FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
Showing posts with label foreign trade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foreign trade. Show all posts

Thursday, September 5, 2013

More on President Obama's historic trip to Sweden, and sharing some cold hard facts, anecdotes and lessons learned re Sverige; #obamainsweden, @Swedense, @CBildt, @AnnelieGregor, @hannawagenius, @davidlinden1


















Joint statement by Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and President Barack Obama: http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/16999/a/222806

 More official photos! http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/17736

 SVT's photo gallery of Wednesday's events: 
http://www.svt.se/nyheter/varlden/bildextra-obama-i-sverige

 SvD's account of Thursday morning's events so far:
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/live-obama-i-sverige-del-3_8488844.svd









Nima Sanandaji is spot-on in highlighting what so many others ignore, whether consciously or accidentally. There were unique factors present in Sweden that allowed a certain sort of culture and ethos to develop and flourish that were NOT possible in countries where transportation and social mobility was far better and where larger centers of industrialization could lure larger numbers of rural residents.

 In rural areas, especially during the many months of very cold weather, you absolutely needed to be able to trust and depend upon your neighbor, even if they were located quite a distance from you. Self-reliance and the bond of community, things so very much absent in current South Florida, with the predictable results we can see all around us:  
Sweden’s phenomenal growth can, besides business friendly policies, has much to do with the country’s unique history. Nordic countries were for a long period dominated by independent farmers who had great incentives to work hard in order to survive in the harsh and cold climate. The populations in these homogenous countries not only adapted very strong ethics relating to work and responsibility, but their culture also became characterized by social cohesion and high levels of trust.
http://www.newgeography.com/content/003909-swedish-lessons-obama

 Similarly...



Joel Kotkin correctly identifies another central aspect of what has made Sweden what it is and has made the areas of the U.S. that Swedish emigrants settled in more successful than others: 
Scandinavia's greatest strength may lie in its least political correct asset: its Nordic culture. Scandinavians' traditional interest in education, hard work and good governance serves them well both at home and abroad. It's not socialism that is primarily responsible.
After all, America's Scandinavians, although largely the descendents of poor immigrants also are pretty successful, earning more on average than their counterparts back home. 



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One of the differences I've observed first-hand between American and Swedish women who are interested in politics and foreign policy is that smart, funny and attractive women in Sweden who are interested in those areas aren't as snobbish or smugly elitist as Americans, like to talk more frequently and passionately about big ideas like freedom and liberty and NOT about how they became vegans, don't seek to win arguments based on painting themselves as victims of "society," don't talk incessantly about yoga, pilates or their career, but have no problem in making public their love for the occasional fast food snacks. 
Par exemple, Hanna Wagenius. http://missbesserwisser.blogspot.com/

 Nothing to do with Obama visit but I find this CUF video of hers droll and amusing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x5qvssI-IQ&feature=share&list=TLp16zPHqyoo0

 Puss och kram på dig!


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 http://anneliegregor.wordpress.com/
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For someone like me who is a longtime recycling enthusiast, one of the best things about Sweden is the average person's commitment to keeping the city and nature free of debris. 
You pay a few SEK for products packaged in recyclable plastic or aluminum, like sodas, at both stores and from vendors, but get your money back via self-serve machines when you recycle at stores. 
All of this gives people a real  financial incentive to return items to stores, as well as for others to pick-up any you see lying on roads or in parks and get that money, which is one of the reasons that Stockholm is SO CLEAN!
Though I'm a committed meat-eater, especially when it comes to pizza, this actually looks good enough to try next time I'm in Stockholm, at Kungstensgatan 62.
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Anyone wanting an accurate account of the problem in Sweden of the lack of successful Muslim assimilation in Europe ought to read my post of September 17, 2012 titled, re Fouad Ajami's Washington Post essay: Why is the Muslim world so easily offended?; What Muslim "moderates"?; Målmo as the European canary-in-the-coal-mine doesn't auger well for the success of Muslim "moderates" or assimilation efforts; #MUSLIMRAGE
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/re-fouad-ajamis-washington-post-essay.html

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Saturday, April 27, 2013

WaPo's editorial is important because it matters and will be read in lots of important places: Washington Post Editorial Board mulls facts over and fillets Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his well-known, self-destructive penchant for engaging in historical revisionism and nationalism: "Shinzo Abe’s inability to face history" -or reality; @安倍 晋三



Arirang News YouTube Channel video: Japanese Prime Minister Shenzo Abe statement inflames tensions between Korea and Japan 아베의 '망언'...한일. Uploaded April 24, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWRVleXJIvM


Steve Miller reports from South Korea on the latest Abe controversy that has the Koreans and Chinese so irate: 


theqirangervlog YouTube Channel video: Shinzo Abe Denies Historical Colonization of Korea. Uploaded April 23, 2013. http://youtu.be/lLMGdNGdZ1g
WaPo's editorial is important because it matters and will be read in lots of important places: Washington Post Editorial Board mulls facts over and fillets Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his well-known, self-destructive penchant for engaging in historical revisionism and nationalism: "Shinzo Abe’s inability to face history"
Get it, the Post's intentional or unintentional double-meaning of face?

Defenders of Abe and at least some of the Japanese Establishment will no doubt see this criticism of him as a result of China and South Korea teaming-up behind the scenes to... blah blah.

 No, it's that Abe, far too often for comfort's sake, seems unable to help himself and keep his mouth shut and his head focused, a habit that is NOT a positive trait for anyone, least of all, Japan, China, South Korea or the U.S. and its military forces in the area to protect our allies, capisce?

But how do you convince the Chinese people or their government of this, or that this character fault of his can be overcome, since some of them at least, officially or not, STILL believe in 关系, guanxi and feel that in this equation, we, the U.S, are still NOT doing enough to make Abe stop indulging himself at their expense and humiliation?.

 Our dilemma is that we don't seem to always act like we know when Abe is playing to small elements within Japanese society that he feels he must sate, but with his fingers crossed, or when he's actually serious about what he's saying or doing.

 But there's no real confusion of what it means to Koreans and Chinese when Abe goes to the Yasukuni Shrine.

Our perceived confusion on this part, whether real or feigned for public consumption in Asia, only is making things worse, and as most of you know, I'm not a fan of John Kerry's, so I don't see him bringing anything to the equation that's going to change the dynamic.

 And now the main course...

The Washington Post
Editorial Board
Shinzo Abe’s inability to face history
April 26, 2013
From the moment last fall when Shinzo Abe reclaimed the office of Japanese prime minister that he had bungled away five years earlier, one question has stood out: Would he restrain his nationalist impulses — and especially his historical revisionism — to make progress for Japan?
Until this week, the answer to that question was looking positive. Mr. Abe has taken brave steps toward reforming Japan’s moribund economy. He defied powerful interest groups within his party, such as rice farmers, to join free-trade talks with the United States and other Pacific nations that have the potential to spur growth in Japan. He spoke in measured terms of his justifiable desire to increase defense spending.
Read the rest of the WaPo's editorial at:

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For more on this topic, see this largely accurate overview:
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Thursday, August 4, 2011

Mitt Romney campaign ads: Obama Isn't Working: Chicago; Take China to the Mat

Mitt Romney presidential campaign ad: Obama Isn't Working: Chicago
http://youtu.be/DjOfuPo_vzU



Mitt Romney presidential campaign ad: Take China to the mat

Here's a perfect example of what that businessman in Ohio was talking about with regard to China's mendacity and propensity to either steal technology or create products and claim them either for themselves or create counterfeits.

ITN News: Fake Apple store found in China. July 22, 2011 http://youtu.be/ea7UqoTszaI



http://www.mittromney.com/

Mitt Romney YouTubeChannel
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Sunday, May 23, 2010

Charles Krauthammer's analysis of Obama's ineffective & wrong-headed foreign policy; Blue Valentine's Michelle Williams as Jean Seberg? A big YES!

My comments follow the excellent column by Charles Krauthammer.

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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/20/AR2010052003885.html

The fruits of weakness

By Charles Krauthammer
May 21, 2010

It is perfectly obvious that Iran's latest uranium maneuver, brokered by Brazil and Turkey, is a ruse. Iran retains more than enough enriched uranium to make a bomb. And it continues enriching at an accelerated pace and to a greater purity (20 percent). Which is why the French foreign ministry immediately declared that the trumpeted temporary shipping of some Iranian uranium to Turkey will do nothing to halt Iran's nuclear program.

It will, however, make meaningful sanctions more difficult. America's proposed Security Council resolution is already laughably weak -- no blacklisting of Iran's central bank, no sanctions against Iran's oil and gas industry, no nonconsensual inspections on the high seas. Yet Turkey and Brazil -- both current members of the Security Council -- are so opposed to sanctions that they will not even discuss the resolution. And China will now have a new excuse to weaken it further.

But the deeper meaning of the uranium-export stunt is the brazenness with which Brazil and Turkey gave cover to the mullahs' nuclear ambitions and deliberately undermined U.S. efforts to curb Iran's program.

The real news is that already notorious photo: the president of Brazil, our largest ally in Latin America, and the prime minister of Turkey, for more than half a century the Muslim anchor of NATO, raising hands together with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the most virulently anti-American leader in the world.

That picture -- a defiant, triumphant take-that-Uncle-Sam -- is a crushing verdict on the Obama foreign policy. It demonstrates how rising powers, traditional American allies, having watched this administration in action, have decided that there's no cost in lining up with America's enemies and no profit in lining up with a U.S. president given to apologies and appeasement.

They've watched President Obama's humiliating attempts to appease Iran, as every rejected overture is met with abjectly renewed U.S. negotiating offers. American acquiescence reached such a point that the president was late, hesitant and flaccid in expressing even rhetorical support for democracy demonstrators who were being brutally suppressed and whose call for regime change offered the potential for the most significant U.S. strategic advance in the region in 30 years.

They've watched America acquiesce to Russia's re-exerting sway over Eastern Europe, over Ukraine (pressured by Russia last month into extending for 25 years its lease of the Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol) and over Georgia (Russia's de facto annexation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is no longer an issue under the Obama "reset" policy).

They've watched our appeasement of Syria, Iran's agent in the Arab Levant -- sending our ambassador back to Syria even as it tightens its grip on Lebanon, supplies Hezbollah with Scuds and intensifies its role as the pivot of the Iran-Hezbollah-Hamas alliance. The price for this ostentatious flouting of the United States and its interests? Ever more eager U.S. "engagement."

They've observed the administration's gratuitous slap at Britain over the Falklands, its contemptuous treatment of Israel, its undercutting of the Czech Republic and Poland, and its indifference to Lebanon and Georgia. And in Latin America, they see not just U.S. passivity as Venezuela's Hugo Chávez organizes his anti-American "Bolivarian" coalition while deepening military and commercial ties with Iran and Russia. They saw active U.S. support in Honduras for a pro-Chávez would-be dictator seeking unconstitutional powers in defiance of the democratic institutions of that country.

This is not just an America in decline. This is an America in retreat -- accepting, ratifying and declaring its decline, and inviting rising powers to fill the vacuum.

Nor is this retreat by inadvertence. This is retreat by design and, indeed, on principle. It's the perfect fulfillment of Obama's adopted Third World narrative of American misdeeds, disrespect and domination from which he has come to redeem us and the world. Hence his foundational declaration at the U.N. General Assembly last September that "No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation" (guess who's been the dominant nation for the last two decades?) and his dismissal of any "world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another." (NATO? The West?)

Given Obama's policies and principles, Turkey and Brazil are acting rationally. Why not give cover to Ahmadinejad and his nuclear ambitions? As the United States retreats in the face of Iran, China, Russia and Venezuela, why not hedge your bets? There's nothing to fear from Obama, and everything to gain by ingratiating yourself with America's rising adversaries. After all, they actually believe in helping one's friends and punishing one's enemies.

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So, did you happen to notice as I did whose name is NOT mentioned at all above: Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, who has helped make this foreign policy embarrassment possible.
Sh-h-h!!!
Keep it to yourself, so the MSM can maintain their prohibition on public criticism of her a little longer.

Here's an actual Saturday headline from Reuters:

Clinton avoids China disputes, hands out teddy bears

And if you think that headline is bad, wait 'til you read the first paragraph: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64L0X020100522

(Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton passed out teddy bears to Chinese children as she toured the Shanghai World Expo on Saturday and carefully skirted the United States' many policy disputes with China...

Reading some truly bracing criticism like Charles Krauthammer's reminds me of two things: why I voted against Obama in the first place, as well as that I'm not the only American who's been noticing all these negative things happening with American foreign policy under Obama.

As Krauthammer correctly notes, seeing Obama perform this way -intentionally- only increases pressure on other countries we consider allies to make their own side deals.

For years under Bush 43, the MSM constantly spoke about how unpopular the image of the U.S. was becoming overseas, as if that was really something we needed to either lose sleep about or could change.

Living in the Washington area at the time, one could hardly ever get on the Metro train in the morning without at some point hearing some rider who was no fan of Bush complaining out loud to someone that Bush was personally responsible for how unpopular the U.S. was over in, well, for example, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.

The Mouse that Roared


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7L7WLFBYR4

In this one-sided PR game where the point was never to ask any hard questions about the methodology of such polls, you never heard of corresponding polls of Americans on what they thought about the various government policies of France or Germany or whomever, but every other month brought forth some anecdotal news about what Greece thought about the U.S.

Question: Sixteen months later, can you name a single country where the U.S. is now MORE respected than it was before his inauguration?
Yeah, that's what I thought, too.

Funny that the same folks who said that Obama could be the foreign policy cure for Bush 43 haven't publicly acknowledged that the reality is that that he has only made our allies MORE nervous, NOT our legitimate adversaries.

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By the way, you'll notice in that trailer I included above of the The Mouse that Roared, a few shots of the beautiful Jean Seberg, whom I had, of course, read much about, but first became genuinely aware of thru showings of Bonjour Tristesse and Breathless at the National Gallery of Art's film series on French New Wave directors, one of the most interesting summers of my film-going life, with weekends spent alternating between Camden Yards and
the NGA, depending on whether or not I had Oriole tickets for a game.
http://www.nga.gov/programs/film/


From the first time I ever saw actress Michelle Williams, in Dawson's Creek and then Dick with Kirstin Dunst, I was absolutely convinced that if I could ever have anything to do with it, I'd do everything in my power to convince her to be in a well-written bio-pic on Seberg's interesting yet very tragic life.

Williams, currently starring in Blue Valentine, could do wonders with that role and win an Oscar.
Michelle Williams is scary talented, it's just that her attractiveness often disarms you into
forgetting how terrific an actress she truly is -one of the best around.

Jean Seberg http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0781029/
Michelle Williams http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0931329/

From last week in Cannes, with Ryan Gosling promoting Blue Valentine: http://www.popsugar.com/Photos-Michelle-Williams-Ryan-Gosling-Promoting-Blue-Valentine-Cannes-8496257

Sundance: Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams show you what acting is all about in the wrenching 'Blue Valentine'
by Owen Gleiberman
http://movie-critics.ew.com/2010/01/26/the-wrenching-blue-valentine/

Cannes 2010: The Euros love 'Blue Valentine' like Nutella; Sony Classics makes this not just another year
May 18, 2010
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/05/cannes-blue-valentine-another-year-mike-leigh.html

See also: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7FD6EARmLg



http://media.michelle-williams.net/videos/load/recent
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Friday, June 20, 2008

South Florida Banana Republic take note: The Economics of Bananas

Hosting the Annual Meeting of The United States Conference of Mayors or not, you residents know who you are...
http://usmayors.org/usmayornewspaper/documents/06_16_08/pg1_Miami.asp

Visiting mayors, please ignore all the graffiti you see on U.S.-1 between downtown Miami and Coconut Grove, home of one of the most insightful and influential bloggers in the area, Coconut Grove Grapevine, http://coconutgrovegrapevine.blogspot.com/

(It was hard not to notice it all -on just about every third street sign for miles- last month on my drive down to Coral Gables, where I attended a U-M Ring Ceremony for my nephew at the Bank United Center.)

"That's just amateur local performance art."

As it happens, when South Beach Hoosier/Hallandale Beach Blog was growing-up in his house on NE 159th Street and NE 14th Avenue in North Miami Beach in the 1970's, just a few blocks south of the 163rd Street Shopping Center and Wolfie's -the latter being home of the definitive version of the Black & White cookie, which I bought 2-3 times a week on my morning walks to school to J.F.K. Jr. High and NMBHS- his family had a backyard with a number of orange and lime trees and one banana tree.
Which, naturally, younger kids tried to help themself to after school on their way home, until I pointed out the error of their ways and reminded them that I knew their older brothers and sisters by name.

New York Times
The Economics of Bananas
By Stephen J. Dubner
June 19, 2008

The papers yesterday were full of news about bananas.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Chiquita Brands International, “the Cincinnati-based banana distributor” (I love that phrase; it evokes Lardner, or at least Runyon), was expected to report a third-quarter loss due to higher fuel costs and bad weather in banana-growing countries. Chiquita stock fell sharply on the news.
The second article was far more interesting, and answered a question I’ve long wondered about: why are bananas so cheap relative to other fruit, especially since a lot of the fruit we consume in the U.S. is grown here while bananas are not?

Read the rest of the story at:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/the-economics-of-bananas/

See the Chiquita official website: http://www.chiquita.com/ , the story of Miss Chiquita Banana at http://www.tvacres.com/admascots_misschiquita.htm , and the Wiki version of the company's history, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiquita_Brands_International , the WTO Chiquita Banana Case, http://www.speakeasy.org/~peterc/wtow/wto-case.htm along with this insightful article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/opinion/18koeppel.html?ref=opinion
New York Times
Yes, We Will Have No Bananas
By Dan Koppel
June 18, 2008
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