The liberty of citizens

Posted by on

In the 19th Century Lord Acton said that the most important responsibility of government was to protect the liberties of citizens.  Fast forward to the early 21st Century and a committee of EU ministers published a joint letter in the International Herald Tribune which stated that government’s prime task was to protect the “safety of citizens”.  Think about it.  To adequately keep citizens safe the government has to restrict our liberties, spy on us and rout out those who intend us harm.

In time of war it seems reasonable to concur with the EU  committee, but only as  long as a state of emergency exists, and with strict sunset clauses. Epicurus, I believe, would have pointed out that liberty comes with risks, but that those risks are worth putting up with because our liberties are priceless.  At the moment, under the banner of protecting us, governments and giant corporations are invading our privacy, ferreting away our secrets, and studying our most private likes and dislikes. We will pay a high price for the rule of the control freaks, “protecting” us.

Nothing seems to stay the same

Posted by on

Near where we stay is a restaurant called “Spanish Garden”.  It is run by Jose, brother of a famous restaurateur in Spain.  The food is really Spanish and the Sangria is really Sangria.  We are well-known at the “Spanish Garden”.  They recognise both our voices on the phone when we book.   Jose comes out of the kitchen, sits down at our table and chats to us about life in America and in Spain, and we have a good laugh with him.  What happens to the food in the kitchen while we are telling stories, giggling together, I have never worked out.  The “Spanish Garden” is different – its immediate surroundings are indifferent, but the food, the wine,  and the welcome are in a class of their own.  We generally totter home on foot just slightly tipsy, often singing.  Epicurus would have been delighted.

Today we tried to book a table.  Jose has had a financial offer for the restaurant he couldn’t refuse.  It’s strange.  I feel truly upset.  This is a spot that is sophisticated without being fancy, Epicurean in the best sense, European in its relaxed and humourous attitude.  We have discovered nothing else quite like it.  We have a restaurant in Washington that we enjoy, but it is our companions only who are the stars, not the staff,  not the ambience, nor the food.  Thus a piece of the jigsaw of civilised life gone missing amid the ordinariness of living.

Oh, well. Something will turn up.

Embryo controversy in China

Posted by on

Chinese scientists have genetically modified human embryos for the first time, prompting calls for a worldwide ban on the practice. The researchers, at Sun Yat-sen University, modified genes responsible for the fatal blood disorder thalassemia in “non-viable” embryos that were later destroyed. Their work was only partly successful, and caused unexpected mutations in other genes.

At least four teams in China are thought to be trying to modify genes in embryos, and is seems that the Chinese government has no problem with it.  Clearly, it has so far been proven to be unsafe, and I think it is unethical.  I have no problem with abortion if the baby is shown to be suffering from an incurable disease, the result of rape, or will be unwanted and unloved.  But playing around with an embryo when doing so has side-effects we don’t expect or understand, then throwing away the embryo when your idea doesn’t work, goes way goes too far, even for me.  I seek support for this attitude from the point of view of the Epicurean ideal of moderation.  This Chinese effort is neither moderate, nor does it show any concern for other living creatures.  How far would they go?  (information fromThe Week May 2 2015)

Paying the minimum wage

Posted by on

To The Daily Telegraph
“Peter Kidson and others who knock the minimum wage present a weak argument.  If I choose to run a business and use a person’s skills or labour for my benefit, then it is only right that I compensate that person sufficiently. If an employer cannot generate enough income to pay employees properly, then he or she should question his or her ability to run a business, rather than expect workers to subsidise the inefficiencies of their boss”.   Derek Turner, Brill, Buckinghamshire

Bravo!  There  are too many marginal businesses that claim that they cannot afford to pay a minimum wage.  If this is the case then their business plans are poor, and their owners should find work in profitable and well-managed companies.  The real truth is that a lot of those who protest about the minimum wage and government interference in the “market” are paying as little as they can get away with to poor, desperate people, while inflating management salaries. This attitude towards human beings who work for you is enthusiastically held by libertarians, which is why liberatarian has nothing to do with Epicureanism.  Epicureanism stands for getting along with people, helping them, not exploiting them.  This is not a quote from Epicurus, but could be: “Without a willing and enthusiastic workforce your company has no long- term future”.  Treating people well is the most important investment you can make in success.

Cellphones in school

Posted by on

There is a school in Washington DC called Benjamin Banneker Academic High School that has the honour of being in the top 2% in the Washington Post list of America’s most challenging schools.  It has another distinction – it will not allow personal smartphones, tablets etc in school and has cellphone lockers in the foyer where the gadgets have to be stored during school hours. (My grandson has the same arrangement in his British school).

Many teachers, to quote Jay Mathews, who writes about this sort of thing for the Washington Post, says “Many teachers think that electronic devices have turned classes into uninspired rehashes of Google, with fewer student exchanges about important issues, and little retention of facts, concepts or procedures”.  Another teacher commented, “The biggest change I have seen since the advent of smartphones is an apparent inability, not aversion, to concentrate for an extended period of time” .  At Banneker, apparently, kids actually talk to one another;  elsewhere there is probably an eerie silence as each child gazes at a screen.  On the other hand I bet the chatting kids at lunch are complaining about the cellphone ban in class!

I actually heard someone claim that remembering facts was now, with Google, an old- fashioned concept and that rote memory, like times tables or  mental arithmetic, is now superfluous.  Perhaps our younger readers could agree or disagree?  My personal view is that those who believe this are due for an unwelcome surprise when they engage with adult life.