Sweden presents a report

(December 14, 2013)

A Swedish man was on the Arabic news again, and yet again, the BBC made no mention of his nationality. What a shame!

This is Åke Sellström. He is in charge of the team inspecting and destroying the chemical weapons in Syria. On this day, they were releasing a report about their progress. In the first picture, he is answering a question at a UN press conference. The BBC Arabic actually showed a journalist asking a question, and then they devoted a full 16 seconds to Dr. Sellström's answer. That's a lot of time in BBC Arabic scheduling! Unfortunately, you could just hear bits of his voice in the background (he was speaking in English) with the Arabic translation played over it. 

Here he presents his report to the UN Secretary-General. 

Now they shake hands.

And here they present the report to the world leaders.

Here are the inspectors at their job:

This is a boy filmed during or in the aftermath of the chemical weapons attack on a Syrian village.

Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

(October 11, 2013)

This organization won the Nobel Peace Prize this year. They are currently dismantling Syria's chemical weapons. The head of the inspector mission sent out in August was a Swedish man, and guess what, when the BBC Arabic reported about the Peace Prize, they rolled out the footage of him as he was going out and about in Syria :) :)

Here he is:

He is the one carrying the bags. But yet again, the BBC Arabic did not point out that he was Swedish!!

King celebrates

Today, 22 minutes into the noontime newshour, the BBC Arabic ran a clip about the King of Sweden and his family celebrating his fortieth year on the throne. That makes the fourth time in about three weeks that the BBC Arabic has had a story connected to Sweden. That's not bad at all.

First they showed the King and Queen celebrating:

 

 The Queen is in blue and she is holding the King's hand. Sorry for the sloppy picture, but they were moving too fast.

 

Here's the King. He looked happy just a second before, I must have bad luck with my screenshot timing. 

 

I think this toddler is in line to be future Queen of Sweden, so cute!

 

And here she is with her mom, also in line to be future Queen. The BBC Arabic is very serious and focuses on the hard news stories, so I think it was nice that they took the time to show this, even if it was just a short clip.

Sweden was actually in the news twice today. The second time happened just a while later. It was a much more serious affair, and it was repeated with growing emphasis throughout the day. It was about the Syrian chemical weapons report which the UN just released. The head of the weapons inspectors was a Swedish man named Åke Sellström. To be sure, the BBC Arabic presenters pronounced this as A.K. Sellis-strom, and they didn't even mention that he was Swedish. But they showed his picture.

First he showed up with the UN Secretary-General on the BBC Arabic website:

 As you can see, it was the top story. Later on, it alternated with the Washington Naval Yard shooting as the top story.

Then, as they got more footage, they showed the signatures of the chemical weapons report writers.

 

And finally, they beamed in Ban Ki-Moon's press conference live. I think that must be the Swedish man standing in the corner. 

Finally, they showed lots of re-run footage of the hospitals full of people sickened by the chemical fumes, and of the inspectors wearing masks and gloves, taking samples and doing their work.

Obama visits the angel country of Sweden

(September 4, 2013)

The Swedish flag was the top headline for the day because Obama was visiting.

Here, the American president and the Swedish Prime Minister stand at their press conference in Stockholm, with the Swedish flag at ready salute (the American flag looked nice, too):

Obama said that the credibility of the world was at stake where it concerned the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and that even if the United Nations Security Council could not agree on sanctioning a response, he thought that some action must be taken outside the Council anyways.

The Swedish Prime Minister spoke next. He said to the gathered press:
"Just to remind you, you are now in Sweden, a small country with a deep belief in the United Nations."

"You're also in a country, where, yesterday or the day before, we took the decision where all the people coming from the war in Syria are now allowed to stay permanently in Sweden."

(Sweden is an angel country. Sweden did the same with Iraqi refugees at the height of the bombings of 2007/2008. I was not watching enough during the last two days, however, to see whether the BBC Arabic reported on Sweden's latest decision or not.)

Then the PM continued:

"The weapons inspectors who were in Damascus were headed by a Swede, so in this country, of course, we are asking for the time to be able to see what their findings were."

(Yes, indeed, the head of the weapons inspectors that went to Syria two weeks ago to look for evidence of chemical weaponry use was a Swede, just as the head of the 300 non-military observers sent to Syria in spring 2012 was a Norwegian. I unfortunately was not watching the Arabic news at either of these times, ARGHHHHHHHH. So I did not get to see the full glory of the Swedish inspector in the news, but I was able to find a BBC Arabic news clip on YouTube from last week, and here are the pictures from that. The Swedish leader stands in the blue shirt at the center of the picture. However, in this clip, they did not mention his nationality, so I don't know if the BBC Arabic made that very clear in their other broadcasts.)

His name is Åke Sellström.

Back to the Swedish Prime Minister. He ended by saying:

"So I understand especially the U.S. president. He needs to react, otherwise, he will get another kind of discussion. But this small country will always say let’s put our hope into the United Nations; let us push on some more to get a better situation."

When Obama arrived at the airport in Sweden, he was greeted on the tarmac by Sweden's foreign minster. The pictures were posted on a Facebook page upon which Arabs living in Sweden often comment:



You can't see it very well, and anyways, the top comment is in Arabic, but it says:
"A nice picture, and the Swedish Foreign Minister is greater in elegance than Obama!" (cause Obama's suit is all wrinkled where the button goes.)