Not so typical swedes in the news

Not so typical swedes in the news:

Yesterday we learned about two different families in sweden.

One was the head of the postal service in Sweden, his salary was 900000 SKR per month, roughly $112500 / month or $1350000 annually. It seems to be a little to much for swedish standards and even the swedish politicians thought this was a little over the top for one person needs now that it came to medias attention. Does he need it? We'll see what happens.

The other family we met in the media yesterday was an immigrated family who have been living in a run down flat, full of cochroaches and falling apart walls and floors for the last 10 years. They complain all they can but since they do not really understand the ways in sweden there is not much help given and the landlord does nothing to restore the flat. The children cannot sleep well because so many cochroaches wake them up during the night.

These two stories are still not typical tales of swedish lifes but with the current move to make it easier to be rich and poor in sweden maybe this will become the new typical swedish way of life?

What is Typical Swedish right now - Eco junkies

Well, more and more people are turning in to eco junkies in Sweden. Ecological shops are turning up like mushrooms and people are filling them like there was no tomorrow. Everybody wants to eat ecological food, preferebly homegrown by the local or not so local farmer. Also Fair Trade products are high on the list of goods that are ok to consume.

This is a positive movement I think, as long as we can trust that all the stuff that is moved over the disk is really eco products this is a really great typical Swedish trend!

By the way, why is it that ecological, natural food is labeled as ecological? Shouldn't ecological food be the normal standard and the food that is not ecological rather be labeled as not natural food containing non-natural additives? That would seem to be more logical to me..

Hard facts on Sweden

Sweden today:

Language is Swedish, English. Currency is Swedish Krona.
Unemployment is currently 3.9%. Population is 9 131 425 people

Most popular boys name in 2006:
1 Lucas
2 Oscar
3 William
4 Elias
5 Filip

Most popular girls name in 2006
1 Emma
1 Maja
3 Agnes
4 Julia
5 Alva

Most popular women names
1 Maria
2 Anna
3 Margareta
4 Elisabeth
5 Eva

Most well known Swedish world contributions are:

Carl Linne (Carl von Linné, 1707-1778)
The Nobel Prize (Alfred Nobel, 1833–96)
Smörgåsbord
ABBA (1972-1982)
IKEA (1943- )


Some Swedish history:

Sometime during year 700-1100 AD Sweden experienced the
Viking Age. The Vikings liked gods such as Oden and Thor.
The word Thursday comes from the Swedish word Torsdag, Thors day.

In year 1812 Sweden as we know it now takes form. Since then
sweden has not been engaged in war. At least not as a fighting
nation. The border countries are Finland and Norway.

Now Sweden is a friendly part of Scandinavia and a leader in
environmental care. The general goal is to have an ecologically
sustainable Sweden by 2020. I really hope it works out but I
wonder if the government can meet the expectations...

Sweden has something called Allemansrätt, "The right of public
access" which gives everyone the possibility to go basically
anywhere in nature when considering the essence of the phrase,
"Do not disturb, do not destroy". This is one of the great
things in Sweden making people feel more equal.

More on Sweden to come later if you want..

Thank you (Tack)

Lots of scouts in Sweden!

20.000 scouts from 40 countries have gathered in
jiingijamborii camp outside of Kristianstad in Sweden.

They say every other second one scout arrived during the
weekend. A whole small village will be built by the scouts,
banks, shops, drugstores and a lot of tents.

They will probably look forward to a stay with rain, moscitoes,
bugs and too little sleep.

2500 people are working full time to make all this happen, they
all do it voluntary.

The camp is a way to celebrate the scout movements 100 year
birthday and also a warm up practise for the next event. In
2011 there will be 30000 scouts coming to Sweden.

Babies later in life

In Stockholm, Sweden the trend is to have babies later and later in life.

More and more women give birth after they have
turned forty. 12,5 percent are forty or older

The trend is strong and fuelled with more women
getting up to three children.

Today three or more children brings higher status.
People want to be different and not just get two
kids as everybody else..

Get a education first then children seems to be the
new way of life.


With older parents kids get better health, parents
are usually higher educated, smoke less and have a
more quiet life style

Kids with older parents also do better in school
and parents divorce less often

Sounds great, only problem might be that
grandchildren won't have the time to get to know
their grandparents.

Enjoy the spring sun!

The typical swedish person is now enjoying the spring sun!

Parks and street cafe's are full of people tired of bad weather.

Most typical activity in late April and May is:

* Place oneself in a sunny spot!
* Undress as much as possible without getting naked!
* Eat icecream!
* Have a picnic!

Swedish Vacuum Cleaners Everywhere

Now Swedish vacuum cleaners will conquer the world. Ikea will start selling something that is very typical Swedish world wide, the little green "vacuum cleaners" one of the most classical coffee cakes in Sweden.

Know and loved by all old ladies going for a cup of coffee in the afternoon. In Swedish they are called punchrulle (punch roll) or dammsugare (vacuum cleaner). Have a bite and you are hooked!

Sugar candy

Swedish people eat a lot of sugar candy. Now a majority of parents want at least to get rid of it in schools. No more Coca-Cola or candy and more exercise instead.

Today's parents don't have enough control over what kids eat according to a large survey done in Sweden.

1000 parents have been asked what they think about kids eating habits and most of them feel that kids today too easily can find and buy unhealthy foods. Most of them think the consumption of sugars are too high.

Dentist, doctors and nurses now wants the politicians to do something about it. We need more information on eating habits and physical activity they say.

Well, I guess the typical Swedish kids today spend more and more time in front of a computer and probably the same time eating snacks and candy.

I think we need to come up with something really new to break these bad habits.

Designer Christmas trees

Strange, scary, loving christmas trees are now on exibition at the lobby of designer hotel Birger Jarl in stockholm.

Fashion designers have been invited to style their christmas tree. Among the designers are Odd Molly, Cheap Mondays & Dagmar.

There are roses for mother, skeleteon parts to symbolise that Christmas is dead and fishes and nets to symbolise all the typical? items swedish people hang in the trees.

The Christmas trees can be seen up until New Year.

Nearsighted Swedish men

In 1930 less than 10% of the swedish young men drafted to military service were nearsighted, today around 40% are. Why?

The only solution scientists can think of is that people today spend most of their time in front of a computer screen or reading books and magazines. This is not what our eyes were meant to do when they were developed during evolution.

Young boys today can spend all their free time playing computer games, some might spend 10 hours per day with a concentrated look into the screen 40 centimeters away. The eye simple does not practice during this time and seems to grow to big causing nearsightedness.

What to do? Limit computer time? Is it possible?

I just know that I'm soo happy that there were no computers available when I was a young kid. I had to live irl....


irl = in real life :-)

Typical swedish woman?

Young Swedish woman Heidi Andersson won a silver medal at the 2006 World Championship Armwrestling recently.

She became famous in Sweden when she starred in the documentary movie "Armbryterskan från Ensamheten". The documentary depicts her life as a professional armwrestler. See it if you can, a wonderful movie.

The championship was held in Manchester UK and there were 800 armwrestlers from 44 countries participating. Sure glad I wasn't there to shake hands with all of them...

Be a star on the bus

All buses in Stockholm will get camera surveillance. At New Year 2006 the project will start and by the end of 2007 all buses will be equipped with the new system.

Bus drivers are happy and commuters will probably also benefit from less problems since all travelers will be identified if troubles arise on the bus. So far buses in Stockholm are very safe; it's mostly during nighttime that there can be serious problems in Stockholm.

Another step to make the situation even safer for the drivers is the complete ban of cash handling on the buses. You will not be able to buy a ticket from the driver next year; you must buy the prepaid tickets available at various locations close to the subway and kiosk around town.

Hectic first weeks!

First weeks for new right wing government have been hectic to say the least!

Several new ministers have been exposed as cheaters. Everything from black market wages to maids, not paying fee's for public service TV and tax fraud with pensions and properties.

It would seem that the new government of Sweden does not really lead the way for the country in a good way. But maybe this is the right wing way, to be egoistic and try to evade and cheat to maximize personal gain and not to care about the welfare, elderly and poor.

At least the journalists have an early Christmas this year. They just need to open the sack and out pops one juicy story after another.

Question is: can Swedish people now trust the new government with their record of cheating, lying and evading... or is this the new way of the kingdom Sweden; the more we cheat the smarter we are?

One minister is now on sick leave and can't be interviewed, a typical Swedish way; ministers on sick leave after a few problems arise, would this be possible in the U.S or Japan?

Probably not. The typical way of Sweden is the kind, soft way. These poor ministers now need a rest after these naughty journalists exposed them this way. Can't they understand it would be better if people didn't know about all this? Then these right wing politicians could keep minding their own business... which they seem to do very well...

Sweden now has a new government!

A not so typical government. The right wing parties have combined to form an alliance to rule Sweden for the next 4 years.

It is not often during modern times that Sweden has had anything else than the old well known socialistic government.

Now the right wing parties have promised a lot of changes, here are the basic structure and most important areas for focus:


More freedom of choice - People in Sweden shall be able to choose whether they want private or government services. All parts of society shall be more commercialized so that it is possible to make money and thereby stimulate a higher variety of services to the people.

More people must work - Sweden has a high unemployment both because unemployed people have good benefits and can live a good life as unemployed and because companies do not want to hire more workers.

More students shall leave school with an education - as it is now a lot of unmotivated students do not learn anything in school and some can't even read when compulsory school is over.

Older and long-term sick people in Sweden need more attention - the way to do this is to privatize more parts of the healthcare. Then people who have a lot of money can buy better services and the others also get a better service in the public hospitals because of less pressure on the remaining staff.


The rest of the declaration is basically describing these major changes in more detail.

Sweden might become the wonderful place it once was again with all these valuable promises.

Today is Kanelbullens dag! (cinnamon roll day!)

Fourth of October is the day of the kanelbulle. Today resturants, bakerys are fully loaded with kanelbullar and everybody want's one. Some resturants even give away a free coffee and kanelbulle after lunch.


Repaeted from previous post:

Kanelbullar (cinnamon rolls) is something very typical Swedish. As soon as a Swedish person hears the word or sees one of these their mouths begin to water, they start checking the whereabouts of the nearest coffee place.

A kanelbulle and coffee is like a hand in a glove, they go toghether like they were made for each other (which they probably were). The smell of a freshly baked kanelbulle and a cup of steaming coffee (or tea) is a dream come true.

Have a go at it in your nearest coffe house that serve freshly baked kanelbullar. I would actually recommend Nybergs cafe in Stockholm, a great bakery and nice 50's atmosphere.

First Swedish lobster sold

Yesterday was the yearly premiere for Lobsters. The swedish ones went for up to 1700 SEK per kilo. (you can check this in your currency on Yahoo or other currency converters) but rest assured, it's quite expensive, especially as there is not all that much meat on a lobster....

There was 23 kilos of swedish lobsters available and all was sold.

Swedes are more and more keeping up traditions like this, the years first swedish fresh potato and the first swedish strawberries also cost 100 times more than what they cost a week or so after the premiere in the shops.

Well, maybe it's good to keep the wheels rolling....

Sheep in tree rescued by firemen

In south of Sweden there was an alarm to the firedepartment. Please help us to get our sheep down from the tree... At first the firemen thought is was a joke but it turned out that a hungry sheep had climbed a fallen tree to the height of about 6 meters to get some juicy fresh leaves it spotted from the ground. It was the first time to help a sheep down said the firemen, usually cats are the one's that need help to get down. A group of kids who followed the drama afterwards thought the sheep should be named Tarzan after it's brave climbing adventure.

Hot dog breads

Record sales this summer for hot dog breads

Hot dog breads has been difficult to find in shops this summer. Football championships and other events has increased sales. Hot dogs are incredibly popular in Sweden and just about everyone has eaten them as they have gotten hungry when in the city. Each and every day one of the largest producers make two million hot dog breads to satisfy the consumers (note that Sweden has a population of about 9 million people). It's actually a perfect quick meal when your outside. Kids also love them and it's one of the most popular meals at a kids party.

So how do you enjoy a hot dog? Well the basic add on would be tomato ketchup and mustard. To this you can add sweet relish (bostongurka in Swedish) and other more or less interesting things.

Work 21 minutes in Sweden

To be able to buy a BigMac you need to work 21 minutes in Sweden.

As everything else it's goes much faster in Tokyo, you need to put in 10 minutes work there to buy the BigMac.

Here are some other times reported by the UBS bank study.

Tokyo 10 minutes
New York 13
Sydney 14
Toronto 14
London 16
Berlin 17
Copenhagen 18
Oslo 18
Helsinki 19
Paris 21
Stockholm 21
Beijing 44
Bogota 97

Scandinavian countries have a similar profile, Copenhagen 18, Oslo 18, Helsinki 19

Other findings according to the UBS study show that Oslo is the worlds most expensive city to live in closely followed by London, Copenhagen, Tokyo, New York, Stockholm and Helsinki in a approximate order.

I would agree with the study, at least as far as the fact that it's very expensive to stay in Oslo. Stockholm is a bit cheaper but since the wages are lower than in Oslo it might end up being about the same cost of living.

World heritage music

Is there such a term, if not I think there should be. Recordings that has the potential to be remembered for being unique, their pioneer influences etc.

For me, one such recording would definitely be Miles Davis "Kind of Blue". I will never grow tired of listening to it and I would find the world to be a poorer place without it. Preserve it, mark it world heritage and send it out into space as a greeting for other civilizations to experience!

There is a Swedish recording that has the same potential. It's Jan Johansson’s recording "Jazz på Svenska", it fills all the criteria’s for world heritage music and it is typical Swedish as well.

It is the Swedish temperament mixed with jazz into a unique blend that sounds really Swedish to my ears. The feelings during our cold dark winter days, the midnight sun during summer nights, everything can be found in this recording. Jan Johansson must have been a true genius at conveying feelings through his piano skills. It is probably no coincident that it is the most sold Svedish jazz record ever.