qui tacet consentire videtur

I don’t remember every conversation though I now wish I had written them all down. Some gems I can recall are:

(At a bar around Hyehwa Stn with some backpackers)
German: So how long is your military service?
Me: Two and a half years.
German: Two and a half years? You have so many enemies?

(At the Parktel Canadians’ room on their last night)
Steve: I can’t do this anymore.
Me: It’s your last night in Korea, man.
Steve: It’s been my last night in Korea for the past eight days.

(Outside Mr. Pizza at Myeungdong)
Hyung Jun’s girlfriend: I think the best way to learn Korean is to get a Korean girlfriend.
Daniel: Then it’s a chicken and egg issue…
Me: Or it could be a virtuous circle. Learn a little Korean, get a Korean girlfriend, learn more Korean, get a hotter Korean girlfriend…
See: I think you have some causal link problems there.

Daniel has some quotes here, but they’re not as golden. Also, the conversation with John the Young Republican didn’t go like that - it was more about the constitutional protection of private enterprise between consenting adults.

I would probably be offended by this as a libertarian, but I’m not.

Take, as a case study, libertarianism. Unlike most other right-wingers, libertarians have a distinct idea of what they stand for: less government. They also have, in free-market economics, the Right’s most fruitful research program and, in F.A. Hayek, the only recent right-wing theorist to command serious attention from the Left. What libertarians do not have, however, is a comprehensive argument for their ideology.

I suppose my answer is that libertarianism isn’t about limited government in itself, though that is a core part of the ideology - and that’s what it is, an ideology which values individual freedom.

Their failure to uncover this argument stems from no lack of trying. Even more than other right-wingers, libertarians love abstract debates over why their views are correct. Richard Epstein, for example, the brilliant libertarian law professor at the University of Chicago, subtitled his latest book, “A Modern Case for Classical Liberalism.” It is his third contribution to the literature of libertarian apologetics, a somewhat occult genre dating back to the 1920s.

To put it bluntly, the genre is a failure. No economic model can prove that government interference in the economy by nature tends to do harm. While economics can show that some government programs will fail—rent control, say, or confiscatory tax rates—it cannot show that all government programs will fail. As for the various moral arguments for libertarianism, they are even weaker. Liberal theorists such as Ronald Dworkin and Amartya Sen have long since shown that libertarians simply fail to grasp the full dimensions of equal liberty, which does not demand, as libertarians would have it, that everyone should be equally free to starve, but that everyone should have a fair chance to pursue his goals freely. This principle may require a more active government than libertarians would allow.

The logical links in this paragraph seem to confuse various strands of libertarian thought (anarchism, which is a little more extreme), but this is where the debate is, on ‘fair chance to pursue his goals freely’. The author is pretty vague on what he means by a fair chance and how much redistribution is required, once again confusing positive and negative liberties.

I’ve uploaded my pictures and you can see them here. Roughly chronological and categorized by event, they are:

Opening Ceremony
Hyundai Sungwoo Resort
Team 10 pictures
Cultural Night
DDR/Pump
Folk Village
LotteWorld
Closing Ceremony
Postconference
Engrish

Other photo albums:
Gueyon
Grace
Tracy
Kokheng - da playa =)

I cried just a little on the way back.

Words fail to convey the full intensity of the shared experience. No one besides us will know how much fun we had within those two weeks. No one will understand how it feels to return to the mundane rhythms of daily life. It is like waking from a dream into a nightmare. All that is left are the memories and the souvenirs scattered on my bedroom floor - neoprints, keychains, hairbands, photographs - paltry evidence of something ephemeral. Freedom, perhaps.

All good things must come to an end.

I suppose my antisocial nature inevitably comes out after a stressful extended period of cheerfulness and enthusiasm. Another characteristic that must be stopped.

V told me that it’s strange how people you’ve only known for a week or so can become so close to you. I replied that this isn’t really new to me - it’s a phenomenon I’ve seen many times through the various CAP camps and the SYC host delegation, among others. It does not appear in more formal events like WSIS and the GYR, which is what I expected this trip to be like. I wasn’t prepared for this kind of social environment. It’s the intensity of the experience and contact with these people that forces intimacy, and if it doesn’t, you’re expected to at least pretend. So everyone is trying their best to be really sociable and make great friends - and many do.

What this experience has taught me is to be one of those people. To become one of those people - having the social skills and character traits that enable it - is what the bildungsroman is all about.

In the basement of the resort the youth conference is at they have DDR machines. DDR in Korea is called Pump, and instead of four pads it has five (an additional one in the center). The last time (and the only time) I ever played DDR was in JC1 with Gracia the ACJC DDR queen on some class outing. That was three years ago. I really wanted to try out this version so I asked the a girl to a match and got my ass handed to me. Apparently all korean girls are really good at this. Then I played some more with the other delegates and embarrassed myself a few more times before realizing that I should really practice at home with a PS2 first.

I was part of an informal discussion group on free trade and development. You probably already know how this turned out. Unsurprisingly the Hong Kong girls were with me on free markets and it was the Finn and the Canadians who were all about the evils of Walmart. I tend to get kinda flustered when doing any sort of public speaking at all - which is probably why I never really made it that far in on the debate floor.

Also, do not mix beer, soju, and kaoliang brandy under any circumstances.

Let me state for the record that the APEC Youth Plaza is the most awesome youth conference I have ever been to, and I’ve been to plenty.

For some reason I was assigned to the ‘religion’ subcommittee for the youth statement and to another subcommittee on the ‘digital divide’. It was like I was attending a meeting of the young socialist international or something. It was horrifying to hear their calls for international wealth equity, an international regulatory/oversight body, and increased subsidies and aid. When I talked about market-based incentive systems for development, I was told about the ‘needs of the people’ versus the ‘greed of the rich’ and how monopoly power destroys lives. At the religion subcommittee I motioned for a statement on affirming the freedom of religious belief in a liberal, tolerant, and culturally diverse group like APEC. I was told about my ‘ethnocentrism’ in judging non-secular states by the Western standards of civil liberty and how human rights violations by muslim countries is a ’sensitive topic’ - and to be ignored or accepted. I fought so hard for free markets and free minds but I couldn’t convince anyone in my tiny subcommittees - and by the time our brief paragraph got passed up through the channels of discussion to the main committees it became so vague as to be something out of a Miss Universe pageant. World peace!

Suffice to say this was not a victory. The odds were stacked against me since most of the people who attend these youth conferences tend to be from voluntary welfare backgrounds and have been exposed to much more left-leaning arguments. Especially the Europeans - in my conversation with a Finnish grad student, I asked if Finland would ever have an education system with school fees to finance the cost of education. He said that Finland believes that everyone should have an equal education, with schools that are equally good. I said that without incentive systems to recruit and reward teaching they would probably all be equally bad. Some being more equal than others.

Well, I am now in South Korea for the APEC Youth Plaza. First impressions of Seoul: Very efficient public transport system but very odd price differentials - the minimum fare for a subway ride is W900 (which extends for quite a radius) and the maximum is W1400. Its hard to imagine that the value of travelling to a distant destination like LotteWorld (a local amusement park I’d like to visit) being only ~50% more than travelling to the next station. Short-range commuters subsidising long-range commuters? Also, it seems pretty easy to game the system - the entrance turnstiles are easily monitored when the exit turnstiles are not. I saw a lady without enough fare for her destination just bend under the turnstile and leave. Just like in My Sassy Girl.

Many local restaurants (perhaps they are local chains?) have some sort of cute mascot: I saw an octochef and an odd looking chicken. Seems to me to be the influence of Western fast food chains. Also, very high market saturation for fast food restaurants. In a few blocks in Seoul I came across 2 Dunkin Donuts and 2 Baskin Robbins outlets. An interesting local burger chain is Lotteria.

A bildungsroman (German: “novel of education” or “novel of formation”) is a novel which traces the spiritual, moral, psychological, or social development and growth of the main character from (usually) childhood to maturity.

It feels like I never left secondary school. In some ways I’m still stuck in the awkwardness of a school dance without a date to the prom. My unpleasant secondary school/JC experience somehow carried on past graduation.

I don’t make friends easily and can never get a date. Projecting past and present behavior into the future doesn’t show any difference: my social life remains predictably empty. I haven’t been actively rectifying the situation, which is in itself part of the problem.

In a recent conversation with NWT about this he hypothesized that we were in such a hurry to accelerate our education that along the way we neglected to develop some elementary but crucial social skills. Our youth misspent prioritizing academics and playing intellectual games at the expense of real life. Not only did we not have fun, we did not learn how to have fun. And now we experience static stagnation in a dynamic social environment. Procrastinating play has its price - beyond a certain level the marginal benefits turn negative really sharp.

NWT calls this a form of market failure, a ‘matching problem’. Asymmetric information and inefficient clearing mechanisms combine to systematically underprice my net asset value. I will write more on these market failures and market-based solutions in a larger series on the economics of attraction. However, this perspective attributes primary responsibility to external factors as opposed to poor strategic planning and underinvestment in social capital.

I see this as the time for long overdue reform, a gradual transition phase out of my comfort zone before I leave this island home - the greatest comfort zone of all. Developing interpersonal skills, building self-confidence, actualizing the ideal self. This is the story of how my life switches from passive index tracking to active management, hopefully with a net profit for the main stakeholder.

Cynical as I am of political office in Singapore, it is instinctively appealing to hear of challengers to the status quo. Paranoid conspiracy theorists may pass it off as overhyped if not artificial competition to divert the needs of the masses for political expression in perpetuating a facade of liberal democracy, but nobody really believes that bread and circuses line anymore. Rather, one could see it as a marginal revolution of sorts, small steps towards liberty. In any case, it is an interesting look into the electoral process.

First, the eligibility conditions to even run. Unlike the US, where any natural-born citizen of 35 years of age residing in the US for 14 years can run for the presidency (and with the Governator’s entrance, even the natural-born bit is up for debate), eligibility here is a bit more stringent, and worryingly, at the discretion of three men and their interpretation of the constitution. “Integrity, good character or reputation” are rather subjective, though it appears the issue at hand is whether or not Andrew Kuan’s CFO position at JTC counts. If it is not, either the large discretionary powers or the absurdity of present eligibility requirements will become obvious - so it’s a good bet that he will be eligible to run. Speaking of betting, I don’t think the local gaming industry will cover this as much as Tradesports since AFAIK they don’t have futures markets or contract payoffs.

Second, the timeframe is rather abrupt, particularly for the unknown contenders. From nomination day to polling is 10 days - 240 hours for candidates to campaign and make themselves known, for a nation to decide on a president. This, of course, adds another advantage to an incumbent above and beyond the advantages of incumbency. Ideally there would be a level playing field for a nation to obtain sufficient information to make an optimal decision. Instead, we have asymmetric information. For markets to be as efficient as possible, this asymmetry should be ameliorated.

Third, this is going to be the first election most Singaporeans will have voted in a long time - most districts during parliamentary elections are not contested - and therefore potentially more representative.

Fourth, the candidates themselves are interesting. Andrew Kuan’s background is in industry, accounting, finance and HR - he’s not a bureaucrat but a businessman. This alone excites me. He has said: (quotes from the Straits Times)

‘I’m just a mere member of the PAP,’ he said of the ruling party. ‘But I’m not influenced by their philosophy. I’m going to quit it the moment I get my Certificate of Eligibility.’

One wonders what his interpretation of the PAP philosophy is - its stated non-ideological pragmatism or its authoritarian/market-socialist position. If the latter, its unclear whether he’s further to the left or to the right. In any case, it’s not likely that there will be much of a difference where ideology is concerned. Besides, elections are more about personality.

If Mr Kuan proves eligible, the Aug 27 poll will be the first time since 1993 that the presidency is contested. In 1993, retired accountant-general Chua Kim Yeow, who was persuaded by the Government to stand, ran unsuccessfully against Mr Ong Teng Cheong. So is Mr Kuan another ‘government-endorsed’ candidate?

‘No, absolutely no!’ said Mr Kuan firmly, adding later that he was running ‘independently’.

He added: ‘Singapore can progress to greater heights if we have proper governance and better performance governance for better transparency and better accountability.’

I like the transparency and accountability bit. Here’s hoping he makes the cut so we can hear more about his platform.