Can we talk about Sweden for a bit?
Discussion
Axionknight said:
Halb said:
Mental healthy issues, or an Islamic attack (I know that they are the same thing for some 
)?
Does it matter? He clearly shouldn't have been out on the streets regardless of his origins or religious beliefs. )?Finlandia said:
Axionknight said:
Halb said:
Mental healthy issues, or an Islamic attack (I know that they are the same thing for some )?
Does it matter? He clearly shouldn't have been out on the streets regardless of his origins or religious beliefs. )?
LastLight said:
Christ alive! What the hell has happened to the Swedes. Last time I was there (admittedly, Stockholm not Malevolentmo) I felt so safe and relaxed and found the people to be friendly and helpful. Now it sounds worse than an episode of Top Gear in Alabama.
I would suggest that the Swedes are as non-violent and friendly as ever - unless you start talking politics, in which case toys may get thrown out of the pram.EDIT: According to the Sentio poll released today, the Social Democrats are on 23.5%, the Sweden Democrats on 23.4% and the Moderates on 21.1%. No worries though, Sentio has already been declared a racist institute (plus, it's Norwegian... and what do they know?) and Yougov is a Donald Duck institute. All is well.
Edited by Looket on Thursday 20th August 12:23
Looket said:
I would suggest that the Swedes are as non-violent and friendly as ever - unless you start talking politics, in which case toys may get thrown out of the pram
That to me suggests frustration with the current system and/or they can't adequately justify why they feel the way they do. Are the Swedes a particularly moral nation? (I only know of Lagom)I remember sitting down at work once whilst immigration was discussed, with one of our workers who was from Nigeria. He was accepted as part of the team, but some people couldn't make the connection between him and immigration as a whole, viewing them as two different things.
strudel said:
I remember sitting down at work once whilst immigration was discussed, with one of our workers who was from Nigeria. He was accepted as part of the team, but some people couldn't make the connection between him and immigration as a whole, viewing them as two different things.
Perhaps it is...perhaps their concerns are not about skin colour....perhaps it is about numbers....and types of people.Perhaps they welcomed the hard working Nigerian because he is hard working. Or perhaps because Nigerians are often second generation and very much an existing part of society whereas the new languages and cultures we are seeing now represent a new stage in the process. Perhaps they feel, now, how their parents or grandparents felt decades ago. Confused about the change and wondering if it is change for the better.
Perhaps it's just about the numbers and a sense that there just isn't the infrastructure and jobs to support continued immigration without any meaningful control of the numbers.
Perhaps they can accept an individual Nigerian who integrates but still have concerns about the future numbers. They aren't mutually exclusive and it is a complex subject.
LastLight said:
Finlandia said:
Looket said:
Oops.
I expect a media meltdown tomorrow.
It's quite funny to see all the explanations as to why and how, ranging from YouGov not being serious to 2015 being the summer of hate.I expect a media meltdown tomorrow.
scherzkeks said:
Finlandia said:
Last week in Malmö, 27 arrests made for shootings, 6 in court for bombings. Last night in Malmö, 4 people shot, 2 injured by bomb.
They've still got a ways to go if they want to catch up with any large American metropolis. 
The "in" thing for now is handgrenades from Balkan, 30 or so explosions this year already.
Also as mentioned before for decades Malmö has been a lovely home to a community who sought refuge from the Nazis. The influx of migrants in the last decade has resulted in almost exponential growth in anti-Semitic hate crime. And before the liberals pipe up yes there are proven links in the evidence.
strudel said:
That to me suggests frustration with the current system and/or they can't adequately justify why they feel the way they do. Are the Swedes a particularly moral nation? (I only know of Lagom)
Well, put it this way, I can't remember the last time the Socialdemocrats weren't the largest party in Sweden. Even during the 2006 election, which was considered a landslide for the conservative Alliance, they got 35% of the vote. That was considered complete and utter humiliation - gone were the days of lone majority rule. The Moderates may have overtaken them on a couple of occasions during the disastrous Juholt and Sahlin years, but the difference this time is that both the Moderates and Socialdemocrats have been overtaken by a third party from outside the establishment. Imagine UKIP overtaking the Tories and Labour. It's historic in many ways, and in my opinion quite telling of the frustration with the current system. Even more so considering the Sweden Democrats got 12.9% of the vote in last year's election. They've doubled in size in less than a year! That's crazy momentum.
As for not being able to justify their own views, that's mostly true as well. If I were a betting man, I'd say it's mostly down to Sweden historically being a socialist country with a strong consensus culture and subsequently rigid opinion hegemony. Put simply, the left hasn't needed to ever really justify itself. The decline of the left in the last decade however has caused a lot of frustration in certain quarters which in turn has polarised the debate climate in absurdum. As a result, people jump straight to mud-slinging and agitating rather than attempting a sober debate - because there isn't a proper debate to be had. It's essentially trench warfare.
scherzkeks said:
Finlandia said:
Malmö should be more like a sleepy town in New England, but in reality it's more like Watts in LA
Fine, we'll use Camden, NJ; or Gary, IN; or Saginaw, MI. The list goes on, really.Military grade weapons like handgrenades and AK47s are commonplace in certain parts of Sweden nowadays, the violence is increasing wildly while our politicians act as if nothing.
Looket said:
I would suggest that the Swedes are as non-violent and friendly as ever - unless you start talking politics, in which case toys may get thrown out of the pram.
I have seen videos of how you lot ensure the swift transit of opposition fans through your train stations though. Possibly non violent, but a fair few injuries i would expect!My wife is Swedish and we'd always planed on retiring to Sweden. I really hop e the Swedes are able to keep their excellent culture alive - their own desire to help people, be welcoming and generous seems to have somewhat backfired. Sweden wouldn't be the excellent place it is without those traits and may cease to be an excellent place because of them...
IainT said:
My wife is Swedish and we'd always planed on retiring to Sweden. I really hop e the Swedes are able to keep their excellent culture alive - their own desire to help people, be welcoming and generous seems to have somewhat backfired. Sweden wouldn't be the excellent place it is without those traits and may cease to be an excellent place because of them...
Naivety. It's like leaving your house unlocked. Yes, no doubt this will allow some of your nicer neighbours to pop by and leave you home made cakes and jam, or return the tools you've kindly loaned them, but on the downside there's sadly also going to be a potential risk of someone emptying all you valuables into a van, or worse still, dropping by and slitting your throat.Digga said:
Naivety. It's like leaving your house unlocked. Yes, no doubt this will allow some of your nicer neighbours to pop by and leave you home made cakes and jam, or return the tools you've kindly loaned them, but on the downside there's sadly also going to be a potential risk of someone emptying all you valuables into a van, or worse still, dropping by and slitting your throat.
Funny you should say that, seeing as in the Sweden of old people did use to leave their houses, cars and bicycles unlocked. Although that was slightly before my time - I grew up in the nineties and early noughties - the worst crime I could think of in my youth was someone sitting on my moped without asking. That was in a Stockholm suburb. I can only imagine what it would've been like in a smaller city or in the country. Point is, it may boil down to blind naivety in this day and age but it's a trait deeply engrained in the Swedish 'folk soul'. Which I suppose sums the problem up quite nicely, albeit in slightly less eloquent terms than Iain. It's nice to go to our place in Finland and have all the neighbours barge through the front door without so much as a knock like it's the most natural thing in the world.
Looket said:
Digga said:
Naivety. It's like leaving your house unlocked. Yes, no doubt this will allow some of your nicer neighbours to pop by and leave you home made cakes and jam, or return the tools you've kindly loaned them, but on the downside there's sadly also going to be a potential risk of someone emptying all you valuables into a van, or worse still, dropping by and slitting your throat.
Funny you should say that, seeing as in the Sweden of old people did use to leave their houses, cars and bicycles unlocked. Although that was slightly before my time - I grew up in the nineties and early noughties - the worst crime I could think of in my youth was someone sitting on my moped without asking. That was in a Stockholm suburb. I can only imagine what it would've been like in a smaller city or in the country. Point is, it may boil down to blind naivety in this day and age but it's a trait deeply engrained in the Swedish 'folk soul'. Which I suppose sums the problem up quite nicely, albeit in slightly less eloquent terms than Iain. It's nice to go to our place in Finland and have all the neighbours barge through the front door without so much as a knock like it's the most natural thing in the world.
I was at my girlfriends parents' summer house in Uddevalla last Thursday and Friday and nearly s
t myself when their neighbours just let themselves in! 
Would either of you guys be able to point me in the right direction of a half decent guide to the trips and traps for dirty foreigners like me buying in Finland?
We have been thinking about buying somewhere in Finland for a few years now but things have taken a more serious twist in the last couple of weeks and i can see that I am going to have to get up to speed swiftly.
Intention is to go there for a couple of weeks a year and rent out for as much as we can for the rest of the year (not to make money, or even really with concern to pay for the asset, just to try to make it cost neutral (other an opportunity cost of having capital tied up!)
We have been thinking about buying somewhere in Finland for a few years now but things have taken a more serious twist in the last couple of weeks and i can see that I am going to have to get up to speed swiftly.
Intention is to go there for a couple of weeks a year and rent out for as much as we can for the rest of the year (not to make money, or even really with concern to pay for the asset, just to try to make it cost neutral (other an opportunity cost of having capital tied up!)
Rude-boy said:
Would either of you guys be able to point me in the right direction of a half decent guide to the trips and traps for dirty foreigners like me buying in Finland?
We have been thinking about buying somewhere in Finland for a few years now but things have taken a more serious twist in the last couple of weeks and i can see that I am going to have to get up to speed swiftly.
Intention is to go there for a couple of weeks a year and rent out for as much as we can for the rest of the year (not to make money, or even really with concern to pay for the asset, just to try to make it cost neutral (other an opportunity cost of having capital tied up!)
As far as I'm aware there isn't a lot of red tape for foreigners to buy property. The guides at: http://www.expat-finland.com/housing/buying_proper... will get you up to speed. Your best bet would probably be to get in touch with an estate agent though. We have been thinking about buying somewhere in Finland for a few years now but things have taken a more serious twist in the last couple of weeks and i can see that I am going to have to get up to speed swiftly.
Intention is to go there for a couple of weeks a year and rent out for as much as we can for the rest of the year (not to make money, or even really with concern to pay for the asset, just to try to make it cost neutral (other an opportunity cost of having capital tied up!)
In the mean time look at http://www.etuovi.com/?locale=en and http://www.tori.fi/ (use Google Translate) to look at property.
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