Bassem Youssef, a new voice in the great family of US political satire shows

The first episode of Bassem Youssef's 10-episode series called "Democracy handbook"

As many of you probably know already, I am a big fan of Jon Stewart, and the whole family of satirical news that has come out of his series of correspondents: John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, etc etc. Now, I just discovered a new addition to this family: Bassem Yousef. Bassim has often been described as the Jon Stewart of Egypt, where he ran a similar comedy show as a response to the media malfunctioning in the wake of the Arab Spring. Originally, Bassem was a heart surgeon, and just like Stewart he has an uncanny combination of being highly intelligent, really quick at providing comebacks in conversations (an ability I have always admired with comedians), a good eye for important issues that are key problems in a society, and just like all of the correspondents in the Daily Show, Bassem has a wonderful way of using satire and irony to say what he wants to say, without actually saying it. 

Although most people presumably know of Bassem from his appearences on the Daily show, he did in fact not come to the US to become a correspondent in the Jon Stewart team, but only much more recently. He came as a consequence of his highly popular show in Egypt being cancelled (by the third rulers in Egypt in recent years, the military, who have turned out to be the most authoritarian of them all...). Because of this cancellation of his show in Egypt, he got an offer to do a new show on the online channel Fusion. I watched a few episodes of this already, and an interview with him and Larry King, and I am already convinced that he has brought an important new voice into the existing satirical arena: one that has first-hand experience of living in a true dictotorship, and of being an arab (and thus a muslim-looking guy) in the West. 

In other words, yet another comedian focusing on politics and current events has entered into the big family of American satire. This is great – but it also makes me long even more for a first such top-notch comedian to enter the Swedish (or European) arena.

The interview with Larry King.

Turning walls into doors: two inspirational speakers who have transcended physical handicaps

I just discovered a new favourite inspirational speaker, and while writing shortly about him, I will also take the chance to mention another favourite of mine.

My new discovery is called Sean Stephenson, and I discovered him via his TEDx talk: "The prison of your mind". The talk is just 10 minutes long, but I already listened to it twice, and I am already a little bit in love with him :) His speaking style reminds me a bit of both Martin Luther King, Nick Vijucic, and Abraham-Hicks, and all those three are among my favourite speakers, and I can say that anyone who can mix them together in a meaningful way has my attention. As you can see in the video below, he is - just as Nick - blessed with a very unusual body. A body that most people would call a handicap. But, this is where both he and Nick are so important examples: they have turned their wall into a door, and a seeming limitation into a possibility. In other words, they have been able to redefine their relationship to themselves, find a way to be happy and inspired in their own bodies, and thus serve as a beacon of hope to all others, who in comparison usually are dealing with much less severe limitations. Some of my favourite talking points from his video where the following, but - since the video is so short - I advice you to just look at the whole video:

* don't listen to any prediction that doesn't empower you
* I am only an expert on one thing: to be me. But I do that very well
* The only thing you need to do and teach is to be able to look in the mirror and feel love for yourself. If you can pull that one off, then you are going somewhere.
* all limitations, prisons, and savours that you will ever encounter can be found in your head. Look at your perspective: what is the current problem with your current perspective, and how can it be improved?

The second speaker, which I already alluded to, is Nick Vijucic. There are hundreds of videos of him online, but one of my favourites is still the first one I ever saw, and that is the video I have embedded below:

The main thing that he talks about is to go to a state of gratitude. Do not focus on the things that you don't have (in his case, e.g. the fact that he does not have any arms and legs), and instead focus on the things that you do have. It might seem trivial, but that is really all it takes. Your state-of-mind is *only* determined by what you pay attention to, and the emotion that you feel is only determined by what you give your attention to (and how that relates to your inner beings perspective of the same thing). And the key thing in what you are paying attention to is not the object or the situation, but the thought about the situation - the perspective.

I love both of these guys, they are such gifts to humanity. I am really proud that we have such an advanced society nowadays that we can appreciate the gifts that they have to give us. That is a sign of progress!

My first pride experience - the important and still surpressed beauty of holding hands

As I wrote in my previous, inaugural blog, I am currently deep into vacation mode in Amsterdam. And, as so happens, Amsterdam yesterday launched this years edition of Europride, which this year takes place in Amsterdam. As both me, my girlfriend, and her two daughters are highly interested in people from all walks of life, and of how they can most naturally be fully integrated in a well-functioning society, we of course could not miss this event. As this was also my first attendance at a pride parade, I naturally also made a number of observations. Out of these there is one that surprised me a bit, and that I really want to mention here.

Picture from the event yesterday, the parade is walking by. I am here standing in the second row watching, but later on, we all joined in the marching as well. In the middle, you can see two older women holding hands. 

The observation that stood out to me was not any of the very colorful displays of imaginative clothing; not the exotic and highly revealing dresses worn by both men, women, and every thinkable combination thereof; it was not the tallest or the shortest; not the strongest or the weakest of the people seen in the parade. It was intstead something much more simple: the holding of hands. As you can see in the picture above, there were in the parade and in the festival in general many couples walking by, holding hands. And, while that does not seem like a major thing to do, what stood out to me was my sudden realization that I have almost never seen elderly people of the same sex do that before - and how beautiful and loving it looked. In fact, I have only rarely seen couples of the same sex - of any age - hold hands before. In contrast, seeing couples of different sexes, so-called heterosexual couples, holding hands is so mainstream that you don't think about it, as is seeing such couples kiss and do other public displays of affections. But to see couples of the same sex do such simple displays of affection - and especially elderly couples - that is still much more seldomly seen in our public arenas.


I generally consider Sweden a quite progressive country, and I believe that we by international standards have come far in terms of gender equality, and in terms of acceptance and integration of the entire spectrum of HBTQ people in our society. While thinking such thoughts, it is natural to also sometimes contemplate thoughts such as "Do we still need pride parades in our society?", i.e. are their roles played out? However, when now realizing that such a simple a thing as the holding of hands still is repressed - perhaps not by law, perhaps not even by public shaming and harrassments, but by self-censorship - then we most certainly still need these types of events. They must serve as a wonderful and important breath of fresh air, as a place of relief, for people who everyday live with this self-censorship upon them, and they serve as a reminder to us all that we still have a long way to go until the beauty of love displayed simply and naturally in public is something that is a natural thing for all of us.

It's time for a reboot - at last

As some of you might know, this will be my second blog on the same topic: "yoga in Linköping, linked up with the world". The first blog, which hereafter will be abandoned, can be found here, and it is the blog that comes along automatically with my main home page: yoga-link.se . Here at blogspot I use the same name, but since blogspot doesn't support dots (".") in the name, I instead chose the address yoga-link-se.blogspot.com for this new blog.

I have been wanting to do this reboot for a long time now, and for several reasons. First, because I haven't had an active blog for quite some time now, and because there are really many things that I have been aching to put out there; I have collected a steadily growing pile of observations that I really want to bring out to the whole global dialogue that is the internet. Second, because I eventually got tired of some of the limitations of my previous blog-server - e.g. its lack of a proper handling of comments and its non-existent development - I felt that I didn't want to do a reboot and a new-start on the same place as before. Third, I have been really busy doing many other things, both in my personal and professional lives, and I haven't found the time and mental space in which I could do a proper launch until now - when deep into a nice vacation with my girlfriend and extended family in wonderful Amsterdam.

For all these reasons, I am now at last at a place where I am ready - and eager - to get started again, and to hereby formally anounce my relaunch of my personal blog: yoga-link-se.blogspot.com. 

Welcome!