Tag Archive for 'Sweden'

Surveillance state

Published on July 6, 2008 in Commentary. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” — Benjamin Franklin.

At a personal level, it remains an irony of fate that exactly one year after I was granted political asylum in Sweden, the Riksdag has passed the draconian surveillance law, on June 18 [2008]. I was awarded the asylum along with my wife and my son, on June 18, 2007.

Continue reading ‘Surveillance state’

Torture by proxy

Published on June 8, 2008 in Commentary. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

I love reading Franz Kafka (1883-1924), a master story-teller. Thanks to his classic novels, The Metamorphosis and The Trial, “Kafkaesque” is now a synonym for senseless, disorienting and bizarre storylines with menacing complexity. Take The Trial, where Kafka writes about Josef K, who wakes up one morning, gets arrested, then prosecuted for an unspecified crime. Now, the real-life developments in an Italian court would easily have failed even Franz Kafka’s imagination, I bet.

Continue reading ‘Torture by proxy’