The Swedish soccer team BK Häcken from Gothenburg comes to Disney World, Orlando to play against US and Canadian teams from February 25 through March 3.

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The sixth issue of the Swedish magazine Sven is now available online, SVEN is a magazine in Swedish for Swedes living abroad. The current issue focus on home decoration, how to incorpare Swedishness in your home away from Sweden. Read SVEN here http://issuu.com/tidningensven/docs/svennummer6
 

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Finally we get an H&M store in Tampa! Grand Opening today at International Plaza, can't wait to go there this weekend.

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Tomas Tranströmer has been nominated for the prize since 1993 and is a well known writer in Sweden, he is published in 60 languages including English. I will be interesting to read this great Swedish poet in English.

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The sleek and neat Swedish candy store Sockerbit in New York is now offering some of their wonderful sweets online. Today I ordered a big bag of the smågodis us Swedes almost cannot live without such as green frogs, Dumle lakrits, likörpraliner and of course cola bottles. Within a few days I will get my coveted candy bag, yum yum y'all. Hint, if you want to give something a Swede will really appreciate, you cannot go wrong with a bag of smågodis.

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Themepark style museums and souvenir mongering, give to the rich, take from the poor and sick, lack of communication, inefficiency and corruption, obsolete infrastructure, the post 9/11 events depicts how the US works today, in a nutshell. The World Trade Center has become a big money maker for many, including the contractors, amongst them Swedish Skanska, lawyers, non-profits, politicians and government officials have enriched themselves from the billions of taxpayer dollars that have been pumped into various 9/11 projects. At the same the US government claims that more than 60 000 people that were engaged in rescue, clean-up and rebuilding are at risk from having inhaled the toxic dust from the collapsed towers, 28 000 of them have had their health checked and so far 18 500 get medical treatment for physical and mental conditions, for many those conditions are permanent. Not all the sick people have health insurance to cover treatment and medication and some have ended up in misery as the government hasn't been able to approve compensation funds to help the people that used to be called heroes and now are crippled and broke from their exposure to dangerous debris from ground zero. Some Republicans have argued that "it would put the nation's finances at risk" if Congress gave sick 9/11 responders a permanent guaranteed program to ensure they get health care.  There were no such objections when the war against terrorism, including the war against Afghanistan was launched. Yet, again, when the New York police and fire department asked for a modernization of the emergency communication, amongst that emergency radios that during the 9/11 attack were hindered by faulty equipment and overloaded transmissions. Many firefighters in the WTC towers didn't hear the orders to evacuate before the building collapsed, many NYPD radio dispatchers still have nightmares about them hearing the police officers calling for help and not being able to answer. Today, a decade after the attack, followed by hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and floodings, emergency crews from different jurisdictions still can't talk to eachother. The technology to solve these communication problems exists but the US Congress hasn't been able to fund a technology that would save lives and bring the emergency technology into the 21st century. One would suspect that most of the government resources goes to communication technology for the US military, still fighting the ghosts from 9/11 in countries far away. One wonders who and what they will blame when the embarrassing multimedia documents display the desperate lack of information and lack of coordination between the civil and military aviation authorities are finally made available to the public . Contrary to the government officials assurances that fighter pilots had been in pursuit of the hijackers and ready to shoot down the airplanes by order from President George W. Bush, of the four flights, the military had nine minutes notice on the one that flew into the WTC and did not learn about the other three hijacked planes until after they had crashed. Fighter pilots were sent east of Washington in pursuit of of American Airlines flight 11 one hour after it had crashed.  There is  only one factor that differs the 9/11 post 9/11 from todays' US is that the attack actually created jobs - jobs, jobs, jobs.

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The Real Housewives series created by Bravo is addictive, at least the NY Housewives and the Hollywood Housewives. The American housewives manifest an extraordinary nastiness combined with a total lack of intellectualism, humanism or even sense of humor in their way of living the plastic, fantastic American dream. I cannot stop watching these group of women though, they are, to a Swede, fascinating in their pure nastiness, complete lack of style and etiquette, and open greed and jealousy. One of the most hilarious characters is the woman who titles herself Countess LuAnn de Lesseps, just like her name,  she is a bizarre mix of US mobile park dweller with good looks that has taken a few tours in the fine rooms of Europe and now is telling everyone at all times how they are supposed to behave in the most rude way possible and doesn't mind embarrassing her guests with remarks on their short comings in style and finesse. Anyways, fun to watch and make me feel good. The Swedish copy aired on TV3 is bleak to say the least. I watched the first episode online and was very disappointed, being spoiled with the American Housewives the Swedish cast is not bitchy, crazy or glamorous enough to entertain.

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Stockholm and Helsinki have been ranked among Europe's Hottest Startup Capitals by Wired UK. Wired refers to Sweden as "the most digitally connected nation in the world" and lists Skype, Spotify and MySQL as pioneering ventures that are now global.
Helsinki is thriving from startups emerging in the shadow of Nokia and the death of Symbian which has generated a lot of highly skilled engineers to Finland. The mobilegame Angry Birds and webgame Applifier are mentioned as Finnish success innovations.

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Last Friday a Swedish woman, left her baby in a stroller outside a restaurant in downtown Amherst for 10 minutes, the police was called to the scene. The child was found to be in good health and spirits but the police had to report the incident to the State Department of Children and Families. It is unlikely though that there will be a police investigation. The Swedish woman had allegedly told the police that it was common practice in Sweden to leave children unattended outside stores and restaurants. I disagree with the Swedish woman in Amherst on two points. It is not common practice anymore to leave anything outside stores in Sweden, when I was young I used to leave my dog outside stores, but due to many thefts of unattended dogs in Sweden I never left a dog outside a store for the last 10 years I lived in Sweden, the same thing with kids, it is not common practice, at least in bigger cities and unknown areas to leave your child unattended outside stores or restaurants. If you are in another country I would say that most women, including me, would be even more cautious about the safety of your child. Having lived in Florida for some years now, I would never dream of leaving a small child unattended.

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Famous Norwegian chef & author Andreas Viestad hosts a series called “New Scandinavian Cooking and Perfect Day.” These shows are shot on location outdoors.  He’s also authored cookbooks such as, “Kitchen of Light – New Scandinavian Cooking.”  His programs take you on a tour of Nordic cuisine, culture & history and include a cast of other famous chefs, such as Finnish native Sara La Fountain, Swedish author Tina Nordstrom and Dane Claus Meyer.  Watch them create local food outdoors in the Nordic countries.  While it is a cooking show, you will enjoy the beautiful scenery of the countryside.  In one show, Andreas boards an old sailing ship to share the story of the origins of aquavit.

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