Rubénerd Blog :)

I value government integrity and I’m willing to pay for it!

This evening while grabbing a bite to eat I made the mistake of reading the Adelaide Sunday Mail. I know, I know, it was reckless and irresponsible, but sometimes I feel as though with my news sources from around the world on Twitter and predominately from Singapore I forget about more local news. Ah but The Sunday Mail tabloid newspaper has nothing to do with news… touché sir/madam.

What I did read though in the opinion section was a brief letter from someone in Hahndorf (beautiful place in the Adelaide Hills) talking about how having a registry of lobbyists won’t solve any problems. Now right off the bat I don’t have the faintest idea what this proposed lobbyist registry is, but I’m assuming its something lobbyists have to register with before they can pay politicians to do their bidding. Maybe?

Onto the primary issue though: can anyone actually explain to me why lobbyists are tolerated at all? Isn’t the idea of paying off or financially persuading a politician to advance your position in the hopes of legislation in your favour going against everything democracy stands for? Doesn’t lobbying concentrate the power in the hands of the few instead of the many that democracy is supposed to be about?

I’m not a legal student, but I am an economics student (and computer science, but not sure what bearing that has) and all I see of lobbying from my perspective is the means for the rich or powerful in business to institute change or to get around perceived government "problems" in their businesses which may or may not be in place for a reason. For example, not being allowed to dump waste into rivers or allowing people to grill cheese sandwiches in areas where the population is lactose intolerant.

Leaving aside the more sarcastic answers that could be given, why is it that lobbying is legal in most democracies? Do they serve a legitimate function I’m not aware of? Am I being overly simplistic by dismissing them?

My avatar for my Twitter profile as of yesterday

With all the lunacy surrounding Senator Conroy’s hopelessly misguided crusade against the intertubes in Australia which even if we were to ignore the social implications it still technologically wouldn’t ever work… we’re now reminded that our friendly neighbours over to the east in New Zealand are also having to deal with nonsense. Simply replace "failed before it even starts filter" with "guilty when accused".

It really is blood chillingly scary stuff.

From the Creative Freedom New Zealand site:

Join The New Zealand Internet Blackout to protest against the Guilt Upon Accusation law ‘Section 92A’ that calls for internet disconnection based on accusations of copyright infringement without a trial and without any evidence held up to court scrutiny. This is due to come into effect on February 28th unless immediate action is taken by the National Party.

I think what really gets to me with all this nonsense is the thought that some law makers in Australia and now New Zealand have obviously heard these ideas and written up legislation and proposals which means… they thought they were good ideas.

Normally I like to think of myself as a [mostly] rational person, but it’s hard to be cool and level headed when nonsense like this comes up. I’m already not feeling very well, and this just makes me feel worse.

On Monday I posted a discussion I had with someone on Twitter who was adamant that everyone was wrong and that George W Bush would be remembered favourably by people… and he was serious! Upon receiving a tweet from me where I contradicted his assertion, he made a comparison between Bush and Nixon.

Not knowing much about historical American politics I didn’t know if this comparison was apt, so I asked some folks about their opinions and got responses here, in email and in Google Reader. Let’s just say I wasn’t surprised by the responses!

Alex wins the grand prize. I had forgotten how terrible Bush Jr had been for environmental causes too; here in the world outside the US the media seemed to have focused more on his… how do I put this delicately?… less than successful international relations. Alex’s comment about the "perception of western people" was especially spot on.

Yeah it’s true, Nixon was a pretty decent president but Bush is viewed in a negative light for much better reasons. My brother came up with a list of over 45 reasonably sized screw ups like messing up the Environmental Protection Agency, Hurricane Katrina, a bunch having to do with Iraq.. basically he is oblivious to the irreparable damage he’s done not only to the American economy, the American society, the global society, the Eco-systems around the world and the perception of western people in general.

He’s been a disgrace to us all and the only people who approve of him compose the lower idiotic wrung of society here in America. They kind of people who whole-heartedly believe his meaningless rhetoric and feel an obligation toward supporting the neo-conservative republican party.

I’ve lived in Illinois for all of my life and I have maybe met 3 people who approve of his actions. So yes – history will judge him as an obtuse, unqualified disgrace of a president who got to where he was with corporate contributions and a mutually beneficial relationships with the wealthy, power-hungry, apathetic kind of people who are destroying our planet.

Amen.

Thank you to everyone for your emails and comments, I’d like to think I’ve learned something today! I didn’t learn that Bush won’t be remembered favourably though… I knew that already. Did I mention I’m relieved beyond belief he isn’t in charge anymore? I’m not Bill Kurtis.

If you haven’t signed the No Open Office XML Petition yet, hurry over and do it right now. Microsoft’s efforts to ratify their file formats as a standard must be stopped not just because there’s already an Open Document format standard, but because their implementation is flawed and broken and adopting it will cause all kinds of problems and the eventual destruction of the world as we know it.

For the reasons why and to sign the partition go to http://www.noooxml.org/petition.

Ruben Schade, Singapore, 54 seconds ago
Comments: This newly proposed “standard” being pushed (and bribed) by Microsoft is a genuine threat to interoperability and must be dismissed. Microsoft, a convicted monopolist in multiple jurisdictions must NOT be allowed under any circumstances to push through these file formats.