14 NEWS Best columns: Europe
GREECE
The Greeks have begun electing snake-oil sales-
men, said Angelos Stangos. Kyriakos Velopoulos,
leader of the far-right Greek Solution party, man-
aged to get into Parliament in last month’s election
only because he is a TV personality with “wide
media exposure.” The 53-year-old politician gained
prominence through his TV telemarketing show,
in which he spouts “nationalist mumbo jumbo”
and hawks products, including what he claims are
“letters handwritten by Jesus.” His audience—
made up of “the naïve, conspiracy theorists, and
ultranationalists”—apparently don’t question how
a former journalist was able to get exclusive owner-
ship of these priceless biblical treasures. We couldblame Greek voters for being such dupes, but let’s
not forget the role of our country’s broadcasting
regulator, which allows this nonsense to air. Ve-
lopoulos’ shows are essentially ads, and there are
laws about truth in advertising. Yet no authority
has bothered to investigate the “voodoo medicine”
and other products Velopoulos is selling. The prob-
lem goes far beyond this one charlatan—even our
national public broadcaster airs ads for quack rem-
edies sold at ridiculous prices. It is “thanks to the
tolerance and the indifference of the Greek state”
that Velopoulos amassed enough of a following to
become one of our 300 lawmakers. Shouldn’t citi-
zens “be protected against efforts to defraud them?”Vicious seagulls are terrorizing people across
Britain, said Alan Amos. The decline of the fish-
ing industry has left less food for these feathered
menaces to scavenge from the docks, so tens of
thousands of gulls have forsaken the coast to take
up residence in inland towns. And they aren’t just
poking through dumpsters. These huge “flying
rats” have been “dive-bombing families, biting
toddlers, and carrying away yelping dogs in their
beaks.” As a city councilor in Worcester, fully
80 miles from the sea, I am inundated with fright-
ened parishioners telling tales of aggressive birds
pecking at them whenever they venture into thegarden; some elderly people are trapped in their
homes. These beasts can grow as large as dogs,
and they turn positively warlike when anyone
gets too close to their chicks. And woe to the café
patron who dares to eat outside. There is but one
way for Britons to take back their homes and
streets: “We must kill the bloody things.” We are
an animal-loving nation, and many will balk at
violence. But we are the victims here. Gulls pecked
little Roo, a Yorkie, to death in 2015, and last
week they carried off Gizmo, a Chihuahua. If we
don’t start culling these beasts, “it won’t be long
before a baby becomes the next victim.”APDespite what U.S. President Donald Trump
may think, A$AP Rocky will get a fair
trial in Sweden, said Jesper Sandström
in Svenska Dagbladet. The 30-year-old
American rapper and record producer was
arrested and jailed last month after a street
fight in Stockholm, where Rocky—real
name Rakim Mayers—was on tour. Cell-
phone footage shows Rocky and two other
performers brutally beating and kicking a
19-year-old Afghan immigrant, Mustafa
Jafari. It’s true that other video clips show
Jafari and another man following and heck-
ling Rocky and his companions before the
dustup; in one video, Rocky says he doesn’t
want to fight them. The rapper’s attorneys argue he “had the
right to defend himself from obvious harassment,” but the beat-
ing video shows a level of “violence going beyond self-defense.”
His trial began this week, and a judge will now decide whether
Rocky is guilty of assault, a crime that carries a maximum two-
year sentence. Trump, though, thinks he should render the verdict
in this case. At the request of reality star Kim Kardashian West
and her husband, rapper Kanye West, the president phoned Prime
Minister Stefan Löfven to ask that Rocky be released. Löfven told
him that Rocky won’t get any special treatment. That infuriated
Trump, who tweeted that Sweden must “treat Americans fairly!”Trump is, as usual, acting out of self-interest, said Per Andersson
in SVT Nyheter. He won only 8 percent of the African-American
vote in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and since then has
been accused of repeated instances of “open racism” by fellow
politicians. By feigning outrage over a well-connected rapper,Trump hopes to “show black voters
that he can be their president too.” As
a bonus, his target is Sweden, a country
he loves to pretend is overrun by violent
Muslim immigrants. The Americans
“claim that racism is behind” Rocky’s
four weeks in jail, said Adam Westin in
Aftonbladet. They note that Swedish
authorities let a white American rapper,
G-Eazy, pay a small fine last year for
assault and drug possession following
a nightclub brawl. But the victim in the
Rocky assault suffered far worse inju-
ries, including a broken rib and lacera-
tions from a broken glass bottle.The U.S. president has promised to “personally vouch” for
Rocky’s bail if he is released, said Robert Sundberg in Sydöstran.
Someone should tell him that we don’t have bail in this “egali-
tarian” country, because we don’t believe the wealthy should
walk free until trial while the poor remain stuck behind bars.
That doesn’t mean the Swedish justice system “is perfect,” said
Dagens Nyheter in an editorial. For starters, we jail far too
many people awaiting trial: About 30 percent of inmates here
haven’t been convicted of anything. We also put severe restric-
tions on pretrial detainees. Many are refused access to the in-
ternet or newspapers, are denied visitors, or are kept in solitary,
often for no good reason. One man suspected of tax evasion was
kept isolated for 16 months. Among such detainees, “suicide
attempts occur every week.” Such treatment is “shameful” in a
country that prides itself on rule of law. The A$AP Rocky case
should spur us to reform this unfair system.Easily
swayed by
charlatans
Angelos Stangos
Kathimerini
UNITED KINGDOM
A$AP Rocky: Claiming self-defenseWe’re living
a Hitchcockian
nightmare
Alan Amos
The Sun
Sweden: Why Trump cares about a rapper’s arrest