GlobLog - May 2007
A direct link to each entry is obtained by using the button below the entry.

16:55 - UR ASKAN I ELDEN: 

Så kommer man hem från den vulgära amerikanska debatten (jo faktiskt, ibland, tänk Ann Coulter och Michael Moore) för att mötas av det här samtalsklimatet...

14:28 - THINGS AMERICANS TALK ABOUT I: 

Yes, there was a lot of focus on the presidential candidates in the US, but most of the time, the things they talked about were much more interesting. Here is one of them:

A Pew survey (pdf), "Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream", showed that America´s 2.4 million Muslims integrate better and hold more moderate views than Muslims in Europe. The majority is very concerned about Islamic extremism, compared to around a third in France, Germany and Spain. 5% have a favourabel view of al-Qaeda (too many of course, but 5% of any population is always nuts, nazi or Stalinist).

They like the US, say that they want to adopt American customs, and see no conflict between faith and modern society. 71% say that Americans can get ahead through hard work, which is a higher proportion than among Americans in general - probably because they have done it themselves. The number on low incomes is just 2% higher than the average, compared to around 20% in Europe.

Only 47% consider themselves Muslim first and American second (even though most of them were born elsewhere). Does that sound like a lot? Then please note that 62% of white evangelicals say that they are Christian first and American second.

18:53 - ÄR FATTIGDOM LÖSNINGEN?: 

På SVT Opinion debatterar jag och Göran Greider just nu miljö, klimat och fattigdom.

09:05 - A WEEK TO REMEMBER: 

Scientists from North Carolina State University and the University of Georgia say it happened this Wednesday, May 23: A predicted urban population of 3,303,992,253 worldwide exceeded that of 3,303,866,404 rural people - for the first time in mankind´s history.

Via Slashdot (Thanks Fabian)

08:40 - TOMORROW I´LL CELEBRATE HIM WITH AN ICE CREAM: 

Today I have found out that Carmel, on the Monterey Peninsula in California, is a beautiful coastal city with great Vietnamese food. It is also the village where Clint Eastwood proved that he is not just good at acting. After having been frustrated by bureaucracy and regulations, he ran for mayor in 1986 and got 72.5% of the votes.

As mayor 1986-88 it seems like Eastwood was true to his libertarian instincts ("Everyone leaves everyone else alone"): He liberalised the zooning laws and made it easier to build and renovate. And he refused to run again because he didn´t want to be involved in tons of minor decisions about how people live their lives.

But that was not all, he also abolished a law that stopped people from eating ice cream on the sidewalk.

10:52 - A $5 TRILLION FENCE: 

Over coffee (served by Mexican immigrants) people here in California discuss immigration. The most recent development is that Congressional Democrats has begun to turn against the guest worker system, and conservatives complain that more immigrants mean higher welfare costs.

Wall Street Journal sets the record straight today: Over the next 75 years immigrant workers will pay around $5 trillion more to social security than they will receive in benefits. And the work incentives in the welfare reform of 1996 has meant that the use of cash welfare by immigrants 1996-2004 has been reduced by 73% and food stamps by 39%.

00:43 - SAN FRANCISCO: 

Until the end of the month I´ll be in San Francisco, to initiate a US television project, based on my latest book. What a wonderful place to do that. Some say that there are two sorts of Americans: Those who live in California and are happy they do, and those who don´t live there, but think that they would be happier if they did.

Apparently both groups are wrong. Studies show that Californians aren´t happier than other Americans. But it´s a reasonable mistake. The beauty, the ocean and the climate! And the many different cultures. Not just people from all over the world, but also ideas and lifestyles all over the map. Where else would you find a café with signs promoting their "vegetarian juice"? I probably have to go across the street if I want pork chops in my juice drinks.

15:39 - HUR MÅNGA HÖFTLEDSOPERATIONER SKULLE VI FÅ FÖR DET?: 

Aftonbladet avslöjar att en tredjedel av Sverigedemokraternas folkvalda lever på bidrag - vilket innebär att partiet starkt påminner om utanförskapsområdena i storstädernas förorter. 

Förresten, vad säger Försäkringskassan? Är inte politisk aktivitet ett tecken på arbetsförmåga?

10:17 - CONVERGENCE: 

In Estonia I just learned about convergence. The growth rate approaches the tax rate. The flat tax is now at 22%, but scheduled to drop to 18%. And last year, the growth rate increased to 11%.

00:23 - EVEN A VERY SMALL NUMBER: 

Paul Wolfowitz should leave the World Bank, because "actions of even a very small number of individuals can tarnish the reputation of an entire organisation", as Wolfowitz himself wrote recently. And Wolfowitz´ actions have tarnished his extremely important agenda against corruption in the organisation and in the receiving countries.

I talked about this in Summerat tonight.

09:23 - GOD´S WRATH?: 

The American evangelist preacher Jerry Falwell has died, even though he wanted "20 more years". I wonder how he had offended God. At least, that is what we have to ask if we use his Falwell´s own twisted logic, where people´s misfortunes were nothing but God´s rightful punishment.

For example:

“AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals. To oppose it would be like an Israelite jumping in the Red Sea to save one of Pharoah´s chariotters."

Or, after the 9/11 attacks:

"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ´you helped this happen.´ [...] God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve."

Perhaps God just don´t like irrational and abusive bigots to speak in his name?

10:37 - REFORMERS WITH 46%: 

I have just landed in Tallin, and in a few hours I will give a lecture about the need for principles and ideas when a new liberal think-tank is launched, the Estonian Free Society Institute.

Here, these ideas have friends in high places. On the plane I got a copy of the daily Postimees. It presents a poll that gives the governing classical liberal Reform Party 46% of the votes! They got the last ten percentage points because voters think that they handled the Bronze Statue incident the best, but the generally impressive results are of course also because of reforms that have given the Baltic country Chinese growth rates.

10:24 - AHMADINEJADISM IN VENEZUELA: 

A worrying article in Financial Times shows that its difficult to regularly embrace Iranian Holocaust-denying presidents without being slightly influenced yourself. Venezuela´s president Hugo Chávez has recently complained that the world economy is controlled by "descendants of those who killed Christ", has initiated anti-Israel demonstrations and has begun to confront the Jewish community. Up to a fifth of Venezuela´s Jewish population has left the country since Chavéz got power.

00:57 - WHEN CHIRAC WAS SHOCKED: 

Do you remember the situation when outgoing French president Jacques Chirac said that he was deeply shocked by someone? Anne Appelbaum reminds us.

It was not when Russia abandoned democracy. Instead he praised Putin and gave him the highest order of the Légion d´honneur:

"For his contribution to friendship between France and Russia"

It was not when he confronted bloodsoaked African tyrants. On the contrary, he said:

"Africa is not ready for democracy"

And it was certainly not when he saw Saddam Hussein murdering his own population. Instead, Chirac told Saddam:

"You are my personal friend. Let me assure you of my esteem, consideration, and bond."

It seems like Chirac got along well with most people. With one famous exception. In March last year, a French businessman addressed an EU summit - in English. Chirac stormed out of the room and said that he was:

"deeply shocked"

So are we, dear Jacques. So are we.

(Thanks Thomas)

19:55 - ENOUGH TO BUY CHINA: 

"We find that trade opening since World War II has added between $800 billion to $1.4 trillion to the US economy, or about $7,000 to $13,000 per household. More speculative estimates of the potential additional gains from removing the rest of US trade barriers range from $400 billion to $1.3 trillion, or about $4,000 to $12,000 per household. Since trade opening permanently raises national income, these gains are enjoyed annually."

- Summary of the study "The Payoff to America from Globalisation" (via Ben Bernanke and The Insider).

This totals about $2.7 trillion in realised and potential annual gains from free trade in the US. China´s GDP (PPP) is $2.69 trillion.

03:23 - BIN LADEN´S WORST NIGHTMARE: 

Neo´s conference on Islamism in Stockholm this Friday was a triumph. I learned a lot, and I also got a new favourite, and it´s not just because of her charm and a great haircut: Irshad Manji, a very charismatic Muslim reformist who has been called "Bin Laden´s worst nightmare" by New York Times. I have never met anyone who receives regular death threats who has such positive energy and such a great sense of humour.

The message in her excellent speech was that jihadists must be met by reviving the Muslim tradition of ijtihad - struggling intellectually, asking questions, challening traditions, being independent. In this way, Islam must be reformed, she said, and pointed out that this was something that the whole world has an interest in. We must build liberal societies with pluralists, who have different beliefs and are tolerant against others, but not relativists, who don´t understand the value of that society and that attitude, and never challenge those who would destroy it.

When Western intellectuals say that all cultures and societes are equal, even though they don´t respect freedom, and that we must not interfere in other people´s business, she responds:

"It´s only other people´s business if you don´t think that human rights are universal."

Check her out, get her book, and if you ever get the chance, you must go and see her live.

00:24 - HOW THE EUROVISION REFUTES PROTECTIONISTS: 

Some people think that countries need infant industry tariffs, so that companies are protected from competition while they expand and become more competetive. The Eurovision Song Contest shows how this works in practice. "The big four" (England, Germany, France and Spain) always have a place in the final, because they pay so much for the event. And since there is no dangerous competition and no sense of urgency, they keep producing silly and meaningless songs that end up in the bottom row.

Every time Sweden doesn´t win, we here bitter accusations that this is because Eastern European countries consistently vote for their neighbours. Sure they do, just as Sweden got its high points from the Nordic countries - as usual. I´ve never heard Swedish commentators making sarcastic remarks about that.

And the neighbourhood preference still leave room for good and/or interesting songs to win, wherever they are from (Finland won last year). But let´s face it, Eastern European countries try harder, because it´s more important for their image abroad, and this year the most fascinating and best songs were from countries like Georgia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Ukraine.

14:15 - THE ICELANDIC TIGER: 

"Real disposable incomes have risen between 1994 and 2007 by 75 per cent.

- Prime minister Geir Haarde summarises the results of Iceland´s liberal reforms in FT.

14:02 - FISKING DN: 

This is so amusing. In their celebration of Robert Fisk today, DN Kultur writes that the verb "fisking" (detailed point-by-point refutation of errors and half-truths in a text) is based on his name. Their explanation clearly shows that they think that this is because he is brilliant at such criticism. The truth is of course the other way around: It got Fisk´s name because he was exposed to this more than others early in the history of the blogosphere.

18:07 - WHAT BLAIR KNEW: 

So Tony Blair leaves and Gordon Brown is set to take his place. Not because he´s the best, but because it´s his turn. That´s risky. Labour should consider the implication of Blair´s words to the party congress in October 2001:

“This is a consumer age, People don’t take what they’re given. They demand more.”

15:37 - AMERICAN HYPOCRISY: 

Here is my new definition of hypocrisy:

Luis Posada Carriles, suspected of terrorist attacks on Cuban hotels and a passenger plane in 1976, has been freed of charges on immigration fraud in the US, and the Americans refuse to extradite him to Cuba, because he might face torture there.

What do you think would have happened if it was American hotels and planes Posada attacked? The US would probably have sent him to Cuba (Guantanamo) to torture him.

15:15 - STALIN, WHO?: 

Just in case you thought that some Russians in Estonia were the only ones who don´t understand the history of communism: On DN Debatt today, Camilla Andersson and Anders Hjemdal from UOK presents a survey of young Swedes, aged 15-20:

- 90% don´t know what Gulag was.

- 43% think that communism killed fewer than one million (a fifth think it killed fewer than 10,000).

- 40% believed that communism has increased global wealth

And it´s not just the past they are ignorant about:

- 82% don´t know that Belarus is a dictatorship.

18:59 - VILL HAN LURA UTLANDET OCKSÅ?: 

"Den svenska pensionsreformen är en exportprodukt"

- Göran Persson i DI i dag, när han börjar som konsult på JKL.

"Jag är säker på att det vi gjort inte kommer att vara populärt om 20 år när de som går i pension ser vad vi gjort"

- Göran Persson om det svenska pensionssystemet på resa i Australien i februari 2005.

"Men det som märks hos företrädare för näringslivet är den bristande förståelsen för politikens bristande rationalitet."

- Göran Persson i DI i dag.

15:03 - OM SVERIGES SARKOZY: 

Folkpartiets näste partiledare Jan Björklund har goda ambitioner i skolpolitiken, synd bara att han vill återinföra skråväsendet för att uppfylla dem. Om detta skriver jag i Dagens Industri (bara för prenumeranter).

02:04 - ISLAMIC CALVINISTS: 

Many Europeans, including the new French president, don´t think that Muslim Turkey belongs to modern, liberal Europe, and the Turkish opposition and military has just stopped Abdullah Gül from becoming Turkey´s president, because of his Islamist background.

But is Islam incompatible with modernisation? Take a look at  this fascinating ESI report about Gül´s home province Kayseri, in Central Anatolia, the rural, traditional, religious part of Turkey. In just a few years, structural reforms and impressive growth has transformed it into a wealthy center for manufacturing and trade. Kayseri has become a leading cluster for Turkish furniture production and here one fabric company produces one percent of the world´s denim.

Even more interesting is that this economic modernisation has led to the development of a new culture that promotes individualism, entrepreneurship and hard work. Some talk about a "Quiet Islamic Reformation" and Abdullah Gül has said that this is where we see Islam´s version of Calvinism developing.

We don´t know where this interesting development will end. But we know that Europe doesn´t encourage it by saying thanks, but no thanks.

(Thanks Thomas)

00:51 - VÄGLEDNING I INDIVIDUALISMENS TIDSÅLDER: 

Efterfrågad av många: Lyckas att vara normal - En populär faktabok från Trygghetsfrämjandet som hjälper dig att hålla dig normal och leva utan ångest och konflikter:

"Tänk även på att värdet på exempelvis din villa kan sjunka om du har en granne som avviker på något sätt."

23:41 - TRIGGER HAPPY: 

When news broke that American soldiers had killed civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha one year ago I called it a "massacre" and a "horrible crime". One of my readers, Lars, asked me to wait for the facts and the investigation before I jumped to conclusions. I thought that he was too cautious. He wasn´t. Now videos and radio traffic between the soldiers have been found that can re-construct the events, and it seems like it was an ambush by insurgents using civilians as human shields.

I was too trigger-happy behind the keyboard. So was most journalists.

10:37 - DAGENS RUBRIK: 

"Den väntade segraren"

Så lyder rubriken på Dagens Nyheters huvudledare om Sarkozys seger i dag.

Väntad - av vem? Inte av DN:s ledarsida i alla fall, som så sent som den 22 april skrev:

"i dag talar mycket för att Frankrikes nästa president heter Ségolène Royal"

10:26 - PUTTING THEIR MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS: 

Here is an indication that there is a demand for news and views from another perspective than the one served by Swedish mainstream media: The contrarian-in-chief Dick Erixon, one of Sweden´s most productive bloggers, asked for SEK100,000 (about $15,000) in one month from his readers, to keep the blog running. He got 90,741 - in five days.

02:03 - ANOTHER SIDE OF MCCAIN: 

Since I wrote enthusiastically about John McCain here, for the sake of balance I want to recommend Matt Welch´s interesting and worrying portrait, which shows another McCain, obsessed with "national greateness", who wants a stronger presidency and mandatory national service.

(Thanks Erik)

00:26 - SPOT THE CONNECTION: 

Mankind has passed some significant milestones recently, which symbolise a changing world:

- During the second half of last year, China´s merchandise exports exceeded America´s.

- In the first three months this year, Toyota became the world´s biggest carmaker, pushing General Motors down to second place, after 76 years in first place.

- Last year, the emerging economies´ share of world GDP was bigger than the developed countries´ share.

- The World Bank recently estimated that the number of people in extreme poverty dropped below one billion.

- For the first time ever, the urban population worldwide is bigger than the rural.

And now, in Foreign Policy, I just learned about another one:

- For the first time, more people worldwide work in the service sector than in agriculture (the biggest employer the last 10,000 years).

20:52 - ADVICE FOR THE NEW PRESIDENT: 

We now know that Nicolas Sarkozy will be France´s next president. He has promised a break with the past. I am not so sure. But if he wants to show that he is serious, he could start by not helping Jacques Chirac to escape investigations and prosecutions for corruption cases when his presidential immunity is lifted.

By the way, how is Mr Chirac now going to pay for all the fruit? As The Economist wrote four years ago:

"Jacques Chirac, France´s president, is clearly not a man who worries too much about the price of vegetables. This month an investigating magistrate in Paris announced an inquiry into how Mr Chirac and his wife managed to spend over euro2.1m on groceries from 1987-95, during his long spell as mayor of Paris before he became head of state. Newspapers calculate that he and his wife Bernadette munched up fruit and vegetables worth up to euro150 ($177) a day, despite having an entirely separate budget for entertainment. Auditors think something smells a bit off. They say that in several instances receipts have plainly been falsified. In one case, a bill of FFr5,000 (then worth $1,000) for foie gras is said to have been doctored by someone to FFr15,000, by adding the figure one at a later date.

Given his own rather cavalier attitude to the cost of food, it is perhaps unsurprising that Mr Chirac is unmoved by pleas to reform the European Union´s notorious common agricultural policy (CAP). Why should the fact that the CAP adds euro600 a year to the food bills of the average European family weigh heavily with a man who can eat his way through that amount, in fruit and veg alone, in just four days?"

11:07 - SHOULD I CELEBRATE OR BE LOW?: 

Here is my definition of "mixed feelings":

No matter who wins the election tomorrow, France will get an interventionist president who talks about "protecting" the French against globalisation.

On the other hand, it will no longer be Jacques Chirac.

Speaking of Chirac, the man who gave European protectionism an arrogant face, and famously said that liberalism is as horrible as communism, he´s really been doing this for a while, explains Stephan Richter:

"Jacques Chirac first served in a ministerial office as far back as 1967. As a matter of fact, Mr. Chirac´s 39 years in office actually equals the median age of France´s entire population."

And speaking of Chirac again, here are my two favourite slogans for him, from the last presidential election:

"Vote for me, or I will go to jail"

- An anonomous jester brought attention to the president´s immunity against corruption charges that he would have faced.

"Vote for the idiot, not for the fascist!"

- In the second round, against Le Pen, when even I would have voted for Chirac.

10:02 - PLUS ÇA CHANGE: 

DN bekräftar att regeringen utser Bildts gamle medarbetare Jonas Hafström till USA-ambassadör (ej online). Därmed uppfyller alliansen vallöftet att ställa den svenska utnämningspolitiken på huvudet: Tillsättningarna sker visserligen fortfarande slutet, utan att posterna utannonseras, utan att meriter granskas öppet - men numera utses borgerliga och inte socialdemokrater.

(Apropå att världen är liten är detta inlägg från Politikerbloggen helt obetalbart.)

00:28 - 74,000 EVERY DAY, EVERY WEEK, EVERY MONTH: 

In case you missed this milestone in human development (I was abroad at the time):

For the first time since the World Bank started measuring poverty, the number of people in extreme poverty around the world is now fewer than 1 billion. This is after five years (1999-2004) when poverty was reduced by 135 million people - 74,000 a day.

This update means that extreme poverty in developing countries has been reduced from 40.3% to 18.4% between 1981 and 2004, and in absolute numbers it has been reduced from 1,479 million to 985 million. Almost half a billion fewer are poor, even though world population increased by almost 2 billion during the same time!

Most impressive is East Asia, where extreme poverty was reduced from 58% to 9% during these 23 years.

One implication is that the world will surpass the Millennium Development Goal to halve the global rate of extreme poverty 1990-2015. 1990 the figure was 29%. According to present trends it will be 12% in 2012.

21:55 - FREE MONEM AS WELL: 

Interestingly, one prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood has spoken out in favour of the imprisoned blogger Kareem. Abdel-Monem Mahmoud has said that he dislikes Kareem´s criticism of Islam and religion, but that he should have the right to have and express his own opinions, which has led to angry reactions from the Brotherhood.

Monem is a young and more liberal member of the group, and the kind of person who could modernise political Islam. But he can´t do that from where he is now. He has been arrested by Egyptian authorities when he tried to leave Egypt to report on the state of freedom in Arab countries for the TV channel El Hiwar.

That´s also worth some attention on Press Freedom Day.

21:43 - FRÅGA ÄVEN TILL ANDERS BORG OCH PER SCHLINGMANN: 

Och den blir faktiskt exakt densamma som frågan till Mona Sahlin nedan, med anledning av Borgs och Schlingmann formulering i denna Aftonbladetartikel:

"Den politik som nu förs har siktet inställt mot att alla som vill och kan ska få arbeta."

(Tack Richard)

16:29 - FRÅGA TILL MONA SAHLIN: 

I socialdemokraternas vårbudgetmotion står det: "Alla som vill och kan ska få ett arbete".

Man undrar varför det staplas verb. Varför räcker det inte med "kan"?

Betyder tillägget "vill" att den som är fullt kapabel att arbeta ska ha rätt att leva på andras bekostnad om hon inte "vill" arbeta?

16:15 - DAGENS E-POST: 

David mailar:

"Tror du verkligen att Royal bara hittade på det? Tror du inte att hon antagligen tänker på exempelvis Toyota i Mölndal och Direktchark i Göteborg som båda gått ner tilll 35 timmar - inte 32 - med bibehållen lön. Min lite välvilligare gissning är att hon antingen blivit felunderrättad eller blev osäker på detaljerna och skarvade en aning.

Rent principiellt tycker jag att folk har en tröttsam tendens att välja välvilliga tolkningar i bedömningen av meningsfränder, men konsekvent mindre välvilliga när det gäller meningsmotståndare, vilket bidrar till den onödiga demonisering som finns i den politiska debatten, och den här demoniseringen är, menar jag, det största hindret för en vettig debatt."

Jag håller med till hundra procent om denna problembeskrivning, skäms en gnutta samt övergår till att hävda att Royal helt enkelt hade fel, och att det mycket väl kan bero på att hon fått felaktig information eller mindes fel.

13:12 - THE MEDIUM IS NOT THE MESSAGE: 

Press Freedom Day should really be Freedom of Speech Day. You have a right to express your views even though you don´t own a printing press. It´s important to say this now that governments, from China to Cuba try to take control of the new electronic media.

I never linked to it, because I took off to Amsterdam straight after the worldwide Free Kareem rallies on April 27th, but here is information, pictures and videos from our demonstrations, where MPs and students supported the Egyptian blogger´s right to express his views.

23:20 - THE GOLDEN AGE IS NOW: 

Martin Wolf defines our era in Financial Times today:

"Posterity will regard the economic performance we are now witnessing as a golden age. It will also know, although we do not, how long this era lasts. That will depend on decisions now taken. Such a period offers opportunities. Posterity will blame those who fail to seize them."

And if you don´t believe him, look at his graph:

21:45 - SÉGOLÈNE ROYAL´S MOTHER TALKED, BUT SHE DIDN´T LISTEN: 

In the presidential debate (on CNN right now) Ségolène Royal just defended the 35-hour by saying that she knows about many Swedish companies in the hi-tech sector with a 32-hour week, and normal pay. Really? I´d be very interested in hearing her name a few company names. I think I know a bit about Swedish enterprise, perhaps even more than Royal, and I have yet to learn about a single example. 

My guess is that she just made it up. Royal has said that she was taught about honesty from her parents. I suspect that she is a bad learner.

19:13 - THOUGHTS ON FASCISM: 

The Putin-loyal street thugs who attacked the Estonian Embassy and the Swedish Ambassador in Moscow today claim that the Soviet Union saved Estonia from fascism, and are angry that the Estonians aren´t grateful.

Ignore for one moment that a) it was Stalin who started the second world war in alliance with Hitler (the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact), that b) the Soviet Union supplied the German military machine with the oil and food it needed, that c) it was the Soviet Union that attacked the independent Estonia in 1939, and d) that "liberation" in 1944 meant almost half a century of occupation.

If we ignore all of this, here is the interesting question: If they are so proud of having liberated Estonia from fascism, why are they so eager to introduce it at home?