Life expectancy is rising in the world's four most populous countries https://t.co/dxNqoIImjM #health #progress pic.twitter.com/dGNxEM28cf
— Human Progress (@HumanProgress) January 30, 2016
#HAH2016 Life expectancy is rising in the world’s four most populous countries
19 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in development economics, health economics Tags: China, India, Indonesia, life expectancies, The Great Escape
John Howard’s birthday – what I admire most about him
26 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, politics - Australia, Public Choice, Thomas Schelling, war and peace Tags: Australian national security policy, East Timor, game theory, Indonesia, John Howard
What I admire most about John Howard was his decision to intervene in East Timor to stop massacres, which were a by-product of succession struggles within TNI. Howard didn’t have to do that. He didn’t.
If there ever was a prime directive in Australian national security policy, more so than have a great and powerful friend (first the UK, than the USA, dumping Britain like a stone in 1941 when a better great and powerful friend became available), it’s never put Australian military forces in a position risking an exchange of fire with TNI.
That did happen during the East Timor intervention. There were armed stand-offs at roadblocks between the Australian Army and TNI. Platoon leaders in the Australian Army had to keep their cool with guns drawn on both sides otherwise it would be a real shooting war that could spiral out of control.
That is why there is a genuine risk of major war not from accidents in the military machine but through a diplomatic process of commitment and escalation that is itself unpredictable. Schelling also argues that nations, like people, are continually engaged in demonstrations of resolve, tests of nerve, and explorations for understandings and many misunderstandings.
In Schelling’s view, many wars including World War 1 were products of mutual alarm and unpredictable tests of will. When people discuss the futility of World War 1, they under rate the role of unintended consequences and the dark side of human rationality in situations involving collective action.
Indonesia and its politically ambitious and corrupt military wing are next door to Australia forever. A pragmatic approach is a necessity of survival along such a volatile border.
That’s actually why Whitlam did what he did, and sat on his hands over the East Timor massacres in 1975. Australia had no credible capability of intervening, particularly against a country with such a large military and unstable politics. In 1975, the Indonesian military most certainly would have shot back.
The Great Escape in China, India and Indonesia
12 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, health economics Tags: China, India, Indonesia, life expectancies, The Great Escape, The Great Fact
These 4 nations are 50% of mankind. That's 3.5 billion people who are living longer. buff.ly/1Kle6mU #health http://t.co/949oqisMsL—
HumanProgress.org (@humanprogress) June 30, 2015
Corruption index for south-east Asia
04 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, rentseeking Tags: bribery and corruption, China, Indonesia, Philippines
Corruption in Indonesia: Jokowi’s arduous task in cleaning up the government econ.st/1FJ3sS0 http://t.co/1myuRbwoXK—
The Economist (@EconBizFin) June 11, 2015
Deranged conspiracy theories versus the domestic political reality of the Indonesian resumption of executions
05 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - Australia Tags: Australia, capital punishment, conspiracy theories, crime and punishment, expressive voting, Indonesia, left-wing condescension, Left-wing hypocrisy, Leftover Left, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
The Australian human rights commissioner has put forward a bizarre conspiracy theory linking the recent execution of two drug traffickers in Indonesia to the Australian policy of turning back refugee boats.
Ignorance and condescension of Indonesian domestic politics is prevalent among the left wing elite in Australia.
Indonesia started executions again under the new president after a long hiatus and in particular for death sentences for narcotics drug trafficking. Indonesia had an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty between 2008 and 2012 but resumed executions in 2013. Executions were infrequent.
The new president was recently elected on a platform of being tough on crime and in particular on drug trafficking and the 64 drug traffickers currently on death row:
[The clemency requests] are not on my table yet. But I guarantee that there will be no clemency for convicts who committed narcotics-related crimes
Secondly, making concessions to Australia does not win votes in Indonesia which is a democracy. Thirdly, a range of foreigners are on death row in Indonesia. The best way to have kept those two Australians alive was to say nothing so hopefully they are not moved up in the queue to spite Australia to win domestic political points.
Fourthly, someone of her legal training should be better at spinning conspiratorially yarns than this particularly weak work of imagination.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments