Goats Do Roam!

Loved the sheep'n'goat metaphor at the end of this little piece on the state of the world economy from FT Alphaville, one of the few blogs about financial matters that I read on a regular basis. Probably it mainly is because of the subtle humour that is intercepted here and which is sadly lacking in most writing on financial matters.

Anyway, here's the excerpt I was talking about:
«We await the end of QE2 in June. This will really sort the sheep from the goats. Then we will see whether this patient can keep up its frenetic Irish jig in the absence of extreme stimulants. I am in the camp (tent) that believes that QE1 and QE2 have driven equity prices which have, in turn, fuelled the economic recovery. Looking around, it is not a very crowded tent and being a city boy I’m not quite sure whether those droppings belong to sheep or goats.»

Renaming Africa

As I was reading this piece about a brewing conflict about ownership to the river Nile, or rather its resources, I started thinking about its starting point of Lake Victoria: Why is this central African lake, located between Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, still named after an imperialist queen? Well, turns out it's also knows as Victoria Nyanza – and Ukerewe, The Eye of the Rhino, Nalubaale, Sango, and Lolwe. Still, why do we cling to the imperialist name when we speak of this lake in Europe? But at least good to see that the African names live on. And also that there are a number of names.

One of the unfortunate side-effects of globalisation is that everything and everywhere ends up with one name. Personally I for instance like the fact that Germans refer to Milano as Mailand, or Nice as Nizza. Or that the French call London for Londres. Let's hope it stays that way.

All this reminds of the discussions raging in South Africa about renaming the airport in Johannesburg after Oliver Tambo and renaming the capital Pretoria to its original African name, Tshwane. The airport is renamed, so how about getting around to renaming the rest of the country. If nothing else a visible symbol of laying apartheid to rest.

Globaliseringens røtter

Er du en av de som tror at globalisering er et fenomen av nyere tid, så må du tro om igjen. Ifølge boken Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers, and Warriors Shaped Globalisation av Nayan Chanda kan røttene for globalisering spores tilbake i hvert fall til Marco Polo og er siden blitt ført videre av all verdens oppdagelsesreisende og handelsfolk. Han mener at en av årsakene til at vi i dag reagerer sterkere på globaliseringen rett og slett er at fenomenet er blitt mer synlig. Et nyttig perspektiv å ta med i videre diskusjoner om et tema som kommer til å dominerer det (globale) offentlige ordskiftet i lang tid fremover.