Good News is Ignored - Scandinavian Solutions III -Prisoner Rehabilitation

There are reasons why the northernmost countries of the world tend toward socialism, it works. They are consistantly ranked as the best places to live, work, be eduacated, grow old, suffer setbacks, and even break the law. We don't hear about this because sucess doesn't make for high news ratings. Collapse and suffering is where the money is. So we hear nothing about Eurpose's economic disasters, products of raw, unrestrained capitalism, and nothing about the socialist successes. Those who benefit from the chaos don't what us knowing there are alternatives that work. People fear the gigh taxes in these countries but they get what they pay for and require less of their income personally. More of what they retain is disposable so the economy thrives. The society takes care of an encourages the individual and the the individual pays the society back gratefully.

As the Norwegians show, there are even better ways to run a legal system. Humane prisons focused on true rehabilitation produce productive humans instead of better trained and more damaged criminals.

For god's sake don't pay attention to what the north does! Your country might end up as a top place to live.

The following is from the Sunday Edition on CBC.

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Comfortable Norway prisons give inmates a new lease on life

Sunday, April 28, 2013

While some people call the prisons in Norway "cushy", they seem to be working.

A new breed of prisons in Norway is making some people shake their heads with bafflement - or outrage.

A wave of journalists from around the western world have descended on prisons like Bastoy, or Halden - Norway's new, $140 million prison - and filed incredulous stories about the well-appointed and cheerful lodgings of the criminals living there. 

Halden's interiors are sleek, stylish and beautifully designed. Cells are furnished with flat screen TVs, private toilets and clean, comfortable linens. 

Bastoy Prison looks like a tranquil, scenic, alpine island retreat ... for murderers, rapists and perpetrators of an assortment of violent and non-violent crimes. The guards are unarmed and there are no impregnable walls and fences. Instead, the inmates live together in neat cottages, prepare two meals a day for themselves and work for a modest paycheque.

Rather than simply feeling they're doing time, many of the prisoners seem to feel their incarceration has given them a new lease on life. 

In descriptions of Bastoy and Halden, phrases like "holiday resort," "luxury hotel" and "coddled criminals" inevitably come up, along with a certain mild astonishment that criminals would be treated by penal institutions, prison guards and each other as normal human beings.

Marianne Vollan

It does seem to run counter to the tough-on-crime rhetoric and policies that dominate in North America at the moment. But the Norwegian system does seem to work. Its rates of re-offending are the lowest in Europe and much lower than the rates in Canada and Europe.

Marianne Vollan, the Director General of Correctional Services of Norway, spoke with Michael about how and why Norway's penal system seems to be working.

Good News is Ignored - Scandinavian Solutions II - The Elderly

 The following is a re-posting and link to a 1 hour program on CBC Radio Sunday Edition about how the Danes have made a dignified life for elderly with dementia qa legal right that they back up with their actions. They, like the other countries of the Scandinavian-type peoples, continue to prove to the world something that every neoconservative and neoliberal, particularly in the US, refuses to admit, or even acknowledge -  that these people are doing it right. That their economies are doing quite well, thank you, despite having extremely high taxes. That, in fact, the people don't mind high taxes because they get what they pay for. That, despite exclamations that it is dead and a ridiculous idea, socialism works and is currently kicking capitalism's ass! It not only works, but it produces a more humane society and legal system. They're having problems adjusting, like the rest of Eurpoe - the places where immigrants historically came from - to the idea of a mufti-ethnic society, but so is most the world. It doesn't diminish the fact that they are definitely on to something.


The Age of Reason is supposed to be about recognizing what the real actual facts of the world are and living with them. The fact is countries like Denmark and Iceland, Sweden, and Norway are leading the way and no one is following. Science doesn't use what is most commonly believed, it uses what works in fact and tries to explain that. We should use what works best to promote the benefit of the most people possible on the planet, not what is continually failing and helps only the fortunate few who manage to exploit it.  I find it incredible that everyone isn't trying to copy them.

Perhaps this is why neoconservatives and most neoliberals are so against science. Nothing they promote works. The economic and political facts say so.

Redefining Dementia in Denmark (Hr. 1)

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

In Denmark, people with dementia aren't confined to nursing homes, they go on biking trips. (CBC / Karin Wells)

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Denmark looks after its old people.

Lotte, the most famous nursing home in the country, has become an international shrine for anyone seeking another way ... a happier way ... to make a life for people with dementia.

Lotte is a big old brick house on the west side of Copenhagen, where 23 men and women live like a family. Seventy per cent of the family has dementia.

They take Caribbean vacations together. The 98-year-old man on the second floor has fallen in love with the 101-year-old woman. The cat sits curled up next to the dining room table.

Lotte's first leader, Thyra Frank, is the rock star of elder care in Denmark.

Denmark - like every other country in Europe - is in an economic squeeze. Yet Lotte is fully funded and fostered by the Danish government.

The underlying philosophy of elder care is well rooted.  Every man or woman, no matter how ill, or how old, has the right to choose how they want to live.

We all know the numbers - dementia of some sort is catching up with more and more of us. It is a frightening prospect.

No one wants to see mum or dad  - or to imagine themselves - strapped down to a bed in a locked dementia ward - chemically warehoused. But in North America, the choices are limited.

Which is why the world looks to Denmark -- where it is illegal to imprison people with dementia in locked wards; where nursing homes regularly take their people on holiday, and where people with dementia are asked what they want to do today.

Karin Wells's documentary is called It's Their Life. 

Scandinavian Solutions: Iceland's amazing peaceful revolution

 Scandinavia's economic and social stability has been recognized by the world in the yearly ranking of best places to live, but is rarely spoken of otherwise. Iceland has Scandinavian roots, so I guess it's not surprising that Iceland's success at recovering from the economic collapse, worse there than anywhere, is practically unheard of. 

The Scandinavian peoples have a lot to teach the rest of the world.


http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=48944

ICELAND’S AMAZING PEACEFUL REVOLUTION – Still Not in the News.

Iceland’s peaceful revolution is a stunning example of how little our media tells us about the rest of the world.

ICELAND (GP) – No news from Iceland? Why? Last we heard, people were rising up and overthrowing the bankers. Then, no news on the television or newspapers for two years. What happened? Why won’t the papers and TV tell us how the bankers successfully crushed or minimized another rebellion? Because… THEY DIDN’T!

This time, the people won.

The people of Iceland have overwhelmingly risen up and forced their government puppets of the banks to resign. Primary banks have been nationalized. The debt scam imposed by Great Britain and Holland money printers was declared null and void. A public assembly has been created to rewrite Iceland’s constitution.

The best part is, all of this happened without violence or bloodshed. A whole country’s revolution succeeded against powers that created the current global crisis without a shot being fired. A very good reason exists for the apparent failure of television and newspapers to provide any publicity on this unprecedented event: what would happen if the rest of the EU and the United States took this as an example?

The following is a summary of the facts:

2008 – The main bank of Iceland is nationalized.
The Krona, the currency of Iceland devaluates and the stock market halts. The country is in bankruptcy.

2008 – Citizens rise up at Parliament and succeed in forcing the resignation of both the prime minister and the effective government. New elections are held.

Yet, the country remains in a bad economic situation. A Parliament act is passed to pay back 3,500 million Euros to Great Britain and Holland by the people of Iceland monthly during the next 15 years, with 5.5% interest.

2010 – The people of Iceland again take to the streets to demand a referendum. In January of 2010, the President of Iceland denies approval, instead announcing a popular vote on the matter by the people.

In March, a referendum and denial of payment is approved by popular vote of 93%. Meanwhile, government officials initiate an investigation to bring to justice those responsible for the crisis. Many high level executives and bankers are arrested. Interpol dictates an order to force all implicated parties to leave Iceland.

An assembly is elected to write a new constitution (based on the Denmark’s) to avoid entrapments of debt based currency foreign loans. 25 citizens are chosen — with no political affiliation — out of the 522 candidates. The only qualifications for candidacy are adulthood and the support of 30 people. The constitutional assembly started in February of 2011. It continues to present ‘carta magna’ from recommendations provided by various assemblies throughout the country. Ultimately, it must be approved by both the current Parliament and the one created through the next legislative election.

In summary of the Icelandic revolution, we saw:

-resignation of the entire corrupt government of the country
-nationalization of the bank
-referendum enabling the people to determine their own economic system
-incarceration of responsible parties, and
-a rewriting of the Iceland Constitution by its people

This is significant stuff.

Have we been informed about this through the main stream media?

Has any political program on radio or TV commented on this?

Not that I’ve seen.

The Icelandic people have demonstrated a way to beat the international money printers and controllers of information.

The last thing entrenched usurers would want is for you to think YOU could also free yourself from their chains.