The Fragmentation of Our Nation

A Brief History of Capital Punishment - USA, Part I

2011-11-03T09:35:00.001-07:00

Capital punishment go as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C.. Back then you could face the death penalty for 25 different crimes. Death sentences was carried out by such means as crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement.

In Great Britain during the 10 Century A.D., hanging was the new way to execute a person. In the following century it actually became forbidden, except in war times (Great Britain). This did not last very long. Capital punishment came back during the Sixteen Century, as well as some new methods to carry out the punishment. Boiling, burning at the stake, hanging, beheading and quartering was added to the options. Marrying a Jew or treason was enough to receive capital punishment. A bit later in the Seventeen Century cutting down a tree, or robbing a rabbit warren could be enough to get you executed.

Great Britain influenced the United States use of capital punishment. When European settlers came to the new world they brought the practice of capital punishment. The first documented execution in the new colonies was carried out in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. A man was executed for being a spy from Spain. In 1612 Virginia Governor Sir Thomas Dale provided the death penalty for crimes as stealing grapes, killing chickens and trading with Indians. Laws regarding Capital punishment varied from colony to colony.

The abolitionist movement found it's roots in the writing of European theorists Montesquieu, Voltaire and Bentham. But the most important essay was Cesare Beccaria's essay “On Crimes and Punishment”. The essay theorized that there was no justification for the state's taking of a life. American intellectuals was influenced by this, Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill to revise Virginia's death penalty laws. The bill proposed that capital punishment should only be used for crimes as murder and treason. It was defeated by only one vote. In 1794 Pennsylvania, as the first state repealed the death penalty for all offenses except first degree murder. In 1834 Pennsylvania became the first state to move executions away from the public eye. State penitentiaries was built. In 1846 Michigan became the first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes except for treason. Later Rhode Island and Wisconsin abolished it for all crimes. Some states followed, but most of them held onto capital punishment.

During the Civil War the opposition to the death penalty waned, as more attention was given to the anti-slavery movement. At the end of the century the electrical chair was introduced. The first chair was built in New York in 1888.

1907 – 1917, six states completely abolished capital punishment, and three limited it to first degree murder of a law enforcement official. Some states took this back when people started to panic about revolution. The US had just entered WW I, and there was an intense class conflict. Socialism posted a big threat.

In 1924 cyanide was introduced, this offered a more humane way to execute inmates. The state tried to pump in gas to an inmates cell, to kill him in his sleep, but this failed. The gas chamber was invented.

During the 1930s there were more executions in the US than during any other decade in US history. In the 50s executions began to drop. Many nations around the world abandoned capital punishment. By 1966 the support for capital punishment in the US was at an all time low.

Sanna

For more info please visit: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/books-death-penalty

A New Series of Articles

2011-11-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

Hello!

As you might have noticed I have not been writing that much on my own blog. I've been very busy with my internship. The good news is, that I, for a very long time wanted to write a series of articles about capital punishment. I finally decided to do it. I will write about the history of capital punishment, different nations, ongoing debates, and I will also introduce you to a man who's on death row at San Quentin State Prison. This man's name is Darrell Lomax, he has been on death row for over 15 years. At the moment I am looking through his case. To me it is unbelievable that capital punishment was given to him since the evidences against him are very weak. I will tell you more about Mr Lomax later.

Peace,

Sanna

HIV/AIDS and Stigma

2011-10-14T09:08:00.001-07:00

Hello!

As you know I write articles for an NGO based at the UN.

The last months I have been working on HIV/AIDS prevention and by now I have written quite a few pieces on it. Please take a look at hem here:

http://globalaging.blogspot.com/

Bad Short Term Memory

2011-08-04T06:49:00.000-07:00

Today I read a story about a young man who has lived almost all his life in a refugee camp. He came there at the age of two, and is still living there at the age of 22.

This refugee camp is found in Kenya, close to the Somalian border. It's the largest of it's kind in the whole world, with about 440 000 refugees, (about 80 percent of those are women and children). Every day more and more people arrive, but the camp has reached it's capacity.

The man who has been living in this camp for 20 years has no homeland. He dreams about moving to either Sweden or the USA. If I was to give my advice, I would recommend the US. Why?, you ask, because at the moment Sweden is struggling with internal problems regarding immigration. I like to call this problem The Swedish Democrats. If I never made this statement before I will make it now. The fact that they got in to the Swedish Government during the last elections makes me ashamed of Sweden. A lot of people point out that this is an ongoing trend in all of Europe, racist parties getting a lot of votes. Okay, so what? It is still unexceptionable. This 'trend' brings one thing to my mind. The time before and after WW II. The world agreed; Never Again'!

Horrifying images from Concentration Camps made us promise ourselves that this cannot happen again. Together we now had a collective memory of perhaps the most darkest and cruelest act by humans. Human beings are certainly not perfect, neither are their memory.

Pictures from my Internship at the UN - New York City

2011-06-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

UN party.

High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS

Interns and Crew

Open- Ended Working Group meeting

"This is a man's world But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl"

2011-04-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I was just surfing around the web today and thought I wanted to check up on Afghanistan, and the progress of the rights of women. In 2001 Bush and his administration mentioned human rights and the liberation of women as an excuse to invade the country. So let's see how that's been going.

According to a article by RAWA, released March this year, violence against Afghan women hit records. Abuses like forced marriage, and traditions are still all a huge challenge for country. Even if women choose to report abuses it rarely goes anywhere, and what's even worse is that women run the risk of being punished if they report rape.

Please see some of the stories here:

http://www.rawa.org/self_immolation/violence2.htm

Why has not anything improved since the invasion? Reports show us it is even getting worse than it was before 2001. These numbers are alarming and they indicate that women's rights are not prioritized on the agenda. How can this have happened? Stop by again next week and I will tell you why and how this is!

I hate to say I told you so.

2011-04-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

It's now proven that the US has abandoned their most basic democratic believes.

http://wikileaks.ch/gitmo/

Running more than one blog

2011-04-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

Hello!

As I previously said I did get an internship at Global Action on Aging. I will still run this blog, but you can also read the work I do for them here:

http://globalaging.blogspot.com/

Stay safe on this April fools day!

Sanna

Good News Everyone!

2011-03-15T15:48:00.001-07:00

Hi!

I have some pretty marvelous news to share with you. Two weeks ago I went on an interview for an internship at the GAA - Global Action on Aging, and this week I found out I got the spot. I will be writing for them and be update their their blog.

To describe it short the GAA works towards strengthening older people's rights, towards a UN convention.

Check out the organization here:

http://www.globalaging.org/

Bye.

Closing Time

2011-03-08T10:11:00.001-08:00

Hello

What ever happened to the promise by Obama, about closing Guantanamo? Guess what, I looked it up and it is still open. The word on the street is that Obama still really want it closed but Congress doesn't.

As one of his first acts as president Obama signed an executing order to close the military prison for terrorist suspects within a year. More than two years has passed. There are about 172 detainees remaining at the camp.

Art by Banksy

A little information about Guantanamo for those who has been living under a rock the last couple of years. The prison was opened and established by the Bush Administration in 2002. It's a place where they would take boys and men that could be terrorists during the Afghanistan and Iraq war. (They have stopped bringing detainees there). A place like Guantanamo is illegal, but because it is run by the USA it has become this issue who's stuck in a vacuum. It has not helped much that the rest of the world have been demanding that this camp has to close, there is not much the rest of us can do, an economic sanction towards the US would not do much. Another big problem is that the prisoners have not been given the combatant status, which normally would grantee some human rights, (according to the laws of war). This has left them with no rights what so ever. There has been many reports of human rights abuses happening at Guantanamo such as ongoing torture, sexual degradation, forced drugging and religious persecution being committed by US forces.

The sad part of all of this is that when Guantanamo finally is closed, there will be a new prison, and I am pretty sure there are more prisons like this, Guantanamo just happens to be the one we know of.

Intervene or not?

2011-03-06T07:13:00.000-08:00

The situation in Libya continues. There's an ongoing debate in Europe and the US whether an intervention should take place or not. If it is, the next question is by who, why and how?

If a legal intervention should take place, it needs to go through the UN security council. This is a slow process and some leaders thinks that there is not enough time to wait. So far there has been suggestions that the security council (SC) should apply a UN sanctioned no - fly zone over Libya to prevent Muammar Gaddafi from bombing or gassing his own people. The five permanent members of the SC is not unified about this decision. France make their point by saying that a military intervention cannot happen without a clear United Nation mandate. At the same time Ban Ki-moon says that even more action beyond UN sanctions might be needed, since in Libya the regime has lost it's legitimacy and has declared war on it's own people.

So far some sanctions has been backed up by the UN and as well as the European Union, including an arms embargo and travel bans, and some nations have announced their own asset freezes.

Throughout history there has been successful interventions and less successful ones. I do think that is it very important to be careful about the situation and make sure the situation is analyzed before taking action. But I do not think we wanna repeat some of the mistakes that has been made before (Rwanda comes to mind). If an intervention is to take place it should be under the a UN mandate. The next problem is to find the actual people to do it. The UN does not have their own army and therefor relies on the armies of it's member nations. The question which countries would be willing to offer some assistance. For instance, the US army is busy in Iraq and Afghanistan, also Obama would have difficulties explaining to the American people why they should be apart of yet another military operation. If an operation will take place I doubt it will be led by the US.

The best thing would of course be if Gaddafi just resigned and gave up his power. If he continues to kill civilians, the international community will probably start feeling the pressure to act.

Why?

I always had a strong believe that you cannot force reforms and change on a whole nation and it's people. I do believe that the 'west' has the ability and responsibility to inform, educate, and assist other nations when it's necessary and asked for. If change is going to happen, it has to come from inside the country. This is exactly what is happening in Libya and other places in the Middle East. Another important thing to look at is the fact that for a very long time the radical Islamists of the Arab world has been viewed as the revolutionaries. But what we are seeing now is quite to opposite. We are seeing people who believes in change, and are now speaking up.

These two elements together forms a very good basis for a real chance of change, so the rest of us should not turn our backs on people who has hope, and has shown that they are more than ready for something new to come.

Me in the Security Council in NYC

I read the news today, o boy.

2011-02-15T09:42:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Over and over again we are facing news about young girls being approached by older men on internet. It's very common for these men to say they are model photographers who are looking for models. Since we live in a very shallow and vain society a lot of girls dream about becoming models. In these modern days our society does not pay too much attention to accomplishments that actually requires hard work and intelligence. Pop culture praise people who are famous because they happen to be children of very wealthy parents, or just happened to be on a private sex tape that somehow leaked out to the public. I would say that a lot of these people have very little knowledge about the real world. I've seen shows on TV where some of these glamorous people does not even know how to cut up a tomato. At the age of 21 I would think anyone would have been faced with this problem.

Anyhow, back to my point. Growing up thinking this is the best and only way to live makes young people easy targets for adults that has an ill mind. I am not saying this is the children's fault at all. With new technology kids are facing these kind of problems each day. I do have a few thoughts about it though. I remember when I was 15, I had a profile on a social network site called Lunarstorm (don't know if it still exists), I was approached by a strange man perhaps in this late 40s. He said he was looking for models, and that he thought I was perfect for what he had in mind. At the age of 15 this sounded super cool. But, to me it sounded a little bit sketchy, so what I did was that I wrote the man back and said that it sounded like fun, but I wanted to talk to my mum about it and see what she thought. I figured that if this is a real and honest man he would not mind me talking to my parents. So yeah, guess what! I never heard from him again.

It is important children realize that 'candy man' is not the evil and fishy looking man walking the streets. He/she has found new modern ways. I know kids already knows this. But, still it happens all the time. Is the dream of becoming a model so big that you are willing to risk your own safety? It is probably even more important that kids realize that being famous is not all there is. I would like to see a society that celebrate other things than fame, money and good looks.

That is all for now.

http://fragmentationnation.blogspot.com/2008/12/get-seduced.html

Also, a great South Park episode that touch the same subject:

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s08e12-stupid-spoiled-whore-video-playset

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

2010-12-25T01:37:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-12-22T04:29:00.000-08:00

Back in my hometown

Happy Holidays!

Support the civilians in Afghanistan here:

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

Swedish Soldier Down

2010-10-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-22T16:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-22T02:26:00.000-07:00

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..

2010-03-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

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

Ops, they did it again

2010-02-22T03:51:00.000-08:00

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?

1 2 3 4 United States Marine Corps

2009-11-16T00:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-09T01:34:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-28T01:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-22T00:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-20T02:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-15T08:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-27T23:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-20T01:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-09T01:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-15T01:54:00.000-07:00

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'

2009-04-13T01:27:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-06T02:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-04T01:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-27T01:45:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-01-10T11:13:00.001-08:00

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.

Yes We Can....Not!

2008-12-06T03:02:00.000-08:00

Good Morning everyone!

So I was thinking about how Sweden and other Western States love to point their finger at other states they believe are treating their women wrong and how they should promote womens rights. Yes womens rights are good and of course women should be treated equal and yada yada yada.

So the other week the news told us that Mona Sahlin (the leader of the Social Democrats) is losing voters, and in a study it was shown that the people who now are choosing not to vote for the Social Democrats are white middle aged men. Here we go again!

So why is it that Sweden still has not had one single women prime minister when for example Pakistan and India has done it. Here I was, thinking we were the ones who had the right to point our fingers. We should probably stop pointing them at others and start looking at ourselves. Studies show that Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland are the countries that top the list of the most gender equal states in the world. Sweden actually is number one. Yet Finland has had women leaders not Sweden.

I don't think that Sweden will have a women prime minister anytime soon. So to the question if we can. No not really, not yet anyway! Sadly.

Auf Wiedersehen

Link to see the study of the most gender equal nations:
http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Gender%20Gap/index.htm

Get Seduced

2008-12-01T09:36:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Today I was listening to the Faints song "Get Seduced", and that made me think about a few things. The song is about Tabloid magazines, how they are made in hell and that we get seduced easily. They are so right.

To me it is incredible that people even care about what not to wear and who's tit escaped on camera. I mean, it is almost impossible not to know these things, because everywhere you go you see and hear about it. When you are standing at the line in a grocery store you see, against your will, who spent millons on a party, who actually has cellulites and who Lindsay Lohan kissed at the kick ass expensive party. It is unavoidable. People even talk about it like they know these people.

Why is it that people are so drawn to this kind of garbage? I think it is for a number of reasons. One theory I have (I might be wrong) is that people are stupid. The majority of people just don't care about anthing else. My hope is that I am wrong and that people focus on those kind of news because the real world is way too unfair and reality scares the shit out of them, therefor they "choose" to watch and care about crap. If this is the case, we are dealing with some sort of a defence mechanism. I really do hope this is the case, 'cause then hope is not lost...

And don't get me started on reality TV. OMG. The two last shows on Swedish TV was about a farmer looking for a wife. The deal is that an amount of women move in to his farm (don't know the exact number) and in a couple of weeks he is supposed to get to know these women and in the end, he of course find the love of his life. I am not sure what they exactly do when they are living at the farm, but I think they are showing off their farming skills.
The other show was about three singel moms trying to find a husband. This show is so stupid that I am not even gonna go into it. The most provocative reality show I ever seen must be "My Super Sweet 16", shown on MTV. If you don't know this show, be happy. It is about spoild rich girls having a huge party when they turn 16. In one way this show is sad, because these girls have no real understanding on how life can be outside their high protective walls. I got to the point where I gave my TV away.