You're Not Wrong to Want to Be Swedish

[JohnyCanuck]

Their economy hums along happily, beating ours, and (eeek!) it's a social democracy.

From about 1930 to 1980, the left -- however you define it -- set the political agenda in North America and Europe. Then, in the decade between the rise of Margaret Thatcher and the fall of Mikhail Gorbachev, the left imploded. It has yet to reorganize itself.

The right -- however you define it -- has been in charge for so long that only those over the age of 50 can even recall a different time and different values. As historian Tony Judt says in his final book Ill Fares the Land, "Our problem is not what to do; it is how to talk about it."

snip

The conservative revolution succeeded beyond its supporters' dreams, at least in the U.S. and U.K. Even erstwhile liberal parties like the Democrats and Labour accept conservative premises. In those countries, income gaps have widened and social problems have worsened. Yet the state intrudes more than ever into its citizens' lives in the name of "security." Conservative deregulation has resulted in the greatest economic collapse since 1929, and a level of unemployment that would have been intolerable in the golden age.

The late Jane Jacobs, in her book Dark Age Ahead, warned that "During a Dark Age the mass amnesia of survivors becomes permanent and profound. The previous way of life slides into an abyss of forgetfulness."

snip

The film indulges in some embarrassing weepy passages, but once past the tear jerking it makes some good points about free trade and corporate tax cuts. Then it takes some of its people to Europe -- first to see the current mess in Ireland after the crash, and then to see Sweden cruising along with union reps on corporate boards and 480 days of parental leave for each child.

The Swedes certainly look happy with their arrangement. In fact, here's the list of the five happiest countries in the world -- Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. All of them suspiciously social democratic. And on Sept. 9 the World Economic Forum declared Sweden the second most competitive economy in the world, just below Switzerland and well above the U.S. at #4. Canada is at #10 -- down one spot from 2009.

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/10/07/WantToBeSwedish/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=111010

[teenagebambam]

1. Plus they have ABBA

[Motown_Johnny]

2. sounds like a minus to me

[DJ13]

4. And meatballs

:thumbsup:

[pipi_k]

8. And Lutfisk..

something a Swedish friend of mine (who lives in MN) thinks is totally disgusting.




Although probably not quite as disgusting as haggis in Scotland... :puke:

[tilsammans]

33. Lucky me . . .

. . . I'm both Swedish AND Scottish. :shrug:

[scarletwoman]

34. It's lutefisk. nt

[Motown_Johnny]

16. and Lingonberries

[struggle4progress]

29. And fjords. That's their real secret: fjords!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

31. It's Norway that has the fjords

says this half-Norwegian.

[struggle4progress]

35. Yeah, but they stole them from Sweden, says this half-Dane

[scarletwoman]

36. Thank you, from another half-Norwegian.

See my post #30.

;)
sw

[Greyhound]

41. Thanks to Slartybartfast.

The secret is in the fiddeley bits.

[dddem]

32. Not to mention Alexander Skarsgard

yum

[XemaSab]

3. If I spoke a word of Swedish

I would consider moving there.

However, I don't want to be an adult learner of a second language in another country, and only douchebags hang out with fellow Anglophones.

[Demoiselle]

5. But everybody in Sweden speaks really good English...or so I'm told.

Didn't they choose to teach it as their official required second language in secondary schools sometime in the '20's? (The other choice was German, they opted for English.)
Having to learning Swedish certainly wouldn't keep me away . Danish might stop me, though.

[Tesha]

19. I will naïvely claim that all three Scandinavian languages are roughly similar...

...and share a fare amount with German and Dutch. Finnish
(Suomi), on the other hand is Greek to anyone but a native
Finn.

Tesha

[Demoiselle]

23. All I know is that Danish sounds very much stranger to my English speaking (only) ears.

[XemaSab]

40. You're not kidding about the Finnish

I have a couple of Finnish FB friends, and seriously, "Ei siellä mitään myrskyä ole. Ainakaan Tampereella. Aikaisin aamulla pari vähän kovempaa puuskaa, siinä kaikki. Oheinen linkki kertoo totuuden," doesn't mean a thing to me. It may as well be Klingon.

[Tesha]

18. Tak. IKEA. Smörgåsbord. Volvo. Svenska Köttbullar.

Ready, now? ;)

Tesha

[pipi_k]

21. And "Hot dish"

According to my Swedish friend.


:7

[DFW]

43. Nej, tack

Jag skall bo fortfarande i Tyskland. Vi är inte så onöjda här, och jag får inte ätta köttbullar i alla fall.

[Tesha]

47. I wouldn't leave Germany either.

But Mr. Tesha and I have been very willing to leave New
Hampshire for many different places in Europe for quite
a while now. Unfortunately, several opportunities just
haven't worked out, mostly due to the failing world
economy.

Perhaps someday, ja?

Tesha

[DFW]

48. I've been lucky in that respect

Mrs. DFW is German and prefers to live at "home," such as it is. She is actually from the flat farm country
of the far northwest of Germany, but is perfectly happy to stay in the Rheinland. She loves New England, but
she is so freaked out with local American politics, not to mention extremely apprehensive about medical care
in the States, having survived one round with cancer, that she has stated flat out that if I ever get transferred
back Stateside to a desk job, that I was welcome to commute back to Germany on weekends to see her, and she'd
still come spend a couple of weeks on Cape Cod with me in the summer, as well Charleston, SC over New Year's.

[JuniperLea]

26. Most Scandinavians speak multiple languages...

English is taught in all schools in Sweden and Norway.

I think Norway is my first choice.

[XemaSab]

39. I'm half Swedish

so it would be a return to the mother country for me. :D

[DFW]

44. Bring a large inheritance

Norway is the most expensive place I've ever been to, including Japan (beautiful place, though).

Not only Scandinavians speak a lot of languages, by the way. I'm from Dallas and
speak 9 European languages (if you count English, that is--otherwise only 8).

[DFW]

46. Don't let that stop you.

I have learned 8 "foreign" languages, and Swedish was by FAR the easiest one to learn. It may look
intimidating at first, but once you get started, you realize how easy it is for an Anglophone to
learn. "Jag skall gå hem nu." Look like gibberish? Try "I shall go home now." Swedish is full of
such similarities. Just make sure you learn from someone from the center of the country. Malmö
Swedish is as painful to Stockholm ears as a Houston drawl is on Cape Cod.

[DirkGently]

6. "Even erstwhile liberal parties like the Democrats and Labour accept conservative premises."

That's the problem right there. We seem to believe that endless wars are a fact of life, that SS is an unsustainable boondoggle, that you can't reform healthcare in a way that decreases insurance profits, and that full civil rights for gay people is something America will never be ready for. These attitudes are not the reasons for American success; rather we have been so wealthy that archaic, unworkable ideas could pass without our noticing their full impact. We no longer have that luxury.

Where is OUR Social Democracy?

[Quantess]

7. I love getting reminded how lucky I am

to have dual Swedish citizenship.

[madrchsod]

10. i did`t have my grandmother teach me swedish...of well.

[Quantess]

14. my parents weren't very good at teaching me swedish either,

and I never cared to improve, until a year ago, when I started getting the gears turning in my head about moving to sweden.

But, nobody offers swedish classes around here. So, I checked out swedish lessons (with CDs) from the library, and I made facebook friends with swedes. Oh, and Google Translate helps me out, too. I'm getting good at swedish without having to take a class!

[JuniperLea]

27. Indeed you are lucky!

Very nice!

[madrchsod]

9. right to return? please?

i have my families church records from Sweden. plus they still have old 544 volvo`s and 93-96 saabs...

[joeybee12]

11. Apparently being happy is against the law of nature...

because their way of governing is simply wrong and makes Baby Jesus cry.

[HipChick]

12. Sweden has a high level of suicide..

I worked there for a while..it might be the weather..but people did tend to look miserable, might just be a cultural thing..

[Quantess]

15. There is very little sunlight in the dead of winter, at that latitude,

which is bad news for anyone prone to seasonal depression.

[pipi_k]

22. I wouldn't do well there at all...

even at about 42 degrees North latitude the winter months are hell.

Sunshine is stronger, but not quite enough of it.

[Quantess]

24. Stockholm is at the 59th parallel

Where my parents grew up, it was the 63rd.

[DFW]

45. Very true. In Norway, that is known as "mørketiden."

Mørketiden translates out to essentially "the dark time," and is the time of year when
most suicides occur in that part of the world. Even as far south as Germany, where I am
for most of the year, the winters, with sunrise at 8 AM and sunset at 4:30 PM get very
depressing.

[JuniperLea]

28. Just two points higher than the USA...

And it's on a steady decline... Google is your friend. It's a risk I'd take.

[HipChick]

13. dupe

[pnwmom]

17. My young son would love to live in Sweden. nt

[cherokeeprogressive]

20. Boy is THAT a relief.

[JuniperLea]

25. They have awesome, successful charter schools too...

http://www.takepart.com/news/2010/08/20/progressive-swedish-charter-schools-coming-soon-to-a-city-near-you-

[scarletwoman]

30. Ten thousand Swedes ran through the weeds, chased by one Norwegian.

As a Norwegian-Minnesotan I just had to throw that in.

My fellow Norwegian midwesterners will understand. :D

sw

[eridani]

37. From the Seattle official joke book--

Q. How do they celebrate the 4th of July in Ballard?
A. The Swedes throw firecrackers at the Norwegians. Then the Norwegians light them and throw the back.

(Can be told the other way around, of course.)

[scarletwoman]

38. !

:rofl:

[aikoaiko]

42. They had me at the Swedish Bikini Team, but thank you for providing more rational reasons

:applause:

[Evasporque]

49. SAUNAS BABY!!

Lets jump in the snow nekkid!!!

(I've done that a bunch...I'm Nord decent...)

[Tesha]

50. That's more of a Finnish thing than a Swedish thing,

as is the word itself.

Tesha