I found this and i must say it’s really good. It’s a plead to Thomas Bodström, the creator of the FRA-law, to leave the singer alone.
There are more videos popping up on youtube, all critical, but this one imo is the best one in english I found so far. Theres one in swedish that is really brilliant too, called Döda politiska karriärers sällskap. Thats Dead Political Careers Society, a spoof on Dead Poets Society, and it brought tears to a lot of eyes here in sweden.
Through all this I keep returning to two thoughts. One, if old-media, while free and uncensored, arent covering the acts of government, how will the people make informed decisions on who to vote on? If theres no coverage you, as a citizen can never hold the MP’s accountable for their acts if they misrepresent your vote. Has the responsibility of this really shifted so far on to the public that modern politics require a blogosphere to keep track of the government? Where else will you get news of upcomming laws in a format that is understandable to those who arent students of the law? What is the role of old-media in the modern political landscape in sweden? True, sweden has what, the sixth best internet infrastructure and broadband penetration in the world, but I cant see us doing away with old-media completly. There are still far too many who havent embraced the possibilities and are unaware of the ease of access of information out here. And obviously most of them find that being in politics is their particular calling. If you were to do away with all old-media coverage of political affairs right now, caos would ensue. The situation in sweden shows this clearly. Old-media have been criticized through all this for failing in their responsibilities, and among other things categorically waiting untill right before the votes to cover new laws. There are several laws in the pipe here in sweden, the Data Retention Directive being one of them, who all generate the same emotional response as the FRA-law. Too little coverage too late compounds the problems. Whenever the public hear news from the government they are portrayed as done deals, and a lot of the time they are too. How does that inspire people to form and opinion?
The second thing i cant shake is how despicable the political whip is. Maintaining a united party line should never have priority over the ideals and political platform that you were elected on. In this case there were clear issues with the party platforms of all four parties in the government coalition, aka The Alliance. These are all, to some extent, liberals and this obviously created internal conflicts in the government. You cant employ mass surveilance of your citizens and call youselves liberals, you cant even call yourselves democratic. Now, if they would have discussed and argued the issue, why sweden should or should not pass this bill it would have been fine, but these whipping meetings that were held for two days prior to the vote, centered around the various MP’s -> BETRAYING <- the party and the coalition. HEY MORONS! THE PLATFORM IS THE POLITICS YOU PROMISED US YOU WOULD REPRESENT IN THE PARLIAMENT! The ones who where betrayed were not the parties who couldnt produce a united front. The ones betrayed are the voters. Non-socialist liberals are now kicked out of their home so to speak. All their youth sections are pulling their support(swe) for their candidates currently in the parliament. If you cant argue that an opinion is in violation of your platform you have absolutely no right to force a MP of your party to vote in a particular way. That is despicable! Its immoral! And its undemocratic!
The constitution of sweden says, all power emanate from the people. Our prime minister clearly hasn’t read this since he recently said that “all power comes from the goverment” in an interview on swedish TV4.
Some blogs for the readers who grasp Swedish
Rick Falkvinge – Äckligt hyckelri hos Centern
Christan Engström – Vi kämpar vidare – styrkta!
Opassande – Den svenska modellen – Glasbur
Anna Troberg/Rosetta Sten – Folket avlyssnat, svarar med att kräva avgång…
Oscar Swartz :: Texplorer – FRA: Tag ledigt 16 setember 2008
Texplorer and Falkvinge also write in english at times
Rick Falkvinge -After wiretapping, a national DNA register
Global Texplorer – Mayday Mayday! Internet Wall of China – around Sweden!
The Purple Flagship 