Amartya Sen and justice in the 21st century

There has been three important programmes over the past two weeks concerned with moral dilemmas: The five episode Torchwood, the first of weekly series called The Street and Monday’s Start of the Week with Andrew Marr.

The Andrew Marr programme commenced with a description and a discussion of the work of Nobel Prize winner from India Amartya Sen whose has produced a widely acclaimed work on the nature of justice in world as it is today. Mr Sen is one of the most distinguished and respected social economists in the USA, England and India, having held senior roles in all three countries including being the first person of Indian original to be elected Master of Trinity College Cambridge. A position he held for six years.

I have used justice as a term to mean fairness in the dealings between human being and between nations of human beings, ever since reading an essay on the subject while at Ruskin College. I write this away from home and cannot check if it was in a collection of essays or a work by Hart who provided teaching to the post graduate Criminology course at Oxford University or essays in a bock edited by Laslett, Runciman et al.

In the programme Mr Sen explained the existence of two traditions historical tradition of thinking about the subject. The first commenced with the political thinkers of such Locke and Rousseau, who attempted to define an ideal form of society which in reality has never existed and some could argue could never exist and therefore it presuppose human beings in general with qualities which few possess or are able to sustain with any consistency during their individual lives.

The second approach was taken up by another stream of writers and activists which included Mary Wollenstonecraft and Marx who wanted to stop injustice, inequalities , oppressions in the here and now. The motivating issue changed with time, the abolition of slavery, the rights of women, massive disparities between the wealth of a minority and the poverty of the majority. The programme then examined some of the contemporary issues where a pragmatic approach should be considered, but with a small P and a philosophical one.

The main argument of Sen is something that I have also raised s a consequence of my own experience is that there is never one right response or solution in any given situation of conflict or major choice. The example of the manufacture, use and ownership of flute was used. There is a young person who can play the flute brilliantly and needs this particular flute to continue their development as a musician and highest quality of performance. Clearly if any one should own the flute it is this person?

But what of the individual who made the flute with great skill and much time. Surely if anyone deserved to own the flute it is this person. That would be fair and just would it not? But what of someone with a large family to support, and who is without education or other work opportunities but has an ability to play the flute and can earn sufficient by entertaining tourists who visits their city to maintain his family, surely this individual has the greater need and should own the flute?

I prefer a different example of this dilemma from the health service and the use of donor dependent organs such as a heart or liver and such like and where there are many competing for the few organs which are available and where the priorities will change unless one sticks to a simple order of chronological waiting list which could mean a vital organ going to an old person with only a limited time span in any event and not to a young person. But what if the young person is a criminal, unemployed, badly educated? Does this make a difference. What if the choice is between a mother with children who have grown up with grand children who has loved and cared for them so that they now contribute to society in a positive way and who also undertook basic caring work or volunteering in the community, has never been in trouble with the law or made demands on the resources of the state or local government or health service before. Should she get the available organ which could prolong her life but would have no impact on wider society, or should it go to a man in his forties who is working on a cure for a cancer where he is the only person with the knowledge and skill to make progress quickly but where he is known to have abused his partners, disregarded the needs and interests of his parents, had fathered several children who he disowns etc? Which one would you chose? What would be just, what would be fair?

What the author was suggesting is that only through open discussion could the best solution be determined and that such discussion was best taken within the framework of democratic government.

This brings me to Torchwood, shown over five nights last week. At one level this is a re-enactment of the crucifixion in the setting of a space science fiction drama. Aliens have been to earth before, to England, something which the present Prime Minister decides to cover up when they return. Previously they offered to provide a vaccine for a killer virus in exchange for a dozen children. Now when they return they want one in ten of the children in the world or they will destroy all life on the earth planet.

What happens to the children? They are attached in a permanent state of being to the alien creature and which gives the alien a fix rather like a drug. Was it right to sacrifice twelve children to obtain a vaccine which saved hundreds of thousands, possibly millions and if so or in any event why not then yield one in ten children to save everyone else, on the basis there is no way of negotiating something different or preventing the alien force from carrying out their threat. In Torchwood an individual who cannot die but who can be killed and therefore can experience all the horror and pain of different forms of death but from which he recovers including being held in a block of cement or blown up, is forced to sacrifice his only human son in order to save everyone including the 10% of the children of the world.

An then last night the first dilemma raised by The Street centres on a publican who barred a member of the pub football team he caught smoking in the toilets, so when he catches the son of the local villain and benefactor also smoking he bans him. His father then demands that his son is served or he will beat up and possibly kill the publican. The man, a recovering alcohol is a good husband and father of three children, two daughters who are typical teenagers and a son who is at university where he is returning the following day but helps out in the bar and overhears the threat to his father. He warns that if his father is harmed he will do likewise to the son of the villain. The pub has become the centre of community activity with various teams in addition to the football team, providing cheap pensioner lunches and Christmas parties and generally being the hub of local community activity. There are no drugs or drunkenness or rowdy behaviour allowed. The local villain however is also the primary funder of many of the activities with which the pub and the community are associated

Understandably the wife of the publican wants her husband to give in and suggests that he removes the bar on the other young man. The young man in question says he admits he was right to have been barred and is disappointed that the ban is being lifted under duress because of his belief in the moral strength and good works of the publican. The publican decides to stand his ground and find another way. His wife suggests that he should call on the young men of the football team for support. The manager of the team question this decision drawing attention that the publican ensured that his son went back to university and did not become involved yet he is prepared to involve the sons of others. He had been happy to accept the money which had kept the football team going and arguments about how the man got his money appeared rich from someone who used the activities associated with the pub to promote the sale of alcohol which was the biggest killer and the most disruptive of all drugs and potentially harmful substances. The publican realises it was a mistake to ask the young men so turns to his other customers expecting them to put up a show of force and solidarity in his defence but they suddenly disappear, cannot be contacted. One man does volunteer without being asked but then backs out when he realises he is the only one. He cannot risk the consequences in terms of his family. One man does come forward an older and physically weak man played by Timothy Small, who is head butted out of the way when he decides to ignore the plea to stay away by the publican although he appreciates the true act of friendship and indeed courage.

Xialou Guo

Tuesday proved to be a day which should have been different so that overall there is a sense of failure. There is a new problem in that going to bed early means that I am then waking fully early and then tend to work at the desk for a few hours before feeling able to undertake physical work. That extra stone of weight from the point reached a year and a half ago' limiting my efforts and I am finding it difficult to break the cycle of imbalance between food intake and physical activity.

There were positives during the day and miniscule achievements in that I finish the kitchen and day room cleans, washed and dried the two white covers of the dilapidated settee but is so comfortable although low lying and poses difficulties when tired and getting up.

I also dusted the front room library lounge and my work room lounge. It was here that I noted a large crack in the lower panel of the door which I believe is the effect of using the central heating system more than the previous owners. I will acquire some wood filling and matching stain and paint on a visit to B and Q early this morning when I also go to investigate laminate flooring for the kitchen. I am tempted to tackled both projects, as this is work I can undertake myself where as the sudden stop of water in the bathroom sink may involve major upheaval although fixing the day room light may not. If I finish the house clean and tidy this week, I will then concentrate on arranging these.

I had planned to go to the cinema in the afternoon but first forgot, and did not check the time when Lost is shown first thing so missed the opportunity to go to the afternoon show, and then left my departure to late for the evening, although setting off, realised about half way that I was likely to miss the start, especially as I had a need for some sweeties where the need was irresistible. This goes back to the days when having the cinema pass at £9.99 a month and £12.99 to include central London, the sense of not having to pay at the time of a visit deluded one into buying the expensive sweety mix instead of getting a supply from the supermarket. So I returned home and started to read a Christmas present but then my attention turned to the bad news of Spurs beating Arsenal in the League Cup, which means that Arsenal will now direct their energies to winning the FA Cup when they meet Kevin Keegan's Newcastle on Saturday.

Yesterday I caught part of a reading of a description by a Chinese young woman of coming to Britain to learn English by a contemporary Chinese author which reminded that I needed to write to a friend in China. I tried the BBC on the internet for yesterday's programme schedule but decided to test the new BBC service where it is possible to view any TV programme of the last seven days from any of their channels with a matching radio player available, At present I have one eye on the second episode Lark Rise to Candleford and the line "God intended boy's to have father's and becomes devil's own if they do not." In fact the father is in prison on Dartmoor for manslaughter whereas the boy believes he is adventuring abroad. The truth emerges and the reactions of the people of the two villages of Lark Rise and Candleford is on of the two sub plots of the week. The other is the great Dawn French's portrayal of the woman with many infants whose husband is also away adventuring and who submits to the door to door seller of beer and is brought before magistrates when she does not pay her debt. The squire magistrate is a stern man and keen upholder of the law and good order, but he after standing for none of her charms and devices to enlist sympathy of the court saves his wrath for giver of credit without checking on the ability of the woman to pay or on the likely impact on her family, deciding against imprisonment and paying off the debt at a trickle. Why do banks and firms write off millions as a consequence of bad judgements and circumstances but always hound the individual and usually society sides with the financial institutions.

I was also able to establish that the reading was a Woman's hour serialization of the first novel written in English of the Chinese writer Xiaolu Guo and the book is called a Concise Chinese English Dictionary for young lovers, I was able to hear the interview in which she explained that she attempted to use language similar to her own understanding of English during her first three year in Britain. What interested me is that although the ability to write Chinese ahs always appeared a complex and skilled activity, it was said that the structure of the language was much simpler and more direct than English. I will try and hear the rest of the reading as I can move a portable radio around the house with me.

I then discovered that the greater part of today's programme was devoted to centenary of the birth of Simone De Beauvoir, the largely self educated philosopher and writer who was also a close friend of John Paul Sartre who developed Existentialist philosophy. It would be wrong to attempt to argue who had the greater influence of 20th century society, except for the profound words of Simone the effect that that girls are made and not born. She was both right and wrong because we are all mixtures of nature as well as of nurture and where the mixtures are always varied within a society at any pint in time but with the predominant roles culturally determined with the context of religious, political and economic factors. This is one of the issues of my major work project of the year, the impact of my childhood on the rest of my life. However before starting to write I need to be confident about the framework and that I can deal with a number of issues of confidentiality in relation to other family members. Terry Waite's book, Brian Keenan were two autobiographies following their captivity in which they were as open and direct as anyone about their feelings and coping or not, but also protected the rights and interests of their family
It is again coincidental but not that such coincidences keep happening that after writing about the European Film Academy awards yesterday and where I had only seen perhaps 20% of the films awarded over the past decade and 10% of those nominated, the 2008 Oscar nominations were announced in the afternoon, although there is a question mark over the holding of the event because of a dispute between the screen writers and the industry in the USA. For the first time in ten years I have not yet seen any of the films nominated for the best film award, although I went to see Atonement and saw another film by mistake and also missed Michael Clayton and intended to see No Country for Old men during the day. The same applies to the majority of other nominations for awards with exceptions Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose as best actress and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson's war as a supporting actor. I was more in touch with European cinema before moving my mother North, and intend to visit the Tyneside film theatre more regularly especially when it moves back to its theatre in the city which is being refurbished. There is no excuse about not seeing the mainstream Anglo American Cinema and hopefully some will be shown in theatre again. There were other developments which made the of greater significance that these notes will indicate.