Magic Statistics

A letter signed by 20 Church of England bishops and published in the UK Independent newspaper maintains that Britain’s possession of nuclear missiles is “profoundly anti-God”.  This comes as Chancellor Gordon Brown has expressed his support for replacing the ageing Trident submarine-based nuclear missile system.

I agree with the bishops that possession of nuclear weapons, because their use would necessarily fail the test of proportionality, contravenes just-war criteria and, on that ground alone, the Trident system should therefore be scrapped.  On the other hand, their claim that funds expended on maintenance of Trident could be better spent on foreign aid is, I think, misguided and lacking in economic discernment.

At the Gleneagles summit a year ago the G8 pledged to "Make Poverty History" and to end the debt burden on the world's poorest countries. The costs involved in the maintenance and replacement of Trident could be used to address pressing environmental concerns, the causes of terrorism, poverty and debt, and enable humanity and dignity to be the right of all, and would go a long way towards helping Make Poverty History.

The millions raised by Live 8 and the Gleneagles summit have done little or nothing to alleviate African poverty.  Many African economic and political leaders are now turning against the very concept of foreign aid as a distraction and a diversion.  For foreign aid does not address the real root causes of African poverty: government corruption, economic mismanagement, and insufficient support for development through trade.

One might also question whether throwing more  taxpayers’ money around will do much to address the “causes of terrorism”, given that many terrorist leaders, including Osama bin Laden and most of the the 9/11 hijackers, came from economically privileged backgrounds.

Previous related posts:

• Real cause of African poverty: lack of government accountability
• Why so much world poverty? The prophet Amos knew.
• “Little evidence” that foreign aid promotes economic growth

North Korea test-fired some missiles on the Fourth of July and mused about firing some more, so why didn't the United Nations sent its North Korea envoy into the fray?  Usually, the UN is quick off the mark with offers to work with despicable publicity-seeking dictators.  What's the hold-up this time?

Wait, now I remember: Maurice Strong used to be the UN's go-to guy for Korea, but he was shunted aside after being tainted by Oil-For-Fraud and some other scandal.  (The UN has so many, it's hard to keep track.)

Canada's "Mr UN" suspended his activities as Kofi Annan's personal envoy to the Korean Peninsula in April 2005 when the UN Oil-For-Food inquiry began to probe his ties to accused influence-peddler Tongsun Park. He quickly became entangled in another controversy when it emerged that his step-daughter, Christina Mayo, had been employed in his UN office - in apparent violation of UN anti-nepotism rules. She quit.

Paul Volcker's Oil-For-Food inquiry eventually cast some light on the veteran businessman-diplomat's links with Park, now on trial in New York for working as an unregistered agent for Saddam Hussein's Iraq. It reported that Strong, then Annan's newly appointed executive coordinator for UN reform, received an approximately $1 million investment of Iraqi money from Mr Park into a company that he controlled, Cordex Petroleums, which failed soon afterwards. Volcker said Park actually carried the cash from Iraq to Jordan in a cardboard box and converted it into a bank cheque in Amman for $988,885 made out to "Mr M. Strong."

The Volcker report cited circumstantial evidence that Mr Strong knew the money given to him by Mr Park originated in Iraq, but could find no direct evidence.

As for North Korea, well, we'll just have to muddle through without him.

Another reason to love Australia.

Captain James Cook, the English explorer who claimed Australia for Britain, was long celebrated as a national hero, but the rise of political correctness and revisionist post-modern history resulted in Cook being ignored instead of honoured.  That is finally about to change.

Once honoured as an Australian hero, the 18th century English navigator has been sidelined - even vilified - in recent decades in a nation embarrassed by its bloody colonial past and the cruel treatment of its indigenous population.

But the Australian government vowed yesterday to reverse the tide of political correctness that had swept Cook, who claimed Australia for the British crown in 1770, and other European "colonisers" from the national school curriculum.

Julie Bishop, the federal education minister, announced that there will be a radical overhaul in the way history is taught in Australian schools, which will see a return to the narrative form of history, free of political interpretation.
. . .
Miss Bishop accused politically correct educators of hijacking history, presenting Australia's past through a filter of Marxist, feminist and Green interpretations. "There is too much indoctrination and not enough pivotal facts and dates," she said.

Another sign of the rehabilitation of Australian history is that Keith Windschuttle, probably the historian most responsible for challenging leftist revisionism, was last month appointed to the board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.  The usual suspects promptly went apoplectic.

Mr Windschuttle’s most influential historical works are The Killing of History: How Literary Critics and Social Theorists Are Murdering Our Past (4th ed., 2006) and The Fabrication of Aboriginal History: Volume One, Van Diemen's Land 1803-1847 (2002).  Many of his articles are available here and here.

Most countries that have signed on to the Kyoto Protocol are admitting they cannot meet their targets, but carbon dioxide emissions in that notorious non-signatory, the United States, were virtually constant in 2005, despite significant economic growth.

While the American economy grew by 3.5% last year, more than twice the European average, its fossil fuel emissions were up by only 0.1% – with no growth in road pollution and a drop in aircraft emissions.

Its progress came as several members of the European Union (EU) missed the deadline to submit new targets to reduce their carbon footprint with Germany demanding an opt-out for its power stations and Spain and Portugal preparing to abandon their target.
. . .
Since 1997, when the Kyoto Protocol was first signed, the US has now made more progress in reducing its per capita fossil fuel emissions than the UK, France, Spain, Finland, Sweden and Japan – even before its economic growth is considered.
. . .
Of the 30 industrialised countries which signed Kyoto, 17 were exceeding their targets at the time the last count was taken, in 2004.

via Greenie Watch.

Previous related posts:

• Germany upsets environmentalists over industrial emissions target
• Who’s the environmental saboteur now?
• Spot the comedian

At a recent African Union summit in Gambia, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan met quietly with Zimbabwe’s mad despot dictator President Robert Mugabe to suggest a negotiated resolution to his country’s social and economic disintegration.  Mugabe’s response? Butt out Thanks, but no thanks.

The hapless UN chief was reduced to formally withdrawing his offer to help in Zimbabwe. Annan’s abortive “initiative” was supported by President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.

Now that Mugabe has casually destroyed his efforts for the umpteenth time, one wonders if Mbeki might finally get the message. Mugabe is impossible to deal with. There is no point negotiating with him. He has set his course and he will follow it until the end.

The key to understanding Mugabe is to grasp his limitless capacity for self delusion. He inhabits a planet of his own.

Zimbabwe’s reconstruction must await Mr Mugabe’s death, apparently.

Previous related posts:

• Mugabe prays out of both sides of his mouth
• Mugabe’s day of prayer like asking Satan to preach at Easter
• Zimbabwe’s hospital Hell
• Zimbabwe rounds up destitute street people

Mohammed Jabarah, Canadian al-Qaeda member, has been held in US prison since 2002 without trial.  Until last week, the reason was a mystery.

After training in Afghan terrorist camps for over a year, Mr Jabarah plotted bombings against American and Israeli embassies in southeast Asia.  The plots were interdicted by Singaporean authorities; he was soon captured and brought back to Canada.  The RCMP decided not to lay charges; but Mr Jabarah was wanted by American authorities, so he negotiated a plea bargain under which he would surrender himself and co-operate with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in exchange for leniency.  After he was in US custody, however, the deal went south.

A Canadian al-Qaeda member jailed in New York stabbed a prison guard in the eye with a fork, according to several sources familiar with the case.

The sources said Mohammed Jabarah was distraught over the death of his brother, Abdul Rahman, also a Canadian al-Qaeda terrorist, when he attacked the guard.

As a result of the alleged assault, a plea agreement between Mr. Jabarah and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan was torn up, according to the sources.

Who does Mr Jabarah's father blame for his son's predicament?  Canada!  (But of course.)

His father said the Canadian government "cheated" Mr. Jabarah when it "handed" him to U.S. authorities. He said the then 20-year-old should have been allowed to consult with a lawyer before signing the agreement with the Americans.

"The Canadian government did not give him any legal counsel. This is great Canada. They did not give any human right as a citizen or as human being.

"Do you and the Canadian government know why? Because Mohammed is a Muslim," said the father, a Canadian who now lives in Kuwait.

The National Post story draws interesting parallels between Mr Jabarah and the 17 Toronto-area Muslims arrested on terrorism charges last month.  All are home-grown terrorists, raised in Canada and recruited to radical Islam through local and internet connections.

A final irony is that a video by alleged ringleader Fahim Ahmad and distributed at the Salaheddin mosque in suburban Toronto highlights Abdul Rahman Jabarah as a "martyr" whose example should be emulated.

I blogged the fund-raising appeal for St Jude's Cathedral, Iqaluit, on 24 June, and look what arrived in my in-box from Anglican Church of Canada's "news" mailing list on 6 July.

Arctic seek $3 million to rebuild beloved 'igloo church'

Jul 6, 2006

St. Jude's cathedral, which was deconsecrated last Easter and demolished June 1, was declared unsalvageable after a vandal set it on fire last November.

St. Jude’s Anglican Cathedral, the “igloo church” that was a landmark in Iqaluit until it was destroyed by arson last December, has been demolished and the diocese of the Arctic is now appealing for help to finance its rebuilding, estimated at $3 million.

The full report doesn't actually contain any new news.  Maybe Anglican Journal needs to get out and visit ACC diocesan websites more often.  Or maybe they thought it was more important to get the story out about their own website, newly revamped and redesigned just in time for the coming budget cuts.

Be that as it may, it behooves Anglican "news" agencies to keep up with Anglican news.

Philip Stott lists ten events which, if they were to occur, would constitute incontrovertible proof of global warming.  Canadians figure in #7:

You should believe in global warming when . . .

Canadians turn off the lights and switch off the heating/air conditioning when not in a room . . .

That will never happen.

Read the whole thing.

More than six in ten Britons are pleased that their country has a Human Rights Act, but seven in ten cannot name any of their human rights.

Unusually for this blog, almost a week passed between posts.  There was a good reason for that: my tech guy was moving all of his websites, including this blog, over to a bigger and more reliable server.  Glitches and unanticipated diversions disrupted and prolonged the process, and it’s not actually complete yet.  But I can blog while he works on other stuff for a few days.

I know I should have taken advantage of the week’s hiatus to prepare some longer, more thoughtful and insightful posts—but nooooooo!  Instead, I wasted invested the time playing with organising a new electronic gadget that just happened to arrive at the end of June.  I also found time to relax with the hottest new DJ in the business.  He’s very cool!

Now, back to the blog.  Got a few things to catch up on.