Unguided Blog

I had to give a hiatus to blogging due to a sickness of a relative of mine. Well, she is still sick but better at least. Same, however, can not be said for our beautiful government; they are simply getting worse. This lovely government with sweet ministers who are not even worth standing next to them in the same room, has finally added their most democratic endeavor to their score card: all access to blogger.com and blogspot.com domains has been blocked as of last Friday.

Of course, despite a few geniuses who claim this is a liberal government and will continue to say so, I have never shared their view. I am usually good at analyzing people, 25 plus years of management experience in weird and wonderful places gives one an edge, I believe.

I have always watched my language here. Yet, I can not find a more appropriate word for these people:

Assholes!

Come on, block this blog, too.

What happens when you combine oriental shrewdness with modern business practices? I can not help but think about it when I read the post EGYPT: What’s beyond traffic?! at Babylon & Beyond in Los Angeles Times. This is the paragraph to blame:

The new law has been met with several suspicions: First, many people allege the heavy fines aim at extracting more resources for the indebted treasury while others believe that the imposition of new safety measures aim at benefiting government-supported businessmen who would allegedly be involved in the importation of anti-reflection stop triangles, first-aid kits and fire extinguishers, which are now required in all cars. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif had reportedly denied such accusations saying that the government just sought to tighten safety measures and eliminate traffic jams.

Ignoring Prime Minister Nazif’s comment, I have nothing to say about government-supported businesses will benefit most, because it is a certainty. I have doubts, though, if they will succeed pulling up the sorely needed resources to beef up the treasury. As the writer has pointed out:

On the contrary, the new law is believed to have opened a new door for more corruption as it gives cops a better chance to ask for higher bribes and turn a blind eye to violations in return.

If they are not careful, the new law is indeed likely to increase bribes while not being registered in inflation statistics for they are completely off the record, and leave the treasury empty like it usually has been before. Fortunately, there is an easy solution to every difficult problem as Occam had proved with its razor long time ago. Our elders have said: “There is no need to rediscover America, it has already been discovered.” For the Egyptian officials, this typically translates to: Follow our beautiful government (you, dear readers, follow me).

Read the rest of this entry »

Stephen J. Dubner of New York Times points to an article dubbed Muslim Land Joins Ranks of Tigers in The Wall Street Journal, and finds it fascinating in his short post You Don’t Have to Be Freewheeling to Love Free Markets. Since the Journal article required a paid subscription, I was short of finding it fascinating, but the first three free paragraphs gave me a good idea:

When an Islamist-leaning political party took charge of Turkey six years ago, this vibrant Mediterranean resort town [Antalya] feared a bumpy ride for a local economy driven in part by booze and bikinis.

Today, says Ahmet Barut, a hotel magnate here, the only real question is whether the town can sustain an unprecedented economic boom. He’s not keen on the teetotaling habits of the governing party’s leaders, nor the headscarves worn by their wives, but he applauds a key part of their record: “They are good at economics.”

From tourism and tomato growing to car making, Turkey has prospered far more under an Islam-tinged government than it did under some previous, ardently secular administrations more in tune with the often decidedly un-Islamic ways of many Turkish businesspeople.

Read the rest of this entry »

Newsweek has an amusing article. Titled Lies, Damned Lies and Inflation Statistics, it gently criticizes the unreliability of official inflation data. The sub-title is even catchier: “Developing countries like China are infamous for fudging economic stats, but in reality, lying about inflation is as American as baseball.” Apparently, the belief that things are worse than governments are willing to admit is trickling down from the ivory tower.

I have not been to China except Hong Kong and that was before its accession, and baseball closely followed by cricket is one of the few games I have had difficulty to understand what really is going on. But I do know that Chinese officials do not deserve that title. None can beat our beautiful government (Turkish government for the non-followers of this web log) when it comes to fudging (I love this word, I can not help but think it is some kind of dessert) inflation data.

Now, let us have a closer look at the figures of 2008, first half, to see how much the prices have increased:

Read the rest of this entry »

Free, my a55! I almost forgot that our beautiful government has been blocking YouTube for more than two months. I was reading a friend’s blog (Hi, SFO), and he linked to a YouTube video of Tito Puento interpreting Dave Brubeck’s famous classic “Take Five”. Naturally I clicked it. And I waited, waited, refreshed, and waited some more. Nope, nothing’s happening. After a few more tries, I almost gave up, thinking the site was down. Then it occurred to me that those beautiful people in the government of ours, the chimpanzees, sorry champions of democracy, who were closer to God (well, they are closer than me, for sure) denied access to YouTube so that no harm would come to 70 million citizens of this country.

I remember the days of military regime. Good old days! Even those, the top brass I mean, were kind enough to let you know what was allowed and what was not. Even censorship must have rules and principles, don’t you think so? They could have smoothly redirected me to a page, telling how censor was good for me and my children, how it was done for the benefit of the many, of the bright days ahead, a secure place in the heavens, etc, etc. No? Is it not my right as a voting and tax paying citizen to know that a site is blocked? Don’t I have a right to know? What happened to the rule of accountability and transparency in government? I am disappointed. I really am.

As a law abiding citizen, of course I did not access YouTube, directly I mean. I watched the video and wanted to share with you. The embedding code was problematic, though. It was not XHTML 1.0 strict but a quick search yielded positive results and after changing the code slightly, the video has taken its place in my non-democratic blog where I am the sole benevolent dictator. Hope you like it.

Read the rest of this entry »