“There is no global project more worthwhile”

Sunny day in Stockholm-but it is getting cold. Before starting to work this morning, I went for a good walk to the hills in the southern part of the city, "Söder", as it is called: Old, narrow streets, described by the Stockholm writer Per Anders Fogelström as the most beautiful in the whole city, with great views over the Old Town.

Good were also the news coming from New York. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban-Ki Moon, recognized in a speech that Children and Women need to be a priority if  we are going to move forward in at least partially fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals. He even promised money, some 40 million dollars, for this purpose. Ban Ki-moon also recognized young people as being a critical part of the population by stating that:

“It is increasingly clear that economic infrastructure and productive capacity-building hold the key to generating decent jobs, especially for the large youth populations of these countries”.

As I wrote earlier, there is a momentum gathering for the advancement of youth rights in the world, a momentum being created not out of niceness, but out of necessity. The world will move towards a breaking point if we do not understand that concrete measures need to be taken, starting by the realization of the situation of young people, continuing with policy making and legal recognition and of course implementation and enforcement mechanisms. When it comes to youth, the facts are clear. In Africa and the Middle East, hundreds of millions of young people are likely to face unemployment and poverty-it does not take a big strategic brain to understand that this not only a human social&economic disaster, but also a security threat.

Far Right Advances in Swedish Elections

Morning after the elections in Sweden-the headline in European Voice says "Sweden Wakes Up to a Far-Right Hangover". This is indeed one of the big questions of the election results. The Swedish Democrats, a party with neo-nazi roots, won 20 seats, denying the centre-right coalition that won the elections the possibility to form a majority government. The winners are now trying to get the Greens on board the coalition-something that is understandably difficult from a democratic point of view, since the Greens were running together with the Social Democrats and the Left wing party in the same coalition against the centre-right.

The other big question is the bad result of the Social Democrats, who suffered the worst electoral defeat since 1914, messing up a ten percentage point lead they had in the polls in the middle of the term. Sweden is a country in which the Social Democrats have had an almost unquestioned dominance in politics for such a long time, that the result inevitably raises many questions. One answer is that the centre-right has moved firmly towards the centre. They look rather Social Democrat themselves, to be honest. In the same time, the Social Democrats made a decision to form a coalition with the former communists, which of course alienated socially liberal voters. The centre-right also managed the economic crisis in a good way, and have been able to convince voters that they will not steel the milk from small children or other unpleasant rightist things, but have been responsible and trustworthy, largely thanks to the very clever Minister of Finance, Anders Borg.

So, what will the impact be on the country, and how will young people be affected? As an immigrant, my impressions of the election campaign are of course from an outsider perspective, so there are probably more qualified analysts that my self. And to make predictions is often unwise in politics-anything can happen. One thing that struck me, though, was that the campaign was rater superficial. It seems that the political messages are produced in communications agencies rather than among party activists. I think I read somewhere that Tony Blair has said party programs and the likes are useless, since political leaders need more to react to singular questions than elaborate comprehensive ideas, and this seems to be the case also here. And it is true that the parties and newspapers were very much stressing for example how many euros you will gain/lose, depending on which coalition wins. So, if you are retired you will gain 10€ a year more if you vote left and if you earn 4000€ a month you will gain 15 € more per annum if you vote right. I believe it is a bit worrying that parties don't seem to reflect on society and the future as a whole-it undermines the political system in the long run, I believe.

During the campaign, all the parties were talking about youth unemployment. Now it remains to be seen what the concrete measures will be. One of he failures of the last government was that it did not make it easier for small companies to employ young people, now I think that they will very much be measured on if they succeed this time. In the same time, this should be done without reducing young people from human beings to bare human capital. Lets see, interesting times ahead.

Youth on the Move

Slightly tired after some days in Mollina at the University on Youth and Development. Mollina  always means long nights in legendary Pacos after the meetings: dancing to more or less the same playlist night after time, drinking probably too many gin tonics and having a nice time in general. I was participating in a meeting on the cooperation between Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean(FEULAC in the abbreviation/acronym dictionary of youth). Good meeting- I think. There is a very strong common understanding on the need for rights based youth policies and a realization that we have to move forward from making documents at various events and conferences to trigger real political change. Youth Organizations have a strong, legitimate message-now Governments and international institutions need to act!

The Commissions Youth on the Move(or Youth on the Moon, by which it is known in some circles)  proposal was finally launched. I say finally, beacuse a clear strategy on youth is needed right now in Europe. Reading some press releases and articles, the response is so and so. Though many positive aspects, I'm personally a bit concerned with the role of youth organizations and an active civil society in this plan. It is very important to discuss employment and education, but active citizenship must not be forgotten. Youth organizations reach out to millions and need strong recognition in the European Project. Now we must be sure that we defend the interests of our members and and demand for example better financing for youth organizations. There needs to be more money invested in Youth in Action, and the ceiling of grants to international youth organizations must be raised. My goal is to raise it  to 200 000€.

Confidence in Young People?

Swedish election campaign continuing intensively. Three articles about young people in the newspaper today-one about difficulties party political youth organizations are experiencing in arranging debates in schools and another on how social media is used to mobilize young people to vote.

In Finland, party political youth organizations have had trouble entering schools since a long time-the reason is said to be the over politicized 1970s, when schools became ideological battlegrounds between the right and the communist left. In Sweden today, one of the problems seems to be the challenge from the xenophobic Swedish Democrats-many schools don't want their pupils to be subjected to their rhetoric, and thus they invite the mainstream parties but not them. Other schools have banned all parties, in the name of equality. To make young people interested in elections and politics is of course not only solved by letting parties in to the schools, but in the same time, it is an astonishing vote of no confidence for young people to try to "protect" them from politics in this way. Don't blame young people for not being interested, if you don't even give a chance to make an informed decision , is my message.

Social media is, of course getting more and more important, and it would be interesting to know how much they affect voter preferences. The new channels of communication are valuable. In the same time, the way politics is communicated needs to be rethought-whether it is through social media or more traditional ways of communicating. Very often, the message is over simplified in meaningless slogans, becoming absurd fragments of ideas rather than more comprehensive h on how society should look.

And the third piece of news? That was that 99% of Swedish young people between 10-18 believe that their future will be a good one. That is, at least, reassuring in a way!

Catapulted Back to Sharja

Johan in the Desert, 2005

Now on my way back to Stockholm after a really good meeting with the Nordic/Baltic Youth Councils, ending in many Danish beers in the evening!  The work with this group of youth councils is inspiring since there is a clear continuation in the work we are doing together. Besides the fact that the personal relations are important and good, it is clear that the things we work for are not only based on individuals, but also on the work that our organizations are doing long term. This is how you really can change things.

Another reason to be in a really good mood, is that this morning I had a couple of hours free before catching the train, a time which I used to have a a cappuccino at Cafe Norden and visiting an interesting exhibition in the National Museum called "Sharja", on art from the United Arab Emirates. The exhibition displayed interesting, ancient maps of the region and wonderful calligraphy. Arabic calligraphy is rooted in the desire to give the word of god its most beautiful worldly form, and it is indeed extraordinary.

The funny thing was, that actually one of the first international missions I did for the scouts was going to Sharja in 2005, spending two weeks camping in the desert with participants from all over the world.
Wandering around the museum, I was catapulted back to that hot Sharja desert in April 2005 - I remembered the strong, almost absurd sensation I experienced when, surrounded by camels and sand, I made the thank you speech on behalf of the participants of the event, to our host Dr. Sultan Mohammed Al Quasimi. The Sultans wise words, reminding that culture and arts can truly bridge the gaps between people, were also greeting the visitors to the museum.

Though a bit orientalist in proper Victorian style, Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E Lawrence is a good book on the Middle East for those who are interested. Robert Fisk has said that had the U.S hawks read the account of Lawrence, they would never have invaded Iraq.

Packing Bags...

Packing bags has been something I have become something of an expert on in the past five years or so. I prefer to travel light, and I try to keep my bag partially packed all the time-with a small umbrella(very useful when the destination is often called Brussels), toothbrush and ear plugs(fantastic to be able to sleep when children are screaming on the plane). Since airports are very unpleasant places and air traveling is polluting and all the time more nerve consuming - and also because I really like feeling that I'm moving- I love when I can take the train. That is why I am extra happy to go to Copenhagen tomorrow, where I can easily go by train, to meet friends from the Nordic/Baltic Youth Councils. The Youth Councils of this part of Europe have a long history of cooperation, and the meetings are generally fruitful to discuss how to contribute to better youth policies around the Balitic Sea and Europe in general.

On another note, it is interesting to follow the election campaign in Stockholm, where I am currently more or less based. It seems to be a really tight election, in which youth employment is quite high on the agenda. On thing that struck me however, was a poll on relevant election questions for voters, conducted by Dagens Nyheter, one of the two main daily newspapers in Sweden. In the list of "topics important for the voters", many things were asked, such as "matters affecting pensioneers". But, surprise surprise, no direct question on the situation of young people was mentioned. How come, do you think?