Posts, February 2004:

A gay Scandinavian war on marriage?: I hate it when Americans use Scandinavia for their utopic or dystopic scenarios. One moment we're a social democratic paradise, the next a socialist hellhole, and somehow neither image seems to fit reality. Nor is that perhaps the purpose - [...]

Swedish TV investigates itself: I came across something interesting on SvT, the Swedish state TV, a public broadcaster comparable to the BBC and Norway's NRK. An edition of Mediemagasinet, a program for media criticism, dedicated entirely to scrutinizing SvT's own leading program for investigative [...]

NRK and European anti-semitism: There's been increased focus here on Jewish claims that anti-semitism is on the return in Europe, but judging from today's debate on NRK Standpunkt we're nowhere near a serious response to it. It was unsettling to watch the gap between [...]

Filthy online journalism: Aftenposten's Harald Stanghelle goes to war on the world of "filthy online journalism", where "ethical standards are despised". Alexandra Polier's well written denial of the rumours about an affair with John Kerry have so far been effectful. This robs Matt [...]

Misunderstanding fundamentalism: This is worth quoting at length. Terje Tvedt, a professor of development studies, says to Aftenposten that Norwegian intellectuals don't understand Muslim fundamentalism. Today's massive Norwegian majority view is that the rest of the world necessarily has the same goals [...]

Mullah Krekar released from custody: Ouch - Mullah Krekar has been released from custody. According to a report by Krekar's private investigator Harald Olsen, several key witnesses against him were tortured by the PUK. The police found this credible enough to let Krekar go: Olsen [...]

Christian men of darkness: Word of the day: Mørkemann. Lit. "Man of darkness". Media term for conservative Christian, specifically one who opposes abortion and homosexuality, and/or supports Israel. Implies judgmental attitude and joyless faith based on rules, as opposed to tolerant attitude and joyful [...]

Return of the neo-con zionists: For someone supposedly so important to US foreign policy since Reagan as the "neo-conservatives", you'd think someone would have written about them in Norway before May 2003 or so. That's curiously not the case. Some may fit that into their [...]

Progress Party wants hijab ban: The Progress Party (FrP) wants a ban on hijabs and burkas in school, and to allow employers to ban them in the workplace. [Siv Jensen] justifies this with integration concerns, and believes that the hijab is oppressive of women. Muslim [...]

Stanghelle vs David Kay: Harald Stanghelle is (well, deserves to be) known for his carefully neutral style. He follows the two first commandments of meaningless punditry: 1. Thou shalt offend no reader, and 2. Thou shalt cloak thy conventional wisdom in pretty words, so [...]

Groupthinking neocons: Nils Johan Lavik is a professor of psychiatry. You can tell by the way he dresses up his personal views in the clothes of science: The US is the country in the world that has carried out most research in [...]

Jan Petersen steps down: Foreign Minister Jan Petersen is stepping down as leader of the Conservative Party, after 10 years in charge. I've come to like Petersen less and less. The Conservatives have a potential to be a good, moderate right-wing party, one that [...]