Useless to try to have plans agains bullying, discrimination, bad work environment etc.?

"Det är beklagligt men trots allt sant att den kommunala skolan läckte pengar, enorma mängder pengar.

År efter år har lärarkåren tvingats syssla med så kallat "utvecklingsarbete". De har utnyttjats för att producera mer eller mind­re meningslösa handlingsplaner, lokala skolplaner, kunskaps- och betygskriterier, antimobbningsplaner, jämställdhetsplaner, arbetsmiljöplaner, likabehandlingsplaner, individuella utvecklingsplaner, kvalitetsredovisningar, uppföljningar och utvärderingar. Räknar man ihop alla dessa bortkastade lärararbetstimmar för landets samtliga lärare och multiplicerar med en genomsnittlig lärartimpeng så får man ett mått på hur mycket pengar som läckt, pengar som skulle kunna använts till fler lärare, många fler lärare."

You can read rest of the article here.

Fuglesang might go to heaven but does not believe in it

Tidigare i somras skrev Christer Fuglesang i en debattartikel i Dagens Nyheter under på följande uttalande:

"Det sekulära samhället uppmuntrar till kritik av alla idésystem på lika villkor, oavsett om ideologierna betecknas som politiska, filosofiska eller religiösa. Ingen ideologisk grupp ska ha rätt att undgå kritik eller att slippa stå till svars genom att hänvisa till religionsfriheten. Ingen ska heller kunna gömma sig bakom kulturella traditioner om dessa kränker de mänskliga rättigheterna. I det sekulära samhället har ingen grupp rätt att förtrycka individer eller begränsa deras levnadssätt, vare sig i religioners eller traditioners namn."

Initiativ Iran - Be there...or...

I want to promote an initiative from Initiativ Iran this Sunday in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö (Gustav Adolfs torg). They work for human rights in Iran and Amnesty support them.

More info: Initiativ Iran (you can also chose Swedish)


Speakers involved are as follows (complete list is presented shortly)

Mona Sahlin (Head of the Socialdemocrat party of Sweden)
Gudrun Schyman (spokesperson for Feministic initiative)
Jan Björklund (Education Minister of Sweden, head of Liberal People's Party)
Peter Eriksson (spokesperson for Green Party)
Wanja Lundby-Wedin (LO’s Chairman)
Ove Bring (Professor of Law)
Lise Bergh (Secretary General of the Swedish section of Amnesty International)
Gustav Blix (Moderate Party, member of the parliament)
Hans Linde (Left Party foreign affairs spokesman)
Nima Dervish (freelance writer and columnist for including the City)
Sören Juvas (RFSL's association and member of the ILGA World Board)
Ardalan Shekarabi (former President for the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League)
Makan Afshinnejad (member of the Liberal People's Party)

Artists involved are as follows (complete list is presented shortly)

Adam Tensta
Thomas Di Leva
Promoe & Spider Dogs
Shahin Najafi
Million Stylez
Stephen Simmonds
Sheri
Tensta Gospel
Baquetum (Brazilian rhythm group)
Labyrint
Zinat Pirzadeh
Sepideh Vaziri
Blackkey
Mike Cothrine & The One Life Band
Hermanos Bernal & Allyawan

Kejsaren e naken

by Timbuktu

Kejsaren Är Naken

Sen skulle jag vilja berätta om några sekel i historien
Det var en gång 70-talet, tro det eller ej
inte för att jag minns så mycket, jag är född på mitten så jag var väl allt för liten
men jag har hört om nånting som kallas skuldkrisen och stigande oljepriser
det var väl där de la grunden till det hela, Vietnamkrigets intensiva slutskede
kvävda revolutioner, motreaktioner, ett kallt krig och en massa heta
när droger och TV tog över på riktigt fick vi skumt mode och discomusik

På det 80-talet som ja växte upp
det var en värld styrd av sådana som Reagan och Bush
det var på den tiden Sverige fortfarande va
nån form av välfärdsstat, allt var lagom och bra
vi hade två tv-kanaler, hade ingen reklam
och efter klockan åtta såg man fan ingen på stan
o vi trodde blint att de hade gått folk på månen
man hörde svaga rykten om nåt hål i ozonen
o man heja på kobojsarna, aldrig på indianerna
rädda för kommunisterna, älskade amerikanerna
med Top Gun-brillor och en Big Mac Meal
ville ha baseballkeps o en Rambokniv
ja Hollywood gjorde sitt jobb gediget
gav oss hjältesagor från de många krigen
o vi käkade bullshit med god aptit
men så brast ju MTV-generationens myt

(man ingenting saktar ner, det bara ökar)

vi försöker att blunda, men vi ser det ändå
gör vårt bästa att låtsas men när inte det går
ska vi stirra denna skiten i ögat
göra vad som krävs, vad än må behövas
ska vi brinna på tills alla e döda
skrika högre och hålla för örat
Kejsaren har inga kläder
Jag sa, ejsaren har inga kläder, nej nej

(vi måste tillbaka in i gunget man)

sen på 90-talet hände något oförklarligt
kanske var det ja som växte upp men överhuvudtaget
CNN visade de rättfärdiga kriget
Ni vet då vi bringa frihet till Persiska viken
uppror i Los Angeles, plus en lågkonjunktur
nåt va ruttet i väst, ja visst något va surt
vi fick krig i Balkan och Unabombaren
OJ Simpson, apartheid konkade
vi fick Pulp Fiction o Bill Clinton
Tupac o Biggie dog i vilt tillstånd
Sverige blev Europa, vi kom trea i VM
vi fick TV3-nyheter o de snabba modemen
socialdemokraterna blev moderater
vi fick längre öppettider, nya torg och gator
men tider förändras när åren byter så
år 1999 var det Y 2 K

Och då står vi här idag, och för det får man va jävligt glad
det är ett nytt årtusende, och man får blunda jävligt hårt för att inte se lögnerna
tro, hopp och kärlek känns som nåt ovattnat New Ageigt mjäk
Che Guevara har redan prytt alla världens T-shirts
så i sökandet efter extremare livsupplevelser så får vi nog skära oss själva, jag vet inte
det räcker inte med att se en film, man måste va med i filmen
och miljörapporterna säger att vi har en halv suck att fixa det,
men vi har ju trots allt fortfarande skumt mode och discomusik

R2D2's silent sister?

Quot :-)

Karin wonders what to drink at the crayfish party that Swedes like to have in August. I seconded Adam/Mr Renat.

Karin: "Just for you information, Mr Renat* (aka Adam) also thought it was a great idea to eat a fried hamster once... I'm tilting towards wine"

* Renat = vodka

An example why I like to hang out with AI people

Julio: is teaching neurochemistry

Natasja: AI, neurochemistry...and what else do you do? :)

Julio: I also play chess! And I'm trying hard to improve my acting skills too!

Natasja: You couldn't try to be a bit more WIDE when it comes to your scope of interests? ;-)

ENFP

ENFP (Extraversion, iNtuition, Feeling, Perception)

You are warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. You see life as full of possibilities. You make connections between events and information very quickly, and confidently proceed based on the patterns you see. You want a lot of affirmation from others, and readily give appreciation and support. You are spontaneous and flexible, and often rely on your ability to improvise and verbal fluency. Famous people with your same ENFP personality include: Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Andy Kaufman, Bill Cosby, Robin Williams, Sandra Bullock, and Robert Downey Jr.

Not lost

Not all those who wander are lost.
~ JRR Tolkien

Thank you Gina for that quot.

Seconhand information

I just got yet another piece of information about a former very good friend, second handedly. Earlier I've gotten info through my father, friends or on the internet, not by the actual persons themselves. Maybe I'm just naive thinking that SOME information that are major in people's lives should be told directly to me, not by accident through some other channel, even if the contact is not what it used to be. Disappointed once again.

What is it about guys and them getting married? This is the THIRD time it has happened! What are they afraid of? Or am I just that unimportant that they don't give a shit to tell me?

I am not nasty, I am Amnesty!

One of the Nasty guys wrote this to me: "Hey there :) We have to congratulate the designers of the T-shirt, it really grabs attention! I hope you had a good way home - Petr told me you looked quite dead on the Bus. We were fortunate to get to bed early enough to survive the mountain trip ..."

What can I say, I liked their t-shirts (one black and one red) and obviously so did they. I think that pretty much any reason to start talking to unknown people is a good reason. I was lucky, they turned out to be very nice people. Quite dead means that he was nice enough to lend me his shoulder to be able to get a few minutes of sleep on our way to the airport in Antalya around 8 am. I hadn't slept at all that night and only three hours the night before. Working+party+party+swimming and singing in the ocean+breakfast with Ken does that to you. So thanks Nasty for acting like a pillow.

Today

Emre (Turkey) & Oleh (USA), two of my fellow team leaders at the daily morning meeting today.


Listening to Irene Khan speak.




The welcome social event by AI Turkey. Looking forward to it! A cold beer in the evening here in the heat is heaven.

Gloria

Islamists = terrorists?

I copy and pasted this text from another blog. belonging to a person I know. Main points are that out of 515 terrorsit attacks, planned or failed ones, during 2008, ONE that was carried out by an Islamist group. 397 of the attacks were carried out by ETA in Spain och similar organisations on the French island of Corsica. During 2007 the nimbers were four out of 536. Now you know that!

"Islamister är per definition terrorister. Åtminstone i många uppskrämda icke-muslimska ögon. Men parallellen är inte alls korrekt, vilket självaste Europol(EU:s gemensamma polisbyrå)visar i årets upplaga av årsrapporten "EU terrorism - situation and trendreport". Av 515 genomförda, avslöjade eller misslyckade attentat 2008 var det endast ett(!) som utfördes av en islamistisk grupp. I och för sig illa nog, men naturligtvis inte nog för att motivera den rädsla för muslimer som många människor i inte minst vårt eget lugna land känner.

397 av dåden utfördes av separatister tillhörande ETA i Spanien och liknande organisationer på den franska ön Korsika - och riktade sig enbart mot de styrande i Spanien och Frankrike. Redan 2007 var förresten siffran på islamistiska terrordåd i Europa jämförelsevis låg - fyra av sammanlagt 536."

Surreal

It is really surreal to be staying at this hotel in Turkey.

Training

Woke up at 7 am, which I think I will have to do every day that I am staying here. I would have liked to be able to sleep at least an hour more, but what won’t I do for humanity. As the night person I am, getting into bed early is not my strongest side so I usually have to pay for that with being tired all day. Unlike the other volunteers, I have to get up early to attend the morning meeting with the other leaders and our very dear volunteer coordinators before the the real work begins. To put it simple, this resort is HUGE, to the extent that I got lost trying to get to breakfast and I am not alone being lost.

After breakfast we had a half day of leader training where we got to know more about out our tasks to come, about each other etc. It didn’t take long to figure out that the other leaders and coordinators are really great people. We are from: US, Sweden/Bolivia/Brazil, Canada/France, Mongolia and Italy. This was followed by team training with the rest of the volunteers (we are in total 39, divided into four groups with four different main tasks). Info and getting to know each other. Dinner. The buffet we having is massive and it’s a lot of good stuff. I’ll get back to that again later. The waiter at the table I sat at that nights is named Hasan. A 100 % Turkish guy with red hair and freckles who was really interested in speaking to us, asking us where we are from etc. Very close to my room (that I am sharing with three other Swedish girls) there is a nice pool, so at around 11 pm I went for a swim and it was really nice. Before going to be I went out on the balcony in my bikini, Skyping with M, chatted with a good Mexican friend and checking my email. Just a great day of ending an exciting and eventful day.

To Turkey & ICM 2009 and Back

(I haven't read this through so there might be a lot of mistakes)

2009-08-04

Departure 30 minutes late. That is how the story begins at Katrup airport in Copenhagen. Fortunatly I got window seat. It’s three years now since I last flew. Although, this is the first time to Turkey. I love looking out the window. 11 300 meters ut in the air, the clouds are nothing more than fluffy white things below or beside you, or an even world of white. I also enjoy seeing the tiny, thin roads on the ground, surrounded by paches of ground fields in different colours. Seeing things are certainly a way of grasping a little bit better how big the world is and how small you are. Eg. flying above cities like São Paulo in Brazil or Mexico City in Mexico feels like a never ending experience of cities which don’t seem to end. Try to imagine all the inhabitants of Sweden in one city and double it, then you almost have a city of that magnitude.

Enough about that, I am on my way to Turkey. To do what? Work my ass off is the idea, but I like working for Amnesty even when it’s for free, which it always is. For months I waited for the judgement by the people responsible of the applications to work as volunteer at the International Council Meeting (ICM) 2009 in Antalya, Turkey. After been looking for a (better) job for 2,5 years with ”thank you for applying, but we have decided to give the job to someone else”, I hardly expected someone to actually choose me but they did.

The ground has changed from that I took off in Copenhagen. From nicely squared fields to softly changing shapes. Did I mention that I 1668 km closer to my destination than when I left? In other words I am 47 minutes away from Istanbul, and leaving the clouds behind, where I will change to another flight to get to Antalya.

There is a lake below that has the colour of gold and turqoise, shaped like an artwork. The nature is different here and even if its is about -55 degrees up here, it will be at least 25 degrees down there. The (frost) is clouding my view over the turqoise sea and halv moon shaped coast lines.

Late departure hence a late arrival. Of course the terminal I had to go to to Antalya from Istanbul was far away. I was so late to the airport bus that it was only an Englishman and I on it. Do you think that the plane left on time? It took another 25 minutes before the plane acutally took off. Yet again I have a seat close to the wing. I must say that the following text on the middle of the wing feels unnecessary: ”Do not walk outside this area”. I promise I will not walk on the wing. At all. Ever.