The financial cost of the war in Iraq

Nobelist Joseph Stiglitz and economics professor at Harvard Linda Bilmes have published a survey of the financial costs of the war in Iraq. Any guesses?

Well, their figure is US$ 3 Trillion. Of course, financial costs are far from all, but they do give some indication of priorities, of opportunity cost, that is: what could that money have bought instead?

Daniel Davies at Crooked Timber argues that it is not so much that the war cannot be afforded. It is, after all, a relatively smal share of the state budget of the US. The problem, again, is what could have been bought instead. Any suggestions?

Valentine’s Day: Yet another conspiracy!

Valentine’s Day is not important to me, irrelevant in fact and my girlfriend does not complain about it. I suppose that in order to ascribe a particular meaning and feeling to it, I should probably have grown up with it, which I haven’t since it is a relatively new tradition in Denmark. A strong factor explaining the rise of Valentine’s Day, I think it is safe to say, is the commercial value to be had by sellers of flowers, greeting cards and chocolate. But to call it a conspiracy probably is to go overboard. An example of going way overboard is reported by Patung at Indonesia Matters:

Who buys this stuff?

Take a look at the picture below depicting the cultural revolutionists of China rosily in action, softened and eased by veils of history. The question is: Who buys this stuff? Answer below the fold.

But Not Here

Indonesia is a religiously plural society. The vast majority is Muslim, but large minorities are Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or animist. The Founding Fathers of Indonesia sought to recognize this fact in the national motto Bhinnéka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity). Traditionally, among some groups, monotheism has been mixed with animism or some local traditions, of demigods and so forth. The political system has also been pluralistic, but in a skewed sense. During the Suharto era only five religious denominations were allowed; Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, and Buddhist. Each citizen had to be a member of one of these groups. Thus, some local religions such as the Agama Jawa Sunda (West Java Religion) were banned and congregants had to choose one of the five recognized religions.

Over the past ten years there have been more and more cases of religious intolerance. Some religiously motivated vigilante groups have sought to close down karaoke bars, whose activities they deem inappropriate for the holy season, for instance of the Ramadan. Similar groups have violently obstructed gatherings of religious minorities. Such cases are nowadays frequently reported, not only because they have increased in number, but also because the media are freer to publish such cases. Not all cases make it in to the newspapers, however.

Soeharto Dead

Soeharto, who ruled Indonesia for 32 years from 1966 to 1998, died earlier today at age 86.

The Government of Indonesia has called for seven days of national mourning.

Among the many achievements of Indonesia as regards democratisation over the past ten years, the main disappointment is that Soeharto was not tried at court.

Freedom Just Around the Corner

Around Christmas time, I finished reading Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828 by Walter A. McDougall. One might say that I should not be reading such stuff that is off-topic as regards my thesis. But it was a good and enlightening read, and inspiring for its wit, naration and mix of small stories and broad but convincing brush-strokes.

A big thank-you note then goes to Lars since he gave me the book a while back, and it is only now that I actually got around to reading it.

Tempe and tahu off the menu!

Two of the most popular Indonesian foods are the bean curd tempe and tahu (tofu). Unfortunately for Jakartans, these foods are off the menu for the next couple of days due to a strike and demonstration by tempe and tahu producers against the price rises for soy bean. As reported by The Jakarta Post, the demonstration yesterday in Jakarta numbered some 10,000 producers who rallied at the State Palacedemanding the government lower soybean prices and discontinue the free trade policy that allows private companies to control prices. Apparently they are unable to raise their product prices corresponding to input prices.

As one of the coordinators of the demonstration, Asep Hidayat, explains in The Jakarta Post: “The State Logistics Agency should take over control of the soybean market again,” He said soybeans were imported from the U.S. and the price had been on the rise since January last year.’

JP also reports that some violence broke out among the frustrated demonstrators. A lot of consumers will probably also be frustrated – whether they sympathise with the demonstrators or not – when they don’t get their tempe.

The Unlucky Smuggler

My friend Tora works at the Museum of Taxes and Tariffs in Copenhagen. (Yes, we actually have such a one). I still have yet to get my own private tour of the museum, but I am looking much forward to it. As many will know, the history of taxing and tariffs is not only fascinating in itself; it is also important for understanding the making of modern states; how it ever came about, this extensive welfare-transfer state of ours, with warts and all.

A core problem for developing countries is to develop mechanisms of taxation and representation. Those things don’t come into being just like that. Therefore, an important body of scholarship, one example of which is to be found here, seeks to understand what determines various systems, and what the effects of those systems are. One way to better understand the processes involved is to study the history of taxing and tariffs in a more developed country. And one way of doing that, of course, is to go to… the Museum of Taxes and Tariffs.

The Flight From Greenland?

Last night, KNR, the Greenlandic TV channel screened the Danish documentary ”Flugten fra Grønland” – ”The Flight from Greenland”. The show had been advertised for a couple of weeks, and was awaited with both hesitation and anticipation.

There are many social problems in Greenland, of child abuse and alcoholism in particular. And as I hear, there are also many cases of nepotism and some of corruption as well.

In my estimate, the program was not of very good quality, quite shameful really. The program was the big topic of discussion today at the ”Little University” here in Nuuk, but before I get to what other people say, here is how I saw it.

Blog party

There has been a lot of talk in particular on blogs about the influence of blogs on the public sphere, people’s level of knowledge, and their political attitudes. Whatever the influence may be, an increasing amount of people construct, read and contribute to blogs.

According to an article in The Jakarta Post (Indonesia’s biggest English language daily newspaper) there are some 150,000 bloggers in Indonesia. About 500 hundred of these attended the first large meeting of bloggers, the Pesta Blogger (Blogger Party) held yesterday in Jakarta.

At the occasion, the Minister for Communications and Information, Muhammad Nuh spoke. He said, according to JP, that the gathering and blogging were both ‘revolutionary’ and deserved support, and futher that

“Blogs can be educational, empowering and enlightening. That’s why I can guarantee you curbing blogs will never happen in this country,”

That is comforting, and a sign of the general opening up of the public sphere since the fall of Suharto.

At the venue, an important piece of advice was given by Budi, a former Tempo (Indonesia’s best weekly newspaper) jounalist, and now ful-time blogger:

“No one will visit and revisit your blog no matter how cool your blog design is unless you have something substantial to offer”

… Which is probably appropriate for this the first post on our blog.

The link is here: http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20071028.@02&irec=1