Life | Carpe Momento, Sweden |
| Written by Madubuko Diakité |
| Thursday, 21 October 2010 20:19 |
 The 2010 election is over and the nation – and much of the industrial world – is in shock. The big question on the world’s mind however is: why we didn’t see this coming? A visiting Fulbright scholar giving a seminar in Lund earlier this year did. Colleagues pointed out that the Swedish Democrats might even get as much as 10%, a vote they achieved in some Communes’. As a nation promoting human rights the world over, liberal democratic Sweden has lost face. The whole world is watching and pointing fingers, some mockingly. It seems as if no one here paid any attention to the large volumes of research that was published by the now defunct Integrationsverket between 1999 and 2005 when it closed down. And few paid attention to the scores of human rights conventions Sweden has ratified, the volumes of COE, ILO and UN Committee reports and recommendations, and the NGO pleadings and reports on how to prevent the surge of racial discrimination that has now come to light in Sweden. When action was taken, resources and personnel remained largely oblivious to the real problems lying deep within the “Swedish Model” of diversity. But the SD knew how to use the model to get its votes – and they did so effectively. This does not surprise the many activists and researchers whose works now lie covered in dust in Swedish archives and libraries. So what should this capital of liberal democracy do now? Well, applying the wisdom of current and past heroes of democracy, namely Horace, the Roman poet who gave us Carpe Dien, and lately Barak Obama, who said Seize the Moment in a speech on promoting the environment earlier this year: move on. We have to look forward with positivism. Admit the mistakes of the past, dust off those research papers, re-examine the recommendations and go forward armed with new and improved hope, policies and plans. The old Swedish Model of diversity needs to be revamped, and a new one adopted and made operational. How did other States in similar situations handle this? What did the USA do in the 1960s? Swedish people should get over the shock and awe of anti-immigrant sentiments in Sweden and produce a new and improved Swedish Model of diversity. And MOVE ON! Madubuko A. Diakité |