Whitney Houston 'chose death': Swedish politician

I agree with him - she was a known drug user and paid the price

I could understanf the coverage and treatment of her if she was a saint - she was a singer

Put her in perspective

I completely agree, just like they went OTT when Jacko died. Also, why exactly did they decide to lower the American flags to half mast?

I do hate our society where once someone dies all the bad stuff they did is forgotten. Being honest about someone's life is not about disrespecting them.

He's right. I completely agree with the guy. She was a waste of space junkie, just like Winehouse.

Perhaps Mr Holmlund might have waited for a more appropriate moment before making his comments than during Ms Houston's funeral; the guys supposed to be a Social Democrat politician, his undiplomatic intervention doesn't do him or his party any credit at all.

Having said that, he does have a point. Ms Houston's addictions have been public knowledge for years. I believe her daughter is currently heading in the same direction. She and her family had time and money to avoid this terrible tragedy; most addcits do not. Too many of today's role models are unfit to be out of a mental hospital, let alone encouraging children to be just like them. When they die as a consequence of their reckless lifestyle, they deserve a dignified and private service, not a celebration that would put a papal funeral in the shade. The theme of the sevice should be; for God's sake children, don't be like her.

this lovely woman was a very talented person.

her voice was so good to the ears, she was better than any Swedish singer that has and will ever be.

Is there any Swede who can sing half as good as Houston?

she definitely deserves more and just because she was a drug addict doesnt mean she didnt change! she donated so much money for charity and was personally to me a wonderful inspiration with her music.

i love her and i know she deserves so much more.

peace and RIP

The Honourable Member of Umea cares.

and i will always love you.

my darling Whitney Houston, with sweet memories.

I also agree with Lenny. There were three bloody stations giving the funeral full coverage, CNN, BBC and our own Channel 7. Enough already. Yes a great singer, but not one deserving of overdone attention. I didn´t watch any of it. Seems to me that the stations needed ratings.

3of the most adored sportsmen in Sweden were drug abusers . One was a record.holding high jumper , while the other 2 were tennis grand slam winners. " 2 of most loved Swedish musicians are drug.users . If one these Swedish idols died tomorrow , I don`t think this idiot would be saying what he has said about Whitney.

If he isso disgusted with the vice of drug abuse , let this wiseacre step forward and say what he thinks of Swedish stars that are known to have used or are using drugs . He should do so while they are still alive or keep his trap shut when they die.

@ Summer Dreams

There`s alot of great Swedish singers. Sweden has probably produced more singers per capita then any other country. Sweden has a long tradition of exporting music and musicans.

But if you want an example of a greater singer then Whitney Houston then you should check out the all time great Swede; Jussi Björling.

I'm not at all surprised that a Social Democrat's politician made this kind of statement. He belongs to the party that is far out of touch with the rest of humanity. What the idiot fails to understand is that what the media is celebrating is not the personality of Whitney Housto per se, but her talent and the joy she had given, and continues to give, to those who listen to her music. And the personal failings of her private life should be a lesson and caution for all of us. I don't expect the primitive politician from Umeå to have ever been in limelight before, if he had been perhaps he would have understood the toll a public life exacts on those who live it.

Untill he walks in her or any other performer/super star's shoe, he doesn't know what he's talking about. He can say what he want's but he's still an insignificant fish in a small pond.

Adding to previous comment: after Love will save the day, she wasn't a good singer better than others, I thought. But she had a unique chic look about her and was a woman in love with her husband, far less of a great talent, but that too she took in a chic way. As for motherhood: when will civilised people ever learn the bigger truth? The mother-hen is disturbed and when she is a personality of her own she is also disturbed. Who is more ideal for what a simple man needs? (Btw not referring ot the Hr Member of Umea)

In the animal kingdom peacock hens are very interesting.And why many assume that the male always shows off to the female I don't know. She is not interested, and he is not doing the 'showing off' to attract the female. And the rearing of their offspring, that too is an interesting thing.

Big time celebrities, despite their fame, fortune and big name, coming home to your mortal skin will always be that last journey to take with you. Let's say if you OD or by assassination, that makes no difference in death.

Finaly a swede with BALLS!

While the timing might be bad, I cannot disagree with his statements.

MIGGA

sweden has produced more garbage singers per capita than any other country.

The Houston's family wanted to have a private funeral but due to public and media pressure, the decided to have it broadcast it. So, don't blame her.

Politicians, in reality, are the biggest liars and hypocrites.

I wouldn't go so far as to say she chose death explicitly, but I'm sure she did by implication of her lifestyle. Other than that, I agree with him. I think the media coverage is ridiculous. There is civil war in Syria and Whitney Houston's Funeral is preempting it. Real news on television is a rare commodity.

@ Marc the Texan , we live in a world of choices . Al Jazira is always there for guys that like watching wars. The media has neither the power nor the means to force anybody to watch a "ridiculous " funeral of drug addict.

@fikatid talks about hypocrites . Maybe he should put your name on the same list like the politicians . If you have to come on The Local to write a comment , you must be the kind of person who watched the funeral on TV. I bet that Lennart Holmlund watched too.

@Migga , you must have an incredible sense of humour . There are only a few blessed people who can even think what you just wrote.

Remove Houston's popularity and make an unknown black woman in NJ- having never been discovered and she would like so many other mothers who choose to feed their addictions than care for their children. She would likely be living on the street selling her body or begging for money to get her next fix...AFTER her children had been taken by the state. She would just be another sad crack head living on the street doing sexual favors for a rock or two. IF YOU TAKE AWAY HER CELEBRITY AND THAT IS WHO SHE IS EQUAL TO...whether one is a captain of industry, celebrity, cashier at a supermarket or a street hooker it all boils down to the same thing- she like Millions of others are loathesome drug addicts who OD...END OF STORY.

Who cares what a little politician in a little northern country says. Shut up!!!

Some chose drugs, others choose alcohol. And the rest "Swedish politicians" choose to be mind numbingly stupid....

@4thGenWarrior dear , the same can be said about Lennart Holmlund . If you removed all those things that separate him from somebody else , you would end up with nothing but a compelete bum . This man is a useless whiner. Even from her grave Whitney is more famous than 5 million Lennart Holmlunds.

Lennart Holmlund should take a look at the right of this page . There is Madonna`s picture with her legs wide open . If he want to cure the sick world , why the hell does he not ask the government to make a law that forbids the media from promoting this "crazy diva" culture ?

Personally I think she fell sleep in the bath and slipped the water and drowned.

This Britney Hewson may be more famous than this Swedish politician - but he is alive and she isn't and it's nobody's fault but her own.

BTW - The photo of Maradonna crapping in a suitcase is one of my all-time favourites.

People please: The coroner's report is not yet out on what was the cause of Whitney Houston's death. Every one blames her past use of drugs. Before you draw conclusions wait for the facts. As we know most of the politicians do not have the highest Intelligence. Wonder why we elect them?

@Dave N

this damn politician is barely alive . No intelligent sane person with a functioning brain blames the dead . Kicking the dead is worse than using drugs . If this idiot thinks he cares about Whitneys daughter , how on earth does he help by insulting her mother before she is even put in her grave ?

BTW : if you like Maradonna , you will have to deal with his drug addiction too . But if you like Madonna`s photo , you better get ready ; one day you will wake up with the news that that "suitcase" has killed her .

@EP

Who ever cares what an anonymous commenter on a news web site writes?

It is a great shame that a politician that want people to vote for his party could say this. None of us have gone through the same struggle she went through. despite her struggle, she affected million of lives with her music.

she left a legacy of music, though she could not overcome her personal demons. I wonder what any of us have ever done to humanity. it is easy to judge and condemn others as it is usually the case on the forum. be it immigrants, Muslims, christians and so on.

an idiot imbesile bash talks a woman who donated so much to charity

what on this Gods green earth has he done for humanity except knakra bread manufacturing

As far as I've heard, the autopsy results have not been published yet, and will not be for another several weeks.

Recall that the actor Keith Ledger died when he took the doctor prescribed amounts of two or three different medications, which, if taken together, turn out to be a lethal combination.

The tribute does not have to do anything with Whitney, it was yet another cheap reality TV show. I wonder how far US TV companies can go..... now funeral...

@Jes: Get a life. I see that you make comments of almost everyone's comment.

" If you have to come on The Local to write a comment , you must be the kind of person who watched the funeral on TV."

Looks who has been writing comments about others' comments.

As far as we all know Whitney Houston is American. there are lot of people may be junkies, rapers, sickos, etc. so what has it got to do with Sweden and Swedish politicians?

However, Negroes in America and elsewhere has been going through a dreadful growth of their lives because of the impact of forgotten and uncompensated brutal British enslavement for 2000 years.

Facts: As soon as Europeans began to settle in America, in the early 16th century, they imported enslaved Africans to work for them. As European settlement grew, so did the demand for enslaved people. Over the next 300 years more than 11 million enslaved people were transported across the Atlantic from Africa to America and the West Indies, and Britain led this trade from the mid-17th century onwards. Ports such as Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow sent out many slaving ships each year, bringing great prosperity to their owners. Many other cities also grew rich on the profits of industries which depended on slave-produced materials such as cotton, sugar and tobacco.

Whitney was never a slave. Slavery has nothing to do with Whitney suckin on a crack pipe.

No one was standing over her holding a gun to her head telling she had to snort that cocaine or drink the alcohol. I have no sympathy for her but I do have it for her family and friends. See what happens when you are selfish it not only destroys your life but the lives of the people around you that care and love you. I agree I am so tired of hearing Whitney this Whitney that-enough!!!

My mother how is dying of lung cancer has never hurt a single soul in this World deserves to live a long life and yet no one knows what she is going through except for immediate family and friends. There won't be no big TV shows and news broadcasts about her when she is gone. So I have absolutely no sympathy for Whitney!!

Greysuede, with all due respect you need to bone up alittle on your American History. The Puritans did not use slaves as they were anti-slavery. Aside from the Puritans no one else "settled" in the New World until the 17th century in 1607 at Jamestown. Even during the Jamestown expedition the English did not use slaves African or otherwise, but they did use indentured servants, which are not slaves. In what would become Florida the Spanish did settle in 1565 (which is the 16th century but they did not use slaves). Additionally, slavery did not enter "American" businesses until the 17th century and that almost exclusively happened in the Southern US in order, almost exclusively, to harvest the world's cotton source. While there were slaves used to pick tobacco it was less practiced than was cotton since cotton was the main export feeding the American economy, at the time.

All that being said I understand your point and agree. Good post.

This is great entertainment. The ever so quaint Swedes extolling virtue and morality on the world. Give it a rest Mary Poppins! The TV stations put whatever crap on there they think will catch enough people's attention to be brainwashed by all the adverts they are bombarded with. Sweden is so progressive with so much whining about what is on TV. Switch the channel, read a book, GET A LIFE! And it was an astute observation by one here, Umea, a now where place in the middle of nowhere, who the hell cares about what some inbred political pansy has to say about anything!

The late lady has got some great talent during her hayday!

That's all. She is not mother Theresa for heaven's sake!

She has nothing to do with Sweden too.

Just some Swedish politician that has nothing much to do or say.

ha ha atlast a SWEDE dare enough to speak facts... Much appreciated, dumb idiots keep on talking how great she was !! Come on !!

The blacks still feel angry and oppressed. Many British and American Negros suffer from a sub-conscious inferiority complex these days due to systematic British enslavement perpetrated on their ancestors. That's why they hooked on drugs and criminally offensive. We shouldn't forget that the slaves' status for Negros as human beings were being attacked by barbaric practices such as castration and the removal of limbs for small infractions, which physically incapacitated slaves who were already suffering from hellish psychological torment and indoctrination, at the hands of British slave owners.

@ 4thGenWarrior: I agree that the Puritans and some other ordinary people were not the profiteers but slave-owning planters, and merchants who dealt in slaves and slave produce, were among the richest people in 18th-century Britain. Profits from these activities helped to endow All Souls College, Oxford, with a splendid library, to build a score of banks, including Barclays, and to finance the experiments of James Watt, inventor of the first really efficient steam engine. Liverpool merchant bankers, heavily involved in the slave-based trades, extended vital credit to the early cotton manufacturers of its Lancashire hinterland. The trade became a very lucrative business. Bristol grew rich on it, then Liverpool. London also dealt in slaves as did some of the smaller British ports. The specialised vessels were built in many British shipyards, but most were constructed in Liverpool.

Therefore Miss Whitney Houston case may stem from the psychological impact of slavery and colonization on the Negros.

I was in love with Ms Houston.

I agree with Greysuede. Ms Houston abused drugs and alcohol and then died, because of slavery and the colonisation of Africa 300 years ago. I'm surprised no one else has commented on this obvious link.

Certainly most of the psychological stress experienced in their genes of many black men being inherited by the brutality of British enslavement of their ancestors go unnoticed until it manifests itself in the form of drug and alcohol abuse, spousal abuse, psychosis, suicides, etc.

E.g., late Mr Michael Jackson and his doctor legacy; British boxers Mr David Haye and Mr Dereck Chisora's Munich brawl the other day, etc.

I also agee with Greysuede that Michael Jackson, abused presciption drugs, his doctor is a negligent criminal, and Messrs Haye and Chisora are violent thugs because of slavery and the colonisation of Africa 300 years ago.

Keep posting Greysuede, this is great.

@Robinhood,

Do you think that Greysuede has solved the whole problem of delinquent behaviour in the African American and African British population. Maybe he should be put forward for a Nobel prize!

I previously thought that Ms Huston was the spoilt daughter of a wealthy singer who was used to having her own way and chose to be a junkie, how wrong can one be!

@Rick

Yes and yes.

fikatid , I write about silly comments ; yours was silly.

I grew up listening to Whitneys music .She was special ! Though I felt dissappointed and betrayed when she turned to drugs , I was sad when she passed away ......

I am cultured and intelligent enough to respect the dead even if I hate the sort of lifestyle they lived . If Lennart Holmlund had a heart , he would have kept quiet , at least to show respect to Mrs Cissy Huston , the mother who faught so hard to save her only daughter`s life and lost her anyway.

As a parent myself , I can only imagine how she was feeling on the day when Lennart was writting his daft houghts on his stupid blog ... so I watched the funeral and I am interested in what people say about her . That is why I comment . I believe that if I hated Whitney as Lennart and some commentators claim to do, I would naturally ignore all the media coverage over her life and death.. You will see that there are a lot of artcles that I have no interest to comment on

There is no hope for the future, that is sure you people!

I am so surprised that THE LOCAL allows commentator @greysuede to freely spew racial insults .

having an opinion,if a little bizzare, and spewing racial insults are two very different things.Cant someone have an opinion in this country without someone suggesting that some law is being broken?

What opinion ?

Would it an applausible opion if someone said that all white Swedes are dumb a***s just because Lennart Holmlund has decided to kick a dead person ?

Okey , maybe @graysuede`s opinion is correct .

Elvis was a negro

George Best was a slave

Lindsay Lohan has slave genes

Kate Moss is Whitneys young sister Courtney love---

Drew Barrymore ---!

Robert Dawney...?

Charles Sheen -----?

Maybe Adolf Hitler and Anderd Breivik inherited brutality from their black ancestors ?

Yes Sir , someone can have an opinion even if it insults and provokes anger from other people . Of course it does not make any sense to say that not all black people are aggresive drug users , does it ?

Of course all substance abusers and serial killers are offsprings of black slaves .

Since @greysuede has such wonderfull opinions , maybe he has another brilliant opinion on why Sweden that does not have "slave genes" happens to have one of highest number of suicides among young people ... and why the media is forbidden to publish the names of young people who commit suicide.

I hold my breath ------

Yes, Britney Hewson's death is sad. But it doesn't compare to the loss to the music industry caused by the deaths of real giants like Elvis Priestley, John Lemon and Jimi Hendriksson.

I mean, even her best known song was just a cover of "I will always love him" by Dolly Partridge.

Annihilating systematic slavery and colonization of Negros perpetrated by British Empire for centuries and its consequent psychological effects these days shouldn't be perplexed with the lifestyle of some rascals like Elvis, Best , Katarina Moss, Courtney Love, Amy Winehouse, Lindsey Lohan, Kim Kardashian, etc.

Shouldn`t be perplexed with the lifestyle of some rascals who use drugs ?

What an ingenous observation !

Whitney should rest relieved , now t that The Local`s Einstein has declared that it is most likely that her drug problems might have been related to "lifestyle " rather than her slave genes.

Next ?

We wonder which genes are responsible for turning "pure" people into "rascals" ?

@Jes, I have been reading your comments and I must say, you clearly have a good head and a good heart. May your wisdom enlighten those who think they know. God bless you!

Thank you @Galadima !

It is unfortunate to note that although 97% humans have okey heads and good hearts , it is always 3 % blank-headed cowards that tend to vist places like this.

I can bet my ten fingures that @greysuede cannot stand in front of a black person and repeat the garbage he puts here .