Jamendo's music player.
Enjoy Whiteyes' "La Plume Sans Elle", a beautiful contemporary piano album, licensed under Creative Commons, (cc)
while you are reading.
Because sharing is not stealing ;-)
(although someone would like it)
Enjoy Whiteyes' "La Plume Sans Elle", a beautiful contemporary piano album, licensed under Creative Commons, (cc)
while you are reading.
Because sharing is not stealing ;-)
(although someone would like it)
"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security,
deserve neither liberty or security"
Benjamin Franklin,
politician, inventor and Founding Father of the U.S.A.
deserve neither liberty or security"
Benjamin Franklin,
politician, inventor and Founding Father of the U.S.A.
I admire a lot Sweden.
They have probably the strongest social protection system around the world. They have great levels of social equity. Low unemployment, high GDP per capita. Medical attention, trial justice, transports, education are free or very cheap for everyone. High qualified jobs are a key of its economy.
They have a mixed capitalist economy, similar to Keynesian economics. The State Institutions are supposed to avoid the market failures: monopoly, oligopoly, collusion, monopolistic competition, inefficient allocation of resources, etc.
Their Fiscal Policy permits them financing great public programs.
I will talk about this with further detail another day.
Sweden celebrated an election on October 2006. These were the results:
- Social Democratic Party (SAP): 130 seats (37,25%)
- Moderate Party (M) : 97 seats (27,79%)
- Centre Party (C) : 29 seats (8,31%)
- Liberal People's Party (FP) : 28 seats (8,02%) Christian Democrats Party (KD) : 24 seats (6,88%)
- Left Party (V) : 22 seats (6,30%)
- Green Party (MP) : 19 seats (5,44%)
Government was set up by M+C+FP+KD with 178 seats (51%). We could say that it was a conservative government.
SAP, V, MP parties gained 171 seats (49%) at the Parliament.
Next election will be celebrated on 2010.
Let's notice the great number of parties in the Parliament and the balanced final results of the election. Some countries would be unstable with more than two great political parties or with a parliament so balanced.
Well. I admire a lot all those things. But not this: Swedish Government has passed a law which allows the Secret Service to spy to citizens without a judicial order.
United States and British paranoia —their citizens are gentle and wonderful people; but their last Governments are not— is spreading toward the continent.
And it hurts more if it happens in a country like Sweden, with its great civil rights tradition.
They want to keep... do you guess?: national security against terrorism, etc. Some people love this excuse nowadays. In the past centuries the favourite excuses were pirates, witches, Christianity in the Crusades, etc.
I am publishing soon a post where is demonstrated that spying to citizens doesn't work to find terrorist.
So they may explain why they are spying to the people.
The parties which are not in the Swedish Government have already said they are against that spying law.
Polls show a growing 56% population against that law. People are going to marches. Good luck and good work.
Are all we, citizens in democratic states, going toward a Soviet-like George Orwell's Big Brother?
The Swedish law is similar to U.S.' —their Government— abominable Patriot Act, which allows the N.S.A. (National Security Agency) to spy to citizens. They are going to get people afraid of being spied.
Cool.
It will get more anxious and distrustful individuals.
It will violate the innocence presumption. Freedom of press and its independence will be put in danger.
If we add to the aforementioned, things like the torpedo amendments against freedom in Internet —they will be voted in the E.P. at September— we could see that a Soviet-style totalitarianism is being built. If, some decades ago, the U.S.S.R. built it, now there are the U.S. in the West, the E.U. in the center and China in the East which are building it at the same time. We have examples in Saudi Arabia and my beloved Japan —with its indescribable JukiNet— too. It's oppressive.
The Big Brother. I don't know whether Orwell would have liked to see it. It's outrageous.
It's the same thing when they tell you, a pacific passenger of an airline, "Look, boy. We have to intimidate and humiliate you in order to guarantee your security".
We had a Police State here in Spain some decades ago. A lot of people still remember the fear to those who were supposed to protect them. By the way, in Police States there are crime and terrorism too. But they don't talk about it in the press.
The so called terrorists, revolutionaries, paramilitary, fascist or whatever must be laughing a lot.
I am not laughing.
If you destroy democracy, erase civil rights and liberties, then you are doing the terrorists' job. They do so.
Some dark strategists who pretend to be influential democrats —it is the script of our time... I wish they actually were it— keep their archaic spirits of feudal lords who use to wait for something bad happens patiently. And then, they erase quickly those laws that bothered to them with false pretexts. The terrorism is an special excuse now.
I would like to see the prize the Swedish citizens are giving to their present government in the 2010 election. The next government may countermand that law. That law attempts against civil rights and liberties. The Constitution and the International Treaties guarantee those rights and liberties. That law is absurd and harmful.
Our Military Dictatorship, here in Spain, in the 20th century and its Police State were an international shame. But we celebrated a judgment few months ago. That judgement has been an example to the world.
The government of U.S. and U.K. decided erase some rights and liberties when those mass murderers attacked them on 9-11 and 7-7.
They weakened their democracy. Paramilitary did it with bombs. The governments of those countries did it passing laws which violate civil and human rights and liberties.
Tortures in the concentration camps —they are— of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and Kandahar —the most famous ones. Cameras in the streets of London. Administrative detentions without charges, neither lawyers, nor judges —Patriot Act and the new laws approved by the Brown Administration in U.K. allow it. Isolation of the prisoners. International kidnappings of civilians by the C.I.A. The cruel and absurd shooting against Mr. Menezes in the subway of London. Espionage of telephone calls, e-mails and faxes. Anthropometric espionage with cameras in the airports. Humiliations of the passengers in those same ports.
It's shameful. It seems like the film "V for Vendetta".
After the attacks on 3-11, Spain did what a democratic country does.
Law enforcement work. Detentions. A fair judgement. The Supreme Court already has dictated the last sentences. The defendants were even recorded 24 h. in video to guarantee that they were not put under bad treatments nor tortures.
We did not need to take revenge nor torture to anybody. Criminals do. But democrats and free persons don't.
A truly free person is that who defends as much his or her freedom as the others' freedom.
Democracy should be defended through democratic procedures. By doing this, you solve the problems and empower the democratic system itself.
I often say Spanish Government may imitate to Swedish Government (Welfare System). Not this time. Dear Swedish rulers, let's imitate Spanish Government this time, please. It's better applying democratic procedures in order to solve the problems than erase rights and liberties and weaken democracy itself.
Sources: Own elaboration, story from El País , Wikipedia.
