Freedom
I’ve been enjoying the hospitality of my friends in Baghdad and just had two very useful meetings with some economists and with some of the people involved in the growing field of Arabic blogging. We’re starting a translation of some more texts from Frederic Bastiat, including his brilliant “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen,” and I hope to get a new website going on economic liberalization.
Over the next few days I’ll be giving talks to a group of female political leaders, a seminar on “Rational Choice and Economic Institutions” at two of the universities, making presentations (see the Powerpoint below) on the principles of constitutional democracy, and holding other seminars, lectures, and meetings, as well as an interview with one of the biggest newspapers in Iraq, all arranged by my friends in Baghdad, to whom I am very grateful.
Dear Tom,
I’m the webmaster of http://bastiat.org/ (we met in Aix), and I’m very interested in any translation of Bastiat’s works that you or your friends may have. Can you forward me URLs to these translations? I you have texts but no website, I can publish the translations on bastiat.org. And of course, I recommend translating from the original French rather than from the English translation.
Best regards,
#f
Thanks! I’d prefer to translate from the French, but it’s not always easy to find Arabic writers who read French as well as English. It’s not that easy to communicate at the moment, so please contact me in May and I’ll bring you “up to speed.” “The Law” by Bastiat has already been translated and I will be able to get you some text next month. (It’s already been published in Baghdad.) I’m hoping also to work with the Foundation for Economic Education (on whose board I serve) to get Mises into Arabic, as well.
Tom,
What is that freedom sign you posted? Where did you get it? Please don’t tell me it’s the newly-discovered oldest written form of the word liberty since the ama-gi I have tattoed in my back would be then worthless.
Juan Carlos
Hi, Juan Carlos.
You don’t have to have your back sanded off. It’s the Arabic word for liberty (Hurriya). When developing work for an Arabic program, my young former colleague Mike Riley had it written out at one of the Embassies in D.C. Arabic allows a greater variety of calligraphic styles than does the Latin alphabet, and this is one elegant version of the word.
Classical liberal Iraq
Tom Palmer is a sensible libertarian hawk who recently went to Iraq to lecture on libertarian ideas. Here is one of his PowerPoint presentations. Among his impressions:. . . a lecture and Powerpoint presentation on the process of writing an…