Empathy at The New York Times

I'm crossing Sweden as usual in the Bus4You doubledecker and discover that the New York Times has yet another column on empathy, this time by Thomas Friedman. I filed a comment that contains a line referring to  an assertion by psychology professor and author Paul Bloom (see Room for Debate 12/29 and review of Bloom's new book on empathy.

The assertion by Bloom: We can only/find it easiest to empathise with people who look like us. He says that is what the research shows.

Not at all true for me, how about you?

Wesleyan Student Finds Answers In Trump

Time to post an entry in this blog, dormant since Midsommar, as you can see below. After Donald Trump became the next US President elect, we have been subjected to countless articles claiming that he is there thanks to the group "less-well educated white males out of work". The New York Times has had such articles. Times reporters seemingly found it difficult to actually talk with the American people (see Times Public Editor article today 10 November).

Therefore I was particularly interested to read this Times article by a Wesleyan student, Bryan Stascavage. Bryan seems to say that he was not at all aware that there is a major income gap between a select 1% of the American people and the rest us until he took an Economics course at Wesleyan. I do not know how this could happen unless Bryan only read Social Media entries until he enrolled at Wesleyan.

In any case, Brian tells us that learning this and other useful information led him to be a Trump supporter who voted for Trump. Strangely, he fails to tell us what Trump has said about this gap and  if Trump wants to reduce the gap. Brian seems unaware that such a gap does not exist in a number of 21st Century countries, one of which is the one named in the title of my blog.

So in a comment on Brian's column I have suggested he might want to look at some older posts here. They do not address the income gap directly but they do show people who receive support for their children, Universal Health Care available to every single Swedish person I show, and, in the most recent, several asylum seekers who are supported by the Swedish government while the Immigration  Agency reviews their applications.

This to Brian: Brian, many of us supported Bernie Sanders because he seemed interested in making the USA more like Sweden. Your man in the White House has as his goal the making of a US that has as little resemblance to Sweden as possible.

So if you read this, Brian, why don't you tell us what will happen to the 10s of 1000s of people covered by ACA when your man does away with the ACA. We are listening.

On Campus My Liberal University Cemented My Vote for Trump By BRYAN STASCAVAGE The econ department taught me about the income gap. The history and classics departments showed me that change rarely succeeds with a smile.

Or, copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://nyti.ms/2eFSMwF

Midsommar på Anns Ö, Styrsö - Midsommar On Ann's Island, Styrsö

All over Sweden these "Majstången" are raised to show where Midsommar will be celebrated a few hours later. This one is on Styrsö at Styrö Bratten. Videos to be added will show you what goes on here. But first three other pictures, the first a new addition on July 03 for reasons explained in the caption, all three showing new additions to the traditional Styrsö Midsommar thanks to the arrival of these young men from Afghanistan.

This photo added today July 03 after reading Nicholas Kristof's column in the New York Times OnLine where a comment from Bos closes with specific reference to the words on this T shirt. I have filed a reply to BOS telling him that if he visits my blog he can see the T shirt he is quoting, albeit in a very unusual setting, Midsommar on a Swedish island.

 

On Styrsö, hundreds of people of all ages will gather round Majstången. Many will be wearing a krans (A crown, a wreath with flowers) like the one worn by den svenska flickan (the Swedish girl) here. But next to her is a bearer of new tidings as we see from his friends in the next picture

Here are two of his friends bringing perhaps a new tradition

to Midsommar, a flower over the ear. To the left of the man 

with the hat is another svensk tjej (Swedish girl) also with

 the traditional krans.

When the dancing was over I found these three and a few more friends and asked if they spoke Dari (Persian, Farsi as spoken in Afghanistan. I had guessed right, they are all asylum seekers who have been living on the island for about a year while waiting for a decision. I told them that if I see them on the boat we can fika and I can lead them to the blog.

Burlington Discover Jazz Festival - Take One - Discover Walker Adams Project

Came down from my lair on the top of Mount Philo to discover the Walker Adams Project on Center Stage on Church Street last night, June4th. Meet the leader, Walker Adams, just briefly. (see explanation at bottom, maybe). Next is trumpet player Evan who by strange coincidence lived in Rochester, NY (Brighton) 14618 perhaps when I was starting lessons as an adult with Nate Rawls. Evan - last name not yet revealed - went to high school in Pittsford and studied trumpet with an Eastman School teacher.

.

Only In America

My country of birth seems to be undergoing such a transformation that I cannot keep up with writing comments the New York Times OnLine next to the articles reporting on these transformations. Thus my blog been dormant since October 5, and words fail me now, at least as concerns the United States of America. Nevertheless I use the title "Only In America" as a clue to what I have been writing in Times comments, even though I choose for the moment to write about the way I began the day here in Linköping.
 
I became a Swedish citizen about 9 months ago, and today I was one of many "nya svenskar" here in Linköping invited to attend a ceremony welcoming all of us who have recently become Swedish citizens. I was first to arrive along with a trio, two men with African lines of descent and with them a Swedish woman.


As a result of my many years as volunteer at the Red Cro.ss I often try to guess ethnicity or country of origin and at least for one of the men, I thought "not Somali, but possibly Ethiopian". Then I went up to them and told them I had a question that I use as my way of introducing myself, of making contact. The question, stated in Swedish was, "What languages do you know? The answer was Swedish, English, Amharic so I had guessed right. That is not important.

What is important is that once again, as I have experienced over and over again, we begin to learn a little bit about each other and often as was true this time that there are things that connect us. So I have before me a pamphlet titled:

Research Summary

Seedling and sapling sprouting of

Ensete ventricosum

a drought tolerant, multi-purpose

crop from Ethiopia

So very quickly, it is so often possible to discover a bit about what the new people before me - and vice versa - have on their minds or in their minds and thus a conversation door is opened, maybe just for the moment, maybe for months or even years.

That is what Sweden has given me, the chance to know ever more people with lines of descent different from mine but with something to give to me. So I felt very much at home sitting in that room where one by one our names were called out and we went up to be welcomed, to be given a Swedish flag and a diploma and a warm welcome from the people before us.

It saddens me that so many of my fellow Americans tell me in their comments in the New York Times that they cannot imagine wanting to let anyone into their home state if the person comes from any of the countries from which so many in that room have come from.

Tomorrow is the first Sunday in Advent and that means for me that I have to get ready to leave for Ansgarskyrkan where my orchestera, AM Blås will give a concert this evening along with several choirs. Sweden has also given me this opportunity and I have been ever grateful.

So nothing here right now about Only-In-America

Fjärrvärme-Distance Heating update

http://only-neverinsweden.blogspot.se/2013/02/fjarrvarme-distance-heating-phase-iii.html
here is the URL to the beginning of the series that ends with the above
http://only-neverinsweden.blogspot.se/2013/02/today-nyt-had-short-and-simple-story.html

In connection with today's New York Times OpEd on recycling I have just looked at my blog and was surprised to see that I had to go all the way back to 2013 to find that URL so there are more posts from that back in time. For reasons I do not understand, the pictures have been replaced by a symbol. I cannot fix that right now - 20:04 h CET 4 October but maybe tomorrow morning.
Larry
The pictures tell the story so without them you cannot understand the system.
Footnote 1: 21:12 Swedish Public TV Conversations With Authors program with title Babel was on while I was looking briefly at the blog. The first author was poet and member of the Swedish Academy Katerina Frosteson. She ended her section of the program by reading a short poem of hers, Sopor (Trash). Strange coincidence.
Footnote 2: A reply to me was posted by a reader who remembered the bad incinerators in the building where she lived in New York City. I think countless Americans have lived in the presence of a variety of terrible incinerators and this has led them to believe that all incinerators must be terrible. I have lived in Sweden for 20 years and have never heard or read complaints about the fjärrvärme incinerators.Hope to start over again perhaps with new photographs.

From Syria - or other country - to Sweden: We are many

I am on Bus4You taking me home to Linköping. Bus4You left from Nils Ericson Terminal where several organizations were working hard to help new arrivals, mostly refugees, coming from Syria and several other countries.

I am starting this Post in the hope that volunteers I met there will read this and add to it or tell me their stories. I am also creating this for use in the New York Times Comment sections (will explain tomorrow, Tuesday, I hope.

Here is the scene at Nils Ericson. I have used Photoshop to add a bit to the hijab of one of the two young women wearing hijab so she cannot be identified.

At the counter young women wearing Islamic Relief banners are giving food and drink to new arrivals some of whom you do see here. I spoke with a college-age son from one Syrian family who in high-level English told me that he and his family had been traveling for 17 days and had finally arrived here in Gothenburg, Sweden. They were not done traveling. At the same time that I would board my Bus4You to take me to Linköping, they would be boarding Bus4You that would take them to Oslo, Norway!

The people helping out here are members of Islamic Relief - The Front Line, Red Cross personell, and staff from Migrationsverket. As far as I  could tell, most of the groups sitting on benches and on the floor were families of several different ethnicities.

Here I introduce an extremely helpful Islamic Relief person, Ismail, who gave me an overview in English and Swedish and then helped me track down a young woman I believe from Kirkuk whom I want to meet my friend Sipel from Dohuk, north of Kirkuk.

Ismail, if you want your identity to be hidden, let me know (gmail up to the left) and Photoshop will hide you.

Tomorrow I will be at the Red Cross in Linköping with my colleagues from Iran, Finland, and Sweden where we offer Träna svenska for anyone who wants to talk and listen. Every week brings new arrivals - recently Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Bulgaria, and Somali - and we have a ball talking and listening.






As concerns the New York Times, this is just a preface. Every day the New York Times web edition has Editorials and OpEds on the flow of refugees to Europe. A single Editorial can have up to 1000 comments, all of them first reviewed before being released - or rejected. I read 100s every day and write my own. What troubles me deeply is that so many of my fellow Americans (I am dual citizen, USA, Sverige) are so ill informed that they write that these refugees should not be accepted because they are muslims or - I may give samples tomorow. I doubt that none has ever met a real live muslim so perhaps until they do they can live with their fears of the "other".