Ethnic cleansing in the middle of Europe
by C G Holm

”Ethnic cleansing” is a term which lead your thoughts towards Rwanda or Bosnia. But the practice has been used in more central parts of Europe and the practice continues this very day. ”Ethnic cleansing” is not necessarily performed with violence, it is fully possible to manage it more efficiently – and with less badwill in the media – through economic policies, education policies and government investements in infrastructure and culture. This article discusses the situation for the German and Hungarian minorities in Romania. The article is especially concentrated to the German minority (which has decreased from ten to one percent of the population). The basic interest in the article might have increased as Herta Müller from the German minority in Romania was awarded the Nobel Prize in litterature just two days after this issue of Contra was sent to the printers.

Darwin is challenged – ”Intelligent Design”
by Tommy Hansson

2009 is the year for a double Darwin jubilee. 200 years since his birth (1809–1892) and 150 years since the publication of his most well-known book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Darwin’s thinking had a rapid impact and turned into the monopoly theory for the explanation of the creation of life. During later years the new theory of ”intelligent design” has been developed as a theory opposed to Darwin’s.
The advocates of the ”intelligent design” theory question the mechanical and materialistic points of view that are the foundations of Darwin’s theory. They contest that all life has been developed by chance and assumes that there is a creating intelligent force in the Universe. Some call this intelligence ”God”

Local governments invests in leisure and culture
by Fredrik Runebert

Core missions of Swedish local government are care and education. Still many local governments chose to cut back on care and education and put more money into leisure and culture, which all agree are secondary tasks for the local government. In spite of this reallocation of resources, representatives of the local government asks for more subsidies from the Central Government to add up to what they get from local taxes. This questions have been studied by Lotta Moberg at the University of Lund and Jonas Sigedal at the Stockholm School of Economics.

Seventy years since the Winter War
by Gunnar Palm

In November it is seventy years since the start of the Finnish Winter War, when Finland was attacked by the Soviet Union in the beginning of World War II. Finland defended itself and could stay an independent country, as opposed to its weaker neighbours. Gunnar Palm tells about myths an reality in connection with the Winter War.

Traditional ethics in crisis
by Allan C. Brownfeld

Ethics more and more seem to disappear as an important standard in Congress, in business life and in other areas of our society. Unfortunately young people observe the disrespect for moral standards among elder people and start leading their lives in the same way. Unaffected by traditional morals and ethical values.

The election in Lebanon: Keep Hizbollah out!
by Roni Doumit

The very same day as the Swedes participated in the election for the European Parliament the Lebanese had the opportunity to show what Lebanon they wanted to live in for the future. This was the second relatively free election after the ”Cedar revolution” in 2005. Relatively free as many groups still are controlled by militant groups. Roni Doumit, living in Uppsala, Sweden, and and active candidate for the Lebanese parliament describes the campaign and the election.

Limited tolerance for minorities in moslem countries
by C G Holm

Moslems in Sweden ask for adaption of the Swedish society in a way that definitely is foreign to Swedish minds. But in moslem countries the very same people operate a massive oppression of Christian and other religious minorities. The article gives several examples from different moslem countries.

The freedom of Swedish parents severely limited by the government, by Bo C. Pettersson

Home education is used by a couple of hundred families in different parts of Sweden. Usually it is chosen because of schools that are unable to adapt to children with special needs or because of the special profile of children or parents. The government is now in the process of abolishing all home education. Home education is guaranteed in a number of international conventions that have been signed by Sweden.

Swedish initiative behind the creation of WACL
by Tommy Hansson

The Baltic Committee was created in April 1943 in order to support the freedom struggle of the three Baltic countries that had been occupied by the Soviet Union. The leading man was Professor Birger Nerman. Later professor Birger Hagård, a member of the Swedish parliament (Conservative) was elected chairman of the Committee. As the three Baltic countries now are independent and democratic, the Committeee has been dissolved and a final book on the activiites of the Committee has been published. In the book you can read that the initiative to create the World Antic-Communist League originally came from the Baltic Committee (a uproposal put forward at the 1962 APACL conference in Taipei, Taiwan).