SK2023

Shortly before ten, I board the SAS 737-700 "Hans Viking" that will take me down to Stockholm and Arlanda. Few things spell the beginning of summer as much as the start of my annual California adventure. Unbelievably, this is the fifth year in a row that I will spend midsummer at Cavallo Point. As good as it always is, I keep telling myself that this has to be the last year I am doing this given how disruptive it is to leave the kids for a whole week.

After take-off, I look down on Nydalasjön and Grössjön, on all the trails that await me through the summer, especially if I should have any chance to run Umeå Trail 50k in September. As a kid, I also played a lot next to lakes, one time even biking into Växjösjön and unleashing mayhem among the ducks, so I guess not much have changed over the years.

Once in the air, I read about Hong Kong in The Economist. Since the article was published, the Chief Executive Carie Lam has decided to actually listen to the protesters and not go forward with the extradition bill that would otherwise have removed one of the last firewalls separating Hong Kong from the mainland. While I have had mixed feelings about previous protests (believing that, rather than fighting Beijing head-on, activists would do better in focusing on building democracy from the bottom up and strengthening social welfare in particular) this one was about the very heart of the "one country, two systems" compromise, and as such it was incredible to see millions of people taking to the streets. While I remain a long-term optimist about democracy in China, it is nonetheless concerning how many people in the West, for instance at BISA last week, who seem to be attracted to the idea of eco-authoritarianism and who romanticize what they see as an “anti-capitalist alternative”...