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

15:01 - WHY I JUST BOUGHT A PAIR OF SWEDISH SOCKS: 

It would be overoptimistic to think that it has affected worldwide sales, but many bloggers have joined my call to buy Swedish to neutralise the campaign from Islamist opponents of free speech to boycott them.

But some have also criticised me with the argument that those companies are often the first to lobby against free speech to protect their sales - therefore they don´t deserve our support. But that was precisely my point (even though a lot of companies are innocent of this of course): This kind of boycott often get companies to abandon democratic principles, and since politicans care more about exports than principles it has the effect that they don´t dare to speak up. That is why these boycotts should be systematically neutralised by an increase of sales to people who care about freedom of religion and free speech.

We buy Swedish right now not to protect Swedish companies, but to protect Sweden´s democracy from Swedish companies-turned-appeasers.

22:16 - WORTH PROTESTING AGAINST: 

Here is the system the military dictatorship of Burma/Myanmar is killing people to keep in place:

Political rights: 7, the lowest possible (Freedom House)

Civil liberties: 7, the lowest possible (Freedom House)

Press freedom: 164 of 166 countries (Reporters Without Borders)

Freedom from corruption: 179 of 179 countries (Transparency International)

Economic freedom: 140 of 141 countries (Economic Freedom of the World)

00:10 - BAD NEWS FOR CONGOLESE ENTREPRENEURS: 

The World Bank´s Doing Business index is my favourite index, because it´s so very micro. The politically connected elite can always do business, but this is about the average person´s freedom to engage in economic activity. Now the 2008 edition is published. The conclusion is that you´re lucky if you do business in Singapore, New Zealand, US, Hong Kong and Denmark, not if you try to do it in Burundi, Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Central African Republic or Democratic Republic of Congo.

Here is the regional summary, which highlights how African governments systematically destroys the potential of their people.

23:52 - APART FROM THE KILLING, HE´S CUTE: 

I have to confess that I couldn´t really get myself to understand that some Americans and Europeans excused Hitler and Stalin because they saw problems in the West. I couldn´t understand that they were so obsessed with everything they thought was wrong with their own countries (and certainly there were problems) that it blinded them to the important differences in the world, and they begun to embrace the dictators.

Until I read Sally Kohn explain that she has a crush on Iran´s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at the Daily Kos:

"I know I´m a Jewish lesbian and he´d [Ahmadinejad] probably have me killed.  But still, the guy speaks some blunt truths about the Bush Administration that make me swoon...

I want to be very clear.  There are certainly many things about Ahmadinejad that I abhor — locking up dissidents, executing of gay folks, denying the fact of the Holocaust, potentially adding another dangerous nuclear power to the world and, in general, stifling democracy.  Even still, I can’t help but be turned on by his frank rhetoric calling out the horrors of the Bush Administration and, for that matter, generations of US foreign policy preceding."  

(Thanks Billy)

00:43 - BURMESE DAYS AND NIGHTS: 

The Burmese tell the dark joke that George Orwell did not just write one book about Burma/Myanmar, but three. Not just Burmese Days, but also Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. But it turns out that Orwell also had something to say about the current brave protests against the dictatorship:

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

00:18 - VARFÖR LJUGER REGERINGEN?: 

Genom ständigt nya besked om fastighetsskattens avskaffande som sedan tas tillbaka har regeringen lyckats skrämma upp alla grupper. Jag var i England när den slutliga (?) lösningen presenterades, och har inget särskilt emot den. Jag bara undrar varför regeringen påstår att de inför en ränta på 0,5 procent på uppskov på reavinstskatten när den i själva verket inför en 2,27-procentig ränta.

Karin Grundberg reder ut begreppen i Dagens Industri.

18:13 - LOSS AVERSION: 

In Dagens Industri today (subscribers only) I write about how psychological research predicted the Swedish government´s problems with the voters. We care more about losses than gains, and very few accept to enter a bet where they have a 50/50 chance of gaining $150 or losing $100. We are even willing to accept greater risks to avoid a certain loss. In other words, lower welfare benefits will be noticed by voters and the media more than much bigger tax cuts.

18:05 - THE ARGUMENT FOR ONE HAND TIED BEHIND OUR BACK : 

Principles are important because they give us a long-term perspective on what we want our society to be like, even though they might create bad consequences in the short run. Few advocates of liberal principles dare to explain and argue for this trade-off. It takes The Economist to do it in a brutally frank way:

"When liberals put the case for civil liberties, they sometimes claim that obnoxious measures do not help the fight against terrorism anyway. The Economist is liberal but disagrees. We accept that letting secret policemen spy on citizens, detain them without trial and use torture to extract information makes it easier to foil terrorist plots. To eschew such tools is to fight terrorism with one hand tied behind your back. But that—with one hand tied behind their back—is precisely how democracies ought to fight terrorism. [...]

Human rights are part of what it means to be civilised. Locking up suspected terrorists—and why not potential murderers, rapists and paedophiles, too?—before they commit crimes would probably make society safer. Dozens of plots may have been foiled and thousands of lives saved as a result of some of the unsavoury practices now being employed in the name of fighting terrorism. Dropping such practices in order to preserve freedom may cost many lives. So be it."

10:34 - THE ADAM SMITH CODE: 

I will blog less the rest of the week. The reason is that after having been back in 22 from 112 and their neighbours 112 for a few days I am going to Europe´s 5 for five days. And after that, I will also go to 9 and our neighbouring 22.

By the way, Economic Freedom of the World 2007 is now published.

00:34 - TWO CAN PLAY THAT INCENTIVE GAME: 

Muslims against Sharia condemns Abu Omar Al Baghdadi for putting a price on Lars Vilks´ head. So now they offer SEK100,000 (about $15,000) to anyone who can supply information leading to the capture or neutralisation of Abu Omar Al Baghdadi. I would be happy to chip in. Shouldn´t we turn it into an eBay auction?

13:59 - DANISH FARMERS VS SUBSIDIES: 

"The higher the market price of our goods, the more difficult it becomes to defend agricultural subsidies ... They put us in an unfortunate situation where we receive money, property prices rise which lead to these price rises, and then we get taxed."

- Peter Gæmelke, the president of Danish Agriculture, explains why EU´s subsidies should be reduced.

(Thanks Philip)

21:53 - APPEAL TO BLOGGERS EVERYWHERE: 

I have an idea and you can help. But first, the background:

About one hundred Swedish companies have been threatened on Islamist websites in the last few days. Jihadist websites call for Muslims to boycott companies like IKEA, H&M, Ericsson and Electrolux, and in several cases to attack them. This is evil times two. They attack people who have nothing to do with what they are fighting against, and they do it because they want to put pressure on the Swedish government to stop artists like Lars Vilks from mocking religion.

This has dangerous potential. When the Danish Mohammed cartoons were published Danish companies like Arla were hurt by boycotts. This probably didn´t have an effect on the Danish government, but it did on other countries´ governments. They could see that if they forcefully defended freedom of speech their companies would also be hurt. And since politicians often care more about industry interests than about democratic principles they started to appease opponents of free speech.

So what do we do to save our liberties from Jihadists and unprincipled politicians? It´s easy. The opponents of freedom and democracy are fewer than the supporters and their purchasing power is smaller. The only thing that makes them influential is that they act in unison. But we can do that too.

Why don´t we decide to try to buy goods from companies that find themselves in the middle of free speech conflicts like this? If we, thousands of bloggers and writers and our readers do that, the effect of every boycott will be diminished. Spread the word now, around the world, that we are buying Swedish if we need beer, food, furniture or phones this week. And then, if Canadian or Georgian companies are the next targets, we´ll buy Canadian and Georgian goods next.

Perhaps we can institutionalise this as well, and turn it into a Break the boycott- and Buy for freedom-website and a movement that looks at what happens next and informs us on the next victims that need our help. I am sure that there is talent out there, who could do it. Perhaps you are the one? We need it, because this will happen again and again unless we do something about it.

UPDATE 2007-09-18: These bloggers are the first to support consumption for free speech, as far as I can see:

Arquette.com, Oscar Löfroth, Johnny Munkhammar, Mathias Sundin, Ο “Νεοφιλελεύθερος”

18:47 - WHAT´S IN A NAME?: 

At last some innovative social science. Brendan O´Connor shows that the longer the name a country has, the less democratic it is. Words like "Commonwealth" and "Principality" actually liberates, but if you call your country something with "Socialist", "Arab" or "People" you are almost guaranteed a brutal dictatorship. Unfortunately, the same goes if you call your country "Democratic". 

Now I would like to see a follow-up study of individuals. What becomes of your son if you name him Alexander, for example?

(Thanks Mr Profit)

17:14 - ON THE GOVERNMENT: 

I explain why the Swedish government is only moderately funky at Cato@liberty.

12:27 - ARE 47 MILLION AMERICANS UNINSURED?: 

Since Hillary Clinton relaunched her plans for mandatory health coverage most newspapers repeat the claim that 47 million Americans lack health insurance. But I have yet to read a single paper that mentions that 45 percent of those are uninsured for less than four months (because they are between jobs and therefore between health insurances).

When we look closer at the uninsured there are other problems with the idea of a gigantic, permanent health care underclass in America: 8.3 million of the uninsured make between $50,000 and $74,999 a year and another 8.7 million make more than $75,000 a year. And about half of the low-income households without an insurance are eligible for a public health insurance, but have chosen not to enrol. Almost 10 million of the uninsured are not American citizens, and almost the whole increase in the number of uninsured since 1990 is a result of growing immigration.

One leftist leaning foundation estimates that the real number of chronically uninsured (those uninsured for two years or more) is 8.2 million. That´s still a lot of people. But it´s not 47 million.

02:17 - NOZICK NEVER STOPPED: 

Via Mattias Svensson I learn that the political scientist Leif Lewin is using the old we-don´t-have-to-take-libertarianism-seriously-because-Robert-Nozick-himself-abandoned-it argument on DN Debatt. People who haven´t studied Nozick often does. But this is what Nozick himself said on the subject in the last interview:

JS: In The Examined Life, you reported that you had come to see the libertarian position that you´d advanced in Anarchy, State and Utopia as "seriously inadequate." But there are several places in Invariances where you seem to suggest that you consider the view advanced there, broadly speaking, at least, a libertarian one. Would you now, again, self-apply the L-word?

RN: Yes. But I never stopped self-applying. What I was really saying in The Examined Life was that I was no longer as hardcore a libertarian as I had been before. But the rumors of my deviation (or apostasy!) from libertarianism were much exaggerated.

01:54 - 33% OF ALL MEN ARE EVIL: 

Sure, I devote most space on this blog to attack oppression, statism and protectionism, but just for the record, this is almost worse.

22:58 - DO YOU REALLY WANT CLIENTS LIKE THAT?: 

"Our sales reps have a problem, however. New clients usually ask: ‘Hey, where is John Galt? How come I’m not important enough to rate a visit from John Galt?’"

- Chief executive Annemarie Omrod tells New York Times about the difficulty of having a software company called John Galt Solutions.

14:31 - AND I THOUGHT MY TEACHERS WERE BIASED: 

One Belarussian student that I met recently explains that in the Belarussian State University one professor Bainev teaches his third year students that the Russian race is superior, western people are animals, the market economy is evil and the Soviet Union was wonderful and should be resurrected under a strong leader who controls everybody´s lives.

And that is the lectures on "Economic of enterprise" in the economics faculty...

08:25 - THE END OF AL-QAEDA?: 

Apparently, European Muslim groups are preparing a fatwa against Iraqi al-Qaeda´s threats to kill Lars Vilks. This threat begins to look like a desperate attempt from an increasingly unpopular group to get back into the spotlight. In Iraq, Sunni Muslims have started to fight al-Qaeda in Anbar province because they beheaded children and killed people for minor offences like smoking.

And Pew´s surveys (pdf) show the same growing hostility in Muslim countries. The proportion who have a lot of confidence in bin Laden to do the right thing has been reduced 2003-2007 from 38 to 2 percent in Jordan, from 19 to 3 percent in Indonesia and from 7 to 1 percent in Turkey. The proportion of Muslims who think that suicide bombing might be justified has declined by half or more.

Totalitarian terrorists can be popular as long as they only attack a common adversary. As soon as they begin to expose Muslim countries to the same terror the limited appeal of death and destruction becomes obvious.

16:00 - CORRECT CORRECTION: 

If Swedish newspapers bother to correct a mistake they often call it "Clarification" rather than "Correction" and pretend that they were right but got the wording wrong. They obviously think that their credibility is threatened if they admit mistakes. What a quality newspaper does can be seen in last week´s The Economist. After having explained that they gave an American 18th century politician the wrong title, they conclude:

"We apologise for a stupid blunder."

11:34 - DAN BÄCKMAN HADE INTE GJORT DET BÄTTRE: 

Om du intresserar dig för genren pekoral får du inte missa Björn Ranelid ca 31 minuter in i andra timmen av dagens Godmorgon, världen! Ranelid har nämligen ödslat dyrbart bokhandelsutrymme på att angripa presidenten som bara en mor kan älska. Mot allt dåligt, för allt bra, ungefär.

Eller tja, angripa och angripa, Ranelid "låter [Bush] sitta surrad i ett amerikanskt lasso", "jag binder honom vid ordet" och tvingar honom att "resa mellan ögat och hjärtat" "en bit ifrån därifrån där jag har min äppellund i Kivik". Osv. Ni fattar.

18:10 - STINGY TERRORISTS: 

"The price is a little low, what do you get for $100,000 today?"

- The Swedish artist Lars Vilks shows that he has a sense of humour, unlike Al-Qaeda in Iraq which has put a price on his head because of his Mohammed caricature (so far no Christian group has threatened to kill Vilks for his "Jesus as an elephant").

11:24 - 3 MILLION LIVES SAVED ANNUALLY: 

UNICEF reports that for the first time in modern history the number of children dying before the age of five is lower than 10 million.

That is 10 million too many, but at least it´s not 13 million too many, as it was in 1990.

23:49 - KREMLINOLOGY: 

Now I have presented the Russian translation of In Defence of Global Capitalism in Moscow for both economy students, young liberals and globalisation critics who find their alternative ideals in Lenin and Che Guevara, but also in Iran and among Serbian war criminals.

But of course, if Russians only found dictators and authoritarians on posters on the walls of anti-globalisation bookstores, they would be lucky. This week, after the Russian military announced the successful test of the world´s most powerful non-nuclear bomb, Putin picked another old friend, Viktor Zubkov, as new prime minister. When I ask Russians about it, they have three different theories:

1) This is just a way to win time before Putin announces his successor as president (probably Ivanov).

2) Zubkov will become the new president on paper, but Putin will maintain control behind the scenes.

3) Zubkov will become the new president, but soon he will face a crisis and leave, and Putin "has to" step in to maintain stability.  

But their real response is "who cares?" No matter whose face will be on television, Putin and the siloviki will stay in power.

(By the way, did you read this? Necessary reading if you want to understand Russia today.)

15:06 - POSITIVE STRESS: 

"We joke that as long as all these disputes are going on, [politicians] don´t have time to interfere in business."

- The Ukrainian businessman Taras Kutovyy explains why the Ukranian economy is booming, despite political chaos.

09:55 - IN UKRAINE: 

I have travelled to Ukraine to discuss liberalism and capitalism with students. I have only been here a day now but already I have a sense of how far the country´s democratic development has gone: People here say that all Ukrainian politicians are crooks.

A country where people feel free to say that has come a very long way.

09:04 - FÖRBUDSLIBERALISM: 

Och i dag kom Jan Björklunds första utspel som nästan-partliledare. Precis vad Sverige behövde: Ett nytt förbud.

10:57 - IT´S NOT ABOUT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, STUPID: 

Lilla Torg Liberalerna wonder why I don´t write about the Swedish artist Lars Vilks and Iran´s and Pakistan´s demands that Sweden should punish him for his drawing of Muhammed as a roundabout dog. (This is what makes this sad story hilarious: How do you explain the concept of a roundabout dog for the Mullahs?)

One reason is that I rarely write about things where most people already say the right things. It´s fairly obvious that the day we accept Iran´s standards for what you can and cannot say we´ll end up like...well, Iran. And for them, it´s not really about Muhammed - you can buy images of him in the streets of Teheran if you wish. It´s just about diverting dissatisfaction from their own sick government.

But one thing needs to be said: A lot of people describe Vilks´ attempt to make fun of religion and people who want to ban his drawings as a conflict between free speech and religious freedom, even journalists and some people who defend free speech. That is a total misunderstanding of the concept of religious freedom. Having the freedom to believe in whatever you want does not include a right to dictate what others think and say about those beliefs, just like free speech does not include the right to dictate what others print and say, and the freedom to vote does not include the right to force others to vote for the same party. In the western, liberal tradition, freedom is a "negative right" - it protects you from coercion from others, it does not give you the right to coerce others. Those who want to punish Vilks are opponents of religious freedom.

Whenever a journalist call this a conflict between those who believe in free spech and those who believe in religious freedom Iran has won a tiny victory.

By  the way, here is Vilks´ Jesus as an elephant.