GlobLog - February 2005
A direct link to each entry is obtained by using the button below the entry.

12:12 - ME AND AMS: I’ve begun writing columns in Arbetsmarknaden, the magazine of AMS – the Swedish National Labour Market Administration. In the first one I defend Wal-Mart and low wages.

04:06 - NOTHING TO SHRUG ABOUT: Let me share a story about a small triumph: Less than a month ago, Timbro published Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged in Swedish. We were uncertain about the reception since she is not at all well known in Sweden. But we understood that something was going on when we had to change the place for the book launch. We hoped for an audience of 100 people. 300 showed up. Now we also have some non-official sales figures. Almost 3 000 copies has been sold. In less than a month. In Sweden – with a population of 9 million. That is a smash hit for a controversial, philosophical novel. I guess this is the intellectual stimulus people have been longing for when the political debate seems to be devoid of ideology.

11:54 - DAGENS GLÄDJEÄMNE: 

”En varning och ett löfte till dig som tänker läsa den här artikeln: Du kommer att förlora fem minuter av ditt liv, men på slutet får du en av dem tillbaka. Så mycket hinner nämligen din förväntade livslängd öka under tiden.”
– Niklas Ekdal illustrerar de konstanta framstegen.

11:41 - DOES DN USE NAZIS AS SOURCES?: An obituary about Georgia’s prime minister Zurab Zjvania in Dagens Nyheter accuses this "jewish" politician of corruption, and mentions that the revolution was financed by the "jewish" George Soros. Håkan Jacobson has found out that several sentences are picked almost word-by-word from an article on a Swedish neo-nazi site. Dagens Nyheter owes us an explanation.

11:24 - LEX ALICIO: Alicio made a detailed list of factual errors and conscious distortions in a public service program on terrorism. I wrote about it here and Alicio now has a good summary. The reporter didn’t respond to the facts and arguments, instead he complained that criticism was ”McCarthyism” – even though Alicio didn’t attack the reporter’s communist affiliation, but his statements and distortions.

Since then, the Swedish blogosphere has coined a new word: Lex Alicio. It is an extension of the classic Goodwin’s law – which basically says that when someone in an internet debate begins to talk about Hitler instead of the subject at hand, it if fair for the other side to withdraw from the debate and declare victory. “Lex Alicio” says that the same goes when your opponent begins to talk about McCarthy instead of refuting your arguments. That law will come in handy, I’m afraid.

(I think that Hayek would say that this voluntary and spontaneous creation of norms in conscious and unconscious cooperation between the blogs is law at its best, in contrast to artificial legislation.)

11:19 - DAGENS TIPS: 

”Förmodligen är det bättre att göra med attacianerna som man skulle med en excentrisk äldre adelsonkel i en PG Wodehouse-roman, klappa föremålet i fråga litet på axeln, beklaga att världen förändrats och hälla upp ett glas whiskey (örtté?) till åt honom så att han tryggt kan gå tillbaka in i dimman.”
– Nicklas Lundblad om Attacs riksårsmöte i helgen.

15:19 - THE WORST DEAL SO FAR: The good thing with voluntary agreements is that both parties are happy with them. Unfortunately, when the deal is political, the parties to the agreement make decisions for the rest of us as well, and we might suffer. EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson now offers China to lift the EU weapons embargo (so that China can threaten Taiwan) in exchange for Chinese restrictions on its own exports of textiles (so that Europeans have to pay more for their clothes). Facilitating aggression in exchange for higher prices – and Mandelson is supposed to be one of the good guys in the Commission!

11:53 - ATTAC LEVER:  I morgon har Attac riksårsmöte. Jodå, Attac lever. Men inte längre som pigg och upphaussad aktivistgrupp, utan som ytterligare en i raden av halvt insomnade babbel- och konferensorganisationer för socialister med tid över. Bevis? Ta en titt på motionerna. (Tack Barbro)

10:30 - A SWEDISH WORD WITH A SPECFIC SWEDISH MEANING: Yesterday was the first night with Peter Wolodarski’s new television program Studio 8. An interesting show with great potential. Most interesting last night was the discussion about public service television with the new viewer ombudsman at SVT, Claes Elfsberg. The whole idea with an ombudsman is that he is a spokesperson for the viewers, and a watcher and critic of the TV company. But the charming and comforting Elfsberg didn’t problematise the slightest, he just kept saying that there are no problems, no conflicts of interest and no political interference. SVT is not the first Swedish company to turn the ombudsman idea on its head. DN is the pioneer.

10:06 - PASSIVITET, DÄR AGGRESSIVITET BEHÖVS: Nicklas Lundblad, som har en av landets bästa bloggar, förklarar varför regeringens skepsis mot CAP inte gör någon som helst nytta.

00:23 - REBIRTH OF A REGION: 

“We are all happy when U.S. soldiers are killed [in Iraq] week in and week out. The killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq is legitimate and obligatory.”
– Walid Jumblatt, patriarch of Lebanon’s Druze, one year ago.

”It´s strange for me to say it, but this process of change [in the Middle East] has started because of the American invasion of Iraq… I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world. The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it.”
– Walid Jumblatt, today. (David Ignatius via Stockholm Spectator)

15:01 - A MOMENT IN TIME: And while we are on the subject of media watch, Håkan Jacobson has showed that Uppdrag Granskning lied about Försäkringskassan’s soial insurance rules. The show pretended that the employed got a bonus when they gave someone to early retirement, but in fact the bonus is given for extra work, no matter if the decision is early retirement or not. This is either a conscious lie, or the journalists can’t read the documents they receive. I don’t know what would be worst. Follow Jacobson’s email conversation with the editor here.

And yes, Jacobson is definitely right when he says that something is happening in the Swedish blogosphere right now. Consolidation means that a few great blogs are read by an increasing number of people, and the critical mass means that important messages and corrections are passed on by the others. This – if I would have to mention a moment in time I would even say today, right now – is the moment Swedish blogs became a force the mainstream media cannot ignore, for their own good.

(And oh, another sign that the blogosphere is coming of age, Munkhammar just got permalinks... ;-)

14:15 - FAKTUM FAKES FACTS: In DN, Peter Wolodarski writes about how blogs control mainstream media, and mentions how Alicio i underlandet examines a report on terrorism in Faktum in Swedish television. It’s a great example. Alicio’s detailed study should be read by everyone interested in media bias. According to the program terrorism does not really exist, the word is just a way for “the strong” to condemn the resistance of “the weak”, and to conceal that the US and Israel are the worst terrorists. Alicio shows that this impression was given by floating definitions, change of context and a complete distortion of events and by what has been said in the UN, and by interviews with the Marxist historian Åsa Linderborg. And Alicio also shows that the report was done by a person who has been an activist in one of the most extreme communist groups in Sweden.

Alicio’s report is so convincing, and the reporters’ response is so revealing (no refutation of a single one of Alicio’s facts, just complaints of McCarthyism), and it’s all so timely now when the integrity and objectivity of public service television is questioned, so there is only one reasonable conclusion: This terrorism apologia from a hard-line communist must have been broadcasted at primetime by a secret opponent of public service, who really wanted to embarrass public service now when it tries to convince us that it is objective and free from political influences.

04:54 - NIGHT MUSIC: While writing this book I have really rediscovered the joy and the benefits of writing during night. Darkness and silence outside, no phone calls, no emails, just me, lots of tea and the computer. And great music of course. Here are the five best things to listen to during night writing:

1. Beethoven´s piano concertos
2. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
3. Sophie Zelmani
4. Chopin (etudes, or waltzes, or the first concerto, I can´t decide)
5. Leonard Cohen

18:22 - NO 27: 300 journalists and moulders of public opinion make a list every year of the most influential individuals in the Swedish debate for the magazine DSM. This year’s list has just been published. The prime minister is number one as usual. I am in place 27, ahead of such people as the leaders of the christian democrats and the green and the left party, and far ahead of the bosses of the trade union federation and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.

15:56 - FREE MOJTABA AND ARASH!: 

The Committee to Protect Bloggers has declared today “Free Mojtaba and Arash Day.”
Arash Sigarchi, an Iranian blogger who was arrested on January 17, after responding to a summons from the intelligence ministry in the northern city of Rashat, has since been held at Rashat’s Lakan Prison where he has been denied the right to see a lawyer and bail has been set at 200 million rials (about $25,000 U.S.).
Fellow Iranian blogger Mojtaba Saminejad has been released from prison in Tehran but still faces charges.
They have both been deprived of their liberty by the Iranian government for expressing opinions on their blogs.
Click here to see how you can help. Spread the word!
(From Stockholm Spectator)

11:30 - DON´T MISS: Tomorrow, Tuesday at 12.10 and 23.40, P1/Vetandets värld broadcasts a special programme about Sven Rydenfelt.

22:34 - DAGENS LIKNELSE: 

”Socialdemokraterna och moderaterna tar fram varandras absolut sämsta sidor när de möts i flyktingpolitiken… De är lite som de två killarna som finns i varje klass som fröken måste hålla åtskilda för om de sitter ihop så hittar de på felaktiga saker.”
– Katarina Larsson, Borås Tidning, i dagens God morgon, världen!, om att s och m utvisar apatiska flyktingbarn.

17:23 - REPORT ON INTEGRATION AND AN ARGUMENT FROM INTIMIDATION: Christopher Caldwell at the Weekly Standard has written interesting things about the Netherlands and the Muslim issue. Now his attention turns to Sweden, in an interesting cover article about the failure of integration here (which quotes me).

At the same time the social democratic integration-industrial complex continues to throw mud at folkpartiet for its willingness to deal with these problems. The party’s welfare-to-work programme is smeared as “racism” and as an attack on immigrants, which says everything we need to know about the establishment’s views about immigrants and their potential. Their fear of the opposition’s challenge would almost be entertaining if it wasn’t so ugly.

12:31 - IT TAKES A PROFESSOR...: For some reason, a lot of people on both sides of the feminism debate think that they don’t have to take facts into consideration. Strong emotions and a bad attitude seem to be all it takes. A great exception is a reasoned article by Germund Hesslow, philosopher and professor in neuroscience, in Dagens Nyheter today. I think he completely refutes the case for collectivist feminism. But you don’t have to agree with everything he says to see that he bases his arguments on facts and analysis that we can verify or falsify.

08:35 - BEST BLOGS: Which blog is Sweden’s best? The magazine Internet World just started the first online poll about this, and my blog is one of the alternatives. Here you can cast your vote.

08:30 - MED BLOGGEN I TIDEN: 

”Presidenter och ledarskribenter har upptäckt det – att ’blogga’ är tidens sätt att sprida information och styra debatten.
Den som inte hänger med i det som sägs på bloggen har noll koll.”
– TT beskriver bloggens betydelse.

22:55 - WORTH WATCHING: Swedish public service television has produced several commercials saying that the monopoly is our guarantee for “free television”. Now it is challenged by a great film from MUF, questioning whether government control guarantee freedom.

13:04 - REASON TO SAY NO: 

"If the French said ´no´ in the referendum [on the constitutional treaty], it would be the British, who want a fiercely competitive market, who would triumph."
– Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of Chirac’s party UMP (via HAX)

11:34 - SVEN RYDENFELT (1911-2005): One of my intellectual heroes just died, 94 years old.

Sven Rydenfelt was a Swedish classical liberal economist and an early member of the Mont Pelerin Society. For decades he fought a lonely and uphill battle against the welfare state, Keynesianism and the planned economy. But he believed in individual liberty in all areas, and exposed the secret police’s illegal activities, argued against the war on drugs and fought against the radio- and television monopoly. In 1956 he predicted that the Soviet empire would collapse without a war, since the planned economy stopped innovation and creativity. His colleagues thought he was bizarre.

But of course, the Soviet Union collapsed, and in the end his old colleagues admitted that Keynesianism and the welfare state didn’t work. He was completely rehabilitated in the last two decades. I remember with joy the event where one of his old political opponents admitted in public that he used to think, just like everybody else, that Sven was an old remnant of 19th century liberalism – but now it had turned out that Sven was right all along! And in the early 90s he was appointed Honorary Professor by the centre-right government. But Sven, always the individualist, returned the favour by rejecting two of the government’s central goals – the fixed exchange rate and the EU membership (which he thought meant too much regulation and protectionism). He always created controversy, but he was always kind and humble. And he was full of humour and surprises. A couple of years ago, in a very good mood at a great dinner, he gave a speech where he announced that he had appointed me his “successor”, because of my own contrarian style.

Sven constantly learned about new subjects, and wrote about his new conclusions until the end. When I interviewed him in 1997 he said:

“– I am still curious about life. And when I open the papers every morning it is always with the same interest: ‘What kind of exciting things have happened today?’”

I really miss the old man. But I remember him with nothing but joy. He lived a very long life. And it was a happy life, and a heroic life – again and again overcoming sickness and intellectual loneliness. As he said:

“– I am so old now that life could end any day – but I don’t mind. Life has given me so much in so many ways. Much, much more than I ever dreamt possible.”

11:57 - DOING A SULLIVAN: As some of you have noticed, my email discipline is worse than usual, and I don’t blog as much as I normally do. For a good reason, though: After having been interrupted by projects and ad hoc-events again and again, at last I now have the time to finish my next book. For the next month or so, I will try to concentrate on this, because if I spend several hours a day emailing and blogging it will never be finished. So please be patient. And don’t expect responses unless there is something really urgent.

The book is not a sequel, but a prequel to In Defence. Because there is something you need before you get to global capitalism. It’s about creativity vs control, about the individuals who create everything – and about an ungrateful society. It’s about how mankind’s heroes came to be portrayed as villains. I am thinking of it as a combination of a manifesto for entrepreneurship and a textbook on economics. It’s about history and ethics, but also about competition, inequality, profit, billionaires, logos, advertising, business scandals, environmental destruction, creative destruction, outsourcing, sweatshops, CSR and human happiness. It’s about a unique civilisation – and about those who might destroy it out of ignorance and envy.

The book will probably be published in Swedish before summer. We have no plans for translations yet.

11:45 - KONFLIKT TODAY II: And later on in Konflikt, the environmental disaster on the small Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean was mentioned as a clear warning signal to modern industrial society. The island population ruined the forests by using it as firewood, as building material and for rolling the statues the island is so famous for. In 1400 the palm forest was gone, food production ceased and war and hunger reduced the population by 80 percent.

This is an interesting example, since of the 10 000 Pacific islands, the Easter Island is only one of twelve that have undergone declines or collapses. And this was because (pdf) it was dependent on the Chilean wine palm, a particular slow-growing palm tree, which takes 40-60 years to mature. The coconut and Fiji fan palms on the other islands are much more fast-growing and make declines unlikely.

Generalising from exceptions often makes the headlines, but it isn’t intellectually honest.

11:29 - KONFLIKT TODAY I: In the radio programme Konflikt this morning, the reporter confronted artists with the “problem” that their fancy clothes are produced by poor workers in China. The only expert allowed to comment was a person from the Swedish clean clothes campaign – financed by Swedish unions. Of course no one mentioned the fact that real wages in China have increased by 500 percent in 25 years, and that this progress is led by companies producing for Swedish artists and others…

09:57 - RÄTTAT: SvD korrigerade i dag påståendet att jag skulle ha anmält Uddén till Granskningsnämnden (sid 2 i pappersupplagans kulturdel). Föredömligt snabbt och korrekt.

22:34 - INCENTIVES WORK: Swedish working conditions are among the safest and healthiest in the world. But according to statistics on sick leave, Swedes are also less healthy than almost all other populations. Today this puzzle was solved by a new study showing the results of high taxes and high sickness benefits. 90 percent of the women in Sweden who are on long-term sick leave would lose money if they got back to work, if you include the extra costs for transport and lunch. No, that wasn´t a typo. 90 percent.

17:47 - THE MOB WON: It was a long time since I heard such hypocritical nonsense as I just heard from LO on Studio Ett. The unions have now forced the Latvian company Laval away from construction work on a school in Vaxholm, with blockades, racist chants and political protection from the government and the corporatist "Labour court". The unions couldn’t accept that the company wanted to sign the collective agreement on its minimum level. Instead they wanted to raise the wage to a level where it was impossible to hire Latvians.

And now Studio Ett invites "both parties" in the conflict to discuss this – Swedish employers and unions. What do they mean “both parties”? I heard no Latvian workers, no Latvian companies, no Swedish consumers, no school children, no taxpayers. They are the interesting parties. Who cares about what domestic unions and employers think about foreign competition? Since when do we live in the 1930s?

And then Erland Olausen from LO says that this was a way for LO to ”protect” the Latvian workers from "discrimination". Discrimination? When the workers earn three times more than they would otherwise? Since when is it less discriminating to stop them from working here?

I can stand a little bit of evil, protectionist mob tactics. But evil, protectionist mob tactics masquerading as concern for the victims is disgusting. The only thing worse than a protectionist is a dishonest, hypocritical protectionist.

But there is one extenuating circumstance. On LO’s web site, Olausen writes that he wants a society where everybody has "the same opportunities to realise their life projects". So he has got some sense of humour.

09:54 - INTERESTING TIN: The British Globalization Institute has a nice name, and they say they are "exactly what it says on the tin". Looks like their new blog will be an intersting source of information and commentary on development economics, trade and poverty relief.

09:35 - UDDÉN ETT LITET VARV TILL: Svenska Dagbladets kultursida skriver om fällningen av Uddén, och hävdar att "Norberg anmälde Uddén till Granskningsnämnden för uttalandet om att ´Kerry vore bättre för världen än Bush´." Nej, det gjorde jag inte. Enligt nämnden (pdf) inkom fyra anmälningar – ingen av dem från mig. Och som jag skriver i dagens Expressen var det aldrig detta uttalande om Kerry som upprörde mig.

18:28 - BEGREPPSFÖRVIRRING: En konstig sak till om Cecilia Uddén.

13:14 - END-GAME, PART II: Am I content with the ruling against Uddén? No. The board thinks that the problem was that Uddén said that she preferred Kerry to Bush. Really? Who cares? You would have had to live on another planet not to understand that she did. That was never the problem. The problem was that Uddén said that public service does not have to impartial in its coverage of the election and do both sides justice. That someone with such a long experience in public service thinks that it is uncontroversial to say that – that is the bigger problem. What kind of a one-sided culture makes that possible? And the biggest problem is that almost no one in public service seems interested in discussing and challenging that culture. Of course they prefer if the debate is suddenly limited to Uddén’s personal presidential preferences. I don’t.

11:33 - END-GAME: The Swedish Broadcasting Commission – Granskningsnämnden – which checks if public service follows the agreement with the government not to be one-sided and biased, just ruled (pdf) that Cecilia Uddén’s statement in favour of biased coverage of the American election, in a debate with me, broke those rules.

10:20 - HATTAR PÅ 1700- OCH 1900-TALET: 

"I Nationalencyklopedin står att läsa om ’frälseintressenas parti’, vars verksamhet i hög grad finansierades genom ’subsidier och mutor’. Den politiska kraften kom genom en mobilisering av ’familje- och vänskapsband; man kan med viss modifikation tala om ett klientsystem’.
Den epok som beskrivs är slutet av den så kallade frihetstiden på 1700-talet. Och partiet det aristokratiska hattpartiet."

– Sydsvenska Dagbladet apropå att Göran Perssons får doktorshatt från en institution som inte finns, som tack för att han gjorde Örebro högskola till universitet, mot högskoleverkets rekommendationer. (Tack Janerik)

10:09 - THE OBSOLETE WILL LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVES: It is said that elections can only be won in the middle nowadays. The transformation of the formerly classical liberal party Venstre is supposed to be an example of that. Yesterday, it won the second Danish election in a row by taking the social democrat’s welfare policies, the harsh immigration policies from the populists and stop demanding lower taxes. The prime minister Fogh Rasmussen, who used to write books on why the welfare state should be changed into a minimal state, has now said that liberalism is "obsolete".

Sure, they are still in power, but they actually lost 4 seats in parliament. And transformations like that always creates space for alternatives. Radikale venstre, the small urban social-liberal party, chose to fight for more liberal immigration policies, and was the only party that demanded lower taxes. They almost doubled, from 9 to 16 seats.

22:24 - IT´S ALL RELATIVE: I just watched Swedish television news, where a reporter tried to explain why the center-right won the Danish election tonight. One of her explanations was that Denmark has "relatively low taxes".

11:53 - THE OPPOSITION TO THE SPECIALISTS: Since the bubble burst there has been a lot of complaints about the salaries executives and managers receive. Of course some are bad, and do not deserve their bonuses, and the shareholders are the ones with an interest in finding out who they are. But never forget that executives perform perhaps the most important task in our economy – coordinating the division of labour in production and trade. That they receive a small proportion of the values they create is not unfair in any way. Perhaps the critics should read their Lenin:

"If we do not want to be guilty of sheer utopianism and meaningless phrase-mongering, we must say that we must take into account the experience of the past; that we must safeguard the Constitution won by the revolution, but that for the work of administration, of organising the state, we need people who are versed in the art of administration, who have state and business experience, and that there is nowhere we can turn to for such people except the old class.
Opinions on corporate management are all too frequently imbued with a spirit of sheer ignorance, a spirit of opposition to the specialists. We shall never succeed with such a spirit"
– Lenin, 1920

21:52 - ARGUMENTATION VS BRÅK: Vänsterns Ali Esbati har börjat bloggga, bl a om Per T Ohlsson, och det ger Håkan Jacobson tillfälle att notera en ofta förekommande skillnad mellan liberalers och socialisters sätt att argumentera: Ohlsson belägger i bästa upplysningstradition sina teser med rader av exempel, medan Esbati i bästa torgmötestraditionen avstår från belägg och i stället höjer rösten.

11:31 - CONFESSION OF THE DAY: 

"We all know what we need to do, but we don´t know how to win elections after we have done it."
– Luxembourg’s prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, explains the lack of reforms in the EU, Financial Times 2 Feb (via TT)

10:04 - DET SKA BÖJAS I TID: Håkan Jacobson skriver att SSU har tillgångar på 100 miljoner – att jämföra med att LUF och MUF tillsammans förfogar över drygt 5 miljoner. Det är bland annat pengar från A-lotteriet, som bara finns på grund av spelmonopolet. Är det inte konstigt att SSU ändå söker och beviljas ytterligare några miljoner från statliga ungdomsstyrelsen? Och ännu konstigare är att SSU vägrar att lämna ut budget och fullständig årsredovisning:

"Budgethandlingarna delades ut under sittande [SSU-] möte. Några ledamöter begärde mer tid för att sätta sig in i handlingarna, i annat fall ville de inte delta i budgetbeslutet.
— Då uppmanades vi att avgå, berättar Jens Lundberg, ledamot i förbundsstyrelsen.
De budgethandlingar som delas ut till förbundsstyrelsen är numrerade. Efter styrelsemötet måste ledamöterna lämna ifrån sig papperen. Saknas någon handling går det utifrån de numrerade exemplaren att se vem som inte lämnat tillbaka sitt dokument.
— För att inte riskera att politiska motståndare får tag i handlingarna lämnar vi inte ut dem, säger SSUs ordförande Ardalan Shekarabi."

Ja, vad skulle egentligen hända om deras politiska motståndare fick reda på hur SSU använder våra skattepengar?

09:51 - CAUSE AND EFFECT IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS: Let’s say that a free-market economist states that he was inspired by Milton Friedman. And then someone says that this is obviously very unfair to Ronald Reagan, since the similarities between what Reagan said and this new economist thinks seems very strong. I just saw an example of such a strange view of cause and effect.

In Svenska Dagbladet, the normally judicious Per Ericson complains that Ayn Rand said that she was only indebted to Aristotle in her metaphysics, epistemology and moral philosophy, despite the fact that "her philosophy [contains] obvious loans from catholic thinking". Sure, there are similarities, but that’s because Tomas Aquinas and the catholic philosophers borrowed them from…Aristotle.

00:54 - WHY I PREFER SECOND TERMS: The US farm policy is the country’s largest corporate welfare program, which gives 60 percent of the subsidies to the 10 percent biggest farmers. During his first term, president Bush bought votes from the rural south by signing the mega-protectionist farm bill. Now he is apparently reversing course and prepare cuts in the programs. One anti-subsidy NGO tells the NYT:

"I am stunned and impressed. The Bush administration is opening the door to reform on the most contested issue in agriculture policy today. Taxpayers will no longer have to subsidize every bushel of grain or bale of cotton. They will no longer have to subsidize the demise of the family farm."

01:12 - WHY FAIR TRADE IS UNFAIR: 

"Fair trade bears a suspicious likeness to our old friend protection. Protection was dead and buried 30 years ago, but he has come out of the grave and is walking around in the broad light of day. But after long experience underground, he endeavours to look more attractive than he used to appear... and in consequence he found it convenient to assume a new name."
– William Gladstone, the British liberal prime minister and free trader, in 1881 (quoted by Samuel Brittan)

01:04 - WHY AL-ZARQAWI WILL LOSE: 

"At polling centers hit by explosions, survivors refused to go home,steadfastly waiting to cast their votes as policemen swept away bits offlesh."
– New York Times, Feb. 2, on the Iraqi election (via Krauthammer)

22:10 - READING RAND: This is a fascinating story (in Swedish) about how a young Marxist and fan of Chomsky and Pilger read Atlas Shrugged – and how Ayn Rand’s arguments forced him to abandon socialism, and taught him to laugh.

16:29 - IT´S THE EMAIL ADDRESS, STUPID: Here is one interesting example of how far the political control of Sweden’s higher education has gone. Örebro university college was recently turned into a university by prime minister Göran Persson. The new university has now reciprocated by turning the prime minister into an honorary doctor of medicine! Furthermore, five of the eight members (pdf) of the university board are active or have been active social democrats. And I just learned that the chairman and director-general, Ulf Larsson, has this email: ulf.larsson@primeminister.ministry.se. Yes, he also happens to be an advisor to the new honorary doctor of medicine… (Thanks Johanna)

14:55 - FÖRRESTEN, EFTERSOM NÅGON FRÅGADE: Nej, jag har inte fått något svar från Mikael Löfgren, och DN Kultur har inte svarat på min fråga om jag fick skriva en replik på Sverker Lindströms desinformation om handel med Kina.

22:17 - STATE OF THE WORLD: The best part of president Bush’s State of the Union address was the first few lines. What an eloquent way of highlighting – in a minimum of words – the progress the world makes, and to show what America’s leadership really means:

”As a new Congress gathers, all of us in the elected branches of government share a great privilege: We´ve been placed in office by the votes of the people we serve. And tonight that is a privilege we share with newly-elected leaders of Afghanistan, the Palestinian Territories, Ukraine, and a free and sovereign Iraq. [Applause.]”

16:15 - 51 SKÄL ATT LÄSA OCH VÄRLDEN SKÄLVDE:  Randfesten i går blev en enorm succé. Hela 300 personer – från studenter till kulturpersonligheter och näringslivsprofiler – minglade, uppmärksammade och diskuterade Och världen skälvde. Hur kan en nästan 50 år gammal roman väcka sådant engagemang?

Jag tror att det beror på att bokens teman är tidlösa, och ofta verkar den på ett nästan kusligt vis handla om dagens Sverige. Det bevisas också av de personliga brev som Timbro har skickat ut till 51 olika personer som har fått boken i posten. Politiker, artister, sexologer och generaldirektörer har fått brev som förklarar varför denna bok har något att säga om just deras tillvaro – ofta med en jämförelse med en viss karaktär eller ett visst skeende i romanen.

Till Torbjörn Tännsjö och till Grynet, till Cristina Stenbeck och Magnus Uggla, till Martin Kellerman och Horace Engdahl, till Ursula Berge och Christian Gergils, till Zlatan och KG Hammar. Alla har de fått en egen anledning att slå upp boken, ofta med hänvisning till en specifik karaktär eller händelse.

Sammantaget blir det 51 anledningar att läsa boken. Och 51 anledningar som gör den aktuell i Sverige idag. Här är några exempel:

Horace Engdahl, Svenska Akademien:

Äntligen!
Nu finns Ayn Rands ”Och världen skälvde” i svensk pocketutgåva. Titta gärna lite extra på Balph Eubank (s 147-148), en karaktär med rykte om sig att vara nationens ledande författare trots att nästan ingen läst hans böcker.

Grynet, TV-personlighet:

Hej Grynet!
I den här romanen kan du läsa om ett gäng som bestämmer sig för att inte ta skit från någon.

Björn Elmbrant, Sveriges Radio:

Hej Björn!
I den här romanen finns en tyckare vid namn Bertram Scudder som kritiserar hyperkapitalismens härjningar (s 148-150) och belönas med en framträdande roll i ett regimkontrollerat radioprogram (887-890). Men det sänds även radio av annat slag (1041-1114).

Pär Nuder, finansminister:

Hej Pär!
Den här romanen har en grå eminens vid namn Wesley Mouch (s 564-565), chefskoordinator på Byrån för ekonomisk plan- och resurshushållning, som blivit det han blivit på grund av folk som känt sig trygga med att befordra en nolla. Kanske har den något att säga om dagens Sverige?

Fredrik Reinfeldt, partiledare (m):

Hej Fredrik!
I den här boken blir en oansenlig figur som heter Mr Thompson statschef (s 559-560) genom sin beredskap att kompromissa om allt (s 1115-1121). Vi hoppas att den borgerliga alliansen väljer en annan väg till makten (s 1064-1066, 1105-1110).

Det är underbar läsning, sammanställd av Mattias Svensson. Du hittar alla 51 breven här.

14:51 - ANNIVERSARY: Today it is 100 years since Ayn Rand was born – one of the most important individualist philosophers of all time. Timbro celebrates this with a translation of her classic 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged. Do you want a proof that she is still relevant? We thought about 100 persons would turn up for the launch of the book tonight. But we had to change to bigger locations right away. About 300 persons are coming!

Unfortunately, the person in charge of the project, Mattias Svensson – who has done heroic work – has just lost his voice. It went on strike, just like that. So it looks like I will have to give the lecture at tonight’s party. Not that it will be difficult to think of ideas. I am a big fan. Rand based classical liberalism on an Aristotelian enlightenment philosophy that changed my perspective on the world. It showed me that there is romance in reason and industry, and that the world is enchanted – not despite, but because of human beings and our rationality and creativity.

02:53 - WE MISS YOU ALREADY: 

"The ability to keep on top of almost everything on a daily and hourly basis just isn´t compatible with the time and space to mull over some difficult issues in a leisurely and deliberate manner. Others might be able to do it. But I´ve tried and failed… I´ll be back, as Arnold once put it. But after a breather and a period writing longer, more careful, more measured, less time-sensitive work."
– The world’s best and most influential blogger, Andrew Sullivan takes a break from blogging.

19:28 - YOU TOO, U2?: Some suggest that economic self-interest is the reason why people hold their views. Most of the time I find that idea much too cynical. But sometimes I have to confess that they are on to something.

Bono, U2’s lead singer, is one of the leaders of the campaign to supply the third world with drugs by dismantling the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies. So is this his position on IPRs generally? Not at all. Bono is also one of the leaders of the campaign to strengthen the IPRs of (you’ve guessed it) musicians. Today, most European countries protect copyrights on sound recordings for no more than 50 years. The U2 members think that they should be allowed to "retain their copyright for at least as long as they live, and to pass it to their heirs, just like any other asset that they own." Yes, it’s very easy to say that property if theft when you’re talking about other people’s properties.

Someone might say that there is a big difference between music and life-saving drugs. I agree. Gifted musicians would probably continue to create music even if they didn’t make much money on it. But I don’t think that anyone would continue to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into research for new drugs if they had no way of financing that investment through sales. And, even though I really like U2, I would prefer a world without "With or Without You", "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" and "New Year’s Day" to a world without life-saving drugs.