Good news, but still lots left to do

Several chains of Supermarkets in Sweden (like Hemköp, Netto, City Gross) has decided to not sell endangered fish. Finally!

I just wish that they all would also take responsibility and stop selling non ecological bananas. Considering what the pesticide from non ecological banana farms does to the environment and the people living and working on and by these farms, I think that it should be a given for people to not buy or sell bananas that are not organic and fair trade marked.

Nazism not offensive, but a boy named Maria sure is

A blog that I'm reading regularly commented on an article, in one of the Swedish newspapers, about that the rules and regulations on what you are and aren't allowed to name your child is changing. They are becoming a bit less restrictive.

This is good, I think, as you should be allowed to name your child most things, as long as it's not offensive.

But the article still amazed me though. Because what is becoming less restrictive and what is not becoming less restrictive is a bit confusing to me.

You are still not allowed to name a boy a traditional girls name, like Maria. "That could be misleading".

But, these days you ARE allowed to name your child "Nordfront" (The North Front" as most people these days are not connecting that with Nazism, and therefor it is no longer considered offensive. "Also, if you want your child to be connected with Nazism, you have the right to".

Excuse me?! Nazism is apparently okay, but naming your child something that doesn't fit with the gender norms is not!?

Pissed at "Canada's Next Top Mpdel"

Ended up watching "Canada's Next Top Model" while I was stuck in the sofa breast feeding the other day. What I saw pissed me off!

They were doing a shoot for a mobile phone, and somehow they thought that wearing solely sexy lingerie under an open coat, with the mobile phone in one hand and a dog on a leech in the other hand, outdoors of course, was a good advertisement picture.

In Sweden, sexist advertisement, that has nothing to do with the product being advertised, is not allowed. When advertisement like that happens anyway (because it does unfortunately), anyone can report it, and the company behind the advertisement can be forced to take it down, and, as I've written before, it's also being discusses if companies should also be fined for this.

I guess this is not the case in Canada. What the hell does a half naked woman has to do with mobile phones?!!

Privatizing in areas that should never be privatized

The current government in Sweden seems eager to privatize everything. Now the turn has come to my work area. I work at a so called group home for people with Down Syndrome.

Considering that we are over budget basically every year I get a bit scared thinking of how a private company is supposed to make money by running my work place.

The rent will not change, so, will they move us? That is of course not an option. You don't just move peoples homes.

The costs for materials like office supplies and other stuff is already pretty much as low as it can be. So cutting down there is not a possibility either.

Mine and my colleagues salary could of course be cut. But I'm sure you can understand how I feel about that. Considering I do not work in a well paid area it would be a bad idea to cut salaries any further. That only results in high staff turn overs.

So I'm afraid that they will cut in the amount of staff. The only way this could be possible would be by totally changing the way we work. Which would collide with the rights of the people we are working for. Scary.

Do not support the bus strike

I pay 415 SEK every month to Kommunal, a union that is at the moment having a bus strike in Stockholm and other parts of Sweden. I do not support it!

Okay, certain demands I think are justifiable. And if the strike was only about those I would probably support it. But the strike is also about the bus drivers' pay check. And the fact is that bus drivers make more money than nurses. Nurses that have to spend three years in University, while you can become a bus driver in a heart beat.

And they also make more money than me. But Kommunal is not having a strike on my account. Cant help thinking that it's probably because I work in a female dominated work area, while bus drivers most often are men.

Scary

Watched "60 minutes" the other day. It was about a German guy that had ended up at Guantanamo. Six weeks after he was captured, the CIA had written in their reports that no links were found between the German and Al Qaida. The same information was given to German officials.

Still, this poor guy, was kept at Guantanamo for three and a half more years, for no obvious reason. He claims that he, on top of that, was tortured there. The details given by him is similar to details about torture, given by many other former prisoners.

The scary thing is that this German guy, most likely, is not the only innocent person kept at Guantanmo. This is what happens when people are not given the right to a trial.

Makes me furious

The Swedish newspaper DN is writing about big European fishing boats emptying the West African waters. Another example on how the West is swollowing the Earth's resources, while poorer countries are more or less forced to obey.

Makes me furious.

The State - a discriminating employer

Men, employed by the State, makes 17 508 SEK more than women in the same position, every year. There are twice as many men compared to women, being "the boss". And men, employed by the state, have safer terms of employment, in comparison with women employed by the State. All this according to the Swedish newspaper DN today.

Starting to feel a bit embarrassed, and pretty angry, as I, myself, is employed by.... the State.

Make more women in the board rooms mandatory

The Swedish newspaper DN is today writing about the fact that the percentage of women in the board rooms is still low. Only 18 percent of the board members in Swedish companies are women. It looks like we've come to "a stand still" as the percentage was the same last year.

Members of the governments opposition is now calling for the State to make it mandatory that there should be more female board members.

I totally agree.

People use excuses like:

Making it mandatory is bad, as the person most suitable for the job should get the job.

I say:

Sure, and it is just as easy finding a woman suitable for the job, as a man suitable for the job, but the nasty structures in society, and in the board rooms, makes sure that the people (most of the time men) that are looking for a candidate, almost always manages to make sure that the most suitable person is a man.

People also say:

Making it mandatory is not the way to go and no woman would want the job as a result of it being mandatory.

I say:

Women would not get the job as a result of it being mandatory. A woman would get the job as a result of being the best candidate. The only difference would be that the person looking for a candidate would not be allowed to discriminate against women, and would therefor have to look further that amongst his 'brothers'.

I also say:

It might not be the best way to go, but it's the way we seem to be forced to go as structures seem very difficult to change. Especially structures that has to do with the patriarchate. By making things mandatory it might also push the structures to change, and when the structures has changed we will no longer need for things to be mandatory.

Until then, dear government, please, start taking discrimination against women seriously and force companies and employers to stop this obvious form of discrimination.

When did the Olympic Games stop being politic?

Some people say that we shouldn't make the Olympic Games politic. That we should separate the two.

My question is: When did it STOP being politic? Hasn't it always been? Will it not always be?

I think it's brilliant that people are speaking up against all different kinds of crimes against humanity that China is involved in. Weapons in Darfur. Record holders when it comes to the death penalty. Tibet.

And not to forget cruelty against animals.

I think it's great that a boycott of the opening ceremony is being considered.

A great blog and a petition

A friend of mine has a brilliant blog. She doesn't write as often as I wish she would, but when she does write, I love reading it. I want to recommend it. The address is: trivialthings.blogspot.com

You can always find a link to her blog here on my blog, to the right. Just as you can find other friends' great blogs and some other links. The reason why I'm writing about the blog "Trivial Things" today, is because of the escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine.

My friend lives there. She chooses to not write about politics in her blog, but in her last post she advised her readers to have a look at another blog, written by an Israeli and a Palestinian, about the situation going on.

So I want to recommend to not only have a look at my friends blog, but to also check out the blog that she's recommending: http://gaza-sderot.blogspot.com/

And why not sign the petition.

Swedish Prime Minister on BBC's "Hard Talk"

The Swedish Prime minister, Fredrik Reingfeldt, was being interviewed at BBC's "Hard talk" this morning. And even though I most of the time do not agree with his policies and ideologies, I was pretty proud when he was pin pointing that the rest of the EU and the USA should welcome more refugees from Iraq.

He admitted that the huge amount of refugees from Iraq, that Sweden has welcomed, has strained the country, but that those problems don't mean that we should not welcome more refugees, only that we have to work on making it easier for refugees to get employment and to be integrated.

For the first time ever, I think, I was pretty proud of Fredrik Reinfeldt.

All abortions forbidden in Nicaragua

Watched a documentary yesterday, made by Channel Four in the UK, about abortion, or rather the law against abortion, in Nicaragua.

All abortions are forbidden in Nicaragua. Not even when the mothers life is in danger or when the pregnancy is a result from a rape, is abortion allowed.

The force behind the law is, according to the documentary, the Catholic Church. When the reporter asked one of the front figures in the Catholic Church in Nicaragua about how they can justify women dying because of the law against abortion, his answer was in line with:

"Women do not need to die. Claiming that women are dying is just something being used by the pro abortion side. Medicine and technology is so advanced today that no women should be dying from pregnancy."

Easy for him to say. He is not the one dying in labour or while carrying a child. And he is not the one getting very ill or dying from being forced to illegal abortion.

According to the documentary, many of the unwanted pregnancies is a result of the so called macho culture and the fact that men refuses to use a condom. And women are the ones being hurt. Left with a pregnancy even though it could danger their lives, even though they can not afford having a child.

The documentary really saddened me. And disgusted me.

"Bitterfittan" about equality

Reading the book "Bitterfittan" at the moment. Not sure how to properly translate the title in to English, so I will not bother. I will just say that the word "bitter" is exactly the same thing in English - "bitter". "Fitta" means "pussy".

Many great points are made in that book. Nothing new, but well worth mentioning, over and over again, is:

How are we supposed to get to an equal society, when we can't even live equally with the ones that we love?

In todays Swedish society, most women do double work. They do paid work and then they go home and do the unpaid house work. This results in many women being tired, stressed, overworked, depressed. If we lived equally, and men took as much responsibility for the children and the housework, then women wouldn't be all that.

Gudrun Schyman at BBC

Guess if I was surprised this morning, when Gudryn Schyman showed up on BBC.

All Swedes knows who good old Gudrun is. But for those of you that are not Swedes: She's the front person of Feministiskt Initiativ (a feministic political party in Sweden's previous election). She's also the former leader of Vänsterpartiet (a left wing political party).

Do not ask me what the news were about, because it made no sense. The reporter was talking about that Sweden is one of the most gender equal societies in the world, but that many feel that there is still a long way to go. Then there was Gudrun talking a bit about the patriarchal structures, saying that they exists everywhere, all over the world. After that some Swedes on the streets were asked wether or not they would ever vote for a feminist party. And that's it.

I would have understood this being shown during the election in 2006. But I have no clue why it was shown now.

Anyway, I guess Feministiskt Initiativ could do with some good media for once, as most of the media that they got here in Sweden, during the election in 2006, was crap. Still upsets me how they were ignored, misunderstood, and often made a joke about. One of the big newspapers here in Sweden made paper dolls looking like the women in the party. Accessories for the dolls were things like breasts and fish smelling arm pits. Honestly, what is that?!

So I was happy seeing Gudrun on BBC news this morning. Even if it wasn't really news.

Integration problems in Sweden can not be solved by threats

On the morning news I watched Tobias Billström (Sweden's Minister of Immigration) defending the governments new suggestion about demanding that refugees in Sweden has a job and an apartment before they are allowed to bring family over.

Critic from the opposition was of course that it will not be easier to find a job or an apartment just because you are threatened by the fact that you will not be allowed to reunite with you're family if you don't.

Also, a suggestion like this puts the responsibility on individuals instead of recognizing the problems Sweden has with discrimination against immigrants on the job market.

Another critic was that the governments real reason for this suggestion is that they want to decrease the amount of immigrants.

Tobias Billström denied this, but in the next sentence he says that the reunion of family should not necessarily have to happen in Sweden. It could just as well happen in e.g. Syria.

What???

No, Tobias Billström, I doubt that this suggestion is the answer to the integration problems in Sweden.

"The Life of David Gale" and the death penalty

Watched "The Life of David Gale". Good film! Although I guess I'm a bit bias, as I both love Kate Winslet AND films about the death penalty.

Not sure why I love films about the death penalty so much, but it probably has something to do with that they make me very emotional. Angry, sad, frustrated. Or maybe I just love to cry. They always make me cry. So did this one.

In the film the statistics "66 percent of the American people support the death penalty" was mentioned. That can't be true I thought. But I googled it, and it seems to be fairly true.

Then I decided to google the same thing, but this time about the Swedish people. I found that the newspaper Aftonbladet had done a survey asking their readers if the death penalty was right or wrong. 40 % said it was right, and 60 % answered that it was wrong.

As I'm not a big fan of Aftonbladet, and as I do not understand why people read it or consider it news, I kept on checking.

I found that another survey had asked if there was any crime that should be possible to be punished by death. Almost half of all Swedes said yes. When the question was changed to "Should Sweden's strongest penalty, life in prison, be changed to death penalty" about 20 % answered that it should.

So, I'm not sure exactly how many of the Swedish population that are pro death penalty. But whether it's 20 %, 40 % or 50 %, it's way too many.

I'm glad though that it seems unlikely that the death penalty will ever be reinstated in Sweden.

I smell racism

People in the Swedish government is researching/suggesting the possibilities for state financed education of imams in Sweden. Yes, obviously this government does have a few good ideas. Who would have guessed.

The suggestion is that the education will not be on a University level, but rather on a so called high school level. Many muslim organizations in Sweden are positive to this, as long as the terms of the education is to be put together by both the Muslim organizations and the state, and that the state doesn't interfere in the religious parts of the education. In England this kind of education already exists.

One reason mentioned for this kind of education is that imams are not only religious leaders, but also mentors. If the mentor is not knowledgeable about Swedish society, e.g., his/hers advice as a mentor for young people, e.g., could sometimes become misguiding. Also there's a shortage of imams in Sweden, according to an article in the newspaper DN, which forces muslim organizations to ask for help from abroad. This could also lead to misguidance and other problems, according to the article.

The people responsible for this suggestion also, according to the article, mention that this could avoid radical paths of islam. That, as a reason for the education, I'm sceptic about. It suggests things that I do not agree with. But apart from that, I think the education is a great idea.

The same newspaper has a survey online, asking its readers if this is right or wrong. 30 % think it's right. 70 % think it's wrong.

What's wrong with it? We already educate Christian priests on a University level, financed by the state. Why not imams?

I doubt that the results would be 30 to 70 if the same question had been asked about the education of Christian priests,

I smell racism.

When political correctness becomes prejudice and racist

We've had another so called honor killing in Sweden. A young girl was killed by two of her male relatives.

It angers me that idiots like that exist. And it angers me that Sweden is so useless in dealing with these kind of issues.

In Sweden, where everything is supposed to be politically correct, we sometimes shoot ourselves in the foot. In the urge to give people the right to their own culture, we instead become prejudice and racist. And we leave women that are victims to violence in the name of honor, to fend for themselves. They are put in another category than women born as Swedes.

Examples of how political correctness becomes racism:

1. The head master at a school decided that the kids were not allowed to wear Swedish football shirts, as it could offend people from other countries. Who is the one doing the offending? The head master of course, by assuming that people from other countries and/or cultures would have a problem with something like that. That is prejudice and racist to me.

2. Or the university class that said that they did not like calling themselves Swedes as that could offend and was excluding towards none Swedes. Calling yourself a Swede, or a woman, or a Northerner, or a student, or white is not a problem, if you ask me. That's one way we use to make sense of the world. The problems is rather what you do, say, think and how you act. That's were the problem in the exclusion process steps in.

3. Or, to get back to the subject, when Swedish politicians are assuming that honor violence and killing is a part of another culture and should therefore be more or less ignored.

The women being victims of this, would they say that it's a part of their culture, or rather that it's just a few people claiming that it is. Men that do not participate in this kind of behavior, would they say that it's a part of their culture, or rather that certain people just takes certain parts of the culture to the extreme, making it what it's not and never was.

Something needs to be done here.

Thanks Mr. Bush

There's not a lot to be grateful to George Bush about. But yesterday it hit me that I am very grateful to him about one thing (and I'm not even American).

I'm grateful that he has screwed up so badly that the American people will probably vote for someone as "far away as possible" from the typical candidate, and from Bush.

Therefore I am pretty sure that there will be either a woman or a black man in the White House soon.

Because I am not sure that that would have happened otherwise.

I could be wrong. Not an expert. But the theory seems reasonable.