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.

Some more music

Alan is not only a painter of schoolyards he is also a brilliant pianist. Here is his new band Modern Medical Miracle.  Be inspired to come visit by Lets go (to Scandinavia).

Elections to the Human Rights Council

This morning the General Assembly gathered to elect 18 out 47 members to the Human Rights Council (HRC). There is a lot to be said about the way elections are conducted here at the UN. As a country decides to run as a candidate a whole procedure of votefetching through handing out flyers, holding receptions and drinking, dining and coffeesipping on one-on-ones is intitiated which takes a lot of financial and personnel resources. Partly this, but also the risk of losing face if you lose an election as well as other gains through trading votes, has resulted in that the regional groups tend to present a clean slate. That is the election is held without competition, to the detriment of the result according to many human rights organisations. Organisations such as Amnesty International asked the member states to abandon the practise of clean slate in this years election since this has tended to enable countries that notoriously violate human rights to be elected onto the council despite the fact that the council members are supposed to represent “the highest standard in the promotion and protection of human rights”.  The NGO Coalition for an effective Human Rights Council consisting of organisations such as Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and regional Human Rights organisations specifically listed Azerbadjan, China, Cuba, Russia and Saudi Arabia among this years candidates as failing to meet the requirement of the highest standard. Except for Azerbadjan they were all elected.

The most interest for this years election has been paid to the fact that the US was running for a seat, which was said to be an act of renewed interest in the protection of human rights through the multilateral system and broadly welcomed by both NGOs and nations. But as a consequence the enthusiasm of having the US on board on the HRC-ship resulted in a principally dubious situation. To ensure that the US got elected New Zealand, that had anounced their intention to run for a seat long in advance and already prepared a campaign withdrew their candidacy in favour of the US, resulting in a clean slate being presented in the group of Western countries (WEOG). WEOG usually takes the stance that there should be competition for the seats in certain UN bodies such as the Security Council and the HRC for reasons mentioned before. And with the lack of competition the only means left to demonstrate dislike for the fact that certain countries would undoubtedly be elected was the voting numbers of which the US interestingly enough got the same amount as China.

The buzz the last few days have been about the Op-ed by Vaclav Havel in the New York Times, which puts into words what many seem to think about this election with its heavy critcism.

Nicoles pictures from the community service day with City year

Karin and I painting blocks of a chessboard

Alan, Karin and I before our own creation- the compass

Before

After

A mix of students, parents and volunteers painting the schoolyard

Newfound love (Brooklyn, my Brooklyn)

 I got myself a bike yesterday and I am completely in love! Together with my newfound love I have swush around Brooklyn through the Orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods around Macy, the  howling from the cars with reggaeton on excessive volume along the big avenues and past the glittering water of the lake in Prospect Park at night. She has taken me to a pub to try to learn to watch an American baseballgame while through peanut peels all around. But she couldn’t come with me out to East New York this morning, because it just seemed to risky. This morning Nicole, whos bike I am borrowing and who works with the organisation Cityyear invited me and and lots of other people to come out to New Lots in the Eastern part of Brooklyn to paint a school. New Lots is apparently a part of the city where one should not walk alone at night and where kids prospects in life are a lot more bleak than elsewhere. And this school just looked too gloomy so Cityyear arranged for kids, parents and volunteers to come out and paint murials to give it some colour. It was great fun and the kids seemed to like their new schoolyard.