Two elections ago, a nationalist party made it into our Parliament. They differ a bit from many other nationalist parties, as those often grow out of populist parties resisting taxes and state interference. Ours, however, grew straight out of the old neo-Nazi groups - they have just stopped wearing the uniforms. And 13% voted for them in the latest ( Read more... )

Well, this has been a long time. My job ate my life and then I had no time for the longer, more thought-out pieces I used this livejournal for. However, since I am currently on a crusade to take my life back from my employer - not quitting but trying to get down to a 40-hour week - maybe I should write again ( Read more... )

Let me start out by saying that I am very, very angry right now. OK? I never had much belief in the media, but really, you'd think they'd occasionally check a source or attempt some kind of investigation into facts. The Assange case is, however, ample proof that a surprising number never do.

The facts of the case are, as I can piece them together ( Read more... )

The elections results are in: the Sweden Democrats gained 20 seats out of 349 in parliament. The post-election analyses have started pouring in, all of them discussing how an explicitly racist party could have done so well, and stating a lot of things I strongly disagree with.

1. Not everyone who voted for them is actually a racist.
Really? If you ( Read more... )

The Church of Sweden has made its decision, and will marry same-sex couples essentially as soon as a ceremony has been worked out. We also recently consecrated an openly gay bishop, who lives with her wife. This has led to a whole lot of arguments, accusations, and hard feelings, with some claiming that this is an expression of everyone's value and ( Read more... )

I have spent last week doing nothing much and watching old movies - to be precise, movies made by Swedish writers, actors, and social consciences Hasse Alfredsson and Tage Danielsson. Tage died, alas, in the mid-80s, Hasse is still alive but very old. Their movies and shows, and books, are related to the absurd humour of the Marx brothers, but with ( Read more... )

I'm taking a brief break from painting the house (report will be forthcoming) to note an editorial in Sweden's only religious newspaper: the writer attacks a clothes catalogue for using buddhism as inspiration (in a rather silly and potentially imperialist approriative way). She goes on to state that "I am for market economy. It's when foreign gods ( Read more... )

The other day, I was re-reading a biography of C. S. Lewis (A. N. Wilson's, to be precise), and enjoying not so much the biography of Lewis as the description of a time, and a lifestyle, that is now gone. here is much I don't regret from that time (world wars, women's lack of basic rights, no antibiotics, etc) but one thing that ruck me very ( Read more... )

I have no idea what's happened to my country. Topless swimming gets forbidden at swimming pools, people whine about the damage to children who happen to see a topless woman, and now the media is having a good time with "the chastity trend" - which, much like the "sex and the city trend" it's supposed to have replaced, isn't.

The last drop for me was ( Read more... )

Reported violent crime is on the rise in Sweden: how well that corresponds to actual crime is always a tricky question. It is not anywhere near an 'explosion of violence' and other things that the newspapers are fond of reporting. One thing, though, confuses me about violence ( Read more... )