✐ Big Steve from England - In Sweden

I found his channel on YouTube and the videos are really fun, and exactly what I need in contrast to all the News Channels I watched lately. Sometimes you really need a good laugh. Big Steve is visiting the north of Sweden, making a film.

"I'm currently in North Sweden shooting a TV-Show called the Blackyoumentary.
The clips on this channel are the build up, to let everyone see the different things, that I'm testing and experiencing, while living here in the north of Sweden. The Blackyoumentary will be realesed on TV next year. So until then, keep watching my channel and please subscribe."

So here's Big Steve from England - YouTube Channel

✐ What a Wonderful World - Is it...?!

Louis Armstrong was one of my mothers favorite artists. This song makes me think about her but I'm also questioning myself if the world is wonderful. My answer to that is NO, I hate this world, I can't wait until my life is over, I want it to end now. Yeah sure I'm aware of that I suffer from major chronic depression, however maybe I'm not sick, I mean look at what's happening in the world and at the history of mankind. How can you not feel depressed about it?

My mother suffered from major chronic depression as well, she grew up in Sweden during WWII, okay so we were not invaded by the nazis, we were so called "neutral" (yeah sure). After the war ended and all the horryfying crimes that the nazis had carried out, came out to the public, must have affected all people of that generation. It definetly had an impact on my mother, she always said that the world was an ugly place.

❤ Mamma ❤

Today it's exactly 23 years ago (1990) my mother passed away in her sleep from a heart attack. I was living on Maui, Hawaii when it happened, I got that phone call you never want to get. Talking to my crying father on the phone, telling me that he found her dead in her bed in the morning. That was a shock for me that I never really recovered from, there I was on the other side of the planet, trying to deal with the "news". I was in some sort of haze the first month, I have dreamlike memories of the first weeks, feels really weird when I think back. Something inside of me died when my mother passed away and that part is still dead. There was one life before and another one after her death. 

I had been living in the US for three years and after a trip to India I decided to spend the summer in Sweden before going back to the states (1989). So I did get time to spend with her for 3 months. There is one memory that's still haunting me, it was when I came to see her before leaving Sweden, when we said goodbye. We were both crying and we hugged each other for a long time, then she says: "This is the last time I will see you (please don't leave)". She was right, and part of me hate her for saying that, I'm a really sucker when it comes to guilt, but she was right...

The reason I'm writing about it today is because I'm exactly the same age as her now, when she died. For some reason my mind have been making a big deal about it...

Happy Death Day, Mom and Rest In Peace

Here's my favorite photo of my mom and I, long time ago

✐ My favorite online TV News Show

Since I started to watch the independent medias news online, mainly on YouTube. I have come across some interesting ones. I've already mentioned 'Democracy Now!' and 'RT America' in an earlier post, but there's one more I watch a lot, The Young Turks. Their show is a bit different from the others, it's more of a News/Talk Show, than just reporting the news. They make comments and have their own opinions, they have discussions, etc. The primary host, Cenk Uygur, is really opinionated and entertaining, I've had many laughs watching/listening to him. Sometimes the whole team have a discussion about some topic, which is interesting and entertaining as well, many laughs from that studio.

"The show's name derives from the English-language phrase "Young Turk", meaning a reformist or rebellious member of an institution, movement, or political party

The Young Turks (TYT) is the name of a progressive daily news and political commentary program hosted primarily by Cenk Uygur. The show, known as The Young Turks, broadcasts via live web stream and YouTube. Politically liberal/progressive and humanist, TYT was founded in 2002 as a liberal talkshow on Sirius Satellite Radio as that radio's first original talk programming. The Young Turks claims to be the first Internet TV news show and the world's largest online news show. Video of the show is streamed daily on their website and is available as a podcast. On 20 April 2013 The Young Turks announced that their YouTube channel had received over 1 billion video views.

Writing for US News, Paul Bedard has described TYT as a group of progressive, outspoken journalists and commentators discussing politics and pop culture" and the founder Cenk Uygur as bringing a, uniquely progressive and topical commentary about politics and pop culture."  
Source: Wikipedia

My TYT Playlist - YouTube

✐ Study of Swedish news broadcasting on August 1 - 2013

I'm questioning if the Swedish TV broadcasting news are as independent as we think they are. We have 2 major broadcasting companies in Sweden; SVT and TV4 that are sending the news. I have watched all the news broadcasts from both channels from August 1 - 2013. My question was, how much air time would the Manning trial and Snowden get.

Here's the result:

SVT
Rapport 7:30 pm (Rapport is Sweden's largest news with news around the clock for, SVT Forum and SVT Play.)
The main focus was about, Stockholm Pride demonstrating outside the Russian Embassy in Stockholm, against Putin's anti HBT laws, around 4 minutes of airtime. Snowden was mentioned for less than a minute and NOTHING about the Manning trial. Rapport 7:30 PM

Aktuellt 9 pm (Currently, SVT-depth news programs, providing analysis, debates and longer features.)
They focused on late diagnoses of people infected with HIV and a study about climate changes, that claims when it get's warmer, people become more aggressive and  angry, that violence, conflicts, etc it's more likely to happen then. Snowden was mentioned for less than a minute and NOTHING about the Manning trial. Aktuellt 21 PM

TV4
News 7 pm, Snowden was mentioned for less than a minute and NOTHING about the Manning trial. TV4 News 7 PM

News 10 pm, The focus was about the Berlusconi trial and Putin's anti HBT laws. Snowden was mentioned for less than a minute and NOTHING about the Manning trial. TV4 News 10 PM

I think this is remarkable, the big international news on August 1 - 2013 was about the Bradley Manning trial and none of the Swedish TV channels mentioned anything about it. The Swedish newspapers did have articles about Manning, but it wasn't first page news.

The Bradley Manning trial is a huge, very important and a major "event" in contemporary history. It's about human rights, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. This is something that should concern media worldwide, specially in the so called western "democratic" countries. That the source "whistleblower" Bradley Manning faces his whole life in jail, because he provided documents of war crimes done by the US army to Wikileaks. And the Swedish TV News channels didn't report anything about it, that's appalling.

Update, August 8 - 2013
Surprise, surprise... and now Obama is coming to Sweden in September, cancelling the planned trip to Russia, due to dissapointment that Putin gave Snowden temporary asylum in Russia!!! This is nothing but a political global "game", similar to kids playing in the sandbox. "If you don't give me that toy, I won't give you mine". Hello guys, this isn't a sandbox, it's the whole world you're playing with and you better be careful, we only have this one.

More to read here: President Obama to visit Sweden in September The Local - Sweden's news in English

"The statement issued by the White House confirming the visit referred to Sweden as a "close friend" of the United States, praising the country for "key leadership" on important international issues, including the forging of a new EU-US trade deal."