English for trippers: Humility is civility

There is utility in both! But a civil society needs both! 

Don't confuse humility with humiliation!

Stop attacks against Hindus, other minorities or I’ll resign: Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus

Powerful words to remember! Bravo! Kudos! He is already setting an example for all the world! 

He might well be standing on the shoulders of giants like Ashoka and Mahatma Gandhi!

The revolution in Bangladesh is off to a good start!

Words of wisdom!

A decrease in the number of countries with the death penalty worldwide to 87 countries, despite an increase in executions

Food for thought!

I have published my opinion on the death penalty here. I am not absolutely and totally against it.

A decrease in the number of countries with the death penalty worldwide, despite an increase in executions - WCADP On 29 May 2024, Amnesty International published its annual report on the state of the death penalty worldwide. Amnesty International’s monitoring shows that in 2023 the lowest number of countries on record carried out the highest number of known executions in close to a decade.

Credits: Human Progress Weekly Progress Roundup

Café Book Timeout in Kabul

Not all is lost in Afghanistan, but to restore a civil society will take time, perhaps lots of time! Too many wars for too many years!

I wish this young man good luck with his new endeavor! However, I think books are a bit outdated at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century.

"A feeling of calm settles over Shahin Soliman Khil when he picks up a book. For the 19-year-old, reading is a way to escape reality and lose himself in another world. That’s why he has placed books at the heart of his new business venture—to share and celebrate the power of reading at a time when access to knowledge and education are under threat in Afghanistan.  

With an Innovation Hub grant from Ideas Beyond Borders, Khil has crafted a unique business model, Café Book Timeout. This venture aims to blend the rich café culture of Afghanistan with the country’s deep-rooted history of reading. While both cafes and bookshops are ubiquitous in the larger Afghan cities, particularly Kabul, the fusion of the two is a rare sight. ..."

Books and Brews in Kabul - Ideas Beyond Borders Shahin Soliman Khil’s Café Book Timeout fosters community through coffee and books

A serial killer has spent 43 years on death row in Idaho and killed another fellow prisoner

As prisoner, he even killed a young, disabled fellow prisoner in 1981!

"Number of years serial killer Thomas Creech has spent on death row. The 73-year-old is set to be executed on Wednesday after one of the longest waits of anyone currently on death row. His case is an extreme example of a capital punishment system in which decadeslong delays have become so common that senior citizens [???] are being punished for crimes they committed as young adults."

"... for killing a fellow prisoner with a battery-filled sock in 1981.... Creech’s killing of David Jensen, a young, disabled man who was serving time for car theft, was his last in a broad path of destruction that saw Creech convicted of five murders in three states. He is also suspected of at least a half-dozen others. ..."

The Wall Street Journal What's news

Idaho is set to execute a longtime death row inmate, a serial killer with a penchant for poetry Thomas Creech’s killing of David Jensen, a young, disabled man who was serving time for car theft, was his last in a broad path of destruction that saw Creech convicted of five murders in three states.

Incivility The New Normal in New York City and beyond

Something to ponder about! Lots of it might be an exaggeration, but some of the observations are to the point.

"... Now we have the advent of the e-bike industry, the presence of electronically powered bikes that four-year-olds are allowed to drive. Most of these bikes go 20-28 miles per hour [some e-bikes can actually go much faster up to 70 mph]. There are an estimated 65,000 e-bikes in New York City and many drive as if they are the only ones on the road. As these bikes proliferate, so do fires: lithium-ion batteries are exploding with regularity. ..."

Incivility Is The New Normal – OpEd – Eurasia Review an oped by William Donohue. The ubiquity of incivility is the new normal. 

Baghdad’s Mobile Library

A modern Sindbad the Sailor! Entrepreneurs of liberty!

"The Bookish mobile library is a familiar sight in the streets of Baghdad. Several times a month, the rickety old van heads out, its trunk lined with shelves carrying works ranging from novels and poetry to political and scientific texts. When it turns into The University of Baghdad, hundreds of students are already waiting, eager to browse the latest titles and borrow or buy whatever takes their fancy. ...
While the Iraqi government does not ban books, influential groups enforce de facto censorship on volumes deemed irreligious or incompatible with their line of thought.  Al Musawi has often come up against these groups, suffering harassment and several arrests for refusing to meet their demands. ..."

Driving Back the Dogma: Baghdad’s Mobile Library Ali Al Musawi refuses to be a mouthpiece for Iraq’s politicians. His organization Bookish is standing firm as censors close in from all sides.

When Western governments started to love emergency powers

These are the signs of the times Western citizens live in! Only 70 years after World War II and less than 45 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union empire the use of emergency powers has become normal for Western governments!

Western governments more frequently impose comprehensive emergency powers, because they claim that the so called "climate crisis" or the global pandemic leave no other choice. The cure is worse than the disease!

The rapid centralization, expansion, and harmonization rigidly enforced and pursued by the European Union at the expense of federalism is another bad omen.

Western citizens high time to wake up and renew the spirit of Western civilization where small and limited government, civil society and philanthropy, plurality, federalism, and individual liberty reign supreme!

It reminds strongly of Hayek's Road to Serfdom! Perhaps, time to read it again!

Ronald Reagan: “Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again.”

Coronavirus: Schweden scheut das direkte Verbot

Finally, voices of reason coming out of Sweden! Bravo! Trust citizens to be responsible! No massive lock downs, quarantines, business shutdowns ... ! Lessons for the so disappointing British prime minister Boris Johnson!

Coronavirus: Schweden scheut das direkte Verbot Offene Schulen, offene Restaurants, offene Skilifte: Schweden geht mit der Corona-Krise deutlich laxer um als die meisten anderen Länder Europas. Man setzt auf die Selbstverantwortung der Bürger statt auf direkte Verbote. Ob das gut geht, muss sich erst noch zeigen.

Who Killed Civil Society, and How to Revive It

Recommendable! However, the article has a great title, but the content does not meet the expectations, it is disappointing! The author's book by the same title is perhaps a better source!

The massive takeover of civil society associations by government funding etc. is a very serious concern. That this happened in the U.S. is even more disturbing!

Who Killed Civil Society, and How to Revive It | Manhattan Institute: Alexis de Tocqueville may have come to America from France ostensibly to gather information about prisons, but his book, Democracy in America, would be an astute observation about the country’s political and social life in the 1830s. One aspect that particularly got the French aristocrat’s...

The END of EVO MORALES

Very recommendable! Bravo to the citizens of Bolivia! May we finally see mature democracies evolve in Latin America!

The Women Who Saved Mount Vernon

Very recommendable! What a story! Civil society at its best!

On Civil Society And Acts Of Crime

Posted: 9/24/2018

Introduction

This blog post is primarily focused on Western democracies, but, I suspect, my discussion here has some relevance to other parts of the world as well.

Definition Of Crime

Theft, fraud, physical violence resulting in injury or death against humans (includes eg. poisoning), physical violence against or damage to property. Negligence or recklessness which harms others.

A crime committed to (purportedly) correct another crime or a previous crime is still a crime.  

Not every crime defined by law is actually a crime. This is a very important point to keep in mind!

Premise

In a civilized and under the rule of law society there are basically no justifications for crime! There is absolutely not justification for career criminals!

Many Pseudo & Wrong Justifications Of Crime

Plenty of pseudo, but influential justifications for crime were promulgated and steadily promoted over the centuries. Unfortunately, they have gained great popularity and familiarity.

Robin Hood excuse: To steal from the rich and give it to the poor often with the implied or insinuated accusation that the rich themselves are thieves and that is why or how they got rich. Perhaps, there was some truth to this excuse centuries ago or when it comes to uncivilized societies or societies without the rule of law. Most of the times, thieves steal for themselves only and rarely give anything to the poor.

Social or environmental causes of crime excuse: This is a very popular excuse especially among lefties! It is  society or environmental circumstances are at fault why some members of society choose a career of crime. How convenient is that to explain away and to absolve individual responsibility! Once you accept this excuse, its proponents demand a Big Government to take care of it by expanding e.g. the welfare state.

Poverty as excuse: This is a particular lame excuse! There are many non criminal and voluntary ways available in a civil society to overcome or reduce poverty. Many individuals in a civil society are willing to provide voluntary help or relieve to those in poverty. Crime as a means of taking justice into your own hands is not acceptable.

Substance or other addiction excuse: Poor addicts cannot help themselves but to commit crimes to sustain their lives of addiction or so it goes. In prison, addicted criminals could receive medical treatment for their addiction. Whether to legalize drugs is another topic. How to deal with intramural (in prison) drug dealers is another question.

White collar versus blue collar crime excuse: This is another one of the famous, often repeated excuses. The excuse tends to go like this that white collar criminals:

1. Face much less law enforcement
2. Rarely go to jail
3. Can afford to hire much better attorneys for their defense
4. Evidence against them is much harder to come by

These arguments are flimsy and do not hold up to scrutiny, e.g. the victims of white collar crimes are often very sophisticated themselves and should have better known or the victims do not even choose to indict the criminal for various reasons.

Opportunity makes a thief excuse: Yes, of course, put the blame on the victim of a crime. Good defenses against crime often do not come cheap and these defenses need to be constantly updated and 100% maintained 24 hours year round, while a criminal (like a terrorist) has to succeed only once at a time, manner, and place of his/her choosing. A very asymmetric advantage of a criminal.

The Economic View Of Crime

To summarize:

1. Criminals are rational, planning, and calculating like other humans.Criminals constantly weigh the benefits and disadvantages of committing a crime versus a law abiding life
2. Criminals tend to fear or avoid crimes punished with harsh sentences
3. Criminals tend to avoid strong crime preventative measures
4. Crimes pays very well for some career criminals. Therefore, many try to become such criminals themselves
5. The very asymmetric advantage of a criminal, because he exploits human trust and wish to live in peace and harmony. The huge advantage of a criminal of choosing where, when and how to commit a crime

Ultima Ratio Justification

One of the very few acceptable justifications for crime would be the threat of imminent starvation of the person or a loved one of the person. E.g. the person steals food, because the person tried everything humanly possible to obtain food legally, but the person failed due to no fault of his or her own.

Widespread Complacency About Crime

It appears, there is a widespread complacency about crimes in Western democracies:

1. There will always be some crime committed. Crimes cannot be completely eliminated
2. Criminals should be given more opportunities to become a law abiding citizen and a valuable member of society
3. It is society’s fault at large that we have criminals. So let’s treat criminals as human as possible

In a civil society, (not even petty) crimes should never be ignored or taken lightly. Crimes undermine the foundation of a civil society. Crimes encourage further crimes.

The Scandal Of About 80 To 110 Suicides A Day In The U.S.

Posted: 7/4/2016

Trigger

Just read Against suicide, a century of little progress  Federal report reinforces need for more research, Nock says. The

Some quotes from the above article (emphasis added):

1. “Between 1986 and 1999 suicide rates were in decline, but the trend reversed from 1999 through 2014. In 1999, 29,199 Americans ended their own lives. In 2014, the toll was 42,773, the highest since 1986, with an average of 117 suicides per day. The increase affected every age group.”
2. “In 2014, the suicide rate was 13 per 100,000 people. In 1914, the rate was 16 per 100,000. So the suicide rate now is about the same as it was 100 years ago. … For the past 100 years, despite treatments and research efforts, the suicide rate remains extremely high.”
3. “We have seen mortality rates for other problems or diseases decrease over time; the rates of death due to influenza or pneumonia have dropped enormously over the past 100 years, whereas for suicide, it has been pretty flat. ”
4. “... suicide is the 10th leading cause of death. If we take the long view, it hasn’t been increasing, it is where it was 100 years ago”
5. “We spend, as a country, disproportionately less money for suicide research than we do for other leading causes of death. Although suicide is a leading cause of death, the federal government spends more money on researching lupus, headaches, and Lyme disease than it does on suicide prevention, which is not to say they aren’t important problems, but they aren’t nearly as concerning as suicide is.”
6. “Around the world, more people die by suicide than by wars, homicide, and violence combined. We are each more likely to die by our own hands than by someone else’s.”
7. “Being female increases your risks of thinking about suicide and attempting suicide whereas being male greatly increases your risks of suicide death. So women think about suicide more and engage in suicidal behaviors more than do men, but men die from suicide by a ratio of 4 to 1 relative to women. We do know that mental disorders are important risk factors; depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and impulse-control problems all significantly increase the risk of suicidal behavior. … Take depression, for instance. It’s a strong risk factor, but most people with depression will never be suicidal, so we need to improve our ways to identify which people, given the risks factors, will commit suicide. We’re making some improvements.”
8. “Researchers in the past two years have started to create risk scores or algorithms that are increasingly able to identify which people are at higher risk.”
9. “Two-thirds of people who die by suicide, studies show, told other people they were thinking about death or wanted to be dead before they actually have been suicides. Often people would give signals that they’re thinking about suicide. On the other hand, 80 percent of people who die by suicide exclusively deny they were suicidal before dying.”

Some Additional Context

1. The deadliest, islamist terrorist attack in on U.S. soil in Orlando since 9/11 took only about 50 lives on a single day.
2. By contrast the homicide rate in the U.S. is only around 5 per 100,000 in recent years.
3. Annual car fatalities in the U.S. are about 10-11 per 100,000 in recent years and it has dropped from about 15 in the 1990s

Why Is So Little Done To Help?

1. Is it shame?
2. Is it a taboo?
3. Or is it just a family tragedy and not our business?
4. Is it too private an affair?
5. Just let it be the way it is?
6. Are we resigned that nothing can be done or should be done about individuals seeking to commit suicide?
7. Is it a part of individual freedom?
8. Are we hopeless to help anyone who intends suicide or self injury?
9. Why do we know so little about suicide and or its motivations and causes?

Shame On Gun Control Activists

It is appalling that so often gun control activists who exploit suicides or confound suicides committed with guns and homicides etc.

The Scandal

A civil society that values each human life, born or unborn, as precious, it is not acceptable that so little is done about humans contemplating to commit suicide and their families and friends.

The Demagoguery Of Inequality Destructs Civil Society

Posted: 1/26/2014 Updated: 9/13/2014

Trigger

Just read articles about a recent Oxfam International study “Rigged rules mean economic growth increasingly “winner takes all” for rich elites all over world” dated 1/20/2014.

The subject of an alleged inequality or better demagoguery of inequality is rehashed on a daily basis by so sophisticated people or our so called intellectual elite.

Here is a recommendable article about this subject “Selling Envy/How governments promote the worst in us to redistribute wealth”.

The Bible And Civil Society

The Ten Commandments demand that you do not covet thy neighbor’s wife nor property. The ancient and universal Golden Rule rules.

I would argue that these two principles alone, i.e. thou shalt not covet and the Golden Rule, are the most fundamental principles of any civil society. You may want to add strict non violence.

John Stuart Mill in On Liberty about envy: “that most anti-social and odious of all passions, envy”.

Civil Societies rise and fall or perish if these two principles are abandoned.

The Great Recession And Its Scapegoats

With the Great Recession our elected politicians have been very busy trying to find and blame scapegoats, but not themselves, for massive government failure.

Insufficient economic growth breeds resentment against those who are still successful.

Big government (high taxes, over regulation, too many entitlements) has and still continues to smother economic growth, which would provide more opportunities for more people to improve their lives.

U.S. President Obama Is A Dangerous Populist

Or is he a demagogue?

U.S. President Barack Obama appears to be poised to exploit the ideology of inequality as his main talking point in the mid-term elections of 2014. As if there is something odorous about people who made money during or before the Great Recession.

U.S. President Obama is one of the worst offenders. The community organizers is economically illiterate and he is an enemy of business.

He is the latest incarnation of a U.S. President who is far removed from his predecessor U.S. President Calvin Coolidge perhaps one of the last U.S. presidents who understood that the business of free and responsible individuals in a free America is business not big government.

For any U.S. President to engage in such petty populism is a disgrace to the world.

Conclusion

More economic growth, free trade and free markets, more competition, and foremost less government!

More self-made millionaires!