The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issue

The last two weeks I have been preoccupied by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. This is a forum in which the concerns of indigenous peoples around the world are debated and people from the north of Greenland to the Arizonas to the desert of Central Africa come to make their voices heard. As a formal UN meeting the forum is rather unusal. For 14 days the norm of grey suits and monotonous voices is replaced by costumes in all colours and statements with references to spirits, ancestors and Mother Earth. The experiece is sometimes perplexing but in a good way and I have been told that it is strengthening for the grassroots organisations from around the world to have a forum to discover the similiarities of the problems they face despite the diversity in traditions and origins.

At the crossroads

Time is slipping through my fingers. It is soon time to leave New York and the decisions of what to make of the future are like a constant and distracting humming in the back of my head. As from two weeks what to come is a void of uncertainty and I have strings pulling me in all sorts of directions. In a way I love finding myself at these crossroads. They are defining moments. A point in time when it becomes apparent that you choose a path and decide in which direction to walk. Of course every step of the way along that path will also be a choice even if we tend to forget. So for a short while I awaken to the fact that the choice I make will define the life I am to lead from here on. And that it terrifying.

In need for guidance I have spent the weekend with Alexa. As my sorcerous she has helped me look for answers at the bottom of the wineglass and for peace amidst the madness of Coney Island. And in her wisdom she would of course never tell me where to go but simply packs my bags. She gives me hapiness as a compass and honesty as my guidebook and says- “If you know to follow these, whereever you go will be the exact right place to be”.

I have cast my vote- I hope you do so to!

I have cast my vote for the European Parliament at the Swedish Consulate here in New York. It is of course no surprise which party I voted for.

I sincerely hope that the number of people who vote in this election will be higher than in the last election in 2004. Then less than 38% of the Swedish electorate participated, which is even low among the EU memberstates. This can be compared with the very high turn overs in the elections to the national parliament, which has been between 80-96 percnt during the last 40 years. I think the low level of participation is symptomatic of some of the basic flaws in the European Union. Media coverage of the workings of the EU is very poor and most parliamentarians are barely visible to the general public. If issues are reported it is at such a late stage, like just before an issue is to be decided, that it is too late for a general debate to have any impact on the outcome. So it is not surprising that people get a feeling that Brussels is far away, that they have too little insight into the working of the union and don’t see what effect their vote will have. 

This interview with gives a rather interesting analysis of why the participation is particularly low in Sweden and I think the limited influence of the parliament on some of the issues of the working of the EU that people are most concerned about is a factor that one should not fail to mention. But the aspect that I find must interesting is the dubious attitute among national politicians towards the union. I tend to refer to the relationship between national politicians and the EU by using a reference to my favourite moviedirector, Lars von Trien and his movie Direktören för det hele (The Boss of It All) The storyline is based on a character who is director of a company but dislike standing up for uncomfortable decisions towards his employees. So he pretends that there is another director above him whom can comfortably take the blame while he keeps the credit for the positive improvements. I think the EU can similarily function comfortably like a director of it all fpr national politicians- someone to blame when things dont go your way, but at the same time you dont want to appear powerless infront of your constituate.But it comes at a high cost to play games like that and the price is disillusionment towards politicians and a feeling of powerlessness to influence the decisons that affect your life. And I do have my hopes up for this election. Just at our little pollstation at the consulte already more people had voted on the third day than during the entire election last time.

Stolt (some things are better said in Swedish)

Jag har hört att finaste, finast Frida höll ett helt fantastiskt tal på Miljöpartiets kongress idag och jag kunde inte vara stoltare över att få ha henne som min vän. Läs hennes tal och Rose-Maries kloka ord här.

Teenage nostalgia…

The New York Syndrome

While the cold and scaresly populated Stockholm has given name to a syndrome that shows that people can develop a sense of loyalty to basically anyone given sufficient time and isolation, the equivalent New York syndrome would rather stand for the inability of people to grow loyal to anyone given endless possibilies and constant flux.

It is the story of constantly keeping options open. That commitments are rarely holy. That you are expected to have at least three alternative plans and that way giving yourself and your surrounding the freedom to jump to where the grass is greener at any time. If hanging out with you happen to be the greenest grass for the time being, expect to hear that this has come to the cost of plenty of other opportunites turned down and that you companies presence may be demanded elsewhere shortly. 

It reflects a strong ideal of selfsufficiency. Minus all elements containing disappointment, need and expectation from your facial, verbal and emotional register. 

And it unfortunately leaves a sense of a rather calculated relation to human interactions. Nowhere else have my romantic ideals been as brutally killed as seeing my NY surroundings keeping a minimum of three parallell flings or determinately dating 20 people succesively  in order to get an ample sample selection for a potential partner. 

Eventhough I love living in this city and will miss it terribly, it might actually be a good idea to leave before this culture begins to mess with my mental health.

I left to find peace of mind in New Jersey

I have realized that I’ve barely left the hectic city of New York since I got here in January. And slowly the desire for silence, water, trees and fresh air has become more and more acute. So when I got the chance to come with a friend to a cottage by lake Mowahak in New Jersay I didn’t doubt for a second. The cottage is owned by the Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic after some donation long back in the Communist era and it lies beautifully overlooking the water. So in this little fairytale house I have spent many an hour on the porch just looking out over the flying swans and grazing deers in the garden, found an rusty bike and biked to the ice pream parlour in the little town of Sparta and now in the early morning hours I blieve the time has come for swimming. Ah.