On the value-based system

Comments on John Hemm “EU-China relations: Disappointment after Copenhagen”, 1/02/2010, http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2010/03/01/eu-china-relations-disappointment-after-copenhagen/

It is so interesting to see how some people may be so good intentioned sometimes or even all the times can produce so much hypocrisy in their approaches to different situations and still either do not realise that or deliberately avoid or hide that.

While I do not in any ways imply any fault with the author, the above observation can also be seen rather clearly from some points in this article.

For example, it is completely understandable to desire or even demand good governance by any governments, including foreign and sovereign governments. However, that does not equal to selective application of that principle or demand, especially by some world powers.

Kosovo is a part of such examples. The European Union countries and the United States opposed to the Serbian rule or the Serbian way of rules of Kosovo. That is still fine and I personally do not have big problems with that, if that is really fair and good for all peoples involved.

Another side of the story is the Iraq invasion. Some world powers, without a clear mandate from the UN, unilaterally invaded Iraq, under the false information of the existence of WMD. How many deaths, including how many innocent Iraqi civilians and destructions has that caused? It is not just the information was proved inadequate later on, but how the information was produced and used by those at the centre of the decisions to make the war.

So, who are responsible for those deaths and destructions?

Do those who made the decisions have any war crime responsibilities?

Or, is that good governance by any internationally accepted decent standard? Was the invasion of Iraq before or after the Kosovo intervention?

Was that for good governance or for oil or attempting to do so in Iraq?

Why didn’t the author have a balanced view of major world events?

Talking about value-based system, whose value is it? Copenhagen is a good example.

What the rich countries wanted to do is nothing more than to entrench their excessive damages to the climate.

Emissions and global warming is a typical environmental externality problem at the global scale. So the best and most fair way is to remedy that externality by applying a global emissions tax to correct the incorrect price signal and allocate the proceeds from it equally among the world population who should have an equal right to a good climate.

Does the EU, or any rich countries’ proposal apply that principle? Was it because no state of the rich had the intellectual to design such a proposal, or something else?

Where was the economics most people in those rich states have learnt? Was it lost or forgotten?

But on the other hand, they demanded developing countries do this and do that, and when the latter did not accept the former’s demand, then the former, in turn, blames the latter for the failure of Copenhagen.

Is that value the right value that should be used as the basis for the value-based system?