The Swedish elections are underway, and voting ends this Sunday! Unlike Singapore, where the majority aren't very hyped up (or perhaps even unaware) about who gets a seat in the parliament, Swedes are actually rather passionate and concerned about who they're voting for. You can almost feel an undercurrent of electric tension pulsing through the city. It's amazing, because Swedes are generally very temperate creatures - if you can feel their emotions churning, something big is definitely up!
On my way to work today, I passed by approximately 15 police cars/trucks/motorcycles. That's more police seen in one day than in the past 8 months! Every corner I turned I saw the neon blue and yellow trucks, and for once I was really afraid of exceeding the speed limit. I thought - there must have been a bomb threat! But in peace-loving Sweden?? How could that be??
Well, it turns out that the leader of Sverigedemokraterna, a controversial political party who's against immigrants, had a speech at Sergelstorg just a few streets away from my office. So much hassle and bustle for one man! I later learnt that many people fear that Sverigedemokraterna would get enough votes to get a seat in the parliament, and that several appearances had already been canceled earlier this week because the audience got violent. So, the huge army of policemen weren't undeserved.
A quick line about the Sverigedemokraterna party - They started off on the same track as Hitler and the Nazis, have evolved since, but have kept their implacable opposition to immigration and multiculturalism.
It's interesting, though, how people possessively claim countries as their own. After all, someone had to first migrate here, right? Who gave us the right to say that 'this land is ours, and we have the right to buy/sell/rule it"?
Sometimes, in my daydreams, I think about the past where the Red Indian tribes would take whatever they needed - not more, not less. They took enough to sustain and survive, and whatever they took was later returned to the earth. They didn't claim more - that would take extra manpower to maintain and that simply didn't make sense. If there was a lack of food, they would share. The whole tribe was like one big family, one large corporation withOUT the politics.
But then the Whites came in, drawing territorial lines and introducing technology. Bargaining power came into place and the whole "just be self-sustaining" thing just went pfft! out of the window.
Sad, isn't it, how we've evolved? Technology was supposed to make life simpler and better, yet we now seem to have made life more complicated. We've come to think that we can do anything. And we've come to 'play God'.
We dictate, we rule, we create, we destroy. We want power. But, most of all, we want freedom. We want to overrule God's dominion over us, to be greater than God, to disprove God's existence.
Has our pride grown so great?
But then again, what if there's no God?
Photo courtesy flickr user Heinrock
Brilliant! It's a shame to see that technology and the concept of money bring people backwards.
ReplyDeleteNazi backgrounds aside, this controversial politician sure seems to have as many supporters as haters... And in a way I am envious of the liberty the Swedes have. Hopefully our countrymen can get the chance to make a difference too.
Yes, it's surprising isn't it, how controversial parties can create so much buzz, and actually gain supporters for the cause no matter how scary the cause!
ReplyDeleteBut yes, Sweden really offers a lot of freedom to the people, and it gives them the opportunity to go out and express themselves. Hopefully we, too, will one day be as liberal and accepting towards new views!