Showing posts with label Social Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Science. Show all posts

Monday, October 24, 2016

President George W. Bush On His Presidency and Life ...

- 0 comments
"My mother still tells me what to do..." Bush

He may be unpopular at times, but he is simple: he has his beliefs and stand by them.

[Continue reading...]

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Greece versus the Persian Empire

- 0 comments
Greece was the inventor of democracy. It generated an enormous number of smart people. The invasion of Persian empire with twice the size of Greek force was met with disaster.

ប្រវត្តិសាស្ត្រលោកខាងលិចជាច្រើនមិនត្រូវបានលើកឡើងក្នុងការសិក្សានៅប្រទេសកម្ពុជា។ ភាពអស្ចារ្យនៃប្រទេសនានា មិនសូវបានលើកឡើង។ មនុស្សពូកែៗនានាទៅលើពិភពលោកក៏មិនត្រូវបានលើកឡើង។ យើងលើកឡើងតែភាពអស្ចារ្យរបសខ្លួនឯង ហើយក៏ជាមូលហេតុយើងមិនប្រឹងរៀនសូត្រពីគេ។ បើចេះវិញ យើងចេះតែរឿងសាមកុក។

[Continue reading...]

Monday, June 20, 2016

WWII Japanese Invasion of China 1937-1944

Human can do more than ones can think: destroying others and preventing others from destroying oneselves. This documentary may be a propaganda video of the US government, but it does shed lights on history, especially the relationship between the big countries China and Japan.
[Continue reading...]

Saturday, April 16, 2016

International Relation International Politics នយោបាយអន្តរជាតិ

កាលខ្ញុំនៅសកលវិទ្យាល័យកូបិ ខ្ញុំមាមសំណាងរៀនជាមួយគ្រូម្នាក់គាត់មកពីUN ម៉ោងនយោបាយអន្តរជាតិ. គាត់លើកឧ.ពីការមិនអេីពេីពីសហគមន៍អន្តរជាតិ ពេលមានការប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍ ជាដើម នៅប្រទេសនានា។ គាត់ដាក់សំនួរថា "តើកត្តាអ្វីសំខាន់ជាងគេ ក្នុងការសម្រេចចិត្ត? " 
ខ្ញុំនិងសិស្សផ្សេងៗ ឆ្លើយផ្សេងៗតែខុសដូចគ្នា។ ខ្លះថា "មនុស្សធម៍ " ខ្លះថា " ការគោរពច្បាប់អន្តរជាតិ"...
គាត់ថា មិនខុសទេ គ្រាន់តែកត្តាសំខាន់ជាងគេគឺផ្សេង។ គាត់សរសេរពាក្យ 国益 ប្រែថា "ប្រយោជន៍"។ 
ខ្ញុំភ្ញាក់ខ្លួនព្រឺត ព្រោះដឹងថាខ្លួនឯងល្ងង់សុទ្ធ ។ កាលនៅខ្មែរ អ្នកខ្លះប្រាប់ខ្ញុំឲ្យសង្ឃឹមថា អាមេរិក នឹងជួយខ្មែរ។ អ្នកខ្លះចាំជប៉ុន ចិន យួន។ មានតែសៀមនិងយួនទេ បានអន្តរាគមន៍ជួយខ្មែរ ពេលខ្លះដោយចិត្តឯង ពេលខ្លះ ដោយការស្នើសុំពីភាគីខ្មែរ។ 

បើខ្មែរយើង មិនប្រឹងបង្រៀនខ្មែរគ្នាឯងទេ មិនប្រឹងស្វែងរកចំណេះដោយខ្លួនឯងទេ គ្មាន​បរទេសណាបង្រៀនយើងកើត គ្មានអ្នកចេះដឹងណាណែនាំយើងកើត ហើយក៏គ្មានអ្នកណាគេ​មកកសាងប្រទេសឲ្យខ្មែរដែរ។ 

We have not eternal allies and we have not perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual and those interests it is our duty to follow. ~~~Henry John Temple. 
[Continue reading...]

Saturday, June 6, 2015

A Review on The Commanding Height

As its title suggests, in this book the authors attempt to contemplate on who should control your life, who should run the economy, or how laws should be based on. This is the never-ending debate on big government versus small government, Keynesianism versus Classical Economics, liberal democracy versus communism, dictatorship, monarchy you name it. For those who are curious how popular economics can change life, this book is best.

The time frame this book deals with is mainly during the Cold War, the confrontation between communism of Soviet Union and China and Western democracy. Key players include Margaret Thatcher of UK, Ronald Reagan of the United States, Gorbachev of the Soviet Union, Deng Xiao Ping of China and some leaders of developing countries trying to lift their country out of poverty. Nonetheless, what is more interesting is ideas behind those leaders. Those ideas are from mainly economists including Milton Friedman and F.A. Hayek, the latter’s name is quite uncommon to even economists. 

Keynes lost the battle to Friedman and Hayek during the 1980s till 1990s at least in the United States and the UK. It was manifested that government cannot control the economy. The Fed could not and should not use its monetary tool to offset recession or create a free boom for the economy. Regulations hurt the economy. 

The battle is not over. Reagan’s tax cut, for instance, is seen, for instance by a Nobel laureate in economics Joseph E. Stiglitz (Globalization and Its Discontent, and the Price of Inequality), as widening wealth gap between the rich and poor and hurt the economy. Recently, since Bush administration up until now, Keynesianism is prevalent in the Fed. 

This book is so famous and influential that the U.S public media PBS made it into TV Show. I hope after reading and watching it, you will recommend it as a must-read book and/or must-watch show. 

[Continue reading...]

Thursday, June 4, 2015

A Note on From Dictatorship to Democracy

In Why Nations Fail or related topics especially those of economic development or political science, we cannot see how to develop a country suppose you were a victim in a failed country. At least you are not the leader of a country [you would not read this piece of writing if you were!]. This book attempts to give guidelines, at least hope, for the victims, the suppressed, of dictatorship to topple dictatorship to set up a lasting democracy. Those who aspire to install democracy in their own country are the targeted audience of this book. Those who want to be a citizen of a country instead of a slave for other men are encouraged to read this book. 

Personally, this book gives me hopes, a hope that democracy can be set up in any country and there is a way you can switch from dictatorship to democracy. 

I read the 4th US edition, kindle version. Below are its sections:

1. Facing Dictatorships Realistically
In Cambodia, for instance, people around me always hope for the interventions of US, UN or EU to lift their country out of poverty and dictatorship. People need to know that they need democracy. Thus, it has to come from within. This is not to say that US interventions, for instance, are useless but it has to begin with that end it mine: teach them to democratize. 

Violence does not end dictatorship. It removes one for another to come. 

2. The Dangers of Negotiations
Negotiations can be used under certain situations. That is possible when there is a strong democratic opposition. In addition, political defiance is necessary. 

3. Whence Comes the Power?
Where does political power, or any kind of power, come from? Why people do what other people tell them to do? The answer to these questions also tell what weaknesses dictatorships have. 
4. Dictatorships Have Weaknesses

5. Exercising Power
Where should one start? Where is democratic opposition strongest? Military struggle? Of course not. That is where dictatorship is strongest. Tautology one may say. Political defiance is the answer. 

6. The Need for Strategic Planning
One may see the spontaneity of popular uprisings against dictatorship in many countries such as in Arab Spring. Dictatorship does not last as it can't have another good dictator to continue its unpopular regime. Democracy would not last as well if democrats do not plan for its full installation. The latter sections deal with the need to plan, how to plan, how to apply the political appliance to disintegrate the dictatorship and lastly how to make democracy last. 
7. Planning Strategy
8. Applying Political Defiance
9. Disintegrating the Dictatorship
10. Groundwork for Durable Democracy

Full title: From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation
Publisher: Albert Einstein Institution, May 2010
Author: Gene Sharp
My rating: 5/5


[Continue reading...]

Thursday, April 23, 2015

The Constitution of Liberty

The book as well as the author are well-known but not as one would expect, although the ideas have changed the world in a great extent. Most students of economics do not even know his name. Some professors do hear his name but never actually read his books. That is my experience while I studied in Japan as well as of today when I asked people around me about that... Of course, if you read only textbooks, you would probably never hear his name. I got to know his two most famous books The Constitution of Liberty and The Road to Serfdom when I read Milton Friedman's Free to Choose and Capitalism and Freedom. I borrowed The Constitution from my library, read a few pages of it, and decided to own it ( I mean buy it, not steal from the library!)

Academically, Hayek was lonely in his time until he won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1974. The world faced the threat of communism, and in the free world governments were very big as well. From price floor, price ceiling, regulations to extensive government programs, one can find various examples of insatiable government intervention in the economy. Liberty and free market economy were considered obsolete.

Its Influences


As a member of a poor family and a student from a poor country, a country where communism took controls for approximately 25 years, I had no idea what the rule of law is, nor did I know what it mean by free market economy, liberty, democracy and communism. This book did shed light, very bright one, on me. Maybe leaders across the globe were as ignorant s as I was as well. After all, it was Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan that applied theories in his book and revolutionized their  economic policies against the mainstream.  

Main Points


The Institute of Economic Affairs reserves the rights and published this book for sale and for free in the internet. In that version, there are summary, forewords and comments from other professors that already well summarize the main points. Thus, I will talk only about the main points of the book that influenced me and in my own words.

This book is about the interconnection between all factors in the society, not limited to economy. It deals with law, politics, human and economics altogether. By that, it seems the foundations of law, politics and economics, among others, are just one. For instance, freedom in politics is freedom in economics if there is freedom.

This book mainly is a compilation of Hayek's article in various journals. One article that won my deep admiration is Why the Worst Get on Top. People tend to think that a country, for instance, would prosper if it is run by a good king. Or an economic policy would be successful if the policy maker is a good and well qualified person. What its relation is there with that the bad people getting on top then?I challenge you to read this chapter, to begin with.

Conundrums


Even among Hayekians, there are debates on the necessity of social safety net and subsidy on education.

Keynesians believe, at least in the short-run, that lowering interest rate can cut short recessions or boost the economy in the short-run and hitherto it may end up in inflation in the long run. Hayek disagreed and became the main opponent of Keynes in this matter. (See also Free to Choose) Mal-investment is another huge problem. High risk high return. The high interest rate, in the same sense, reflects the high associated risks. If the government makes the interest rate artificially low, investors are misled by the cheap credit and invest in the wrong way, resulted in for example housing bubble and dot com bubble.

Keynes believed that macroeconomy can hardly be at equilibrium. Thus, the government must take a very active role in matching the demand and supply of macroeconomic factors, especially control the money supply. Hayek disagreed. He thought private sectors can supply the money to match with their own demand the way they do in other supply. Private sectors respond to the fluctuation of demand and supply faster and more efficiently. Thus, Hayek proposed the denationalization of money.


My Intervention


Denationalization of money? Is it the first time to hear this? When I read this book, it was my first time to hear it, and all I thought of was the considerable cost of money exchanges between currencies issued in one country. Can you imagine the U.S having 60 currencies for instance?
As time goes by, I read more books on economic history. It has been the state that requires by law all people in their territory to use single currency issued by the state. I think one can infer from this fact. Politics plays higher role than economics in this debate.

Author: F.A. Hayek (1899-1992)
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press (October 15, 1978) and Institute of Economic Research
My rating: 5/5.
This book is complimented by another book of his The Road to Serfdom

See also: Econlib review of Hayek
[Continue reading...]

Monday, April 6, 2015

Cha Ret Khmer (Khmer Characteristics)

Summary

It is a rather well-known book by a nationalistic politician name Bun Chan Mol (ប៊ុណ្ណ ចន្ទម៉ុល) who spent his life serving Cambodia under many regimes and at the same time observed the atrocity of committed by Cambodians, the Khmer race, under those many regimes. He witnessed cruel tortures, lawless killings, social ills, and observed many incorrigible deeds that leaders and the led made during his life. Thus, in his conclusion, he said the Khmer race are brutal and violent. The future of Cambodia is doomed and his hope for a better Cambodia is dim. 

Analysis


Social scientists would immediately disagree with the author. There is no such as thing as racial characteristics. No American were born to love freedom. America would not be born without the ideas of how to build a country disseminated from Britain, and Britain from earlier uncountable heroes/heroines and countries from Roman Empire, Greece and the Enlightenment. You name it.

In this sense, my rating for it is 3/5.

Those who read this book should not feel pessimistic about the Khmer race and/or the future of Cambodia even if they see its dooming situation today, but should instead continue reading other books such as Why Nations Fail, From Dictatorship to Democracy and Free to Choose, to begin with.

The Conundrum

Did I say there is no such thing as racial characteristics? What you eat determine your behaviors and genes as well. Some food, for example, can make you particularly sluggish. So would Sushi makes Japanese race particularly something? Would this change the pyramid of Maslow's human needs?

Final Say


Putting his accomplishment, sacrifice and knowledge aside, he deserved our respect as a Cambodian patriot. One should be reminded as well that being a patriot is not enough, instead far from enough. The knowledge, how to build the country, how to administer a government, how to infiltrate the concept of citizenship among our people etc. are more important.
ចរិត្ត​ខ្មែរ

[Continue reading...]
 
Copyright © . Tisa School - Posts · Comments
Theme Template by BTDesigner · Powered by Blogger