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One year ago this month I posted the first-ever ‘Shithole Country Index’, memorializing Donald Trump’s famous remark from January 11, 2018: “Why do we want all these people from ‘shithole countries’ coming here?” This article presents the 2019 version of the index. I don’t endorse the idea that national origin determines the desirability of an immigrant, but I definitely do endorse the idea that shithole countries exist.

My version of the list (we probably all have our personal lists, and none include Canada, right?) combines the World Bank’s separate lists of GDP per capita and ease of doing business. One list indicates economic success, the other indicates level of effort. To be classed as a shithole country you must appear in the bottom twenty on BOTH lists. In other words you are at the very same time both a world class failure, and not trying to do anything about it.

The 2nd Annual Shithole Country List is as follows:

Central African Republic
Chad
Democratic Republic of Congo
Guinea-Bissau
Haiti
Liberia
Somalia

Italic text indicates countries that appear in both the first and second year lists.

Bottom Line
Appearance in the Shithole Countries List indicates epic cultural/civilizational failure. I note that the only non-African country to appear on the list this year is Haiti. No Asian countries are on the list; no European countries; and from the western hemisphere, only Haiti. To anyone surprised or confused by this, I recommend that you read Niall Ferguson’s book “Civilization, the West and the Rest”.

Yesterday Major League Baseball released the results of its investigation of accusations of sexual harassment against three Seattle Mariners executives. The league hired a top employment law firm to run an independent investigation, with the following result:

The firm did not uncover credible evidence that the Mariners, or any of its employees, violated Major League Baseball’s Workplace Code of Conduct, or applicable anti-discrimination law, in the treatment of Dr. Martin or the termination of her employment. The investigation also concluded that there is no credible evidence to support Dr. Martin’s claim that Mariners’ employees, including Jerry Dipoto, Scott Servais, or Andy McKay, made any of the comments attributed to them in her public statement or subsequent lawsuit.

Did you believe Lorena Martin’s accusations? Progressive dogma says you should have: “believe all women”.

If you choose to believe women, you choose to believe every woman. Even when it’s uncomfortable. (Especially when it’s uncomfortable.) … If your knee-jerk reaction is “I can’t imagine it, so it can’t be true,” then you are allowing your privilege to get the better of you. … Every time you tell a friend or your Facebook feed or your millions of fans that you believe a woman has made it all up, you propagate the myth that women lie about being assaulted.

bustle.com

But then on the other hand, please remember the ‘big three’ of false accusations:

• In 1987 Tawana Brawley, with Al Sharpton’s help and encouragement, accused police officers and a county prosecutor of kidnapping and rape. A state grand jury concluded it never happened.
• In 2006 Crystal Gail Mangum claimed she was raped at a party by three members of the Duke University lacrosse team. The Durham County DA suggested it was a hate crime, but after investigating the state Attorney General dropped all charges. The prosecutor was accused of “dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation” and later disbarred.
• In 2014 Rolling Stone magazine ran an investigative journalism article alleging group sexual assault at a University of Virginia fraternity. The article was later retracted. Rolling Stone was sued for defamation by a university administrator and found liable for $3 million in damages. Rolling Stone later settled a separate suit by the fraternity.

Believing all the accusers is not acceptable because we know that false accusations occur. We also know that some accusations are true. Is there a middle ground? Yes, there are cases where there is no way to tell what the truth is: Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford are two examples. The lingering ambiguity of those two ‘middle ground’ cases is likely because they were judged in a rules-free setting: Congressional hearings on live TV.

“Believe the women” and #MeToo are examples of sloppy sentimentality trending towards mob rule. We can do better.

The Bottom Line
Our legal culture has a long history of balancing the rights of accuser and accused. If each of us expects to be treated fairly in a legal or criminal setting, we need to be willing to treat everyone else fairly. “Fairly” is best defined as ‘innocent until proven guilty’, plus the traditional standards that define due process and rules of evidence.

As it says in the Bible: “as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”

Yes, my kids have it easier. Yes, I had it easier. My Dad did not have it easy, but he had opportunities, and took advantage of them. All of this is at the end of a chain of sacrifice and risk-taking that stretches back to at least 400 AD. Political turmoil in an area that was later Denmark, combined with tales that there was a warmer and wealthier land to the southwest, across the North Sea. Traders led the way, followed by larger and larger bands of raiders that eventually came to stay. They conquered an area that became known as Danelaw, which was then absorbed into England. Their Viking genes added a hard edge to Norman and Scottish blood. Great Britain went on to conquer much of the world, including a part of North America that later became the US.

Then, as a result of lack of opportunity in Great Britain, my paternal grandfather and his family immigrated here in the 20s. They worked in the auto factories. My Dad joined the Army. The Army sent him to college where he became a dentist and served in the Korean War. His MASH unit was overrun by North Koreans, who machine-gunned the patients in their beds. That part was not included in the famous TV series.

My Dad in turn made sure that his sons also went to college. I made money at Microsoft. My brother is tenured faculty at a prestigious medical school. Both of my kids went to college, and my two nephews both have doctorates in the sciences.

The phrase ‘white privilege’ is meant to point out unearned privilege, with two goals:
• Ensure that progressives and blacks continue to view America as racist.
• Keep America from focusing on what will actually help black America: resurrection of the black family, improving inner city schools, lowering the crime rate in black neighborhoods.

From my point of view it’s the result of “a chain of sacrifice” that begins with death-defying Norsemen, and continues through people like Andrew Carnegie and those soldiers left behind in their hospital beds. All of them wanted, in the current phrase, to ‘pass it on’.

The Bottom Line
I celebrate my privilege. My forefathers earned it, and gifted it to me. I pass it on to my kids as best I can, certain that my great-grandfather the blacksmith from Motherwell would be heartbroken and scornful if I didn’t.
Don’t bother denying it exists. If you’ve got it, celebrate white privilege as a gift from your predecessors.