Swedish Politics - the People of Reality

Last week the surprised Swedes heard about something very intriguing. The Minister of Social Welfare, Göran Hägglund Christian Democrat, started to talk about the “People of Reality”. He claimed that certain sinister cultural elitist people, presumably on the left side of the political specter were making fun of what the People of Reality really thinks and enjoys. He said that this kind of discrimination and ridicule of this yet not clearly defined majority of the Swedish people, now had had it; enough was enough!

The People of Reality did not want art where they did not see what it represents. They did not want books that they did not understand and they did not want to listen to an intellectual cultural elite telling them that they were ignorant and narrow minded.

The concept of the People of Reality is indeed interesting. Exactly who are these people? As they are a majority, according to Minister Hägglund, they would be fairly easy to identify. A majority would consist of about 5 million people! So they are many! Is it everybody except those who are homosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals, intersexuals, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Feminists, Communists, environmentalists, anarchists, socialists, human rights activists, anti-globalists, writers, journalists, directors, actors, poets, songwriters, Chess-players, Go-players, Social Democrats, Bicyclists, pedestrians and so on? … and slowly we will come down to the less than 4 percent of the Swedish voters, who actually vote for the Christian Democrats. And that… is a very small majority! In fact, it is so small that it in practice is an insignificant minority.

Minister Hägglund seems to remember a Swedish society that used to exist in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, where everybody was watching the same TV channel (in the two first decades), because it was only one available. There were only three Top-lists (in the end of the period) which contained pretty much the same sort of music. But Swedish society is very different today. If you like opera, you go to the opera. If you like to watch football, you go to a soccer-game. It is your choice! It is up to you! As Hägglund has been helpful in implementing these policies you would expect that he understand them as a concept...

But Minister Hägglund has sadly enough missed this important point. He seems to identify the cultural elite with the Swedish authorities in the 1950s and 1970s, who actually could tell people, from time to time, to do this and that. The cultural elite of today don’t have that ability. And he has also missed the evident fact that he, as a Minister in the Swedish Government is the ELITE. So who is telling who what to do?

An interesting observation in this context is that the mostly sold fiction writers in Sweden today is largely consisting of leftist cultural elite intelectuals. So how come Swedes buy their books? Is there a conspiracy going on that threatens to brain-wash the poor Swedish people? Is this why Minister Hägglund's voters seems to look for other political parties to vote for in the up-coming election next year? They are being indoctrinated, bullied and ridiculed. so now is the time for retaliation...

Diskursiv förändring

Seriestripen nedan är klippt ur Bill Wattersons "Calvin & Hobbes" (på svenska Kalle och Hobbe). I den svenska översättningen går betydelsen av Kalle som Calvin, den sanne idealisten och Hobbe som Hobbes, den oförbätterlige realisten förlorad. Calvin är naturligtvis religionsreformeraren Kalvin och Hobbes refererar till Thomas Hobbes, den intill cynism realistiske filosofen. Seriestripen nedan är intressant ur en diskursiv synvinkel.

I den första rutan, ovan stipulerar Kalle den vedertagna sanningen, eller som Michel Foucault skulle ha sagt, den dominerande diskursen. Vi kan också tänka oss en parallell, hyptoetisk diskurs: Antag att Kalles pappa istället sagt, för att lugna den lille Kalles oro för att hans materiella välstånd naggats i kanten av en ekonomisk och finansiell nedgång: "Kalle, känn ingen oro, de här nedgången är bara temporär, snart är allt som vanligt igen! Pappa kommer snart att arbeta igen! Vilket år som helst nu!"

På ett liknande sätt försöker han lugna den orolige Kalle, som kanske börjar fundera på om detta kommer att få inverkningar på hans födelsedags- och julpresenter och den status de skänker i hans umgängeskrets. "Det är dåliga tider nu bara för att ekonomin måste leta sig fram till bättre och mer vinstgivande produkter! Därför kommer givetvis nya arbetstillfällen att uppstå, så att jag slipper gömma mig här hemma!" Det är egentligen bara den gamla visdomen att efter regn så kommer solsken, förr eller senare.

Sedan fyller han i med en vedertagen "sanning" som inte kan förnekas. Vinter är ju ett begrepp som bara framgångsrikt kan bekämpas som diskrusivt begrepp i tropikerna; även om en thailändsk buddhistmunk frös ihjäl förra året. Här kan man tänka sig att för att försvara och gjuta mod i Kalles tilltro till ekonomin, att hans orubblige far börjar svamla om osynliga händer och marknader och annat vidskepligt trams.


Kalle har dock insett, som alla småknattar gör förr eller senare, att hans pappas kunskap inte är obegränsad eller ens är omöjlig att utmana. Kalle ser det som hans far inte vill se; en konkurrerande eller utmanande diskurs. Kalles utmanande diskurs tycks säga att det ekonomiska system som hans pappa tillber har kört rakt in i en tegelvägg och pappans lösning på problemet är att backa ut från väggen, tillräckligt långt och sedan ta fart och köra in i den igen. Och fungerar inte det då backar han igen...


Vetenskapsfilosofen Thomas Kuhn kallade sådana här fenomen för paradigmskiften, då den tidigare kunskapsbasen inte är förenlig med nya empiriska fynd. För det var ju så här att de nyliberala ekonomerna, de läser bara en av Adam Smiths böcker; den som handlar om marknaden och den osynliga handen och den där andra boken, den som handlar om den synliga handen; dvs det sociala ansvaret, den väljer de att inte läsa och inte ens låtsas om som den skrivits...

Mongolian Economic Report

Nowadays we hear and read a lot of analysis on the economic situation in the developed world. What we hear and read a lot less about is the effects of the current economic and financial crisis in developing countries. As I have taken a special interest in economic, social, and political developments in the Mongolian Republic I can provide you with a glimpse on how life is on the other side of the Ural Mountain Range. Actually you have to go beyond the Altai Mountain Range as well in order to reach Mongolia. I took that particular trip on the Trans-Siberian Railroad in 2005 and arrived in time to see Nambariin Enkhbayar become the President of Mongolia. The train ride was an experience that I warmly recommend.
Now there is a new President in office, as Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj has taken office since the election held in late May 2009. President Elbegdorj is among those heads of state, like US President Barack Obama, that enters office in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. That is the general Western understanding, but in the East crisis has followed quite another pattern. In the Far East, of which Mongolia at least is a geographical part, crisis tend to originate from the political sector of society, rather than from the economy. That means that in the minds of Mongolians the worst crisis in the remote past was the purges of the communists against the old power structures in Mongolia and the fact that this tended to affect a lot of people.
Nevertheless, the present crisis has been hitting Mongolia far worse than most other countries. Mongolia differs from other countries in the respect that it has been hit by the crisis, not via the financial sector, but through the so called commodity channel. The Mongolian economy is basically based in three sectors hearding (and the products derived from that practice), mining and crude oil. The main source of income for Mongolia, exports of copper, fell with 65 percent, from April 2008 to March 2009. The other commodities, like coal, cashmere and crude oil, also fell to a much lower level than the previous year.
The period right before the current down-turn, the booming years of 2003-2007, meant modest surpluses in public finance, but this proved insufficient to absorb the effects of the economic down-turn. During the peak year of 2007 the revenues from the mining sector was as high as 15 percent of GDP. The non-mining sector of the economy fell to a deficit of 15 percent in 2008. The effect of the economy is that shrinking revenues from the mining sector is supposed to pay for a growing deficit in the non-mining sector. Furthermore, wages and salaries increased rapidly between 2006 and 2008, and further increased the budget deficit. On top of this Mongolia experienced the highest inflation rate in East Asia, no less than 33 percent in August 2008. The Mongolian finance policy of loose monetary policies led to a boom on the credit market, leading to a massive increase of non-performing loans (NPLs). This, in turn led negative real interest rates on local currency deposits and resulted in flight of capital into other currencies and markets, where the interest rates could be as high as 12 to 18 percent. In the second quarter of 2009 the budget deficit peaked with 15 percent of GDP.
The Mongolian Government led by MPRP Prime Minister Sanj Bayar has been presenting an action plan to its development partners, during spring 2009. The IMF approved an 18 month Stand-By Arrangement of USD 229 million to assist Mongolia to adjust to the external shock and to stabilize the economy. The World Bank approved USD 60 million as single-tranche development policy credits for 2009 and 2010. The Asian Development Bank provided USD 60 million and Japan UDS 50 million. Together this contributed to no less than USD 130 million during 2009 to fill in the gaps and balance the Mongolian economy.
This has affected the bulk of Mongolian society as firms and companies have lain off their personnel as constructions and investment has soured. The registered part of unemployment reached almost 4 percent in July 2009. Unofficial estimates of the unemployment rate consider it as high as 21-26 percent. At the same time as unemployment has risen, the increase in wages and salaries has meant that the inequality rate has actually risen.
In the aftermath of economic crisis and social downturn follows crime increase, social and psychic problems. There are reports on increased consumption of alcohol, gender-based violence and abuse of children following the economic down-turn. As inequality rises the increased crime rate and social problems affect those at the bottom of Mongolian society in general and those living in the bigger cities, as Ulaanbaatar, Darkhan and Erdenet, in particular.
This article paints a rather dull picture of the present state of the Mongolian economy and I would like to end it pointing at the loans and aid from the international organization and foreign donor community has succeeded in filling in the gaps at least for this year.

Sources: UB Post September 15 2009; UB Post September 8 2009.

The Minister of Finance Faces a Sour Reality

It is often argued that the usefulness of theory is limited. At least it is limitied to its usefulness when comes to understand a complicated and complex reality. The problem is often that Western science is built on the idea that if you decide what is most important and ignore the rest, then you have a theory. It is not often understood though that the theory in question is only valid if the premises it is built is valid. Now, for instance, reality is a tricky thing! It changes and Western science is basically built on the use of quantitative method. However, quantitative method is very bad for forseeing change, as change is qualitative in its nature. Especially this is concerning the spread of the doctrine that is called economics.

As a whole it may be correct that economics is to be considered as a science, but what generally is presented in media and at universities is not science; it is a simple doctrine. Doctrine is a simplified understanding of complicated and complex social relations and how to deal with them. The reason behind the use of a doctrine is that it makes it possible for everybody to understand and act in the same direction. This is generally a good thing. Unless the doctrine points in the wrong direction. Then it is a bad thing. Tricky stuff economics. Add doctrine and you may end up in a mess...

Let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time there was a rather small country way up north. The people lived fairly happy until one day there was a new government elected. The new government was educated at the finest universities in the world. Except one of them who bought his exam on the Internet. The new government had a plan; they where going to change the smallish country exactly as the model in the economic textbook they had red at the university suggested. This was not just a plan! They actually implemented it. But they were a bit unlucky as a huge financial crisis one day knocked on the door and made a visit.

Some time after this unlucky event the Minister of Finance went to shop some food for his Friday evening dinner. He was going to surprise his family with seafood. As all the people in this tiny country the Minister of Finance was rather small himself. In fact, he was a dwarf. But as he claimed; "-Maybe smallish on the surface, but inside a giant of a man!"

He approached the saleswoman selling fish at the local fish market and asked her:

"- How much do you charge for the seacucumber today, mrs?"

"- It will be 20 Euro for a kilo, mr Minister of Finance!" answered the fish-saleswoman, who immediately recognised her customer.

"- Right, then I will have two kilos of the seacucumber!"

"- Okay, that will be 45 Euro then!" said the saleswoman.

"- 45 Euros! But you said 20 Euro per kilo?" the Minister of Finance protested.

"- Yes, but we have a 5 Euro exchange fee added..." said the saleswoman in a relaxed manner.

"- Okay! said the Minister of Finance and handed over a 50 Euro bill to the fish-saleswoman. He got his package of seacucumber back with a receipt. He suspiciously studied the receipt.

"Wait just a minute here!" he said angrily. "You have charged me 50 Euro, not 45!"

"- That's right, there is also a salesfee, originating from the fishermen not being allowed to catch fish under a certain size. It is to compensate them and their hungry wifes and kids!" she answered.

"- This is nothing but theft!" the angry Minister of Finance screemed. A lot of people turned around and looked surprised on the smallish angry man.

"- No, mr Minister of Finance!" said the fish-saleswoman. "This is a market economy!"

The Late Pigeon

The photo above shows a pigeon I ran into the other day. Suddenly I remembered a dialogue containing expressions as "deceased parrot" and "late parrot"... and "it hasgone to meet its maker..." Of course it was the famous Monty Python scetch "The Dead Parrot" performed by Michael Plain and John Cleese. It goes like this:


A customer (John Cleese) enters a pet shop.

Customer: 'Ello, I wish to register a complaint.
(The owner (Michael Palin) does not respond.)
C: 'Ello, Miss?

O: What do you mean "miss"?

C: I'm sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!
O: We're closin' for lunch.
C: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this parrot what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.

O: Oh yes, the, uh, the Norwegian Blue...What's,uh...What's wrong with it?
C: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. 'E's dead, that's what's wrong with it!
O: No, no, 'e's uh,...he's resting.
C: Look, matey, I know a dead parrot when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.
O: No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
C: The plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead.
O: Nononono, no, no! 'E's resting!
C: All right then, if he's restin', I'll wake him up! (shouting at the cage) 'Ello, Mister Polly Parrot! I've got a lovely fresh cuttle fish for you if you show...
(owner hits the cage)
O: There, he moved!
C: No, he didn't, that was you hitting the cage!
O: I never!!
C: Yes, you did!
O: I never, never did anything...
C: (yelling and hitting the cage repeatedly) 'ELLO POLLY!!!!! Testing! Testing! Testing! Testing! This is your nine o'clock alarm call!
(Takes parrot out of the cage and thumps its head on the counter. Throws it up in the air and watches it plummet to the floor.)
C: Now that's what I call a dead parrot.
O: No, no.....No, 'e's stunned!
C: STUNNED?!?
O: Yeah! You stunned him, just as he was wakin' up! Norwegian Blues stun easily, major.
C: Um...now look...now look, mate, I've definitely 'ad enough of this. That parrot is definitely deceased, and when I purchased it not 'alf an hour ago, you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it bein' tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk.
O: Well, he's...he's, ah...probably pining for the fjords.
C: PININ' for the FJORDS?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that?, look, why did he fall flat on his back the moment I got 'im home?
O: The Norwegian Blue prefers keepin' on it's back! Remarkable bird, id'nit, squire? Lovely plumage!
C: Look, I took the liberty of examining that parrot when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that it had been sitting on its perch in the first place was that it had been NAILED there.
(pause)
O: Well, o'course it was nailed there! If I hadn't nailed that bird down, it would have nuzzled up to those bars, bent 'em apart with its beak, and VOOM! Feeweeweewee!
C: "VOOM"?!? Mate, this bird wouldn't "voom" if you put four million volts through it! 'E's bleedin' demised!
O: No no! 'E's pining!
C: 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
(pause)
O: Well, I'd better replace it, then. (he takes a quick peek behind the counter) Sorry squire, I've had a look 'round the back of the shop, and uh, we're right out of parrots.
C: I see. I see, I get the picture.
O: I got a slug.
(pause)
C: Pray, does it talk?
O: Nnnnot really.
C: WELL IT'S HARDLY A BLOODY REPLACEMENT, IS IT?!!???!!?
O: N-no, I guess not. (gets ashamed, looks at his feet)
C: Well.

(pause)
O: (quietly) D'you.... d'you want to come back to my place?
C: (looks around) Yeah, all right, sure.

A sort of kinky ending, though it turns out that this scetch had an alternative ending where the customer is promised a replacement of the parrot by the shopowners brother in Bolton. This is right before the scetch goes out of spin and ends up in The Lumber Jack Song.

However, it turns out that this story has been based on a 1,600 year old Greek story. The parrot in that story is of course a slave, which right after the purchase suddenly died. The seller responds to the complaints of the new owner with words: "Funny, he never did that while I owned him."

So I wonder what happened to the dead, and late pigeon?