The "Elite" of the Fourth World
May. 28th, 2003 08:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcpipThe Ministerial retreat was a great success. Luminaries included the Nobel Peace Prize winning Minister (of course), former President of the United Nations Security Council Mr. Jose Luis Jesus and Australian filmmaker David Bradbury.
I think it's opportune to remind gentle readers of this journal that the Ministry staff are the "elite" of the country. The best educated (literate and invariably speaking 3+ languages), with the best jobs (indeed, they have a job) and the most highly paid - and this is a country where the prices of most goods and services - including food - is actually significantly more expensive than those of "advanced industrial nations".
Just to get this into perspective, here are some facts on their budget.
Total Ministerial budget: $1.1 million ($.85million on managing overseas embassies)
Total Staff: 74 full-time (including overseas embassies)
Total Wages Cost: $159K USD.
Mean Annual Wage: $2148 USD.
Mean Monthly Wages: $179 USD (or $265 AUD).
Now, if these people are the best paid (and most of them are supporting their extended family on these "wages"), I think it's worthwhile to ponder on how others in this country and in similar countries live. We all "hear" about what it is like, we "see" it on TV, but believe me, until you've directly experienced people scraping a meagre existence you have no real idea what it is like.
OK, enough said. More on the retreat.
Held at the Metinaro army training camp and conducted over two and a half days. Initial session by the Senior Minister was way off-topic and was orientated on trivial things such as staff not wearing ties to work and taking days off. A few people have had a quiet word in his ear that the "carrot" may be a better means to motivate staff than the "stick" since then. Achievements report from each Division indicated the remarkable progress the Ministry has undergone in the first year of nationhood. All were thoroughly charmed by my use of the local language in giving the report for IT developments.
Key presentation was an excellent draft white paper on foreign policy by the senior advisor to the Ministry, a Malaysian ambassador. The paper was especially good on matters concerning multilateral relations and agencies. A couple of comments I made to improve the consistency of the document on matters concerning self-determination for people in the region were extremely well-received as were my suggestions on the very difficult issue of foreign policy for the Korean peninsula.
I was particularly pleased that my comments were widely considered and approved whereas the obsequious stumbling remarks of the former Yugoslav ambassador - a career diplomat who betrayed his own nation, one of the laziest people I've ever met and prone to lie with alarming regularity - were utterly ignored.
(Yes, there is a side of me that genuinely doesn't like some people - but only with grounded reasons. Apologies to those who thought I was friendly to everyone.)
Later sessions dealt with role of the diplomatic corp and future directions and development of the Ministry, including the budgeting process. Extremely worthwhile sessions for the new staff.
The final sessions were on national security concerns. The senior army officer (I forget his name) provided an excellent summary of the nation's ability to prevent invasion (i.e, none at all, 1500 troops total) and thus the requirement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be primarily responsible for national security. Following this a step-by-step analysis of the border disputes that arose after independence. Numerous disputes, covering hundreds of miles and requiring analysis of maps from former colonial powers.
The final event was a soccer match between the Ministry and the army. We were soundly thrashed (4-0) but that was to be expected. The ground was complete treachery as well, a microcosm of the national landscape. Mind you, we do have some excellent players and I suspect with the exception of the defense forces our Ministry would do well in any Ministry-Ministry matches.
All in all, an excellent weekend. Not much of a jungle (more like open woodland), and rather than a crocodile I managed to meet a nice deer with a very impressive set of antlers.
I think it's opportune to remind gentle readers of this journal that the Ministry staff are the "elite" of the country. The best educated (literate and invariably speaking 3+ languages), with the best jobs (indeed, they have a job) and the most highly paid - and this is a country where the prices of most goods and services - including food - is actually significantly more expensive than those of "advanced industrial nations".
Just to get this into perspective, here are some facts on their budget.
Total Ministerial budget: $1.1 million ($.85million on managing overseas embassies)
Total Staff: 74 full-time (including overseas embassies)
Total Wages Cost: $159K USD.
Mean Annual Wage: $2148 USD.
Mean Monthly Wages: $179 USD (or $265 AUD).
Now, if these people are the best paid (and most of them are supporting their extended family on these "wages"), I think it's worthwhile to ponder on how others in this country and in similar countries live. We all "hear" about what it is like, we "see" it on TV, but believe me, until you've directly experienced people scraping a meagre existence you have no real idea what it is like.
OK, enough said. More on the retreat.
Held at the Metinaro army training camp and conducted over two and a half days. Initial session by the Senior Minister was way off-topic and was orientated on trivial things such as staff not wearing ties to work and taking days off. A few people have had a quiet word in his ear that the "carrot" may be a better means to motivate staff than the "stick" since then. Achievements report from each Division indicated the remarkable progress the Ministry has undergone in the first year of nationhood. All were thoroughly charmed by my use of the local language in giving the report for IT developments.
Key presentation was an excellent draft white paper on foreign policy by the senior advisor to the Ministry, a Malaysian ambassador. The paper was especially good on matters concerning multilateral relations and agencies. A couple of comments I made to improve the consistency of the document on matters concerning self-determination for people in the region were extremely well-received as were my suggestions on the very difficult issue of foreign policy for the Korean peninsula.
I was particularly pleased that my comments were widely considered and approved whereas the obsequious stumbling remarks of the former Yugoslav ambassador - a career diplomat who betrayed his own nation, one of the laziest people I've ever met and prone to lie with alarming regularity - were utterly ignored.
(Yes, there is a side of me that genuinely doesn't like some people - but only with grounded reasons. Apologies to those who thought I was friendly to everyone.)
Later sessions dealt with role of the diplomatic corp and future directions and development of the Ministry, including the budgeting process. Extremely worthwhile sessions for the new staff.
The final sessions were on national security concerns. The senior army officer (I forget his name) provided an excellent summary of the nation's ability to prevent invasion (i.e, none at all, 1500 troops total) and thus the requirement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be primarily responsible for national security. Following this a step-by-step analysis of the border disputes that arose after independence. Numerous disputes, covering hundreds of miles and requiring analysis of maps from former colonial powers.
The final event was a soccer match between the Ministry and the army. We were soundly thrashed (4-0) but that was to be expected. The ground was complete treachery as well, a microcosm of the national landscape. Mind you, we do have some excellent players and I suspect with the exception of the defense forces our Ministry would do well in any Ministry-Ministry matches.
All in all, an excellent weekend. Not much of a jungle (more like open woodland), and rather than a crocodile I managed to meet a nice deer with a very impressive set of antlers.
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Re: An auction
Date: 2003-05-28 09:10 pm (UTC)(As for 'abolishing scarcity', that's always been case of 'dream on'. With all the matter and energy possible in any arrangement one likes, there would still be 'positional goods' [status, power, etc] to compete over.)
I think you might be talking about what economists call 'transaction costs'. Now, it is certainly true that developed economies are so because their transaction costs are much lower. It is also true that they are sufficiently wealthy, they can begin to get sloppy on transactions costs, with deleterious effects.
Friends of mine run a small educational business. On one hand, they find schools are awful payers (slow, that is) causing them serious cash-flow problems. On the other hand, they find that the state (both Federal & State) seems to really want to punish people for employing people -- in state-imposed transaction cost terms, it is much better to employ 30 people at 8 hours a week each than 6 people at 40 hours a week each or 12 people at 20 hours a week each.
Re: An auction
Date: 2003-05-29 04:21 am (UTC)I think this is very close to "transaction costs".
"Reflexive labour" is labour not directly engaged in the act of production itself, but labour which is orientated towards making direct productive labour more efficient (e.g., management, administration, and all other white collar labour).
It excludes the arts which are more about societal motivation that direct efficiency per se. They're in another entirely different field altogether.
The problem is that it can never replace production itself. The more we try to increase the efficiency of production the greater the costs incurred and at a certain point it becomes positively dangerous - and enhances in the unstable divergence between use-value and exchange-value (i.e., money becomes a commodity rather than a representation of commodity value).
Re: An auction
Date: 2003-05-29 05:15 am (UTC)This sounds a bit like Coasian theory of the firm, which is based on transaction costs. The question is, what is the sensible boundary of the firm? Put it another way, how do you make the decision to produce inside (thereby coming within the ambit of 'reflexive labour') or outside (as in a market transaction). Transaction costs determine the answer: if they are higher for market transactions, produce internally. If they are higher internally, go for market transactions.
If the search for internal 'cost' efficiency becomes economically inefficient, then the balance becomes tipped back towards market transactions. One of the reasons why firm structures have become so unstable is that the IT revolution is changing transaction costs in sudden and unpredictable ways.
Money has always been a commodity in some sense -- it is a store of value. Which is why you have markets in money. (There are extra issues when what money is made of is also a commodity, such as gold.)
The issue is not effects on money, the issue is sudden shifts in transaction costs.