The Pakistani Spectator

I teach economics in the Institute of Public Affairs Management at the National Sun Yat-Sen University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I have lived in Taiwan for 13 years but I was born in Vanersborg, Sweden. My site deals with whatever crosses my mind, as long as it’s related to economics, politics, or the social sciences generally. I avoid personal topics such as hobbies, family, and friends most of the time, although there are one or two exceptions among my posts. I also have tried to minimize the number of links and photos, because I believe that a site should not be all over the place.

I had three motivations when I started blogging. First, I wanted to redress the lack of easily accessible information about me on the university website, which is virtually never updated and where most of the information is in Chinese. Second, I needed an outlet for new ideas and thoughts that tend to appear unexpectedly in my mind. Third, sometimes I enjoy voicing strong opinions, especially about politics and institutions, and strong opinions are not really appropriate in formal publications.

Well, I always try to write lucidly, and I think that I write better than I did 12 years ago (my first published book chapter is from 1997). Whether I succeed is something that my readers will have to judge. But, yes, I enjoy arguing with myself and others.

Only one so far. I was discussing a book by someone and then I received an email from the author, whom I have never met. That was a nice surprise.

I don’t really communicate that much with other bloggers, except for occasionally submitting my comments on other blogs.

Undoubtedly Obama’s use of the Internet to raise money during his election campaign. And I think that’s a positive development, since it makes powerful pressure groups slightly less important (they are still too important, though).

Yes. It is now possible for me to respond to answer questions that were formulated in, say, Pakistan.

It is the only site where you get my take on economics, politics, and the social sciences. I think I’m not typical of any particular group of people, so in that way it’s unique. But unique does not equal interesting, even though I think my thoughts are interesting. But I’m biased.

That would be my curiosity.

That’s a difficult question, and very personal. Since my blog is work-related, I would like to restrict my answer to my professional life. I was very happy when I got my first job at a university, even though I like my present university much better. I can’t recall a gloomy professional moment right now, other than being forced to teach too much at my first university.

This is a difficult question. It would have to be a big city, a small town, and a natural environment. Here it goes:

1 Madeira, Portugal (natural environment, I really enjoyed spending two weeks on that island four years ago)

2 Turpan, Xinjiang, China (I have never been there, but I’m really curious about that isolated town with an interesting silk road history and one of the world’s most extreme climates)

3 Either New York or London (restaurants, entertainment, culture etc.)

Jane Jacobs (1961), The Death and Life of Great American Cities. It’s my favorite book because it changed my way of thinking about cities and social processes generally.

Men: their accent

Women: their eyes

No

I have no idea.

I wouldn’t know that, because my blog never gets millions of hits.

Bloggers make the world more peaceful because they increase global communication flows. An exception might be nationalist or chauvinistic bloggers.

Check the links on my site.

My post entitled “Conspicuous Consumption.”

I have never been to Pakistan, but I know that it’s a large, predominantely Muslim country that was partitioned off from India after World War II. I know that there are a lot of internal tensions at the moment between the military, at least two political parties, the judiciary, and Muslim fundamentalists. I think and hope that the problems will disappear in the long run, although I think it requires free trade and free information flows with the rest of the world, and also that external powers do not try to enforce their version of “democracy.” I would guess that Pakistanis are as diverse internally as the people of any other major nation.

No.

How people in developed countries take a lot of things for granted that are actually contingent on centuries of favorable conditions. I’m thinking of goods and services such as good health care, education, air conditioning, and automobiles.

Growth.

Not much. It helps me relax.

This year I’m writing a book on emerging values among young Scandinavians. Other than that, I don’t have any special plans.