Och en nation av ledsna...

Om Gordon-Brown-citatet i min förra blog skulle kunna aktualiseras med
"ett Europas förenta nationer av fönsterputsare",
så kan inte ens en humoristisk politiker hitta en så komisk bild av det nya Ryssland, som förutom ett par makthavare, oligarker och andra fixartyper mest verkar bestå av en nation av ledsna...

läs artikeln från Dissent

Ett citat:
"THE GRAPH THAT provides the best explanation of the Russian conundrum consists of three lines: the world oil price, the degree of democracy in Russia (political and civil rights) as measured by Freedom House, and the rate of corruption as measured by Transparency International. Once this graph has been drawn, the reader immediately sees illuminating correlations: every time the oil price goes up, the level of democracy in Russia goes down and the level of corruption goes up. For decades, political scientists have studied the so-called “wealth paradox” (most recently, Michael Ross, Steve Fish, and Peter Rutland); namely, the fact that countries that are rich in natural resources do not appear to be able to prosper economically over the long term. The classic example is that of Spanish colonization in the New World, which brought fabulous riches to the crown treasury but in the end produced economic decline. In the Spanish case, the American gold only produced powerful inflationary pressures."

och så ett tack till Bodil Malmsten, på Finistère för tipset.