International Political Economy Zone

Which US-Led FTA Nego is Lamer, TPP or TTIP?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Economic Diplomacy,Europe,Southeast Asia,Trade at 1/14/2014 02:58:00 PM

You say "TPP," I say "TTIP"; let's call both things off

One of the many reasons why the Doha Round of WTO trade negotiations has been put on indefinite pause is due to Americans holding out for stronger intellectual property protections. Typically hard-headed, the Yanquis have not really given up on their pet causes. Instead, they have merely resurrected them in plutilateral arrangements being touted by the US Trade Representative.

(1) Let us begin with the much-ballyhooed expansion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Originally a grouping of trade-willing APEC member countries Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore. the US is seeking to crash into their party. With the release of more leaked documents, the secretive TPP negotiations apparently involve the US barging into someone else's FTA and attempting to shape it to its own ends. Surprise, surprise. In simple terms, it aims to revive its failed Doha wish list with suck...I mean, "Asia-Pacific countries keen on concluding a high-quality FTA." Joseph Stiglitz, for one, is wary of its goals of extending medicine patents of American Big Pharma into near-eternity and circumscribing the ability of developing countries to manufacture generic versions--especially if they are needed due to health crises (i.e., "compulsory licensing"):

The IP chapter is also worrisome to others. Joseph Stiglitz, an economist, Nobel Prize winner and professor at the Columbia University School of Business, asked negotiators in an open letter sent Friday to resist proposals to weaken consumer rights in intellectual property. The letter was published by Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), a group lobbying for fairer distribution of information, which has taken a close interest in the TPP and was also concerned by the contents of the leaked treaty draft.

Negotiators should resist mandating extensions of patents terms, narrowing the grounds for granting compulsory license on patents and increasing damages for infringements of patents and copyrights, Stiglitz wrote. Moreover, they should also oppose mandating excessive enforcement measures for digital information and requiring more than 70 years of copyright protection, among other proposals, Stiglitz wrote.

Damn Yanquis. They keep yapping about freedom and transparency Obama-the-hypocrite style when, in reality, they seek to pull a fast one on a large chunk of the world's population. Considering that the TPP expansion participants are generally a coalition of American sycophants, toadies, yes-men and hangers-on, it is remarkable how little traction US negotiators have gained. Can't cow the cowed, eh? American negotiators hoped for a end-of-2013 completion; I think events have shown them to be unrealistically optimistic about concluding a deal, let alone one so lopsided in favor of US interests. Either nothing is concluded, or one is that is watered-down and riddled with opt-outs.

(2) There is also the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the US and EU underway. However, alike TPP, it appears to be a US-led attempt to introduce its favored IP regimes first and a trade agreement second. Ho-hum, what else is new, Sammy?

TTIP negotiations last year were already going nowhere in particular rather quickly, and that was before the US was revealed to be a massive spy on European citizens and leaders. Why are we to believe that Europeans are so interested in further protecting the intellectual property rights of those who are so callously indifferent to violating European privacy rights on an unprecedented scale? Beats me, pal.
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For both the TPP and TTIP, intellectual property is far from the only point of contention. Agriculture in particular is a tough nut to crack with many sensitivities in Asia and Europe. Which is lamer, then? It's hard to say since both negotiations don't seem to be heading anywhere at the moment, so call it a draw.

Message to the US: Did you simply think you could take the least popular items on your Doha wish list and get them accepted elsewhere? Think again.

World Bank President and Bono [?!] on Ending Poverty

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Development,World Bank at 1/12/2014 10:44:00 AM

We haven't had a video feature in ages, so here's one that should be of general interest. Current World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has not really received much popular public attention--or even in development circles for that matter. (Notice how the YouTube clip doesn't actually name him but instead his title. Kim's reserved manner certainly doesn't generate outlandish headlines that he fed his out-of-favor uncle to 120 hungry dogs alike that other Kim.) What better way, then, to raise his public profile but to pair this reserved intellectual with the extroverted entertainer Bono? The latter is known for his passionate espousal of vastly increasing aid to the developing world, although he's encountered much criticism along the way about being ill-informed about the subject matter Still, it's a potentially smashing concept, and they actually try it out in this 2012 clip in which both discuss ways to end poverty.

The pairing works to a greater extent than you would expect: Bono actually provides a decent "big picture" overview of the challenges we face, while Kim does the same in spelling out the "small picture" minutiae on aid delivery challenges and so forth. Watch it and see what you think. With or without you, the quest to end poverty goes on...in the name of love. [Insert your favorite U2 song allusions to poverty alleviation here.]

Economy Sucks, Tunisian Islamists Give Up Power?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in IMF,Middle East at 1/10/2014 09:35:00 AM

Yippee Arab Spring! Tunisia, another economic basket case for the IMF

This may be the ultimate application of Bill Clinton's principle of "it's the economy, stupid." It's no big secret that Tunisia is in dire economic straits. In the hands of the Islamist Ennahda party after the so-called Arab Spring, its economic plight has only worsened. At the moment, Tunisia is trying to convince IMF powers-that-be that its next tranche should be doled out soon as the natives become increasingly restless:

Tunisia's government, under pressure from protests over public spending cuts, said on Wednesday it had done enough to persuade the IMF to approve a $500 million loan tranche at meetings later this month. Strikes started in the southern and central towns of Kasserine, Thala and Gafsa on Tuesday and spilled over to the capital Tunis on Wednesday, after calls from transport and agricultural unions to protest over a vehicle tax hike. Riot police fired tear gas in some southern towns.

Ho hum, another post-Arab Spring economic failure; what else is new? Alike Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood-linked Freedom and Justice Party [sic], Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda has won every post-Arab Spring election. However, many Western commentators have been puzzled by its apparent willingness to give up power when (unelected) secularists confronted it--unlike its Egyptian counterpart. Why give in so easily when you have an "electoral mandate" in white people-speak?

The answer, perhaps, is that in the interests of self-preservation as the Tunisian economic is going to the dogs [arf-arf], Ennahda is willing to relinquish power as the IMF inevitably asks for more painful reforms. So here's how things may be happening in this version of events: The Islamists call for early elections, and then implicitly ask their supporters to refrain from voting for them. So, the secularists win and implement IMF austerity measures, causing widespread discontent. Eventually, unpopular IMF conditionalities undermine the popularity of secularists and make Tunisian voters welcome Ennahda again in the absence any real alternatives:

Another key factor behind Ennahda's decision to hand power to a transitional technocrat government, the journalist argued, is the rise in social tensions linked to Tunisia's ongoing economic malaise, which the Islamists want to distance themselves from before the next elections. Protests and strikes have multiplied, with unemployed youths demanding work, particularly in the country's impoverished interior, amid the prospect of unpopular taxes to fill the state's empty coffers.

"There are pitfalls everywhere. Ennahda's strategy of moderation also comes from a lack of alternatives. They know that the next government will have no magic wand, that they will still have the same problems, and they won't be able to say: 'You see, that wasn't our fault,'" Sellami said...

But government plans to meet IMF and the World Bank requirements are already threatening the fragile stability of the North African country. With the budget deficit expected to jump to 6.8 percent of gross domestic product for 2013, Tunisia's 2014 budget includes measure to raise one vehicle tax by 25 percent and to add another tax on big cars.

There are too many "what ifs" to say whether this ploy will work (or even if they will attempt it in the first place). That said--and their economic ham-fistedness aside--Ennahda is displaying more long-term political savvy than its more dogmatic Egyptian equivalent did. It may even start a trend of democratically elected governments giving up power voluntarily to ensure that the other guy takes the blame for the country going down the tubes absent any real chops in public economic management.

As it so happens, the latter description fits Ennahda to a T.

Two Latin Americas? MERCOSUR vs Pacific Alliance

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Latin America,Trade at 1/09/2014 08:51:00 AM

Brazil is becoming Argentina, Argentina is becoming Venezuela, and Venezuela is becoming Zimbabwe - unnamed Brazilian official

Think of the Wall Street Journal's op-ed pages as a confused bastion of conservative thinking and you won't go far astray. It whitewashes George W. Bush's free-spending ways and features his Fox News-inspired brand of flag-waving USA#1 boosterism, for instance. Such wooly thinking is evident in a recent piece about "The Two Latin Americas" that purportedly contrasts anti-enterprise, anti-trade and anti-American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela) with pro-enterprise, pro-trade, and pro-American countries (Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia). The former group is composed of MERCOSUR customs union members doing poorly, while the latter group is composed of the more recently formed group the Pacific Alliance doing better.

You do not need to convince me that Argentina and Venezuela are run by left-wing ideologues/nutters with few sane ideas about how to run their countries. Argentina is so pathetic that it blatantly falsifies inflation data, while Venezuela is suffering from uncontrolled crime, rampant inflation, goods shortages...you name it. Both like blaming everyone else for their myriad failings, but in the end, many rightly suspect the problem lies with them and not with anyone else if they keep blaming everyone except themselves for their problems. Brazil, though, I am not sure falls into the same category of economic mismanagement. True, it tries to strike a (my apologies) third way between populism and neoliberalism, but I think its current underperformance has more to do with a lack of diversification at a time of falling commodity prices than outright mismanagement.

Look past the WSJ op-ed pages' Manichaean, crusader-grade morality play [freedom good, markets good, America good!] and there is actually more to the story. In particular, the characterization of Chile is disingenuous. It probably would not fit into the mould of other Pacific Alliance countries as being led by staunchly conservative figures. Chile's leader Michelle Bachelet is an unapologetic socialist, and won their recent presidential elections on a platform of unabashedly redistributive policies that would make a WSJ op-ed page writer retch:

Bachelet ran on a platform of social policies to address a deep divide between rich and poor, and plans to raise the corporate tax rate. Chile, the world's top copper-exporting nation, is ranked the most unequal country in the 34-member Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

So when did WSJ commentary start lauding a country run by some Latin American woman who talks like a commie campaigning on [heaven forbid] raising taxes? The morality play of pro-market, pro-American countries doing better plays to the choir--except that the one identified as one of the best-performing is actually rather leftist. Nor can they claim that Bachelet hasn't had the Obama-like opportunity to wreck Chile, since she was already its leader from 2006 to 2010 (this is her second term in office). Last I checked, Bachelet was also seeking to establish better ties with MERCOSUR nations and avoid precisely the kind of MERCOSUR - Pacific Alliance polarization the WSJ writer fetishizes about:

Chile under its next president, center-left Michelle Bachelet, is likely to cool toward Latin America's more conservative governments in favor of warmer relations with Brazil and other left-leaning countries in the region...But there is no indication it will withdraw from the Pacific Alliance, a nascent trade bloc that [her predecessor Sebastian] Pinera championed and that also includes Pacific-facing, investor-friendly nations Mexico, Colombia, and Peru.

However, there is concern in the Bachelet camp that Chile has forged those links at the expense of its relationship with other, left-leaning governments, particularly regional heavyweight Brazil and important neighbor Argentina.

That is something Bachelet wants to address. "We value the efforts of the Pacific Alliance integration, but we will focus on ensuring that our participation in it is not exclusive or antagonistic to other existing integration projects in the region," says Bachelet's campaign manifesto. "Chile has lost presence in the region, its relations with its neighbors are problematic, a commercial vision has been imposed on our Latin American links."

Hence, it's not really about creating "two Latin Americas":

Bachelet is keen to avoid any moves that would prove divisive for South America, said Michael Shifter, head of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank.

"I think we can expect that Bachelet will try to get a deeper relationship with Brazil under Dilma (Rousseff) and certainly avoid the sense that Chile is in one camp, Brazil is in another camp," Shifter said. His comments were echoed at a meeting of ex-presidents in Santiago last month, when former Brazilian head Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and ex-Chile leader Ricardo Lagos called for closer regional integration.

It is important to avoid the sense that South America was being divided into two - with the more socialist Atlantic-facing countries like Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela in one camp and market-friendly Pacific-facing nations like Chile, Peru and Colombia in the other, said Lagos.

Nuff said. Read WSJ op-eds with a healthy dose of caution.

US Energy: Fracking Towns 1, Coal Towns 0

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Energy at 1/07/2014 08:24:00 AM

And that accent you've tried so desperately to shed: pure West Virginia. What is your father, dear? Is he a coal miner? - Sir Anthony Hopkins as mad genius "Hannibal Lecter" in the Silence of the Lambs.

The recent US energy boom due to the large-scale application of fracking has not been a boon to everyone. In a country as large as the US, some energy-producing communities were bound to benefit and others to suffer from the gales of Schumpeterian "creative destruction." In other words, capitalism often produces innovations alike natural gas fracking which render older technologies and industries based on them obsolete. In the process, the latter lose their economic viability. Although the Stateside coal mining industry has faced several challenges in the past, it has not really been decimated in the same way Europe's has. Or, until recently, that is. The advent of fracking has thus benefited communities producing natural gas at the expense of those producing coal:

Unprecedented pressures on the U.S. coal industry and nearly two years of mine closures and layoffs are reshaping the heart of the Central Appalachian coalfields in ways that many experts believe could be permanent. While the coal industry overall is losing market share to abundant natural gas, mines in Central Appalachia have become increasingly uneconomical. Natural gas is cheaper, and so is coal mined in two other big coal basins centered in Wyoming and Illinois.

A Wall Street Journal analysis of Mine Safety and Health Administration data reveals that the picture is bleakest across a swath of 26 counties in Kentucky's eastern coalfields, where coal has been the lifeblood for more than a century. The number of coal-mining and related jobs in the region remained fairly steady between 2000 through 2011, fluctuating from one quarter to the next by an average of about 400 jobs, but never dipping below 11,400.

Since 2011, the area has seen an unrelenting decline that left eastern Kentucky with just 8,000 mining jobs in the second quarter of this year. State officials say there are now fewer miners working in Kentucky than any other time in records dating to the 1920s—a decline largely driven by the eastern slice of the state.

From an international political economy perspective, the interesting question is if the US (after a rather long lag) will follow the path long since taken by European countries which no longer have substantial coal industries. Environmental concerns helped do in coal there, and the same thing may be happening in the US:

The human toll is starkly evident. In Kentucky's Harlan County, the number of mining jobs had fallen 48% from 2011 through June, according to the Journal analysis. The county's unemployment rate had risen to 16.3% as of August, the 13th highest of more than 3,000 counties in the nation, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates. Some declines are sharper in neighboring counties. As of June, mining jobs were down 54% in Letcher County from 2011, and laid-off miners are the equivalent of nearly half of unemployed workers. In smaller Knott County, mining jobs are down 68% from 2011, and the number of laid-off miners roughly equals the county's unemployed population.

Analysts have started to compare Central Appalachia to other mined-out areas around the globe, such as Germany's Ruhr valley, or Great Britain, which employed 6,000 coal miners last year, compared with 150,000 in 1983, according to the British government.

The epic battle between the UK's liberalizing Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the unionist coal miner Arthur Scargill is legendary in helping break the power of unions in the UK. She famously broke his balls. Even after the Iron Lady passed away last year, bad blood persists three decades later. In the US, there is neither a champion of coal mining to rally around nor a strong union to back such interests. Hence, if coal mining goes Stateside, expect it to go quicker.

Enlivening Naypyitaw, Myanmar's "Ghost Capital"

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Demography,Southeast Asia at 1/05/2014 08:06:00 AM

Where Google Earth fears to tread. Welcome to Naypyitaw

In the pantheon of vanity projects, there is none more hubristic than establishing a nation's capital in the middle of nowhere. The archetypal and best-known example is Brasilia, the erstwhile seat of Brazilian government. Lesser-known but no less the product of planning on a grand scale are Australia's capital of Canberra and Canada's capital of Ottawa. None of these so-called capitals are among these countries' liveliest cities; it is difficult to pre-plan a "happening" town, and they generally prove this point. Seen any rock albums entitled Live in [Brasilia, Canberra, or Ottawa]?

The debate between creating master-planned gateway cities and allowing them to emerge spontaneously (Le Corbusier versus Jane Jacobs) is a very interesting one with enormous policy implications. For instance, would any urban planner have allowed the emergence of megacities built on fault lines (San Francisco and Los Angeles)? Or, for that matter, megacities in arid regions alike Las Vegas and Phoenix which add insult to injury by drawing people away from ("Rust Belt") cities that do not have problems with water supplies or generating power for massive amounts of air-conditioning? People do not necessarily decide to live in places where it makes ecological sense to do so.

This all brings me to Southeast Asia's own, rather obscure Naypyitaw, the Burmese junta's own capital in the middle of rice paddies. Originally meant to seclude government from prickly opposition types in the old capital of Rangoon (today's Yangon) among other things, it has long suffered from having government and not much else. Sounds familiar, ey? However, its situation has been exacerbated by the ruling clique deciding on who can stay there, as well as the general isolation of sanction-ridden Myanmar. However, with the country now opening up to the world, things are looking up in the country and Naypyitaw is benefiting particularly:

Eight years after Naypyitaw — "Abode of the King" — was proclaimed the new government seat, it has become something more than a "ghost capital hacked out of the jungle," as it was once described. Private enterprise is staking some ground. More shops and restaurants have opened and 79 hotels are operating or under construction. Some foreign companies, notably the Japanese, have set up small branch offices.

A dozen impressive stadiums, meeting halls and hundreds of villas for visiting VIPs have been built here for the Southeast Asian Games, an 11-nation event (featuring all ASEAN members plus Timor Leste) that began Wednesday. Naypyitaw (nay-pee-thaw) will be in the spotlight again next year when Myanmar chairs the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The sheer scale of the project, however, makes it difficult to "fill" Naypyitaw. Remember too that this was a country lumped with North Korea not so long ago in the hermit sweepstakes:

But the capital remains far from meeting the grand expectations that built it. It's 40 times the area of Washington, D.C., dotted with enormous public buildings that seem incongruous in one of the world's poorest countries. The U.S. Capitol is positively puny compared with the equivalent here. The main conference center dwarfs the United Nations building in New York, and the airport, home to just two international airlines, is designed to handle up to 10.5 million passengers a year. Vast empty spaces dominate. Many government workers live alone because their families don't want to move here.

It will be interesting to watch whether they can make Naypyitaw something more than a curiosity; an answer to a trivia question. Certainly, it will take the buy-in of more than the generals if it is to become so. It is very much a matter of political geography.

US Mess, EU's Problem: Refugee Crisis at Sea

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Africa,Americana,Europe,Migration,South Asia at 1/03/2014 01:16:00 PM

Did US interference make their lives any better? Take a guess...

For many people in conflict zones, the coming of the year 2014 is hardly "new," let alone "happy." The depressing truth as we begin another calendar year is simply that various messes the white man has contributed to are in no way sorted out, and that foreign adventurism--especially the so-called "war on terror," is not yet finished.

We are all familiar with friends who like getting into you trouble. A few drinks for them and they become belligerent. The archetypal "friend" that fits into this mold is the United States as it engages in drunken outbursts that implicate others. As it so happens, Italian authorities have been faced with a huge refugee crisis at the start of 2014 as a "greatest hits" of American foreign policy failure has come to roost on their shores. This has been ongoing for a number of years, but the volume is unprecedented. Egypt, Pakistan and Iraq are classic sites for Americans sticking their noses when they don't belong, while Tunisia indirectly implicates the US via the latter's championing of the overthrow of undemocratic leaders. As it so happens, folks are wishing to flee these places. I guess the freedom 'n' democracy shtick BushBama keep yakking about didn't pan out. Wonder why...

The Italian navy rescued more than 1,000 migrants in the 24 hours to Friday from boats trying to reach Europe, authorities said, as an immigration crisis that killed hundreds in the last year showed no signs of easing. Navy helicopters spotted four overcrowded boats struggling to stay afloat south of Sicily on Thursday and ships were sent to save them, the navy said in a statement. The 823 men, women and children aboard the four vessels were from countries including Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq and Tunisia.

Over the past two decades, Italy, Greece and the Mediterranean island of Malta have the brunt of the migrant flows [being the nearest EU countries, especially to North Africa] and have urged a coordinated European Union response.

Part of Europe's solution to this post-GWOT refugee crisis, I believe, is "make America foot the bill." Let me ask you this: would the people of Egypt (where people keep dying due to political conflict), Pakistan, Iraq and Tunisia (ditto for all three) say they are better off now than before the US-led global war on terror commenced? Somehow, I don't think many will agree as evidenced by the number of folks fleeing these playgrounds for Yankee interference.

Make no mistake; things are getting worse in these places.

And the World's Match-Fixing Capital is...Singapore [?!]

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Southeast Asia,Sports at 1/01/2014 09:58:00 AM

Shuffle up and deal and...match-fix?

The recent race riots in Singapore came as a shock to the rest of the world given the tightly regulated nature of the city-state. How could such disorder happen? Well, preconceptions about the supposedly antiseptic nature of Singapore may receive a further knock: It is only recently that Singapore began tolerating gambling--especially on Sentosa Island--to help lure travelers with a penchant for gambling away from other Asian destinations such as Macao. In reality, however, Singaporeans have had a very long tradition of gambling with it practically coursing through citizens' veins. Consequently, their attitude towards match-fixing has thus been permissive:

Gambling is so entrenched that to keep [Singaporeans] away from the casinos, the government has levied an $80 charge on Singapore nationals just to get through the doors..."No more burying our heads in the sand, Singapore is a nation addicted to gambling, as is much of the region," said writer Neil Humphreys, author of the football novel "Match Fixer".

"I no longer tell people that I have written a book on match-fixing or that I regularly write about football," he added. "When I did in the past, the initial response was -- without fail -- to ask for betting tips on upcoming games. That response is uniquely Singaporean."

Humphreys added that given its long association, match-fixing scandals have little "shock factor" in Singapore, meaning there's scant public pressure for action. "Authorities are doing more than ever before when it comes to match-fixing, particularly in Singapore, but the sad reality is... not enough people care," he said. "Match-fixing is just not a national issue that particularly registers with the average Singaporean. It barely registers at all."

What's more, Singapore being a center of global finance and transportation have made it a most suitable home base for shadier types engaged in match-fixing. While gambling is officially semi-tolerated, authorities have not really cracked down hard on match-fixing, However, that too may change as international pressure is applied to Singapore-based match-fixers:

It's one of the world's smallest and wealthiest countries, but a deep gambling culture coupled with sheer entrepreneurial zeal has made Singapore a big player in global match-fixing, experts say. The arrests of two Singaporean men over a scandal in Britain has again thrown a spotlight on the Southeast Asian city-state, known for its cleanliness, strict law and order and high number of millionaires. Despite such advantages, Singapore is continually linked to match-rigging around the world, testament to a network that is proving hard to eradicate -- even when leading members are under arrest or police protection...

The latest developments are part of a chain of events set in motion more than 20 years ago, when Perumal started fixing games in Singapore before moving abroad to escape the attentions of Singaporean police.

"These Singaporean criminals recognised that there was money to be made in match-fixing at the low levels [smaller leagues where fixed matches are less likely to be caught], and later translated this national skill, if I could say that, to the global platform," said Chris Eaton, director of the Doha-based International Centre for Sport Security. Eaton, a former Interpol officer and ex-head of security at football's world body FIFA, calls Singapore the "epicentre of gambling in Southeast Asia".

Easy international transport, a passport accepted around the world and fluency in English and Mandarin have helped Singaporean fixers spread their influence abroad with the support of external investors, most believed to be from China.

It's all interesting stuff; but again, note that increased pressure is coming outside of Singapore. Its denizens, meanwhile, are more concerned about cashing in on the phenomenon. That's an entrepreneurial spirit for you.

Commercialism & Christmas in Non-Christian Societies

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Europe,Middle East,Southeast Asia at 12/24/2013 02:04:00 PM

Thailand features Christmas elephants, f'rinstance

Your Asian correspondent--obviously Catholic with a name like "Emmanuel"--has always found it curious that some of the most extravagant Christmas pageantry can be found in predominantly non-Christian societies. With the exception of the Philippines and (tiny) Timor-Leste, that's practically everyone else in Asia--Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore...you name it. Spending your Christmas holidays in these metropoles and indeed pretty much elsewhere nowadays, you wouldn't even be able to tell that you weren't in a Christian country given the amount of Christmas decorations lining the streets. What's more, their habits of ornamentation and gift-giving usually are more lavish precisely because they are comparatively wealthier countries.

Remarkably, the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of any number of Middle East societies has resulted in a similar phenomenon. Witness even more gigantic Christmas trees in the lobbies of hotels and shopping malls of places alike Abu Dhabi or Dubai. The UAE, of course, is ruled by an Islamic monarchy. But, alike in the Far East, the Middle East has succumbed to similar temptations. As you would suspect, the influx of foreign commercial interests buttresses the natural inclination of expatriates to celebrate the holidays and memories of days gone by. From the Christian Science Monitor:

One curious trend in the global economy is how many countries with few Christians now enjoy aspects of Christmas – the giving of gifts, an exchange of cards, even singing “Last Christmas” by Exile [???--their words, not mine]. What other religion has had its holiday traditions transcend so many borders?

Christmas has become the world’s most widely celebrated religious holiday, even if it is more commercially exploited than religiously observed in non-Christian countries – and even if the Santa Claus fantasies overshadow the day’s real meaning: the coming of Christ to humanity.

To be sure, the spread of Christmas is driven in large part by retailers – and governments – trying to find new reasons to drum up consumer spending. (Halloween and Valentine’s Day are becoming popular, too.) In many Muslim countries, it is this materialistic aspect that is often decried by Islamic preachers. And sometimes, the Christian part gets lost in translation: Foreigners in Japan tell the tale of a Tokyo department store that once decorated a window with a Santa Claus on a cross.

The obvious growth market in a globalized era is the purportedly godless society of the People's Republic of China:

The most explosive growth in celebrating a secular Christmas has been in China. Since the 1990s, the Communist Party has loosened its control over this “Western holiday.” Urban youth have embraced it, seeing Christmas as an opportunity to give gifts, celebrate with friends, and tie up a romance with a wedding. Stores often record their biggest sales around Christmas. Many Chinese can be seen wearing reindeer antlers or Santa hats. Some give specially wrapped apples as gifts (the Chinese word for apple sounds like “Silent Night.”)

As long as Chinese see only the commercial aspects, the government may not worry about the religious meaning. Still, in 2006 a group of university students started an online petition to boycott Christmas, claiming it is a Western plot to erode Chinese culture.

It's a lot of lavishness for a holiday meant to celebrate the coming of a person born in the stables, but I do not necessarily scoff at these practices. During a time when so-called Christian Europe still has a holiday season but has largely forgotten the "Christian" bit retains the "holiday" part, who am I to say the secular celebrants are "wrong"? The IPE of Christmas is simply that its European-based lore is more suitable for commercial exploitation than any other holiday of the major religions. If the Europeans are increasingly secular but still observe Christmas--at least its more overtly commercial aspects--then who am I to judge others who do the same? At any rate, a Merry Christmas to one and all. Somehow, I know you're doing your bit to prop up the consumer spending portion of GDP.

Burj Al Arab, Christmas 2009

Aid (Not Death) from Above: Drones for Disaster Relief

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Development at 12/20/2013 09:46:00 AM

Some of these things don't come with missiles but with goodwill

The American habit of using drones on supposed "terrorist" targets that frequently results in killing civilians instead--"collateral damage"--has outraged a significant part of the civilized world. Former US President Jimmy Carter criticizes their use as a gross human rights violation. Meanwhile, the UN General Assembly only yesterday passed a resolution aimed at limiting their use as erstwhile American allies in the global war on terror alike Afghanistan and Pakistan have sought to limit myriad incursions in their airspace for the purpose of raining death from the skies.

Despite the quite frankly horrid purposes the Yanks use them for, drones are a neutral technology that can be used for good or ill. An unmanned aircraft is merely in the hands of those controlling it, no? Somewhat encouragingly, a former student of mine has written an interesting article for Devex--the website for development professionals--discussing how drones may be used for disaster relief instead. In the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan devastating large swathes of the Philippines, this technology has been used with some success in the leveled city of Tacloban:

More than a month after Super Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, operations on the ground remain in the relief and response phase instead of rehabilitation and recovery, with several areas still unreached by aid groups and comprehensive damage assessment still unfinished. To address these needs, several NGOs on the ground in Tacloban, the “ground zero” of the catastrophe, have been using unmanned aerial vehicles to further improve their operations — something they hope would be a standard in disaster risk reduction efforts in the future.

But can drones truly become standard operation procedure in humanitarian crises? Experts consulted by Devex believe so, although they do admit mass use of these devices will have to overcome serious challenges, like their relatively high price [elsewhere in the article it says the tab runs to $55,000 for each operating Huginn X-1] and legal issues over privacy and sovereignty rights...

In Tacloban, Danish firm Danoffice IT, which has been providing drones to U.N. agencies and several NGOs involved in the relief and response operations, said faster disaster assessment means faster disaster response, which, ultimately, saves lives. “The idea is that you have a drone and you deploy it quickly to have an assessment and overview immediately. It means that first, you save some time. After a disaster, time is very important because time has a link to life,” Denis Kerlero De Rosbo, Danoffice IT corporate social responsibility and marketing head, told Devex. “If you move quicker, you will save more lives and resources."

How, then, can drones be used to assist disaster relief?

1. Immediate assessment.

The first few hours after disasters are the most crucial moments for disaster response, particularly in search and rescue operations. But poor assessment of the affected areas can significantly reduce the effectiveness of these operations and even endanger aid workers.

Drones can be deployed for immediate assessment of disaster situations, providing detailed information to first-responders like local governments and humanitarian groups. Information is key to disaster response and mobilization.

2. Strategic planning.

Following the initial assessment phase, the information gathered will prove helpful in crafting an effective strategic plan in responding to disasters.

Scores of international aid groups and partner governments have continually extended their help to the country given the scale of devastation Haiyan brought — including the information gathered by the drones in the plans will make relief and response operations more effective.

3. Search and rescue operations.

A month after the onslaught of Haiyan, dead bodies are still being recovered in disaster areas, with some fearing a number of these people died days after the storm hit due to lack of aid.

The Huginn X1 drone, according to De Rosbo, is equipped with high-definition video and is capable of providing a live feed for the controller, making assessment and response real-time. The device can also produce thermal images, essential for finding people alive during the search and rescue operations.

4. Protecting aid workers.

Another very important area where drones can be very useful in disaster response is ensuring the security and safety of aid workers.

Humanitarians deployed on the ground are not immune to the kinds of hazards disaster victims face. They are humans too, and susceptible to these threats...Days after the storm, reports of looting in disaster areas were rampant due to hunger and desperation, while a number of local rebel groups wreaked havoc in the ravaged communities. Drones can help identify these threats.

More information on the Philippine operation is available from the site of application provider Danoffice IT. (Alike the drone manufacturer, it's obviously Danish.) It's very interesting stuff. Going forward, using drones for disaster relief may help give them a good name elsewhere in the developing world.