MISCELLANEA

Regulating speech is a dangerous notion and not compatible with the principles of a free society – By Chris Rossini

There are always authoritarians mixed with the human population. These are people who have chosen to believe that they should be the boss of not only themselves, but everyone else as well. The most notorious authoritarians have always been tied to government in some way, since government is force.

But authoritarianism is not exclusive to government. People in any field or occupation can have the same lust to dominate just like a politician. But again, because of the nature of government being force, authoritarians are usually drawn to it like a magnet.

These misguided individuals are difficult because they never want to leave anyone else alone. In their minds, they can’t leave others alone. They’re supposed to tell everyone else what to do.

This can be quite daunting at times, especially when authoritarians have a lot of believers that want to be told what to do. This reinforcing relationship of the blind leading the blind will then drag society as a whole into a downward spiral.

Fortunately, there are always limits and it’s important to keep in mind some key thoughts, especially when the downward spiral escalates:

•    Authoritarians cannot create energy or matter or life.
•    They cannot create the truth or natural law.
•    They cannot be omnipotent or omniscient. They cannot be everywhere at all times and know everything that can be known.
•    They cannot turn all individual human beings into being the same exact thing. They can’t even turn two individuals into being the same thing. In fact, they can’t even make one individual remain the same. We’re all constantly changing. The infant you was different from the teenager you, who is different from the adult you.
•    Everyone is born at a different time and place. Everyone occupies a different and unique position in the universe. Everyone is raised under different conditions, in different environments and surrounded by different people.
•    We have different cultures and traditions.
•    We have different beliefs about God.
•    Authoritarians cannot think for anyone else. They only think for themselves.
•    They cannot interpret the non-stop occurrence of events for everyone. They only interpret events with their own thinking about them. They can certainly share their interpretations with others, but they can’t make others believe those interpretations or agree with them.
•    Authoritarians can’t believe anything for anyone else. They only have their own beliefs. They can change those beliefs, just as everyone else can change their beliefs and convictions.
•    They cannot value for anyone else. They value everything by themselves.
•    They cannot choose for anyone else. Everyone chooses on their own.
•    Authoritarians cannot know what knowledge everyone possesses. Knowledge is always decentralised. It cannot be centralised because there are no limits to knowledge. Like interpretations, knowledge can be shared. But also like
interpretations, knowledge does not have to be believed by anyone else, other than by their own voluntary choice.
•    Authoritarians can’t have all the data, because there are no limits to data. No matter how much data has been collected, far more will forever remain uncollected.
•    They cannot know the future no matter how much data they have. Data is always an incomplete look at the past. The future can certainly be guessed and projected by anyone, but it is always a matter of probabilities and can never be known with certainty and with pinpoint precision.
•    Authoritarians cannot know the unknown. Whatever is known will forever be dwarfed by what is yet to be known.
•    They cannot ‘order’ the universe, or human life, or the world, because these are not made and ordered by man. They cannot be re-made or re-ordered by man either.

Now, as liberating as the above is, does this mean authoritarians are a non-issue? No, it does not. Authoritarians are actors in this world, just like everyone else. As such, they choose their values and beliefs and then act on them. Those actions create consequences and results.

Those consequences, because they come from misguided beliefs and actions, produce bad results for everyone else. Much of human history, and especially the 1900’s, has been dominated heavily by authoritarian ideas. Hundreds of millions have perished as a consequence of those misguided ideas and subsequent actions.

Those ideas, in case you haven’t noticed, are still believed and embraced by many individuals today. They want to believe that authoritarian ideas can produce different results.

They can’t.

So, authoritarians are a serious issue, always.

The antidote to a bad idea is a good idea: individual liberty.

When the ideas of individual liberty dominate, the authoritarians have to take a back seat and society goes into an upward spiral.

Authoritarian ideas are never gone. They are always a choice for people to accept and embrace. So the best that can happen (in any time period) is that authoritarianism is kept at bay. And the only way for it to be kept at bay is for enough individuals to accept and embrace the glorious ideas of liberty.

Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report, By Chris Rossini – 13th January, 2021
 

II. Economy

17. Refine quality of expenditure to help fiscal sustainability

Maintaining and improving the quality of expenditure would help address the objectives of fiscal sustainability while supporting growth, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on 16th January, 2021.

‘As per IMF’s calculations, the total fiscal support in response to Covid-19 amounted to about 12% of global GDP by mid-September, 2020,’ he said while delivering the Nani Palkhivala Memorial Lecture online on the subject, ‘Towards a Stable Financial System’.

‘Global public debt is said to have reached 100% of GDP in 2020. As a result, most economies are expected to emerge from the pandemic with higher deficits and debt vulnerabilities.

Mr. Das said although the scale of fiscal spending was expected to breach the quantitative targets of fiscal prudence across most economies in the short run, it was crucial in the context of the pandemic from the perspective of the welfare aspect of public expenditure.

‘Expenditure on physical and social infrastructure, including human capital, science and technology, is not only welfare-enhancing, it also paves the way for higher growth through their higher multiplier effect and enhancement of both capital and labour productivity,’ he said.

‘Going forward, it becomes imperative that fiscal road maps are defined not only in terms of quantitative parameters like fiscal balance to GDP ratio or debt to GDP ratio, but also in terms of measurable parameters relating to quality of expenditure, both for the Centre and the States.’

While conventional parameters of fiscal discipline will ensure medium- and long-term sustainability of public finances, measurable parameters of quality of expenditure would ensure that welfarism carries significant productive outcomes and multiplier effects, Mr. Das noted.

He also said that the principal objective of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during the pandemic was to support economic activity.

The RBI ‘remains steadfast to take any further measures, as may be necessary, while at the same time remaining fully committed to maintaining financial stability.’

Responding to a question, Mr. Das said the RBI was open to examining any proposal for setting up a bad bank. ‘It is up to the government and the private sector to put up such a proposal,’ he added.

Source: The Hindu, Special Correspondent – 16th January, 2021)

III. World News

18. Oak trees take root in Iraqi Kurdistan to help climate

Delband Rawanduzi spoke softly to her oak seedlings, as if willing them to grow fast and repopulate forests in Iraqi Kurdistan depleted by war, illegal logging and fires.

Over the next five years, the 26-year-old aims to plant
one million oaks – resilient trees that can endure both the cold of northern Iraq and the dry spells of one of the world’s hottest countries. Her plan is taking root in her native Kurdistan.

In a pilot project late last year ‘we planted 2,000 oak trees. And in the upcoming autumn we will plant 80,000,’ said Rawanduzi, a hiker and rock climber.

She has mobilised visitors and shepherds who collect oak seeds from the mountains which are then planted in two greenhouses donated by a private university in the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil.

Once the young seedlings grow into saplings, they are re-planted in mountain areas selected by the Kurdish agriculture ministry.

And to ensure the oaks will thrive, Rawanduzi is winning over several sponsors who are asked to donate 1,000 Iraqi dinars (around 68 US cents) per tree.

‘It’s a response to climate change threats, as well as an effort to promote ecosystems and create a culture among people to contribute to a healthy climate,’ she told AFP.

Those threats are serious: some 2.2 million acres (nearly 900,000 hectares) of natural and manmade forests in the Kurdish region have been destroyed in the past two decades, according to estimates by Kurdish authorities.

This represents nearly half the forests of the region, with most of the damage occurring in the last five years. The culprits include uncontrolled grazing, tree-cutting for firewood, unregulated urban development and bombardment.

While the Kurdish north has been spared much of the carnage seen across Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003, it has been targeted by several cross-border Turkish operations against Kurdish militants.

A review of satellite images conducted by Dutch civil society organisation PAX International found that Turkey’s military campaigns ‘can be directly linked’ to the burning of nearly 50,000 acres of land in northern Iraq from May until September, 2020. ‘About half – around 23,000 acres – of the burned land is part of special protected areas with a rich biodiversity,’ it said.

Another 250,000 acres of land in the autonomous region were burned during the same period, PAX said, without identifying the perpetrators.

‘Shelling and bombing resulted in bushfires and caused the displacement of thousands of people, destroying their livelihoods and damaging fragile ecosystems.’

According to the UN’S Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a mere 2% of Iraq’s 437,000 square kilometres (168,700 square miles) is forested. Most of that area lies in the Kurdish zone, where Rawanduzi hopes her project can make a change.

Young saplings have already been sponsored by Kurdish emigrants in Europe, Syrian refugees living in the Kurdish region, expatriates working in Arbil and local staff at schools and hospitals.

Intira Thepsittawiwat, a 50-year-old from the Czech Republic living in Arbil, is sponsoring 500 trees.

‘It’s a reliable, practical and inexpensive project. This is my small involvement and contribution to the nature of Iraqi Kurdistan,’ she told AFP.

For climate campaigners, tree planting is crucial but must be part of a wider effort to combat global warming.

Iraq recently ratified the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement which aims to chart a path away from catastrophic warming and has begun drafting plans to reduce carbon emissions.

Ahmed Mohammad, who headed the Kurdish region’s environmental awareness department till 2015, told AFP there are many ways to reach that goal.

Developing public transport, eliminating the usage of single-use plastics and educating the population on climate issues top his list.

‘People here like the open-air life, go picnicking on the weekends and have houses in the mountains, but still many of them don’t realise the importance of nature and climate catastrophes,’ Mohammad said.

He is petitioning regional authorities to ban the use of plastic bottles in government offices.

Environmentalist Hawker Ali, 35, said the region must be ready for the long haul. ‘It is not like Covid-19 for which scientists can find a cure,’ said Ali, who is helping Rawanduzi care for the oak seedlings in the Arbil greenhouses.

‘With climate change, everyone must get involved in order to reduce the threats and the consequences,’ he added.

Source: International Business Times, By Quassim Khidir – 18th January, 2021)