So who is this Evin Rubar? She's the lady responsible for SVT:s famous/notorious Könskriget documentary (I wrote about the first episode a week ago). Did she tell the Truth and nothing but the Truth? Probably not. ROKS has a lot to say about Evins way to do interviews. And I must agree that it would be very interesting to see the whole interviews, not just the edited parts. If ROKS starts to quote Jan Guillou they must be seriously pissed. And if Expressen supports Evin then I think that's a good enough reason to doubt some of her journalistic credibility. Maybe even a lot of it... Expressen totally sucks!!!
Monday, May 23, 2005
drunk in fiskis
When I get drunk I get an uncontrollable urge to take pictures... I think this is from Robin & Jelenas balchony...
eurovision song contest 2005
Saturday night was spent together with friends in front of Robin & Jelenas super TV. It was time for the annual eurovision song contest. This years big trends were tits, drums, drums, drums, tits, drums and balkan boybands. Jelena loved No name, a boyband from Serbia & Montenegro. I didn't really enjoy any of the songs so I focused more on the wine. Just like the rest of the guys. Thanx for a great evening Robin & Jelena!
Saturday, May 21, 2005
only a Sith thinks in absolutes
Yesterday I watched Star Wars III, it was okay. The first hour had the usual high speed chases and bad jokes that all American movies seems to have nowadays, but at least it was an entertaining way to kill an hour. But then the movie starts to get darker and more interesting. There are also some lines in the movie that have caught a lot of attention in media. Here's a quote from the N.Y. Times review: "This is how liberty dies - to thunderous applause," Padmé observes as senators, their fears and dreams of glory deftly manipulated by Palpatine, vote to give him sweeping new powers. "Revenge of the Sith" is about how a republic dismantles its own democratic principles, about how politics becomes militarized, about how a Manichaean ideology undermines the rational exercise of power. Mr. Lucas is clearly jabbing his light saber in the direction of some real-world political leaders. At one point, Darth Vader, already deep in the thrall of the dark side and echoing the words of George W. Bush, hisses at Obi-Wan, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy." Obi-Wan's response is likely to surface as a bumper sticker during the next election campaign: "Only a Sith thinks in absolutes."
Darth Vader quoting George W. Bush - who would have thought that? Obviously not some conservative groups. Especially not Patriotic Americans Boycotting Anti-American Hollywood, read and laugh.
But it's not the first time George Lucas makes a movie that reflects his thoughts on contemporary politics. Back in 1970 he released the movie THX 1138. THX 1138 is a sci-fi dystopia inspired by Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World. There are some lines in THX 1138 that feels eerily familiar today:
"If you feel you are not properly sedated, call 348-844 immediately. Failure to do so may result in prosecution for criminal drug evasion."
and
"Let us be thankful we have commerce. Buy more. Buy more now. Buy. And be happy."
perkele
One of Fiskis most legendary alcoholics Perkele had one of his many eviction parties last weekend. According to Wikipedia Perkons was the god of thunder, rain, mountains, oak trees and the sky, one of the most important deities in Latvian mythology. The Finns assumed the name perkele to refer an evil spirit - not being on good terms with the Lithuanians at that time. Later with Christianity they also co-opted him for one of the titles of Satan. So Perkele has a lot to live up to.
Read more about the interesting story behind the word perkele here.
advanced open water diver
Look at this - I'm an Advanced Open Water Diver! That's actually the second worst kind of diver you can be... but I don't mind that...
Sunday, May 15, 2005
eva & the devil 1.4
Tonight there was a documentary called Könskriget, War of the Sexes, on SVT2. It's about ROKS, one of two organizations for Women's Shelters in Sweden (the other one is Sveriges Kvinnojourers Riksförbund). There are a lot that could be said about this documentary. Personally I think it's sad that the documentary implies that all Women's Shelter's are full of paranoid feminist fundamentalists. That's not true. ROKS and SKR are non-profit organizations and their members does one a hell of a job running the shelters and supporting abused women, a job that the society doesn't want to take any responsibility for.
The documentary also focus a lot on Eva Lundgren. She's a sociology professor at Uppsala University and one of Swedens most renowned and influential researchers in women's studies and feminist theory. She and some of her friends promotes the idea of Satanic Ritual Abuse and has turned it into a convenient conspiracy theory. A male satanic network that abducts and abuse women and ritually kill their kids. I think the use of this theory is horrible and very unfortunate. It doesn't help abused women or abused children in any way. Rather the opposite. There are no firm evidence at all that supports the SRA theory. It's a theory that has caused plenty of human tragedies and it's supporters have almost always used very questionable interrogation techniques to make their case. This is a phenomenon that has its origins in American Christian communities in the early 80's. In 1987 their "satanic panic" was used by the sensationalist journalist Geraldo Riviera in a series of special reports on his primetime television program. As he so elegantly put it in the first show:
"Estimates are that there are over 1 million Satanists in this country [...] The majority of them are linked in a highly organized, very secretive network. From small towns to large cities, they have attracted police and FBI attention to their Satanic ritual child abuse, child pornography and grisly Satanic murders. The odds are that this is happening in your town."
One could ask how it's possible to know that there are "over 1 million Satanists in this country [...] linked in a highly organized, very secretive network". That doesn't seem very secretive. But subsequent to these programs, there were outbreaks of Satanic hysteria all over America and in several European cities. But there were still absolutely no facts behind these claims of a Satanic Ritual Abuse network. On the contrary. Police investigation after police investigation came to the same conclusion. That there were no proof at all for a satanic ritual abuse network in action. But before that many people had their lives destroyed by this mass hysteria. Some of the most eager participates of the SRA panic were themselves found mentally ill. One social worker who had been involved in several SRA investigations was even committed to a mental institution in 2003 for harassing and threatening Steven Spielberg and Jennifer Love Hewitt and claiming that she was controlled through "psychotronic weaponry."
If the police manage to find and arrest both "ordinary" and "prominent" citizens in pedophile networks - then why shouldn't they be able to find any traces of this satanic network? What's the difference? There are no doubts about pedophile networks and there are plenty of evidence to find for research. Why are there no such evidence in the case of Satanic Ritual Abuse networks? I can't understand why Eva Lundgren support this myth. It's very disturbing. Does she take just as lightly on the importance of empirical evidence when it comes to her other theories? I think that's a question you'll have to ask. I think that women's studies, gender studies and feminist theory are very interesting and important scientific fields. But, as with all other scientific research, you have to have some real empirical evidence to back your theories up with. This uncritical support for SRA by some of Swedens most prominent feminist's and feminist researchers put a lot of important work at risk in the whole field of feminist science and research. I do hope that this "satanic panic" won't get a foothold in the Swedish feminist movement and that they instead focus their minds on real problems. There are far too many of those to let oneself get distracted by these telltales and fantasies.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
So Long, and Thanks For All the Falafels 1.1
So tired... I need to rant a bit to get into shape. Not only did the new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie suck big time. So depressing! I also did the mistake to read a couple of columns written by Johan Norberg and Johan Stael von Holstein - Swedens own Neo Liberal Dynamic Duo.
Johan Norberg seems to consider everyone who has the slightest doubt about the righteousness of the US invation of Iraq and the future of the Iraqi "democracy" prejudiced or even rascist (DN Debatt, 3 May, 2005)! His point is that if you doubt, and maybe even believe there's a risk for civil war, then you doubt the Iraqi people and its capability to create and uphold democracy and therefore you have to be a prejudiced rascist. Simple! He sees South Africa as the perfect example for the future developement in Iraq. I understand why. The comparison to Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Somalia etc etc doesn't really help his case. There's not much that supports Norbergs positive views of the situation in Iraq and his comparison between Iraq and South Africa. There are at least four major differences between Iraq and South Africa:
-the lack of a strong liberation movement like the ANC in Iraq during the Saddam Hussein dictatorship.
-the lack of an obvious and popular alternative leader like Nelson Mandela to unite the people after the removal of the old regime.
-the amount of violence after the removal of the old regime. Johan could try one of Google News 629 links to different news media telling the story about the almost 400 Iraqis who have been killed in guerilla attacks since the new government was unveiled two weeks ago.
-the South Africans changed their country themselves without the intervention of foreign powers.
Even in a small place like Fisksätra you can hear Iraqis talking about their fear of a civil war. It's not only evil lefties that have doubts. The Iraqi Sunni minority distrusts the Shia majority and fear that they will join with the arch enemy Iran. That and the fact that the conflict between Sunni and Shia is more than a thousand years old must be absolutely clear to Johan Norberg. But for him the neo liberal spin is much more important than the truth. You could just as well turn it the other way around - Johan Norberg and his friends are the rascists because they did not believe that the Iraqi people themselves were capable of changing their destiny. They needed the superior help of Team America.
Enough about that, let's move on to his much less talented sidekick Stael von Holstein. He has this column in Metro. To make it easy for himself he uses the same text all the time. It's a long rant about entrepreneur this and salesmanship that. The entrepreneur is a hero, everyone should be an entrepreneur and everyone should worship the entrepreneur - especially the greatest and most misunderstod entrepreneur of them all - Johan Stael von Holstein himself. In his last column he wanted all students to be forced to become entrepreneurs! Everyone have to be cloned into small Stael von Holsteins. Neo Liberals, Scientific Communists - not that big difference really. They just have different ideologies to hide behind but their goals are just the same - to force everyone else into conformity. They are know-it-all's with the right answer to everything. Lucky bastards! Back in the seventies they just had a different set of buzzwords. Instead of entrepreneurs and salesmanship there were workers and class struggle. I don't want to be forced to become a worker, entrepreneur, farmer, servant, teacher, artist or anything else. I want to be free to make my own choices.
End of rant. I feel so much happier now.
So Long, and Thanks For All the Falafels!
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
crazy captain
...something happened. Something sad and bad. The engine started to act weird. No more super speed. My brother became very sad and confused.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
johanna & malte
Johanna & Malte took a look at Luvan, their boat. Me, my brother and our dad managed to fix the boat up pretty well.
1965
Here's the proof - it's me and my mother back in 1965 or early 1966. Do you see the beautiful outfit I'm wearing? It's the same as Malte has today!!
malte
Malte in my old baby winter clothes. Weird. Have I really been that small? Damn good lookin' kid and clothes anyway.
out in the country
Went away to the country over the weekend. Helped my brother out with his boat and drank a lot of beer.
Friday, May 06, 2005
kea & kalle
It's so sad when you're dead tired when you meet old friends. Yesterday I was super tired after an evil work week. Kea & Kalle were a bit more focused - well, maybe not Kalle...
Kea gave me a fantastic biography about Monty Python. Super nice!
the snail farm
Last wednesday we went to the forest with the pre-school kids. They found lots of snails out there - so they started a small snail farm.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
the white mountain park
Walking around looking for some trouble - or food. Way to few falafels in the white mountain park... It seems like anarchy can't solve everything... depressing...
autonomous fashion
Clara and Maria in some serious autonomous fashion. This is the way to look when you're an hardcore autonomous anarchist in the White Mountain Park. Plus cool!
autonomous zone
This is the so called autonomous zone. Loads of people (5000 said the police) and almost as many cops. Plenty of fun!
the world's scariest police chases
Look behind Clara and Maria! The cops are chasing them! Run! Clara and Maria, Run!!!
copy that floppy
Finally some flags with messages that I like and support!! You can read more about intellectual property and creative commons here:
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Wired Magazine 12.11
Creative Commons
Wikipedia about Creative Commons
Wikipedia about Intellectual property
anarchy in stkhlm
This is the beginning of the Street Party that Peppbrigaden arranged. The goal was to make Vitabergsparken (the White Mountain Park) an autonomous zone with loads of music and entertainment. Sounds very hardcore but it was sort of fun. Cops everywhere - must have been several hundred of them!!!
chairman gonzalo
Another legend. The leader of Sendero Luminoso Mr Abimael Guzmán. I also saw Mao out there. Mao, Gonzalo and Öcsalan - the communist triple trash treat! Why do they use these three idiots when they could have nice posters and flags with cool ladies like Emma Goldman or Mother Jones? Yeah, yeah - I know, they were no communists. They were anarchists and syndicalists. But who cares? Anyway... are there any cool communists out there?
ida & emma
My favourite demo pals Ida & Emma. They really know how to enjoy a good demo. They are also experts when it comes to infiltrating the police force to get secret information. Just check out the Coke - such a nice touch!
"Yes Mr Policeman, I'm just an ordinary law-abiding citizen drinking my Coke."
official demo day 2005
One of my favourite days - the May day! Just look at this beautiful flag with the man, the myth, the legend Abdullah Öcalan on it. Can a flag get any cooler than that? May day totally rocks!
in the ghetto
Another glorious day in the ghetto! As the King once said:
Well the world turns
And a hungry little boy with a runny nose
Plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto
And his hunger burns
So he starts to roam the streets at night
And he learns how to steal
And he learns how to fight
In the ghetto
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