pleeez…a Happy New Year

ain’t that right!

Arthur Schopenhauer

here I stand

is opinion fact?

how are the mighty fallen…

when is enough, enough ?

The world starts to shine the spotlight on this cynical behaviour

From the Guardian newspaper, UK.  Soon it will be a magnifying glass and a searchlight.

click the pic for the full article

now there’s an interesting thought….!

beyond belief

This report is funded by the British Embassy, Kabul, Afghanistan.

There are still those that think Afghanistan is a safe place! Can you believe that????

click the pic to go to report

True justice does not know the language of compromise

the old golden rule: if you want to stop something happening, form a committee.

I weep for Sweden

There are two groups of people who know the young unaccompanied asylum seekers best. Most of whom came before Nov 2015 and a large proportion from the ‘safe’ country (according to Migrationsverket.but not the US Congress,CIA, United Nations, International Red Cross..and just about everyone else who is not playing politics but facing reality) of Afghanistan.

The two groups who know them best?

Fellow pupils at school

Teachers at school.

Both these groups plead with the present government…and all the decent political parties…..to STOP THIS INHUMANE torture of young people, threatening with a form of ‘imprisonment’, removing freedoms, treating young people as though they are criminals, simply because they BELIEVED SWEDEN’S PROMISES of the ‘open heart policy’. Simply because they risked all manner of hazards to arrive in a country that talked of peace, democracy, justice.

Keeping them on ‘death’s row’ for months awaiting a decision as to whether they will be deported back to hell!  A decision claimed to be made by a court. A court that by any reasonable definition of Juris Prudence can only be adequately described as a ‘kangaroo court’ that is a disgrace to Swedish standards of justice.

Oh, my beloved Sweden, how great is your fall, how profound your loss of integrity. How such a betrayal of traditional Swedish values can occur at this time is a travesty of decency!

Oh, my beloved Sweden…I weep with angry tears at this scenario

sloths and donkeys

in the Palme modus

        ???????????

for your attention–what it is to be a REAL SWEDE

Deportations are a breach of human rights…

Deportations are in breach of the undertakings given by Sweden since 1951 in respect of refoulement –especially when applied to Hazara

Afghanistan is now listed by the UN and OCHA as Classification 1.

That is the same as Syria!

At what point does common human decency override political positioning?

HAVE THE integrity TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT,SWEDEN

In caring memory–Mahmoud

I believe this is in memory of a 17 year old asylum seeker knifed to death in a Swedish school yesterday. All reports speak of a pleasant young man who got on with everybody and caused no trouble. A great sadness to all with open hearts that he who came to escape war should be so cruelly robbed of life

Sorrow has no borders.

lost at sea?

school strike against inhumane and possibly illegal asylum politic

click the pic to go to video

Young people in Sweden in ‘gymnasia schools’ (16-19 year olds) held a protest action yesterday against the present policies in regard to the treatment of under 18 asylum seekers, most of which came here in 2015.  Some face deportation to the ‘safe’ country of Afghanistan in contravention of Sweden’s long standing promises not to practice refoulement.

boing…boing…boing…down by the billabong

I am advised by legal counsel that the law in Sweden says that an asylum seeker should be asked if they wish to have a court case held in secret as there may be embarrassing issues they may not wish to have in the public domain. It appears that ensomkommande barn all have their cases in secret and are not even asked! Now, Mr- Lövfen, can you help me understand why that is so? Because if you can't, I can help you understand what is happening in these 'kangaroo courts' to which you so frequently refer.

FYI–Migrationsverket

an information service to assist a government department that seems confused about a security situation

This from Nikita Mendkovich, political analyst at the Russian International Affairs Council

(and I guess Russia, since CNN claim it is arming the Taliban, know something about this)

click the pic to know more:

intellectual scrabble

energy shortage?

just so

In the very difficult task of dealing with the asylum seekers problem…and I do recognise it is very difficult…. we should not sacrifice principle for expediency.

I guess they know these young asylum seekers better than most…and want them to stay

article from Expressen.se…translation by Google

In the face of truth, all lies crumble

Cultural Mirror

There are many aspects to the immigration problem here. Most of those aspects are reflected in opinions that are, to say the least, ill informed or lack objectivity.

Just one example of this is the oft repeated mantra of the costs of sheltering and supporting asylum seekers. This, of course, is something of a myth as all that has actually happened is that taxpayers' money is being spent within Sweden and most (probably over 80%) is recycled into the Swedish economy via Kommunes, increased employment, services and accommodation companies. In previously economically depressed areas this has been a substantial benefit. In effect asylum seekers have diverted money that could probably have been spent abroad (as for example the billions spent in Afghanistan that gets lost in a corrupt system) into the home economy. The OECD,IMF,Bloombergs all support and show that the GDP of Sweden since 2014 has benefited greatly from this re-orientating of taxpayers' funding.

As Sweden heads towards it’s next election, the governing party can reap the benefits of this GDP growth, a growth at one point even twice that of Germany.

However, the greatest and most profound of all the changes usually quoted are the ‘cultural changes’, the desire to keep a culture that is the hallmark of a country, albeit that the internet age has dramatically changed most cultures. Here, the asylum seekers have created little substantial change, slightly different habits, misunderstood religious views, have all played a part in influencing slightly the cultural landscape.Indeed, it may be observed that over the decades most refugees and asylum seekers have adjusted to the higher standards of freedom and better standards of life and celebrate the treasure of such a system living peaceful, hard working and decent lives.

By far the greatest and most disturbing of the changes that have occurred have come from within the culture. Here I refer to the subjugation of judicial and bureaucratic standards in order to meet political objectives. Asylum seekers can carry no blame for the inadequacies, inaccuracies and downright deceptions that have been revealed under the strain of trying to cope with a difficult problem

We do not defend our culture by surrendering our standards of decency, fair play and judicial integrity in the face of a problem. We do not defend our culture by demeaning those institutions which have been the foundations of this democracy.

The asylum seeker problem has clearly shown that our culture was not as most thought it to be.

When we look in a mirror we cannot blame the mirror for what we see

Open letter to Jenny Sonesson–Göteborgs Posten

You write: Prime Minister Stefan Löfven (S) visited Svenljunga, where he was attended by # vistårinteut, advocating an amnesty for unaccompanied young people. On the question of how he looked at the organization's requirements, the head of government was clear: "I do not share that view. Now we have another regulatory framework in place. You can apply for asylum in Sweden, but if you get a no, then it's no. If we do not have that scheme, then we have no more orderly migration policy anymore " (AB 10/11).

(I presume he is here referring to post November 2015 regulations)

You then write: “Those who follow the rules are expelled, those who refuse and enlisted by loud activists are rewarded”.

So, if following the rules is your main criteria, then what of the following:

1. Where Migrationsverket have not followed the rules, shall you expel those persons guilty of it?

2. Where a ‘court’ (so called) has not followed the normal rules of juris prudence, shall you expel the judge and the officers of that court.

3. To where will you expel the people of Sweden (for the government is the people) when they have not followed the rules they helped create since 1951, and many many times since then have confirmed?

4. Shall you also expel the Migration and Taxation authorities who have denied personummer registration to EU citizens for as long as 10 years – in clear breach of the rules within the EU?

Before the pot calls the kettle black, it should look in a mirror!

(NB. I am not here defending those who seek to cheat the system in any way, however, there are many clear cut cases where the child was under 18 upon arrival in this country and was entitled, according to the promises given by this society, to protection and asylum leading to residency. Politically favourable ‘assessment’ of risk areas in the world,that are not confirmed by reality,are not excusable in this scenario).

how to lose respect…

actually, it is neither party who have won out. Both have agreed to another ‘window dressing operation’ that is effectively meaningless to most indisputably under-18’s who came here prior to November 2015, believing the promises of the Swedish government and people. This proposal is essentially the July 2017 law V.2, except that the 2017 law did not seem to apply to Afghans because ‘’Afghanistan has safe areas’ so the Migration Agency held.

Great that better border controls are now in place and other European countries will be accepting a fair share quota system for these asylum seekers in the future. Fantastic that Sweden has spent billions in Afghanistan since 2001 to try and build a viable nation there (with very little result).  Great that the Swedish taxpayer has invested in these young people (though most of that investment actually went back into Swedish pockets) *, not so great that deportations, arrests and ‘imprisonments in holding centres’ will still continue. Yes, deportations to the violently sick land of Afghanistan that the Migration Agency still considers to be a safe place!

And this proposed new law  will not come into effect until the summer of 2018. This is effectively a continued ‘prison sentence’ for those who have had any semblance of freedom taken away whilst in Sweden and risk arrest and deportation. But hey, this might be good training for when they get back to Afghanistan, for it’s pretty similar there thanks to the Taliban, huh?

* We were approached a number of times in 2016 to use our studio building to house asylum seekers. The amount offered was in excess of SeK. 1600,- per day per person. So just guess how much Kommunes, private businesses, have been receiving.

deer–vestre silen

feed us please in the cold weather

click the pic for the short video

a little warming goes a long way

Cold Sweden?

An interesting development in the scenario concerning under 18 asylum seekers, where the minority parties, Environment Party, Centre Party, Left Party that form the alliance allowing the Social Democrat party to rule – have pushed the government into a crisis. Essentially, the crisis deals with the situation, emphasized by the European Council, of the delays and inconsistencies in dealing with asylum applications where these have extended beyond 15 months.

The proposed solution yesterday is a new law to take effect in summer 2018 if it passes through the Parliament.

The interesting question is why the delay tactic when a law was introduced in June/July 2017 that adequately meets the requirements if properly applied?

This 2017 law, however, did not seem to apply to under age Afghan asylum seekers because, despite all the continuing international evidence to the contrary, Sweden’s Migration ministry maintained that there were safe areas in Afghanistan. So safe that the Taliban now control more of the country than they have since 2001, so safe that the International Red Cross report no place is safe in Afghanistan, so safe that the USA has tripled it’s bombing so far in 2017 compared with 2014 (which is when most of the Afghan asylum seeker surge began).

Little wonder that Nietzsche said as follows:

accountability standards are better at home

The Swedish taxpayer has spent billions in the last decade, ‘investing’ in Afghanistan. As you will see below, it’s not always going where it should go. Spending here in Sweden on Asylum seekers, where 70-80% of the money is paid to Swedish Kommunes, employees, backup services, is probably a better ‘investment’

complacency kills

a slippery slope

the definition of ‘safe’ seems very flexible

Why is it that all the independent evidence shows that Afghanistan is not a safe place to be…and yet there are some who try to tell us it is?

nearly 70% of Sweden is forest…

People first?

The Swedish Prime Minister (Social Democrat Party) says ‘we should put people in the first room’ to the EU leaders at the Gothenburg Conference currently taking place

there’s a video to watch about this ‘spend at home’ scenario – a brilliant plan from the Social Democrats, turning a tragedy into a triumph (well, that’s the theory)

You can watch the video here: https://vimeo.com/243205559

Experts protest use of age assessment for asylum seekers

A nation that keeps it’s promises…is truly a respected nation

It appears that majority public opinion is now starting to get the message across: Sweden has promised repeatedly since 1951...and will keep it's promises. This is the Sweden the world respects.

disasters