the __earthinc – Page 282 – By Hafiz Noor Shams

[1615] Of China is no stranger to the politicization of the Olympics

Post author By Hafiz Noor Shams
Post date Wednesday, April 9 2008
4 Comments on [1615] Of China is no stranger to the politicization of the Olympics

In addressing the proposed boycott of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics, supporters of People’s Republic of China are urging the world community to not to politicize the Olympic Games. That is a fair comment. After all, in ancient times, the Games offered an Olympic truce during war. Yet, supporters of China cannot really be truly honest about the issue of the politicization of the Olympics until they condemn China too; China itself is guilty of politicizing the Olympics on a number of occasions in the past.

China boycotted several Games to object to the participation of Taiwan in the Olympics from the 1950s up to the 1980s.^[1] In 1976 in fact, not only China boycotted the Olympics, it forced the host Canada to pressure Taiwan on the issue of national identity. That eventually caused Taiwan to refrain from competing in the Games.^[2] In 1980, China again showed its willingness to politicize the Olympics: it boycotted the Moscow Olympics to protest the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union.^[3]

Supporters of China must acknowledge China’s past politicization of Olympics and criticize China for that if they would like to have the moral authority to criticize those whom propose a boycott of the Beijing Olympics.

Regardless of that, I do not support a boycott of the Olympics, be it in partial or in full. Rarely does a boycott work. In my opinion, the better way of highlighting issues associated with the Games is engagement. Witness the torch relay first hand, watch the opening and the closing ceremonies and follow the Games.

But do it in protest. While attending or watching the Games, whether in private or public, express your displeasure of China’s action peacefully. Put banners up. Distribute pamphlets around. Engage the crowd and make them aware of the situation in Darfur and Tibet as well as China’s record of disrespecting liberty.

It is only through greater awareness could the world gently realize of the issues at hand and apply gentle pressure on China to reform and respect liberty.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

^[1] — China participated in 1952 but boycotted the Games after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognized Taiwan. The Taiwanese team carried the “China” banner in 1956, and China did not return to Olympic competition until the 1980 Winter Games. [Cold War Olympics highlights. CNN. Accessed April 9 2008]

^[2] — See the 1976 Summer Olympics at Wikipedia.

^[3] — See the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott, at Wikipedia.

Economics

[1614] Of free water and personal responsibility

Post author By Hafiz Noor Shams
Post date Tuesday, April 8 2008
5 Comments on [1614] Of free water and personal responsibility

The Tragedy of the Commons could be seen as a story of personal responsibility. Or rather, the lack of it. When consumption of finite resources is not associated with its relevant cost, individuals will overuse it with gross disregard to scarcity. In the end, individuals will exhaust the resources and leave none behind. The Selangor state government will have to brace itself to face this scenario sooner or later.

Selangor under the new Khalid administration recently announced its intention to provide the residents of the state with 20m³ of free water supply. The intention is noble but the sustainability of the policy is in doubt. While Selangor does indeed experience water abundance, drought is not uncommon. Last year, water levels at various dams throughout Peninsular Malaysia, including Selangor, were something we all should be worried about. In fact, the previous administration has projected that the Klang Valley will experience severe water shortage beyond 2010 and to overcome the projected problem, the federal government has rolled out a plan to transfer raw water from rivers in Pahang to Selangor.^[1]

In Malaysia where drought is closely linked to high temperature, water reservoirs face a combination of factors that contribute to water shortage. In the upstream, absence of rain prevents reservoirs from replenishing its supply while high temperature encourages evaporation. In the downstream, in fighting the heat, consumers would demand large volume of water to cool down. With higher rate of output compared to input rate, it is not hard to imagine what the ultimate consequence will be. Any inefficiency that exists within the local water distribution system only makes matter worse.

There is not much we can do to fight drought from appearing from time to time at the moment. I do not believe that we have the knowledge to consciously manipulate the climate effectively. What we can do however is to encourage conservation by instilling responsible usage of water. Responsible water usage does not come through slogans and songs unfortunately. It requires a system of carrot and stick that promotes conservation and the market does just that. By enforcing free water policy, the state government not only interfering with market mechanism, the state also goes against everything that is associated with conservation.

By providing free water, the state breaks the link between action and responsibility. A person is free to utilize water for whatever reason without considering its effect on the society. What makes the detachment between action and responsibility possible is the elimination of prices as signals.

Prices signal scarcity. Flexible pricing mechanism will fluctuate according to demand and supply. When demand increases relative to constant supply, prices will go up to signal scarcity; when demand goes down relative to constant supply, prices go down to signal abundance. Higher prices will demand greater appreciation of the resources from consumers; it encourages consumers to be more thoughtful when consuming resources.

Without prices as signals, many consumers will be unable to appreciate the very real idea of scarcity. Even in dire times when water should be priced as high as gold but offered free instead, do not be surprised to find somebody washing their car or watering their lawn. News of impending shortage will not change his behavior because he does not feel the pain. He does not or unable to read the signal of scarcity clearly because he has been insulated from the real world.

Under free water policy, the state effectively transfers the responsibility of conservation from individuals to the state. Individuals will not practice responsible usage of water because of the reason mentioned earlier. When the ultimate signal comes — water shortage — it may be already too late to begin to conserve. With the state taking the responsibility of conservation away from individuals, the state effectively creates a commons as described in the Tragedy.^[2] Thus, the course is set.

Without a good pricing mechanism, the only way to overcome the Tragedy of the Commons from reaching its sad conclusion is to ration water at one stage or the other. Suffice to say, I do not think highly of any policy that leads to rationing when flexible pricing mechanism offers better solution.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

^[1] — KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 (Bernama) — The project involving supply of raw water from Pahang to Selangor is expected to be completed on schedule by the middle of 2013, the Dewan Rakyat was told Wednesday.

[…]

Shaziman said it was anticipated that the project would be able to resolve the problem of raw water supply which Selangor would begin to face over the next five years. [Pahang-Selangor Raw Water Project Ready By 2013. Bernama. November 21 2007]

^[2] — For further but brief explanation of the Tragedy of the Commons, see Wikipedia.

Politics & government

[1613] Of Mr. Ma has a herculean task

Post author By Guest Writer
Post date Friday, April 4 2008
3 Comments on [1613] Of Mr. Ma has a herculean task

May 20 will be the day the new Taiwan President gets sworn in.

While I am an avid admirer of Mr. Ma, I think he is facing an impossible task ahead of him.

For eight years, this country had laid stagnant due to political infightings while the government that was more interested in advancing its political agenda of Not Part of China than taking care of its own people. National pride and maintaining the dignity of the country is important, but it is nothing compare to improving the living standard of your own people and developing the economy.

Most casual outside observers would look at the election result and ask, “So, are 60% of the Taiwanese people pro-reunification?” These people most likely drew the same conclusion in 2000 and again in 2004. While it is true that the China topic has always been hotly debated in all the presidential elections, Taiwanese people ultimately cast their vote based on the issues that concerns them the most: it’s the economy, stupid!

In 2000, KMT was the poster child of corruption and ineffective government. It was essentially living off its past glory and getting out of touch with the people. DPP meanwhile was the fresh alternative to KMT and the candidate at that time was a charismatic leader who is vocal about changes, getting rid of corruption and running a government that is more for the people. DPP’s Chen Shui-bian won that election.

DPP did not do a fantastic job during its term. The opposition however was just as pathetic and the next 4 long years turned out to be grudge match between the two sides. Essentially, the same factors that contributed to the defeat of KMT in 2000 were still applicable in 2004. While you can always blame the shooting scandal for the upset, KMT wouldn’t have gotten a pretty win, and on hindsight, had KMT won that election, it will just mean reverting back to the old way of doing things as KMT offered the same deal to voters as they did 4 years previously.

This time around though, KMT, at least on surface, have more young blood surfacing to the front. While many would argue that the old faces had merely moved into the dark acting as puppet masters, this at least offers some progress. So, to a lot of people, the 2008 election may not be an indication of how well KMT had transformed, but more of how bad a job DPP had done over the last 8 years and how quickly it had followed in the footstep of the “old” KMT. Over the last 8 years, we saw corrupt officials, we saw ineffective government, we saw policies that ignored the need of the people and we saw Taiwan continued to lose its competitiveness in the global economy.

So by electing Mr. Ma into the office, voters have extremely high (and even unrealistic) expectation of him. He will need to catch up on what was not done over the last 2 terms, he will need to grow the Taiwanese economy at the backdrop of a possible global recession, he will need to convince people that there are no puppet masters in the dark and he can control the different factions in his own party and ultimately, he is the leader that will take Taiwan back onto the right track. And yes, he also needs to protect Taiwan from the 1,400 missiles aimed at the island right now.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

LIU YEN LIN, the author, is a Taiwanese living in Singapore. He is an economics and political science graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Humor