Politics: Leftist winds turns to hurricane in Latin America

Ecuador: Rafael Correa is the last president to join Latin America's strong leftist, anti-USA wave. Even though he is not officially proclaimed winner, an overwhelming lead of more than 13% over the runner up Alvarado Noboa is far to much to worry.

Rafael moves quickly - he already stated he will try to rejoin the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) which Ecuador left in 1992, and promises to shred the much criticised free trade agreement with the US as well as close down a United States military base in Ecuador.

This will be an interesting decade in the US backyard with Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua), Luiz Inacio Lula (Brazil), Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Fidel Castro (Cuba), Evo Morales (Bolivia) and Michelle Bachelet (Chile) playing together.

Read about the Ecuador election in Swedish here.

Facts: Slavery

The only country in the world that still has not abolished slavery is Mauretania. Swedish TV4 will soon do a feature on this country's inhuman tradition.

Estimates of the number of black Africans enslaved in Mauritania range from 100,000 to as many as one million. Chattel slavery, in which one person is owned as another's property, has existed in Mauritania for 800 years-born out of racism and a skewed version of Islamic fundamentalism. Slaves are raised to believe that serving their Arab-Berber masters is a religious duty, and most remain in bondage their entire lives.

We will soon enter 2007...

in my iPod: Stieg Larsson

I recently discovered the joys of Audiobooks. Suddenly, I have an excellent way to breach former genre-phobias: in the last 15 years I have seldom read anything else than Sci-Fi or Fantasy, apart from academical literature. Never crime, thriller, horror or romance. For some reason, I also almost never read swedish authors. I had become so used to english reading and style, that swedish writers felt odd. But loading an audiobook in the iPod is a great way to keep my mind from vegetational state while commuting to work. And it is easy to try new authors or genres. So I stuffed the machine with swedish crime author Stieg Larsson's two books "Män som hatar kvinnor", and "Flickan som lekte med elden" and I LOVE THEM! Profound, interesting characters solving intricate mysteries. Try it out! You can not turn it off (or put it down, if it's the paper copy). Stieg Larsson was a journalist during the day, fought neo-nazis during the evenings and wrote thrillers during night time. Unfortunately, he died suddenly at his work at the paper "Expo". At the time, he had published three books. They are recommended reads.

Welcome back Daniel Ortega!

Nicaraguans just elected their former dictator, Daniel Ortega, to be their new president for the next five years. Why? Although one would think otherwise, it is not unusual for former dictatorships to re-elect their old leaders, but it is still hard to understand. Daniel Ortega won because of several factors: he still has his hard-core electorate base of approximately 30% who really do believe in Daniels revolutionary rethoric, although he has already proven his low moral's worth a hundred times. Furthermore, he couts with powerful alliances this time: in a Nicaragua with overpriced electricity, daily power-cuts and gasoline prices rising every day, Daniel promises subsidised electricity and gas for all and no power cuts through Venezuelas' Hugo Chavez; he promises country wide and cheap healthcare through his alliance with Castro and his electoral posters were all about Peace, Reconciliation and Unity - all the oposites of what he managed when he was in military power 1985 - 1990 after the civil war between his Sandinistas and the US-sponsored Contra-guerilla. Apart from his hard-core base and alliances, the opposition was divided between four parties, of which three managed to get hold of an important amount of seats in the parliament. The interesting thing now is that Daniel actually has to negotiate solutions with other parties. That is not something he is used to, being a military general and dictator...

Ida Maria Silvertsen

I just came back from Nicaragua, and in my jet-lagged haze happened to turn on the Swedish radio P3-Lab that plays unsigned, new swedish music. They had a couple of minutes with a girl called Ida Maria. Norwegian born, living in Uppsala Sweden, just like me. Right a way, her music stuck. She also replies to emails. Check out her myspace. Listen to her vocals. Reminiscent of Björk, but with a more positive touch to it. She will be playing in Oslo in late november and later in Madrid.