Since the 1970's the Swedish state has supported newspspapers in the skids with lavish yearly cash support. What originated as a means of keeping mismanaged and more or less bancrupt local socialdemocratic papers alive, has evolved to a major source of income for two non-socialistic newspapers: The conservative Svenska Dagbladet and the centrist Skånska Dagbladet. Both papers are entitled, and accept, so called "press support" of a yearly 65 and 40 million SEK donation from the government.
In the case of Svenska Dagbladet, a vociferous critic of Big Government and a supporter of free trade and enterprise, the situation is well beyond Hypocrisy. The fact that the paper is owned by the Norwegian very able and very copetitive Shipstedt-group does not make the matter less delicate.
Luckily, the European Union has at long last discovered this blatant form of market manipulation and is demanding changes.
Good.
These days anyone can get a website or a blog to express his or her wiews without support from the State.
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
Uniting by Proxy
President GW Bush former speechwrier Mike Gerson writes in Neewsweek:
"... there is, perhaps, one large American political figure who could cause depressed, fractious Republicans to bind their wounds, downplay their divisions, renew their purpose, and join hands in blissful unity at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Republican convention.
And that figure is Hillary Clinton."
Using the deeply feared C-word as a possible means for uniting and mending the party is in indeed a telling measure of how deep the crisis goes in the G.O.P.
Meanwhile, our readers have already decided on the outcome of the presidential election in today's web question:
Clinton: 57.4 %
Obama: 29.2
Huckabee: 1.2
Edwards: 1.2
McCain 4.1
Romney: 1.5
Giuliani: 5.0
Either people in southeast Skåne are shrewd Rpublican tacticians. Or more probably, they follow Swedish Mainstream media, where the Republican party most of the time lies under the radar.
"... there is, perhaps, one large American political figure who could cause depressed, fractious Republicans to bind their wounds, downplay their divisions, renew their purpose, and join hands in blissful unity at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Republican convention.
And that figure is Hillary Clinton."
Using the deeply feared C-word as a possible means for uniting and mending the party is in indeed a telling measure of how deep the crisis goes in the G.O.P.
Meanwhile, our readers have already decided on the outcome of the presidential election in today's web question:
Clinton: 57.4 %
Obama: 29.2
Huckabee: 1.2
Edwards: 1.2
McCain 4.1
Romney: 1.5
Giuliani: 5.0
Either people in southeast Skåne are shrewd Rpublican tacticians. Or more probably, they follow Swedish Mainstream media, where the Republican party most of the time lies under the radar.
Thursday, 17 January 2008
Reality Check in Ystad
Ystads City Council is in full swing.
Right now the town's 47 elders are currently involved in a discussion wether quality of the hot food distributed to some 70 senior citizens could be improved. Before that a citizen's proposal suggesting that the town cut down a bush in one of the outlying villages was up to discussion.
Well, that's democracy, after all.
Pic: Kolleague Ulf Mårtensson busy taking notes.
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
Hot Air in Mid Term
Hardly half way through its 4 year term, the swedish right-liberal government is in deep trouble. At least in the opinion polls. As of this monday, Demoskop gave the ruling four parties a mere 38.6 percent and the opposition a staggering near 20 percentage point lead at 57.6. Not bad for a social democratic party that only 14 months ago was thoroughly trounced at the ballot boxes.
Therefore, todays debate in Parliament was little more than close to predictably boring. The social democrat's Mona Sahlin lambasted the administration for stealing from the poor and throwing tax reform at the rich. Prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt (conservative) in his turn asked her for some tangible proof of proactive or constructive opposition policy.
In other words, things were as they should, and nothing more exiting than that will transpire in Swedish domestic policy before the election season starts sometimes after New Year 2010.
Until then, we political junkies will have to make do on the thin fare of petty scandal and infighting this government has made us expect.
Therefore, todays debate in Parliament was little more than close to predictably boring. The social democrat's Mona Sahlin lambasted the administration for stealing from the poor and throwing tax reform at the rich. Prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt (conservative) in his turn asked her for some tangible proof of proactive or constructive opposition policy.
In other words, things were as they should, and nothing more exiting than that will transpire in Swedish domestic policy before the election season starts sometimes after New Year 2010.
Until then, we political junkies will have to make do on the thin fare of petty scandal and infighting this government has made us expect.
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
High Voltage Hypocrisy
Riksdagen, the Swedish Parliament, continues to march out of step with it's constituency. In the Old Days, it was the Temperance movement that traditionally was the most over-represented of all lobby groups when a vast majority of the MPs were Teetotallers, far more than in the population in general.
Today anti nuclear sentiments are chronically overrepresented. A recent poll verifies again that Swedish MP:s are more negative than the common Swede, something that pollster and professor Sören Holmberg at the University of Gothenburg has been able to show through more than two decades now.
Energy policy and energy politics in this country have been gridlocked ever since the misfortunate referendum in 1980. It's inconclusive result (you could either vote no, yes or maybe, to nuclear power, yours truly voted yes, of course)have ever since held swedish political system ransom to their own dated standpoints, hastily made a quarter of a century ago.
Meanwhile in reality, power demand have soared, not diminished. "Deregulation" (of demand, not sypply) and "CO2-tax" (for virtually emission free nuclear and hydroelectric power!) have quadrupled electricity prices. At the same time the ten remaining reactors (two are shut down) are trimmed to produce much more energy than they were designed for, resulting in a wave of incidents and reports of criminal sloppiness the last couple of years.
So, after 30 years of trying to rid us of nuclear energy, it still produces close to 50 percent om the nations needs. Hydroelectric power supplies the other half – with the exception of a measly 3-4 pct of politically correct and vastly more expensive "renewable" sources.
In spite of all this, Parliament still sounds like if people would only dim their lights and powercompanies only would invest in one or two more windmill parks out at sea and in the wilderness up north, things would be just fine. Like drinking so many glasses of ginger ale while people are getting sloshed on moonshine, to complete the analogy of sobriety above.
The solution? Well, six out of four Swedes are for more nuclear energy. There are still four great rivers up north (no-one lives there anyway) to explore for hydroelectric power. Either won't add a single molecule of CO2 to the atmosphere . . .
Today anti nuclear sentiments are chronically overrepresented. A recent poll verifies again that Swedish MP:s are more negative than the common Swede, something that pollster and professor Sören Holmberg at the University of Gothenburg has been able to show through more than two decades now.
Energy policy and energy politics in this country have been gridlocked ever since the misfortunate referendum in 1980. It's inconclusive result (you could either vote no, yes or maybe, to nuclear power, yours truly voted yes, of course)have ever since held swedish political system ransom to their own dated standpoints, hastily made a quarter of a century ago.
Meanwhile in reality, power demand have soared, not diminished. "Deregulation" (of demand, not sypply) and "CO2-tax" (for virtually emission free nuclear and hydroelectric power!) have quadrupled electricity prices. At the same time the ten remaining reactors (two are shut down) are trimmed to produce much more energy than they were designed for, resulting in a wave of incidents and reports of criminal sloppiness the last couple of years.
So, after 30 years of trying to rid us of nuclear energy, it still produces close to 50 percent om the nations needs. Hydroelectric power supplies the other half – with the exception of a measly 3-4 pct of politically correct and vastly more expensive "renewable" sources.
In spite of all this, Parliament still sounds like if people would only dim their lights and powercompanies only would invest in one or two more windmill parks out at sea and in the wilderness up north, things would be just fine. Like drinking so many glasses of ginger ale while people are getting sloshed on moonshine, to complete the analogy of sobriety above.
The solution? Well, six out of four Swedes are for more nuclear energy. There are still four great rivers up north (no-one lives there anyway) to explore for hydroelectric power. Either won't add a single molecule of CO2 to the atmosphere . . .
Monday, 14 January 2008
I'm back, finally!
It took six months, but I have finally succeeded to recover my lost password for this blog. (ah, well, to be honest - I first went on vacation, then digressed another month and THEN discovered I had forgotten the pw)
Anyway, hopefully I'll get up the steam to make a few entries a week also in this forum. At least htat'll be a bit easier between feb 1 and 13, when I plan to visit California to cover the primaries for my newspaper.
Anyway, hopefully I'll get up the steam to make a few entries a week also in this forum. At least htat'll be a bit easier between feb 1 and 13, when I plan to visit California to cover the primaries for my newspaper.
Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Summer sailing
Summer is here and yours truly really does not feel like blogging too much.
Sailing in the Baltic is so much more fun.(the young whippersnapper with the camera in the foreground is my son Hannes)
Monday, 25 June 2007
What's your name and number?
License tags in Sweden are boring. My Ford Ranger has OTJ 353, and I can tolerate it only because the two first letters correspond with my initials. My new (used) Chevvy pickup has an even worse one: LEC 436 – total nonsense. On top of that, our authorities removed all the interesting four-letter-word-combinations (in the language of heroes and great deeds many are spelled with only three) from the start back in -72.
But the system has it's limits. New tags now begin with X. And even if old combinations from scrapped autos are habitually recycled, only y and z remain.
(Readers of Swedish might be aware of that our alphabet does indeed not end at z, but has the additional å, ä and ö, but htat won't help. Å Ä and Ö was excluded from the start, along with capital i and those three-letter four letter words mentioned earlier suchs as KUK, BÖG, MUS, BUS, DÖD, RÖV, LÖK, CIA, IRS, FBI, NFA, NHL, and so on.)
oh, I'm digressing...
What I was aiming at was the fact that someone told me the other day that Chinese authorities – and regular people – are facing a tremendous name problem. Chinese name-laws are strict and in fact only about 1500 surnames are allowed to be used in the Commie State.
Considering that there are 1 300 000 MILLION chinese these days my less than accurate arithmetic tells me there are on average close to one million chinese to each alloted surname.
And that's a LOT of Andersons, if you ask me. . . .
Getting someone's name in the whitepages in Bejing must be a real drag . . . .
But the system has it's limits. New tags now begin with X. And even if old combinations from scrapped autos are habitually recycled, only y and z remain.
(Readers of Swedish might be aware of that our alphabet does indeed not end at z, but has the additional å, ä and ö, but htat won't help. Å Ä and Ö was excluded from the start, along with capital i and those three-letter four letter words mentioned earlier suchs as KUK, BÖG, MUS, BUS, DÖD, RÖV, LÖK, CIA, IRS, FBI, NFA, NHL, and so on.)
oh, I'm digressing...
What I was aiming at was the fact that someone told me the other day that Chinese authorities – and regular people – are facing a tremendous name problem. Chinese name-laws are strict and in fact only about 1500 surnames are allowed to be used in the Commie State.
Considering that there are 1 300 000 MILLION chinese these days my less than accurate arithmetic tells me there are on average close to one million chinese to each alloted surname.
And that's a LOT of Andersons, if you ask me. . . .
Getting someone's name in the whitepages in Bejing must be a real drag . . . .
Sunday, 24 June 2007
What? Not our fault!?
Swedish media is right now reporting the astounding news that global warming has not caused the melting of the glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro. It is a pending article in Scientific American that has caused the commotion.
This blogger, who since long have been frustrated by the sycophantic and less-than-critical reporting on the theoretical impact of human CO2 emissions on world climate, feel a little relieved.
Kilimanjaro's rapid glacial decline has, among other, been featured by Al Gore in his film as a Grand Proof of modern society's evil impact on the climate. Now, we learn, it might just be natural processes. Kilimanjaro (and Europes and the Andean) glaciers have been steadily melting since around 1900. One reason is that the so called "little ice age" ended after roughly 250 years in about 1850.
Sadly, it probably will not do very much about the hegemony of the ruling CO2-dogma.
For that to happen we'll have to await a change of the current paradigm, the one that strongly biases research directed at human caused global warming before other theories.
And remember, as long as governments can use the idea of reducing carbon emissions to tax energy, they will not give a hoot about if it's true or not!
This blogger, who since long have been frustrated by the sycophantic and less-than-critical reporting on the theoretical impact of human CO2 emissions on world climate, feel a little relieved.
Kilimanjaro's rapid glacial decline has, among other, been featured by Al Gore in his film as a Grand Proof of modern society's evil impact on the climate. Now, we learn, it might just be natural processes. Kilimanjaro (and Europes and the Andean) glaciers have been steadily melting since around 1900. One reason is that the so called "little ice age" ended after roughly 250 years in about 1850.
Sadly, it probably will not do very much about the hegemony of the ruling CO2-dogma.
For that to happen we'll have to await a change of the current paradigm, the one that strongly biases research directed at human caused global warming before other theories.
And remember, as long as governments can use the idea of reducing carbon emissions to tax energy, they will not give a hoot about if it's true or not!
EU without a free market?
The near-disastrous top EU meeting in Bruxelles is over. Politicians and commentators rejoice over the fact that the Union in the nick of time managed to get the outline for a new treaty on it's way.
In the end Poland gave up its ridiculous claim that Polands population (and thus voting strength within the organisation) should be added with another 20 million people in compensation for the loss the country suffered in WWII. (Needless to say, other european countries refrained from similar contra-factual claims, even if few but Sweden have gotten through that period of history without major loss of life)
But one wonders if not the french addition to the treaty's preamble is not worse – and sadly by now, even a fact.
By actually having the references to an open and unimpeded market struck from the preamble, France have opened a totally unnessecary ambiguity. And guess what president promised only months ago in the election that he'd "defend" french jobs against the effects of globalisation and foreign competition?
It really does not makes one worry less that an additional protocol was created that states that the free market shall prevail. Why this unnessessary ambiguity?
Well, National self Interest, of course. And the french know that game well. A fact that the CAP (EU:s common agricultural policy) proves tim and again.
In the end Poland gave up its ridiculous claim that Polands population (and thus voting strength within the organisation) should be added with another 20 million people in compensation for the loss the country suffered in WWII. (Needless to say, other european countries refrained from similar contra-factual claims, even if few but Sweden have gotten through that period of history without major loss of life)
But one wonders if not the french addition to the treaty's preamble is not worse – and sadly by now, even a fact.
By actually having the references to an open and unimpeded market struck from the preamble, France have opened a totally unnessecary ambiguity. And guess what president promised only months ago in the election that he'd "defend" french jobs against the effects of globalisation and foreign competition?
It really does not makes one worry less that an additional protocol was created that states that the free market shall prevail. Why this unnessessary ambiguity?
Well, National self Interest, of course. And the french know that game well. A fact that the CAP (EU:s common agricultural policy) proves tim and again.
Monday, 11 June 2007
The China Syndrome
Chinese president mr Hu Jintao has just finished a three day visit here in Sweden. Among stuff the marxist-leninist head of the larges kommunist state in the world has dined with the king, visited Volvo and had lunch with leading top corporations. Among them Ericsson, that secured a contract worth roughly one billion US dollars.
Prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt (cons) makes a point tonight in media that critisizing China in detail for its lack of respect for human rights was not "his style".
I would run a great risk if I conveyed medias version of the situation in China without checking it, Reinfeldt defended himself earlier tonight in an interwiev with Swedish national radio.
Of course he should get the facts checked. That's what the whole State Departement and his central policy planning staff is for, after all.
Prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt (cons) makes a point tonight in media that critisizing China in detail for its lack of respect for human rights was not "his style".
I would run a great risk if I conveyed medias version of the situation in China without checking it, Reinfeldt defended himself earlier tonight in an interwiev with Swedish national radio.
Of course he should get the facts checked. That's what the whole State Departement and his central policy planning staff is for, after all.
Tuesday, 22 May 2007
Sharia, swedish model
Police and revolutionary guards crack down hard on women not adhering to islamic dress code in Iranian capital Tehran right now. The tightening of the already strictly moralistic dress code introduced during the Khomeiny revolution three decades ago, Iran-watchers claim, is due to internal power struggle within the ruling class of mullahs and pressures due to growing dissent with social and economic failures of Iranian society. Since 1979, Iran has more than trebled it's population and a large group of teenagers and people in their twenties crave for music, romance and a more relaxed and secular lifestyle.
Here at home everybody are of course abhored by the treatment of women in traditional islamic societies. Yet, female victims of rape are still not receiving a very decorous treatment from police and courts here in the self proclaimed Foremost Welfare State. Writer and colleague Chatarina Wennstam has in two books described how rape victims are systematically degraded and humiliated in the process. "The victim was wearing a blouse, a skirt, a bra, stockings and knickers" is a common fact of female victims attire found in court minutes up to this day, as Wennstam has showed. At the same time a male victim of a mugging is seldom questioned in court why he brandished an expensive wristwatch under the nose of the perpetrators or why he wore expensive looking clothes as he made a short cut through the dark part of the park.
In the 17th C, swedes were subjected to a criminal code deriving from the Old Testament, (you know, the part of the Bible where God is really pissed off at mankind most of the time).
Hence adultery, being a jew or a catholic or even swearing, would lead to the stake or even worse. In fact, during those times Sweden did not only have the largest standing army of Europe, it was an effective Lutheran military dictatorship based on the riches of natural resources such as iron, tar and timber. Not really far from Iran or Saudi Arabia of thoday, really.
Here at home everybody are of course abhored by the treatment of women in traditional islamic societies. Yet, female victims of rape are still not receiving a very decorous treatment from police and courts here in the self proclaimed Foremost Welfare State. Writer and colleague Chatarina Wennstam has in two books described how rape victims are systematically degraded and humiliated in the process. "The victim was wearing a blouse, a skirt, a bra, stockings and knickers" is a common fact of female victims attire found in court minutes up to this day, as Wennstam has showed. At the same time a male victim of a mugging is seldom questioned in court why he brandished an expensive wristwatch under the nose of the perpetrators or why he wore expensive looking clothes as he made a short cut through the dark part of the park.
In the 17th C, swedes were subjected to a criminal code deriving from the Old Testament, (you know, the part of the Bible where God is really pissed off at mankind most of the time).
Hence adultery, being a jew or a catholic or even swearing, would lead to the stake or even worse. In fact, during those times Sweden did not only have the largest standing army of Europe, it was an effective Lutheran military dictatorship based on the riches of natural resources such as iron, tar and timber. Not really far from Iran or Saudi Arabia of thoday, really.
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
An hour in the White House
It has probably not been very much noticed by the rest of the world, but here at home prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's (conservative) visit to the White House has been today's leading story in large parts of the media.
As usual the left has lambasted the prime minister for sycophancy towards the Great Satan. The conservative press croons with delight, of course. Reinfeldt himself is reported to have commented on feeling the President's "joviality" and Bush have countered by commenting on Reinfeldts "great leadership".
Apart from exchanging niceties the two reportedly discussed climate and CO2-emissions and also a little bit on the gridlocked Doha-talks on world trade.
In other words more or less what can be expected from a short meeting between the leader of the world's only super power and a prime minister from a small nation on the northen rim of the European sub-continent.
On 600 Pennsylvania avenue Reinfeldt's visit will be filed and forgotten by nightfall. Back here, it'll probably get at least a page or two plus a photograph the day he writes his memoirs.
As usual the left has lambasted the prime minister for sycophancy towards the Great Satan. The conservative press croons with delight, of course. Reinfeldt himself is reported to have commented on feeling the President's "joviality" and Bush have countered by commenting on Reinfeldts "great leadership".
Apart from exchanging niceties the two reportedly discussed climate and CO2-emissions and also a little bit on the gridlocked Doha-talks on world trade.
In other words more or less what can be expected from a short meeting between the leader of the world's only super power and a prime minister from a small nation on the northen rim of the European sub-continent.
On 600 Pennsylvania avenue Reinfeldt's visit will be filed and forgotten by nightfall. Back here, it'll probably get at least a page or two plus a photograph the day he writes his memoirs.
Friday, 11 May 2007
Our Banana Republic
Jan Stenbeck, the now deseased founder of media and communications empire Kinnevik, once said in the 1990:s that since his sister was Secretary of State and that he himself controlled all commercial television outlets, this country might be mistaken for a Banana Republic.
This is even more true today.
Secretary of Defence Michael Odenberg (conservative) is rightly criticised today for having stated that Swedish Cluster Bombs are "harmless to civilians". The same Odenberg have earlier pressed legislation through parliament allowing the Sigint organisation FRA (where I myself once used to be employed) to read and monitor all email and sms getting sent to and from the country. Furthermore, for decades federal agents has been able to access library lendings and other civil atcivities in pursuit of terrorists just like in the US. With the not so subtle difference that here they do not need a court order.
Also, since some years the police are issued with dum-dum bullets, internationally banned in warfare since more than a century. At the same times, alleged bribery linked to international sales of Swedish jet fighter JAS-Gripen are conducted internationally.
Our current foreign minister Carl Bildt (conservative) made millions on stock options in an oil company with strong ties to the Russian market and with interests in the planned russian-german gas pipeline through the Baltic. After taking office.
Further, ousted ex prime minister Göran Persson announced last week that he is becoming a senior adviser for a well known (and with many conservative ties) lobby- and communications group.
And not to mention that officials from the liberal party, currently in government, lately were convicted for having illegally hacked into the social democrat's computer systems during the election campaign last year.
This could be very comical.
Had it not been for the fact that so many of us still believe that Sweden is the most just and democratic of all countries.
This is even more true today.
Secretary of Defence Michael Odenberg (conservative) is rightly criticised today for having stated that Swedish Cluster Bombs are "harmless to civilians". The same Odenberg have earlier pressed legislation through parliament allowing the Sigint organisation FRA (where I myself once used to be employed) to read and monitor all email and sms getting sent to and from the country. Furthermore, for decades federal agents has been able to access library lendings and other civil atcivities in pursuit of terrorists just like in the US. With the not so subtle difference that here they do not need a court order.
Also, since some years the police are issued with dum-dum bullets, internationally banned in warfare since more than a century. At the same times, alleged bribery linked to international sales of Swedish jet fighter JAS-Gripen are conducted internationally.
Our current foreign minister Carl Bildt (conservative) made millions on stock options in an oil company with strong ties to the Russian market and with interests in the planned russian-german gas pipeline through the Baltic. After taking office.
Further, ousted ex prime minister Göran Persson announced last week that he is becoming a senior adviser for a well known (and with many conservative ties) lobby- and communications group.
And not to mention that officials from the liberal party, currently in government, lately were convicted for having illegally hacked into the social democrat's computer systems during the election campaign last year.
This could be very comical.
Had it not been for the fact that so many of us still believe that Sweden is the most just and democratic of all countries.
Tuesday, 8 May 2007
Americans for Royalty
Queen Elisabeth's visit to the US stirs little interest in swedish media. But that is not for lack of interest in crowned heads. Our media usually fawns over our own royal family with little or no journalistic ambition. Which is strange – because the royal family holds interesting personal stories. The King, an unambitious slacker with a primary interest in sports and cars, lives on what must be called welfare, albeit rather generous. His wife, an unemployed german/brasilian immigrant who has really never had the chance of learning the language properly. The kids, the oldest with a history of eating disorder due to family pressure, a son with ambiguos sexual orientation, and the youngest one a party-princess of fame. In short, a regular swedish family with problems and challenges in common with many other compatriots.
Being a republican myself, I do wonder how royalty are treated as, well royalty, by the American media. The reports trickling in on the web from last night state dinner and other functions seems to suggest a deep regret of 1776. There's nothing like a true Brittish blue blood to start an American heart throbbing, it seems.
Even President Reagan fell for them. Vanity Fair has some excerpts from his soon to be published diary where The Gipper shudder at the memory of Prince Charles being offered a cup of tea made from a tea bag!
Lord! it must have felt like 1812 all over again . . .
Being a republican myself, I do wonder how royalty are treated as, well royalty, by the American media. The reports trickling in on the web from last night state dinner and other functions seems to suggest a deep regret of 1776. There's nothing like a true Brittish blue blood to start an American heart throbbing, it seems.
Even President Reagan fell for them. Vanity Fair has some excerpts from his soon to be published diary where The Gipper shudder at the memory of Prince Charles being offered a cup of tea made from a tea bag!
Lord! it must have felt like 1812 all over again . . .
Friday, 4 May 2007
Lysenko Smiles
The UN Panel on Global Warming, IPCC, has a field day in Swedish media.
Reports are filed from Bangkok with Prospects of Doom written all over.
With few exceptions (but for The good old BBC), not much copy is wasted on the fact that the report launched yesterday is the IPCC's Summary for Policymakers. This highly biased cluster of "recommendations" are themself the result of a lengthy bargaining process between IPCC-bureaucrats, politically appointed delegates and the various sponsoring countries. All in all not a very good enviroment for a thriving and independet scientific debate and peer-review.
But the message is heard loud and clear all over the globe: Capitalism and markets are threathening us all. Beware!
PS
Trofim Lysenko was a charlatan scientist in the USSR under Stalin that "proved" that for example plants could "learn" to adapt in a winter climate if you subjected them to cold temperatures as seeds. It all fitted very well with Communist Dogma of enviroment going before heredetary traits.
Reports are filed from Bangkok with Prospects of Doom written all over.
With few exceptions (but for The good old BBC), not much copy is wasted on the fact that the report launched yesterday is the IPCC's Summary for Policymakers. This highly biased cluster of "recommendations" are themself the result of a lengthy bargaining process between IPCC-bureaucrats, politically appointed delegates and the various sponsoring countries. All in all not a very good enviroment for a thriving and independet scientific debate and peer-review.
But the message is heard loud and clear all over the globe: Capitalism and markets are threathening us all. Beware!
PS
Trofim Lysenko was a charlatan scientist in the USSR under Stalin that "proved" that for example plants could "learn" to adapt in a winter climate if you subjected them to cold temperatures as seeds. It all fitted very well with Communist Dogma of enviroment going before heredetary traits.
Thursday, 3 May 2007
Mother Russia Stirring
The Good old Soviet times are here. Almost.
The conflict between Estonia and Russia is threattening to escalate. Last week's removal of a WWII monument and adjacent remains of fallen Red Army soldiers precipitated severe riots in the capital Tallinn. After that, pro-Kremlin youth organisations attacked the Estonian embassy in Moscow. By some stroke of unluck, the swedish ambassador was caught in the fray too.
Reports are coming in on several attacks on estonian websites that can be traced to Kremlin-owned Internet adresses. Deliveries of Russian goods to Estonia are also reported subject to infinite delays due to Russian "maintenance". The youth organisations picketing the estonian embassy have also received official permit, something quite hard to come by in the Russian capital on other occations.
As a former Soviet "reublic", Estonia has a russian speaking minority. It is not as large as in Latvia, but Estonia shares it's neighbours rather harsh and excluding wiev on citizenship for the russian speakers.
That does not excuse the Kremlin's arrogant behaviour. The country has undegone great economic change under president Putin, much due to rising energy prices worldwide. Parallel to that, Russia has become more and more opressive and is now but a democracy in name. Ngo's are banned. The media praises it's Great Leader in a sycophantic style remeniscent of old times. Independent journalists die mysteriously and officials whiningly complains about the EU and foreign countries meddling in their "internal affairs". In Kremlin Newspeak of today it's neighbours and former communist satellites are referred to as "The Near Abroad".
The fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago brought great hope. With large parts of the empire now independent states, many of which are democracies, much have come true. But Russia is reverting to old totalitarian traditions with roots that go back centuries.
Surely the way to deal with this great sleeping giant is of course more integration and economic cooperation, not less. Basically the same formula that has totally erased the notion of another war in central Europe and that has made the German re-unification possible.
But as long as Russia's fledgling democratic institutions are weakening in stead of growing, this can not come to pass. In the long run the rospects are bleak. Way too bleak.
The conflict between Estonia and Russia is threattening to escalate. Last week's removal of a WWII monument and adjacent remains of fallen Red Army soldiers precipitated severe riots in the capital Tallinn. After that, pro-Kremlin youth organisations attacked the Estonian embassy in Moscow. By some stroke of unluck, the swedish ambassador was caught in the fray too.
Reports are coming in on several attacks on estonian websites that can be traced to Kremlin-owned Internet adresses. Deliveries of Russian goods to Estonia are also reported subject to infinite delays due to Russian "maintenance". The youth organisations picketing the estonian embassy have also received official permit, something quite hard to come by in the Russian capital on other occations.
As a former Soviet "reublic", Estonia has a russian speaking minority. It is not as large as in Latvia, but Estonia shares it's neighbours rather harsh and excluding wiev on citizenship for the russian speakers.
That does not excuse the Kremlin's arrogant behaviour. The country has undegone great economic change under president Putin, much due to rising energy prices worldwide. Parallel to that, Russia has become more and more opressive and is now but a democracy in name. Ngo's are banned. The media praises it's Great Leader in a sycophantic style remeniscent of old times. Independent journalists die mysteriously and officials whiningly complains about the EU and foreign countries meddling in their "internal affairs". In Kremlin Newspeak of today it's neighbours and former communist satellites are referred to as "The Near Abroad".
The fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago brought great hope. With large parts of the empire now independent states, many of which are democracies, much have come true. But Russia is reverting to old totalitarian traditions with roots that go back centuries.
Surely the way to deal with this great sleeping giant is of course more integration and economic cooperation, not less. Basically the same formula that has totally erased the notion of another war in central Europe and that has made the German re-unification possible.
But as long as Russia's fledgling democratic institutions are weakening in stead of growing, this can not come to pass. In the long run the rospects are bleak. Way too bleak.
Friday, 27 April 2007
Another poll
The ousted Social Democratic Party receives record support in the latest poll.
After ten years in power prime minister Göran Persson lost last fall, and consequently abandoned deck for successor Mona Sahlin, the partys first woman chairperson.
Synovate Temo gauges popular support for her and her party at 46.3. Quite an improvement from election night's 35.0 percent, the worst result since before universal sufferage.
Curiously, the social democrats have done best in the polls during times in opposition during the last quarter century. Olof Palme, assassinated February 28th 1986, received a record 52.5 percent as leader of the opposition in 1982. Ingvar Carlsson scored 51.5 twelve years later.
The social democrats has virtually never held government by a majority purely of their own (it's a bit complicated, up until 1971 we had two houses of parliament and theoretically the s-party received over 50 percent of the popular vote in 1968, but the upper house was not involved in the election). Still, they tend to receive record polls in opposition.
That's some bad news for the ruling righet-liberal-centrist-christian democrat coalition, "The Alliance".
Not only has the social democrats have managed to hold office for 65 of the last 75 years. They have also managed to score top support in the polls OUT of office, and not in.
Reciprocally, the parties to the right of Parliament's (Riksdagen) aisle have failed miserably twice before. Regrettably, the odds seems to be againss them this time too.
After ten years in power prime minister Göran Persson lost last fall, and consequently abandoned deck for successor Mona Sahlin, the partys first woman chairperson.
Synovate Temo gauges popular support for her and her party at 46.3. Quite an improvement from election night's 35.0 percent, the worst result since before universal sufferage.
Curiously, the social democrats have done best in the polls during times in opposition during the last quarter century. Olof Palme, assassinated February 28th 1986, received a record 52.5 percent as leader of the opposition in 1982. Ingvar Carlsson scored 51.5 twelve years later.
The social democrats has virtually never held government by a majority purely of their own (it's a bit complicated, up until 1971 we had two houses of parliament and theoretically the s-party received over 50 percent of the popular vote in 1968, but the upper house was not involved in the election). Still, they tend to receive record polls in opposition.
That's some bad news for the ruling righet-liberal-centrist-christian democrat coalition, "The Alliance".
Not only has the social democrats have managed to hold office for 65 of the last 75 years. They have also managed to score top support in the polls OUT of office, and not in.
Reciprocally, the parties to the right of Parliament's (Riksdagen) aisle have failed miserably twice before. Regrettably, the odds seems to be againss them this time too.
Thursday, 26 April 2007
Only in Sweden
The swedes (yes, I admit I am one of them) are a funny lot. Ever since we 1994 gingerly agreed to become members of the European Union, the nation has suffered a sort of collective remorse about the whole affair. Thus, support for the European project is generally very low and lots of indigenous political issues and problems are seen as evil Brussels schemes, almost by default.
Therefore it is not a joke that SR, The Swedish National Public Radio, right now leads on it's english language website with the following proud banner:
Record High Swedish EU Support
Normally in, say Belgium, Holland or Italy, record high support would mean a popular percentage of, say, 75-85 percent in favour of the Union. But in our case it is a modest 43% for and 31 % against in the poll the lede refers to.
Amazing ins't it? We swedes truly remain the sceptical Europeans.
Imagine the same sort of headline in let's say The Valley News, West Lebanon, NH:
"Record high support for the Union in New Hampshire"
Had the support been the same 43 percent, I'll guess the headline would have had another angle. Even the word "cecession" might have come to be mentioned somewhere in the copy.
What a preposterous thought...
Therefore it is not a joke that SR, The Swedish National Public Radio, right now leads on it's english language website with the following proud banner:
Record High Swedish EU Support
Normally in, say Belgium, Holland or Italy, record high support would mean a popular percentage of, say, 75-85 percent in favour of the Union. But in our case it is a modest 43% for and 31 % against in the poll the lede refers to.
Amazing ins't it? We swedes truly remain the sceptical Europeans.
Imagine the same sort of headline in let's say The Valley News, West Lebanon, NH:
"Record high support for the Union in New Hampshire"
Had the support been the same 43 percent, I'll guess the headline would have had another angle. Even the word "cecession" might have come to be mentioned somewhere in the copy.
What a preposterous thought...
Time for some common sense
Tonight (at 3.35 PM Pacific) the swedish television audience will get at chance to tune in to some critisism of the prevailing dogma of human caused global warming. The decision of our Channel 4 to air Martin Durkins documentary Great Global Warming Swindle (2007) was, of course, hailed by a clamour of disgust on great parts of the Blogosphere's most PC swedish contributors.
As I myself have been branded as a heretic on the warming issue for the audacity of actually asking for some proof, I feel some understanding for Martin Durkin. Simply by asking in my swedish blog where the empirical facts are, I was branded as a criminal in partity with a Holocaust Denier.
The Durkin film might not be a paragon of objectivity itself. But what documentaries are? And against the background of almost total media bias for the notion that humans have caused drastic climate change, it sure stands out like a handful of sore thumbs.
Still, it has some quite heavy scientific people in it.
And the issues adressed really needs more journalistic legwork, not less.
After all, I find a distinct pattern in the debate and discussion on CO2 emissions:
Stakeholders are deadly sure humans have caused global warning. That is not too surprising. Many enviromentalists, lobbyorganisations, enviromental journalists, politicians and other hang arounds would be out of a job if CO2 caused global warming suddenly turned out to be grossly exagerated, as I personally happen to believe.
On the other hand, very few scientist sound as dead certain. They have, after all, a scientific reputation do maintain.
As I myself have been branded as a heretic on the warming issue for the audacity of actually asking for some proof, I feel some understanding for Martin Durkin. Simply by asking in my swedish blog where the empirical facts are, I was branded as a criminal in partity with a Holocaust Denier.
The Durkin film might not be a paragon of objectivity itself. But what documentaries are? And against the background of almost total media bias for the notion that humans have caused drastic climate change, it sure stands out like a handful of sore thumbs.
Still, it has some quite heavy scientific people in it.
And the issues adressed really needs more journalistic legwork, not less.
After all, I find a distinct pattern in the debate and discussion on CO2 emissions:
Stakeholders are deadly sure humans have caused global warning. That is not too surprising. Many enviromentalists, lobbyorganisations, enviromental journalists, politicians and other hang arounds would be out of a job if CO2 caused global warming suddenly turned out to be grossly exagerated, as I personally happen to believe.
On the other hand, very few scientist sound as dead certain. They have, after all, a scientific reputation do maintain.
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