A Lament on the impotence of democratic politics

Craig Murray’s latest post looks at the latest 2 examples of the collusion between government and commercial interests (Vodaphone and BAE systems (the giant aerospace company); notes the lack of public interest; and draws the pessimistic conclusion that "Conventional politics appears to have become irretrievably part of the malaise rather than offering any hope for a cure. But political activity outwith the mainstream is stifled by a bought media”. It’s worth giving the larger quote -
Sadly the comments on Craig’s posting (219 comments at the last count!) failed spectacularly to address the issue – descending to the religious ravings which are becoming an all too familar part of such threads. My own contribution (at the tail-end) was a rather pathetic appeal for a bit more humility in such discussions.

Instead of asserting opinions, can people not perhaps in these discussions share more quietly and analytically some of the perspectives which are out there on the possibilities of political and social action? For example, I've just finished reading the inspiring 2003 book "One No and Many Yeses" by Paul Kingsnorth. At other levels there are the writings of David Korten and Olin Wright's recent "Envisioning Realistic Utopias". Political parties and corporations remain the last protected species - and we should focus our energies on exploring why this is so; why it is so rarely investigated - and how we change it

All this gets us into the same territory I was trying to map out recently when I posed the question about

what programme elements might actually help release and sustain people power in a way which will force the corruption of modern elites to make significant and lasting concessions?

But, coincidentally, one of my other favourite blogs has produced a review of David Harvey’s The Enigma of Capital which I recently referred to as possibly offering a more solid analysis of the problems we face. Harvey’s book is not an easy read - and this review sets the book’s main arguments in the wider conext of other leftist writers who have faced the fact that there is something systemic in the latest global crisis. At this point, be warned, the langauge gets a bit heavy! All this reminds me of Ralph Miliband (father of Ed) ’s Parliamentary Socialism ((1962)which argued the basic pointlessness of the social democratic approach (The other 1,000 page book which arrived recently is in fact Donald Sassoon’s One Hundred Years of Socialism!).

Strange how few books come from political or economic academics offering broad, critical analyis of current political and economic life. David Harvey is a geographer! And the best stuff on the role of pension funds (and how they might be changed) is by a Marxist intellectual not associated with academia – Robin Blackburn. Both Paul Kingsnorth and Bill McKibben – who write on alternative systems - are campaigning journalists. Will Hutton who casts a periodic eye over the philosophical infrastructure which underpins the Anglo-saxon economic system (Them and Us is his latest 400 page blockbuster) is also a journalist.

The only UK academic I know who has written blunt analyses about the nature of our political system is the political development scientist – Colin Leys – whose time in Africa has clearly given him an important perspective his British academic colleagues lack. Sociologists are the masturbators par excellence - altough Olin Wright is an honourable exception with his recent Envisioning Realistic Utopias from the USA. In America the only challenging stuff comes form speculators like Nassim Taleb and George Soros – although Nobel-winning Joseph Stiglitz is an enfant terrible of the Economics profession and of World Bank and IMF policies there; and Paul Hawkin made us all think a decade or so ago with his Natural Capitalism.

Of course all this reflects the economic structure of the knowledge industry – with rewards going to ever-increasing specialisation (and mystification) – and, more recently, the binding of university funding to industrial needs. When I was in academia in the 1970s, I was shocked at how actively hostile academics were to inter-disciplinary activity. And the only Marxists who have managed to make a career in acadamia have generally been historians – who posed no threat since they offered only analysis or, like Edward Thompson, action against nuclear weapons. I have a feeling that the first step in bringing any sense to our political systems is a powerful attack on how social sciences are structured in the modern university – using Stanislaw's Social Sciences as Sorcery (very sadly long out of print)as the starting point. Instead of ridiculing Macburger Degrees, we should be honouring them as the logical extension of the contemporary university system.
I wonder if French and German social scientists are any different. Jacques Attali (ex-Head of the EBRD) is a prolific writer – although his latest book Sept lecons de Vie – survivre aux crises has abolutely no bibliographical refereces so it is difficult to know his reading. And has anyone really bettered the dual analysis offered in Robert Michel’s 1911 Political Parties which gave us his Iron Law of Oligarchy and Schumpeter’s (1942) Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy – and its minimalist concept of democracy as competition between the elites? And does that differ significantly from the emergent Confucian Chinese model set out in Daniel Bells’s latest book??? I realise that these last few references are a bit cryptic and will return to the theme shortly.

What I suppose I am trying to say is that change requires (a) description of what's wrong (making the case for change); (b) explaining how we got to this point (an analytical model); (c) a programme which offers a relevant and acceptable way of dealing with the problems; and (d) mechanisms for implementing these programmes in a coherent way. We have a lot of writing in the first three categories - but I find that most authors think the task is finished when they produce at page 300 the outline of their programme. Craig's started his blog with a strong assertion -

British democracy has lost its meaning. The political and economic system has come to serve the interests of a tiny elite, vastly wealthier than the run of the population, operating through corporate control. The state itself exists to serve the interests of these corporations, guided by a political class largely devoid of ideological belief and preoccupied with building their own careers and securing their own finances.
A bloated state sector is abused and mikled by a new class of massively overpaid public sector managers in every area of public provision - university, school and hospital administration, all executive branches of local government, housing associations and other arms length bodies. All provide high six figure salaries to those at the top of a bloated bureaucratic establishment. The "left", insofar as it exists, represents only these state sector vested interests. These people decide where the cuts fall, and they will not fall where they should - on them. They will fall largely on the services ordinary people need.

The 2 sentences of his with which I began this long piece strike to the heart of the issue which must be addressed -

Conventional politics appears to have become irretrievably part of the malaise rather than offering any hope for a cure. But political activity outwith the mainstream is stifled by a bought media.

The question is how (if at all) do we break out of this impasse? Or do we rather build an explicitly imperfect world on the Michels and Schumpeterian insight?
So thank you, Craig Murray, for sparking off this rant - which I have dignified in the title with a more musical Celtic word - lament!

The need for heroes?

Sarah in Romania has another great blog today on the Paunescu obsequies phenomenon which is well worth reading for its analysis of the possible social meaning of the outpourings of emotion and rhetoric which greeted this Poet and Senator’s death on Friday. First there is the issue of his status as a poet on which I’ve already made a comment. Strictly, of course, I’m not qualified to comment since I’m not able to read his poems in Romanian. But the mere fact that his poetry has not been translated into English seemed to me a fairly powerful signal that he was not regarded internationally – although Daniela tells me that his style would make him very difficult to translate. The Romanian Voice website offers 60 of his poems (in Romanian) – as against 28 of Sorescu’s. Perhaps he can be regared like Britain’s Roger McGough – one of the Liverpool poets of my generation whom I throughly enjoyed but was not considered then quite fit to join the poetic canon. Although Daniela also tells me that his poetry was so powerful that he was the subject of study even when still at University. He certainly was a larger than life figure as you can see on his blog which – given the life he led – was an intermittent one. We normally associate poetry with a quiet, reclusive life!
Then there is the issue of the overblown nature of the response to his death. Sarah is pretty outspoken on this -

I have come to see what a well known journalist meant when he said that Roumanians cannot discuss in a civil way, allowing themselves to respectfully disagree with other points of view. They do not debate, they only rebuke and call names. A very good example is here on this blog following a posting yesterday of a superb article in Vox Publica. I didnt remove the comment of invectives since everyone is entitled to express an opinion. But it seems that everyone who believes Adrian Paunescu was a paragon of virtue refuses to listen to the other side of the story. There is mass impertinence, rudeness, a refusal to take on board those who lived this time, knew him, were part of his circle and thus know very well what they are talking about. Several of these people are excellent journalists and also friends of mine who are always careful of what they say and how they express themselves for they have emerged from the times when they had to be very careful indeed. I have been profoundly disappointed by people on the 'he was an angel and so what if he adored Ceausescu' fence because I considered them better armed with reason, were far more capable of listening and were better educated than to be as vitriolic as some have been. This has been a very sad result for me of Paunescu's death - without it, I would not have witnessed this seemingly national feature and I still cannot bear to believe it is true.
And finally, it has very much brought home the point to me that Roumania is in dire need of someone or something to be proud of. The country is full of corrupt mafioso types on the wealthy list and there seems little chance of them ever vanishing - Vintu, Patriciu, Voicu, Gheara etc... and lets not even get started on the government. Of course there is need for a hero. Of course there is need for some kind of outburst of grief, of pride... even if it's not for the right person. It doesnt matter really. As the justice system proves itself time and time again to be one of injustice, the education system goes from bad to worse, the health system - well that you know as it's one of my repetitive lamentations, the capital mutilated of any beauty Ceausescu left behind...the list of disasters go on and on and Roumanians have to live with it every day to the extent that many friends of mine dont even bother with the newspapers anymore for they are totally saturated by bad news. There is such desire for a glint, a spark, a ray of hope, something to grab on to, someone to be proud of, to show to the world...and the death of Adrian Paunescu is the one. The country of my heart is in moral crisis...
The more disappointing the present is, the more one yearns for the past and Roumania seems to be suffering from a very dangerous form of amnaesia. They urgently need some kind of injection of clearer judgement for they are blinded by nationalist talk and mystical rhetoric.

It’s good she brings in the concept of „civility” – as a Brit I have always been struck with the adversarial nature of discussion here – at least amongst its (highly) educated people. Intellectualism is alive and well here – and is perhaps one of the reasons to explain why elite people are so distanced from one another in a constant struggle for position. The last 2 decades has also brought the empty loneliness of conspicious consumption which is not so obvious in some neighbouring countries which also went through the communist experience such as Bulgaria and Slovakia. Hardly surprising that there seems to be a search for something to be proud of. People are alienated from one another. There is no vision or force capable of binding people together.

Identity

I’ve always had great difficulty answering the simple question “What do you do?” “Student” was easy but, after graduation, I had a quick succession of jobs in what could be called generally the “planning” field - and “planner” is as vague a term as “manager” and enjoyed a rather limited vogue.
In 1968 I joined a polytechnic and was also elected to a town council – so “lecturer” was as good a description as what I did as any.

Using my voice was what I was paid for – whether to transmit information or opinions. I read widely – so “reader” was also a pertinent word. I became heavily involved in community development – managing to straddle the worlds of community action and political bureaucracy (for 20 years I was the Secretary of ruling Labour groups in municipal and regional Councils and also a sponsor of community action) and figured in a book about “reticulists” (networkers) – but imagine putting that word in a passport application!

For a few years I was Director of a so-called “Research Unit” which was more like a Think Tank in its proselytising workshops and publications celebrating the new rationalism of corporate management and community development. At age 43 my default activity became full-time (regional) politics – with a leader role but of a rather maverick nature who never aspired to the top job but was content to be at the interstices of bureaucracy, politics and academia. I remember my reception at an OECD function in central Sweden as someone with a proclivity to challenge.

All this paved the way for the “consultancy” which I have apparently practised for the past 20 years in Central Europe and Central Asia. But “consultant” is not only a vague but a (rightly) increasingly insulting term – so I was tempted for a period to enter the word “writer” on my Visa application forms since this was as good a description of what I actually did as any.

At one stage indeed, my despairing secretary in the Region had actually given me the nickname “Paperback writer”. Except that this was seen by many border guards in central Asia as a threatening activity! Robert Reich’s “symbolic analyst” briefly tempted – but was perhaps too close to the term “spy”!
When I did the Belbin test on team roles to which I was subjecting my teams, I had expected to come out as a leader – but was not altogether surprised to discover that my stronger role was a “resource person” – someone who surfed information and knowledge widely and shared it. What some people saw as the utopian streak in my writing gave me the idea of using the term “poet” at the airport guiches – but I have a poor memory for verse.

This morning, as I looked around at the various artefacts in the house, a new label came to me – “collector”! I collect beautiful objects – not only books and paintings but pottery, pens, pencils, laquered cases, miniatures, carpets, Uzbek wall-hangings, Kyrgyz and Iranian table coverings, glassware, terrace cotta figurines, plates, Chinese screens, wooden carvings et al. Of very little - except sentimental - value I hasten to add!

But, of course, I have these things simply because I have been an “explorer” – first of ideas (desperately searching for the holy grail) and then of countries – in the 1980s Western Europe, the 1990s central Europe – finally central Asia and beyond.

Some 25 years ago, when I was going through some difficult times, my sister-in-law tried to help me by encouraging me to explore the various roles I had – father,son, husband, politician, writer, activist etc. I didn’t understand what she was driving at. Now I do! Lecturer, reticulist, politician, maverick, leader, writer, explorer, consultant, resource person, collector – I have indeed played all these roles (and more too intimate for this blog!).

Makes me wonder what tombstone I should have carved for myself in the marvellous Sapanta cemetery in Maramures where people are remembered humourously in verse and pictures for their work or way they died!!

And it was TS Eliot who wrote that

old men ought to be explorers

Daniela tells me that TV is full today of the funeral obsequies of Adrian Panescu (see yesterday's blog). Particularly sickening in the light of the recent loss of Ion Olteanu.
As I've been blogging here for more than a year, I thought it would be useful to start looking at what I was chuntering on about a year ago.

Death of Ceaucescu's court poet and senator; alternatives

Dawn brings another superb, blue cloudless sky. The next section is from Sara in Romania's blog
Romanian poet Adrian Paunescu died this morning (5th Nov)from a heart attack (the third) at Floreasca Hospital in Bucharest aged sixty-seven. Reading FaceBook, I see friends posting his poems and plentiful comments of "Odihneasca-se in pace". Sorin Oprescu (the Bucharest mayor) has declared that Adrian Paunescu shall be laid to rest in the Aleea Scriitorilor of Bellu Cemetery on Sunday with all the honours befitting a poet of his calibre.
Considered one of the greatest poets of the post-war generation, he had political controversy attached to his name from the communist era, however, and is said to have been Ceausescu's 'court poet'... He did mea culpa, admitted fault in the early 90's and said he had behaved miserably and at some point justified his actions by needing better lodgings. By those who cannot forgive him, he has been labelled an 'opportunist', a boot licker', a man who 'tried to be a politician post-89'praised the deeds of Ceausescu' and 'organised gatherings at the stadium to chant odes to the joys of communism.' There are lots of other comments, too, that would not be fitting to add here today of all days. What to make of all that? It's as if we are discussing two different people - the talented poet who wrote verses such as the tender 'Ruga Pentru Parinti' , so moving it gives you goosebumps or 'Dumnezeul Salvarii', lovely too. This man was a magnificent writer, poet and painter of words. Perhaps then, we should make abstraction of his murky and controversial political past? Many say we should not. Does a man with such literary talent deserve to be forgiven for his wrongs? He has admitted shame at his actions and called himself some pretty offensive names publically.
It is, frankly, impossible to read his poetry and not be moved. Do we put him in the same class as other writers such as Kundera, Sadoveanu, Banus and Gunter Grass who fell along the wayside at some point or another to collaborate, coitoi and generally the lick boots of party leaders to live a little better? They did what so many others did 'to survive' but also for perks - for passports, for houses, the right to shop in the closed-circuit places where the average man could not have access... should we see them as different from the average Joe Bloggs in the street? Are they more difficult to forgive? Literature educates. Words empower and teach. They form and mould moral, social and spiritual thinking. This is a time long before I stepped foot in Roumania and thus my experience is only as witness to stories and the day to day life of others dear to me. I know they cannot and will not forgive. And so, what about the younger generation? Mine, I mean. The generation who is today between 30-40 years old. They are the friends of mine posting the beautiful verses of Adrian Paunescu on Facebook. They are the ones who drew my attention to the great outpouring of grief for this loss to Roumanian literature. My older Romanian friends stay quiet. Perhaps they comment on articles in the papers or simply sit still and remember. Perhaps there is nothing left to say.
Whatever we feel for Adrian Paunescu, one thing cannot be denied: the country has indeed lost another talented poet and shall be missed in the world of prose, verse, rhyme and word for generations to come. He has left an indelibly moving, poetic mark on the bookshelves of libraries, bookshops and sitting-rooms throughout Roumania and beyond with his 50 volumes. Between 1973-1985 when the last 'gathering' (cenaclul Flacara) took place, there were 1,615 shows with an estimated 6 million participants (voluntary or not - most of them were not. Some were caught on the street and dragged there to have a full house).
Here's 'In Love with Bucharest'...

This is a great post - but I would not agree that he was considered one of the greatest post-war Romanian poets. I'm sure, for example, he doesn't figure in the various English-language collections of post-war Romanian poetry - which certainly include Marin Sorescu's poems one of which I reproduced last weekend. Romania's "best-known" poet might be a better way of describing (best known by the Romanian population at large that is). I notice, for example, that Romanian Voice gives him 60 poems as against 28 of Sorescu's- and all in Romanian.

It must look a trifle odd for me to sit in Translyvania and read about China! In fact a large part of yesterday was spent in the pages of one of two 1,000 page books which have just arrived – German Genius, a well-produced book by Peter Watson which attempts to rectify what he (rightly) considers to be a serious ignorance by the English-speaking world of what Germany has contributed to the world in the past 200 years. I’ve previously confessed my Germanophilia – which I owe to my father. I read and speak the language, respect their professionalism and political life and admire the society they have built in the past 60 years. The long introduction of German Genius summarises various recent debates about the distinctiveness of german development (eg the “Historikerstreit” of the 1980s and the later “Sonderweg” thesis) is intellectual history at its best and demonstrate the depth of Watson’s reading and understanding. I found it difficult to get through an earlier book of his – A Terrible Beauty – the people and ideas that shaped the modern mind but find myself turing the pages of this massive book very eagerly. It helps that the chapters are short!
The little lane at the bootom of the garden was very busy yesterday – first a van which turned out to be from the electricity company with a maintenance team who lopped branches from trees which were in danger of fouling the line. This left a few trunks which will be a useful addition to my stock – and I duly trimmed and carried them up to the house. Very useful exercise! And today I will saw them into suitable sizes. Then a tractor towing a trailer full of cut logs for someone’s fire came by. Normally only the cows wander down this track.

In the evening I resumed my reading of the very useful One No, Many yeses by Paul Kingsnorth which contains great descriptions of and conversations with people who are standing up for their rights in places such as Papua New Guinea, Brazil or Boulder, Colorado. Now I’m into the section on the alternatives to the large corporations who poison our bodies and mind and destroy so much of our civilisation. He listens to David Korten at the 2002 Porto Alegre Social Forum and makes me feel guilty about sitting here and doing so little in this struggle. Instead of thinking about a paper for the next NISPAcee Conference (in May just down the road from here at Varna on the Black Sea), I should be attending conferences like the Social Fora!! But first, I have to sort out my mind - and read Olin Wright's Envisioning Real Utopias which I mentioned recently. Or at least, I should be linking up more actively with other sustainable livers in Romania and Bulgaria??

Universities are under the microscope at the moment – both in the UK and in Bulgaria

Graphic writing

Yesterday was very spectacular here – the light from the cloudless blue sky had a special edge to it - caused partly by the low arc the sun takes now which gives long shadows to the vegetation; and partly by the contrasting colours as the leaves in some of the trees turn yellow.
I spent the morning preparing a succulent lentil and vegetable soup and basking in the sun on the front verendah with another of Qiu Xiaoulong’s Shanghai detective Chen novels - Case of Two Cities – which seemed to me even better than the previous two I have read. Until now I read neither detective nor Chinese novels - Soul Mountain I had picked up by accident in the great knigomania chain of bookstores in Sofia simply because I noticed that the author, Gao Xingjian, had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. I had registered that the images and language were something special but had not followed up his other writing (or painting). But Chinese writing does seem to be rather special – hardly surprising that the savagery of both the 1970s cultural revolution and the headlong race for economic growth of the past 20 years has produced such incisive perspectives on humanity. In the scale of the upheaval, cruelty and absurdity it seems to have a lot in common with Europe's experience of the Black Death and 30 Years'War! By the evening I was well through a second book – Red Dust – a path through China – as picaresque and gripping in its tales of wanderings as Soul Mountain.
I have generally found English (as distinct fromIrish or Scottish!) novelists very two dimensional – but decided to give Anthony Powell a chance – not least because one reviwer in London Review of Books called his Dance to the Music of Time “one of English fiction’s few 20th century masterpieces”. After the vitality of the Chinese novels, the writing seemd to me so puerile if not pathetic.

Valentin Mandache’s post today reminds us of the depths into which Romania sank from the 1930s.

Most European countries are looking for huge savings in their national budgets. The UK Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has just published a report on previous efforts to cut public spending. 15 billion of 35 billion pounds savings were actually realised – and less than 40% sustainable ie 17% success rate.

absurd and autumnal Romania

The last week has seen glorous weather and I was sad to be missing the crispness of the mountain views – but the weather has held and I’ve just gone through the pleasure of opening up the Sirnea house for an unexpected visit in a warm early November. Sadly, Maritsa’s welcome was missing this time – the 80 year old hadn’t apparently been eating last week and has been taken to hospital in Brasov for a month. Viciu is therefore having to cope on his own – although, inevitably, he had his daughter from Bran and a friend doing various things in his kitchen when I arrived. It will be interesting to see how what he makes of my cooking! A few Amazon packets were waiting for me – the 2 Diderot books I mentioned in October; Primo Levi’s personal anthology (common book) The Search for Roots ; and a lovely hardback reproduction (complete with charming original sketches) of Jane Grigson’s 1971 Good Things which, as her opening sentence, nicely puts is “is not a cookery book but a book about enjoying food”.
Although so much of Romania has capitulated to American cultural crap, their television still manages to retain some great cultural programmes – I was a great fan in the mid 1990s of Josef Sava’s music interviews and celebrations. And I was very impressed last night with an hour long tribute to a little known intellectual and journalist of the immediate post-war period who suffered (Candide like) every infliction which could be visited on an individual. A young communist, he was thrown into jail by every political regime – on one occasion for refusing to inform on his academic boss in Cluj, the famous poet Blaga. I lost count of the number of years he spent in jail (“such an enjoyable experience – with an Archbishop on the bunk above me; a philosopher to my right; and another academic to my left”) – although he did manage to escape to the West – only to return because he was missing his wife One of his publications. I noticed, was called Journal of a journalist without a journal. He died a couple of months before Ceauecesu fell. No wonder Romania has played such a role in the history of the absurd! The programme is part of a weekly series about such people.

A useful table

Sadly, the blog does not seem to offer the facility of showing tables. I found this table a very useful one when I first saw it some years ago - and have not so far been able to work into my thinking.
The practice of technical assistance in reshaping state structures in transition countries is stuck with the characteristics shown in the first column – although the rhetoric of “local ownership” of the past 5 years or so has moved the thinking to the second column. The challenge, I feel, is now two-fold, to make that rhetoric more of a reality and then to design systems of technical assistance that move us into the final 2 columns. Hopefully the reader can follow the logic.

Four approaches to development

Approach 1. Benevolent 2. Participatory3. Rights-based 4. Obligation-based

Core concept
1. Doing good
2. effectiveness
3. Rights of “have-nots”
4. Obligations of “haves”

Dominant mode
Technical
Social
political
Ethical

Relationships of donors to recipients -
Blueprinted
Consultative
transformative
Reflective

Stakeholders seen as -
Beneficiaries
implementers
Citizens
Guides, teachers

accountability -
Upward to aid agency
Upward with some downward
multiple
Personal

Procedures -
conformity
diverse
negotiated
Learning

Organizational drivers -
Pressure to disburse
Balanced
Pressure for results
Expectations of responsible use of discretion

Source; Ideas for Development: R. Chambers (2005) p 208)

Sala Radio

I’m glad to report on a great Syrian shop (with everything you could expect from such a shop – not least the glorious smell as you enter) in the Matache area just 10 minutes walk from the flat at Piata Victoreii – just before the corner which takes you to Sala Radio (equivalent of BBC) quite a salubrious area amongst the general squalour of Matache. I emerged with my rucksack laden.
Daniela had reported from the radio special prices for their CDs – instead of which we were taken in a very knowledgeable pensioned group on a tour around the studios! One of the two 2 lady guides was so bowled over with having a foreigner to chaperone that she arranged for a dungeon to be opened in the PR Office to make sure I could buy some CDs! The Studios are celebrating their 82nd anniversary – and the Enescu disc I am listening to is a 1951 recording of some of his pieces under his baton! Quite incredible! This city could grow on me! And I’ve just noticed that they have a special station devoted to Romanian villages . It’s some years since we attended one of their live concerts – and they have a good chamber performance tomorrow evening – so I’ve made a promise!
On the way back, we also hit an interesting Indian/Turkish tea/coffee house – with Nargilae. Thank goodness, political correctness has not hit this place!
As I listen to Enescu, I am preparing with the lamb (so rare to find here) one of my Indian specialities. Already, in my enthusiasm, I have overspiced it – with the green thyme powder and garam marsala powders I so seldom get a chance to use. So I have hurriedly added raw carrot and potato slices before She Who Has To Be Obeyed arrives back from Obor market and spots the excess!
It’s important I clarify why yesterday’s blow-by-blow account of the interrogation at the Beijing police station is so important (for me). Abstract discussions are fine – but what counts is being able to challenge individual behaviour and conversations. That’s why my post last month about the falsity of the Statement of Interests entry of the young Romanian high-flier State Secretary was, for me, so important. Why can’t pensioners everywhere track such things???????