Condi Rice I'm Coming For Your Job - Part Three

Last night my plan was to relax. Catch up on some emails and make it an early night as I finally felt sleepy after a week of jet lag. Well, that was all fine and well until a couple of lassies (Annika and Eeve) from Finland and a lad (Primoz) from Slovenia showed up to our flat with a liter of Finlandia and ill intentions.....

We sat around in our kitchen and introduced ourselves. It seems like the German front is multiplying at an alarming rate as everyday there are a couple of new ones that show up out of no where to join in our fun. After the formalities were over we could finally get down to business. It turns out that Viktor is going to be studying in the same program as me. It was great to finally meet someone from my program as I had yet to do so.

I spent most of the evening talking to the two Finns about how great of a time I had in their country and throwing around the half dozen Finnish phrases I know (apparently my pronunciation is great). It seems as though I have seen far more of Finland than they had (and they live there). Their favorite story..... the time the over grown bearded woodsman rubbed goopy peat moss across the back of my naked body at an outdoor smoke sauna.

Anyways, after I was out of embarrassing Finland stories I moved on to the Slovenian lad who is in my program. We talked mainly about Russia and the influence that country has over that entire eastern block region. It seems like what is happening in Georgia could easily be replicated in a handful of eastern countries. While that message was conveyed by a gal I met from Belarus a couple nights ago, the lad I was speaking with this evening went in to much greater detail on the subject. Sparing the history lesson, the basic summary is that such incidents would eventually cause the EU, or more likely, the UN to step in with some sort of intervention (which would ultimately rope us into the middle of the whole shooting match). Is there any chance we can get Bush out of the white house sooner than planned?

Midnight, one, two ish, the festivities were coming to a close. We sent the Finns on their way as well as forced a retreat from the Krauts. At this point my Primoz was going to have to kill a couple of hours before his early morning train left for Helsinborg (city to the north of Lund) at 4:40am. Being the perennial host that I am I invited him to either crash on my couch for a spell or join me for a bit more conversation. We choose the latter.

We talked mainly of our expectations for our studies at Lund. It's amazing how similar him and I are to each other despite our geography. He's very charismatic, forward thinking, excitable, and eager to get going (if I can toot my own horn). His philosophy on market opportunities and technology advancement are identical. If my entire class is similar in mold this will undoubtedly be one of (if not the) most important years of my life, and absolutely accomplish what it is I came to Lund to do.

Since we had so much time we moved away from our expectations for Lund and talked in detail about specific differences in European and American economic systems. After much Q&A from both of us we boiled our entire conversation down to a fundamental difference in legal philosophy. See, in europe the law dictates and outlines what it is a person or entity CAN do. In America our laws dictate what a person or entity CAN NOT do. This may sound like the same thing repeated, but it's not. Think about it. If you come up with a great idea for something you want to do, and you want to move fast on it what is one of the first things you do if you're American? You look to see if there is some law or something somewhere that says you can't do what it is you want to do because of (list the reasons). So, absent of some finding that says you can't do something, you are basically able to interpret that as though you CAN do anything you want that isn't explicitly said otherwise. Take the same idea in Europe. You first go to the law and see if the law says you can do what it is you want to do. If it's something really new and creative the chances of historic law covering the subject are slim. Therefore you have to go ask 'permission' and see if the law can be ammended to allow what it is that you are trying to do, so as to specifically allow you to move on your idea. To phrase it another way you could say that the economic philosophy in America can be summarized as 'it's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission'. This is a huge difference. It allows the American economy (for better and certainly at times for worse) to move quickly when opportunity strikes. The sub-prime mortgage backed bank credit crunch is a great example of this. So is Sarbanes Oaxley. American markets moving at break neck speed that get out of control and then have to be reeled back in by legislation saying that what ever is going on CAN'T go on anymore. Law is then introduced so the next guy with a similar idea gets his aspirations crushed from the start. Gotta love those free markets!