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Environment Liberty Politics & government Pop culture Sci-fi

[479] Of Iraqi National Assembly election

Very soon, in less than 24 hours, the Iraqis will be able to decide the future of their country. Finally for the first time in an episode of a tediously long drama, they will be able to participate in a countrywide democratic process.

Earlier, I had actually thought that this election would elect the head of the state and other high state functions, similar to the November US presidential election. I was wrong.

Instead, the individuals elected into the Iraqi National Assembly will discuss and draft a new permanent constitution for Iraq. Later, the constitution will be voted by the Iraqis in a referendum. Moreover, the National Assembly will act as a transitional government, replacing the interim government. Once a version of the constitution is voted and agreed upon, the transitional government will be dissolved, making way for a permanent government. According to Wikipedia, the referendum must be held by October this year.

Wonderful isn’t it? It sounds so soon whereas the occupation seems to occupy reality ages ago.

In retrospect, I believed the war was unjustified. I still believe the war is unjustified. The Bush administration had blatantly lied in the face of public scrutiny and then went ahead to drive its war vehicle despite the red light could clearly be seen from even the back seat. In spite of that, one can’t push away the notion that Iraq, in some dimensions — for instance, pertaining to democracy and the environment — is improving.

Furthermore, what’s done is done and there is no need to lament too much about the past. The only acceptable conduct now is to make it the best out of the worst. This progress in Iraq is something that we all should be smiling for. Never mind which side you and I, they and us stand on the issue.

Meanwhile, the resistance movement has pledged to disrupt the upcoming election. It is unfortunate but comprehensible. It is imperative nevertheless for Iraqi to vote and not cave in to the threat. Submission to fear will lead to a slower resolution. The Coalition troops (really, the US and the UK. Alright, alright. And Tonga and Solomon Islands and…) have the obligation to remove the fear and they have imposed a curfew in order to prevent attack from occurring, or perhaps, more realistically, limits aggression.

Saddest part of this desert opera is not the threat of disruption by the resisting forces. Rather, minus the unlawful invasion itself, it is the decision of major Sunni groups to boycott the election. It is but a fool who would disfranchise himself from his own future. This will be the Iraqi Sunni greatest undoing.

We could only hope for the groups to change heart though I’m skeptical that would happen. I am, however, optimistic for Sunday. Indeed, we all should hope this event will go through without too much unnecessary cost.

p/s – ehem.

More on starwars.com. (via)
pp/s – the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index is finally out. Read entry [495] and [496] for context. Malaysia got the 38th rung, moving 30 places from its initial position in the 2002 index. Malaysia also is the most environmental sustainable in ASEAN though issues like Bakun, Broga and Tioman tend to make me skeptical of the report by a tiny bit.According to the report, there are five variables and one of them is Social and Institutional Capability. This variable fit exactly of what I talked about in the two entries of mine. They however went further by including other variables and the inclusion of four other variables will certainly explain the variability (the R-square for those of you who are familiar with econometrics) much better.

Categories
Liberty Politics & government

[478] Of SpongeBob

First off, I don’t watch SpongeBob. It’s just not my taste and I don’t know anybody with my age that would watch it.

Fair use. Taken from Wikipedia

But, SpongeBob said:

I pledge to have respect for people whose abilities, beliefs, culture, race, sexual identity or other characteristics are different from my own.

And BAMN (not to be confused with BAMN, the U of M Ann Arbor campuswide party that is known to commit itself in excessively loud deplorable shouting match instead of a civilized political discussion)! The fundamentalist rightist goes nut!

Now, the gay movement is having a field day by criticizing the rightist attack on a cartoon character. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I’m just glad I’m not in the middle of a potentially ugly but silly fray.

Categories
Photography Travels

[477] Of a month ago

I still remember the strong Atlantic breeze and the smell of the ocean.

It felt so good and how I’d wish that I had not the need to leave the beach. And now, I have to put up with the snow and the cold.

I really don’t mind a bit of snow here and there but too much snow really suck.The latter photo was taken almost two days after the whole Midwest and New England had a taste of boring snowstorm. That’s why in the photo, the sky is as blue as it can be. Two days later, and up until now, the sky is gray and you can bet it’s going to be gray tomorrow, the day afer tomorrow, the next day after the day after tomorrow and hey, the next thing you know, it’s Fimbulwinter.

p/s – well, okay. The sky is clear today. But I still bet it’s going to be gray tomorrow.

Categories
Books, essays and others Economics Environment

[476] Of development and the environment, II

In my previous entry, I said that I suspect opportunity cost plays an important role between development and the environment and a country will only turn to environmental issues when it reaches certain economic level. I continued further by saying, a possible correlation between wealth of nations with environmental commitment could be a possible proof.

And guess what?

There actually is an index that could be used as a proxy for environmental commitment. I found this out after browsing the New York Times (reg. req.). It – the Environmental Sustainability Index – is produced by people at Yale and Columbia for the World Economic Forum, first published in 2002 and the 2005 issue has just been released earlier. The 2002 index is located at Columbia University server. Index for 2005 should be up soon.

In general, countries with high GDP per capita have higher ranking when compared to countries with lower GDP per capita.

There are a few wildcards however, like Belgium being 125th out of 142 in the 2002 index and Uruguay at sixth. I had expected a country like Uruguay, which has GDP per capita a bit lower than Malaysia, to be in the middle of the table and Belgium to do much better. The Arab nations, despite their high GDP per capita, linger at the bottom of the pit and they provide seemingly contradicting proof to the idea presented in the previous entry.

Perhaps, their cost of forgone economic benefit is higher than most people. It needs to be said that the opportunity cost idea is valid when all things are equal. The opportunity cost from one subject to the next does vary and this might explain why certain countries differ from their expected ranks. Furthermore, there are several issues with the methodology of the survey and this affects the accuracy of the index. The Times article states a few. One of the them:

He also said a system that rated Russia, whose populated western regions have undergone extraordinary environmental degradation, as having greater environmental sustainability than the United States had inherent weaknesses.

At 33, Russia’s ranking, Mr. Esty said, is in large part a consequence of the country’s vast size. While it “has terrible pollution problems” in the western industrial heartland, he said, its millions of unsettled or sparsely settled acres of Asian taiga mean “it has vast, untrammeled resources and more clean water than anywhere in the world.” So, he added, “on average, Russia ends up looking better than it does to someone who lives in western Russia.”

Alrighty, I’m going for breakfast. I won’t commit myself to any environmental course if my stomach is growling.

p/s – ReMag 5 is out. I’m not quite satisfied with the end product but more tweaks should happen soon.
pp/s – I wanted to play World of Warcraft so badly but the delay is too much for me to handle. I’ve thus canceled the Amazon order.

Categories
Economics Environment Humor Science & technology This blog

[475] Of development and the environment

There seems to be a strong relationship between the level of economic development and environmental protection. I’ve always suspected this and a post in a forum reminded me of it. The poster presented the idea and asked why that seems to be so. I offered her a short answer. A few hours later, I sat down somewhere and gave it a further consideration quietly.

I think the relationship between the two aspects is actually the opportunity cost – the cost of investing in one variable is the forgone benefit of other variable. In our context, if a country is poor and lack capital, the society there will be more concerned with wealth buildup instead of safeguarding the Earth. The cost of protecting the environment in term of development is too great; that country cannot afford to protect the environment at the expense of development.

The enforcement of environmental laws needs resource for implementation. If a country has no sufficient resource or wealth, then environmental laws enforcement greatly forgoes the benefit of accumulating capital. That is, the resource will be better put in use in improving the economy. Therefore, better attention will be given to economic issues instead of environmental ones, given that a country or a person is poor. Now, if that is so, the only way to instill the care for the environment is to reduce the forgone benefit of economic growth while engaging in environmental protection.

The reduction of forgone benefit cost is possible if wealth increases. This grows from the idea of diminishing returns – the more one has of a good, the less one wants more of it. In other words, another additional some sort of unit of wealth will have less benefit to the society of great wealth than to some improvised populace. Hence, as wealth increases, the cost of forgone benefit decreases.

Furthermore, environmental protection will only come when the cost of forgoing economic pursue is lower (or possibly lower or equal to) than the cost of forgoing environmental protection. Hence, if one cares for the environment, accumulation of wealth should be paramount because the accumulation of wealth reduces the cost of forgoing development.

One possible supporting proof is the possible correlation between wealth of countries with the strength of environmental laws and its enforcement; developed nations do seem to have stricter environmental requirements relative to poor countries. It would be interesting to see if there is an actual data set on this.

So, let’s all get rich in the name of the environment!

I’m not quite certain on this however. Some variable must have been left unconsidered and thus, I dare not assert this model as perfect.

p/s – there seems to be a character encoding problem with this new template.

pp/s – godddamn! This entry took some serious proofread. When I first read the completed version, I was lost in my own words!

ppp/s – the Malay version of Windows XP will be shipped soon! But, given that the OS uses confusing Malay terms and it’s sort of XP lite, I’ll stick with the English version, thank you. (Via)

p4/s – this is, um, retarded.

p5/s – updated the about section.