The Stockholm Syndrome

From The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, about how the USA may turn into Sweden:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
The Stockholm Syndrome
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
The Stockholm Syndrome Pt. 2
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Note: There is no IKEA furniture called "Flurven" (can't even type that 'u'-letter, doesn't exist!) or "Gimmelböp", it's not even Swedish words that mean anything! Also, Social Democratic politician Leif Pagrotsky's beard used to be much bigger!

This is England

Yesterday I finally got to choose what film to see (since I most of the time watch films together with others), and it was bit more realistic and deep than the last two I have had to watch. I've wanted to see "This Is England" for quite a long time, especially makes sense since I'm here now, but it never happened until yesterday. I knew before that it was about original ska/reggae skinheads and taking place in the early 80s, but I was surprised to see that it turned out to be quite a lot like "American History X", which just made the affection on me stronger. The film is really well done with everything from the great music to the setting of the time and place, and fantastic acting especially by the young Thomas Turgoose in the lead role as 12-year-old Shaun.



Even though I think the film doesn't really break new ground with its theme about racism and who belongs where and why these things might come up, I think it's a topic that always needs to be brought up and discussed to prevent racism to evolve. These things are very current for me as I've have studied 'Race and Representation' in my Social and Cultural Geography module, and discussed 'What is Britishness?'. As a part of this module I was recommended by one of the lecturers to read the book "Even in Sweden", which I have just started to look into but it brings up many things that I'm more familiar with, such as cases from the early 90s, than British examples and which makes it more interesting and easier to understand. I really hope that the recession and crisis right now, which led to many companies having to cut down on employees, such as Volvo and Saab in Sweden, doesn't become a breeding ground for racist thoughts and organizations as it unfortunately often shows out to be (which is described in the book I mentioned), especially with an upcoming parliament election coming up next year (in Sweden). So even though "This Is England" is about this country the story could had taken place anywhere, and the theme is therefore very relevant for Sweden, in this case, and other countries too.

The Block Obama

Ikväll är det alltså dags för presidentvalet i USA. Ett val som inte bara är viktigt på andra sidan Atlanten, utan även intressant för resten av världen. Som Kubas vicepresident Carlos Lage sa:

"Det världen behöver är en president i USA som är rationell, som har en miniminivå av intelligens, som inte är alkoholist och som inte är dement. Det är inte för mycket begärt."

Jag håller verkligen tummarna för att Barack Obama vinner, och det ser ju onekligen ljust ut just nu, även jag läst att det varit problem med bland annat röstningsmaskinerna. Får se om jag orkar stanna uppe något inatt och kolla på vakan, eller gå upp tidigt och se resultatet. Vad jag vet har en amerikansk presidentkandidat aldrig fått så mycket stöd av populärkulturella personer som Obama har fått. Han har fått ett speciellt stort stöd från många hip-hop artister, som sällan brukar visa uppskattning för politiker och val utan snarare tvärtom. Visst hade bl a Diddy sin kampanj "Vote Or Die" för fyra år sen, men det var nog mer mot Bush än för Kerry. Obama har faktiskt själv sagt att han gärna lyssnar på Jay-Z och annan hip-hop, så känns lite som att han lite mer gata och sväng än tidigare presidenter. Han har faktiskt även medverkat på flera låtar, om än kanske oftast bara i samplad form. Två exempel är på Nas senaste skiva "Untitled", och Q-tips nya skiva "The Renaissance" (han står t o m som featured) som efter år av skivbolagsstrul kommer ut idag. Ger er de två låtarna, och videon till den riktigt sköna första singeln från "The Renaissance".

Nas - "Black President"


Q-Tip - "Shaka"

Q-Tip - "Gettin' Up"