I have had a number of e-mail accusing me of being an enemy of democracy — drawn mainly from the title of my new book Democracy Kills. I am no more an enemy of democracy than I am of fast cars or fine wines which I know can be lethal if not used properly.  Therefore, I urge those interested in this very important issue to really engage, to stop pigeonholing and to argue the case for the value of democracy.

On page 376 of Democracy Kills, I quote a young Taiwanese politician, Bi-Khim Hsiao:- “Democracy is applicable to everyone. But you have to do it properly. We have created our democracy with our own hands and our own hard work and what we’ve done here counters the argument that democracy is not an Asian concept, that it is not applicable to Asians.  We’ve proved that wrong. We cherish our democracy and it can be applied everywhere whatever the culture, race or religion.”

Click here: Democracy Kills

After much effort in trying to retain my relationship with Palm, I have been dumped.  The circular conversations revolved around 32 and 64 bit, Windows Vista and Bluetooth. The upshot is that the company has adopted a policy that excludes customers with former Palm products. My Z22 is three years old.  Goodbye Palm. Welcome Apple and Blackberry.

The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF)  has been campaigning hard to end child slavery in the chocolate industry. Now the US government has asked it to help ensure that cocoa imported into America is ’slave free’.   Earlier this month, the US named cocoa farming as an industry in which child labour was prevalent.

But, the chocolate companies still think they can get away with keeping their customers in the dark about the origins of their raw products. Green and Blacks finely wrapped organic chocolate fails to tell us where the cocoa is grown. If it’s so good, why the secrecy?

Palm has failed to match its old technology to Windows Vista that is used by tens of millions of people. Its handhelds are now inoperable. In response to queries, it sends you a customer satisfaction survey.  Apple is different. I received an instant reponse to a file transfer problem with a comprehensible solution that worked – put together within an hour by Michelle.  

It’s a pity about Palm.  It’s got a new phone coming out. But what is the point of hunting new customers if you fail to protect the old. Palm used to be at the top of its game — or am I showing my age?

If God only brought in the Sun on the fourth day of creation, there would have been no way of measuring the length of the first three days. So how long would they have lasted to get the job done properly?

On October 10th, I’m sharing a panel at the Cheltenham Literary Festival with John Keane, author of the massive 958-page The Life and Death of Democracy. It  landed with a thud on my doorstep yesterday to read before the session.   I love the twist in the introduction. The first lamp of assembly-based democracy was not in Greece, as we tend to think, but in what is now Syria, Iraq and Iran. Aren’t those exactly the places to which we are now trying to export democracy? 

Click here: Democracy Kills

Cheltenham Literary Festival: State of Play with John Keane

An fascinating blog discussion followed my BBC Five Live interview with Rhod Sharpe on Wednesday Sept 22nd on Democracy Kills.

 http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/feeds/4832431854132623363/comments/default 

Contributors ask why I chose to compare Cuba to Haiti — instead of Thailand to Burma or North and South Korea — where the democratic systems have delivered a far high quality of life than the dictatorships. 

These are good questions — answered in full in the the book Democracy Kills – What’s So Good About Having The Vote? . 

Click here: Democracy Kills

Cocoa slave plantations in Ivory Coast.Last night I read your first chapter on the effective economic slavery of Children (and Adults) on remote cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast. This was a powerful, moving account. Personally, I found it penetrated my brain (and heart) better than the TV documentary on the same subject you made a couple of years ago; or, possibly, the reinforcement of the written word to the previously seen images had a cumulative effect. It was depressing for me, and engendered bitter reflections on the appalling inequalities and injustices underlying the apparently smooth, civilized surface of our life in England. It also sparked feelings of anger, and consequently a wish to effect change.

As it happens, I was recently reading about the certification of forest products, and pondering this question yesterday, as I applied teak oil to a garden chair of dubious South East Asian origin. So your point about insisting on the certification of the origin of cocoa is perfectly valid, and probably one of the ways forward. I’ll see what I can do at this end. I don’t want to get into big picture theorizing about capitalism, free markets and so forth at this stage – though I think that is a very worthwhile discussion to have again later.

But I want to comment a little on the ‘Washington consensus’ free-market fundamentalists: The ‘Washington Consensus’ refers to the nexus of free-market ideas centred in Washington at places like the World Bank, the IMF and the US government. They are appalling theorisers in ivory tower conditions, working from fundamentalist ideas, instead of the empirical reality which you so bravely picked out. In my corner of the financial markets, where I worked (on and off) from 1982 to 1994, I was always suspicious and somewhat contemptuous of these ‘bureaucrat bankers’ with plush jobs, flying around the world first class. That attitude has been nuanced but also reinforced by contact with some of these ‘Supranational’ institutions since – for instance, I went to the Ivory Coast myself in 1997, and worked at the African Development Bank for two weeks. I think many of their ideas are wrong, and destructive in the wrong context.Those fundamentalist free-market ideas are muddled, contradictory and even hypocritical, as exemplified by the Argentine economic debacle, as I tried to explain. Actually, the ideas are probably hostage to previous events, the aims of their sponsors (Western Governments) and organisational inertia. How can they insist that an African country throws open its markets, while subsidies and tariffs protect farmers and industries in the EU, USA, Japan etc..?

How can they have the sheer stupidity to apply the free market philosophy of a New York dealing room to an impoverished farmer, with only one buyer, who arrives from time to time down the pot-holed roads of the Ivory Coast jungle? How can they advocate free markets in one context, yet insist that Argentina fix its currency to the US Dollar?

Not only is it bad thinking, but it is bad ethics.Someone (or rather, a large group of people) need to agitate for change, and I congratulate you on throwing a little light on this specific appalling situation. Keep up the good work! As a hasty first ‘wish list’ I would suggest:-         

Certification of cocoa origin on consumer products-         

Pressure on food companies to devote time, money etc to bettering the lives of farmers at the root of their supply chain-          Involving: Medical facilities, Schools and Water services in villages-         

Direct investment in improving the supply chain, such as metalled roads and intermediate storage facilities-        

  Abolition of import duties on processed cocoa products into developed countries 

READ MORE IN DEMOCRACY KILLS: WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT HAVING THE VOTE Click here: Democracy Kills       

For many years, I have used a Palm to keep my contacts and diary.  Palm have naturally moved onto cell phones, but what I had never imagined was that the company would leave its old, loyal customers swinging in the wind.  My current Z22 is no more than about three years old. Yet Palm makes no updated 64 bit software and no effort to advise customers how to move their data onto new hardware.  With that attitude, little wonder Palm is struggling. Rule number one — bring your old customers with you — and you don’t need Harvard Business School to tell you that. 

Democracy Kills

BBC World Affairs correspondent HUMPHREY HAWKSLEY considers how our notions of democracy inform and obscure foreign policy, and explores the impact of failed and violent states in fiction and reportage.

Read More:-Click here: Democracy Kills — Untitled Books