Swedish journalist Jan Hagberg has been nominated for the Raoul Wallenberg Prize for writing about racism within parts of the Swedish establishment, towards those Slavic peoples and nations who “are not entirely subordinated to the dictates of the West.”
Justitia Pax Veritas, a non-profit organization based in Stockholm, recently nominated Swedish journalist Jan Hagberg for the Raoul Wallenberg Prize. The award was established this year by the government of Sweden in memory of the late diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews during World War II. The prize is awarded to individuals who have distinguished themselves in the fight against racism and xenophobia.
The explanation of the nomination stated, among other things, that Jan Hagberg is about the only journalist in Sweden who has drawn attention to a very dangerous kind of racism, one within the establishment, which Hagberg called ”the fine mingling racism” towards those Slavic peoples and nations who are ”not entirely subordinated to the dictate of the West.”
As a clear example of such a “politically correct” racism Hagberg has written about an incident from October 2012 when Madeleine Albright was filmed screaming “Disgusting Serbs!” to a group of Czech protesters. As Hagberg noticed, rather than condemning Albright, media in Sweden was completely silent “because it was the accepted, the fine circles’ racism which was exclaimed by the ex-minister”.
The deadline for nominations expires 20 June and the Raoul Wallenberg Academy awards the prize to one of the nominees on August 27, the Name day of Raoul.
To the Raoul Wallenberg Academy
Our organisation, which, among other things, engages in human rights issues, has been made aware of the foundation of a new award in memory of Raoul Wallenberg through an op-ed in Svenska Dagbladet by minister of integration, Erik Ullenhag.[1] Against this background, Justitia Pax Veritas recommends that the prize be awarded to Jan Hagberg from Stockholm, who in the spirit of Raoul Wallenberg works to spread awareness about a particularly dangerous form of xenophobia and intolerance.
The background of Raoul Wallenberg’s honourable deed was the Nazi totalitarianism and the expansionism which eradicated millions of people merely for being considered a ‘lower race’. Aside from Jews, who were especially targeted, Slavic peoples in Eastern Europe were also put through the Nazi extermination politics. The Nazi Drang nach Osten expansion affected millions of Poles, Belarusians, Russians and Serbs, among others. The latter suffered in particular, because of their persistent resistance against the Nazi occupation and the break-up of Yugoslavia. Due to their two resistance movements – the communist and the monarchist – Hitler maintained particularly harsh policies against the Serbian people. Partly, he allowed various chauvinist regimes in newly founded vassals to carry out extermination politics directed at Serbs, as well as Jews and Roma (the most infamous example is the concentration camp Jasenovac where even Nazi SS-officers were appalled by the extent and brutality of the crimes). Partly, the Nazi occupiers applied the so called 100:1 policy whereby 100 civilian Serbs were executed for each soldier killed in duty of the Third Reich.
When honouring Raoul Wallenberg we should remember that he operated in a time when racism was normalised through its advocacy and enactment by many within Europe’s highest social order. Today there are a number of organisations and individuals who fight different forms of intolerance and xenophobia carried out by extremist groups and individuals. Naturally, this fight is valuable and important but Jan Hagberg is nearly alone in having drawn attention to a particularly dangerous form of racism – the one which is cultivated by parts of the establishment. In his article “The fine mingling racism” Hagberg writes the following:
“Open and read a Swedish daily newspaper about the Slavic peoples, about the countries which do not entirely submit themselves to the dictates of the West. Countries such as Russia, Belarus or Serbia. Read any article on Serbs – and then change the article’s Serbs to Jews. In the former case not an eyebrow is raised over the grossest of insults. The fact that over 100 000 people with this descent live in our country doesn’t seem to matter. In the other case, the media would do the full splits – just to reach all the way to Auschwitz.
President Clinton’s foreign minister Madeleine Albright, a war criminal and partly responsible for air strikes in violation of the UN charter, recently visited her birth country the Czech Republic to promote her new book The Prague winter. She was met in a shopping mall by a demonstration led by the Czech director Vaclav Dvorsak, creator of the movie “The Stolen Kosovo”. This mischief made the well-mannered ex-minister completely lose her senses and howl before the congregation; “Disgusting Serbs!”.
Try to change the word Serbs for Jews, exclaimed by – even as a thought – an eastern foreign minister, and it is easy to realize what sort of headlines would be spread (over the Western world). In the real case it was dead silent here, because it was the accepted, the fine circles’ racism which was exclaimed by the ex-minister.”[2]
As Jan Hagberg implies in his article Swedish examples of the establishment’s racist and xenophobic outbursts à la Albright are not few.[3] About one year ago a famous Swedish radio host called Serbs “Breiviks, psychopaths and retards”; in a live national radio programme. The justice councillor, who otherwise frequently prosecutes incitement to racial hatred on the basis of anonymous comments on websites of marginal political movements, decided to not initiate an investigation with the motivation that the right of free speech is especially strong when it comes to “political opinions” and “debates in issues of public interest”. The justice councillor’s decision was preceded by two ‘antiracists’ who defended (!) the radio host’s spiteful outburst.[4] Another very prominent ‘human rights activist’ made gross and generalising statements on Swedish public radio about the Serbian people by claiming that Serbs are especially violent and that their church “always has been a negative force”. The programme in question, which was completely in line with Albright’s statement “Disgusting Serbs!”, was acquitted by the Swedish Broadcasting Commission, in spite of the commissions otherwise very restrictive praxis when it comes to negative statements about peoples.[5]
In some Swedish upper secondary schools a current project which deals with the conflict in former Yugoslavia subjects Swedish students to simplified messages while hiding the great powers’ crucial role in the blood bath between the Yugoslavian peoples. The Serbian people are this time especially afflicted because of their resistance against the break-up of Yugoslavia as well as against the colonisation and devastation of the resourceful and strategically important Balkan peninsula – against a contemporary Drang nach Osten – expansionary politics. Justitia Pax Veritas has received several reports of Swedish-Serbian students feeling bad due to collective blaming and for them Jan Hagberg’s brave words are a consolation for their spiritual wounds.
It is obvious that Jan Hagberg, in Raoul Wallenberg’s spirit is acting in extremely hard head winds as he undresses the establishment’s racism or, to use minister of integration Erik Ullhenhag’s expression; normalised hate. Therefore Justitia Pax Veritas believes that Jan Hagberg is an obvious winner of the Raoul Wallenberg award.
Thank you Jan Hagberg! Long live the memory of Raoul Wallenberg!
Justitia Pax Veritas
Stockholm 10 June 2013
Notes
[1] See Erik Ullenhag’s op-ed in Svenska Dagbladet “Nytt Raoul Wallenberg-pris” (”New Raoul Wallenberg Award”).
[2] Jan Hagberg’s article “Det fina minglets rasism” (“The fine mingling racism”) was published by the internet magazine Nyhetsbanken.
[3] Madeleine Albright has previously been known for her dehumanizing view of other peoples through her – basically Islamophobic – statement in which she justified the killing of 500,000 Iraqi children as part of her foreign policy. Jan Hagberg takes up even this statement in his opinion piece “Strålkastaren på Telia” (”Spotlight on Telia”) where he again points out that this racism is accepted if it comes from the fine circuits.
[4] For more information on the current legal case see Justitia Pax Veritas’ “Written complaint – Incitement to racial hatred on Radio 1”. See also the decision of the Office of the Chancellor of Justice not to initiate investigation (in Swedish), and the news article “Swedish ‘fighters against xenophobia’ claim Serbs are worse than Breivik” published by the global online magazine GlobalResearch.ca.
[5] See “Swedish Broadcasting Commission approves hate speech against Serbs.”
