Carl Bildt reveals Sweden's twisted prioritizes?

The Swedish minister of foreign affairs, Carl Bildt, has his own blog; ”Alla Dessa Dagar”, where he writes about his daily activities and comments on current issues. Thus, the blog serves, partly, as a window into the Swedish government’s work and commitment in the world.

As a simple test of the current Swedish engagement(s) I searched for some keyword among Carl’s post from last two months. The number of hits for each of the keywords are displayed in the table below. I could make some elaborate analysis here, but I'm going to let the results speak for themselves.

The table shows number of hits for some searched keywords on Carl Bildt's blog (as the blog is in Swedish "Congo" and "Africa" are spelled "Kongo" and "Afrika", respectively).

	Gaza	Kongo	Afrika	Zimbabwe	Sri Lanka
Dec	13	0	1	2	0
Jan	23	0	0	0	0
Feb	22	0	0	0	0

My previous post on similar matters:
I hope Israel will wipe out Palestine
I hope Israel will wipe out Palestine 2.0
Why the hell is Gaza the center of the world?
I hope Israel will wipe out Palestine 3.0

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I hope Israel will wipe out Palestine 3.0

Please read my previous posts on this subject, to get the full picture of the message I am trying to get through.
I hope Israel will wipe out Palestine
I hope Israel will wipe out Palestine 2.0
Why the hell is Gaza the center of the world
A modest proposal

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Why the hell is Gaza the center of the world?

Gaza:

• 850 people killed and some 3 500 injured since the Israeli attacks began on December 27.
• Rumours say Israel is using white phosphorus (a nasty compound that catches fire if not kept constantly moist/wet) in combat.
• Reports indicate that up to 25 % of the victims are children.

The public and media reacts: “We have to do all in our power to stop this atrocity! Everybody needs to become aware of what is going on here! More protest marches! Boycott Israel!”

Zimbabwe:

• Some 1 000 people have died of cholera since mid December, 2 000 in total since the outbreak in August 2008.
• Every day between 5 000-10 000 flee the desperate situation in the country.
• Several opponents to Mugabe’s rule have been arrested and may be facing the death penalty.

The public and media reacts: “If only Mugabe were white, then we would issues some big protest against him.”

Congo (DRC):

• Approximately 650 civilians killed in the Orientale province since December 24.
• Victims are often hacked to death/pieces.
• Rapes and child abductions (to serve as soldiers and/or sex slaves) are common features.
• Ranger killed by rebels in the Virunga National Park while he was trying to protect the endangered mountain gorillas.

The public and media reacts: “Congo? Didn't Tintin go there on one of his adventures...?”

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I hope Israel will wipe out Palestine 2.0

Three days ago I wrote a post on this blog about the current crisis in the Gaza-strip (see I hope Israel will wipe out Palestine). I quickly received a lot of comments that either praised me or condemned me for what I had written. And one can see that it took some 50 comments before anyone actually bother to reflect on the core of my message; Why is it that people get so upset when killing, slaughter and mutilation occur in one part of the world, but remain silent when it happens in another part?

When I, in the last couple of months, tried to steer focus towards the conflict in DRC, the HIV epidemic, or the ongoing and prospective food crisis, I got practically no reaction. Perhaps I didn’t use an as controversial title as I did in the Israel-Palestine post. But surely post like; "HIV/AIDS research is a waste of money" and "Can starvation be of any good?" deserve some attention. Or are we so exceptionally narrow minded that we can only focus on one conflict at the time? Have we become completely unable to give our divided attention and engagement to more than one suffering group of people at a time?

(Zapiro)

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African development – please hold...

The results from the Ghanaian presidential election are now coming in. And as so many times before, in connection with potential change of leadership in African countries, there are reports of a tense and violent atmosphere. The mandatory accusations of election fraud have also occurred. We have seen it way to often over the last year, and one almost start to wonder if Africa do not want to rise out of its under-development and poverty.

Going through my memory from the past year (and a bit just before 2008), I can recollect following change of leadership in African countries that didn’t go as smooth as they suppose to:

• Kenya – The results from the election in late 2007 were not accepted, and months of riots and killings followed.
• Zimbabwe – Mugabe and his Zanu PF did not accept the results from the presidential election in April 2008. Violence followed, and the situation is still far from resolved.
• Angola – Apparently rigged elections (almost always the case when a party gets over 80% of the votes…). Tense situation, but few reports are coming through from the aftermath.
• Guinea – The country's leader dies in December 2008, and the military takes over the leadership, promising free elections in two(!) years time.
• Ghana – Tense situation after a very narrow win for the oppositional candidate in the presidential election.
• South Africa - Although the presidential election is in April 2009, the ruling party, ANC, has sent out signals that it will use force if things don't go their way.
  

Maybe there are even more mishaps in 2008 in Africa. Perhaps I’m deceived by the media reports, and blowing things out of proportions here. But I truly feel that this veil of insecurity creates a situation of short-termness in African countries. This is now haunting the development of the continent, as risks are often too high for potential investors to contribute into the countries’ economies. I mean who wants to put in money in projects that are only certain to live until the next election…?

What many Africa countries need is a true evolution. The pivotal factors for this are variation and competition, which are currently very rare across many of the countries in focus. African leadership seldom change (low competition), and when it does it is within the same party/political line (low variation) (see Africa needs new blood). This has to change, and it has to change soon, or else the rest of the world will leave the African continent completely behind.

I wish and hope that we could see African leaders being as eager to criticize election frauds and election violence in other African countries, as they are eager to blame colonialism for all the bad things that has happened them. I would also be pleased to see the rest of the world showing the same level of engagement for the conflicts at this continent, as they show for any issues surrounding what America or Israel is doing. But maybe this is too much to wish for...?

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I hope Israel will wipe out Palestine

The last couple of days’ bombing of the Gaza strip by the Israelis has left me wondering. What is so special about the Palestinians in particular and the whole conflict in general, that it results in such huge reactions from around the world? I am really trying to understand why politicians, media, blogers etc. get so excited about this insignificant little conflict.

My wondering goes hand in hand with my search for efficient ways to shine a spotlight of attention on several other conflicts around the world. I have previously come to the conclusion that some American or western European casualties would probably be very beneficial in this quest (see We need more westerner civilian causalities and A modest proposal). However, I am not sure if that is enough to get a full-scale engagement going.

What is it that makes Palestine-Israel conflict so special compared to other conflicts? Cutting to the chase quite quickly I will simply state that this particular conflict arouses people around the world because it gives them the chance to kick on Israel. There is probably very little care for the Palestinian victims here; there is only a thirst for jumping on Israel and its allied.

Accordingly, in order to bring attention to other armed conflicts in the world we need Israel’s help. As so many detest this country, and its action, we could draw some advantage from this by sending Israeli troops to, say, Darfur, DRC or Zimbabwe. Imagine Israeli forces fighting on Mugabe’s side. This would generate such an outcry around the world, that Tsvangirai would become Zimbabwe’s leader in no time.

Unfortunately Israeli troops are currently quite unavailable, as they are engaged in fighting in Gaza and other areas(?). I fear that any compromises in the conflict between Israel and Palestine will only prolong it. Consequently, I hope for a speedy wiping out of Palestine by Israel, so that we can see a swift shipping out of Israeli troops to other conflict areas around the world. Hopefully, this transition will happen quickly enough, so that the anti-Israel protester will not lose their momentum in bringing attention to anything that Israel is doing.

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