I believe in
the western Enlightenment model of free speech, human rights,
democracy and capitalism.
These ideas are universal, and they will work
for every country that adopts them.
Every country in the world should adopt these ideas.
They will be much freer, much happier,
and incidentally much richer,
if they do.
If the whole world adopts these ideas
it will mean
the end of war
forever.
This isn't an opinion.
This is statistical fact.
My world view might be shocking
if you were brought up in the polite left-liberal
consensus in Europe.
My view is that there is something basically wrong
with the non-westernised world.
My view is that humanity has discovered the correct way
to live - the so-called western way - and any country in the world
that doesn't adopt it is simply backward.
Other races aren't backward. Other cultures are.
Western values - reason, science, democracy, free speech,
freedom of religion, free press,
a secular state, private property, free enterprise, and so on -
are not the property of one racial group (as America itself shows).
They belong to all races,
and these values should be adopted by the
whole world.
2. We must defend the West (and all free countries)
My world view can be summed up by
Freedom House's list of free and unfree countries.
Freedom House
divides the world into
"Free", "Partly Free" and "Not Free".
Accepting that one could debate indefinitely where to draw the lines,
Freedom House's division does express a basic truth about the world.
About 2 billion people in the world
live in unfree countries,
and every civilized person must hope for their liberation.
For me, an ethical foreign policy would be
to be allies (including formal military allies)
of the countries in the "Free" category,
to be
neutral
about the countries in the "Partly Free" category,
and to be formally hostile
to the regimes in the "Not Free" category.
If you think that sounds reasonable, then why don't you
read
what countries are in each category,
and then you will realise how
skewed our foreign policy currently is.
I regard every regime in the "Not Free" category
as invalid and illegitimate.
These regimes have no right to exist
and should be replaced by free democracies.
I do not recognise as valid any vote in which these regimes
participated
- such as
UN resolutions,
UN world conferences,
or
Arab League meetings.
I prefer
Freedom House to
other human rights groups
such as Amnesty International
since the other groups refuse to rank countries.
They refuse to say
that such a thing as a "free world" exists
- that, for example,
the Netherlands is more free than Saudi Arabia.
Instead, they just list criticisms of each country.
But since every country can be criticised about something,
why should one take, say, criticisms of Sudan, China or
North Korea seriously.
After all, Britain and France can be criticised too.
So yes, Amnesty and the others do important work,
but they should have the courage to say that
there is such a thing as the free world
and it is not perfect but
it is better than the unfree world.
Trends in world freedom, 1946-2007.
Shows the rise and fall of communism.
From the Polity Project
at the
Center for Systemic Peace.
Red = Autocracy.
Black =
"Anocracy"
(a state with weak or non-existent central authority).
Blue = Democracy.
Freedom House
is my preferred source of human rights country reports.
Their
world map of freedom
clearly shows the unfree world
- communism,
Islam,
and plain old-fashioned dictatorships in Africa.
Of the 48 high-income countries,
80 percent of them rank as "Free" on political freedom.
At the very top,
20 out of 20 of the top richest countries in the world are "Free".
Of the "Not Free" countries,
76 percent of them are low-income,
24 percent are middle or high income.
Of the "Partly Free" countries,
71 percent are low-income,
29 percent are middle or high income.
Of the "Free" countries,
17 percent are low-income,
83 percent are middle or high income.
"Free" countries account for 89 percent of the world's wealth.
They are rich because they are free,
not for any other reason.
There is a clear correlation
between political freedom and prosperity,
just as there is
between economic freedom and prosperity.
Why is the world too stupid to see this? Why don't they
embrace freedom too?
Map of world freedom 2023,
based on rankings of Freedom House.
Green - "Free".
Yellow - "Partly Free".
Purple - "Not Free".
The worst countries in the world, 2014.
If protest in the West was logical,
almost all of it should be against these regimes -
with only a tiny fraction of protest energy left over
to protest against free countries
like the US and Israel.
The Paradox of the Fisks:
The most criticised societies in the world will be the least criminal societies.
The Democracy Index, 2022,
from The Economist.
Green - full or flawed democracies.
Yellow and Orange - Hybrid regimes.
Red and Black - Authoritarian regimes.
While the top countries are indeed fairly good countries, some countries get hammered.
Countries that are neutral do well.
Countries that take any role in fighting tyranny do badly.
And there are loads of random results.
As at 2018, on
"International peace and security"
they rank the UK no.79 and the USA no.98 in the world.
Russia, which invades its neighbours and is sponsoring a democidal war in Syria, scores better than either, at no.26.
And the top spots are random:
Georgia is no.1.
Brunei is no.2.
South Africa is no.3.
On
"Science and technology",
they rank the USA, which contributes more science and technology to humanity
than the rest of the world combined,
as only no.50 in the world.
For some reason,
Ukraine is no.1.
Czech Republic is no.2.
Hungary is no.3.
A useless jumble of a list.
See their ludicrous ranking, which
ranks UAE 14th in the world for "human rights".
Ireland is 17th.
USA 20th.
China 46th.
Russia 51st.
Israel 56th.
Belarus 81st.
Japan 83rd.
Qatar 84th.
Palestine 88th.
South Korea 98th.
Taiwan 102nd.
Pakistan 148th.
Hong Kong 156th.
Iran 168th.
Gibraltar 172nd.
Afghanistan 203rd.
Saint Kitts and Nevis 205th.
What an absurd jumble.
Their ranking is worthless.
2016 rankings include (from better to worse)
Rwanda - Ireland - New Zealand - Switzerland - Burundi - Germany - South Africa -
Netherlands - France - Denmark - UK - Mozambique - Belgium - Cuba - Spain - Belarus - Portugal - Canada -
US - Australia - Israel - Italy - Kazakhstan - Zimbabwe - Croatia.
This ranks the USA
the 10th most dangerous country for women in the world.
Why? Because it is not a survey of what countries are actually dangerous.
Rather it asked experts to list what countries were on their minds as they thought about women's rights.
And because Hollywood's
MeToo scandal
was in the news,
the USA was on people's minds.
Simple as that.
And yet this idiotic survey ran with it.
It lists the USA as worse for women than, among others:
Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Egypt,
almost all of Africa,
all of South America, Central America, Mexico.
There are 7 nations where atheism is punishable by death:
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Mauritania, the Maldives.
All 7 establish Islam as the state religion.
Pat Condell
says:
"Seven barbaric crapholes where the state can execute you for being atheist. Can anyone guess the religion?"
From here.
All over the Islamic world, the communist world,
and the third world,
Christians are oppressed and killed for their beliefs.
Christians are probably the most persecuted religious group in the world today.
Another estimate
that 105,000 Christians are killed every year because of their faith.
Irish Times, 23 Dec 2014, sums up the global persecution of Christians:
80 per cent of all acts of religious discrimination are directed at Christians.
100,000 Christians die every year because of their faith.
Christians face some form of discrimination in 139 countries.
Open Doors gives the 10 worst countries as (from 10th worst to worst):
Yemen, Iran, Pakistan, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia,
Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and North Korea.
9 of the 10 worst countries for Christian persecution are Muslim.
1 is communist.
Again,
I am an atheist.
I think Christianity is false,
and
Christianity has killed millions of people.
But
freedom of religion is what is important
- not whether everyone agrees on
abstract philosophical ideas.
Every Christian
in the world must be free to believe what they like
and practice and proselytise.
It is a disgrace that the western left does not care
about freedom of religion for Christians and others in the Islamic and communist worlds.
Islam is one of the main oppressors of religious freedom today
and throughout history.
So people can be sceptical about claims that Muslims are oppressed,
especially given the many lies about this topic
(e.g. claims that Israel "oppresses" Muslims).
However, oppressors come in many forms,
and
there are many times throughout history and today
when innocent Muslims have been persecuted
for their faith.
Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) ranks countries by press freedom.
But their ranking is very strange,
and seems to reflect left-wing politics
rather than the actual state of press freedom.
They rank European countries, with their restrictive libel laws,
laws against "racial"
and "religious" hatred,
lower blog and website activity,
and nervous journalists,
as more free than America.
For example, Ireland is freer than America, according to them.
Which is nice, but I don't see it.
RSF thinks Islamic countries are freer than Israel:
They rank Israel, with the only free media
in the Middle East, way down.
At different times they have ranked
Kuwait, Lebanon, Turkish Cyprus, Mauritania, the Maldives, Qatar, the UAE and even Arafat's PA above the free, diverse democracy of Israel.
Saudi Arabia:
6 and 7 Fitzwilliam Square East, Dublin 2.
Cuba:
2 Adelaide Court,
Adelaide Road,
Dublin 2.
Iran:
72 Mount Merrion Ave,
Blackrock, Co.Dublin.
Palestinian Authority:
10 Mount Merrion Ave,
Blackrock, Co.Dublin.
These embassies defile my beautiful city.
All these embassies should be shut down,
and the diplomats expelled from Ireland.
Ireland should not have diplomatic relations with these places
until they become free societies.
Ted Leddy
on claims that the Iranian Embassy intimidates Iranians in Ireland:
"the Iranian embassy in Dublin is engaged in spying against Irish and Iranian citizens in this country. The principal objective of this is to make note of which Iranians living here are engaging in anti regime politics. This is reported back to Tehran and the family members of these people are threatened that if their relatives in Ireland don't stop what they are doing, there will be serious consequences."
Protest
at Iranian Embassy, Dublin, Feb 2011.
From here.
The Rectory of
St. Philip and St. James Church,
Mount Merrion Avenue, Dublin,
in the
1887 to 1913 period,
before it was defiled by the tyranny of Iran.
The Rectory is now the Iranian Embassy.
Thom's Directory of Dublin
shows it for at least 1901 to 1945
as the home of the Rector of
St. Philip and St. James Church.
It is now called "Hollybrook",
and is the Embassy of a regime that persecutes
Christians.
Hopefully these defilers will be expelled from it soon.
Wouldn't it be lovely if it became the Rectory again?
See also
Google street view.
Iranian authorities raid Christian church at Christmas, Dec 2011, and detain everyone in the building, including children
attending Sunday school.
And update.
And this regime is allowed to continue to defile a Christian Rectory in Ireland?
Protesters at the Russian Embassy in Dublin after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The Russian Embassy was over the course of
many protests
attacked with paint,
and lots of graffiti,
and someone drove a truck at the gates.
While I cannot support attacks like that, it is refreshing to see Ireland angry with the embassy of a dictatorship for once,
rather than the norm my whole life, which is anger at the embassies of three democracies (US, UK, Israel).
More anger at the right targets, please.
For me, the most important issue
in all future world politics
is the need to prevent genocide and mass murder by dictators.
The only real, long-term solution to this
is to end
all dictatorships.
The breathtaking heroism of the journalists of the
Munich Post
in the 1920s and 1930s
(see
"The Poison Kitchen"
in Explaining Hitler
by Ron Rosenbaum)
is repeated every day by many activists and writers and journalists around the world
- always watching for the next tyrant
- always trying (and usually failing) to stop their rise.
The reality is that there is no such thing as law in this world,
and there never has been.
Within a sovereign state governments can do anything they like.
Murder, rape, torture and genocide go unpunished as they have always done.
And Pinochet's
arrest is one of the few hopeful signs
that at last there may come into existence
a form of law for this long-suffering planet.
Sovereignty - the friend of tyrants
The Sovereignty Con
by Ralph Peters
rages furiously against the UN and the left's
defence of "sovereignty".
"Today, claims of territorial sovereignty by dictators and
illegitimate regimes
amount to the biggest con in history.
No
matter how unfairly borders are drawn, no matter how
monstrously tyrants behave toward their populations, no
matter how ruthlessly a strongman seizes power, the world
pretends that
those who hold the reins in the capital city are
entitled to do whatever
they want on their own territory.
The current system is the greatest collective violation of
human rights in our time.
The United States must shatter this
antiquated scam"
"today's international revolutionaries are on
the political right.
The left wing represents the ancien regime"
Unfree regimes have no right to exist
and "every government should be
of the people, by the people,
and for the people"
- this sums up the revolution of the right.
This sick petition in support of Castro's Cuba
explicitly calls on the world
to "uphold the universal principles of national sovereignty,
respect for territorial integrity
and self-determination".
This is what the left stands for - not human rights.
Rudolph J. Rummel
has done some of the most exhaustive statistics
of history's genocide and state mass murder.
He has come to a simple, but totally unappreciated, point,
that, I believe, is now the central point of world politics.
Democracy brings peace, life and prosperity.
A powerful state brings war, genocide, death,
poverty and famine.
It's not an opinion.
It's statistical fact.
Reading these statistics
should innoculate you against all philosophies
(e.g. socialism)
that demand a powerful state.
The top killers of the 20th century (individuals).
From
Rudolph J. Rummel.
The 20 worst ever human slaughters, adjusted for world population size.
See interactive version (with stats) at New Scientist.
Estimates that Genghis Khan killed 40 million in 13th century
(equivalent to killing 777 million today).