Buscaraons

30.1.04

¶ 15:44

Who says France doesn't fight corruption?

In a stunning verdict Alain Jupp? was condemned for illegal camapiagn financing, he's automatically ihabilitated for 10 years from holding any public office. The prohibition stands notwithstanding appeal. Everyone on the French right is stunned at the verdict and perhaps there might be some politicization. However, the verdict is in a way salutary. The French have had enough of the illegal campaign and party financing and the Jupp? verdict is the most significant and has caused an earthquake throughout the political establishment. It probably won't be long before the Socialists and other leftsist parties face the same judicial scrutiny.

Alguns pensaments tardius sobre la dimissi? de Carod-Rovira

Tenia ra? jo que el pacte entre l'Esquerra republicana i els socialistes catalans per governar Catalunya seria un equivoc. Els esdevinments subseq?ents amb la dimissi? de Carod-Rovira de la Generalitat comprova la solidesa tant de la meves ?nalises que la por m?s negra que articulava.

Francament no sabrem que passava pel cap de Carod-Rovira que pact?s amb un partit d'obed?ncia sucursalista malgart les protestes al contrari. Discrepo amb alguns bloggers que Carod-Rovira volia dialogar amb ETA. Per? no es pot dialogar amb un grupuscul que no ha renunciat a la viol?ncia i s'ha degenerat a una m?fia amb pretencions ideol?gics.

Em pregunto qu? buscava Carod-Rovira amb aquesta entrevista amb la c?pula etarra. ?Comprar la pau social en canvi d'avancar les revindicacions etarres devant del p?blic espanyol? Tanmateix, el govern central tampoc t? les manes netes ni es tan innocent del afer. ?Qui savia que Carod-Rovira parlava amb la c?pula? ?Perqu? la policia no arrest? la c?pula abans o apr?s de la reuni?? O si fossin a Fran?a a prevenir llur homol?gs francesos?

Obviament, hi ha intents de manipular la situaci? a favor d'un interessos. No es pot ignorar el contexte espanyol: en 6 setmanes el pa?s es presentaran a les urnes per votar una nova legislatura i un nou govern. L'entrevista amb Carod-Rovira i la seva dismissi? subseq?ent cau a les mans del PP i alguns faccions dels Socialistes que mai acceptaren el reconeixament del pobles regionals. Per a ells, els nacionalismes regionals es el mal absolut i la causa principal de la feblesa espanyola durant 3 segles. Si nom?s el catalans, bascos i gallegos fossin castellans, Espanya encara seria grand.

En tot cas, que passar? es que tant el PP com les faccions jacobines dels Socialistes subitament defensaran la constituci? i denegar quansevulla modificaci? constitucional i quansevol traspas de compt?ncies que moderat o legitim que sigui.
Veurem com evolucionar? la situaci?

¶ 15:44

27.1.04

Some additional thoughts about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction

On Janurary 25, I posted a brief article in Catalan about the significance of Powell's blowing off the fact that no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq and then in the same breath stating that the war was justified. Then we have Kay. He resigns concluding similarly that there were no WMDs but most likely they were shipped to Syria. I, myself, am deeply skeptical. Moving missiles and other WMD components isn't a trivial task nor is it something you can easily hide... Especially with the American and British pilots who patrolled every square millimetres of Iraq for the past 12 years, prior to the second war, as well as satellite scrutiny. I'm still deeply bothered by how Powell's nonchalent attitude is truly out of place, especially the amount of damage that American and European pigheadedness caused to transatlantic relations precisely on the issue of WMDs. What disturbs me very much is we might witnesses to one of the most colossal intelligence failures of the contemporary period. I've never been very impressed with American or British spy agencies; they've come across as a combination of super inept and easily fooled by rival spy agencies. American intelligence has always place far too much emphasis on technical intelligence gathering- machines- as opposed to blood and flesh spies. There are cogent reasons why this is the case but surely the intelligence failures since September 11 would've brought home the need for Americans to nurture human intelligence.

De retorn...pel moment

Disculpa'm per la pen?ria de publicacions. Es que he comen?at una nova feina com a ensenyant d'angl?s i haig d'appendre com es omple els papers administraius aix? com donar les classes segons la metodol?gia a impartir. Es molt?ssima feina per val la pena. I tamb? aprenc com a muntar un base de dades.
Espero que pogui escriure m?s articles aquest fi de setmana (si si ja ho s? que he escrit un barabarisme almenys demonstra un mica d'authencitat.

¶ 16:47

25.1.04

The Electrolux debate: a Canadian perspective

Last week, Dale wrote about Electrolux's decision to close its factory in a smal town in Michigan. Dale then used the plant closing to mediate about capitalism and Catholic social doctrine. The result was a spiriteddebate.

Fr Jim has written some cogent posts defending capitalism and carefully distinguishing between Catholic social doctrine and the economic system. By and large, I agree with Fr Jim's major theses; nonetheles, he overlooks a very important factor about modern companies: many of them recieve generous tax conditions, favourable loans and government subsidies. This kind of industrial policy is, perhaps, far more frequent in Canada than in the U.S.

In any case, when a company decides to close down a factory, there's also a large loss of public money. Money and other incentives that various levels of governments gave or deferred so that company G would stick around. In the end, it was a complete waste of money for us while for the company in question it was great to freload on the society as it heads off to a cheaper place where the public authourity are even more sychophantics.

Personally, I deeply resent how the governments are stupid enough to fall all over themsleves to convince companies to come here and set up shop while those same company execs intone about the rigours of capitalism. Yeah capitalism is really tough when your opportunity costs are borne by society but don't really benefit with your presence 'cause you'll take off like the Roadrunner as soon as someone else give you even more free incentives.

On Friday here in Quebec, we learnt from the Alcan president at Davos for the big economic conference, that the company decided to close down the Saguenay plant down some 10 years earlier than what had been agreed to with the Quebec government. Charest was completely sideswiped by the annoucement. Guess it's too much for whatshisname to even bother privately informing the premier before anouncing the closure.

Further, in the local French paper yesterday, there was an article about a local textile factory and the enourmous pressures it faces to close down so that its production can be shipped off to China and other cheap places. Like Electrolux, the textile plant is doing OK but Walmart puts this company and thousands like it under enormous pressure to sell their stuff cheaply. The only way to do it is to delocalize the production to countries with cheaper labour.

The same thing happened to Catalunya where Samsung transferred its manufacturing plant from there to Czech republic last week and saved 30% in costs. However, the Catalan plant was doing just fine. In the end, that's a problem with such unthinking cost containment for its own sake. If the customers in the advanced industrialized countries aren't there, are too poor or don't have enough money to buy the products, companies will soond find themsleves in a death spiral until they go out of business. The sad part of the obsessive cost cutting policy is that it provides a false corroboration that globalization is nothing more than a fa?ade to return to 19^th century 'jungle' or 'savage' capitalism.

Powell i les armes de destrucci? massiva iraquines: potser al final no hi havien

Ahir i avui he llegit a varis sitis noticiers que Powell havia declarat que potser finalment els iraquis no tenien armes de destrucci? massive. David Kay, cap de la commissi? investigatora ha concl?s igualment quan demission?. Tanmateix, Powell constata que encara si no hi havien aquestes armes la guerra es justificava.

Ara b? no i si. No. No a la manera que Powell explic? al Consell de seguretat a l'ONU que malgrat les esfor?os del inspectors sota Blix, el anci? r?gim els prenia el p?l i que de cap manera es podia demorar m?s. Ni tampoc el discurs devant de la Cambra baixa que Blair justicava dels 45 minutes per activar i llan?ar els m?sils. Adm?s, aquesta convicci? que els americans tenen ra? i tothom s'equivocava i no sols aix? ans tamb? acusaven els reclacitrants de ser objectivament suporatdors de Sadam, el regim bassista i descandenc? una crisis transatl?ntica que encara vivem les conseq??ncies.

Doncs trobo l'indol?ncia de Powell dif?cil a empassar. Exposa un defecte bastant seri?s amb l'administraci? Bush que tracta els pa?sos aliats o simp?tics que descrepen amb ella com a tra?dors descarats i sancionaven per ac? i all?. I a fins de comptes, les armes de destrucci? de massa no eren tan important. Si no fossi ?perqu? doncs provocar una guerra? Sempre he dit que Powell i l'administraci? es pass? quan subitament canvi? d'enmf?sis de les violacions pures i dures de les resolucions de l'ONU d'alto de foc per les armes de destrucci? massiva. En tot cas, em molesta profundament aquest indol?ncia i d'ara endevant els pa?sos aliats i simpatizants no presteran ajuda quan els americans la demandar?

¶ 19:09