FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
Showing posts with label Rosengård. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rosengård. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Bad news on the #Sweden front: ​How that very disturbing news about violent crime in Sweden you probably didn't see or read about in the U.S. media yet affects me... I'm not going to Sweden and Iceland this week as I'd previously planned. :-( #Stockholm

Bad news on the Sweden front: How that very disturbing news about violent crime in Sweden you probably didn't see or read about in the U.S. media yet, affects me... I'm not going to Sweden and Iceland this week as I'd previously planned. :-(









So, a not-so-funny thing happened on my way to what I'd long thought was going to be the beginning of my 11-day trip to Sweden and Iceland... Tuesday.
As some of you might recall, for a few months, I was originally scheduled to be flying to beautiful Stockholm on Tuesday morning to FINALLY do some pretty exciting personal and professional things I've longed to do for years, details of which most of you know about from what I've previously written or talked with you about, often after many of you asked... per my last blog post, "Dave, why aren't you in Las Vegas?" :-(

The plan was to go visit now and still get back to South Florida in time to watch the Super Bowl on February 4th, though maybe landing at FLL just a few hours before the 6:30 PM kickoff.


A post shared by Icelandair (@icelandair) on







Emily Joy‏ @Emilyjsantos
Finally edited! Thank you @wow_air for taking us to one of the most beautiful places I've seen yet. @IcelandNatural. https://twitter.com/Emilyjsantos/status/838763143241285635
(You insiders reading this near me in South Florida know that I wanted very much to see and share all of this Icelandic beauty above, and in Sweden, with a very talented woman whom, herself, knows a thing or two about how to make a great drone video. Just a few weeks ago I thought there was at least a reasonable chance that she'd be coming along on my trip to Sweden and Iceland, that, if we'd taken it, I have no doubt would have been truly magical, with or without any Auroras and regardless of what sort of rough weather we encountered. Our first overseas trip together.

The trip would've allowed me/us to meet some amazing and super-talented and prominent tech, business people in Sweden whom I've tried to see and interview for quite a long time, who now want to meet and talk and maybe do some interviews that I'd put on YouTube, or weave into a podcast, ideas I pitched them many years ago. Plus, see some super-talented singers who are friends or acquanitances, actually perform. Was so psyched... but now, feeling a bit #distraught :-( )

Even more than I already did everyday before I made my various airline and hotel reservations last Fall, I've been reading the Swedish news media and popular Twitter feeds every day with deep and increasing concern, and not simply out of any concern for my many friends in Sweden.

Rather it's because of the increasing amount of not simply street crime, but violent crime that's been taking place in Sweden's cities and public places these days, a trend that has been spiking upwards for quite some time.
A fact that I have been writing about for many years on this blog, which writes about what's REALLY going on in Sweden more than any other blog or website in Florida, and probably among the most in the U.S., which is why the high caliber and sorts of people read this blog and Follow me on Twitter when I discuss the realities on the ground in Sweden, not the imaginary narrative so preferred by so many prominent current and former Swedish officials and members of the news media and Swedish establishment would prefer.

That disturbing trend and reality is perhaps best highlighted by the honest, forthright article from Sunday's Times of London. An article that pulls no punches, unlike most of what you read or hear about Sweden in the U.S. news media, which follows a familiar and tiresome narrative.
That is, on the rare times the U.S. media DOES mention Sweden.

The Sunday Times
Teens roam streets with rifles as crime swamps Sweden
The army may be called in to halt a gang surge in immigrant areas
Bojan Pancevski, Malmo
January 21 2018, 12:01am, The Sunday Times
The blast was so powerful that it shook windows a mile away. Ahmad’s first thought was that someone had thrown yet another bomb at the police.

He was right. On Wednesday night an explosive device was hurled at the police station in Rosengard, a troubled area of Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city.

Attacks on the police are increasingly frequent. Rosengard’s force works from a black fortress of reinforced concrete with narrow windows and a 10ft-high electric fence.

Read the rest of the article at:






























Tucker Carlson's interview with Hanif Ali starts at 1:52 
http://meritwager.nu/allmant/tucker-carlson-fox-news-america-is-not-the-only-country-where-its-leaders-boldly-lie-to-its-own-people-about-the-effects-of-that-immigration/


The worsening violent street crime and the Police's continuing inability to cope with it in any meaningful way, and the possibility that the Swedish Army will be soon be mobilized and patroling certain cities, is just one of the reasons that I recently decided to postpone the trip to Sweden and
Iceland that I'd first made reservations for last Fall, and aim instead for sometime this coming Spring or Summer. No specific makeup dates YET.

I made this decision even though experience tells me that it'll be much more expensive to fly then and to stay at a nice property that I stayed at on my last trip to Stockholm, a place in the Norrmalm neighborhood that could not have possibly been more convenient to all the places I needed to go to, plus, its proximity to Central Station, aka T-Centralen, Stockholm's enormous main local T-Bana and commuter train, and bus terminal that is, quite literally, the heart of the city AND the country. 
Less than a ten minute walk away! 

Actually closer than my current home on Fillmore Street & US-1 in Hollywood is to one of my favorite places, Chocolada Bakery & Cafe on Hollywood Blvd., where I had breakfast on Sunday morning with my friend and fellow Broward County civic activist, Csaba Kulin.as we discussed what's going on in Hallandale Beach and Broward County. 


Can't leave Chocolada on weekends without the traditional post-breakfast cookies with my last cup of coffee... my notebook at the ready.
And when I say expensive I mean expensive in a city that's already among the most expensive cities in the world to travel to and stay in, though slightly cheaper for Americans today than when I last visited and was able to stay in the #1 B&B in all of Stockholm according to TripAdvisor. 
Last time, a Subway sub, a can of Coke and a small bag of chips = over $15.

Expensive, that is unless I re-start some negotiations with some aspiring blog advertisers like a few airlines, hotel and travel companies which Follow me, to help out a bit, or maybe even comp me and a very special and attractive, photo-shooting +1, as I was close to getting done a few months ago, just before, well, you know...
After which, I knew I'd be going solo. :-(

Going to Sweden and Iceland months from now would make Aurora-watching all-but-impossible, no matter how far north I go, even north of the Arctic Circle, to Kiruna, home of Mia Stålnacke, aka @AngryTheInchMia https://www.instagram.com/angrytheinch/
Watch this amazing real-time Aurora video that Mia shot in Kiruna Saturday night with a Sony a7, all while walking her dog, Tellus.


The quite disturbing news two weeks ago about a Swedish man being killed by a hand grenade near a Stockholm subway station did not exactly go un-noticed by Swedes, despite how quickly -and desperately- the Swedish news meda tried to bury the story within just hours, as if the New Normal 
in Sweden extended to not being surprised that innocent people could sometimes be killed by hand grenades while minding their own business.

Things being what they are in Sweden right now, and my own situation here being what it is, the decision to forego the trip now and wait a few more months was an easy one to make.

Still, I was really, really looking forward to getting out of South Florida for awhile and be back in acountry and a city that I positively love:

Jag älskar Stockholm -  ST❤️CKHOLM

Hej #STHLM, jag saknar dig, hejdå. So wish I was there RIGHT NOW!



On a positive note, the amazing, adorable and super-talented Cecilia Nilsson, a.k.a. Cilia, whom I have followed so very closely for years because I know her mentor and manager, Andreas, dropped her new single "Myself and I" last Friday. 
I've only listened to it fifty times so far...
A post shared by Cilia (@cilianilsson) on


Obviously, I'm biased, but I think it's very #catchy! 





Let me know what you think about the song, good or bad.
I'll likely be communicating with her later this week.

I'd been hoping for months that Cissi and I would be able to meet in the coming days in the downtown Stockholm area, just a few feet from the area where Stockholm Fashion Week takes place every year at Kungsträdgården -King's garden- one of the key places that Stockholm meets to clebrate and mourn.
I'd joked with her many weeks ago about the possibility of us going to the Kungsträdgården ice skating rink nearby that has an imposing statue of King Charles XIII looming over everyone on their skates.







A post shared by Kenneth Joe Oquendo Uy (@xzebryx2000) on

The Royal Swedish Opera House is nearby, too!
January 5, 2020 Update: happened to come across this video on Instagram and wanted to include it here so you could get an idea of what the area is like.

  
74,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631">
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A post shared by Elena Valero (@elenvalero) on
  








My brilliant idea, one that I hadn't shared with Cissi yet because I wanted it to be a complete surprise, was to try to persuade the skating rink attendant the day before I met her, to play some of Cissi's songs on the rink PA system when we were there the following day, especially when influential people from the nearby fashion shows would be outside, in-between shows and at lunch, at one of my favorite places in a city that I absolutely love and adore.

Perhaps even play... yes, a song that would be recognized by most of the people there, "Silhouettes in Slow Motion," her popular 2016 song that Volvo had the good sense to use last year in commercials to promote some amazing features in their new models in Sweden -and elsewhere- which was, obviously, promotion-wise a real coup for her. I mean it's VOLVO! 



Volvo Cars Connectivity "Weekenders" from Life in the City on Vimeo.
Master. Produced & directed by Karl-Johan Larsson, Life in the city AB
Song: Cilia Silhouettes in Slow Motion. All rights reserved 2016- okt 2017
https://t.co/VluyMDVfdy

I was really looking forward to seeing what everyone's reaction would be, which I thought would be priceless, but now, that's off the agenda, too, which is a damn shame because it would have been great fun to see Cissi's reaction to my little surprise. :-(

As far as thngs locally go, since I'll be in the area and not in Europe for the next few weeks, unless something crazy happens, I'll likely be attending the upcoming Hollywood and Hallandale Beach City Commission and CRA meetings with something approaching the regularity that most everyone came to take for granted for years.
That includes next Monday evening's meeting in Hallandale Beach, which you should try to get there early for because of what's likely to take place: history.

There's certainly plenty of controversial issues to talk about in both cities regarding what is -and isn't happening- from my perspective. I'm seeing lots and lots of apathy and unwhelming effort with respect to public engagement these days, which will be reflected in my upcoming posts in this space.
Also, I may even hit some Hollywood Chamber of Commerce meetings and events, which I haven't done in a while, so if you see me at one of their events, don't be a stranger -come over and say hello!












Dave


Blog: Hallandale Beach Blog: 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hbbtruth/ 
Snapchat: SoBeHoosier

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Monday, September 17, 2012

re Fouad Ajami's Washington Post essay: Why is the Muslim world so easily offended?; What Muslim "moderates"?; Målmo as the European canary-in-the-coal-mine doesn't auger well for the success of Muslim "moderates" or assimilation efforts; #MUSLIMRAGE


IkoIko video: A 2006 Fox News Channel segment by reporter Steve Harrigan on immigration strife in Sweden and ethnic violence caused in the Rosengård area of Målmo by Muslim immigrants. Uploaded April 17, 2006. http://youtu.be/whWgCOE56K8

 Despite all the changes that have taken place since it first came out, Prof. Fouad Ajami's 1982 book, The Arab Predicament, which I first read in school, still remains a go-to
book for those who need to make sense of the current Mid-East reality and how we got to this point, for better and worse, as well as an insightful look at Arab sensitivities and sensibilities (and ultra-sensitivities) to being seen as the outlier. My comments follow the essay.

The Washington Post
Why is the Muslim world so easily offended?
By Fouad Ajami
Published: September 14, 2012
Modernity requires the willingness to be offended. And as anti-American violence across the Middle East and beyond shows, that willingness is something the Arab world, the heartland of Islam, still lacks.
Time and again in recent years, as the outside world has battered the walls of Muslim lands and as Muslims have left their places of birth in search of greater opportunities in the Western world, modernity — with its sometimes distasteful but ultimately benign criticism of Islam — has sparked fatal protests. To understand why violence keeps erupting and to seek to prevent it, we must discern what fuels this sense of grievance.

Responses to the Ajami essay, which I sent out via email early on Saturday evening, consisted largely of "Maybe because the lunatic religious fanatics are running the show?" and even a link to Google Maps of the Middle East and questions about where are those Moderate Muslims that the Mainstream Media so adores, anyway?
Where are they hiding, exactly?

Well, actually, they're not hiding, per se, rather it's just that a disproportionate number of them live far from the field of battle and the negotiating table, living as so many of them do in New York, London, Paris and Berlin among many other places, which is why reporters there have no problem finding them - THERE.

 This, of course, is a self-fulfilling prophecy in a sense in that having so many educated "moderates" in Western cities -a problem the MSM never sees or brings up- means that there's less actual resistance to tenets of radicalism in those countries.
Radicalism fills the vacuum, not reasonableness.

 As for the rest of his essay, I do have an important correction for those of you who will perhaps not see it yourselves, and it actually touches on a subject that I've been wanting to write about and update since my last post on it, which netted me many interesting emails, though not all positive, since there's always someone who prefers butt-kissing to honesty.

 In the middle of his essay, Prof. Ajami says something that with just a slight bit of word substitution could just as easily be said is true of large swaths of current-day Miami, "You can live in Stockholm and be sustained by a diet of al-Jazeera television."
(Just substitute "Spanish-language programming"for al-Jazeera.)

While that is factually true about Stockholm as much as it is true of dozens of other large and dynamic Western cities, as I've stated previously here on the blog, a better yet more troubling example of what he speaks about is in Målmo, on Sweden's west coast, opposite Denmark's capital, Copenhagen.

 See my January 6, 2011 post titled, Uh-oh! Upcoming BBC World Service 'Open Eyes' segment on racial tensions in Malmö. Hmm-m...; Swedish immigration policy costs borne by local residents

Unfortunately for Målmo, owing to both past immigration patterns, geography, and familial ties, it's now home to not only an area that soon will be 50% Muslim, but also home to a large percentage of Muslim immigrants in the Rosengård area who, in many cases, make little effort to even try to assimilate Swedish values and norms.
No, Malmö, despite an avalanche of internal and external Political Correctness regularly sprinkled on the city and its inhabitants by a very PC and often patronizing national and European news media, is also the home to what all reasonable parties acknowledge is a very big long-term problem: a large percentage of all the Muslim immigrants in Sweden who fail to fully appreciate Sweden's freedoms, liberties and culture and incorporate that into their daily lives, people who actively fight assimilation, live right there. 

And many of the people who don't feel they should need to change are cocky and uncivil and don't care what you think about them being so publicly ungrateful.
And they aren't afraid of using violence, either, as the video at the top makes clear.

 When you attack firemen trying to put out a fire in YOUR neighborhood... you DON'T get the benefit of the doubt.


 But it's a lot more than just a PR problem to be solved, since the things that have happened there the past ten years have ranged from very negative to extremely dangerous and even deadly, and have been well-documented by the Swedish news media.
Everyone knows what has happened there.
Because of this extensive coverage, the rest of the country has largely started to develop negative feelings about Målmo as a whole because of what they view, essentially, as a policy of appeasement.

No, even worse from the point of view of Swedes who don't like what they see with a small but not insignificant number of immigrants taking advantage of their good nature and willingness to help, they see far too many people who won't even pretend that they're trying to assimilate, which, if you didn't know, is the one thing that educated Swedes of all political persuasions DO rather INSIST upon -immigrants actually trying to assimilate.

 And that includes learning enough Swedish to at least get by, not consciously going out of your way to cause offense by intentionally NOT speaking Swedish in public or govt. interactions, just to make others uncomfortable.

That tension and anger felt by a majority of Swedes is largely due to not only the natural resentment of knowing that you're being taken advantage of by others, but also, frankly,  knowing for a fact that there are many more would-be immigrants in other countries who would only be too happy to do what little is expected of them if they could legally move to Sweden.
People who'd be happy to try their best to fit in without having to be asked or reminded, and who would contribute something positive to society.
That's who they want more of!


There are some positive things going on in Rosengård, thanks to the hard work of some very dedicated people who want to show Sweden and the rest of the world that there are lots of immigrants who are, indeed, grateful for their new lives in Sweden, and the myriad opportunities that they and their families now have.

 No, not every immigrant has a chip on their shoulder -or a rock in their hand.
Some DO take pride in their area, and are well-adjusted, including the kids shown in this mittomrade video, which got posted to YouTube last week.


mittomrade video: Sophästen på Rosengård. Ivan Varga of "Ivan's Wagon Trail" and his horse, Bango, paid a trip recently to the Rosengård area of Malmö and proved an instant hit. Uploaded September 14, 2012. http://youtu.be/gAw1r4DJ_6Y

http://www.mittomrade.nu
http://www.aventyrsarken.se/


I didn't mention it before but among the many aspects of the failed immigration policy that causes people heartburn is the not-insignificant matter of all that taxpayer money being spent on all these social programs and activities, which contrary to what you may think in the U.S., actually comes more from local government, not from the national government.
Which means that something locally that might've done some good, was not funded because something for immigrants was. 

 A majority of people in Sweden feel that thru not only their words and actions but also thru their willingness to put their money where their mouths are, and bankroll a humanitarian process that makes it easy for newcomers to become part of the dynamic modern world that is Team Sweden, they don't think it's unreasonable for the newcomers to act more civilized and think before acting, not throw-down at the smallest sign of a slight, like where they came from.

 Taxpayers feel like they've shown their good intentions, and think it's not unreasonable for more immigrants to show more effort and gratitude, NOT act like they're still living in their old Mid-East country, and act publicly and privately in ways that are contrary to Sweden's customs and culture.

Yes, unfortunately for the people of Malmö, many Muslim immigrants in their part of the country have really mastered the art of bending-over-backwards to be seen publicly as the sullen "other," the outlier, and to get media attention for that.
The foreigner who publicly takes advantage of Swedish hospitality and who won't get with the program.
Is it because that's how they really feel, or because they thought they could get away with it and know that it gets them more attention? 
Probably both, but then the outlier never tells, do they?

 The thing is, despite all their democratic freedoms, Sweden, like Japan, is a consensus-driven and still-largely homogeneous country, and one that does NOT like people trying to consciously go against the grain and undermine Swedish society or customs simply for the sake of doing so; as opposed to doing so because of some larger, well-intentioned principle or policy.

 You can be a thirty-SOMETHING college-educated female that thinks that teenage girls in Sweden vying to be selected as the Lucia in their hometown, school or church is pretty silly in the 21st Century, and write about it on your too-cool-for-school political or fashion blog.
But that's very different than verbally attacking the teenage girls in public, or you publicly saying that the tradition should stop merely because you and your hip pals are not enthusiastic about it.






The photos above are December 13, 2010 screenshots I took of Amanda Römmesmo Diaz (as Lucia) from the 7 a.m. St. Lucia concert at Kungsholms Church in Stockholm that was nationally broadcast LIVE by SVT -and to me here in South Florida via SVT Play- in an event that was officially titled, Luciamorgon i Kungsholms kyrka. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
Nobody is forcing you or your hung-over pals to get up early on December 13th and watch the national TV broadcast of the candlelight and music ceremony from some well-known church,  while you all sit on your sofa thinking and saying disparaging thoughts about people you don't even know, while eating hot crossed buns or cold pizza pulled from the fridge.
Sleep-in, it's all the same to everyone else
It's freedom of choice.

But denying others the choice to make their own personal decisions, well, that's the problem in a nutshell isn't it for the Muslim in Muslim-dominated countries today?
He or she is part of a religious culture that continues to deny personal choices and freedoms and micro-manage all aspects of someone's life.

That sort of attitude is anathema to most Swedes, who, thanks to several well-chronicled exploits of several Muslim troublemakers, have in many cases largely given up on the idea that most future Muslim immigrants will do the right thing and assimilate.
Which, logically, is why some ask, Why not just turn off the faucet to the Middle East?

 -----
Meanwhile, over at Romesnsko.com...

 NEWSWEEK’S #MUSLIMRAGE = BIG #FAIL
http://jimromenesko.com/2012/09/17/newsweeks-muslimrage-big-fail/ 
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