Sweden's deputy leader defends 9/11 'accident' gaffe

[Deleted]

http://www.thelocal.se/20160419/swed...accident-gaffe

Deputy Prime Minister and Green Party co-leader Åsa Romson has told The Local she refuses to let terror set the agenda, after appearing to refer to the 9/11 attacks as "accidents".

Romson sparked debate after she spoke on public broadcaster SVT's breakfast show 'Gomorron Sverige' on Tuesday morning, while discussing housing minister Mehmet Kaplan's resignation.

She praised her Green Party colleague's efforts working with Muslim youth associations in Sweden, including his former role leading the non-politically affiliated group Sweden's Young Muslims.

"He has been chairman of Young Muslims in tough situations like the September 11th accidents," she said.

Her words were quickly criticized by viewers, who pointed out that nearly 3,000 people died in the al-Qaida led 2001 attacks on New York's World Trade Center, Washington's Pentagon building and United Airlines Flight 93.

"Did Romson just call 9/11 'the September 11th accidents' on SVT?? In that case, talk about reducing [the significance] of one of the world's biggest terror attacks," wrote defence expert Johanne Hildebrandt on Twitter.

"Had to listen again. And yes, Sweden's Deputy Prime Minister Åsa Romson talked about the 'September 11th accident'," tweeted Johan Ingerö of Swedish liberal think-tank Timbro.

However, others defended her, saying she had misspoken and that the focus should instead be on issues.

The environment minister, who is scheduled to attend a UN climate meeting in New York on Wednesday and Thursday, later clarified her comments in an email sent to The Local.

"Let there be no doubt: the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11th 2001 were one of the most vile acts of terror and disastrous violations of the open, free and democratic society in modern history," she said.

"The tragedy for the world and the families of the almost 3,000 human beings who perished as a result of the attack cannot be overstated."

She also told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that she had been making a point about the harsh debate on integration that followed, suggesting that she had meant to describe it as a misfortune rather than an accident.

"We refuse to let terror set the agenda. Not then, not now. We must not let extremism cloud our judgement or fall to the low point where immigrants or muslims are collectively blamed as a result of the acts of extremists," she added to The Local.

Her comments came just a day after US presidential hopeful Donald Trump referred to the attacks as '7-Eleven', getting the figures confused with the name of a major convenience store chain, so Romson was not alone in her woes.

However, it is not the first time Swedish minister has grabbed headlines over ill-advised comments.

Last year she was at the centre of controversy after she twice made ill-advised comments about the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz and after it was revealed she had used toxic paint on her houseboat.

Romson sparked a huge wave of criticism at the time when she described the migrant crisis in Europe as "the new Auschwitz" in a live television debate. She was later forced to apologize after commentators accused her of disrespecting the victims of the Holocaust.

She then found herself on the receiving end of social media humour after she inaccurately placed the Nazi concentration camp "in southern Germany" rather than Poland.

Her latest gaffe comes at an inopportune time for the Swedish Greens, who on Tuesday were still battling the aftermath of Mehmet Kaplan's resignation as well as Vattenfall's brown coal sales.

Yeah, the 9/11 attacks were clearly just accidents. <.<

Thoughts about this?

[Puupi]

The Green left.......

[Dextroden]

Have somone call Paris or Brussels an accident.

Record results for science.

[madethisfor1post]

9/11 was just a prank, bro.

[derpkitteh]

hey, people with intelligence can see a mile away what sweden is becoming.

but nobody listens, nobody cares. so, you make your bed, you can rot in it.

[Bakis]

hey, people with intelligence can see a mile away what sweden is becoming.

but nobody listens, nobody cares. so, you make your bed, you can rot in it.

Good thing we got the intelligent base of MMO C to see the truth.
OT: Just another blooper by Åsa the idiot. In her defense I would argue the english equality would be disaster given how the word for accident and disaster is used in swedish.
Disaster is generally used with things like a natural disaster and such, that being said I wonder how the fuck she managed not to use the proper words, acts of terror.

Not the first time she use improper wording and cause confusion and wont be the last. Fuck MP they are a joke and by the next election all they will have as voterbase are the people who will always see the environment as the primary political agenda. Cant wait.

[Deleted]

His heart is in good place. However terrorists are so fucked up and misguided that they will feel their agenda is validated as long as things they want to destroy still exist. Tolerating intolerance is pointless.

[Magicalcrab]

The actual word used has multiple meanings and uses, as many Swedish words do. "Olycka" could refer to Disaster, or Tragedy in the English language (though it's a bit archaic), as well as Accident.
It's a bit of a clumsy word choice seeing as there are multiple better phrases you can use, but as bad as linguistic flourishes can get this is a non-scandal. The intent in the original statement is clear.

Politics getting bogged down in semantics triggers me. Plz provide a safe space for me.

[Hooked]

It doesn't matter what people in Sweden think about 9/11 because it didn't effect them. We don't need swedens pity and its no slam against Sweden, but it doesn't really matter.

[zealo]

The actual word used has multiple meanings and uses, as many Swedish words do. "Olycka" could refer to Disaster, or Tragedy in the English language (though it's a bit archaic), as well as Accident.
It's a bit of a clumsy word choice seeing as there are multiple better phrases you can use, but as bad as linguistic flourishes can get this is a non-scandal. The intent in the original statement is clear.

Politics getting bogged down in semantics triggers me. Plz provide a safe space for me.

People all know what she intended to say, but what she intended isn't the same thing as what actually came out. The reason people are giving this so much attention have more to do with how someone so high up in government doesn't consider their statements and words more carefully.

Regardless of that, its not likely people had any high levels of trust in her in the first place.

[Bakis]

People all know what she intended to say, but what she intended isn't the same thing as what actually came out. The reason people are giving this so much attention have more to do with how someone so high up in government doesn't consider their statements and words more carefully.

Regardless of that, its not likely people had any high levels of trust in her in the first place.

Add to that her history of being downright ignorant. The boatpaint and where Auschwitz is located comes to mind.

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It doesn't matter what people in Sweden think about 9/11 because it didn't effect them. We don't need swedens pity and its no slam against Sweden, but it doesn't really matter.

Yet you wrote. Interesting. It is also not about pity but sympathy, guess one can tell the two apart after high school.

[Hooked]

Yet you wrote. Interesting. It is also not about pity but sympathy, guess one can tell the two apart after high school.

With some sympathy and $3.99 I can buy a chicken sandwich.

[oxymoronic]

accidents/incidents

obviously the persons english is bad. nobody thinks of it as an accident so calm down people.

[Hooked]

accidents/incidents

obviously the persons english is bad. nobody thinks of it as an accident so calm down people.

It wasn't an accident or incident, it was a terrorist attack by muslims (extremists). It wasn't even so much a terrorist attack as it was an act of war, when an attack like this occurs it is all out war on whoever attacked us.

[zealo]

accidents/incidents

obviously the persons english is bad. nobody thinks of it as an accident so calm down people.

The statement itself wasn't made in English. It was done in Swedish, on national television.

http://www.di.se/play/nyheter/har-ka...mber-en-olycka

I suspect she may have been going for calling it a catastrophe, but stumbled with words.

[Very Tired]

Of course 9/11 was an accident. So what if a few planes start going down and crashing at the same time? Correlation doesn't mean causation.

[Deleted]

I would suggest that she used a word that could also mean "tragedy" in Swedish, but the only people listening to her were Swedish speakers, so clearly they were confused by her choice of words, so maybe that word does actually mean "accident"

Whether she is intentionally downplaying the events of 9-11 as some kind of innocent accident or not is not known at all

[Deleted]

I despise Åsa Romson however i'm sure she simply misspoke and used the wrong wording. No politician in their right mind would ever refer to 9/11 it as an accident.

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The statement itself wasn't made in English. It was done in Swedish, on national television.

http://www.di.se/play/nyheter/har-ka...mber-en-olycka

I suspect she may have been going for calling it a catastrophe, but stumbled with words.

That is my take too. I think she meant to say something like unfortunate. In Swedish "olycklig" as opposed to accident as in "olycka" but she messed up her sentence.

[Azadina]

Of course 9/11 was an accident. So what if a few planes start going down and crashing at the same time? Correlation doesn't mean causation.

The Taliban just tried to do this, but with towers that aren't moving. http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-U-S-Navy-ship

It's not their fault they are still learning to troll with planes, and you know, accidents happen.

[Dezerte]

She says she misspoke. But by all means, bash away.

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It doesn't matter what people in Sweden think about 9/11 because it didn't effect them. We don't need swedens pity and its no slam against Sweden, but it doesn't really matter.

I don't know, Sweden seems to be on everyone's mind here at MMOC as of late. What is it you Americans say, "They hate us because they ain't us"?