Humpty Dumpty and George Bush...

Well this is going to be interesting. After telling us for eight long years about how great the market was and pushing all these free trade ideas around the world, it seems that humpty dumpty(the american economy) has had a fall. Don't get me wrong, I am not claiming to understand this giant mess, but I think one thing is fairly obvious at this point; the corporations aren't going to have the effect of all the kings horses and all the kings men. Even better, from my perspective mind you, is that now that the neoliberalism is sinking the government is trying to jump in and rescue it. Essentially what is happening then is that W is becoming a socialist. While I love the idea, because that is what I am at heart, I know that he is doing it under the pretense of helping a victim. Who is the money going to go to? To the people it always goes to; the ones sitting on top of the pyramid. Don't want to take my word for it? Well its ok, you won't have to.

Kids with Guns and the Last Waltz

So my thoughts on Finland...Well hmmm why do they sell guns this easily. Sorry I take that back why sell guns at all? If you want to hunt I understand you are upset with me, but then again you aren't exactly hunting for survival purposes, so why wouldn't it work if the government were to rent you the gun for the event and then you bring it back under very controlled circumstances. The same should be true for the US. There is no point in selling hand guns in stores. Don't like it? Maybe sometimes its good not to care what some people want.

On a happier note I watched the Martin Scorsese documentary about The Band titled "The Last Waltz." For anyone who was a fan of music of that time, this is a must watch. The quality of the music and the performance as well as the things the members say between the songs are incredible. Its another reason why Scorsese is one of the best out there and yes Dylan's last three songs brings down the house.

Ask for your water front back...

So I made it through Kundera's Ignorance: A novel in two days and I have to say it was right in line with the other two books of his that I have read; sharp and to the point while telling an amazing story. He has a way of turning the everyday situations in relationships into pictures of life that are unforgettable.

Someone sent me this link and I thought I would post it. Tell the government you want your waterfront back...

Shiva, Kundera, and a case of the Mondays...

It was time for the European Social Forum this weekend and I didn't actually make it which was ok, but I did manage to find out that Vandana Shiva was there and that she was asked what she thought about Sweden. It turns out she has been here a few times as Ingegerd(Lumes) told me, but anyway she said that it was sad about Sweden, because we just to be a nation that was a good example of solidarity among the people and now we are run by corporations. Couldn't agree more. Why are we falling for this idea that corporations can run things better than the government? Corporations don't care about people period.

I decided tonight that the goal for the rest of the year is to read all of Milan Kundera's books. I don't know if I will actually make it, but it is an admirable goal. So now its one in the morning and I need to go to bed. Emphasize need.

Nuts for the chop

Today I read that in Poland they are considering castration for all pedophiles. Well that is just great. Isn't this so nice, we'll fix all the problems really quickly and easily and make sure they can't do any of their dirty stuff anymore. No actually this is quite horrible. Don't get me wrong I am not in any way standing up for these sick depraved people, but I am thinking that there are always going to be innocent people getting caught and then something is taken away from them that can never be given back. Way to go Poland, you just proved you are a third world country, now go build a missile shield for your conservatism.

Thursday down time

I should be reading this book by Adorno that I have, but I'm not of course. I should be doing a lot of things but I don't have the motivation right now. I don't have any reason to watch sports now until October so that will probably help. I am what they call a master of procrastination. The only problem is that I only procrastinate when I am at home, otherwise I generally get things done.

I want to get a swimming pool membership and start going two+ times a week. Easier said than done. When I was at FSU the pool was a five minute walk away and every semester it was something like five times I used it. I also want to take yoga classes but don't have the nerve to go by myself and then be with all these people who've been doing it for years and I can't even do the simple stuff.

Anyway its time to pick up Adorno and then some of Sylvia Plath's poems. I love libraries.

Why we don't win football matches

I sat there on Jeff's couch eating a cheap pizza and drinking french cider and almost crying as the Swedish National team spent ninety minutes of disgrace against Albania and ended it with a 0-0 draw. I saw the same attitude that I saw throughout Euro 2008 and what I've seen more and more of lately with Swedish sports: fear. We are a better team than Albania, we have better players, and we have more routine. It didn't show up at all, in fact it looked more like Albania was going to score first for most of the match. I kept clenching my fist over and over as the midfielders lost the ball again and again, as Källström disappeared after five minutes, and as the players looked like amateurs chasing warriors around the field.

In Sweden the answer is very simple: we don't think we can win. Or if we do we deny it and talk down about it and tell ourselves that we shouldn't think that way. How dare a nation with our size sit and think that it can win a world cup. We've almost done it before, so why not again? I know we don't have the Pele's, the Ronaldo's, and the Maradona's of the world, but honestly that isn't what wins a world cup. The attitude wins world cups. I would prefer if the swedish players would talk to in the interviews about how they know they can win, that they believe in themselves, that small nations can do big things. Look at the Olympics, we whined the whole way through when we should have been trying harder and believing. We don't need apologies and I admit I don't like the Hubris that most are capable of, but I would like to see an attitude that says, hey we are small and we can win, and even if we don't we'll fight like hell for it!

Things to think about...

There were many better qualified women in the republican party that should have gotten the VP position.

Every "liberal" sex education that I have ever been through has told me that the only real preventive is abstinence (they don't need a whole course just to explain the ramifications of no or don't)

Getting married at 17 to help your mom seem like a real peach makes me about as sick as having bubonic plague (there is no way we will ever know what those kids really want)

American patriotism has an odd aroma similar to...early stages of Fascism

Someone said McCains "opportunity" wouldn't involve giving more money to medicaid, too bad, I always had this crazy notion that government was by the people for the people-Most times its really the elite playing as if they are for the people

McCain finally found a way to get media coverage...just wasn't quite what he really wanted though

International Housing Offenders

I was reading an article in one of the local Lund newspapers and came across an article that noted that of the 2000 exchange students for this semester, only about half of them were able to get university accomodation. The others apparently had to go look for private rooms. The article also noted that they had talked to the people at the IHO and they had said that they couldn't put students in the St. Lars buildings which were used last year because of a lack of quality. The IHO people seemed almost sad about this.

Let me say something. I visited the St. Lars dormitory only once and that was around this time last year. I have to honestly say that I did not know that it was possible for a Swedish housing office to rent rooms in a building like that. The buildings were used for some sort of hospital care, but that doesn't go half the way in describing what it felt like to be in those rooms. It felt like you were living in a mental institution. To my knowledge there were no Swede's that were forced to live there only international students. The Lund IHO is one of the most foul things I have come across in my travels.

Do your pants hang low?

The time has come to speak of many things...as Lewis Carrol would say and perhaps it isn't pure coincidence that he is quoted in this post.

I was reading CNN the other day, I know its odd but bare with me, and I came across another article about a county banning the wearing of pants in such a way that a person's underwear is showing. I find this extremely disturbing on several fronts.

1. How is it possible in a free country for a government to tell an individual how to dress. I understand a ban on nudity but boxers are still a long way from nudity. This smells of fascism and ignorance.

2. Why is a city going to waste money on controlling how people are dressing? Isn't there better things to do like stop speeding cars and fight against drugs.

3. Depending on where there is a ban on not showing your underpants, if you are caught doing so and taken to court, you may have to register as a sex offender. This is playing with people's lives over a fashion statement.

All of these laws depend on the local council's assesment of what is and what isn't decent. I can imagine a group of old conservative white people sitting in a circle somewhere discussing how they can make life difficult for young people. I wish I was wrong but that is what I suspect is taking place. If I was living in these places I would cut myself a pair of minishorts and run around town. No officer they aren't boxers but please tell me how do you define what is and what isn't underwear. Fascism, fascism, in the form of decency.

Final Thoughts: Sweden vs. Greece Euro 2008

I've always been out of Europe for the major tournaments. In 2006 I was stuck working while Sweden got knocked around by Germany and of course there is no real place for fans to go in the US to watch the games on big screens. Thats why being in Europe for a tournament has been amazing so far. Everyone is watching the games and there are flags out on every street. So that brings me to Sweden vs. Greece.

Folkets Park in Malmo was showing the game, so I decided to go there to watch it. I invited everyone I knew and one person showed up. I find this strange but I've accepted it. I got to the park halfway through the Russia Spain game and found that it was already starting to fill up. Then by kick-off, it was packed and people were standing on all sides. So what were the chances we would win? I felt that it could go either way but that Greece probably had it in the bag. Sixty-six minutes later the guy guarding Ibrahimovic disappeared for a second and without even hesitating Zlatan fired the goal of the tournament so far past the Greeks. Everyone in the park were on their feet chanting his name and screaming. Malmo is incidentally his home town as well. Then came the second goal which though not pretty, took all the air out of the Greeks.

For the Swedish national team which was struggling the last few weeks and had many assuming we couldn't win a game, this came at just the right moment. I've finally been in Europe for a tournament, I've tasted the fruits so to speak, and its amazing, beyond words really.

Enchantress of Florence; Not his best

Its hard to really jump on Rushdie for anything that he's written. However with his latest offering I find myself a bit confused and wondering what he was getting at. True the story is not terrible by any means but it has the feeling that he tried to run through it without really exploring certain themes as deeply as he could have. So I have to say it makes a good case for being an airport bookshop bestseller. More Satanic Verses please.

Afghanistan is a bad joke

When he leaves office, a certain someone will probably point to a country in South-Central Asia and claim that this is where he made a difference and that things are getting better all the time and so on and so etc, etc, etc.

What he will ignore is that right now someone is on death row for speaking out against Islam. While Freedom of Opinion is part of the constitution, apparently you just can't say certain things. So the moral of the story is...nothing has really changed except the names of the people running the place. How many millions have been wasted?

Movie Review: Goodbye Lenin!

I guess I sort of already knew what the movie was about through hearsay as well as having heard about it on the radio. Simple story, boy in East Germany has a single mom and a sister. Mom ends up in the hospital with a coma and when she wakes up she wakes up in a united Germany. Of course the shock of her finding out would be too much for her and so he has to convince her that she is still living in the East.

Its funny, its sad, and even say a bit romantic. I think to understand some of the humor, you have to have lived in an eastern European country or have visited one soon after the end of the Soviet Union. Daniel Bruhl is excellent as usual and so are the rest of the characters. I think I was almost crying at some parts. Is that enough? Go watch it.

A neo-liberal solution of sorts...

Since the World Bank and IMF not to mention the WTO have such amazing ideas I thought I would apply them to United States Armed Forces. The US military is a government entity and therefore grossly missmanaged (many generals would agree with this, war is to important to let politicians make decisions). The budget is gigantic and the results meagre at best. Two countries have proved this point; Afghanistan and Iraq. Here the US military has invaded and tried to 'liberate' two people groups. The cost of the operations has been immense and neither one has by any means reached a point where they could be labeled as a success of any sort (after all the primary goal was to defeat Al Qaida, not nation-build).

So here is the neo-liberal solution; allow the army to act as a private security force. It already does this in many ways with Nato and other organizations, but it would be better run if it went where the invisible hand of the market directed it. This means that countries with a strong economy would remain protected and that their armies would be free to seek the best markets. It might even be possible after a time to stop using tax money to finance the military. Technology would only benefit, as the market forces would encourage further innovation as the alternative would be losing the market to other actors. Anyway it might save americans a lot of money that could be spent on other things.

Moving Backwards; an American Tale in two parts

Part I

Bush is comparing the 'terrorists' to Nazis. It is impossible to compare the two groups of people. One was intent on genocide while the other has never expressed such ideals. Honestly the Nazis had quite a bit more power than the terrorists have had up to this time, and there were quite a few sympathizers in the US (Lindbergh to name one). The only way that the two could be compared is that the US has at times contributed to the forming of these two different types of problems (German debt and third world intervention).

Part II

Hillary and John have this idea that removing the gas tax will somehow be good for people. The only the gas tax will really accomplish is to make more profit for the oil companies and lead to an increase in pollution. Plus there goes all the money that is meant to keep roads drivable. This is a move that is nothing more than 'populism' and a way to get voters, not something that is actually feasible. When the dust settles the joke is on the American people.

Norwegian Wood

I finished Murakami's Norwegian Wood last wednesday. The more I read Murakami the more I am impressed with his writing. Of course I am sure that if I were to be reading them in Japaneese I would be getting more out of them and would likely find them twice as amazing. However, I do not have the luxury of reading them in Japaneese for the simple reason that I have never studied that language and probably never will. Not that it wouldn't be good, I simply haven't the time.

The story is sad and romantic all at the same time. Its about loss and growing up and this review is starting to sound like all the other reviews you read in other newspapers around the world. Basically I found that the story was not so much unique in the way it dealt with death, suicide, and love but more just that I found it too hard to put down and couldn't help but relating to the characters. Plus it makes you laugh.

Moving Backwards: a Russian tale...

They had nuclear missiles in Moscow rolling down the streets for a parade a few days back. They were celebrating. Odd that some celebrations feel more like threats but then again that is Russia. While many of us look back on the Cold War as a time of insanity for both sides (for who builds that many nuclear weapons and remains sane), it appears that Russia is going back to embracing that period as a golden age. Must be the same loonies who are in favor of reconstructing the Berlin Wall.

I want to live in a world where parades don't consist of tanks and nuclear weapons please. A world where loonies are required to take counseling sessions. So here is my recommendation. Bush and Putin need to voluntarily step down and do volunteer work in Afghanistan for two years.

Currently Reading Norwegian Wood

Well so I'm hard at work on this paper on Orcas but I managed to pick up a copy of Murakami's Norwegian Wood which I've had on reserve at the library for about a month now. Apparently its so good there were originally fourteen people in front of me in the line. I have to say for being a small town Lund has an amazing library.

I'm heading to Germany by buss again tonight. That means I have eight hours to just sit and read as much as I like. Hopefully I can finish Murakami by the time I get to Berlin and be halfway through the books for the next course. Next stop sunshine and german beer plus a girl I love more everyday.

Haruki Murakami, Bill Bryson, and Champagne

I finished a travel memoir about Australia today by Bill Bryson and I have to say it was hilarious. I would heartily recommend it to anyone who would enjoy such a work of non-fiction and I must say I think I have a better understanding of the land down under now.

Then I went to the library today to drop off a book and decided to look at the shelf with new books. I picked up a book about Champagne and then in the older fiction section I found a copy of Murakami's Sputnik Sweetheart. So I am looking forward to sawing my way through them.

The exam went fine and now all I have to do is a paper on how polluted Orcas are (its horrible actually) and get a seven minute presentation whipped up and ready for Monday.