Category: Politics

Violence exhibition pt 2.

Vibracathedral Orchestra – Weaving the Magic

The Violence exhibition is up and running. So is the European Social Forum. And at the same time as Violence opened, fittingly enough, something else took place. The local cops stages a wild protest against their own union. I wonder if they had a permit for their demonstration. I wonder who will beat them up if their thing goes out of hand?

Anyway. Here’s a photo of a part of the exhibition:

The prints are 110x86cm. They can be bought for 500 SEK/copy. Contact me ( mattias@elftorp.com ) to order…

Well. That’s it. I’m going to bed.

Loop Orchestra – Cirka 1901

Sweden disgusts me.

We (the nation commonly known as Sweden) just sent another immigrant away. A guy who’s lived here for 7 years. A guy who has a wife here and who feared for his life if he was to be sent back. A guy who was already sent back once but had to return to Sweden since they didn’t let hom into Iraq if he was forced to go there against his own will.

A guy who hasn’t been heard from since he arrived in Iraq five days ago.

This is nothing new, but this time there was media coverage. Media coverage that reports that none of the authorities involved in the affair is willing to take responsibility for his disappearence. Not the police, who took him out of the country. Not the department of foreign affairs (or whatever it’s called in english) since he isn’t a Swedish citizen. And not the Immigrations authorities who decided not to let him stay here. Fucking bastards.

What I would like is for policies to actually change according to reality. If someone who claimed to be in mortal danger is sent back and disappears right after he/she sets foot in their country of origin, then don’t fucking send people there anymore.

What I also would like is for people here to physically prevent the police from taking people who are to be deported against their will to the airport. It has been done and it has worked and it should be done more often. Until policies have changed.

If someone comes to your door who is running for their life, you let them in and give them something to eat. Simple regular humanity, if there is such a thing…

Everyone has AIDS

I can’t believe I never realised before on how many levels Team America works.

Take the scene in the beginning (Everyone has AIDS) and combine it with the main plot revelation of Watchmen (and, for that matter, Heroes season 1). If everyone in the world had AIDS, things would go in one of a couple of choices for direction. Either we would all die in the AIDS World War. Or all wars would cease and everyone would simply have to work together to find a cure and maybe we would solve all the other problems of this world too. Or maybe people would just give up and humanity would die on a generation or two due to inaction. Whatever the result, it could be just what we need.

Think about it. But don’t act on it, there might be a better plan.

And the soundtrack for this nice, if a bit slow, morning is:
Nightmares on Wax – Passion

The Rage

Autechre – Further

I read some editorial texts in Sydsvenskan, the local newspaper, today (for some reason, we got one in the mail). I hardly ever read papers. It seems like a waste of paper when news are just as available digitally. Seems even more a waste after reading this crap.

One of the texts were about the G8 summit in Tokyo. More specifically it was about the agreement on the climate which even the US agreed on, but critics are disappointed because it could have been a better deal and may already be tool little, too late. The text ends by some kind of attempt to ridicule the protesters because they seem less interested in the environment and more anti-G8 and anti-war.

Of course, the environment is important and we may all be fucked if it isn’t fixed fast, but it also seems to work as a diversion. It’s very convenient for some people to talk about the environment and ignore war, poverty, oppression and all that.

Here’s some inspiration:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV-SpX2gEkA]

Media responsibility?

I’ve been watching the news on TV these last couple days, for some reason (normally I hardly ever watch TV). Two days in a row they were talking about people smuggling.

How horrible it is that some people make a profit on others’ misery. How good it is when these smugglers are caught. How horrible it is that so many (I think it was 90% of all Iraqis coming to Sweden last year) come to our country in this illegal manner.

I might agree that it is a bit dirty to make a profit on others’ misery. It also means that people who are too poor get stuck where they are. As usual. But…

At no point in these two reports was it mentioned that for a lot of people this is the only way to go anywhere, since the authorities (of Sweden as well as the rest of the EU) have made it so difficult to come here. And at no point is it questioned that the people who were smuggled here should be sent back home. Because they came here illegally.

So we are meant to feel sorry for these people who have paid so much to get here, the only way possible for them, but we shouldn’t feel sorry enough to think that they should be allowed to stay. Or even get the chance to go through the immigration system before they are thrown out.

They only tell us half the story, but maybe people watching will see the bigger picture. Maybe…

Midsummer’s Eve with no human sacrifice

Once again, a union blockade seems to have been deemed illegal by the police.
Dagens Nyheter reports the anarchosyndicalist union, SAC Syndikalisterna, broke off a blockade against Systembolaget (the only chain of stores in Sweden allowed to sell alcohol) in Stockholm, to avoid a confrontation with the police.

They were still able to have some effect though, since they stopped deliveries for at least one day. And this is just before midsummer’s Eve, one of the holidays in Sweden that entails the most alcohol.

Hade you seen the film The Wicker Man (the one from 1973)? Midsummer’s Eve is kind of like that, except we don’t burn any wicker men, we just dance around a phallic pole stuck into the ground. And most(?) of us don’t even do that, we just get drunk.

I’m planning to avoid the poledancing and settle for some Drum n Bass. Maybe I’ll watch The Wicker Man too, just to get in the mood…

More on FRA

Several emplyees at Försvarets RadioAnstalt (FRA) have had their personal details put up on the internet by hackers, according to Dagens Nyheter, in response to the new law.

Bommi points out that the worst case of terrorism (which is ususally the justification for these things nowadays, as we all know) was performed by police and military in 1940 and was financed by the leader of one of the parties that are currently in the Swedish government.

»I am Big Brother now«

Welcome to the world of Piracy is Liberation

Ministry – Faith collapsing + Skinmechanix – Overflight

Last week, I found this blog entry by Edge Node: CyberPunk is now

Yesterday, the Swedish government passed a law that allows them to monitor all communications crossing the Swedish border. Which means that they can hear anything we say, basically. Of course, this is nothing new. They’ve been doing this for years.

But now it’s legal.

I think it also says something about the Swedish society in general, that they think they can pass this kind of law without repercussions (and, even worse, that they actually do get away with it).

—

So, let’s encrypt everything we do. Here are some links I hear are good (havenät tried it all myself yet):

OTR (Off The Record encryption) for pidgin 2.x:
http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/binaries/windows/pidgin-otr-3.2.0-1.exe

Pidgin is an application for managing different kinds of Instans Messaging, ICQ, MSN, and so on: http://pidgin.im/

GPG (an implementation of OpenPGP) for Firefox:
http://getfiregpg.org/

Enigmail, for Thunderbird (e-mail):
http://redlib.subcult.org/2008/06/gpg-skyddar-din-epost-frn-fra.html
—

That’s all for now. I need whisky.

This is me:
www.elftorp.com
www.elftorp.com/freeinformation
www.elftorp.com/infotrip (currently under reconstruction)
www.myspace.com/elftorp

Ministry – World
»The time is right for decision
The time is right for those with something to say
This is the world I envision
The type of world where people aren’t afraid«