RedBlog

After NYE I spent a lot of time getting up to date with the online world. I guess that's the clear sign I'm addicted to the shit... Anywayyyy, I ended up reading lots of Piratpartiet discussions, and realized I needed to do something to help raising awareness and get more votes for the party in the upcoming EU parliament election. I started out writing a blog entry on how to vote when living abroad. But I soon figured we'd need ballots at the poll station at the embassy. At the same time I'd started hanging out on the pirate party IRC channel. By cheer luck, I started talking to a girl there called Klara, whos nick I recognized from a few interesting/knowledgable forum posts and well, long story short, I ended up being responsible for the swedish Pirate Party in Norway and our election rally here.

And today and yesterday I ended up having a cup of tea with two different members, discussing politics and possible campaign ideas. So I guess you can get a lot done quickly, if you have a passion for it.

Below is the initial mail I sent out to our members in Norway (all 61 of them so far :P ). As it is mostly of interest to swedes, I won't bother to translate it, sorry...:

Hej!

Jag har precis blivit ansvarig för Piratpartiet i lokalt Norge, så jag tänkte skriva och berätta för er som bor här om vem jag är, och vad jag har för planer och förhoppningar framöver. Målet är såklart att få så många utlandssvenskar som möjligt att rösta på oss i EU-valet i sommar!

Jag heter Egil Möller och har bott här i Oslo i två år nu. Jag arbetar för ett fri-programmvaru-företag som heter FreeCode (http://www.freecode.no), och är även aktiv inom fri-programmvara-världen på fritiden.

Det har alltid känts lite som om all intressant politik händer där hemma i Sverige, samtidigt som den ofta påverkar mig fast jag flyttat hit, som t.ex. FRA-lagen. Norsk datatrafik går väldigt ofta via Sverige ner mot kontinenten...

Men i Oslo bor det faktiskt bort emot 10% svenskar. 10% av en halv miljon är 50000, och det är tillräckligt många för att det skall vara en idé att driva valkampanj här, med valaffischer och allt!

Många av de som bor här är dessutom förstagångsväljare, och har definitivt inte koll på hur man röstar på ambassad. De måste vi hjälpa.

Därför skrev jag för några dagar sedan ett blogg-inlägg om hur man röstar som utlandssvensk: http://redhog.org/Blog/Voting_in_the_EU_parliament_election_when_living_abroad.html

Det är mitt mål, att aktivera alla som bor här, så att de går och röstar, och röstar på Piratpartiet.

Men för det behöver jag hjälp. Av dig.

Prata med dina svenska vänner här, berätta för dem om Piratpartiet om du inte redan gjort det. Prata om när och hur de kan ta sig till Oslo och till ambassaden, alternativt hur de kan göra för att poströsta. Blogga om piratpartiet, och länka gärna inlägget ovan. Och hittar du mer info om hur man röstar från Norge så blogga om det!

Det vore även bra att träffas i verkligheten - det gör att det blir så mycket roligare (och lättare) att arbeta mot ett gemensamt mål. Så, ni som bor i Oslo, hör av er så bestämmer vi en tid och ett kafé så blir det piratfika!

Vänliga hälsningar,

Egil Möller

P.S. Hör gärna av dig om du har några frågor. Jag hänger också på piratpartiets IRC-chat, med redhog som nick.

I must say that today I am shocked and deeply dissapointed by the norwegian press. I should have known better than to expect anything else from the media. But I am, and will allway be, naive and hope for people to do their best.

Yesterday I took part of a peacfull demonstration for ceasfire in Gaza in Oslo city, organized by 80 different NGOs and political parties and attended by about 10000 people. Torches where handed out and lite and hel high while listening to three speakers and then paying the victims of the war a half minute of silence. After that we marched down to the harbour where people sort of just spread out, chatting in smaller groups.

I once managed to get up on some stairs and look out over the field of torches slowly moving down the street - it was all absolutely beautiful and dignified.

But at the same time a group of about 100 young people decided to terrorize the main street of Oslo, destroying shop windows, throwing stones at the police and burning rubbish bins.

Guess which of the events got headlines? The 10000 people or the 100? Yesterday when I came home, the peacefull demonstration had a small note on the majour newspapers, the 100 vandals majour headlines. And today, there isn't even a note about the peacefull one. Nothing.

I won't do the same and tell you more about the violence, you can just read any bloody newspaper.

I took a few (rather blurry I must admin) Photos with my mobile phone, and also four films: 1 2, 3, 4.

The norwegian government has published two reports (Norwegian only) on the effects of the swedish surveilance law (FRA-lagen) on norwegian scitizens communicating with foreigners in Sweden or elsewhere, and with other norwegians in Norway (when the traffic is routed through Sweden).

I find this very interesting and also promising - the norwegian government has understood the message - this is a hostile action from Sweden towards all countries whose traffic it conveys, comparable to trade trade barriers such as extreme tarifs, and should render the same kind of response from sedens neighbours.

I spent the weekend in Göteborg, joining a demonstration against the FRA-law, IPRED2, the data escrow directive and ACTA. It should be noted that even though the webpage lists only Grön Ungdom, Liberala Ungdomsförbundet, Miljöpartiet, Nätverket Svart Måndag, Piratpartiet, Ung Pirat, Ung vänster and Vänsterpartiet as organizers, the Christian Yough party (KDU) as well as the conservative yough (MUF) did take part in the demonstration. What this shows is that there is a huge generational divide between those for and those against the surveilance society, and that this has nothing to do with left- or rightwing. This is the second time in a year, and the second time ever I have seen all majour youth parties join behind a common cause - communists, liberals and conservatives under the same banner.

It should also be noted that the Iranian Refugee Organization had joined the demonstration. Secure communication is extra crucial for hiding refugees and other people who are freightened for their lives.

I took some photos and shot film-clips of all the speakers, but for some reason my phone f***ed up, and the clips have no sound :( The photos will be up shortly... Sandrability and Axel Kronholm has some good pictures though.

After the demonstration many of us pirates went to a café nearby, but we didn't stay for very long, and me and a few others continued to a small party, where I spent the evening.

Unlucky, and bad at planning as I am, I had managed to drain my phone of all its battery power while filming, and had forgotten to bring a charger, so I ended up unable to contact Jessicas friend who had agreed to accommodate me for the night. Luckily, pirates helps pirates and I got a sofa to sleep on, after some walking around alone in a dark Göteborgian suburb I might add...

Today, Daniel had announced we'd have a Pirate Party café gathering. Unfroutyunately he announced it a bit late, and only me and him actually turned up. But we got a bit of planning done, and actually, randomly, got a new member - one of Daniels flatmates.

Over and out captain!