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.

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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!

For Tourism, Pondicherry Must Think Like Amsterdam

I thought I'd write about tourism today because this morning, as I was sipping my morning beer (no morning smoke for some two months now) the Pondicherry Tourism Development Corporation's air-conditioned BUS passed by.


Now, here is a question for all the Good People of Pondicherry:

Do you think tourists will come here on hearing that the State Government (with your tax money) provides air-conditioned buses for tourists?

I don't think so.


Tourists are FUN PEOPLE.


Tourists come for a HOLIDAY.


Tourists decide their destination between competing places:

Singapore, Bali, Bangkok, Sri Lanka, Goa...

Pondicherry must compete.


To me, there is LOTS Pondicherry has to compete with.


First: While Goa has sunsets, Pondicherry has The Dawn.


Second: The street food is excellent.


Third: It is a Pretty City - and a small one.


Fourth: Booze is cheap.


So why not add some more attractions? 


How about hash and ganja cafes? 


How about discos, live music and stuff like that? 


How about FOREIGN SUPERMARKETS - so that tourists can shop-till-they-drop?

Tourism is the world's biggest industry. Pondicherry needs to capitalise on it. And Pondicherry must COMPETE with other destinations.


Think about it, folks.


Freedom gets you tourists.


Not an air-conditioned government BUS.

Pondicherry's Hideous Big Government

My intellectual journey began right here in Pondicherry - and it all came back to me as I strolled leisurely down Beach Road last evening. I used to walk up and down this road every night in the mid-80s, accompanied by my dog, who was never on a leash. Then, as now, most of the buildings in this prime part of town are State Property. First you pass the huge office of the Tourism Department. Then comes the Central Excise and Service Tax Department. There is the office of the Legal Services Authority. There is a memorial to BR Ambedkar. Tucked away is the huge office of the Inspector-General of Police. And finally, at the other end of this short road, is the gigantic, and ugly, Chief Secretariat.

Even then, I used to ponder over a little building that used to house the Mayor's office in French times. Then, it was being used as a State-run cafe. It still is.

But the huge big government of Pondicherry doesn't stop here. Just behind Beach Road is the Democratic Assembly. They put up a Chief Minister and his big Cabinet.

Heading all this is a Lieutenant-Governor!

All this - and no Mayor.

Then, as now, the town is a mess. And all the taxation is predatory. While I was breakfasting at a roadside stall this morning, a motorcycle drew up and the woman running the stall paid him some money in exchange for a tax receipt. Upon inquiry, I learnt that he was from the Municipality. What "service" does the Municipality provide for which they extort this tax? Indeed, what "service" does the entire Indian State provide us that we pay them "service tax"?

In 1988, I finally got the chance to study Comparative Local Government at the London School of Economics. Interestingly, they didn't teach me about the Lord Mayor of London - which I found out about and studied myself. I have been studying and writing ever since 

I left the LSE in 1989 - and my concern has remained the same: To solve the riddle that Government presented. In time - and intellectual evolution takes time - I finally came back to the realisation that all we need are mayors. Nothing more. This idea first came into my head 25 years ago - right here in Pondicherry. It all came back to me last evening. It  felt good to be back.

At the LSE, I learnt about William Niskanen's theory of the "budget-maximising bureaucrat." This is evident in Pondicherry. The IAS and the IPS have simply multiplied government departments, expanding staff and budgets - this, while providing no real service to the citizenry at all. On the way to Beach Road, there is a huge office of the Traffic Police. And on Beach Road itself, another of the Tourist Police. Now, that's a new one, ain't it?

Being a Sunday evening, Beach Road was milling with people. The road was closed to traffic, but a Maruti van belonging to the Tourist Police was being driven up and down. Seated within were some cops with guns. A few plainclothes guys mingling in the crowd would have sufficed, I thought. You rarely see uniformed cops in Amsterdam.

Last evening, I saw a tent at one corner of Beach Road housing a handicraft exhibition-cum-sale. It was stifling inside. But the stuff on display was quite good. And varied. No space for private commerce on this road. All the space has been taken up by The State - and the Aurobindo Ashram, of course, about which more later.

What do all these government big-wigs do here? I found the answer at the air-conditioned ATM. There was a uniformed guard inside. I told him he had a good job - sitting in air-conditioning all day, with nothing to do. He smiled happily. Then I asked him how much he earned - and he said 5000 rupees a month. I told him he could earn much more if he got off his butt, got out of the air-conditioning, and did some "real work." The roadside vendor who provides me with breakfast every morning earns many times more.

Like the guard in the ATM, our IAS-IPS chaps are just sitting in air-conditioned offices, doing nothing. Shuffling files around.

I am therefore of the firm opinion that Pondicherry should drastically reduce the size of its government and revert to French times, when all they had was a Mayor. That is all this little town needs. This huge big government is just a burden created by budget-maximisers, funded by rapacious tax collectors, and also by the "funny money" of the inflationist Reserve Bank of India.

I have a lecture ready and waiting to be delivered - Powerpoint presentation and all - on the subject of "Free Cities: Theory, History and Practice." It is scheduled to be delivered in Mangalore in July, but I would be more than happy to deliver it right here in Pondicherry, preferably under the aegis of Lions Club International, whose advertisements I saw all over town. If anyone wants to contact me for the purpose, I am available at the L'Ocean Guest House.  

Jagannath Puri - Revisited - On The Ganja Juggernaut

I am now in Puri - the premier beach resort on the East Coast. Here, the oldest hotel is the BNR - named after the private Bombay-Nagpur Railway that first connected wheels to this place, and the rich people of Calcutta built their holiday homes here. Then, in those early days, BNR built a hotel in Puri. Now, it has been privatised, and my driver said it belongs to a relative of the former railway minister, Laloo Yadav.


There are many ancient holiday homes near my hotel - one, in fact, owned by the CONgress MP from this area, the son of Nandini Sathpathy.  Yet, this place is a mess. This dude ought to be made Mayor of Puri - instead of MP. And, he smokes ganja. All Oriyas do. They have a festival when all three gods are worshipped - Brahma, Visnu and Shiva - and the offerings are paan, betel and ganja. The ganja is for Shiva. There are many Shiva temples here.


I got ganja from a legal shop just 5 minutes ago. You cannot do this in Goa. Orissa can compete - positioning itself as the Ganja Capital of the Free World. Also, there is no Coastal Zone Act here - my hotel is right on the beach, as is the MP's, just around the corner from mine. But the place sucks. Goa is far, far prettier. Here, they have made a mess of their city. 


The mess starts from Bhubaneshwar. My taxi ride was slow and uncomfortable. Many a traffic jam. And there was no bridge over the railway crossing that must date back to BNR times.


No road to the beach resort.


And no beach road either.


No Marine drive.


The city needs a Mayor - like all Indian cities do.


But I love the Freedom - to be able to buy and smoke ganja without police harassment.


Freedom!


Tomorrow, I will watch the sunrise across the sea. 


And smoke a chillum while doing so.


Enough of Goan sunsets.

Oriyas Need Freedom - To Compete

The ganja is legal in Bhubaneshwar - but the quality is crap! I wonder what the Mayor of Amsterdam would have thought of this City - the capital of the only state in India where one can smoke the Noble Herb without inviting police attention. That indeed, is the meaning of Freedom - freedom from the police. I feel Free here - but there is still a lot of Freedom to be fought for in Orissa.

For example, the Freedom to sell toddy - and mahua, and chhung (yes, there is a sizeable Tibetan camp in Orissa). Lots and lots of toddy palms in the countryside - and no Freedom of the City.

You cannot find a bar within 500 yards from my hotel. This ain't no Palolem Beach lined with "shacks" selling the choicest cocktails. But the fried prawns are better.

At 'round midnight, I bought a quarter of rum from the "black market." What a wonderful institution, the black market. I felt proud to uphold this great institution, that too, in Bhubaneshwar, where The State sells ganja of poor quality.

Yes, I was indeed wondering what the Mayor of Amsterdam would have thought of this place. The photo accompanying this post is of a "Menu Card" in an Amsterdam Hash Cafe.

And in Amsterdam, the Late Night Bar was open till 4 am - when I staggered back to my hotel, nearby.

Today, I am off to the beaches of Puri.

Stay tuned.

India - As A "Nation Of Shopkeepers"

Continuing from where I left off yesterday, let us note that expanding commercial space is "economically sustainable" in the precise sense that this will not require any welfarism; no freebies will have to be doled out to "the poor." Rather, it will enable millions to earn their own living - and further, these self-supporting people will pay taxes instead of huftha. This is precisely what happened in Singapore.


When Singapore gained independence in 1964 (shortly after Nehru's death) the city-state was poor. The area now known as the Central Business District (CBD) was a place where over 200,000 street hawkers and vendors plied their trade. Lee Kwan Yew then readied a "design" for the place by which the CBD would be hawker-free - but he also designed residential areas on the fringes of his territory, and built special markets for re-locating the CBD hawkers there. Today, these very hawkers are tax-paying middle class citizens. 


In Singapore, furthermore, street food is big business - and a great tourist attraction. There is really nothing much in Singapore worthy of tourism; but they have created their city in such a way - shopping, food and drink, Sentosa Island, underwater park and the zoo - that millions of tourists, including lots of Indian tourists, flock there year after year.


In other words, all this is eminently feasible. It just needs sensible city management. This needs mayors with budgets and authority. It needs Subsidiarity - so that mayors can keep local taxes, and are more important than the Central State or the Federal State. We in India need to re-build all our existing cities and towns, and also create many, many more.


I may add that I am no great fan of Singapore's "authoritarian capitalism" - to borrow Cristopher Lingle's phrase. But Lee Kwan Yew has built Singapore into what it is today, while our rulers have destroyed each and every city and town - without exception.


Welfarism is "economically unsustainable." All welfare is about "consumption" - not "investment." In the final analysis, we in India need Capital investments - and roads are Social Capital. Roads are also "collective property" in the sense that everyone can use them. (I am not referring to highways, which can be private, from which those who do not pay the toll, or who use inefficient vehicles like bullock-carts, can be kept out.) 


Thus, roads are the collective property we need - not Air India, SAIL and ONGC. If we privatised the entire public sector, there would be enough money to invest in world class roads. These roads would lead to a re-building of our urban areas, especially all the satellite towns. They would be much more commercial space for all, including all those who are hawkers today. In time, I am confident, all traders would own proper shops.


I have myself seen this happening in a posh South Delhi market. When the market was built in the 70s (Delhi is a "new city"!) there was a chap there who sold salt peanuts from a pushcart. His peanuts were good, his customers liked what he sold, and today he owns a little shop in that very same market.


Of course, New Delhi is a very bad "model." This "planned, new city" has almost no commercial space. There are lots and lots of "parks" - but there are very few markets. The Mughals built Chandni Chowk, the Brits built Connaught Place, but these jerks only built Nehru Place - a disaster. In Delhi, zoning rules are flouted openly - there is no other way - and huftha rules.


These socialist jerks only thought about "housing." They never thought of The City as a commercial hub. Thus, they never built any commercial spaces - like markets. Hence the disaster.


Today, they are talking "welfare." That is NOT what we need. We need cities and towns - and markets. We also need housing - and there is enough space for that. But people will buy houses only after they have earned enough through market activities.


So why just Bengal? The whole of India can be a Nation of Shopkeepers. 


"Into that haven of freedom, my Lord, let my country awake."


Amen.

Students! Rise Against This Tyranny

What is an "adult"? Whereas in older times puberty was considered a sign from Nature confirming adulthood, nowadays, with the curse of Legislation, all is arbitrary. You can drive at 16, you can vote at 18, you cannot marry till 21, and you cannot drink alcohol till 25 - the last, according to the State of Maharashtra.

At the London School of Economics, the Students' Union runs a pub on campus called "The Three Tuns." Even undergraduates are welcome there - and the booze is cheaper than in the market. In India, I have seen many post-graduate institutions - like IIMs - where booze is banned. This is nonsense. Students should rebel against such tyranny. 

The news report on the new Legislation in Maharashtra ends with these words:

Fine would be imposed for under-age drinking and there is a provision of more dry days every year. No liquor shop will be allowed within one kilometre of educational and social institutions, government offices, religious places and highways. There is also a limit on bottles allowed per individual and a liquor shop or bar may be shut down if 25 per cent of the residents of a municipal ward demand its closure.

This is Total Tyranny - designed to ensure that the police and excise officialdom prey on the alcohol trade, as do local "residents' associations" - thereby politicising everything. The cops will also prey on young people who might want to enjoy a drink. And what will happen to tourists who desire a beer on a hot "dry day"? That is why there are no dry days in Goa. I know one such tourist who came to Calcutta on a dry day - and took the next flight out!

What, indeed, is an "adult"? Murray Rothbard answered the question is his The Ethics of Liberty - a book all students, especially of Law, ought to carefully study (pdf here). Rothbard begins by asserting that all legislation on the matter must necessarily be arbitrary, while Nature gives its signal - puberty - most clearly and without bias. He adds that every child has the right to run away from home - and if he sets himself up in life, as a self-supporting individual, the Law ought to treat him as an adult. By that standard, while students are usually dependent on parents till very late in life, the "working children" of our streets ought to be considered as adults and allowed the free liberty that all adults enjoy.

The "ethics of liberty" do not inform this abominable piece of Legislation that has emerged from the Maharashtra Assembly. It ought to be struck down by the courts as not only arbitrary, but also as one that tramples on the rights of all young voters - who must be presumed adults, which is why the vote is entrusted to them.

It was Bastiat, of course, who said it best - of "democrats" who praise the "wisdom of the voter" before the elections; but after they are elected, they think the voter is a numskull and enact all manner of legislation to "protect the voter from himself." In reality, if the voter is so dumb that he cannot handle his drink, then he is unfit to vote, too. Thus, such Legislation takes away the legitimacy of those elected, for they have been voted into office by persons who cannot handle Freedom.

This nasty alcohol policy of the Maharashtra State is anti-student. It is anti-youth. The youth must protest.

And may The Force be with them. 

Here's to Students' Union Pubs on all campuses!

Self-Interest, Competition & Property: Are They Good or Evil?

A young English lad - educated entirely in England, that too - came up to me the other day and said he doesn't approve of Capitalism "because Capitalism means self-interest, competition and private property - and these are dividing humanity." He was particularly harsh on Private Property - saying that once upon a time we could pluck berries in the wild and eat them, but now everything has become private property, and we must buy them.

Actually, berries survive because someone looks after them on his private farm. It's far easier to buy berries than to hunt for them in the wild. The human population on this planet would be far smaller if we returned to hunting and gathering. 

Note that the lad has been "educated" for 16 continuous years in England!

And he dreams of a world where we are all generous and altruistic, where competition does not exist, and property does not either.

I was then half-way through my "Adam Smith Lunch" - a steak, some bread, and a beer - and so promptly reminded him of that great Scotsman's infinite wisdom:

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the baker, or the brewer, that we expect our lunch, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.

Smith added that he had "never seen much good come from those who purport to trade for the public benefit" - like Air India or SAIL.

Self-interest is a powerful drive - and surely it would have led to mutual annihilation without The Market. Without markets, we would snatch, grab, loot, kill and plunder to obtain what we need. With the market, we peacefully trade and exchange. We never camouflage ourselves in the market, as predators do in the jungle; rather, we loudly advertise! The market is not the jungle.

An added fact is that there is much we do that is neither selfish nor altruistic. I liked Kenneth Minogue's words quoted on this blogpost of a friend:

The defect of this whole way of thinking is that it fails to take seriously the fact that a great deal of what humans get up to is neither self-interested nor altruistic. It is disinterested, activities that people enter into just because they happen to want to be thus engaged—with no thought of personal advantage or the world's benefit. Many pursuits, from playing a musical instrument to making academic inquiry (the "disinterested pursuit of truth," as it is sometimes described), fit into this vital category. It is a place where many of Western civilization's great achievements originated. 

Moving on to the English lad's second grouse: Competition. Now, we all hate competition when we go to the market to sell what we produce - but we love competition when we go to the market to buy. It pitches each self-interested businessman against others who are equally self-interested. And this works in our interest as consumers. This "catallactic competition" is also NOT the law of the jungle - and it is certainly not true that only the fittest survive. All survive in market competition. The best whisky sells alongside a bottle of the worst plonk, and so on. Note that if there was no competition - because of the Tyranny of protectionism - no one would work, as in the case of the sales manager of Bajaj Auto in the bad old days.

And as for Private Property - it is the unwritten law in all our bazaars, where goods arrayed before every street vendor are presumed to belong to him: "possession is nine-tenths of the law." If someone declared everything in the bazaar to be "collective property" chaos and looting would immediately ensue - and all in the name of the "Brotherhood of Man." This was John Lennon's dream too, when he sang, "Imagine no possessions... " The American poet, Robert Frost, got it right when he wrote, "Good fences make good neighbours." And it was, of course, Ludwig von Mises who defended the Institution of Private Property most forcefully:

If history could prove and teach us anything, it would be that private ownership of the means of production is a necessary requisite of civilization and material well-being. . . . Only nations committed to the principle of private property have risen above penury and produced science, art and literature." 

Self-interest, competition and private property are NOT dividing humanity. On the contrary, they are providing us with the means of co-operation; the "rules of the game." In the market, there is social co-operation because we take burdens off others' backs by producing for them. This is why we specialise in the "division of labour." What we produce is Property - our property - and these we exchange with others, for theirs.

Finally, it must be noted that The Market is based on Individualism: each entrepreneur taking his own risks, answerable to none but himself for his gains and losses (or to shareholders, in the case of joint stock companies). The motto of such a society is "each man for himself; each man by himself." The motto of such a society is certainly NOT "all for one and one for all."

Indeed, the market economy has nothing to do with the Brotherhood of Man. The chief advantage of the crowded urban bazaar is that it allows us to gainfully trade with COMPLETE STRANGERS.

This last point is most evident in Goa - where each shack-owner is looking out for, and serving, the needs of endless foreign tourists whom he has never met before. Interestingly, while the "educated" English lad was unconvinced, our unlettered waiter, who was listening-in, saw that I was right. He later told me that he liked my emphasis on Individualism and Private Property - he said he wanted to be his own boss one day. He agreed there was no Brotherhood of Man; there was no "society"; and that all the people out there were almost entirely strangers. 

That complete strangers can gainfully interact and make exchanges is the greatest benefit of the market order and its commercial culture - which have come to us from the past, as a part of our heritage, as we have evolved intellectually. 

Celebrate The Market!

With English, We Are The World

There is an almighty fuss going on in Goa these days - with parents demanding English-medium instruction in schools. Some decades ago, these very people had opted for instruction in Konkani - and, indeed, the whole of India was divided into "linguistic states." Then, Hindi was forced into the curriculum, and many states and regions protested - while others fought and died for their language, and states based on that language. Potti Sriramulu is the best example of such a martyr.


In time, India was hopelessly divided - with  people from different areas unable to understand each other. It was forgotten that what brought the Indian National Congress together in the years 1885-1947 was English. This was the language of the INC elite - who had different mother tongues. Yet, independent India did not increase the scope of English - opting for Hindi chauvinism instead. All the states chose the vernacular as the medium of instruction. In West Bengal there was a backlash several years ago - and English was re-introduced by The State. This is exactly what is happening in Goa these days.


One wonders why The State is required to teach English?  Or to teach anything at all? Already, there are many firms offering short English-language learning courses. I even saw one in Margao. I personally know two entrepreneurs of this kind - and one of them has developed a pedagogy that he sells to franchisees all over the land. Our software geeks have all been privately trained by NIIT, etc. Why can't English be taught the same way?


There is a more important point to make here - that India is "globalising" in all seriousness, what with even the poorest preferring that their children study English, which is a World Language. They are all seeing that the biggest opportunities knock on the doors of those who know this language - while they themselves cannot survive outside their home states because they only know their native tongue. A Tamilian who knows only Tamil cannot survive outside Tamil Nadu. For a Tamilian who knows English, "the world is his oyster." The next generation of Indians are going to be like that, it seems.


In his Nation, State, and Economy (1919), Ludwig von Mises began by asserting that the idea of "nation" lies in a "speech community." Western Europe is thus divided. And the vast regions of Eastern Europe that the Hapsburgs ruled comprised many, many linguistic nations. This book was written in Vienna, in German, just after WW1, in the very same year that Keynes wrote The Economic Consequences of the Peace.


In this book (PDF here) , Mises made the acute observation that the USA and Great Britain are "one nation" but "different states." He also wrote of how Germans were similar - with the Swiss-Germans and the German-speaking Austrians preferring different states.


Almost 100 years have passed since this book was first published - and it seems in another 20 years, most Indians will be part of an English-speaking globalised "nation." Mises champions a "liberal nationalism," of which he writes:

The nationality principle above all bears no sword against members of other nations. It is directed in tyrannos [at tyrants].

Therefore, above all, there is also no opposition between national and citizen-of-the-world attitudes. The idea of freedom is both national and cosmopolitan. It is revolutionary, for it wants to abolish all rule incompatible with its principles, but it is also pacifistic. What basis for war could there still be, once all peoples had been set free? Political liberalism concurs on that point with economic liberalism, which proclaims the solidarity of interests among peoples.

He adds that this "liberal nationalism  does not clash with cosmopolitanism, for the unified nation does not want discord with neighboring peoples, but peace and friendship." The example he gives is of the Swiss-Germans: 

... the idea of unity cannot exert its state-destroying and state-creating power where freedom and self-government already prevail and seem assured without it. To this day Switzerland has scarcely been tempted by that idea. The least inclination to secession is shown by the German-Swiss, and very understandably: they could only have exchanged freedom for subjugation in the German authoritarian state. But the French also, and on the whole also the Italians, have felt themselves so free in Switzerland that they felt no desire for political unification with their fellows in nationality.

Mises defines this "liberal-pacifist nationalism" in these words:

Liberalism, which demands full freedom of the economy, seeks to dissolve the difficulties that the diversity of political arrangements pits against the development of trade by separating the economy from the state. It strives for the greatest possible unification of law, in the last analysis for world unity of law. But it does not believe that to reach this goal, great empires or even a world empire must be created. It persists in the position that it adopts for the problem of state boundaries. The peoples themselves may decide how far they want to harmonize their laws; every violation of their will is rejected on principle. Thus a deep chasm separates liberalism from all those views that want forcibly to create a great state for the sake of the economy.

Liberal nationalism has to be clearly distinguished from nationalism of the "militaristic-imperialist" kind. In the former, the economy is separated from The State - and, in this manner, the State itself is made quite redundant to the entire scheme of things. Theirs is a "limited State." In the other kind of nationalism, the militaristic-imperialist kind, the State is joined with the economy, and therefore seeks more territories and subjects. The liberal nation is different, as Mises says:

Liberalism knows no conquests, no annexations; just as it is indifferent towards the state itself, so the problem of the size of the state is unimportant to it. It forces no one against his will into the structure of the state. Whoever wants to emigrate is not held back. When a part of the people of the state wants to drop out of the union, liberalism does not hinder it from doing so. Colonies that want to become independent need only do so. The nation as an organic entity can be neither increased nor reduced by changes in states; the world as a whole can neither win nor lose from them.

As more and more Indians learn English and become part of the global community, it is hoped that a liberal nationalism will prevail here - as it should. In India, a vast sub-continent comprising many linguistic nations (like the Austro-Hungarian Empire of the Hapsburgs Mises was familiar with) English remains the uniting factor among the elite. Once the language is learnt by the masses, we will all hopefully become "cosmopolitan" in our outlook.


But then, my optimism may stem from the fact that I am writing this in Goa, where, because of tourism, the people are naturally welcoming to foreigners. There is no reason why the entire country cannot be like that. After all, every region has tourism potential - and tapping this potential requires cosmopolitanism, not the narrow, militaristic-imperialistic nationalism we sometimes find in some regions.


Of course, to me, writing 90 years after Mises, the idea of "free cities" sounds much better than "nationalism." Every Indian city is multi-lingual and multi-cultural. And most Indians speak not one, not two, but three languages: English, Hindi and the mother-tongue. They may not be able to read and write in all three, but they can speak them and be understood. For Indians, therefore, a "national language" makes no sense - and Hindi lost this battle long ago. With language gone, the only other basis for nation are religion and race - and we are too mixed a population for these narrow identities to work. Thus, the "idea of community" must be rejected here in favour of the idea of "catallaxy": which is a free trading market arena where strangers of all kinds can make peaceful and gainful exchanges with us. I have written about this in a column published by Mint.


I am extremely happy that the masses are demanding English language education for their children. It means that the masses are "globalising" while our "political society" is not. In time, these new-kids-on-the-block will all be singing "We are the World." I most certainly hope so.

Goa's Image - Good & Bad

The "image of Goa" is a big issue here these days, what with a Bollywood film on the "drug scene" being shot here. The majority opinion seems to be that Goa's image is being dented by this film.

My own opinion is that if Amsterdam can proudly declare itself the "Marijuana Capital of the World," why cannot Goa be proud to be such a place too? After all, it is the hippies who first put Goa on the global tourist map. If there were hash cafes here, would that dent Goa's image or improve it? Would it not attract tourists in bigger numbers - just as Amsterdam does.

To the politicians and busybodies who are bothered about Goa's image, I would like to point out that what really sucks here are the roads. Goa is a big place, stretching 150 km from end to end. The "notional highway" is of an age before the automobile explosion. Tourists can scarcely travel safely from north to south. I read the statistics of foreign tourists killed on the road - over a hundred - and this is truly bad for Goa's image.

The Konkan Railway offers NO means of travel within Goa. There are also no tramways. If internal railways and tramways were built (by entrepreneurs, of course) Goa's image would surely improve. Even the Goans would be better off. Let Switzerland, another tourist haven, be the guide here, for the transport system in this mountainous country is astounding.

Further, the internal roads by the beachside "villages" are terrible, too narrow, too unsafe, no footpaths, no signage at all. I call them "Goa Constrictors."

The beachfront settlements are also not very attractive. Every one of them seems like an overgrown village - and not a pretty town. And the old towns built by the Portuguese are facing imminent collapse. All these deserve the serious attention of the government - and the citizenry.

Indeed, Goa's politicians themselves give Goa a bad image. The State Police also have a very bad image - especially over corruption related to the drug trade.

As for this Bollywood film: It is titled Dum Maro Dum after a line in a famous song of some decades ago, and it refers to the chillum in which ganja and charas are smoked. The original song, and that film, in my opinion, gave a very bad image to all smokers of this Holy Herb. The songline went:

Dum maro dum,
Mit jaye gam...

Which means:

Smoke, Smoke, Smoke,
And your sorrows will be wiped out...

While there are many who "drown their sorrows" in alcohol, ganja-charas have the effect of opening the mind, and they are used for this purpose. Cannabliss is truly the philosopher's drug - which is why sadhus use it. The medical texts say that it delivers a mild euphoria, colours seem brighter, music resounds better, there is an effect of seeming to float, and observations are more acute. Dev Anand gave this Holy Herb and its smokers a bad image. We need to correct it.

The "Good" Life

In the Market Society, every individual survives by satisfying his Customer - who is his King, his Lord. Whereas the actual King taxes him, the Customer-King is his Patron, who understands and appreciates his Product. He comes in the shape of Man - and namaste means "The god in me salutes the god in you."




So, as the Dylan song goes:

It may be the Devil,
Or it may be the Lord,
But you gotta serve somebody.

Thus, to serve The State is to serve the Devil. To serve the Customer is to serve the Lord. If you do so honestly and faithfully, you will surely prosper. Your life will be a "good" one.


The question then arises about "politics." How much of this do "good people" need in their lives? I thought up the answer as follows:


Suppose we are all citizens of a small town. In the town, there is a Town Hall - for "civic politics." And there are bars, cafes, theatres, nightlife and so many other diversions and entertainments. Would you like to attend a Town Hall meeting every day? Every other day? Or only once in a long, long while? Quite obviously, the "good life" contains very little politics.


But this much "free politics" is an essential component of Liberty. There must be Town Hall meetings sometimes, when important issues arise that affect all. In Goa, for example, I would recommend town hall meetings over the issue of State Police harassment of ganja-charas tourists - who are their Customers, and from whom they would like repeat business. Without the essential Liberty of free, civic politics, there is no way of acting "politically" to solve this problem.


But once the purpose is attained, and police harrassment is permanently eliminated, it must be business as usual. The "good life."


Democratic socialism - or Statism - with all its "multi-party" gangs of "politicians" - has had one dreadful impact: they have politicized everything. Peter Bauer was the first to point to the "politicisation of economic life" under Statism. With rampant interventionism, businessmen devote more time to politics than enterprise. Politics determines everything. Thus, "democratic socialism" means nothing other than total politicisation, while a Free Market Society is its very opposite.


So, in socialist Goa these days, there is a great deal of "politics" over what language a child should learn. As if such decisions must be made by "elected representatives" and not by the parents, who would surely consult the child. If there was no State Education, this decision would be taken by individuals in a free market for knowledge.


This politics is a disease - and it has nothing to do with the "civic politics" of a Town Hall Meeting. Yet, we don't want too many town hall meetings to attend, do we? We would rather attend to business, or pursue leisure, than spend time on free, civic politics.


In the Olde City of London, the "one square mile" that has preserved its civic independence and traditions for over 800 years without ever increasing its "territory," they elect a Lord Mayor and two Sheriffs once a year - and everyone returns to "mind his own business" after that, for another year. These public officials, on the other hand, lose - for they are unpaid, and their businesses might suffer. Yet, this "politics" is important - for this is what has kept the King out of the City, right to this day. But the real purpose of the citizens in not politics; it is commerce. The City is the epicentre of Capitalism - or should I say "was"?


For serious students I recommend Anthony de Jasay's Before Resorting to Politics.

What Drives Me Crazy...

Its getting hotter in Goa, the tourists have more or less gone, but its a happy time, nonetheless. Cashews are falling off the trees - and the air smells of feni. Sexy!

The first distillate is sold fresh - and unbranded, as urak. I had three large shots of urak with lunch yesterday at Lounguinho's: the local equivalent of a "three martini lunch." Great! At just 10 bucks a shot - while the pork chops cost more than a hundred. Great!

Had more urak last night. Bought it from a local bar - unbranded - for a hundred, and downed four or five large shots. High as a kite! Far out!

Met a chap from a "consumer protection group" - and told him about Torts.

The retailer is liable if unbranded stuff is harmful. This includes medicines. And masalas and spices. Or edible oils.

Hope the fellow got my drift - since I had drifted quite far away, in terms of height above sea level.

Woke up this morning wanting to sit atop Mount Kailash - wanted to smoke some Bhola.

Spent 2k on some "seedless grass" and some charas - and extinguished both spliffs after a few puffs.

Awful stuff!

Received the following anonymous blog comment from a Goan this morning:

It is tough for Goans to read about drug cases tarnishing the image of the state in the eyes of the nation, even though, Goa may be far behind Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore or Chennai in terms of the quantity of drugs flowing on the streets. Every year, there are over 1,000 cases in Mumbai alone against drug peddlers, compared to just about 55 to 60 cases in Goa.

Still, the latest to sting the Goans is the David Driham alias Dudu drug case, which has got murkier by the day not because of the seizure alone, but because of video clippings claiming evidence against the cops. This time, it has tarnished the image of the cops beyond repair because PSI Sunil Gudlar is allegedly seen exchanging some packets, ostensibly containing drugs, with foreigners. The allegation is that he was selling drugs and taking bribe. The top brass of the state police took undue time to suspend Gudlar in the case. When the first video clippings came out, they looked morphed, but the second and third video footings almost gave him out and there are alleged conversations which could nail senior police officers including former Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) SP Veenu Bansal.

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/point-blank/entry/dismiss-gudlar-for-insulting-mahatma-gandhi

Legalise it!

I'll Advertise It!

This evening, the old lady came by looking for the cashews from her trees that have fallen in other people's properties. I was told that she used to make feni at home - for her son, but the poor chap became alcoholic and died young. Ditto with another chap I knew in Nude Elly - we called him Boozoo, and he's dead now.

This is the kind of country these tyrants are trying to create - all booze and no Holy Smoke.

As Ludwig von Mises wrote, in Bureaucracy:

Every dictator plans to rear, raise, feed, and train his fellow men as the breeder does his cattle. His aim is not to make the people happy but to bring them into a condition which renders him, the dictator, happy. He wants to domesticate them, to give them cattle status. The cattle breeder also is a benevolent despot.

Song of the Day: Eric Clapton's live version of "I Shot the Sheriff," with a long guitar solo. Video here.

Against The Passport-Visa Regime

Visa scams are a regular feature of life in India - and there are visa touts aplenty in Nude Elly - but the scam I found today in the Express occurred in the USSA, in California, and was committed by an educational institution; that too, mainly on Indian students.

On this touchy subject, my song is the one Bob Marley sang:

Oh why can't we roam,

This open country?

Why can't we be

What we want to be? -

We want to be Free.

Surely, there are better ways of proving one's identity to a foreign State official than a passport? Even an International Driving License is better. And as for the visa - why should a local cop be perturbed if a stranger in town is spending his money in the bars and pubs, and in the high-street shops, armed with a credit card called Visa that guarantees not only his identity but also his economic worth; that is, his credit-worthiness? Why do these have to be counter-checked by a tax-funded bureaucRAT (white-skinned) in an embassy? These embassy-based visa bureaucRATS - the rudest of their ilk on the planet - are the cause of all these scams.

Let us not entertain arguments over "community" and how immigrants "do not integrate" themselves into this mythical social entity. The urban market economy has nothing to do with community; rather, it is individualistic. Immigrants must integrate themselves in the "division of labour" alone, and it can never be reasonably expected of them that they must integrate themselves with a mythic host community.

Further, the chief advantage of the urban market catallaxy is that it enables gainful trades between complete strangers. As tourism is the world's largest industry these days, more strangers in every nation is a great idea, for it would give this great industry - which is all about holidays and good times - a boost.

The real reasons for the continuation of the passport-visa regime by Western nations lie elsewhere - in their desire to keep out cheap labour, in order to favour trade unions. This backfires on them - as with every single instance of interventionism - for their own citizens cannot consume labour services any more; no more gardeners and maids for them. And their exports dwindle too - because high labour costs make them uncompetitive.

If we look at the Western nations of Europe - they are all linguistically homogeneous, excepting Switzerland. This homogeneity made them nation-states, nothing else. Thus they came by nationalistic chauvinism. And proceeded to hate "outsiders." Hitler was the worst of the lot - but there are many others, from Enoch Powell (see his "rivers of blood" speech) in Britain to Jean-Marie Le Pen's Shiv Sena-like anti-outsiderism in France.

In India, every city is a melting-pot - there are multiple communities, multiple languages, multiple religions. Let us endeavour to keep things that way. In our neighbouring area, there are lots and lots of poor people, who want to come here for various reasons: to work and integrate in the division of labour - like the ubiquitous Nepali chowkidar; to obtain medical attention - as with Afghanis and Africans; or to get themselves some educational "degree" - as with many youngsters from Africa and the Middle East; and finally, as genuine tourists. I would insist that they do not hurt us in any way by coming into our country. 

So let them come freely. Let us be the first to dismantle this horrendous passport-visa regime created by the West - as an example to them. 

The Mughal Emperor was also called Jehanpanah or "Refuge of the World" - and this was "fiscally rational" policy, because if someone escaped the clutches of the Shah of Persia and settled in Mughal territory, the Mughal Exchequer would gain. What better way to tax Bangladeshis other than letting them settle freely in India? To spend tax revenues to keep prospective taxpayers out - which is what the West is doing these days - is "irrational." It is absurd. And it goes against the "sentiment" engraved upon an international monument.

The poem by Emma Lazarus inscribed on the Statue of Liberty in New York is titled The New Colossus, and goes thus: 

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land,
Here at our sea-washed, sunset-gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome, her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin-cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she,

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore;
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The Statue itself was a gift from the people of France. The money was raised through holding a public lottery - that is, it was built on gambling money.

In the meantime, The USSA is no longer the "golden door": since Nixon, the US dollar remains just paper debt piling up and losing value with every passing day. When you read debates over free immigration there, the only defenders of the regime are those who wish to avail themselves "social security benefits" while denying these to outsiders.

Reminds me of the story of the first Muslims of this world, who fled with their Prophet from Mecca to Medina. There, the local inhabitants rushed out to greet them, offering every hospitality - and even the Prophet encouraged this bonhomie, saying, "Fraternise in Allah."

But these, the first Muslims, would have none of it, and said, in one voice:

Show us the Way to the Market,

And we will make our Way by Working.

Who the fuck wants "social security" from some foreign State anyway?

Central Asia, once part of the USSR, has disintegrated today - and each nation-state has established its own passport-visa regime, thereby hurting traditional itinerant businessmen. No more "Silk Route."

Yes, the passport-visa regime must go - and Indyeah should take the lead.