David Foster

P J O’Rourke Visits an Aircraft Carrier

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…and is inspired to some thoughts about conservatism and John McCain.

I’m surprised that neither O’Rourke nor the highly literate editors of the Weekly Standard thought of including this 1851 quote from John Ruskin:

For one thing this century will in after ages be considered to have done in a superb manner and one thing I think only. . . it will always be said of us, with unabated reverence, “They built ships of the line” . . . the ship of the line is [man’s] first work. Into that he has put as much of his human patience, common sense, forethought, experimental philosophy, self control, habits of order and obedience, thoroughly wrought handwork, defiance of brute elements, careless courage, careful patriotism, and calm expectation of the judgement of God, as can well be put into a space of 300 feet long by 80 broad. And I am thankful to have lived in an age when I could see this thing so done.

Ships and the Global Economy

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The ocean shipping industry is, and always has been, a major enabler of global trade. Air freight is very important, as are communications technologies such as the Internet…however, there exists a vast array of products and commodities for which the only economically-viable means of transportation is the ship. Hence, anything that affects the ocean shipping industry has the potential to influence the shape of the global economy.

The International Martime Organization has approved new rules which will ban ships from using their traditional fuel (very heavy oil, known as bunker fuel) in most parts of the world. The rules are stated in terms of sulphur oxide targets, which will phase in over time. Specially-treated bunker fuel may meet the initial targets in some areas, but only distillates are likely to meet the long-term targets. This implies an eventual potential fuel cost increase for shipping operators of fifty per cent. More at the WSJ.

Increased shipping costs will, at the margin, encourage domestic and regional production of goods at the expense of imports. The strength of this effect will of course depend on the nature of the particular products–shipping costs as a percent of overall value are much higher for washing machines, for example, than for flat-screen TVs.

The new regulations are probably good news for this company. But even if their technology is very successful, overall costs per ocean freight ton-mile will still likely be going up as a result of the new regulations.

A commenter at the WSJ link asks some interesting questions:

What is difficult to discover is just how many people will be adversely affected by increased shipping costs. How will it affect sub-Saharan economies? Will it cause more problems for the shortest lived poorest people on the planet? will it reduce their life expectancy still further? There are reports that indicate the importance of low shipping costs to these economies but unfortunately no one seems to have measured the cost in lives of the current high fuel costs nor what it will be when the new measures kick in.

The Nature of Dictatorships

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Last June, I linked an article by Mario Vargas Llosa about dictatorship and what it does to the human spirit. In the current National Review (4/7), Jay Nordlinger has an article which touches on the same theme.

Nordlinger’s piece is about Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, maker of the film The Lives of Others. (If you haven’t yet seen it, you should.) Florian himself spent his early childhood in the U.S., with his family returning to Germany (West Berlin) when he was eight. His personal knowledge of Communism was based on family visits to East Germany and to his two-year visit to Russia in the early 1990s.

The leading actor in the film, on the other hand, had a very personal knowledge of Communist totalitarianism. Ulrich Muehe was an East German, and, while still in high school, he had already been identified as a promising actor.

From the NR article:

Muehe had the fate of being an East German, and the Stasi had its eye on him from the moment he left high school: They knew he would be a big star. During his military service (obligatory), they made him serve as a sniper at the Berlin Wall. He was under orders to shoot whoever tried to cross from east to west. If he failed, he would never be allowed to work as an actor. He would have to be a manual laborer to the end of his days.

So there was Muehe, 18 years old, sitting in the towers, with this incredible burden on his shoulders. The only thing worse than not being an actor would be shooting someone. Muehe developed stomach ulcers, and one day he collapsed on duty, bleeding from the mouth. Doctors had to take out three-quarters of his stomach. But, fortunately, no one tried to cross. Still, the Stasi never stopped warning him to toe the political line, through all the years of his acting. He kept his counsel–until just before the Wall came down, when he gave a big, pro-freedom speech in East Berlin’s Alexanderplatz.

(cross-posted at Photon Courier)