What I did on my Internet-free day

September 27th, 2010, 14:30 | 2 comments

It was a crazy idea: When I woke up yesterday, I decided not to wake the computer the first thing. In fact, I decided to stay offline the whole day.

My reason was that I’m close to becoming an Internet addict. Of course, that word doesn’t really make sense, since Internet to large extents is part of your life and should be. I use it not only to pay my bills and charge people who buy my stuff, but also to do lots of other important work, not to mention communicate with friends. You know what I mean. Internet is in no way good or bad. It’s just there.

So when does sane Internet use turn into an addiction?

  • Maybe when you open a new browser window without having any particular site in mind, thus staring blankly at the address field.
  • Maybe when you in the same apathetic manner flip through the open browser windows in search for who knows what.
  • Maybe when you go to the Twitter window in the background as soon as it says “1 new tweet.” I quit Facebook partly for this reason.
  • Or maybe when you had other things in mind but just have to space-through the 100+ posts in your Google Reader before you start.

Sunday was a perfect day for taking a break from it all by staying offline and even off the screen. But it was hard! Especially since I was on my own the whole day, otherwise it wouldn’t have been much of a challenge to be honest.

This is what I did on my Internet-free day:

  • Took a walk in the light rain (it rained the whole day).
  • Studied Japanese at a café.
  • Finished Chaim Potok’s novel The Chosen.
  • Studied more Japanese at home.
  • Read some chapters in a book about the Greek language.

What I missed the most wasn’t the Internet, but the use of my computer as a tv. It would have been nice to end this text intensive day with a movie or just some short sitcom episodes in between the Japanese lessons. But rules are there to be followed!

I’m now taking these measures to make my Internet life less addictive:

  • I’m throwing out Boing-Boing from my reader. I love Boing-Boing (even read the print magazine back in 1995), but I should be doing other stuff than looking at monkeys riding goats. Also throwing out The Guardian’s book blog and some other feeds. (I wish Google Reader had a feature to deactivate feeds temporarily.)
  • I’m closing the Twitter window. It’s better to check it every once in a while and forget about it for large periods of time. After all, I’m no politician and no avid debater.
  • I’m having breakfast at the kitchen table instead of at the computer. No, I’m not ready for this one yet. And there’s also no real point in it – I love breakfasts in front of the screen!

Any other tips welcome! All in all, I had a great and very analogue day. I think I’m gonna make all Sundays Internet-free.

Category: English, Personal
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Malaysian cartoonist arrested

September 24th, 2010, 16:52 | No comments

This just in:

KUALA LUMPUR – A MALAYSIAN political cartoonist said on Friday he had been arrested under the Sedition Act and his offices raided by police over his new book, just hours before its planned launch.

Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque – better known as Zunar – uses cartoons to highlight contentious issues such as the sodomy trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and police shootings.

Mr Zunar said police seized 70 copies of his latest book, called ‘Cartoon-O-Phobia’, at his home and held him ahead of its scheduled launch on Friday evening.

I expect that the Swedish authorities will express their support for the Malaysian authorities in their fight for suppressing “seditious” cartoons. Swedish law forbids naked 17-year-olds in comics because they are “offensive”. Malaysian law seems to use the same logic.

This shows that there are certain issues that can unite Christian and Muslim nations. Together we will win the war against indecent comics!

Found via today’s Journalista.

Category: English, Politics, Satire
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One month of Japanese studies

September 18th, 2010, 18:44 | 4 comments

Today I have studied Japanese for exactly one month. My pace has slowed down a bit since I came back from Prague, where I had all the time in the world. At home, there’s always lots of stuff to do. But I do try to study every day. I’ve just begun chapter 4 in book 2 of Japanese From Zero.

I’m very fascinated by the Japanese society, and especially how they differ between fantasies and reality. I find that modern and intelligent. I put it like this in an editorial called “Reclaim your fantasy” in Destroyer 05:

Japan has the weirdest fantasies of all societies – tons of brutal hentai where small girls are raped and sometimes killed. Just like me, the Japanese like it when we go to extremes. But Japan also has the lowest crime rate of all societies. People there can apparently tell fantasy apart from reality. We should become better at that in the West too, both for our own personal wellbeing and for the sake of society.

I’m trying not to idealize Japan too much; I’m sure there are problems there too, and they do have the death penalty. But a little idealization is always good for language studies. Eller hur, Josh?

Category: English, Japan
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Tack men nej tack, Skandiabanken

September 17th, 2010, 12:05 | No comments

Jag låter den här bilden tala för sig själv. Nu kommer de här mejlen från Skandiabanken nästan varje dag! De skickas ut via företaget Evitbe, som “hanterar kommunikations- och tjänsteflöden och ger förutsättningar för effektiv kundkommunikation och eventadministration” med syftet att “skaffa nya kunder och förstärka befintliga relationer”.

Ja, man kan avanmäla sig.

Men det kräver inloggning till banken och det tar tid. Så från och med i dag skräppostmarkerar jag i stället de här mejlen. Det är effektivare.

Category: Swedish
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Fråga till Beatrice Ask

September 16th, 2010, 13:54 | 2 comments

Beatrice Ask (m) har gästspelat på Ecpats blogg och skrivit en text med rubriken “Svenska staten har ansvar för egna medborgare som begår brott utomlands”. Hon skriver bland annat (mina fetningar):

Att skydda människor, och inte minst barn, från övergrepp tillhör statens allra viktigaste uppgifter. När brott begås inom landets gränser finns goda möjligheter att med polisiära medel och effektiva rättsmedel beivra brott och döma gärningsmannen till ansvar. Men insatser måste också göras för att tillsammans med andra länder bekämpa den internationella brottsligheten och barnsexturismen, som sker på platser utanför landets gränser och på platser där det lokala rättsväsendet kanske ofta brister. Ett särskilt ansvar har svenska staten för de egna medborgare som begår brott utomlands. Svenska medborgare kan också dömas i Sverige för sådana brott.

Min fråga till Beatrice Ask är:

Vilka brott som svenska medborgare begår utanför Sverige ämnar Alliansregeringen följa upp?

Att en svensk medborgare som begår ett sexuellt övergrepp mot ett barn i Thailand ska ställas till svars för detta när hon kommer hem, så mycket förstår jag också.

Men nu är det ju inte bara “barnsexturism” som Ask vill bekämpa, utan också “den internationella brottsligheten”, så som brottslighet definieras av svensk lag får man förmoda. Och enligt svensk lag är en mängd saker olagliga, som i resten av Europa är lagliga. Låt mig ge tre exempel från Tyskland, där jag bor, och “där det lokala rättsväsendet kanske ofta brister” enligt Beatrice Ask:

  1. I Tyskland är det, liksom i större delen av Europa, lagligt att inneha serieteckningar där det förekommer barn och ungdomar som är nakna och ibland till och med har sex. I Sverige är sådana serier olagliga. Kommer Sverige agera mot svenskar i utlandet som i sin lokala bokhandel köper serietidningar som svenska staten anser är olagliga?
  2. I Tyskland är det dessutom, liksom i större delen av Europa, lagligt att köpa sex. Här kan man verkligen tala om bristande rättsväsende ur svenskt perspektiv. Snacka om “internationell brottslighet” – den finns ju i hela världen! Vad ska hända med de svenskar som köper sex av vuxna, skattebetalande egenföretagare i Tyskland?
  3. Slutligen är det i Tyskland lagligt att röka gräs. Inte lagligt att odla eller köpa, men vad jag har förstått är det lagligt att ha substansen i kroppen. Det är det inte i Sverige. Internationell brottslighet!

Frågan är alltså: Vill Alliansen att Sverige försöker beivra dessa “brott” när de “begåtts” av svenskar i utlandet? Eller menar man att de är småbrott i jämförelse med sexuella övergrepp mot barn? Prostitution kanske man ser allvarligt på, medan man kan se genom fingrarna på svenskar som röker gräs utomlands. Det kan man i så fall förstå, men helt självklart är det inte – i synnerhet vad gäller prostitution. Och när man tänker efter faktiskt inte heller självklart vad gäller serieteckningar, eftersom “barn” är inblandade. Frågan kvarstår därför:

Var drar man gränsen?

Vilka företeelser som är olagliga i Sverige och lagliga (eller mindre allvarliga) i utlandet vill Alliansen beivra? Är straffsatser med i bedömningen? Eller handlar det om huruvida “barn” förekommer i brottet? Eller sex? Eller kombinationer därav? Bitte antworten!

Category: Politics, Swedish
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3 cafés I’m not coming back to

September 6th, 2010, 18:58 | 3 comments

1. Bierhimmel, Berlin

Why: Their laptop ban.

I can understand why a café has a ban on laptop use. First of all, solo visitors who wifi all day long over the same cup of coffee is bad business. Second, solo visitors who facebook all day long is boring customers who don’t contribute to the good atmosphere of the café.

That’s the reason the waitress gave me when she asked my friend to shut down his laptop: It’s simply nicer without laptops.

Again, I can understand the reasoning. But I would add that it’s nicer without mobile phones as well. Or at least I can understand that some people would think that. Personally I would love a café with a ban on too short jeans. Seriously, get a fashion sense. Or a baby carriage ban. Or even better: A baby ban. That would make for a really good atmosphere, according to me, and probably most visitors.

But wait a minute. There is something that destroys a good café atmosphere more than laptops, mobile phones, babys and poor style. Namely: Bans.

Not to mention policing the visitors. Since we didn’t know about the ban, the waitress let us use the computer a little. But after a few minutes she came back and said: “I was serious about the ban. Please shut it down now.”

Nice! NICE! It must be NICE!!!

So we had to go, since our whole purpose with visiting a café was that my friend, who had just come back from Israel, wanted to show me some photos from Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin’s upcoming photo exhibition Jerusalem, in which he participated. We figured a gay café would be the right spot for this private preview of gay culture, but there you go.

At least, put up a sign on the door, please.

2. The Globe, Prague.

Why: Their ban on less than 4 persons per big table.

As you’ve figured by now, I don’t like bans. Not in cafés. As I said, I can understand that guests are more and less good from a café owner’s point of view, when it comes to both money and atmosphere. But you’re a café owner, so you’ll have to put up with the fact that not everyone spends lots of money, that teenagers sip on their teas for too long, and what else.

When I visited The Globe today, they had put up laminated signs on the two bigger tables opposite the bar. The signs read something like this:

Only 4 or more guests at this table!

I didn’t intend to sit there, but as I walked by these signs into the half-empty café, I was overcome by a strong feeling of bad energy. I made a little round through the smaller tables and then returned to the bookshop part of The Globe to regroup.

Yes, café owner, we understand that you want to reserve these tables for bigger groups, in order to make more money. But these signs is not the way to go.

I wonder if they have had problems with solo visitors sitting at these big tables? Which solo visitor would choose those big tables anyway? Actually, I sat at one of them earlier this week with a friend. (Since both of them were empty.) Not anymore. The Globe has become worse and worse since my first visit in 1997 (!), but this was it.

(So what did I do? I ordered a coffee and sat down at a table in the bookshop. No coffee ever came. Touché, The Globe. さようなら)

3. Lucerna, Prague.

Why: Their surveillance cameras.

If there’s something I dislike more than bans in a café, it is surveillance cameras. Lucerna has 17 of them, “for your safety”.

Lucerna is a classic. My Czech boyfriend showed me the rundown movie café back in 1997. We drank Martinis and red wine with the old ladies there while an old man played the piano. Lucerna was our café.

That’s why Lucerna is special to me, and that’s why I keep coming back. In the first years, it was getting even more rundown than it first was. It started to attract thugs and peddlers from the street, since it’s located at Václavské námestí. Then it was renovated and got a big extra section of tables, with fancy chairs. But the ladies stayed throughout these changes, and so did the piano player.

Now they are all gone. The piano is gone too.

I asked my waiter about the cameras. I said I spotted 5 of them, but he said there were 17 in total, and that the purpose probably was to keep track of the staff, to check that they are not lazy. (He informed me he often works from 8.30 am to midnight.) I told him to tell his boss that I, as a guest, don’t like to be surveilled while I have my coffee. He asked me to explain why, so he could give my reasons to his boss, and I said:

Because this is a café! Today you are surveilled in all places: On the street, in the shops, even on the Internet. Cafés are supposed to be a zone where you can relax knowing no one watches you on a monitor. Surveillance cameras simply don’t belong in a café!

I could also have added that the communist secret police of the 1970s would have been proud, since they surveilled the dissidents in Café Slavia in similar ways.

So, you think I’m just negative? I can admit to being sensitive. Small things usually mean a lot to me, but as much in the positive direction as the negative.

Category: English, Personal
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The Economist on web censorship

September 6th, 2010, 12:53 | No comments

The Economist takes a clear stand against “Chinese-style” censorship in its current issue:

There is not much outsiders can do about China’s great firewall. But Western governments can at least set a good example. Australia’s plan to build a Chinese-style firewall in an effort to block child pornography and bomb-making instructions, for instance, is daft and should be scrapped. It will be easy to evade, and traditional law-enforcement approaches are a better way to handle such problems than messing with the internet’s plumbing. (The Economist, September 4th-10th 2010: “The web’s new walls”)

I couldn’t agree more, as so often with this magazine.

Category: English, Politics
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The Velvet Rage

September 6th, 2010, 11:43 | 3 comments

I’ve been 17 days in Prague now, staying in two different friends’ apartments. The second friend came back from UK yesterday (and left again today). He brought with him the latest issue of the gay magazine Attitude, which a friend had asked him to buy. See how I must excuse the both of us. Yes, I do think it’s embarrassing to buy a lifestyle magazine – they feel so ancient. So I was surprised by how good the magazine was. All in all, lots of substance, and a layout that, since I read the rag last time, has become more Vanity Fair than Bravo.

Anyway, the main feature in Attitude’s September issue is called “How to be Gay & Happy,” written by Matthew Todd. It’s based on Alan Downs’ book The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man’s World from 2005. The title says it all really, and still you won’t get it till you actually read the book. I read it about a year ago, and I agree with Todd when he says that

… reading it was one of the biggest light bulb moments I’ve ever had in my life. I believe it’s an essential read for every gay man who wants to understand the issues that a significant number of us share.

Though everything in the book didn’t apply to me (thank god), I could see traces of many of the issues in myself. It was nothing short of an epiphany to realize that they derive from those first crucial moments, at age 4 or so, of being treated differently because you were “that way” – an experience that 90 percent of gay men – if not all – share in one way or the other.

Swedes, read this short review in Swedish.

The book was published in 2005. Todd points out that it

… didn’t get much attention in the press though has been passed round from person to person, just under the radar.

That’s my experience too, and that’s how I got it. It was the read among my sorted gay friends in the summer of 2009. And I continued to pass it on. Last night I got an sms greeting from a Swedish friend between flights in Frankfurt. It ended:

Just wanted to say that The Velvet Rage has become a sort of Tupperware product, with which I’ve nourished my close and loved ones. It’s so good, because it emphasizes interesting psychological processes that everyone can embrace in their own way. … So thanks for this book recommendation from me and T and so far about 10 more gay men in Stockholm.

So if you’re a gay man, read The Velvet Rage, or the short version in the September 2010 issue of Attitude.

Category: English, Personal
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