'Nother Solent

"You need a roof, a "krisha", to do anything."

Tim Worstall, who has lived in Russia, on Anglo-Russian intergovernmental cooperation to prevent overfishing and the sale of black market cod:

You what? Asking the Russian State to police such activities is ludicrous. You think they’re not up to the elbows in the trade themselves? Does no one in Government actually understand how business works there? You need a roof, a "krisha", to do anything. Such a roof is, as often as not, the Ministry supposedly policing the system. Sending the stats only back to Russia will have one effect: the Ministry will be able to check that it’s getting the correct rake off from the illegal fishing.

Or are we so enamoured of The State that we simply won’t believe that foreigners could do that?

Because it works.

Captain's Quarters quotes today's Times story about how Taliban in Afghanistan have used women and children as human shields, and says,

This has two purposes for the Taliban. First, it keeps Western forces from firing on them, as they know that Coalition troops will try to protect civilians where possible. Secondly as just as importantly from a strategic point of view, any women and children killed in the battle will almost certainly be blamed on the Western forces by the Western media.

Well done the Times for explicitly highlighting this despicable tactic. The only thing wrong with Captain Ed's post is his description of it as the Taliban's "latest defensive tactic." There's no latest about it. The Taliban and other Islamists have been able to behave like this without penalty for too long. Did I say "without penalty"? Better to say that they have been rewarded for doing it. Behaviour that is rewarded is repeated.

Can't you just give us the answer?

Back in March I found, via Joanne Jacobs, one of the most depressing accounts of education (or a procedure given the name of education) that I have ever read. The writer has taken over a science class from another teacher.

It was and is honestly offensive to me how negligent this teacher was. There was no learning occuring. None. Not even that most basic, fact memorization-and-recall! These kids would have been better off just reading all period -- at least there would have been some modicum of mental stimulation!

There would be times when I would have a student read the paragraph with the answer, read the paragraph with the answer myself, then ask the question which directly referenced the paragraph with the answer, and be met by a classful of blank stares. Usually followed by the delightful incantation:

"This is whack! Can't you just give us the answer like our teacher always does?"

I'm distressed, I'm disappointed, and I'm angry. I've never experienced educational deprivation like that, never dreamed it could possibly exist to that degree in this day and age. You want to talk about accountability? Any accountability system which doesn't instantly peg this classroom as deficient isn't worth its weight in mud. Yet I have a desparately sad idea that when all is said and done, the school will find some way to herd the kids through the SOLs, or else the state will find some way to hide them away.

The comments to this post are also worthwhile but not enjoyable reading.

I first read this in March. Why post about it now? Because while I was walking the dog with Immature Zygote A recently, I sermonized mightily on the benefits to my education that arose from the fact that some of my teachers were useless. It forced me to take my destiny in my own hands, I said. Made me stand on my own two feet. I may even have said that it was my useless teachers that made the British Empire great.

The latter hypothesis may not stand up to detailed historical scrutiny, yet I think there's something in it.

Only you need to have been properly educated past a certain threshold first.