Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/03/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I understand, J?rg. I remember because at the time, in the late 90'ies all the surrounding Scandinavian countries were extremely stingy when it came to letting refugees in. This created an enormous burden for Sweden, since it had to take on a lot more than it had an organization for (ended up renting campgrounds, mobile-home parks, schools and whatever they could get their hands on to put people up in). There were some friendly but firm discussions between the countries after that. Things have probably changed. I understand the boxes. Don't worry. Best, Daniel On Mon, 7 Mar 2005, J?rg Willems wrote: > Daniel, it was not my intention either to make an issue out of this, I was > just wondering what's caused your perception. > > We have so many "boxes" where we keep comfortable perceptions that I think > it's good if sometimes we stop and ask ourselves "why"? > > My two sons (living in Atlanta, Georgia) are building their own cleaning > and > construction business. One of my boys told me a couple of days ago that he > loves to hire Mexicans because they work twice as hard and good as "white > people" and he just can't understand why most Americans have the perception > that Mexicans are lazy. I just hope that he didn't replace one "box" with > another ;-) > > Regards J?rg > > > -----Original Message----- > From: lug-bounces+jorg.willems=pp.inet.fi@leica-users.org > [mailto:lug-bounces+jorg.willems=pp.inet.fi@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of > Daniel Ridings > Sent: Monday, March 07, 2005 5:17 PM > To: Leica Users Group > Subject: RE: [Leica] OT: Some square snaps > > Just statistics, J?rg. They take on the least amount of the burden > according to their population. Perhaps it's changed. They got a lot of > static for it a couple of years ago. > > I didn't want to make an issue of it. Just wanted to draw an outline. > > Daniel > > On Mon, 7 Mar 2005, J?rg Willems wrote: > > > Hi Daniel, > > > > Why do you say that Finland has the least liberal refugee policy? Moving > > back to Finland after 25 years things have changed quite drastically. > > Nowadays I see people of all different skin colors even in relatively > small > > cities like Kajaani and Valkeakoski. 20 years ago I visited Kajaani with > a > > black friend and people starred at us because they knew black people only > > from TV and movies. I am sure they are not all refugees in the correct > > political sense but I have my doubts that people from Africa, Asia and > > southern Europe are moving to Finland because of the climate. > > > > Mind you, Finland has just over 5 million people and still we have > received > > from 1992 to 1997 over 385 000 foreigners. All of these people are > > receiving full state funded medical insurance and other generous support > > from the state. > > > > J?rg > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: lug-bounces+jorg.willems=pp.inet.fi@leica-users.org > > [mailto:lug-bounces+jorg.willems=pp.inet.fi@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of > > Daniel Ridings > > Sent: Monday, March 07, 2005 4:04 PM > > To: Leica Users Group > > Subject: Re: [Leica] OT: Some square snaps > > > > Graham, > > Foreigners are not really welcome here. Tolerated, but not welcome. The > > fewer, the better. Perhaps I'm exaggerating, but I feel I have to since > > Scandinavia has tended to have a liberal stamp on it. The various > > countries react differently. I suspect that Sweden has the most liberal > > refugee policy, Finland the least, Denmark, a small country, has been > > over > > saturated and Norway is somewhere inbetween. Probably closer to Finland > > than anything else. > > > > Norway does have a lot of public money, oil money. So it can afford to > > have civil servants on duty who really don't have to pull much weight. > > They can act offended if you show up and expecting them to perform their > > duties. (I've had a run-in with a few of them, so my background > > information might be tainted :-) ). It doesn't really matter if they do > > anything or not. The country and afford them. The bureaucracy is of > > Byzantine proportions. > > > > So you have these furners. You make them report to the police station > > (one > > single police station in all of Oslo, the capital city, mind you, not > > just > > your local station) between 8 and 10? possibly 11. Anyway, at the end of > > the short time frame they close. Doesn't matter that you've been waiting > > there since 8 am, they close. Sorry. Come back tomorrow. > > > > So all these poor souls start queuing up at around 7 am. This particular > > day it was -15 degrees and the wind was raging off the fjord, the > > harbour. > > Cold. Very cold. Most of these people come from temperate zones ... > > Africa, Pakistan, India etc. 15 degrees is cold for many of them. > > > > At 8 o'clock ... make that 8:05 if the police really feel like screwing > > with you, they unlock the door. Now at that point, you don't retain your > > queue place, but you have to rush to a number machine and get a queue > > number. > > > > Some of these will not get served on today. The one station is Oslo is > > not > > open long enough to take care of them. > > > > Maybe they'll get tired of it and decide to move home? > > > > http://www.rollei-gallery.net/ridings/image-80729.html > > > > Excuse my cynical humor today. I had a run-in with the customs people at > > the border last night. Norway is a member of Schengen so they're not > > allowed to do controls of people, only of goods. I think they're trying > > to > > drum up business for the train line to Gothenburg they now have but can't > > get to take off (they raised the price 100%) so they're making sure all > > other forms of transportation are so miserable to use that people with > > opt > > for the useless train instead (it's a milk-run. Stops at every farm > > between Gothenburg and Oslo). > > > > Something like that ... > > > > Daniel > > > > > > > Hi Daniel, > > > > > > I particularly like these two: > > > http://www.rollei-gallery.net/ridings/image-80727.html > > > > > > http://www.rollei-gallery.net/ridings/image-80728.html > > > > > > and I am curious about the reference to 'foreigners dose of > > > humiliation' > > > > > > --Graham > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Leica Users Group. > > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Leica Users Group. > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Leica Users Group. > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >