OT: The "Sweden Incident"

Julian Barnes is known by the company he keeps.

Julian Barnes will endorse any right winger nutter matter how demented or implausible they may be. His enthusiasm for Donald Trump is a typical example.

If I had to choose between land mines and ISIS vs. pickled shark and 17 hours of night 6 months out of the year it frankly might be a tough call.

You demonstrate as much knowledge of the world as Trump himself...

Why would you expect to eat pickled shark in Sweden? Perhaps you are

herring with an extraordinarily powerful smell. Or maybe you are mixing

Both are popular in their homelands, and incomprehensible to most outsiders - but both are entirely optional.

And as for the daylight hours, Sweden covers approximately the same range of latitudes as Alaska, and has a similar range of day and night hours. Like the rest of the planet between the Arctic and Antarctic circles, daylight hours vary throughout the year with a minimum in the middle of winter, and a maximum in the middle of summer. Only the very northernmost part of Sweden (with a very low population density) is beyond the Arctic circle and has days without sun during the winter - compensated by an equal number of days without darkness during the summer.

People who actually have to deal with land mines and the so-called ISIS greatly prefer the safety of Sweden. But like most people who have to leave their country, they often miss their home country, language, people and culture.

Does that mean you don't believe Sweden is having any problems caused by the immigration of Afghans and Somalis, Syrians, Ethiopians, Iraqis, and Moroccans? Are you completely discounting the article?

Mikek

There's always that one guy at the party who wants to point-by-point demolish all the INCORRECT LOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS made in what anyone else recognizes as a joke.

Yes, they are having problems in some areas - but not nearly the level of problems suggested by right-wingers intent on exaggerating and giving one-sided views. Every country has its problems, and every country and every city is going to have its "worst" areas and "worst" groups. Usually, these are associated with the lowest income and with minority groups that have the hardest trouble fitting in with the rest of society. In Sweden, that currently happens to coincide with relatively recent immigration from some countries - but it has not always been that way, nor is it likely to always be that way. Sweden opened their doors to help people in trouble, and the vast majority of those who came are grateful for the help and do their best to lead good and law-abiding lives. A small percentage have become criminal, and are making life difficult for others.

What is completely wrong is the idea that this situation is related to religion, culture, or the particular country these people came from. The "new" criminals from Afghanistan, Iraq, etc., are not Muslims in anything but name and background - any more than "traditional" Swedish criminals are Christian. And if they were not there, the positions in the criminal underground would be taken by others - they compete with immigrant criminals from other parts of Europe and native Swedish criminals. Banning immigration or limiting it by country does not stop criminality.

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or implausible they may be. His enthusiasm for Donald Trump is a typical ex ample.

It's not the immigration that is causing the problems, but the occasional n ut-case amongst the immigrants. It's not as if Sweden doesn't have it own h ome grown nut-cases, but those nut-cases that look different do get a dispr oportionate amount of attention.

Stopping immigration and throwing out all the Muslims wouldn't make rape di sproportionately less frequent in Sweden - the rate of exposure to sexual o ffences doesn't seem to have changed much in recent years.

The number of sexual offenses that get reported to the police has gone up, but it's still a low - if rising - proportion of the offenses that seem to be taking place. The police are working on getting it higher, with some su ccess.

Yes. Right wing nationalist movements love making a fuss about about sexual offenses committed by immigrants, and they are happy to claim that there a re more going on than the official statistics suggest, and even happier to claim that the "real" rate is high, and that there's a conspiracy to concea l this.

It's rubbish, but it does seem to make Julian Barnes and Cursitor Doom happ y. There are markets for all kinds of sexual fantasies, and people willing to satisfy the demand.

PrisonPlanet does seem to be such an outlet.

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d or implausible they may be. His enthusiasm for Donald Trump is a typical example.

nut-case amongst the immigrants. It's not as if Sweden doesn't have it own home grown nut-cases, but those nut-cases that look different do get a dis proportionate amount of attention.

just keep repeating the naive idea the mass immigration from third world co untries doesn't cause problems, every time you do one more person considers voting for the far right and shaming people by calling them racist doesn't work when they are standing alone in the voting booth

Yes, Sweden now joins the tragedy of the Bowling Green Massacre!

That did happen, didn't it?

I mean Trumps people said it happened so it must be a media coverup!

What other possible explanation is there? Really!

Must have happened...

John

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d or implausible they may be. His enthusiasm for Donald Trump is a typical example.

nut-case amongst the immigrants. It's not as if Sweden doesn't have it own home grown nut-cases, but those nut-cases that look different do get a dis proportionate amount of attention.

disproportionately less frequent in Sweden - the rate of exposure to sexual offences doesn't seem to have changed much in recent years.

p, but it's still a low - if rising - proportion of the offenses that seem to be taking place. The police are working on getting it higher, with some success.

al offenses committed by immigrants, and they are happy to claim that there are more going on than the official statistics suggest, and even happier t o claim that the "real" rate is high, and that there's a conspiracy to conc eal this.

ppy. There are markets for all kinds of sexual fantasies, and people willin g to satisfy the demand.

The Swedish government is lying about their crime problem! The message all across Europe is clear, these so-called refugees are a MAJOR problem. They only migrate to the more liberal social democracies for the welfare benefit s, and every single one them starts breaking laws from day one. The native Europeans who live in these disaster areas know more about it than anybody, and all these countries are on the verge of electing white nationalist reg imes to get rid of the immigrants. Looks like Merkel and her ilk are just a bout finished, the idiot woman is ignoring the past 3,000 years of history. A few thousand people are an immigration, but when you get into the millio ns, it is an invasion.

Perhaps not, but it can certainly substantially reduce it.

Ha! I've just watched your favourite channel, CNN, and seen anchor Paul Newton 3 times immediately shut down Betsey McCaughey who defied the narrative and held up a copy of today's Daily Express which blew the lid off all the rapes, robberies and murders. They just don't like the truth. Well, I guess they wouldn't, being as they are by far the worst purveyors of FAKE NEWS in the Western World. Scum!

When you mock it, you are as complicit in the rapes and murders carried out by these Islamic thugs as the Islamic thugs themselves are. Proud of yourself?

You certainty reflects the fact that you read and believe lots of right-wing rubbish. It doesn't happen to be well-founded.

Explain or reference a site that explains.

Dan

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ted or implausible they may be. His enthusiasm for Donald Trump is a typica l example.

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al nut-case amongst the immigrants. It's not as if Sweden doesn't have it o wn home grown nut-cases, but those nut-cases that look different do get a d isproportionate amount of attention.

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Mass migration from third world countries would create problems. Even the l imited migrations that we are seeing at the moment are putting education sy stems under stress as they have to get the kids up to speed in a new langua ge (for the kids) and an unfamiliar culture.

You don't have to be racist to get worried by new neighbours who look unfam iliar and smell different, but the people who exploit that natural feeling of insecurity for electoral advantage aren't doing anything good for the s ociety they live in, though every last one of them will tell you otherwise.

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ted or implausible they may be. His enthusiasm for Donald Trump is a typica l example.

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al nut-case amongst the immigrants. It's not as if Sweden doesn't have it o wn home grown nut-cases, but those nut-cases that look different do get a d isproportionate amount of attention.

e disproportionately less frequent in Sweden - the rate of exposure to sexu al offences doesn't seem to have changed much in recent years.

up, but it's still a low - if rising - proportion of the offenses that see m to be taking place. The police are working on getting it higher, with som e success.

xual offenses committed by immigrants, and they are happy to claim that the re are more going on than the official statistics suggest, and even happier to claim that the "real" rate is high, and that there's a conspiracy to co nceal this.

happy. There are markets for all kinds of sexual fantasies, and people will ing to satisfy the demand.

l across Europe is clear, these so-called refugees are a MAJOR problem. The y only migrate to the more liberal social democracies for the welfare benef its, and every single one them starts breaking laws from day one.

They emmigrate to places where there isn't a war going on. They will take a dvantage of welfare benefits if there are any around, and create fewer prob lems for the places that they have moved to when they do.

Very few of them are criminals. Some of them may not know all the laws of t he place they have moved to, but none of them wants to get sent back to the place they came from, so they tend to be a bit more law-abiding than the l ocals.

than anybody, and all these countries are on the verge of electing white na tionalist regimes to get rid of the immigrants.

The nationalist populists are exploiting the situation as hard as they can. None of them seems likely to be able to form a majority government in thei r own right, and they aren't the kind of helpful and cooperative people who make good coalition partners.

ignoring the past 3,000 years of history.

Angela Merkel has a Ph.D. in astrophysics. She's one of the cleverer politi cians in German, and she does know exactly what the last 3,000 years of his tory has to tell her - which isn't much, in this context.

ons, it is an invasion.

If you look up the definition of the word "an invasion is a military offens ive".

The refugees flooding into Europe may look like a mass movement, but none o f them are armed. This kind of thing has been going on for most of recorded history. When the Huguenots found it a good idea to leave France for adjac ent countries they created problems, but nothing all that persistent. The J ews that fled pomgroms in Russia, and Nazi persecution in Germany were view ed as an inconvenience in the countries that took them in, but aren't now s een as any kind of subversive group.