Dreaming of Freedom

I see things have not really improved in Gaza. I’ve just been reading something Mark Steel wrote that is worth a look. Meanwhile Obama shows that he’s just the same as his predecessors - not a big surprise there then.

There are protests outside the Israeli Embassy every night while this continues and there are plans to have them outside the Egyptian Embassy while Egypt refuses to open it’s borders.

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A very pleasant Christmas spent with family and food. We’ve eaten, sampled the Swedish glögg and wandered the frosty forests and sheets trying to burn off the excess.
I was somewhat saddened today to learn that over the weekend Israel bombed Gaza and killed more than 280 people and injured many more. According to the NY times Israel has threatened to “deepen and broaden its actions as needed”. Indymedia comments that while most governments have condemned the attacks - the US and UK have refused to take such action. What a mess the whole thing is - how can a state justify attacking one of the poorest regions in the world?
What can I say? Well I guess I could quote Chomsky in an interview with Kaveh Afrasiabi.

“Israel certainly has a right to defend itself, but no state has the right to “defend” occupied territories. When the World Court condemned Israel’s “separation wall,” even a US Justice, Judge Buergenthal, declared that any part of it built to defend Israeli settlements is “ipso facto in violation of international humanitarian law,” because the settlements themselves are illegal.”

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While the ‘first credit crunch riots’ in Greece, and ‘mobs causing violent scenes in Italy, Spain, Russia, Denmark and Turkey’ dotted web news this week - life in Sweden continues to be peaceful. The recession seems to be hitting hard at the poorest members of society - so perhaps we will see more of this upheaval in the next year. Let’s hope that something constructive and new comes out of it - perhaps an economic system focused holistically on creating a pleasant world rather than one based on idea that everything is a commodity and continual profit can be made. I’m pretty sure if we reconstructed the ‘way we do business’ we could make real inroads in stopping climate change, creating something more akin to an equal society, as well as actually working to fulfill human needs rather than creating more of them. Ahh… dreaming of a better world.

It was gratifying to find out that the founder of Lush financially supports climate change protesters. Although sad that he himself didn’t just get out there and do something himself rather than allowing other people to build up criminal records for themselves. Perhaps he could look into investing some of that money into more viable forms of transport…

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It’s been a whirlwind week of work and St Lucia celebrations. Sweden is crazy about the festival and churches are full of small children dressed up as St Lucia in white dresses with red sashes. Large companies have their own candle lit processions and everyone is really up for celebrating it even if they are a little hazy on the origins. It’s like Guy Fawkes Night/Bonfire Night in England or Halloween in America. The costumes associated with the celebrations are the Lucia dress, sash and candle, or white dress and pointed cone shaped hat with stars on it, a gingerbread man costume, or a Christmas costume of red and white. It’s a calm sort of festival, the St Lucia song is beautiful and gentle and so it’s quite nice to have this celebration in the build up to The Holidays.

Apart from the obvious excitement at discovering Gingerbread Men costumes for the first time - other highlights of my week included a fika with Karin, the book club meeting and a Sue Townsend book. And in ‘other news’ - Keita and Mike sadly left us to return to England; Gothenburg is lit up with Xmas lights and cheered by buskers; and although it’s a bit cold there hasn’t been any ice all week so cycling is still nice and easy.

Although it’s dark outside and I’d rather curl up with P G Wodehouse I’m just about to go out to see an exhibition of work by first year students on the C:Art:Media course here. The work is exhibited at the Rotor Gallery at Valand School of Fine Arts, and will, I’m sure, be very interesting.

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I now have new rainproof gloves. I believe they are also windproof and they are certainly extremely warm. They have clearly been designed to go with an astronaut suit so they have the added value of inflexibility and hugeness. Now I will cycle in more comfort than ever.

I have been spending some quality geek time making up spreadsheets to record my working hours and to calculate the huge 33% tax they will extract from me. It’s nice to make a spreadsheet to record income rather than expenditure. There’s nothing like a spreadsheet to make you feel you have a grip on life.

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Keita and Mike arrived yesterday and bravely accepted the drizzling wet Gothenburg as a nice city. It’s not the best time of the year to see the place but native Göteborgians tell me that it rarely snows here and rain and wind are to be expected all through winter so I guess everyone who visits me is going to have to bravely accept it too.
After taking them to our newly polished flat and dropping bags off, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch and later, after a cat nap, we took them to Stars and Bars for a typical Swedish afterwork. I am sadly not a fan of the popular afterwork places - it’s something about the the outdoor queuing system and the jostling crowds inside that put me off. If I’m going to have a plate of food and a drink between 5 and 7 on a Friday night, then I like to have a seat to go with it. Stars and Bars offers such luxury and also does a glass of wine for a mere 29 kroners which by Swedish standards is cheap.

Today it is somewhat misty and damp but we will not be put off attending the Climate Change demonstration in Jarntorget at 12 noon today.

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I ventured onto Facebook yesterday for some spurious reason and was shocked at the number of adverts crowding up my page. As you all know I am not a fan of Facebook. I do not like such a huge data collection activity. I especially do not like it that people voluntarily assist in said huge date collection activity. I do not like the initial funding behind Facebook that made it so well known and well used. I do not like any of the attempts they make to sneak advertising into the whole caboodle. Nor do I like to see adverts on my Facebook page. I do not like the fact I even have a Facebook page but I like everyone else has been drawn in by the promises of keeping in touch with a whole host of people. I try never to use it and have attempted to disable everything except my email so people can really contact me.

I could rant on like this for a while but I will spare you. If you hate to see adverts on webpages then think about installing adblock plus on your computer. I am now using EasyList, EasyElement and EasyPrivacy and the web is now a much better place. If you are new to all this then you need to:
1. Install Mozilla FireFox (if you don’t have it already)
2. Install Adblock Plus
3. Add EasyList, EasyElement and EasyPrivacy to Adblock Plus (ABP)

There are alternatives for other browsers but I must confess I haven’t used them.

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