Haven't written anything in a while, as I have been down-right lazy. Of course, real life gets in the way from time to time as well. It is about time for an update.

Let's begin with Sweden, who seems to be sinking deeper and deeper.

Deportations rise under "asylum amnesty" (the Local)
Published: 23rd January 2006 21:49 CET

Fewer than half of the asylum seekers whose cases are being dealt with under provisional immigration regulations will be allowed to stay, according to the latest forecast from the Swedish Board of Migration.

"If this is true, there's going to be trouble," said Ulla Hoffman of the Left Party.

Sweden's parliament voted in November to give asylum seekers whose application has been rejected a second chance to obtain a residence permit.

The law, which is valid until March 31, 2006, concerns rejected asylum seekers whose deportation order was not carried out due to conditions in their home countries, as well as families with children who went into hiding in Sweden after having their applications were refused.

Sunday was the halfway point for the provisional law and so far 5,794 cases - a quarter of the total - have been dealt with. In 83% of those the asylum seeker was requesting residency.

But the number of Migration Board approvals has steadily fallen since the law was introduced, and is expected to fall further. The Migration Board is first dealing with the applicants who best meet the residence permit criteria, so as time goes on, fewer are likely to be accepted.Up to 15,000 people are now facing deportation - for a second time. The Board predicts that 46% of the estimated total of 28,000 whose cases are being heard will be expelled.

But that contrasts with the political promise that "the majority will be able to stay", which the Social Democrats, Greens and Left Party agreed upon when the law was rushed through in the autumn.

"No, this is not at all what we agreed, said Ulla Hoffman to TT. The forecasts were not mentioned at last week's meeting with the government, said Hoffman, who promised trouble if they turned out to be accurate.

The Green Party's Gustav Fridolin was also involved in pushing the law forward, but he was a little more sanguine about the forecast.

"As the law was constructed, several different groups get a hearing. The Green Party's responsibility is to see that the families with children are able to stay," he said.That covers around 8,000 of the 24,000 people who have applied to stay in Sweden under the provisional law. 11,000 applicants are men or women who came to Sweden alone. Among the 5,632 people who have come forward after being in hiding, around 2,500 are single.

TT/The Local

As usual, it is the left and the greens, that come up with such absurd policies such as "the majority will be allowed to stay". On what basis should they be allowed to stay? If they don't fill the criteria, they will be allowed to stay because there is a quota of at least 51% that must be filled. So how do you go about deciding who gets to stay and who doesn't, when the candidates don't fill the requirements for asylum? This is the kind of leftist humanism, that is supposedly so enlightened when in reality it is the opposite: short-sighted, absurd and populist. Sweden is likely to reach the same status as Holland, with such large minorities, that the incentive to integrate into the 'mainstream' society is further diminished. Of course, the preservation of a society that would in anyway represent anything Swedish never was on the agenda.

Trying to monitor terrorist activities is racist:

Security police to hunt terrorists in Swedish schools
Published: 24th January 2006 14:09 CET

Sweden's security police, Säpo, is to broaden its fight against terrorism throughout Swedish society. With the help of informers in schools, the social services and associations, Säpo believes it will be able to track Muslim extremists who could be recruited to terrorism.

"We must have more contacts in these environments," said the chief of the security police, Klas Bergenstrand, in an interview with the newspaper Sydsvenskan.

Säpo is reacting to the experiences of terror attacks in Madrid two years ago and in London last summer. These attacks were staged by second-generation immigrants who lived apparently normal lives in Spain and the United Kingdom. The men behind the London bombings came from regular families in Leeds and Luton.

"Our goal is to find the people (in Sweden) who the English didn't find in Leeds," said Bergstrand.

"It's not the known and established networks which present the greatest risk when it comes to terror attacks. It's the other people who we haven't seen yet.

"But leaders of both of the schooling unions reacted strongly to the Säpo chief's plans as described in Sydsvenskan."I am very, very sceptical to the idea that we teachers, or others in the public sector, should act as informers," said Metta Fjelkner, chairman of the National Union of Teachers in Sweden.

"Säpo has its job to do, we teachers will teach and create a safe environment in the classroom.

"She expressed surprise that a political statement from the Liberal Party's Jan Björklund in the autumn now appears to have become reality without her union having been informed.

Eva-Lis Preisz, chairman of the Swedish Teachers' Union, was of the same opinion.

"Teachers have a big job, but it doesn't include being a police officer," she said.The director general of Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare, Kjell Asplund, also criticised the idea.

"My immediate reaction is to strongly reject it. This is not the role of the Social Services," he said."I don't really know how breaching confidentiality in this way would go down. There would have to be an unbelievably strong argument for this to be accepted by the National Board of Health and Welfare.

The Green Party and the Left Party also protested against Säpo's new approach. The Greens compared it to "a witch hunt" and the Left Party accused Säpo of encouraging a crime.

"The risk is that Säpo's measures create terrorism," wrote Leif Björnlod of the Greens in a press release.

"Säpo's plans are just as stupid, undemocratic and racist as the Liberals' earlier proposal," said the Left Party's Lennart Gustavsson.


So, tracking down and monitoring terrorist activities might encourage terrorism. It is also racism and comparable to the witch hunts. I would not be surprised if there was a major terrorist attack in Sweden within the next 5 years. I would also not have any problems deciding where I would point my blaming finger.


In other news, the Presidential elections in Finland are soon to reach their climax. The two opponents facing each other in the second round are Tarja Halonen and Sauli Niinistö. Here are some points Niinistö makes in an interview published in Helsingin Sanomat:

Facing each other now are the two sides of the old red-blue coalition, and two workers' presidents. Strange situation, don't you think?
-"Nobody is against anyone - there are only two competing candidates. Red-blue [the government model in which the Social Democrats and the National Coalition Party formed the base of the government coalition] is no overriding concept, any more than ‘red soil' [the coalition model - such as the present one - in which the main parties are the Social Democrats and the Centre Party]. They are technically descriptive words for a government coalition. I care about the whole nation, about all Finns and their well-being, and for that reason, I speak about work and workers. But class issues are a separate matter."

How would you reform the welfare society?
-"By making sure that the notion that well-being comes from a cashier's office would not spread more, because first something needs to be put in the cash box. I would like to bring this basic idea onto a healthy, common-sense Finnish foundation. If something is to be distributed, you first need to have something to collect."

How would you solve the problem of the ageing population?
-"Tarja Halonen said in her New Year's speech that we are not living at the expense of the future. She does not know the present situation. We are already living a the expense of the future. The state and the local authorities are running a deficit. It is being patched by selling assets. They used to call it drinking away the old house."

What kind of immigration policy do you support?
-"If people come here to work, then people should come here to work. If people come here they should completely accept the Finnish legal and social order. As people are accepted here, and perhaps even encouraged to come here, the responsibility of the recipient must be recognised. In refugee policy, I support some kind of an EU-level standard on what the prerequisites of being a refugee are. When this does not exist, I would recommend staying more or less in the middle of the soft-hard scale."


So, Niinistö is perhaps a little soft on immigration for my liking, but I think his values and his open-mindedness (compared to Halonen & co.) to new approaches and solutions is refreshing. Let us hope the Finnish people cast their votes wisely.

In the first round of the elections I was pretty sure (the power of faith!), that Niinistö and Halonen were going to continue in the second round, so I cast my vote for Timo Soini. A vote for Timo Soini was really a vote for the True Finns, as he had no chance of success, but he had plenty of air time to explain himself and the party. This also showed in the elections, as he ranked 5th, right behind Hautala, the candidate of the Greens, who are a much bigger parliamentary group than the True Finns are.

That's it for today, I will try to update more frequently in the future.