Sweden

This is the kind of jihad I can believe in:

[M]embers of Ukrainian feminist group Femen staged protests across Europe as they called for a “topless jihad.” The demonstrations were in support of a young Tunisian activist named Amina Tyler. Last month, Tyler posted naked images of herself online, with the words “I own my body; it’s not the source of anyone’s honor” written on her bare chest. The head of Tunisia’s “Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,” reportedly called for Tyler to be stoned to death for her putatively obscene actions, lest they lead to an epidemic. Tyler has since gone quiet, leading some to fear for her safety.

Below are some images from Femen’s protests in Sweden, Italy, Ukraine, Belgium, and France. A warning, nearly every photo depicts nudity, and most contain offensive language. I did warn you so don’t go moaning in the comments about it.  Read more »

Everywhere in the world people are embracing charter schools, voucher schools, academies, and partnership schools. For too long education has been the preserve of the unions and academics…and their way isn’t working.

The old systems specifically are leaving the poor behind. In India there is a movement to change that:

The Brahmpuri slum in New Delhi is an energetic place, home to migrants, Muslims and other marginals. A barber with a cut-throat razor and a bucket of dirty water shaves clients on the pavement. Factories hum in people’s front rooms. Animals and children are everywhere: buffaloes pulling carts, white ponies doing nothing in particular (they are popular for wedding ceremonies), children hawking bicycle pumps and washing powder.

The school, despite its name, is private, and it is a miracle of compression: floor upon floor of children, 25 to a class, crowded into a narrow concrete block. It is also a miracle of order: the children wear uniforms and stand up to greet visitors. One classroom is decorated with bright pictures and perky slogans such as: “We will get more than 80% in maths.” The teacher worked for Infosys, a giant IT firm, before finding her vocation. Other classrooms are drabber. Dr Bhandari, the school’s owner and headmaster, is clearly a shrewd businessman. He runs a fancier school next door, decorated with images of Mickey Mouse. He has an impressive collection of certificates. He uses an interpreter to explain that one of his school’s strengths is that it is “English medium”.  Read more »

Good piece on the Nordic countries in the Economist – highlights how their economic model is working but interesting reasons why:

• Sweden has reduced public spending from 67% to 49% of GDP from 1993 to today
• Top marginal tax rate has been cut by 27% from 1983 and continuing to fall.
• Scrapped taxes such as property, gift, wealth and inheritance taxes
• Corporate tax rate cut to 22%

Before this Sweden had been demoted from 4^th richest in the world in the 70’s to 14^th in 1993.  Read more »

Everyone knows the US Charter Schools have mixed results (unlike Sweden who have nailed it) and that there are things that have to be done right in New Zealand to get the massive benefits that are possible.

Other findings to note:

1.   It is possible to organize a school to be excellent on Day One – and they need to be.

2. Charter Management Organisations post superior results with historically disadvantaged student subgroups.   They produce stronger academic gains for students of colour and students in poverty than those students would have realised either in traditional public schools or in many categories what would have learned in independent charter schools.   Read more »

It is possible, but there might just actually be some good socialists out there:

Take Estonia, a tiny country at the mercy of its much larger neighbours, which has ample reason to blame “global forces”. But throughout the crash, it defiantly kept its taxes low (at a 21 per cent flat rate) and took the tough decision to cut state spending by a tenth. It is now celebrating the fastest growth in Europe. The much-larger Sweden responded to the crash with a permanent tax cut for the low-paid. This encouraged so many people back to work that the extra revenue covered the cost of the policy. Socialist Sweden has proven the existence of a phenomenon that the Tories had been taught no longer exists: a self-financing tax cut.

A reader emails:

Re: National Standards reporting and teacher’s unions’ (among others) objections to that, citing the fact top OECD countries don’t do it.

That’s true, Sweden for example doesn’t have national standards reporting.  But it does have a voucher system, where parents can take their education vouchers anywhere they choose including the private sector – that’s real competition between schools to attract parents.

Do they want that too?  I doubt it.  It’s a bit unfair to pick the bits of a successful education system that you like, and ignore the bits that you don’t.

ᔥ Bloomberg

In a great article about Sweden and how well its economy is doing, they make the following point:

After many years of absence from the debate, I attended a conference on the Swedish economy in the southern city of Malmo last month. Swedbank, a large bank, was the organizer, and the 180 speakers represented the full range of Swedish views. I was amazed to hear how far the consensus had moved to the free-market right, even among Social Democrats and trade-union leaders. The values are competition, openness and efficiency, while social and environmental values remain — a social-welfare society without the social-welfare state. The idea is to make it more efficient through competition among private providers.

Here such an untenable philosophy, no matter how practical, or how much it would save New Zealand, or benefit recipients, would cause all manner of angst among the usual whingers and lefties and malcontents, and would likely see Sue Bradford in the street protesting.

ᔥ Bloomberg

Perhaps Labour should consider moving right…like Sweden:

The Social Democrats haven’t only joined the free-market consensus, but seem to attack the current government from the right, pushing for a better business environment. Gone are demands for the restoration of social benefits. Opinion polls have rewarded the Social Democrats for their right turn with sharply improved ratings.

Sweden is still offering good social welfare, but more efficiently and sensibly and increasingly through the private sector. This model of falling taxes and public spending is rapidly proliferating from the north of Europe toward the south, and the northern Europeans have little tolerance for the statist conservatism and fiscal negligence of Southern Europe. Nor do the Swedes understand the fiscal irresponsibility of the U.S., while they still admire American research and innovation.

ᔥ The Local

So much for sweden being socialist. It seems they have it all.

Sweden’s national debt office (Riksgälden) stated on Tuesday that the country’s budget surplus from 2011 stood at 68 billion kronor ($9.85 billion).

“Despite increased concerns about the debt situation in the world and an expected slowdown in the economy during the second half, Swedish government finances developed strongly in 2011,” the debt office said in a statement.

While Sweden, with its heavily export reliant economy was hard-hit during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, its recovery “continued to be strong in 2011, which generated higher tax income,” the office said.

The debt office pointed out that the government during the year had also sold off shares worth 23 billion kronor in the Nordic region’s biggest bank, Nordea, and in Swedish-Finnish telecom giant Telia Sonera.

Sweden’s central government debt meanwhile stood at 1,108 billion kronor at the end of 2011, which corresponds to 32 percent of the non-euro-member’s gross domestic product (GDP), far below the 60-percent level allowed within the eurozone.

ᔥ The Local

It could be that Shane Jones has skipped the country:

Irate neighbours upset by the high-volume moans of a noisy masturbator in southern Sweden won’t get any help from local public authorities to help rub out the problem.

The screaming orgasms that came when the man pleasured himself really rubbed his neighbours the wrong way, prompting them to file a complaint against the man last August.

“He moans louder than an animal… I can feel how it affects my state of mind,” one neighbour wrote in the complaint.

In their filing with the Malmö environmental administration (Miljöförvaltningen), the neighbours not only brought up the man’s disturbing masturbatory noises, but also took issue with his habit of watching television at exceeding high volumes.

But demands that something be done to rectify the matter fell on deaf ears.