Tomten – min frälsare!

Jag minns första gången jag mötte Tomten. Han kom in i mitt liv en dag i december 1983 och sen dess har jag varit frälst. Han kom med budskapet; ”Var snäll och du ska få din belöning en gång om året”. Han lärde mig också att det är viktigare att ge än att få (även om det dröjde en bit in på 90-talet innan jag fullt ut förstod innebörden av detta). Jag har följt Tomtens lära ända sen dess och nu känner jag det som min plikt att sprida Hans förkunnelse till andra.

Tomten är givmild och förlåtande. Han har skänkt mig så mycket glädje genom åren, och det enda Han har begärt i gengäld är min snällhet, och emellanåt en skål med gröt. Tomten har även visat på sin storhet under år när jag drabbats av osnällhet. Han brydde sig inte om detta, då han visste att mitt hjärta var rent och att jag var förtjänt av gåvor.

Tomten är också tolerant mot andra livsåskådningar, eftersom Han gärna besöker hem som har hedniska symboler såsom adventsljusstakar (både fyrarmade och sjuarmade), julstjärnor och julkrubbor. Han ser förbi bedragnas själars okulter och Han värmer med sitt budskap och sina gåvor. Jag hoppas ändå att föräldrar slutar att lura sina barn och slutar lära ut irrläror om sagoväsen när vi borde visa hela vår hängivenhet till Tomten, den ende sanne frälsaren.

Vilsna själar av denna värld, sälla er till Tomtens flock! Visa er hängivenhet till Honom och ni ska bli rikligt belönade en gång om året! Förkasta er hedniska traditioner och livsåskådningar, ty Tomten ska visa er den rätta vägen!

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We need more westerner civilian casualties!

I am just making a very obvious and not too sensational observation in connection to the bomb attacks etc. in India yesterday. The exposure this happening is getting in media and on blogs at the moment is clearly not related to the number of dead and injured, but instead related to the potential number of westerners among the victims. It is of course not surprising that each country’s media is trying to figure out how many of their own countrymen/-women are among the casualties. However, I cannot help thinking if we should not send down busloads of westerner civilians to for example Congo (DRC) and Sudan, regions that desperately need attention from the rest of the world.

Westerner civilian casualties in forgotten and overlooked conflicts is of course not the most conventional solution, but sadly probably the most effective and needed one.

Video clip of war in Virunga National Park
McCain, Obama and Palin more important than Congo

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The great benefits of the Thailand unrest

The last couple of months of demonstrations and riots in Thailand seems to escalate even more today as a large crowd of protesters occupied parts of Bangkok Airport, Thailand's biggest airport. I have to honestly say that I have little knowledge about this conflict, but it catches me a bit by surprise as I have always seen Thailand as probably the most stable country in the region. Although Thai civil unrest has been reported as relatively calm so far, it is interesting how this will affect the tourist industry in the country.

Although I do not wish any harm to the Thai people, I also see some good sides with a potential halt of tourism to Thailand. Hopefully other countries in the region, such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Indonesia can reap some of the benefits by accommodating the huge amounts of people that are going to this part of the world for leisure and adventures. And furthermore, with risk of giving my subjective opinion, I hope that more people might discover Africa as a tourist destination. Countries like Mozambique, Malawi and Uganda have great potential when it comes to tourism, and especially eco-tourism.

It has been long argued that an increase in international trade and tourism will bring many poor countries out of poverty, and into stability and prosperity. Several of the above mention countries really need this boost that tourism can give them. However, it is very important to note that the situation is not, what economists would call, Pareto-efficient. It means that in this moment Thailand's tourist industry has to suffer in order for other countries' tourist industries to bloom. And I can only hope that those countries that now have the potential to become new tourist destinations to it with peace, stability and sustainability in mind.

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bin Laden as Clinton - video clip

Atmo

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Att vända skutan

Riksrevisionens Eva Lindström skriver i dagens DN Debatt om en ineffektiv fiskeindustri i Sverige som hålls vid liv genom konstgjord andning. Anledningen till denna, till synes, hjälplösa industri med sin dåliga lönsamhet beror på att fisken är en sk ”open access”-resurs (se Tragedy of the commons). Så länge haven behandlas som en aldrig sinande källa så kommer förvaltningen av dess resurser att fortsätta vara ineffektiva, vilket inkluderar behovet av statliga stöd mm.

I rapporten ”Att vända skutan – ett hållbart fiske inom räckhåll” skriver Brady och Waldo vid Livsmedelsekonomiska institutet på ett utmärkt sätt om hur man kan få en hållbar fiskerinäring. Väl värd att läsa! (Ladda ner rapporten som pdf här)

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Dags att utrota björnen!

Dagens björnattack i Kramfors kommun är den andra på tre dagar. Antalet bjönattacker i Sverige tycks ha ökat de senaste åren, säkert beroende på den ökande björnstammen. Trots att endast två personer har dött i björnattacker de senaste 30 åren, så har bägge tillbuden inträffat de senaste 3 åren. Är det inte dags att vi försöker att utrota björnen, så vi slipper att spilla några fler människoliv?

Jag ser ogärna att människor som är ute i naturen ska behöva vara rädda för att dö. Därför måste jag ge mitt stöd till en utrotnings- kampanj av den svenska björnen. Samtidigt passar jag väl på att bedriva kampanj mot jägare (som mellan 1983-1999 tydligen vådaskjutit 39 personer till döds), och bilar och alkohol (där rattfylleri tar ca 100 människoliv per år). Kan vi bara få bort dessa ting från det svenska samhället och naturen så har vi ökat medborgarnas trygghet något oerhört.

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R.I.P. Miriam Makeba

The Song Bird of Africa is no more. Miriam Makeba died yesterday after suffering a heart attack. Few artists are so identified with a whole continent as “Mama Africa”. Her fight against the apartheid system in her home country, South Africa, made her famous around the world, perhaps even more famous than for her singing. Mariam’s fought against violence into the very end when she yesterday participated in a anti-mafia concert in Italy.





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Världens största respektive minsta kattdjur

Dags för en lektion zoosystematik. Världens största kattdjur är tigern (Panthera tigris) med en matchvikt på uppemot 300 kg för hanar, och något mindre för honor. Kattvärldens minsting är ”svartfotad katt” (Felis nigripes) med en maxvikt som motsvara nästan en 200-del av tigerns, dvs 1-2 kg.

Tigern går (fortfarande) att finna i stora delar av Indien, Sydostasien och nordöstra Asien, men är starkt hotad på grund av viagrabristen som tycks råda i Asien (se länk). Den är någorlunda nära släkt med de andra stora kattdjuren: lejon, leopard och jaguar.

”Svartfotad katt” (på engelska Black footed cat alt. Small spotted cat) är exklusivt funnen i södra Afrikas halvökenområdena. Denna kisse är nära släkt med vår tamkatt men sägs vara omöjlig att tämja (som om tamkatten skulle vara så myket lättare att domisticera…). Den lever mest på insekter och ödlor, och visar sig sällan för människor, vilket gjort att den ibland fått en plats på ”The Small/Shy/Elusive Five”-listor (jmf The Big Five).



(se också "Svartfotad katt" i detta Youtube klipp)

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Sarah Palin's Africa

I cannot help to smile when I hear that former vice president candidate Sarah Palin thought Africa was a country. With a fair chance that this is just a rumor, started by Palin's opponents, I am still not surprised that there exist people that have no clue about the world around them. This oblivion is the result of either lack of education/information on or uninterest in the focal topic.

I have meet people in Africa (the continent, not the country) who do not know anything about for example the EU, Elvis Presley or 9/11. In these cases it has usually been a combination of lack of education/information and interest, with some skewness towards the former. And it is quite easy to fix this gap in knowledge, if needed. We just bring forward an information campaign about, say, The King of Rock n Roll, which will capture the interest of people and educate them. It is far more difficult to fix someone who has been provided with all the information and education, and still don't gets it...

PS. Maybe BBC should produce a travel program called "Palin and Palin", where one Palin (Michael) takes the other Palin around the world.

Update: Well my suspicion was correct, Palin's ignorance about Africa was just a rumor started by her opponent (or something like that).

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Obama will be dead within four years

I think that the next president of the United States, Barack Obama, will not live to see the end of his first term. He will probably fall victim to a “domestic” assassin, who cannot accept that a person like Obama is running the country. The good thing with his death will be that we learn how little progress our civilization has made the last couple of decades. It might teach people to stop pointing fingers at other groups and calling them barbaric, uncivilized, non-human etc. The potential to do horrendous and primitive deeds lies within each and one of us, lets not forget that.

PS. Any Intelligence agency (no names mentioned...) that wants to kidnap and torture me for what I just written are welcome to contact me by email. Please give me at least one week notice.

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McCain, Obama and Palin more important than Congo

During the flaming US election the outbreak of yet another full-scale war is feared in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo, former Zaire). Reports are letting us know that we can have a new Rwanda on our hands very soon if actions are not taken. Remembering the happenings in Rwanda in 1994, which left up to one million people slaughtered, this conflict in DRC requires our full attention. Unfortunately, some of our focus is diverted away towards the glitter and glamor of the US presidential elections. Accordingly, I’m really waiting for this election to be over, so the media can start report and draw attention to the DRC. (see video clips)

As I’m curious how media are reporting on the US election vs the DRC-crisis I conducted a simple study of media coverage. I searched today at around 12 am CET for the words “McCain”, “Obama”, “Palin”, “Biden” and “Congo” (or “Kongo” or “DRC”) on the front page of some media’s web sites, which I frequently visit. I counted how many hits each search word got and compiled results in a table (see below). With some dismay, but little surprise, I see that “Obama”, “McCain” and “Palin”(!) get more hits than Congo at most of the visited web pages.

As some of the web sites have several links to the same article (thus using some of my search words over and over again) I quickly tested if the result would differ if I used a ranking system instead of absolute numbers, but the results were practically the same. The main conclusion that can be drawn from this small survey is, as mentioned above, for the sake of the Congolese people let the US election be done with real soon. The other conclusion drawn is that Joe Biden probably needs to fire his campaign leader.

	McCain	Obama	Palin	Biden	Congo
cnn.com	5	3	0	1	6
washingtonpost.com	4	4	1	0	1
time.com	10	13	1	0	3
newsweek.com	5	6	5	0	0
svd.se	6	6	2	3	0
dn.se	8	6	3	0	0
dagbladet.no	3	10	3	0	2
vg.no	0	9	1	0	6
lavanguardia.es	1	8	1	0	0
politiken.dk	6	13	6	1	4
publico.clix.pt	2	4	0	0	1
telegraaf.nl	1	7	4	0	2
mg.co.za	4	13	5	0	4
Sum	55	102	32	5	29

Update: I see that the tears of Obama (due to the passing of his grandmother) have given him lots of media exposure the last couple of hours. I suspect, with a generalising tone, that these tears will give him plenty of sympathy votes in the election. People are after all very easy to turn around when being exposed to some heart aching pictures/videos. Wonder if we can use this in order to get some engagement into the Congo-crisis...?

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McCain and Palin in their Halloween-outfits

I am actually not particular interested of what is going on in America at the moment. Whether it is Halloween or the presidential election I feel there are far more important issues that need my attention. However, I can’t help posting one of Zapiro’s comic strips here. It is said a picture says more than a thousand words...



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