I speak, I call you—are you there? I have returned, I am here again. I have shaken the dust of all the lands from my feet, and I have come to you, I am with you. After long years of long wandering, I have come to you again. Should I tell you everything I have seen, experienced, and drunk in? Or do you not want to hear about all the noise of life and the world? But one thing you must know: the one thing I have learned is that one must live this life. After all, the king was not accused of anything illegal and Swedes don't get into a moral panic about extramarital affairs.
But the question of strip club visits, frowned upon in Sweden's egalitarian society, would not go away. In May, the story took a new twist when Swedish Radio aired a secret recording in which one of the king's friends, Anders Lettstrom, was heard discussing the scandal with a reputed gangland figure. Their conversation centred on Mille Markovic, a former night club owner and a key source in the book who claims to have pictures of the king's entourage in compromising situations.
Swedish Radio broadcast parts of a conversation where Lettstrom wanted to know exactly what material Markovic had and how much it would cost to make him hand it over.
After initial denials, Lettstrom issued a statement to TT admitting he had contacted criminals in a misguided attempt to find out "how so many lies about me and others" could have been spread in the book about the king. Lettstrom said he had acted alone and that the king knew nothing about it. Under mounting media pressure, the king agreed to an interview with TT about his private life on Monday.
He rejected any knowledge of Lettstrom's contacts with criminals and said he no longer considered Lettstrom a friend. He also denied having visited the specific strip clubs mentioned in the book. The Swedish film industry is alive and kicking, and many films are released in the Swedish language every year.
Sweden even has its own center of film-making lovingly nick-named Trollywood. Drama ensues. Starring Noomi Rapace. But she is not welcomed by all. An urban-rural clash takes centre stage. A classic Christmas saga and probably the only Bergman film that everybody likes. There are of course lots more Swedish films to see. In his recent statement, Trump yet again criticized Sweden. Not only was his statement bizarre, but it was factually wrong. From making false claims about everything from immigrants and refugees, to riots and rappers, the man seems obsessed.
In other words, a constant reminder that there are other ways to run a country. It scares him. Sweden consistently trumps USA in research on quality of life, equality, opportunity, happiness, safety, entrepreneurship, education levels…..
USA came in at number Ooh, that must sting someone with an enormous ego. Here, we have a long line of Prime Ministers who behave in a dignified manner. Like most politicians, he is temporary. His days are numbered. And hopefully their next leader will be one who respects differences rather than one who fears them. In the UK, Easter eggs are usually bought ready-made. The big egg is itself made of chocolate, and inside is a small bag of more chocolates. It is wrapped in colourful packaging, and marketed around a particular brand of chocolate such as Maltesers, or Buttons or Dairy Milk.
For me that was what an Easter egg liked like. Until I moved to Sweden. Here, Easter eggs look quite different. The Swedish egg is usually an inedible cardboard egg, emblazoned with colourful Easter motifs.
It can also be made of tin or porcelain. So, the egg itself is also the packaging. There is an irony to the fact that we are socially distancing, quarantining and home working specifically during this week. In English, we call it Holy Week. The crowds threw palm branches in front of him as he approached. It is called a predictable Holy Monday in English. This is called Holy Tuesday in English. At some point in history, they were moved colloquially to describe the Monday and Tuesday before Easter instead.
Blue Monday refers to the colour that church rooms were painted on this day. White Tuesday is an old name for Shrove Tuesday, Fettisdag in Swedish, and probably refers to the flour that was used to make the Lent buns.
The clapper that this is referring to is a wooden clapper that was traditionally put inside the church bells on this day so that the chimes would have a more subdued sound during Easter weekend. In English, this day is called Maundy Thursday. This is derived from an obsolete meaning of the word good as being holy. Both Sweden and the UK have reigning monarchs. Like most of the European monarchs, they are related to each other.
The other evening, they both gave a speech to their respective nations in regards to the corona pandemic. And they were like chalk and cheese.
This bumbling, friendly man stumbled his way through his speech. Heavily dependent on his paper notes, he sounded a bit robotic to me. A friend of mine said it was like watching a trained chimp. He seems like a nice man.
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