An interesting report that suggests the Americans could learn a little from the more laid-back British approach to colonial transitions. (But, hey, the Brits have a little more experience in these matters, don’t they?) I was impressed by the following story. In a firefight, two innocent Iraqis were killed by British soldiers. The Brits were worried about tribal retribution:
So the next day two British officers, two Iraqi lawyers and a translator go to the hospital and ask how the locals deal with this sort of thing. The concept of “Fasil” or blood money is explained to them. A couple of days later, the word spreads that the British have paid 15 million Iraqi dinars in blood money to the families of the two Iraqi men. Further bloodshed was stopped. Perfect.
I am not discussing the moral correctness of blood money. This is the way things are done here and if this money will stop any sort of revenge killings then it is worth it. No, I only have one comment: being foreigners, they paid too much. Habibi, everything is bargainable here, and paying 15 million in blood money will ruin the blood money market – it is way too much. You should improve your tribal connections and get someone to bargain for you.
I cracked a smile at that one. But what a perfect example of British pragmatism.
LILEKS ON UNIONS: Captures their essence beautifully:
What does it say about my industry that the worst paper in the English language is our official newspaper, the Guild Reporter? It manages to sum up everything about unions that gripes me- the joylessness, the complaining, the looming doom, the whining about how the world is set up entirely for the wishes of small cartoon men in striped pants and top hats who own everything from Baltic Avenue to Boardwalk. It always has the flavor of the smart but unfashionable kids with no social skills sitting around the high school cafeteria bitching about the jocks, with one exception: top union management would be the only subculture that could become hipper by getting into Dungeons and Dragons. At least it would give them a new set of descriptive terms for their foes. I’d love to pick up the union paper and read “Management takes cue from Mordor, hires scab-Orks” – it would suggest they have a sense of humor.
Perfect. The aesthetic case against organized labor is, I think, irrefutable.
The Dish 