US Supports UN Resolution Against Religious Defamation.

Since the Mo' Toons row the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIS) has been trying to pass all sorts of resolutions at the UN calling for action to prevent the "defamation of religion". Up until now the developed liberal democracies has been almost unanimous in rejecting such a proposal see the breakdown of the January 2008 vote for example.

Not any more though, this time around the USA, which is pretty much the birthplace of religious freedom, has decided to support the latest proposal. This is something being whipped up by Obama's hysterical opponents, this is something that has left Obama's secular supporters aghast.

Durban 'Anti' Racism Fun.

The UN World Conference Against Racism, aka Durban 2, begins next week. The last conference in September 2001 was marred by the unfortunate fact that anti racist activists are actually racist loons.

This time around it looks as though the same process is going to occur so a number of governments have decided to boycott the event including those of Canada, the USA, Israel, then Netherlands, Australia, Sweden and Italy. They will inevitably be accused of being racist for doing so, therefore it seems like a good idea to examine how racist these countries are compared to the ones attending. The World Values Survey is probably the best place to start, they don't ask respondents a direct 'are you racist?' question, but they do ask:

'On this list are various groups of people. Could you please sort out any that you would not like to have as neighbors?'

and one of the groups is "People of a different race", so this will serve as a rough approximation for how widespread racism is in a country. Israel wasn't asked this question but the others were and these were their results for what percentage of respondents who said they wouldn't like to be neighbours to people of a different race:

USA: 8.0%
Canada: 3.4%
Sweden: 2.5%
Netherlands: 5.0%
Australia: 5.1%
Italy: 15.6%

The global average for this question is 18.3%, therefore all of the countries appear to be less racist than average, so really why should they go to a conference to be lectured to and denounced by the representitives of Iran (24.2%), Saudi Arabia (37.7%), Egypt (65.6%) and South Africa (23.6%)?

Worstall On A Roll

The WHO (not the band) have issued a report which basically calls for the implementation of just about every left wing hobby horse going. Tim Worstall is so struck by the inanity of it that he has dedicated no less than 16 posts (at the time of writing) to fisking it starting here.

When organisations start deviating from their purpose to take up political posturing then it almost inevitably coincides with a decline in effectiveness in how they perform their core tasks. As the WHO is one of the few multinational NGO's to have done good work (ie the eradication of Smallpox) this is a worrying step. It might be time to start stocking up on vaccine for a Polio epidemic in the next few years.

Food Summits.

The global food crisis, I call it a crisis but for most countries it is simply an inconvenience, is likely to resolve itself in the next couple of years as higher prices make it more economically viable for farmers in developing countries to invest in more efficient farming practices. In politics however the motto is "Something must be done, this is something let's do it!".

Politicians don't like admitting that there is bugger all that they can do and the problem will sort itself out without help from them. Hence the ever growing number of 'food summits' that have been called by the UK, South Africa, Latin America and of course the masters of pointless showboating the UN. As an aside I see that Israel is disgusted at the presence of Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmanotgonnabothertospellhisnameright, despite the fact that he is the only major leader willing to push for a very sudden drop in demand for food, kosher food in particular.

I'm just impressed that the UN didn't get Zimbabwe to host the conference. The general consensus of these meetings of the finest minds of our lifetime is that we should really produce more food if we don't want to have a shortage of food.

Quote Of The Day.

Remember the World Conference Against Racism (and Jews) that was held in Durban during the week prior to the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks? You remember the one where holocaust denial literature was being peddled, where Robert Mugabe received a standing ovation whilst the representatives of Western countries were denounced. Where the countries that still practiced slavery demanded compensation for the slave trade that the West abolished more than a century earlier. Yeah that one.

Joy of joys there is going to be a sequel! In the National Review Anne Bayefsky reports on some of the preliminary events:

The United Nations opened an “anti-racism” meeting here Monday. First up on the agenda? Anti-Semitism. Not anti-anti-Semitism but actual anti-Semitism

It appears to be the Iranian government that is particularly active in trying to ban Jews from the event. Rather incredibly the Iranian government's commitment to antisemitism is so great that even Al Qaeda have been upset by it, sort of.