GlobLog - April 2007
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00:31 - INTERNATIONAL POLL: GLOBALISATION IS GOOD: 

A big international poll on attitudes to globalisation has just been published. WorldPublicOpinion.org and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs have interviewed 23 000 people in 18 countries and in Palestine, countries representing more than half of the world´s population. The results confirm earlier results:

- Believe it or not, but globalisation is very popular. In every single country pluralities say that international trade and "globalization, especially increasing connections of our economy with others around the world" is good for their country, and in almost all of them they say it´s good for their own standard of living.

On average, 61 percent think that globalisation is mostly good and 23 percent think it´s mostly bad. As the report concludes: "Support for globalization is remarkably strong throughout the world."

- Anti-globalisation is a rich man´s club. Globalisation and international trade is the least popular in the richest countries, the US and France (where 35 and 42 percent said that globalisation was bad). Globalisation is the most popular in countries like China, South Korea and Israel. And in Iran 63 percent think that globalisation is mostly good.

- At the same time, people everywhere want environmental and labour standards in trade agreements, which would make it more difficult for the poorest countries to compete.

00:16 - BREAKFASTS WITH CROOK: 

Martin Wolf is a good reason to read Financial Times on Wednesdays. Now that their new chief Washington commentator has been presented, I have an equally big reason to read it on Thursdays. Clive Crook, formerly deputy editor of The Economist, is one of the most intelligent and funny journalists around. In his first FT column he writes about Barack Obama:

"If he fails, it will not be because he is black and it will not be because he is vague about policy. Is this too obvious to need saying? Those are his strengths."

10:00 - DAGENS HAIKU: 

Ko

Okunnig

Om att hon kan rymma

Det tycks ge sinnesro

- Haiku Moderne

09:19 - TOMORROW: WORLDWIDE RALLIES: 

In a dozen cities, from Ottawa to Athens, we will demonstrate peacefully for free speech outside Egypt´s embassies. Here is the list of events. I hope that you can take at least five minutes from your busy schedule for every year in prison that the 22-year old blogger Kareem Amer has been sentenced to for having expressed democratic and secular views.

Here is the Stockholm event:

27 April, 12.00

The Egyptian Embassy, Strandvägen 35

Speakers: Henrik Alexandersson, Stefan Geens, Johan Norberg, Mattias Svensson, Henrik von Sydow, Jonas Virdalm.

23:16 - THE END OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION?: 

One of my readers, Pär, makes an interesting prediction. Sverigedemokraterna´s present and future gains might start a new discussion about changing teh Swedish parliament´s proportional representation to a British single-seats system, where each district sends just one MP.

He´s got a point, we have a strange situation where tiny parties get enormous influence over the outcome. Now imagine that a xenophobic party will have that control after 2010, which is not at all unlikely. (And it´s obvious that the social democrats would like to escape the dependence on the greens and the left.) So I think that we will see this debate.

I am also convinced that Sverigedemokraterna would get tons of sympathy and votes if Swedish politicians changed our electoral system just to keep them out.

16:36 - TILL EFTERVÄRLDEN: SÅ NI FÖRSTÅR VAD VI TÄNKTE PÅ: 

I dag fick vi veta att människan kanske inte är ensam i universum. Så här ser dagens löpsedlar ut:

"Unga kvinnor: Därför har vi sex med tjejkompisar"

- Expressen

"Kungen skriver själv om prostatacancer"

- Aftonbladet

16:06 - ORGANISATIONER HAR RÄTTIGHETER, INTE INDIVIDER: 

I det nya avtalet har Byggnads lyckats förbjuda byggarbetare som inte är med i facket från att sköta sina löneförhandlingar själva. Sådan öppen diskriminering kan bara kommenteras på ett sätt:

"Det är oacceptabelt... Att hindra två parter som är överens om att teckna ett avtal, det är... ja, man saknar nästan ord."

Det var klarspråk från ingen mindre än Wanja Lundby-Wedin. Men naturligtvis bara när det handlade om Svenskt Näringslivs invändningar mot avtalet mellan Handels och Svensk Handel förra månaden.

(Tack Pär)

11:58 - STRAIGHT TALK FROM MCCAIN: 

The only time I´ve been to the American Congress was when the Senate debated the horrible Farm Bill in 2002. And ever since, I´ve been a closet-fan of John McCain. He was the only one who consistently attacked protectionists and special interests in both parties, and he did it with free trade principles, facts and humour.

His embarassing attempt to make friends with the Christian Right that he used to attack is disappointing, but his Financial Times article today shows that he still has the right economic principles, promising free trade, deregulation, low taxes and less spending if he became the president.

For example, he worries about the right things:

"It should alarm Americans that a recent study of economic freedom ranked the US only fourth in the world." (Others would be fairly happy with a fourth position...)

An excellent analysis of terms like generosity and tight budgets:

"When the government´s budget is tighter, family budgets, corporate research budgets and the investment plans of small businesses will not have to be."

And a perfect promise:

"I would veto every single pork-barrel bill." (Bush hasn´t vetoed a single one...)

11:44 - ALL YOU CAN EAT: 

Svenska Dagbladet reports that one tenth of all the food bought in Sweden is not eaten, but thrown away. They present it as a horrible waste in modern society, but I don´t think it sounds like very much, since about half of that are bone, shell, skin, peel and other inedible parts.

Compare that to developing countries, where about half of all the food produced is typically wasted because of a lack of modern transportation, refrigirators and packaging.

16:54 - DAGENS PROGNOS: 

Efter denna retuschering signerad Daniel Björk kommer anti-väskfraktionen inte att hämta sig. (Tack Mattias)

12:01 - ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE: 

MEMRI is an important organisation that gives the rest of the world a chance to follow the media in Arab countries. Programs subtitled in English give us a glimpse of Arab and Persian debates. Often it´s depressing and reveals authoritarian attitudes and a lack of intellectual openness, but sometimes it´s also incredibly encouraging.

The latter is the case with this clip from the eloquent Bahraini intellectual Dhiyaa Al-Musawi on Abu Dhabi TV. You have to see it. (Thanks Fredrik)

11:48 - EMAIL OF THE DAY: 

Thomas writes:

"My view on your Africa post is that if Nigeria has a literacy rate of 57% but the same GDP as a Finland of 10% literacy rate, it seems to imply that most of the literacy in Nigeria is wasted by a lack of economic freedom... Nigeria, though buoyed by oil, still is less economically free than the sub-Saharan African average according to the Index of Economic Freedom 2007."

I agree, and literacy is not the only thing Nigeria´s corrupt policies have wasted. Since the 1970s, the Nigerian government made almost $300 billion from oil exports. And during the same time, Nigeria grew poorer! Having human and capital resources don´t help if you don´t have the freedom to make use of them.

01:13 - EVEN BETTER: 

"When Anthony Gottlieb, who was the editor of Economist.com at the time, called her to offer the job, McArdle immediately responded, “I’ll take it.” He was “a little taken aback . . . . Then, he said, ‘We’re thinking of paying you . . . [and] he named a figure. I was like “Wow! You’re going to pay me, even better!’”"

- Megan McArdle explains how she got a job at The Economist.

00:36 - AFRICA FROM THE BRIGHT SIDE: 

"Compare Africa to Nineteenth Century Europe: in Nigeria in 1995, GDP per head was $1,118. That puts it about equal with Finland’s GDP in 1870 ($1,107). But look at education: Nigeria had a literacy rate of 57 percent, compared to Finland’s 10 percent rate in 1870. Or life expectancy: Nigeria’s 1995 life expectancy was 51 years. This figure is higher than any country in Europe in 1870 -- better than the UK, which had an income per capita in 1870 approximately three times Nigeria’s 1995 figure. This is an especially impressive performance given both Africa’s largely tropical climate which fosters communicable disease rates far higher than those in Europe, and the recent advent of AIDS."

- Charles Kenny gives an unconventional response to the question "Is Africa a failure"? (Thanks Stefan)

00:25 - DAGENS DEN SOM GRIPER TILL SVÄRD FÖRGÅS MED SVÄRD: 

Neos blogg avslöjar att drevkarln himself klagar över mediedrevet.

12:00 - FREE KAREEM: 

Rallies for Kareem, the young Egyptian blogger imprisoned for four years for his secular and democratic views, will be held in at least eleven cities around the world this Friday. Jonas Virdalm organises the one in Stockholm. Please come and help us to send the message that the world cares about free speech:

The Egyptian Embassy, Strandvägen 35, Stockholm

Friday, April 27, 12.00

11:07 - DAGENS RUBRIK: 

"Stockholm stöder Lars Leijonborg."

- Dagens Nyheters pappersupplaga i morse, för en evighet sedan. 

11:20 - WHY SVERIGEDEMOKRATERNA IS WINNING: 

Now I am convinced. When Sverigedemokraterna enter parliament in 2010 we will look back to these last few weeks and say that this was when it happened - when three parties decided to give them a national stage to "expose them in debate". The problem is that people already know that they are a bunch of unpleasant populists with nazi roots. As long as Jimmie Åkesson doesn´t appear on the show wearing a SS uniform the viewers´ impression will be that "they are not as extreme as I thought".

Nothing their opponent say can win more than 95 percent of the audience, which is what they need to do.

And the televised debates do nothing to remove the impression that SD are unfairly treated by the media and the parties. Quite the contrary, since the whole spin is about "exposing" them, and since the parties now probably realise that they´ve made a mistake and will stop debate them on this level. Then SD can claim victory and say that the opponents don´t dare to continue.

Sure, you can make the argument (I have) that the old strategy didn´t work, and that SD will probably enter parliament if we carry on with business as usual. That´s possible. But the alternative is not to hand them the seats on a silver plate.

What the parties should do is to engage and attack them in the local arena, where they can talk about real issues and where the representatives are less polished and easier to expose. And most of all, they should deal with failed integration policies and a labour market that shuts immigrants out. Defeating racism is not about giving racists attention, I have yet to see an example where that has worked. To paraphrase Mr Blair: We have to be tough on racism and on the causes of racism.

21:29 - SO 99.5% TO THE PARTY-RESULTS ARE BACK?: 

"Such a candidate [who repudiates Putinism] won´t have the slightest chance. There could be some kind of marginal figure, a clown. But they would get 1 per cent or half a per cent of votes."

- Sergei Ivanov, one of Putin´s probable heirs, makes the result in the next Russian presidential election public in Financial Times.

16:30 - DAGENS ERKÄNNANDE: 

"Globaliseringen är inte bara av ondo."

- DN Kultur går från "bara" till "inte bara" (bara nästan?).

12:42 - THE ULTIMATE TV PROGRAM: 

Now it´s time. On April 24 at 10pm it will be aired on HDNet: The Ultimate Resource. The Free to Choose Media Team has created a wonderful and beautiful program that illustrates Julian Simon´s insight that human beings, and their will improve their lives and our world, are the ultimate resource.

On the way to the hopeful conclusion, James Tooley, Muhammad Yunus, Hernando de Soto and, yes, Johan Norberg, show the amazing potential that is realised when people on four continents get access to education, microcredits, property rights and free markets.

22:46 - Юхан Норберг IN RUSSIAN: 

That´s a small Russian language lesson for you. The text in the picture means In Defence of Global Capitalism - and Johan Norberg. Later this year the Russian translation of the book will be published. If you can´t wait, you can already find the Russian text online here.

13:32 - EU IN SPEEDOS: 

"Overall, the EU has been adopting new rules and regulations some 25% faster since enlargement, says a study published by Sciences Po in Paris. ... Looking for blockages, they find that ´old´ members have opposed proposals twice as often as new ones."

- The Economist refutes the myth that the EU has been paralysed by enlargement, and has to abolish veto rights to stop new members from obstructing.

21:40 - DANS ÄR OORDNING: 

Efter att jag skrev om Lorenzettis eleganta protest mot Siennas förbud mot offentlig dans påminde Mattias Svensson mig om att den typen av repression inte försvann med medeltiden. Så här lät det när DN På Stan ringde upp Eva Jegart på Stockholms Stads tillståndsenhet, 11 januari 2002:

DN: Vi har inte bestämt var än, men vi hade tänkt spela lite schyst musik och hänga. Om vi inte söker ett danstillstånd - är det ok så länge ingen dansar då?

EJ: Njaae, så länge det inte är någon dans i lokalen är det okej, men många förknippar ju musik med dans, och då måste ni vara väldigt väldigt noga med att avstyra alla tecken på dans så fort de uppstår. Om gästerna plötsligt börjar att dansa, då måste ni genast gå in och hindra det.

DN: Och om vi inte gör det?

EJ: Då bryter ni mot lagen och det kan faktiskt ge kraftiga böter. ... [D]et händer ju att Operation Krogsanering dyker upp oanmäld och då ligger man illa till. Dans är nämligen oordning.

DN: Dans är oordning?

EJ: Ja, enligt lagen. Ska jag skicka ansökningshandlingarna?

16:45 - FOR AN OPEN EUROPE: 

Together with lots of representatives of Swedish liberal and center-right organisations, think-tanks and parties, I write in Expressen today about about why the Swedish government must be more critical of centralisation, regulation and protectionism in the EU. This is a very important message for parties that still think that the debate is about saying yes or no to EU membership, and forget that government intervention is just as bad when it comes from Brussels as when it comes from Stockholm.

23:09 - WHAT BJÖRN ELMBRANT DOES INSTEAD OF THROWING STONES: 

It must be great to be Björn Elmbrant. You can regularly attack old adversaries on public service radio, without having to fear that they challenge your arguments. Having just returned to Stockholm I noticed that the person he attacked in Studio Ett today was yours truly.

Elmbrant talked about the independent evaluation of World Bank research that the Bank has ordered, which details lots of problems with several studies, and claim that they give too much weight to uncertain conclusions. This is a very important evaluation. The only problem with Elmbrant´s description is that he only mentioned the criticism against studies that were pro-globalisation and pro-liberalisation, and kept silent about those that point in the other direction. Predictable, I guess. After all, as Elmbrant said himself, we are often more guided by our ideologies than by the facts.

Therefore, Elmbrant let the listeners know that the World Bank economist David Dollar was criticised, and mentioned that I use studies by him in my book In Defence, to pretend that it was now undermined. He didn´t mention it of course, but he hates that book - when it was published, he wrote that the logical response to me was throwing stones - because in it I explained why he was completely wrong. (He had written a book from the opposite perspective, but made sure that it could never be refuted - by basing it on anecdotes instead of scientific research. I was impolite, because I said that this was the case.)

But the interesting thing is that Elmbrant didn´t explain what the World Bank evaluation said. He couldn´t, since that would ruin his claim. Because the evaluation is mostly critical against a Dollar study that has nothing to do with the argument that globalisation is good. It is an attempt to show that government aid to poor countries works. This study has already been criticised by William Easterly, and I find him convincing. If Elmbrant was motivated by scientific honesty, he should have said that this poses a problem for foreign aid advocates.

However, the World Bank evaluation also criticises a Dollar study ("Growth is good for the poor") that claimed that the bottom fifth gain as much from economic growth as others, and I use that one in my book. The problem here is that we seem to have less surveys and gini data from around the world than we need to reach a reliable conclusion. So the evidence just point in that direction, but we need more data to know for sure.

This is an important correction, and it will be interesting to see the results when more statistics come in and the debate continues. But as Elmbrant said, even more important is our values, and we should explain them openly - by the way, precisely what one globalisation advocate did in his book on these issues:

"Even if this were true [that inequality increases] it would not matter very much. If everyone is coming to be better off, what does it matter that the improvement comes faster for some than for others? Surely the important thing is for everyone to be as well off as possible, not whether one group is better off than another. Only those who consider wealth a greater problem than poverty can find a problem in some becoming millionaires while others grow wealthier from their own starting points."

Oh yes, that´s me, in In Defence...

23:05 - HARRY LIME WAS WRONG: 

When you spend some time in Italy, and experience the roots of the Renaissance, it´s easy to think of Orson Wells´ classic line, when he played Harry Lime in the brilliant movie The Third Man (one reader also emailed it to me):

"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love and 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

This quote has everything. Striking, counter-intuitive and persuasive. On the surface. But what happens when we take a closer look?

In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance.

- This is a bizarre exaggeration of the Borgias´ influence, they were ruthless and effective (for a while) powerlusters, the stuff stories are made from, but  in the whole scheme of things they were minor characters with little lasting effect. What made the Italian city-states different from the rest of Europe was not the bloodshed. This was on everybody´s menu. Instead, the cities that created the Renaissance were outwards-oriented traders, with more division of powers, more tolerance and more openness, and engaged in constant competition about art, technology and business with the others.

In Switzerland, they had brotherly love and 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce?

- You mean apart from the tax revolt, direct democracy and more wealth than any other country ever had? For example the pencil, the newspaper, the first branded article, the electric telegraph, the clock-factory, the internal combustion engine, the Swiss army knife, playing cards, the cartoon, contact lenses, vivisection, organ transplantation, the Red Cross - and Absinthe.

The cuckoo clock.

- Actually, no. The cuckoo clock is German.

18:13 - GOOD AND BAD GOVERNMENT, 700 YEARS AGO: 

If you look a little bit harder when you travel in Italy, you can also see the birth of modern constitutional government.

When I visited Palazzo Publico in Siena, I found Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s huge fresco, representing different sorts of government (1337-40), covering three walls. In the "Allegory of good government" below you see something interesting. The bearded gentleman to the right (surrounded by Peace, Fortitude and Prudence) is the city of Siena, but despite the beard and the crown he doesn´t possess all the power.

To the left you see Justice with her scales, a symbol that the executive and the judicial powers ought to be separated, to create harmony (the citizens all carry a rope to illustrate this harmony). Meanwhile, the "Allegory of bad government" only has one important character - Tyranny, who has broken the scales of the vanquished Justice.

Siena was a republic, governed by the oligarchic Council of Nine. They represented merchant interests who preferred the rule of law to despotism and commerce to militarism. And this can be seen in Lorenzetti’s "Effects of good government in the city" below, where the city is full of activity, artisans and merchants. The city wall is open to symbolise trade and communication with the rural areas.

But it gets even better. Look at it again. Right in the middle, Lorenzetti included nine young women, dancing in the city square. Some took this to represent peace, joy, the Muses or something like that. But there is another explanation. It’s a concealed attack on the government of Siena, since dancing in the streets was forbidden.

So Lorenzetti made good government even better.