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Indian President’s State Visit to Sweden receives attention finally (for an accident at a roundabout)

June 2, 2015

This is a remarkably unremarkable State Visit.

On the last day of the President’s visit to Sweden, he finally got some attention. I’m glad that apparently nobody was seriously injured – though this has till to be confirmed. But I do question how a Presidential convoy, supposedly with a police escort, came to be involved in an accident. Two cars of the motorcade are said to have collided with two other vehicles. Apparently six were injured and two had to be taken to hospital in an ambulance.

There is a whiff of either bad planning or some incompetence in the air. The host nation is, of course, responsible for the well being of a visiting Head of State. The visit has been largely soporific and perhaps the general lethargy infected the car drivers as well.

It now seems that all 4 cars in the collision were from within the motorcade itself! They were the last 4 cars of the 15 car motorcade. Nine people were injured but there were no serious injuries.

How frightful! How embarrassing!

It looks like somebody braked pretty hard and a multiple shunt occurred. Some of the cars look like complete write-offs. I wonder if the air-bags were activated? Or perhaps they were made by Takata?

Krock-RoyalKortege1000

via Dagens Nyheter Foto:Allover

 

 

Swedish Radio:

At least four people have been injured when four cars in the Indian president’s motorcade drove into Uppsala and crashed in a roundabout. They have been taken to hospital.

“It is not the President who is injured, but I have no information on who the injured are”, said Tommy Karlsson, duty officer at Uppsala police, to TT.

The alarm came in at 16:36. President Shri Pranab Mukherjee was coming to Uppsala University when the accident occurred. The procession included also Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel, but they escaped injury according to the Royal Court.

The visit to the university went on at 1700 as planned.

How the accident happened is unclear. According to Tommy Carlsson, the police had stopped other traffic so that the procession had a free passage.

“The incident is very unusual”, he notes.

 

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Posted in India, Politics, Sweden | 1 Comment »

2nd day of Indian President’s invisible visit to Sweden wasted on “sustainable”

June 2, 2015

The second day of the President’s State Visit to Sweden was about as invisible in the Swedish (and Indian) media as the first. The theme of the day was “sustainable development of towns and cities” which is one of these “politically correct” but quite meaningless themes where the word “sustainable” is added for the sake of form. India is not immune to the disease of fashionable phrases and is trying to develop about 100 “smart” cities where “smart” like “sustainable” is a meaningless term. Nothing labelled “sustainable” or “smart” has any value if it is not first economically viable. Most projects which are labelled “sustainable” usually include the term only because it makes getting funding so much easier. More often than not, the use of such fashionable, politically correct descriptors is a certain indicator that the project is not economically viable.

It would have been far better if instead of “sustainability nonsense” the visit of the President could have focused on how Swedish technology and investment could assist development and be made relevant for Indian conditions – and always with the proviso that the development had to be economically viable.

Sweden is one of many European countries which is pouring money down the black hole of so-called “sustainable” projects which are not economically viable. The Swedish Minister for Housing and Urban Development is Mehmet Kaplan, from the Green Party. He is something of a specialist at proposing “sustainable” but uneconomic projects. (I am not sure if the Indian Ambassador had done her homework and had informed the President that Kaplan is also the person who thought that radicalised Swedes who went to join IS could be compared to Swedish-Finn patriots returning to Finland to fight against the Russians. India has a particular problem with radicalised Muslim youth who are fodder for the Pakistan-based terrorist groups operating in Kashmir.)

From the Royal Court:

…. The president’s second day in Sweden began in Parliament and a meeting with President Urban Ahlin. Subsequently, Prime Minister Stephen Löfven received him for talks at Rosenbad. Topics discussed included cooperation between Sweden and India and the prospects for increased exchange of trade and science.

The King and Queen, The Crown Princess and the President then participated in a seminar on sustainable urban development, which took place at Stockholm City Hall. Gunnar Söderholm, head of Stockholm’s environmental management made a presentation entitled Sustainable Stockholm.  Stockholm city thenwere hosts for the  lunch at the city hall.

The afternoon program continued on the theme of sustainable urban development with a trip to Hammarby Sjöstad. The day ended with the King and Queen’s gala dinner for the President.

There seem to be very few interesting pictures from yesterday.

Sofia Hellqvist, Prins Carl Philip, Drottningen, Indiens president Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Kungen, Kronprinsessan och Prins Daniel. Foto: Janerik Henriksson/TT

Sofia Hellqvist, Prince Carl Philip, Queen Sylvia, Pranab Mukherjee, The King, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel. Photo: Janerik Henriksson/TT

Lunch at Stockholm City Hall, 1 juni 2015. Photo Kungahuset.se

Today is the last day of Pranab Mukherjee’s State Visit.

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1200 years after the Vikings invented krykket, cricket comes of age in Sweden

June 1, 2015

The theory is that cricket was actually first invented, not by the Saxons or even the Normans, but by the Vikings in Britain about 1200 years ago. It is said that as they raided, injured Vikings started whiling away their time by using their crutches (krykka) in a game to knock the skulls of their victims around. It was played on the beach where the injured Vikings were left to guard their ships. Perhaps it was markings on their ships which provided the first “wickets” and the notion of “guarding your wicket” originated there. For Viking warriors it was a game only for the weak and the crippled. The practice ceased as Vikings started to settle in Britain and playing with the skulls of victims became politically incorrect. The krykket games sank into disrepute and into the subconscious, only to surface again in the 16th century in England, and the rest is history. The game of skulls and crutches was never taken back home by the Vikings for want of non-Viking victims’ skulls. (Viking victims were sent off to Valhalla, with their bodies intact, on their burning ships).

(It is worth noting that Viking raids – on average – planned for 5 day forays inland, limited by the provisions they had to carry. So possibly the beached Vikings ensured that their games were completed within 5 days before the raiders returned – and somehow this time limitation has survived the centuries!)

The Swedish Cricket Federation was founded in 1990 and now at 25 years of age was accepted into the Swedish Sports Federation on 30th May.

There are some 3,000 active cricketers in Sweden in 55 clubs, with 42 clubs participating in a national league. The clubs are located all over Sweden with the northernmost club probably being the Skellefteå Cricket Club. The Skillinge Ladies & Gentlemen’s Cricket Club is one of many holding fort in the south.

The SCF became a member of the International Cricket Council in 1990 and played its first international match in 1999 against Portugal. In May 2011, Sweden won the ICC Europe Division 3 tournament and participated in the ICC Division 2 Europe 20/ 20 tournament.In 2012 Sweden participated in the European Division 2, 20/20. Sweden finished in 2nd place in the tournament and advanced to ICC Europe Division 1. In 2013, the Swedish national team traveled to England where it took part in ICC Europe Division 1 and competed against teams like Italy, Germany, Belgium, Guernsey, and Norway.

The Swedish Cricket Federation now becomes the 71st member of the the Swedish Sports Federation (Riksidrottsförbundet).

SCF comes of age

SCF comes of age

 

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Indian President begins (almost invisible) State Visit to Sweden

May 31, 2015

It is the first ever state visit by an Indian Head of State to Sweden. Pranab Mukherjee arrived in Sweden today. The visit could actually be of some value for bilateral trade which is at an abysmally low level. But the media interest in India and in Sweden is very low. The remarkably low level of bilateral trade certainly is one reason as to why this State Visit is almost “invisible” in the media. Of course the Indian Ambassador to Sweden is jointly for Sweden and Latvia – which downgrade must be one of the Indian Foreign Ministry’s more stupid decisions.

  • India exports just $700-800 million to Sweden out of a total export of about $320 billion. Sweden thus absorbs less than 0.25% of Indian exports.
  • Sweden exports only $1.9 billion to India out of a total exports of about $182 billion and thus India absorbs only around 1% of Sweden’s exports.
  • India exports about $50 billion into the EU every year and absorbs about $57 billion from the EU.

Considering that India’s current GDP growth is running at about 7.3%, it is quite surprising to me that the bilateral trade between India and Sweden should be so low. It has long been my view that there are many, many opportunities but India is not a popular destination for impatient young Swedish “entrepreneurs”. Exports from Sweden to India could exceed $5 billion per year but that needs a change of attitude. My own opinion is that after the Bofors affaire (now almost 25 years ago), many Swedish companies have just given up and have not had the nerve or the patience to try again.

For Indian business, Sweden is a little off the beaten track and exports which are booming into mainstream EU countries, have just not taken off in Sweden. Just as with their Swedish counterparts, Indian businessmen have not had the time or the patience to invest into selling their goods into Sweden. India could easily double or treble exports to Sweden but that will not happen if visiting Sweden is just a reluctant day trip while in London or Frankfurt.

In any event Pranab Mukherjee’s State Visit is not getting very much media coverage in Sweden or in India. However the Royal Court is providing a full coverage of his 3 day visit. (The Indian Embassy is rather slow in providing news and pictures).

Vid ankomsten till Arlanda. Foto: Sören Andersson/TT

Mukherjee being greeted by Crown Princess Victoria on his arrival at Arlanda. Foto: Sören Andersson/TT

Kungaparet och Indiens president Shri Pranab Mukherjee färdades i en beriden kortege som gick från Hovstallet via Kungsträdgården och Norrbro till Slottet. Foto: Kungahuset.se

The King and Queen accompanying the President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee in a mounted procession from the Royal Mews through Kungsträdgården and the North Bridge to the Royal palace. Photo: Kungahuset.se

Sofia Hellqvist, Prince Carl Philip, The Queen, the President Shri Pranab Mukherjee, The King, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel. Photo: Kungahuset.se

More pictures can be downloaded at the press room of the Royal Court.

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Dreadful Swedish interview of President causes upset in India

May 27, 2015

I have posted earlier about the dreadful interview conducted by the Editor-in Chief of Dagens Nyheter, Peter Wolodarski, with President Pranab Mukherjee in advance of the latter’s State visit to Sweden at the end of this week. It was not quite incompetent but it was pretty bad in that the interviewer’s own preconceptions, misconceptions and “political correctness” were all on display. Of course Pranab Mukherjee was quite inept as well and kept referring to the Swiss instead of to the Swedish. But the President did manage to resist all the words that Wolodarski tried to put into his mouth regarding the Bofors affair. And Wolodarski’s condescension to a Head of State is both embarrassing and contemptible.

The interview seems to have caused some upset in India and there is now a threat in the air to cancel/postpone the first ever State visit of an Indian Head of State to Sweden. The main stream media in Sweden – in spite of their quite pathetic and slavish following of political correctness – are usually quite competent but their ethical standards are not of the highest. Wolodarski’s interview was particularly cringe-worthy.

The Indian Ambassador writes to Wolodarski and accuses him of being unprofessional, unethical, condescending, misleading, patronising and flippant. Maybe Wolodarski did not lie, but if the Ambassador is correct, he was certainly shading the truth when he told the Ambassador that his readers were not interested in Bofors which then became his lead-in to his sensationalised story.

But my real quarrel with Wolodarski is that he was thoroughly unprofessional.

Indian Embassy letter

Of course the fault also lies with the Ambassador or whoever else organised the interview. They should have known better than to trust or rely on any journalist – especially since Swedish journalists have no concept of anything being “off the record”.

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Turbines in the orangery

May 26, 2015

Today, in the orangery in the grounds of Finspång Manor, a little gem of a museum was opened. A website is in its infancy. It records the quite remarkable, more than 100 year old, history of the manufacture of steam and gas turbines in this little town. Finspång town has a population of a little over 15,000 today but has an industrial tradition dating back to 1641 and was for 200 years at the forefront of cannon manufacturing (before the advent of the rifled barrel). They had a reputation for usually supplying cannons to both sides of many European wars of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Stal Laval logo

Turbines have been manufactured in Finspång since 1913 but the technology also has a thread going back to Gustaf de Laval who invented his steam  turbine in 1883 and put it into production in 1893 in Stockholm. (In the UK, CA Parsons invented his steam turbine in 1899). The Finspång manufacture of turbines by the STAL company built on the ingenious inventions of the brothers Ljungström, Birger and Fredrik. The two strands of the de Laval and Ljungström technologies came together later in 1959 and STAL became STAL-Laval. Ownership of the factory in due course shifted to ASEA and then to ABB and for a short while was with Alstom and then eventually moved to Siemens who are the current owners. Gas turbines came into the picture in 1945 with the development of a jet engine (the Dovern) for the Swedish Air Force. That engine flew only once (under another aircraft for a test) and never “in anger”. The Swedish Air Force chose Rolls Royce for their engines and STAL converted the development for industrial use. The engine morphed into an industrial gas turbine, the GT35, which first went into operation in 1957 and this engine – with a further development or two – is still around in the Siemens stable. In 1959, STAL delivered a 40MW gas turbine, the GT120, which at the time, was the world’s largest.

STAL Dovern.jpg

“STAL Dovern”. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The Finspång Orangery (built in 1832) in the grounds of Finspång Manor is, at first sight, a most unlikely place for a Museum of Turbine History. But even with its wall frescoes and painted ceilings which evoke a long-gone age of gracious living, the turbines do not seem at all out of place. An older Orangery burnt down in 1830 and the current building was designed by Lars Jakob von Röök.  On two of the back, north-facing walls are frescoes said to be by the Italian painter Guido Reni. (But since Reni was born in 1575 and died in 1642, that is either wrong or the walls are much older and survived the fire of 1830. Since the manor was only built between 1668 and 1685, it is more likely that the artist was someone other than Guido Reni).

Finspångs Orangery juli_2005 (wikipedia)

Finspångs Orangery juli 2005 (wikipedia)

Orangery frescoes (image khaladsphotoblog)

Siemens has provided the Orangery as a home for the Museum, which has been put together by volunteers. They are still working to organise the wealth of material and drawings and pictures and films and models that are gathering dust in the catacombs under Finspong Manor.

Through the summer it is hoped to be able to have the museum open on Wednesdays and Thursdays. In any event the Finspong Manor grounds are well worth a visit and for anyone interested in rotating machinery, the museum should prove fascinating. (The manor itself is used as offices and is closed to the public. However the chapel – now run by the Swedish Church – is a little jewel of a chapel).

Finspång Manor from the SE. (image http://www.skyscrapercity.com)

Chapel in Finspång Manor (photo credit Per Svensson http://www.sfoto.se)

Currently the Finspång facility is the main centre for Siemens’ range of industrial gas turbines and ceased manufacturing steam turbines earlier this year. But the turbine tradition is now into a 6th generation.

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President of India has difficulty distinguishing between Swiss and Swedish

May 24, 2015

Pranab Mukherjee, the President of India is visiting Sweden next week, the first ever State visit by an Indian Head of State. There have been two Prime Ministerial visits; Nehru in 1957 and Rajiv Gandhi in 1988. In preparation he was interviewed “in depth” by the Editor-in-Chief of Dagens Nyheter, Peter Wolodarski. The English version of the interview is here.

But there was very little depth to the interview – either in the questions or in Mukerjee’s parrotting of the “official line”. The interviewer was not incompetent precisely, but none of his questions were particularly insightful and some of his questions were considerably less than intelligent.

Imagine asking a serving Head of State what he thinks about another serving Head of State, “You’ve met President Putin several times. How would you describe him?” Would he have thought to ask the Swedish King what he though of Prince Charles, I wonder. Or the profundity on display in his question “Is the Chinese one-party system more effective (than Indian democracy)?” On Bofors, the interviewer tries to get Mukherjee to claim that it was all a “media scandal” but does not quite succeed. The interviewer is of course keen to display his own political correctness for his readers with “What is the most important thing that can be done to strengthen the position of women in India?” The interviewer’s questions regarding why there is a higher rate of female foetuses being aborted in India (and I have written before about the 2,000 abortions of female foetuses every day), seem to suggest that he is asking how the rate of abortion of male foetuses can be increased, as if a higher total rate of abortion is probably a good thing. (Of course Sweden today has abortion on demand and abortion rates today are at the same level as infant mortality rates of 300 years ago). The interviewer dwells on the Nirbhaya, Delhi rape case and tries to get the President to admit to some institutional or ingrained social failing rather than that it was just an isolated and aberrant case. Mukerjee asserts that extreme poverty can be eliminated with 10 years of growth at 8-9%, which the interviewer takes leave to doubt.

Photograph: Lars Lindqvist via Dagens Nyheter

The interviewer’s questions actually reflect “political correctness” (the Swedish version) and his own preconceptions much more than eliciting anything insightful. Of course the readers of Dagens Nyheter will probably be very pleased to get the incredible revelation that Sweden has a population of 9 million to India’s 1.2 billion. I think he only insults the intelligence of his readers while displaying his own shortcomings in this dreadful interview.

Mukerjee’s answers reveal nothing new. He is old Congress. He was nondescript as a Defense Minister. He was a disastrous Finance Minister. He is President because of the Peter Principle and because the possibilities of his doing anything disastrous in that post are low. The only real substance comes in his final statement. “One thing I must correct”, he says. “Two, three times during the interview, I have used the word Swiss. I, of course, meant Swedish”.

Oh Well! And was it Switzerland or Sweden which won the Eurovision song contest last night?

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Stockholm city to provide priority for social services for returning ISIS murderers

May 22, 2015

Even if one didn’t want to accept the case for capital punishment the least that could be contemplated for ISIS murderers would be a chemical castration and incarceration for ever, with an exit only via an assisted suicide. Neither the world nor the human race have any benefit from any ISIS murderers continuing to exist or to have any off-spring. I do have some qualms with capital punishment but these all vanish when confronted by barbarous murderers such as these. Not for “revenge” but because they have nothing positive to contribute and neither do their genetic offspring. They are a contaminating virus which kills the sapience in homo sapiens.

But the Red/Green/Pink (Social Democrats + Environmental party + Feminist party) majority in the Social Services Committee of Stockholm city have now approved and adopted a sanctimonious and monstrous strategy for rewarding any ISIS terrorists of Swedish nationality (and there are many) who return. They and their families are to get adequate support by getting a priority for handouts, housing and jobs.

The same committee, in its wisdom, also provides financial support to Swedish Muslim organisations such as the Islamic Association of Sweden which just happens to be the Swedish “branch” of the Muslim Brotherhood.

It is sanctimonious do-gooding gone mad.

The world may someday be destroyed by an asteroid impact or a super-volcano, but the greater risk is that the human race will degenerate into something barbarous because of the behaviour of naive, sanctimonious, well-meaning, self-righteous, politically-correct do-gooders.

Metro:

When the red-green-pink majority of Stockholm’s social services committee on Tuesday adopted a new strategy to counter violent extremism the criticism was not long in coming. The strategy, which proposes that people who want to leave extremist groups or return from fighting abroad should be helped with sustenance, employment and housing, is being attacked for providing the “cream” for criminals, and because it does not give any concrete proposals on how people should de-radicalised-

“I think that is extremely naive and completely lacking any realization that that under Swedish law these people are serious criminals. They have committed genocide, and it is one of the worst crimes one can commit. They should be prosecuted and put in prison” says Lotta Edholm (FP), opposition member of the City Council of Stockholm to Metro.

The City of Stockholm has a system for social preference, where people with strong medical or social needs can be given priority in the housing queue. According to Lotta Edholm, the new strategy will lead to, for example, the returning ISIS murderers getting priority in Stockholm’s housing queue.

“The strategy contains a lot of fuzz and the majority probably mean well. But if this strategy means anything it must mean that these IS-murderers should get a social priority. It’s so stupid”, says Lotta Edholm.

Stupid is an understatement.

Per Gudmundson on his blog has this picture uploaded by a barbarian, “Abu Ikrema”,  from Stockholm who writes ” It is impossible to describe the joy one feels….”

The new social strategy will apply to people like him.

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Runes and elvish in the Valley of the Älv

May 21, 2015

“Älv” in Swedish means “river”. But the origin of “elf” in English is the old English “ælf”. So when it is found that in Älvdalen, runes were used just 100 years ago and they still speak their own ancient Norse language, Elfdalian, it is difficult not to conjure up visions of Legolas and Elrond and of Galadriel in Lothlórien.

Galadriel in Lothlorien

ScienceNordic: Elfdalian (älvdalska in Swedish and övdalsk in the language itself) sounds like something you would more likely encounter in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings rather than in a remote Swedish forest. But the small town of Älvdalen, which gives the language its name, is not an Elven outpost. It is one of the last strongholds of an ancient tongue that preserves much of Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. …. has preserved linguistic features that are to be found nowhere else in Scandinavia, and that had already disappeared from Old Norse by 1200AD. ….

Because of its relative isolation, Elfdalian evolved in an entirely different direction than the modern Scandinavian languages. Its sounds, grammar and vocabulary differ radically from Swedish. So, while speakers of Swedish, Danish and Norwegian can easily understand each other in simple conversations, Elfdalian is completely unintelligible to Swedes who are not from the area.

Only about 2,500 people still speak Elfdalian but it is now being taught again in primary schools in the region.

Älvdalen is a municipality in Sweden and the name actually means River Valley. It is isolated from the rest of Sweden by its mountains, forests and lakes.

Älvdalen

ScienceNordic: “Älvdalen lies extremely deep within the Swedish forests and mountains. You can get there by boat up the river, Dalälven — a journey of more than 100 kilometres — and getting there and back used to be quite an expedition. So people in the area weren’t particularly mobile and were able to preserve this very special culture, considered in Sweden to be extremely traditional and old fashioned,”

The runic script was the dominant written language in Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia until the advent of Christianity in the ninth and tenth century introduced the Latin alphabet.

By the 15th century the Latin alphabet had almost wiped out the use of runes – but not in Älvdalen. Here, the Swedish linguist Henrik Rosenkvist recently saw a letter dated 1906 written partly in runes.

“The runes we see in Älvdalen are probably the most recent use of the script we know of. Runes otherwise died out in the Middle Ages so their use in so recent times is exceptional,” says Rosenkvist who speaks and studies the unique language spoken in Älvdalen.

The runes of Älvdalen — dalrunerne — are reminiscent of those used on runes stones in Denmark but there are a number of differences. Dalrunerne developed over time, influenced partially by the Latin alphabet. Here are the runes as they looked in the period leading up to the 20th century. (Illustration: Tasnu Arakun/Wikimedia Commons)

Nielsen agrees. “The use of runes in Scandinavia gradually ceased during the 15th century. There are the odd areas of Gotland in Sweden and in Iceland where the rune tradition survived until the 17th century, but in Älvdalen their use was widespread until the early 20th century,” he says.

According to Nielsen the runes in Älvdalen were most commonly found on houses and inscribed in furniture. In addition to this, they were also engraved into ’message blades’ which were sticks of wood that were circulated among the farms in the area. “The people who herded the cattle up in the mountains would write messages to each other in runes,” says Nielsen.

Tolkien took much of his inspiration for his elves (and fairies) from a mixture of Norse and Celtic mythologies and medieval writings. But his elves and their love of ships and their writing are straight out of Norse mythology. In that sense the real world Älvdalen is probably as close to  the enchanted – but fictional – forests of Lothlórien as it is possible to get.

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Swedish Green party leader exhibits her immaturity to be in government

May 11, 2015

Green party “co-spokesperson” (a euphemism for “leader”) Åsa Romson has once again demonstrated that the greens have great difficulty in making the transition from being demonstrators on the streets to actually being in government. Åsa Romson is even the Deputy Prime Minister. She has been silly enough to first compare the Mediterranean to Auschwitz and then to refer to the Roma as “zigenare” which means gypsy and as a term has officially been declared to be “offensive”.

Of course she wasn’t around during the Holocaust, but who does she see as the Nazis of today? The Mediterranean may well be a graveyard for many but the reference displays an amazing ignorance.

TheLocal: Green party co-spokesperson Åsa Romson has apologized after calling Roma people “zigenare” (gypsies) as well as comparing the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean to the Holocaust. ……. 

The leader later told SVT that she was sorry, adding that she had used an expression that “did not fit”, while trying to make a strong argument about the migrant crisis in the EU.

Her press spokesperson Hellström Gefvert later told the broadcaster that Romson had been “tired” after the debate and knew that her choice of words was “indefensible”.

On Monday, Romson issued another apology on Twitter, posting: “Again: It was wrong to make an Auschwitz analogy. I sincerely apologize”.

But this is not the first time that the greens have demonstrated their lack of judgement. They show little evidence of exercise of mind. The Swedish Greens border on being anti-semitic. They are definitely pro-Palestine, even have mild islamists in positions of power and are generally anti-Israel. It is sometimes difficult to tread the balance between being anti-Israel and being anti-semitic and, unfortunately, the Swedish Greens just don’t have the judgement and quality of thought necessary to walk the line. Mehmet Kaplan and Gustav Fridolin are Green party members and Ministers in the current Red/Green government. Kaplan was also unthinking enough to equate Swedes joining IS with Finns fighting against Russians during WW2. Also a remarkable display of ignorance of history and an apologist remark – in any interpretation – for the IS.

TimesofIsrael: Housing Minister Mehmet Kaplan, of Sweden’s Green Party, was arrested in 2010 by Israeli forces after participating in the Mavi Marmara flotilla, which was headed to the Gaza Strip. The Turkish-born MP was later deported from Israel over his involvement. 

During this summer’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, Kaplan called for the “liberation of Jerusalem” at a pro-Palestinian rally.

He also downplayed the evils of the Islamic State in a July address, saying that Swedes joining their ranks in Iraq and Syria were similar to those who went to Finland during World War II to combat the Soviet Union. His comparison was lambasted by many Swedes, who consider the soldiers who volunteered to fight the Soviets on behalf of Finland freedom fighters.

In addition, Sweden’s Education Minister Gustav Fridolin was detained by Israeli forces in 2004 for protesting the security barrier near Ramallah. Fridolin left the country shortly after he was released.

The thoughtlessness is evident even in environmental issues which ought to be their strength – but is not. In fact even on many environmental matters they tend to be remarkably uninformed and blindly follow an eco-fascist line. They know best what everybody else should do – for their own good.

Greens in government just don’t work and in Sweden they are an embarrassment to rational thought.

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