Ice cream for girls?

From Sweden, it sounds like there's a sordid new corporate plot...

According to GB, the 'Girlie' ice pop signals a "sense of summer", "star status" and "a disco feeling".

The Swedish Consumers Association however uses an entirely different word: "gender-profiling".

"Girlie, GB's new ice pop, is pink and has make-up inside the stick. It says a lot about what GB thinks about girls and how they should be," said the association in a statement.

It seems likely to fail, however, as its fate is already known:

"I question whether there is a demand [for the ice pop]," said [Consumers Association] secretary general Jan Bertoft.

Well... if there is no demand for the ice pop, why even try? Let alone market other products of its type? If it were to succeed, what would be next? Pink backpacks? I shudder to think about it...

This does pose an interesting question (if not an original one), especially for an American like myself who is used to anything and everything being marketed. The sorts of statements above are a rather quintessential example of the Nordic model to me. What is the greater good? Free production despite possible social consequences, or the maintenance of identified limits to preserve society? I think I know what most Americans believe...

Finland: SDP gets the boot?

Finland has held elections. Unfortunately, due to vacation, work and the previously mentioned car accident, I don't have time to analyze at great length. A previous post briefly discussed some issues in the election. It appears that the SDP (Social Democrats) campaigned more from the left in this election and there was some tension between the coalition partners.

The big winner in this election was the conservative (economically free-market) Kansallinen Kokoomus (translated as National Rally or National Coalition). The Finnish electoral system is open-list PR in regions; the leading vote-getter nationwide was Kokoomus's popular Sauli Niinistö in the large Uusimaa constituency (the suburbs of Helsinki). Overall, Kokoomus gained 10 seats and increased to 22.3% of the vote, its second-largest percentage since WWII (the largest coming in 1987, after which Kokoomus entered the government for the first time in the postwar era).

The big loser was the SDP. The party took 21.4% of the vote, its lowest share since 1962, and goes from 53 to 45 seats. PM Matti Vanhanen's Suomen Keskusta (Finnish Center) lost vote share but remains the largest overall party.

Regional voting patterns remained as usual: the Kokoomus was not really a presence in the north, but won a smashing victory in the south, taking over 30 percent in Helsinki and over 25 percent in the major Uusimaa and Varsinais-Suomi (Turku area) constituencies. Meanwhile, the Keskusta, as usual, did not figure even in the top three in Helsinki and managed only 12 percent in Uusimaa, but swept central and northern Finland, taking 43 percent in Oulu and Lapland. The best party at keeping a nationwide presence, the SDP, did so, but lost vote share mildly almost everywhere.

The main disproportionality is the 9 seats won by the Swedish People's Party--as usual, the party's vote is concentrated on the Gulf of Bothnia and particularly in the Vaasa constituency, where it won 20 percent. The SFP won more seats than the Christian Democrats despite fewer votes as Finland has no national compensatory pool.

Finally, the only party to significantly gain, besides the Kokoomus, was the mildly nationalist/populist True Finns party, which got 4 percent of the vote and 5 seats this time around.

What is the end result? Contrary to polls, the SDP lost significantly and KOK gained. The Swedish People's Party will probably stay in government, as it always does, but it looks like the SDP could get booted out for the first time since the KESK/KOK government of 1987-91 and Finland might take a somewhat more free-market turn. Either way, Vanhanen will remain prime minister.

Brief results at Parties and Elections in Europe; more complete results at the Ministry of Justice; there has been some interesting discussion at a blog called Finland for Thought, though be aware that it's written by expats in Finland and generally biased toward the rightist parties.

City frustrations

Some cities are apparently well run.

And then there is the Houston website.

I will leave the complaints about potholes, random road closures, and other such infrastructure troubles (as well as overall cluttered unsightliness, pollution and socioeconomic problems) aside for now. I want to discuss the website, the portal through which people connect to the city.

Houston's website is here. Note something about the drop-down menus on the front page. Yes, they go behind the pictures. They've been doing that for a while now.

I had a car accident today (got rear-ended by a guy on the interstate while stopped in traffic). Apparently, here the police don't come out... you go to a substation with the info to file the report. I don't know if that's common in larger cities so I have no comment on it. I went to the website to search for a station close to me (actually, I googled "Houston Police Department" and wound up at the police website, which is part of the main website). Note first that the police website uses a rather unattractive older template (only the front page of the website has really been changed). The left sidebar scrolls even though it doesn't take up the entire page, and it is unclear whether it refers to the police or the entire city (I'm pretty sure it's the latter).

I then spent a long time trying to find the listings of police stations. You'd think one of the top choices would be to know this. But no... although you can view crime statistics, there's no link for "find a station." At length I did find it (through the "Contact HPD" button--here it is). Note that the listings state that the storefront in Neartown is open 24 hours. So, of course, I drove there, and it is open 6 am to 10 pm. I arrived around 10:08 and will have a return trip early tomorrow morning.

Right.

For reference, here are some other cities which seem to have decent web designers... Seattle, New York, Chicago...

In this day and age, if you're a U.S. city and you don't have a good website, what are the odds of things being better once you actually get there? This complaint might seem petty, but as you might guess it's part of a pattern of rather greater frustration.

My short absence

I haven't posted for a while... unfortunately the (my job-related) real world has impinged somewhat on my ability to comment here.

For the next week I will be on a needed vacation on the beaches of San Diego--highs projected in the low 70s. So I will have little to say about elections in the meantime, but look forward to returning a bit rejuvenated!

Ruling parties easily win in Estonia

Estonia's ruling coalition of the free-market Reform and agrarian/centrist Center parties has easily won the parliamentary election, taking 60 of 101 seats (their smaller partner, the People's Union, secured 6 seats, down from 13). Center had previously been the largest party in the coalition, but their place will be taken by Reform, the party of PM Andrus Ansip, which surged from 19 to 31 seats. The new Green Party entered parliament with 6 seats and the Social Democrats saw a not-entirely-expected surge (if the polls were to be believed) to 10.6% of the vote and 10 seats.

Again, this will change little, but likely Center and Reform will now govern alone, and Ansip seems guaranteed to return to the prime minister's office.

The quick breakdown:
Reform (free-market liberal) / 27.8%, 31
Center (centrist/liberal/agrarian) / 26.1%, 29
Res Publica-Pro Patria (conservative) / 17.9%, 19
Social Democrats / 10.6%, 10
Estonian Greens / 7.1%, 6
People's Union (conservative/nationalist) / 7.1%, 6

Results are available in English from the Estonian Electoral Commission, with regional breakdown in Estonian.

Update: More detailed thought on the electoral system (also in my first post) from Dr. Shugart at Fruits and Votes, and, via F&V, an interesting blogpost by Dr. Josep Colomer on the participation of electoral-systems expert Dr. Rein Taagepera in Estonian politics.

My political compass

I found my political compass... I'm a social libertarian and on the economic left... again, no surprises!

Economic -3.75, Social -4.41

That puts me next to Gandhi, Mandela and the Dalai Lama. Good place to be in, I guess. Most world leaders, policy-wise, come out in the economic-right and social-authoritarian quadrant (that is, the opposite one from me). Interestingly, none of the "economic right" i.e. more neoliberal leaders are at all on the "social libertarian" side of the bar, though I suppose it could be a matter of where you put that bar.

I'd also be curious to know where world leaders stand personally, without political constraints...

Estonians vote

Estonia is electing a new Riigikogu (Parliament) tomorrow, March 4. One of the more interesting sections in the country's riveting Electoral Law is the following:

Section 38 (2) 3). Advance polls shall be held from the sixth day to the fourth
day before election day by electronic means. Voting opens on the sixth day
before the day of election at 9.00 a.m. and lasts on 24-hour basis until the
voting closes on the fourth day before the election day at 8.00 p.m.

Yep--e-voting. Now, one can also go in and cast an in-person advance vote on these days (though not 24 hours). Overall, 19.1 percent of electors have already voted, compared to 14.5 percent last time around (I don't think they had the online option in 2003).

Meanwhile, section 62 of the same law explains the distribution of seats, which is rather complicated. Really, what it comes down to is: an open-list d'Hondt system, with one vote per elector. I think. As follows:

• Mandates are given to any candidate meeting the simple quota in his/her constituency;
• Then, mandates are given to political parties that meet the national 5 percent threshold according to the simple quota divided by that party's total votes, with an extra 75 percent of the simple quota counting as enough for a seat or another seat, and factoring in that some candidates may have already won seats, and the seats go to the most-voted candidates;
• Then, mandates are distributed on a nationally compensatory basis between the same parties, according to d'Hondt (except that the multiplier is 2^0.9, 3^0.9 and so on). Candidates are given mandates on the order that they appear on the national list, if they got at least 5 percent of their simple quota (which shouldn't be horribly difficult). If not, the highest vote-getter gets that compensatory mandate.

And... I think that's it!

As for the actual parties...
Polls show the Center Party leading with the Estonian Reform Party in second. These are the two main parties in the current center-right (liberalish) government. Currently, Reform provides the prime minister, Andrus Ansip, despite being behind the Center Party in seats. The party which won the last election by a wide margin, Res Publica, is trailing despite a merger with another conservative party, Pro Patria. Finally, the Social Democrats, the new Green Party and possibly the conservative/agarian People's Union (the last party in the current coalition) should fill out the parliament.

Estonia is generally known for low taxes, an enterprising attitude, taking initiative online (as is clear with E-voting), and being irritating to Russia (as recently). None of this will likely change whenever the new government takes office.

Finland gears up for new elections

The current Finnish government, which includes the Finnish Center (KESK), the Social Democrats (SDP), and the Swedish People's Party (SFP), has served out a full four-year mandate, and faces elections on March 18. Currently, KESK and SDP are running neck-and-neck in the polls.

Finland uses an open-list constituency PR system; parties therefore take advantage of the drawing power of star candidates, but the system is proportional within the constituencies and generally fairly proportional overall. In Helsinki and the surrounding Uusimaa area, the conservative National Coalition (KOK) and the SDP run strong, while the north and center of the country are dominated first and foremost by the KESK, which still has strong ties to its roots as the Agrarian Party. The other principal parties are the Greens (VIHR) and the Left (VAS) or ex-communists.

One issue that seems to have arisen in this campaign is a guaranteed minimum income (possibly as a replacement to some of the various welfare provisions). The Greens have backed this and it appears that the Center has given this idea support as well; the SDP is opposing it.

In the end, it looks like PM Matti Vanhanen, the most popular leader, might pull out a victory (i.e. plurality) for KESK and enable himself to stay in the big chair. Otherwise, SDP's Eero Heinäluoma will take over. Either way, it looks like the KESK-SDP coalition will remain in power for another four years.

For profiles of the top candidates, there is an article at Virtual Finland.

My personal contributions are these pictures from Helsinki, 2004:

The National Coalition (KOK) campaign booth outside the department store Stockmann


The headquarters of the Social Democratic Party, Helsinki

The crazy optician

This guy (from Toronto) is just crazy. When the consumer advocate reporter comes to talk to him again, he... opens the door in his face, tries to punch him and throws snowballs at the cameraman, then barricades himself inside the store until the riot team arrives.

Apparently, he was:

• Making fake Oakleys and other brand-name glasses (when the reporter confronted him, blamed Oakley);
• Refusing to refund money for the above ("We don't do money back here");
• Performing eye exams, even though in Ontario, opticians are not permitted to do so ("Your eye doctor is probably going to say something like I'm not supposed to do this, but he's my competition").
  

Now he has reportedly changed the name of his business and tried to make it look like the neighboring one. The archive of old news videos about him is here.

Political typology

According to Pew's political typology, I am a "liberal." No surprise there...

It states that 17 percent of the public are liberals; 19 percent of registered voters are liberals.