But you see, it's not me, it's not my family.

People stuck in a refugee camp (Pakistan)

People stuck in another refugee camp (Sudan)

Travelers stuck at Heathrow (UK)

Swedish travelers stuck with their laptops at Heathrow (UK)

During the last week there has been chaos all around Europe because of all the snow. Air and train traffic has been cancelled. At Heathrow there has been over 2000 Swedish people just waiting to be able to get home for the holidays, or to go somewhere warm during this cold season. On the news we hear angry passengers tell us about the horror. "We have been waiting for a whole day, they give us no information on when we will be able to fly, also they don't offer us any food or water".

I'll be darned.

Let it snow.

Back in my hometown

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Happy Holidays!

Support the civilians in Afghanistan here:

http://www.sak.se/stod/index.html

Swedish Soldier Down

Good Afternoon.

Today when I was reading some news from back home I saw the headline 'Swedish soldier killed in Afghanistan'. The vehicle he was traveling in was hit by a home made bomb. This is sad news, and my heart goes out to the his family. There are a few things I would like to mention about Sweden's involvement in Afghanistan.

Sweden has for a very long time taken a lot of pride in the fact that it during war times has taken a neutral stand point. Two examples of that is WW I and WW II. There is a war going on in Afghanistan, which means Sweden is in war, and has been since 2001. This has been debated quite a bit in Sweden, because from the beginning Sweden's involvement was only supposed to be a peace keeping unit in the so called ISAF force (International Security Assistance Force http://www.isaf.nato.int/). This force is however under the lead of NATO, it was not like that from the beginning but this happened in 2003. Keep in mind that Sweden is not a member of NATO. Like it or not Sweden is in war. War today looks very different than wars through history. There is still one thing that is for sure, and that is that people are gonna die, during modern war more civilians die than combatants. This is what we call collateral damage. See previous post:

http://fragmentationnation.blogspot.com/2010/02/ops-they-did-it-again.html

There are many nations involved in this war. The Mujahedin and the war lords will most certainly not take the time and care to see what nation their target is from. I don't think they think too much about the fact that there is supposed to be different forces with different tasks in their homeland. To them it's just invaders, just like Genghis Khan and the Soviet Union ones was. Last, my heart truly goes out to a nation that has not seen other than war for the past 100 years.

Update

Hello!

It's been a while since I wrote anything. A lot of things has been going on. I graduated from school and now finally have my masters degree. I also relocated to NYC. So I have been very busy with just getting a bit settled in the big city.

I do like it very much here. It is not the first time I live in NYC, for some reason I keep coming back. One of the reasons I moved here is that I want to get an internship at a NGO, also I do wanna do some volunteer work. Since I'm done with school I need to get started on the actual practical experiences.

That was all for this time.

My new home in Brooklyn.

Laws against burkas and niqabs in public places

Hello!

Today the government in Belgium is gonna vote about women wearing burkas and niqabs in public places. There is a suggestion that this should be fobidden and the punishment if you still wear it can be prison. I think this is silly. I do not understand why. The reason that has been given is that this law is important from a security and a moral stand point. A moral stand point? What does that mean in this context? It is also said that the liberty and independence for women is very important in Belgium. I can understand that argument to some extent, but I do think that there is another side to this as well. One thing is that this law might stop some women from leaving theire homes and I also believe that it can be dangerous telling people what to not wear.

There are more nations in Europe that are debating this issue. I know that it has been a topic in Denmark for a while. Which is interesting since there are no women wearing burkas in Denmark, and a very few wearing a niqab. The university of Copenhagen has done some research on this topic, and it has shown that about 50% of the women in Denmark wearing niqabs are Danish women that has converted to Islam.

But mostly I think there are bigger problems in Europe that needs to be solved and forbidden, like bootleg jeans, because they are ugly. ; )

About time..

So, the Swedish government has decided that the Ottoman Empire is guilty of Genocide.

Ops, they did it again

When there is a war it's given that it's the civilians that are gonna suffer the most. And among the civilians children and women are taking he hardest hit. Yesterday 27 cilvilians in Afghanistan was killed in an air attack by the USA, or to be precise by NATO. NATO thought they were attacking Taliban fighters traveling in three busses. Obama has claimed that the most important task for the US troups in Afghanistan is to protect and win the people of Afghanistan's hearts. In my book this is a peculiar way of doing that. Is this what they call collateral damage?