Swans in winter

 

Just to show those flocks of beautiful swans, ducks and other birds that were spot in Stockolm early this month. 

Those marvelous creatures were enjoying water in the coldest part of winter in the Northern side of Europe. 

 

  

                                           

Photo courtesy of Stefano Gazzano. He is a friend of mine who went to Stockolm for job.

 ❄  🦢  🇸🇪

With regards to another Northern country of the world touching the Arctic Circle, I appreciate the Canadian president, Mark Carney, for sharing his thoughts at Davos, Switzerland, last week. He said publicy that "In a world of great power rivalry, the countries in between have a choice: compete with each other for favour, or to combine to create third path".    

Sweden has lost its policy of neutrality.

Sorry to bore you once again with a geopolitical topic. Unfortunately, I have noticed that world powers want the two wars in Ukraine and Palestine never to go to an end. 

 

Since the Ukraine-Russia war began, back in 2014 (not 2022), Sweden has been hitting by massive propaganda claiming if Swedish people didn't join NATO, Russians would invade them next. I think this is not true, as Russia has no interest in Sweden and its territory, although that  Scandinavian country is on Russia's "Unfriendly countries list". 

According to many analists, a clash with Finland could be a more realistic possibility. Obviously, Russia is determined to stop Moldova and Georgia from joining NATO. 

On 7th March Sweden became NATO newest member. Consequently, it's easy to see that the Swedish government will be compelled to send soldiers abroad. In addition, Swedish kids would be forced to serve in the military in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and other countries located close to the Russian border. 

Photo courtesy of Stefano Gazzano, who took them in Stockholm a few years ago.

Have a nice Sunday ☀

1989 Baltic human chain

34 years ago, on August 23, 1989, about two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands. They formed a human chain stretching through the three Baltic countries. 

It was a peaceful protest .

The  above image belongs to Sonja Eftimovska.

Madrid's NATO summit

Good news from the Madrid's NATO summit: the North Atlantic intergovernmental military alliance at the moment doesn't have specific plan in deploying weapons to Sweden and Finland, for the simple reason that the two nordic countries are not members of NATO for now.

The problem is that Putin said Russia would have to answer in kind if NATO infrastructure were to be deployed to Sweden and Finland.

A friend of mine took the two pictures above some years ago in Sweden. 

2021 military exercises close to the Russian border

If we were to get a wider perspective of the Russian's invasion of the East Ukraine's territories, we would need same information about the military drills held in 2021 on the Ukrainian territory by US and UK. 

In June 2021 US, UK, and Australia (which is not a NATO member), held naval exercises in the Black Sea and Southern Ukraine. One month later, The US, Poland, and Lithuania held another military exercise involving more than 1200 troops in West Ukraine. In addition, from 20th September to 1st October 2021 large scale war games with US, UK, and same NATO and Ukrainians troops took place close to the Belarus border. 

As it is known, Since early 1990s Ukraine has been a buffer state between Westerners and Russia. On the other hand, according to a core principle of international law, there is the right of people to decide their own destiny in the international order (principle of self-determination). That's why it's not easy to say who is right. Obviously, that has nothing to do with shellings of residential neighborhoods, railway stations and hospitals, as we have already seen in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya, etc.   

Since Ukraine war began in late February, Russians have been knoking on Finland's door. In this viewpoint, the geopolitical neutral Scandinavian country was recently hit by two cyberattacks and an airspace violation by a Russian plane. If Finland's people or policy-makers of Finland try to join NATO, it would be a strategic mistake. Finland has been successfully developing economic ties with both Russia and EU. I think it would be a terrible mess for the Finnish people. 

The more epidemic spreads, the more people need unemployment benefits

We all want to be rid of the coronavirus, of course, although EU's media are still talking about a third wave. Furthermore, another partial lockdown may continue to destroy small businesses, such as restaurants, cafés, clothes retailers, and other small businesses, while Wall Street’s analysts are still busy finding the stocks that are primed for gains in the next 12 months. As a matter of fact, since April 2020 we have already seen a sharply rise of some companies listed on the stock market, such as of pharmaceutical, electrical car makers, and biotech. 

In this cloudy perspective, there is a great talk about rising tax with the aim of increasing public services and unemployment benefits, considering that since March 2020 many people have been loosing their job. Some countries in Northern Europe, such as Sweden, Iceland, and Denmark, are known as having a high standard of living and social security, which their taxes help to pay for. Those countries  have a progressive tax system, meaning that people with a higher income pay a higher percentage of taxes than people with a lower income. Therefore, a large proportion of tax money goes into education, health care, parental support, unemployment benefits, etc.   

The good thing is that people who live in those countries don't even think about how much taxes they pay, because they say their tax system works very well. Clearly, those resources are going to be used by everyone in the population. On the contrary, cut taxes measures could have an impact on the society, as most people trust the public sector is able to do good things with their money. 

The four pictures below were taken in 2019 by a friend of mine, Stefano, who went in Sweden for job.