Knox Kercher

Kercher was murdered
Knox is acquitted. Did she do it?
We may never know.
If  she did not this is a compelling tribute to Italian Justice.
If she did,  she knows it and no matter her future it will take its toll. She will never rest again.
Best of a bad job.

Ants take on Goliath role in protecting trees in the savanna from elephants

Ants take on Goliath role in protecting trees in the savanna from elephants
Read and rejoice. Lots of little ants protecting enormous trees from giant elephants!  Think about it when your local  plutocrats want to grasp yet more of your community resources. If ants can do it so can you.

Further Imbalance

Having reflected on the imbalance between the three contributors to every commercial enterprise I must point out an equally disgraceful imbalance in the application of Freedom of Information legislation - at least in my own country. The legislation gives the public the right to information on a wide range of public enterprises - and none whatsoever on information about commercial enterprises. So if you wish information about your local public hospital the law supports you but if it is a private hospital  the law is silent. Why should commercial enterprises enjoy this right to secrecy? I leave you to speculate.

An Unequal Relationship

There is growing evidence of the disorder surrounding commercial companies. Any commercial enterprise has three groups of players: the owners (often shareholders) who have invested capital in the enterprise, the staff who have invested time and effort, and the customers who pay for the goods or services produced. What is beyond question is that the owners are getting a disproportionate amount of the benefit as manifested by high profits. Where profits are high we know that customers are paying too much, staff are being paid too little, or both. Since customers and staff well outnumber the owners why not apply some of the principles of that sacred institution - democracy? Work in progress.

Would You Lend Money to ....

My government is upset at the banks. The banks are not lending "enough" to "small and medium sized" businesses and the government believes this to be a major cause of failure of growth.
I am no economist but I imagine the good old capitalist system expects businesses to make judgements in line with their own objectives, and that they would know better than anyone else what these might be. So here it is: banks wont lend to folks who might not be in a position to pay interest or repay the loan. That is what my government wants them to do. I seem to remember a few short years ago we got into a mess precisely because banks lent money to people who could not pay it back. My government wants to repeat that disaster? Apparently so!

Diagnosis before Treatment

When we consult our doctor with a problem we reasonably expect that the doctor will listen to our problem, make a diagnosis and recommend some treatment - in that order.
Politicians are less rational. My prime minister has decided to turn over our healthcare system. He has a clear set of proposals but has offered not one word of a diagnosis. Like all party politicians he knows all the answers before even asking what the question is. This one is however a bit unlucky. His chief adviser went to a meeting of private investors and extolled the major profits to be made from the changes. Now we know what the prime minister's diagnosis is - his pals are not making enough from our healthcare system. How creaming off more for them helps me get better care or value for money is not clear.

Party Politics are Dangerous.

We have reflected before on the evils of party politics. Till now it seemed that such activities could do little harm. Politicians amble about changing this and that but the people who actually get things done keep on getting things done. To an extent that is still true but to my concern I woke up yesterday morning to discover that my countrymen have elected to government a political party who are intent on destroying my country! Now it may not come to that but there is a real risk.  The people who get things done may yet restrain the unthinking party ideologues and life will go on. But perhaps not. Party politicians are people who have failed to find a role in getting things done and who yet can pose dangers to the rest of us. We need to re-engineer the system to correct this dangerous situation.