It has seldom been remarked upon that the number of bronze statues is currently proliferating, going back, perhaps, to the statue of hockey player Bobby Orr erected outside of Boston Garden about three decades ago. Here’s a new one, apparently in Mölndal, Sweden. The picture below is courtesy of the Mölndals-Posten newspaper. I’m not sure who, exactly, is being depicted, but lots of Intersectional Pokemon Points.

The handsy Arab on the left reminds me of a good name for Jordan Peele’s next horror movie: Don’t Touch The Hair!

I particularly like the local oldster with the cane attempting to flee from this objet d’art newly plopped in his town square, but clearly in slow motion, as in a nightmare. There should be a statue of him called “White Flight: You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide.”

Mölndal , a suburb of 63,000, took in 4,041 unaccompanied minor refugees in 2015.

Update: This work appears to be by sculptor Bjorn Carnemalm of Malmo, a tall, self-confident-looking artist. Why the African girl is depicted making an Italian hand gesture remains a Swedish mystery.

In completely unrelated news, from the New York Times:

Sweden Was Long Seen as a ‘Moral Superpower.’ That May Be Changing. By Steven Erlanger

Sept. 3, 2018 STOCKHOLM — In a civic center in Rinkeby, a heavily immigrant district of northwest Stockholm, several hundred people gathered recently for a forum on Sweden’s coming election and the future of the country. The conversation, about the nature of Sweden’s democracy and the importance of voting, was sophisticated and passionate. But it was frustrating for one participant, Ahmed Ali, a Somali immigrant, who thought people were dancing around the main issue. “The stakes are really high in this election,” he said in an interview. “There are more extremists in the country, and they have more influence. They don’t have a real political agenda. They just hate immigrants. And this xenophobia is happening all over Europe.” As an angry and divided Sweden prepares to vote on Sunday, the shape of the next Swedish government is utterly unclear, because of the rapid rise of the anti-immigration, anti-Europe Sweden Democrats, a populist nationalist party that is expected to win a fifth of the vote.

Why won’t those angry, extremist Swedes listen to the wise advice of Somalis about for whom they should vote? After all, Somalis, unlike Swedes, are known worldwide for their political genius at forging workable political compromises. The only sensible solution is to bring in more Somalis until Swedes can no longer tip Swedish elections. We call that Democracy.