Micro-credit Documentary

Today on BYU-TV, between sessions of LDS General Conference, they played a documentary about micro-credit in Bangladesh and elsewhere. It is a remarkable innovation for helping the poor to help themselves. They are given very small loans, perhaps as small as $10. The borrowers have no collateral--they only have their word that they will repay the loan. Repayment rates over 90% are typical for programs around the world that are implementing the program.

If you'd like to watch the documentary, it will be available online at byu.tv for a couple of weeks. Open the website in Internet Explorer on Windows and, after the viewer gets installed, click the "on-demand" link to the right of the video. You can navigate to April 1, 12:00 pm.

A more permanent resource is the BYU Center for Economic Self-Reliance.

The Foolish Man Built His House...

With the recent rains, water tables are rising and some homes are getting flooded basements. From ABC4 news:

Andy Meisenbacher says, "We have gone to the city to say 'what can you do to help us?' They said to us 'you shouldn't have built on the river.' We say then, 'why did you give us permits?'"

It sounds like the city can't win. People will bitterly complain that they aren't allowed to do whatever they want with their own property, including building homes in less safe areas. Then, when the inevitable finally happens...

We Need Special Interest Groups

Several Utah bloggers got bent out of shape when the president of the Utah senate said, "we know more" than the voters. This statement should be so obvious that it is odd it was worth a mention. If we know as much as legislators we would just just directly vote on all the issues. But we don't because the super-majority of us are not willing to spend the time it would take to become educated in the issues.

At our recent caucus meeting, my wife asked each person who got up to speak what they thought about the recent Intelligent Design issue. Only one of the 8 or 10 people that got up to speak had any real knowledge of the issue at all. Given that these were the people that wanted to take leadership positions in our caucus, it was disappointing that they should know so little about one of the hot button issues of the recent legislative session.

But it wasn't surprising. Most voters don't care enough about most issues to do any research on them. And I'm okay with that. That is why we elect representatives. We try to pick people that we think have good judgement and then we let THEM do the research so that they can make good decisions. That is why poll numbers should only be one of a whole host of factors that a legislator considers when taking a position or casting a vote. (If our caucus got to vote on Buttars' Intelligent Design bill it would have passed overwhelmingly.)

How do the legislators get the information they need to make informed decisions? They listen to the people with a vested interest in the issue. If I'm trying to make policy about farming, I would be deliquent if I didn't speak to farmers or groups that represent farmers.

But wait! Farmers are a special interest group! We have to get those blasted special interest groups out of politics! They are destroying our country!

Well, no. They are essential to a healthy process. People who use the words "special interest" like they would utter a racial slur, demonstrate a real lack of knowledge and perspective. The problem is not the special interests. They don't get to vote. They should provide information and the legislators or executives get to make the decisions. Don't like them? Vote 'em out. But don't blame the special interests.

Caucus excitement

I'm a county delegate!!!!!!

Tonight was the night of the neighborhood caucus meetings in Utah. We dropped the babies off at a friend's house, and had a little political date night together down at Spanish Fork High School. There were only twenty people attending our precinct's meeting (which was a far cry from the presidential election year crowd of 80+ in Orem last year), and we only knew two of them--and one of those only because he was in our old stake presidency. It was a really neat evening, relaxed (although with "motion seconded" and "move to close the nominations") and not intimidating. Bradley nominated me to be a county delegate, and two others were nominated, too. I had to get up and give a little speech about what I thought about some issues, and answer some questions. It was really low key and kinda fun. And I won (I had pretty good chance, you know, seeing how we got to send two county delegates and there were only three of us nominated). Now I get to learn about the issues, and go to the county convention on April 29. I honestly don't have a clue what to expect, but I'm really excited to find out.

(For those who don't know (I sure didn't two years ago, when I went to my first) a caucus is the meeting where delegates are chosen to represent your precinct to the party big-wigs at the county and state political conventions. In a presidential election year, the precinct delegates at the state convention choose who goes to the big, national conventions (and presumably wear funny hats while they are there). Anyway, the pledge is recited and the party platform (county level) is read, and then you nominate and vote for precinct chair, vice-chair, etc, and a certain number of delegates.)

Informed Consent

When I was in middle and high school, each year that we wanted to participate in an extracurricular athletic activity we had to watch a video explaining that we would probably die or be horribly maimed by choosing to participate. Then we had to sign a form (along with our parents) that we were aware of the risks in participating in such activities and that we willing engaged in those activities with our "informed consent."

The Deseret Morning News had this item on March 4th:

A former Alta High School cheerleader filed a lawsuit Friday in 3rd District Court, claiming Jordan School District was responsible for injuries she suffered during a practice session more than a year ago.
The varsity cheerleader was practicing with her teammates when she landed in a gap between two mats. According to court documents, she broke both ankles in the accident.
Her suit claims that the school district is responsible for the incident because it "failed to provide a safe school environment to engage in the authorized activities," court documents say.

Why do people refuse to accept the fact that life has risks? We can never make things totally safe. Even if we could make such a world, I'm sure not many would choose to live there. Schools are compelled to take the extra step to show the type of video I described above, just to help people be doubly sure they want to participate. The whole point of this extra dilligence to to insulate them from lawsuits like this one. While I feel sorry that this girl (unnamed because she is still a minor?) got hurt, but I don't think the solution is to hurt a bunch of other young people by taking money away from their schools. I hope she loses her fight and is forced to pay the legal fees of the district.

Shouldn't you be doing that anyway?

Utah Power is asking for a rate hike of 17%, which would translate into about $120/year per family. People aren't happy, not with the 38% rate hike from Questar (the gas company) got last fall. I feel bad for people who are already stretched thin with finances. But this quote, from an older gentleman on a fixed income interviewed by KSL, kills a little of my compassion:

"Now when you go from room to room, you turn a light off behind you."

Ummmm...shouldn't you be doing that anyway?

New Orleans and Global Warming

Naturally, there has been a lot of debate about the extent to which New Orleans should be rebuilt. Do people like Al Gore, who believe that global warming is going to cause the melting of the ice caps and the rising levels of the ocean, oppose the reconstruction?

Other than humans, that is...

From the London Times Online:

...Cat and dog owners were urged to stay calm yesterday after news that a cat in Germany had become the first in a species other than birds to get infected by H5N1 flu virus in Europe...

Umm, the first in a species other than birds? What about humans?

Tribalism and the Trouble in Africa

Reach Upward, in a comment on a blog post at Slam Smith, linked to an amazing article. The article by "Theodore Dalrymple" explores why Africa has had so much trouble with corruption. It is an article that will take a while to digest. We get the argument from Dalrymple (the pen name for Anthony Daniels... but that name was already taken by C-3PO I guess) that the benevolent intentions of the colonialists in Africa caused a great many unintended problems.

For example, he discusses how important farming is in the base of the economy. Seeing the desperate conditions, outsiders have emphasized the importance of education. So poor families will sacrifice and stretch the limits of the capacity to send a relative to school. Once the relative graduates, they will be able to get a government job. With all the help they received from their family to obtain the education, they have a social obligation to pay the family back. They then exploit their position in the government to maximize the benefit to their family.

Dalrymple argues that the notion of the nation-state, imposed by the colonialists, has been the root of many problems. The people simply don't have a system of culture and customs that supports the nation-state. Everybody has loyalty to their family group and has no qualms about exploiting the official government to benefit their primary (only?) loyalty.

This all reminds me of a book I read by Thomas Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem. In that book Friedman was examining the root of the problems that have beset the Middle East for so long. One of the chief culprits, as I recall it from the book, was tribalism. The notion of placing your tribal loyalty above all others, and being willing to exploit your tribal connections, sounds awfully familiar when compared to the system that Dalrymple describes in Africa.

Utah Spam Law in the Utah Supreme Court

Citizen 431 has a useful summary of a recent decision from the Utah Supreme Court about a now repealed Utah anti-spam law. It also explains why a federal anti-spam law is more useful. For those interested in a nice legal review of the subject, surf on over.

Pete Ashdown Endorses Jon Stewart

From UtahPolitics.org interview with Pete Ashdown:

11. There has been speculation about so many potential candidates for president, if the election were today, who would you like to become the U.S. President and Vice?

When our country started the vice-president was person who came in second place. I really like that idea because it gives the opposite party a seat at the table in the White House. Negating the 12th Amendment aside, I like Joe Biden for the sole reason that he was 30 years old when elected to the Senate against a longtime incumbent. After him, I think Jon Stewart would make a great president. Seriously.

Ashdown Debates Copyright

I really like the things I hear Pete Ashdown saying about copyright. He seems to side with Lawrence Lessig whom I've written favorably about before. On a recent blog entry (ht SLC Spin), Ashdown thanked a blogger for an endorsement and then got into a bit of a debate on the copyright issue. I think it was very informative discussion. Copyright is certainly a tricky issue, especially since we are involved in so many international treaties on the subject. I do hope we are able to amend our laws to do something more common sensical.

"Bombastic" letters to the editor

While reading the always-amusing Best of the Web Today by James Taranto (WSJ), he quotes a letter to the editor of the University of New Hampshire student newspaper. The first paragraph follows:

I take issue with the dating advice column printed in last Friday's edition of The New Hampshire. This article, published by "Dr. Durham," offers readers "15 ways to get yourself noticed by the opposite sex." The column's title, "Dear Dr. Durham," suggests some sort of professional, medical opinion relegating the singular and implicitly "normative" sexual preference of our student body. The article's presentation, one column for "girls" and one for "guys," separated by a vertical black line, reflects the social myth that there are only two gender categories and, subsequently, only two rigid forms of gender expression.

When I first read this, I honestly thought the writer wasn't completely serious. The entire letter is peppered with multiple adverbs, adjectives, and somewhat obscure words. It brought to mind a letter to the editor we once wrote in the Geology grad cubes (now you can see why it took most of us longer than two years to get our masters' degrees). A sample sentence (the entire letter is reproduced below for your reading pleasure):

With some consternation we read Mr. Russell Hansen's polemical and vituperative letter regarding television and the turpitude thereof.

We actually combed through our GRE practice books for the most bizzare, unusual words we could find.

So I was entirely ready to take this student's words with a BIG grain of salt, knowing the craziness that can ensue in college. Alas, it seems more likely that she is serious--she is a member of the university's "Students Advocating Gender Equality" organization. This is probably a cause near and dear to her heart.

Oh well. Still, it brought back some good memories. We had some good times in the grad cubes.

Dear Editor,

With some consternation we read Mr. Russell Hansen's polemical and vituperative letter regarding television and the turpitude thereof.

Under an air of probity, he claimed television had "single-handedly managed to eviscerate and trivialize all facets of our culture" and that "television -- the medium and its message -- deserve censure, not praise."

These are equivocal statements, tenuous at best, grossly erroneous at worst. Allow us to elucidate our dissidence and disabuse these fallacies so shamelessly disseminated.

First, we find the idea of the inherent inimicability and eviscerative abilities of television to be abstruse.

The medium of television, so deserving of censure, includes the tube, cables, antennae, satellites and receivers -- we could also include VCRs, DVDs videotapes and disks.

These are all inherently inimical? No. The ideas disseminated through the medium foment human baseness, but the medium is not responsible. We could make the same argument against paper publications, computers and the spoken word. Are these mediums also inimical?

Now the alleged evisceration of our culture. Once eviscerated, an organism undoubtedly expires.

So our culture is dead? What culture is that? Isn't television a mere representation of our culture? A mirror?

Television executives do not produce inchoate programs. Careful research is involved, it is what our culture wants to see. Television does not create or destroy our culture; it reflects it.

We compliment the ebullience of Mr. Hansen, and while this response is a bit aberrant, we do not intend it to be supercilious or banal. We do feel it a commensurate response.

Although teetering on the edge of being bombastic, we hope it is mentally salubrious.

Cuz, like, dude, the tube's like totally awesome 'n stuff!

Jason Aase

Orem, Utah

Keryn Tobler

Las Vegas

Jared Lyman

Los Alamos, N.M.

Emily Bartlett

South Jordan, Utah

With a name like Varadarajan...

Tunku Varadarajan is upset by the mayor of Los Angeles giving a response to the State of the Union in Spanish.

I am a first-generation migrant to this country. I believe that in settling abroad, foreigners make a brutal contract with their land of adoption. They may speak their language, eat their food and practice their religion--but at home or by private arrangement. That is as far as I would go with multiculturalism. All else--including an insistence on a public affirmation of ethnic frills and fancies--cripples the process of integration.

He goes on to explain why he is bothered by the mayor choosing to give a public speech in a foreign tongue.

Mr. Villaraigosa chose to emit his message specifically in Spanish, and by doing so he sent a clear signal of his chosen tribal identity (and not just the accident of his birth). That may help him with his vote bank, but it will not help his city. Ultimately, it will distance his primarily Mexican-American audience from their neighbors, including other immigrants.

Varadarajan says, "Why not a response in Farsi or Korean--languages spoken by people toward whom Mr. Villaraigosa has no fewer mayoral duties than he does toward his Hispanophones?" I had thought of the benefits of public business always being conducted in the national language. I hadn't thought of the risks of alienation to other linguisitic minorities.

Don't Pity the "Former" Ford Employee

I've heard talk about how sad it is for the people that are going to lose their jobs as Ford closes plants. NPR carried a story that shattered any sympathy I have for these workers. Here are a few bits of my transcript from the complete story.

Micheline Maynard: Well, under the terms of the UAW contract, no one actually is fired. Under the contract, auto companies have to keep their plants “idle” until the end of the contract. In this case it will expire in the fall of 2007. So they can’t actually shut everything down, close the doors, and sell the property. They actually have to negotiate a plant closing in the national contract talks.

So while people are laid off from these idle plants, they’ll actually receive about 90% of their pay and they’ll get full benefits. So it’s actually very favorable coverage.

NPR: Does that apply to all the employees in these plants?

MM: Well, it does not apply to the salaried employees. Once the plant is closed, unless there’s another job inside Ford, the salaried employees essentially, just either can retire or they lose their jobs completely.

NPR: But for the employees on the line, they essentially will keep drawing a paycheck even though they are not working.

MM: That’s right.

NPR: How much do these employees earn?

MM: They earn about $27 an hour in straight pay. They also get cost of living allowances. And then if you fold the cost of their benefits in on top, it’s about $67 a worker.

NPR: And they would earn about 90% of that while in idle status?

MM: They would earn about 90% of that, so that would roughly be $55 to $60 an hour.

NPR: So it sounds like if you just read the headline on this story, “30,000 Jobs Cut By Ford,” you don’t get the whole story.

MM: You don’t.