Happening in the Swedish Parliament: The annual foreign policy debate will take place on Wednesday, starting at 9.00hrs.

“The debate will be introduced with the presentation of the Statement of Government Policy on Foreign Affairs by the Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt (Moderate Party). Also on Wednesday, there will be a debate and decision on whether Sweden should ratify the ILO Maritime Labour Convention from 2006. Another item for consideration will be the application of the Act concerning Special Controls in Respect of Aliens.”

It will be transmitted live and direct 0900 – 1200 on SVT2

Around the same time last year , so too this year it will be broadcast live and direct from the same channel.

Will also be available here

Of some comfort, Sweden at the top

We (those of us who are interested in such matters) will be fully tuned to this live event.

Foreign Affairs : Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, Down Under,  Aliens in even Outer Space…

It’s an opportunity not to be missed and it promises some drama/excitement as without a doubt, (trust these women) Urban Ahlin the embattled Social Democrat shadow foreign minister under Juholt has been sharpening his knives and his claws and as he has done his military service he is perhaps even presently loading his Swedish K or his SMG M2CG/ “Carl Gustaf ” and will be taking aim with his reliable Carl Gustaf cannons (only verbally of course) at his arch-enemy (only politically speaking of course) our Carl Bildt, the Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Ahlin I’m sure will somehow or other try to weave in Lundin Oil into whatever he will be saying about Schyibbe & Persson about whose fate Fredrik the Great Moderate is hopeful.

What else will they talk about? How much longer Swedish troops will be stationed in Afghanistan?

The situation in Syria gives much cause for concern – it’s “flesh and blood breaking down.”

This article which bemoans “Syria and its descent into barbarism” was written five months ago and since then the descent into hell has accelerated and we are now at the brink of the abyss with China and Russia standing on one side and the rest of the World of the so called United Nations on the other side, with even the brothers in the Arab League, impotently looking on, unable to stop the carnage.

No doubt mention will be made of the seriousness of Iran and the bomb that is feared could be used to complete the Holocaust which some of the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran say never took place. They sponsored a Holocaust Denial get-together conference of like minded criminals.

There are many other foreign policy areas that will no doubt be reviewed, the most important of which will be some more back and forth about the stalled so-called peace process, as the Middle East is also a major area of Sweden’s foreign policy concerns.

For some time now (touch wood) the era of the suicide bomber has been  over in Israel, but even that has not brought the Palestinians to the negotiating table. Fatah and Hamas are now united in their intention to replace/ displace Israel by erecting a Palestinian Islamic State where Israel used to be – to the consternation and greater concern of the Israeli government

It’s good to be clear about all this and there are many sides to a story….

PM Netanyahu’s response to agreement between PA Chairman and Hamas

Here’s Ted Belman’s take on The Poor Palestinians

The tendency – a strong Social Democrat tendency and in my own experience a general Swedish tendency is to say “oh the Poor Palestinians “. For some people “the poor Palestinians” also conveys an image other than that of the suicide bomber - the image of one who as a suicide bomber mortgages his soul to the 72 virgins of paradise and like Patrick Henry says “Give me liberty or give me death!”

That a sentient being is compelled to go that far ( self-destruction)  in pursuing the goal of self -determination/ Liberation/ Freedom/ a Palestinian State is not beyond understanding…..and that understanding in and of itself does not bring the peace and security which is a stepping stone to the prosperity of the Middle East…..

P.S.

Still thinking about that slave auction in Lund as an international issue/an issue of international dimensions, that reflects on us ( Sweden)  depending on how we deal with such issues. In this regard I should like to draw attention to the matter of hate speech and racism – as it is responded to in other countries where it is not politically “correct “ (not even idiotically) to defend it or the distribution of those posters, in the name of “freedom of speech” just as the European Court of Human Rights upheld our (Sweden’s) Supreme Court’s judgement that it is not “Freedom of Speech” to distribute morally repugnant anti-Gay flyers.

On first reading this really good news that Kwame Anthony Appiah has been awarded the 2011 National Humanities Medal , I thought,“That’s another big difference between Brother Obama and Mitt Romney: Brother Obama is more of a Humanist, whereas, as everybody on the panel on this morning’s Dateline London observed, Mitt Romney is a hard sell, he’s strident and on the border of sounding hysterical al-right, his rhetoric on the way to going over the top, spinning out of control (hello – that’s no way to talk to Russia, Iran, Africa, South America and China) and he simply lacks credibility, is not being taken for sincerity or for being genuine – I hazard a guess that he ’s going to be very flustered, disappointed, angry maybe even feeling vengeful after losing to Brother Obama, come November. At which time it should be futile for John Wayne dressed in a businessman’s suit to be crying over spilt milk.”

The economy is picking up, so they say. I’m sure that Romney is upset about that too and would much prefer that the economy took a nosedive so that he can blame it all on Brother Obama. That would considerably improve his chances of occupying the Oval Office.

More people are getting employed, although the figures are not yet such that Brother Obama should be absolutely happy about the problem of unemployment. Here too, the more the unemployment figures improve, the more depressed Romney is going to be feeling.

In other words, the more the economy and unemployment worsen, the happier Romney will be and the more loudly he will be shouting about “taking back our country” (taking back or taking forward?) and the more he will be preaching from the Mormon political pulpit about “Great America” “ American Values” – and perhaps about the virtues of the greatest American Prophet of all time, his Joseph Smith……

But today it’s one of the mortals that I most admire, Kwame Anthony Appiah that’s being celebrated and not Smith & Wesson or Smith & Romney whose Republicans on the whole, are not happy with him

Kwame Anthony Appiah has made major contributions to the education of the Human Being since the publication of his “In My Father’s House” in 1992. I anticipate what he would say about this most welcome landmark judgement by the European Court of Human Rights: Swedes’ anti-gay flyers not free speech , and I’m even more curious about his and Lewis Ricardo Gordon’s humanistic approach to some of rabid bigotry’s basic assumptions about this particular case and this other landmark judgement about the aftermath of the Lund “ Slave auction”

http://www.thelocal.se/search.php?keywordSearch=Slave+auction&search=Go

About Gay Rights I am happy to say that light has been added to light and I was enlightened for all time – not by James Baldwin or Langston Hughes, but only after listening to the inimitable Zeinab Badawi discuss these important matters on Hardtalk with Edwin Cameron

The programme is available for listening HERE: Edwin Cameron 30 Jan 12

also

HARDtalk – Part1: Edwin Cameron

HARDtalk – Part2: Edwin Cameron….

…

Cutting out all of the Jesus bit, this morning I listened to and was otherwise inspired by Joel Osteen’s

Knowing What To Ignore

Some sound advice there.

I notice that he didn’t say, “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.”

Idleness:

Just wondering about this Swedish TV series “Bonde Söker fru”/ “Farmer looking for a wife” which I have never watched, since I am not in the category. I’m sure that I’m not the only male who thinks that it’s a waste of time watching such a programme. Of course if the title of the programme were slightly reversed to “Female farmer looking for a man”, some of the chronic bachelors would be surely sending in their applications for the job. As the Qur’an says, “Your women are a tilth for you (to cultivate) so go to your tilth as ye will…”

Others are still looking for that Advert in Sam Selvon’s “Moses Ascending” to pop up : “ Desperate rich White Woman seeks black companion with a view to Matrimony”

If all of the above is too depressing, then watch President Obama’s First Lady Michelle Obama beat Jimmy Fallon in the potatoe race…..( I’m sure that she would also beat Mrs. Gingrich, Mrs Romney and any a them in any kind of race…..

African Israeli  Stage ( AIS) presents Wole Soyinka’s “ The Lion and the Jewel “

In case you are wondering what’s AIS/ African Israeli  Stage, click and find out, or better still before the shows are completely sold out as they will be if you don’t move like you are in a hurry, in the words of the last two lines of “Telephone Conversation”

“…………………….”wouldn’t you rather
See for yourself?”

A young Wole Soyinka, cigar in hand.

Website for this image

Don’t be self-ish, be real good and Swede-ish : get yourself a couple of tickets and take a friend/friends with you to experience Soyinka’s pastoral idyll The Lion and the Jewel - and believe it or not Global what’s your name, I wrote pastoral idyll will even concede pastoral intrigue and standing on my home turf I should know what I’m talking about because I wrote a minor thesis entitled “Tradition and Change in Modern West African Drama” for the University of Durham in 1969, on that period of Wole Soyinka and John Pepper Clark’s drama – and in addition to that had the privilege of keeping the company of Wole who was then, still is my dramatist idol, here in Stockholm in 1979 for a whole week, sometimes all to myself ( yes, self-ish) – met him at the PEN conference – can you imagine, had breakfast with him at the Grand Hotel, dinner with him and Kofi Awoonor at Prinsen I think it was, someone threw a party we were there (Better Half and I) showed me the manuscripts of work-in-progress (this was in the age of the portable Olivetti typewriter ) – and finally saw him off at Vasagatan, unfortunately did not accompany him to Arlanda because I had some “give us this day our daily bread “ chores to attend to….anyway I have chronicled some of that glorious week with Soyinka somewhere here (can’t find exactly where) – expect the publication of much more fulsome versions sometime soon…..

In 1979 , walking through Kungsträdgården to the Hotel we were approached by some hoodlums who wanted to sell us some “Shit”.

“What was that all about  ?”,  he asked

“Oh just some crazy people!” said I.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize seven years later, in 1986….they (the hoodlums) wouldn’t approach us in the same impudent manner nowadays, because it’s now

“Fortune and fame’s such a curious game

Perfect strangers can call you by name”

What has all this personal flavourization got to do with “The Lion and The Jewel”? I’ll tell you:

For me the excitement is about African theatre in Sweden!Soyinka on stage, here – and great curiosity on my part and I’m sure on your part too as to how the director Yaffa-Shein Schuster /African Israeli Stage go about interpreting this play which gives ample opportunities of using mime and dance as a flashback technique for example. Suffice it to say that when they performed the play in Ile-Ife, the bastion of Yoruba and theatre studies in Nigeria, “Members of staff and students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, were last Saturday thrilled by Israelis who staged Wole Soyinka’s popular play The Lion and the Jewel….a remarkable performance…” (The Nation 25/11/ 2010 p.37)…and …and I’m oddly reminded – it was in all the gossip columns that when Soyinka himself directed the play in the US – you believe it or not – he could not find a single African-American actress who was capable of balancing a calabash of water on her head and walking gracefully onwards to her destination….. not one…..

Wole Soyinka. All you want to know about.

Daily Alert########

J T A

News and Information

Israelinsider

FrontPage Magazine

Atlas Shrugs

Swedish news

CAMERA : Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting

MEMRI

World Newspapers

First the good news:

Persson and Schibbye

all they have to say

is that they are sorry

for what they did

and solemnly promise

not to do it again.

All Sweden has been praying for the release of these two guys….

Another feather in his cap, Carl Bildt must be feeling very happy about this.

This is what happens when you give quiet diplomacy / behind-the-scenes diplomacy a chance.

But in other quarters the deal’s not done yet, it’s still cautious optimism

More good news: A new Israeli drug can treat multiple forms of cancer.

Bank of England injects £50bn into economy

Global Good News – Good news from around the world

Lagom : snowflakes still falling about the new retirement age

Mind the language which is not even funny :

Chris Rock on Careers, Jobs and Money

( after phase three

it’s the cemetery )

The worst of the macabre:

Criminal : Iranian Website: “Kill All Jews and Annihilate Israel!”

Iran: We Must attack Israel by 2014 (taqiyya means that the attack could take place any time from now)

Meanwhile in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, Boko Haram is still busy reducing Nigeria’s population : Northern Elders Demand Security Guarantee For Boko Haram Members Before Dialogue

Christians living in the Islamic North are afraid to stay in that part of Nigeria, because of Boko Haram

What’s happening in Nigeria is very important, because if Nigeria is destabilised this will have an adverse effect on the whole of the ECOWAS region…..

Today’s worst news. Syria still a disaster…..

African Leaders would not be happy to promulgate a law requiring them to retire by the time they are 75 years of age. They more than anyone else would be most likely to protest about such “åldersdiskriminering” otherwise known as ageism or age-discrimination

Some other African presidents would much prefer to dispense with this irksome business of “raising the retirement age” and just settle for the title “President for Life”, and  as ” president for life”, pray to live longer than Methuselah so that they could be president for at least nine centuries…

African leaders show there are many countries for old men

Africa has a couple of octogenarian presidents who want to continue as president-for-life

It would be a good to have an age limit, a retirement age for some of the African presidents and a limit to the number of terms an African president can continue to be president, so that they can avoid the temptation of wanting to be president forever

In Malawi, Hastings Kamuzu Banda born in 1896, was president of Malawi from 1961 to 1994 .

In Tunisia there was Habib Bourguiba who was president of Tunisia from 1957 till 1987 when as an 84 year old he was deposed by Ben Ali.

The unelected Gaddafi ruled from 1969 to 2011.

In Zimbabwe we have “King Bob” as the 87-year-old Mugabe is affectionately called by the dispossessed White farmers. In 2002 he told Tony Blair “ So, Blair keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe.” Well, ten years later “King Bob” is still president of his Zimbabwe, whilst Tony Blair (born in Scotland) is no longer Prime Minister of Britain.

Zimbabwe’s octogenarian president to contest election next year

In Senegal we have 86-year-old Abdoulaye Wade who wants to go on rocking as Senegal’s president, forever.  Possibly, inspired by Yoweri Museveni who constitutionally engineered a third term for himself, the 86-year-old Wade also wants a third term. His motto is probably,

“Old boy, you gonna rock till you drop”

Senegal election: Protests as Wade gets tilt at third term – storyful

No doubt, you may have some difficulty imagining the Social Democrats choosing an 86-year-old to lead the party to victory in 2014, but in Zimbabwe and Senegal the elders cannot be accused of senility, and if they are or become senile, senility is not a crime according to their laws…

Why can’t these presidents learn from or be inspired by Madiba Nelson Mandela who gracefully handed over to his successor – at the height of his own popularity, both at home and abroad?

relax

Liberation Riddim

Surprise, surprise and I wasn’t in the least expecting all this!

Woke up with “Mode ani l’fonecha ”, washed my hands as the Kohanim of old, to dedicate today’s activities to the service of the Almighty, said the blessing that’s said before eating bread…… and eventually the Shema in the heart and then went for the Dagens Nyheter which the newspaper delivery man leaves at the door every morning and the morning so far has been full of surprises: There was our Prime Minister sitting on a red sofa (yes red) and looking confidently at me like a travelling car salesman, straight in the eye and beside him the headline proclaimed : “Reinfeldt flaggar för arbetsliv till 75 år” ( Reinfeldt proposes that you work till the age of 75!” - and like James in Dinner For One (same procedure as last year), I thought, “I’ll kill that cat!” – because I for one, hope to begin a life in happy retirement, beginning in a few months time – and no one – NO ONE is going to  stop that. The nigger wasn’t born to be a workaholic…..and in fact here is his song

Since he is wise, Stefan “Superman” Löfven will simply have to postpone the debate that he would like to have with Fredrik the Great, will have to sit down and take stock of the new series of pre-emptive measures that are being proposed by our Prime Minister, they are overwhelmingly to the general popular liking, it’s like pulling the rug from under the Superman’s feet. To wit, the Great Moderate proposes:

1. Raising the retirement age to 75 years of age

2.The possibility of studying after the age of 50

3. The possibility of changing from doing heavy (physical) work to doing something lighter in mid-life

and a few other good ( for some controversial ) ideas which you can read about here

About 1 ( Raising the retirement age to 75 years of age ): it’s obvious that some will die before they retire – of course the Protestant Ethic is very strong in Lutheran Sweden – as strong as in Confucian China; ( another good book) and just because people have stopped going to Church doesn’t mean that the Protestant ethic has stopped working in their souls, it’s woven into the fabric of Swedish culture – and – its a good old Social Democrat value arbetsmoral and one to be held in high regard and assiduously practised : the worker ethic: work till you drop. No lazy bones philosophy, no Rip Van Winkle ( In the Hindu system there are the four ashramas of life, and at stage four, you retire into the forest to contemplate the meaning of life and prepare for the transition into the Hereafter (also known as the Everlasting Life, but only after you die)

About 2 (The possibility of studying after the age of 50) I understand that today, the situation is that you are not granted a study loan/ scholarship after the age of 40 – so it’s good that with a mind that’s very much alive and curious, it’s now possible to switch from studying Philosophy till your 40, and then branching on to Anthropology, or Psychology after 40, and perhaps by the time you are 65 ( old retirement age) you can start delving into geriatric studies before it’s too late….

Needless to say, 3 (the possibility of changing from heavy work to something lighter in mid-life) will be approved by all the Medical authorities, and here I am thinking of my beloved, late Sister-in- Law, Professor Åsa Kilbom who spent a lifetime of research at the Arbetslivsinstitut – she too would have been happy to see this day…

( I must now leave for my daily bread pursuit)

To be or not to be?

To be continued….

The fallout: some comments and responses from The Local

I have always thought that people should retire early to give place to the youths. How the economics of this works out in industrialized countries is for the experts to tell us

With better health care, longevity in Europe is increasingly a new reality. We will soon be wishing people Happy Birthday with the traditional Jewish greeting “ May you live to be 120 years old” (like Moses) – and mean it most sincerely.

( In some of the developing countries, the expected life expectancy for men is 38 years and for women 40 years – you can imagine how meaningful our PM’s proposal would sound to the ears of such citizens…..)

I’m actively looking into these, so that some “global“ nutter doesn’t tell me, after qualifying for Harvard/ Yale, Oxford/ Cambridge etc and after six years of university studies before arriving in Sweden, in 1971, that “the world is full of ignorant, poorly educated people like Hamelberg “

At least when I met my wife Ebba in 1969 she had a Masters from Stockholm University – and  she didn’t think so about me, as we got married and set off together for other post-graduate studies – before returning to Sweden. (check us out here)

Nutter should know that I didn’t fall off a tree and that when my big boss kicks ass it will remain kicked. That’s something he should have no doubts about. My mother’s father was  a lawyer, so was his younger brother. It’s good to have a profession. Architect, accountant, auditor are also good professions….

Europe, Retirement age ( countries in Europe)

The economics of early/ late retirement age

What the economists say about raising the retirement age

Life expectancy rates ( by country)

Of relevance:

Improve the Quality of Your Life

An earlier post

Life time: prayer time, work time, leisure time,

Many Happy Returns and Congratulations to Her Majesty and Family!

Queen commemorates 60-year reign

A very official occasion

Consider, Queen Elisabeth II, the Mother of a great Family !

Queen Elizabeth the Supreme Governor of the Church of England

The British Monarchy, is one of the oldest and most stable in the world, it’s an institution that’s very popular with all Brits; you have portraits of Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II, Prince Philip & and the Royal Family in most of the homes I have visited. At our family home in Edgware – when my mother was alive, such a portrait would be one of the first things that you’d notice.

Her Majesty is much loved by her subjects, worldwide…

In the British colonies, celebrating the Queen’s birthday, singing “God save the Queen” on certain ceremonial occasions, at the beginning or end of some cinema shows or public events was the order of the day.

As the head of the Commonwealth, Her Majesty the Queen is still one of the most important and certainly one of the most politically powerful monarchs in today’s world.

The announcement of who’s on the Queen’s New Year Honours List is still something that some good people look forward to with abated breath….some are Knighted, others receive the OBE, MBE….

I am a royalist at heart and unabashedly so; if I want to be romantic about it, well, I was a child and living at Kingsley Manor, in Reigate, Surrey , at the time of  Her Majesty’s accession to the throne  and living in London at the time of  Queen Elisabeth II’s Coronation …. this too at a time when I travelled on a British Passport…..I am being sentimental and like everyone else have followed the history of the Royal family, of  Prince Charles and Princess Anne who are very much, contemporaries, just as for others it’s Prince William and Prince Harry.

Sadly, the Queen Mother, much loved by all, and Lady Diana and Princess Margaret are no longer with us…..

Another item of good news is that CARL BILDT has been given TOP MARKS for Sweden’s FOREIGN POLICY by a reputable Think Tank

So, the Swedish trinity comprises Reinfeldt, Borg and Bildt….( they would prefer trinty to troika…..

To the rescue

(With many thanks to the picture source) :http://bengtbernstrom.blogspot.com/2012/01/superman.html

In the beginning it was Great Expectations.That was followed by some minor scandals – one after the other, each one magnified out of all proportion but enough to rock the boat. The scandals ended in Juholt’s resignation. But despondency and despair did not last long and as the holy book of Islam says, “after hardship cometh ease”: Less than a week later the great euphoria took possession of Sweden’s Social Democrats with the proclamation that the former boss of Swedish Steel had now incarnated as Superman to take the Social Democrats under his wings. Everybody in the Social Democrats was happy: Mona Sahlin was cooing; even Juholt himself appeared to be ecstatic or much relieved, to say the least.

To all intents and purposes Superman did not arrive from heaven but seemed to have all the trimmings and the wings of Social Democracy’s new messiah.The Last one was Olof Palme

Before him it was Tage Erlander Before him Per Albin Hansson and before him Hjalmar Branting..

Ingvar Carlsson did not quite measure up to messiah status in the general public’s estimation and the Great Göran did come back a second time – normally enough to confirm anyone’s messiah-ship but for the fact that (great expectations) the messiah is not supposed to lose and had the great Göran done it three times his place would have been established – incontrovertibly – in the annals of Swedish Social Democracy history, for all time.

Tragically, despite all the talk about e-quality till now, the Social Democrats have not yet produced an outstanding female leader.

Cognisant of this fact the new superman has said that when he names his team it will be evident

that half of Sweden’s population is fe-male.

Well, a week after his appointment as Chairman of the Social Democrat Party,Superman still hasn’t named his team yet. Everybody’s waiting to see who he will be naming. I for one am wondering whether or not Urban Ahlin is going to be his Carl Bildt in the shadow cabinet

He is no hurry. He is taking his time

But already, the news is that Stefan “Superman” Löfven the challenger is ready and waiting – to debate and debase prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. This is not mere speculation, Mr. Löfven is reported to have said that he is ready to meet Fredrik Reinfeldt in a debate. “It’s something I would like to do today.” he said, “There’s so much to discuss about what is wrong in (Swedish) society “

“Swedish society” of course sounds a little more vague than putting it straight to F:R : “There’s a lot of wrong, a lot of bad things that I’d like to see changed in this our beloved country”…

Que sera sera….

That first meeting (maybe a TV debate) is so very important – as the saying goes, ” You’ve only got one chance to make a great first impression” – and as the other saying goes, “ first impressions go a long way.” Everybody in Sweden is wondering, what kind of guy is this Stefan Löfven? Can he take on Fredrik the Great Moderate? Is he up to it? We (Sweden) will soon see.

Just like Brother Obama, Fredrik Reinfedt gives the impression of being cool, calm and collected even in very stressful situations (unlike Romney who gets so easily flustered and overly over-excited, blushing, gushing, flushing, sweaty and oft-times losing his cool in the face of just a little adversity.) .

Furthermore, the Great Fredrik is very experienced.This is his second term in the saddle and let’s not be deceived by his soulful eyes, rumour has it that he’s stronger than Stalin when it comes to maintaining strict internal party discipline (not likely to face the kind of revolt that Hägglund the Christian Democrat leader was facing lately. He too must be congratulated for being able to put down the rebellion in his party, emerging the winner by more than a hundred votes when he was challenged by the older and more experienced upstart Mats Odell, who should have known better. But Odell is probably like me, waiting for things to escalate gradually before delivering the first uppercut. To succeed, Odell should have gone for the jugular from the word go. Just as I’m sure, Superman’s going to go for Reinfeldt’s, about unemployment – youth unemployment in particular, and there are other issues on the front burner, but it’s a long way to 2014…..

Although Superman hasn’t shown himself yet it’s already got to the point that we now come across headlines like this one:

“Löfven more respected than Reinfeldt and Borg “

Whatever next? Maybe the privitisation of prisons…

Anders Borg is presently enjoying stardom status in Europe because of the great state of the Swedish economy. Neither Borg nor the status of Sweden’s economy is a matter of contention, but take a look at this article which appeared in Dagens Nyheter on the 30^th of January: its argues, just as many Social Democrats have been jealously arguing, that the present government inherited a good economy from the last Social Democrat Government and that “Sweden’s good economy is is not only the result of the alliance’s good works”

Here are a few articles supportive of Stefan Löfven from the most expected sources.

It comes as no surprise that there’s controversy about the EURO pact

It’s far from a United Front by Swedish Trade Unions and some of their economists are wary of the Euro Pact

The Social Democrats Party leader wants a review of the EURO-pact

…and they say that all is not well with the the Swedish Welfare System. That too is going to be up and on the agenda for discussion and debate,  sooner or later when the two champions meet

Finally, yes finally, here’s some news that should be of interest to e.g. the Sweden Democrats :

There’s a propsal that Only immigrants capable of earning at least £31,000 annually will be allowed to settle in the UK

£31, 000 = approximately 330, 218 Swedish Crowns

United With Israel

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CAMERA : Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting

MEMRI

NO, we don’t want anyone having the legal right to start putting up posters of people they don’t like, naked on TV all in the name of free speech and that it’s “a threat when the government is empowered to define what expressions of opinion should be protected.” – unless of course we are not the government.

There are no poor or poorly educated people there, so you go and do that in Thailand or Japan – you don’t respect the Monarchy there, not to mention Saudi Arabia, it should be a good thing that the judgement is “ off with his head” and that it should be abrupt

We remember the incident in the 2006 world cup final when somebody abused the female members of Zinedine Zidane’s family as a result of which the insolent football opponent got a spontaneous headbutt that brought him instantly down to the ground, for which reason the righteous Zidane got a red card.

Another time – and this was in post-Apartheid South Africa, the referee awarded a yellow card and the affected player would not accept the Ref’s decision and protested – the referee thereupon awarded him a Red Card – and he still refused to submit to the ref’s decision, whereupon the referee having legally run out of cards, resorted to his last vestige of empowerment, took his revolver out of his holster aimed and shot the poor player dead, on the spot. That was his last card…..

In the UK today, it’s no smoke without fire and it could still be a case of word against word:

Lately, poor John Terry the captain of England’s national Football team has been in hot waters for alleged racist comments. Very hot waters considering that England’s team is multi-racial and has always had some black stars such as John Barnes. If someone of Terry’s standing in the heat of an unguarded moment could let some racist slur fly from his lips – if true, or even if suspected to be true of this otherwise fine fellow, it would not augur well for team spirit and the morale of the team to have him continue as captain of England.

Racism in sports

As we read about the tragedy of  football hooliganism claiming some 74 lives in Port Said, Egypt , we must not forget that Israel has to play in the European League as she cannot play in the Middle East zone, for the simple reason that Middle Eastern countries from Tunisia through Egypt, to Iraq and Iran say that they cannot guarantee the safety of the Israeli players should they play in their countries.

Africup of Nations:  Gabon 1 – Tunisia 0

To the cloven-footed, euphoric proponents of the simplistic thesis that it’s only about “freedom of speech” and that in the name of “freedom of speech” racism and hate speech should be legalised, and that it’s not merely about anti-Semitism and denying the Holocaust ever took place or making fun of the victims of the nefarious Slave Trade, I should first of all like to point out that even in the Local (the microcosm of the Globe – nothing to do with Shakespeare’s ) we have certain rules of conduct to maintain some forum decorum and to keep out hooligan behaviour:

“ Prohibited material or content include, but are not limited to material or content that: are offensive and promote racism, prejudice, hatred or physical harm against any individual or group”

But Sweden is special. In Sweden people commit certain types of crime and are not sentenced to imprisonment but sentenced to rehabilitation/ correctional treatment via some psychiatric health care in one of the many Mental Health institutions…

Music too is good therapy

Hommage A Tonton

Nothing funny about this one … in fact the quotations at the end are chilling:

“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the
intelligent are full of doubt.” (Bertrand Russell)

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and
conscientious stupidity. (The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

For good measure:

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.” ( William Butler Yeats – The Second Coming)

Passionate intensity indeed. Even among well-meaning folk there can be dis-agreements such as here :

Northern Elders Demand Security Guarantee For Boko Haram members

Wishing everyone SHABBAT SHALOM!