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!

Nilekani's UID - Passport To Totalitarianism & A Police State

Before assessing Nandan Nilekani's UID (Unique Identity) Scheme for iris-mapping and fingerprinting each one of us for Police Records, it might be useful to read Wendy McElroy's recent article against passports titled "Passport to a Total State." UID could be a means to convert our totally failed The State into a Total Police State. McElroy, a US citizen, begins thus:

"Your papers!" In old movies, the demand is barked at trembling travelers by a Nazi with a guttural accent. If the demand is made in the opening scene, then the audience knows immediately that they watching a totalitarian state in which travelers are in danger.

"Your papers!" now rings out at every American airport and border crossing. The accent is different but travelers need to recognize with equal immediacy that a totalitarian state is playing out in front of their eyes, and they must be careful.

McElroy asserts: "It is the mandatory nature of any travel document that converts it into a violation of rights." UID will be mandatory, too.

  

She adds: "With the exception of trespassing on private property, people have an absolute right to travel in peace and at their own discretion." 


And she ends her piece with these ringing words:

The passport has grown into what is arguably the single most powerful tool of totalitarian America, second only to law enforcement [read "legislation-enforcement"] itself. It no longer pretends to protect individuals; not a single terrorist has been apprehended as a result of passport checks. But it does cement the totalitarian state. The mandatory passport should be reviled and rejected as an abuse of human rights and common decency. A nation that requires one cannot be free.

 In my life I have never suffered more than at the hands of passport officials and, of course, their counterparts, the visa officials. And The Police, of course. 


The question is: Do we strengthen these bastards? Or, do we get RID of them?


In my book, in a market economy, citizens must have secrets, including especially business secrets. Bank accounts must be secret - as they were in Switzerland once-upon-a-time. 


On the other hand, whatever is done in the political-bureaucratic sphere must be completely OPEN. No "official secrets."


Think about it.


Song of the Day: Mr. Bob Marley, of course, singing:

Why can't we roam,

This Open Country?

Why can't we be

What we want to be?

WE WANT TO BE FREE!

Hey! Mr. Cop,

Ain't got no Birth Cerfiticate (sic) on me now...

You can watch the video of this great song here.

Memories of Montek Singh Ahluwalia and his wife Isher Judge Ahluwalia

I have met Montek Singh Ahluwalia just once - at the launch of Deepak Lal's book Reviving the Invisible Hand: The Case for Classical Liberalism in the Twenty-first Century at the India International Centre in Nude Elly. By the time Montek, then Deputy Chairman of our Planning Commission, entered the room - late, of course - the dais was occupied by Lal and Swaminathan Aiyar of The Economic Times. Upon seeing Montek, Swami said:

Hey! Montek! How come you wear blue turbans in Delhi and pink ones in Washington DC?

Interesting, what?


Speaking on this important book by India's greatest living free-market economist, Montek mumbled this and that, admitting he had not had the time to read the book as yet. I wanted to ask him whether he had read any of Lal's previous books - like The Poverty of "Development Economics" which asserted that poverty was sustained - and would be eternally perpetuated - by this pseudo-science. But the moderator closed the session down.


As for Isher Judge Ahluwalia, my first encounter with her was over the telephone, during the days when I was Editor of "The Tuesday Debate" on the op-ed page of The Economic Times. Every week, I had to choose a topic of debate and three debaters. For that week, I had decided upon Isher and, after obtaining her number from one of the secretaries, dialled it - and her secretary picked up. She was then Director-General of the Indian Council for International Economic Relations (ICRIER). I told her secretary who I was and why I was calling. But, as soon as Isher came on the line, she asked me if I would be willing to write a paper for her! Thereafter, our conversation went as follows:

Me:        A paper on what?

Isher:    Poverty.

Me:        But I am NOT interested in poverty!

Isher:    What interests you then?

Me:         Prosperity!

Isher:     But poverty is a huge industry!

Interesting, what?


I actually met Isher Judge Ahluwalia just once, some years later, at a student seminar organised by the Centre for Civil Society (CCS). I was the second speaker of the day, but I came in early to hear her. She spoke what these students hear in their classrooms every day, and she lauded all the professors who taught her at the Delhi School of (Mathematical) Economics. I wondered as to why CCS had invited her at all - that too, as the Chief Guest.


After her talk, there was a group photograph - but I decided not to be at the centre of the group alongside her, standing on the extreme right instead. One of the students asked as to why I was not standing next to the Chief Guest. My answer:

I am on her Extreme Right.

More Bad News... And A Song

Two pieces of Bad News from our The State:


First, the fiscal deficit is headed UPWARDS, which means more money printing, and more consequent inflation;


Second, our The State is putting up a new Land Acquisition Bill in Parliament for approval, and this is consistent with socialist "legal plunder" of the Citizens' Properties.


Question: Is The State required to protect property or steal property?


Think about it.


And now, for the song:

Professor Roger Waters fired the first shot - a great big cannonball, like Cannonball Adderley.


Here is the second shot - Cannonball Adderley with Count Basie and the Big Band. I mean "Atomic Basie"!


All that jazz!


Here goes:

We Don't Need No Legislation 

by 

Baba Pagal Nath Charsi 

We don't need no legislation, 

We don't need no man-made rules, 

Property must be protected, 

Freedom must be ours too. 

Hey! 

MP! 

Leave our spliffs alone! 

Hey! 

MP! 

Leave our lands alone! 

Hey! 

MP! 

Leave our lives alone!

All along you're just another,

Prick in The House. 

That's right, just another, 

Prick in The House!

How do y'all like it? Some more verses will have to be composed.

Next step: To get a band together to play it.

Baba Pagal Nath Charsi & The Ganjeras.

Money for nothing, 

Chicks for free, 

Play my guitar on the MTV!

Ha ha ha.

On Anna Hazare... And Bangalore's Metro

I thought that this perceptive article on India and Anna Hazare from TheDailyBell.com titled "The Corruption of India's Economic Miracle" is well worth a read. It rips a Wall Street Journal article on the subject apart - and I place the concluding remarks below:

For another, the article assumes that the current Indian vitality is the result of inexorable cultural and entrepreneurial shift. We would argue this is entirely incorrect. India's resurgence is driven by central banking money printing and may not be seen as a natural expression of industry and society.

It is extremely important that the progress of the BRICS be placed in perspective. Brazil, China, India, even Russia, all have aggressive central banking policies. China and India, especially, have economies that are obviously being stimulated by excessive money printing. Both countries have a problem with price inflation as a result.

Progress built on printing money from nothing is ephemeral. In America and Europe, thanks to the debasement of money and the vast resources it grants (temporarily) to government, economies can seem quite healthy  one moment and then ill the next.

Money printing hollows out economies. It distorts business and job growth. It makes people feel wealthier than they are in reality. In both China and India, economic implosions will eventually take place. It cannot be otherwise, because central bank money stimulation inevitably leads to an exaggerated business cycle and subsequent busts.

For this fundamental reason in particular, the Wall Street Journal article is flawed. India has not necessarily experienced a resurgence of business and market creativity. It is simply going through the same cycle of monetary stimulation that the European PIGS and America went through recently.

As Ludwig von Mises cautioned in his great book Socialism, an ideology he abhorred and battled against all his long life:

There is no evidence that social evolution must move steadily upwards in a straight line. Social standstill and social retrogression are historical facts which we cannot ignore. World history is the graveyard of dead civilizations.

We can go backwards any time.


And the proof of that is the photo above of the Bangalore Metro on MG Road. They have DESTROYED MG Road, the prime property in this Fair City, with this ugly overhead train. If it had been underground, the properties on MG Road would have trebled in value. Now, the open space around this magnificent thoroughfare has been blocked. Property prices may not rise much in this ugliness.

Bye Pondicherry, Thanks For Everything, And Some Final Reflections On The Problem That Is The State: Take #2

Dylan once said, "I have new eyes to see the dawn." And Cat Stevens sang, "Morning has broken, like the first morning." 


[Though the only black birds that speak here in Pondicherry are CROWS. I have never seen a town with more crows and more garbage littered all over.]


This morning, I went to see the dawn as usual - but I am leaving today, so I was bidding good-bye to the dawn across the sea.


And how many spectacular dawns I have witnessed here these past many weeks. Sometimes, it is like the picture above - a Gold Sun, with the Gold reflecting across the waters right to your feet. Sometimes, if there are specks of clouds, dawn begins with fiery red hues. And once, only once, did it appear like God had sprayed oil across the sky, for there were speckled rainbows all over! 


Today, it was different: just pastel shades, of pink and blue, over a deep blue sea, the sun itself a pale orange. But it was beautiful.


Good-bye Pondicherry. Thanks for the good times. Hope to be back again someday.


To conclude, some observations that reveal that The People are a Resource, and it is The State that is The Problem.


The tea-shops open here at 4:30am. By that time, I am always bathed and changed, on my cycle, heading for tea - and then, the dawn. By that time, Pondicherry is wide awake, and many, many people are getting organised for their Daily Work. Hard-working, enterprising people of Pondicherry. 


Let us now turn to The State. First, they TAX you. The restaurants charge a 12% local sales tax. That's a lot. What do they do with the money? I have already written about the useless departments they open - like Fisheries! Imagine, every dawn I see REAL FISHERMEN trying to net a catch in tiny craft dating back to 3000BC - no OBM at all - and The State runs a Fisheries Department. Do these guys catch and sell fish? Or do they just live off Tax Revenue? Tax Parasites, all.


Today, let me also talk about the Public Health Department. They have a HUGE BUILDING right opposite my tea-shop. And if you sit there sipping tea in the early hours, MOSQUITOES chew you up! And there are FLIES all over!


Today, I took an early morning walkabout in a pretty park - and mosquitoes bit me there, too. Right opposite was another Public Health Department building.


Incidentally, our The State has banned DDT - the cheapest way to kill mosquitoes. I once published an interview I conducted with Roger Bate of Africa Fighting Malaria for The Economic Times - and he argued furiously against this ban, one that was killing Africans by the million. Shortly after this interview appeared, an Indian DDT manufacturer whose business had been closed down came calling on me at my editorial offices, and told me all about the corrupt politics behind this senseless ban on DDT.


Now, tell you me: We cannot breed. If we do so, Sanjay Gandhi comes and vastectomises us BY FORCE. But mosquitoes and flies can breed freely.


And tell you me: Is General Pervez Musharraf sucking your blood? Or is the RBI Governor doing that, with his "counterfeit notes" that do not honour his SIGNED CONTRACT? All this "funny money" that depreciates in value every day?


The pretty park where mosquitoes bit me in broad daylight right opposite a Public Health Department building must have been built and laid out by the French - but, today, our fellows have built two "children's parks" on the lawns! The equipment there looked like it doesn't work, and is probably dangerous. Your kids might get hurt playing there. They might be better off playing with General Pervez Musharraf.


They are spending YOUR money - on NONSENSE.


Why can't entrepreneurs build parks for kids? Like the guy I met who said he is building a skating rink.

EVER HEARD OF DISNEYLAND?

They have privatised garbage collection - but they don't supervise the work, and much of the equipment is shoddy: little Mahindra trucks that won't carry more than a few kilos at a time, and are OPEN on top. 


The ladies who work at street-sweeping in their uniforms are all sweet and very hard-working, but they have No Capital Equipment.  Thus, their wages can never rise.


We need FOREIGN EXPERT FIRMS to do these jobs - like an ad I saw of an Australian Garbage Company that went:

We Talk Garbage

That's why I like the Philips Slogan:

Let's Make Things Better

The State can NEVER think like that.


The State's slogan is:

Let's Make Things Worse

They have made every city they inherited from the Brits or the French or the Portuguese - worse. Much, much worse.


Because they produce bads, not goods.


Bads like taxes.


Bads like inflation.


Bads like Air India.


Bads like the Indian Police.

Abolish The State.

Replace it with Honest Civic Corporations 

for each and every city and town.

They Are Stealing Our Money At Air India: Take #2

There is news today that our The State is gifting 705 crore rupees to Air India. But the last paragraph of the news report from The Indian Express deserves to be widely read. It reads as follows:

The airline, which is burdened by an accumulated loss of Rs 20,320 crore, has outstanding loans and dues of Rs 67,520 crore -- of which Rs 21,200 crore is working capital loan, Rs 22,000 crore is the long-term loan on fleet acquisition and Rs 4,600 crore vendor dues, latest official figures showed.

THIS IS THEFT!


No Anna Hazare or Lok Pal can stop this.


It requires IDEOLOGICAL correction.


We need to understand why we have ministers and civil servants.


We surely don't need them for running airlines. That too, at a loss.


BTW: I always fly Indigo. Brand new planes. Hundreds of them. Low cost. Always On Time.


And I think: What a great guy - the entrepreneur who has set up Indigo Airlines.


Not only that: We pay HUGE TAXES to fly by Indigo - and still this entrepreneur manages to net a profit.


And look at where our HUGE TAXES go.


I compare the entrepreneur who set up Indigo Airlines with Rajiv Gandhi - who flew his mother's State-owned planes.


Get my drift, buggers?