The non-bloggish blog

"...planks, rope, bicycle chains, nails, everyday objects."

Peta Thornycroft on being a reporter in Zimbabwe.

Israel's Declaration of Independence

In a week or two, Israel turns 60. The text of the declaration of independence is here. 

Key paragraph from my point of view:

THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

There were 37 signatories, ranging in age from late 20s to early 80s. Some, like David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir are well known. Here are a few of the others:

Meir Vilner
The youngest and the last surviving signatory until his death in 2003, Vilner was secretary of the Israel Communist Party.

Eliyahu Meir Berligne
The oldest signatory, born in Berarus, ran an olive oil and soap factory in Haifa, one of the founders of Tel Aviv.

Sa'adia Kobashi
Born in Yemen in 1902, he immigrated to Palestine in 1909, where he became one of the leaders of the Yemenite community in Israel. In 1922, he founded Degel Hazvi, a charitable association for Yemenite Jews in Jerusalem. In 1970, he became rabbi to the Yemenite community in New York.

Rachel Cohen
Grew up in Odessa, became a leader of the Womens' International Zionist Organisation (WIZO).

Zerah Warhaftig
Rabbi; credited with establishing a constitutional compromise between synagogue and state.

(Inter alia)

More potted bios here (in Spanish)  .

Moral hazard

What is moral hazard and why is everybody talking about it?

Robert Reich, Secretary for Labour during the Clinton Administration explains (actually, he explained eight months ago, but I missed it):

Letting children bear the consequences of their risky behavior -- what some parents call "tough love" -- is equally applicable to adults, and conservatives have made something of a fetish out of it....

It’s true that people tend to be less cautious when they know they’ll be bailed out. Economists call this "moral hazard." But even when they’re being reasonably careful, people cannot always assess risks accurately. Many of the mostly poor home buyers who got into trouble did NOT in fact know they couldn’t afford the mortgage payments they were signing on to. The banks and mortgage lenders that pulled out all the stops to persuade them to the contrary were in a far better position to know; after all, they had lots of experience at this game. So did the credit-rating agencies that gave these loans solid credit ratings, as did the financiers who bundled them with less-risky loans and sold them to other financial institutions, and the hedge fund managers who quietly tucked them into their portfolios.

....When it comes to risky behavior in the market, America has a double standard. We’re told that economic risk-taking is the key to entrepreneurial success, but when big entrepreneurs take big risks that fail it’s amazing how often they get bailed out.

More on the same theme here.

Jailed in Zimbabwe: A Reporter's Ordeal

Barry Bearak recently had a mercifully not too long stay in a Zimbabwean prison for committing journalism. He writes about it in today's online New York Times.

Prison movies had made me fear predation. But the inmates were instead a forlorn lot, a fair selection of Harare’s downtrodden, people who’d once had decent jobs and who’d now been reduced to scrounging and worse. Two of the more personable ones were car thieves. Only because their families were starving, they said. Two others, Donald and Lancelot, were accused of poaching after cutting the hindquarter off a deer that had been hit by a bus.
.........
At meals, we were permitted to select only a few inmates to join us downstairs. A short, emaciated man in a red jersey had meekly asked to be included. “Stay close to me when they come for us,” I told him. But then I forgot.

“I was near you,” he later muttered disconsolately, “right near you.”

The full story is here (may need subscription; not sure)

Mugabe: "Here's one I prepared earlier..."

In 1982, the Authentic and Consistent Leader perceived that elements of the population in the south west of Zimbabwe were proving less than enthusiastic about his treatment of ZAPU and the integration of ZIPRA and ZANLA forces in the national army.

This happened. 

In 2000, the Authentic and Consistent Leader lost a national referendum on constitutional reform.

This happened. 

In 2005, although ZANU(PF) was victorious in the parliamentary election, the Authentic and Consistent Leader perceived that the cities had largely voted for the opposition.

This happened.

In 2008, the Authentic and Consistent Leader was made aware that according to estimates based on the vote count at the polling stations, he had lost the first round of the presidential election to one of his two rivals and that, if their votes were combined, he was soundly thrashed.

This happened. 

And this. 

And this. 

I, like many other armchair observers, have in the past drawn attention to Mugabe's formidable intelligence. I've changed my mind. Nobody in a position of power who ruins a country out of wounded vanity can be regarded as intelligent. His ideological posturing is a smokescreen for his giant, yet fragile, ego.

Are there urgent problems that need addressing in Zimbabwe – land distribution, inequality, HIV/AIDS, economic development, social infrastructure? Too right! Will history look kindly on the Authentic and Consistent Leader's contribution to the resolution of those problems? Not so much.

UPDATE: Apropos, see this from Norm.

The goats don't work

And while we're on the subject of election shenanigans, here's an old election bribery story involving goats:

(Click on the story to enlarge)

Zimbabwe election results - could they be any slower!

While everyone has already bitten their nails to the quick in anticipation of the long-delayed election results, this morning's Herald, effectively a government mouthpiece, is reporting the likelihood of a tie in the parliamentary election and a run-off in the presidential race.

My guess is that Mugabe would decline to enter a run-off. Although most of the reports flying around are based on rumour, some sources are saying that he has already indicated that he would regard a run-off as demeaning. That means he's either going to 'scrape home' or agree to resign. My money's still on the first, but I'd be overjoyed to be proved wrong.

A letter to Desmond Lardner-Burke

From the Zimbabwe Times:

Dear Mr Lardner-Burke,

You used to be Minister of Law and Order, even when there was little law and order to talk about in Rhodesia. You arrested us and imprisoned our leaders. But now we show you how generous our new democracy is; we still include your name on the voters’ roll even when we know you died 30 years ago.

While you denied us the vote, we shall insist on exhuming your remains so that you can come back from South Africa to witness how in our new democracy, even the dead and the absent are granted the vote.

Yours democratically,

Chenjerai Hove,

In the Diaspora

Zimbabwe's presidential candidates: a sartorial guide

Here.

Jackson Frank

Now that Davy Graham is out gigging again, maybe it's time to salute another folk blues pioneer – one who unfortunately died in obscurity some years ago. I haven't been able to find any video clips on line of him performing his own songs, but below are three covers of his best-known song, Blues Run the Game, by Nick Drake, John Renbourn and Jacques Mees. Bert Jansch also covers this fairly often.