Archive for the ‘Society’ Category

Snus on the loose in US?

Business, Society: October 3rd, 2007 by PO

Can anyone halt the march of the little bags of moist tobacco that people stuff under their lips to make them look like boxers? the New York Times wonders.

With the Sweden experience as a blueprint, the American tobacco industry is looking to snus as a potentially profitable, less dangerous alternative to cigarettes.

Even if the US does accept the introduction of snus, the EU is unlikely to follow suit. As The Times points out:

Snus has been banned throughout the European Union since 1992. It is authorised only in Sweden, where it is so much part of the national culture that the country negotiated an exemption from the ban when it joined the union.

British American Tobacco (BAT) is calling on the EU to lift the ban but such a move is considered unlikely.

Iraqi refugees – Migration Minister interviewed

Politics, Society: September 26th, 2007 by PO

The Middle East Online is carrying a lengthy interview with Swedish Migration Minister Tobias Billström.

Sometimes I think it is an irony that Sweden – a country that did not take part in the Iraq War, was not part of the alliance, did everything it could in order to speak for peace, and is farthest away from the conflict in geographical terms – receives the most refugees.

Billström calls on the EU to share the burden.

Sven and his amazing multi-coloured dream suits

Society, Sport: September 12th, 2007 by PO

Actually, ‘multi-coloured’ is a bit of an exaggeration. Simon Mills is fascinated by the dandy of Torsby and his wondrous wardrobe consisting largely of identical suits:

Sven-Goran Eriksson is looking for a new house. It has to be near the City of Manchester stadium and have a walk-in wardrobe the size of a goalie’s 10-yard box. Not for Nancy’s collection of provocative catsuits, mind. Sven needs the space because he is reported to have amassed a collection of some 150 suits.

The Guardian has more on the “Beau Brummel of the light blues”.

Sweden takes a gamble

Politics, Society: September 12th, 2007 by PO

The Washington Times casts an eye over Sweden’s gambling monopoly:

Sweden says the monopoly is needed to protect the public from “addiction,” illegal rackets and fraud. But EU regulators don’t buy the argument.

Iranian news channel adds new twist to Muhammad saga

Politics, Society: September 7th, 2007 by PO

Press TV, a news outlet funded by the Iranian government, has a curious take on an article from Agence France Presse (AFP) concerning Sweden’s ongoing Muhammad cartoon row:

Muslim organizations have voiced their contempt for the prime minister’s efforts at dialogue, and the Oerebro Muslim community cancelled a demonstration planned for Friday.

With access to the same AFP text, we at The Local couldn’t help but notice that the Press TV people had mangled the original somewhat. It reads as follows:

Muslim organisations said they were pleased with Reinfeldt’s efforts at dialogue, and the day after the meeting the Muslim community in Oerebro, where Nerikes Allehanda is based, said it had cancelled a demonstration planned for Friday.

So which is it to be? Did they voice their contempt or express their pleasure?

The answer can be found in a news item earlier in the week, again from AFP:

“There is no reason anymore to demonstrate again,” the head of the Muslim cultural centre at Örebro, Jamal Lahamdi, who had organized two earlier protests, told AFP.

The next protest had been planned for Friday.

“The dialogue is good. The talks organized by the prime minister yesterday are a very good step,” he added.

Click here for full coverage of the Muhammad cartoon controversy.

Footnote (September 9th)

The passage in the Press TV article has now been changed to read:

Muslim organizations have voiced their satisfaction over the prime minister’s efforts at dialogue, and the Oerebro Muslim community cancelled a demonstration planned for Friday.

Sami 1 – Rest of the World 0

Society, Sport: July 13th, 2007 by PR

Did you know that the Sami have their own national football team? Steve Menary visited the Sami Cup, this year being held in the Norwegian town of Karasjok, and wrote an enlightening report for The Guardian.

The Sami have played as a national team since 1985 against the likes of Greenland, East Germany and Estonia and beat the Baltic nation 2-1 in Karasjok in 1991. Sami sports were organised by an umbrella organisation until 2003. A separate FA was then set up with funding from tribal parliaments set up by the governments of Norway, Sweden and Finland to give the tribe some autonomy.

Two thirds of the 70,000 Sami live in Norway, another 20,000 in Sweden, with 5,000 or so in Finland and the rest on the Kola Peninsula in Russia. The Sami Cup was set up to help reunite this disparate northern people with teams made up of relatives, local associations and reindeer herders getting together to play football. More than a dozen Sami football tournaments will be staged this summer but the Sami Cup, rotating annually between Norway, Sweden and Finland, is the big one.

Convicted terrorist married to Swedish woman

Society: July 10th, 2007 by PO

A number of British newspapers mention the fact that Ramzi Mohammed, one of the men found guilty of plotting a terrorist attack in London in July 2005, was married to a Swedish woman.

The Guardian:

He met his now wife, Azeb, when he was 19 and moved in with her. Mohammed had two children with Azeb, a Swedish Christian, and worked as a barman in Waterloo station. But by the time Azeb was giving birth to their second child in 2003, he had fallen under the spell of his friend Osman, and the preacher Hamza, the court heard.

He ordered Azeb to convert to Islam and wear a veil and took away his son’s computer games. “He went from a sweet man to a man who was totally ruled by his religion,” Azeb said later.

Mohammed gave up his job at the Reef Bar in Waterloo because as a strict Muslim he did not want to be near alcohol. He moved out of the flat he shared with Azeb and told her “I can only love Allah.”

The Times:

The couple were married subsequently by an imam at Belmarsh jail after Azeb converted to Islam.

The Telegraph:

In early 2005, Mohammed moved into a housing association flat in Dalgarno Gardens, North Kensington, and set about decorating, hanging a picture of Mecca on the wall, which had been given to him by Azeb.

By then she was also practising Islam, praying five times a day and wearing full Islamic dress.

Mohammed’s suicide note to her read: “My family, don’t cry for me but instead rejoice in happiness and love what I have done for the sake of Allah. My children, be good Muslims and obey your mother … and we shall meet again in paradise God willing.”

The couple eventually married in Belmarsh high security prison.

Prosperity puts Sweden in a party mood

Business, Society: July 10th, 2007 by PO

Sweden is once again partying like it’s 1999, except with a bit more refinement and know-how this time.

The fascination of this boom lies not in its similarities with 1999 but with its differences. This time around there is excessive consumption – but it has been tempered by experience, the full measure of which can only be realised by journeying backwards to 1999 to make a comparison.

The Financial Times’s David Ibison wheels out the time machine (here reproduced in the LA Times) .

Biker gangs remain a major menace

Society: July 10th, 2007 by PO

The International Herald Tribune carries an informative and troubling article about last year’s Swedes of the year – Mr and Mrs Garakoei of Gothenburg – and their life in the shadow of the city’s biker gangs.

Three and a half years after first receiving threats from members of the Bandidos motorcycle gang at his Iranian restaurant in Goteborg, Massoud Garakoei lives in fear.

Peeing for progress

Climate, Society: July 10th, 2007 by PO

Sweden doesn’t really have the poo taboo apparently. And that’s good because it means that people are willing to put their waste to good use:

Recycling urine may be the answer to a looming global shortage of phosphorus, an Australian researcher says.

And nobody does it better than the inhabitants of Tanum in western Sweden.

Reactions to internet piracy crackdown

Opinion, Society: July 10th, 2007 by PO

Zero Paid has some background info and plenty of speculation about recent file-sharing developments in Sweden.

First came a swift about turn from Swedish police following threats at the weekend that it was planning to shut down The Pirate Bay for an alleged failure to remove child pornography from its site.
According to Zero Paid:

The decision to not include the Pirate Bay in this week’s blocklist merely reinforces the fact that the charges were dubiously propagated by people higher up the chain in a bid to smear the Pirate Bay and get it shut down for good.

Monday’s news from the Swedish Justice Ministry regarding plans for a clampdown on file sharers is described by the pro-piracy website as “the result of larger forces at work.”

‘Sweden has always been good to Iraqis’

Society: July 6th, 2007 by PO

The BBC tracked down the Hamil Ibrahim and his family, who are among the thousands of Iraqis who have sought refuge in Sweden:

“Everyone wants to go to Sweden, it has always been good to Iraqis. They respect human rights here. I wanted my children to grow up in a safe country, that’s why we chose Sweden,” said Halim.

But a new ruling from the Swedish Migration Board may make the journey from Iraq to Sweden considerably more difficult.

Sweden world’s third most prosperous country – study

National, Society, Swedish Life: July 4th, 2007 by PO

Sweden has secured third place in a new Global Prosperity Index:

In today’s index, the Scandinavian countries, which regularly top lists of the best places in the world to live, were applauded for having good economic growth as well as high levels of political and civil liberties, leisure time and equality of opportunity.

The Guardian has more.

Carl Bildt and hate speech laws

Politics, Society: June 26th, 2007 by PO

The good people of Slashdot debate the news that Carl Bildt is being investigated by a prosecutor because of inflammatory remarks made by others in the comments section of his blog.

Says one Slashdot commenter:

Pay attention everyone; expecially those of you who support hate crime and speech laws. This is what happens when you regulate certain “unacceptable” kinds of speech with the intent of “correcting” unpopular beliefs.

“Thoughtcrime” won’t be relegated to fiction for long.

‘All the fun of the fair – it must be Iraq’

Business, Society: June 20th, 2007 by PO

This deadpan headline comes courtesy of The Guardian, who travelled to the Pank resort in Kurdistan to meet Hazem Kurda, an Iraqi Kurd intent on building up the region’s tourist industry after 30 years in Swedish exile.

Once complete the site will boast a five-star hotel, restaurants, swimming pools, saunas, tennis courts, helipads and mini golf. A cable car will be also constructed across the spectacular gorge where only eagles dare.

“It is the first such tourist investment in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein,” says its proud owner.

Hazem Kurda made a very good living for himself in Sweden when, in 1997, he set up the successful import company Swedish Rice Production.

In 2006 he was ranked 32nd on a list of Sweden’s wealthiest immigrants complied by by Dagens PS.

Swedish ‘tree tsars’ push for greener future

Climate, Society, Swedish Life: June 18th, 2007 by PO

Australian newspaper The Age praises Sweden in general, and Växjö in particular, as environmental pioneers for a greener era.

The newspaper devotes five pages to the measures being taken to reduce emissions and turn the country into an eco-powerhouse”.

The growth of biofuel is one example of an area in which Sweden can excel.

The answer may lie in Sweden’s Arctic north, where locals refer to their vast forests as “green gold”.

“The world has oil sheikhs who made their money from black gold, the idea is that we will become tree tsars in the biofuel era,” says one local, laughing.

Swedes retain licence to snoop

Society: June 18th, 2007 by PO

The Associated Press takes a peek at the snoop culture that emerged after website ratsit.se made it possible to check your neighbour’s income with a simple click of the mouse:

As for Sweden’s principle of openness:

It is a gold mine for journalists, who routinely sift through tax forms and income statements to get information on public officials. But private citizens are generally more shy about heading down to the tax office and requesting information on their neighbors.

This is not quite accurate. Even before the advent of Ratsit, it was possible to simply place a phone call to the tax office and request the income details of a friend or foe; anonymity guaranteed.

Web-based credit checks made the process that bit easier. But the principle remains the same.

UK evangelist claims to heal Swedes

Offbeat, Society: June 18th, 2007 by PO

Is Sweden a good place for evangelical Christian healing?

For a ‘post-Christian’ nation with a declining Church, and the highest suicide rate in Europe, it might seem an unlikely place for miracle stories.

It actually doesn’t take a miracle worker to figure out that Sweden in fact does not have anything like the highest suicide rate in Europe. Statistics will usually do the trick. But we digress.

UK evangelist Paul Bennison has just been in Sweden to do the work the medical professional thought impossible:

Two people suffering from long-term strokes got out of their wheelchairs and walked out of the churches; a not-yet-Christian young woman (Linda), suffering from chronic neck and upper back pain felt ‘water running down my back’ as I prayed for her, and as Heidi prophesied, every time we said the name ‘Jesus’ she felt electric shocks pass through her.

Disclaimer: No electrodes were used during the performing of these miracles.

Alcohol-free Midsummer in Illinois

Society: June 18th, 2007 by PO

Ah, Midsummer. Sun all day round, dancing around the maypole and grown-ups playing leapfrog after copious quantities of beer and snaps.

At least that’s how the annual festivities are celebrated in these parts. Not so in Geneva, Illinois:

Sponsored by the local chapter of the International Organization of Good Templars, Swedish Day is an alcohol-free celebration of the Scandinavian tradition of Midsommar, the longest day of the year in Sweden.

Though short on booze the Kane County Swedish community assures us that there will be plenty of potatoes, herring, pancakes and lingonberries.

Swedish 1950s town planning: Window between kitchen and bathroom

Architecture, Society: June 15th, 2007 by PO

Workers’ dream or modernist nightmare? Vällingby in northern Stockholm was the blueprint for the so-called ABC town, which was “closely related to the social democratic idea of an ideal city and social environment.”

Qultures takes a look at the thinking behind this monument to political town planning.

The apartments have many features that cater for the modern family of the 1950s. For instance the mother could prepare food in the kitchen while keeping an eye out on her children in the bathtub. How? Through a window in the kitchen that looks into the bathroom.