I got back today from Manhattan, where I met up with my good friend and colleague Professor Mohammad Abul Ahrar Ramizpoor, director of the Afghanistan Economic and Legal Studies Organization, for his first visit to the US. We had some very good meetings. He’s off to visit the Acton Institute and the Mackinac Center (with a weekend in Colorado), and then to Washington for more meetings with libertarian think tankers and researchers. I’m leaving in a few hours for Guatemala, to observe the Antigua Forum, which brings together practitioners of classical liberal reforms, then from there to Pakistan (not, unfortunately, a direct flight) for lectures and meetings sponsored by the Economic Freedom Network in Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi, then by car to India to take part in the Freedom Caravan.

Brought to you by the good folks at Libertarianism.org

My opening remarks from the debate at Freedom Fest, Las Vegas, July 8, 2010: http://tomgpalmer.com/wp-content/uploads/FreedomFest-debate-on-the-state1.pdf

An excerpt from my talk to the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Full presentation is available through the preceding link.)

Leonid Nikonov is a contributor to The Morality of Capitalism.

I’m in Prishtina, Kosovo, for the Liberal Weekend. Before that I was in Nigeria for the Students and Young Professionals African Liberty Academy (sponsored by AfricanLiberty.org, with IMANI and the Atlas Network) and held at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria before that. (I also gave a lecture/seminar with my friend and colleague Adedayo Thomas at Lagos State University, sponsored by the Lagos State University Students for Liberty and AfricanLiberty.org.) What great and inspiring champions of liberty!

After Kosovo, I’m off to France for the Summer University of the New Economics and then to Sicily for an International Society for Individual Liberty meeting.

Welcome the Libera Foundation of Finland, founded by Petri Kajander and Gustav Herzen, and the Liberal Institute for Policy Research of Kosovo, founded by Petrit Kelmendi and Dafina Mulaj.

More information on the book and the associated project here.

The Liberty Fund has done us all a great service. The Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat. Vol. 1: The Man and the Statesman: The Correspondence and Articles on Politics is now available and it’s instructive and delightful. You can buy the book very inexpensively here, or download the E-Book or PDF at zero price here. It was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal here.

Bastiat was a good economist, a wonderful teacher, and a brilliant champion of peace and freedom. I hope you find the time to introduce yourself to him. I am confident that you will not regret the experience.

Vasily Grossman in 1945

–Vasily Grossman, from his great novel Life and Fate

More on freedom:

“I used to think freedom was freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of conscience. But freedom is the whole life of everyone. Here is what it amounts to: you have to have the right to sow what you wish to, to make shoes or coats, to bake into bread the flour ground from the grain you have sown, and to sell it or not sell it as you wish; for the lathe operator, the steelworker, and the artist it’s a matter of being able to live as you wish and work as you wish and not as they order you to. And in our country there is no freedom – not for those who write books nor for those who sow grain nor for those who make shoes.” (Grossman, p. 99) He noted that “In people’s day-to-day struggle to live, in the extreme efforts workers put forth to earn an extra ruble through moonlighting, in the collective farmers’ battle for bread and potatoes as the one and only fruit of their labor, he [Ivan Grigoryevich] could sense more than the desire to live better, to fill one’s children’s stomachs and to clothe them. In the battle for the right to make shoes, to knit sweaters, in the struggle to plant what one wished, was manifested the natural, indestructible striving toward freedom inherent in human nature. He had seen this very same struggle in the people in camp. Freedom, it seemed, was immortal on both sides of the barbed wire.” (Grossman, p. 110)
– Vasily Grossman, Forever Flowing, trans. by Thomas P. Whitney (New York: Harper & Row, 1986)

“The Structure of the Libertarian Argument and Liberty as a Worldwide Phenomenon” with Tom Palmer, 05/04/2011 from Students For Liberty on Vimeo.

From the offices of the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom: Директор Cato University Том Палмер рассуждает о взаимоотношениях России и США,военном конфликте между Россией и Грузией и причинах международного финансового кризиса. (It’s dubbed in Russian.)

The first short introduction of the speaker, Gurcharan Das from India, is in Arabic, but the rest is in English, with Arabic translation. Gurcharan Das is the former CEO of Procter and Gamble India, chairman of the libertarian Centre for Civil Society, and author of the outstanding books India Unbound and The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma. Dr. Nouh El Harmouzi (who introduces him and translates) is director and editor of Minbaralhurriyya.org and author of the just released book Le sous-développement dans le monde arabo-musulman: Quel est le rôle des institutions informelles?

From my interview on Polish television (CNBC) on global capitalism and the danger of new forms of "global economic governance"

You can find the link (helpful if you know Polish [I do not; my remarks were dubbed over]) at: http://www.tvncnbc.pl/, search through the archives (see the bottom) for “Dylematy globalnej gospodarki”.

A GREAT speech given April 8 at Tahrir Square by Dr. Nouh El Harmouzi, Director of Minbaralhurriyya.org.

Rough translation: “My name is Nouh El Harmouzi from Moroccco, and I come to you with a message of respect, a message of dignity, a message of love, a letter of encouragement. I want to tell you that Morocco and the Maghreb and many countries look to your experience as an example, and we look to your revolution as a symbol to all the Arab world. I want to tell you that we hope and we want to see a strong Egypt, strong through a CIVIL state [e.g., not military and not religious] — an Egypt of FREEDOM. Thank you Egyptians for this valuable lesson for the Arabic world. I have one extremely important message to tell you. From the Moroccan people who love you and who want to follow your example: No negotiation for your freedom anymore! Pay attention to keep your freedom! Once again, I encourage you to create a CIVIL state [not military and not religious] and don’t let the politicians steal your freedom! The free Egyptian people can create miracles and can build a developed society. Viva Egypt! Viva the youth who made the revolution! Viva freedom!”

I’m in Cairo at a conference right now (in a country in great turmoil at the moment; there are huge numbers gathering in Tahrir Square to demonstrate against the military’s consolidation of power) listening to Dr Nouh El Harmouzi criticizing “social justice” as a foundation for economic development, in contrast to simple “justice.”

In the meantime, the hard work of promoting liberty is going on all around the world. I just got a really great new prospectus describing their work from the Tajikistan Free Market Institute. If you’d like a copy, write to freemarket.tj@gmail.com or info@freemarket.tj.

The Herat Literary Association

Children's Water Park in Herat, Afghanistan

Packing Biscuits (for Americans: cookies) in a bakery in Herat, Afghanistan

The remains of a Soviet tank (the turret is half off, the barrel stuck in the dirt)

(Having difficulty uploading more photos…will try….here’s one, though! I also find the software very buggy…and I can’t understand why some photos upload twice!)