Moldavia has long been the butt of jokes in the Soviet Union. I've never been there so can't say whether is is justified or not, but it is perhaps tale-telling that election after election, they find it hard to find anyone wishing to become their president. A few years ago it turned out a scandal when no one applied. This time they only have one candidate.
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Berlusconi endorses Blair for EU president
News from the League of Crooks. Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi is backing TonyBlair for EU presidency. Blair's PR people should have contacted the zany Ceasar in advance because surely in the polite society Berlusconi's support is highly undesirable.
Saturday, 17 October 2009
Laptop, man's best friend
If you put your laptop on your belly and start defragmentation, it's just like a cat, warm and purring. Gotta love it!
Friday, 16 October 2009
On the roots of African poverty
I found these two lines from an article about a recent election in Gabon very thought-provoking.
"Gabon is sub-Saharan Africa's fourth biggest oil producer and Africa's second biggest wood exporter, although most of its 1.4 million people live in poverty.
August's election was called after the death of Omar Bongo, one of the world's richest men, who had ruled the nation for four decades."
Now Omar's son will be calling the shots in Gabon. This reminds me of how 400 men who own Russia now keep pumping money out of the country, keeping the majority of its 150 million eking out a barely decent living.
Phantom roadworks on UK highways
So it is not just me who sees sections, patches or whole lanes of roads closed ostensibly for works with nothing being done there. According to a Highways Agency's survey, 55% UK motorists have the same experience.
The National Audit Office says that due to a "lack of management information" accurate figures for the cost of road resurfacing and such could not be gathered. In layman's terms it means that no one knows what exactly is done during roadworks and how much it costs. Although Highways Agency is a public office, road improvement contracts are awarded to private companies. Any comment would be superfluous.
The National Audit Office says that due to a "lack of management information" accurate figures for the cost of road resurfacing and such could not be gathered. In layman's terms it means that no one knows what exactly is done during roadworks and how much it costs. Although Highways Agency is a public office, road improvement contracts are awarded to private companies. Any comment would be superfluous.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
US and UK: credit crunch bailout cost
In her time, Margaret Thatcher reformed the UK economy along the US lines: denationalising, cutting social spending and, most importantly, making the financial sector the most important source of revenue.The special relationship mentality has finally backfired. The perceived commonality with the Trans-Atlantic Big Brother made Britain forget that it is not in the big boys league any more. Apart from the very obvious difference in economy scale, the US has a vast production base, which, sadly, on its own soil the UK has chosen to let die.
As a result, America has been able to absorb the credit crunch shock with a bailout that amounted to a hefty quarter of its GDP. For the UK, however the price was close to its whole annual GDP.
Saturday, 10 October 2009
British Victorian administrative bureaucracy model
I have never seen a more chaotic, overblown and utterly clueless bureaucracy as here in the UK and I have lived in Russia and Thailand. Trying to get anything done each time reminds me of a trip through Alice's Wonderland where I get to meet most grotesque creatures who tell me most senseless things and never fail to send me the wrong direction.
I really wonder how it all has come to this as in Victorian times a few thousands of British bureaucrats were running a global empire efficiently and with a sumptuous profit. In the India Office, a handful of public officers were managing a giant, overwhelmingly diverse state 10 times as big as Britain itself and without the help of any fancy office equipment.
I reckon that the downfall of the British administrative tradition happened during WWII when wartime ministries and state control were blown out of any proportion under the premises of "war needs". That monstrous labyrinthine system still lives on in the form of the British welfare state together with its legacy of a direly faulty management model.
I was surprised to find out that there has been no research of how the British Empire was run in its heyday. That alone would have provided an invaluable lesson to this glorious nation that is suffocating under the burden of its ineffectual government.
I really wonder how it all has come to this as in Victorian times a few thousands of British bureaucrats were running a global empire efficiently and with a sumptuous profit. In the India Office, a handful of public officers were managing a giant, overwhelmingly diverse state 10 times as big as Britain itself and without the help of any fancy office equipment.
I reckon that the downfall of the British administrative tradition happened during WWII when wartime ministries and state control were blown out of any proportion under the premises of "war needs". That monstrous labyrinthine system still lives on in the form of the British welfare state together with its legacy of a direly faulty management model.
I was surprised to find out that there has been no research of how the British Empire was run in its heyday. That alone would have provided an invaluable lesson to this glorious nation that is suffocating under the burden of its ineffectual government.
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