Kategori: Social kontrol

Biden says the pandemic is over. Is it?

In the US, 400 people still die from Covid every day.

This week, both my kids finally took off their masks at school. Every single day since they returned to school after 540 days of online schooling, they have attended PE, sat in their classrooms, had recess – with masks on.

Since masks have been part of a highly controversial, heated debate and are a symbol of where you stand politically, our advice to the kids has been to do what made them feel comfortable – wearing a mask became so much more than just an expression of wanting to protect one’s classmates.

“I have previously been almost a religious fanatic when it came to wearing a mask in public. Now I shop, go to parent meetings, and have a social life again – without wearing a face mask.

Joe Biden was asked by a CBS journalist on “60 Minutes” whether the pandemic was over in the United States. He was in Detroit attending North America’s largest auto show. Biden’s response? “We still have problems with covid … but the pandemic is over,” he said. But that is simply not true. The United States is still under a “public health emergency,” which the country has been under since January 2020.

The timing couldn’t be worse as health officials are trying to convince the American population to take the latest Covid booster shot that specifically targets the Omicron variant. At the same time, the White House is trying to get Congress to approve 22 billion dollars for Covid prevention.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, the WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, last week. But in the same statement, he encouraged nations of the world to still be vigilant.

More than six and a half million people have died from Covid, more than one million this year alone, including my own uncle in Copenhagen in July. In the US, 400 people die from Covid every single day, and 4,300 are hospitalized.

Biden has a a bad habit of saying things that the White House staff then has to walk back. It is, at best, an unfortunate statement from the American president, because such announcements can complicate the fight against Covid. It makes me nervous to think about the consequences of Biden’s statements. Will fewer people go and get their Omicron booster shots? I wouldn´t be surprised if some people think: Why should I get the vaccine if the pandemic is over?

And if the boss of all declares the pandemic over, why would the Republican politicians needed to get a majority want to vote in alliance with their Democratic colleagues in Congress to allocate more tax dollars aimed to deal with Covid in the form of vaccinations, testing and research? There is not much historic data about Covid, yet, but we do know one thing now – the numbers of positive cases increase when people’s social lives move indoors. Officials in the healthcare sector report that there are not enough economic funds allocated to handle the raise the expected positive Covid cases in the autumn.

A pandemic does not go from 100 to 0 – I wish that was the case, because that would make it so much easier to communicate a message and for the population to understand. Meanwhile, each individual citizen interprets the situation according to his or her own best judgment.

Yesterday I attended yet another parent meeting, they seem to be never ending these weeks. For the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, everything has moved from Zoom meetings to be held in person. About half of the parents wore masks, I did not.

I have previously been almost a religious fanatic when it came to wearing a mask in public. Now I shop, attend parent meetings, and have a social life again – without wearing a face mask. The pandemic is not over – it is just under control. But continuous control requires that we keep taking it seriously while living our lives without having to endure too many restrictions.

Maybe that’s what Biden was trying to say?

___

Coronapandemien er slut, siger Biden – men er den det?

I USA dør der stadig 400 af covid om dagen.

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Muslimske mænd: Mand jer op!

Hvor er vestlige muslimers kamp for afghanske pigers ret til at gå i skole

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Muslim Men: Man Up!

Why are Muslims in Western countries not fighting for Afghan girls’ right to go to school?

It’s been a year since Biden threw in the towel and gave Afghanistan’s girls and women the middle finger. The American exit was a disaster and a scandal, both for the country’s reputation and for the Afghan girls and women who are now caged behind their veils and the walls of their homes. The United States has a responsibility for sure. But what is much worse is that Muslim men in Afghanistan and the rest of the world are not fighting for their Afghan mothers, sisters and daughters – and that is a disgrace worse than the failed US presence in Afghanistan.

A year ago, city after city in Afghanistan fell to the extreme Islamist group, Taliban. For more than 20 years, American soldiers had been present in the country and tried to make a difference in relation to democracy, gender equality, and showing the population an alternative to the Taliban’s regime of violence and terror.

“Where were the Afghan men who reportedly overwhelmingly support girls’ right to school? Why didn’t they form a protective ring around the women?

Faster than anyone could say failed democratization, Afghan men laid down their weapons that should have been used to defend the weakest part of the population, namely women and children. The coward for a president took his billions and fled the country.

We all remember the images of desperate people trying to get out of the country, clinging to the wings of an airplane but ending up dead, while we watched them fall to the ground like little dark specks as the plane took off. In a flash I remembered the towers in New York when they were hit and people jumped off the buildings and straight to their deaths.

Violence, panic, chaos; families that were torn apart; women gave birth on the premises of the base; people died of hunger and thirst in the scorching heat or as a result of violent episodes.

Thousands of Afghans desperately tried to get out of the country when they saw where things were headed. They remembered all too well what the regime of terror by the Taliban. They knew very well that the Taliban speak with a forked tongue. In particular, everyone knew how girls and women were treated.

Imagine how the girls and women who stayed back are doing now – the hell they are living in. Taliban leaders told the West it was only a matter of time before schools would reopen to middle school-age girls. So we waited, and so did the girls in Afghanistan. On the day that was supposed to be the first day of school, they were more than ready. They smiled, there was a spring in their step; this was the day they had been looking forward to. Finally, they could go back to school. But when they showed up, long-bearded, robe-clad cavemen waited for them and told them that they wouldn’t be allowed back to school after all. What a vicious exercise of power, what a dehumanizing humiliating display of power. Since then, the girls have been hidden away and are back in kitchens, doing the laundry, and scrubbing the floors. If they move outside, they risk being beaten or shot.

A few days ago, approximately 40 women demonstrated for equal rights. 40 brave women. One almost get a lump in ones throat. The BBC reported that the demonstration was quickly dissolved when the Taliban regime’s scoundrels shot into the air in a show of force. The message to the women was loud and clear: Go home, or we’ll lower our guns and shoot into your little group.

Where were the Afghan men who reportedly overwhelmingly support girls’ right to go to school? Why didn’t they form a protective ring around the women? Why don’t they speak up for these girls when they clearly have no problem declaring in front of an open screen and in various opinion polls that they most certainly support girls’ right to go to school and absolutely do not agree with the Taliban? And where are the Muslims living in the West when it comes to supporting their fellow Afghan sisters? Here in the West, they live in safety with no threat when they utter their views. Here in the West, in stark contrast to the Afghan girls and young women, their sisters, wives and daughters have all the rights and access to free education they could ever dream of. So why don’t we hear a peep from some of the voices that otherwise shout so loudly that their rights in western democratic countries are not respected?

It is a cheap shot and a double standard to criticize things that you consider not adhering and accommodating Muslim values in countries that are based on Western freedoms, while enjoying these freedoms and simultaneously advocating and demonstrating for more legislative changes that accommodate Muslim values. The fact that you don’t lift a finger, take to the streets, or collect signatures to shout out about and for the rights of women who need the loud shouts more than you need to implement Muslim values into the legislation in western democracies, leaves me with a strong disgust, distaste, and lack of respect. So Muslim men : Man you up!

Hvis babyer er små djævleunger, hvordan tror du så, Jehovas Vidner ser på dig?

Jehovas Vidner holder for tiden stævner i Danmark, og det er ikke småting, medlemmerne indoktrineres med.

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If babies are little enemies of God and in effect children of the Devil – how do you think Jehovah’s Witnesses look at you?

Jehovah’s Witnesses are currently holding conventions in Denmark, and members are not indoctrinated with them.

“Pursue Peace!” is the title of Jehovah’s Witnesses convention this year. And that sounds very reliable. But behind the title hides a gloomy message.

Stephen Lett is a member of what Jehovah’s Witnesses call the Governing Body. He gave a talk on how Witnesses should view people outside their organization.

Not only do Jehovah’s Witnesses even have to be very careful about treating unbelievers like us worldly ones, they also have to consider newborn babies – even their own – as devil fry.

The argument goes like this:

Stephen Lett begins by stating the title of his talk “Frindship with God, how possible?” and continues: “If we think about it, we are not born friends of God. We are born of a sinful offspring of Adam. ”

One senses that Lett builds up his argumentation as a multi-stage rocket, where the acceptance of one argument is followed by another. And now it becomes grotesque: “Actually, if you think about it, we are born as enemies of God.”

And then comes the moment when you check your hearing in disbelief. I can´t help thinking about my mother as she sits in her neat church clothes in front of the screen and listens. She gave birth to five children. What is she thinking as she listens to the following words?:

“Sometimes you will hear people say about a little baby: Look at that little angel! But more accurate would be to say:…” and here Stephen Lett pauses dramatically:” Look at that little enemy of God! “

Say, what!? I shouldn´t be surprised, but I guess I have been away from that rhetoric long enough that I am stunned, though not surprised.

Jehovah’s Witnesses learn to fear and hate Satan. Satan is, of course, an enemy of the God they are told they worship by following the rules within the congregation. They are told again and again that that one is born sinful because that story about Adam and Eve, the fruit in the Garden of Eden and all.

If you do not obey God, you will be destroyed in Hamageddon. Obeying their interpretation, that is. Ge’ez, quietly listening to this in the Kingdom Hall Sunday after Sunday as a little girl can make you break out in sweats. Fortunately, everyone is told that the situation is not entirely hopeless because you can become a friend of God. What a relief!

Such is the argument. I know, because I’ve experienced it from the inside of the Kingdom Halls for years.

When Jehovah’s Witnesses bring the good news to your doorstep about the opportunity for you to receive everlasting life in a paradise on earth, there’s a dark side to it. They see everyone as enemies of God. Even newborn, tiny little babies.

“Does that mean I will die if I do not become one of Jehovah’s Witnesses?” many people ask the pair outside their door.

“That is not up to us to decide,” is the answer they have rehearsed. After all, who wants to tell someone that they will be exterminated in a terrible and bloody battle? Instead they say:”but you have the opportunity to enter into God’s paradise if you follow his rules.”

The fact is, that at their meetings they are told over and over again that yes, everyone, children, the elderly, and the adults will be wiped out in the cruel war if they do not become Jehovah’s Witnesses. Do not think for one second that this is not what they think when they smile at you in their suits and pleated skirts.

The only reason you meet Jehovah’s Witnesses in your daily life is that they have a duty to reach out by either knocking on your door, calling your phone, writing letters, or otherwise preach their message. It is one of the rules that they must preach in order to increase the opportunities to enter their paradise. So sure, they do it to try to save you – but they certainly mostly do it to save themselves. If even their own babies are considered enemies of God how do you think they look at you?

Holy Moley! – I am glad to not be part of a cult that speaks through both sides of their mouths. One side preaches peace and eternal life and the other sees babies, children, and the rest of us out here in the real world as wandering lost enemies and friends of the Devil.

Ukrainske mænd kæmper for deres kvinder – hvorfor gør afghanske mænd ikke det samme?

Afghanske kvinder og ukrainske mænd er villige til at sætte livet på spil for frihed.

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Ukrainian men fight for their women – why are Afghan men not doing the same?

Afghan women and Ukrainian men are willing to risk their lives for freedom.

They get their women and children on trains and wave their goodbyes. Then take up arms, for many for the first time in their lives. Or they make sure that wives, mothers, and sisters are safe in shelters deep underground, while heading out to fight against a brutal supremacy.

When journalists ask Ukrainian soldiers what they are fighting for, they reply “peace” and “the future of my children.”

Most of us have been deeply touched by the willingness of Ukrainians to fight for the freedom the country has only known since 1991, when they gained their independence. That is about as long as most of Afghanistan´s women experienced freedom from the oppressing cavemen of Taliban.

“It’s like being in a room that’s too small and too dark,” a young Afghan woman told a journalist on the New York Times podcast The Daily.

Yesterday, the Afghan girls were supposed to be back in schools after being sentenced to months of household chores indoors. The first thing the Taliban did when they took power in August last year, of course, was to cut off girls from education.

The girls’ dreams turned out to be just that – dreams. Because when the excited, happy, giddy girls showed up at their schools, they were sent home again if they went to a higher grade level than 6th grade. BBC World News shows pictures of covered girls with tearstained cheeks collapsing in anguish and others with an expressionless gaze.

The misogyny is devastatingly heartbreaking! Men were waving the girls biggest dreams in front of them, letting them rejoice, letting them get their classrooms ready, wiping chairs and school desks off – and then telling them that they can not get the education they have been looking forward to.

Far from all girls have the opportunity to participate in online learning. But those who do, study foreign languages, art, literature, physics, and chemistry. Some go to the bookstore and buy books, devouring as much learning as they can at home. Others draw, do dance groups with girlfriends, meet secretly.

In short – the girls have a will to fight, even if it is deadly dangerous if discovered that they spend their time on something other than domestic chores, which the Taliban believes is a woman’s ultimate purpose in life.

But the men in Afghanistan underestimate their girls and women if they think they are content with doing the dishes, cleaning, cooking, and give birth. Men have always underestimated women. And women have always had to do the dishes, clean, cook, and give birth – while completing an education.

This generation of Afghan women has access to the Internet – and thus to a knowledge of how women and girls in other parts of the world live. I wonder if they marvel at how men in Ukraine are willing to sacrifice their lives in the fight for their women and girls freedom.

Imagine what Afghanistan would look like, how the country and its citizens could flourish, if the Afghan men put their foot down and went against the Taliban brutality that has forced itself into power in the country. Imagine if the girls were allowed to believe in a future where they can live out their dreams and immense potential!

But since it does not seem to be the case that Afghan men want to fight for their women’s right to a free and peaceful life, like the Ukrainian men are willing to do, Afghan girls and women must fight for themselves. It should not have to be like that, but as I already said, there is nothing new in women having to fight for their rights without the aid of men.

I hope that Afghan women have as much fighting spirit as the Ukrainian men, since Afghan men have proven to be cowards.

Børnene er de konservatives næste angrebsmål

Ny lov skal forbyde skoler at tale om kønsidentitet. Men hvorfor kan vores unger ikke være det, de er, uden at vi føler, at vi har en eller anden ret til at vende tommeltotten op eller ned?

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Identity politics: The Republican Party is targeting our children

Florida´s new law will ban schools from talking about gender identity. But why don´t we allow our kids to be who they are without feeling we have a right to judge?

The state of Florida is known for sun, sea, retirees, and Cubans.

Now, the state is introducing of a “Don´t Say Gay”-law which would ban any talk of LGBTQIA+ people, sexual orientation, and gender identity in schools.

Have we learned nothing?

I hate to say it, but even if you close your eyes to something and bury your head in the sand, what you try to not see is still there. If we deny young people an opportunity to share their thoughts, it will have a catastrophic effect on mental health for these vulnerable young people.

All young people need to have an opportunity to talk about and explore their identity. My own teenage daughter is one of them. At her school, there is a Rainbow Club every Thursday after school.

For a long time, my daughter thought she was ace, (asexual). She wore the purple flag, wore purple clothes with sequins on the jacket. I had a feeling it was rooted on the fact that she was not yet ready to talk about the topics that her tween friends were starting to talk about. But I kept that assumption to myself. Instead, we talked about identity and about finding out who you are.

Recently, our daughter told us she is no longer an ace. She now thinks boys are rather interesting. She still attends Rainbow Club, because of the atmosphere and because many of her friends go there.

Why can´t our kids be who they are without us feeling we have a right to judge? And why can we not be open to the fact that their identity is fluid, and that we just have to hang on and follow along on the sidelines? Why is it more important to be able to understand their identity than to make them feel accepted?

It may come as a surprise that Florida is bringing a law like this up when a 2021 Gallup poll shows that 70 percent. of all Americans are in favor of gay marriage.

But the governor of the sunny crocodile state has big political ambitions, and the political climate is such that members of The Republican Party is trying to see who can have the most extreme mindset. Never mind the LGBTQIA+ casualties when trying to bring the discourse of identity back to the 1950s.

A few months ago, I spoke with a Danish friend who lives with her wife and their two daughters in a state in the middle of the United States. »Pearl, Triangle and Square. I don´t understand! Are they dressing up, are they men or women !?”, she asked.

“I had no idea what some of the abbreviations stood for and I did not understand why it was so important. Time and again, I had to say, “Hey, I’m on your team, don´t direct your frustration at me” to my daughter.

“Does it matter?” I replied.

“They are trying to figure themselves out and this way frankly seem pretty harmless to me. Isn´t it amazing the way they are able to talk about identity in a way our generation never was?”

Even for my friend, who, is in the LGBTQIA+ community, it’s hard to understand the identity markers this generation of youth use. As humans, we are weary, maybe even resistant when we encounter something other, we do not understand.

That’s how I felt myself. I still regularly make “mistakes” and then reap a glimpse of contempt from my daughter, who makes me understand that I have messed up. I had no idea what some of the abbreviations stood for and I did not understand why it was so important. Time and again and again I had to say, “Hey, I’m on your team, don´t direct your frustration at med” to my daughter.

But this is important for young people. And it’s deeply personal. For them, it’s about many things, but it’s also about them having a need to see that we as adults respect them as individuals.

We do not have to understand to respect. Our generation does not have to stifle young people’s need to talk about and find their identity – it is not a threat to us. In fact, it is not about us at all.

Children and young people must be met with openness. All children deserve love, empathy, respect, and protection – even if they do not fit into a box we understand. Everything else is heartless.

And yes, it is important what’s going on in Florida. Just like it is important to know that the state of Texas has introduced abortion rules that make it virtually impossible for a woman to terminate her pregnancy.

Because when you little by little systematically deprive citizens of their rights, the strategy starts with minorities. It makes sense: The likelihood of the surrounding society, those with the privileges, likely won´t react.

But even if a law that deprives a group of people of their rights does not affect us personally, we must respond. Because it’s the right thing to do – and because maybe next time it’s our turn to lose a right.

Kender du én, der kommer til at sidde alene juleaften – så gør noget

Alle kan komme ud for livsændringer og sidde alene juleaften.

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Do you know someone who will spend Christmas alone – then do something about it

Everyone can face life changes and end up spending Christmas Eve by themselves.

There is something special about celebrating Christmas – at least if you have a family you can celebrate with.

Maybe you just got divorced, maybe you moved to to a new country or state in December, maybe you have made some life choices that make your family no longer want to be around you.

When we think of someone spending Christmas alone, we often think about older people. But many other age groups spend the night alone, a night that is supposed to be about love.

Even though I am now in a place in my life where I love the Christmas month, Christmas is still filled with a great sadness that always shows up at some point during the Christmas preparations. A sadness that is multilayered. Because, I have a family that is well and alive who wanders around the streets and alleys of Denmark, but with whom I will never celebrate Christmas.

Last night I dreamed that I lived in a studio apartment and was making ends meet cleaning a steakehouse called Niels Ebbesens Bøfhus in the Danish town of Randers. In my dream, I had left Jehovah’s Witnesses, and it was Christmas Eve. I suddenly found myself outside a church, where author and pastor Kristian Ditlev Jensen gave a sermon. To my great astonishment, I had trouble finding the Bible scriptures my fingers used to be able to automatically find.

Kristian Ditlev Jensen stood behind his pulpit and spoke of love and inclusion with a warmth that made me envy his audience. Once in a while he broke out in song, and he sometimes even joked with his congregation. I didn´t understand why the church was only halfway filled. The atmosphere was with its atmosphere in stark contrast to the Kingdom Hall, which has made me sunburnt towards all religion.

But here I stood, still in my dream. Neither inside nor outside the church. It does not exactly require a degree in psychology to understand what my dream was about.

If I lift my gaze from the perspective of my own belly button, I think what I experienced in my dream is how many who are spending Christmas alone see their situation. To be between two points physically or mentally. To be in transition, on the way from one place to another in life. And that situation is filled with loneliness, especially on Christmas Eve.

Many years ago, I made a choice that resulted in me spending Christmas eve alone. Simply put, I had insisted on the right to think freely — and for that, I was punished. That kind of independent thinking, Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot accept.

My choice meant a social deprivation. The interpretation of love in the sect is that when one steps out of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ belief system, the consequence is that a ubiquitous exclusion will make that person realize that he or she did something wrong. The method works. Many come crawling, broken and destroyed back to the fold.

On Christmas Eve, I am reminded that I do not have an extended family and that I will never have one. We never set the table for my children’s grandmother or for my sisters and their children. Not a single one of the presents under the Christmas is from my side of the family.

Christmas is also difficult when you do not have a family network behind you. Therefore, loneliness can be felt twice when celebrating with a family that is not one’s own.

Many others experience similar feelings. Some have lost family members. Losses of one kind or another leaves a mark. Life forces us to learn to live with difficult emotions.

But Christmas is also difficult when you do not have a family network behind you, because Christmas Eve is the most untouchable of all evenings in Denmark. Therefore, loneliness can be felt twice when celebrating with a family that is not one’s own. It is an evening where many do things in a very special way and are not willing to change family traditions. Although a family situation is dynamic and changing, traditions are not.

Therefore, I am calling on all Danes. If you are aware that someone is spending Christmas alone, then do something about it. Maybe it’s too big a step for you to invite that person to your home on Christmas Eve. But you could write a Christmas card, bring them cookies, invite them for a glass of wine, or just let the person know you see him or her.

I was once invited home to a college friend on Christmas Eve. But I declined the invitation. That is how deep the feeling of Christmas as something very close to the family relationship was. I simply did not, as an outsider felt I had the right to a seat at the table.

I will never lose the inherent loneliness and a feeling of not quite belonging that I carry with me. But I do not think, I am the only one carrying that burden. Especially, on Christmas Eve the feeling can be overwhelming.

Therefore, everyone who can should act and not just shrug and turn away to rejoice with their families. Reach out, give a little of yourself – maybe someday you will need the same charity.

Tak for det politiske mod til ghettolisten – den virker

Arbejdsløsheden er faldet, og det samme er kriminaliteten, så selvfølgelig skal vi ikke afskaffe ghettoplanen.

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Thank you for having the political courage to legislate against ghettos in Denmark – it works

Unemployment has fallen, so has crime. Of course we should continue with the ghetto plan.

The ghetto plan – or the parallel society list, as the politically correct term is – has been the subject of much debate.

Parallel community areas (ghettos), transformation areas (hard ghettos) vulnerable housing areas (areas to pay special attention to), prevention areas – there are many names for essentially the same thing. The lists are an expression of areas that have a skewed population distribution with major social problems.

What the legislation aims for is for people to spread out to the entire urban area and have neighbors who are part of the kind of society that is characteristic of most of Denmark.

The ghettos that are no longer on the list have approached the task of changing their status ambitiously – by demolition of apartment blocks and a flexible approach to waitlists so certain people, e.g. those who have jobs are put first in line.

Overall, Denmark has seen a positive change since 2018 when the plan to change the ghettos were implemented.

Yet, there have been arguments against the ghetto plan. You get far away from your circle of friends, you are forced to moving to a different area. But the drastic changes in social life and everyday life are exactly what the ambitious project is all about.

The list does should not be tossed, because it works. Unemployment in the problem areas has fallen more than in the surrounding society. At the same time more people in jobs have moved to the former ghettos.

Crime has also fallen in several of the ghettos, and the places are overall not prone to as much tension. Who knows, maybe the stigma of living in these areas might one day disappear?

I understand that some of the residents are not happy and see the implementation of legislation as a patronizing state intervention. All change are difficult, and it is in human nature to fight them – even when the changes benefit oneself, one’s surroundings, and society in general.

If Denmark wants a society without satellite areas with unemployment, crime, social control and ways of life far from what the country normally accepts, it seems that this drastic model, where people become part of the surrounding society, works.

I tip my hat to the political courage.

Hvorfor accepterer vi pædofili?

Så længe vi accepterer, at religioner foretager selvjustits inden for lukkede døre, kommer børn til at betale prisen for samfundets manglende mod.

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Why don´t we stop pedophiles in religious communities?

If we keep accepting that religious communities deal with pedophiles within their own ranks, children will pay the price for society’s lack of courage.

Children cannot always take care of themselves. They have adults for that job. Or so it should be. The problem is that somethimes, we trust the wrong adults. Children who are exposed to pedophiles pay an outrageously high price for that. All too often, religions and sects function as places where sick souls have free range.

We know this all too well, have heard it so often. Things happen on inside of the confessional booth and behind closed church doors that should never happen between adults and children.

The latest scandal is about the Catholic Church in France, where at least 3,000 Catholic priests from 1950 onward till present day have raped and sexually assaulted more than 10,000 children. The report is based on church, trial and police reports as well as interviews with the victims.

Again and again we hear stories of children who have been sexually exploited. We read the structures that allow the abuse to happen. We know about how religions internally have their own mechanisms to avoid getting into the spotlight of the public eye and the media. And the fact that we know it makes us as a society complicit if we do nothing.

The religious systems protect their own, sometimes reprimanding the perpetrators behind closed doors, other times sending the pedophiles around to new churches where they can abuse new victims. I know this because I have seen it with my own eyes within Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, who keep such cases closed and order the parties involved not to share their experiences with anyone – neither with family and friends within the sect nor with authorities, law enforcement or psychologists outside.

Why do we as a society do nothing? Why do we just watch from the sidelines? Yes, yes, of course we are disgusted by what we read and hear, but then we apparently shrug before moving on to reading the next newspaper article. There is such a huge fear of meddling when it comes to stepping into the holy halls, when it comes to questioning what is going on within various denominations. Why do we have a notion that when something happens within closed religious groups, then we can not touch it?

Only cowards do not dare to react to injustices. Power is closely linked to fear, and the fear that the victims of pedophiles experience both during and after the assaults is reinforced when we as a society maintain taboos. We have a duty to not shy away but face this head on and confront the organizations and structures that repeatedly exploit the leeway of these religions.

Politicians have a responsibility to act and enact harsh legislation in relation to what religious practices look like when it comes to dealing with pedophiles behind their closes doors. But instead, out of fear of not respecting various groups’ religious autonomy and freedoms, they turn their backs and hearts to children’s suffering.

(partly Google Translate)

Der er noget ved det her, jeg ikke er topbegejstret over

Nu kommer tre IS-krigerkvinder og deres 14 børn til Danmark. Men inden de lander, så har jeg lige et par spørgsmål.

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There’s something about this that I’m not thrilled about

Three IS fighter women and their 14 children are returning to Denmark. But before they land, I have a few questions.

Dear responsible politicians. I have a few questions I hope you can answer. I’m probably not the only one who goes and tumbles with a thought or two on top of the announcement that three IS mothers and 14 children are now coming to Denmark.

I have not heard a single journalist ask my questions, but the Danes who are influenced by politicians’ decisions are probably just as eager to hear the answers as I am:

1. I can understand that the women must be brought before a court in Denmark. How do you deal with the fact that the further you get from the crime scene, the harder it is to find evidence?

a. As is the case with the men, who apparently all were greengrocers or mechanics, I expect the women to claim that they had no knowledge of any war crimes well hidden away behind the thick walls of caliphate paradise and the garment that did not allows for a lot of visibility.

b. Prison staff are understaffed, worn out and undertrained. The prisons are overcrowded. How do you ensure prison staff have the right resources to handle this kind of prisoner?

c. How do you make out that the victims of these women’s crimes do not meet their torturers, as we have seen in the example. Germany?

2. When the women have to go out into the community again, they are then installed in a home, e.g. in an apartment in Ishøj, and reckons that it was so?

a. Or is there a plan for how women and children will gradually be locked out of society?

b. How do you make sure they do not share their thoughts and experiences with neighbors and possibly radicalize an entire neighborhood?

c. What do you do to prevent them from radicalizing their own or others’ children?

d. We have heard one gruesome story after another about women running a harsh self-justice in the camps. How will you prevent them from doing the same in relation to their neighbors in Denmark?

3. Have the women been asked how they intend to contribute to their own stay, or is it taken for granted that they should have free housing, support, medical care and education?

4. Will one try to take custody of these mothers who have proven not to be worthy of their responsibilities as parents?

a. And if so, who should be allowed to adopt these children? There are probably many Danish families who want to help, e.g. those who wanted the children to Denmark.

b. Do you consider the mother’s religion and adopt the children into Muslim families?

5. Should the children roll directly into a Danish school class, where we then expect them to drop out after a few weeks?

6. How should ordinary families with children in primary school behave if their children are exposed to the influence of a classmate with a fundamentally different attitude towards girls and women than the one we boast about in this country?

a. How should families of non-Western descent struggling to integrate behave if their children are met with hateful and mocking glances from the indoctrinated children whose mothers have let them receive and even stood for a hateful radicalized version of Islam?

b. What is being done to help these traumatized IS children without affecting the Danish children among them?

7. Now that you take women to Denmark, do you make sure that the children are actually theirs?

a. What if an IS woman suddenly says that some of her children have been cared for by an IS mother in a neighboring tent?

8. When should we accept the argument that children have the right to see their fathers – and you also bring IS fighters back to Denmark so that we can get the whole IS family package together?

a. How long does it take before you bring the women with children to Denmark who, due to their dual citizenship, were deprived of their Danish citizenship, but whose other home country has not done anything to get them out of the camps?

9. How much does all this cost?

I may well feel divided when the talk falls on this topic. Because it is always the children who pay the price when the adults make decisions. And it’s never the kids’ fault. This is also the case here. But I’m just not thrilled to open the door that allows IS women and men to come to Denmark. Islamic radicalization, IS fighters, terrorism, etc., it has not been a part of the Danes’ everyday life for quite many years, it feels so foreign and Denmark does not seem to have experience in dealing with it.

In other words, there is one side of me that says we should have heart space, and another that does not think they have anything to do in a western country at all. Despite my Danish socialization, it is the last page that weighs heaviest in my mind. My heart is pretty hard when it comes to this topic, I admit it, and it bears the imprint of my questions.

As you can see, dear politicians, I have many questions, more than the above, and I would be grateful if you would answer. I think there are many Danes who want to know where they have their politicians – it has been a bit difficult to find out lately.

Thanks in advance.

(Google translate)

Jeg får lyst til at stille mig op med en stor megafon og råbeskrige

Når vi lader som om, vi er ubekymrede over for terrorangreb, så har vi allerede tabt.

Læs hele bloggen her:

I feel like standing up with a big megaphone and shake the world up by screaming

When we pretend we are carefree about terrorist attacks, then we have already lost.

Then it happened again. We have become so used to it, does it cause anything other than a shrug? Another bomb attack, once again reports of many dead and maimed bodies. It’s so far away, what can be done against religious fanaticism?

Maybe we’re just pretending we’re carefree. We must not let our anxiety and fear get the better of us. We must live as before, even though we know that before it no longer exists. We trivialize the ideological evil that Lars Saabye Christensen writes in the third volume of his novel series “Byens Spor”. After all, there is so much more that is more dangerous, the probability of dying in a terrorist attack is less than of dying in traffic.

I feel like standing up with a big megaphone and screaming. How can we just let another madness attack lie like a shrug while we look down and away and not let ourselves be noticed that evil has once again shown its bloody face and laughed at us and our principles of equality right up in our face?

This time the attack was on a girls’ school in Kabul, and it is not Copenhagen, fortunately. The car bomb and the subsequent 2 explosions killed 85 people, mainly schoolgirls. 147 are injured.

What makes this bombing so heartbreaking is that it was targeted at a school – but not just any school. Quite deliberately, the terrorists went after the girls.

The Taliban has denied any involvement in the attack. But I wonder if it now also fits, we know how they feel about girls, and with the combination of girls and education. Girls become women and women with education are dangerous, they could go and think something about one thing or another and become difficult to control.

No no, if you have to control girls and women, and you obviously have to, then you have to assassinate yourself to power and hope that you scare enough parents to keep their daughters indoors, far away from books and education.

Joe Biden has announced that the United States will withdraw its forces by September 11th. In itself, the date is ironic and does not make sense – at least not if you want to signal that you have won.

For why is it now that the United States is in Afghanistan? – it all started on September 11, and with great fanfare, Biden now says: “Ok, dark forces, you win. From your earth caves you have proved that by primitive means, but with ideological misogyny, you can fight the world’s largest military and our Western values. And girls and women : sorry, you are on your own. ”

What the actual fuck, Biden !?

(Google translate)