Quotulatiousness

May 14, 2011

“Fair trade” coffee may make you feel virtuous, but it harms poor coffee producers

Filed under: Africa, Economics — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 10:34

Lots of people are scrupulous about selecting coffee that boasts that it’s “Fair Trade”, implying that other coffee is less ethical and more damaging to third world economies. This may be a dangerous misconception:

Saturday, on World Fair Trade Day, we have something else to feel guilty about. That fair-trade cup of coffee we savour may not only fail to ease the lot of poor farmers, it may actually help to impoverish them, according to a study out recently from Germany’s University of Hohenheim.

The study, which followed hundreds of Nicaraguan coffee farmers over a decade, concluded that farmers producing for the fair-trade market “are more often found below the absolute poverty line than conventional producers.

“Over a period of 10 years, our analysis shows that organic and organic-fair trade farmers have become poorer relative to conventional producers.”

How could an organization devoted to producing better results for poor coffee producers make their situation worse?

For starters, it discriminates against the very poorest of the world’s coffee farmers, most of whom are African, by requiring them to pay high certification fees. These fees — one of the factors that the German study cites as contributing to the farmers’ impoverishment — are especially perverse, given that the majority of Third World farmers are not only too poor to pay the certification fees, they’re also too poor to pay for the fertilizers and the pesticides that would disqualify coffee as certified organic.

Even worse, there’s also imposition of conditions on the farmers which violates local customs:

Most merchants of certified coffees are aware of these contradictions, but most won’t be aware of other problems in the certification business. For Third World farmers to qualify as fair-trade producers, and thus obtain higher prices for their coffee, farmers must join co-operatives. In some Third World societies, farmers readily accept the compromises of communal enterprise. In others, they balk. In patriarchal African societies, for example, the small coffee farm is the family business, its management a source of pride to the male head of the household. Joining a co-operative, and being told when and what and how to plant entails loss of dignity.

The cultural imperialist isn’t dead — he’s merely changed organizations.

The woes of the USS San Antonio

Filed under: Military, USA — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 09:54

What do you do when you buy a lemon? What if the lemon isn’t the anomaly, but the standard?

Some warships are cursed. They just don’t work right. When this happens to an automobile, you call it a lemon. But a defective warship is a more serious matter, and the U.S. Navy now fears it has an entire class of ships that is cursed. For the last five years, ever since the USS San Antonio, the first of the LPD 17 class amphibious ships entered service, there has been one problem after another. It began during sea trials, and there is no end in sight. Worse, all four subsequent LPD 17s to enter service exhibit similar problems. Most of the woes were created by poor workmanship and inadequate quality control by the builder. Contributing to these problems there are some poor design decisions and inadequate maintenance practices by the crew. But most of the problems occurred in the shipyard, while the ships were being built. The U.S. Navy sees this as symptomatic of what is wrong with the handful of yards that build most of American warships. This is especially embarrassing when compared to how well foreign shipyards produce similar warships.

Originally, the plan was for twelve LPD 17s to replace 41 smaller, older and worn out amphibious ships. Five LPD 17s have been built, four are under construction and another has been ordered. When the USS San Antonio entered service it was suddenly discovered that the builders had done a very shoddy job. It took the better part of a year to get the ship in shape. The second of the class, the USS New Orleans, was also riddled with defects that required several hundred million dollars to fix. This pattern of shoddy workmanship, incompetent management and outright lies (from the ship builders) continued, and resulted the order being cut to eleven ships. To add insult to injury, the last ship in the class is being named after politician John P. Murtha, who is generally hated by soldiers and marines for the way he politically exploited and defamed the troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is particularly painful because the LPD 17s carry marines into combat.

Many consider the San Antonio class as a poster child for all that’s wrong with American warship construction efforts. The ships are being delivered late, and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. The list of problems with the ships is long, embarrassing and seemingly without end. Although the San Antonio did get into service, it was then brought in for more inspections and sea trials, and failed miserably. Repairs are still underway to catch all the shipyard errors.


Detail from original image at Wikimedia.org.

Even more information on the long list of issues with the lead ship of the class here. According to the official website, the ship is “currently under going engine maintenance at Earl Industries shipyard in Portsmouth, VA”.

For their next act, they’ll allow “quartering large bodies of armed troops”

Filed under: Law, Liberty, USA — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 00:38

Indiana must be an interesting place to live, but their Supreme Court has an odd view of the notion that a man’s home is his castle:

Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes.

In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer’s entry.

“We believe … a right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence,” David said. “We also find that allowing resistance unnecessarily escalates the level of violence and therefore the risk of injuries to all parties involved without preventing the arrest.”

And as I’m sure the law’n’order folks will be quick to point out, if you’ve done nothing wrong you’ve got nothing to worry about, right?

Even better, this is the second time this week that the court has reduced the rights of Indiana residents against police intrusion:

This is the second major Indiana Supreme Court ruling this week involving police entry into a home.

On Tuesday, the court said police serving a warrant may enter a home without knocking if officers decide circumstances justify it. Prior to that ruling, police serving a warrant would have to obtain a judge’s permission to enter without knocking.

H/T to Walter Olson for the link.

QotD: The Liberal Party as Canada’s “Skull-and-Bones Society”

Filed under: Cancon, Politics, Quotations — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 00:19

John Manley strikes me as a shining example of one of the great tragedies of the Liberal Party of Canada: a fine public servant blessed with good sense, but subsumed by the weird rituals of that odd cult. Over the years I’ve been shocked at how many really smart, well-meaning ex-Liberals I’ve met who left the party, and public service, because their skills and talent go thrown under the bus at some point by those hidden party puppet-masters we hear so much about, but so rarely show themselves (I assume they’re in some underground fortress in Rosedale) because it was what the party required.

Not being a Central Canadian lawyer, I don’t think I can ever understand the sort of strange grip the Liberal party in its prime once seemed to have on people, but it certainly appeared like it was, for a very long time, some kind of skull-and-bones society, promising Canada’s ambitious, young, bright men and women a route to power, but requiring their allegiance till death. I consider sharp, well-meaning guys like Manley, or former Indian Affairs minister Bob Nault, victims of a game they were obliged to play in order to achieve what they wanted. Until the Liberal party’s recent conversion into a yawning, smoldering crater, if you wanted to make an impact in Canada, especially through government, you’d be best to sell your soul to the Trudeausmen — which, ironically, often meant submitting principle, and logic, to the greater good of the party. I can see why Manley had to go along with the ritual, and retain his silence about the peculiar and problematic universe of mini-lobby groups that had grown like weeds within the party itself. Perhaps, like a befuddled Moonie, he couldn’t even see the problems until he broke free of the party’s hold. But then again, it’s also hard to sound credible complaining about structural problems in your party when it keeps winning election after election after election.

Kevin Libin, “Where was John Manley when the Liberals needed him?”, National Post, 2011-05-13

This week in Guild Wars 2 news

Filed under: Gaming — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 00:03

I’ve been accumulating news snippets about the as-yet-to-be-formally-scheduled release of Guild Wars 2 for an email newsletter I send out to my friends and acquaintances in the Guild Wars community.

Part 1: Discussion of previous news

  • This week’s anniversary sale item at the Guild Wars in-game store is the Bonus Mission Pack.

Part 2: Guild Wars news

  • Reminder: If you’d like to keep track of the upcoming Winds of Change and other Guild Wars Beyond material, keep this page bookmarked — http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Beyond.
  • Ascalon Royal Family Masquerade Ball 2011 on May 21st. “The Ascalon Royal Family Masquerade Ball is a long forgotten formal event, engraved into history years before the searing. The Kingdom of Ascalon was once prosperous, led by King Adelbern and the Royal Family. During such times the ball was the yearly celebration to celebrate the wealth and beauty that was Ascalon.”

Part 3: Guild Wars 2 news

  • Interview at guild-hall.cz with Eric Flannum (Lead Designer), Jon Peters (Game Designer), Jeff Grubb (Game Designer), Colin Johanson (Lead Content Designer), Ree Soesbee (Game Designer). “Eric: My current favorite [dynamic event] starts with a norn named Gareth. He is looking after his son and his two daughters. These children are a bit of a handful (as most norn children are) and occupying all of his time so he’s asking generous adventurers who pass by to bring him dolyak meat so he can get his smoker going and make some much needed money. It’s a chain that involves his children wreaking havoc at the homestead and culminates in their attempt to use a “ritual” (which involves spreading honey all over the floor) to get the spirit of bear to send a bear play mate for them to wrestle. It turns out that their ritual is perhaps too good and much to their surprise an entire horde of bears descends upon the homestead. “
  • Exclusive interview with ArenaNet’s Bobby Stein. “By rough estimates, Guild Wars 2 will have as much text as the entirety of the original Guild Wars series, including all three standalone campaigns and the Eye of the North expansion. It’s absolutely enormous in terms of written content. Because this is such a massive undertaking, we’ve segmented duties for the various content areas. Jeff Grubb heads up the dungeon story. Ree Soesbee is the primary writer for the personal story chapters, along with Scott McGough from my team. Lastly, the writing team is the driving force for event writing and VO, as well as ambient scenes. I give all the major dialogue a “script doctoring” edit pass, and try to make adjustments so that it sounds more natural.”
  • Flameseeker Chronicles: Sharing the love. “It’s been a busy week in Guild Wars 2 news! Some might argue that point because of the lack of big reveals, but a large number of little details can be just as good as one or two huge unveilings. I think the real problem is that we’re at a point in the cycle right now when everyone’s feeling weary of the endless road toward launch. There’s no definitive end in sight; maybe this year, maybe next year, who knows. That feeling comes and goes — it’s been a regular part of the hype for a very long time now. Sometimes the fans just go into a lull because they’re tired of the whole mess and all they really want is a closed beta window.”
  • Video of Lion’s Arch. “The most diverse and cosmopolitan city in Tyria, Lion’s Arch is a melting pot where all the races gather and trade. Lion’s Arch owes no allegiance to any race or nation, but stands on its own — and it does so by virtue of its active navy, its financial strength, and the intelligence and cunning of its leaders.”
  • Walking (as opposed to running) will be included in Guild Wars 2.
  • ArenaNet’s approach to Real World experience. “Some college internships are more about filing paperwork, fetching coffee and performing work that is only marginally related to the host company’s core service or product, all in the name of earning a few college credits and the ability to claim “I have experience.” But Guild Wars house ArenaNet says its new internship program, dubbed “Arena University,” aims to give participants real-world game development experience, as well as something to show for it in a commercial product. “
  • Lion’s Arch: Building the heart of the city. “Attention-to-detail in games is important to me, not just as a designer, but also as a player. I’m the type who will explore every nook and cranny when I get to a new area, or I’ll run around talking to everyone to make sure I’m not missing even the smallest kernel of information. I will even put my quest or mission on the shelf briefly and just stand around watching characters go about their business. So that’s why, when Colin Johanson approached me about taking on the hefty job of designing the cities of Guild Wars 2, I jumped at the chance: it provides me the opportunity to fill our world’s cities with the details I crave.”

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