1 2 3 4 United States Marine Corps

Good Morning!

As I am waiting for my coffee I would like to take this time to update and write sonething here. Last night in a Swedish newspaper you could read about the organization 'Young Mariens'. This is a 50 year old organization that recruit kids as young as the age of 8 to be trained and prepared for a life as potential soldiers. Check it out here: http://www.youngmarines.com/

Included in the program you have physiqal training, endurence practice, military training, physical tests and also knowledge about the history of war and the U.S. The program encourages you to live a drug free and clean life.

It is interesting that Pentagon spends a heap of money on recruting these children. This program has a lot of critics, saying that this organization is creating child soilders, who are basicly trained to kill. I agree, but am I the only one who sees the similarities to Hitlerjugend???

I am ashamed - and I am not the idiot

Hello!

Just bumbed into a very short article about muslim women in Malmö (third biggest city in Sweden). A study showed that a lot of muslim women that wear head scarfs are victims for everyday violence by other citizens. The article tells about a 50 year old woman biking past a 19 year old girl, the 50 year old woman stops her bike and says 'Muslim Cunt', hops on her bike again and leaves.

What the heck is going on here?

The article also shows that a lot of women are being spat on or pushed when they are being passed on the streets. It has gotten to the point where a lot if women avoid going out, or just try to avoid confrontation with other people, while being out.

I don't even know where to begin!

I am starting to get very worried about a lot of things going on in my home country. I am nervous about the upcoming elections. There is a big chance that the Swedish Democrats (basicly a racist party) are gonna get a small spot in our government, and I am telling you, if that happens, I will never ever move back to Sweden.

What happened to the sentiment after WW II? We must never forget! It can never happen again!
Human beings seem to have a very, very short memory, or they are just idiots? You tell me!

Sanna

You're In The (Private) Army Now

Hello!

The other week I was writing about the Democratic Republic of Congo, and yesterday these news fell into my lap:

2 Norwegians sentenced to death

The news is on Swedish but it is about two Norwegian mercenaries who has been sentenced to death by a military court in Kisangani. The crime they were convicted for included spying for Norway and killing a local driver, (the driver was the father of six children). It is not clear what the Norwegian men was doing there and the story is very unclear. When they were arrested they were both carrying two different types of identity cards, one from the Norwegian military and one for SIG (Special Intervention Group), which is a Norwegian based security group sort of like Blackwater. The Norwegian Ministry of Foregin Affairs have made it absolutley clear that these two men have NOT been conducting business for Norway in any shape or form.

So, a lot of focus has been put on the fact that these men got the death penalty and how Norway now is trying to stop this. I would like to add that according to Omalanga (Congo's minister of communication) the death penalty has not been carried out in Congo for ten years, so how this exactly will play out is hard to say. But the two convicted men said that 'a lifetime punishment in in Congo is to us the same as the death penalty'.

I am not really gonna state my own point of view in this case but I would like to flip the coin around and focus on the parts that no one else seem to care about or even think that much about. And that is the fact that they are mercenaries. This is a concept that is not that well known to the public. So if you look up the word mecenary in the dictionary it states:

-Adjective

1.	working or acting merely for money or other reward; venal.

2.	hired to serve in a foreign army, guerrilla organization, etc.

There is a few legal problems when it comes to mecenaries. A normal soilder that serve their nation has to play by the rules. And there are a lot of laws to concider when it comes to war. (Check out the book Of war and Law by David Kennedy). To explain it simple, if you commit a war crime hopefully you are held responsible, and you go to your own nations military court. They decide the punishment and so on. So as a soilder this works as a form of security for you, because if you mess up you are not on your own in a foreign nation, that might have a very different jurisdiction than where you come from. But if you decide to work as a mecenary you don't have this security. Which in one way has created a legal vacuum. You are not representing your own nation, which means you are not obligated to follow the rules in the same way you should when you are in the official army. But this also means that when you mess up you are on your own. If you commit a crime, depending on where in the world you are, it is the local laws that counts.

And this is the case for the Norwegian mercenaries. If it is true that they were not on a mission for Norway. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, say they are gonna try to help them, because 'Norway has a very strong stand on the death penalty, and we are very much against it'

My point is that it becomes a very big deal when people from the West get's into trouble in the South or the East. The media is all over it and we are very quick to point out the legal flaws and the barbarism of the punishments. But when the west decide, or should I say the US decide to open up prisons like Camp X-Ray, not many people care. It sort of shows that perhaps on paper all men (and women) are equal, but in reality white men are better.

It sickens me.

PS
There are so many more interesting topics in this blog enrty that I might bring up later but for now this is it. I am also very much aware that there are so many more angles and details to this story that can be debated. What if they are innocent?, Do all nations have a responsibility to protect and help their own citizens? If so, what about poor nations that don't have a say in anything? Is it always a bad thing being a mecenary? What about the legal vacuum? And so on.

So long,

Cellphones and Computer Chips - Congo

Oh dear, Congo.

This nation has a quite sad history, especially when it comes to it's relations to the west world. Here we have a long history of exploitation, starting with the French and then later with Belgian king Leoplod II. King Leoplod made Congo his own private empire, and I must add it was not a pretty sight. (To read more about that, please check out the book King Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hochschild).

Because the nation has a large amout of different minerals, like copper and coltan, large companies does it's best to uphold civil war and disorder, just to be able to save money. Coltan is a metal used in cell phones, and Congo is one of the few places that has a lot of it. So why is it that disorder and war is good for these companies?

If the nation was at peace, companies would have to get an expensive licence from the government to be able to harvest the metals, also they would have to give royalties to the local authorities. There are tons of international laws on how this should work, but in Congo, companies are acting just how they like. For example, the Australian company Anvil Mining helped Congo's military to perform a massacre. Anvil Mining gave the soilders trucks and aircrafts, also they sent the soilders food after the attacks. Over 100 people was killed.

Collecting coltan

Years of war has had a huge impact on the people in Congo, of all the conflicts in the world Congo's so brutal that I even have a hard time reading about it, especially when it comes to the women and children. I am gonna spare you from details about this, you probably know a lot about it.


We already know about blood diamonds, what about blood phones and computers!?

About Tomatoes

Hello!

A couple weeks ago I got caught in a discussion about wether the famous tomato is a vegetable or a fruit. I though, 'fruit, that is just pure stupid'. So here we go:

The tomato is only a fruit in a strictly botanical meaning (the fruiting body containing the seeds of a flowering plant, or something like that). However, vegetable is not a botanical but a culinary term, and thereby tomatoes clearly classifies as vegetables - since they are generally served with dinner and not dessert. Luckily the U.S. Supreme Court settled this once and for all in 1893.

But if you for some reason still persist in calling the tomato a fruit, you should also include cucumbers, squashes, peppers, beans, peas and corn in that category.

That's all for now.
Ciao

Video killed the Radio Star

Did your old TV travel more than you? Probably!

In Europe, 8,7 million tonne of electronical waste is being thrown out each year. Only 25 % of that is being recycled. Keep in mind that these numbers only estimates the European Union, add the US and other nations that are developing fast, and the numbers will be even higher.

It is somewhat uncertain where the rest of the junk goes. We know that Africa and Asia are two popular destinations for the garbage. Here still usable metals are being set apart from the rest of the junk, this job is preformed by the local population, (also children). Everyting that cannot be used is burnt. This procedure is very poisonous for the environment. Since we have figured out such a great way to keep our part of the planet clean we should just keep on buying a new phone every half year, and please make sure your TV is the best!

Source:
http://www.greenpeace.org/sweden/rapporter-och-dokument/not-in-our-backyard

Feminism - East, West & the Rest

Hello!

During my university years in Lund I was active in a so called 'Student Nation'. A student nation is a place for students to meet, for various reasons. The nation I was a member of was one of the few ones that had a political agenda, in this case socialism and feminism. The only thing I really did there was to book bands for their alternative music stage. Anyhow, the reasonn why I brought this up is because my two years there made me start to think about feminism from a different point of view.

A couple of years ago when I was working on my Bachelor's degree, I was doing some research about Afghanistan and modernisation, with focus on women. I stumbled over a book with a chapter written by one of Afghanistan's Miss Afghanistan. She wrote that to her it was a great victory for women in Afghanistan that she was able to compete in beauty. She says:

"I wanted to send a message to the world for the liberty and freedom of Afghan women...who should be allowed to speak their minds and be whatever they want to be,".

In contrast to the feminists in Sweden, and the student nation I was active in a lot of energy was put into criticizing the fact that you do compete in beauty and everything that is related to it. I am not sure what the point is with this blog enrty, but I guess you could say that one womans emancipation is another's objectification.

Also see old blog post: Yes We Can....Not!

(I should add, that I think competing in beauty is rubbish, but hey it might have something to do with where I was born!?)

Bye

Not so much action here

Hello!

I just got a temporary job so I have not had time to write anything here. That is sad.
My job is within the field of social psychiatry. My job is to chill with people who suffers from paranoid schizofrenia. It is very interesting I must say. That is all for now.

Some Jerks Are Bigger Than Others

Hello!

The man on the picture has just made me a little bit upset. His name is Jan Björklöund and he is the Swedish Minister of Education. Not only does he belong to a political party that I dislike a lot. Anyway, he just introduced a few new reforms he would like to apply to the Swedish school system. There is one thing in particular I think is next to retarded. I will get back to that soon, first I need to tell you how it works now.

Already when you start high school (in Sweden) you sort of make a choice in what you might wanna study or work with after your high school graduation. There are tons of different options. Like me for an example, I studied political science and I decided to also play a lot of music so I added a lot of that to my program. There are a few subjects all students have to study and that is for example Swedish, English, math and so on. So depending on what you study in high school will later sort of determine what you can study later. If you regret the choice you made when you were 15 years old, we have this 'second chance' school called Komvux. This is a place you can go back to after high school and read subjects you did not study before, and or, just get your grades up, (but it is still counted as high school points). So this option has been great for those who already by 15 years of age did not know what they wanted to become or do 10 - 15 years later.

So ok, what this man on the picture wants to do is to take this safety net away from the people. I have no clue how you already by 15 know what you wanna do later in life. Of course there are some people who do know what they wanna do already by 5, but there is probably more of us who are a bit confused and not always thinking that far into the future. I know that I am not doing the things I thought I was going to be doing, at least not when it comes to my education. I have been studying so many things and mixed so many different subjects before I finally discovered what I really wanted to put all my focus on. So all I am saying is that, who is it hurting if people are allowed to change their minds?

Barbarism begins at home

Good Morning!

After the alarm about how pigs are treated in Denmark before slaughter, the Swedish news reports that still a lot of people desire danish pork. Danish meat is sold cheap in Swedish stores and people don't seem to see the connection between cheap meat and the treatment of the animals, or they just don't care. I have a feeling we´re dealing with carelessness. A human being just looking out for itself, saving a buck or two, regardless the suffering of our nature and other living things.

Song Dong got caught

An ordinary day just like this one Song Dong was on his way from Vietnam to LA. What no one knew was that he was carrying a big secret and burden.

Song Dong was smuggling 14 rare birds on his socks!
He had put them in some fabric, and attached them to his socks. Sort of like this:



All the birds survived, even though the flight was 15 hours long. Apparently there is a big black bird market in the US, and Song Dong is not the first guy to get caught. This kind of crime can give you 10 years in prison. In spite Song Dong being caught this way he claims he is innocent.

I only have a few questions, and that is, what about the birds? were they quiet all the time? sedated? where will they go now?




well, bye for now.

The Things We Don't Mention.......In the UN

Good Morning!

Last summer I went to the head quaters of the UN in NYC. I wanted to take a guided tour and learn more, I did not learn anything new, but I asked my guide a question which made me think about something. And that is the things we don't mention in the UN.

1) Taiwan - A sovereign state or not?
2) China - Tibet - An occupied state?
3) The Israel and Palestine conflict. This is a problem that is being discussed, BUT you really have to watch your tounge. Say the wrong thing and you get clowns attacking you.

Can you think of more issues?

I think there is a problem if there are a few things you cannot mention in the UN. I thought this was one of the points with the whole organization?, to prevent armed conflicts. Maybe the way to prevent armed conflicts is to ignore and tiptoe around them, to make sure you don't anger the wrong nation.

Don't get me wrong, I do think there are a lot of good things with the UN. A lot.

Me in the Security Council

Camp X - Ray

Hello!

Today a Swedish newspaper wrote about a prisoner at Guantánamo who had made a phone call to a TV network called al-Jazira. This is the first ever interview made with a person who is still in the prison. He was supposed to call his family but instead he called the TV network. In the interview he said that he was beaten regularly with batons by fully armed guards, and that this has happened after Obama became the new president. 

What struck me the most is that this prisoner by the name Mohammad al-Gharani, was brought to the camp at the age of 14. According to the UN-convention on the Rights of the Child this is not legal. Today Mohammad is 21, which means that he has spent 7 years at Guantánamo. 

The American Government claim that this boy was living with al-Qaida in Afghanistan, had been fighting in Tora Bora 2001, and that he was a courier for some important al-Qaida members. Though, keep in mind, today the district attorney Richard Leon says that these accusations came from two other Guantánamo prisoners, and no real evidence has ever found been found. 

The court has now decided that he is going to be released and sent back home to his family in Saudi Arabia or Tchad. 

There are two things about this story I would like to point out. 

1) As I mentioned it is not legal to inprison children according to the UN-convention on the Rights of the Child. The reson why the US believe they can do this is because they are one of the two nations in the world that has not signed and ratified the convention mentioned above. The other nation who has not signed the convention in Somalia. 

2) What does this kind of captivity do to a boy (a young man)? Seven years at Guantánamo probably have some kind of impact on how you turn out as a person. I can think of two possible options. A) You get so frightened by your previous experience you decide never to participate in any illegal activity in the future. B) You have lost so many years of your life based on false accusations which makes you feel angry and hopeless, and in desperation you look for revenge and eventually turn to terrorist related activities. 

I can be wrong. Maybe he starts fighting for Human Rights, starts school, or both, or....

A new law = A major set back for the women of Afghanistan - 'Worse than the Taliban'

This is very confusing, what's going on?, I don't really get it!

A new law has passed, but not yet published in Afghanistan. The new law will undermine women's rights and regulates the personal status of Afghanistan's minority Shi'a community members, including relations between women and men. The law denies these women the right to leave their homes except for 'legimitate' purposes. It also forbids women from working or receving education without their husbands permission. It allows marital rape, diminishes the right of mothers to be their children's guardians in the event of a divorce, and makes it impossible for wives to inherit houses and land from their husbands - even though husbands may inherit immoveable property from their wives.

How is this possible? I thought that parts of the purpose for the US coalition was to help restore human rights in Afghanistan. Or did they forget the oh so strong words that was used before the invasion of the nation? I guess so. Shameful!

The explanation for this as far as I can see it might be that Afghanistans current president Hamid Karzai is facing a new presidental election in August and now he is trying to win votes from the Hazara minority. Which apparently is considered the the most important bloc of swing voters in the election.

Mohammed Akbari, the leader of a Hazara party says that:
- "Men and women have equal rights under Islam but there are differences in the way men and women are created. Men are stronger and women are a little bit weaker; even in the west you do not see women working as firefighters."

And he added that the law gave a woman the right to refuse sexual intercourse with her husband if she was unwell or had another reasonable "excuse". And he said a woman would not be obliged to remain in her house if an emergency forced her to leave without permission.

Playing with the Big Boys!

Hello!

In the news today you can read about how the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt get's petted on the head by Obama. This all played out during a meeting between the EU and the USA. Reinfeldt was there to speak about climate and energy related questions and he says:

- We were sitting next to eachother on the way to a press conferance and exchanged a few words. 

It is not without pride he adds that:

- Obama praised me, he said that it was very good that I brought up these questions and that we need to talk some more!

If he was nervous?

- I am more nervous when my kids are playing a soccer game. 

What a clown!

I can just imagine how he answered these questions, sort of like Kip in the movie Napoleon Dynamite. 

-'It's getting pretty serious now'.

Hejdå!

The Need To Be Alone

Hello!

I’m someone who often needs time alone so I can think and so I can manage my personality. If I don’t get time alone I feel like I’m drowning intellectually and, also, I get grouchy. Sometimes the desire to withdraw from the company of others is strong. I feel if I could just go a week without talking to anybody. If I never get enough time by myself it feels like my thought will be lost.

I am lucky, I have friends and I am surrounded by love and great things.
As my life is structured now, a week alone is not in the cards. Does everyone have this need for time alone? How do you ask for it without hurting someone's feelings?


Sanna

The Battle of Afghanistan's Women

Hello!

At the moment I am reading this book by Antonio Giustozzi called Koran, Kalashnikov, and Laptop - The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan. I am not done reading it and it is not the book itself I wanna write about, instead I would like to point the headlights at this amazing organization called Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).

This organization has existed since the 1970's and was formed by one woman called Meena. It is an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and social justice in Afghanistan.

The organization has shown a lot courage and you should go and check out their website at:
http://www.rawa.org/index.php


Sanna

A man was shot on my street last night

It is not the first time this happens in this area of Copenhagen.
When I moved here I was told that Vesterbro is the hipp area of Copenhagen. My first thought was: 'Ahh like the LES or Williamsburg in NYC'. I guess I don't have the same defenition of 'hipp' as others.

I would like to add that this picture was taken long before the crime. Just so you don't think that I look this happy everytime a crime is committed.

So long.

Hello!

After several months of hard work I finally finished my grad paper.
The paper is about American national identity. I call it 'The Fear of Amexica'


For anyone who has too much time on their hands, check it out here:

'The Fear of Amexica' - A Discourse Analysis of the Department of Homeland Security?s Construction of an American National Identity

XO

The man on the pictures is Guillermo Gómez-Peña, a Cool Mexican, performance artist, writer, activist and educator.