Hej,
We've had a dark start to the year, with more than one explosion per day on average in January – sad news after a fall in blasts and shootings last year.
I'm a worrier by nature, big things or small, doesn't matter.
But one thing that helps me is to try to understand why certain things happen. Knowing the reasons behind them makes it easier to put them in context, put them in a framework so that the problems feel easier to grasp and tackle.
So I appreciated reading this article by The Local's Becky Waterton about what's actually behind the most recent spate of explosions in Sweden.
The bomb attacks this year are still gang-related, but not so much gangs fighting other gangs as we've seen in the past few years, but rather attempts to blackmail business owners. There's a worrying increase in the number of children aged under 15 who are getting recruited to carry out these crimes.
Richard Orange interviewed criminologist Manne Gerell, who said that there's not always a direct correlation between shootings and explosions (at the time of writing there have been 11 shootings this year, including three fatalities).
"Shootings are used for a different type of situation than bomb attacks, so the patterns can differ. They're related, but not identical. For instance, shootings are more often used when the gangs actually want to kill someone, but bomb attacks are more often used to send a message or threaten," said Gerell.
And some factors can even be surprisingly random: for example the number of blasts can increase if a shipment of hand grenades makes its way to Sweden, or decrease if an expert on making homemade bombs is caught by police.
Richard, our podcast host Paul O'Mahony and I talk a bit more about the latest wave of violence on the longer Membership+ version of the new episode of Sweden in Focus podcast. There's also a shorter version for free users, but more than 1,200 people are now Membership+ subscribers, and Paul writes in this article why we hope more people will join if they can.
In other news
Whether you want to find the game on TV or seek out a fun place to watch it, here is what you need to know about enjoying the 59th Super Bowl in Sweden.
An inquiry into tightening up citizenship laws recently proposed strengthening the requirement for Swedish citizenship applicants to demonstrate good behaviour. But how do The Local's readers feel about this?
I got hold of stats for an article this week which show that more and more foreigners are leaving Sweden for Germany. Interestingly, I've had a few emails from members after publishing that article who said that they would actually prefer to stay in Sweden but are considering Germany because of more flexible residency permits, higher salaries and a stronger job market at the moment.
I enjoyed getting back in touch with Tayyab Shabab for that article. Those of you who have been living in Sweden since 2017 or longer may remember him as the IT developer who became the face of "talent deportation" when he was squeezed out by Sweden's migration red tape and ended up moving to Berlin.
We also took a look at which Scandinavian country – Sweden, Norway or Denmark – offers the best pay for software developers compared to Germany.
A major news story this week was of course Salwan Momika, the Iraqi activist known for a spate of Quran-burnings, being shot dead in his apartment one day before a court was due to rule on whether he was guilty of hate crimes.
The amount of money patients in Sweden need to pay for prescription drugs before qualifying for free medicine went up by 50 kronor at the beginning of the year – but this summer, it will get even more expensive.
And finally, Richard interviewed retired lieutenant colonel Joakim Paasikivi, one of Sweden's leading defence commentators, about why he thinks Russia is behind the series of cable sabotage over the last few months. You can read the article here, but he's a fascinating person to listen to, so if you're a Membership+ subscriber, you can also listen to the full interview.
Thanks for reading and have a good weekend,
Emma Löfgren
Editor, The Local Sweden
Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members which gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It's published each Saturday and with Membership+ you can also receive it directly to your inbox.
Comments