Oslo Journal, Part II

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National Review:

On dictatorships, beauty queens, oil states, Swazis, and more[/url]

Jay Nordlinger

June 1, 2016

 

Editor’s Note: Last week, the Oslo Freedom Forum took place. It is the annual human-rights conference in the Norwegian capital. Jay Nordlinger’s “Oslo Journal” began yesterday, here.

 

Thor Halvorssen, the founder of the Oslo Freedom Forum, presides over a press conference. He is flanked by participants in the forum: dissidents, ex-political prisoners, and activists from many parts of the world.

 

Halvorssen says that some 35 percent of the world’s population lives under dictatorship. There are countries that are not quite dictatorships but not democracies either. If you count all non-democracies, you have half the world’s population. In other words, half of all people do not enjoy the blessings, or the right, of democracy.

 

A lot of people live in poverty. But three times that number live under dictatorship. There are endless efforts to defeat poverty, Halvorssen points out. But efforts to defeat dictatorship? Not so many.

 

And the relationship between dictatorship and poverty is very close.

 

“The opportunity costs of dictatorship are impossibly large,” says Halvorssen. The potential of billions of people is “asphyxiated.”

 

He mentions the famous satellite photos of the Korean Peninsula at night: The southern half is all lit up; the northern half is almost completely dark.

 

You know who gave me a copy of one of those photos? Donald Rumsfeld, in the Pentagon, when he was defense secretary (the second time, under George W. Bush — he had been SecDef under Ford). Probably, most people at this conference don’t like Rumsfeld very much. You know what? I don’t care. I do.

 

Halvorssen further mentions the United Nations — whose Human Rights Council is stocked with dictatorships, of course. The Davos conference, in Switzerland, is partially funded by dictatorships. So is the Clinton Global Initiative. And so on.

 

(Snip)

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You Tube: Oslo Freedom Forum

 

 

 

 

Just saying

[nickydog]

Jay Nordlinger was the guy I liked best on our recent National Review river cruise. Which on second thought isn't saying a lot, so I will just say I liked Jay Nordlinger.