I wanted to find out why some countries are so rich and others are so poor. Being a free-market guy, my guess was that economic freedom made one place rich and another poor, but it seems not to be the case. There are enormous restraints on economic freedom in Sweden, yet it s undeniably a very prosperous place. It turns out to be law and order, property rights and democracy. Or something that approaches democracy.
Foreigners are always funny.
Not at all, because humour is primarily the study of human folly. On the other hand, if the aid coming into the country to help the victims was subject to terrible corruption, then you could make fun of that, but you can t make fun of the disaster itself. I didn t have any difficulty because the problems of Albania or China are so clearly caused by human folly, which is always a fair target. Yet you do mock the people who are victims of that folly, like the homeless Albanian family you observe from your hotel window. I may make a bit of black humour out of their situation, but I wasn t making fun of the poor little floppy kid who s doubtless dead by now.