Amake
10-05-2010, 02:08 PM
These news (http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/valet2010/sverigedemokraterna/article7902089.ab) require both some backstory and translation. Bear with me as I try to achieve a minimum of editorialism.
It all started back in 1988, when a neo-nazi activist group realized that most of their ideas were at least 40 years out of date and dressed up as the Sweden Democrats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_Democrats) in an attempt to gain political status and seats in the federal government. Following the insane backlash against the world's Muslim population in 2001, the economic disasters of the past decade and the lessened quality of life among the poor in Sweden over the past four years (following the election of the right-wing party block (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_Sweden)), they have managed to whip the population into enough irrational fear and anger to actually elect those fuckers into a position of power, based on the idea that if we throw out enough foreigners from the country, all problems will be magically solved.
These people don't believe that people should be equal to each other. They don't believe we should learn from or understand other people. They don't believe that we can become better. They don't believe that the world should change. They are lazy, cowardly and uneducated. They stand for the opposite of everything I believe in. I mean that. The Christian crusaders were no more opposed to Islam than I'm against these guys.
And I'm laughing heartilly at their display today:
SD left the Great Church – begs the king’s forgiveness
Bishop Eva Brunne spoke of hostility to strangers*.
The Swedish Democrats then left the service in Stockholm’s Great Church (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storkyrkan).
-I don’t think I’ve ever felt so violated, said Jimmie Åkesson to this paper minutes after storming out of the church.
Three hours later he had a different story.
-I want to tell the king I’m sorry, says the head of the Sweden Democrats.
It took a quarter of an hour until the Sweden Democrats’ representatives in parliament stormed out of the service of worship beginning the parliament’s session.
-It wasn’t planned. We looked at each other and said we’ve got to stand up now, says Jimmie Åkesson to this paper.
The equal worth of humans
When Bishop Eva Brunne began speaking of racism and hostility to strangers party leader Jimmie Åkesson and other Sweden Democrats were pissed off.
-Last night several thousand people in Stockholm and different parts of the country gathered to voice their feelings. To scream their revulsion for that which separates people. The racism which says you’re not worth as much as I. You should not have the same rights I have. You’re not worthy of a life in freedom, because we happen to be born in different parts of the world. It is unworthy of a democracy like ours to call people inequal, said Bishop Eva Brunne in her sermon.
”This is a scandal”
That’s when the Sweden Democrats stood up and walked out of the church.
-When they left they showed themselves to be just those the Bishop spoke about, says Göran Hägglund (Christian Democrat).
He is appalled of their act.
-This is a scandal. It was extremely inappropriate to in the Great Church, in the presence of the royal family, get up and walk out, he says to this reporter.
Mona Sahlin: "Pathetic"
The leader of the Center Party, Maud Olofsson, agrees.
-It’s strange that they’d walk out of the Swedish church during a sermon about the equal value of all people, she says to TT. (The Newspapers’ Telegram Bureau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidningarnas_Telegrambyr%C3%A5).)
Mona Sahlin (leader of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party, the overwhelmingly most popular party throughout the country’s history), denounces the act as “pathetic” and says she was shocked when she saw what was happening.
She was supported by Maria Wetterstrand (Green Party) who said the Sweden Democrats acted like “A boisterous army who seemed to think they were defending a country.”
-They were not exactly sneaking out the door.
”An obvious attack”
But Jimmie Åkesson has a different opinion on what happened.
-The Bishop talked about the demonstrations in Stockholm. It was a very clear attack on us. To stand in church and celebrating these demonstrations is decidedly inappropriate. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so violated, said Åkesson to this newspaper only minutes after filing out with his party comrades.
Afterwards the Sweden Democrats’ representatives voiced their displeasure in social media.
”Shame, shame, shame”
SD’s press secretary Erik Almqvist** writes on twitter:
“Left Great Church and the opening of the parliament. Disgustingly politic church supporting leftist extremists.”***
“SHAME SHAME SHAME! Shame on the Swedish church. SHAME on Bishop Eva Brunne!”, tweeted Linus Bylund, chairman of the Sweden Democrats of the city of Stockholm.
The Sweden Democrat and parliment member Kent Ekeroth also blogged at length about the service on his site.
“With this kind of actions it’s obvious SD’s representatives left the church, and it’s silly that Brunne seems surprised. The Church of Sweden is a joke.”
Apologies
But at a press meeting around four o’ clock this afternoon Jimmie Åkesson’s tone had changed – slightly.
-I want to apologize to the king, I want to apologize to everyone if someone was offended, says Jimmie Åkesson to this paper.
-We’re not a racist party. But the demonstrations yesterday were directed against us. I don’t think anyone understands what it’s like to live under the threat of extremist leftist groups. When the Bishop celebrates these we obviously can’t sit still.
Congratulations on your mission. Congratulations to you who are trusted, elected representatives. Almost 85 percent or a little over six million people believe you have the best positions to shape a good present and a good future for us all. It’s a great thing to be carried by this faith. And this mission is given to all of you, not each of you. Once elected you are part of a context where your collaborative labors are more important than the will of each of you. Surely that’s precisely how democracy works? It’s about looking after what is shared instead of what’s your own. Look at [A few Swedish villages, cities and towns]. Politics, which can be translated as the shared life of a city. So it’s about lifting your eyes further, because we don’t just live in our own separate worlds. Our mission and our responsibility are greater than the borders of nations. There is one world who needs us – our solidarity, our money and not least our eyes and our voices.
A lot is asked of you, but don’t lose heart. We stand behind you, we who have given you the mandate to speak for us. Surely that’s how democracy works?
We have listened to the scriptures of the Bible. Now, Paul didn’t write to the Swedish parliament but a group of people in the city Thessaloniki. He said to them: We implore you to value those of you who carries the heaviest loads, those in charge. Show them your love and appreciation. And he advices: Don’t quench your spirit, try everything, save that which is good. Those words are also for all of us who have voted and all of you who have been elected.
Solomon the wise also didn’t write to the Swedish parliament, but it’s still words for you: God is the guide to wisdom. God leads the wise the right way. We ourselves as well as our words, our gifts of thought and skill come from Him. Words of mercy rather than demand. Not everything depends on me or my party.
When Jesus approached Jerusalem and the disciples let their joy ring our loudly, a group of Pharisees told Jesus to tell his disciples to shut up. One wonders why they couldn’t speak directly to the disciples. They were grown men. And the answer is: If they are silent then stones will speak.
What had they been through on the road? Among other things, a blind man had been cured and allowed to live out his life fully. And the meeting with the despised customs agent Sackaios, who climbed a tree to see better, but also to hide. And to the blind man Jesus said What do you want me to do for you? But to Sackaios he said: Come down from the tree, I want to have supper in your house. Meetings eye to eye, in conversations, which changed the lives of both the blind man and Sackaios. This was what the disciples had seen. That was why they couldn’t keep their joy quiet. And if they had been silenced, the stones would have spoken about the importance in these great changes, the changes which literally decided lives.
It is these life-changing decisions for people that make up a big part of your mission. And in this to never go so far from us who give you power that you stop meeting us eye to eye, that you never stop getting someone down from a tree and say: I want to speak with you. To hear someone cry for help and say: What do you want me to do for you?
We who believe in the dignity and equal worth of humans, regardless of what country we are born in, regardless of our sex or age or the expressions of our sexuality, we believe and hope that you have the ability to ask: What do you want me to do for you? And to feel the great happiness of the changes this can do.
Last night several thousand people in Stockholm and different parts of the country gathered to voice their feelings. To scream their defiance at that which separates people. The racism which says you’re not worth as much as I. You should not have the same rights I have. You’re not worthy of a life in freedom, because we happen to be born in different parts of the world. It is unworthy of a democracy like ours to call people inequal. It’s impossible for someone who believes in anything to differentiate people. It’s not worthy of human beings to differentiate people. In this it is not enough to give a few hundred people the mandate to speak for us. In this we have a shared mission. If anyone is silent or is silenced in the fight for human values, we must make the stones speak. We do this with the help of God.
We have much to do. It will require cunning, courage and compassion. Feel the joy of the mission. Feel the weight of the mission. Feel the power given to you from us. Try everything, preserve the good. Don’t discriminate people. Feel the kindness of the mercy of the God who made us.
And with this we may continue the now, toward the future.
(Is it just me or does God feel a bit pasted in on top of this basically humanist sermon?)
The bolded part is where the Sweden Democrats apparently couldn't stand it anymore, because manifestations against racism and intolerance are totally directed against them even though they’re totally not racists just because they want to ban foreign cultures, it’s really unfair guys everyone’s against them even though they know they’re right and everyone else is wrong and no one else even has the guts to start the debate about our unsustainable immigration policies which are completely unsustainable according to these figures they lied about but they’re totally going to have that debate one of these days when they can come up with some arguments while people churn out book after book ( http://sdharfel.blogspot.com/) about how they are wrong.
*”Hostility to strangers” may be a foreign concept, but just think of it as the opposite of showing hospitality to strangers.
**Three months prior to the election, this press secretary and a few of his friends were caught on tape threatening and harassing if not assaulting a drunk man on the street in broad daylight. Action starts at 50 seconds. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JA4TC8anM0) In the following Youtube video debate, Erik Almqvist changes his story a few times, calls the poster of the original video a liar and shows a more “complete” cut of the assault which implies that the drunk guy started it. Because it’s fine for a leader of nations to get into fisticuffs if the other guy starts it, right. Of course he doesn’t actually show the entire video that he claims proves his case, nor has he taken any legal action against these libellous accusations. Which brings us to:
***Twittering, blogging and Youtube video journal shit-flinging. This is the quality of debate these ministers of state actually engage in. Nothing worth debating in newspapers or TV, nothing they imagine will count as official records.
I hope this isn’t incomprehensible or unimportant politics of a far away country with less people in it than New York City. But go ahead and ask if you have any questions. I'll be glad to make things as clear as I can. I think bringing light to the ridiculous practices and ideals of these people, making as much of the world as possible aware of their stupidity, is the best weapon against them. Some people are worried they'll start a second Holocaust before their mistakes and their lack of education can be fixed.
It all started back in 1988, when a neo-nazi activist group realized that most of their ideas were at least 40 years out of date and dressed up as the Sweden Democrats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_Democrats) in an attempt to gain political status and seats in the federal government. Following the insane backlash against the world's Muslim population in 2001, the economic disasters of the past decade and the lessened quality of life among the poor in Sweden over the past four years (following the election of the right-wing party block (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_Sweden)), they have managed to whip the population into enough irrational fear and anger to actually elect those fuckers into a position of power, based on the idea that if we throw out enough foreigners from the country, all problems will be magically solved.
These people don't believe that people should be equal to each other. They don't believe we should learn from or understand other people. They don't believe that we can become better. They don't believe that the world should change. They are lazy, cowardly and uneducated. They stand for the opposite of everything I believe in. I mean that. The Christian crusaders were no more opposed to Islam than I'm against these guys.
And I'm laughing heartilly at their display today:
SD left the Great Church – begs the king’s forgiveness
Bishop Eva Brunne spoke of hostility to strangers*.
The Swedish Democrats then left the service in Stockholm’s Great Church (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storkyrkan).
-I don’t think I’ve ever felt so violated, said Jimmie Åkesson to this paper minutes after storming out of the church.
Three hours later he had a different story.
-I want to tell the king I’m sorry, says the head of the Sweden Democrats.
It took a quarter of an hour until the Sweden Democrats’ representatives in parliament stormed out of the service of worship beginning the parliament’s session.
-It wasn’t planned. We looked at each other and said we’ve got to stand up now, says Jimmie Åkesson to this paper.
The equal worth of humans
When Bishop Eva Brunne began speaking of racism and hostility to strangers party leader Jimmie Åkesson and other Sweden Democrats were pissed off.
-Last night several thousand people in Stockholm and different parts of the country gathered to voice their feelings. To scream their revulsion for that which separates people. The racism which says you’re not worth as much as I. You should not have the same rights I have. You’re not worthy of a life in freedom, because we happen to be born in different parts of the world. It is unworthy of a democracy like ours to call people inequal, said Bishop Eva Brunne in her sermon.
”This is a scandal”
That’s when the Sweden Democrats stood up and walked out of the church.
-When they left they showed themselves to be just those the Bishop spoke about, says Göran Hägglund (Christian Democrat).
He is appalled of their act.
-This is a scandal. It was extremely inappropriate to in the Great Church, in the presence of the royal family, get up and walk out, he says to this reporter.
Mona Sahlin: "Pathetic"
The leader of the Center Party, Maud Olofsson, agrees.
-It’s strange that they’d walk out of the Swedish church during a sermon about the equal value of all people, she says to TT. (The Newspapers’ Telegram Bureau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidningarnas_Telegrambyr%C3%A5).)
Mona Sahlin (leader of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party, the overwhelmingly most popular party throughout the country’s history), denounces the act as “pathetic” and says she was shocked when she saw what was happening.
She was supported by Maria Wetterstrand (Green Party) who said the Sweden Democrats acted like “A boisterous army who seemed to think they were defending a country.”
-They were not exactly sneaking out the door.
”An obvious attack”
But Jimmie Åkesson has a different opinion on what happened.
-The Bishop talked about the demonstrations in Stockholm. It was a very clear attack on us. To stand in church and celebrating these demonstrations is decidedly inappropriate. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so violated, said Åkesson to this newspaper only minutes after filing out with his party comrades.
Afterwards the Sweden Democrats’ representatives voiced their displeasure in social media.
”Shame, shame, shame”
SD’s press secretary Erik Almqvist** writes on twitter:
“Left Great Church and the opening of the parliament. Disgustingly politic church supporting leftist extremists.”***
“SHAME SHAME SHAME! Shame on the Swedish church. SHAME on Bishop Eva Brunne!”, tweeted Linus Bylund, chairman of the Sweden Democrats of the city of Stockholm.
The Sweden Democrat and parliment member Kent Ekeroth also blogged at length about the service on his site.
“With this kind of actions it’s obvious SD’s representatives left the church, and it’s silly that Brunne seems surprised. The Church of Sweden is a joke.”
Apologies
But at a press meeting around four o’ clock this afternoon Jimmie Åkesson’s tone had changed – slightly.
-I want to apologize to the king, I want to apologize to everyone if someone was offended, says Jimmie Åkesson to this paper.
-We’re not a racist party. But the demonstrations yesterday were directed against us. I don’t think anyone understands what it’s like to live under the threat of extremist leftist groups. When the Bishop celebrates these we obviously can’t sit still.
Congratulations on your mission. Congratulations to you who are trusted, elected representatives. Almost 85 percent or a little over six million people believe you have the best positions to shape a good present and a good future for us all. It’s a great thing to be carried by this faith. And this mission is given to all of you, not each of you. Once elected you are part of a context where your collaborative labors are more important than the will of each of you. Surely that’s precisely how democracy works? It’s about looking after what is shared instead of what’s your own. Look at [A few Swedish villages, cities and towns]. Politics, which can be translated as the shared life of a city. So it’s about lifting your eyes further, because we don’t just live in our own separate worlds. Our mission and our responsibility are greater than the borders of nations. There is one world who needs us – our solidarity, our money and not least our eyes and our voices.
A lot is asked of you, but don’t lose heart. We stand behind you, we who have given you the mandate to speak for us. Surely that’s how democracy works?
We have listened to the scriptures of the Bible. Now, Paul didn’t write to the Swedish parliament but a group of people in the city Thessaloniki. He said to them: We implore you to value those of you who carries the heaviest loads, those in charge. Show them your love and appreciation. And he advices: Don’t quench your spirit, try everything, save that which is good. Those words are also for all of us who have voted and all of you who have been elected.
Solomon the wise also didn’t write to the Swedish parliament, but it’s still words for you: God is the guide to wisdom. God leads the wise the right way. We ourselves as well as our words, our gifts of thought and skill come from Him. Words of mercy rather than demand. Not everything depends on me or my party.
When Jesus approached Jerusalem and the disciples let their joy ring our loudly, a group of Pharisees told Jesus to tell his disciples to shut up. One wonders why they couldn’t speak directly to the disciples. They were grown men. And the answer is: If they are silent then stones will speak.
What had they been through on the road? Among other things, a blind man had been cured and allowed to live out his life fully. And the meeting with the despised customs agent Sackaios, who climbed a tree to see better, but also to hide. And to the blind man Jesus said What do you want me to do for you? But to Sackaios he said: Come down from the tree, I want to have supper in your house. Meetings eye to eye, in conversations, which changed the lives of both the blind man and Sackaios. This was what the disciples had seen. That was why they couldn’t keep their joy quiet. And if they had been silenced, the stones would have spoken about the importance in these great changes, the changes which literally decided lives.
It is these life-changing decisions for people that make up a big part of your mission. And in this to never go so far from us who give you power that you stop meeting us eye to eye, that you never stop getting someone down from a tree and say: I want to speak with you. To hear someone cry for help and say: What do you want me to do for you?
We who believe in the dignity and equal worth of humans, regardless of what country we are born in, regardless of our sex or age or the expressions of our sexuality, we believe and hope that you have the ability to ask: What do you want me to do for you? And to feel the great happiness of the changes this can do.
Last night several thousand people in Stockholm and different parts of the country gathered to voice their feelings. To scream their defiance at that which separates people. The racism which says you’re not worth as much as I. You should not have the same rights I have. You’re not worthy of a life in freedom, because we happen to be born in different parts of the world. It is unworthy of a democracy like ours to call people inequal. It’s impossible for someone who believes in anything to differentiate people. It’s not worthy of human beings to differentiate people. In this it is not enough to give a few hundred people the mandate to speak for us. In this we have a shared mission. If anyone is silent or is silenced in the fight for human values, we must make the stones speak. We do this with the help of God.
We have much to do. It will require cunning, courage and compassion. Feel the joy of the mission. Feel the weight of the mission. Feel the power given to you from us. Try everything, preserve the good. Don’t discriminate people. Feel the kindness of the mercy of the God who made us.
And with this we may continue the now, toward the future.
(Is it just me or does God feel a bit pasted in on top of this basically humanist sermon?)
The bolded part is where the Sweden Democrats apparently couldn't stand it anymore, because manifestations against racism and intolerance are totally directed against them even though they’re totally not racists just because they want to ban foreign cultures, it’s really unfair guys everyone’s against them even though they know they’re right and everyone else is wrong and no one else even has the guts to start the debate about our unsustainable immigration policies which are completely unsustainable according to these figures they lied about but they’re totally going to have that debate one of these days when they can come up with some arguments while people churn out book after book ( http://sdharfel.blogspot.com/) about how they are wrong.
*”Hostility to strangers” may be a foreign concept, but just think of it as the opposite of showing hospitality to strangers.
**Three months prior to the election, this press secretary and a few of his friends were caught on tape threatening and harassing if not assaulting a drunk man on the street in broad daylight. Action starts at 50 seconds. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JA4TC8anM0) In the following Youtube video debate, Erik Almqvist changes his story a few times, calls the poster of the original video a liar and shows a more “complete” cut of the assault which implies that the drunk guy started it. Because it’s fine for a leader of nations to get into fisticuffs if the other guy starts it, right. Of course he doesn’t actually show the entire video that he claims proves his case, nor has he taken any legal action against these libellous accusations. Which brings us to:
***Twittering, blogging and Youtube video journal shit-flinging. This is the quality of debate these ministers of state actually engage in. Nothing worth debating in newspapers or TV, nothing they imagine will count as official records.
I hope this isn’t incomprehensible or unimportant politics of a far away country with less people in it than New York City. But go ahead and ask if you have any questions. I'll be glad to make things as clear as I can. I think bringing light to the ridiculous practices and ideals of these people, making as much of the world as possible aware of their stupidity, is the best weapon against them. Some people are worried they'll start a second Holocaust before their mistakes and their lack of education can be fixed.