Kaks probleemi - üks rootslastel, teine ameeriklastel

Kaks huvitavat artiklit, mõlemad leitud tänu alati mitmekülgsele ja huvitavale Arts & Letters Daily'le.

Neist esimeses käsitleb Christopher Caldwell Rootsi probleeme, millest suurimad on jätkuvalt immigrantide integreerimine ühiskonda ja surve, mida immigrantide suured hulgad avaldavad "heaoluriigi" sotsiaalsetele tagatistele:

But in a country where, as the sociologist Åke Daun puts it, "people like being like each other," there is evidence of profound exhaustion with immigration, whether the reasons for this exhaustion are rationally well-founded or not. In the moral-superpower context, it is the equivalent of "imperial overstretch." Swedes tell pollsters they want no more asylum-seekers. (A common complaint is that prospective arrivals have figured out how to "game" the rules of asylum applications, and that the best way to render one's story unchallengeable under the law is to destroy one's identity papers.) A very low rate of mixed marriage is an indication that Swedes may not have been crazy about this immigration in the first place.
...
"Many of us," says Masoud Kamali, an Iranian-born professor of ethnic studies at the University of Uppsala, "saw Sweden as the homeland of tolerance, solidarity, and democracy, based on the image of Sweden abroad." Yet foreigners find that the longer they live in Sweden, the more foreign they feel. Kamali, who directs studies on xenophobia and social exclusion for both the E.U. and the Swedish government, says, "Integration is a complete failure: No one can deny it." Kamali, a radical and controversial figure, speculates that a fear of getting segregated out of the society may be the reason that immigrants have shown themselves overwhelmingly in favor of European Union membership, both at the ballot box and in opinion polls.

Caldwell maalib huvitava pildi riigist, mille elanikud on ühed tolerantseimad maailmas, kuid ei soovi immigrantidega eriti tegeleda. Autor käsitleb ka võimalusi, mis immigrantide rohketele piirkondadele avanevad mõnekümne aasta pärast, kuid enne tuleb vähemalt osaliselt lahendada probleemid. Caldwell selgitab ka vähemalt minu jaoks huvitavat Rootsi majandusedu tagatausta.

Teises artiklis lahkab Dominic Hilton anti-ameerikalikust Euroopas ja maailmas jõudes järeldusele, et:

While undeniably profuse these days anti-Americanism is not as alarming as many Americans are making out. Much of it is not serious. In fact, most America-thumping is pathetically hypocritical, embarrassingly imbecilic, perilously ruinous and, worst of all, as derisorily fashionable as those ludicrous woolly boots everyone’s presently sporting.

Ameeriklased astuvad aeg ajalt ämbrisse ja on ka Eestis hakkama saanud jamadega (Kentmanni tänava sulgemine, Holocausti üle promomine samas eestlaste ajalugu eriti teadmata), mis andnud põhjust iroonilisi-sarkastilisteks märkusteks. Sellele vaatamata kuulun tõenäoliselt inimeste hulka nagu Dominic Hilton, keda meelsasti "ameerikafiilideks" tembeldatakse ainuüksi sellepärast, et nad USA't pimesi hukka ei mõista ja vahel isegi kaitsma kipuvad.

Hilton lahkab anti-ameerikalikkuse erinevaid vorme ja teeb huvitavaid järeldusi, mis paljudele tõenäoliselt aga ei meeldi. Sellegi poolest, huvitav lugemine kindlasti ka neile, kelle lemmikraamatu või filmi autoriks on Michael Moore.