Will Sweden vote in favour of the Euro ?

Dakkus · Post by **Dakkus** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 10:55 am

I guess this will be "good" for the euro campaign in Sweden, as some people will probably change their minds when a pro euro person is murdered. But I kind of hope a thing like that has any effect to such a thing as an euro referendum is.
But.. Probably the referendum won't be held as supposed now that this unfortunate thing has happened.
Why on earth must people keep murdering each other?

avij · Post by **avij** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 10:57 am

My deepest sympathies as well, this is really a tragic event. The world seems to have become more violent and unfortunately that change has affected the usually peaceful Scandinavian countries as well. The Norwegian Aftonposten had a good quote regarding the Scandinavian openness:

Aftonposten wrote:Norway, like Sweden, is a country where top officials from the prime minister on down can be spotted at the cinema or the opera, dining in restaurants, walking down the street unescorted or browsing in stores alone. The late King Olav is famous for remarking once that he didn't need bodyguards when he himself set out on walks or ski tours alone, because he had 4 million Norwegians to protect him.

I hope the Swedish police finds the nutcase responsible for this attack. She had a husband and two children, this must have been a great loss for them.

Dakkus · Post by **Dakkus** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 11:17 am

avij wrote:My deepest sympathies as well, this is really a tragic event. The world seems to have become more violent and unfortunately that change has affected the usually peaceful Scandinavian countries as well.

I must say I don't quite like people saying "world has become more violent". Under my understanding I must disagree. You remember what happened to Olof Palme. That wasn't actually a sign of world becoming more dangerous, now was it?
I'm afraid that when shouting "world will be filled with dangers" you only end up making people afraid and thus commit dangerous things to other people.

nodisch18 · Post by **nodisch18** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 11:55 am

This is really sad...

It looks a bit like the murder on the dutch politicus, Fortuijn, 1,5 years ago.... This is really bad.

I hope they will get the one who did this.

Gauss · Post by **Gauss** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 11:57 am

Dakkus wrote:I guess this will be "good" for the euro campaign in Sweden, as some people will probably change their minds when a pro euro person is murdered. But I kind of hope a thing like that has any effect to such a thing as an euro referendum is.

I'm rather sceptical with respect to that. Ironically, assassins or would-be assassins are quite often successful. Of course it's not appropriate to compare this attack with recent assassinations (because Sweden is not the Middle East and Anna Lindh luckily survived) but the terrorists that flew into the Twin towers (exactly two years ago) and the murderers of Yitzhak Rabin actually achieved their political goals, right? We'll see what comes of the deaths of Sergio Vieira de Mello and Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr el Hakim.
Are there any hints that the attack to Mrs Lindh is linked to the referendum?

nodisch18 · Post by **nodisch18** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 12:03 pm

Gauss wrote:...and Anna Lindh luckily survived...

bhoeyb · Post by **bhoeyb** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 12:20 pm

Gauss wrote:...and Anna Lindh luckily survived...

She died this morning

...

Annie_in_exile · Post by **Annie_in_exile** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 12:34 pm

Gauss wrote:Are there any hints that the attack to Mrs Lindh is linked to the referendum?

There seems to be one eye witness who saw a frantic man kicking a billboard just hours before the attack and quite near the scene. The billboard carried Anna Lindh's photo and the word "yes". So one may draw some conclusions.

avij · Post by **avij** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 12:50 pm

Gauss wrote:Are there any hints that the attack to Mrs Lindh is linked to the referendum?

Some news reports I've seen suggest that the attack was not done for political reasons, but until the stabber gets caught nobody can really say for sure.

Swedish government is still going to have the referendum as planned, which is exactly the right thing to do, IMHO.

Dakkus wrote:That wasn't actually a sign of world becoming more dangerous, now was it?

No, but it feels like Anna Lindh was murdered for no particular reason by some mentally unstable person, the target could have been some other person as well. Whereas in Palme's case the murder was planned, ie. it wasn't just a random killing. There have been murders all the time, but now I feel like there are more psychos than before and that was the reason for my "more dangerous" comment. Well, I don't have any facts (apart from the headlines of Iltalehti and -Sanomat) to support my feelings, but that's the way I feel at the moment.

I'm referring more to the recent violent things that have been happening here in Finland, most specifically the bombings which have been rare in Finland in the past. You'll most probably remember the Myyrmanni incident from about a year ago, and the very recent car bomb explosion in Vaasa and the trip bomb in Jyväskylä.

I'm not advocating that the ministers and such should have a bodyguard with them all the time, life should go on as usual.

avij · Post by **avij** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 1:43 pm

I think I'll have to retract some of my writings, now it appears that the murder was planned. .. but if you're going to kill someone and don't want to get caught, you'd better not be seen in public kicking a billboard having a photo of your target. This is why I'd still classify the stabber as a person who doesn't have full control of himself.

Speculating on whether this leads to the Yes side winning the referendum or not might be seen as a bit insensitive, but I'd guess that the percentage of people participating in the vote (either with a yes or no vote) is going to be high. We'll see in a few days.

Annie_in_exile · Post by **Annie_in_exile** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 4:55 pm

Here's an extract of a story concerning two foreign ministers, Colin Powell and the late Anna Lindh.

Colin Powell confesses to being a great ABBA fan and he thinks that "Knowing Me, Knowing You" is the best ABBA song and sings a couple of lines from the beginning as an example. Anna (the foreign minister from Sweden, Anna Lindh) came over recently and I told her that there are three Swedish things I am very much fond of: Volvo, ABBA and Anna herself. Anna asked me "Why am I in the third place only", says Powell and laughs heartily."

Olivier · Post by **Olivier** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 2:30 am

Annie_in_exile wrote:Foreign minister Anna Lindh has died in hospital. This could bring Sweden into turmoil, like the murder of Olof Palme years ago. (Well, not literally, but the citizens in a calm, democratic and free country must feel a terrible loss of security.) My sympathy goes to the whole Sweden.

I've been chocked by this event!

I can't understand such an act.

It reminds me the death of Pim Fortuyn, which had also been a chock in all the Netherlands...

BossaNova · Post by **BossaNova** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 2:51 am

Dakkus wrote:
avij wrote:My deepest sympathies as well, this is really a tragic event. The world seems to have become more violent and unfortunately that change has affected the usually peaceful Scandinavian countries as well.
I must say I don't quite like people saying "world has become more violent". Under my understanding I must disagree. You remember what happened to Olof Palme. That wasn't actually a sign of world becoming more dangerous, now was it?
I'm afraid that when shouting "world will be filled with dangers" you only end up making people afraid and thus commit dangerous things to other people.

I agree with you.. in fact political assassinations used to be a lot more common.. just think in the Middle age..

bn

-LK- · Post by **-LK-** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 12:59 pm

The referendum will still be held tomorow, Sunday, as planned. The leaders of the seven parties in Sweden decided this.

As for Anna Lindh, this is a terrible tragedy. The police is looking for a woman who saw the murderer and shouted "STOP HIM!!", and the man has been spotted in videocameras from stores in NK (Nordiska Kompanies/the Nordic Company, the department store where she was stabbed), and they have also found the knife.

K3lvin · Post by **K3lvin** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 3:35 pm

A very sad event indeed.

Why on earth the police didn't stop all public transport right away?
At least they now have a pic of the killer. I hope they catch the him.

-LK- wrote: The referendum will still be held tomorow, Sunday, as planned. The leaders of the seven parties in Sweden decided this.

BTW have you decided yet what you will vote?