No poker today.

I don’t know if you know, or even care, that I live in a small cold country in the north called Sweden. But I do. We recently celebrated reaching a citizen count of 9 million, so that should tell you something about how small and relatively insignificant we are

However, recently the shit hit the fan in regards to blogs in my country, and I think you might find this interesting. Incredibly stupid, but interesting.

Our Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, blogs. He is, as far as I know, the only minister in our government that does but he’s been using the internet for spreading news about what he’s up to for a long time; he used to write weekly emails that you could subcribe to. I guess he’s the only minister in the world that I’m aware of who’s blogging, but that’s kinda besides the point. The point is that he blogs. Sometimes about important stuff, sometimes about mundane stuff. Usually in a fairly casual, but well-phrased, manner. Whether or not there are breaking news to be found in there I’m not sure, but he’s to-the-point and doesn’t appear to be tip-toeing around issues. It is, in other words, a decent blog.

However, recently a series of op-eds have appeared in Swedish newspapers, that chastise Carl Bildt for blogging. No, they’re not attacking anything specific he’s written in his blog - they’re attacking the fact that he’s blogging. These op-eds are written by journalists who, for all I can tell, feel cheated out of the prerogative of choosing, picking and editing his messages before they are presented to the public. Yeah? Yeah. One of them compared him to Hugo Chavez; Bildt’s blog to that of Hugo Chavez using the government controlled TV-channel as a way to spread his message. Because, he reasons, Bildt can say anything he wants in his blog, without being critically questioned by a journalist. No, I’m not kidding. This guy wrote an op-ed in the largest newspaper in Sweden criticizing the Foreign Minister for not being able to criticize him. Irony must not be his strong suit.

Bildt was also criticized for expressing “personal opinions” because this journalist felt that it was inappropriate for a foreign minister to have personal opinions. Much like, he says, it’s inappropriate for the prime minister, and the king to express personal opinions. Now, the king I can (kinda) agree with. He’s an apolitical figure who must very carefully weigh his words. But the ministers?

Does this clown realize that he’s suggesting that politicians shouldn’t tell people their opinions?

LOL?

COL.

Carl Bildt, by the way, retaliated - on his blog, bwahaha - and, as we say on the internet, completely owned them. In the off-chance that you want to read more about this ridiculous story, I found a good summary in English:

http://www.skysong.eu/2007/02/swedish-journalists-afflicted-by-foot-in-mouth-disease/

Jebus on a scooter. This is depressing. I’m happy that most of the country seems to be reacting in a “wtf?” kind of way to the criticism.