Dreaming of Freedom

Week two of SFI passed uneventfully. It continues to be excellent although we can’t help but sit there letting about 70% of it wash over us as incompressible. It seems that usually someone or other understands what the teacher is saying and that manages to carry the class forward. It’s very interesting trying to learn a new language. I think I’m still in awe of myself trying and can’t quite believe I ever will. But nothing ventured, nothing gained…
Although it feels like a mountain to climb, it is an excellent excuse for reading kids books and last night I branched out into film and tried to watch Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking). Perhaps not surprisingly I could really only make out a couple of words!

It’s now turned icy cold here which is a relief after all that horrid rain. Braving the cold on Thursday night I took the ferry across to Lindholmen and met up with K and friends to watch Manufacturing Consent - a film all about Chomsky and seeing as it’s his 80th birthday coming up, we ate cake to celebrate. Although he is one of the leading intellectuals of the day and certainly has some of the best politics, I don’t think there is much in the way of films about him. I think this one is a good attempt to introduce people to ‘Chomsky the political activist’. Chomsky himself if somewhat ambivalent about the film, in part because he feels the medium of film is prone to heroizing. He says he regularly receives letters asking how people can ‘join his movement’, which is of course frustrating when he is just one person in a whole diverse sea of people working towards a better world. I think the fact that he is a professor at MIT, articulate, white and male gives him a certain credibility to begin with but also he is extremely hardworking and in the public eye and that in itself is going to lead to a certain amount of admiration. So while he isn’t the figurehead of any movement he is certainly able to analysis, collate and present evidence that is used to support anarchist interpretations of theories of power, propaganda and control - which is something that makes anyone read his work feel less isolated in their own interpretation of the world and more empowered to try and change it for the better.

On Friday after work I met up with Karin at Botaniska and walked around the wooded laked area behind it. It was cold but beautiful and the pearly white deposits of frozen water sparkled on the trees and the heather and the frozen ice shapes on the lakes and puddles made the world seem calmer and stiller. There was hardly anyone there and we spent a couple of hours wandering around and stiffening up in the cold before coming back to the flat for a well earned fika.

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Last night at 6pm I arrived in Gustav Adolf Torg to see the welcome sight of a bunch a cyclists with ‘bilfri stad’ tied onto their bikes. Accompanied by a handful of policemen in two vans they set off to cycle round the city in a peaceful celebration of cycling. This was my very first actual critical mass and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the whole thing was just so calm and relaxed. There was a real sense of ’safety in numbers’ which as you can imagine makes cycling seem ultra safe. I spent a very enjoyable hour cycling round with everyone, chatting to people and noticing how generally the drivers were quite respectful of our group.

I was in two minds about the Critical Mass because here in Sweden they actually have real cycle lanes with traffic lights that run over a significant part of the towns. This is something cyclists in England can only dream about. But after much thought it does seem that cyclists are still marginalized. In the face of serious climate change, cycling as a viable alternative to driving really needs to be taken seriously by town planners and significant provision needs to be made for cyclists. A Critical Mass certainly seems a good way for the individual cyclist to come together with other and feel less isolated and more normalized.

K videoed the Critical Mass yesterday and has created a video of the event.

Critical Mass Gothenburg:
Last Friday of the month
Gustav Adolf Torg
6pm

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So the war in the Middle East continues and every day we get bizarrely skewed reporting from the media. We shouldn’t be surprised. Our economic system, like the American system is heavily dependent on a state of permanent war. Chomsky has some interesting thing to say about the Pentagon Keynesian system. Post World War Two the government made a decision about whether to follow a course of social or military spending and the reason for pursuing the later was ‘just for straight power reasons’ because ‘military spending doesn’t redistribute wealth, it’s not democratizing, it doesn’t create popular constituencies or encourage people to get involved in decision making’. He makes the point that to argue for military spending to be turned into social spending doesn’t make any sense. Instead we have to totally restructure society and ‘create both a culture and an institutional structure in which public funds can be used for social needs, for human needs’. This of course threatens the very basis of the society as we know it. It argues that we can’t escape the war economy without establishing a truly democratic system of organization.

It’s not an argument that you hear as much as you should and to some extent it’s harder to deal with because you can only create a new social structure if everyone wants to create it together. It is however worth the reminder that the system we live within was deliberately designed to make us a passive and powerless population. As Chomsky says ‘any state, has a primary enemy: it’s own population’ and it is the effort to ‘keep the population quiescent, and obedient and passive‘ that means that governments use arms races or the threat of terrorism or war to ‘create global tension and a mood of fear‘ which allows ‘people to abandon their rights’ to the government in order to survive.

If you want to read Chomsky’s concise criticisms and analysis of American political, social and economic policies for yourself - I’d recommend Understanding Power The Indispensable Chomsky which is a collection of Chomsky’s comments from teach-ins and public talks held between 1989 and 1999. It’s edited by Peter R Mitchell and John Schoeffel and I’ve taken some quotes from the section entitled ‘The Permanent War Economy’, pages 70-74.

If you’d rather be out on the streets protesting, you could of course join the protest in Manchester on the 20th of September.

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I cycled down the river and over the bridge to Hisingen to have a look around. I cycled through the houses up to S.A.Hedlunds Park and Slätta Damm. It’s a lovely wild area - hills covered in trees and Slätta Damm is a lake covered in water lilies. The Swedes really know how to make parklands for people to use.

On another topic - tip of the hat to The Archers and the brilliant storyline of the swap club and other attempts to make the fictional village sustainable. What a great idea - we should all set up things like that - in fact people have but now it’s achieved global fame on the Archers maybe other people will jump on board the idea. On a similar note the Norwich Swap Shop is still going strong. Visit it on Gentleman’s Walk on the 8th of every month between 10 and 4, to swap some stuff or volunteer your time.

For other useful things in Norwich you could check out The Greenhouse.

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I’ve been spending yet more time in the Stadsmuseum and am looking forward to going back tomorrow. I’ve also had a look in the neo-classical Gustavi Cathedral which is breathtakingly decked out in gold and white, as well as the German Church on Norra Hamngatan. Museums and churches haven’t been my only taste of Swedish culture I’ve also been watching Sweden on the small screen including an Ingmar Bergman film (wild strawberries) and their beautiful wizz in the kitchen Leila Lindholm. Searching for the spirit of real culture I did attempt to go on Gothenburg’s Critical Mass this evening but sadly no-one else came.

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I’m currently watching the news about George Bush’s arrival at Downing Street and am disappointed but not surprised at the size of the anti-Bush/war/American foreign policy demonstration. According to the news the demonstrators are nowhere near Downing Street, instead held back by large police lines, and therefore unlikely to be seen or heard by Bush. A clear demonstration of (dare I say it) the lack of true democratic right to opinion in Britain.

It’s also sad to see how small the demonstrations have become over the last five years - I don’t think the numbers represent the amount of anger felt by people over the whole war charade nor the disappointment felt in the government. Many people are however confused about the situation as the reasons for war sold to them have changed every time one became an untenable lie. The success of ‘the great war sale’ has been down to that most effective weapon of all - namely the war propaganda pumped out by the media. Anyone in doubt about this should check out the work Media Lens have been doing.

Here in Sweden the war in the Middle East seems far away and I’ve been spending my days reading books by Bertrand Russell. The weather has turned again and it’s currently raining heavily. I’ve spent a very pleasant day baking cakes and other wholesome things. Yesterday K and I cycled with his friend up to Partille where we consumed pizza, non-alcoholic gooseberry pop and sweet Swedish strawberries.

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I can’t believe that Boris Johnson actually won the vote and is now Mayor of London. It’s probably going to be awful in London now - he’s scrap the congestion charge and do about a million other things that are anti-green, anti-social and anti ordinary people. Not that Ken Livingstone was the best thing ever - there are lots of problems in London - but at least there were some changes to do with transport in the city. In fact the council elections have been a huge fiasco with conservatives gaining seats. It’s as if everyone thinks there are only two parties to vote for. What sort of a democracy do they think it is? Luckily I harbor no illusions that Britain is actually a democracy anyway. I was pleased to see however that the Greens had gained some seats in Norwich - now that’s one city that taking climate change a little seriously. I’m not even going to mention the BNP and UKIP - what the hell is going on - why are people voting for parties that are little more that racist statements masquerading as manifestos? I guess it comes down to the rubbish the media pumps down the throats of people every day.

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After a Swedish breakfast of tiny strips of bacon and eggs (seems very English doesn’t it), Keyvan’s ever kindly friends drove us to our new flat. We’re going be staying here for a month and so far it seems very nice. It’s in a residential area not far from Slottsskogen (the huge park in Gothenburg) and the flat is lovely and very spacious. We dumped our very cool suitcases on wheels (the fascination hasn’t gone yet!) and went out to buy some bikes, so we can save on public transport costs and get healthy and fit. Though public transport is very good in the city in terms of being on time and there are both buses and trams to chose from. They’re not as new and clean as you might expect but they do their job of transporting people. Last night we bused it into the city because there were big celebrations. 30th April is a big celebration for the start of spring. We saw the carnival like procession - all the first year students from Charmers University make floats where they do their take on issues in society. Needless to say there were lots of men dressed as women and babies (any excuse). There was a good smattering of politics and several floats had gone for the theme of Guantanamo Bay, terrorism, corruption and suppressed protest.

Today is also special of course because it’s the 1st of May and a big workers celebration and we saw lines of demonstrators holding single red roses as trammed it into town. The leader of the Social Democrats was in town so I guess it was a big occasion. As it was a bank holiday shops closed early/didn’t open at all, so we didn’t have time to join the demonstration as we had to rush to the out of town bike shop which K had located as a cheap source of the efficient transport machine. We bought our bikes flat packed as there was a 2 week waiting list for assembly and K felt confident about his knowledge gained from his bike course. He is remarkably useful when it comes to bikes or computers. In fact he’s busy putting the bikes together so I’d better go and make him a cup of tea in a supportive like role. There are of course no kettles so we’re using a saucepan.

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K and I met up with Rojin yesterday and nipped round the National Gallery for a whistle-stop tour. We then wandered down the south bank towards the Tate Modern and I got to see the Globe Theatre for the first time. I can’t believe that it’s round the corner from the Tate Modern. We stopped in the Swan for tea and lemon drizzle cake and then walked further past Drakes’ Galleon and towards Southwark cathedral. We nipped into the closing market before heading back to Covent Garden and The Real Greek were we munched down some food and watched the road being dug up on Long Acre. Apart from having a lovely day it was sad seeing all the people sitting at the side of the streets out on the streets looking homeless and sad. I’ve found a site that looks kind of interesting and may help people who find themselves homeless.

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I was angered when Madonna of all people criticised London transport last week. She has also criticised the NHS in the past. I am not interested in ignorant rich people who think the roads, hospitals and other such useful things were invented purely for them but I am furious that they think they can comment on things they don’t even use. Just because she’s caught in a traffic jam she wants us all to feel sorry for her. Get out of your car that’s polluting the air for the rest of us and stop whinging. How dare she mention the congestion charge - she probably doesn’t even notice the money she spends on it and without the charge Central London would be horrendous. If we’re going to cut traffic and air pollution we all have to do our bit and we’re lucky in London to have such a good public transport system. I know that’s not without it’s problems and it certainly drives me crazy at times but at least we’ve got it and you really can live in London and not feel that you need a car. Ken Livingstone did a brilliant thing introducing it. Go Ken go!!

And as for criticising the NHS… since when do people with any money use the NHS? As far as I can tell there is one system for them that can’t pay and nice private hospitals for thems that can.

Oh it feels good to rant!

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