I have always been aware of North Korea, despite it being a remote and fairly small country. As a child I found the North Korean mass gymnastics shows and the ‘human moving pictures’ really beautiful and fascinating. They were occasionally shown on television in Sweden.
Every part of this picture is made by dancers
or children displaying differently coloured cards…
I was aware that the country that these impressive spectacles came from was ‘Korea’, but I did not realise at the time that the country was in fact split in two.

In Sweden, for some strange reason, it was not unusual for infertile couples to adopt (South) Korean babies.
Ignorant of politics and geography I assumed that these children came from the same country as the mass-games and a really pretty Korean doll that I owned. All were referred to as ‘Korean’ so how was one to know the difference?

North Korean Embassy

When I was eight or nine perhaps, a massive crumbling (but quite elegant) house in my neighbourhood was bought by North Koreans to become their new embassy in Sweden. The house had stood empty and neglected for many years. Suddenly it was bustling with life.

It was then that I realised there were two Koreas. My affluent and politically conservative neighbours started making comments about ‘communists’ and references to the (quite correct) perception that Sweden was giving third world socialist dictatorships far too much aid… People commented: ‘With all the aid we send to that country, we may as well have given them the building for free! It was paid for with aid-money anyway… ”
This is the low-tech way in which the moving
pictures are created. Oops, wrong card!
I thought the new inhabitants of the building were quite industrious though. They repaired the house themselves in their spare time, rather than bringing in workers. Little by little the house’s appearance improved. A year later it looked pretty impressive. The Koreans in the garden smiled at passers-by and the presence of the new embassy did not generate any noticeable extra traffic. (In fact, you hardly ever saw anybody going in our out.) I could not see why people were so negative.

Another interesting fact was that unlike other embassies in the area, the North Korean embassy did not use large black luxury cars to travel around. At the front of the building were parked some very ordinary looking cars with diplomatic number plates.

The Dark Side of the DPRK

I spent quite a bit of time in Japan in the early nineties because my father lived there. Japan is not exactly North Korea’s biggest admirer and in the Japanese English language media you could read speculations (later confirmed) that North Korean commandos had abducted Japanese citizens (even teenagers!) from the Japanese mainland.
Megumi, a school girl who
was kidnapped from Japan.
Also, it was well known that much of Japanese drug traffic and Pachinko (gambling) parlours in Japan were run by expat North Koreans. The profit that was made from these activities was subsequently sent back to North Korea.

Strange! Funds from the most disgusting types of capitalist activities used to support a communist country? How odd! By now, Eastern Europe was beginning to open up. Communism was exposed as a failed, unworkable political theory. Eastern Europeans, if asked, would normally say that they never believed much in communism even before the fall of the wall. (Much like most Germans said after the fall of Nazism… But if nobody believes in it, how does it hold up year after year?)

In North Korea the state of affairs appeared to be the opposite. People there appeared to be very committed believers in Communism and in the greatness of their leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Even the large and vocal group of Koreans in Japan were committed believers in the Great Leader, his Juche philosophy and communism in general.
Another card display…
Kim Jong Il, the ‘Dear Leader…
Why? I was mystified and became curious… How was North Korean communism different from the failed communism in Europe? How were North Koreans able to go on as communists despite the death of the revered leader Kim Il Sung, and the really bad famine that hit the country in the mid 90s?

Information Black Spot

One odd thing about North Korea is that there is no literature produced there, no music that is sold outside of the country and there is practically no tourism there. The country is a black spot on the news arena.

Anybody who wants to travel there has to submit not only their passport to get a visa, but also a CV or university enrolment papers… Journalists of any kind will not be allowed in. Americans and South Koreans can only go there if there is a very good reason. You cannot jump on a ferry or a plane to get there if you are in Japan, despite North Korea being a fairly short boat ride away.

The only way into the country for Westerners is via train or plane from Beijing, hundreds of miles away from Seoul. It would be comical if it wasn’t so sad. For North Koreans, there is virtually no legal way out. Once in North Korea as a tourist or on business, you have to be with a guide at all times and cannot visit any part of the country that you want at will, the way that you can in practically all other countries.
Secret filming in the countryside. Somebody
lies dead, starved. People ignore it.
What is it that they are hiding? The poverty in the countryside? The fact that they allegedly grow opium on some of their best agricultural land? Stalinist style gulags? North Korea does not allow mobile phones or internet usage. They must be afraid of something; probably that un-controlled information is entering or leaving the country.

Clearly some outrageous practices are going on in North Korea. Entire families are punished for the wrongs of one member of the family; civil liberties are non-existent and the country leadership has been criminally negligent in allowing large numbers of the population to go hungry, all the while continuing to buy weapons and equipment for the army.

(The decent and responsible thing to do for the North Korean leadership would be to resign, admit failure and ask the world for help. If a country’s population is starving, that country’s leadership has failed; no excuses. But perhaps they are scared of what would happen to them. The fate of Ceusescu, Erich Honnecker and many others is probably fairly fresh on their minds.) Or are the hardships and starvation over? That is what North Korea is now saying…
The inhabitants of a collective farm
near Pyongyang. Having a day off.
North Korea has one interesting thing going for it; it is a country that tries to live out an alternative world view in a world that takes an increasingly suspicious view on such attempts. North Korea rejects the excessive consumerism and Western capitalist values that are governing almost all other countries. There are practically no other such countries in the world today.

In some interviews with North Koreans that I have seen, it appears that they are indeed aware that living conditions in other countries (including South Korea) are higher than in North Korea. However people are extremely scared of the United States and believe that almost any degree of hardship is better than having to live as ‘US Puppets’. Are their opinions well-informed or the result of explicit and/or subtle manipulation?
A grandfather explains the wicked deeds of American
soldiers as his granddaughter listens carefully…
The North Korean government is able to pick and choose what news they present in the state-controlled media. It cleverly exploits pictures from Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia (all countries that have recently in confrontation with US/UN military). Quite frankly, if I saw such pictures and was told that my country was potentially next in line I may not be too delighted either, particularly if I had been indoctrinated into think that my country’s ideology was the only correct one…

It is also clear that 1950s American soldiers doubtlessly perpetrated some rather ghastly atrocities in the Korean War; another fact that is exploited by North Korean propagandists. Most people in the West don’t know that the US virtually flattened the entire country of North Korea, and that millions of Koreans died in this war. Really, vilifying the US is not that difficult if you set your mind to it; there is plenty to build on. The North Koreans have pictures of dead pregnant women horribly deformed, of cities where not a single house is standing and of houses consciously burnt down when people were still in them. Why do such things happen?
A Pyongyang housewife in her kitchen…
I can’t help but think it sad that every single country has to be modelled on Western values to gain international acceptance. Should a country’s perceived national success really be counted against how many Starbucks there are per ten thousand inhabitants? Aren’t alternative economical models both valuable and useful? As long as such a model is what the inhabitants actually prefer, I think it is preferrable to our consumerist society.

I am aware that I may be wrong in saying that. Perhaps Western capitalism really IS the only valid and feasible modus operandi for running a country? Perhaps it is the only way of financial model that is beneficial to the largest possible group of inhabitants in a given country. However I am not yet fully convinced. There are so many flaws with Western democracy, don’t you agree?

Axis of Evil?

I like the United States but I think it is wrong to be making categorical statements that certain countries are “evil.” There is no black and white when it comes to countries. A country can have a really wicked leader but a charming people; likewise it can have a rather out-of-order population but a focussed leadership, such as in Singapore in the 1960s for example.
Grocery shopping in the Axis of Evil. The ration is
5 eggs and a chicken per person per month.
If you are going to be extremely cynical about it, North Korea probably does not have much to fear from the US, since it has no oil, and is not moslem…It does have a strategic position though; particularly from a South Korean perspective. South Korea for all intents and purposes is currently like an island. Everything going in and out has to be shipped via cargo freighters. However if the land-route was open, cargo could be shipped with ease into China or to Europe via the Trans Siberian railway.

South Korea would never instigate a war though, and currently wants a slowly, slowly paced path towards unification with it’s poor brother state. South Koreans are scared of a huge burden on their economy as witnessed in Germany.

Personality Cult

The way that people look at the leaders of North Korea; the now deceased Kim Il Sung and the new leader (his son) Kim Jong Il is not that different for how religious believers look at religious leaders and personalities.
No metro train is complete without a
picture of the Great and Dear leaders…!
The indoctrination into ‘faith’ in the leadership, the guiding Juche philosophy and mainstream communism starts early. Every school text book, every newspaper issued, every meeting taking place contain references to the greatness of the system and the leaders. The indoctrination is so thorough that it is probably impossible not to be affected.

Propaganda?

Growing up in Sweden, I remember being told that advertising and commercial messages in Capitalist societies were the capitalist equivalent of Communist propaganda. Both were trying to make you believe something and act on it. The implicit message was that it was that both had good and bad sides to them, and could be abused.
No ads in Pyongyang’s metro, but instead some
first class propaganda murals. Impressive, aren’t they?
Who is to say that it is not a very bad thing that I am exposed on a daily basis to extremely consumerist/capitalist messages the minute I turn on the TV, open a paper or leave my house? Perhaps in a hundred years from now, the eco-system will be ruined.. People then will take a very dim view of consumerist society which brought that about…. including it’s ‘propaganda’ messages encouraging people to obtain more and more things…
Ever thought of it that way?

North Koreans stick to traditional family values, they value nature and are industrious in making do with what they have, rather than constantly buying new clothes, furniture and consumer goods. They see such behaviour as virtuous and positive. They have excellent work ethics, are well educated, well-disciplined and learn fast. All and all the country ought to have plenty going for it…

Mystical Abductions…

A North Korean pic of Megumi.
They say she committed suicide.
North Korea has abducted great numbers of foreign citizens. Particularly South Koreans, both civilians and officials, but also Japanese and possibly some US soldiers. The abductions are mysterious in that there usually are two pretty conflicting versions of events. Is one true and the other false? Is one side always lying and the other always telling the truth? Could it be that there is sometimes a fairly complicated mix of factors that play in? The strangest thing about the abductions is that there is no red thread, no logic to why a school girl was abducted from Japan, an actress for South Korea and Japanese professionals of varying age were abducted from the beaches of Japan.
Intro page for the DPRKs fast expanding
IT industry. The kids are being trained..
North Korea would state in almost all of the cases that the person defected volountarily. In some cases there was reason to believe that this could be true. Some people were ideological communists, others had messed up their personal life and wished to ‘disappear’. On the other hand, some people were undisputably snatched off a beach or captured after unintentionally crossing into North Korean waters, such as happened to hundreds of fishermen.

Some of the fishermen were returned almost immediately and said that they had been treated well. Others choose to stay and were integrated into society. One such fisherman returned to South Korea after decades in North Korea. He said that he had had a good life in the North and only left because he missed his family in South Korea. Some South Korean air-hostesses became news readers on North Korean foreign broadcasts. The film director directed a number of successful films while ‘in captivity’….
Looks like a poor third world country…
Another very mysterious case involves a South Korean teacher who simply walked into the North Korean embassy in Norway. The North Koreans said he defected and the South Koreans said that it was an incredible mistake: The man had taken a taxi to the ‘Korean Embassy’ but ended up at the ‘wrong’ embassy. Failing to notice any signs that it was in fact the embassy of a different country, the man had walked straight into a trap and was then not allowed to leave…

That somebody would not be able to spot that they are about to enter an embassy that is not that of their own country sounds too silly to be true… Surely the flag and the name outside the building would be a clue! Particularly for a teacher… And if he was indeed abducted, how did they get the man from Norway to North Korea? There must be several changes of planes on the way between the two countries. No doubt the journey also takes well over 24 hours and would involve a stay overnight while in transit.
A factory worker and her boss finish the day with a duet..
What happened to the North Korean embassy in Norway? It was closed down shortly after, as it was discovered that the diplomats were trading in cigarettes, alcohol and drugs smuggled via diplomatic channels… The same thing happened at all the other North Korean embassies in Scandinavia. Only the one in Sweden remained open after that.
A girl and her brother at the collective farm.

A Country, a Riddle…

Yet another riddle in the mystery that is North Korea! Do they have nuclear weapons? Probably… Would they use them? Probably not, unless the regime was pushed into a corner with no way out. Are they a threat to the US or Europe? Hardly! The country is the size of an average US ‘state’ or small-to-mid-sized European Ccountry. If anybody is under threat from them it is South Korea and Japan.

Why did I write about this…?

This is what will happen to the US if
it tries invading. Best leave them alone…! In case you are wondering what on Earth posessed me to write about North Korea; Well I saw a really interesting documentary about it on TV. It is a ‘neutral’ film - no clear political message, just the story of six months in the lives of two young gymnasts who perform in the mass games. The British film makers swear they weren’t censored and that they were able to film anything they wanted that was related to the two gymnasts.

Most of all this documentary shows North Koreans as normal people trying to get on with life; not robotic fanatics. Watch out for some heavy-duty anti-American slogans though. Mind you, they have never met an American and are probably only repeating what they’ve heard thousands of times. A quick check online reveals that “A State of Mind” is available here at BT Junkie. Before you can download it, you need to install a bittorrent client though.


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I don’t know if the “Little Mermaid” sculpture in the harbour of Copenhagen is well known outside Scandinavia?
. Lille Havsfrue on a normal day
Within Scandinavia this cool and pretty sculpture is a well-known landmark though. Everybody knows of her and she is a bit of a national symbol of Denmark. I have seen her in the distance, but never up front. You can’t help but like her! In Danish she is called “Lille Havsfrue”.

Apparently a prank was played on the Little Mermaid the other day, as she was dressed up in full moslem female dress. Well, she isn’t exactly the most modest girl, posing naked in the harbour for almost a hundred years!

The prank was played by unknown person(s) who wanted to draw attention to Turkey’s potential entry into the EU. He put a sign saying “70 million Turks in the EU?”

Turkey has been wanting in (to the EU) for at least 20 years and now finds itself overtaken by countries like Romania (known for corruption and poverty since the fall of communism there) and Bulgaria.
. Lille Havsfrue as a modest muslima…
Another interesting question is, will Moslem extremists get upset with Denmark again, like they did about the Mohammed cartoons… Or will they let this one pass?

TURKEY’S EU QUEST

As I understand it, the main reasons sited for the delay / refusal in accepting Turkey into the EU are:

• The fact that the great majority of Turkey’s land-mass is not in fact located in Europe at all, but in Asia/Middle East.
• The widespread perception that Turkey is oppressing it’s Kurdish minority, sometimes persecuting and torturing Kurds.
• The fact that Turkey is almost completely moslem and additionally does not “share the European heritage” that the rest of the EU countries do.
• The EU would find itself a neighbour of Iran, Iraq and Syria which all border Turkey…
• The Cyprus situation. Because of it, Greece does not like Turkey at all and Greece is already a member state with full voting powers..r

Turkeys population is approx. 70 million which would make it the second largest (and most influential) country in the EU after Germany. Germany has, for historical reasons, been very careful not to abuse this situation, being the mild and gentle giant of the EU after its national re-unification. It is far from certain that Turkey would behave in the same way; in fact most evidence would point to the opposite.
Future Europeans in the EU… or Middle Eastern Turks?
Btw, where are the girlies?
Personally I agree with this. I do not feel that Turkey belongs in the EU right now. The recent expansion of the EU has happened very fast. The idea with Eastern Europe has been that it is better that certain new member states are taken in before they are quite ready financially and politically (i.e. decent state finances and solid western-style democracy), as the alternative is even worse.

The alternative would have been for their economies and finances to develop much slower, in the shadows of the Western European countries. Being second-tier economies, they’d remain corrupt and with high criminality. Sooner or later they would inevitably join the EU anyway, as they undisputably European. The days of waiting in the outskirts are now over as Poles and Estonians members on almost equal standing to France, Germany and the UK. And enthusiastic members they are too, at least the Poles!

I suppose it could be said that it is hippocrisy to let some of the new Eastern member states in, but not Turkey. After all, the largest Turkish city, Istanbul is located in Europe. And Turkey had wanted membership in the EU ‘club’ ong before even the fall of the iron curtain! So is it just Islamophobia and European cultural snobbery that is keeping Turkey out?
The tiny North West peninsula where Istanbul is, is in Europe.
Capital Ankara is in Asia.
I am not sure that I know the answer to that! I am not categorically against Turkish membership but I really don’t want it right now. I do not feel as if I share a common culture and heritage with the Turks, and the stories that you hear from there underlines this. Bride-snatching, honour-killings, torturing of political prisoners and the bizarre relationship between the state and its main religion, Islam, makes me feel as if Turkey does not (yet) belong in the EU.

Whereas I feel that I could live in any other member-state if there was a good reason to do so, I can’t imagine living in Turkey. Certainly not as a single woman at any rate. (In all honesty that goes for Romania and Bulgaria too right now).

There have been some pretty bad clashes of culture between Turkish economical migrants and local populations in Germany and Scandinavia. Whether integration has worked or not is highly debatable. Migration of Italians and Greek to Northern Europe has not been a problem though. This too shows that the cultural differences are pretty big, even between Turkey and Greece, one if its neighbours.

In a longer perspective, Turkey will probably become a formidable country-bridge between East and West again. Just imagine how things would change for Turkey if the Middle East became democratic and peaceful. Turkey is large enough to play an independent role both politically and geograpically… It occupies some of the strategically most important real estate on the planet. But can Turkey ever become an integrated part of the European Union and a potential future “United States of Europe”?

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After having watched three episodes of “Jericho” a doomsday/survivalist soap, the “what if” questions have popped into my head and won’t go away.
Nuclear attack on London…
Do you ever think about all of civilisation just breaking down? If a war, terrorist attacks or some natural or man-made disaster just destroys all of society as we know it… ?

How would people react? What would it be like to live without any mod-cons.. ? People who are dependant on medicines such as insuline, asthma inhalers etc would have it tough and may not even survive.

You’d be quite pleased if you’d been keeping tinned food, powdered milk and such things at home. Personally I’d be in dire straits as I do not keep such things at all

Growing up during the Cold War, we did thing about these things once in a while. I remember a talk at my school about nuclear war. Somebody from ther Army said that there was enough nuclear weapons to blow the entire planet up 18 times over.

There were also descriptions of false alerts that almost triggered nuclear responses. Admittedly, Sweden would not have been at any immediate risk though.. It probably would have been a fairly safe place to be, bearing in mind how sparsely populated it is, particularly in the North of the country. I imagine people in Washington, New York and Moscow would have thought about nuclear hits on their cities from time to time.
A survivalist’s kit
But we knew that there was a good reason there was conscription. That did not take place solely to disrupt the lives of young men even though it certainly did. There was a threat and that’s why conscription was necessary.

The threat did not keep me awake at night, but in the mid-eighties (when I was too young to have a perspective on it) people got really spooked by the mysterious Soviet submarine infringements on Swedish waters. People started wondering what the USSR was planning. There were stories of mysterious frog-men being spotted on the shores of islands near some of Sweden’s Baltic Sea navy posts. I think that happened just before Perestroika started.

A book by Gudrun Pausewang that I read when I was about 12 really scared me; it was about a group of German children who survived a nuclear war in Europe. The book was gruesome enough to make you a pacifist for life!

Now we are scared of terrorist attacks instead. Here in London it is a fact of life. I used to work at Piccadilly Circus in Central London. The tube station there is probably pretty high on a terrrorists hit list. Passing there at rush hour, this did enter my mind from time to time. After the 7/7 attacks you saw a lot of policemen around in the underground, but all the extra security appears to have subsided now. There is no noticeable security at Piccadilly Circus or Bank at all, other than CCTV.
They say it’s not a question of if…. but when…
People are fairly seasoned to false bomb-alerts and tend to get irritable and frustrated rather than scared.

Now I commute via Waterloo Station, another potential target. I get off the tube at Bank - a good spot to hit if you have a problem with Western capitalism. With the crowded conditions there, there’d be a veritable mayhem if somebody hit at rush hour. Liverpool Street which I sometimes travel to is the same. All it takes is a few guys with a grudge or a fanatical conviction doing some meticulous planning and they could kill an awful lot of people. Particularly if they are prepared to die themselves. For that, I genuinely don’t believe the underground system can be protected.

It is sickening to think that people who actually grew up in England can be prepared to kill there own countrymen! Yet we read of serious plots that were stopped by Scotland Yard every 2-4 months. Media keeps repeating “It is not a question of if, but when”. But we can’t think of that, or we’d all leave London right away. We can just hope that we won’t be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Oh, how offensive! Duh….! I simply have to comment on this politically correct attack on a completely innocent phenomenon; the Gideon Bibles.

Have you noticed how there usually is a New Testament tucked away in a drawer in hotel rooms? These were bought and placed there by the Gideons, a worldwide Christian organisation.

There can be all sorts of reasons why people stay in a hotel. Some of these may co-incide with difficult times in life. Coming across a Bible if you are really low is a great thing.

Ok, Here is the Story:

Major hotel chain Scandic Hotels (hotels throughout Northern Europe) have been doing what all other hotels do. They have recieved the Bibles donated by the Gideons and seen to it that there is a Bible or New Testament in a drawer in ech of their hotel rooms. So far so good.

However during the autumn 2006, a member of the Swedish Humanist Society filed a complaint with Scandic about these Bibles. He felt that the presence of the Bible were offensive to him as a non-Christian, and that it may be percieved as a provocation against individuals belonging to different religions.

An individual from Finland (a member of the Finnish ‘Free Thinkers’ Society’) soon joined the campaign and complained to Scandic Finland that “A bible no more belongs in a hotel room than a cook book does… ”

Scandic Finland talked the matter over and decided to ignore the complaint. This is in line with the state of affairs whereby Finland is a lot less drawn towards the politically correct madness that is prevailing in Sweden at the moment.

Scandic Sweden on the other hand, decided that the person who complained had a point… They made the statement to say that “People of all faiths are welcome at our hotels. We will therefore remove the Bibles from the hotel rooms.”

No sooner had this happened than a reaction came from the Church of Sweden. (Finally they are showing some spine!) A bishop from the North of Sweden decided that his diocese would boycott Scandic, just as Scandic were boycotting the free gift of the Gideon Bibles. About a hundred hotel reservations from the diocese were cancelled.

At the same time some Christians got wind of the story and decided to join in the boycott. And what happens next? You guessed it!

Scandic was only trying to be PC in the first place. They did not genuinely care one way or the other whether they Bibles were there. It became more trouble than it was worth to remove the Bibles. The church was a valued customer and Scandic had no desire to lose it’s business.
Should this book be there too…?
At this point the story was beginning to get attention in local media. Several individuals made inevitable statements along the line of “I have no problem with the Bibles being there, but if they are there, then there should be a Koran, a Bhagavadgita etc, etc…

Oh really! Think before you speak! Have you got any idea how many religions there are in the world, and how many ‘holy’ texts? Where would you draw the line as to which texts to keep in a hotel room? If this idea was incorporated, there would be little space left for a bed in the hotel room! Somebody belonging to some obscure religion would turn up and demand (on principle) that the holy text of his religion must be present…

Even if you draw the line at a few major religions; who would pay for these texts? The Gideon Bibles had been donated through a long established charity set up exclusively for this purpose. I’d be very surprised if there even was such a charity for distributing the Koran or any other holy texts. Suddenly the political correctness would have a hefty price for Scandic, and they’d probably not be keen any more.

Or perhaps the whole initiative ought to be subsidised by the State (using tax money) like everything else in Sweden. It wouldn’t be the first crazy PC project that Swedish tax payers had to shell out for!
What’s more offensive?
The Bible or porn?
The PC debate moved forward, taking a turn towards a more worthwhile issue (if you ask me); The availability of pornography films / TV channels in all of Scandic’s hotel rooms.

(I don’t know how common this is throughout the world, but in every hotel I’ve stayed at in Sweden, the porn channels and pay-per-view films have been present… As a woman I do not approve and I would much prefer it if these channels were removed. I don’t like having to flick through these channels as I am looking for a news channel or a good film! As you may have guessed the name of the films rented are never listed on Scandic’s bills…)

Scandic has no plans of changing their policy with regards to porn. Sadly most women are so used to it being around that they simply choose to ignore it. Otherwise it would have been great fun to see Scandic’s reaction as women boycott them on principle… As a hotel I didn’t like Scandic to start with to be honest; but I like them even less now.

So here is a summary of Scandic’s reactions: First they took the PC way out when recieving a complaint about the Bibles. Then when it turned out that the decision would lose them business, they did 360 degree turnaround. Their political correctness was only valid when the decision was related to the non-profit making Bibles. Since they make a fair bit of money from the pay-per-view porn, they are unwilling to even discuss the matter of porn in hotel rooms!

Scandic is owned by Hilton. Scandic is now ‘in discussions’ with the Gideons about how to make sure that Bibles are available again. I wonder what they did to the Bibles that they originally removed?

When deciding about what your political beliefs are, there are two different angles that you may be approaching the subject from. You may either be thinking: Strictly Academic?

• What is best for society as a whole?

Or you may be thinking;

• What is best for me (and my family), never mind the rest of society?

Depending on which of these angles you are approaching the matter of political belief from, you may actually reach different conclusions!

Growing up in Sweden, I assumed that everybody took the former approach. I thought the matter of Politics was a purely academic one.

I thought that the people were Socialist or Conservative (see previous post for run-down of Swedish political parties) depending on what they genuinely thought was best for society as a whole!

As a child I actually used to think of Socialism in the same terms as I thought of Christianity; Is it ‘true’ or ‘not true’? I thought there is (was) evidence pointing both ways.
I used to wonder whether
socialism really was ‘true’…
This is also the line of reasoning that I think the Swedish schools were trying to get across. Gosh, that line of reasoning seems pretty preposterous now!

“Simple Maths” Approach

I gradually started realising that there may be reasons other than the perceived truth or validity of a political idea that may influence the way that people vote. Welcome to the real world Cordelia!

For example my childhood neighbours in an affluent suburb of Stockholm voted Conservative mainly so they would lose less of their income in taxes. In many cases they still had their old Marx and Engels books around in the book-cases in their luxury villas… This was (is) true of my father for example, and also the parents of my best friend. I think my father secretly held his quite genuine Marxist beliefs well into the 1980s. He doesn’t hold them anymore though.
Did Socialist voters really care about their
theories? Or is it just about the benefits?
Likewise, reading between the lines of Swedish mainstream media, it was clear that working class people did not necessarily believe in the actual political principles of the Social Democrats which they largely voted for.

They just wanted to be certain that they would be able to continue claiming miscellaneous state-benefits that they had come to be dependent upon, in a society where more people were claiming some benefit or another, than not… They felt that the state somehow ‘owed’ them a decent standard or life, regardless of whether supply and demand on the labour market valued their contribution highly or not.

Since the tax burden on people in blue-collar jobs was lower than it iwas on the higher income earners, this group cared less about lowering taxes and more about legislation to assure them of a good income and continued stream of benefits.

I started realising that for most people it simply came down to; What political party leaves me with the most money in my pocket? I found this disillusioning. I had always thought that politics was about something more than “How much money can I get out of this?”

The “One-Issue Decides My Vote” Approach

Another factor should be mentioned though; the relatively large group of people who let one issue settle the matter of how they vote.

Some people are very concerned about the environment and let that concern influence the way they vote.Because I love nature passionately I say ‘Good on them!’ Other people have other pet-issues (or should I say ‘issue close to their heart?’) that determine the way they vote. This could be issues like abortion, immigration, European integration issues, foreign policy in general, or a local concern.

I am not certain what I personally make of people who take this approach. I suppose it depends on what the issue is!

The ‘Looks Vote

Another thing that influenced some people is the looks of party leaders…! Silly, but true! Apparently female voters are more susceptible to the looks-factorto than men; probably because most party leaders still are men. I am not completely immune to it myself, but I’d like to think that it wouldn’t affect my vote.
Sarah Palin
As for male voters; Who knows, I am not a man. But I read something just recently about the Republican Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. She is quite good looking and this fact was not lost on the male Republican voters there. Now they brag that they have the best looking governor in the USA! And how about Ségolène Royal of France…? She must be the most photographed socialist party leader ever! (I happen to think she really is quite elegant!)

Others let their votes be affected by whether the candidate is likeable or not. Does he have a good sense of humour? Can he let loose and have fun? Does he smile a lot? What kind of accent does he have when he speaks? Is he an engaging speaker… etc! I know of people in England who wouldn’t vote for somebody who came from the wrong class and/or talked with the wrong accent.

The Personality Vote

At the Nobel Prize Ball
with his second wife
And what about the personality and integrity of party leaders? Are those relevant to somebody’s ability to make sound political decisions? I used to think that such matters were not relevant. I thought (for example) that the constant ‘revelations’ about British politician’s sexual preferences, their history of alcoholism or their extra-marital affairs were completely pointless.

I found them embarrassing from a human interest perspective, and I couldn’t see that somebody’s sexual orientation (say) was at all relevant to his ability to make sound decisions on (say) infrastructure.

Since becoming a Christian I have changed my opinion about this somewhat, but I am still not sure what I make of it.
Same party - different wife
But can you believe this; While actually in office, the Swedish (Social Democrat) prime minister Göran Persson had an extra marital affair with the female director of the state monopoly alcohol vendor, Systembolaget. This was reported in media.

While still in office, he divorced his wife and moved in with this woman. She later became his third wife. Nobody raised an eyebrow…. That’s how much marriage means in Sweden today, and that is the sort of role model that the elected prime minister was.

A Healthy Mix of Factors?

I think that the following would be an acceptable mix of factors to influence your vote;

• What I think would be best for my country as a whole: 60%
• What would be best for my personal finances: 20%
• Party leader’s personality and integrity: 12.5%
• Position on my pet issue: 12.5%
• Party leader’s look and style: 5%