Author Archives: Stefan Geens

The Letter, part 2: Finding Margaretha Lennerbring

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[If you haven’t yet read The Letter, an earlier post about a letter I found on a New York City sidewalk sent to a Swedish woman in 1970, please do so. The rest of this post won’t make any sense otherwise.] I don’t know why I didn’t follow my one big lead on this story until tonight; I’ve been meaning to, and were I a paid private detective all this would have been over months ago. Maybe I was afraid the lead would be a dead end; perhaps the mystery of the letter was something to savour before solving, much like one lets fine wine linger under the palate. Or perhaps my Swedish was just so godawful until now that I didn’t want to subject anyone to a cold-call of mine.

But tonight I did call Gunnar Lennerbring, the only Lennerbring I had found in the Swedish phonebook. After a few rings, a woman picked up. I couldn’t tell from her voice how old she was. I asked for Gunnar Lennerbring, and she immediately said Gunnar är död, Gunnar is dead.

What a start.

I knew that there is a phrase in Swedish for such moments, and I knew that I had forgotten it. So instead of saying Jag beklagar — I’m sorry (for your loss) — I stammered Ursäkta — excuse me. Dumb dumbMaybe I should have waited a few more months before finally calling.. I thought I should perhaps explain, before she slammed the phone down on my manners, that my Swedish wasn’t in fact that good, and that I was looking for a person called Margaretha, and that this phone number was my only lead.

Margaretha is my daughter, the woman said gently. She married. She lives in Stockholm. Her married name is I—. Would you like her number? Here it is…

Suddenly somewhat breathless, I now dial Margaretha’s number. A male voice picks up. Can I talk to Margaretha? The voice calls for his mom. And then I’m talking to her. Aware that all this might sound a bit bizarre, and nervous because of it, I begin telling the story of how I found a letter in New York four years ago mailed in 1970 to someone that I believe to be her.

I read out some of the letter’s place names. Do they sound familiar? She sounds noncommittal, though my ear is untrained in the various ways Swedes signal assent…and there are many ways of signalling assent: Å, Nja, Ja, Jo, Jaha, Just det, Kanske det, Visst, Klart, Möjlig, Säkert, silence… And then there are all the ways in which they don’t: Å, Nja, Jaha, Kanske det, Möjlig, silence…. Perhaps she is understandably wary of disclosing her personal history to a stranger bearing leading questions.

Not knowing how I’m coming through, I ask her if she has web access. She does, at work. Then she can see the letter online, just type Lennerbring into Google and it’s the only page that comes up… Does she know about Google? She asks, does her son know about Google? Yes, he does. I posted the letter there in my attempt to return it to the addressee, I say — and in a retreat to the tentative — if that is her.

But about that she is sure: She is the only Margaretha, maiden name Lennerbring, there isMargaretha should stay anonymous, I’ve decided, because while I’m fine with posting anonymous letters on the web, I am not, absent her permission, fine with posting personal letters on the web..

In that case, I say, perhaps she could look at the letter tomorrow, and then email me, so that I could arrange to meet her sometime and return it?

She will. She said so.

Sveriges utbildningspolitik

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Well, it’s a relief to write in English again — I think I just had my first case Swedish writer’s block. There isn’t really anything new in the post on the right — just the same old argument about which education system is more equitable — the free-for-all subsidized by taxes or the user-pays system — so I am not going to bother to translate it. It’s my weekly Swedish homework, and in an otherwise light blogging week this means a preponderance of posts in Swedish (!).
 
Blogging can be such a puerile pursuit at times, not unlike scratching somebody else’s itch to see if you get slapped. I admit the post on the right is a bit like that. But I am genuinely interested in hearing a defense of the current Swedish education policy, because at first blush it does seem to be rather unegalitarian: For example, only 13% of doctoral students are classified as “working class”, although 35% of the general population is. (Yes, they do have that classification.)
 
The best defense I’ve heard in favor of free university education is that Sweden, specifically, has a low wealth disparity, so by getting a degree here you are not really helping yourself so much as contributing to society. But I can think of a number of objections to that argument too. We’ll see if I have to muster them.Eftersom mitt första inlägg på svenska gick tillräckligt bra, åtminstone utan en massa avhopp, kommer ni att forceras läsa ett till. Det här är min läxa, förstås?

Idag funderade jag på Sveriges utbildningspolitik. En sak gillar jag mycket, en annan förstår jag inte. Vad jag gillar är att utländska studenter får studera gratis i Sverige på högskolor, även om de senare inte kommer att betala skatt (eftersom de måste åka tillbaka). Om studenter kommer från utvecklingsländer är det effektivt en bra sort bistånd, men: flest av de kommer infatta från rik Europa: 16.000 av en total 26,000 utländska studenter i Sverige kom från Europa i 2001, enligt OECD [XLS, 170kB]. Också bland Svenska högskolestudenter kommer en större andel från rikare familjer, enligt HSV. [PDF, 156kB, sidan 37] Men alla svenskar betalar skatt, också de som inte har studerat på högskolor, och därför inte får fiskala fördelarna. Helt enkelt, man kan säga att, netto, de fattiga svenskarna understödjer de rika svenskarna. Det är motsatsen av vad en progressiv skattepolitik bör vara.

Den här svenska utbildningspolitiken resulterar inte i mera högskolestudenter som procent av total befolkning än USA: 32% av svenskar mellan 25-64 år hade högskoleutbildning i 2001, mot 37% i USA, enligt HSV. [PDF, 300kB, sista sidan] Därför kan man inte argumentera att gratis utbildning främjar deltagandet. Skulle det inte vara jämlikare om studenter betalar för vad de använder, utom de fattigare svenskar, vem skulle ha stipendier?

(Om du har en plötslig längtan om att korrigera något här ovan, det får du.)

iChat unbound

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ichat-scrabble.jpgI’m watching the 2003 All-Stars Scrabble Championship on ESPN on a television in New York… via Apple’s iChat AV! Fellow Scrabble player and MemeFirster Matthew has pointed his video camera at his TV and turned up the sound… It’s works like a charm.Actually, Survivor is the American Robinson. The Swedes invented reality television. I’ve offered to return the favor by beaming the Swedish Survivor, Robinson, at Matthew, but he’s respectfully declined the offer.

Tu bi år något tu bi

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To be or not to be
(or what is Sweden’s suicide rate, once and for all?)
 
Here is a loose translation of what I just wrote in Swedish: I couldn’t hack it as Sweden’s best weblog, so I’ve decided to aim for notoriety at any cost — hence my attempt at Sweden’s worst weblog, which should be easily achieved by blogging in Swedish.
 
I have no idea why you would want to read this uncorrected text. My Swedish teacher only reads it because I pay her; and I can’t afford to pay you all to read it.
 
For my first post in Swedish I thought I’d find out if Swedes really like to commit suicide. It’s a persistent meme, as Jonas recently showed on his blog. Last year I blogged a WHO report that covered suicide, and used it to compare US/Canada and western European suicide levels: They were about the same, 10.5 per 100,000 people per year for western Europe and 10.6 per 100k for the US/Canada. What amazed me then is that suicide rates are much higher than murder rates, with the difference most evident in Europe.
 
This time, I’ve gone looking for individual country statistics. Once again, a closer look at statistics gives me numbers that don’t add up. In this case, the individual components seem to be higher than the regional aggregates I used last year. The US, for example, has a suicide rate of 13.9/100k, and Canada’s is 15.0/100k. Possibly, this discrepancy is due to estimates and projections being made for the regional numbers.
 
In any case, how does Sweden perform compared to the rest of the world?
 
[See list]
 
You can check out more countries on p.186 of the PDF. Clearly, Sweden’s suicide rate is nothing special. Catholic countries tend to have lower suicide rates, eastern European countries tend to have higher ones.
 
If one needs ammunition against the likes of Rush Limbaugh however, here is a useful factoid: Swedish males commit suicide at a lower rate than American males (22.9 vs 23.2). It’s the Swedish women who shuffle off this mortal coil faster than American women (9.2 vs 5.3), proving that even in suicide Sweden is staunchly egalitarian.Eftersom det blev för svart att bli Sveriges bäste webblogg, kom jag på att skriver Sveriges sämsta webblogg. Detta projekt bör vara jätte lätt för mig, om jag skriver på svenska.

Jag vet inte varför du skulle vilja läsa den här texten. Min lärare har inte ännu korrigerat det. Hon läser det bara eftersom jag betala henne; jag orkar inte betala allt som kommer hit till min webblogg.

För den här första inläggen på svenska hade jag idéen att undersöka om det är sant att Svenskar tycker om att begå självmord. Det verkar vara en strong kliché om Sverige, som Jonas på Blind Höna har redan vist. Jag kom ihåg en rapport från den World Health Organization kallad World Report on Violence and Health. Jag hade redan bloggad det förre aret, och jag hade jämfört självmordtal mellan USA/Canada och väst Europa. Nivåerna var nästan samma: 10.5 per 100,000 personer begett självmord varje ar i väst Europa, och 10.6 i USA/Canada. Det är intressant att i väst Europa självmordtal är mycket högre än det mordtal. Det hade jag inte förmodat.

Men nu har jag hittad informationen om individuella länder [PDF]. Vad är lite konstigt är att de här data komponenter inte stämmer överens med de regionala summorna. Till exempel, USA här hade ett självmordtal av 13.9/100k och Canada 15.0/100k. Kanske de regionale numren[PDF] var uppskattningar (numren av individuella länder var för specifika år). Kanske de var fel. Men Jämfört resten av värld, hur presterar Sverige i den här listan?

Sverige: 15.9 (1996)

USA: 13.9 (1998)

Argentina: 8.7 (1996)

Australien: 17.9 (1998)

Belarus: 41.5 (1999)

Belgien: 24.0 (1995)

Cuba: 23.0 (1997)

Danmark: 18.4 (1996)

Finland: 28.4 (1998)

Frankrike: 20.0 (1998)

Tyskland: 14.3 (1999)

Holland: 11.0 (1999)

Ungern: 36.1 (1999)

Norge: 14.6 (1997)

Ryskland: 43.1 (1998)

Storbritannien: 9.8 (1999)

Spanien 8.7 (1998)

Schweiz: 22.5 (1996)

Du kan kolla själv flera länder på PDFen, sidan 186. Vi kan konkludera att Sveriges självmordtal är ingenting speciellt. Katolska länder verkar ha färre självmördar, och öst europeiska länder flera.

Om man behöver ammunition mot argument från Rush Limbaugh et al, kan man använda detta faktum: Färre Svenska män begår självmord än Amerikanska män (22.9 vs 23.2). Det är Svenska kvinnor som begår mer självmord än Amerikanska kvinnor (9.2 vs 5.3), som bevisa att även med självmord är Svenskaren jämlikhetsträvande. (Jonas, kanske “radikalfeministen” Amy på West Wing vet mer än vi förmådde:-)

(Om du har en plötslig längtan om att korrigera något här ovan, det får du.)

Bye bye, Dreamweaver

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Companies tend to lose the plot whenever their greed outpaces my need.

I’ve used Macromedia Dreamweaver for WYSIWYG site design since version 2; nothing could build tables like version 4. Then, last year, Macromedia introduced a rebranded Dreamweaver MX, the first native Mac OS X version. It was such a disappointment: Cascading stylesheet (CSS) support was incomplete and rendered haphazardly, the windows and palettes didn’t play nice with the finder, and it was painfully slow on my tricked-out PowerBook G4. Insultingly, the Windows version showed a lot more polish. I waited for patches, but instead was tossed Dreamweaver MX 2004, their new paid upgrade ($199, $400 new), released last month.

Meanwhile, the web has moved on. The wide acceptance of CSS has made site design much simpler, and fancy table skills are now a bit passé. Plenty of code libraries on the web offer plug and play Javascript, just like Dreamweaver does.

A migration from Dreamweaver was in order. By last week, all the required pieces had fallen into place:

Barebones released a point update for BBEdit 7, the Rolls Royce of text editors. Version 7.1 does live previewing in Safari, as you type. This is even better than WYSIWIG, which in Dreamweaver’s case was more WYSIsomething-similar-toWYG. And it was made possible by a deft application of Apple’s own Safari Web Kit. In any case, I’ve always had several browsers open in OS X and a few open in Virtual PC, to make sure the different rendering engines produced something palatable. I will still do that, but now with Safari giving me instant feedback. (Free demo, $179 new, $49 upgrade, or get BBEdit Lite free, but minus the bells and whistles.)

Macrabbit released CSSEdit 1.5 last month. It’s a shareware application that works perfectly as an adjunct to BBEdit, giving pixel-level control over CSS websites. Every CSS property is editable using palettes. It’s what Dreamweaver promised me but didn’t deliver in MX. Maybe MX 2004 approaches the thoroughness of CSSEdit, but definitely not at this price: $24.99 (free demo). Did I mention it’s written by a one-person outfit in Belgium? Those plucky Europeans!

For getting files to and from my server, I rely on Fetch 4.0.3, by Fetchworks. This shareware has built-in support for BBEdit, allowing me to edit files directly from the server. There are other FTP clients that do the job, some perhaps even better, but I’m also conditioned to listen for the dog bark when Fetch is done. Fetch is due for an update, and I expect it to incorporate the latest sFTP security enhancements. If it doesn’t, I’ll be eyeing other FTP clients. ($25, free demo).

This medley of tools means MX 2004 is an expensive redundancy. Most of its new features are aimed at corporate environments, so Dreamweaver becomes less of a pure design tool and more of a front-end builder for server-based applications. In the process, Macromedia tries to upsell to other products from its stable, like Flash and ColdFusion, their proprietary server application.

MX 2004 is bloatware, and I’m not the only one who’s noticed. Macromedia had to issue an earnings warning on Oct 23, a few weeks after MX 2004 launched, that sent the stock plunging by a third. As the CEO put it, “The uptake rate for MX 2004 has been a lot slower in the first few weeks than we expected and certainly than we’ve experienced in the past.” They blamed the economy. I blame the product.

Animal rights vs human rights (vs common sense)

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A friend mentioned last week that kosher butchers are illegal in Sweden. I thought to myself, that can’t be right, that would be, well, not kosher. It turns out I didn’t have the whole story: the traditional forms of both kosher and halal slaughter (where the animals are not pre-stunned) are banned here, on the grounds that they constitute cruelty to animals.

Two interesting papers on the web helped me to flesh out the details: This paper on immigration and multiculturalism in Sweden identifies animal rights considerations as the cause for the prohibition:

Consider the issue of kosher and halal slaughter. These forms of religious slaughter are prohibited in Sweden, as they require that an animal be conscious up until the point of slaughter. This is considered inhumane in Scandinavia, where it is required that an animal be anesthetized before slaughter. This difference of opinion regarding the most appropriate method of preparing an animal for human consumption illustrates the most basic type of cultural conflict that can be expected.
 
In Britain this conflict was resolved by allowing religious slaughter to provide for those religious groups requiring it, while in Sweden, Orthodox rabbis have agreed that animals stunned before slaughter still meet with the spirit of the kosher requirements. Nonetheless, in practice, much kosher meat is imported from abroad.

A paper on the legal status of Islamic minorities in Sweden [PDF, 252K], presented at a migration research conference this summer, looks more broadly at the state’s involvement:

Halal slaughter without pre-stunning the animal is not permitted, but it is legal to import halal slaughtered meat from other countries. If pre-stunning is accepted (and most Muslim public voices in Sweden seem to accept it), halal slaughter is legal, and during the autumn of 2001 the first all Islamic slaughtering house was opened. Before that (and still) Muslim butchers have slaughtered according to halal laws (with pre-stunning) in other slaughtering houses. Poultry is an exception to the rule; it has always been legal to slaughter poultry without pre-stunningWhy do chickens get such a raw deal? Does this reflect our own cultural disdain for chickens? (And going way off topic, what exactly is the difference between a pig and a dog when it comes to choosing which to eat?).
 
During the 1990’s, two official reports on ritual slaughter (both Jewish and Muslim) were made pointing in different directions. The first one, Slakt av obedövade djur (Slaughter of not stunned animals, 1992) was conducted by Jordbruksverket (Swedish Board of Agriculture), generally in charge of questions related to slaughter. This report has been criticised for not considering the value of religious plurality and liberty of religion. The second one was conducted by an historian of religions commissioned by the Government Commission on Swedish Democracy, and was published as a Statens Offentliga Utredningar (SOU, Government’s Official Reports) in 1999 (SOU 1999:9). It paints a far more complex picture than the first one and also comments on some relevant EU laws that have changed the basis for Swedish legislation. This includes laws designed to protect religious diversity and for example suggesting exemptions regarding pre-stunning and ritual slaughtering. It is rumoured that a change is on its way, but one must not underestimate the animal rights lobby that is both strong and influential.
 
Even though Sweden is an urbanised country and most farms are semi-industrial there are still a number of smaller farms. I know through personal information and through media that a few Muslim families have aligned themselves with farmers, buying and slaughtering animals at such farms. This is however done on a very small scale, only for personal use.

Clearly, importing meat butchered without pre-stunning is a cop-out — if you think it’s inhumane, you should not export the problem. Redefining kosher and halal slaughter to include the killing of unconscious animals is clever, but there doesn’t seem to have been much volunteering for this option (on the part of religious leaders, of course, not the animals). And driving religious rituals underground is hardly a long-term solution, and can lead to terrible press.

So, when human rights and animal rights clash, which should triumph?On another occasion, I might have brought Peter Singer into the debate at this point, and held forth at great length about how much of a distinction can be made between the suffering of humans and animals and how we should act towards animals as a result. Personally, I’m convinced we’ll all be vegetarians in 500 years time, but for now, I’ll take the steak and the blue pill. It’s an obvious question, but it is not the question I’m interested in right now. Instead, I want to know: In Sweden, is the invocation of animal rights considerations to limit traditional animal slaughter selective?

Exhibit A: Sámi school. What a cute website! Sámi children write in English about learning how to be good Sámi, including how to decapitate a reindeer. Not a stun gun in sight.

Exhibit B: Elk hunting, which according to this AFP news article on Sweden.se is “a ritual that is much more than a national pastime — hunting the elk is part of the Swedish identity.“Yes, the lure of the elk is powerful. So much so that authorities in northern Sweden have noticed a sharp, yet not entirely unexpected, increase in the number of fathers who take their mandatory paternity leave not just any old time, but precisely during hunting season.””

Taking a break for lunch, Tomas Rudenstam, a lawyer, checks his e-mail on his hand-held computer. But his thoughts are elsewhere, as he recalls the calf he knows he shot this morning but which darted away.
 
“Two yearlings and their mother appeared about 80 meters (yards) in front of me. I aimed at one of the yearlings and fired. I’m sure I wounded it,” says Tomas, who has already killed one other elk as the spruce twig in his cap testifies.

That elk is probably wishing it was being turned into a very halal kebab by now, rather than slowly bleeding to death in the forest somewhere.

The answer, then, is a resounding yes, Sweden does selectively apply animal rights considerations to limit traditional animal slaughter. These rituals are only barbaric, it turns out, if they’re practiced by non-indigenous Swedes with less clout than the animal rights lobby.

To remedy the situation, I propose the following: Either we pre-stun elk and have them lying around on the forest floor during hunting season so that when hunters find one they can humanely shoot it in the head, preserving “the spirit” of the hunt. If that is not acceptable, we should allow Muslims and Jews their own food rituals, unmitigated by this sudden selective concern for animal rights. To do anything else is to be culturally patronizing.

Any Way the Wind Blows

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As promised, I just saw Any Way the Wind Blows at the Stockholm Film Festival. By all means buy the soundtrack, but don’t bother with the film.

Director/writer Tom Barman himself was at the showing, warning us we were about to see not so much a story driven film as a mood piece. Well, he was half right: you can get more plot twists watching carrion on the Discovery Channel. But why am I restraining myself? Any Way the Wind Blows is a load of pretentious twaddle and I suspected as much before the opening credits were done rolling: one of the “protagonists”Scare quotes because I’m not sure it’s technically possible to have protagonists in a film without plot. actually begins to dodge the credits as they swoosh by. Just like that. For no subsequent purpose, modern or post. What follows is a day in the life of people for whom we feel nothing — they don’t grow emotionally, or suffer particularly, they just are, in Antwerp, mostly to a soundtrack.

The central conceit of this film, and for which I hold the director in contempt, is to think that this might somehow be interesting viewing. It’s not — it’s like watching someone else’s home videos. Real life is something that you do already, so why watch this film? Just buy an iPod instead.

Put another way: This movie is not art. Art is meant to distill life, to sublimate its essence. Any Way the Wind Blows dispenses with all the dramatic devices that could possibly propel a movie in that general direction. Plotlessness is not by itself fatal — look at Koyaanisqatsi — but there are reasons why good directors (and even bad ones) add plots to their movies, especially if there are actors in them. For example, it gives both the actors and the audience something to do for two hours. If the actors are any good, they might even hook the audience emotionally. The only way this movie is going to sustain an emotion in you is if you first take the same drugs the people in it are so fond of.

AWtWB aggravates on many occasions. Take a scene in a supermarket where two of the “protagonists” are arguing whether on the whole people are happy. One of them decides to ask random fellow customers, and they answer truthfully, deadpan, before continuing shopping — it’s clearly plagiarized from the classic scene in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall. Perhaps the director thought it was an homage, or satire, except it’s neither if you ask the exact same fucking question. There is no progress here, no sign of intelligence. It’s as if Barman liked that scene so he decided to have it in his movie too.

As for the 7.3 score on IMDB, I suspect the 200 people who voted for it were all cast or crewBeaverMeFirst.jpg. It certainly looked like a blast to make, so it’s a pity so little of it rubs off on the viewer. If you want to see an amateurish film made among friends, see Beaver Me First instead. In addition to swooshing title credits, it has cruelty, cults and cleavage, so I have to warn you, it’s not so much a mood piece as a story driven film.

Best Swedish Weblog

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Sweden’s Internetworld has presided over what is becoming a recognized coming-of-age ritual in national blogging communities: In our case, it’s the first ever Best Swedish Weblog awards (article not online). Erik Stattin’s mymarkup.net, which happens to be my own favorite Swedish weblog, wins deservedly. In a sign that Swedish bloggers still have a lot to learn about the whole point of blogging, instead of sneering and backbiting at the results they heap praise on him! Me included! Help!

So, as a gesture of atonement for my lapse into positive thinking, I’d like to go on the record disagreeing with the other 4 choices. Oh, I read them all, and they are definitely in my top 20, but since we are talking pecking order, here is my numbers 2 to 5: Blind Höna, How to learn Swedish in 1000 difficult lessons, heartland.mine.nu and oh, alright, Jogin.com just this once, because he writes quite good English. For a Swede.

Mark Steyn on Europe

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I am fated to defend the US in Europe and to defend Europe in the US. The task is usually one of leaning into prevailing opinion. When large groups of people think alike there tends to be underexposure by idées fixes to counterarguments. This is fertile ground for cultural stereotyping, and a great place to blog.

The Spectator‘s Mark Steyn cannot claim ignorance in defense of his opinions, nor can he plead absence of critical faculties, so you have to conclude he is either malicious, or a pathological troll masquerading as a columnist. In case he is not the latter, I’ve taken the bait — This recent piece by Steyn is not just a crime against nuance, it’s an embarrassment that should be in little need of exposition, though it seems to be getting widespread and uncritical play.

I’d call the following Fisking, but it’s less challenging than that. It’s more like shooting fisk in a barrelThat, by the way, I believe to be my second pun ever involving Swedish..

Once, Steyn could be quite hysterically funny with his clever putdowns of clear idiots, but now he is merely hysterical, foaming at the bit to outdo the National Review’s Denis Boyles labelling Europeans as “cockroaches”. In a literary feat, Steyn declares Europeans “worse than cockroaches.” Evidence of this: Four news items, each of which in turn betrays evidence of a hastily scribbled column.

Just look at them. Item number 1 is about Canada, not Europe. Wrong tree. The kindest we can say about item number 3 is that his reporting is shoddy: The statement “59 per cent of Europeans think Israel is the biggest threat to world peace” is not true. Not caring to fact-check is shoddy, while knowing it’s not true and still using it would be worse. It reminds me of stovepiping, though perhaps that is a word not likely to find its way into Steyn’s vocabulary any time soon.

Item number 4 gets bizarre. We now have the spectacle of Steyn flaunting his cavalier approach to fact checking:

The other day I accidentally referred to Tariq Ali as Tariq Aziz and within minutes had a little flurry of emails from correspondents sneering that evidently all these guys sound alike to me. Well, I wouldn’t say that. But Tariq Ali and Tariq Aziz are sounding very much alike.

Aside from that, what the opinion of one left-wing commentator is meant to infer about the rest of the world is a mystery to me, but it comes effortlessly to Steyn:

For him, and for Mr Collenette [a Canadian], and for Goran Persson and Nelson Mandela and many many others, even on 11 September, the issue was never terrorism; the issue was always America.

Steyn must have done some remarkable research to ensure that the above sentence is not as utterly stupid as it appears.

Which leaves item 2, the nationality of missiles used in attacks against Americans in Iraq.

Much of the death and destruction was caused by French 68mm missiles Îin pristine condition’, according to one US officer who inspected the rocket tubes and assembly. In other words, they’re not rusty leftovers Saddam had lying around from the 1980s.

No, those would have been American. Why they would rust in a desert I don’t know, and the same goes for French arms. I also doubt the US officer inspected the missiles before they blew up. In any case, blaming the French for the attack is like blaming Boeing for 9/11. Who knows how the missiles got there, and how old they are? This is the flimsiest of grounds for outrage, and a dangerous precedent. If American weapons are ever used by the enemy, will Steyn be consistent and denounce America?

The point of all this? “Europe is dying.” The continent is importing too many Muslims, they’re breeding, and they’re radical. Yes, all of them, if Steyn can help it. “Sometime this century there will be 500 million Americans, and what’s left in Europe will either be very old or very Muslim. That’s the Europe that Britain will be binding its fate to.” No Muslims in Britain, of course, thank God, and not enough in America for them to poison the well with their incessant plotting. But everything bad in Europe is due to these Muslims and their tolerators.

I’ve heard that kind of argument before. At least Mr. Steyn is decent enough not to offer a solution.

About Antwerp

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The Stockholm International Film Festival is nearly upon us again. This year there is a Belgian film showing, Any Way the Wind Blows, about nothing much happening in Antwerp. Sound less than thrilling, but before nixing it I checked it out on IMDB. It rates about as high there (7.4) as the best Belgian films I knowC’est arrivé près de chez vous (Man bites dog), a mockumentary masterpiece, gets 7.5. The Dardennes’ La Promesse manages 7.4 and their Cannes winner Rosetta but 6.9. I honestly can’t think of many more Belgian movies with arthouse appeal., and it is being praised for its visual acuity.

I immediately knew what the reviewers meant when I saw this still:

vermeernew.jpg

It reminded me of this near neighbor, working in the 17th century:

vermeerold.jpg

Antwerp is an immensely creative city, probably the best in its class, and yet one third of the population votes for the anti-immigrant Vlaams Blok. So I have a love/hate relationship with the place; my Antwerp dialect — my mother tongue — is a passport to acceptance by the locals; it’s probably the only place in the world where I can manage that trick. But because this accent is the kind of ethnic marker Vlaams Blok uses to define outsiders, and because in my case I too am an outsider, having lived there just one year as a child, I am acutely aware of the fallibility, and hence silliness, of such tests, and policies based on them.

All this implies I care about the place. I will go see the film.