Liberal Road Blog Individual Freedom and Equality

A school in southern Sweden has decided that students are allowed to speak only in Swedish (link in Swedish: Dagens Nyheter). The decision forbids other languages not only during class lessons, but also during breaks.

A wrong decision I think. It’s discriminating foreign students as they won’t be allowed to use their mother thongs even when speaking with other foreign students. I also think it’s an unacceptable limitation of students’ freedom of speech. Why should schools have the right to decide what language students use when speaking to each other?

Sure, the decision has been made for security reasons so that no one will be able to think someone insulted him or her in an other language. The school has had serious security incidents. But still, the cause doesn’t justify this rule. It’s the wrong medicine to the problem. Everyone should have the right to use their language when they want to.

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Today I found this funny news: The Swedish file-sharing website The Pirate Bay wants to buy an own nation - the micro nation of Sealand. I decided to make some further research about it all.

The Pirate Bay is one of the biggest websites for file-sharing. It has faced some legal challenges and its servers were raided by the Swedish police in May 2006. However the site came back quickly on the Internet.

Now The Pirate Bay wants to buy its own island: Sealand. This would enable The Pirate Bay to avoid copyright laws and potential legal threats.

The funny thing in all this is that Sealand is actually a naval platform from world war II off the British coast. It measures about 550m² and having usually less than 10 inhabitants… Well, definitely not a lot! Sealand has declared itself independent and has an own money, own stamps, own laws and issues own passports. However no other country has recognized its independence.

The Pirate Bay has opened a website (buysealand.com) to raise funds to buy Sealand. It promises to give Sealand’s citizenship to everyone making a donation if they manage to buy the island. However we’ll see if The Pirate Bay manages to raise enough funds: the price asked is reported to be £500 millions (about EUR770 millions, USD990 millions). And that’s a lot of money to raise.

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Immigration should be completely free. Yes, I support free immigration and oppose immigration laws restricting foreigner’s rights to come in a country. The world shouldn’t have country borders we are not allowed to cross.

I know this is not a widely supported position in the political debates worldwide. It´s a pity : it should be much more discussed as an option.

One of the most basical reasons why I oppose laws restricting immigration is that they limit the freedom of individuals in an unacceptable way. Depending on the nationality you have you will be allowed to move to only certain countries. Other countries you may only visit as a tourist, but are not allowed to move there.

One common argument for limiting foreigners’ right to come and work in a country is that foreigners are taking the jobs and thus creating unemployment. But why should the citizens of this country have a higher right to the jobs than foreigners? Why would some people have a priority to jobs?

Furthermore, immigration can also benefit the country welcoming immigrants: people from different cultures have different points of views, ideas and this enriches the culture of this country.

Immigration laws are also very unfair. Depending of where you were born or who your parents are (and thus the nationality you get) you have completely different rights. If you are from a poor country, for example an African country, you’ll need visas to enter pretty much any country and there are usually loads of requirements to fulfill. If you are from a rich country, you won’t need visas in many cases and the requirements are much smaller.

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Since the blogospher seems to be still discussing Saddam Hussein’s execution, I though it would be a good opportunity to comment the hanging and the death penalty in general.

As we know Saddam Hussein was hanged in the last days of last year. I have to say I actually see the execution as a human rights violation.

But don’t understand me wrong. Sure, Saddam Hussein had done many horrible things in his life and should have been punished for them. But even the worst criminals have rights. And the right to life is one of them.

The right to life is one of the most basical rights that everyone should have. It shouldn’t be a right that is earned by being a good citizen by following the rules of the society. No, it should be a right that everyone, even the worst criminals, has.

Jail is much more approriate than the death penalty for the worst crimes.

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Today as I read the news on the Internet I came across an article about an interesting Swedish opinion poll (link: SVT in Swedish). According to this poll 91% are for camera surveillance in public places, 87% are for secret wiretapping of phone calls by the police and 51% wants that a dna-register is created about the whole population.

Hang on a second. 91% is for camera surveillance in public places? Every other person is for a dna register covering the whole population? Yes, that’s the numbers. I knew that many have become positive to increased control and less privacy the last years. But still I had to double check the numbers before I believed I read correctly.

The strength of the support surprised me. And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.

But opinion polls should always be taken with precaution. It all depends about how you ask it. By changing a little bit how the question is asked you may get a different result. For example if instead of asking “Do you support secret wiretapping of phone calls?” you ask ” Do you support secret wiretapping of phone calls without a court order?” you will get a different result.

Unfortunately the media didn’t report the exact questions asked. It would have been interesting to know them.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. After all Sweden is a country where a lot of information is public and privacy is already limited more than in many other countries. For example the tax information is public. It means that anyone can get the information about how much you earned in the past years. And that’s just an example.

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One thing the draw my attention today was health care costs. Health care is one of the basic needs that should be free to everyone. It is necessary in order to guarantee the equality.

The problem when patients have to pay for the health care is that those with low incomes won’t have the same chances to afford it. It can also dissuade the poor to go to doctor. However being sick can limit quite a lot what you can do in life.

Nowadays in Sweden you pay usually between 100 and 150 Swedish crowns (approximately EUR10-16, USD14-20, GBP7-10 with current exchange rates) to visit a doctor. However, it is only a fraction of the real costs and the rest is financed by taxes. It is also only a fraction of the price in some other countries. But still, it is a lot of money for the poorest (for example the homeless, some the unemployed and so on). Even if they can afford it they may prefer not to go to doctor until they really have to.

One commonly used argument against free health care is that if going to a doctor is free, people would run there for almost nothing. This leads to increased costs to the state and possibly higher taxes. Here I want to ask: isn’t it better that people visit a doctor too often than too seldom (when it may be too late for treatment)?

Money shouldn’t be an obstacle in getting treatment.

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According to the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (link in Swedish) the Swedish ministry of defence has announced his support to a proposition allowing the monitoring of all phone calls in Sweden.

If this proposition is accepted an organization under the Ministry of Defence (the National Defence Radio Establishment) will be allowed to listen to all phone calls and monitor all data traffic passing through Sweden. No court orders would be needed.

The National Defence Radio Establishment may already nowadays wiretape some phone calls, but this right would be extended. Furthermore, the information collected would be allowed to be transferred to intelligence agencies in other countries.

This is yet another example of an unacceptable violation of the privacy in the name of potential terrorist attacks and threats to the national security.

In the recent years privacy has been more and more sacrificed worldwide in the name of potential terrorist attacks. It is a dangerous trend that may eventually lead to a Big Brother state.

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The decision of a Scandic hotel in Oslo, Norway to refuse to accommodate a Cuban tourism delegation has caused a major debate in Norway and other Scandinavian countries (source: Yahoo News). The hotel argues that it has to follow the laws of the United States concerning the embargo of Cuba, because the Scandic hotel group is nowadays owned by the American company Hilton.

This is an example of discrimination that should not happen. Accommodation is such a basic need that it’s completely unacceptable to deny it to anyone based on where they come from or what company or country they are representing. If all hotels in Oslo would follow the U.S. laws and the delegation had to sleep in the streets (supposing that the dedication would come anyway), would that be considered fair?

However there is one thing that we have to note: Cubans as private persons are welcome to Scandic hotels in Norway, only official representative are not welcome. This is comforting, but it doesn’t change the fact that the delegation should have been allowed to book rooms in the hotel even if it would have resulted in Scandic or its owner Hilton being fined in the United States.

Now Scandic risks fines in Norway as a police complain for illegal discrimination has been filed by Antirasistisk Senter (link in Norwegian), a center against racism. A trade union has also announced it will boycott Scandic hotels.

We can say that the legal situation for Scandic was not easy: risking fines in the United States or risking them in Norway.
A subject to be followed.

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Today the Democrats took over the Congress and now control the whole Congress. Many hope for a change in American politics, but how much will change after all? Democrats are often not much better than Republicans. The power switch at least gives hope of a change in the Iraq war strategy. But one thing is sure: the United States got its first woman speaker of the house of representatives as Nancy Pelosi was elected to that post.

It is the first time in twelve years that the Democrats have a majority in the whole Congress. The Democrats have announced that they intend to change how the situation in Iraq is handled. Time will show what that means but we have to remember that some Democrats are still supporting Bush’s Iraq policy.

The war in Iraq was a big mistake. Saddam Hussein violated human rights, that’s true, but the situation is not much better today. The country is highly insecure with daily bomb attacks, kidnappings and killings. Furthermore with the Abu Ghraib scandal showing American soldiers torturing Iraqis, we may well ask if the human rights are more respected in Iraq nowadays than they were before.

The election of a woman, Nancy Pelosi, as the speaker of the House of Representatives is hopefully a sign that woman and men are becoming more equal in politics. It is a historical event, but there is still a huge way to go to achieve equality: women still represent only about 20% of the representatives in the U.S. Congress.

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I decided to start this political blog to comment about political issues from a liberal point of view. In this blog I’ll write my personal opinions about political events worldwide. There are two things I value very high: individual freedom and equality.

I believe that everyone should have the right to do whatever they want to unless it harms others or limits the freedom of others. The state has no right to limit the individual freedom unless it is necessary in order to protect the freedom of others or the equality of everyone. Actually the state is responsible to guarantee the individual freedom of everyone.

I also believe that everyone should be equal and should have equal opportunities in life. I believe that the state has the responsibility to do what is necessary in order to guarantee the equality of everyone. Basically the state has two responsibilities: to guarantee the individual freedom and the equality of everyone.

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