Computer Language Preference by Country

Let us say for a moment that I had to get a real job instead of doing what I do now, which is writing a blog, writing little programs for my friend in NYC, reading books and surfing the web, etc.

Although I know (literally) at least 100 (computer) languages, there are only a few of them that I routinely use to "get something done" and which I am comfortable that I know the full extent of that language such that I could be professional at it. It turns out that language use (computer languages) preference differs by country. Here is a map of that use.

So apparently I can work in France and Finland.

Is emigration an option?

The Nigerian Concept of "Cake"

What is odd about the debate around the concept of “cultural diversity” is that our culture here in America is a melange of bits and pieces of other cultures, mostly but not entirely European, in which we seem to have picked one from column A and two from column B and then declare that we invented it. Regional cuisine, Southern music, the tradition of the Christmas tree, our notions of a fair and just war, and so forth are mash ups of other people's cultures made our own with a few misunderstood regional historical events and a little stuffing for the poor oppressed turkey or great turnip replacement, the pumpkin.

Today I want to advocate that we borrow another cultural concept that I think is very appealing and has a lot of applicability to this great country of ours and which I propose we make our own. This is the Nigerian concept of “cake”.

What a healthy looking birthday cake with depth of field!

Like many countries in the world and in sub-Saharan Africa in particular, there are great extremes in wealth with the vast majority being dirt poor and a very few who are quite rich. But Nigeria is also blessed (or cursed as may be) with great natural resources, such as oil. The wealth generated by this oil is vast and yet most Nigerians are still extremely poor, with no improvement in their lives, no new schools, hospitals, and so forth. So where does all the money go?

Well Nigerians have noticed that nearly all the money goes either to the foreign oil companies or to the offshore personal bank accounts of senior government officials and some of their aides. Very few people in Nigeria benefit from the oil outside the government. There is some employment of local workers, but not much, and they are not paid well. Most of the engineers and managers who work for the oil companies come from outside Nigeria and return to their homes in other countries when their assignment is done.

Not only do the people of Nigeria not see any of this money, in general the Government does not see it either. These offshore bank accounts for Nigerians may have tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, but those are the personal accounts of their government or military officials. Apparently, only a small amount of this money actually goes back to the country in the form of tax or other revenues that might be used on public works projects.

An industrious Nigerian with some cake

The Nigerians calls this vast wealth from oil “cake” as in chocolate cake, or a birthday cake. They are not looking for justice, or a government who is not corrupt and provides real services for their people, or any of those worthy concepts. They may desire those things, but they realize that there is very little chance of ever getting them in Nigeria. At least not the way things have been going for the last few centuries. What they would like is a small part of the cake that is being pumped out of the country.

Being forthright and straightforward people, the Nigerians have come up with a variety of ways to get small pieces of the cake which they figure is at least as much theirs as it is the people who are profiting by it. One way to do this is to get some friends together, rent a rusted-out old ship of some sort, a few hundred empty barrels, punch a hole in one of the pipelines that run alongside the rivers, and voila we have a recipe for instant cake. The oil companies come by in a day or two and patch the hole, leaving the spilled oil where it lies.  Of course the government and the oil companies complain bitterly about oil theft but just who is stealing from whom, I wonder.   In this, energetic and productive fashion, Nigerians are able to make a much better living than digging in the mud with a stick or swatting flies as their government would like them to, and so benefit from the Globalization we hear so much about.

This shows initiative and a positive attitude on the part of the Nigerians.  A true demonstration of the entrepreneurial ideal.  Rather than waiting for someone to come along and "give them a job", they get off their rear ends and collect a little crude oil on their own.   

Now in our country, our government officials also profit on managing the natural resources and economy for the benefit of their rich masters but their fees are much less. In America, the corruption is more discreet as well and are usually channeled through reelection campaign funds and so forth.  The rest of us work for slave wages and although there is a larger middle class than in Nigeria, it doesn't add up to much. And besides, our government is working to reduce the middle class and being quite successful at it. When the Dow average goes up, it is the tiny wealthy elite in this country that benefits. The idea that it is the “retirement funds” that benefit as well is very much an obvious lie from the last century.

This fine concept of cake would have to be adapted to our American way of life of course.  The carved turnip from Africa must become a carved giant gourd here in America, metaphorically speaking.  We all want a piece of cake, but just punching holes in oil pipelines may be appropriate for the colorful native peoples of Africa but would not do for those in the west with our sophistication and finely honed environmental sensibilities.  But I am sure Americans can run with this idea and suitably modify it in a way that does not compromise other values and allows us to deceive ourselves into thinking that we invented the idea.

I hope that Americans will not let foolish pride stand in the way of adopting interesting ideas from other cultures.  If the world can adopt "blue jeans" and "jazz" from America, surely we can benefit from their concept of "cake" and thank the Nigerians for showing the way to a more just and fair world.

The Nobel Peace Prize and Cultural Imperialism

10.11.2014

For the record, I am in favor of equal rights for women wherever they may be and I have no particular trouble with this prize, although I think it has a not so hidden agenda.  I do have a problem with people who think they have a right to fuck with other people's cultures because God is on their side, or because it is a "human rights issue".   Bunch of assholes if you ask me.

10.12.2004   19:30

On the one hand, I get a certain satisfaction out of blocking someone on Facebook. On the other hand it bothers me when people misunderstand my good will and are insulting and rude. If you do not agree, fine, you have a right to your opinion.   But to dismiss the argument because I am stupid or lame is just rude, and in this case we have a typical liberal who knows what is good for the whole fucking world and, cultural diversity notwithstanding, does not give a fuck what other people believe. He knows he is right, so very fucking right.

And indeed, I wish people would be more like us, or at least more like how I think we should be.  It would be better for the whole world if they did that.  But it is not going to be that way.

So now I am in the unenviable position of desiring vindication.  And vindication will only come if not only various sections of Pakistan or Islam respond in a negative way to this provocative prize, but possibly take disagreeable action.  I have no doubt that people, some people, are pissed as hell about it.  The question is whether they will do or say something such that even our inadequate press will notice and report it.   We will see.

The Nobel Peace prize has made it clear. Islam must give up all its politically incorrect beliefs and conform to the West's view of how the world ought to be.  Now if Islam will just give up its evil ways and conform to the politically correct views of the committee, how much better this world would be. 

How lucky the unwashed darkies are to have the superior west show them the way to improve their otherwise worthless lives and lead them to the path of righteousness.  I am sure that they appreciate all the effort expended on their behalf.

Cultural diversity as we all know is ok as long as everyone believes the way we do. Anyone who does not believe the way we do must be destroyed because our way is the right way and their way is the wrong way.

The very politically correct Nobel Prize Committee

And who is the Nobel Peace Prize committee?   Why it is five Swedes, three women, two men, all of them privileged white people.  Christians if they are anything.   Morally superior and perfectly capable to tell the world what is right and wrong.

I hope that the bad people have the grace to do as they are told.

http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_gb/nomination_committee/members/

A special note to those who would comment, please try to avoid personal insults.  Yes, I know I am offending you by disagreeing with your right to tell people how to live their lives.  I wish that they (traditional conservative Islam as it is practiced in certain parts of the world) would educate their women better like the Egyptians always have (or at least some of them have).  But I think it is arrogant to tell people how to live their lives when there is so much more that can be done here at home to make the world a better place.

Cultural Diversity, the LAPD and my Uncle from Chicago

Cultural tolerance is a term that encompasses and encourages various forms of inter-cultural dialogue and respect for diversity. Thus, when a physicist is able to talk calmly and politely to a political scientist, this is an example of "cultural tolerance".

Cultural tolerance is understanding that there are different ways of doing things and that if we are to get along peacefully in this world that we must allow for these differences in spite of the fact that our way is always the best way. It would be better for all foreigners to learn to do things our way but it isn't practical to do so when they first arrive. Thus it is important to be patient and tolerant when dealing with visitors and new arrivals from other places. We must explain the way we do things around here and only then throw them in jail or beat them up if they do things differently.

I have a favorite anecdote demonstrating excellent cultural tolerance on the part of a representative of law and order here in Los Angeles, a member of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) a fine institution noted throughout the world for its own special style of corruption and racism. This story demonstrates that they can act with tolerance towards visitors in an enlightened and possibly even humororous fashion. A visitor from a very far away place, the north side of Chicago, came to our fair city and with complete innocence and naivete got himself into serious trouble.

The person was my favorite uncle visiting us and his mother, my grandmother, from Chicago. The time period must have been the mid 1960's. There are many good things I can say about my uncle, he was one of my favorite people in the world: a successful businessman, an intellectual, the president of his reform temple in Highland Park, Illinois, and a very nice man, married to a classic jewish intellectual neurotic woman who was also one of my favorite people in the world.

We were coming back from somewhere, probably to visit my grandmother, when the problems began. He was driving and did so with an enthusiastic driving procedure which consisted of driving at high speeds on the freeway while moving from lane to lane at will and turning his head around to talk to us, his favorite nephews, cowering in the back seat of the car. We were saved from probable death or disfigurement by a police officer who pulled him over and asked to see his driver's license.

And then my uncle got himself into really big trouble.

You see, in Chicago when something like this happens, there is a standard procedure. And that is what my uncle proceeded to do: which was to hand the police officer his driver's license with $100 bill attached. My guess is that he did not give it a second thought. With his driving skills, I figured, he had probably done this many times before in Chicago.

The police officer looked at the driver's license and "honorarium" and said: "Ah, Mr. Hanig, I see you are from Chicago. Put your money away and never do that again and I won't put you in jail this time".

In retrospect, I think that was a very humorous thing for the police officer to say and that my uncle was very lucky. He could easily have spent the afternoon in LA County Jail.

You see, in this town, you do not try to bribe individual police officers. That would be an incredibly stupid thing to do. The way it works here, as I understand it, is that you bribe the top guy, the Chief of Police, or the Mayor or someone like that. Then they do what needs to be done.

I cherish the memory of the police officer recognizing that,  being from Chicago,  the driver thought that bribing a police officer was a normal thing to do and making allowances for this visitor from a distant place.