A small slice of Europe

There has been much discussion recently about whether Europe is dying or not or will become part of the Islamic umma or not. I don't claim to have a good idea of which side is right or wrong or overstaing their case. My own experience in my travels to Europe is mixed but I tend toward believing they are on their way out but more slowly than the doomsayers claim.

Today I found an article by Fjordman, via Brussel's Journal, titled Sweden: Still Crazy After All These Years. Just for context, Sweden is slightly larger than California, has a population just slightly larger than New Jersey (approx. 9 million). Roughly 90% of the population lives in the southern half with Stockholm more or less defining the northern boundary of the more-densely populated half. Get more than a few dozen miles north of Stockholm and people become sparse. This is not surprising because although the climate is mild relative to location, sourthernmost Sweden is roughly at the same lattitude as Goose Bay in Newfoundland and it extends well beyond the Artic Circle in the North - call it lattitude roughly the same as Baffin Bay in Nunavut. We're talking pretty northern here so most people coagulating in the southern half is understandable.

Anyway, according to Fjordman and the folks writing at the links he provides, here are some things I find somewhat surprising and disturbing.

• The number of rape charges in Sweden has quadrupled in a generation, with men from Muslim countries clearly overrepresented in the statistics.
• Disruptive political violence is at an all-time high. Political scientist Peter Esaiasson has done research into every election movement in Sweden since 1866. According to him, the organized attempts at disrupting meetings during the 2006 elections had no parallels in modern history.
• During the past five years Sweden witnessed the largest mass-emigration in the country’s history since the peak of the immigration to the USA a century ago. The people leaving are primarily highly educated, native middle class Swedes. Common reasons cited for leaving are rampant crime and poor political leadership. (This represents between 32,000 and 38,000 pluss people per year; a lot by Swedish standards.)
• Arson attacks on Swedish schools cost more than 300 million kroner each year. An unofficial survey among 52 Swedish municipalities indicated that at least 114 school arsons were registered so far in 2006, but accurate numbers were hard to come by because the problem has been hushed down by the authorities. At least 139 schools suffered arson attacks during 2002.

These are the sorts of numbers that the Swedes might consider thinking about rather than spending so much time being the "the world's mother-in-law".