Fisksätra hidden behind a veil of fog. October has arrived and so have the ghosts.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
warning - for nerd eyes only
Finally has someone caught a Giant Squid (Architeuthis) on camera! Rejoice all nerds! Read the BBC article and watch the movie they have there. Several minutes of pure nerd happiness! I want my own Giant Squid for christmas now - science is totally cool.
malte is leaving on a jet plane
This is Malte, Johanna and Andreas preparing for their journey. Have a great time in Thailand guys! Say hallo to Anna and drink a couple of Margarita pitchers for all of us suckers here in Stockholm. See you in three months!
the commuter station
Waiting for the commuter train and the sun is going down. I'm on my way into central Stockholm to visist my brother, Johanna & Malte. They are going away to Thailand for 3 months. Lucky bastards!
fisksätra autumn 2005 nine
Big Dog guarding Fiskis. He's doing a great job together with Big Fat Cat.
fisksätra autumn 2005 eight
This is same same but different. Standing above the tunnel to Narnia. The trees with the "hidden" crap is down to the left in the picture and the parking lot is behind my back. This must be 70's functionalism when it's at its best. I think...
fisksätra autumn 2005 seven
This is the big Fiskis vegeterian. I'm trying to look normal - but it's so damn hard.
fisksätra autumn 2005 six
These are two very hungry Fiskis larvae eating a nasturtium leaf. They are vegetarians like me.
fisksätra autumn 2005 five
This is the view from the parking lot towards east and the evil Stena (the landlord) office in Fiskis. Their office is close to the power plant chimney that you can see to the left.
fisksätra autumn 2005 four
The crap were "hidden" under the trees to the left. This is the tunnel towards the parking lot and the dumpster. The steel door in the concret wall to the right is one of the secret doors to Narnia.
fisksätra autumn 2005 three
Some garbage "hidden" under a tree. The dumpster is almost 30 meters away. That was too far it seems. But it makes a nice and cosy home for some poor homeless person. Good thinking there.
fisksätra autumn 2005 two
This is the space between Karpgatan and Fisksätra Torg (Fisksätra Square).
fisksätra autumn 2005 one
Took some pictures of Fiskis today. I'm home sick and needed some fresh air. These are the stairs leading from Fisksätra Torg (Fisksätra Square) towards Karpgatan (Carp Street).
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
paranoia agent
Finally has the fourth and last Paranoia Agent DVD been released in Sweden. This, together with Gainax FLCL, is the absolute peak of the new wave of visually very experimental animes. Often surreal social dramas with characters easy to identify with, but exposed to very weird situations or to their dark subconscious. These are excellent examples of animation as art.
Queen Scuba
This is Queen Scuba - my sisters new work place. I love the palm trees at the stem. Unfortunately my sources tells me that the whole boat has been painted blue, so the palm trees are gone now. Damn. But she looks nice - doesn't she? Maybe it's time to sell all the crap in my appartment and try to get a date with Queen Scuba? Hmmmm...
15 reasons why I always get stuck between 1978 & 1982 at parties
11 reasons weren't enough... had to change it into 15. I was 15 years old back in 1980 so maybe that's a better and more symbolic number. Or maybe not... But here we go again...
01 Kraftwerk - Die Mensch Maschine
02 Ultravox - Systems of Romance
03 Magazine - Real Life
04 Conny Plank
05 Alien
06 Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle
07 The Human League - Reproduction
08 Andrei Tarkovsky - Stalker
09 Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
10 Japan - Gentlemen Take Poloroids
11 John Foxx - Metamatic
12 Visage - Visage
13 DAF - Alles Ist Gut
14 Roxy Music - Avalon
15 Blade Runner
As TT Reuter and Henrik Venant once sang in Nostalgia (Nostalgi/Ökenliv from their album Sång Dans Sex, 1981):
Nostalgia
is a sleep
where the dream is predestined
Monday, September 26, 2005
the guantanamo guidebook
Swedish TV 4 showed the British Channel 4 documentary The Guantanamo Guidebook tonight. Seven men were invited to participate, three of them muslims and the Team Delta Cadre was engaged to recreate the Guantanamo Bay interrogation experience. I must say that I was surprised just how realistic and horrifying this reenactment was. As the Guardian wrote: "Using statements from Donald Rumsfeld, information from released detainees and FBI memos uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act in America, the programme gives the clearest impression yet of what it might be like to live in a Rumsfeld jumpsuit. The most startling aspect of the programme was how convincing the distress of the participants became, even though they knew that they would suffer no real harm."
I think that the most horrible with this documentary is how well it shows the total lack of any value that the "evidence" extorted through torture have. These seven volunteers, who knew they would be free within 48 hours, were ready to tell the interrogators what ever they wanted to hear just to get away. Guantanamo Bay is an absolute disgrace for the whole western world.
globalization is good - great hair is even better 1.2
Globalisation is good?
I’ve just been watching Johan Norberg's “Globalisation Is Good”, a documentary that was made in co-operation with the British Channel 4. I have never seen this many close-ups, cameras spinning around a person in different locations and dramatic entrances into the picture frame outside the world of cheap music videos. It feels a lot like the Eurovision Song Contest previews. And then there's the thrilling, and slightly indignant, narration made with Johans own spectacular British accent. Almost too weird to be true. I also have to mention the hair! There’s loads of hair! Hair tied in knots, free flowing hair in back lighting, hair blowing in the wind - it's hair everywhere! This guy is some sort of neo-liberal Samson. Globalisation is Good is almost like the political version of This Is Spinal Tap, sometimes I actually wonder if it’s Johan Norberg or Christopher Guest who’s walking down the streets of Stockholm or having a work out at the corporate gym with a Taiwanese businessman. It's very close to surreal. In his documentary Johan focus on three countries to state his case. Taiwan, Vietnam and Kenya. Taiwan and Vietnam are examples of the miraculous benefits of Nike, the free market and the glorious sweatshops of globalisation. Kenya is shown as an example of what will happen if the “dangerous and ignorant” anti-globalisation movement gets what it wants. A world full of corrupt socialist bureaucracies, subsidizations and protectionism.
As you probably already have understood, I don’t agree with him. If democracy, wealth and freedom will come automatically if you have sweatshops - then why has nothing changed in Latin America? They have had sweatshops for at least 100 years and still you don’t find any thriving democracies and economies there. Not yet at least. So what’s the difference between Latin America and Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea? Were there less state interference in the Asian countries than in the Latin American? Exactly how free has the market economy been in successful countries like South Korea and Japan? I quote japan.com: “Japan is the home of lifetime employment, long work hours, lots of rules and government regulations, and dedicated single-minded companies.” And both JapanZone’s article about the Japanese economy and Wikipedias article about the Economy of South Korea indicates that both the governments and the huge corporations (called zaibatsus in Japan) in both countries have been very involved in the economy. Very much like in Sweden or Germany. “In recent years South Korea's economy moved away from the centrally planned, government-directed investment model toward a more market-oriented one.” Centrally planned? Doesn’t sound very free market. There’s also an interesting article about the so called Asian Tiger Economies. I quote: “Taiwan's economy could not, wrenched in quick succession from Japan's orbit and then mainland China's, have developed without direct American aid, which constituted more than 30 percent of domestic investment from 1951 to 1962. Land reform, government planning, U.S. aid and investment, and free universal education brought huge advancement in industry and agriculture, and in living standards.” Johan Norberg didn’t mention any of that. There seems to be a need for many other factors than just a “free economy” and cheap labor to create a successful country. Free public education also seems to be a crucial factor together with political stability, good infrastructure etc.
So what about Kenya then? Well I actually agree with Johan. The combination of bureaucracy and corruption in many African countries and the huge amount of subsidizations, restrictions and protectionism that Europe and the U.S. use to protect their own farmers and industries are bad for the Kenyan and African economy. But will foreign owned sweatshops solve that? I don’t think so.
Documentary Ultra Light
Johan Norbergs "Globalisation is good" feels very lightweight and cheap. There's no references to current economical research or interviews with any economist, researcher or thinker besides Johan himself. He makes no effort at all to define what he thinks Globalisation is and what is needed for it to work more than a deregulated economy. I think that's lazy. I liked Joel Bakans The Corporation much better. It was more interesting and presented many different views without becoming unfocused and missing its point - that corporations can be both very useful and very harmful depending of how you choose to use them. So if you want some fresh ideas, then skip Johan’s This Is Globalisation documentary and try The Corporation or the post-autistic economics network instead.
“Conventional economics remains fixated on the view that economics is the physics of society. In other words, most of the profession behaves as if there were a single universally valid view of the world that needs only to be applied.”
Paul Ormerod
“. . . the close to monopoly position of neoclassical economics is not compatible with normal ideas about democracy. Economics is science in some senses, but is at the same time ideology. Limiting economics to the neoclassical paradigm means imposing a serious ideological limitation. Departments of economics become political propaganda centers . . .”
Peter Söderbaum
Sunday, September 25, 2005
sture - the red eyed dog
This is Sture - the latest member of the family. He hasn't really got red eyes - it's just the flash - and the anti red eye tool doesn't work on dog eyes. Weird...
zombie birdhouse
I need more brain... The zombie lifestyle is hard - this constant craving for more brains... vegetarian brains...
happiness
This is how happy we teachers get when we get out of our class rooms and into the forest. Making a fire is fun!
stkhlm - last days of summer
The last days of summer have past away and autumn is officially here. I can feel the old Goth blues in my blood now - and This Mortal Coil is the soundtrack.
Sunday, September 04, 2005
malte & johanna
Today me, Andreas, Johanna & Malte went out with Rödluvan (The Little Red Riding Hood - Andreas & Johannas boat). We had a nice ride to Fjäderholmarna.
a boy & a lake
Last Wednesday me and the kids went to lake Ljudarn outside Stockholm. This little guy found the water very interesting and fell into it. His only comment was: "Cool!" Afterwards he borrowed some dry clothes from his friends. There were no pants to borrow so he had to borrow a jacket instead. He tied it around his waist and started to run around telling everyone that this was the "new skirt style".
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