Latest news with #DagensNyheter
Local Norway
10 hours ago
- Business
- Local Norway
'Oil corrupts everything': Norway blasted as 'object lesson in hypocrisy'
The Norway Paradox, or Norgeparadoxen , published last month by the leading Swedish investigative journalist Lisa Röstlund, takes a critical look at Norway's claims to be a forerunner in the green transition while continuing to be a major oil and gas producer. "It means that oil corrupts the whole country," Röstlund told Swedish public broadcaster SVT in an interview . "Oil seeps into everything. A large part of the welfare bill is paid by the oil fund. Research, art, culture and sport are often sponsored by oil companies, like the new opera house in Oslo, or the Munch Museum," she said. Röstlund, a journalist for Dagens Nyheter, previously published Skogslandet , a prize-winning investigation of Sweden's forestry industry. The Swedish journalist Lina Röstlund has accused Norway of being "an object lesson in the West's hypocrisy" in a new book. Photo: In her new book, which is part travelogue, part investigation, she shows how Norwegians at all levels of society turn a collective blind eye to the country's dependence on the oil and gas industry. "You really notice that very few people raise their voice against oil, even among researchers," she said. "You can talk about the climate crisis and its consequences in general, but no one turns their gaze onto their own industry." Advertisement She paints a picture of a country where the new wind power developments trumpeted as part of the green transition are then used to pump out more oil and gas, where the number of climate deniers per capita is second only to the US, and where the oil fund invests in fracking companies in the US. Equinor, the state oil company, is continuing to push ahead with new oil and gas developments. This is despite the International Energy Agency concluding in its 2021 Net-zero by 2050 report that no new oil and gas fields should be approved for development after 2021 if the world is to limit global warming to the safe level of 1.5C. The book has already received some pushback in Norway. The Norwegian journalist Hilde Sandvik accused Röstlund of "not fully acknowledging the complexity" of Norway's situation. "Of course it's easy to accuse Norway of having double standards," Sandvik said in the Norsken, Svensken og Dansken podcast. "We've been doing very nicely out of oil for 50 years and we are still living off something that both Europe and the rest of the Nordics are dependent on." But the book, she said, glossed over the fact that Swedish businesses and consumers, and those in Europe as a whole, are also dependent on Norwegian oil and gas, particularly since the invasion of Ukraine made them reluctant to rely on supplies from Russia. Author Röstlund does acknowledges this in the introduction her book, recognising that the entire western world remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels, so Norway is by no means uniquely hypocritical. Advertisement "Nonetheless, I ask myself whether the elephant in the room, which is there in all rich countries, is not most conspicuous in Norway, if it does not have the sharpest contours there," she continues. "The Norwegian elephant in the room is a fantastic object for anyone who wants to study the hypocrisy of the self-congratulating West." She also pre-empts the criticism that she, like many Swedes, simply feels envious of her country's richer Nordic neighbour. "Am I writing this book because I am jealous?" she asks in the intro. "Yes, maybe."
San Francisco Chronicle
11 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Sweden faces call to halt international adoptions after inquiry finds abuses and fraud
STOCKHOLM (AP) — A Swedish commission recommended Monday that international adoptions be stopped after an investigation found a series of abuses and fraud dating back decades. Sweden is the latest country to examine its international adoption policies after allegations of unethical practices, particularly in South Korea, The commission was formed in 2021 following a report by Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter detailing Sweden's problematic international adoption system. Monday's recommendations were sent to Minister of Social Services Camilla Waltersson Grönvall, who said her department would review the report. 'The assignment was to investigate whether there had been irregularities that the Swedish actors knew about, could have done and actually did,' Anna Singer, a legal expert and the head of the commission, told a press conference. 'And actors include everyone who has had anything to do with international adoption activities. "It includes the government, the supervisory authority, organization, municipalities and courts. The conclusion is that there have been irregularities in the international adoptions to Sweden.' The commission called on the government to formally apologize to adoptees and their families. Investigators found confirmed cases of child trafficking in every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s, including from Sri Lanka, Colombia, Poland and China. Singer said a public apology, beside being important for those who are personally affected, can help raise awareness about the violations because there is a tendency to downplay the existence and significance of the abuses. An Associated Press investigation, also documented by Frontline (PBS), last year reported dubious child-gathering practices and fraudulent paperwork involving South Korea's foreign adoption program, which peaked in the 1970s and `80s amid huge Western demands for babies. The AP and Frontline spoke with more than 80 adoptees in the U.S., Australia and Europe and examined thousands of pages of documents to reveal evidence of kidnapped or missing children ending up abroad, fabricated child origins, babies switched with one another and parents told their newborns were gravely sick or dead, only to discover decades later they had been sent to new parents overseas. The findings are challenging the international adoption industry, which was built on the model created in South Korea. The Netherlands last year announced it would no longer allow its citizens to adopt from abroad. Denmark's only international adoption agency said it was shutting down and Switzerland apologized for failing to prevent illegal adoptions. France released a scathing assessment of its own culpability. South Korea has sent around 200,000 children to the West for adoptions in the past six decades, with more than half of them placed in the U.S. Along with France and Denmark, Sweden has been a major European destination of South Korean children, adopting nearly 10,000 of them since the 1960s.
The Independent
12 hours ago
- General
- The Independent
Sweden faces call to halt international adoptions after inquiry finds abuses and fraud
A Swedish commission recommended Monday that international adoptions be stopped after an investigation found a series of abuses and fraud dating back decades. Sweden is the latest country to examine its international adoption policies after allegations of unethical practices, particularly in South Korea, The commission was formed in 2021 following a report by Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter detailing Sweden's problematic international adoption system. Monday's recommendations were sent to Minister of Social Services Camilla Waltersson Grönvall, who said her department would review the report. 'The assignment was to investigate whether there had been irregularities that the Swedish actors knew about, could have done and actually did,' Anna Singer, a legal expert and the head of the commission, told a press conference. 'And actors include everyone who has had anything to do with international adoption activities. "It includes the government, the supervisory authority, organization, municipalities and courts. The conclusion is that there have been irregularities in the international adoptions to Sweden.' The commission called on the government to formally apologize to adoptees and their families. Investigators found confirmed cases of child trafficking in every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s, including from Sri Lanka, Colombia, Poland and China. Singer said a public apology, beside being important for those who are personally affected, can help raise awareness about the violations because there is a tendency to downplay the existence and significance of the abuses. An Associated Press investigation, also documented by Frontline (PBS), last year reported dubious child-gathering practices and fraudulent paperwork involving South Korea's foreign adoption program, which peaked in the 1970s and `80s amid huge Western demands for babies. The AP and Frontline spoke with more than 80 adoptees in the U.S., Australia and Europe and examined thousands of pages of documents to reveal evidence of kidnapped or missing children ending up abroad, fabricated child origins, babies switched with one another and parents told their newborns were gravely sick or dead, only to discover decades later they had been sent to new parents overseas. The findings are challenging the international adoption industry, which was built on the model created in South Korea. The Netherlands last year announced it would no longer allow its citizens to adopt from abroad. Denmark's only international adoption agency said it was shutting down and Switzerland apologized for failing to prevent illegal adoptions. France released a scathing assessment of its own culpability. South Korea has sent around 200,000 children to the West for adoptions in the past six decades, with more than half of them placed in the U.S. Along with France and Denmark, Sweden has been a major European destination of South Korean children, adopting nearly 10,000 of them since the 1960s.
12 hours ago
Sweden faces call to halt international adoptions after inquiry finds abuses, fraud
STOCKHOLM -- A Swedish commission recommended Monday that international adoptions be stopped after an investigation found a series of abuses and fraud dating back decades. Sweden is the latest country to examine its international adoption policies after allegations of unethical practices, particularly in South Korea, The commission was formed in 2021 following a report by Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter detailing the Scandinavian country's problematic international adoption system. Monday's recommendations were sent to Minister of Social Services Camilla Waltersson Grönvall. 'The assignment was to investigate whether there had been irregularities that the Swedish actors knew about, could have done and actually did,' Anna Singer, a legal expert and the head of the commission, told a press conference. 'And actors include everyone who has had anything to do with international adoption activities. "It includes the government, the supervisory authority, organization, municipalities and courts. The conclusion is that there have been irregularities in the international adoptions to Sweden.' The commission called on the government to formally apologize to adoptees and their families. Investigators found confirmed cases of child trafficking in every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s, including from Sri Lanka, Colombia, Poland and China. Singer said a public apology, besides being important for those who are personally affected, can help raise awareness about the violations because there is a tendency to download the existence and significance of the abuses. An Associated Press investigation, also documented by Frontline (PBS), last year reported dubious child-gathering practices and fraudulent paperwork involving South Korea's foreign adoption program, which peaked in the 1970s and `80s amid huge Western demands for babies. The AP and Frontline spoke with more than 80 adoptees in the U.S., Australia and Europe and examined thousands of pages of documents to reveal evidence of kidnapped or missing children ending up abroad, fabricated child origins, babies switched with one another and parents told their newborns were gravely sick or dead, only to discover decades later they'd been sent to new parents overseas. The findings are challenging the international adoption industry, which was built on the model created in South Korea. The Netherlands last year announced it would no longer allow its citizens to adopt from abroad. Denmark's only international adoption agency said it was shutting down and Switzerland apologized for failing to prevent illegal adoptions. France released a scathing assessment of its own culpability. South Korea sent around 200,000 children to the West for adoptions in the past six decades, with more than half of them placed in the U.S. Along with France and Denmark, Sweden was a major European destination of South Korean children, adopting nearly 10,000 of them since the 1960s.
Time of India
12 hours ago
- Time of India
Sweden faces call to halt international adoptions after inquiry finds abuses and fraud
Sweden faces call to halt international adoptions after inquiry finds abuses and fraud STOCKHOLM: A Swedish commission recommended Monday that international adoptions be stopped after an investigation found a series of abuses and fraud dating back decades. Sweden is the latest country to examine its international adoption policies after allegations of unethical practices, particularly in South Korea, The commission was formed in 2021 following a report by Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter detailing the Scandinavian country's problematic international adoption system. Monday's recommendations were sent to Minister of Social Services Camilla Waltersson Grönvall. 'The assignment was to investigate whether there had been irregularities that the Swedish actors knew about, could have done and actually did,' Anna Singer, a legal expert and the head of the commission, told a press conference. 'And actors include everyone who has had anything to do with international adoption activities. "It includes the government, the supervisory authority, organization, municipalities and courts. The conclusion is that there have been irregularities in the international adoptions to Sweden.' The commission called on the government to formally apologize to adoptees and their families. Investigators found confirmed cases of child trafficking in every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s, including from Sri Lanka, Colombia, Poland and China. Singer said a public apology, besides being important for those who are personally affected, can help raise awareness about the violations because there is a tendency to download the existence and significance of the abuses. An Associated Press investigation, also documented by Frontline (PBS), last year reported dubious child-gathering practices and fraudulent paperwork involving South Korea's foreign adoption program, which peaked in the 1970s and `80s amid huge Western demands for babies. The AP and Frontline spoke with more than 80 adoptees in the US, Australia and Europe and examined thousands of pages of documents to reveal evidence of kidnapped or missing children ending up abroad, fabricated child origins, babies switched with one another and parents told their newborns were gravely sick or dead, only to discover decades later they'd been sent to new parents overseas. The findings are challenging the international adoption industry, which was built on the model created in South Korea. The Netherlands last year announced it would no longer allow its citizens to adopt from abroad. Denmark's only international adoption agency said it was shutting down and Switzerland apologized for failing to prevent illegal adoptions. France released a scathing assessment of its own culpability. South Korea sent around 200,000 children to the West for adoptions in the past six decades, with more than half of them placed in the US. Along with France and Denmark, Sweden was a major European destination of South Korean children, adopting nearly 10,000 of them since the 1960s.
