明 安 vs Tax Authority 1-0

My wife and I have given all our children both a western and a Chinese name.
明安 this is one of my son's Chinese names. The meaning of the name is; bright, brilliant, clear, peacefull and calm. Does it provoke you at all?
Ming Ann is how it is spelled out in English. Does this name provoke you at all?

I hope it doesn't, but I can not be sure, because when my wife and I wanted to register this name at the Swedish national registration unit (a unit within the Swedish tax authority) we had some problems.

The following is a true story and it happened in Sweden the year 2001.

The Swedish name law says in short: "A name can not be given if it can be interpreted as offending or lead to suffering for the child."

The civil servant woman, at the national registration unit, in a nearby town to where we lived, had a problem with our son's name and disagreed to register with reference to the Swedish name law. Her motivation was that it is offending and can lead to suffering for a boy to be given the typical Swedish girl's name, Ann.

My wife and I were surprised and upset over the decision from the registration unit. I wrote a letter to file an appeal.
The civil servant was stubborn and replied saying that the tax authority had no intention at all, to change the decision.

Our next possibility was to appeal to the city court in our district. We did that with a second letter, explaining once again, that Ming Ann is a Chinese name, given to boys and should not be confused with the Swedish name Ann, despite the similarity in spelling and pronunciation. We also strongly claimed to have the right to give our son a Chinese name as well as a western name since his roots are in both these ethnic origins.
We also highlighted that our son's looks has Chinese features which also may lead to suffering, and we wondered if the tax authorities disapproved to that too?!

A few weeks later one of the local newspapers called and wanted to take a photo of our son and ask some questions about his name. The next day, another local newspaper called and asked the same. Surprised over the media interest I asked; what is so interesting about our son's name?
"Oh," said the journalist, "you just won over the tax authorities in the city court. That is very unusual and it is important for the public to know!"

The Nazi Dilemma

It’s election year in Sweden. According to media the extreme nationalist parties are participating in the local polls in more communities than ever in the post World War II era.
I browsed the website of the Swedish Nazi-party; Nationalsocialistisk Front, NSF, to learn what they stand for.

Regarding immigration the party program suggests:
“Besides the enormous cost and criminality the mass immigration brings along, it also degenerate the Nordic race material. Every race is unique. To mix alien races with our Nordic race will lead to; that the qualities and advantages our people have will be lost.”

I have carefully studied all the photos, posted In the Website of the NSF, taken at their different meetings and demonstrations. I can see no children, no baby prams and no pregnant women!
I think to myself: How will these representatives for the Aryan race ensure that Sweden will be mainly populated by Aryans and not be taken over by immigrants?

Regarding Family, the party program suggests:
“Today many families choose not to have children because they don’t have time or don’t want to give up working. This is a catastrophic development. It is of great importance that our people do not abstain from giving life to new generations in the world, due to financial problems”

It is interesting to read a text like the above, suggesting that the people in one of the richest countries in the world do not have a choice of lifestyles. It looks like the modern Swedish Nazi is also reluctant to give up its lifestyle of consumption for the more idealistic lifestyle of rescuing the Swedish Aryan race.

Let us study the history of Nazi solutions of rescuing the Aryan race:

Solution 1: Holocaust
A state-led systematic persecution and genocide of the Jews and other minority groups of Europe and North Africa during World War II by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.

Solution 2: Lebensborn Clinics (i.e. Spring of Life Clinics)
Started in Germany 1936 as Institutions for the wives of SS* officers to help give birth to and raise their children. Later also other racially clean couples or single mothers were invited to get help raising their children or give them up for adoption.

When Nazi Germany occupied other countries, Lebensborn Clinics where established in the country of occupation.
In Norway Lebensborn Clinics helped SS* officers and German soldiers to systematically multiply with Norwegian blond and blue eyed women, this to expand the Aryan race and to make children for SS* couples in Germany to adopt.
The Norwegian Aryans were looked upon as an especially good breed of the Aryan race.
In Norway about 8000 so called “War Children” are believed to be the result of Lebensborn Clinics.
In the occupied Eastern Europe countries, suitable blue eyed and blond children where systematically “adopted” or kidnapped and given to German couples to be raised in pure Aryan homes.
250 000 children are believed to have been kidnapped in the occupied Eastern Europe countries.


"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"
Spanish Philosopher George Santayana

The NSF is denying that the Holocaust took place. Their schedule to maintain the Swedish Aryan race the dominant race in Sweden is very briefly and uncarefully described in their program, despite the fact they are concerned that the Swedish Aryan race will be wiped out:
” We will therefore prolong the parent leave so the mothers can be home until the children start school. During the parent leave the parent will keep a good compensation of the salary. Additionally; families with many children shall be given salary increase and tax reductions”

It is an understatement that not all families will get these benefits, only the clean Aryan families of course.

Lebensborn Clinics are not officially suggested by NSF, but will probably be a necessary alternative since, written between the lines in the Nazi program itself, the Aryan genes are believed to not be strong enough to prevail world superior on its own!

The Nazi Dilemma:
It is obvious that both the Nazi Ideas and the Nazi genes have problems to multiply enough to conquer Sweden.
The only methods left will be to exterminate the other races and set up Clinics to help the blond and blue eyed couples to multiply or kidnap children for adoption.

Isn’t that terrifying?


*The Schutzstaffel (German for "Protective Echelon"), abbreviated SS , was a large security and military organization of Germany's Nazi Party.

Famous Mixed Couples Part 3

"I have found a life partner, a best friend.
You know, Elin’s been incredible for me,"
"She’s brought joy and balance in my life. We love doing the same things.
You think I’m competitive? She’s way more than me."

"Family always comes first. It always has been in my life, and always will. I may sleep a little bit less, and we have to work on that as a team." Source CBS 60 minutes, 26 march 2006

Eldrick "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an America Golfer whose achievements to-date rank him among the greatest golfers ever. Woods, who is multiracial, is credited with prompting a major surge of interest in the game of golf among minorities and young people in the United States.

Woods's father, Earl Woods, was a Vietnam War veteran and a retired U.S.Army lieutenant colonel, of mixed black (50 percent), Chinese (25 percent) and Native American (25 percent) ancestry.

Woods' mother, Kultida Woods, is originally from Thailand, and is of mixed Thai (50 percent), Chinese (25 percent), and Dutch (25 percent) ancestry.

This makes Woods himself one-quarter Chinese, one-quarter Thai, one-quarter black, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth Dutch.
He refers to his ethnic make-up as Cablinasian (aportmanteau of Caucasian, Black, American-Indian, and Asian), a term he made up himself.

Woods was born in California US.

Woods's actual given name is Eldrick. He was given the nickname "Tiger" at birth, after Vuong Dang Phong, a friend of his father Earl (the two were comrades in the Vietnam War). Woods became generally known by that name and by the time he had achieved national prominence in junior and amateur golf was simply known as "Tiger Woods."

Woods became engaged to Elin Nordegren, a Swedish Model. They were introduced by Swedish golf star Jesper Parnevik, who had employed her as a nanny, in November 2003.

Tiger and Elin married on October 5, 2004.

Elin Maria Pernilla Nordegren was born on January 1, 1980, in Stockholm, Sweden. Her mother, Barbro Holmberg, is a politician who served as migration and asylum policy minister of Sweden, while her father, Thomas, is a radio journalist who has served as bureau chief in Washington D.C. for the Swedish Broadcasting media. Elin has an identical twin sister named Josefin, and the family resided in the coastal town of Waxholm, near Stockholm, while the girls were growing up.
Source; Wikipedia

And now, of cource, everybody are curious to see the offspring of these two handsome people.

Good Luck and God Bless!

Famous Mixed Couples Part 2

This couple; Svenne and Lotta Hedlund, is probably most famous within Sweden, although they had some international career. More famous are the guys in the background on this photo: Björn Ulveus and Benny Andersson, the two BB's in ABBA.

The story is in short: Sven Hedlund (born 1945) was a singer in a very popular Swedish popgroup called Hep Stars. This was in the sixties.
Charlotte Walker (born 1944) was a singer in the American group The Cherries. The Cherries did a tour in Sweden 1967, Sven and Charlotte met, fell in Love and became a couple.
Charlotte decided to stay in Sweden and she and Sven became the pop group "Svenne and Lotta". They have a daughter, Tanja 35 years young. Source; Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Svenne and Lotta are still active and touring Sweden as a pop group, despite their ages 61 and 62 years old respectively.

When Svenne and Lotta became a couple they made quite some headlines in the Swedish media. I was still a boy in 1967, but I remember very well when this happened. It was not very common that famous Swedish guys dated black Afro Americans. And this event stirred up the discussions around the Swedish dinner tables.

Luckily Lotta is a very easygoing, down to earth woman with a beautiful winning smile. She didn't seem to bother about being black at all. The stage shows with Svenne were always, and still are, full of energy and happiness. Lotta stole the hearts of the Swedish people.

I wish Svenne and Lotta all happiness and success in their future tasks. You are the first mixed couple I can remember from my childhood.

Famous Mixed Couples Part 1

"We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race." Kofi Annan

Kofi Atta Annan born April 8, 1938, is a Ghanaian diplomat and the seventh and current Secretary-General of the United Nations. Annan was born to Henry Reginald and Victoria Annan in the Kofandros section of Kumasi, Ghana. As with most Akan names, his name indicates the day of the week he was born and place in his family: Kofi indicates a boy born on a Friday, and Annan denotes that he was the fourth child of his family. Annan was a twin, an occurrence that is regarded as special in Ghanaian culture; his twin sister Efua Atta died in 1991. Atta means twin in Fante.

Annan's family was part of the country's elite; both of his grandfathers and his uncle were tribal chiefs. His father was half Asante and half Fante; his mother was Fante. Annan's father worked for a long period as an export manager for the Lever Brothers cocoa company.

Annan is married to Nana Maria Annan (born Lagergren, 1944) a Swedish lawyer and artist who is the half-niece of Raoul Wallenberg. Of their three children, Kojo Annan and Ama Annan are from Kofi Annan's previous marriage with Nigerian Titi Alakija. They divorced in the late 1970s. Their third child, Nina Cronstedt de Groot, is from a previous marriage of Nane Annan. Kojo Annan was in the headlines in 2005 because of his involvement in the Oil for Food Programme.
Source: Wikipedia, The Free Encyklopedia

Isn't this couple a source of inspiration to all mixed couples? A global high profil African man, married to a Swedish woman. He is the cheif of UN, the organisation which main objective is to keep peace on earth and bring equality to people from all nations. A mission that could have been given by God himself. Maybe a mission impossible.
I have always admired and respected Kofi Annan. I like his calm, his humble dignity and his genuine humanity.

I wish Kofi and his wife Nana all luck in their marriage and in their work efforts onwards.

I'm glad I wasn't born a 1000 years ago

More then 1000 years ago, Sweden was not yet an united kingdom and the gospels of Christ had not yet reached the remote Scandinavian peninsular. The Viking era was coming to an end and the majority of the people living on the Scandinavian peninsular were slaves. Being a slave meant that you belonged to someone else 24 hours a day. Your owner could force you to work till you faint, he could sell you, beat you up, rape you and kill you; the slaves were not people nor scum, they were nothing.
People and slaves lived in small villages. The villages lay like small open islands in the landscape, surrounded by wild forest. Between the villages there were huge, deep, dark forests full of giants and other scary creatures. The Scandinavian peninsular was split up in many small local principalities and they were ruled by fear and ignorance.

During that time there were three ways to travel:
1. By foot
2. By horse
3. By boat.
The Scandinavian peninsular has a long coastline and there are many lakes across the land. Sailing a boat along the coast could take you the same distance in five days, that would take 4-5 weeks to walk or ride. That’s how we became the Vikings.
Roads were more like muddy paths through the forest. Riding was not necessary much faster than walking but it was more convenient. Most people lived off the coasts in the forests.

I realized that If I had lived in the Scandinavian peninsular a thousand years ago I would not have met my wife in Malaysia, some 12 000 kilometres away. There would probably have been a greater chance that I would have married someone from the same village, maybe the neighbour’s daughter or better off, a girl from a neighbouring village.
There would also have been a greater chance that I would have married someone who was my second or third cousin or blood related some other way. The risk our offsprings would die due to bad hygiene, malnutrition or inbreeding would have been high; 40% or maybe more of all the children that were born would never have reached the age of 5 years.

Thanks to technology the world has become smaller. Now we can travel around the world in a couple of days. This creates millions of situations when people from different ethnic origins meet and interact in corporate and social life. People who meet and interact may start to like each other and they may fall in Love.
To me it has been surprising to understand how many people actually get in contact over the internet, fall in Love and become couples. The world is there via your ADSL-modem!

What does this development mean to the diversity of ethnicity?

In thousand years the average man’s world has increased from a little village with 1000 inhabitants, maybe half of them inbreeded, and most of them afraid of everything outside the village, to a world of millions of people, from hundreds of ethnic groups, connected by the web-browser in your PC.

Isn't that fantastic?