…to Crete, then Athens, for lectures and meetings. I’m looking forward to meeting some of the Greek libertarians with whom I’ve corresponded over the years.

I’m in Beijing….hoping to get some sleep before some morning meetings and then a trip to the airport for some long flights to the US and A. In the meantime, here are a few pics from some lectures I gave on this trip. (The last three pictures are from the Northeastern University in Shanyang, China.)

Meeting at Japanese for Tax Reform, Tokyo

Alumni Meeting of International Academy of Freedom in Manila

University of the Philippines

Introducing the Ideas of the Levellers at the University of the Philippines

In Beijing with Li Ziyang, author of The Power of the Market

I just finished a rather exhausting day — 6 lectures and then an evening of very active sports and “team building” exercises — at the Northeastern University in Shenyang, not too far from the North Korean border. It was quite a lot of fun. (I gave talks on trade, economic development and property rights, and the roots of the financial crisis.) Then it’s off in the morning to Beijing to meet a number of people. (I was in Manila [a few links here: 1, 2, 3] and Tokyo before China.) Asian libertarianism is on the move!

My colleague Jude Blanchette and I had a very fruitful meeting with some remarkable Japanese libertarians this evening. More meetings tomorrow!

I also discovered earlier today an interesting review from July 11 of this year of Realizing Freedom. I had the pleasure of being able to discuss the ideasa with the author of the review this evening; he had read my book in an Amazon Kindle edition….on his iPhone; now that is dedicated.

The poster for my upcoming talk at the University of Santo Tomas:

Palmer 2 Poster

Taken July 12, 2010 at Narita Airport

I’m off to Las Vegas for meetings, for FreedomFest, where I’ll debate on the question of “Anarchy vs. Limited Government” and sign copies of Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice for Laissez Faire Books (which has the lowest price, in case you haven’t bought a copy!), and then head off to Japan, Philippines, China (for meetings and a conference on “Austrian economics” in China), San Diego (for Cato University!), Athens, and Crete. Maybe I’ll see you along the way!

My interview on Fox Business while here in Berlin. (It’s a part of a whole program on Milton Friedman’s legacy.)

–Dinner in Kabul
–Persian singing and music before dinner
–Coffee and tea break at the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry
–Sour cherries for sale along the side of the road
–Possibly the most delicious cherries I’ve ever eaten
–Lunch in Mazar-e-Sharif
–Lunch traveling from Mazar-e-Sharif to Kabul
–Mangos for sale in Kabul
–A bowl of traditional Tajik Kurtob in Dushanbe

I saw this while walking around Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Our partner here, the Tajikistan Free Market Centre, did a really good job of promoting the presentations, including featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is rather better known among young people here than Milton Friedman….but that may change!

The first meeting of the Dushanbe Free Market Club, following the conference and the showing of the Russian edition of “Free to Choose”

The Tajikistan Free Market Centre held its inaugural public event yesterday. I was honored to deliver two lectures (“Property Rights as a Foundation for Sustainable Economic Development” and “Sustainable Models of Economic Development and their Application to Tajikistan”). They they screened the Russian version of Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose program. Some of the photos from the event can be found in this gallery.

Konstantin Bondarenko opening the conference

Some of the participants

The conference hall of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kabul for the presentation of the Dari edition of Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity
Presentation by me on the foundations of prosperity and peaceful cooperation
Presentation by Prof Nasrullah Stanikzai on the relations between law and economics

…for the first public event of the very exciting and promising new Tajikistan Free Market Centre!

I’ll give presentations on Property Rights as a Foundation for Sustainable Economic Development and Sustainable Models of Economic Development and their Applicability to Tajikistan.

You can click on the pictures for higher resolutions

A trip to the Shrine of Hazrat Ali in Mazar-e-Sharif

My body guards

A truck lumbering up the passes of the Hindu Kush

Fetching cold water to cool the overheating engine in the high passes

A stop to wash fresh berries (bought from a child selling them in a village along the highway) in a cold mountain stream in the Hindu Kush

Just what it looks like

A quick passing shot of a German military convoy we passed (we had to wait a long time behind, as you don’t pass military convoys and they had a vehicle they had to tow; they finally let the cars pass). As a general rule, I try to avoid taking pictures of people with guns; they don’t like it, for obvious reasons

How you cross the river (on a suspended platform, with people pulling it across by hand)

Harvesting

An overturned lumber truck on a tight turn up the Hindu Kush

One of the many wrecked bits of Soviet military armor along the way

A farmer in his field

The high passes of the Hindu Kush

Some random pics…..

Presenting a lecture with Prof Ramizpoor on property and the market economy at Balkh University, Mazar-e-Sharif

Faculty members ar our lecture

Some of the more than 350 students who attended our lecture on property and the market economy

A student posing a question (and an intellectual challenge) during our lecture

Students during the discussion session after our lecture (it was getting really hot after 2 hours)

Presenting the Dari edition of Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Needs to Know About Wealth and Prosperity, my book Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice, and the Ideas for a Free Society CD to the chancellor of Balkh University in Mazar-e-Sharif

Presenting copies of Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Needs to Know About Wealth and Prosperity to the head of the Mazar-e-Sharif office of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Ancient Wall of Kabul

Kabul Street Scene (across the river)

Kabul Street Scene

Successful New Private University

Meeting with university chancellor and historian

One of my lectures on the law and economics of property rights

One of Kabul’s many wedding halls

By the way, the security situation seems pretty calm here. (The point of random terror attacks, of course, is to create terror, but it doesn’t seem to have terrified most people here. Life is not easy, but it certainly goes on. Kabul, like other cities, has violence, but there is a lot more non-violence than violence.)

I’m in Kabul and just saw that my review in Reason of The Art of Not Being Governed by James C. Scott is now online. It’s quite relevant to the policies that the Bobama administration is trying to promote here. (It turns out that mountain people often resent outsiders telling them what to do. Go figure.) Here’s the review.

Lots of meetings lined up in several cities in Afghanistan. More later, after they’re over and I’m on my way to a neighboring country.

Off to the Airport for Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

From my meetings at the offices of the Association for Liberal Thought in Ankara.