Sweden riots expose ugly side of 'Nordic model'
Thu, May 23 10:21 AM EDT
1 of 2
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The scene of Sweden's worst riots in years, Husby is on the surface at least a typically neat suburb of colorful playgrounds, manicured parks and low rise apartment buildings.
Conversations with residents of this immigrant neighborhood soon bring tales of fruitless job hunts, police harassment, racial taunts and a feeling of living at the margins that are at odds with Sweden's reputation for openness and tolerance.
Riots that began in Husby have spread across Stockholm over the last four nights in scenes reminiscent of London in 2011 and Paris in 2005 - outbursts with their roots in segregation, neglect and poverty. The Swedish model of welfare - such as its 480 days of parental leave for each child - hides another side.
Some 15 percent of the population is foreign born, the highest in the Nordic region. The rise of the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats party, which has called for a curfew in response to the violence, has polarized Swedes.
Metros and trains out of Stockholm center late at night are full of exhausted-looking Arabic or Spanish speaking immigrants returning home from menial jobs. Even second generation immigrants struggle to find white collar employment.
As one Asian diplomat puts it: "On the one hand Sweden has all these immigrants. On the other hand, where are they? It sometimes seems they are mostly selling hotdogs."
In a further illustration of two very different worlds, the first riot happened as many Swedes celebrated winning the world ice hockey championship. Most immigrants play football - it is a common refrain that ice hockey kits are too expensive.
"The worst vandalism is not what we've experienced in recent days," said community leader Arne Johansson at a protest rally in Husby. "It is the creeping, slow vandalism that this rightist government has exposed us to over the past seven years."
Seven years of center-right Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt - who has labeled the rioters hooligans - have lowered taxes and reduced state benefits. That has helped economic growth outpace most of Europe but Sweden also has the fastest growing inequality of any OECD nation.
Professor of criminology at Stockholm University Jerzy Sarnecki said society has become much more segregated, with a large, poor immigrant population living in areas of major cities where unemployment is dramatically higher than elsewhere.
Polls show a majority of Swedes still welcome immigration. Sweden has a reputation for treating new arrivals well - providing housing, Swedish lessons and allowing asylum seekers to live with relatives.
But the consensus is increasingly frayed.
"Those who, for whatever reason, don't have work have not taken part in the general rise in prosperity," said Ulf Bjereld, political science professor at Gothenburg University.
One recent government study showed up to a third of young people between 16-29 in some of the most deprived areas of Sweden's big cities neither study nor have a job.
Sweden received 43,900 asylum seekers in 2012, a nearly 50 percent jump from 2011 and the second highest on record. Nearly half were from Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. Many native Swedes worry welfare could become unaffordable if the trend continues.
Asylum seekers, in the short term, add a fiscal burden on the welfare state. OECD data show foreign-born unemployed rates, at 16 percent, compared with 6 percent for native Swedes. Sweden needs high employment levels to pay for its extensive welfare.
ANGRY, YOUNG MEN
The riots appeared organized. Cars were set alight near pedestrian bridges and youths hurled stones when police and emergency services arrived at the scene.
Witnesses said heavy handed policing made the situation worse. Locals in Husby said they were taunted by police who shouted "ape".
"In the beginning it was just a bit of fun," said one young man in his early 20s who did not wish to be named. He was one of a Husby group of 30-40 youths that battled with police.
"But then when I saw the police charging through here with batons, pushing women and children out of the way and swinging their batons, I got so damned angry."
Police, who have called the rioters youth gangs and criminals, said accusations against the police were being investigated.
In interviews with youths in Husby, most were unemployed or interns. Many said they were bounced around intern schemes, seldom being offered full-time work, fostering resentment.
Local youths believe their Husby address is in part to blame for their lack of success. If they are lucky enough to be called to a job interview, many say they come from neighboring Kista - an IT hub symbolizing Sweden's more modern, global image.
Many complained a conviction for a small amount of cannabis might stay on a teenager's record for ten years, ruining job chances.
Stockholm has suffered riots and burning of cars before in recent years, although most fizzle out after one night. Other cities in the Nordic country have also experienced unrest.
Five years ago in Malmo, which has one of Sweden's biggest immigrant populations, local youths threw home-made bombs and attacked emergency services to protest a police eviction.
In Husby, the shooting of a suspected machete wielding man by police earlier in the month was the spark. Local people - around 80 pct of whom have immigrant backgrounds - organized a peaceful protest for which more than 100 people turned up.
But their call for an inquiry into the death of the 69-year-old fell on deaf ears. Plugged in young locals complained about racist insults on Twitter, feeding anger.
"Young people wound each other up and started a small fire," said Nefel, a beautician in her 20s. "I saw how the police came and treated them. I was in shock."
"I was there and saw it happen. I wasn't struck, but I did have a dog come at me. A police dog isn't a nice little puppy."
On the streets, resentment shows no signs of ebbing.
"My daughter comes home from school and says the kids say they can't play with her because she's dark," said Maria Petersson, a 39 year old Ethiopan-born nurse. "I am both Ethiopian and Swedish but I will never be considered Swedish by the Swedes. To them, I am just another immigrant."
Well if the foreign born trash (most Muslims) do not like it they should go back to where they came from. If they continue to riot and cause damage then shoot them or beat them then deport them.
ReplyDeleteAmazingly that these foreigners are making all these demands that cost the citizens and not them. Shows them for what they are - trash that should be discarded. They add nothing to the country as they only take --- sounds so familiar...
Your benevolence and Christian demeanor contributes so much.
DeleteYes, yes it does and thank you for noticing.
DeleteStretched by riots, Swedish police call reinforcements
ReplyDeleteinShare
1
Share this
Email
Print
Related News
Sweden riots expose ugly side of 'Nordic model'
Thu, May 23 2013
Stockholm riots challenge image of happy, generous state
Wed, May 22 2013
Sweden's capital hit by worst riots in years
Wed, May 22 2013
Swedish police find drugs on Justin Bieber bus, no suspects
Thu, Apr 25 2013
Analysis & Opinion
Scrambling for the immigrant elite
Counterparties: Bipartisan disagreements
Related Topics
World »
Related Video
More damage from Swedish riots
2:56am EDT
Stockholm riots fuelled by inequality
By Ilze Filks and Mia Shanley
STOCKHOLM | Fri May 24, 2013 12:58pm EDT
(Reuters) - Police in Stockholm called in reinforcements on Friday after youths set cars and a school ablaze in a fifth night of rioting, the worst to hit Sweden for years.
Pupils at a primary school in Kista - an IT hub that is home to the likes of telecoms equipment maker Ericsson and the Swedish office of Microsoft - arrived to find the inside of the small red wooden building had been completely burnt out.
While Thursday was slightly calmer than the four nights before, about 30 cars were torched and eight people, mostly in their early 20s, were detained, police said.
In a country with a reputation for openness, tolerance and a model welfare state, the rioting has exposed a fault-line between a well-off majority and a minority - often young people with immigrant backgrounds - who are poorly educated, cannot find work and feel pushed to the edge of society.
"In the short run, the acute thing is to ensure that these neighborhoods get back to normal everyday life. In the long run we need to create positive spirals in these neighborhoods," Erik Ullenhag, Sweden's integration minister, told Reuters.
The police said they were calling in extra backup from the cities of Malmo and Gothenburg.
"Now it's Friday, the weekend, and we usually have more to do. We think there's going to be a lot of work and many have worked hard these last few days, so we are calling in extra police," spokesman Anders Jonsson said, without giving numbers.
MASKED YOUTHS
DeleteThe spree of destruction has seen masked youths vandalize schools, libraries and police stations, setting cars alight and hurling stones at police and firefighters.
It was sparked by the fatal police shooting earlier this month of a 69-year man, reported by local media to be a Portuguese immigrant and suspected of wielding a large knife, in a Stockholm suburb called Husby.
Though far from the scale of riots in London or Paris in recent years, the violence has shocked a nation which has long taken pride in its generous social safety net.
Some seven years of center-right rule, however, have chipped away at benefits, while some communities have struggled to cope with the heavy wave of immigration they are seeing from war-torn countries like Syria.
Youth unemployment is especially high in immigrant neighborhoods like the ones where the riots have taken place.
Kicki Haak, head of the small Montessori school that was set alight in Kista, said she did not know if it would be able to reopen. The 94 students will move into improvised classrooms in nearby office buildings from Monday.
"Five nights in a row - it's incomprehensible," said Faisal Lugh, whose two children are pupils at the school.
"My children asked about the things they had there: 'How about my books? My rain jacket? My pictures? Are they all gone?'" said Lugh, who works for an unemployment office and often helps new immigrants find jobs.
FRUSTRATED RESIDENTS
There are signs that residents in the affected areas are getting fed up with the violence. Many community leaders, dressed in fluorescent jackets, have taken to the streets to try to calm things down.
"When will it stop?" said Maryam Rahimi, who works at a school in Husby that was vandalized earlier this week.
Risto Kajanto, brother-in-law of the man who was shot dead, told Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet he condemned the violence.
"I want to say to all those who are burning cars that it is totally wrong to react that way," he said.
The incident prompted accusations of police brutality, and violence spread from Husby to other poor neighborhoods.
One recent government study showed up to a third of young people aged 16 to 29 in some of the most deprived areas of Sweden's big cities neither study nor have a job.
The gap between rich and poor in Sweden is growing faster than in any other major nation, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, though absolute poverty remains uncommon.
"The gap between rich and poor in Sweden is growing faster than in any other major nation, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, though absolute poverty remains uncommon."
DeleteSomeday, I plan to do a bigger post on this, but this is happening over and over around the world. Take away benefits, lower wages and put in place tax cuts. Predictably, gaps begin to occur and eventually the entire working class winds up in debt while a pile of wealth grows at the top and becomes money that never re enters the economy.
One of the bigger jolts that hit me after reading gobs of Ayn Rand and entering the world of finance is that very few wealthy people want to risk their capital once they have amassed it. Instead, they largely engage in rent seeking behavior and become as idle as any crackhead who doesn't want to work. Forced redistribution of income rightly embitters those it is redistributed from, particularly when it appears that the money is being taken just to provide a life of perceived leisure for some slacker at the bottom of society.
But, we have gone well beyond that. It's not just about the slacker anymore, it's about also destroying the services that could help people actually climb and dream of one day starting their own business or at the least, provide for their families and not depend on government assistance despite the fact they get up every day and are willing to work. Until we finally let the stupid Bush tax cuts expire, the extra money I took home made very little difference in my life. For what tiny benefit that gave me, billions were added to the debt. For those at the top, however, the gains were grotesquely enormous. THIS is the new paradigm sweeping the world. Immigration in Sweden complicates this picture of course, much more so then here I tend to believe. For now, people are still buying the bullshit the right is selling that this is about people not wanting to work. That's not going to last forever
Max,
DeleteTaxes should never be collected just to turn around and hand them to an individual. Taxes should only be used to provide for things that benefit everyone like defense, infrastructure, and securing the border. Obama has us headed in the same direction regarding mass immigration and cradle to grave entitlements. One day, he may achieve his dream of Marxism and we will have one party rule of the communist wannabes.
"Taxes should only be used to provide for things that benefit everyone like defense, infrastructure, and securing the border"
DeleteJust for discussion sake, and this is truly a serious question, can you personally put a quantifiable number on what benefit we get we from how much we spend on the military? Infrastructure? Really? Can you name me one Republican who supports that idea? Putting that aside, what infrastructure spending is acceptable to you?
Securing the border. How much do we need to spend there? I'm asking for a number based on something quantifiable.
Cradle to grave. Marxism. Yada, yada, yada. What's frustrating Brian is that you are not genuinely a stupid asshole. The communism stuff is stupid, empty, asshole talk, and I believe that on some level you know that. What I would love to hear Brian is whether you think there is any level of disparity that is so great that it threatens to collapse all stability of society. I don't want to support dead beats either. What many on the right don't seem to believe though is that when you squeeze people so hard you eventually de incentivize them from wanting to even bother working hard just to stuff some fat cat's wallet. Many people like yourself cannot see anything but one side of the equation and because of this, you support every rent seeking corporate welfare scam there is.
We've reached a point where many people who do work full time jobs can't even support themselves. How many fucking walmart people are on food stamps? That's not corporate welfare? THAT is the shit that burns me to no end. The money we give out in food stamps (which fuck head Republicans are cutting) is pittance compared to the welfare we are engorging the 1% of America on. Communism. What an F'n joke.
"We have tried harder than any other European country to integrate, spending billions on a welfare system that is designed to help jobless immigrants and guarantee them a good quality of life," said Marc Abramsson, leader of the National Democrats Party. "Yet we have areas where there are ethnic groups that just don't identify with Swedish society. They see the police and even the fire brigade as part of the state, and they attack them. We have tried everything, anything, to improve things, but it hasn't worked. It's not about racism, it's just that multi-culturalism doesn't recognise how humans actually function."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/10080320/Stockholm-riots-leave-Swedens-dreams-of-perfect-society-up-in-smoke.html
“Utopianism also finds a receptive audience among the society's disenchanted, disaffected, dissatisfied, and maladjusted who are unwilling or unable to assume responsibility for their own real or perceived conditions but instead blame their surroundings, 'the system,' and others. They are lured by the false hopes and promises of utopian transformation and the criticisms of the existing society, to which their connection is tentative or nonexistent. Improving the malcontent's lot becomes linked to the utopian cause. Moreover, disparaging and diminishing the successful and accomplished becomes an essential tactic. No one should be better than anyone else, regardless of the merits or values of his contributions. By exploiting human frailties, frustrations, jealousies, and inequities, a sense of meaning and self-worth is created in the malcontent's otherwise unhappy and directionless life. Simply put, equality in misery -- that is, equality of result or conformity -- is advanced as a just, fair, and virtuous undertaking. Liberty, therefore, is inherently immoral, except where it avails equality.”
ReplyDelete― Mark R. Levin, Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America
“There are also those who delusively if not enthusiastically surrender their liberty for the mastermind’s false promises of human and societal perfectibility. He hooks them with financial bribes in the form of ‘entitlements.’ And he makes incredible claims about indefectible health, safety, educational, and environmental policies, the success of which is to be measured not in the here and now but in the distant future.
ReplyDeleteFor these reasons and more, some become fanatics for the cause. They take to the streets and, ironically, demand their own demise as they protest against their own self-determination and for ever more autocracy and authoritarianism. When they vote, they vote to enchain not only their fellow citizens but, unwittingly, themselves. Paradoxically, as the utopia metastasizes and the society ossifies, elections become less relevant. More and more decisions are made by the masterminds and their experts, who substitute their self-serving and dogmatic judgments — which are proclaimed righteous and compassionate — for the the individual’s self-interests and best interests.”
― Mark R. Levin, Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America
Something Marx got right was his view on religion and it's opiate effect on the pathetic souls who had nothing else going for them. People like Levin and Beck are peddlers of the same kind of opiate. Their endless wailing about communism and Marxism fills many an empty head with the notion that "it's not your fault you have been ground to dust economically, it's the fault of communists and that damn Obama".
DeleteThis is not to say the left has done anyone any favors, but what has crushed this country is an obsession with waging class warfare on the middle class while simultaneously begging the rich to forgive us for making them have to occasionally see one of us suffer. The Levins and the Beck's of the world rage against straw men and they are laughing their asses off while suckers buy their books.
Levin's books are among the finest political books that I have read. Why don't you pick apart his quotes above instead of predictably slinging mud on his name.
DeleteAnd what of the National Democrats Party quote above Max. How do you respond to that?
And the DC elite separating us with their incessant blabber about class warfare. They should be ashamed of themselves. This is not what the idea of this country was based on.
Okay, there's this, "For these reasons and more, some become fanatics for the cause. They take to the streets and, ironically, demand their own demise as they protest against their own self-determination and for ever more autocracy and authoritarianism. When they vote, they vote to enchain not only their fellow citizens but, unwittingly, themselves. Paradoxically, as the utopia metastasizes and the society ossifies, elections become less relevant. More and more decisions are made by the masterminds and their experts, who substitute their self-serving and dogmatic judgments — which are proclaimed righteous and compassionate — for the the individual’s self-interests and best interests.”
ReplyDeleteI could read this paragraph and believe he is talking about any number of conservative groups in this country. Admittedly, Democracy is a sloppy mess. Actually, any system that decentralizes power is kind of a mess because it erodes the ability of a small group to set up a world that benefits them far above everyone else. While you and Levin and others scream about the centralization of power the left is allegedly demanding, the Republican party, in particular, went on a freaking rampage after 9/11 taking away freedoms. While the left voted for it, they did not create the agenda. Accomplishing that goal, the next goal was to take away money, which is also power.
For those who work wage jobs, no group has been more instrumental in making their lives miserable then Republicans. And they have done so in the name of a utopian free market. In an Ayn Rand fantasy novel, the free market is the cure to everything because it allows the ethical, prime movers of the world to go about their business unfettered. Once we allow this, they save our ungrateful souls even though we don't deserve it. In the real world, every time we go through some big period of deregulation, particularly in the financial realm, we see a tiny fraction of America make literally billions of dollars while leaving the rest of us a shitstorm to wade through and clean up.
Do the wealthy members of congress remotely understand what my life is like? Not hardly. They are rich and they either bought their office or had someone buy it for them. They are not for a decentralized economy where wealth is not concentrated in just a tiny pool of hands. They have the money, and subsequently, they have the power and as time goes by, they simply write the rules for themselves, rack up a giant deficit and then start screaming that we must cut benefits to the poor because we can't afford them. Class warfare is a conservative created, false dogma term.
As for the national Democrats party quote, I sympathize with the guy. When you allow a large influx of people who choose not to assimilate, you have a problem. What we don't know, however, is the full story. Can those immigrants truly assimilate into the country and get into good jobs or did the Swedes basically hope they would come in and be happy just performing the shitty, low paying jobs no one else wanted? Much of the world right now is intoxicated with this idea of austerity, which is just another way of saying we need to unwind all the rules that block a tiny minority from transferring wealthy upward. I repeat, Levin is no less of a utopiate peddler and I don't buy into anyone's dream of utopia.
Levin more than any other author I know understands and promotes the natural rights of man. To say he is a utopian is ridiculous. As for your never ending adolescent display of envy towards those who have more wealth than yourself well, we have been down that road many times before.
DeleteThe National Democrats leader is admitting the obvious. It is a refreshing statement spoken from pragmatic experience. Money for nothing causes all sorts of unbalances. I have the utmost respect for him for stating the truth in such a leftist nation.
"As for your never ending adolescent display of envy towards those who have more wealth than yourself well, we have been down that road many times before. "
DeleteAnd this, William, is your typical dismissal statement when you have nothing else to say. You tell me to actually critique Levin's words, and I do. Then you dismiss it and address nothing directly that I said. When it comes down to it William, you are simply incapable of debating anything. You never post ideas of your own, hence we get your idol worship cut and paste spams. Believe me, I know what a long winded ass I am, but I express my own ideas and can do so without turtleing up and saying something inane like, "Your just jealous cuz they're soooo much better then you."
Max, I find it difficult to even address you when you draw equivalency between such diverse ideas of freedom. Equating Levin's writings with utopian thought is asinine.
DeleteYou have been surrounded with nincompoops that have put so much leftest crap in your skull that it's like we're speaking different languages when we talk about the rights of man (NOT the rights of government), limited government, and freedom.
1773-2009
You find it difficult to address anyone who does not think exactly the way you do. Perhaps you love reading the bombast of people like Levin because you don't like the fact that real life is not so simple and human beings constantly do irrational things. Once I went to work in the financial world and saw how people act when a lot of money is at stake, I realized that Ayn Rand (and all of her subsequent ideological heirs) had it wrong. I could give a shit about political philosophies whether left or right; I am interested in solving problems that exist in the real world.
DeleteBut, let's not let this discussion actually get real. Go back to your fantasy novels.
Max, you can't even admit that the Obama administration is a complete mess. It's only badge of honor, Obamacare, a total disaster. It's taxing body a group of thieves. It's hidden agenda legal department lead by a liar. Your political world left in shreads.
ReplyDeleteWhere was our leader, your ideological hero, on the evening of 9/11/12?
"Where was our leader, your ideological hero, on the evening of 9/11/12?"
DeleteAnd that's just it William. You don't. Fucking. Get it. Your preceding paragraph is meaningless, it's what you say in every situation and it encompasses your entire beliefs of government, namely that they are a taxing body of thieves. Obama is not my savior, and I don't vote for saviors. But, that story line is sooooooooo intoxicating for people like you. You're like a caricature of of Billy Crystal making a caricature of Edward G. Robinson saying, "Where's your Moses Nooooooow?"