11/27/2005

It is the First Advent, light a candle companéra!

In the spring 1999 bishops of the Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church published the pamphlet entitled "Towards the Common Good. Comment on the Future of the Welfare State" (find the document in Finnish at www.evl.fi). Their thesis was rather liberal if not even progressive, and offered much to think about in critical pedagogy, too. No wonder that the rich, and their interest groups (including some of the media) felt at the time that the Church has moved into dangerous, leftist, even radical direction. It was not everyone's church anymore, meaning theirs', but only Social Democrats. Here is my draft translation of their core ideas:

“· Life is not about business and trading, consuming or market only, but giving and receiving, nursing and caring, keeping company and playing. (Elämä ei ole pelkästään kaupankäyntiä, kuluttamista ja markkinoita. Ihminen on myös lahjoittaja ja lahjojen vastaanottaja, hoitaja ja hoivaaja, seurustelija ja leikkijä.)
· Market is not faceless power, but consist of human beings who make economical decisions. (Markkinat eivät ole kasvottomia voimia. Ne muodostuvat ihmisistä, jotka tekevät taloudellisia päätöksiä.)
· Market has always a certain morality; it is the very moral that people actualize in using the power of market forces as buyers and sellers. (Markkinoilla on aina jokin moraali. Se on juuri se moraali, jota ihmiset toteuttavat käyttäessään markkinavoimien valtaa ostajina tai myyjinä.)
· Buyers and sellers should think the consequences of their actions and decisions to environment and society. (Myyjien ja ostajien on syytä arvioida, mitä seurauksia heidän toiminnastaan ja päätöksistään on ympäristölle ja yhteiskunnalle.)
· Competition cannot work properly without control by increasing market transparency, and giving customers better chances for conscious choices. (Kilpailu ei voi toimia hyvin, ellei sitä säädellä. Yksi tapa säädellä sitä on lisätä sen läpinäkyvyyttä ja antaa kuluttajille paremmat mahdollisuudet tehdä tietoisia valintoja.)
· Controlling global market need international resolution. In deciding global market regulations every parties need to be heard, and taken into account. At present ‘dollar and vote’ principle rules. (Kansainvälisten markkinoiden sääntelyyn tarvitaan ylikansallisia päätöksiä. Niitä tehtäessä on kuultava kaikkia osapuolia ja myös otettava kuultu huomioon. Tätä nykyä vallitsevana on "markka ja ääni" periaate.)
· International organizations must use pressure against those countries that accept immoral actions like child labor, environment damages, and feud of labor unions. (Kansainvälisten organisaatioiden tulee ottaa käyttöön painostuskeinoja sellaisia maita vastaan, jotka hyväksyvät moraalittoman toiminnan, esimerkiksi sen, että käytetään lapsityövoimaa, tuhotaan ympäristöä tai vainotaan ammattiyhdistysliikettä.)
· Finland can be an active partner in developing international legislation (like Tobin tax), which prevents various ill effects of the international money market, and crises due to speculation. (Kansainvälisten rahoitusmarkkinoiden haittavaikutuksia ja keinottelun aikaansaamia kriisejä voidaan ehkäistä valuuttakauppaveron kaltaisella kansainvälisellä lainsäädännöllä, jonka kehittämisessä Suomi voi olla aktiivinen osapuoli.)
· Socially responsible Nordic state is an achievement, which should not be eliminated. (Sosiaalista vastuuta kantava pohjoismainen yhteiskunta on saavutus, josta ei tule luopua.)
· Free market does not guarantee satisfactory living condition for all. Thus the state is needed, which protects the weak, and defends justice. (Vapaat markkinat eivät takaa kaikille ihmisille riittäviä elinmahdollisuuksia. Siksi tarvitaan valtiota, joka suojelee heikkoja ja puolustaa oikeudenmukaisuutta.)
· Abolishing poverty demands redistributing the wealth. Among other things this means that the strong and fortunate pay more taxes than the weak and poor. (Köyhyyden poistaminen edellyttää tulojen jakamista. Tämä tarkoittaa sitä, että vahvat ja hyväosaiset kantavat esimerkiksi verotuksessa suuremman taakan kuin heikot ja huono-osaiset.)
· We need various services invented by citizens’ themselves, and their driving power in concregations and in public sector. (Tarvitsemme kansalaisten itsensä kehittämiä palveluja ja heistä lähtevää uutta käyttövoimaa seurakuntiemme ja kuntiemme työhön.)
· The state has the overall responsibility for providing enough economical resources to municipalities in offering basic security for all inhabitants. (Valtiolla on kokonaisvastuu siitä, että kunnilla on taloudelliset mahdollisuudet tarjota riittävä perusturva kaikille asukkailleen.)
· Fair basic security should still cover living, education, and health for all regardless of their wealth and social status. (Perusturvan on edelleenkin ulotuttava toimeentuloon, koulutukseen ja terveydenhoitoon niin laajalti, että se palvelee kohtuullisesti kaikkia kansalaisia varallisuudesta ja yhteiskunnallisesta asemasta riippumatta.)

11/23/2005

Helping the (First) World Poor

Once upon a time there was a state-owned Venezuelan oil company, which decided to supply oil - well under market price - as a heating assistance to the poor US residents. ”The launch of the discounted heating oil program is meant to coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday and will benefit communities in poor communities of Boston, Massachusetts and of the Bronx, New York,” writes Global Exchange. And it is not only about helping the poor but also a nice victory for President Chavez in the media war between predatory capitalism and its contestants. (www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/venezuela/3595.html).

11/17/2005

Shit Theory


Arto Salminen, a Finnish writer (22.10.1959-16.11.2005), lived at Hausjärvi, studied Finnish Language and Literature, worked as a journalist, and a taxi driver, wrote six novels (Refuge [1995], Warehouse [1998], Shit Theory [2001], No-envelope [2003], Slaughter [2004], and Fish Lie [2005]), suffered and was buried, but on the third day rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures, ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

11/16/2005

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Mark Twain is reputed to have said: "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.” This phenomenon is nicely captured by Darrell Huff in his little book entitled How to Lie with Statistics, but also by Finnish lady Kati Peltola in her commentary on the changes in Finnish taxation. Mrs. Peltola's Op-Ed in Finnish nation-wide newspaper Helsingin Sanomat’s (15.11.2005) is as follows:

“In November 2 Helsingin Sanomat reported how the Finnish rich made money out of their unearned incomes (incomes from capital). The newspaper tried to offer comfort by writing that the taxation of the wealthiest was cut only by the same amount as average wage earner’s. But this is true only in terms of taxation percent. The richest thousand with the biggest taxable income paid taxes 34,1 percent on an average, whereas an average wage earner paid 31,3 percent.
The richest’s tax rate decreased by 0,6 percent units from year 2003, an average wage earner’s tax rate dropped by 0,7 percent units. Even though I would not say that tax cut was concurrent. The richest thousand's average taxable incomes were two million euros. 0,6 percent tax cut makes 12 000 euros. It is not in pace with average tax cut that is 200 euros.
More proper would be to say that tax cut for the richest thousand happened 65 000 times faster than that of average wage earners.” -- My translation without permission.

11/12/2005

Workers of the World: Unite! (Behind ‘Right Wing Worker’s’ Candidate)

If you do not have an enemy, you must invent one. If you do not have a friend, engineer one. Among the big problems, and tasks of any political struggle, as Žižek points out, “is that of constructing the recognizable IMAGE of the enemy”. It is almost as big a problem as providing an image of a friend. “In short, the ‘enemy recognition’ is always a performative procedure which, in contrast to the deceiving appearances, brings to light/constructs the enemy’s ‘true face’.” Yes, and the same applies to the “friend recognition.”

Take the current Presidential campaign in Finland. The National Coalition (right wing) Party candidate Mr. Sauli Niinistö proclaims himself a President for the working class. He is EVERY WORKER’s president. To him there are no differences between works, but all work is equal; all work is without differences in quality, load, price, conditions, pay, or otherwise.


This wanna-be Worker’s Presidents’ rhetoric is killing in these times of political soap operas. It is as if he was consulted by some of the best propagandists of the times. You, Finnish blue- and white-collar workers, you, chain workers and representatives of precariat, and you without work – if you are wise, you better unite behind me.

Or, maybe Mr. Niinistö is not so very far from his Coalition party roots of the nineteenth century revolutions, and Romantic ideas, including the invention of the very concept of the worker? As another conservative, yet a sociologist, Robert Nisbet writes, during the nineteenth century “the image of the worker gradually became converted to that of an individual not only oppressed and exploited inhumanely but also possessed of a dignity, a worthiness, an underlying wisdom, and, in due time, a favored place in history.”

Will Mr. Niinistö succeed with his so-called defense of the working class? Will this appeal to the people, or does it sound a little too spurious when voiced by a right wing candidate, and an executive from European Central Bank? Or, is it an old Chinese (Sun Tzu’s) wisdom at work here: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?”

Mr. Niinistö’s twisted rhetoric is a logical extension of right wing’s hegemonic struggle against left’s last discursive resorts. It is almost up to a level of his comrade Mr. Antti Piippo, owner of Elqotec, who in Finnish journal Talouselämä (Economic Life) declared: “Globalization is the most important peace movement after the Second World War. It has helped hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. We bring common people work. Development money from Ministry for Foreign Affairs goes to buying luxury cars to the leaders of the people.”

If only there had not been that minor faux pas in the prime time news in front of one million Finnish voters. When asked, whom would he vote, if drop out of the second round, Mr. Niinistö’s replied: “Then I would vote the right wing worker’s candidate” (referring to the Center Party’s candidate). “Right wing worker’s candidate”? That slip of the tongue needs to be his last...

11/06/2005

Protest


More than a thousand high school and college student protested against war in Iraq, and Bush administration at the University of Minnesota campus in November 4th, 2005. At the same day thousands and thousands of other students were having their own marches and teach-ins in other campuses around the US. Protest are still sporadic, and the movement is relatively weak. Are the big questions drowning to too many points of view? What are the big questions?