[ Originally posted on Facebook 19 August 2018 ]
Interesting talking recently with a former UNHCR colleague who’d decided a while ago to return to his native Uzbekistan and who was back in Denmark on a visit.
Seems the country (one of the more repressive on Earth) is maybe considering loosening things up a bit, and the word ‘democracy’—formerly ultra-taboo—is even (whisper it) being quietly bruited.
Sure.
Well, forgive me if I’m not entirely raptured by the D word, even despite Churchill’s ringing endorsement that it’s “the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
Sorry, but just can’t help feeling that any system which lands us with both Trump and Brexit could be said to . . . have flaws.
So I suggested that maybe a better measure of a country’s health might be the freedom to think what you like and—within limits—to say (or write) what you think.
A number of organisations track this kind of thing: this map comes from ‘Reporters Without Borders.’
(click on image to expand)
Here white denotes good, yellow ok, orange iffy, red trouble, and black forget it.
Which brings me to Jonathan Pie.
If you haven’t already come across him, Jonathan Pie presents as (I’ll say no more) a news reporter who between his formal takes to camera pulls the gloves off and tells it like it is.
His rants are always angry, usually foul-mouthed, on occasion borderline slanderous, but more often than not he nails it.
More importantly, how lucky we are to live in a place where he can say the things he does and live, and we can listen to them ditto.
The Economist has a light-hearted but basically sound measure of a country’s currency valuation based on the price in that country of a McDonald’s Big Mac.
With typical tongue-in-cheek flair, they call it ‘Burgernomics.’
In the same vein, I propose a further measure of a country’s freedom of expression: could Jonathan Pie exist and be heard there?
Call it, oh I dunno, The Pie Chart . . .