Last week (18.2.2017), President Trump made the following comment:
“You look at what’s happening,” he told his supporters. “We have got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany; you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?”
Immediately after, he was mocked by Carl Bildt, the former Swedish Prime Minister:
Others responded with ignorance, demonstrating Stockholm Syndrome, blatantly trying to cover up the underlying arguments that are almost 20 years old.
Nevertheless, President Trump was, once again, vindicated. He only got the timing wrong but the not the underlying facts. Days later riots broke out in Rinkeby, one of Stockholm’s Northwest suburbs. Even a Left Wing Journalist from one of Sweden’s leading papers was attacked. Ignorantly, Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton, linked those attacks to Trump’s statement. He was completely ignorant to the fact that no-go zones existed long before Trump’s Presidency.
President Trump actually did some good, speaking for the Swedes, unable to speak for themselves, suppressed by a religious cult-like political correctness, impressed by a secretive establishment.
The Video that the President watched the night before.
When I lived in Stockholm in 1999-2000, Rinkeby already had a reputation as a dangerous place, especially at night for young girls. I worked for Ericsson and I resided in Huseby (now a “no go zone”), close to Akalla and Rinkeby. My Indian ethnic origin gifted me with a chameleon-like a superpower, helping conceal my inner American. My appearance, depending on hairstyle and exposure, helps me blend in among Latinos, Arabs, Persians and even Africans when I shaved my head and spent some time in the sun. (You should see me in a beard! I can practically walk through tribal lands in Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria, virtually unnoticed.)
When I first arrived in Sweden, taking a software engineering position, I was so happy with what I saw: an efficient and balanced society that put a high value on health and well-being. So much so, I had a Swedish flag sewn on my backpack, displaying my new “nationality” proudly. I quickly found out American pride and a sense of belonging for newcomers does not translate to other societies.
- One Swede of Turkish origin told me that I would never be Swedish. He furthered that he was born in Sweden, went to the army, carried a Swedish passport, and worked as a subway driver, paying taxes for the past 20 years, and still was not Swedish.
- A more traditional looking Swede, sitting next to me on the metro, told me that he could never put a Swedish flag on his backpack. It would be considered racist. He told me that a brown person brandishing a Swedish flag would be considered confused, in need of a doctor, and not a patriot.
- Just about everyone I met at parties, after a lot of drinking and removed inhibitions, told me that I was not really American, even if I was born there.
Another irony I witnessed in Huseby, a mostly Iranian suburb, was that the young people, born in Sweden, could neither speak Farsi nor Swedish that well. Instead, they spoke a hybrid language only understood in the Stockholm suburbs. Many of those, which I befriended, told me they did not belong in either Iran or Sweden.
I reached a conclusion that Swedes are happy to bring people in, offering a place to live and a stipend. However, that is where it stops, failing to integrate and succeeding at stagnation. The phenomenon may further explain why you see so many ethnic doctors and scientists driving taxis. It almost felt like foreigners who could not stand yourself up and, moreover, did not want to, were more accepted than dark-skinned skilled immigrants with a strong work ethic, drive, and determination. The latter, we concluded among friends, were not a threat to establishment whereas we could be perceived as threating someone’s position. That goes to perhaps the core difference between American and European values. We always believed in abundance: plenty for everyone and the frontier. In Europe, the resources and frontiers are exhausted, making people think that in order for one to win, another must lose.
Therefore, Nordic society, to function properly, requires that “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” be disregarded. That is the only way “to keep everyone in place,” maintaining the status quo and balance.
That is how racism happens in Sweden: immigrants are just supposed to be happy. But not everyone can be happy with “lagom” (Swedish for just enough). It is looked down upon socially (but not banned), harboring aspirations to improve yourself: getting an education, finding a steady job and climbing the corporate ladder. In short, the Jantelagen (the philosophical basis of the social democracy) dictates something quite the opposite of the American dream: STFU and stay put!
Nevertheless, when reasonably intelligent people without a job and formal education start stirring for 12+ waking hours per day, nothing good usually happens. The one in four-hundred, possessing the IQ of a doctor, engineer, military leader or investment banker, but lacking in formal education and worldly experience, start to cook up schemes. More often than not, they exploit their own people.
Hence, the government and media instituted self-loathing on the native population, using white guilt as a premise, combined with the immigrant’s lack of identity, drives Sweden’s societal breakdown, not Donald Trump.
Sweden’s Suppression of Free Speech When Police Officer Peter Springare accurately stated the facts about perpetrators in a Facebook post, citing that they were mostly immigrants, the Government and mainstream media immediately branded him as a racist. Without even considering the facts, which the police veteran who served 47-years conveyed, could have been a cry for help, the Swedish Government assigned a special prosecutor.
While living in Huseby, I witnessed a fair amount of domestic violence and bar room brawls among the foreigners. Putting correctness over righteousness is having serious consequences. The Liberal Swedish government, in essence, are ignoring the people they are trying to protect.
Springare summarizes that thought: “If you cannot discuss the problem of crime among immigrants without somebody attributing it to racist propaganda, we are in deep trouble,” “The problem is that nobody wants to talk about this.”
Conclusions: Sweden’s once incredible wealth came from the fact they were untouched during World War II. Having all their industry intact, they were the winners in the rebuilding of Europe. SAAB, SKF, ABB, Volvo, Skanska and many other industrial companies were either born or grew substantially during reconstruction. Later this firms evolved into formidable global players. With the newfound wealth, they built a social welfare state to take care of their own people as well as other from abroad, fleeing war and oppression. Somewhere along the line, a perplexing culture evolved.
Life here is counterintuitive. Nordic countries, considered the most democratic, makes one think that they are ready to hear all points of view. It is far from the truth. People became uneasy and stressed very easily when talking about difficult topics, especially in a direct manner.
When one lives and works in Sweden, there is an obvious and unspoken tension beneath the polite surface. The prevailing social etiquette does not allow anyone to talk about obvious problems. A friend, who is also a female police officer, once told me that Swedish national identity depends on naivety and aloofness.
Economies are an extension of the individual people’s drive, ambition, soul, and spirit. Until the culture, built on sticking one’s head in the sand and listening to their own bluster, changes, it is all downhill. Let’s hope that President Trump calls more attention to these “elephants in the living room.”
Credit to Zero Hedge
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