January Blog

Pelle Forshed och Stefan Thungren’s skickligt tecknade Stockholmsnatt i Svenska Dagbladet har säkert höjt hip-faktorn och kanske sänkt åldern bland tidningsläsarna - så att de känner igen sig i serien om trendiga 30-åringar i huvudstaden.

Just back from a short holiday in Sweden, I can attest to the scene in the cartoon above playing out in many homes across the country. The parents are watching the Christmas television special Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul while the children couldn’t care less.

The quirky tradition, that each year sees millions of Swedes hunkering down in front of their television sets at 3 pm sharp on December 24, is unique in the world.

Where else would a Disney program from 1958, with mostly antiquated film clips of Mickey Mouse, Snowwhite, Lady and the Tramp, Mowgli and Baloo, Robin Hood, Ferdinand the Bull and of course Donald Duck, Sweden's Kalle Anka, be an integral part of a national Christmas celebration.

I hadn't celebrated Christmas in Sweden for almost thirty years, and had only seen the Kalle Anka programme once during this time when the Silicon Vikings sent me a bootleg. So settling down in front of the television with much-loved relatives in a cozy cottage in Dalarna, I was thrilled to find everything in the Disney parade to be the same, with the exception of a couple of new clips as SVT is obliged to include something from a current Disney production. Bengt Feldreich still sings the Jiminy Cricket "Wishing upon a star", but the narration of the program is done by a current Christmas host. I missed the Chip and Dale clip, but loved Kalle Anka as an ornithologist trying to photograph the demented Araucan Bird.

When I was growing up in Stockholm, going to a Disney movie program at the Sture cinema on Birger Jarlsgatan was part of the Christmas holidays. So you can imagine what a thrill it was when we got a one-hour programme of favorites on our black-and-white television set for free in 1960! This was at a time when we only had one public service channel that did not run any animation features and that had a general disdain for the kind of commercialism that Disney represented.

There has been an outcry every time SVT has tried to scrap the program. But being the most watched television programme in Sweden (except for Melodifestivalen and certain sport cliff hangers) it remains a keeper.

That is, until the next generation takes over.

December Blog

Sweden is one of the few places in the world where a real (dressed up) walking talking Santa comes to your home on Christmas Eve to drop off a sack of gifts (as you can read in the LastWord). Tomte myths still persist and folklorist Bengt af Klintberg (interviewed in the current Scandinavian Press) told me the true story of a relative of his who always put out a bowl of porridge for the farm's tomte each Christmas Eve. One year the porridge was left untouched and shortly after that the farm burnt down.

The basis of all the myths about the tomte will once again be vigorously discussed in Swedish media in the days leading up to Christmas. I don’t have a favourite theory myself. But it is a different matter when it comes to trolls. After seeing the film Beowulf and Grendel a few years back, I believe that they were Neanderthals. The Icelandic Canadian director Sturla Gunnarsson does not portray Grendel as an evil monster, but rather as someone "that has spawned off the same evolutionary tree who happens to be a little bit bigger and who lives down the valley". In North America Neanderthals tie in with the Sasquatch myth and they are a perfect fit for the trolls in Scandinavia.

In Swedish folklore trolls have cattle and make a living from farming so, although they are culturally and physically different from us, they live a similar life to ours but in a parallel dimension. In some early fairy tales by Elsa Beskow (who we write about on page 17), trolls are depicted as an aboriginal race of hunters and gatherers who are fleeing the encroaching human civilization.

The Neanderthal theory is not completely new. Although some folklorists argue that the troll is entirely a figment of our imagination, there are others who believe that trolls emanate from tales from the time of the Neanderthals (that overlapped with Homo Sapiens for 30 000 to 50 000 years). Researchers at Uppsala university have recently proved that there was much more interaction and also sexual interaction between humans and Neanderthals than previously thought. There are genetic similarities and we may even have inherited some of our immune system genes from them.

Could the tomte fit in with the troll theory? In Iceland it is not a tomte but the 13 yule lads who bring gifts at Christmas time. Both scary and kind, they are clearly descendants of trolls and have not adopted the persona of Santa Claus, something that the tomte in Sweden has gradually morphed into during the last century.

May you get a visit from the tomte and may he be generous this year.

Anders

November Blog

Economics is not an exact science. This is the one thing that is clear during these times of economic upheaval. There are no rules and the so-called experts sound more and more like hollow weathermen in denial.

Indeed Christopher Sims and Thomas Sargent, who won this year’s Nobel Prize for Economics, have no easy answers on how Europe should solve its debt crisis, neither do they have a magic bullet for solving the U.S. economy’s woes.

The economics prize, officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was not part of the original group of awards set out in the dynamite tycoon's 1895 will.

The prize was established by the Bank of Sweden in 1968 in celebration of its 300th anniversary. The Nobel Foundation receives a fee from the Riksbank to administer the prize and include it on the Nobelprize.org site. The economics prize is the only non-Nobel prize to be awarded with the same pomp and circumstance as the regular Nobel prizes. And one can really ask why?

Alfred Nobel (page16) was an inventor, chemist, engineer and above all realist. He dabbled in philosophy and literature and held surprisingly radical political views. He hated lawyers and joked that "humbug" was the second biggest industry of his age.

I don’t think that Alfred Nobel would have been delighted to know that an economics prize is handed out in his name. As a scientist he wanted there to be prizes in physics, chemistry and medicine, while the prizes in literature and peace are a reflection of his philosophical and idealistic sides. Economics does not quite fit in.

Alfred Nobel’s great-grandnephew, the civil rights lawyer Peter Nobel, has, on behalf of his family, objected to the prize being associated with the Nobel Prizes.

In his speech at the 1974 Nobel Banquet, even the winner Friedrich Hayek stated that if he had been consulted on the establishment of a Nobel Prize in economics he would "have decidedly advised against it” primarily because "the Nobel Prize confers on an individual an authority which in economics no man ought to possess... This does not matter in the natural sciences. Here the influence exercised by an individual is chiefly an influence on his fellow experts; and they will soon cut him down to size if he exceeds his competence. But the influence of the economist that mainly matters is an influence over laymen: politicians, journalists, civil servants and the public generally."

After other controversies the economics prize was redefined in 1995 as a prize in social science, open also to political scientists, psychologists, and sociology researchers.

I feel that it is now time for the Nobel Foundation to cut the economics prize lose, before it damages the Nobel Prize itself.

October Blog

Fall is upon us and soon Sweden will become a dark place where kids in many parts of the country will go to school in the dark and not be back home until after the sun has set.

The long days of barbecues and socializing outdoors are over for a while and it is time to hunker down for the dark season with plans of spending cozy evenings at home, or partaking of all the cultural activities that restart after the summer hiatus.

Swedes are used to the seasonal change and even look forward to fall but for people from abroad, the dark season in Sweden can feel very inhospitable.

So I was very happy to read about Scan-dinavia's first Global Expat Centre (Oden-gatan 62, globalexpatpartners.com) that has opened in Stockholm and provides all sorts of support to make the stay of diplomats and business people, and above all their spouses, much more pleasant.

Between 12 and 20 percent of all international assignments fail and this is largely due to partner dissatisfaction. The "Stock-holm Model", developed by a Dutch spouse with an HR background, could go a long way to alleviate this problem.

The four pillars of Claudia de Leeuw's programme are Integration and Cultural Awareness, Language Training, Spouse Support and Social Network. When I read about the activities, that range from Parent and Toddler to Adult Cooking Classes, an International Breakfast Club and Happy Hours Mingling, it strikes me that this is a little like what we are doing in all our Swedish American organizations. Just like the Expat Centre we offer activities and “a place to go to”.

The Expat Centre is non-profit and run primarily by volunteers. It is sponsored by the embassies, a lot of companies and the Stockholm Business Region Development that wants to make the capital of Sweden a more attractive place for foreign workers.

A full membership for a family costs SEK 10 000 and this includes individual language courses and all activities.

The high fees, although mostly paid by employers, are a good reminder of how in-expensive Swedish American organizations and facilities are for us “cultural expats”!

Greta Garbo.

When Selma Lagerlöf wrote Gösta Berlings Saga she set it in her beloved province of Värmland and in particular at the Rottneros manor, that she calls Ekeby in the book. We write about Rottneros and its beautiful park in the September issue of Swedish Press and as we are not your typical magazine, we also help you to connect with Gösta Berlings Saga. If you select "September'11" in our "MustHave" section you will find the story both in Swedish and English and an easy way to order it. We have also posted the film version of the story that made Greta Garbo a star. It used to be that Sweden's "Gone With the Wind" was required reading and most Swedes had read it, but Gösta Berling's Saga is now being forgotten. Do read the romantic story of the good-looking but de-frocked clergyman who was taken in by the Majoress of Ekeby to live with her twelve aging cavaliers and then "in a turn of events that bear the devil's stamp" given one year's run of the estate. Or you can see the movie with Greta Garbo as Gösta Berling's love interest. Greta Garbo liked her privacy, but she did slip in to Swendsens on Manhattan for some Swedish goodies and one of the servers told me that she read Swedish Press there. We never got an interview with the elusive star, but in 2005 we interviewed her nephew Scott Reisfeld and you can even read that interview on several Greta Garbo sites including "Hommage an Greta Garbo" : http://www.greta-garbo.de/com/Greta-Garbos-great-nephew-Derek-Reisfields.html

September Blog

Are you too old to be on Facebook if you are 82? No, I am not talking about myself, not yet. What I have been mulling about during the last few months is if it is time for 82-year-old Swedish Press to embrace social media. Should we be taking this step into the future or should we accept that you simply cannot teach old dogs to sit?

I think about all the steps into the future we have taken, albeit kicking and screaming, during the 25 years I have been the publisher and editor of this magazine. I remember our old typesetter and Headliner, and the first KayPro computer.

Then it was onto the first of many Apple computers. How revolutionary that was!

But we still had to get PMTs done of all the pictures and do the whole layout on a sheet big enough for 4 pages. These sheets we then had to hand over physically to the printer.

Today it is all done on the computers and electronically uploaded for the printer. We also have an active website and our electronic editions are becoming increasingly popular. We actually even twittered every day during the virtual trip "Around Swedish America in 548 Days".

But we have never been on Facebook, LikedIn or any of the other social media.

And that is not okay according to the speakers at a magazine conference I attended in June, because visitors on the web are abandoning the traditional sites in favor of social media.

I have never joined Facebook myself but I can see that Swedish Press has to be there. This is, however, all new to us and we are now hoping for help from our readers to steer us right!

By the time you are reading this issue of Swedish Press we will be on Facebook, so please check us out, “share” and tell your friends about Swedish Press and let us know if you "like" it, because we need every friend we can get!

It is going to be fun to meet you readers on Facebook and we hope you will share your love of Sweden in the features that we plan to include on our page. You can share your Swedish pictures, sightings of famous Swedes, favorite Swedish places and above all your opinions. Facebook will be the place we meet for quick information, while www.nordicway.com will remain the place for background and all the "hard" information. Other social media will follow so in this way many more people interested in Sweden will see that we exist.

Swedish Press exists for its readers, so let us know on Facebook that you are there!

Have a nice September!

Anders

August Blog

Since the 1960s Sweden has been widely admired not only for its “third way” of dealing with the economy and social issues but also for its design and high quality innovative products. This is something that naturally comes and goes in waves.

There have been times when Sweden’s star has fallen and other times, like the present, when Sweden is attracting a great deal of attention for its thriving economy and general well-being.

"Sweden’s 5.5 percent growth rate last year was stronger than any other developed nation in Europe and beat the 2.8 percent expansion in the United States" wrote the Washington Post almost reluctantly about "Sweden, the rock star of the recovery."

This is just one of the myriad of accolades Sweden is getting from around the world.

There are, however, detractors and the one causing the biggest stir now is Tyler Brulé, who has for many years been one of the biggest fans of Sweden. The Financial Times columnist, editor-in-chief of Monocle and founder of the Wallpaper magazine has been an influential promoter of Swedish design and, through his magazines, made Swedish fashion, food, art and architecture hip around the world. Tyler Brûlé who has also had a summer house on his own island in the Stockholm archipelago for many years became an outspoken advocate of the Swedish way of life.

Now he has changed his tune.

“Swedish goods and services used to be a refreshing constant in my daily life but somehow they’ve vanished – no cars, no telecommunications, no media, no hotels, no airlines," he writes. "H&M and Ikea might continue their global assault (along with the odd crime author), waving a small blue and yellow flag, but increasingly Sweden Inc seems a little less potent”.

“Ten years ago it was a pleasure to board an aircraft belonging to Scandinavian Airlines. But I flew on SAS a couple of times this week and was more saddened than shocked by the experience. And I wondered if the SAS brand would be around this time next year".

I flew SAS this week myself and was surprised when I was asked to pay 20 kronor for a cup of tea. (In fact I apparently looked so chocked that the stewardess told me that it was fine if I did not pay anything this time, as I obviously did not know that they had had to start charging for everything except water on European routes).

Apart from this I really have no complaints either about SAS or Sweden.

Wherever I went during the last few weeks there was a general feeling of well-being. All the closure “Stängt för semester” signs on stores and even restaurants exude a sense of confidence and security.

There are naturally some negative aspects but I will leave them for another time.

Have a nice August

Anders

July Blog

By the time you are reading this piece I should be in Tuscany to attend the wedding of my goddaughter. Just like me, she loves Italy and has through the years built up a strong relationship with the country.

My own relationship with Italy started when I was about two years old. My father who was a freshly graduated architect had been awarded a travel grant to study the Mediterranean architecture and it was de-cided that he would have the Swedish Institute in Rome as a base and my mother and I were to go with him.

My parents’ decision to take me along to post-war Italy, “where you could not even get hold of fresh milk” did not sit well with my grandparents. But my parents persisted and not only did I survive “the ordeal”, I have some of my earliest and best memories from this time.

My father was also consulted on Villa San Michele (see page 17) that the Swedish state had received as a gift from Queen Victoria's physician Axel Munthe. And that is how I got to spend part of my pre-school childhood on the island of Capri.

Among the few Swedish kids on the island were Staffan De Mistura (in this month's interview) and his brother Peter. Their mother and Italian father had come to Capri to prospect for water, a resource that would possibly be considered even more valuable than oil for an island which gets its water either through collection of rainwater or from the nearby island of Ischia from where it is transported over by boat. The Marquis De Mistura had brought drilling equipment from Alfa Laval in Sweden, but he never found any water.

In the picture above (that I got from a cousin in Sweden last year), we children are on our way to classes in the monastery right behind the main piazza in Capri that nowadays is crammed with tourists.

Staffan, who was the clever one, is wearing a black uniform with a red ribbon because he was in a higher class than me, even though I was a year older. Peter and I had white uniforms with blue ribbons and we had little pockets in the front where we could put the sugar candies that we bought from the nuns before class.

On the back of the post card that one of the rowing photographers had snapped of us, my mother writes that we had just seen a man walking around with a leopard on a leach. I still remember that, because the big cat, that did not have a muzzle, was always trying to lunge at the meat carcasses that hung outside the butcher shops.

In those days Capri was a gathering ground for everybody from Somerset Maug-ham to Esther Williams. I still remember seeing the very fat King Farouk of Egypt who had fled to Capri on his huge sailboat.

But I don't remember much from school, except that for exercise the whole class had to walk back and forth along the corridors for what seemed like hours.

Have a really nice July!

Anders

June Blog

I did not do an all-nighter nor did I get into the whole tea and scones thing, but I was one of the two billion or so people around the world who caught some of the highlights of the royal wedding in London, and I found it to be a very pleasant romantic interlude in the midst of all the dismal news pouring in during a cold and rainy spring.

My ears perked up when one of the commentators remarked that there had been much more pomp and circumstance at Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling's wedding in Stockholm last year. So it is rather sad that the Swedish royal wedding was hardly mentioned in international media. And the reason for this was that the three major world news agencies decided to boycott the event.

The exclusive broadcasting rights for the wedding in the Storkyrkan cathedral were granted by the Royal Court to the public-service Sveriges Television, SVT because it is commercial free. Yet this same state-financed public service broadcaster demanded such a high fee for its footage, that AFP, AP and Reuters had to decline and all three agencies decided subsequently not to cover the event in any format, including text and stills pictures.

SVT claimed that it was charging "standard" fees, but the news organizations argued that a news event of historical importance should not be treated in the same way as a sports or entertainment event. Furthermore the charge fees "largely surpassed the market price". In a last-minute attempt to cover the event the three agencies even e-mailed the royal Court as well as the Prime Minister of Sweden citing freedom of the press and complaining about "the increasingly commercialized" use of events. But it was to no avail.

After the wedding MediaPilot estimated the publicity value of the royal wedding to be SEK 2.7 billion, with almost half of the coverage being in German periodicals and news sites. MediaPilot did not measure the value from broadcast media neither did it estimate the value had all the 45 accredited television broadcasters and 700 foreign journalists been given more access to the event.

As the Brits demonstrated, a royal wedding is a huge public relations event in which everybody in the country pulls for the common good. It is embarrassing for Sweden when a state-financed public broadcaster doesn't do its part.

I myself am still mad at SVT for not allowing the Scandinavian Center in Vancouver to re-broadcast its Olympic coverage. Why could it not have shown the same level of generosity as the public broadcasters in Norway and Finland did with their coverage?

Have a really nice June

Anders

PS. "We were very lucky with the weather. Sunny blue skies and warm," writes Kathryn Hallsten (above) who won the Swedish Press trip for two with Icelandair to Sweden and Iceland with the added bonus of a stay at Grand Hotel in Stockholm. "We biked the National Park trail, walked around Gamla Stan and Djurgården and toured the city on a boat. Iceland was fascinating...Glaciers, waterfalls and geysers...unbelievable wilderness and interesting geology...Lots of fish and striking Scandinavian art and architecture. I just wanted to thank you and let you know that we had a phenomenal experience in Stockholm and Iceland."

May Blog

One of the best Swedish characteristic is honesty. Sweden always ranks among the highest in the world on the anti-corruption scale. When you shake hands on a deal it stands. You know that you can always trust your Swedish friends.

Even at the Swedish Press one of our strongest selling points is trust. Subscribers know that they can trust us with their credit card numbers or that we will not overcharge them for products or pass their e-mail addresses on to other marketeers.

Dealing, as we do, mostly with "Scandinavians" and Nordic-related companies, we also know that we can rely on our advertisers and it is very rare that a person or a company has reneged on a payment without an explicable cause.

A case in point is Solhem, the poetical name of the lovely "Swedish Home for the Aged" on Staten Island, that had been a long-time advertiser. Purchased by the United Swedish Societies of New York in 1912, it was a really nice and well-managed resthome for some forty mostly Swedish guests. However a few years ago Solhem ran into financial difficulties and our invoices remained unpaid or when they were paid the checks bounced. Eventually the Home was put into receivership and we wrote off the debt.

Then a few years later we were told that the facilities on Staten Island were sold and the board wanted to settle all old bills. There was that Swedish honesty at play again.

It took a while but eventually we were contacted by a lawyer in New York who had been put in charge of taking care of old business. I was informed that all the documentation, including copies of unpaid invoices, that the lawyer had in his possession was not sufficient to release the funds owed to us. In other words he did not trust me or the Swedish Press. I had to go and sign a document in the presence of a US Consul. No other consul would do (I happen to be the Honorary Consul of Sweden), neither could this be done in front of a regular notary.

I could not help feeling that my honesty had been violated not to mention the time and money involved to get the payment that the board of Solhem had made such an honest effort to settle.

It was also so sad to see an old Swedish American institution go. For almost a hundred years, the Solhem Swedish resthome on Staten Island was a lovely oasis just a ferry trip away from the bustling metropolis of New York. The original historic building, that was a wedding gift for the daughter of Commodore Vanderbuilt, housed the social rooms and a beautiful dining room. I wrote in the Swedish Press after one of my visits there that "you could not find a nicer place to retire in".

Have a nice May

Anders

April Blog

For many years the Canadian government bought advertising space to impart important information to readers of Swedish Press. There was an understanding that ethnic publications were an important tool in reaching all sectors of the population.

During the last few years Swedes have been shut out, only because Swedish Press is printed in a magazine format rather than as a tabloid or a semi-tab.

Swedish Press started out as a broadsheet in 1929, but switched to a magazine format in 1986 to raise the quality of the publication and to prepare it for computerization. For a long time the bureaucrats did not mind the change as the frequency and content remained the same, but suddenly the 8"x11" format stopped us from being eligible for government advertising!

Similarly Swedish Press does not receive any advertising from the province of Ontario because the magazine is not printed there! The fact that Swedish Press is the only way to reach Swedish Canadians in Ontario does not seem to matter.

If information is important enough to im-part to all citizens, this should be done in the best and most fair way possible and the format and where in the country it is printed should not be considerations.

The issue of format is in general a form of discrimination against Canadians of Euro-pean origin as their publications are often magazines. I am acutely aware that the Swe-dish community, like many other European communities, is small compared to the various Asian communities and hence easily ignored on the political scene. It is only natural that the Asian communities, primarily the Chinese and the East Indian, are heavily targeted by political parties and, above all, commercial advertisers such as banks, immigration lawyers, car salesmen and realtors. But shouldn’t you expect a degree of fairness from the government?

On top of this, the Government of Canada spends only $800 000 on ads in the ethnic media (with 3 million readers a day), compared to about $100 million in the general media, which does not sound reasonable for a country that professes to be multicultural.

March Blog

As the editor of Swedish Press I may be forgiven for being partial to most things Swedish. It's my job to give you Sweden "warts and all" but I know that I tend to expand on the positive side because I think that there is a lot this continent could learn from little Sweden.

On a personal level I am impressed by things like the solidly built houses, the high level of workmanship, the efficient banking system, the postal service, and the recycling systems among other things.

Until now I have also been very partial to the service I have got from my insurance company in Sweden compared to insurance companies here (like when Swedish Press had a break-in) but I am not so sure about this anymore.

We have had two break-ins in our little cottage in Östergötland. The first was fifteen years ago and the thieves got away with all my Karl Johan armchairs and other odds and ends. The insurance company was very helpful and paid us the full replacement value for the stolen goods. In fact the following summer when we realized that there were some Karl Johan stools that were also missing, the insurance company swiftly settled that claim too.

I always talked about this "positive" Swedish insurance story when I heard stories about how some North American companies behaved. I myself had a company tell me to either double my premiums or die before the age of 69 if I wanted to maintain my life insurance at the agreed upon level!

Back in Sweden we had another much more devastating break-in in our cottage in April. This time the thieves must have had a lot of time as they had expertly gone through absolutely everything and taken anything of value. They had even managed to find all our hiding places. Many things, like miniatures of my mother, had a primarily nostalgic value, but there was a lot of very valuable stuff that we had not brought with us to Canada. You just don’t risk shipping valuable glass and porcelain.

After getting expert appraisals of the most important objects we realized that we had been underinsured. The value of all that we had lost was double the amount we were insured for. Resigning ourselves to the loss, we presented our claim to the insurance company only to find out that it would pay out only 50 percent of the amount we were insured for, citing as a reason that we had been underinsured.

I take full responsibility for this. Living abroad, I have been out of touch with the Swedish antiques market and hence not updated the insurance accordingly. At the same time I feel that the insurance company should at least compensate me up to the value I am insured for minus the deductible. I get furious when I think of all the years that I have dutifully paid the hefty premiums only to be rewarded in this way. I think I could even make a case for coming out ahead if I had saved on the premiums all these years.

I guess the lesson here is that insurance companies ultimately put their owners and employees ahead of those they are supposed to give protection to. So be warned!

Have a nice March

Anders

February Blog

An ad in Systembolagets campaign with the headline "We Swedes invented the smartest way in the world to sell alcohol. (Perhaps because we needed it more than others.)"

I dislike monopolies out of principle, but there is one monopoly I really like. In my opinion the Swedish Systembolaget wine and spirits monopoly is a great institution that I hope will prevail in some form, even though the European Union would love to crush it. In response to the nagging from Brussels, Systemet has launched an advertising campaign touting the virtues of the Swedish way of dealing with alcohol.

It wasn't the politicians who created the Swedish alcohol distribution monopoly, it was the miners. The mining authorities in the city of Falun formed the world's first alcohol dispensing monopoly in 1850 to reduce accidents in the mine. By getting rid of the private profit motive they could stem the consumption which then was four times what it is today. Gradually more cities adopted the idea and in 1955 all the local mono-polies were rolled into one - Systembolaget.

Many countries have experimented with alcohol retail monopolies including the United States that, in 1930, realized it was a bad idea to forbid consumption in view of the prevailing attitude towards alcohol.

The billionaire John D Rockefeller sponsored a gigantic study to find the best way to sell alcohol and the answer was the "Swedish method". To this day many US states and Canadian provinces maintain alcohol monopolies.

In Sweden a new study details the probable effects of closing down the alcohol monopoly. According to experts, if strong beer, wine and alcohol would be freely available in all grocery stores, consumption would rise by 30 percent. This would lead to 16 million more sick days and 1 600 alcohol-related deaths. Not to speak of about 14 000 more cases of common assault.

There are no special offers in the boring Systembolaget stores that often dispense their wares across old-fashioned counters. The choice is limited, but the prices are the same wherever you go and you can rely on the value of what they sell. Being the world’s biggest buyer of wine, Systemet often offers great wines at very reasonable prices.

In the olden days British wine merchants used to take the ferry to Göteborg to buy up the grand brands like Lafite Rothschild, because of the relatively low prices for more expensive wines at Systemet stores.

Systembolaget buyers were the first to discover Australian and Chilean wines and they regularly buy some of the best wines from entire regions in Italy, France and Spain.

Have a nice February

Anders

PS. When we write about an interesting book or CD in scandinavian and Swedish Press, many readers contact us to find out where they can buy it. In response to this we are introducing a new service, together with Amazon, making it possible for you to conveniently buy most products we write about at “MustHave” in our www.nordicway.com "Market".

January Blog

Just as we are gearing up for Christmas and looking forward to some peace and quiet during the last days of 2010, two terrorist bombs explode in central Stockholm. As you can read in our "First Page News" (on page 9), a mass casualty incident was luckily averted, albeit narrowly, with the only loss of life being that of the perpetrator.

In 2004 Osama Bin Laden, in a video broadcast on al-Jazeera, explained why Sweden would not be an al-Qaeda target. According to some experts there has not been a change in this state of affairs, and the explosions on Drottninggatan may have been the work of a lone jihadist. We will in all likelihood never get the full story behind the first terrorism attack in the history of Sweden.

What we are left with is a feeling of disbelief, outrage and, above all, insecurity. My daughter works just around the corner from where the explosions went off. If you have been in Stockholm you are sure to have been at this spot. Things like this are just not supposed to happen in the city I grew up in.

This is a brutal reminder that Sweden is now both a participant and a target in the war against terrorism. The country, that prides itself as a fair and generous champion of the third world, has truly lost its innocence.

Domestically Swedes, with their open democracy, have to tackle the issue of how to guard civil liberties while meeting 21st century security threats. This is especially problematic in light of the profound changes in the country’s demographics that have put new strains on the tradition for consensual, enlightened politics. The issue of home-grown terrorism must be tackled head-on without any political correctness. An open debate on issues such as this is vital if Sweden is to remain the open, democratic and secure society we all have such great love and admiration for.

Happy New Year

Anders

PS. Every month in 2011 we will bring you a portrait of a famous Swedish birthday boy or girl. We start with August Strindberg (on page 16) and invite your comments. For those of you who keep all magazines we provide an Index to 2010 (on page 4). Check out everything we covered and let us know if you think we are on the right track. Your feedback is very important to us!

December Blog

In an interview about his Swedish best-seller "Hundraåringen Som Klev Ut Genom Fönstret och Försvann" (The Hundred-year Old Who Stepped Out Through the Window and Disappeared, see page 30) Jonas Jonasson noted that his main character reminded him of the carefree and disrespectful Pippi Longstocking. Having just seen The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the third film in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, I thought of another person who reminded me of Pippi Longstocking - the antisocial and fiercely independent Lisbeth Salander.

If you are one of the millions and millions who have read any or all of Stieg Larsson's three best-selling crime novels, you know what I am talking about. Lisbeth Salander, the heroine of Larsson's award-winning Millennium Trilogy, is a 24-year-old pierced goth with a dragoon tattoo. With her martial arts prowess and photographic memory, the brilliant hacker, with a stern moral conscience, has become a strong symbol of this century of the woman. The fact that she also has all the money in the world, compensates, just like in the real world, for her lack of social graces. Her misogynistic looks not withstanding, she is a hero of many young adult women - their Pippi Longstocking.

Astrid Lindgren’s fictional character, with her carrot-colored hair in braids that stick out, and one brown and one black stocking, had the same rebellious look as Lisbeth Salander when the 9-year old made an appearance in 1945. Just like Lisbeth, Pippi drinks a lot of coffee, has lots of money and is so strong that she can easily manhandle the two policemen who come to take her to "a home".

Both Pippi and Lisbeth have their run-ins with social services because of their complicated family situations. Pippi has no mother and her absent father is a king on a South Sea island. Lisbeth’s mum is in an institution while her criminal father, who has been absent during a large part of her life, wants to get rid of her. Lisbeth was bullied at school while Pippi was sure to have been bullied if she had not ditched school altogether after her first day in class.

Lisbeth's side-kick Mikael Blomkvist shares the surname of another of Astrid Lindgren's children's book characters, Mästerdetektiven Kalle Blomkvist (lead detective Kalle Blomkvist). There is another reference to Pippi Longstocking with Lisbeth Salander using Pippi Longstocking’s house Villa Villekulla as a cover name.

As I am writing this, I come across some material about Stieg Larsson and lo and behold I see that he has stated in interviews with an old colleague and his publisher that he was fascinated with the idea of a grown up Pippi Longstocking, "a dysfunctional girl, probably with attention deficit disorder who would have had a hard time finding a regular place in society but would nonetheless take a firm hand in directing her own destiny", and that he used those characteristics to create Lisbeth Salander.

All I can say is hats off to Stieg Larsson for giving the women of the world another memorable Swedish role model.

God Jul

Anders

November Blog

In November 2006 the Filipino sailor Jesus Sumook saved the life of a man who had been overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning in the cargo hold of a ship docked in the Swedish port of Helsingborg. Hearing about this heroic act, the Swedish Carnegie Foundation wanted to pay tribute to Sumook but it took some time to locate him as he travels around the world on the M/V Saga Tucano.

However when the ship was loading in the port of Vancouver in the beginning of October, I, as the Consul of Sweden, was able to present Jesus Sumook with a Diploma, a gold watch and a sum of money from the Foundation. This was one of the most fun and rewarding consular duties during the last few years. It felt good to give recognition to somebody who thought he was just doing what anybody would have done. I am not so sure about that.

Sumook’s heroic act took place when M/V Saga Spray was unloading wood pellets from British Columbia. A worker collecting the pellets left behind by the scoops down in the hold lay unconscious having been over-come by carbon monoxide. When the emergency alarm sounded, Sumook grabbed a breathing apparatus and descended three floors down into the hold. First he administered CPR on the man and then gave him his mask so that the gasping stevedore would not breathe in the deadly carbon monoxide.

The two men then shared the mask’s oxygen until emergency personnel after some time could help them up from the cargo hold. Several of the people involved in the rescue operation were poisoned by the carbon monoxide and six were admitted to hospital. One dockworker did not make it.

The Swedish Carnegie Hero Fund (carnegiestiftelsen.se) was established in the beginning of 1911 after the American industrialist Andrew Carnegie, born in Scotland, wrote a letter to the King of Sweden with an offer of $230 000 to establish the fund. According to the by-laws of the fund its main purpose is "to give awards to persons who voluntarily or otherwise beyond what may be deemed to be their duty, have, by some gallant action in the peaceful walks of life risked their lives in order to save human lives in the territory of Sweden and on Swedish ships."

Andrew Carnegie’s life philosophy was that the first third of one’s life should be devoted to learning, the second to making money and the third to giving it away "as it was shameful to die wealthy". One of the world's richest men, Carnegie donated almost three thousand libraries in the United States alone.

The world would a better place if we had more people like Jesus Sumook and Andrew Carnegie in it.

Have a nice November

Anders

October Blog

"A lot of IKEA products are not so cheap," said a parking attendant to me when he figured out that I was Swedish. (Was it the car I was driving or could it possibly be my accent that gave me away?)

I thought of his remark when I was at IKEA recently. Having just had a huge plate of meatballs for $5.99 and having picked up a LACK side table for two dollars more, I had to wonder what he was talking about. On the contrary you have to wonder how it is possible to buy the material, make the table, paint it, transport it from the country where it is manufactured to a central warehouse and from there to a store, make a profit at all stages of the process, and then charge only $7.99 for a piece of brand new furniture. I wonder what IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, who reportedly could work out the cost of manufacturing a table by just looking at it, would have to say about this?

Another thing I can’t get my head around is the inconsistency in some IKEA prices. For instance the HELMER drawer unit on casters costs only $49.99 in Canada. With six drawers, this is a lot of beautifully powder-coated steel. Compare this with the IKEA 365+ BRASA pendant lamp, at $59.99, that is also made out of powder-coated steel, but probably only requiring a single punch to get it into shape. The “really radical” lamp has been given remarkable prominence in the IKEA catalogue with its “function and quality of material” emphasized and with statements like “sometimes you need to stay basic to stand out”, but I cannot see why it should cost more than a substantial piece of furniture.

I talked with some IKEA people about this and they explained that the main reason for the difference in price is that “the lamp has to go through CSA approvals, testing, and the cost of parts of the lamp are greater than the drawer unit."

My guess would be that both HELMER and BRASA are made at a really inexpensive factory in China but that it is a higher margin and the commission to the Swedish designers A Nilsson, H Preutz and T Eliasson that makes BRASA that much more expensive. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Have a nice October

Anders

September Blog

I have received my election papers from Sweden now. Have you?

I hope all readers who have Swedish citizenship will vote in the general election. The election authorities in Sweden have some 130 000 Swedish citizens with foreign addresses on their register. All these citizens but even those who are not registered have the opportunity to vote at embassies and consulates or send in their votes by mail so that they are counted in the September 19 election.

Sadly, only 29 percent of registered voters abroad cast their vote in the last election, as compared to 82 percent participation in Sweden itself. Furthermore the 125 000 registered Swedes were only a fraction of the estimated half a million Swedes living abroad (according to the organization Svenskar i Världen) so in fact voter participation among this group was in all likelihood an embarrassing single digit figure.

If you live in Sweden you are constantly reminded of the election and you are well informed about the voting process. When it comes to Swedes living abroad, it is only the registered voters who receive the pertinent voting information. Swedish Press is attempting to keep you informed, but we have not been getting much help from the election authorities in Sweden. You would think that reminding Swedes of their right to vote in the only Swedish monthly in North America would be a non-brainer, but no. (I contacted the embassies and the Swedish Election Authority without getting any response. When I finally got hold of a bureaucrat in Sweden over the phone I was told that the authorities had no mandate to advertise the election abroad.)

When I first came to North America it was during the Social Democratic reign in Sweden. During election time I was told that the dearth of information about the elections here could be attributed to the Social Democrats not expecting much support from Swedes abroad. If that was true the Alliance should be more interested in getting in the votes from abroad.

General elections are at the heart of democracy and a low voter participation is an indication that it is not working. In Sweden there have been discussions about lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 years to establish a voting pattern early in life and in that way increase future voter participation. In all likelihood this will not happen until voter participation drops even further.

I hope you will find all the information about the election in this issue useful and if you are a Swedish citizen, make use of your democratic right and make your voice heard in this exciting election.

Have a nice September

Anders

August Blog

After more than a year hopping around the continent, I finally ended my trip "Around Swedish America in 548 Days" on July 2. At lunch time, I arrived at Victory Square in Vancouver where Swedish Press saw the light of day 82 years ago. You can read about all the places of Swedish interest on nordicway.com

This trip was of course “virtual”, even though my original dream had been a real road trip.

So for now I am following the Mongol Rally on the internet (http://mongolrally10.theadventurists.com). Starting from England, Spain and Italy at the end of July, the rally finishes, around four weeks and a whole heap of adventure later, in Mongolia. GPS is not allowed and the vehicle used for the trip must be a minimum of ten years old and for extra challenge have only a tiny 1.2 liter engine. Speed is not the object and all participants who make it to the Mongolian capitol of Ulan Bator have to donate their cars to an aid organization.

The 10 000 mile rally is organized by The Adventurists to make "the world a less boring place". There were six teams in the first "festival of slow" in 2004. Three years later the Mongol Rally sold out in 22 seconds with 200 teams participating. This year’s participants include my cousin's son, Mats Horn and his three friends from Sweden (http://swedentomongolia.com). They are travelling in a Mercedes ambulance from 1999 that, with a 2.4 liter engine, had to receive special permission. The Swedes bought the car for SEK 25 000, and they each invested SEK 20 000 for gas, supplies and visas for some of the 14 countries they are going to cross. As participants they also have to raise money for charity and you can help them at http://justgiving.com/swedentomongolia1. Last year’s rally raised more than $300,000.

What a great adventure! I can't help thinking of August Larson from Sweden who went to Mongolia as a missionary in 1892 and became a titled hero. You can read about Duke Larson of Mongolia, who turned up in Silverhill in Alabama, on day 433 of my trip around Swedish America!

Have a nice August

Anders

July Blog

When people hear that we have just come back from Sweden they immediately assume that we were there for the royal wedding. But in fact the focal point for this Swedish visit was to fix up our summer house after a break-in. We had a break-in 15 years ago and at that time the thieves took all our antique armchairs. This time they really wiped us out of almost everything of sentimental or monetary value.

One of the items that was stolen was a painting of the Vasaorden royal sloop (appraised at 2 kronor when I inherited it in 1975) that played a major role at the royal wedding this year. It was on this quite stunning rowing barge that Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel crossed the inner harbour of Stockholm at the end of the cortege that took them around the central parts of the city after the wedding ceremony.

Vasaorden is a beautiful Gustavian sloop in white and blue with lots of gold that was originally designed and built in 1774 on royal command by "the father of naval architecture", Fredrik Henrik Chapman.

The present vessel is a 1920s replica of the original. Used only for special state occasions in the waters surrounding Stockholm, it has had royalty like Queen Elizabeth of England and Queen Juliana of Holland on board. It is now being moved to the Stockholm Naval Museum where it will be on show before it goes into storage in an old torpedo boat shed at Djurgården until it is time for the next state occasion.

I have a special interest in the Vasaorden because it was my grandfather who commanded her when Queen Victoria was buried in 1930 and when Princess Ingrid married the Danish Crown Prince Frederik in 1935. My grandfather also wrote the instructions on how to control and maneuver Vasaorden under the pull of her 18 naval oarsmen. Very much in the spotlight on state occasions, often with a royal party on board, Vasaorden has to be handled very carefully so that she does not carry too much way, with a fair wind and perhaps a current, and pass the pontoon or if the oars are tossed too soon, fail to reach it.

Judging from the footage from the wedding, the royal couple seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the mini cruise on board the Vasaorden. As they were welcomed on board the commander of Vasaorden even had a little private bouquet of yellow and blue flowers for the bride. I am sure that I will eventually find some souvenir picture of Victoria and Daniel on Vasaorden to put where my old painting was stolen.

June Blog

This current issue of Swedish Press really illustrates the many advantages of electronics.

For the first time you are not only going to be able to read this month's interview with Carl Johan De Geer, but also listen to it in the electronic issue of Swedish Press.

This means that subscribers to the electronic Swedish Press get a considerable amount of "bonus" material, as a certain amount of an interview gets cut in the edited and printed version. (However as with all things electronic, this launch comes with a cautionary note - we have not yet been able to check out the audiofile in action and can only hope there will be no glitches.)

One thing that we know works beautifully is the SweMail service that is taken care of by a dedicated group of volunteers who translate the Swedish parts of Swedish Press. (All you have to do to get this free service is to send your e-mail address to anders@nordicway.com or go to the site at http://members.shaw.ca/swemail1). As both the interview and the Last Word this month are in Swedish, it is a good time to join the growing number of SweMail fans. Were it not for the Internet and the voluntary spirit of the SweMail translators, Swedish Press would not be able to offer this unique service.

On pages 17-19 you can read about my pet project "Around Swedish America in 548 Days" that I could not have brought to fruition without the Internet. There is just so much material that it would require a 500+ page book to fit it all in. Furthermore with the Internet you can easily locate the places of interest on the Google map making this trip so much more fun. This is in fact the most complete documentation of what is Swedish in the United States and Canada and it is free. I hope you will all check this trip out at nordicway.com!

What excites me most about the electronic issue of Swedish Press is that the whole magazine is in color. We would of course love to print in full color, but that would have meant economic ruin for this historic publication. But now we are able to offer this electronically and at a lower cost to boot ($25 compared to $29 for the mailed magazine). Plus if you switch to the electronic version you are helping to save trees.

Furthermore the price difference between the electronic version and the print version of Swedish Press is unfortunately soon going to be somewhat bigger as postage and production costs have gone up so much that we will have to raise the subscription price of the printed magazine for the first time since 2001.

I myself love the feel of the paper, even the smell of print when we get a fresh copy. My generation will never be able to completely abandon our love for books, magazines and newspapers. So you have my assurance that we are not going to get rid of the paper edition of Swedish Press.

Have a really nice June

Anders

May Blog

On Good Friday we had dinner with friends in Säljemar, just north of Gävle. Sitting in their glassed-in verandah overlooking the still frozen Baltic Sea in the hazy light of dusk, we could not have asked for a more picture-perfect setting.

Suddenly our host pointed out to the ice and we all turned to look.

"It's a wolf," I cried. The big and squarish animal that was walking across the ice along the horizon could not have been anything else. We were not all in agreement about what we had seen. There were more people around the table who believed what we had seen was a fox. But this animal was too big and did not seem to have the nimbleness of a fox.

It all happened so quickly that we unfortunately had no time to take a closer look at the animal through binoculars.

There are more wolves in Sweden now than there have been for almost a hundred years. 27 wolves or about ten percent of the population was culled in the winter in the first (sanctioned) wolf-hunt in more than fifty years (SwPress Mar10).

Wolves have been spotted in the south of Sweden, in Stockholm suburbs and on the ice close to where we were near Gävle. Three wolves were recently killed by a train in Dalarna. The police even followed one lone wolf that crossed right through the center of Stockholm one night.

Still it is a privilege to actually see one.

April Blog

Just got a letter from TV3 in Sweden asking me if I could recommend some Swedish women in North America for the popular Swedish Hollywood Wives series. I have never seen it, but have, of course, heard lots about it. The docu-show, that is now in its third season (SwPr Oct09), has, above all, really exposed the difference in values between Sweden and Beverly Hills.

The outspoken Swedish wife of crooner Paul Anka created a big controversy when she listed the number of people working in her household and talked about the advantages of "the service-minded US society" compared to Sweden where people “come home and sulk and have to clean and iron".

"Swedish dads are tragic with all their diaper-changing and equality nonsense ... Sexually it is the woman's responsibility to ensure that the man is satisfied, if she does not then she only has herself to blame if he is unfaithful," were some of the other words of wisdom from Anna Anka, who has since been separated from her husband.

This kind of political incorrectness did not go over well with Swedes but the ensuing debate rendered the television programme even more publicity.

Meter Film & Television, that produces Svenska Hollywoodfruar, now wants to find "thrilling and inspiring women with strong personalities" beyond Hollywood. They want to "widen their scope".

I can come up with a lot of admirable Swedish women in North America with "that get go spirit", that the producers are looking for, and who "grab opportunities and are willing to share”. But when I take a look at the current crop I wonder if my candidates would make it, as the programme is so clearly just looking for rich, beautiful and glamorous women.

I just don’t know any women who have two identical Rolls Royces (in case one needs to go for repairs), live next door to Kiefer Sutherland and Al Pacino or in a mansion that seats 500 at dinner, have their drinks mixed by Bill Clinton and sing snaps songs with Prince Charles.

My choices are different and would probably not cause the same level of "royal Swedish envy," which perhaps is the secret behind the success of Svenska Hollywoodfruar.

March Blog

Among the old unread magazines that tend to pile up in our home, I found an issue of the women’s magazine Amelia from 1996. Leafing through it, I came upon a most unusual ode to the Swedish man by Miss Sweden 1993 Johanna Lind.

“Boring, emancipated and honest Swedish men are clearly the best in the world.” Ms Lind has a particular fondness for the middle-aged Swedish man who, she feels, has been unfairly singled out by society as the butt of jokes and even bullying.

“He is constantly being told that he is plump, boring and totally unable to give compliments” while in reality he is quite unique with his “square honesty and lack of pretense”. She even feels that there should be a Swedish Man’s Day (like Father’s Day) that should be celebrated each year with gifts in the form of underwear, cake in bed and free entrance to dances.

According to Johanna Lind, “Swedish men don’t brag about their riches. Instead they pretend to be poorer than they are and let members of the opposite sex pay for their own drinks. They want to be appreciated for their inner qualities and not for what they have in the bank.”

It was Ms Lind’s year out in the big world, after she was crowned Miss Sweden, that awoke her appreciation for the Swedish man. The men she met in New York were always flaunting their wealth, leading her on with lofty promises and smart tricks. Playboy types would invite her to go on vacations in Acapulco and elsewhere while her agent suggested that a sexual relationship with him wouldn’t be a bad thing for a rising star.

Johanna Lind is by no means suggesting that Swedish men will not, after just a few rounds on the dance floor, make a sexual proposal. “But their straightforwardness is an advantage,” she says, because then you can tell them off right away. And often they are relieved because they are actually on the lookout for “a down-to-earth girl who likes to take walks in the woods and potter in the cottage”.

Johanna Lind feels that Swedish women should plain and simply show more appreciation for their men and has put together this maintenance list for their care:

1. Don’t order your men around, ask him nicely for help.
2. Leave him alone sometimes. Let him sit and read the paper for an hour in the washroom, without knocking on the door. 3. Show him appreciation more often.
3. Don’t ever accuse him of being boring.
4. Don’t make heavy demands on him. Men do not notice that the cactus needs watering or that the bedroom floor is covered with old socks.
5. Don’t go to family counseling, listen instead to the texts of Swedish pop songs that point out what is important in life, things like we must live for each other…

She is in essence describing the middle-aged engineer type you would find on the dance floor of the central hotel in a provincial city in the 90s. Much has changed since then especially in the bigger cities and among the younger generations, and the differences between American and Swedish men may not be as significant any longer.

But there are bits and pieces in this reflection that certainly hold true to this day.

Unless she is pulling our legs.

February Blog

Here in Vancouver we are now counting the days to the Winter Olympics. In fact the entire province of British Columbia, as well as the rest of Canada, is gearing up for the games with mounting excitement, partly thanks to a torch relay that is touching neighbourhoods all over the country.

Everywhere you go in Vancouver the talk is all about the expensive tickets people have managed to get or, more often than not, been unsuccessful at getting. There is a lot of talk about people getting exorbitant rents for their houses but then there are just as many people still hoping to make some money on that extra bedroom. Vancouverites worry about commuting during the games while parking restrictions are already in force within an ever-growing perimeter around the venues.

In Whistler the skiing has been fantastic with the added bonus of shorter line-ups as the usual crowd has kept away during this Olympic year, something that was expected judging from the experience of former Olympic hosts.

In the February issue of Swedish Press you can read about a local cross country legend (page 27), the Swedish Olympic team (24-25), how the King and Queen will be received by the Swedish community (15) and an interview with Gunilla Lindberg of the IOC (20-21). We will report on the Swedish medals in the next issue!

With all this talk of the Olympics I thought of my maternal grandfather. Turning to the worldwide web, I was thrilled to find out that Henrik Horn af Åminne, with his horse Omen, really took gold as part of the Swedish equestrian team in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.

In those days the competition was only open to male military officers on active duty. Today the equestrian competition comprises dressage, cross-country and show jumping, but during grandfather’s time there was also a long distance ride (55K in 4 hours) and a steeplechase course.

My grandfather also competed in the individual event and he was leading after the first three trials. But during the show jumping competition one of the straps of his brand new saddle from Palmgrens (the Hermès of Sweden) broke and although he cleared all the jumps, the strap touched so many that he only came in as number 16. Instead of being close to gold, my grandfather finished as number ten individually.

There was a story circulating in Stockholm that grandfather, who was both a rather choleric military man and a count - used to getting his way - was so upset that he went straight to Palmgrens and, with his riding crop, gave the owner a good flogging for selling him a defect saddle.

January Blog

Through the years we have written extensively about Raoul Wallenberg in the swedish Press magazine. The Swedish hero, who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest during World War II, was taken into "protective custody" by the Soviet Union on January 17, 1945 and was never to be heard of again. In the February issue we bring you a revealing article by Josh Prager about the inefficiency of the Swedish government to come to Raoul Wallenberg’s aid, and the toll this tradgedy took on his family.

The story of Raoul Wallenberg is somewhat special to me as there have been family associations through the generations. My paternal grandfather started his career as an officer in the Swedish navy the same year as Raoul Wallenberg’s father. The two became good friends and so did their wives and I still have photos of the two couples sailing in the Stockholm archipelago.

Raoul Wallenberg’s father died of cancer before Raoul was born. His mother Maj later married Fredrik von Dardel with whom she had two children, Guy and Nina. When Guy started a company in Sweden my grandfather was one of the board members.

The von Dardels rented an apartment in a building that my maternal grandmother owned on Strandvägen in Stockholm. My mother lived there too, and when a Hunga-rian Jewish friend wrote to her asking for help, my mother wrote to Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest. I still remember the two letters he wrote back because of the German censorship stamps all over them.

Unfortunately the letters have disappeared, but I know that Raoul Wallenberg saved my mother's friend and her whole family.

A few years ago when I visited Raoul Wallenberg’s half-sister Nina Lagergren, to interview her (SwPr Dec01) the first thing she did was to bring out a family album and show pictures of me as a six-year-old playing with her daughter Nan (who is now married to the former Secre-tary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan). As my parents are long dead I did not know that our families had been close, but my conversation with Nina Lagergren brought back memories. I remembered her children’s play-house and even a long discussion at their breakfast table about whether one should crack or cut a boiled egg open.

It really is a small world in Stockholm.

If you happen to be in Vancouver on Raoul Wallenberg Day January 17, please join us at the Jewish Community Center where the Chair of “The International Commission of Inquiry into the Fate and Whereabouts of Raoul Wallenberg”, Irwin Cotler will speak of the Swedish hero's fate.

December Blog

This is the time of the year (I wrote in Swedish Press in August 1993) when we hear from many readers about happy summer visits with friends and relatives in Sweden. Generally the stories are about joyful memories, but every now and again the tales are tainted with a certain bitterness.

“I was staying in a hotel when I was over there so as not to be of any inconvenience to my relatives. Instead of inviting me home, ten of them came over to the hotel and had dinner on me”.

“When they visit us over here it’s I who has to take them out to a restaurant. When I visit them in Sweden it’s still I who have to pay when we go out”.

“When I visit my sister she is always complaining about how expensive everything is over there, making me feel guilty”.

“In Sweden there is a saying that guests and fish smell bad after three days. I try to live by that when I visit my friends and relatives in Sweden. But when they come over here, it’s somehow like the long trip gives them licence to stay as long as they like”.

“They said that they had only made local calls, not knowing that over here we get an itemized phone bill so I could see exactly how many calls they had made to Sweden”.

“When I stay with my brother or sister in Sweden I always make a point of contributing in any way I see possible. When they are here they are just out shopping for bargains to bring back to Sweden.”

The recurring theme in most of these unfortunate tales is the feeling that many Swedes believe that their North American relatives are better off than they are.

This is a myth with a history. To justify the hardship of emigration in the 19th century, many Swedes overstated their success in the new country when they wrote home. The stories about the rich relatives who had made it big in America were further inflated as they spread in the villages. In this way the eldest son who got the farm did not need to have a bad conscience and could instead expect largesse when the “rich” relatives paid a visit to the old homeland.

My personal peeve on this subject is that very few of my Swedish friends and relatives show any particular interest in my life over here. I have even discussed this with them and the explanation is most often that they find it hard to relate to it. Many of the people I know in Sweden still receive me like I have never been away. I guess I should take this as a compliment and it is probably a testimony of a strong relationship.

When all is said and done the most important thing is the contact and I am sure the small irritants that occur are soon forgotten.

November Blog

There was a time when visitors to Sweden marveled at how clean it was everywhere. No cigarette butts or wrappers on the pavement and no garbage or abandoned cars out in nature. Sad to say this is no longer true.

Similarly when I was young there were no homeless people in Sweden, except for a vagrant or two who rejected the nice apartments they were offered by the social services, choosing to live a freer life instead. Now this has changed too, and in Stockholm I see people digging into garbage cans in search of cans and bottles.

Now besides this anecdotal evidence, I also have the statistics. There are between 3 100 and 3 200 homeless people in Stockholm. Almost a quarter of them are women.

In these tough economic times the Department for the Homeless in Stock-holm is dealing with 30 percent more clients, at a time when it is facing a million kronor cutback in its budget. It is a terrible dilemma says one of the social workers as the clients "have nothing, no money, no food, nowhere to live and hardly any clothes".

The concept of homelessness is no longer foreign to Swedes and this is evident in the psychological thriller Missing that we wrote about in SwedenNow the other month. The book is by Karin Alvtegen and the main character is a homeless woman by the name Sybilla in Stockholm.

"Born into a life of privilege, Sybilla has spent the past many years opting instead to live on the streets of Stockholm, cadging a bed, a bath, a meal, where she can. Her favorite technique - one she permits herself only as a special treat - plays out at the Grand Hotel, where with luck and persistence, she can usually charm a lonely visiting businessman into buying her a dinner and a room for the night."

This is a fascinating read where you follow the fate of a woman who has been sheltered by her anonymity but who suddenly becomes the most wanted person in Sweden after the businessman whom she has lured at the Grand Hotel is murdered.

Besides being full of suspense, Missing presents a very real-life picture, survival techniques and all, of a homeless person in the Swedish capital.

Have a nice November!

Anders

October Blog

The October issue of Swedish Press is traditionally our car issue where we take a closer look at the new Volvo and Saab models. As far as I can remember both Volvo and Saab have also always advertised in this issue. This year things are different and it does not come as a big surprise, what with the turbulence in the automotive industry. Hopefully by next year there will be some clarity in the ownership of both the Swedish cars and we can look forward to having them back as advertisers. In the meantime there are exciting things happening at Saab and Volvo, the economic crisis not withstanding, that you can read about on page 13.

With declining advertising, we have space for more reader service. This month we bring you the new baking book by Swedish TV chef Leila Lindholm whom you can read about on page 37. We are also offering for sale my book God Jul, about Swedish Christmas as seen through old Christmas cards.

God Jul was first published by Bonniers in Stockholm in 1978, so I was both surprised and delighted when Skyhorse Publishing in New York asked for my permission to publish it in English. I was a bit concerned about the reproduction as the films for the original book are long gone in this age of digital printing. But the printers in China have done a masterful job of scanning in all the beautiful cards and I have not found any mistakes in the typesetting that was done in India.

God Jul has been the all-time "Christmas book" best-seller in Sweden, so I hope it will do well over here too. (I will personally dedicate a copy of it for you if you indicate this on your order).

The book came about by pure chance at a time when I was the art director of the Uppsala company Scandecor, that was the world's biggest purveyor of posters and photo walls as well as other graphic products. Scandecor also represented Hallmark Cards in the Nordic region. In its marketing for Hallmark products, Scandecor found that Swedes did not warm up to the American-style Christmas cards. I was asked to find Swedish motifs and by chance mentioned this at a dinner I was attending and instantly got two different tips of private collections of Christmas cards. Going through these collections, I was completely enamored by all the fantastic cards and decided to put the best ones in a book! It was gratifying to see that the thousands of Swedes who bought my book as well as the critics felt the same way.

Have a really nice October!

Anders

September Blog

I don't know about you but I have not seen many exciting draws around in recent years - you know trips to Paris or Las Vegas that were just a grocery ballot away (no purchase necessary). There are plenty of sales, bargains and offers of all kinds, but nothing much to dream about.

And good draws make for great pipe dreams.

For one of the best in a long time check out the back cover this month. Imagine staying at one of the Leading Hotels of the World across from the Stockholm Royal Palace. You cannot find a finer hotel or a better location in Stockholm. You have the best of Sweden's capital within walking distance. Grand Hotel itself is a place of such grandeur and history that it warrants a special article later this fall.

Your dream also includes a stay in Iceland's capital where you will also be so close to everything that you will really get to know one of the most fascinating places in the Nordic region. Start planning!

The first draws I ever entered, as a kid in Sweden, were for a dog, and a Kalle Anka competition where the first prize was a trip to the newly started Disneyland. I remember that my greatest worry was what I would do with the dog while I was in California. This was a moot point as I did not win either prize.

In our draw you have a very real chance of winning because we have relatively few entries. So this is not like the big lotteries which after all are nothing more than "a tax on people who cannot do their math!" This is the real thing.

In the 90s Swedish Press used to have some kind of a draw almost every year. Subscribers used to call to find out when the next one was going to be so that they could plan their renewals and gift-giving accordingly. I see that our last draw was in 2002, so it was really time for a new one, especially this year when we celebrate our 80th Anniversary. I hope each and every one of you will enter in the draw. I am sure you all know at least one other person who would enjoy the SwedishPress but does not have a subscription. Or perhaps you could subscribe to Scandinavian. Or you could do that and give a gift and renew your own subscription to add to your chances of winning a trip of a lifetime. And if you give away two gift subscriptions, we have an extra gift for you!

Have a nice September!

Anders

PS.

Please note that the October issue will be a bit later than usual because I am going to be in Sweden and Iceland during the next three weeks. If you want to follow my trip "Around Swedish America in 365 Days" you can now get a daily prompt from Twitter for "swedishpress" that will tell you where the virtual trip is each day. You can also follow us on the map at www.nordicway.com/tour.

August Blog

Swedes love to travel but this summer many of them are staying at home. Quite a few have a second home in the countryside or the archipelago so they will be just fine, thank you. More Swedes than usual are also exploring new places in Sweden this year, like hiking in the National Parks (that we write about on pages 16-19). When asked why they are not traveling some say it is because of the environment, but the more common reason is the economy.

A lot more people in North America are also staying home or finding destinations closer to home. It can actually be quite nice to take a break without all the stress of travel, customs and other hassles on the road. Myself, I have done a lot of virtual travel lately when writing the daily installments of "Around Swedish America in 365 Days". The trip that you too can follow at www.nordicway.com/tour, is a neat way of finding out about new places without leaving home. It has been an adventure for me, with all the interesting Swedes on this continent and their amazing accomplishments.

I recently found out that the man behind the Indian motorcycle, that was the first motorcycle in America, was none other than the Swede Carl Hedström. The mechanical genius made the Indian into the world's most advanced and best-selling bike in 1907. He even set a new record, riding a mile on the Florida sands on one of his Indian machines in 1 minute and 3.2 seconds. He called it quits at a board meeting because of a disagreement over the company’s dubious practice of inflating its stock value and retired to his Connecticut estate at age 42 (see day 203).

When I saw old war movies I always wondered how they could shoot straight forward from a plane without damaging the propellers. Now I know that it was Gustaf Swebelius (Day 209), the son of a watchmaker in Vingåker, who solved the difficult problem of synchronizing machine gun fire with the airplane propeller, so that bullets could be fired between the blades.

In New Haven on Day 210 you can read about Oscar Mossberg who made a name for himself with the Mossberg rifles. Not to be confused with Frank Mossberg (Day 199) who invented an electric automobile before Henry Ford launched his internal combustion engine.

I had always wanted to do the Swedish-American trip by myself in a car. I might still do that, but for now I am quite content to do it on the internet using my laptop and basking in the sun on the patio.

Have a really nice August!

Anders

PS.

So many readers wanted to see Swedish Press in full color, that we have extended the offer of a free copy of the electronic edition of Swedish Press. All you need to do is email anders@nordicway.com with "free offer" in the subject line.

July Blog

Let me start by assuring all readers that the paper edition of Swedish Press will not be scrapped. We are however making improvements to our electronic edition this year - our 80th year of publishing - with a hope that more readers will see this as a good alternative. And right now you can check this out for free.

Many of you will appreciate the full-color magazine that you get quicker and for less money and doing your bit for the environment at the same time. For overseas subscribers a switch makes even more sense as they can get Swedish Press quicker than the subscribers in the US and Canada, and with a saving of $40 on postage.

Just back from a magazine conference in Toronto, I am happy to report that it is not all gloom and doom in the publishing industry, unless you are a newspaper.

The largest newspapers in the United States have lost between a half and a third of their readership. Coupled with that, their advertising revenue has dropped by a third since 2005, and a further loss of 20 percent is expected this year. The result is that many newspapers, like the 150 year old Rocky Mountain News, are throwing in the towel. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ceased publishing and so will the San Francisco Chronicle, Philadelphia Enquirer, Chicago Tribune and many others. The *Financial Times even published a death notice "in loving memory 1764-2009" for the whole American newspaper industry .

Sweden is not immune, and Metro, that has championed free newspapers all over the world, is consolidating its Swedish editions, concentrating primarily on Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö. Many experts now argue that the free papers will ultimately not have been more than a parenthesis in media history. Some of the same experts are also predicting the end of all printed papers and even books for that matter.

The problem for magazines is the drop in advertising revenues coupled with a rise in costs, especially for mailing. The postal services, suffering from falling revenues themselves, are hiking up the postage for publications since it is really only these (and bills) that they are dealing with today.

The Internet is being hailed as the savior, but most newspapers have given up on the idea of making money on their internet ventures, as it is only niched titles like the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times that have until now managed to charge for their news. But for magazines electronic editions may well be the way of the future. This makes a lot of sense when you consider that about 70% of the magazines you see for sale in the supermarket and stores are not sold. They are recycled or end up in landfills. So it makes a lot of sense for us at Swedish Press to maintain both a “paper” and a rich media “electronic” edition of the magazine.

Have a nice July

Anders

Let me know if you want to see “What is fast, green and in full color” (see offer on the left) and I will get you a first look at Swedish Press in full color! You will understand why I am so excited.

June Blog

One of the strong memories I have from the time I was about ten years old or so is that of being kept up one night because of a very loud conversation going on in the neighbourhood on a warm summer night. Today that wakeful night is a good conversation piece, but I remember bitterly whining the following day about the one VERY loud voice and the constant clinking of glasses.

I grew up in one of the prettiest parts of Stockholm, across from Skansen, in the little town of Djurgården (that you can read more about on page 17). One of our closest neighbours was Nadeshta Nilsson, the owner of the nearby Gröna Lund, and she always hosted a dinner on her terrace for Jussi Björling after his annual concert. It was his powerful voice that had kept me awake all that night.

Living so close to Gröna Lund meant putting up with quite a bit of noise during the summer when the tivoli was open, most of it not from such an eminent source as Jussi Björling. However we were amply compensated as residents of Djurgårdsstaden had a free pass to Gröna Lund. This was a great privilege especially when stars like Paul Anka and Ray Charles were performing.

I spent quite a lot of time at Gröna Lund during the rest of the year also thanks to Nadeshta Nilsson's grandchildren, "the wild brothers Lindgren" who attended the same school as me.

Jussi Björling, who died before he was 50, was one of the world's foremost tenors. And according to the widow of Enrico Caruso "the only one worthy of wearing his mantle". Jussi toured Swedish America already as a young boy with his father and three brothers to perform under the "Bjoerling Male Choir" banner. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1938 and toured extensively and triumphantly in Europe and North America for the next 22 years. Jussi Björling's appearances at opera houses in New York, Chicago and San Francisco were eagerly awaited each season. But he also crisscrossed the country to perform in concerts and recitals as well as on radio and later television.

One of the places he sang to sellout audiences was Vancouver. Fans here are in for a treat this midsummer when the Scandinavian Centre presents the Tribute to Jussi Björling concert featuring local tenor Richard Tyce who will sing many of the classics that Jussi Björling became so famous for (see page 31).

Despite his enormous popularity across three continents, Jussi remained a humble and simple man. On one of his visits to Vancouver he beat the Swedish Cultural Society president in arm wrestling and the Swedish Press editor in a “fingerkrok” locked-fingers tug of war. And that was quite an achievement, wrote a humiliated Matt Lindfors in Swedish Press, because there were very few who had managed to beat him at his game.

Have a nice Midsummer!

Anders

PS. If you ever wanted to find your lost cousin, rent out your cottage in Sweden or make money on your children’s forgotten Brio wooden toys, Swedish Press offers you a free classified ad on page 32. It’s one of the ways we celebrate our 80th!

May Blog

Have you heard the story about the hot dog vendor who had a son studying economics at the University of Uppsala?

One day this learned son came home and asked his father if he had heard about the bad times - the recession? No, the father did not know anything about this but now that he did, he would of course become more cautious and curtail his expenses. Every single purchase was closely scrutinized, and our korvgubbe even decided to make do with his old sign that had over time become a bit scruffy. And sure enough sales started dropping. With things looking like they did, the hot dog vendor stopped going out as much as he had done before.

And now he really understood how right his son had been about the bad times.

I found this story in an old editorial in Swedish Press from 1991 during another recession. It is reassuring to see that we did manage to ride that one out.

In the same vein Swedish Press, that was founded by some braves souls at the very worst of times, right at the beginning of the "dirty thirties," has, despite many close calls and near-collapses, managed to survive and is still going strong.

If we were to follow the advice of the most pessimistic of the ubiquitous pundits right now, we would be lying low and staying away from any extra expenses. But keeping to the Swedish Press tradition we are celebrating the publication’s 80th birthday this month with the "special supplement" (that you can keep as a memento by simply tearing out pages 3-16 and 29-42) and a fantastic party that you are all welcome to (see pages 8 and 39).

During times like we are now experiencing in North America and in Sweden, it is more important than ever to count our blessings. At Swedish Press we are especially grateful to the organizations, companies and institutions that are helping us to sponsor this jubilee, as well as to all readers who are joining in the celebration.

Because if it wasn’t for you, Swedish Press could so easily have gone the way of the more than 2 000 Swedish papers in North America that ceased publishing.

We don't need sons studying economics to tell us that times are bad. The important thing is that we handle the bad times in the most positive way.

Have a really nice May!

Anders

PS.

Go to www.nordicway.com if you want to have a look at a full colour and environmental Swedish Press (see page 2).

April Blog

There are not many things that are as exciting as organizing a big party. (Those of you who have organized weddings may disagree). Swedish Press has had two great - still talked about - anniversary parties in the past, so now it is a real challenge to make the 80th jubilee party (see page 8) the one to top them all when it comes to exceptional entertainment, food and drink!

We are so lucky to get Magnus Martensson to entertain us before he takes off for bigger stages. This fall he is going on an extensive tour of the USA and Canada, that those in the know predict, will be the big break for this very talented and funny young entertainer (interviewed on page 20).

"I want to be there too," writes singersongwriter Michael Saxell (SwPr Sep08) from Ystad. He has booked his flight and will be a special treat with such Swedish favorites as När en Flicka Talar Skånska (When a girl speaks the Skania dialect) from the creator, who also has a colourful history on the Canadian music scene where he collaborated with Randy Bachman and others.

"Where can we stay?" asked some guests from Seattle so I contacted the closest hotel to the Scandinavian Centre. The luxurious Delta Burnaby Hotel and Conference Centre, that is part of the brand new Grand Villa Casino, opens at the end of the month of april, and our guests can stay there at a very special rate of $149.

The welcoming drink at the 60th and 70th anniversary parties were sparkling wines all the way from Sweden. This year you will enjoy a very special Swedish-American "champagne" from the Sjoeblom Winery in Napa Valley.

IT entrepreneur Michael Sjöblom produces a unique Cabernet Sauvignon sparkling wine under the strict laws of the French Methode Champenois, that connoisseurs are raving about.

These kinds of out-of the-ordinary details are not a breeze to bring together. For one anniversary, we had arranged to get a shipment of the Swedish Kroner sparkling wine through its US agent. On the morning of the party it had still not arrived. I called New York and was told that they had forgotten to ship the boxes and now it was too late!

With six hours to go, I got the telephone number to suppliers on the west coast who could possibly have bottles of Kroner. I located a warehouse in Los Angeles with three cases and a warehouse manager who personally drove the cases to the airport and made sure they were on the first available flight. The champagne was speeded through customs and arrived at the Swedish Hall literally minutes before the guests did.

Some people may ask why we bother to take on this big job of organizing a party. To that I say that Swedish Press deserves a great celebration. It has made it through all these years while over two thousand other Swedish American publications have folded.

We would love to see you all at the party but that is of course an impossibility. But perhaps you will honour the magazine with a greeting or best of all give Swedish Press the gift of a new subscriber on this its 80th year of publishing!

Have a nice April!

Anders

P.S.

As I am writing this, Erik Mara phones to tell me that in a Swedish Press from 1975 it says that the paper was started in 1927 - so we are two years late with the jubilee! My research found the very first issue in the fall of 1928, and you can read more in next month’s jubilee issue.

March Blog

If you are following my virtual trip "Around Swedish America in 365 Days" (at nordicway.com) you know that I am virtually somewhere in Minneapolis right now. In reality I am hard at work in Vancouver getting this issue out to you.

I say this because there are still some readers who think that I am actually doing the trip in person. They would be surprised to know that when I wrote about the manhunt for the Mad Trapper of Rat River (on Day 22 of the trip) I was actually doing it from India (-see pages 16-19 and 23).

That is the beauty of modern telecommunications - that you can publish a magazine or on the web from absolutely anywhere in the world albeit, in my case, with a few technological problems that were quickly fixed by a more computer-savvy daughter.

Right now I am wondering if the virtual tour should make its way back to Vancouver on May 9 for the celebration of the 80th anniversary of Swedish Press. As you can see on page 8, we will celebrate this important jubilee with a commemorative issue and a banquet. We very much hope that you, dear Reader and Supporter, will join our guest of honour, Ingrid Iremark, Sweden's Ambassador to Canada, on this special occasion to pay tribute to Swedish Press. Welcome to the banquet! And if you would like to send a congratulatory note to the paper, please fill in the coupon on page 4.

This will be the third time your present editor is participating in a jubilee celebration and in all likelihood this will be the last. So we hope to see you there. We have some great memories from the last two celebrations and this one will be the one to top them all!

Most jubilees come and go as a matter of course. A celebration is just a way to remind us of the passing of time. In the case of Swedish Press there would be nothing to celebrate if the publication had not proved itself over and over again and managed to stay alive!

There have been over 2 000 Swedish publications in North America through the years. Now there are only 2 left. So a celebration is really in order.

Have a nice March!

Anders

PS. You can read about singer Alice Babs' anniversary on page 30 and purchase her Jubilee Edition CDs with 28 newly discovered and previously unreleased tracks on page 36 (the back cover).

February Blog

As late as in 1986 when I took over the Swedish Press, many visitors to the office, especially old-timers, would talk nostalgically about the mighty printing press, and the particular smell of the ink and the sound of the steady churning-out of fresh newspapers that they would encounter in the good old days.

That was how it was when 'Svenska Pressen' saw the light of day 80 years ago at Vancouver's Victory Square. The premises of Swedish Press have been shrinking ever since then and today the paper resides in a home office with steadily shrinking computers.

Ernie Poignant, who celebrates his 90th birthday on February 4, still has vivid memories of the early days of Svenska Pressen. In 1947 when he left his father's chicken farm in Matsqui and got his first job at Swedish Press, the paper was housed in its own building in central Vancouver with six employees and a huge printing press. Now that was a real newspaper. (For the 60th anniversary of Swedish Press in 1989, Ernie prepared a humoristic portable exhibit about the early days of the paper that is available for clubs and events).

After two years at Swedish Press, Ernie (who had failed his grade one English because he had grown up with only Swedish around him) was ready to move on, as a full-fledged compositor, to the Cariboo Observer and later on to the Maple Ridge Gazette.

"I still have most of my marbles," says Ernie. Since his retirement in 1983, he has been busier than ever presenting his "chalk talks" and cartoons for pre-schoolers, at shopping malls, Sunday schools, retirement homes and hospitals and more. During the Christmas season, he was in his usual place at the Burnaby Village looking as dapper as ever. Acollection of his cartoons has been published in the book People, Pencil and Paper.

"The cartoons are oddly touching, in their gentle wit and in the sheer exuberance of their drawing. I didn't laugh out once but I noticed, when I turned the last page, that I had been smiling all the way through all these kind and gentle works of a kind and gentle man," reads the introduction by Mark Hamilton, whom Ernie met at the Gazette.

I can't do much more than agree while I can only hope for a fraction of Ernie's vitality if I make it to the grand old age of 90. In the meantime here's wishing Ernie Poignant continued good health so that he can bring many more smiles to hearts young and old!

Have a nice February

Anders

PS. If you haven't yet done it, go to http://www.nordicway.com and see how we are faring on the Swedish Press trip "Around Swedish America in 365 days"! Also see page 4.