Posted on 12/03/2007 1:51:48 PM PST by knighthawk
It's not the waste that rankles so much as the hypocrisy. Some 15,000 politicians, officials, quangocrats and assorted busybodies are descending on Bali for a jamboree that will produce more than 100,000 tons of CO2 emissions. The purpose of their trip? To discuss how to reduce CO2 emissions.
We wonder whether there would be so many observers and hangers-on if the venue were, say, Düsseldorf. For many of those attending have no direct involvement in the talks.
For example, 19 MEPs, accompanied by advisers and staff, are in Bali, staying at a luxurious spa hotel. Not only will their fares, meals and accommodation be paid for by the rest of us, but they will also claim a further £95 per day.
Our purpose is not just to mock the attendees. No, we have a deeper objection.
The Bali summit represents much of what is wrong with the green movement, in that it elevates intentions over results. The supposedly ethical aims of the conference are presumed to render irrelevant the pollution engendered by its delegates.
Euro-MPs, and politicians generally, often behave this way. When Indonesia was devastated by the 2004 tsunami, MEPs cheerfully voted millions of their constituents' euros in aid.
But when it was suggested that they might contribute a single day's attendance allowance - around £190 - to the relief effort, they were horrified.
They demand green taxation, yet many of them fly to Strasbourg by the most environmentally unfriendly routes, thereby pocketing higher mileage allowances.
The Kyoto agenda is not principally about affecting climate change. Even if we accept all its proponents' figures, we would succeed in reducing the projected temperature rise by just 0.3F over the next century (at a cost of an almost unbelievable £3 trillion).
No, the Bali meeting is not really about doing anything. It is about feeling smug; and getting paid for it.
Ping
The smell of money. Attracts bureaucrats like flies to a watermelon party.
It seems to be common British slang.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Quangocrat&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8
But I can’t find out what it means, other than maybe a particularly obnoxious bureaucrat.
Priceless!
I was thinking the exact same thing last week when I read this little gem:
Here’s another line that has liberal/socialist written all over it:
“It is about feeling smug; and getting paid for it.”
Gad !
Classic Socialism: the apparatchik play while the rest of us pay for it.
Ohh...that's cruel...
"Quango" means QUAsi Non Governmental Organization, according to wikipedia, so a Quangocrat must be a NGO Bureaucrat. I guess.
From Wiki:
"The term originated as a humorous shortening of Quasi-NGO, that is, an ostensibly non-governmental organisation which performs governmental functions, often with government funding or other support. There are many such organisations. In Australia and other countries, the Red Cross provides blood bank services, with government support and backing of various kinds. Examples in the United Kingdom include bodies engaged in self-regulation of various sectors, such as the Press Council and the Law Society. An essential feature of a Quango, in the original definition, was that it should not be formally part of the public sector."
"However, the appeal of the term was such that it was extended to a wide range of governmental organisations, such as executive agencies (from 1988) providing health, education and other services. Particularly in the United Kingdom, this extension took place in a polemical context, being associated with claims that the proliferation of such authorities was undesirable and should be reversed."
Quangocrats is of course a derived term meaning bureaucrats working in a Qango - for most right-thinking individuals there should be free hunting season on such animals all year.
Hats off, you beat me to it.
:-)
Ping
They can suffer along with me.
Quango is an acronym for “Quasi National Government Organisation”.
Examples of such in Britain would be the Regional Elecricity Boards, or The Milk Marketing Board, or Regional River Authorities.
They were set up by Government edit and are regulated but are not part of the Government structure but do have some limited power devolved to them.
~~ AGW™ ping~~
Thanks. Learn something new every day.
Whatever did Cleveland do to you!?! / sarc
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
ping
“Whatever did Cleveland do to you!?! / sarc”
I live right outside Cleveland! Denny is my guy!?sarc
“Whatever did Cleveland do to you!?! / sarc”
I live right outside Cleveland! Denny is my guy!?sarc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quango
The acronyms Qango and Quango, variously spelt out as QUAsi Non-Governmental Organisation, QUasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation, and QUasi-Autonomous National Government Organisation, have been used, notably in the United Kingdom, but also in Australia, Ireland and other countries, to describe a range of organisations to which governments have devolved power. Confusion over the meaning of the acronym has been reflected in confusion over the use of the term, and may have contributed to its decline in use.
[more]
a jamboree that will produce more than 100,000 tons of CO2 emissions... To discuss how to reduce CO2 emissions... the Bali meeting is not really about doing anything. It is about feeling smug; and getting paid for it.Thanks Reform Canada.
Quangos are quasi-autonomous national government organisations.
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"Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age." --Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. (Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
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In January... with the thermostat set at 55.
They bought carbon indulgences from algore.
Thanks SB.
IPCC Falsifies Sea Level Data
Reason McLucas Blog Hosted by London Telegraph
December 5, 2007 | ReasonMcLucus
Posted on 12/05/2007 4:59:51 PM EST by kathsua
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1935260/posts
Craig files 45 changes to warming bill
Idaho Statesman | 12/5/07 | ERIKA BOLSTAD
Posted on 12/05/2007 11:17:53 PM EST by ricks_place
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1935448/posts
Giant Squid’s California Migration Product Of Warming
PRAVDA | 12/04/-7 | AP
Posted on 12/05/2007 10:37:30 PM EST by ricks_place
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1935432/posts
IPCC Falsifies Sea Level Data
Reason McLucas Blog Hosted by London Telegraph | December 5, 2007 | ReasonMcLucus
Posted on 12/05/2007 4:59:51 PM EST by kathsua
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1935260/posts
Japan climate proposal worries activists
(Trouble in a Green Paradise ahead? Go Japan! Pull OUT!)
AP on Yahoo | 12/5/07 | Charles J. Hanley - ap
Posted on 12/05/2007 5:53:52 PM EST by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1935290/posts
Leading climate scientists insist on strong global warming treaty
PRAVDA | 12/05/07 | AP
Posted on 12/05/2007 10:23:56 PM EST by ricks_place
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1935427/posts
Like the EPA, or the IRS?
Maybe not the IRS....(no LIMITED power)
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