tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68191302024-03-13T16:33:23.068-04:00FinnpunditCasting a wary eye on freeriding Finland.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.comBlogger103125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1167458488186843332006-12-30T01:00:00.000-05:002006-12-30T01:01:28.203-05:00Does econ make you conservative?<p>Harvard University’s economics Professor Greg Mankiw is known for his popularity, especially as he seems to actually enjoy teaching introductory economics courses (while most of his peers tend to favor spending time with advanced, post-graduate students). He even runs a <a href="http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/" mce_href="http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/">blogsite</a> so that he can keep in touch with his students, now dispersed worldwide.</p> <p>One student posed a <a href="http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/12/does-econ-make-people-conservative.html" mce_href="http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/12/does-econ-make-people-conservative.html">question</a> on that site recently that’s actually quite central to the kind of ideological divide we see in Finnish politics today: does the study of economics make people more conservative (or more classically liberal, in academic terms)?</p> <p><i>I believe the answer is, to some degree, yes. My experience is that many students find that their views become somewhat more conservative after studying economics. There are at least three, related reasons.</i></p> <p><i>First, in some cases, students start off with utopian views of public policy, where a benevolent government can fix all problems. One of the first lessons of economics is that life is full of tradeoffs. That insight, completely absorbed, makes many utopian visions less attractive. Once you recognize, for example, that there is a tradeoff between equality and efficiency, as economist Arthur Okun famously noted, many public policy decisions become harder.</i></p> <p><i>Second, some of the striking insights of economics make one more respectful of the market as a mechanism for coordinating a society. Because market participants are motivated by self-interest, a person might naturally be suspect of market-based societies. But after learning about the gains from trade, the invisible hand, and the efficiency of market equilibrium, one starts to approach the market with a degree of admiration and, indeed, awe.</i></p> <p><i>Third, the study of actual public policy makes students recognize that political reality often deviates from their idealistic hopes. Much income redistribution, for example, is aimed not toward the needy but toward those with political clout.</i></p> <p>These are lessons certainly lost on Finland, where entrenched socialist ideology sees any challenge to its moral precepts as a threat. In fact, most of Finnish counter-arguments focus on the demonization of any contending models to the welfare-state, even to the extent of employing state-sponsored bigotry to ensure the <i>status quo</i>. </p>Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1165127844692874922006-12-03T01:36:00.000-05:002006-12-03T01:37:24.720-05:00Zero Tuomioja and the Tobin TaxOne of the preoccupations of Finland’s foreign minister “Zero” (as Chirac allegedly called him) Tuomioja, has been the implementation of the CTT, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_Tax">Tobin Tax</a>, especially in relations to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATTAC">ATTAC</a>, where he is a member. Though Tuomioja’s <a href="http://www.tuomioja.org/index.php?mainAction=showPage&id=1217&category=4">rationale</a> sounds benign enough, there are more considerations behind this folly than initially meets the eye.<br /><br />Consider whom such a Currency Transaction Tax would affect. Far from dissuading currency speculators (as it was initially intended to do), a CTT is designed to collect taxes from two willing international trading partners and forwarding those tax monies to other countries who have no role at all in that particular trade. Thus, for example, if an American company wires money to a factory in China to produce some goods for America, a country like Bolivia, - which has introduced socialist policies designed to dissuade international trade – would benefit from that kind of international transaction taking place. In other words, Bolivia would enjoy a freeride at the expense of the other two countries, without ever needing to revise its own trade-stifling policies.<br /><br />Obviously, Zero Tuomioja also enjoys the other aspect of such a tax: it would collect the most money from the one nation that thrives on international trade: the United States. As the cost of such a transaction would eventually be transferred to the American consumer, making goods more expensive as a whole, it becomes quite clear that this tax is just another manifestation of European anti-American bigotry. And, when we consider that it is the American consumer that has done the most when it comes to lifting third world nations out of poverty, the CTT can be seen as quite counterproductive to its poverty-fighting ideals.<br /><br />In other words, it is folly, though it'll certainly never be comprehended as such by Zero Tuomioja.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1163037763368947572006-11-08T21:02:00.000-05:002006-11-08T21:02:43.393-05:00Election Day, 2006<p>So I voted the other day. It was quite easy this time, as there were no waiting lines, as had been during the presidential elections in 2004. The polling was conducted in public schools here in New York City (all school kids have the day off on Election Day, though that might vary from state to state). The voting booths were set up in the school’s gymnasium, and staffed mostly with retired folks, who took visible pride in conducting their duly-sworn, civic duties. The old African-American lady who verified my registration must have been about 80 years old. It was obvious that the other ladies gave her that honorific little job to do, though they stood by to assist. In a sentimental way, that little gesture kind of moved me.</p> <p>I counted 10 different political parties with candidates in the fray. They were:</p> <p>Republican<br />Democrat<br />Independence<br />Conservative<br />Working Families<br />Green<br />Libertarian<br />Rent Is Too High<br />Socialist Workers<br />Socialist Equality</p> <p>The voting was done in these quite antiquated, mechanical lever devices which had a heavy curtain draping the voter in front of the lever board, displaying all the 30-70 or so candidates . Although voter fraud cases in New York City have rarely been reported (and I have a feeling no one wants to mess with the ladies in charge with electoral conduct), I’ve always wondered how long a state like New York will rely on these mechanical hulks. It seems there are so many ways where fraud is possible, - and if it’s possible, maybe probable - if New York ever becomes a state where key national voting decisions are made. It’s a worry, for anyone, of any party, who cares about democracy.</p> <p>Later, in my busy day, I was surprised to find that almost all of the people I dealt with had taken the trouble to vote (though admittedly, I deal with a lot of hard-working, thinking people. My favorite bartendress, though, said she wasn’t going to vote, simply because she has no idea what the issues really are. Fair enough.) It’ll be interesting to see how this mid-term election compares in tally with other mid-terms in the past. </p>Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1162365108379957122006-11-01T02:00:00.000-05:002006-11-01T02:11:48.403-05:00A Terse Assessment on IraqIf you're willing to look past the ongoing distortions in Main Stream Media, things are going rather well in Iraq. Significant oil revenues are now flowing into the coffers of the Iraqi government, surpassing pre-war levels. That could not be happening under wartime conditions. And most of that oil is not going to the US, but India. Additionally, China is now interested in investing over $1billion in developing Iraqi oil reserves. It's obvious that they've a different assessment of the situation on the ground than what we hear from MSM.<br /><br />Mostly the fighting is of a low-level, criminal kind of gang/clan warfare (not counting the foreign terrorists). It would be nice to let these folks kill each other off, but the danger is that - unless they're repressed by some impartial force from the government - they could (and probably would) develop in organization, thus providing a threat to the central government which, for all its faults, is working rather well. Unfortunately, the only force impartial enough for this task are US soldiers, at the moment.<br /><br />The foreign terrorists are, of course, being dispatched rather efficiently, if Al Qaeda's own internal memos are to be believed. And that was one of the better arguments for creating a warzone in that part of the world.<br /><br />In either case, what the militants don't realize is that their continuing activity only provides more of an excuse for an American military presence. Even if all patrols would finally be conducted by Iraqi police and military units, the threat posed by the militants will be used to justify the long-term entrenchment of US bases in Iraq for some time to come.<br /><br />Which is not that bad at all, for the US, as long as the area is of strategic concern.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1156824245733016292006-08-29T00:03:00.000-04:002006-08-29T00:14:04.666-04:00Don't You Just Love America?<I>Commuter to <A HREF=" http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060828/us_nm/life_bridge_dc">detonate</A> DC bridge Monday night <br />Mon Aug 28, 2:37 PM ET<br />WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A detested bridge that has plagued generations of Washingtonians will be blown up by a long-suffering commuter on Monday night.<br />[…]<br />The Wilson bridge has long been one of the worst traffic bottlenecks in a region notorious for gridlock. Backups can stretch for miles when the drawbridge is raised 270 times per year to let boats through.<br />[…]<br />A local man who has crossed the bridge for 30 years as part of his two-hour commute won a contest to detonate a half-mile section. Dan Ruefly of Accokeek, Maryland, had his hip crushed in an accident on the bridge in 1999. He leaves his home at 5 a.m. each week day to avoid the worst of the traffic.</I>Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1156555323127816662006-08-25T21:20:00.001-04:002006-08-25T21:24:16.110-04:00The Foibles of the StateAn amusing <A HREF="http://www.columbia.edu/~xs23/keynes/keynes1.htm">gallery of public works.</A>Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1155322649161566782006-08-11T14:48:00.000-04:002006-08-12T16:49:14.323-04:00Terror Averted, Thanks to Torture?It was a little news item at first, the one where it was revealed that the whole recent international terror plot was foiled due to the initial arrest of a jihadist in Pakistan. The Pakistanis were quick to take the credit for it, of course.<br /><br />Yet there is no way a jihadist would spill the beans on such a plot just like that. Was that man tortured by the Pakistani authorities? It's a guess, but it wouldn't be a surprise. If so, do thousands of westerners owe their lives to one man being tortured?<br /><br />It's becoming quite amusing seeing how AP, Reuters, and AFP are tippy-toeing around that main question. They're now trying to bury the significance of that initial arrest with all sorts of facts about the subsequent arrests in Pakistan, in the hopes that no one will ask the most significant question of all.<br /><br />UPDATE: More information is now available about the initial Pakistani arrest, via AFP:<br /><br /><I>In Pakistan, two senior officials told AFP that Britain's intelligence services had asked their Pakistan counterparts to trail Rauf after he entered the country. He was arrested on August 4 in the eastern city of Bahawalpur.<br /><br />[…]<br /><br />"When they interrogated Rauf, he broke. He told them what we believe was not even in the knowledge of the US and the British -- that they were actually planning to blow up airliners," one of the officials said.</I><br /><br />Now, why are none of these journalists asking the obvious question at this time: did Britain’s intelligence services tip the Pakistanis off, knowing that the Pakistani security services would be able to “break” Rauf? It seems journalists only ask the tough questions when their political interests are served.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1154576003138863202006-08-02T23:20:00.000-04:002006-08-02T23:38:19.630-04:00Tuomioja Blunders, Again and AgainReading all the tepid, equanimious statements emanating from the European ministerial meeting at Brussels on the crisis in Lebanon, it's clear that Finnish foreign minister (and foreign minister of the EU presidency for the next six months) social democratic party member Erkki Tuomioja is up to a backtracking start from the position of leadership in Europe.<br /><br />Right from the start of the conflict in Lebanon, Tuomioja (and his former lover, social democratic Finnish president Halonen) reacted with the most biased emotion, without thinking what was good for Finland, and good for Europe. As an established anti-Semite, Tuomioja immediately condemned Israel for its so-called “disproportionate” response, not realizing that this was an opportunity to not only engage Israel in a dialogue where European prestige and influence might be made more significant, but also finally to make Europe a political entity that is willing to take the lead in international affairs in a way that it believes it is destined to do.<br /><br />The stage was also very well prepared: the Israelis had accidentally killed a Finnish officer in Unifil, and were of course at a disadvantage. Instead of lashing out at Israel, - and accomplishing nothing new -Tuomioja could have leapt at the opportunity to use the incident at getting closer to Israel. He should have shown understanding towards Israel in this predicament, and offered a helping hand in getting rid of the terrorists in southern Lebanon. Such a robust initiative would be instrumental in injecting the kind of debate within Israel’s democratic factions (which are open for all of us to see) as to have possible <I>long-term</I> significance making Europe an important partner in the Middle East peace process, and a major, multipolar player on the world stage.<br /><br />But no, Tuomioja (and the Bimbo Of Finland, Halonen) both boorishly retreated into their self-defined moral high grounds by condemning Israel, at the same time slamming the door shut for Finland, and Europe. For it is not Hezbollah that needs to be courted and engaged (their religious fundamentalism means they cannot), - but democratic, secular Israel. <br /><br />And we should ask if this was not done on purpose. The Middle East is a frightening place, where many international politicians and diplomats have failed in their efforts to bring peace (perhaps Tuomioja simply feels inadequate to the task, and tries to hide his cowardice). The US is already bruised and battered by experience in the Middle East; wouldn’t it just be easier to let the US do the leading first, giving Europeans the easier pickings later? In other words, is it not more profitable to let someone else (the US) do the leading, while Europe could enjoy the freeride later?<br /><br />Finland, especially, has honed socio, political, and economic freeriding into an art form. It is not surprising that it continues to do so, especially with Tuomioja and Halonen as the most prominent shapers of Finnish foreign policy. The fact that such politicians are so quick to quit the field (making the US the only heavyweight left on the field) does say something about the quality of the moral high ground Tuomioja and Halonen are so convinced they possess.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1140472834342678252006-02-20T16:59:00.000-05:002006-02-20T17:01:54.763-05:00Every Now And Then, A Glimpse of The Real PictureA comment left by a poster named Mara (No. 64), at <A HREF="http://www.finlandforthought.net/2006/02/17/this-european-vs-muslim-thing/#comment-34560">Phil's Finland For Thought</A> site, provides an insight as to how state-rationing of universal health care really works in Finland:<br /><br /><I>“On the health care front, the state declared that the municipalities have to provide a “guaranteed access to care” within 6 months of first patient contact. In a caricature of implementation the guaranteed response turned out to be a phone call between the health provider and the patient within 6 months from the moment of contact. The outcome of the call was that the system now recognizes the patient’s need for care, and the patient will hear from them later on.<br /><br />Some municipalities have transferred people in queues for hip or knee operations into physiotherapy, explaining that the better muscular condition will help them to recuperate after the operation. But after a while the patient finds out that his health has been officially re-evaluated to require the operation, but not immediately. And so the patient is back to square one in the queue for the operation. All the time everybody agrees that the patient clearly needs the operation, but the system can postpone it by few years, while the patient lives a very limited life. This “queue shuffle” with its variants seems to be a smash hit among the public admins. And private hospitals, which have no shortage of patients.”</I>Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1140117227465356072006-02-16T14:11:00.000-05:002006-02-16T14:13:47.480-05:00A Brilliant IdeaFormer Spanish prime minister Aznar, the Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required), has come up with a brilliant idea for a viable counter move to Iran’s decision to go nuclear: have Israel admitted as a member of NATO. The move would certainly force Europe to make a fuller commitment to the preservation of Israel, and make it more difficult for Europeans to engage in spurious anti-Semitic exercises. And it would reintroduce the necessary Cold War politics that are needed when confronting Iran.<br /><br />What’s more, the ascension of both Sweden and Finland to NATO would become more difficult, as these two cowardly states would have a harder time selling NATO to their respective electorates. Anti-Semitism is rampant in these countries, and being forced into a treaty with Israel would be complete anathema to all the foreign policy themes promulgated by these two freerider states.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1135132141836999142005-12-20T21:25:00.000-05:002005-12-20T21:31:13.686-05:00By That Time, The Boat Should Have DepartedIt behooves American policymakers to make sure that Finland will never be allowed to <A HREF=" http://virtual.finland.fi/stt/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=11169&group=Politics ">change their minds</A>, given the institutionalized anti-American bigotry in Finland.<br /><br /><I>“Finns would be ready to seek Nato's help if the situation in Russia became threatening, indicates a poll conducted by Think If Laboratories and published in the Finnish tabloid Iltalehti (IL) on Tuesday.<br /><br />According to the poll, 70 per cent of Finns would support joining Nato if Russia were to become a totalitarian state that behaved threateningly towards Finland.”</I><br /><br />Keep Finland out of NATO. End the Partnership-For-Peace program. Why accept another alliance with another cowardly European state?Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1135130923105950952005-12-20T21:04:00.000-05:002005-12-20T21:08:43.106-05:00Great Moments in European CowardiceAs it is becoming increasingly obvious that Germans are ready to <A HREF="http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2005/12/hammadi.html">sell out</A> their American "allies" every chance they get, it does serve the useful purpose of distancing the US from Europe even more so. <br /><br />The extermination of the European welfare state can only be accomplished when the US abandons its protective stance towards them.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1135130446256589342005-12-20T20:59:00.000-05:002005-12-20T21:32:14.266-05:00Great Moments in European Welfare-Statist MedicineThis kind of <A HREF="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/4541434.stm">stuff</A> not even a Hollywood screenwriter could dream of.<br /><br /><I>"Nyree Ellison Anjos alerted staff at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital when she saw the larvae wriggling near a feeding tube attached to her mother's nose.<br /><br />Christine Ellison died two days later, but the family is satisfied the maggot incident had no bearing"</I>Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1132718759023873752005-11-22T23:04:00.000-05:002005-11-22T23:05:59.036-05:00I’ve always thought that the best contribution Europe could ever do to combat global warming is to let all the farmlands of France, Benelux, Germany and Britain be reforested, just as they were before they were all leveled through human activity over the centuries. As the developing world is forced to denude its forests to feed its burgeoning populations, the best thing Europe could do is step into the breach and cover for the losses.<br /><br />The only areas in the developed world that should be farmed are those areas that have historically always been grasslands: the prairies of Canada and the US, and the steppes of Russia and Ukraine. The yields from these areas are more than enough to make up for the loss of British and Franco-German farmlands.<br /><br />Those lands used to be so thickly forested that Roman legions truly feared them. The Romans were the initiators of the clear-cutting that was to come, which heralded the advance of civilization, and the wiping out of indigenous cultures. But today, as agriculture has long ago lost its status as the benchmark of civilization, it makes sense to give up the farmlands back to nature.<br /><br />And, just to be fair, it also seems that the previously-forested lands east and west of the Appalachian Mountains could also be given back to forests. The only difference between America and Europe is that it’s already happening through market forces, as there are more abandoned farms in America, because of less state support for them, unlike in Europe. In other words, the market is already giving up unneeded lands back to nature. Active reforestration programs, funded by environmental charities, would hasten it, though most environmentalists are too confused in their priorities to understand that.<br /><br />There is so much overproduction of agricultural goods in both America and Europe that the state still has to intervene and buy up surpluses: a sure sign that there are too many farms.<br /><br />I’d bet Vanhanen would have a fit, though.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1127058273321351742005-09-18T11:42:00.000-04:002005-09-18T11:44:33.330-04:00The world is changing. Globalization is here to stay. Globalization essentially got its start in America’s whole-scale subsidization of western Europe in the aftermath of the World War, not only through the Marshall Plan, but also through the opening up of American markets for western European products, in order to bind Europe closer to the US, and to forestall the appeal of communism. America went even so far as to directly subsidize, through the CIA, various social democratic parties in Europe (including that of Finland) in order to split the left. The various social welfare states which received support from these policies (expanding from earlier, but weaker, beginnings) were thus an anomaly: they were born out of the realities created by the artifice of the Cold War. They were only politically necessary; they were not economically necessary.<br /><br />After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we now have an economic entity in the world which is almost as artificial as that of the Soviets, in the form of the European welfare state. It is an entity which, in its construction, cannot but hoard wealth, in order to survive. It does not act as an economic stimulus to other, less-developed parts of the world, since it is essentially an end-user: no recycling of wealth takes place, as the Europeans fritter away the wealth earned from outside trade by indulging in easy living. And it cannot survive if not for a market for its exports which, by necessity to Europeans, cannot have a welfare state in turn if the European model were to survive (i.e. the less-taxed, cash-flush market composed of the American worker-consumer).<br /><br />Thus there is exploitation since, ironically, in a globalized world, the fact that some parts get taxed more than others means <I>others</I> get exploited, as the benefits of that taxation is not transferred to others. In fact, high taxation becomes a huge problem, as it winds up restricting global trade, and thus becomes an obstacle to the developing world.<br /><br />Now, running a trade deficit is not transferring wealth, but the selling of debt instruments certainly is. A trade deficit which is financed by loans from the seller is not exploitation at all: the world is filled with business deals such as these, from car loans from manufacturers, to easy credit terms from banks and realtors. And it has been incredibly useful in helping those who need help – in this case, lifting hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty. FDR even had a term for it: “pump priming”, a farming term that referred to water being forced through a pump in order to get it to work. US consumption acts as the necessary pump primer for Chinese growth. The trade deficit, however, could not be financed if not for Asian purchases of US securities. Thus the Chinese and the US have a mutually beneficial relationship – no exploitation takes place. And the Chinese, it turns out, are better than the Europeans in allocating the resources earned in trade, as they don’t fritter away the wealth in easy living, thus increasing the likelihood that the US will have a better trading partner in the future.<br /><br />Consumption is not a favor one does to someone else, but it is an <I>economic tool</I>, in addition to being an end goal. Its most effective implementation as a tool is realized not by state consumption, but by taxpayer consumption, since outsiders can respond more readily to the tangible consumption needs of consumers, rather than the intangible, untradeable benefits of a welfare state. A taxpayer whose consumption increases because of lower taxes also increases market efficiencies, since the market is always more responsive than the state in allocating resources.<br /><br />Yet the welfare states refuse to acknowledge the present state of affairs, being ruled by elites who have an interest in maintaining the status quo. So the exploitation continues. However, what we do see rising is a realization that the inequitability of European freeriding cannot be permitted to go on. The justification for the elimination of the European welfare state is there. Whether the extermination process has to happen willingly, or by force, remains to be seen.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1126914011473932192005-09-16T19:35:00.000-04:002005-09-16T19:46:42.636-04:00This is tremendously <A HREF="http://www.techcentralstation.com/091505JP.html">BIG NEWS</A>, yet the Main Stream Media has totally ignored it!<br /><br />I haven't seen any TV news or newspaper cover the story. I just learned about this from the blogosphere.<br /><br /><I>"Interestingly, these words from Blair, addressing an audience of a thousand at the Sheraton just a few blocks north of Times Square, failed to get any pickup in the media. Even The New York Times, published just down the street, ran a story that dwelt on the star power in the room, including King Abdullah of Jordan, Jesse Jackson, and George Stephanopoulos. "Isn't this awesome?" said one participant, and those words seemed to reflect fully the Times' take on the event."</I><br /><br />It's truly flabbergasting that at an event with so many world leaders, where there were so many members of Main Stream Media, the bombshell of a statement by one of the Kyoto Treaty's main proponents doesn't even get a squeak.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1126753430295379882005-09-14T23:02:00.000-04:002005-09-14T23:05:17.033-04:00Are there homeless people in Finland? <A HREF="http://kaleva.blogspot.com/2005/07/koditon.html">Of course, </A>for the very same, familiar reasons that there are homeless people in America.<br /><br />The caption runs something like this:<br /><br /><I>“A homeless person happened to find herself here in Kaleva one day; she slept long into the day. I’m not sure, but she looks like a woman who’s sometimes seen around the railroad station, whom I’ve christened The Birdlady, as how some Swedish police records named a certain homeless person. This Birdlady also feeds pigeons. Of course I didn’t disturb her, and neither did anyone else. Let the poor one sleep.”</I>Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1126579441062209052005-09-12T22:41:00.000-04:002005-09-12T22:44:01.066-04:00Michael Totten, one of America's most important bloggers, is going to do a very <A HREF="http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/000939.html">brave thing.</A> <br /><br />Totten is probably the one blogger with whom I feel any kind of political affinity. A former left-of-center liberal, he was transformed by 9/11, - like so many others - and found himself supporting Bush and the war in Iraq. His blogs are seminal for those who truly seek to understand why Bush won in 2004 (a much better preoccupation than focusing forever on the religious right, which Europeans are so obsessed about).<br /><br />His most seminal blog entry was one of the first to be picked up by a major newspaper. It is an elegant piece of writing, and captures the dichotomy of contemporary American political stances <A HREF="http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110003467">very well.</A>Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1126201076064790062005-09-08T13:37:00.000-04:002005-09-08T13:39:06.886-04:00If you wonder how Members of the European Parliament spend their time, take a <A HREF="http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/blogs/salonranta/post391.htm">look</A> at this particular representative from Sweden.<br /><br />Hat tip: Jussi SalonrantaFinnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1126022896375924762005-09-06T12:02:00.000-04:002005-09-06T12:08:16.376-04:00For what it’s worth, New Orleans is America’s Venice. It's main industry is tourism, who flock there because of its historical allure. That same allure also keeps an indigenous city population there; the city has History. But it is also a city whose feasibility is in question; it simply should not be, anymore, as it has sunk into the ground so much that it will constantly have to battle the elements to survive. But the city holds so much allure, especially as a major center for African-American culture (practically the birthplace of jazz) that’s it’s abandonment is untenable.<br /><br />Thus man tries to fight nature with dams, levees and dikes. And, just like in Venice, and in Holland, dam politics enters the picture. I don’t know how many of you have seen that excellent documentary about the dams engineered to save Venice (with the nice, computer-animated depiction of the dams that would rise from the seafloor, pumped with air, once a storm approaches). The documentarians make the point that the idea, - deemed the best one ? remains just an animation, as it got mired in local Italian politics, with the communist mayorality unable to get the backing of the entire country for such an expensive engineering project. The hope now is that the EU would finally kick in some funds to save Venice; I’m sure Finnish taxpayers won’t mind that one bit.<br /><br />If we examine the history of the failings for state spending on New Orleans’ levees, then it mirrors in longevity to that of Venice. The debate has stretched for decades, long before this administration, and long before the previous one. The arguments of coulda-woulda-shoulda, of course, enter the picture once the Big One actually happens.<br /><br />As to all the current political recriminations, that is to be expected. People feel a need to blame authority for every natural disaster. Look how many silly Finns took their anger out at the Finnish foreign ministry, for not being somehow more? responsive? to the tsunami. The ministry’s role in tsunami relief is open to question, but in this case it wound up serving as the needed scapegoat for a public still reeling from the scale of the disaster.<br /><br />The sad fact is that every one in office at the moment of a natural disaster will be somehow blamed for the natural occurrence. It does not matter that money for the levees were turned down even during the Clinton administration, when there was a budget surplus. And it doesn’t matter that it would take some 30 years to actually update the levees for a category 5 hurricane. People need to find a scapegoat, and the present officeholders wind up serving that purpose.<br /><br />Now that all the houses in the below-sea level area have been pretty much destroyed, New Orleaners have some new options on the table. The historic district in NO has always been on higher ground than the later development (NO forefathers had experienced enough floods to have the common sense to build on top of landfill). It is the later development that can now be built up, so that residents don’t have to live below sea level. Doubtlessly such a project would take years to develop should it be left for governments. Private developers, however, could do a better job, as they have the necessary capital, and as the storm just provided an opportunity to start with a fairly clean slate.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1126022431605864982005-09-06T11:59:00.000-04:002005-09-06T12:01:10.053-04:00One of the less-discussed points to the New Orleans fiasco is the reluctance of African-American residents to leave their city, due to their knowledge of the lawlessness in their own neighborhoods. Most people would like to return home as soon as the storm passes, if only to guard them. Looting is a problem in high-crime areas that have experienced some sort of an upheaval. It happened in the NYC blackout of 1977, when the crime rate was quite high, - but did not happen in the blackout of 2004, with a much lower crime rate.<br /><br />Crime in NO had been rising, defying the general national trend of declining rates in recent years. A lot of analyses and studies have been made as to why, but the one single factor is the reluctance of African-Americans to accept jobs in law enforcement in their own communities, even when the city government is basically all black, and even when affirmative-action policies are in place. This ingrained cultural attitude, - that law enforcement is essentially an obsession of white people, and very few want to join the side that is habitually regarded as inimical to their concerns, - is all the more baffling when statistics show that African-Americans constitute a greater proportion of the criminal population in America, but at the same time the greatest number of crime victims are proportionally African-Americans, too.<br /><br />In the end, it is freeriding at its worst: a community refuses to participate in the odious tasks of self-management, in order not to lose their status as a class always in opposition to management. It is, actually, a stance engendered by welfare. And welfare, as we all know, makes people less prone to take personal responsibility for their decisions.<br /><br />I like to follow African-American politics, if only to get clues as to how an underclass that has suffered great historical wrongs can be co-opted into a position where it can thrive with the rest of society. If it could be done more successfully in America - where such an underclass was historically the most opressed in all the world - then lessons from such an experience could possibly be applied to other parts of the world.<br /><br />The most significant recent development in my mind is the emergence of two factors: the African-American Republican, and the influx of recent African immigrants, mostly from West Africa. If you haven’t noticed, “native” African-Americans tend to resent the influx of these new immigrants, who tend to be - just like all immigrants - very hard working and very civic-minded, if given the chance. These two new forces might actually cause some major changes in the domestic political platforms of the African-American community, perhaps to the point where some of the damage done welfare-statist policies of previous decades can be undone.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1124129370812113322005-08-15T14:08:00.000-04:002005-08-15T14:12:23.556-04:00<I>"We have swept away Hitlerism, but a great many Europeans feel that the cure has been worse than the disease."</I><br /><br />When it comes to media hysteria, some things <A HREF="http://www.jessicaswell.com/MT/archives/000872.html">never change.</A>Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1123978003057011592005-08-13T20:05:00.000-04:002005-08-13T20:09:53.836-04:00The Norwegian blogger <A HREF="http://blogs.salon.com/0001561/2005/08/13.html#a7962">Jan Haugland</A> has the right take on Schroeder's call to "take the military option off the table" when it comes to dealing with Iraq:<br /><br /><I>'"The Europeans and the Americans are united in this goal," he said. "Up to now we were also united in the way to pursue this."'<br /><br />"Up to now"? Bush has not changed anything. He has consistently refused to rule out force, and simply reiterated that obvious position. Remember, "force" includes not only an invasion, it would also include airstrikes against nuclear facilities. Schroeder, by insisting that such options -- which ended Saddam's nuclear weapons programme -- are off the table, also weakens the negotiating hand of the EU-3. But, hey, it's election. So who cares if the Mullahs get nukes?</I><br /><br />The fact that Iran just broke their agreement with Europe is ample evidence that European initiative in this regard is, once again, a failure.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1123182859830727282005-08-04T15:14:00.000-04:002005-08-04T15:16:23.710-04:00Hooray for <A HREF="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aWnfrcQ19azc&refer=top_world_news">John Bolton!</A> <br /><br /><I>Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- John Bolton used his first full day as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to forge a strategy with China aimed at defeating a formula offered by four U.S. allies to expand the Security Council, the Chinese envoy said.<br />Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya said he and Bolton decided to coordinate efforts yesterday to block the initiative by Japan, Germany, Brazil and India, during one of Bolton's first meetings in New York with a UN envoy.</I><br /><br />Looks like Bolton's even more effective than James Lileks' little satire imagined him to be.Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6819130.post-1123113708088960782005-08-03T20:01:00.000-04:002005-08-03T20:01:48.093-04:00A hilarious account of John Bolton's <A HREF="http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/lileks080305.html">first day</A> at the UN!<br /><br />(Hat tip: <A HREF="http://instapundit.com/">Instapundit.</A>)Finnpundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13895426246354806475noreply@blogger.com0