Pyrrhus

Biking home from the university through a wintry mix of ice and sleet after finishing marking an unmentionable number of exams, I could easily relate to Pyrrhus and his fear that “one other such victory would utterly undo him”. With both kids sick at home, I have been stretching everything far beyond all sanity but at least I am finally on the other side.

That however is more than one can say about the previous Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and his attempts to form a new government. After more than two months of stalemate and grandstanding, the centre-right parties are finally publicly considering supporting a new Löfven administration but only under the, slightly odd, condition that Löfven implements their key policy proposals rather than his own. After providing a feverish laundry list of neoliberal reforms such as lower taxes for high-income earners, lower payroll taxes and further tax reductions for domestic services, Jan Björklund concluded that he also would like an increase in defence spending to 2% of GDP and NATO-membership. Listening to his press conference, I started to wonder why he did not go all in and made his support conditional upon the building of the Death Star?

I mean, seriously, it is not like these things have not been tested in other countries. Greater inequality does not lead to economic growth. Full stop. Long-running and sustainable growth comes from accelerated structural change, technological innovation and, most importantly, broad social investments. If Björklund really wants the upper middle class to benefit, he should advocate greater equality, better paying jobs, and an end to the numerous subsidies that are currently delaying structural change and emancipation (such as financial support to rural areas).

And, finally, as for defence, how about spending a fraction of that money on integrating Russia to lower the risk of a military confrontation in the first place?

Reality

Philip K Dick once wrote that “reality is that which, when you stop believing it, doesn’t go away”. Even if “reality” has never been a defining feature of Rawls & Me, I still found Trump’s dismissal of his own administration’s report on climate change to be nonsensical to the extreme: “I don’t believe it”. As I have tried to explain over and over again, it is one thing to not believe in the Malthusian policy paradigm as promoted by mainstream environmentalism (I do not either), it is a completely different thing to not believe in the geophysical processes behind anthropogenic climate change. In part, some of the resistance to basic science of course comes from an evangelic worldview in which the climate is simply beyond human control but even so I find it strange that Trump has such problems disentangling facts and values (at the end of the day, I guess he is simply not that “very smart”).

Having said that, I do not claim that it is always easy to reconcile the world and our own place in it. The kind of champagne socialism pushed on these pages is of course easy to criticize from a whole host of directions but hopefully a reader will understand that this is just one story of many and that, on darker nights, I also think of everything from precarisation to the nuclear holocaust.

Ice skating

With Nydalsjön more or less frozen solid, hundreds of Umeå locals took to their skates and headed out over the weekend. Unfortunately, just as with ski boots, I still have to buy new ones in size 47/48 (I lost a lot of my possessions in a fire many years ago) so instead I went for an afternoon run with my mother around the lake. Like last time around, she impressed me by keeping a remarkable pace considering that she is turning 70 next year.

Lamu Island

After the recent devaluation, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get outsized value from the SAS Eurobonus program. One remaining sweet spot though is North and Central Africa which is still available for 105 000 points roundtrip in C, for instance with Swiss. This in turn had me revisiting the Gypset book in which it is suggested that “Lamu is the forwarding address for a motley mix of escapists and wanderers”. Sounds strangely irresistible, no?

Since Eddie came down with chicken pox on Wednesday, my mother was kind enough to take the train up here to help out. Inspired by the culinary eclecticism of the Swahili Coast, I decided to make some tandoori-spiced quorn with yellow rice, roasted coconut flakes and mango chutney for dinner, of course served with a glass of chilled chardonnay from Western Australia.

The Fabulist

Although painstakingly slow, I am finally making some progress with my book chapter on non-human nature and ecomodernism. As often, I am distracted by other things I like to write about, in particular the dream of free global movement which again is under attack, this time not only by the usual suspects but also by people who clearly should know better like Hillary Clinton.

At Systembolaget, I found a hazy IPA called “The Fabulist”, a name that reminded me how hard it is to separate facts from fiction in debates about the Anthropocene. Tonight I made a soup with sweet potatoes, ginger and apples, perfect to stay warm as the temperature again falls to -12 degrees.

Surveillance realism

Yesterday left me strangely disillusioned about academia, about how little that is actually about thinking and how much that seems to be about validating prejudices and repeating banalities. To get the frustration out of my body, I went back to the gym for the second time this week to run on the treadmill and do some strength exercises.

Today, I had the exact opposite experience when Lina Dencik gave a really thought-provoking talk about “social justice in an age of datafication”. Ten years ago, I was myself very active in the fight against mass surveillance in Sweden (and used to write quite a bit about it here on Rawls & Me). Since then, it is not an understatement to say that a form of “surveillance realism” (to borrow Lina’s term) has sunken in, that most liberals no longer seem to find anything strange with that the state continuously monitors their lives to an extent that would make any pre-digital authoritarian regime blush...

Spezzatino di zucca e farro

When the temperatures drops below zero, I love to make a “gryta” (stew), in this case with pumpkin, kale and celery.

Today at work, I had a two hour introduction course to the new system for reporting grades (Ladok) that is about to go live next month. Like with other similar systems (e.g. for booking class rooms), it is about a gradual shift of tasks from administrative staff to teachers. Given the rather significant differences in pay between these two groups, I am less certain if this really represents a net financial gain for the university as a whole but it does give me as a teacher a better sense of overall control and allows me to complete tasks at odd hours (that is when I usually work)...

Circular economy

Like last year, it is hard to tell if it was Monocle or I who was actually first. But with all my 2018 international travels over, I thought I should put together another Gold List of my own, however shallow this exercise may be (for the 2017 list, click here). In total, I flew 70,374 miles, visited ten different countries of which Russia, Colombia, Israel and Peru were all new to me.

Best Coffee: Arte y Pasion Café, Bogotá
Best Independent Hotel: Cavallo Point, Sausalito
Best Chained-brand Hotel: Hyatt Centric, Lima
Best Boutique Hotel: Poli House, Tel Aviv
Best Award Value: Roundtrip travel Umeå-Lima in business class for 70 000 Eurobonus points per person using American Express 2-4-1 voucher

Land of the morning calm

Much of my running is about going further and faster. As such, it feels good sometimes to just head out for a slow morning jog, to take a few pictures and listen to the forest.

Once home, I made a saffron fish soup with fennel for lunch and now I should go back to writing the final assignment for the course “Theories of learning” that I am taking this semester. Yesterday, we had a very inspiring class with two psychologists who are doing research on memory and test-based learning. If I find the time, I would like to include some of their ideas in my final paper.

Arrows and candles

For some odd reason, I came to think of Nietzsche and his “arrows of longing for the other shore”. Each candle is made by a child growing in Umeå, reminding me of where I can never go.

But in terms of spatial rather than temporal journeys, 2018 has already come to an end. In total, I racked up just over 70k miles which is about ten thousand more than last year, taking me everywhere from Austin to Jerusalem. This year, I was able to add not only four new countries but a whole new continent to my travels. Among the new countries, Russia was perhaps the most overdue and, no matter how short the trip was, it will definitely stay with me.

Street-level bureaucracy

Today I am having eight hours of seminars on Lipsky’s classic concept of “street-level bureaucracy” with my social work students. Half-way through the day, I think the first two groups have had quite good discussions on the ethics of public administration, especially in relation to migration and the growing social interest in “cultural difference”. Though I am obviously not the first to point this out, there is clearly something paradoxical about the fact that, as the world becomes more homogenous than ever, we become increasingly obsessed with the small differences that remain.

Nor’Wester

The hot, dry Nor’West wind has formed a unique terroir in the Waipara Valley over millennia. For someone living just below the Arctic Circle, it takes a bit of recalibration to make sense of the notion of warm winds coming down from the north.

Today, the Swedish parliament voted down Ulf Kristersson as new prime minister. Since Kristersson would have depended on the support of the Sweden Democrats, this marks a break with the rest of Europe where centre-right parties have been all too happy to collaborate with the extreme right. The obvious question is of course what happens next? If we end up with a rerun of the election, there is a clear risk that the Sweden Democrats will grow even further and ultimately come into power. But for now, we have taken a step back from the abyss.

As I keep playing with continents, I made vegan noodles with Thai pesto for dinner together with some mango and avocado.

Sunset

After ten days with overcast grey weather, the skies suddenly cleared and I went for a half-marathon in the afternoon to savour the sunset. Once home, it was finally time to unbox what, given my obsession with coffee, must be the most overdue investment ever, namely a grinder. After spending endless hours researching what kind of grinder to buy, I went for a very simple Bodum model which seems to do the trick just fine. As with all household appliances, knowing that it is powered by 100% certified nuclear electricity of course brings a certain joy of its own.

Reactionary indifference

Tonight I completed the Petzl 42 km night running challenge. Thanks to the autumn high pressure, the temperature remains fairly stable around five degrees both day and night so the conditions could not have been better.

Otherwise, I am trying to catch up with work after being away in South America while once again feeling grateful for not having any social media presence, this time in the wake of Jordan B Peterson’s visit to Sweden. Considering how far we have come over the last couple of centuries, it is really sad to see that people are again turning to hierarchal thinking and essentialism instead of deepening universalism and emancipation. While the contemporary Left may have its fair share of problems (reaching from its anti-nuclear irrationalism to its mixing of far-reaching social constructivist ontologies with notions of primordially existing “indigenous peoples”), the answer is not reactionary indifference to the suffering of others or a fascist rejection of reflexivity.

Roasted pumpkin seeds and agave

With my mother visiting, I am giving her a whirlwind tour in the kitchen, featuring everything from Peruvian ceviche to the agave interpretation of the house kale salad. Despite this elaborate effort to bridge continents and times, I am again reminded of how different the world of my children must be from her world growing up in the 1950’s.

One day I want to seek out that Kodachrome universe of sun-bleached afternoons and endless sugar beet fields, but also what lied beyond: the quays, the old medina in Marrakech and St Pancras long before any champagne bars.

Moose meatballs

While the concept of “Friday” may have lost some of its cathartic character after becoming a parent, it still feels good to bike home from the university and make meatballs with lingonberries and sherry vinegar cream sauce, knowing that the formal work week is over.

Not only will there not be any plum flowers in the spring but today the autumn also felt very far away from Korea (acknowledging that autumn was the single best season in Korea). The only good thing with all the rain is that the temperature stays above zero, extending my outdoor running season for a bit longer.

Fjällfil

Late last night, Tova Viking descended through heavy clouds and touched down on a dark and rainy runway in Umeå. With no sun in the forecast for a fortnight, the golden foliage of Zürich, to say nothing of the blue skies of the Americas, could not feel further away.

To fight the apparent gloom, I poured up some fjällfil with Peruvian blueberries (not self-imported) and headed out for ten quick kilometres with my brand new trail gloves.

When I returned, I had received a final acceptance note from the Journal of Political Science Education which made me really happy, especially after all the hard work I have put into that paper over its three rounds of revisions. Once it is published, I will write another blog post introducing this new article which is my first piece of pedagogical research.

Jetlagged in Zürich

LX65

Since I wrote a short review of the outbound Avianca flight, it is only fair that I say a word or two about our return flight with Swiss. When booking this trip back in April, I could not really believe my eyes when two seats suddenly appeared on the 777-300ER flight from Miami to Zürich, featuring Swiss latest cabin. While availability is known to be relatively good for their own Senator members, Swiss is quite stingy when it comes to making premium cabin inventory available to other Star Alliance partners and, obviously, Miami is a very popular destination this time of the year, so all considered I felt very lucky.

Without any doubt, Swiss is one of the world’s most civilized airlines. The overall quality in terms of finishes is simply unmatched and the new cabin feels very warm and welcoming. In line with their “A taste of Switzerland” concept, the food was inspired by the cuisine of one Swiss canton at the time. For our flight it was Nidwalden, located in the geographical centre of Switzerland. Unfortunately, shortly after departing Miami, we passed through an area with some thunderstorms so the cabin service had to be suspended for over an hour, meaning that once it was finally dinner time, I decided to just have a quick meal and then go back to sleep. And sleep I certainly did, in fact all the way until it was time to eat breakfast above Paris.

The Andes

After finishing marking another batch of take-home exams, I look down on the Andes as our Airbus 330 continues its climb towards its cruising altitude. With this foray, I have now written posts on Rawls & Me from six different continents, a fact that only makes me more aware of how little of the world that I have actually seen.

Looking through my camera, I pause when I see this cliché tourist picture taken at Plaza San Martin. Though not visible in the picture, there were a lot of young kids selling sweets as we walked through Lima’s Centro Histórico. While there were also older kids in school uniforms taking selfies outside the ornate baroque churches, it is not their eyes that will stay with me.

Often in my research, I feel like I remain trapped in abstractions and extrapolations. To travel then becomes a way of breaking out, of experiencing other worlds, if ever so slightly. Ten years ago, when hiking through the Balkans with Gabriel, we travelled on a very tight budget, staying in the most run-down youth hostels in places like Pristina. Now I have truly become a “flashpacker” of the worst conceivable sort, still I feel like I have recorded so many images from this trip that I will carry with me in the months and years ahead.

Lightless as ruins

Between taking in the faded grandeur of the 1924 Gran Hotel Bolívar and sipping a lúcuma milkshake in the green garden of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, I think I have fallen in love with Lima.

As a transitional object of sorts, I am carrying around Alan Hollinghurst's The Sparsholt Affair which is taking me back to the 1940's and Oxford where morality, like everything else, was just a question of time.

Before leaving for the United States tomorrow morning, I still need to check out Astrid y Gastón and have at least one more rooftop pisco sour so I guess that will have to be all for now.

Bosque El Olivar

With the very first daylight, I turned on Strava and headed out for a 5k run through the olive forest as a virtual instalment of the New York City Marathon. Despite tagging the run as a “race”, I decided to take it a bit slow as I am still not fully recovered from my cold.

Today, we are planning to explore the Barranco neighbourhood and maybe return for some more research into the dark chapters of the civil war at the Museo de la Nación.

Lima, the not so grey

Pescados Capitales

After a morning stroll through the San Isidro and Miraflores districts, it is finally time to hit the rooftop pool of the Hyatt Centric. Unlike last night when the city felt more akin to Dar es Salaam, Lima in daylight is just calming under overcast skies.

Reflections

Wide awake at 4 am, I walk through empty hotel corridors as I wait for the sun to rise over Lima which apparently is the second-driest world capital after Cairo. Home to more than ten million people, Lima again reminds me how starkly different most people’s everyday life is from my own tranquil existence at the shores of Nydalasjön. Always a sucker for contrasts, the adrenaline rush traffic along Costa Verde last night made it evidently clear that this is indeed a world away from Umeå.

After reading another pessimistic research paper about the future, I was very happy to see that Jon’s new book is now officially announced by Polity. As FM-2030 once pointed out, this should be a time of radical optimism, not backsliding into Retrotopia. Despite all the immense challenges that we are facing, it is important to remember that our collective potential as a species is far greater than at any previous time in history, now all we need is political agency and determination. 

Arte y Pasion

With Día de Muertos overflowing from Mexico, the old town of Bogotá had a slightly morbid undertone this morning as Anna and I walked through its narrow alleyways and spellbinding murals. While I did not spot any Halloween foxes, it is clear that the late autumn days that we once used to refer to as “Allhelgonahelgen” in Sweden have become subject to rampant hybridification.

At Calle 16 #776, we found a roaster at the forefront of the local speciality coffee scene that also served some really good Huevos rancheros that made me think of slow Sunday mornings in New Jersey from a decade ago. Equipped with two large bags with beans, we are now off to Lima and the Pacific.

Plaza Bolívar

Avianca 121

After passing through the now legendary Queen’s Terminal at Heathrow, it was finally time to settle in for our first longhaul flight. Even as the Boeing 787 has an ETOPS rating of 330 minutes, there are not that many diversion airports when flying diagonally across the Atlantic so we were truly in the hands of the engineers and pilots of Avianca. Luckily, by the time I write this, we are already flying in over the Lesser Antilles with about 1300 miles left to go until Bogotá.

While I still do not have any intention to begin competing with Lucky I should say that I booked the whole ticket from Umeå to Lima for 70 000 SAS miles roundtrip per person back in April, thanks to the incredibly generous American Express 2-4-1 voucher. Given that this was simply a deal too good to be true, I was not particularly surprised when SAS decided to devalue their programme a couple of days ago, increasing the number of miles needed with 20% but more importantly restricting their routing rules (effectively making multi-city trips like this one impossible to book).

As for the hard product, Avianca is using a 1-2-1 reverse-herringbone configuration in their business class. When flying together, this means that the centre seats are quite a bit apart so it is not as natural to have a conversation as with the Vantage XL seat that for instance SAS uses. While the seat does recline fully, it is also not long enough for people of my height so anyone above 180 cm basically has to sleep on the side (again unlike SAS). Still, I was able to get five solid hours of sleep. In terms of their soft product, the dinner served after departing Heathrow was excellent with what felt like a very distinct Colombian touch.

The breakfast which was served just as we flew in over the South American continent was similarly good and colourful. In conclusion, I would rank Avianca highly, although perhaps not in the same league as some other Star Alliance members (Singapore but also Swiss comes to mind).