WIKILEAKS

It is hard to know what to say about Wikileaks. The main difficulty is that in an age that demands almost instantaneous responses, it is impossible to read hundreds of thousands of documents in the space of 24 hours.

However, bearing that caveat in mind, I do have some thoughts.

1. When the world's powers unite in condemning you, sometimes in almost apocalyptic terms, then you know that you have hit a raw nerve.

2. That impression is reinforced by said powers' almost universal statement that Wikileaks' actions are a threat to national security, which puts citizens' lives at risk. Invoking national security is a typical trick by the powerful, since - by definition - it cannot be challenged; to answer would be to put lives at risk etc etc. Nobody ever says exactly who would be put at risk, or by whom, or in what way. It is a bit like the mediæval church's invocation of the devil to rebut all difficult questions.

3. If, in a particular case, we don't know whether to lean towards openness or secrecy, I think we should lean towards openness. Edmund Burke once said that "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". In other words, we need people actively to hold authorities to account. Bodies such as Wikileaks may well get it wrong from time to time, that is one of the risks; but better that than that nobody does it.

4. That becomes relevant when you stop to consider that some of the things that Governments (particularly the American Government) have done, or have thought about doing, would be illegal - and punished as such - if done by private citizens. A good example is spying.

5. More generally, the decade of the noughties showed what happens when powerful people push their own agendas and ordinary citizens and/or Parliaments acquiesce. The world got itself into two major conflicts (Iraq and Afghanistan), both of which were futile and hugely costly in terms of lives and resources, and at least one of which was illegal. If, by publishing documents about these conflicts, Wikileaks has made it more likely that political leaders will think twice before doing such things in the future, then they will have done the world - in other words, all of us - a favour.

Finally, we should spare a thought for the person/people who actually gave Wikileaks the documents. In the same way as the mediæval church was ferocious in its persecution of heretics, fellow Christians who simply disagreed with the political powers in some way, so the world's "free" countries will be ferocious with the leaker(s) if and when they catch them. Freedom apparently does not mean freedom to criticise.

Walter Blotscher

REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS

It is interesting how political parties change over time. Take the Republicans and Democrats, who, since the former's founding in 1854, have (with only minor changes from time to time) provided the 2-party political system in the United States.

In the mid-1850's the Democrats were the biggest party overall, and they dominated the South. As such, they were either actively pro-slavery or tolerant of it. They were also against protectionist tariffs on trade, since the core of the Southern economy was cotton, much of which was exported, whereas tariffs were generally placed on manufactured goods, many of which the South had to import, using their cotton earnings. The Republicans, on the other hand, gathered up the remnants of former parties such as the Whigs, in a shared dislike of slavery, a dislike which developed into Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War, and a constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery in its immediate aftermath. They were an exclusively Northern party to start with, and they supported protectionist tariffs, seeing them as a boost to manufacturing industry, of which the bulk was in the North.

Fast forward to 2010. Very few Afro-Americans now vote for the party of Lincoln, with 90%+ supporting the Democrats, as exemplified by President Barack Obama. Today it is the Republicans who are more likely to be free traders, and the Democrats to be supporters of tariffs, and other forms of protectionism. And in terms of geography, it is the Republicans who dominate the South, while the Democrats are strongest in Northern areas such as New England.

In short, although the parties have the same names as 150 years ago, they have been turned upside down.

Walter Blotscher

MOLE WARFARE (4)

When the ground is frozen, as it is at the moment, the Mole Army faces a difficult choice. It can either dig deep, which is safe, but hard work. Or it can use existing well-worn tunnels, which is easy, but makes the moles dead ducks (or, rather, dead moles) for an experienced general such as myself.

And so it proved. Last night I nabbed one on the way out of the compost heap on the main supply route into the wood. Am I good or am I good?

Walter Blotscher

UNLUCKY OR WHAT?

The weather is bad here at the moment, with freezing cold and lots of unseasonal snow. That combination results in lots of road accidents. But one farmer must be thinking himself particularly unlucky. His farm stands on a T-junction at the bottom of a hill. During the night no less than 4 different vehicles came slithering down the hill, couldn't turn to either left or right, and ploughed straight into his building. Given what had happened, he was taking it pretty well, when interviewed on the news this evening. I am not sure I would have been quite so relaxed.

Walter Blotscher

WINTER (2)

This morning I woke up to a white world, gently falling snow and bitter cold. It is not supposed to snow in Denmark in November; but it is icy up in Northern Norway and Sweden at the moment (minus 21C in Kiruna this week), and that is affecting us here. With a strong easterly/north-easterly wind, it is not pleasant to be outdoors.

Whenever snow comes, people seem to be unprepared. There is a frantic rush to change from summer to winter tyres, the number of traffic accidents skyrockets, drivers get stuck in their cars. It is almost as if it has never happened before.

I kept warm this afternoon by bashing out an old concrete pigsty in the barn with a sledgehammer. With temperatures set to stay well below zero for at least a week, I expect I will be doing more of that sort of thing.

Walter Blotscher

THE LOCAL CINEMA

After watching Inception at my local cinema the other week, I have been back the past two Thursdays with my daughter.

Last week we saw a pastiche of the Twilight books and films called Vampires Suck. With judicious editing, the trailer had looked quite funny. The reality was different. It was not quite the worst film I have ever seen, but close. The verdict? Vampires Suck sucks.

Tonight we saw Salt with Angelina Jolie. This had a somewhat old-fashioned plot about Russian moles in the CIA, sleeping for long periods of time before emerging to wreak havoc; and was full of cross and double-cross and double-double-cross. The difference from similar films of 30 years ago was the action scenes, with more sophisticated weaponry and souped-up pyrotechnics. The film also ended in a way, which easily allows for a sequel Salt II if audiences have shown that they like the first one. I have never been a great fan of Ms. Jolie, but it was good entertainment on a cold winter's evening.

Walter Blotscher

NORTH KOREA

We have known for some time that North Korea's President Kim Jong-Il was barmy; anyone with that hair and dress sense must be. But the latest episode in the struggle between the two Koreas shows that perhaps the whole country is.

North Korea's decision to lob a whole load of artillery shells onto a South Korean island just over the maritime border, killing two marines and injuring a number of others, must be one of the daftest political decisions in years. It achieved nothing, other than robust condemnation from the U.S., E.U., Russia and the U.N., and studied silence from its only ally China (studied silence being communist code for condemnation). It also reminded the world - if, indeed, it needed reminding - just how unreliable and dangerous the country is. The sight of a young, female North Korean newsreader issuing dire threats in the event of retaliation reminded me very much of Saddam Hussein's similarly deluded information minister during the invasion of Iraq.

Some analysts believe that the artillery orders are somehow connected with the ailing Mr. Kim's recent attempts to hand power over to his youngest son Kim Jong-Un. At the end of the day, as with most things in North Korea, we simply do not know. But I suspect that there is a real danger that the country will implode in the near future.

Walter Blotscher