Finanslovsforhandlingerne er en joke

Hvert år i oktober har vi været udsat for det samme skuespil. Regeringen lader som om de vil forhandle om finansloven, men smider oppositionen ud efter ca. en time. Så kræver DF nogle umenneskelige love der slår ned på muslimer og indvandrer. Og til sidst gør Liberal Alliance lidt, og til sidst er det hele slut.

Et bevis på hvor arrogante og ligeglade politikerne er med statens finanser, kan fx ses på Anders Samuelsens indlæg på facebook i dag:

“Tak for i dag: Startede med morgenløb kl 04. Så til Kbh og tv kl 8. Så møde kl 9, kl 10.30 og kl12.30. Så tv interview, finansministeren kl 14-15 og tv igen. Så foredrag i Roskilde kl 18-19.20. Så foredrag i kbh kl 20-22. Og nu på vej retur til Horsens. Hjemme kl ca 01. Så gik den dag….:-) gooood night!”

Her i et år med et underskud på 90 mia kroner, og et statsapperat i forfald, har Anders brugt en hel time(!) på at diskutere finanslov – og samtidig formået at være i TV tre gange og holde et foredrag to gange.

Hvornår mon politikerne tager Danmarks finanser seriøst? 90 mia kroner er en kæmpegæld som vores børn og børnebørn skal slæbe rundt på – men Anders Samuelsen bruger tiden på at stå foran skærmen.

link til selvmål (til facebookside – kræver login)

Pessimistens guide til de næste ti år

Den canadiske forfatter Douglas Coupland (kendt for romaner som Generation X, Microserfs og JPod) har begået en pessimistisk guide til de næste ti år, baseret på en simpel lineær fremskrivning af tendenserne de sidste ti:

1) It’s going to get worse

No silver linings and no lemonade. The elevator only goes down. The bright note is that the elevator will, at some point, stop.

2) The future isn’t going to feel futuristic

It’s simply going to feel weird and out-of-control-ish, the way it does now, because too many things are changing too quickly. The reason the future feels odd is because of its unpredictability. If the future didn’t feel weirdly unexpected, then something would be wrong.

3) The future is going to happen no matter what we do. The future will feel even faster than it does now

The next sets of triumphing technologies are going to happen, no matter who invents them or where or how. Not that technology alone dictates the future, but in the end it always leaves its mark. The only unknown factor is the pace at which new technologies will appear. This technological determinism, with its sense of constantly awaiting a new era-changing technology every day, is one of the hallmarks of the next decade.

6) The middle class is over. It’s not coming back

Remember travel agents? Remember how they just kind of vanished one day?

That’s where all the other jobs that once made us middle-class are going – to that same, magical, class-killing, job-sucking wormhole into which travel-agency jobs vanished, never to return. However, this won’t stop people from self-identifying as middle-class, and as the years pass we’ll be entering a replay of the antebellum South, when people defined themselves by the social status of their ancestors three generations back. Enjoy the new monoclass!

9) The suburbs are doomed, especially thoseE.T. , California-style suburbs

This is a no-brainer, but the former homes will make amazing hangouts for gangs, weirdoes and people performing illegal activities. The pretend gates at the entranceways to gated communities will become real, and the charred stubs of previous white-collar homes will serve only to make the still-standing structures creepier and more exotic.

20) North America can easily fragment quickly as did the Eastern Bloc in 1989

Quebec will decide to quietly and quite pleasantly leave Canada. California contemplates splitting into two states, fiscal and non-fiscal. Cuba becomes a Club Med with weapons. The Hate States will form a coalition.

Den danske forfatter Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff er inde på lignende dommedagsvisioner i sit historieværk Menneskets Afvikling.

Jeg påstår ikke at kende fremtiden og skal ikke kunne sige, om det virkelig er så umiddelbart katastrofalt, som Coupland (og i endnu højere grad Neutzsky-Wulff) lægger op til. Men det er svært at komme uden om, at tendenserne i de sidste år er bekymrende og fortjener at blive taget alvorligt.

Link: A radical pessimist’s guide to the next ten years (via Boing Boing).

Er Danmark et fremmedfjendsk land?

Mange af os møder ikke i hverdagen nogen grund til at tænke over, om Danmark skulle være specielt fremmedfjendsk. Især ikke, hvis vi er pæredanske og følgelig også “ligner” almindelige danskere og taler uden fremmed accent.

Andre er ikke så priviligerede. Den britiske blogger seasonticket citerer en dansk gymnasielærer, der er gift med en amerikansk mand og derfor oplever en lidt anden side af den danske “folkekarakter”, end de fleste er vant til:

I teach English at the Gymnasium level, and every day I am faced with the political wish to improve the English skills of the Danish population. I therefore never dreamt that my husband’s mother tongue would be much of a problem. But I was greatly mistaken. We have had so many bad experiences by now that I have stopped counting. A few examples:

At the doctor’s office: My husband developed a problem with his shoulder and needed physiotherapy. He started attending a weekly training session with four other patients. His Danish was still not good enough to completely follow the instructions from the doctor, however, so he very politely asked the doctor to repeat the instructions in English. This resulted in a very violent reaction from two of the other patients who both agreed that “if you were not willing to learn Danish, you were not entitled to medical care in this country!” The two other patients said nothing.

At the library: My husband wanted to take out a guide to California because we were taking a trip there. I had explained to him that his yellow social security card also worked as his library card, and that he just had to hand the card to the librarian. As he did that and asked – in English – to borrow the book, the librarian responded very rudely that “this was not a valid library card”. When I tried later that same day to take out the same book from the same librarian with my husband’s yellow card, but this time asking her in fluent Danish, I had no trouble at all. This provoked me into confronting her, and she finally revealed her true feelings and said that “foreigners could not be trusted; he was just going to steal the book and take it back home with him!”

At a Copenhagen restaurant: When we go out together, strangers often conclude that I must be foreign too because my husband and I speak English together. Therefore, they often speak their opinion of us very bluntly because they do not think I understand Danish. This also happened in June this year, when we were having lunch outside Palads Cinema in Copenhagen. We were talking, laughing and enjoying each other’s company. Next to us sat two women, one middle-aged and one in her early thirties. Suddenly, the older of the two put her cutlery down very violently and said “We have to find another table! If I have to eat my food sitting next to these foreigners, I will lose my appetite!” The younger responded “I agree! This is Denmark, and there is nothing more disrespectful than people publically talking in their own language like that!” Then they got up and left, while I sat back in disbelief

Sadly, these are not isolated incidents; I could go on. I can honestly say that if I had not been there myself, I would not have believed this about Denmark.

De af os, der ikke selv møder indvandrere af forskellig baggrund til daglig møder som sagt ikke denne ubehagelige side af vore landsmænd – og er derfor ikke klar over, at den er der. Eller hvis vi er, vil vi i hvert fald ikke være klar over det – intet er jo desværre så nemt som at skjule ubehagelige fakta for sig selv.

Den citerede gymnasielærer er også blevet mødt med vantro blikke, når hun har fortalt sin historie – fulgt op af spørgsmålet, om hendes mand måske er sort amerikaner. Ja, for det ville jo forklare det, ikke sandt? Og hvem siger så, at der ikke er racisme i Danmark …

Men nej:

I can only answer “No, he is not African American, he was born in Indiana; a farming state, has German roots, and looks like your average Dane. But that makes absolutely no difference; “Wonderful Copenhagen” is no more! “

Hvis nogen i dag, efter ni år med Dansk Folkeparti praktisk talt i regering, stadig tror, at Danmark ikke er et dybt isolationistisk og fremmedfjendsk land, hvor det er vore fordomme og vore fordomme alene, der reducerer udlændinge til “problemer”, er de blevet vildledt. Hvis nogen stadig tror på glansbilledmyten om Danmark som det “moderne” land, hvor “få har for meget og færre for lidt”, lider de af vrangforestillinger. Desværre. For det var et smukt glansbillede.

New York Times advarer mod Dansk Folkeparti

Eller rettere sagt, det gør de ikke – men de advarer i en leder den svenske statsminister i at lave nogen form for aftaler med de rabiate fremmedkritikere i Sverigedemokraterna. Kort fortalt advarer avisen Sverige mod at blive som Danmark:

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt plans to stay on as head of a minority center-right government. For now, all of the mainstream parties say they will make no deals with the Sweden Democrats. They should stand firm.

Most Swedes abhor racism. But they have legitimate complaints about inadequate government policies for integrating poorly prepared new arrivals. At a time of high unemployment and growing pressure on the traditionally generous welfare state, highly visible immigrant communities — like the 500,000 Muslims who now make up roughly 5 percent of the overall population — make especially tempting scapegoats.

Keeping immigrants out is no answer. Nor is forced assimilation to an imaginary pure national culture. Immigrant dynamism is essential to keeping all of Europe competitive. Sweden’s mainstream politicians are still battling over old questions of welfare versus markets, while largely ignoring newer ones like globalization, immigration and social integration. They can’t afford to ignore them any longer.

Indtil videre lader de almindelige svenske politikere til at stå fast og opretholde et cordon sanitaire mod Sverigedemokraterna af samme type, som i Belgien holder fascisterne i Vlaams Belang uden for indflydelse. Gid vi her i Danmark havde politikere med den samme form for rygrad overfor intolerancen i Dansk Folkepartis højreekstreme form.

Link: Even Sweden.

Karikaturkrisen og dens konsekvenser

Rune Engelbreth Larsen skriver om den gamle affære i det berømte amerikanske nyhedsbrev CounterPunch:

Among the most important and often overlooked elements in understanding why the Cartoon Crisis originated in Denmark and how it escalated into the biggest international crisis in the history of Danish foreign politics since World War II, are. 1) The increasing acceptance of demonizing and antagonistic rhetoric directed against Muslims in Danish mainstream politics and the media since the mid-1990’s. 2) The lack of diplomatic efforts by the Danish government to prevent the escalating crisis. 3) The stridently patronizing and arrogant approach of the Danish government and media towards ambassadors from Muslim countries as well as the deliberate misrepresentation of their intentions displayed by the then Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in October, November and December 2005.

Without these elements, an escalation of the crisis would have been highly unlikely, and the violent protests and riots seen in some Muslim countries four months after the publication of the cartoons would never have taken place. The whole affair would have most likely blown over before it became a global media phenomenon.

Gennemgangen er god at få forstand af, og det er godt (og mildest talt på tide) at en analyse af de grumsede indenrigspolitiske farvande her i Danmark kommer uden for landets grænser også. Hvordan kan et næsten helt homogent land gå i så voldsom, nationalistisk selvsving, at et højreekstremt politisk parti som Dansk Folkeparti kan anses for at være en normal del at det politiske billede?

Det kan i hvert fald få grimme konsekvenser, ikke mindst for os danskere – men, som Engelbreth påpeger, i netop dette tilfælde har dansk arrogance og Foghs lunkne, indenrigspolitisk beregning haft “held” til at gøre hele verden til et lidt dårligere sted at leve:

This so-called Muhammad Cartoon Controversy has succeeded in establishing a rift between Denmark and many ordinary Muslims worldwide, as well as providing a host of anti-Muslim movements in the West with ammunition in their proclaimed struggle for ‘freedom of speech’. A struggle which often seems to be nothing more than an excuse for the ‘right’ to demonize Muslims! At the same time radical Islamists have benefited from the cartoons by ‘proving’ that freedom of speech and other human rights serve to legalize blasphemous and Islamophobic hatespeech, whereas various types of anti-Semitism on the other hand are often considered serious offences.

Unfortunately, these double standards are the rule rather than the exception, enforcing an ongoing conflict that stimulates anti-Muslim tendencies in the West, as well as anti-Semitic and anti-Western tendencies in the Muslim world. In this way, the fundamental weakness of Danish diplomacy, coupled with a constant flow of anti-Muslim rhetoric and provocations in Denmark have played a key part in deepening the religious and ethnic rift that unfortunately dominates parts of the international political arena today.

Artiklen er også tilgængelig på Engelbreths egen engelsksprogede hjemmeside Panhumanism.

Blev kidnappet og forsøgte at slå igen: 86 år i fængsel

Prøv at forestille dig, at en dansker i Afghanistan bliver kidnappet af al-Qaeda. 5 år må han henslæbe i skumle og ubehagelige fangelejre, indtil han en skønne dag ser en chance: Han griber én af fangevogternes gevær og forsøger at skyde sig fri.

Ingen kommer noget til, men den afghanske regering griber nu ind og beslutter at statuere et eksempel: Danskeren stilles for retten, anklaget for mordforsøg. Dom. 86 års fængsel. Han anfører forgæves, at han i fem år har været kidnappet i strid med enhver international lovgivning og blot forsøgte at forsvare sig selv.

Ville en sådan dom være en sejr for det afghanske demokrati, et bevis for, at vi endelig har opnået det demokrati, vore soldater har kæmper for? Sådan vil alle nok ikke opfatte det.

Sådan er det heller ikke alle, der opfatter det, nu hvor en kvindelig pakistansk neurolog er dømt for det samme – godt nok ikke i det nye, demokratiske Afghanistan, men i det nye, demokratiske USA:

Siddiqui, 38, was convicted of attempted murder this year after shooting at US soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan in 2008 as she tried to escape from custody. Siddiqui claimed she had been abducted by US agents and held incommunicado in Afghanistan for five years. The case has drawn appeals from the Pakistani government for her release, and divided legal opinion.

Protesters took to the streets across Pakistan after the sentence, lighting fires and chanting anti-American slogans. The Jamaat-e-Islami religious party announced a national strike after weekly prayers. Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif said he was “saddened”‚ by the sentence; his brother Shahbaz, the chief minister of Punjab province, called the sentence a “crime against humanity”.

Siddiqui’s family in Karachi accused the US justice system of bias against Muslims. “This is the beginning of the greatest travesty of justice,” said her sister Fowzia, who has campaigned for the past two years. “My sister is going to come back. This is not her downfall. This is her victory.”

Although the FBI accused Siddiqui of supporting al-Qaida, she was not charged with terrorism. But prosecutors alleged that when she was arrested in Afghanistan two years ago she was found with instructions on how to assemble bombs and a list of New York city landmarks.

86 års fængsel. For at skyde op i luften efter at have været indespærret uden lv og dom  (det, vi andre kalder “kidnappet”) i fem år. Velbekomme d’herrer, som stadig tror på “krigen mod terror”.

Link: Pakistan neurocientist given 86 years for shooting at US agents

90 milliarder i underskud? Her er et palæ!

I år præsenterede VK regeringen det næsthøjeste underskud på statsfinanserne nogensinde. De ufinansierede skattelettelser og skattestoppet har givet et gigantisk underskud, der nu skal betales af børnefamilierne og de arbejdsløse.

De danske skatteydere må formentlig være helt paf, når regeringen nu giver én enkelt særdeles velstående børnefamilie på overførselindkomst, der i forvejen ejer et dusin slotte, et palæ til over 2-300 millioner kr(!!). Millioner der kunne bruges til at hjælpe de fattige der er blevet ramt af regeringens sparekniv og i de kommende år må smides fra hus og hjem.
Skam jer

EU-parlamentet vedtager anbefaling om at lukke for fildeleres Internet

En kniv i ryggen på borgernes rettigheder, skriver La Quadrature du Net i en pressemeddelelse:

This very repressive text is one more step in the entertainment industries’ crusade against their own public. The Members of the Parliament have failed to recognize that the measures called for in this non-legislative text profoundly undermine fundamental freedoms1. For the next steps, citizens must remain on their guard and should continue to inform their elected representatives about the lies of the industry, and the importance of the Internet for the future of our societies.

Private copyright police

In the end, the lobbying from the entertainment industries proved extremely powerful, as demonstrated by the nefarious influence of a few members of the ALDE group who helped rejecting alternative approaches and thereby paved the way for a call to ruthless enforcement2. Baseless studies3 and letters signed by dead or unknown movie producers, fake signatures4, or 7 years old singers5 were used among other deceptive techniques to get this vote, against the general interest of EU citizens.

“The Gallo report is an illustration of the will of the entertainment industry to try to impose private copyright police and justice of the Net6. Repressive schemes such as the “three strikes” policies and other Internet access restrictions –typified by the French HADOPI or the UK Digital Economy laws– negate fundamental rights, such as the right to a fair trial, the freedom of communication or the right to privacy. So far, they have also turned out to be a political and technical failure. Even if they are encouraged by the European Commission and the draft ACTA agreement, such measures giving investigation, evidence collection and sanction powers to private actors are not tolerable in democracies abiding by the rule of Law.” analyses Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson of the citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net.

“EU citizens must remain watchful and continue their essential work of informing their elected representatives about the crucial role that a free Internet plays for the future of our societies and an expanded creative economy. Only through civic engagement and democracy can the lies of the entertainment industries be rejected as such. Soon, elected representatives across Europe will realize that the crusade of these industries against their own public undermines the founding values of our democracies, and that it should be stopped by all means.” concludes Zimmermann.

Ole Wolf opsummerer konsekvenserne på dansk:

Når man tænker på, hvordan visse pladeselskabers lobbyisme har gjort grænsen mellem mistanke til dom temmelig tynd, skal der ikke meget til. Eller antag alternativt, at jeg ikke kan kontrollere, om mine børn deler filer, og således bliver dømt på grund af dem, fordi et passende indrettet juridisk system ikke finder det relevant at bære bevisbyrden.

Tredje gang risikerer jeg at miste internetforbindelsen. Det har EU-Parlamentet netop vedtaget mulighed for, selvfølgelig takket være de Konservative.

Det vil betyde:

  • At jeg ikke vil kunne være en del af “det digitale Danmark”, hvilket i praksis betyder fratagelse af en del borgerrettigheder.
  • At jeg ikke ville være i stand til at arbejde hjemmefra.
  • At også min familie, hvor min kone og vores to børn ikke har hver deres internetforbindelse, bliver afskåret fra kommunikation med det offentlige og således frataget borgerrettigheder.
  • At min kone ikke ville være i stand til at arbejde hjemmefra.
  • At mine børn ikke ville kunne logge på Elevintra og se, hvad de havde for af lektier.
  • At mine børn ville være afskåret fra de samme sociale netværk, som deres venner deltager i.

Der er indtil videre intet af dette, der er omsat til dansk lov, men det er umiddelbart helt usædvanligt dårlige perspektiver.