint Augustine - On The Predatory State

The other day, I wrote a post on the Pope's speech at the German Parliament, in which he began by quoting St. Augustine - "without justice - what is a State but a band of robbers?" - and then went on to call for a public debate on legal positivism. I had then written: "Without sound money - what is the State but a band of robbers?"


Well, thanks to Christopher Manion on the LewRockwell.com blog, we now have the full text of the passage from St. Augustine's City of God from which the Pope took his quote, and I am placing that passage below for my readers. Note that these words are written by a bishop who was beatified by the Church of Rome:

KINGDOMS WITHOUT JUSTICE ARE BUT ROBBER GANGS

Augustine, City of God, Book IV, Chapter 4.

Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, “What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.”

Remember - this saint uses the word "justice," while these robbers use the term "social justice." I hope you all will read the second volume of Hayek's Law, Legislation & Liberty, which is titled "The Mirage of Social Justice." You can buy this book in India here.


And do reflect a long while on the PRECISE MEANING of the word Hayek uses in his TITLE - the word "MIRAGE." Desert travellers are very wary of mirages. They KILL.

We need Economic Freedom - not funny money welfarism - and we need real "natural justice" in a private law society: Property, Contracts and Torts.

And we need to throw out these robbers - because, as God Alone Knows, I need a Decent Smoke!

The Poor Need Freedom - Not Education, Nor Welfare

I am extremely pleased to see an old post titled "Shah Rukh Kahn and the Truth" top the list of "popular posts" supplied by Google on the right-hand bar. This post makes it obvious that inflationism is bad for the poor - a point I also made the other day, when I discussed the MGNREGS.


But the question remains: What is best for the poor?


Well, for one, SOUND MONEY.


Apart from that - PROPERTY RIGHTS.


And FREE INTERNATIONAL TRADE - so their consumption can improve.


Fourth - LIBERTY!


I gave the example the other day of the NIGHTLIFE INDUSTRY. Think about it: How did black slaves become "superstars" in America? Because of New Orleans - and jazz. In India, when I watch the talent shows on TV (in regional languages, too) the plain fact emerges that millions and millions of Indians are hugely gifted in song and dance, and in playing musical instruments. But they have no place to play - play "live," that is. This hurts the poorest of them all. The better off ones make do publishing music, and appearing in movies and television. The poor ones go broke. I have personally seen hugely gifted rock and jazz artistes in Delhi broke. Broke as hell. 


Now, let us say there is LIBERTY - and a 24-hour economy. Nightlife. Ganja-charas. Casinos. Nightclubs. 


Obviously, many, many poor people will make money.


Then, they will spend this money - and other businesses will make money.


Then, these businessmen will spend - and the cycle will repeat itself endlessly.


This is Jean-Baptiste Say's "Law of Markets." In a nutshell, it says that if X sells, demand is created for all non-X. 


Do read my column on this important economic law under the title "What Pumps Up An Economy" here.  Jean-Baptiste Say was known as the "Adam Smith of France." Great man. Vital law - of markets.


The poor do NOT need (mis)education from our The State. They know lots of things that school can never teach them - from making idlis to playing the guitar. As Jimmy Page said, "The good thing about the guitar is that they do not teach it at school." Freedom is what the poor need.


And as for welfare - it is phoney. It is funded by "funny money" - which erodes the capital of the poor. End this nonsense.


Liberty!

Bastiat Demolishes The MGNREGS: Take #2

To understand why chacha manmohan’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is an extremely screwed-up idea, it is best to begin with Frédéric Bastiat’s “Broken Window Fallacy” – found in his essay “What is Seen and What is Not Seen.” Hayek considered this essay a work of “true genius.”

Even in France of the 1840s, there were socialists who had the idea of running State-owned “National Workshops” with the intention of providing employment to all. In their case, they employed city mobs and used them to beat up dissenters. A dangerous notion, that The State should employ all.

The Broken Window Fallacy runs as follows:

A mischievous boy hurls a brick into a shop-window and smashes it. He runs away. Local people gather and conclude that this is GOOD for their city, as now the glazier has got some business.

Bastiat points out why these bystanders are dead wrong. They see that the glazier has got business. They do not see that the shopkeeper had saved money for a new suit, which he will now have to use for a new window: that is, the tailor has lost business. This is “what is seen and what is not seen.”


As far as the shopkeeper is concerned, if the boy had not smashed his window, he would have possessed a suit and a window; while now, after the repairs, he has just the window, same as he had before, minus his savings, minus his suit. The city has actually LOST.

Thus, reconstruction after a war is NOT good business. Destruction is never good business. Epidemics are not good because doctors make money. Potholes are not good because mechanics gain by them; our cars get destroyed.

Similarly with MGNREGS: We see the district collector – or should we now call him “District Spender”? – spending MGNREGS money. We think the countryside will be better off. But do we do not see where the money came from.

If we look into that, we would see that the money came from us – the taxpayers. And if we had spent the money ourselves, we could have generated “useful employment” (instead of “tax parasitism”). For example, if we had drunk beer with that money instead of paying taxes, brewers and bartenders would have been employed usefully.

Indeed, even if we had saved the money with commercial banks, they would have lent it out – and even better employment would have occurred. Maybe a borrower would have invested in a brewery.

Further: chacha manmohan is also spending freshly printed rupee notes to fund this MGNREGS: “Inflationary Finance.” This erodes the Precious Capital of all citizens. It makes no sense at all. It makes all of us poorer. The value of the currency unit declines. All prices rise.

Lastly: What kind of stupid idea is it that our The State must employ all? Is that a role of the State? Is not our The State already too bloated with employees? Should they not be cutting down on State employment instead of adding yet more tax parasites?  

And is not this same State misusing force to shut down many, many trades – from ganja-charas to dance bars to nightclubs, discos and casinos? Indeed, in India, there is NO nightlife industry.

If all these trades were free, would not “real, useful employment” occur?

Thus, chacha manmohan is NOT an “economist.” He is best called a “diseconomist” – for he is a “dissaver.” He is consuming capital. His State is always in “deficit.”

All this MGNREGS money is best invested in Capital Goods like roads, sewerage, drainage and the like. With MGNREGS, all this money will just be “consumed,” with NOTHING to show for it – except a huge entry in the Union Budget.

Continue With Rural Development? The Same Old Crap! Or Urbanisation Powered By Unilateral Free Trade?

What is the greatest threat to our lives: Terrorists or Maoists?


I would say: ROAD TRAFFIC!


200,000 people die on our unsafe roads every year, and many times more are seriously injured.


But at a a national workshop on rural development programmes in areas most affected by the Maoist movement, our Central State Police Minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, said that Maoists are a bigger threat than terrorists - while forgetting all about road traffic deaths, of course.


The news report says:

In the first eight months of this year, the number of civilians killed by Maoists is 10 times more than those killed in terror attacks, he [Chidambaram] said at a national workshop on rural development programmes in areas most affected by the rebel movement.

The one-day "workshop," held in Nude Elly, was attended by all the top brass connected with "rural development": first, the Rural Development Minister, Jairam Ramesh, a political flyweight, Rajya Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh; there was Montek, who heads the Planning Commission, the "economist"; there was minister for road transport and highways C.P. Joshi and tribal affairs and panchayati raj minister V. Kishore Chandra Deo.


The Annual Budget for rural development is 87,800 crore rupees. (One crore is 10 million.)


The news report says:

The rural development ministry is the nodal agency for development schemes, including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Indira Awas Yojana, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and the National Rural Livelihood Mission. It has been allocated 87,800 crore rupees in the year to 31 March to implement these programmes. This includes the allocation to the department of drinking water and sanitation.

s.

But, obviously, all this SHIT is not working - because it cannot. Economic Law cannot be violated. Economic Law says the "division of labour" - which is the "specialisation" by which wealth is created - is maximised in cities and towns, because there are bigger markets there, because population density is high. A tea-shop in Pondicherry earns much more than a tea-shop in the jungles of Jharkhand - and it is not surprising that there are migrants from Jharkhand to be found in Pondicherry (I met two young boys) as also in Nude Elly. In Nude Elly, in fact, girls from Jharkhand are to be found working as housemaids. They have their own church in Green Park, where they meet their fellow Jharkhandis on Sundays, worship, socialise, and exchange news.


Nothing much can be achieved by spending 87,800 crore rupees on Rural Development. It is just "pork barrel politics." Corruption. It is interesting that chacha manmohan s gandhi bravely told the audience at this workshop that "there must be 'zero tolerance for corruption' in the implementation of schemes intended for these regions." Then how come he "tolerates" so much corruption in his own Cabinet?


There is ANOTHER WAY - and that is URBAN DEVELOPMENT, that too, along the twin coastlines, powered by unilateral free trade.


So, imagine a libertarian politician at the helm making a speech to the Jharkhandis:

Ladies and gentlemen,

There is NO HOPE for you in these jungles. If you want to progress, you must shift to where the MARKET beckons - and that is the COAST. So, go, all you tough young men and women, go to a coastal town or city of your choice and engage in free international trade. Come home with your profits - and return again.

For those who cannot go or do not want to go, government handouts are NOT the solution. Government CANNOT create jobs. But government can DESTROY jobs - by overtaxation, by restrictive licensing, and by the OUTRIGHT BANNING of trades.

Your trades in MAHUA and HANDIA are banned because of the previous government. We are setting them FREE - alongwith ganja. Sell these lovely drinks and smokes to tourists. Let there be mahua plantations instead of tendu leaf collection. Smoke cigarettes. Smoke ganja.

And remember: If you want tourists to come, there must be PEACE. No tourist will come to where he can get SHOT! That is why there are no tourists in KABUL these days.

So say OM SHANTI. And let there be peace.

Oppose the Maoists - tooth-and-nail. They are zeroes even in CHINA!

It is either Capitalism - which requires peace.

Or Communism - which requires WAR.

Choose ladies and gentlemen.

(Wild cheering.)

Get my drift, dudes?


MORONS ON TOP!

Reggae - From Pondicherry

As I contemplated and mentally composed my Daily Work, the Marley song came to mind:

Said I'm a living man,

I've got WORK to do,

And if you're not happy, children,

Then you must be BLUE.

These words come to mind everyday, really; but what was unusual today is that I sang the rest of the song:

But I'm a REBEL,

SOUL REBEL,

I'm a capturer,

SOUL ADVENTURER.

I laughed out loud!


I guess I must be a Real Soul Adventurer to be out here in Pondicherry.


[You can watch the YouTube video of this Great Song here.]


Anyway, last night was great fun. It was just me and the sadhu - and we talked about wonderful things. Like chillums smoked on the way to Amarnath - a pilgrimage the sadhu has undertaken, and which he remembers well. He says they smoked big chillums all the way there. And I remarked that wasn't it strange they send 3000 armed soldiers to protect chillum smokers on the way to Amarnath - but then, as soon as they return to the plains, they send 10,000 armed policemen to see that no chillums are smoked, and even the ganja-charas farmers' fields are burnt!


He laughed, the sadhu, but in his eyes I could see that he felt the tragic irony of it all. 


We were drinking alcohol, the two of us.


I then told him of my trip to Gangotri - and how I drove there via Mussoorie to Uttarkashi, along the blue-green Yamuna. And how the Yamuna was such a clean river while the Ganga is muddy even at Gangotri. The sadhu had visited Gangotri too, so he knew what I was talking about. 


I asked the sadhu why would sadhus of ages past choose the muddy river to be sacred, while ignoring the clean, blue-green one.


We decided that it must be quite like the street in front of us - where the river of humanity flows. Lots of MUD in this River of Humanity. Lots of fraud sadhus, too - and he laughed, again. 


Yes, I added: 


Lots of fraud doctors.


Lots of fraud journalists.


Lots of fraud economists.


LOTS OF MUD.


Best thing to do is to let the River of Humanity run FREE - so that the mud washes out into the sea.


This morning was different. I went by bus to Tindivanam to buy some grass. The road was good - but the bus was not. 


We need to retire old buses and use new, modern ones on these new highways.


But the grass was fuck-all.


The guy who accompanied me is an interesting fellow: a Chettinad (extremely fiery cuisine) cook who has worked in Singapore and Malaysia and speaks a smattering of English, well enough for us to be able to communicate. But there was an unfortunate kitchen accident in which he was seriously injured - and his career got fucked. So, now he makes a few bucks cooking here and there, in Pondicherry. Poor chap. But a Good Soul.


His plight reminded me of the Dylan song:

Just then the whole kitchen

Exploded from Boiling Fat.

Food was flying everywhere,

I left without my hat.

Another Night, And Another Day, In Pondicherry

After writing my post of yesterday, I walked back to my place next to the saintly sadhu, and there, Abdullah, the one-legged beggar, offered me a large shot of brandy - which cleared my head somewhat, after which I went to sleep. I awoke at around 1pm - and took an auto-rickshaw to HDFC Bank.


They were very kind to me this time - and, in about half-an-hour or more, I emerged from their premises with 5000 rupees in cash. I proceeded to pay my debts - and I bought a couple of Carlsbergs for the sadhu and me. After that, we slept. Peacefully.


I awoke late in the evening, and the Good Man Muthu came calling.  I gave him the CD "Ideas for a Free Society" - and he offered to get my evening quota of booze from the booze shop nearby. Muthu even offered to pay the money - but I REFUSED, saying that I do NOT accept tax-payer money.  He got the point.


Sometime after Muthu left, it started raining - and it rained really hard. Our party got fucked. The sadhu wandered away. And I went around carrying my bags looking for a hotel room. But the hotels were all full. So I ended up on Beach Road, as usual, and changed into fresh shorts and jacket in order to find some comfort in sleep.


I slept. Soundly. I awoke at dawn. And it was quite beautiful.


I drank some teas. I smoked some cigarettes. I cleared my head, somewhat. When it was 9am I began walking to this Internet place where I do my Daily Work - and I was early, and when the man in-charge of the place arrived, he told me that The Police had been visiting him the day before, and had instructed him that "I" was not to be allowed to use his facilities.


I was thunderstruck.


I happen to have a Creative Commons India License.


And the Fucked Up Indian Police have NO LICENSE to act outside The Law - the law being the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Indian Evidence Act.


Who the FUCK do the Indian Police think they are?


They do not even possess the KNOWLEDGE to look after traffic - which is why 200,000 of us are dying on the roads every year. And many times more are getting seriously injured.


I told Muthu that we need to IMPORT experts on Traffic - which begins with Electronic and Civil engineering.


Anyway, it seems I will be here in Pondicherry for some more days. My friend's 20k infusion into my account has still not transpired. And Barun Mitra informs me that the people in Chakan are not too keen on my visiting them.


So, there is a TRAIN to Mangalore from here, that leaves every Tuesday, as Muthu informed me. I hope to take this train next Tuesday. In Mangalore, I will attempt to meet Professor Rita Naronha and the staff at The Roshni Nilaya School of Social Work, where they are supposed to host some important lectures of mine. If these lectures work out, i will collect my fees and split - to Idikki. I think I will be VERY HAPPY in Idikki.


And I TRUST that the Kerala Police will NOT hassle me too much in Idikki.


And if they do - there will be HELL to pay.

Another Night, And Another Day, In Pondicherry

Last evening, as I sat on my new 100 rupee chatai next to the sadhu, three unifrmed auto-rickshaw drivers emerged from an auto and asked me to come along with them in order to recover my pouch. I refused. I told them to bring my pouch to me, after which I would pay them for their service. The pouch, after all, has 1500 rupees cash in it. They never returned.


I did go to my bank before that - and withdrew all the money left in my account, which was not much, just 1100 rupees. Of this, 200 went to the auto-rickshaw. Another 200 went as a deposit to this Internet establishment. I spent another 200 on beer. And I paid off the tea shop and the cigarette shop - and bought some more packets of cigarettes. 


And I advanced Abdullah a sum of 300 rupees for ganja - but the guy disappeared, and has not shown up after that. Thus, in the late evening, I was cashless - and the booze shop refused me credit.


Now, I had been walking around barefoot all of yesterday, because my plastic slippers had been stolen, and the soles of my feet were hurting real bad. So I went alone to Beach Road, and sat down where I usually do, opposite the Mango Man. Now, this Mango Man came to me and returned to me my plastic slippers. Hooray!


But I needed some booze - and it was this Mango Man who advanced me a sum of 200 rupees so that I could drink as much as I do every evening. The evening passed off well. At the end, the food-stall where I usually buy dinner gave me fried prawns and fired chicken legs on credit - 110 rupees - and I ended up sleeping next to the sadhu, on my new chatai.


Sometime in the early hours, I awoke. And I went to Beach Road and sat down at my usual spot. Gradually it turned dawn. And it was very beautiful. Just one fuck-up happened - and some passing morning walker chastised me over my smoking of cigarettes. If such people do such things to tourists - then Pondicherry can FORGET all about it.


When the sun was high, I walked back to the Hotel Continental and picked up my bags. I wanted to use a toilet - but they said all rooms were full. But the sadhu showed me the way out - and gave me 3 rupees to pay at the Sulabh Sauchalaya on Beach Road. But it was an AGONISING experience sitting at an Indian-style toilet. When I left, I told the guy managing the whole thing that foreign tourists need Western-style toilets - and would be willing to pay even 10 bucks for a crap. As if on cue, a Big Bus drove by - on which were emblazoned the words: Pondicherry Tourism Development Corporation.


I changed into a fresh t-shirt and spent the day with my friend the saintly sadhu. Some decent guys joined us. We smoked cigarettes, and some bidis, too. We drank some beer. And some strong stuff, too. I had wanted to take a HOLIDAY today, tired after so many weeks of walking up and down, writing and writing, day after day after day. I had wanted this HOLIDAY to be a day in which I would smoke some chillums of ganja with my sadhu friend. And I told my sadhu friend many stories of the sadhus I have smoked chillums with - in Gangotri, in Devaprayag, and elsewhere. He enjoyed my stories. But he said that such smoking was impossible here, because of The Police.


I told him that The Police should be asked to regulate Road Traffic.


I told him that Drug Traffic should be Free.


In the end, I went to sleep high on alcohol. As did my sadhu friend. I awoke just a while back. Drank a cup of tea on credit from the tea-shop. Obtained a pack of cigarettes on credit from the shop next door. And then I walked and walked all the way here to write this post.


See you all tomorrow.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

The Constitution of India, the longest written constitution in the world, has a chapter mandating the "fundamental duties of the citizen." But it says nothing of the fundamental duties of The State it establishes, nor any limit to its powers, for it does not even guarantee the citizenry security in their properties. Even as I write, the Socialist Supreme Court is discussing the merits and demerits of forcible "land acquisition" by our The State.

In all our cities and towns, there is garbage all over the place. Their is dirt, filth and stench. Flies and mosquitoes proliferate - causing disease and even death. Many die of dengue fever in Nude Elly every year, a disease caused by a particular kind of mosquito.

In the meanwhile, our The State pretends to look after our health. There is a Ministry of Health, whose last incumbent, a political flyweight from Madras, banned smoking in public places; and this includes "private places" like restaurants and bars. 

But there is so much garbage in public places!

I discovered another such pretension yesterday as I examined my bottle of Carlsberg beer. The label says: "By Appointment to the King of Denmark." In other words, this sovereign recommends this fine beer to his subjects - and to the world at large. However, just alongside this solemn proclamation, our The State has FORCED the manufacturers to add their mandatory warning:

Consumption of Alcohol is Injurious to Health.

This displays ignorance; not only medical ignorance, but also historical ignorance. In the old days, no one drank water in the cities of Europe, because the water was full of germs. They drank beer - which is boiled before fermentation. They drank wine.

In India, our people do NOT drink beer or wine - because these have been overtaxed; and these high taxes have encouraged tipplers to go for hard liquor instead. Hard liquor on a daily basis is most certainly injurious to the health. You don't need a doctor to tell you that. You know how sick you feel the morning after.

Indeed, as I was travelling from Madras to Pondicherry, I passed the State-owned arrack factory. I remembered the stench from the old days. I drank this arrack once, with some rickshaw-wallahs in Madras - and it was horrible. If trade was free, arrack-drinkers would have Sri Lankan arrack, which tastes better than any Scotch whisky. Take my word for it.

Beer and wine are consumed by poor people in the West. Anthony Sampson, in his The Anatomy of Britain, records that when Labour Party meetings are held, beer is served, while when the Conservatives meet, it is champagne that flows. I read a biography of Michaelangelo once, in which it was mentioned that this great sculptor survived on wine and bread when he was poor.

Let us move on to tobacco. This is something new in India, for we have always been smokers of ganja, which is non-addictive and good not only for the health, but also the mind. It delivers the smoker a "mild euphoria": that is, it makes him "happy." It also expands the mind, which is why sadhus, while lighting a chillum, say "Alakh! Khol de Teesri Palak." Translated: "Shiva! Open my Third Eye." It is the Philosopher's Drug.

Our The State has prohibited ganja and charas - something even the Brits did not do - while unleashing tobacco upon us. And there too, it has FORCED manufacturers to place ugly "health warning" signs on cigarette packets:

Smoking Kills.

But flies and mosquitoes kill too. And they are caused by garbage.

Tobacco does NOT kill. Deng Xiao Ping smoked 90 cigarettes a day - and lived a long and happy life, during which he transformed China, throwing out Maoist Communism and replacing it with (flawed) Capitalism. 


And there is much more to tobacco than ITC cigarettes. There are cigars and cigarillos; there is pipe and rolling tobacco. All these have been blocked entry into our markets by the Customs Department. Personally, I prefer cigarillos to cigarettes - but here in India, you never get them.

I perceived this great hypocrisy on the part of our The State while in the swank Rajiv Gandhi Airport in Hyderabad. There, they did have two tiny "smoking rooms" for people like me. I pointed out to my fellow smokers there that the Hyderabad region is famous for its tobacco. I also pointed out that the last Nizam of Hyderabad chain-smoked the cheroots that his subjects produced. These locally made cheroots are NOT available in this airport. Meanwhile, the poor masses are smoking awful bidis. Open a bidi sometime and check out the tobacco within it, both quantity and quality. If cigarettes were not taxed, no one would smoke bidis. And if they could freely sell their mahua and handia, no forest-dweller would waste time picking tendu leaves.

In either case, we are dying on the streets. Over 200,000 Indians (and quite a few tourists, too) are killed on our unsafe streets and "notional highways" every year. This, while the State Police are working ever so hard on VVIP Security. They are working hard on "security concerns" that range from the Taliban to all the jehadis and terrorists and Maoists and Naxalites. Yet, they cannot look after our health on the streets. 

Making our streets safe requires no "intelligence." It does not require universal ID cards. It does not require phone tapping or e-mail interception or all the other kinds of snooping that these cops of ours are so good at. It requires Science. We must import experts in this Science. We must import experts in road design and engineering too.

And as for the Socialist Constitution of India - it is garbage itself. It needs to be dumped. We need a constitution that mandates duties for mayors - like the collection of garbage and the protection of life on the streets.

We are a very clean people. Our bodies, our homes, our kitchens - they are always spic-and-span. In Pondicherry, they wash the pavement outside their homes every morning and decorate it with a pretty rice-paste design. It is a crying shame that all our cities and towns are such a complete mess. 

This was not the case in British times. Sir Bartle Frere, while Governor of Bombay, received a letter from Florence Nightingale congratulating him on the fact that Bombay had a LOWER death rate than London! In Calcutta, the streets were WASHED every morning, and there are still to be found the hydrants installed for the purpose. Of course, these are no longer working.

Let us then think of a New Constitution. One based on the Inviolability of Private Property. And one which prescribes duties for mayors of cities and towns - while leaving the people Free. 

Free to smoke whatever they like. Free to drink whatever they like. Free to engage in commerce with the world outside. 

Free!

Amartya Sen... And His Evil Metaphysics

Amartya Sen, the only Indian "economist" to win the Nobel prize, received this award for his "contributions to the economics of welfare." This is an entirely metaphysical discipline, resting, as it does, on a mythical "social welfare function" that supposedly inhabits the minds of the wise, caring and benevolent personnel of The State. He has thus championed the "right to work" programmes of the mammoth MGNREGA, and his protege, Jean Dreze the "sociologist" - another metaphysical discipline - sits on the National Advisory Council with soniaji and they are now coming up with more and more nonsensical ideas, from cheap rice to what not. Mint has an editorial today on "another flawed rural scheme" - designed to "promote rural livelihood." This is the metaphysical social welfare function at work.

Reality suggest something else is at work - a Predatory State. I am living on Station Road, Bhubaneshwar; there is no road to my hotel, and the establishment does not possess a license to serve alcohol. There are very few such shops on this road, and last evening I had to walk more than a mile - through slush and filth - to obtain some beer, which has been heavily overtaxed. Poor people cannot afford this healthy drink - and their traditional toddy is banned. There goes an important "rural livelihood."

The same is true for ganja. There is a hole-in-the-wall shop just outside the station where I bought a tola of fuck-all smoke. If the stuff is being sold, then why not sell it openly? Liberate the people. Let them enjoy quality. Let us think like Amsterdam. Cannabliss Indica - and not the Tata Indica.

Amartya Sen does not believe in Liberty. His two anti-market and pro-State books are Development as Freedom and Rationality and Freedom. In the former he has argued that people cannot be free without "development" - which is something the chaps with the "social welfare function" embedded in their brains must bring about. In the latter, he has argued, quite unabashedly, that poor people cannot be free because they are NOT "rational." Hence they need his "education." I reviewed this book - most unfavourably - for the New York Sun, and you can find it online here. The review was titled "Why Amartya Sen Is An Enemy Of The Poor: Freedom Matters More Than Education."

Talking about education, I met some young students of electrical engineering on the train to Sambalpur. When I asked about their career prospects, they said their hopes lay in State employment - that is, working for the Orissa State Electricity Department. I advised them against it, saying they would be not only corrupted, they would also never learn anything about modern "technology." I advised them to work for private firms, preferably cutting-edge foreign firms. To drive my point home, I have the example of the State Railway we were riding. It did the 350km journey from Puri to Sambalpur in 7 hours, averaging 70 km an hour. A modern bus on a modern highway could have done the distance in less than three hours, I told them. So if you work for the State Railway, you will never "learn" anything about technology; all you will learn is corruption.

They are corrupting the minds of the youth with their metaphysics. They are corrupting all whom they employ. And there is surely no "social welfare function" in the mind of the Railway Minister, is there?

Amartya Sen comes from a generation that claims to have "fought for freedom." Utter nonsense! These guys merely wanted State Power - to unleash their own horrors on the poor people.

We need to fight for freedom again. This must begin with a freeing of our minds from their metaphysical delusions and seeing reality as what it is - a Predatory State writ large.