It is really great to see the United States promoting human rights in the worlds’ hot spots such as the former Soviet Republic of Georgia where American planes and troops are assisting the suffering people of this newly invaded nation which has suffered a national and human tragedy in past days.

President Bush’s statements that the American military forces in Georgia that are delivering emergency humanitarian supplies and aid must have free access and be able to work without Russian hindrance is a very democratic idea that speaks loudly of the American cultural idea of helping people and countries that have suffered disasters, in this case, an invasion and bombardment by the Russian military.

This operation in Georgia brings back memories of the failed United Nations and American efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina where the United Nations had authorisation to deliver much-needed emergency supplies to the starving and injured people of Bosnia-Herzegovina, but which usually succumbed to Serbian military strength and demands as the population of Bosnia-Herzegovina starved and died from the brutal Serbian assault.

Kevin Beck
Las Vegas, Nevada

Recent research from the TaxPayers’ Alliance using detailed analysis of the UK’s regional economic statistics shows that on almost every measure in almost every area, the regions did better in the seven years before regional development agencies (RDAs) than in the first seven years of their existence.

Indeed, the gap between the richest and poorest regions has widened rather than narrowed. Overall the RDAs have failed, according to the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

This may be an uncomfortable conclusion for the quangocrats but it is an inescapable fact based on “official data”.

Whatever it is the RDAs have been doing since their establishment in 1999, two things are certain – it has cost us all 15 billion pounds and it has not worked.

Indeed, it did not take the TaxPayers’ Alliance to tell us this, as we were of that opinion about eight years ago when the RDAs were first introduced.

The official information now has only confirmed our feelings and where the RDAs have now been shown to be a complete waste of time and money for the UK taxpayer and nation as a whole. But, they will do no better in the future as they have a 19th-century mentality instead of 21st-century mentality behind them. It is not old thinking, therefore, but revolutionary thinking that is needed, as the UK government was told about nine years ago.

In 1998, more than 60 of the world’s most eminent and renowned scientists, including eight Nobel laureates, told the present government that the only way in which Britain could create economic dynamism in the 21st century was to build the ORE-STEM complex. Ironically, this development would have cost 15 billion pounds, exactly what the RDAs have cost Britain and thrown away to date. But, by contrast, by now the UK would have been seeing the fruits of this vast endeavour. Unfortunately for Britain, it has to be said that, as usual, their senior politicians and civil servants made the wrong decision. The reason: they are advised by ill-informed and uneducated people in the field who have small narrow minds with pet projects that go nowhere and who have not the perception of what 21st-century dynamism is all about and requires. In a further eight to nine years, they will have most probably spent a further 15 billion pounds, again with no meaningful results.

Therefore it is about time that the UK government took notice of those people who know what should be done; those who are working at the leading edge of knowledge, day in, day out, and not the non-performing buffoons of Whitehall who know nothing of what is required. Indeed, while complacency, a lack of knowledge and inferior economic mechanisms exist, such as is the case of the RDAs in Britain, more innovative countries will definitely take the high ground to the demise of all who live in Britain today and future years. But the great problem, of course, is that the RDAs are the UK’s primary economic mechanism and the fallout due to their failure will be immense to both country and people alike. Overall, it has to be said that people, unfortunately including the media, do not listen to those who know.

Dr David Hill
World Innovation Foundation Charity (WIFC)
Bern, Switzerland