Thursday, September 18, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Nordic countries halt Southeast Asian adoptions amid legal scrutiny

Published 20 January 2024
– By Editorial Staff
In a number of cases, it is unclear whether the birth parents actually consented to the adoption.
2 minute read

Norway suspends all adoptions from several Southeast Asian countries after reports of illegal adoptions. Denmark goes further and temporarily suspends all international adoptions.

Danish International Adoption (DIA) has for some time been the only organization facilitating international adoptions in Denmark. In the past, Danish social authorities have stopped DIA from facilitating adoptions from South Africa and other countries because of suspicions of illegal adoptions.

Now the organization has decided to stop all adoptions from abroad, according to Danish state broadcaster DR. The Philippines, India, Taiwan, Thailand and the Czech Republic were the last five countries from which DIA facilitated adoptions, which will no longer be possible. The announcement comes after the country’s social welfare agency saw signs of “violation of rules in this area” and it is unclear how long the suspension will last.

Norway suspends adoptions from Southeast Asia

Norway’s Schibsted newspaper VG investigated adoptions from the Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan, where babies were found to have been sold and identified with false birth certificates. Following the report, the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir) has now decided to stop all adoptions from these countries.

In the case of Thailand, one of the reasons given is that there is “uncertainty as to whether biological parents give voluntary consent to children being put up for adoption”. In the Philippines, the risk of falsification is high, and in Taiwan there is a lack of transparency regarding payment and “the involvement of the biological parents in the process”.

All pending adoptions from these countries will be stopped. In addition, no new adoptions will be allowed from South Korea, but those already approved will be allowed to complete the adoption. The reason is that “the country has not shown a need for international adoptions to Norway”.

Philippines under review in Sweden

In Sweden, adoptions from these countries are allowed, but the Philippines is under review by the Swedish Agency for Family Law and Parental Support (MFOF) after VG’s revelation.

– We are in contact with Norway and waiting for more information, Tommy Marksén, head of department at MFOF, told the Bonnier newspaper Expressen.

Adoptions from Madagascar and Panama were stopped last year because the activity may violate international laws and conventions, according to Bonnier’s DN. Adoptionscentrum, which arranges adoptions to these countries in Sweden, questioned the authority’s decision. However, the organization recently decided to stop adoptions from South Korea.

Other countries or adoption cases may come under scrutiny in Sweden after the Norwegian revelation.

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Finland faces demographic collapse

Published today 10:26
– By Editorial Staff
Finland's population pyramid turns upside down – more elderly, fewer children.
3 minute read

Finland’s population is shrinking and aging at record pace, with the number of births dropping from 60,000 to 45,000 in just over ten years.

— The population pyramid is standing on its tip, warns demography professor Jan Saarela.

Finland is grappling with an accelerating population crisis that threatens the country’s future welfare. New figures show that the number of school-age children is expected to continue declining over the next 25 years, while the proportion of elderly people increases dramatically.

— This is hardly a favorable development for the future, states Jan Saarela, professor of demography at Åbo Akademi University in Finland.

The numbers speak clearly. In the early 2010s, around 60,000 children were born annually in Finland. During 2023 and 2024, the number had plummeted to approximately 45,000 – a 25 percent decrease in just over a decade.

The decline primarily affects the native Finnish population, and consulting firm MDI’s recent report confirms that the population will continue to shrink and the dependency burden for those working will become increasingly heavy.

Rural areas hit hardest

The demographic crisis strikes with varying intensity across the country. Population projections for 2024-2050 show a Finland where rural municipalities shrink dramatically while only a few larger cities continue to grow.

When professor Saarela is asked by Finnish public broadcaster Yle whether Finns in rural areas can expect even worse services in the future, he answers briefly:

— Yes, I believe so. I also think we will see more municipal mergers in the future, considering that the number of municipalities in Finland is still very large. I don’t advocate for municipal mergers, but I note that it will probably become necessary.

Residents in rural municipalities can soon expect significantly worse services. Photo: Reinhold Möller/CC BY-SA 4.0

Although population concentration in larger cities is a global phenomenon, Finland stands out negatively. The same development is seen in other Nordic countries, but Finland fares worst.

— But Finland is, as far as I know, worst in class and has been for several years, says Saarela.

“More children should be born”

To break the negative spiral, the demography professor sees only two possible paths: more births or increased mass immigration.

— One is that more children should be born, and the other is increased immigration, he argues.

Many Finns postpone having children for practical reasons. Photo: Polina Tankilevitch/Pexels

The low birth rate is partly due to many young Finns finding it difficult to combine parenthood with other aspects of life.

— It doesn’t feel advantageous to have children at certain life stages, so many postpone the decision. In some cases, people wait so long that there are no large families at all, explains Saarela.

One proposal is therefore to introduce higher child allowances for the first child.

— Perhaps a higher child allowance for the first child would help. But it requires resources, says the professor, while also noting that resources become increasingly scarce as the number of people of working age decreases.

Increased immigration?

The second path, increased immigration, is politically sensitive and difficult to plan. Recent years’ substantial immigration, particularly from Ukraine, has temporarily increased the population. But many Ukrainians plan to return when the war ends.

— Immigration is affected by global events and is difficult to predict. Statistics Finland’s projections were previously based on a certain number of immigrants, but recent years’ sharp increase has made the projections no longer accurate, says Saarela.

Researchers also cannot say exactly how large labor immigration would need to be to reverse the trend.

Mass immigration is said to potentially slow population decline, but brings with it a range of other problems. Photo: etvulc/iStock

A risky path

Large-scale migration, primarily from non-European countries, also brings a long series of difficult-to-solve problems and negative societal effects in the form of increased insecurity, poverty, crime, growing parallel societies and ethnic conflicts that are imported to the receiving country. Mass immigration has also proven to be enormously costly economically.

Sweden is one of the Western world’s clearest examples – from one of the world’s safest countries to a country plagued by foreign conflicts, segregation, gang crime, shootings and bombings where the majority of serious violent crimes are committed by people with foreign backgrounds.

Finland has so far avoided Sweden’s most acute problems through lower immigration, but the same negative development is visible here as well.

In summary, professor Saarela sees few bright spots. The negative population development is, according to him, very difficult to reverse, and the challenges to Finland’s population structure will likely persist for the foreseeable future.

Only 1 in 80 Swedish special shelters meets modern standards

The new cold war

Published yesterday 9:36
– By Editorial Staff
The Igeldamm Garage in Stockholm, Sweden is the only major shelter in Sweden that meets modern standards.
2 minute read

Swedish authorities have intensified their messages in recent years about citizens needing to prepare for crises and war. Meanwhile, an investigation of the country’s own shelters reveals major shortcomings in the maintenance of critical infrastructure.

Of Sweden’s eighty special shelters – intended for nearly 100,000 people – only a single facility has been upgraded to modern standards after decades of neglected maintenance.

The Igeldamms garage in Stockholm, Sweden stands today as the sole example of a completed special shelter, while the remaining 79 facilities still await necessary upgrades, reports Swedish public television SVT.

The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) has begun modernization work in approximately thirty of the eighty special shelters. The work has cost €7.7 million in the past year alone, but the pace is said to be far from sufficient to meet political ambitions for improved crisis preparedness.

Henrik Larsson, head of population protection at MSB, cannot provide information on when all facilities will be remediated:

— It depends. We need to get into all facilities and see what condition they’re in. In some facilities, quite extensive renovations may be required, and then it becomes very costly.

— If all facilities are in the same condition as here (Igeldamms garage), then it shouldn’t be any problem to do it before 2030, but I suspect we’ll have some facilities that we’ll need to spend time and significantly more money on, he continues.

64,000 shelters to be inventoried

During the Cold War, thousands of shelters were built around the country, but many have been used for completely different purposes for decades without proper maintenance. Now MSB has been tasked with inventorying the country’s total stock of 64,000 shelters between 2025 and 2030.

For the current year, approximately 10,000 minor inspections and around 2,000 major inspections are planned – a pace that MSB itself considers insufficient:

— We need to increase by 500 more per year to go through the entire stock by 2030. We need to be between 12,000 and 13,000 annually, estimates Larsson.

Inadequate protection

In addition to the already approved Igeldamms garage, with space for 1,200 people, two additional facilities are planned to be completed next year – one in Stockholm and one in Gothenburg, Sweden. This means that only three of eighty special shelters will have modern standards before 2027.

MSB’s assessment shows extensive shortcomings in the existing stock: only half of all shelters offer satisfactory protection against shrapnel and bombs, while only about ten percent have reasonable protection against chemical warfare agents.

Since the responsibility for addressing deficiencies lies with individual property owners, MSB cannot provide any timeframe for when the shelters will actually be in functional condition.

About Swedish shelters

Sweden has over 64,000 shelters with space for approximately seven million people. The shelters may be used for other purposes during peacetime but must be ready for use within two days during heightened alert or war. When a shelter is activated, it must have water, heating, ventilation and toilet facilities – however, there is neither food nor hygiene products.

The shelters are built to protect against shock waves and shrapnel from explosions, fire, chemical weapons and radiation from radioactive substances. People should be able to stay in the shelter without interruption for at least three days. It has never been the ambition to build shelters for the entire population, and their placement has been determined based on threat assessments.

During air raid alerts, people should immediately go to the nearest shelter or other protective space such as basements or subway stations. People do not belong to any specific shelter but use the one that is closest.

Source: MSB (Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency)

Swedish PM: “Don’t bring Middle Eastern conflicts to Swedish streets”

The genocide in Gaza

Published yesterday 8:27
– By Editorial Staff
The loud pro-Palestinian protests have become a very troublesome disruptive element for the Kristersson government.
2 minute read

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of the Moderate Party presents new measures against demonstrations and says he now wants to remove “Middle Eastern conflicts” from Swedish streets.

Critics note, however, that the Moderate Party has for many years pushed for mass immigration specifically from the Middle East – and continues to do so.

In a post on X, the prime minister writes about how politicians have been confronted outside the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament), ministers have been followed home from work, and Jewish families have been subjected to threats, and now the government promises tougher action.

“Don’t bring Middle Eastern conflicts to Swedish streets and squares. We must take care of the Sweden we love”, the prime minister appeals.

The statement comes from the same party that during Fredrik Reinfeldt’s government from 2006 significantly increased mass immigration to Sweden from the Middle East – a policy that continues today despite all problems and warnings, even though the rhetoric has changed.

In just these two decades, Sweden has received hundreds of thousands of people from various conflict areas in the Middle East, and a large portion of them have today been granted Swedish citizenship.

After Israel’s invasion of Gaza, however, Swedish politicians from the Moderate Party and other liberal parties have shown growing frustration and anger over the vocal protests from many of the immigrants they themselves allowed into the country.

These demonstrators protest almost daily against Israel’s genocide against Palestinians and demand, among other things, that Sweden cease its support for the Israeli state – demands that have become increasingly troublesome for those in power.

“Intrusive” demonstrators may face harsher punishment

Therefore, Kristersson now announces the following measures, among others:

• Review of criminal liability for demonstrators who act “intrusively or aggressively”
• Police given greater opportunity to decide on alternative times and places for demonstrations
• Clearer opportunity for police to intervene if decisions are not followed
• Police must report on how they work against disturbances at gatherings

The government is also reviewing possibilities to deport pro-Palestinian demonstrators who are considered particularly troublesome or who are accused of “glorifying terror” by, for example, expressing sympathies for Hamas or other groups designated as terrorist organizations.

“Whipping up hateful sentiments”

Kristersson writes in his post that “a heavy responsibility also rests on those who, by spreading lies, terror romanticism and antisemitism, polarize and whip up hateful sentiments in Sweden”.

For many, however, it appears ironic that the prime minister now claims to want to stop Middle Eastern conflicts from Swedish streets – conflicts that have largely come to Sweden through policies that his own party has implemented.

Others point out that it is telling that those in power react so strongly and condemningly only when they themselves are affected by disturbances and discomfort, while ordinary Swedes have been affected daily for many years by significantly worse immigration-related incidents without this receiving any attention whatsoever.

Swedish teachers’ union warns: Threats and violence becoming normalized in schools

Published 14 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
2 minute read

An increasing number of teachers are being subjected to threats and violence in their professional roles, according to a report from Sveriges Lärare (Swedish Teachers’ Union). Staff working in after-school programs are the worst affected.

One in three teachers has been subjected to threats or violence in the past year. Meanwhile, four out of ten have witnessed a colleague being subjected to the same.

The report also shows that violence is becoming increasingly normalized – many teachers have stopped reporting incidents due to lack of support from school management and unclear procedures.

Threats and violence in schools are no longer isolated incidents – this is a systemic failure. That we teachers cannot feel safe at work is unacceptable and must never be normalized. The limit of what we teachers can endure has been exceeded, says Anna Olskog, chairperson of Sveriges Lärare in a press release.

Problem worst in after-school programs

Teachers in after-school programs are the worst affected – six out of ten have been subjected to harassment, threats or violence. Half of all teachers experience high stress, one in three suffers from depression and one in five is considering leaving the profession. The report also shows a clear connection between increased exposure and staff shortages.

Sveriges Lärare demands zero tolerance for threats and violence from school management and that authorities address the problem.

Threats and violence in schools are not just a school issue, it’s a societal issue. When teachers hesitate to report incidents and when colleagues leave the profession, we lose both quality and safety in schools. We have long demanded a national effort – from the state, from school management and from society as a whole – to reverse this development, says Olskog.

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