The lessons of behavioural economics
December 9th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
New research into behavioural economics published by the Communications Consumer Panel today shows that vulnerable consumers, particularly low income consumers and to a lesser degree older consumers, are more likely to display the biases identified by behavioural economics. This can put them at particular disadvantage in complex markets such as communications.
You can check out the report here.
If you’re interested in behavioural economics, I can recommend a very accessible book called “Predictably Irrational” [my review here].
Posted in Consumer matters | Comments (0)
Forgotten World (229): Vanuata
December 9th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Vanuatu – a string of more than 80 Pacific islands once known as the New Hebrides – achieved independence from France and Britain in 1980. Most of the islands are inhabited and the total population is almost 250,000.
Vanuatu is mountainous and much of it is covered with tropical rain forests. Like most of the area, it is prone to earthquakes and tidal waves. Most of the people live in rural areas and practice subsistence agriculture.
Vanuatu has been spared the unrest which has befallen neighbouring countries such as the Solomon Islands and Fiji, although the largest island, Espiritu Santo, experienced a brief insurrection in 1980
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Five years of Cameron’s leadership
December 8th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
It’s five years since David Cameron was elected leader of the Conservative Party, an event which led in May of this year to him becoming the youngest British Prime Minister since 1812.
The BBC web site has a summary of the main events along the road.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Forgotten World (228): American Samoa
December 8th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Settled as early as 1000 B.C., Samoa in the South Pacific was “discovered” by European explorers in the 18th century. International rivalries in the latter half of the 19th century were settled by an 1899 treaty in which Germany and the United States divided the Samoan archipelago. The USA formally occupied its portion – a smaller group of eastern islands with the excellent harbor of Pago Pago – the following year.
American Samoa has a population of around 65, 000. People born there are American nationals but are not American citizens unless one of their parents is a U.S. citizen. However, American Samoans are entitled to free and unrestricted entry into the United States. As U.S. nationals, American Samoans may not vote in U.S. presidential elections but they are entitled to elect one non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
How many nuclear weapons do we need?
December 7th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
We’ve now had 10 weeks of my 12-week course at the City Lit in central London entitled “International Relations And World Conflict”. The latest session was devoted to nuclear disarmament.
Wikipedia provides an estimate of the number of nuclear weapons possessed the USA, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. You can check out the statistics here.
Although the total numbers are down from the time of the Cold War, there are still more than enough to wipe out humankind. Of course, it would be literally suicidal for any nuclear state to provoke such an all-out conflict, so why do we have nuclear weapons if in practicee they cannot be used?
The only rational argument is deterrence: if you think you might be attacked by a nuclear weapon, you want to be able to threaten a nuclear reaction that will deter the intended attacker from so acting. How many warheads does one need for such a deterrence?
One or two modern-sized nuclear weapons should take out the capital city of an aggressor and take the nation back to pre-industrial times. Let’s say that you need one or two more in case there are maintenance or renewal issues. So around five should do it.
But the UK alone has 160 active warheads. The USA has around 2,500 and Russia has more than 4,500. As Spock would say, it’s illogical.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (1)
Forgotten World (227): Montserrat
December 7th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Montserrat is a self-governing British colony, an island in the Caribbean with a mere 4,500 citizens. In 1997 a major eruption devastated the southern part of the island and buried the capital, Plymouth. Agricultural land was destroyed, villages were flattened, and 19 people were killed.
The crisis prompted more than half of the island’s population to leave; those who stayed were evacuated to the north. The restless volcano has prevented their return. Britain offered temporary, and later permanent, residence to all Montserratians. Others left for New York, or for other Caribbean islands including Antigua.
Montserratians living in the US have had their “temporary protected status” revoked and many may have to leave. With volcanic activity in their homeland unlikely to cease, the US Department of Homeland Security no longer considered their situation to be temporary.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Which UK government department blogs the most?
December 6th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
The answer might surprise you. It’s the Foreign & Commonwealth Office which has more than 50 bloggers from all corners of the globe.
Good for them.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Forgotten World (226): Hungary
December 6th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
It’s one of the regular weeks of postings in my long-running series called Forgotten World – a look at parts of the world that too rarely feature in our media or thoughts. You can check the previous 225 entries here.
Perhaps the reason why Hungary – a nation of 10 million – is not so much in the public mind as some other others of Central & Eastern Europe is that, unlike many of those countries, it did not experience a revolution in 1989 – it had a long process of gradual political reform – and arguably kick-started those revolutions by allowing East Germans to flee through its territory to Austria.
Hungary’s post-communist economic transition was achieved relatively smoothly. Within four years of the collapse of communism, nearly half of the country’s economic enterprises had been transferred to the private sector, and by 1998 Hungary was attracting nearly half of all foreign direct investment in its region.
Ten years later, the picture looked rather less rosy. A high level of both private and state borrowing left the country particularly vulnerable to the credit crunch of 2008, and in October of that year the government was forced to appeal to international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for massive loans in a bid to stave off economic collapse.
Dissatisfaction with the centre-left coalition government’s handling of the economy from 2002 to 2010 coincided with the rise of the right-wing nationalist party Jobbik, known for its anti-Semitic and anti-Roma rhetoric.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
The art of Trevor Jessop
December 5th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
On our trip to Indochina in 2006 [my account here], we befriended Trevor and Tessa Jessop from the Isle of Wight and have kept in touch since.
Trev is an accomplished artist and I am the proud owner of a sketch of Lawrence of Arabia that he produced specially for me.
He is now promoting his work through a new web site here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (2)
The case for evolution (1)
December 4th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
In the last few weeks, I’ve read two books on evolution:
What struck me reading these texts is that evolution is a complicated subject and there are very few brief, accurate and intelligible pieces of writing on the origins of humankind. So I’ve spent the last few days drafting an essay which attempts to address that gap. You can read my short explanation here.
One test of the extent to which this essay meets a need will be how long it takes for a Google search on the words “case for evolution” to bring my work onto the first page of results.
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (2)