What are we afraid off?

Why are swedish people in general so concerned that immigrants should get swedish as fast as possible?
Have the general swede ever asked himself the question; do they want to become like us, do they want to become swedish?
Maybee they want to continue to be Malaysians, Ethiopeans, Americans etc?
Why is it so important to minimize the differences ASAP?
Does differences trouble us?
Are we afraid of differences?
If we are, what is so frightenning about differences?

The general swede would claim that he wants the immigrant to become swedish ASAP because it's the best for the immigrant. We want the immigrant to become like us because we are so warmhearted and understanding. In a way it's true because we know deep inside that it is difficult to not be a swede in Sweden. That is because of many reasons: The general swedes doesn't want to talk in english longer then 10-15 minutes. After 10-15 minutes the general swede gets tired and switch over to speak swedish. And that is of course not kind to the immigrant.
The general swede is in general only interested to listen for 10 minutes about how society is managed in other parts of the world. The general swede believes that the swedish way is the best. After all we are one of the richest countries in the world. haven't had a war in 300 years, has one of the best social security systems in the world etc. We don't need to be interested in other ways.
A swede look very satisfied after listening 10 minutes to a foreigners story if the story is about their terrible experiences of war and poverty. All these stories confirm to the swede that we are the best!

Of course we swedes should be proud of our country, we have a great country, we have done a lot of things right. But that doesn't exclude that there are other smart ways or even smarter ways of doing things and that does not necessarily mean that everybody coming here must become a swede-swede?

My idea is the opposite from the general swedes: Let the immigrants be what they are, Chinese, Polish, Portugese etc. Let the immigrants speak their languages so that their children learn and sweden become a country with lots of multilingual people. What a resource for Sweden! Let the immigrants be different, think different, eat different, dress different, pray different, make love different, socialize different, sing and dance different, play football different, have different festivals. Let them maintain their traditions, stick to their roots as much as possible. I believe that will make every immigrant happier. I believe that will make the swedish society more dynamic and make it develop faster. I believe this will be a win win situation for everybody except the rasists that once again will be proven wrong.

We swedes must understand that Sweden already has become a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religous country. Most of us swedes have not undertood that yet. We must not be afraid of that, because it's a huge resource for our country. We must learn to listen and not believe we are superior. Because if we do we will not be able to understand the resources we have.
Or to give you an image to illustrate this: We swedes cannot continue to send immigrant groups to places in sweden where we have lots of apartments but no jobs.

Thats all for today folks.

Why is diversity good and what does God have to do with it?

Everytime I take a walk in the forest and give myself a moment of reflection I get stunned by the enormous variation of life forms nature is offering. When I look around, on the ground or up the crown of the trees, there are so many plants, insects, birds, reptiles and mammals (including me) . And they (we) are all acting together in a complex ecological system.
It's difficult to not be impressed.

Back in the forest I feel God's presence very strongly. I cannot believe that what I see is just coming together by a long chain of millions of coincidences. It must have been engineered by someone.
Why do so many people have a problem imagining that there is a intelligence more powerful than man?

In the forest I ask myself questions like: Why did God create thousands of different species of insects? Why did God create thousands of different species of micro-organisms? Hadn't it been enough with 5 species of insects and 5 species of micro-organisms? Why do all those different species have to compete all their lives with other species about who's going to survive?

Maybe God's plan was that the more variations of species he made, the stronger would life itself withstand any kinds of threat. By letting the species always compete they would always be fit to handle challenges or changes in their surrounding environment. And those who didn't......

Maybe God's simple tactics is diversity and competition to make sure the strategy for his creation would be fullfiledl. The creation is life and the strategy is let life survive.

I don't know, but Darwin came to a similar conclusion, didn't he?

In nature diversity is a guarantee for life survival.
Diversity can never be wrong. The more variations of thinking there are, the more solutions to a problem will be created. The more insights a man has, the faster he will analyze a situation. The best analyzing and problemsolving will make a winner in a competitive situation. Only the best wins! The fittest survive!

Being raised in a multiethnic family, my children get a lot more input than I did, growing up in a monoethnic family. My children get a mix of Chinese and Swedish upbringing, they get insights into both ways of upbringing. They get two languages. They have roots in two different countries, cultures, religions and histories. They have families in two different parts of the world.
Will they get a wider perspective ? Will they be more creative ? I don't know but I hope they will and I believe there is a great chance that they will.

I'm aware there is a lot more needed to make children happy, independant and creative. But in this log I focus on diversity.

That's all for today.

This is my first posting and where to begin?

I have a reason for this Blog. I want to create a network strengthening the diversity of mankind.

Why am I so passionate about this issue?

There could be many reasons. One is of course that I'm married to a woman with a different ethnic origin then me. She is from a Chinese family, grew up in South East Asia and moved with me to Sweden after marrying me 8 years ago. I was a typical swedish spoiled kid growing up in post II:nd World War Sweden during the sixties and seventies.

Another reason fueling my passion for diversity is of course our four children who were born in Sweden but look half chinese and think partly chinese.

A third possible reason is probably that I was priveledge to live and work 3,5 years in South East Asia, in a multi cultural, multi religious, multi lingual and multi ethnic society. Over there I was the immigrant, an experience with two dimensions:
Dimension 1: Being looked upon as a stranger, intruder and an alien. Being segregated from society. Not understanding everything that is being said etc.
Dimension 2: Got some healthy distance to Sweden and looked upon my home country from the outside with different eyes.

A fourth reason could be that I'm deeply concerned about young people who associate themselves with groups of rasists and take out their disappointment and need for revenge on people they are afraid of i.e. people that look different, think different and act different.

In Sweden we have two good words to describe these two opposites:
Mångfald=manifold, diversity
Enfald=monofold, also means stupidity in swedish

I can't find the word monofold in the dictionary. This word may therefore be my first contribution to the english language.

What is my vision?
"People who fell in Love and crossed over ethnic borders unite. We and our children are the living examples that the rasists are wrong. Mixed blood is not wrong, mixed races are not against nature. Mixed culture, religion, traditions is the mirrorimage of the world. And we who live with it daily, in our families, prove that differences can be overcome, can make life more exciting and also be the dynamics of further positive evolution. If we can handle it the world could handle it. Love Across Borders is the answer."

Note: I dont't think it's wrong to build families within our own race. This is not to advocate people to engage in interracial relationships. My point is that interracial families, with their children, prove that relationships across the ethnic borders can work out as well as and sometimes better than relationships within the same race. It is of my interest to know how these interracial relationships work. I believe these experiences and this knowledge could be used in building a better world.

Finally I want to explain why I write under a pseudonym. In Sweden we have small groups of people who like to throw stones and Molotov Cocktails into peoples homes. My name is unique i.e. there is only one person in Sweden with my name. All U need is to search my name in the national phone directory on the internet and Swiiiiisch we may have a "cocktail party" in our hands. I prefer a glass of white wine or a beer.

That's all for today.