Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Populist Democracy
I have stayed in the Millenium Hotel and eaten at Itsu. The last time for both was years ago, so I guess I didn't get any polonium -- Litvenenko croaked less than 3 weeks after his last visits to these establishments. Ironically, the first time I stayed in the Millenium (which then had a different name) was the week when we filed our Mareva injunction against a Russian company and froze their UK bank accounts. This was about ten years ago, when our company was involved in a major legal case against a Russian company which had been taken over by thugs. These guys were small-time hoods who had happened to get involved with aluminium and were making more money than they ever knew existed. We managed to relieve them of some of that money, but they went on to much bigger thefts and extended legal and commercial battles with Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska won those battles, and he now controls all the Russian aluminium business. He is also one of the few moguls who worked out a modus vivendi with Putin, and the two of them still dine together. At last report the (other) thugs were living very well in Paris.
I would guess that Putin is smart enough to know that poisoning guys like Litvenenko is bad for your image, and he personally is not involved. But he has supervised the creation of a sick culture, one wherein power cannot be challenged, and force remains the determining authority. There remains virtually no forum in Russia for the give and take which, in mature societies, produce the laws and mores by which people improve their lives. But we live in a world dependent on energy, and energy is worth over $60 a barrel, so Russia is rich, and Putin speaks for Russia. As a result, European "leaders" like Chirac fawn over him and invite him to their birthday parties.
Hugo Chavez has also just been reelected. Did you notice all the red t-shirts at his victory rallies? These were distributed for free by his party, paid for by $60 oil, oil which he has decreed belongs to the state, and the state belongs to him. One of my wife's students is Venezuelan, and she came to class in tears the day after the election. The fact that this girl attends a private school in Switzerland defines her as a daughter of the wealthy - she surely did not come from the horrid favellas which surround Caracas, the source of Chavez' support. But think for a moment about this girl's situation: Like her, many of us have recently seen our preferred party lose an election. But this does not mean we no longer have a voice, that we might well lose our jobs and possession, that we very likely will end up raising our children in a different country. That is what the manipulated "election" of Fidel Castro meant for the producers and thinkers of Cuba, just as Putin is creating a vast diaspora of productive and dynamic Russians - along with a certain number of thugs.
Jimmy Carter travels all over the globe, declaring elections such as those in Venezuela, Russia and Iran to have been fair. When Jimmy Carter turned out to be an incompetent president, the Americans simply turned him out of office. Putin, Chavez, and Ahmadinejad, however, will relinquish power when they decide they are good and ready. Judging by Castro's example, the only one who can speed that process up is God, and He seems excessively patient.
I would guess that Putin is smart enough to know that poisoning guys like Litvenenko is bad for your image, and he personally is not involved. But he has supervised the creation of a sick culture, one wherein power cannot be challenged, and force remains the determining authority. There remains virtually no forum in Russia for the give and take which, in mature societies, produce the laws and mores by which people improve their lives. But we live in a world dependent on energy, and energy is worth over $60 a barrel, so Russia is rich, and Putin speaks for Russia. As a result, European "leaders" like Chirac fawn over him and invite him to their birthday parties.
Hugo Chavez has also just been reelected. Did you notice all the red t-shirts at his victory rallies? These were distributed for free by his party, paid for by $60 oil, oil which he has decreed belongs to the state, and the state belongs to him. One of my wife's students is Venezuelan, and she came to class in tears the day after the election. The fact that this girl attends a private school in Switzerland defines her as a daughter of the wealthy - she surely did not come from the horrid favellas which surround Caracas, the source of Chavez' support. But think for a moment about this girl's situation: Like her, many of us have recently seen our preferred party lose an election. But this does not mean we no longer have a voice, that we might well lose our jobs and possession, that we very likely will end up raising our children in a different country. That is what the manipulated "election" of Fidel Castro meant for the producers and thinkers of Cuba, just as Putin is creating a vast diaspora of productive and dynamic Russians - along with a certain number of thugs.
Jimmy Carter travels all over the globe, declaring elections such as those in Venezuela, Russia and Iran to have been fair. When Jimmy Carter turned out to be an incompetent president, the Americans simply turned him out of office. Putin, Chavez, and Ahmadinejad, however, will relinquish power when they decide they are good and ready. Judging by Castro's example, the only one who can speed that process up is God, and He seems excessively patient.
