Danes Elect Dame

Helle Thorning-Schmidt will be sworn in as Denmark's first female prime minister. Her narrow victory at the polls is being billed as a victory of the center-left over the center-right, which has held power in Denmark for a decade. The center-right coalition had passed some of the most restrictive anti-immigration laws in Europe. No speculation that I saw as to whether a reaction against July's rightwing terrorist mass-murder in nearby Norway might have helped swing the numbers in her favor.

Meanwhile, in Norway, support for the far-right, anti-immigrant Progress Party plummeted in local elctions, sinking from second to third in national prominence. The confessed mass murderer, Anders Behring Breivik had been affiliated with the Progress Party for several years. The ruling Norwegian labor party, which had been targeted for extermination by Breivik, attained its best results in over two decades.

Swedish Suicide Bomber

Four people were arrested yesterday in the Swedish city of Goteborg by a task force specializing in terrorist threats. An art center, crowded with the premier of a new exhibit, was evacuated, and a section of the city cordoned off. Authorities have declined to reveal anything about the suspects. Whether the timing has anything to do with the tenth anniversary of 9/11 is unknown. There was no panic reported.

Last December, Sweden suffered its first suicide bombing. Taymour Abdulwahab, a Swedish National of Iraqi descent blew himself up in a popular Stockholm shopping district to protest the Afghan war and the publication of a cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed  with a dog's head. Although reportedly wearing a knapsack full of nails, he suceeded in killing no-one but himself. Apparently the bomb went off prematurely. There's a metaphor in there, somewhere.

The cartoonist, Lars Vilk, described as a "free speech activist," has lived in seclusion and under guard since a $100,000 bounty was placed on his head by an Al Qaeda affiliate.

     

Big-Brained Danes

Scandinavians have the largest brains, says a recent report by Oxford phrenologists. Extra gray matter, along with larger-than-average-eyes, according to their hypothesis, helped Scandinavians to see clearly in the low levels of light at high latitudes. The conclusion was based on a study of 55 human skulls from around the world.

Meanwhile, seven Danes, including a family of five, were released after nine months of captivity in Somalia. A Somali pirate named Hussein claims to have received a $3 million ransom.

The Oxford scientists were quick to point out that larger brain size doesn't necessarily indicate higher intelligence. This would seem to be bourne out by the fact that the newly-freed Danes had been pleasure-boating with their children in the Arabian Sea, a known hunting ground of Somali pirates. How smart is that?

Utoya Massacre Update

Five hundred family members of the Utoya Massacre victims were permitted to visit the island where their loved ones were gunned down in the worst shooting rampage in human history.

The confessed perpetrator, Anders Brievik has been sitting in solitary confinement for most of the two months since. According to judicial ruling, he could be held in isolation until mid-October, and may have to wait until mid November before being permitted visitors and correspondence with the outside world. He is being kept in isolation to prevent contact with possible accomplices, and to prevent him from tampering with evidence. Brievik has complained that this treatment is "sadistic torture." One wonders when in where in history he would have preferred prison to 21st century Norway?

Norwegian police meanwhile have released transcripts of phone conversations that occured between Brievik and police during his drug-fueled killing spree. Apparently "the commander of the Norwegian anti-Communist Resistance Movement" twice called police and offered to surrender. But he went on killing kids for another 28 minutes before they finally arrived.

NazIKEA

Ingvar Kamprad--or, as I called him in my earliest notes, "the guy who founded IKEA"--has been a Scandinavian 81 candidate from almost the start. In a previous post, I mentioned the flatpack furniture tycoon in a discussion on influential Scandinavians with known ties to Nazism. In the mid-90s, Kamprad confessed to having had a teenage association with the SSS (the Swedish Nazi party). It was, he said, his "biggest mistake," a "youthful sin," resulting from "stupidity." He had deeply repented.

A new book claims that Kamprad's Nazi assoications were stronger, and went on longer, than he has admitted. According to author Elisabeth Asbrink, Swedish intelligence files demonstrate activities going well beyond "teenage confusion." Kamprad was an enthusiastic recruiter, says Asbrink, and seems to have been some kind of an SSS functionary. He also maintained ties with Nazi sympathizers at least into the 1950s, she says.

Kamprad spokesmen dismissed the allegations "old news." "The IKEA he created is based on democratic principles and embraces a multicultural society."

Ten or twelve days ago, I got around to ordering two books about Ingvar Kamprad. The first was Leading By Design: The Ikea Story by Kamprad and a collaborator. The second was The Truth About Ikea:The Secret About the World's Fifth Richest Man, by John Stenebo. It advertizes itself as an expose of the dark side of the IKEA empire by a long-time corporate insider. (The extent of Kamprad's wealth is disputed; according to Forbes he's "only" the 162nd richest human being.) These books arrived in my mailbox just a day or two before Ingvar Kamrad and his infamy were back in the news. A perfect example of the synchronicity that has frequently, though still-startlingly, attended to this project.

Vikings vs. Social Democrats

My knowledge of 20th century Scandinavian political history is relatively weak. I began at the beginning, and so of course, as yet, I know more about Vikings than Social Democrats. It only makes chronological sense.

So I tell myself. I don't believe me. This is the truth: I know less about Tage Erlander than Erik Bloodax because Vikings fascinate me much, much more than modern statesmen. Maybe this speaks poorly of my character, but so would denying the truth.

Indeed, I dread trying to learn as much about modern politicans, economists, activists and social reformers as I already know about ancient Norsemen. I could die of boredom.

Which may be as good as admiting this multibiography needs another author.

But since I couldn't stop now if I wanted to, here are the names of several Social Democrats newly under consideration for the Scandinavian 81: Tage Erlander, Karl Hjalmar Branting, Ernst Wigorss, Gustav Moller, and Knut Wicksell. They're all Swedes. Along with Gunnar and Alva Myrdal and Olof Palme (and, in Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland) they seem to bear important responsibility for developing and implementating the modern Scandinavian welfare state.

None of them, insofar as I have any reason to believe, ever killed anyone with an ax.

Utoya Massacre Update

By November 1st, court-appointed psychiatrists are scheduled to make their recommendation as to whether Anders Behring Brievik is sane enough to be tried for murdering 77 people last month in Norway. Brievik has agreed to be evaluated, but has demanded to be also to be seen by a Japanese psychiatrist. "The wish has to do with the concept of honor," explained his lawyer, Geir Lippestad. "He believes that a Japanese person would understand him better than someone from Europe."

Brevik's manifesto supposedly exhibits an admiration for Japanese and Korean cultures--presumably for their unwillingness to admit, assimilate or extend citizenship to large numbers of foreigners.

A few days ago, Brievik returned to Utoya island, where he spent eight hours reenacting his shooting rampage for the police. The simulation was required to clarify details of the attack for the trial. Portions aired on Norwegian television and show Breivik restricted a tether harness, demonstrating details of his murder spree with an imaginary rifle. He was reportedly calm and cooperative. He displayed no remorse for his actions.

Lippestad claims that Brievik spared those on Utoya island whom he considered too young to have been indoctrinated by Labor Party propaganda. Brievik's youngest victim is believed to have been Sharidyn Svebakk-Bohn. She was 14.