Sweden: Closing of a website opens for some questions

Not because it was wrong, but dangerous

The Swedish Secret Police (SÄPO) may have shown here to act quite cleaver. But seemingly not neutral. On the other hand, is there any official institution which is at heart neutral on the issue "refugees and immigrants"?

With cybernetic acceleration the Swedish public has been informed on the following happenings of the 10th of February: a) After "advice" from the Swedish Secret Police, a website allocated to a small far-rightist party (SD), and which had recently re-published some infamous anti-Muslim cartoons, was "closed", b) The Imam in Stockholm expressed gratitude to the Swedish government for its attitude, and c) The Swedish Foreign Minister manifested "the government had nothing to do with the closing of the publication".

The general message delivered to the Muslim community is that the closing of the site (in fact, the lifting of the offensive materials) goes in line with the respect they have asked - and deserve, as any other faith - towards its religious traditions, as long those do not imply intolerant behaviour or the exercise of violence. I think this formulation interprets what most Swedes and immigrants do we have as general principle in this matter.

The move is also internationally political correct, by means of following the appeal of the UN General Secretary on this issue. The Muslims thanked to the government, right from the Imam's podium at their Mosque in Stockholm.

By arguing the government did not intervene upon the editors of the SP Journal online through a direct exercised prohibition of the publication, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Laila Freivalds (photo DN 12/2 2005) secured the Swedish praxis of non-violating the Freedom of the press and speech, and with this, providing a kind of solidarity with the line staunchly defended – If not purely as resons of pretext – by Danish counterparts.

Neutrality was also served here by means of declaring it was not a question of unwaveringly ordering this or that, but instead just a matter of “informing” the owner of the Internet server of what the publication would entail for Swedish interests. And the elegant touch: No direct contact from the government side was made with the editors of the journal on line in question.

On the other hand:

Seemingly, the Swedish Secret Police did not primarily act to protect the integrity of the offended Muslim immigrant community against this flagrant insult from SD, a party considered in Sweden as having a frank racist ideology. The reason publicly given was to protect partly the owners of the commercial Website, and the people responsible of editing and publishing the offensive anti Muslim material. "Anonimous" or private sites in Sweden continued to link towards where the cartoons would still be found.

This is what Mr. Klas Bergenstrand, the highest rank commander at the Swedish Secret Police expressed in the newspaper Dagens Nyheter (11/2 05, article of Stafan Kihström):

"We shall prevent crime, and we have seen an imminent risk for crimes which can be exercised against those who have produced and were responsible for the website. Thus it is our duty to inform on that. We did this without request, without petition, insinuations, or appeals.” “If something would have been done against the SD party-members or the one technically responsible (for the publications) it would have existed reason for criticizing us”.

No word whatsoever was directed on the ethical issue of the publication, neither in regard to protective measures towards the Muslim minority permanently targeted by the SD party and other racist sectors. Possibly, if this protection is done, would it be done discretely.

The entirely message seems to be "Not because it is wrong, but because it is dangerous".

Nevertheless, the bottom line here is that the all operation around the closing of the website was a clean & cleaver move, and which gave many scores with only one swing. Judging from the DN-picture above with the heading "Jag visste inte vad Puhket var" (a popular vacation site for Swedes, hit by the Tsunami), the credit for the operation design - that certainly will prevent potential harassment of many Swedes at some Middle East, Asian and African countries - most surely goes to SÄPO.

Denmark and Danes

Who are we referring to?

Just a brief reflection that, by implication, may as well result self-critical:

When we refer "Denmark" in our pro and against arguments towards a political behaviour of some, or many Danes. Can we do this in the name of logics? are we here epidemiological-nosology correct? And above all, is it fair ?

In Sweden "Denmark" is often presented in the media as an indivisible geopolitical or idiosyncratic entity. "We shall stand for Denmark", and so on. However, Denmark is more than the Prime Minister, the Danish Folkeparti and its partners in the government. More than Jylland-Posten and their crowd of followers, more than the democratic chauvinists, racists, or something else. Besides, we have the fact that the goverment coalition is supported only by 39 percent of the voters (70 seats out of N= 179 in the Danish Parliament). And further, or in the first place, we are supposed to have all the rest of the Danish people and their down-to-heart lives and commitments.

The Danish Queen Margrethe II is quoted to have said:
"We have to show our opposition to Islam and we have to, at times, run the risk of having unflattering labels placed on us. . ." [sources: Daily Telegraph, AFP, and Middle East Online]. Considering that Queen Margrethe is also the head of the Lutheran-Evangelical Church, of which 85 percent of Denmark's population are members [source], this would further invite to easy, and wrong, generalizations. These generalizations are the kind of logical blunders Swedish academic fanatics - some journalists included - do over and over again in characterizing immigrants, particularly Muslim people from Africa or the Middle East. [Margrethe II, portrait by Andy Warhol, 1984].

Addressing the current issue, we have to keep also in mind the "other" Danes, those for instance who among an older generation did bravely fight against the Nazi-German occupation, and those who still honour their fighting spirits and ideals. And there are certainly in Denmark those who oppose not only the filo-nazi rightists' excesses, but even the participation of Denmark in the USA’s military crusades of the Middle East. Just look at this picture (click to enlarge). Danish folks demonstrating against the Iraq war 2002. Far at the right in the picture stand some Danes holding the slogan "No blood for oil".

And there are the Danish-born immigrants of "second or third" generation. Just the Muslim immigrant population in Denmark is of a size of close to four percent of the total population. And then we have the Danish folks who have emigrated to the four cardinal directions, including Sweden, in which they constitute one of the main immigrant groups.

The problem is that in national crisis - like the one Denmark is experiencing these days - the nationalistic ties could be proven a more potent factor than true ideological convictions or ethical principles.

Is here when civil courage should arise distinctly among the Danish academics or intellectuals which truly oppose the cultural sadistic behaviours of Denmark's main newspaper Jylland-Posten, against Muslim immigrants or political refugees with that faith. Statements from those Danish-born sectors, for the moral strength of its civil courage, would certainly have a stronger appealing effect.

So, concluding this reflection. The appeal that the Swedish newspapers Dagens Nyheter, Expressen, and the political party they use to represent in their editorials (the Swedish, pro USA-Republican, Folkpartiet), on that we should be in solidarity "with Denmark", it is by all means misleading.

When addressing to the Swedish public asking for "Solidarity with Denmark", they should honestly explain which is the section of Denmark they identify themselves with, with what policies they want us to be in solidarity. They should distinctly state if and to which extent the calling for support they do is in favour of the pro-xenophobic political behaviour, domestic and international, the Danish government and the "liberal" rightist parties exercise. Hand in hand with their ideological journalist colleagues of Jylland-Posten.

For my part, I should refer not to "Denmark", but to the forces in Denmark that bear the responsibility of this cultural atrocity, which was proven to be just another big bullet fired in the international war of the rich against the poor.

Swedish Television. Wrong hot-blooded news for a wrong hot-blooded conflict

We live volatile, sad times, which call for restrain and reflection. Not for chauvinism. Not for xenophobic hate

Offended Muslims, mostly from poor or invaded countries - offended due to so much under so long - express now their rage against those representing Denmark.

In the minds of many, Denmark is nowadays associated with the happenings around the provoking – and for some unholy – drawings in Jyllandsposten. However, in the hearts of many more, Denmark is also identified with the torture of Muslims war-prisoners in Iraq, with the alliance to a lie (the weapons of mass destruction issue), and with their own troops in a war of decimation, lives slaughter, amputations in scale, bombarded hospitals and huge "collateral damage" amid vast sectors of the civil - Muslim - population.

Muslims, particularly those hit by sand and blood, believe that the current European campaign has nothing to do with “freedom of the press”, that is not about “free the women”. I guess that many have also understood that it isn't about religion or "Christian values" either. They do believe that all we want is their oil, and that we are getting desperate. And possibly we are. At least judging of the Swedish media.

The world media, including USA and the vast majority of the European media, have taken a careful stand, or even condemn the publication of offensive material. In Sweden, for the political (not religious, not cultural) reasons we will analyze separately, we have seen however a consistent trend appealing to the public to understand all this as if Muslims are conflicting against a) directly the Swedes as such, b) or directly against the "Nordic countries", c) or directly against "Sweden and other Nordic countries".

For this, some of the Swedish media, or the political and economic interests they represent, have to make some efforts in "twisting" the presentation of facts, to make them appear politically correct. Certainly this does not apply to all Swedish media, neither to all journalists, editors or producers working in the Swedish communication and media business. Other main papers, and other main television channels, have reported the facts accurately and with a sense of civil responsibility.

We shall se here how a little of the above has been intended with the help of "deforming" news through omitting vital information in the released news, in the presentation of news out of contex, or in contents wich are dirtectly detrimental in their association.

Example 1

This is from the SVT site in Internet, Wednesday 8/2 2006 (my text enphases):

"Nordic observators escape from Hebron"
Published 8 february 2006 - 18:27
"Twelve Swedish and the rest of the observers of the UN TIPH-team were forced on wednesday to leave Hebron on the West, after their base was attacked by hundreds of Palestinians throwing stones."

The original in Swedish: "Nordiska observatörer flydde Hebron"
Publicerad 8 februari 2006 - 18:27
"Tolv svenskar och resten av FN:s observatörsstyrka TIPH tvingades på onsdagen lämnade Hebron på Västbanken sedan deras bas angripits av hundratals stenkastande palestinier."

That day and the day after (today 9/2 at 16.30) , this news is still prominent in the "Text-TV" of the SVT, and SVT has even added more text referring to the Israeli military rescuing them (the "Twelve Swedes and the rest") from the "mob", and providing military escort to Tel Aviv:

What the Swedish Television chosed NOT to inform to the Swedish public on the above:

1. “Denmark out of Hebron”

The news came in a telegram of the News Agency TT, in which was also clearly stated that Gunhild Forselv, the Norwegian tales woman of TIPH had said that the crowd had shouted instead “Denmark out of Hebron”!. No mention was made to Sweden or any other nationality integrating that office.

But that was not informed by the Swedish television. Why? the accurate and complete information regarding that matter, that the Palestinian were specifically protesting only against the Danish presence, does not go well with the political aim the Swedish media seems to get more and more attached to: that we in Sweden should believe Swedes are, or have became, "natural" targets of Muslim hostility. And of course, we have to do something about it.

No wonder that other important media, such as Dagens Nyheter (today's main editorial) have concluded the following statement, at the end of its main editorial with the headline "Let us not be scared to isolationism" (what the editorial specifically addresses is "the violent protests in the Moslem world have shown that Scandinavians also can be targets"):

"And the question is whether Sweden is prepared, if the soldiers and other personnel abroad its is trained and equipped to face this new reality. The answer is all but calming" (DN, 9/2 2006)

Note: TIPH is in fact integrated by 7o folks, including a variety of other non-Scandinavian countries such as Italy, Turkey, and Switzerland [source: Press release, Swedish Foreign Ministry, 19 January 2006].

2. Who was "the mob" of "attacking Palestinians" "forcing Swedes to flee"?

Looking at pictures and video sequences from the Italian News Agency ANSA, and reading a dispatch by J. Brilliant, a correspondent in site from United Press International, it become evident that the group of Palestinians was actually integrated by children and teenagers. The UPI dispatch quote Gunhild Forselv saying "the kids would throw stones. . ."

[Source a) United Press International, UPI. "TIPH observers leave Hebron after riot". By J. BRILLIANT. Source b) Angenzia ANSA, http://www.ansa.it/ ]

I have not yet received from ANSA the clearance I have asked to reproduce their clear graphic material, but I post here photos I took myself from the televised sending of "24" and "Rapport" 8/2, by the Swedish National Television. Please click for larger views.

3. At the bottom of the screen above - the headline being Nordic observators escape Hebron, there is a parragraph referring to an absolutely diverse news and location:

"In Afghanistan four persons were killed in protests against the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed. The protests continued even in other countries"

Immediately after the viewer is asked to see the page that follows ("läs mer på nästa sidan" ), in order to face the headline (see imagen below) Swedish aid-office attacked. No reason for this attack (in Afghanistan) was at all mentioned, just that a multitude in thousands attacked with sticks and stones the building where the Swedish "aid office" is located, that they were dispersed by the police, that no one was hurt, no Swedish personnel was on the place, and that no plans whatsoever for evacuation of the office was considered. Besides, it is not yet clear whether this Office is a building shared with personnel of other "Aid" categories, or other nationalities - including possibly Denmark.

Example 2

A new example from SVT Rapport, the most viewed television news programme in Sweden.

What is the analysis or explanation the Swedish (state) Television offers to the public about the ongoing conflict, beyond the particular presentation of the news we saw above?

I checked this morning (9/2) SVT's website and there - among the various analyses listed under the foreign/Middle East heading - I found none about this issue.

So, what you get is what you see:

You would not believe this, but it is actually true. Considering the background of all the wars, The Danish troops currently in Muslim soil, the prisoner abuse, all the sweat, the scarce of available own petrol for their own cars, the humiliations, the unholy cartoons, the economic embargo, the mistreatment of Muslim immigrants in Denmark, etc., etc., Considering all this, what the newsman above is saying as explanation, after reporting the last incidents all over the world of the Muslims' protest against Denmark, is emphatically:

"And (the fact) that these protests have been so much extensive at so many places, is in much caused by Arabic TV-preachers" (Rapport, 8 February 2006).

In Swedish: "Och att de har protesterna på så många håll har blivit så omfattande bero mycket på arabiska tv predikanter"

And that is it. If you do not believe this, I would understand you. That is why I made this link, in case you would like to check it ut. Try this source:

http://svt.se/svt/road/Classic/shared/mediacenter/player.jsp?d=30929&a=342606

And this sources for "Danish officers were not sentenced in Denmark althought found guilty of Iraqi prisoner abuse":

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=15466 http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=10488

DN:s märkliga ledare ”Danmarks sak blir vår” (6/2, 2006)

Akt I
Först kom DN:s märkliga ledare ”Danmarks sak blir vår” (6/2, 2006) och man kunde knappast tro att det var sant. Att annars väl erkända oberoende liberaler kunde påstå i samband med muslimernas ilska reaktioner och attentat i protest mot den ökända avbildningen i Jyllandsposten i Danmark, att ”Sverige och Norge hänger med på köpet, genom våra likartade flaggor och språk”. ”Plötsligt har de kristna korsen på Nordens nationalsymboler en innebörd som få reflekterat över tidigare”, sades det i ledaren.

Antagandet nr ett. Antydandet att Sverige hade varit mål för aktionerna

Detta är ogrundat och osanningsenligt. Vilken muslimsgrupp hade signalerat Sverige (ledaren skrevs den 6/2-06) som ett fiende? Ta exempelvis den ökända attacken till Danska ambassaden i Damaskus: Sveriges ambassad bara råkade vara i vägen (Sveriges ambassad befinner sig i första våningen av byggnaden). Men, vem vet, i den närmaste framtiden, om den inhemska versionen av Danska Folkepartiet lyckas att provocera fram en sådan plats bredvid ARLA i bojkottens måltavla (klick på bilden intill).

Antagandet nr 2. Den s.k. Mellanöster regeringens fientlighet mot Sverige

Sverige har fått en officiell ursäkt om denna aktion och andra. Det tystnades ner i artikeln. Militanta muslimer i väldiga känsliga områdena såsom, Gaza har t.o.m. uttryckligt sagt att Sverige ej är föremål.

Antagandet nr 3. Att det är bara nordiska länder som har blivit drabbade

Även den chilenska ambassaden blev härjad i Damaskus händelserna (det fanns i bottenvåningen av samma byggnad) och till en högre omfattning än de danska och svenska ambassadernas lägenheter var ambassadernas finns. Inte heller detta är nämnt där av DN. Till saken hör till att i Chile har man informerat odramatiskt om händelsen och gjort klart att Chile inte var föremål till attacken och därmed inte har man i onödan hetsat upp "muslimfientliga" "patriotiska" eller religiösa känslor. Den chilenska regeringen förklarade den 6 februari att händelserna i Damaskus var "avslutat fall" efter ursäkten från Syrien (source).

Antagandet nr 4. ”De kristna korsen på Nordens nationalsymboler” har en uteslutande innebörd (för de arga, förelempade muslimer).

Antigen driver ledarskriventen med läsaren eller visar den bara ren okunnighet. Skolbarn vet att det finns en rad andra länder i Europa som har ett kors i sina flaggor eller t.o.m. endast ett tydligt ritat kors (Schweiz). Egentligen faller detta ”flagga/språk” argument av sin egen absurditet.

Antagandet nr 5. Den egentliga orsaken

Trots de kraftiga reaktionerna bland en del av muslimer kan ha varit orsakade av endast äkta religiösa känslor betraktade som förelämpade p.g.a. bilderna, den omfattande, massiva solidariteten bland deras befolkning kallar även för andra förklaringar. Dessa är förknippad med en rad fenomen, bland annat, rollen av Danmark vid USA invasionen i Irak, den tortyr och misshandel – med klart hånande religiösa inslag - som har förekommit gentemot fångarna. Den strukturellt rasistiska behandling, med regeringens och representanterna av den politiska kulturella elitens goda minne, som invandare - och i synnerhet muslimer - genomlider.

Det är mycket möjligt att de provokationer avsiktligt erbjudits av Jyllandsposten har resulterat i en katalysator för ovan och en annan grov missnöjdsamhet och besvikelse bland en invandrarpopulation redan omkullkastades i marken.

Akt II

Angående DN: ledaren som kommenterades ovan, blev det dock känt senare under dagen - genom DN nätupplaga - att egentligen var politiska redaktör, numera chef för ledarredaktionen Niklas Ekblads eget signerade ansvar (jag fortfarande undrar om det inte har varit ett tekniskt fel detta med sitt namn i signaturen. Han ger verkligen en helt annant intryck med sin övriga balanserade - och intelligenta - inlägg). Men då hade jag hunnit i min blog ”Ich bin ein Moslem” klandra hela DN. Jag beklagade då förstås min svepande och generaliserande upprördhet, och tröstade mig om att det ändå kändes bra att jag hade fel om den tidning som jag annars har läst med respekt i flera decennier.

Emellertid publicerar idag (7/2, 2006) DN i kultursidan – à la Jyllandsposten - sin "egen" bild av Muhammed. En teckning ”utan hån” skulle DN kulturbilagans chef kunna kanske säga, bara ett fall av ofarlig blåögad naivism, skall vi tro? Men, vem skall tro att man inte har förstått att den är just det - själva avbildningen - som är kärnan i den frågan enligt den religionen?

Det förefaller helt omöjligt att DN inte vet eller förstår vad det handlar om. Då måste man hitta förklaringen till deras beteende i en helt annan dimension än den intellektuella förmågan, och som inte i det minsta har med oberoende liberalismen och toleransen att göra.

Denna publicering gör man fullständigt medveten om den uppenbara provokationen som åtgärden innebär bland invandrare med muslim tro. DN: s agerande är i sammanhanget märkligt, eftersom det nu är empiriskt känt delvis hur förelämpande detta har varit för miljoner människor som har den religion, enligt deras utsago, och delvis den för Danmark ödeläggande reaktioner som påtträffades i Mellan Östern.

DN har annars gjort gällande att man skall avstyra fanatiska konfrontationer. Och vi måste alla håller med på DN om det. När det emellertid gäller dessa fattiga - och redan diskriminerade - muslimer exempelvis i Danmark (men också i Sverige) verkar det finnas vid DN en märklig agenda endast à la Per Ahlmark, liberalismen-negationen och intoleransens högsta präst.

"Ich bin ein Moslem"

For the sake of peace, reason, and victory. A warning on fanatics of all kind

The Swedish "liberals", with the Folkpartiet and DN in the lead, call today for supporting the Danish government amind the wrong - or just alleged - assumtion on that Sweden is also under siege and attack by the angry reaction of world Moslems. It is a dubious stand against a remarkable Danish concept on both what "freedom of the press" should be, and how to cruellest humiliate their ethnic Muslim minority, an impoverished and exploited social group already ground-beaten by an unique structural racism.

I am not at all religious (the gods knows that!), and I am very much aware the kind of "contribution religion has made to civilization", to use the words of Bertrand Russell. However today I feel - as any other decent truly libertarian - in solidarity with the offended and the oppressed.

Let us look to some facts on the alleged issue of "aggression" against Sweden. In the building where the Swedish embassy is allocated in Damascus, there are two other embassies. In the ground floor the Chilean embassy, on top of it the Swedish delegation, and only above the embassy of Denmark. In order to get to their target (the Danish representation), the angry demonstrators had to pass through the first two floors.

Sweden was never, at least up to this moment, a conscious target for these attacks. This has been already made clear by Muslim militants for instance in Gaza, last week. Neither has been Chile, for that part.

As a matter of fact, the Chilean media has taken a quite another stand than their Swedish counterpart. In Chile it was informed as it was that the Chilean and Swedish embassies were not the scope of the attack. A with this no further incitement to put Chileans against the resident Muslims in that country.

It appears evident that DN, folkpartiet, and other interested sectors, are partly artificially twisting the facts (through the hiding of vital information, which alter the understanding of the picture as a whole), and partly artificially overreacting.

But, why to care doing this? What is the hidden agenda? Some sort of NATO issue, preparing new alliances, getting "common" Muslim foes, or whose oil?

Among the tricks it protrudes the one of “let us forget how the thing started, let us see instead the consequences of this aggression against Denmark, which is an aggression to us”. Since it was Denmark the party that unilaterally started the all thing with its conscious bizarre provocation, does not this part sound like a continuation piece of a dictated dramaturgy, a second act we all have to plug and play?

And who do they expect to forget what?

That Denmark - by decison of its political leaders- is one of the armed forced invading Iraq, on the ground of false acussations (the "weapons of mass destruction" issue) at the orders of Bush?

That Denmark - even if not all Danes, or perhaps due to only some of them- is worldwide known by the cultural mistreatment (not only discrimination) the immigrants are subjected to?

That "democratic" Denmark, its government and that infamous newspaper have shown an arrogance only parallel to the one showed by the worst totalitarian regimes against the minorities - ethnic, religious, or political minorities - of their time?

If some at DN, and the Folkpartiet, and other Swedish interested sectors think that the globalization they have vividly supported is only one-directional, the facts of last week prove them catastrophically wrong. The western celular telephones now in the massive hands of seemingly uncontrolable crowds could spray, as a light in a tempest, true news as well as exagerated news or even plain rumors leading to desvastating acts.

The regrettable economic boycott against the Danish Arla of these days (click on image below) may be the one of tomorrow against Volvo, JAS, Sony-Eriksson, AGA, and all kind of Miss Sweden or mister right and their respective music.

Conclusion:

For the sake of peace, reason, and the victory over religious fanatics of all latitudes, and the victory over the selfish politicians seeking confrontation by using "religion" or "freedom of speech" for the benefit of own agendas. In other words, for the sake of the civilized values you say to maintain. Do not argument, do not act as a narrow-minded chauvinist.

To be continued, as soon as I get a respite from my work. . . In the meanwhile, I leave you with Jan Gillou's brilliant analysis on this matter. See here:
http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,773728,00.html

Swedish-winter fatal "tröghet"

"Reveses de fortuna llamáis a las miserias. Porqué si son reveses de la conducta necia" (words of the Fortune goddess, according to Felix Maria Samaniego, 1741 - 1801)

Swedish winter fatal drowning

The phenomenon "Swedish winter fatal drowning" may be not a societal issue of the epidemiological dimension of other non-natural fatality causes, such as suicides. But it really defies common sense. Only in January 2006 have nine folks died of such ice/water related accidents in Sweden. I we except boat collisions, we have among them a main bulk of people that goes and walk or skate on top de tiny surface of the precarious ice of lakes or oceans!

Some days ago, fourteen persons walking or skating out on the ice in Stockholm went instead kind of engulfed by the sea when the ice just opened under their feet. A huge deployment of rescue forces, helicopters, etc., was mobilised. Some of them could be saved, but not all.

Commenting such fatalities on today’s edition of Dagens Nyheter - the main Swedish newspaper- the chairman of one association of skaters, Heinrich Blauert, is quoted as saying:

“Everything points towards that nobody have done anything wrong, but that several unfortunate circumstances have withdrawn”.

The blaming of unfortunate circumstances - replacing our possible own responsibility in the occurrence of fatal acts - it is as old as the registered written tales in history. The Greek Aesop referred to this topic in one of his great fables, the one on the traveller boy and the Fortune Dame, theme which has been repeated by La Fontaine in France, and also in elegant poem form by Félix María Samaniego, in Spain. Here follows the texts of Aesop’s translated to English, and the one of Samaniego in original Spanish. Drawn your own conclusions.

The Traveler and Fortune
Fables by Aesop

A TRAVELER wearied from a long journey lay down, overcome withfatigue, on the very brink of a deep well. Just as he was aboutto fall into the water, Dame Fortune, it is said, appeared to himand waking him from his slumber thus addressed him: "Good Sir, pray wake up: for if you fall into the well, the blame will bethrown on me, and I shall get an ill name among mortals; for I find that men are sure to impute their calamities to me, however much by their own folly they have really brought them onthemselves."

El muchacho y la Fortuna. By Samaniego.

A la orilla de un pozo, sobre la fresca yerba, un incauto Mancebo dormía a pierna suelta. Gritóle la Fortuna: «Insensato, despierta; ¿no ves que ahogarte puedes, a poco que te muevas? Por ti y otros canallas a veces me motejan, los unos de inconstante, y los otros de adversa. Reveses de Fortuna llamáis a las miserias; ¿por qué, si son reveses de la conducta necia?»

Freud and the Swedish burn-out (utbrändhet & utmattningsdepression)

If religion is the opium of the people
Freud would be the dealer,the pipe,and the nightmare.

Sigmund Freud. The spiritual mentor - and economic benefactor - of the prophets inventors of "burn out" and other fashionable human disasters
A tiny but effective superstructure of psychologists, masseurs, professors, fortune-readers, researchers, psychotherapists, alternative "medicine" practitioners, etc, have made quite fortunes by convincing normal individuals in disarray that they - as individuals - suffer of "illnesses" such as "over-occupational guilt", "low-occupation guilt, "grief", "empathy loss", "burnout", "stress", "worries of getting cynical", etc. And of course, that only they can effectively cure them, or "rehabilitate" them - as the trick nowadays is renamed.

Warning. The theses below do not intend to be offensive towards a) serious professionals, or scholars that are only guided by scientific spirits and do not get personal profit or economic gains on peoples' confusion, or b) those that really became ill of a medical or psychiatric condition.

In my opinion, few single individuals have caused a more devastating impact in people's mental wellbeing than the psychiatrist swindler Sigmund Freud. The unscientific dogmas and myths spread by Freud and his followers are behind thousands of thousands of human tragedies. These would have been well averted with the use of scientific medicine, or in very many cases just with the use of common sense, logics, love, empathy and human solidarity.

Freud's religion of hate and ungrounded determinism has killed more family relationships than any other faith on earth. Parents against their parents, children against their mothers, fathers against their nature of true fathers. But destroing families is far the only kind of human catastrophe that Freud the pope - and his devoted priests - have fashioned and turned out to lucrative business.

In nearly every situation in which a system of oppression - political or economic, or occupational - harasses a person (commonly already battered by other existential problems), there enter Freud. Not to suggests a change of the structural situation that abuses the person. Not to strength the psychological resources for the person to fight against the situation that oppresses him or her. None of that. The post-Freudian teaching and practice, and their book-selling enterprise, aims to convince the individual that all it is in his/her little own navel, and encourages its contemplation as main source for wisdom. He or her, the individual, is according the Freudians the one who is "ill", psychological unfit, a subject for a "psychiatric diagnose" such as burn-out (utbrändhet) or occupational-depression.

He/she is not advised to stay at the work to understand better and to try change things for him and other co-workers. No, he/she would be encouraged by Freud to regard himself as a victim of his own inadequacy, diminished empathy, or physical impairment and tiredness. Otherwise, how come that "stress at the job" only affects her and not the rest of the individuals working in the very same place?

But of course Freud's prophets have already the solution:

• Take a long sick-leave and go home (be separated from your colleagues, and from the working place.)
• Take these antidepressants (do not mind if they do not help, or feel worse of the side effects),
• Stay at home until we call you for "rehabilitation cure” (as soon we convince the government and politicians to pay us for it.)

It is so absurd. And so painful, that the politicians, the media, and the vast majority of their uncritical recipients dhave not reflected upon this unique strategy:

I. The Freudian stress-professionals started advocating loudly - with no whatsoever epidemiological evidence - about the working environments being the only cause of increasing stress and burn-out, and even sudden deaths! (see here my article in Läkartidningen). In the message they used to deliver in public forums to the potential customer (the prospective "patient") to obtain understanding and positive contact, the main argument is that we are facing a full scale "epidemy" of bad working places, new organizations at the working sites, etc., all which result in that the working persons get burnout. This in its turn would have resulted in a national epidemy of this "syndrom" (question that also resulted to be false). The first approach towards the single individual could summarizes as in this illustration: "Feeling blue and tired, problem to fell sleep? Well, It is is not your fault, it is the stress situation at the working conditions. You are just affected by that. Otherwise you are a good and healthy person, and even very good, in the sense that you are more work-commited than others!".

II. As time goes, and people learn how to "identify" what they believe they suffer of (utbrändhet as a container-term in which quite diverse symptoms, feelings, or personal situations, would find a place), the same Freudian stress-professionals start to favour an individual-oriented solution (not structural-oriented). This in no way touches upon the responsibility the working environments and its management is supposed to have in the causation of the problem (according to the previous Freudian's claim). This is the moment of the "psychiatric diagnose", and which entails automatically a long sick-leave for the individual and the corresponding antidepressant-drug treatment. All this, independent if the person is actually ill or not, in medical terms. It would be enough that he/she regarded him/herself as inadequate or self-rated "ill" (see here my comment Utbrändhetsdiagnoser på reträtt in Svenska dagbladet).
III. As time goes even further, many, or too many, have answered the call of "having the feeling" (upplevelse) on they may be also ill and the situation starts really getting out of control. Very much because the GP physicians sick-list people, actually in most of the cases, in the absence of a medical situation! "Is Sweden really that sick"? ask the rest of Europeans, and the pressure on politicians gets harder. The exaggerated number of sick-listed persons resulting from above poses the imperative of getting people soon back to work, and gets those figures down as soon as possible. The moment for the real payoff has come for the Freudian strategists: Rehabilitation services. What a million-deal. Rehabilitating what? Well, that will not be the issue just that people get back to work. Varsågod, here you are, one million more.
My comment:
a) Much of the problem arisen by the agitation Freudian professionals have done in magnifying the so called phenomenon of increased stress in society.

b) More that than the actual levels of stress in society, what it has increased is our awareness of the stress-problem. This helped at masses-level by the uncritical megaphone effect of the media.

c) In other words, we do not have enormously more stress than, say, ten years ago, what happens is that we are now enormously more focused on everything which might be stress-related. We have culturally learned these concepts, and cultivated thereafter this social helplessness behaviour. We have been mass-convinced we are inadequate to survive and live as normal individuals. For the first requisite for the individual survival in society is the struggle for changing that society, not the collective and self-destructive giving-up.

d) The very same academic and professional sectors which have agitated, deformed, exaggerated, or even lied to the public about the effects of stress in the peoples health, are those which may have obtained substantial economic or academic gains with their research and treatment enterprises.

e) In the treatment of this absolutely unclear and scientifically unconvincing Freudian inspired "syndrome", have other sectors also had an enormous economic profit at the expenses of public means. This is the case, for instance, of the pharmaceutical industry engaged in the sale of certain antidepressants [see here for updated figures of 2005]. No wonder, the drugs did not work as expected, regarding treatment of the so called burnout.
Concluding:
The individual-focused solution commented above (long sick leaves for the individual, argued on discussable psychiatric diagnoses) it is clearly a non-solution to "the epidemy" of occupational-related burnout, attending to the structural causation them selves, the Freudian stress-priests, have said the problem has. Neither has been scientifically established that the diathesis of those manifested symtomps are indeed caused only by endeavours at the working place.
So suddenly, here we have the pirouette: the individual - and not the work - is the one making the problem. It is not any longer "stress in society", particularly, or solely, at the working sites, what increases so huge. That they used before as main argument, but it is now gone. What they now do say is that the individuals are those who may be getting more and more vulnerable for that self victimization, independent of management.

And just how many they are? "30 percent of the Swedish population. Of these, 15 percent because they work too much, and the other 15 percent because they work too little" (free quote from Interview with psychologist Alexander Perski, Studio 1, Swedish Radio 19/12-05).

But they have the cure, so they say. So, if you are among the 30 percent of that population, you are one of the three Swedes which will probably need "rehabilitation" for some months in the near future. If you do not have the money, no problem. Your Health Insurance has. In Sweden this means we, you and me, the taxpayer. And we pay also for the antidepressants, and for the parasites that profit on poor people that most likely were not ill in the first place. Perhaps they just reacted to an ill, too Freudian, society.

As things have evolved, the core matter of this debate appears no longer to ascertain whether there is more stress, or just how much more, out there in the working-life. And if so were the case, what would be the real cause of that increase (For my part, I have always maintained that what has increased is the collective - subjective- appraisal of the phenomenon, not the phenomenon it self).
None of those things seems to be of importance any longer. Even the acknowledgement that the cohorts of sick-listed due to ”the problem” have shown a stabile statistical decline has not deserved a fair comment. Who cares? What seems to be the matter now is that we have managed to produce huge numbers of long-time sick-listed in Sweden (the largest figures in Europe), of course, "due" to that intangible stress. The bottom line nowadays stressed by the burnout apostles is that there is today an objective need for "rehabilitation" of those persons, arguing also that only their rehabilitation method succeeds in putting people back to work.
The threat of epidemics has now been traded for the incitament of "problem-solving" towards an easying the burden of the National Health Insurance system. That is why, in their recent PR-offensive, the Freudian priests put forward so vehemently the emphasis in the "problem of rehabilitation". Here it is where the real fat buck is waiting, and the rest it is purely and forgotten "academic" discussion.
But it is not. And it should be also a discussion about ethics.

In this Freud revisited, we find a similarity with the Mafiosi in Manhattan in the 1920's. First they went, covered by the night, and smashed the windows of numerous shops in the street. The day after they went to the same shop-owners to offer both to repair the windows using their own "convenient prices" and methods, and protection "to solve the problem". And do you know? The shop-owners believed on that for a long time.

If religion is the opium of the people, Freud is the dealer, the pipe, and the nightmare.

Marcello Ferrada de Noli
Stockholm, december 2005

Note. "Sjukskrivningarna ökar i samma takt som utgifterna för antidepressiva medel.
Det som upptar större delen av kostnadsökningen är just ett preparat man
har uppmärksammat i behandlingen av utbrändhet. Endast under det första
halvåret 2001 föreskrev läkarna antidepressiva läkemedel för hela 562 miljoner
kronor. Kostnaden för antidepressiva läkemedel har tredubblats från 1994
till 2000. Mig veterligen finns det inte några tydliga bevis att dessa
läkemedel är effektiva mot just ”utbrändhet” (enligt Maslach beskrivning),
utöver vissa specifika symtom och som väl kan ha en helt annan
patogens än ”utbrändhet”. Detta är särskilt oroväckande mot bakgrunden
av läkemedlens icke önskade biverkningar." (From: M. Ferrada-Noli, Kejsarens
Utbrända Kläder, Sociologisk Forskning 1/ 2004)
See the full article "Kejsarens utbrända kläder" here. Click on the Pope

Om det påstådda hälsobiståndet till katastrofområdena
På sätt och vis skulle detta inlägg kunna beröra New Orleans såväl som Indonesien eller Pukhet. Det är dock skrivet efter eget vittnesmål vid översvämningar i Phuket, i sviten av tsunami katastrofen.

Epidemiologiskt betraktat, tsunamitragedin visade att - i jämförelse med de utländska turisterna - den inhemska befolkningen genomlidit förhållandevis en mycket högre andel av dödlighet, morbiditet och skador. De bodde ju vanligtvis vid mindre solida konstruktioner vid stränder, helt i kontrast mot de stora hotellbyggena. Dessa familjer vid stränderna levde och dog för vår turism, skulle man kunna sammanfatta grovt.

Ett liv som hund i Phuket 2005

Enligt färska uppgifter från Thailand besöker
varje år 230 000 svenska turister det landet (Phuket Gazet 18/2). Således, en projicering av det antalet skulle visa att i mindre än tjugo år hälften av den totala befolkningen i Sverige – bortsett återbesökare- har haft till sitt förfogande både detta lands sköna natur och tjänster av den utsatta turistrelaterade lokala arbetskraften. Allt detta mot en billig penning.

Mot facit ovan, de granna ord som rikets företrädare har uttryckt i Thailand som tacksamhet för den effektiva och vänskapliga assistans som våra sårade fick av lokalbefolkningen efter katastrofen, kan visa sig i min mening alltför otillräckliga. Dessutom, här i Sverige återges uppfattningen, bl.a. genom direktinsändningar av TV 24, att det skulle pågå en betydelsefull svensk myndighetshälsoinsats för de drabbade i Asienkatastrofen, inte minst från forskaretablissemangens sida. Som nyligen återvänd från ett yrkesbesök till de drabbade områdena, undrar jag om det inte är endast själva svenskarna som är föremålet till den officiella direkta svenska insatsen.

Samtliga frivilliga eller privata organisationer, och särskilt dessa tillhörande svenska myndigheter under Phuket konsulatens operativa ledning koncentrerar sig mot ”identifiering, hemtransport, krisstöd, sjukvård och information”, av svenskar. Undantagsvis har Räddningsverket, enligt uppgift, kunnat direkt assistera den lokala befolkningen med röjningsarbete respektive ett vattenreningsprojekt i samverkan med Volvo Thailand (fyra grävmaskiner och två tankbilar). Beträffande de i Sverige påtalade insatserna från forskaretablissemangen gentemot de drabbade, är dessa i verkligheten så gott som obefintliga.

Jag reste till Bangkok och Phuket för att konkretisera ett vetenskapligt samarbete med thailändska forskare inom området posttraumatisk katastrofhantering och transkulturell skadeforskning. Men det var inte UD eller någon svensk hälso- eller forskningsmyndighet som varken hade tagit initiativet eller visat sig villiga att stödja det projektet. Idén framfördes däremot av forskare från USA (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC) då stationerade för ändamålet vid katastrofområdena. De undrade – nästan en månad hade gått från katastrofen - vad vi i Sverige tänkte göra angående epidemiologiska insatser och skadedokumentation bland de drabbade svenskarna. En naturlig reflexion med tanke på att svenskarna var den hårdast drabbade nationella gruppen bland utländska offer.

I själva verket hade undertecknad framfört behovet ovan till bl.a. UD redan i dagarna vid katastrofinträffandet - och anmälde sig dessutom som frivillig för omedelbar vistelse till områdena tillsammans med två utländska läkare i mitt KI forskarteam. I förgäves.

Reconstruction (in background) by Phuket locals, only weeks after the disaster

Där i Thailand, vart jag fick åka med egna medel, kunde jag konstatera i ett möte med chefen för den thailändska epidemiologiska byrån vid hälsoministeriet, Dr Kumnuan Ungchusak, att ingen kontakt än så länge (24/1) hade tagits från svenska forskare eller hälsomyndigheter, eller övriga sådana, beträffande ett samarbete omkring skadedokumentationen som påföljd till katastrofen. Han sade också att det fanns fortfarande minst 1 400 ej identifierade offer bland de påträffade liken och till min konkreta fråga svarade han att svenska medborgare mycket väl kan finnas i den kohorten. I mötet deltog även Dr. Rick Waxveiler, chefen för den USA forskarlaget (CDC) dåvarande i katastrofområdena.

De thailändska hälsomyndigheter och forskare som jag träffade manifesterade att de ser fram emot ett samarbete med svenska kolleger. Men hur kan den typen av omgående forskarinsatser vara effektiva utan finansiering eller stöd från svenska myndigheternas sida, deras forskningsetablissemang inräknade? Kan dessa myndigheter konsten att besluta klokt och snabbt även sådana prioriteringar?

I debatten omkring det ”sena” svaret från myndigheterna vid denna katastrof har framförts två tydliga teser. Antingen var det en strukturbrist och därmed nya myndigheter skulle inrättas. Eller vissa chefer skulle avgå och ersättas av andra. Sedan påtalade kungen i sitt omdiskuterade bidrag i debatten (DN intervju 10/1) ett annat perspektiv, nämligen det kulturella. Det kanske handlar ”här i Sverige” om rädsla för ansvarstagande, menade kungen. Och om ”vem skall betala”. Kulturella problem av den atavistiska sorten löser man emellertid inte med en nyinrättad myndighet eller genom att ersätta en chef mot en annan likadan kulturellt skolad chef.

Jag menar att mot den myndighetskulturen som inte på en betryggande grad har kunnat agera vid denna typ av situationer, kan man använda – för ett konstruktivt utfall - en kompletterande kultur. I det fallet, den vetenskapliga kulturen. Krisbeslutsstunden vid katastrofhantering skall helst baseras i den vetenskapliga kunskapsprocessen. I den dialektiken har undertecknad, tillsammans med professor Ragnar Andersson, föreslagit inrättande av ett akademiskt samfund av professorer och docenter verksamma i katastrofhanteringsvetenskaperna (http://www.hig.se/~mnf/pages/SDMS.htm). Samfundet skall dock vara i sin produktion helt oberoende av myndigheternas inflyttande. Det samfundet skulle kunna utifrån internationell och uppdaterade vetenskap i området, bl.a. agera som kunskapsreferens för de berörda operativa myndigheterna (både preventivt och vid krissituationer), anlitas som ”second opinion” inför beslutsfattande, tar på sig verkligen objektiva utvärderingsuppdrag, kontinuerligt uppfölja den internationella vetenskapliga utvecklingen i området och promovera forskartutbildningsprogram i ämnet. Beslutsfattandeprocessen skulle befrämjas av en akademiskt konkurrerande, helt oberoende instans, till de existerande strukturerna underställd regeringen eller övriga myndigheter. Professorer från universitet och högskolor, bl.a. KI, Uppsala, Stockholm, Karlstad, Falun, Gävle, Lund, har svarat med stor entusiasm och kreativitet och ingår redan i den uppbyggande vetenskapliga kommittén.

Sist, bortom den samma påstådda kulturella passiviteten inför akuta insats för andra kan finnas en känsla av det är bara ”vi” som slutligen är värda att räknas med. Jag reflekterade på den refererade myndighetskulturen medan jag satt i dagarna nästan ensam i flyget till Bangkok/Phuket (se foto). Och på bilfärden tillbaka från Arlanda hörde jag i P-1 programmet Vetenskapsradion en panel med svenska forskare om hur man skulle kunna bygga tsunamifritt hotell för våra turister. Det nämndes bl.a. påkostade höga murar intill hotellen, ”dock skulle en del av horisontlinjen förstöras”. Och ”det vore synd för turisterna”, sades det. Inte ett ord nämndes i samanhanget om ”de andra” som befolkar området och delar samma risk. Jag tänkte genast på Manit Sem Ware, min taxiförare och ”guide” vid Phukets ödelagda områden. Vid en färd hade han plötsligt stannat inför en alldeles raserad tomtmark. Pekande, sade han ”här bodde min mor Ma. Hon var kokerska i turisthotellet som syns där.” Sems mor dog av sviterna efter tsunami, så som andra åtta tusen thailändare i ”turisternas” område som inte bodde i solida hus. Turisthotellen finns kvar.

Phuket ruines. The end of the road for many (Photo Manit Sem Ware)

Det forskningsprojekt som nämndes ovan beträffar förekomsten av PTSD symtom bland överlevande, delvis föräldralösa, thailändska barn vid Phuket regionen. Projektet är nu i uppbyggnadsstadium och har organiserats - helt utan forskningsmedel- i samarbete med en forskargrupp av barnläkare från Ramathibodi universitetssjukhus i Bangkok.

Marcello Ferrada de Noli

See more pictues on the Phuket disaster aftermath in http://www.hig.se/~mnf/pages/Phuket%20disaster.htm