Henry Kissinger is said to have once opined that “academic debates are so bitter because the stakes are so low”. I”m not exactly endorsing that view — wouldn”t say much about my career choice, would it? — but I did think of that quote today, because of this debate:
Greg Mankiw: Blah blah blah health care blah blah blah market best.
Paul Krugman: Meoooww.
Greg Mankiw: Meeeeeoooooowwwwwww.
Ok, ok, that’’s not actually what they said. But it wasn”t far off.
Here’’s what actually transpired:
Mankiw:
If the government has a dominant role in buying the services of doctors and other health care providers, it can force prices down. Once the government is virtually the only game in town, health care providers will have little choice but to take whatever they can get. It is no wonder that the American Medical Association opposes the public option.
To be sure, squeezing suppliers would have unpleasant side effects. Over time, society would end up with fewer doctors and other health care workers. The reduced quantity of services would somehow need to be rationed among competing demands. Such rationing is unlikely to work well.
FAIRNESS is in the eye of the beholder, but nothing about a government-run health care system strikes me as fair. Squeezing providers would save the rest of us money, but so would a special tax levied only on health care workers, and that is manifestly inequitable.
In the end, it would be a mistake to expect too much from health insurance reform. A competitive system of private insurers, lightly regulated to ensure that the market works well, would offer Americans the best health care at the best prices.
Krugman’’s response:
Both George Will and Greg Mankiw basically argue that we don’t need a government role because we can trust the market to work ‘” hey, we do it for groceries, right?
Um, economists have known for 45 years ‘” ever since Kenneth Arrow’s seminal paper ‘” that the standard competitive market model just doesn’t work for health care: adverse selection and moral hazard are so central to the enterprise that nobody, nobody expects free-market principles to be enough. To act all wide-eyed and innocent about these problems at this late date is either remarkably ignorant or simply disingenuous.
And Mankiw’’s final word:
On the issue of tone, I again think I understand Paul’’s point of view. He likely believes that civility is overrated. He seems to think that in the blogosphere, and perhaps in the public debate more generally, you score points simply by insulting your intellectual adversaries. Sadly, I am afraid he may be right.
Right-o. My personal view on Krugman is: great economist, excellent writer, kind of a douche. His commentary during last year’’s Democratic primaries, when he blindly supported everything Hillary did and said, really got my goat. My personal view on Mankiw is: anyone who thinks the market can provide healthcare adequately in an advanced economy can”t possibly be thinking right and being honest at the same time. The healthcare system in America is so broken, it’’s actually quite funny.
Anyway, here’’s good ol” Nate Silver adjudicating the dispute.
I absolutely love my country. Why? Because shit like this simply cannot, I repeat cannot, happen anywhere else. It just makes my day brighter.
On Saturday, the Punjab Assembly saw a walk-out in protest against, as Dawn says, something that was never said. Please, please, please read the whole article. In fact, I am copying and pasting here to save you the trouble of having to click.
LAHORE, June 27: Sheikh Ala-ud-Din of PML-Q Forward Bloc on Saturday must have made history in the Punjab Assembly when he walked out of the house in protest against something that was never said.
The ire of the Sheikh, a member from Kasur (PP-181) fell on Mohsin Leghari (PP-245, DG Khan) of the PML-Q when Mr Leghari, while accentuating his southern roots, read a few lines from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
Mr Leghari, delivering his budget speech, maintained the finance bill was more of an urban document, which excluded rural development.
Speaking on the neglect of southern Punjab, he said though he loved Lahore ‘“ a city where he was educated, got his first employment and still resides in ‘“ he has not forgotten his ancestral land. Explaining his predicament, he quoted from the last scene of the Julius Caesar, where Brutus explains his killing of Caesar by saying: ‘It’s not that I loved Caesar less, but I loved Rome more.’
Provoked either by his lack of understanding or knowledge, Mr Ala-ud-Din immediately stood on a point of order and started grilling Mr Leghari for insulting Lahore, which gave him education, employment and residence, and thundered: ‘This Lahore bashing must end, especially by those who have benefited immensely from the city.’
Both Speaker Rana Iqbal and Mr Mohsin tried to convince their colleague that no insulting remark had been passed against Lahore, but to no avail. After making an emotional speech, Sheikh Ala-ud-Din walked out of the house in protest against ‘insult to Lahore’.
He was later brought back by Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rahman on speaker’s request, and the minister also lectured the house on avoiding hurting each others’ territorial feelings.
As if all this was not enough, Dr Asad Ashraf of the PML-N found a new dimension to the innocent quote and stunned everyone in the house. On next point of order, he took off by saying: ‘Since Mr Mohsin has called himself Caesar, he must know how Caesar was born.
It was his difficult birth, which gave birth to Caesarian Operation (C-Section). How bad Caesar proved for his mother.’
On both occasions, Leghari defended himself that he has neither insulted Lahore nor called himself Caesar, but the die was cast.
The Sindh Assembly, on the same day, decided that this was not farcical enough, and decided to observe a minute’’s silence in honor of Michael Jackson’’s death. Because, after all, if there’’s one thing bridging the PPP/MQM rural/urban divide in Sindh, it’’s old Wacko.
The Punjab Assembly, in retort, decided that no, they should assume most-ridiculous status in Pakistan. And so this happened:
LAHORE: Government representatives and leaders of the opposition exchanged blows in Punjab Assembly hall when the assembly session was underway here on Monday.
According to Geo News, PML-Q’s PA member Bushra Gardezi waved a banner against Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif which led to the brawl as the Provincial Minister Prisons Abdul Ghafoor took the banner away from her and made some abusive remarks.
Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor then threw budget proposal scripts at the female opposition leaders which further contributed to the heated environment and the opposition and govt leaders burst into a physical fight.
Women leaders of PML-Q threw back the books at Chaudhry Ghafoor and government leaders.
The opposition staged a walk out from the session in protest of the incident. Later, leader of the Unification Bloc, Atta Manika also walked out.
Opposition leader Chaudhry Zaheeruddin talking to media said it is no longer possible to sit here due to the inappropriate attitude adopted by the government leaders.
As with most things in Pakistan, Punjab wins this round, but the war is surely not over just yet.
Dhoni: Mama aaj app nay mujhay plate mai chai kiyun di?
Dhoni Ki Mama: Kyun kay Cup tho tumhare baap lay gaye.
Pakistan Zindabad!
(Courtesy: SM)
All the random stuff I”ve enjoyed over the past week.
The New Yorker reports on the last days of the Shah of Iran’’s rule. Sorry for being 30 years too late with this but its worth reading, if only for this quote on co-education from a cleric:
I want to separate the schools of learning from the schools of flirting.
More Iran stuff from Foreign Policy which lists ten movies that will help you better understand the country.
I hope Pakistan’’s performance tomorrow isn”t as bad as this pun in The News:
Opponents ”Afridi” of Shahid
Here’’s how you piss off an Australian cricketer (no, the word convict was never mentioned).
Gear up for Wimbledon and rue Nadal’’s absence by listening to this fantastic BBC documentary on the greatest match ever played (link will only work for one week).
Ever wondered how a tennis player’’s grunt compares to a lions roar? The Times lets you know.
By now you must all have watched Obama swat a fly. But have you seen Stephen Colbert’’s response to it?
And another example of something that would be incredibly annoying if done by George W. Bush yet seems so cute when Obama does it.
Quote of the week comes from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’’s lawyer:
“He does not need people to bring him women,” Niccolò Ghedini told the newspaper Corriere della Sera. “It’’s seems a bit over the top to think that Berlusconi needs to pay €2,000 [£1,700] for a girl to go with him. I think he could have them in large numbers for free.”
Warning to anyone recently married: Don”t read this piece in The Atlantic.
Pray the Pakistani cricket team makes this a great weekend.
UPDATE (from Ahsan): Thanks to Bubs for giving me the motivation to put up some of my own links, which I”ve been very lazy with.
You remember how George Bush didn”t even know who Musharraf was before he got elected? Well, here’’s reason 327671609ednuhndaiu0180389 Obama is cooler than Bush: dude is dropping Jinnah’’s name. Not only do I have no doubts whatsoever that Bush doesn”t who Jinnah was, but I am also sure that when Bush hears the term “Jinnah” he automatically thinks “tonic”.
You”ve heard of F My Life but have you heard of My Life Is Desi? (Link courtesy reader Wasay)
Steve Walt has an IR guide to parenting. This has to be the greatest passage ever written:
And once the kids are mobile, you learn about another key IR concept: the window of opportunity. You”re feeding or changing Kid #1, and Kid #2 makes a bolt out the front door, just like North Korea tested a nuclear weapon while we were busy with Iraq. Or you”re in the middle of a crowded department store and they each decide to head down different aisles. The potential complications of a multipolar order were never clearer the first time this happened to me.
I don”t even want to imagine what a bait-and-bleed strategy looks like with child-rearing.
The Washington Post fires one of its only real journalists — you know, the type who actually feels the need to investigate and challenge authority, rather than be subservient to it. They absolutely do not fire the partisan hack who continues to write trash.
Speaking of the establishment media in the US, a NYT reporter escapes from the Taliban with another Pakistani journalist by, uh, scaling a wall:
Mr. Rohde told his wife, Kristen Mulvihill, that Mr. Ludin joined him late Friday night in climbing over the wall of a compound where they were being held in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. They found a Pakistani army scout, who led them to a nearby army base, and on Saturday they were flown to the American Bagram military base in Afghanistan.
‘They just walked over the wall of the compound,’ said Ms. Muvihill.
But they left one guy behind (their driver), who is now in all probability having AK-47s shoved up his ass as retribution. Seriously, why didn”t they take him with them? I mean, I”m happy for the two who got away and their families, but that drives is now FUCKED.
Hey, good news: some people from Buner are going home. Well done to everyone involved — the NGOs, aig agencies, the people themselves and yes, the government. Kudos.
I had a few others, but I”ve forgotten now. Oh, and one more thing: no preview of the final from me, because I”m too lazy/have nothing to say. But I will live blog the shit out of it, rest assured.
On the cricket field, there can be no doubt how this World Cup victory compares to the one in 1992: it doesn”t, really. The ODI World Cup in 1992 really, really meant something, while T20 cricket is still treated as somewhat of a sideshow in international cricket.
Compare the teams, too: the talismen of the teams were Wasim Akram and Shahid Afridi respectively — one is among the twenty greatest cricketers of all time, and one has so barely scratched the surface of his talent that it is criminal. Compare the batting: Miandad, Imran, Inzi and Malik against Younis, Misbah, Afridi and Malik (the other one). No contest. The bowling? Aaqib Javed against Abdul Razzaq? Mushtaq Ahmed against Saeed Ajmal? Wasim Akram against Umar Gul? Please.
And yet this victory is more liberating. Why? Because it represents more than just sporting accomplishment. Because it has freed Pakistan cricket and its followers from the shackles and chains that have been imposed on us by the ICC, the Taliban, western boards, incompetent security and board officials in Pakistan, and everyone else that has wittingly and unwittingly ensured that Pakistan will not see international cricket within its borders for the foreseeable future. Because Pakistan, which was already isolated as a cricketing destination, was at considerable risk of being isolated as a cricketing nation. Because we have loudly and unequivocally announced to the world: Hey! We still matter!
We have shown that international cricket needs a thriving Pakistan team. To his eternal credit, Sanjay Manjrekar — one of the world’’s most underrated and incisive commentators and analysts — realized this, and said so as much in the turnaround-game against New Zealand. Without Pakistan, the world of cricket was on the verge of a becoming a super exclusive super-club of Australia, India, England and South Africa — who play each other pretty much twice as much as they do against everyone else. This was a victory for the underdogs, the acned and pimpled kids who never get invited to the cool-kids parties, the ones who are socially awkward and can never get the hot girls (even those that claim to like the eccentric types). This was a victory for Sri Lanka and New Zealand too, ironic since we knocked them both out, because they are in the same position we are: an afterthought in the increasingly exclusivist cricketing hierarchy.
And what a victory it was. The whole “Pakistan win with their usual unpredictability and glorious unknowability” angle is valid but seriously overblown. Pakistan have easily been the world’’s best T20 international team since the format’’s inception. Is it really that much of a surprise that we won? Our players have grown up playing a format remarkably similar — galli/mohalla cricket, intensely competitive games of 10-15 overs each on average, played over and over and over again well into the night, especially in Ramadan, games which place a premium on intelligence, skill, and ingenuity. We have the heady, sensible batsmen who don”t get fazed (Younis, Malik, Misbah), bowlers who can bowl dot balls through variations and accuracy (Gul, Afridi, Ajmal) and the all-important wildcards (Akmal, Afridi with the bat).
The only people for whom our T20 skills were a surprise were the ones who don”t actually pay attention to us, i.e. every non-Pakistani in the world. In that respect, our IPL boycott/unofficial ban (depending on which version of the story you believe) was the best thing that could have happened to us. The idea that the IPL was a cause of fatigue and thus the exit of teams like Australia and India is nonsense — you don”t get tired playing cricket for three and a half hours when you”ve been playing seven hour cricket your whole life.
But one advantage of not playing in the IPL that was true was that we were completely unheralded going in. Think about how ridiculous it was to hear foreign commentators being surprised at Gully’’s bowling at the death or Afridi’’s strangling of the middle overs. They simply didn”t know. And why would they? What was perfectly obvious to us was simply unknowable to them, because nobody plays us or pays us attention.
That said, we did make it immensely difficult for ourselves with our abject failures against England and Sri Lanka earlier in the tournament. But even those losses were due to rust (the fielding against England would make school-level coaches barf) and silly selection (Salman Butt? really?) rather than some fundamental problems with our cricket.
So while it is fair to say no one really expected us to win, no one really expected us to fail to contend at all either. Our victory didn”t come from nowhere, it just came from somewhere unlikely. While some of our strenghts could not have been foreseen — Afridi remembering how to bat, anyone? — some of our weaknesses (Misbah’’s underwhelming form) could just as much be written off as unexpected. In short, we were a prototypical cup-winning team: we had all the ingredients for success, and were one of three or four legitimate contenders, and we caught fire at the right time, and that was the end of that. Italy in 2006, Australia in 1999, the Lakers in 2001 — all are examples of peaking at the right time, even when success never looked likely early on. Such is life.
We should all thank this team, not just because of the success they have allowed us to share in, not just because they have guaranteed that we won”t be pushed around on the international stage for the foreseeable future, but also because they are so damn likeable. With the charismatic and disarmingly honest Younis as captain, with the cancerous Shoaib Akhtar jettisoned, with youthful exuberance in the form of Aamer, Ajmal and Shahzaib, and with unfair outcome upon unfair outcome tripping us up, people couldn”t help but like us. But to all those people who avoided us like we were lepers, who didn”t want to tour us for personal reasons masked in the language of security, who scheduled us for bullshit tours as run-ups to main events, who brushed us aside and questioned our place in the international cricketing fraternity, who almost ensured that cricket died in Pakistan, I just have one question:
How do you like us now, bitches?
You know how Jeff Foxworthy has his “You might be a redneck if…” routine? Well, I couldn”t help but think of that when I got this email from a friend, as part of a long chain:
also, i”ve been trying to called julius meinl and they are just not answering their phones! i think they probably just have a house blend, which would be great, or whatever they use at the neue gallery (pronounced nu-ya) in ny. ground for a french press, so coarse rather than fine. thank you so so so so mcuh!! i cant wait to drink this coffee!
In order to reassert my of-the-people street cred, I would like to make the following points:
1. I don”t even fucking drink coffee.
2. The only “Julius” I”m familiar with is Caesar (and Erving, I suppose).
3. The words “Neue” (pronounced nu-ya, remember), “french press” and “coarse rather than fine” mean nothing to me. To me coffee, can either be black or with cream, sugar or without.
I”m currently doing some research on ethnic-centered independence movements for my dissertation, and quite naturally, the case study of East Pakistan/Bangladesh is crucial for the study. I plan on doing a post on the various historical interpretations of that event maybe next week, but today I wanted to highlight one quite amazing passage from War and Secession: Pakistan, India, and the Creation of Bangladesh by Richard Sisson and Leo E. Rose.
To set the stage for you, we”re basically just around the corner from formal civil war breaking out at the end of March 1971. The crisis — born of decades of political, economic, social, and cultural mistreatment of East Pakistan at the hands of the West Pakistan establishment, culminating in the election results of 1970 being ignored by Yahya’’s military regime and Bhutto’’s PPP — has reached a boiling point. Yahya has postponed the convening of the National Assembly, a meeting which Bhutto has barred all PPP representatives from even attending (the famous “break your legs” line). East Pakistan has erupted, and law and order has broken down. The central authorities in Bengal have lost control of events on the ground.
Under these circumstances, Yahya has gone to Dhaka for one last throw of the dice. He is meeting with Mujib ur Rehman, the leader of the Awami League, the democratically elected most powerful party in Pakistan. Take it away, Messrs Sisson and Rose:
Negotiations between the government and the Awami League began the following day, 16 March. After an early morning meeting with his senior colleagues, Mujib arrived at the President’’s House in a white car flying a black flag that symbolized the public’’s mourning for those who had died under army and police fire after the postponement of the National Assembly. The first decision to be made was where the two leaders were to confer. Mujib strongly objected to meeting in the drawing room for fear that it might be bugged and insisted that Yahya and he hold their discussions in a room that was more private and secure. After some deliberation, and with Mujib’’s concurrence, the president ordered two chairs brought to the bathroom off the main bedroom of the President’’s House. It was there that the final negotiations to save Pakistan began.
All I”ve got written in the margins next to this paragraph is the word “nice”.
I wonder how many Pakistan players would have turned down the money that is being thrown at them by the government if they knew they had to sit through this (via Well Pitched)
0:38: Misbah is congratulated for his rear-guard efforts, which would be true if this was 2007.
1:10: Well Pitched has a great description of Shoaib Malik’’s intorduction
Its interesting to note what the speaker has to say about Shoaib Malik. He says that Malik’’s full support to the captain that replaced him is thought of as a change in the camp’’s culture.
Duly implying that no former captains have supported their successors.
1:52: Shahid Afridi is “well-sung”. Either the speaker knows something about Afridi’’s vocal talents that we are not privy to, or he meant “on-song”.
2:37: Do you really want to begin the introduction for Akmal by referring to him as “dimunitive.”
3:50: Salman Butt is one of the “few younger younger players confident when expressing himself.” Yeah, I can”t think of anything positive to say about him either. What I love about these descriptions is how brutally honest they are.
4:22 Poor Rao Iftikhar Anjum. What do you say about a guy who didn”t get a single game?
5:02 Fawad Alam, “unlike most of his contemporaries is a brilliant fielder.” Hahahha. More honesty.
6:50: Uh, he’’s meant to praise Mohammed Aamir not Tilkeratne Dilshan.
7:11: And the best one yet. Shahzeb Hasan is described as “ungainly.”
7:32: Yasir Arafat “ironically..had fitness problems during the World Cup.” Are they admitting we faked his injury so we could fly in Razzaq?
9:44. Restraint from Zardari. This is the only mention of Benazir in his speech.
You”ve got to love Barry O. Check out this in-depth interview of the US president by Dawn, the first interview by a Pakistani news organization of an American president. As usual, he strikes all the right chords, and is respectful and conciliatory and careful in his language. But then there’’s this:
‘I would love to visit. As you know, I had Pakistani roommates in college who were very close friends of mine. I went to visit them when I was still in college; was in Karachi and went to Hyderabad. Their mothers taught me to cook,’ said Mr Obama.
‘What can you cook?’
‘Oh, keema ‘¦ daal ‘¦ You name it, I can cook it. And so I have a great affinity for Pakistani culture and the great Urdu poets.’
‘You read Urdu poetry?’
‘Absolutely. So my hope is that I’m going to have an opportunity at some point to visit Pakistan,’ said Mr Obama.
First of all, any idiot can cook daal — hell, even I manage to do it, and let me tell you, I”m an awful cook (I once tried to cook chicken karahi and it ended up looking like, no joke, Chinese stir fry).
Second, please stop. Enough already. We get it. You respect everyone. You can connect with everyone. Your melange of childhood and adolescent experiences that bring together issues of race, class, education, nationalism, religion, indeed the meaning of life itself — we get it: you understand everything at a deeper level. Stop making us feel like lesser beings all the time. And stop pandering, it’’s getting annoying.
Holy shit. Do you guys believe this?
UPDATE: You know who I feel really bad for? Farah Fawcett and her family. Normally when a public figure as important/popular/seminal as Fawcett dies, there are tributes and celebrations to their life and career. Right now, no one gives a rat’’s ass.
UPDATE II: A friend and I were discussing this: whose death would be/is bigger news: Michael Jackson’’s or Bono’’s? We both agreed on the choice, but I won”t tell you which one we agreed upon. What do you guys think?