O Intermitente
(So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, good-bye)

sexta-feira, abril 16, 2004

Sugestões

Um disco: "Ten" dos cLOUDDEAD. "Others may rule hiphop but it's cLOUDDEAD who inherit the earth" - The Wire

Um Livro: "Against The Current" de Isaiah Berlin. Uma colecção de ensaios sobre pensadores marginais escrito de forma soberba.
posted by Miguel Noronha 4:00 da tarde

Provincianismos

Declarações de Manuel Monteiro:

"Poucos saberão em Portugal que 40% da produção de galos de Barcelos é feita na China", destacou Manuel Monteiro que defendeu a imposição aos produtores estrangeiros dos mesmos deveres a que estão sujeitos os portugueses.

posted by Miguel Noronha 2:53 da tarde

Os Títulos Que Eles Arranjam...

Colocar um cartaz da FUR num post intitulado "Liberdade" é uma enorme contradição.
posted by Miguel Noronha 12:58 da tarde

Desperdício e Concorrência Desleal

Um estudo hoje publicado no Semanário Económico revela que no período de 1999-200, quando comparado com outros países da OCDE, o estado português desperdiçou 37% dos recursos financeiros gastos na área da Saúde e 70% na do Ensino.

Esta conclusão não surpreende nem deve ser vista como tendo ocorrido exclusivamente no periodo temporal em que incidiu o estudo. È conhecida a inefciência produzida pelo welfare state.

O que surpreende é que se continue a apresentar este modelo, de despesismo e ineficiência, como o único capaz de suprir as necessidades da população. A crescente preferência por empresas privadas a operar nestes sectores vêm desmenti-lo.

Acresce que estas operam em mercados onde existe um concorrente (o Estado) que se arroga de obter financiamentos a custo zero coercivamente sacados aos contribuintes mesmo que não pretendem usar os seus serviços.
posted by Miguel Noronha 12:52 da tarde

Rise and fall of anti-capitalist movement

Um excelente artigo no The Scotsman.

A number of factors are at work - and the most important is a battle of ideas which is now raging but did not exist during the "Battle of Seattle". Then, the required text was the bestselling No Logo, by Naomi Klein, a Canadian journalist who argued that big companies and their brands were exploiting the world?s poor by introducing sweatshop labour.

She hit a zeitgeist. By 2000, shops had globalised: holidaymakers had been going abroad to see Gap, Zara and Starbucks line up on high streets the world over. Shoppers were regularly turning the labels of their new clothes to see the names of faraway countries, even on the wares of self-proclaimed patriots such as Marks & Spencer. They smelt a rat - and Klein gleefully pointed them to it.

And opposing Klein?s interpretation was - no-one. It became received wisdom that globalisation meant exploitation and that multinational companies were profiting on child labour, aided and abetted by the World Bank etc.

(...)

But the main force in the pro-globalisation battle comes from an even more unlikely quarter: Sweden. The country with the highest taxes in Europe has produced Johan Norberg, 30, a former anarchist who has scored an international success with his book, In Defence of Globalisation. [nota: o título do livro é "In Defence of Global Capitalism"]

(...)

Unlike No Logo, it is entirely based on facts - drawing from the United Nations? own data to show that the overseas low-wage factories have made more progress against world poverty in the last 50 years than in the last 500.

The facts he produces speak for themselves: when UN inspectors visited a town where a Nike sweatshop had been closed after protests from the United States, it found that former employees were working as prostitutes.

Such people worked in sweatshops because the alternative was even worse. Where globalised companies had been allowed to stay, their logo was the perfect form of policing. Standards rose, wealth was created.

posted by Miguel Noronha 11:23 da manhã

What's Wrong With Paternalism?

Na Tech Central Station, Arnold Kling apresenta três linhas de argumentação (libertária, utilitária e a Public Choice) contra a substituição dos privados pelo estado na Economia.
posted by Miguel Noronha 8:40 da manhã

quinta-feira, abril 15, 2004

A Trégua - pt II

Os lideres dos principais países europeus (Itália, França, Reino Unido, Alemanha e Espanha) já recusaram publicamente as tréguas propostas por Bin Laden.

Suspeito que esta recusa implique uma nova vaga de atentados. Espero que os serviços de informação e segurança dos estados europeus estejam já em acção.
posted by Miguel Noronha 6:03 da tarde

Diplomata iraniano assassinado em Bagdad

Posso estar enganado, mas julgo que este incidente é capaz de provocar alterações no ambíguo (para não dizer mais) posicionamento do Irão quanto à questão iraquiana.
posted by Miguel Noronha 2:16 da tarde

A trégua

Recomendo a leitura do post do Paulo Gorjão sobre a trégua que, aparentemente, Bin Laden terá proposto aos países europeus.

Apenas uma (ligeira) observação. Onde o Paulo escreveu:

A estratégia de Osama bin Laden assenta no princípio de "dividir para reinar". Por um lado, dividir os europeus entre si; por outro lado, fracturar a aliança euro-atlântica.

Eu teria escrito:

A estratégia de Osama bin Laden assenta no princípio de "dividir para reinar". Por um lado, aumentar a divisão dos europeus entre si; por outro lado, aumentar a fractura na aliança euro-atlântica.

Quanto ao resto subscrevo intereiramente.
posted by Miguel Noronha 12:36 da tarde

After Falluja

Excerto de um artigo de William Kristol na Weekly Standard.

It has been the great achievement of President Bush, since September 11, to break the bad habits of the 1990s. The president's critics now claim that any president would have done the same after the attacks on New York and Washington. This is by no means clear. The pattern of passivity ran deep. The temptations of accommodation and wishful thinking are still strong. Indeed, they are so strong that the administration arguably hasn't broken as sharply with the failed policies of the past decade as it should have. The size of the military has not been increased; there was a reluctance to send ground troops into Afghanistan in November-December 2001 and to commit enough ground troops to Iraq; there seems to be an unwillingness to hold Iran accountable for sheltering al Qaeda leaders; there is an aversion to pressuring Saudi Arabia.

Still, the Bush administration has shown real strength and impressive decisiveness in taking on terrorist groups and states. We trust that U.S. troops will soon move to uproot what seems to have become a kind of terrorist sanctuary in Falluja, and to ensure that those who seek to drive us from Iraq are thwarted and indeed routed. If the atrocities in Falluja lead to a deepening of the U.S. commitment to victory in Iraq, and to a sharpening of the Bush Administration's sword in the war on terror, then we will have properly honored the sacrifice of those who died March 31 in Falluja--and a decade earlier in Mogadishu as well.

Nota:Este artigo foi publicado a 12 de Abril.
posted by Miguel Noronha 12:01 da tarde

Bernard Lewis

No Aviz Francisco José Viegas transcreve partes de uma entrevista concedida por Lewis à Folha de São Paulo.
posted by Miguel Noronha 10:36 da manhã

União Europeia

O Primeiro-Ministro alemão Gerhard Schröder voltou a realçar (contrariando recentes declarações do seu próprio MNE) a necessidade da existência da "diferentes velocidades" de integração na UE.

As elites políticas da UE continuam, desta forma, a defender que a integração total é o único caminho e vêm as decisões de opt-out de vários países, em diversas áreas, apenas como disposições transitórias.

Parece que não é deixada outra opção, aos países-membros, senão aderir aos dictats do eixo franco-alemão.
posted by Miguel Noronha 8:49 da manhã

quarta-feira, abril 14, 2004

Scott Ritter - Afinal Era Mesmo o Petróleo...

Uma investigação do Financial Times revelou que o ex-inspector da ONU e acérrimo crítico da política da Administração Bush quanto ao Iraque foi financiado pelo empresário de origem iraquiana Shakir al-Khafaji. O problema é que al-Khafaji foi um dos beneficiários do programa "Petróleo Por Alimentos". O ex-ditador iraquiano apenas incluia neste selecto grupo os fieis ao regime deposto.
posted by Miguel Noronha 6:08 da tarde

The Iraq war is winnable, but not by the U.N

The latest old advice, including from John Kerry, is to turn it all over to the United Nations. It's hard to know what specifically proponents mean by this, since the current U.N. presence in Baghdad consists only of political envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. If Mr. Brahimi can serve as an honest broker among Iraqi factions, then he might do some good. Then again, Jim Hoagland of the Washington Post reports that he began a meeting with the Iraqi Governing Council by declaring that he came "as a brother Arab"--in the presence of two Kurds and a Turkoman member.

A broader U.N. mission fled Iraq the first time it was attacked last year, and only yesterday Kofi Annan ruled out sending "a large U.N. team" for the "foreseeable future" for security reasons. That means U.S. soldiers would still do the fighting, albeit under U.N. command. Pakistani U.N. troops sat in their barracks while Army Rangers took casualties in Mogadishu, and Dutch U.N. soldiers let the Serbs drag Bosnian men off to their deaths in the "safe" zone they controlled in former Yugoslavia. The last thing U.S. military officers need is to have their plans for controlling Fallujah overruled by some U.N. political actor answerable to the French and Russians.

It's also far from clear that Iraqis would welcome control by the same U.N. that administered the corrupt Oil for Food program that enriched Saddam Hussein. If the price of U.N. involvement is to sweep the Oil for Food scandal under the carpet, then Iraqis would be justifiably furious.

posted by Miguel Noronha 4:08 da tarde

Carlos Tavares lança novo ciclo de política económica

«Será (...) lançado um Barómetro de Produtividade que medirá a evolução da economia portuguesa face às suas congéneres europeias», refere o jornal.

A iniciativa Economia em Movimento «terá como slogan a frase Portugal é capaz, «com o propósito de reforçar o optimismo e a auto-estima dos portugueses. Na sessão de lançamento serão apresentados alguns casos de sucesso de empresas portuguesas no estrangeiro», acrescenta ainda o DE.

Nada como um barómetro, um slogan e algumas apresentações para relançara a Economia nacional. Se o ridículo matasse...
posted by Miguel Noronha 12:04 da tarde

UE: Subsídios Agricolas

No EU Observer.

As the battle rages over reform of the EU's agriculture regime, a report has claimed that Europe's six biggest sugar producers received 819 million euro in subsidies in 2003.

The report, to be published by Oxfam International today (14 April), claims that six of the European Union's biggest sugar processors hold export subsidy receipts of 819 million euro.

The sum is similar to the estimated 800 million the EU and its members pledged for Iraqi reconstruction from November 2003 until the end of this year at a donor's conference in Madrid last year.

Oxfam has long campaigned for the EU to cut its export subsidies, which they say create an uneven playing field for producers from poorer countries.

According to the organisation, for every one euro worth of sugar exports the EU is spending ?3.30 in such subsidies.

This, they say, allows European producers to undercut producers in poorer countries who receive little or no such payments.

"The EU needs to display a sense of international responsibility commensurate with its market power", the report says.

Each year the EU exports around 5.3 million tonnes of sugar, a third of its total harvest and roughly equivalent to the total production of the world's seventh largest producer, Australia.

Australia and Brazil (the world's largest producer) last year joined forces with Thailand to complain about the EU's sugar subsides at the World Trade Organisation.

The WTO's initial ruling is expected this summer.

posted by Miguel Noronha 10:28 da manhã

Recomendado

Leiam " Iraque: lições de uma semana de instabilidade" no Liberdade de Expressão.
posted by Miguel Noronha 8:54 da manhã

Partido ecologista europeu quer acabar com publicidade a comida de plástico

Eu penso que seria pertinente legislar sobre a proibição deste tipo de iniciativas por estas, auto-nomeadas, polícias do politicamente correcto.
posted by Miguel Noronha 8:34 da manhã

terça-feira, abril 13, 2004

Iraq Is No Vietnam

O Instapundit chama a atenção para um artigo no Moscow Times.

The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has plenty of enemies both at home and abroad. A lot of people would love to see Bush get a bloody nose in Iraq, or anywhere else. Last week the critics had a field day: With heavy fighting in Fallujah and sporadic clashes breaking out elsewhere, Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy said that Iraq had become "George Bush's Vietnam," and declared that the United States needs a new leader.

It was Kennedy's older brother, John F. Kennedy, who dragged the United States into the Vietnam quagmire, and the senator should know better than to compare Vietnam and Iraq.

The Vietnam War was a battlefield in the global Cold War that pitted the United States against the Soviet Union and its allies. The Soviet defense industry supplied the North Vietnamese with the latest weapons. In 1975 North Vietnamese regulars, armed and trained by the Soviets, took Saigon. "Winning" the war in Vietnam was impossible without first winning the Cold War. So long as the Soviets were able to maintain a global balance of power, any local war -- in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Nicaragua -- tended to develop into a quagmire.

Today the world is a very different place, and the scope of the fighting in Iraq cannot be compared to Vietnam. The United States lost more than 60,000 soldiers and 8,000 aircraft in Vietnam. U.S. casualties in Iraq number fewer than 500. The nature of combat of Iraq, as demonstrated in Fallujah last week, is also different. Four U.S. civilian contractors were killed and their bodies mutilated by local residents. Less than 2,000 Marines moved in to find and punish the perpetrators.

Under Saddam Hussein, the Sunni Muslims of Fallujah, a city of some 400,000 inhabitants, were regularly recruited to serve as officers in the armed forces and the security services. When Baghdad fell, these loyalists found themselves out of a job and returned home. In Fallujah, they formed underground armed groups and waited for the Marines to attack. It is possible that the killing of the four contractors was a deliberate provocation intended to lure U.S. forces into the streets of Fallujah, where local armed bands lay in wait. In Vietnam, and more recently in Somalia in 1993, U.S. losses during street fighting led to outcry back home and the unconditional withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah outnumbered the Marines and were armed with Kalashnikov automatic rifles, RPG-7 antitank grenade launchers and mortars. Chechen fighters used the same weapons in Grozny in 1995, 1996 and 2000, killing thousands of Russian soldiers and destroying hundreds of armored vehicles.

Just like the Russians in Grozny, the Marines last week were supported by tanks and attack helicopters, but the end result was entirely different. U.S. forces did not bomb the city indiscriminately. The Iraqis fought well but were massacred. According to the latest body count, some 600 Iraqis died and another 1,000 were wounded. The Marines lost some 20 men.

posted by Miguel Noronha 10:18 da manhã

Hayek

Novo blogue sobre F.A. Hayek: Taking Hayek Seriously.
posted by Miguel Noronha 8:38 da manhã

segunda-feira, abril 12, 2004

Aviso - Comentários

O sistema de comentários foi, de novo, activado.

ACTUALIZAÇÃO: Comentários desactivados novamente...

ACTUALIZAÇÃO 2: De novo a funcionar. Vamos ver se é de vez...
posted by Miguel Noronha 5:46 da tarde

The Constitution Europe Needs

Last month, representatives from Eastern European nations -- primarily EU accession countries -- met in Bratislava to discuss economic growth issues. The conference on "Economic Reforms for Europe" was sponsored by Slovakia's Institute for Economic and Social Reforms and featured high-level government officials -- including six finance ministers -- as well as leaders from the private sector and nongovernmental organizations.

The conference covered issues such as tax policy and pension reform, areas where Eastern European nations have made impressive strides. But perhaps the most noteworthy feature was the mindset of the participants. Even though many of the accession countries are relatively poor, there was no clamoring for "structural adjustment funds" from Brussels or other special handouts. Instead, the Eastern Europeans merely wanted a chance to compete in the EU's internal market.

This refreshing attitude is confirmed by the issuance of a "Declaration on future economic reform in Europe." Signed by representatives of nongovernmental organizations in Eastern Europe, this Declaration outlines the views of the reform community and it focuses on principles rather than specific policy recommendations.

Unlike the current draft of the European Constitution, the two-page Bratislava Declaration is very straightforward. It lists key guidelines for a fair and prosperous society.

posted by Miguel Noronha 5:35 da tarde

Nova Esquerda, Velhas Práticas

PS de Salvaterra critica relações entre a câmara e o BE
posted by Miguel Noronha 3:43 da tarde

Hayek

"The Constitution of Liberty" de F.A. Hayek no Democracia Liberal.
posted by Miguel Noronha 2:20 da tarde

Pobreza e Globalização

Um estudo do Banco Mundial, citado por Johan Norberg, indica que a proporção de pessoas a viver abaixo do limiar de pobreza diminui, de 1981 a 2001, de 33% para 18%. Este estudo também revela que a maior redução se verificou nos países mais "globalizados" e que nas economias fechada a pobreza mostra uma tendência de crescimento.
posted by Miguel Noronha 12:21 da tarde

Revisionismos

Li no Expresso deste fim-de-semana que Daniel Oliveira (DO) têm uma visão positiva do PREC e que, inclusivamente, considera que foi neste período que nasceu o "direito à diversidade".

Compreendo que a DO lhe custe falar mal do PREC. Nesse fatidico periodo a extrema-esquerda assumiu o cotrolo do país. Munidos de uma, mais que duvidosa, "legitimidade revolucionária" colocaram em prática o seu programa político.

Quando no triunvirato comandante da revolução encotramos sinistras figuras como Vasco Gonçalves, Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho e Costa Gomes é difícil ter uma ideia positiva deste periodo.

Quando sabemos que a extrema-esquerda nos pretendia transformar num "paraíso" socialista (felizmente sem sucesso), impor a unicidade sindical (imposto até ao 25 de Novembro) e estatizar a Economia (objectivo atingido) é difícil considerar o PREC o auge da Democracia.
posted by Miguel Noronha 10:32 da manhã

Avisos

Um problema no sistema de comentários estava a prejudicar o acesso a este blogue. Até que o problema esteja resolvido este estará desligado. Qualquer comentário poderá ser enviado para o mail mk_nor@yahoo.com

Durante este fim-de-semana a caixa de correio entupiu. Se alguém me enviou algum mail durante este periodo terá de fazer novamente.
posted by Miguel Noronha 10:06 da manhã

Globalização

Renaul pode investir em Trás-os-Montes

A fábrica da Renault em Valladolid (Espanha) pode transferir a sua área de produção de componentes para cinco povoações transmontanas, segundo avança o Jornal de Notícias deste domingo. O negócio deve ficar concluído até ao final do ano.

Espera-se que os sindicatos e movimentos anti-globalização se insurjam contra esta deslocalização que vai lançar centenas de espanhois no desemprego.
posted by Miguel Noronha 9:14 da manhã

On

Estou de volta após umas repousantes mini-férias apenas (fugazmente) sobressaltadas pela visão de um ex-líder do PRD nos seus afazeres domésticos.
posted by Miguel Noronha 8:47 da manhã