Heard of this today - a novel is coming out which is described as a comedial angle on the climate change. It sounded very interresting to me, so I am definitely going to read it. Here is an interview I found with the author Ian McEwan
In other news - the Sweden Democrats recenlty left the traditional church service before the opening of the new parliament. They did it when the priest started talking about the equal value of all human beings. I´m glad they showed their true face - they are racists and aparentaley they do little to hide it - which they have tried to do before the election.
/ The Cat Goes Political
Saturday 9 October 2010
Monday 4 October 2010
How things should be
Watched a really interesting documentary on Swedish TV the other day. It involves trying to show what the world should look like and tries to find out why we are stuck in a world we don´t want to have.
For me as a journalist student it was surprising to see how easy you can fool BBC by claiming to be a spokesperson for an organisation and get interview by the highly respected channel.
I´m of course talking about a documentary made by the Yes men. Watch it here.
/ The Cat Goes Political
For me as a journalist student it was surprising to see how easy you can fool BBC by claiming to be a spokesperson for an organisation and get interview by the highly respected channel.
I´m of course talking about a documentary made by the Yes men. Watch it here.
/ The Cat Goes Political
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Racism enters parliament
As you might have heard, things didn´t turn out in that election as I would have hoped. The extreme right wing party The Sweden Democrats got 5,7 percent of the votes and entered the Swedish parliament. This also meant an unclear parliamentary situation. Fortunately ten thousands of people gathered around Sweden to protest against the party. The video below is from Stockholm. In translation, the crowd in the video says: "What are we going to do?". "Crush racism!"
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Four days left to election...
Found this great guide to the Swedish election for the parliament which is held on Sunday.
Regardless of your political opinion, this is one of the most interresting elections in years. No matter the outcome of the election, the result will be a historical event.
If the left-wing alliance gets a majority Sweden will have it´s first female prime minister in history. That person is the leader of the Social democratic party, Mona Sahlin.
If the right-wing alliance wins it will be the first time in modern history a right wing government runs the country for two terms. Sweden has a history of dominance from the Social democrats in government, a tradition which has only been broken on a few occassions. But the governments have only lasted one term.
Right now scenario 2 is the most likely one. The right wing-alliance have shown rising numbers in the polls and in the latest they have a majority of the people´s votes.
The left wing has little more than 40 percent. Their hope is that a lot of Swede´s still haven´t decided which party to vote for. It might be as many as one million or more, which is the reports given in Swedish media. Why so many people haven´t made up their mind yet might this older blog post shed some light on. Its an own interview I made with political scientist Jenny Madestam.
What worries me about this election is that the Sweden democrats have gained over four percent of the votes in the polls. which is the bar a party need to reach to get seats in the parliament. I certainly don´t want this extreme right wing party to enter parliament.
But I do think that we don´t need to be too worried. Since a lot of people haven´t made up their mind I believe those voters are normal voters who haven´t decided if they will vote for the right or left-wing, or which party within respective wing to vote for. I don´t think insecure voters are choosing between the Sweden democrats and a mainstream party. To vote for such an extremist party and move away from a traditional party takes more conviction than that. And when the insecure voters have decided, the Sweden democrats share of votes will decrease.
I hope to God I´m right.
/ The Cat Goes Political
Regardless of your political opinion, this is one of the most interresting elections in years. No matter the outcome of the election, the result will be a historical event.
If the left-wing alliance gets a majority Sweden will have it´s first female prime minister in history. That person is the leader of the Social democratic party, Mona Sahlin.
If the right-wing alliance wins it will be the first time in modern history a right wing government runs the country for two terms. Sweden has a history of dominance from the Social democrats in government, a tradition which has only been broken on a few occassions. But the governments have only lasted one term.
Right now scenario 2 is the most likely one. The right wing-alliance have shown rising numbers in the polls and in the latest they have a majority of the people´s votes.
The left wing has little more than 40 percent. Their hope is that a lot of Swede´s still haven´t decided which party to vote for. It might be as many as one million or more, which is the reports given in Swedish media. Why so many people haven´t made up their mind yet might this older blog post shed some light on. Its an own interview I made with political scientist Jenny Madestam.
What worries me about this election is that the Sweden democrats have gained over four percent of the votes in the polls. which is the bar a party need to reach to get seats in the parliament. I certainly don´t want this extreme right wing party to enter parliament.
But I do think that we don´t need to be too worried. Since a lot of people haven´t made up their mind I believe those voters are normal voters who haven´t decided if they will vote for the right or left-wing, or which party within respective wing to vote for. I don´t think insecure voters are choosing between the Sweden democrats and a mainstream party. To vote for such an extremist party and move away from a traditional party takes more conviction than that. And when the insecure voters have decided, the Sweden democrats share of votes will decrease.
I hope to God I´m right.
/ The Cat Goes Political
Sunday 29 August 2010
Right was to stop Sweden democrats
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my negative view of the liberal party Folkpartiet´s suggestion to ban face veils in schools just weeks before the election. I interpreted that as part of an attempt to hinder the Sweden democrats from entering parliament. But in my opinion it´s not the right way to handle the problem by partly accepting their agenda.
it is much better what has happened in the last days - a total rejection of the Sweden democrats world view (just the name "democrats"..). Channel four decided to not show the party´s election commercial movie, claiming it was breaking the law by making racist remarks (rightly so,
Even better than Channel four´s decision was the documentary made by Lena Sundström, a documentary where she examines the statistics often presented by the Sweden democrats - as it turns out - it is false! How surprising... Watch part of it here (In Swedish)
No, immigrants are not naturally more involved in crime, class is a stronger factor with risc of getting involved in crime. And its not a "dangerous" neighborhood just because it lives immigrants in that area. The more media put forward these issues before the election, the better. And hopefully we can avoid the real threat to Sweden´s democratic society - a stronger Sweden democracy party.
/ The Cat Goes Political
it is much better what has happened in the last days - a total rejection of the Sweden democrats world view (just the name "democrats"..). Channel four decided to not show the party´s election commercial movie, claiming it was breaking the law by making racist remarks (rightly so,
watch it here). The commercial features women in burqa competing with senior citizen´s to get money from the state. A really awful and disgusting message.
Even better than Channel four´s decision was the documentary made by Lena Sundström, a documentary where she examines the statistics often presented by the Sweden democrats - as it turns out - it is false! How surprising... Watch part of it here (In Swedish)
No, immigrants are not naturally more involved in crime, class is a stronger factor with risc of getting involved in crime. And its not a "dangerous" neighborhood just because it lives immigrants in that area. The more media put forward these issues before the election, the better. And hopefully we can avoid the real threat to Sweden´s democratic society - a stronger Sweden democracy party.
/ The Cat Goes Political
Wednesday 25 August 2010
New York times discusses Sweden´s form of government
I am a member of this association myself and attended this meeting (but not pictured in the article). New York Times were there and the result was a very interresting article about Sweden´s form of government, discussing if a monarchy or a republic is the best form of government in Sweden (my own opinion is obvious).
/ The Cat Goes Political
/ The Cat Goes Political
Thursday 19 August 2010
Sweden 3rd best in the world!
Newsweek recently published a list which ranks the best countries in the world. Sweden was ranked third ont his list which includes Quality of life, level of education and health care.Life is Swede...:)
/ The Cat Goes Political
/ The Cat Goes Political
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