We live in extraordinary times. The political situation in the world is changing dramatically. It seems to be my fate to be a miniscule part of that whirlwind.
During my life I have experienced some very surprising and strange twists. I left my old home country Finland and moved to London in 1996. At the beginning of 1997 I met a rowdy press agent called Shirley. She gave stories to British tabloids, such as The Sun and News of the World (both are or were owned by Rupert Murdoch) and Daily Mail. Former tabloid journalist Graham Johnson has given a truly colorful and hilarious account of his work in News of the World and other British tabloids in his book Hack: Sex, Drugs, and Scandal from Inside the Tabloid Jungle. Year 1997 was dramatic. “Third Way” politician Tony Blair made infamous “deal with the Devil” and rose to power. Then, at the end of August 1997, Princess Diana died in rather strange circumstances. I was not interested in politics those days, but it was quite fascinating to see some glimpses of the crazy world of tabloid journalists. It has since become apparent that some people think that I saw too much.
During the past 20 years the political situation in Europe, North America, Israel and elsewhere has changed dramatically, particularly during the recent years. The American-Israeli alliance seems to become even tighter than before and Britain seems to become an integral part of it. There are a lot of different kinds of right-wing and far-right parties, groups and movements within the American-Israeli alliance, in Europe and elsewhere. Xenophobia, racism and all other kinds of hate crimes have increased significantly. I never imagined that one day there would be supporters of Neo-Nazism, Zionist extremism, counter-jihad or other such movements in my old home country, let alone in my family – that was truly a shocking wake up call for me, when I visited my old home country first time after 20 years in 2017.
This blog is a modest attempt to build a collection of useful political information. I will focus mainly on five subjects that I find particularly interesting: right-wing populism and extremism, developments regarding American-Israeli alliance, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, environmental issues and multipolar, multilateral world system. I should point out that my views in this blog (or elsewhere) are my own – they don’t necessarily represent views of the people in my old home country or other people.
IDIS Observer 