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Milton and Rose Friedman founded the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice to fight a public school system, which is run by government bureaucrats, school boards and teachers, and in which students and their parents have almost no way of holding them accountable.
Watch Milton Friedman explain why he believes that all students, but especially those from poor neighborhoods, would benefit from a school voucher system, which would break the government monopoly on education by empowering the parents:
Watch this impressive and uplifting documentary by Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto and the Institute for Liberty and Democracy:
The Mystery of Capital among the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon
“A documentary of significance with findings from indigenous communities in Alaska, Canada and the Peruvian jungle.”
There are so many myths and legends surrounding the collapse of communist totalitarianism, the nonviolent revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe and the development since then. What has really changed? And why? Are the people of the region really richer and freer today? And if so, how much?
The Cato Institute held a very informative half-day conference on these subjects featuring many reformers and experts. You can watch three videos of the panel discussions on their website, and if you are interested in the region, you should miss none of them! The keynote adress was given by Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic.
Freedom and Prosperity in Central and Eastern Europe
20 Years after the Collapse of Communism
“This year marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A major advance in humanity’s struggle for freedom, the collapse of communism has generally led to an increase in human well-being, with several ex-communist countries becoming free and prosperous. Yet the spread of liberty has been uneven. Many ex-communist countries lag behind and some have even reverted to political repression and economic dirigism.”
Listen to two great and independent minds, Christopher Hitchens and Russ Roberts, talk about why Orwells Anti-Totalitarianism still matters.
Watch Larry Diamond, co-director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies and founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy, explain why he believes it can at the New York Democracy Forum:
Larry Diamond – “Can the Whole World Become Democratic?”
Watch this short documentary by Scott Kilman and Roger Thurow of the Wall Street Journal about Howard Buffett’s Crusade Against African Famine
“Warren Buffett’s son, Howard Buffett, takes on a surprising, little-known role on the front lines. Mr. Buffett travels from Ghana to Togo to Benin, trying to spread approaches to farming that he’s found successful on his Illinois farm.”
I am glad the Washington Post is so clear on this:
“What’s happening on the streets of Tehran is a lesson in what makes history: It isn’t guns or secret police, in the end, but the willingness of hundreds of thousands of people to risk their lives to protest injustice. That is what overthrew the shah of Iran in 1979, and it is now shaking the mullahs. This is politics in the raw — unarmed people defying soldiers with guns — and it is the stuff of which revolutions are made. Whether it will succeed in Iran is impossible to predict, but already this movement has put an overconfident regime on the ropes.”
An Iranian student tries to put into words how this latest freedom movement started:
New York Times: A Different Iranian Revolution
“The truth is, it wasn’t supposed to happen this way. The open-air parties that, for one week, turned Tehran at night into a large-scale civic disco, were an accident. People gathered by the tens of thousands in public squares, circling around one another on foot, on motorcycle, in their cars. They showed up around 4 or 5 in the afternoon and stayed together well into the next day, at least 3 or 4 in the morning, laughing, cheering, breaking off to debate, then returning to the fray. A girl hung off the edge of a car window “Dukes of Hazzard” style. Four boys parked their cars in a circle, the headlights illuminating an impromptu dance floor for them to show off their moves.
Everyone watched everyone else and we wondered how all of this could be happening. Who were all of these people? Where did they come from? These were the same people we pass by unknowingly every day. We saw one another, it feels, for the first time. Now in the second week, we continue to look at one another as we walk together, in marches and in silent gatherings, toward our common goal of having our vote respected. No one knew that it would come to this.”
…and there is only one way: you let them do it themselves! Watch Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto explain at the Heritage Foundation how we can integrate the poor into the world economy:
Is Economic Freedom For Everyone?
“Based on his groundbreaking research, renowned economist Hernando de Soto concludes that disorder and political instability, growing terrorist and criminal networks, and grinding poverty in many non-Western countries are due in large part to the fact that many of the world’s most fragile and dangerous states lack critical legal tools required to process information, identify opportunities, reduce risks, and bring people and assets together.”
Watch economist Alex Tabarrok explain at the TED Talks why he believes that “the best is yet to come” for our planet, if we only get a few things right:
“The “dismal science” truly shines in this optimistic talk, as economist Alex Tabarrok argues free trade and globalization are shaping our once-divided world into a community of idea-sharing more healthy, happy and prosperous than anyone’s predictions.”
One of the most frightening and sadening realities in today’s Germany is how many people justify or downplay the crimes of the SED, the communist party which ruled Eastern Germany for decades.
Watch this touching documentary and confront those who deny or distort history:
Walid Shoebat became a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization as a young man, commited acts of terror and violence against Israelis and was imprisoned in an Israeli jail. Today he is an outspoken critic of any sort of antisemitism, antizionism, terrorism and religious extremism. Watch him speak at the University of California:
When most Westerners speak of human rights they usually mean political and civil rights like free speech. But to most poor people in the world economic rights are at least as important and often times more important than political and civil rights.
Watch Jean-Pierre Chauffour, Economic Adviser for the World Bank, speak about his latest book, The Power of Freedom: Uniting Human Rights and Development, at a Cato Institute Book Forum.
“Are the quests for human rights and economic development compatible? Jean-Pierre Chauffour takes the development and human rights communities to task for working at cross purposes and often advocating policies that violate basic rights, whether those rights are economic freedoms or broader issues of personal choice. The author will explain how the two traditions can be reconciled by empowering people with economic, civil, and political liberty, and he will outline a mutually supportive agenda for advocates of growth and human rights.”
Listen to Brink Lindsey talk about his book The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America’s Politics and Culture to Russ Roberts at EconTalk:
Feminist Muslim Irshad Manji supported the military intervention in Afghanistan from the beginning – and she did so mainly because of one simple reason: human rights. But now she has doubts, if the West will really be able to bring liberal democracy to Afghanistan: Tribalism triumphs in Afghanistan
Listen to her debate the issue with Nelofer Pazira, an Afghan Canadian journalist, who defends the war as necessary and moral:
That is the subtitle of a new book by Dambisa Moyo: Dead Aid, which I highly recommend. Moyo knows the facts – and she knows Africa.
Watch her discuss about how we can make poverty history with development expert William Easterly at the Templeton Foundation
Paul Collier is Professor of Economics at Oxford University and Department Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies.
Watch him speak about his book “The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It”, in which he “outlines four traps that the poorest countries in the world can find themselves in: the trap of civil war, the trap of being landlocked, the trap of having abundant natural resouces, and the trap of having a bad government” and explains how they can escape these traps:
If you believe that total drug decriminialization is a crazy idea, think again! Because Portugal did decriminalize all drugs, including heroin and cocaine, in 2001, and they are still glad they did.
Listen to an inspiring Cato Policy Forum on the topic:
Drug Decriminalization in Portugal
“In 2001, Portugal began a remarkable policy experiment,
decriminalizing all drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Some predicted disastrous results—that drug addiction rates would soar and the country would become a haven for “drug tourists.” Now that several years have passed, policy experts can study the results. In a new paper for the Cato Institute, attorney and author Glenn Greenwald closely examines the Portugal experiment and concludes that the doomsayers were wrong. There is now a widespread consensus in Portugal that decriminalization has been a success. The debate in Portugal has shifted rather dramatically to minor adjustments in the existing arrangement. There is no real debate about whether drugs should once again be criminalized. Join us for a discussion about Glenn Greenwald’s field research in Portugal and what lessons his findings may hold for drug policies in other countries.”
Hundreds of migrants feared drowned as boat sinks off Libya
Is there no way we can make sure that a human tragedy like this won’t ever happen again? I believe there is. And so does journalist and economist Phillippe Legrain. Watch him speak about his book Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them on Ireland’s RTE2 (Part 1 / 2) or on Frost over the World.
Even though they try hard to kill it – as the Economist reports:
Watch this impressing documentary about a man, who traces his father’s journey “through former labor camps and cities in northern Russia and his final uncovering of the horrible truth at the dreaded camp city of Vorkuta within the Artic Circle”:
John Stossel has some great ideas in this 20/20 documentary:
Stupid in America – How we cheat our kids
The Economist on How to stop the drug wars
Watch Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and co-editor of the Journal of Democracy, debate his book The Spirit of Democracy – The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World, which I very strongly recommend to anyone interested in the science of democracy and democracy movements, with some researchers from Freedom House at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs:
Mr. Cardoso is a former president of Brazil. Mr. Gaviria is a former president of Colombia. Mr. Zedillo is a former president of Mexico.
They don’t take drugs. But they all agree that we should stop waging a war against them and the people who use or sell them.
In the Wall Street Journal they explain why: The War on Drugs Is a Failure – We should focus instead on reducing harm to users and on tackling organized crime
Watch Shikha Dalmia explain why the new rags-to-riches-movie Slumdog Millionaire is a brilliant metaphor for recent Indian history at Reason TV:
“In important ways, Slumdog tells the story of India itself—a poverty-stricken underdog with its own rags-to-riches tales.
Since the early 1990s, India has cut its poverty rate in half. About 300 million Indians—equivalent to the population of the entire United States—escaped the hunger and deprivation of extreme poverty thanks to pro-market reforms that increased economic activity.“
Watch Daoud Sultanzoy, Chairman of the Economic Committee of the Afghan Parliament, talk about “the current economic and business conditions in Afghanistan and the links between sustained economic growth and democratic institutions” at the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE):
Building Democracy and a Market Economy in Afghanistan Part 1 /2
Also watch this short, but very interesting documentary about Tashabos (the Dari and Pashto word for “entrepreneur”), a CIPE program “to teach high school students the basics of economics and finance. Tashabos tells the story of a married couple that capitalize on the weaving and design skills of the wife to establish a knitwear business that – by the course’s completion – expands into a full-scale manufacturing enterprise”:
Salman Rushdie is an atheist, Irshad Manji a muslim. But they have a lot in common. They both have tons of courage, are open minded and freedom loving. And they both haven’t lost their sense of humour…
Enjoy watching them debate the importance of free speech and the power of fear over people’s minds:
