Sweden

Thanks for the nice comments, guys. 

In light of those, we head back to the Great White North...

8. Olympic Coverage -

It was interesting to see how the Olympics are covered outside of the US. Sweden is not, as you might imagine, a great Summer Olympic power, so there wasn't too much buzz.  Still, just about everyone we saw was watching.  We only got one of the Swedish channels covering the Games (#1) up where we were, so I can only base my comments off of that.  I suspect the rest of the coverage, though, was similar. 

In two words, I'd call it "low key."  They kind of just turn on the camera and let stuff happen in front of it.  For those of us who hate the pre-packaged tripe that NBC serves up, this sounds great, right?  Well, yes and no.  On the plus side, there are no stupid background stories about how a runner was raised by a pack of hyernas in Burundi before getting adopted by a blind, gay woman from Seattle.  That's the good part.  The bad part is that if there are eight preliminary heats in the womens 1500m, you're going to get to watch eight preliminary heats in the womens 1500m.  The best part of that is getting to watch all of the slowest athletes in the Games (also known as the Indian Olympic Team) "compete."  How can a country of a 1.5 billion not have anyone faster than me? 

Studio coverage is also decidedly reserved.  At night, there was this young blonde guy and some fairly attractive former Swedish hurdler (her dad apparently played in the NHL), who looked for all the world like they were just chatting over dinner.  Indeed, there was always a large bowl of fruit (which changed daily) on the desk next to them. 

Perhaps the most insightful thing that occurred while I was there was that the Swedish female tri-athlete lost the gold medel by like an eighth of an inch.  Her only reaction (and I can't stress this enough - her ONLY reaction) to this "heartbreaking" loss was unbridled joy at winning the silver.  I think that says a lot about Swedes in general.

8a. Handball -

The only Olympic team sport I got to watch over there was hanball.  I frankly didn't know Sweden really played hanball.  Turns out they are possibly the most successful national team in history the of the sport.  I assume it was mote of a Croatian, Serbian, Russian thing.  Anyway, I came to like watching handball a lot.  It's basically the same game we played in gym when I was 10, it zips along pretty quicky and appears to have very few rules.  I really mention it only because it occurred to me while watching it that virtually any major conference, Division 1 basketball team would be one of the best teams in the world.  I suspect the US men's basetball team would beat the French (who won the Gold) by 30.  I may have to look into this. 

9. The Invandrare -

I'll be hard-pressed to keep this one short, as it involves so many related topics.  "Invandrare" is Swedish for "immigrants."  Post-college Swedes dont' talk much politics, as that gets in the way of planning their next trip to Vietnam and/or discsussing the best place to put their hot tub or sauna. The one exception to this rule these days involves the "invandrare."  When I was there before, there was some discussion of immigrants, but this mainly focussed on how to get the newly-arrived Nigerians off their rear ends and off the dole.  Turns out, it only took a few years to turn them into Swedes, and nobody much worries about them any more.  However, the Swedes went out an imported about a half-million muslims into the country over the past decade or so.  That's not going quite so well. 

I am not a Swede, and have never been to Malmo - the city that has become short-hand for "muslim trouble" in Sweden - so I"m hardly an expert. Still, I can tell you that even many of the ever-left-leaning Swedes are scared to death.  There are "no-go" zones in Malmo, where non-Muslims can't go safely. The rape rate in Sweden has skyrocketed (recognizing that this is a crime where true stats are hard to come by).  One study found that Sweden's rate of reported rape trailed only that of Lesotho.  Some annecdotal evidence seems to indicate that muslim boys target Swedish girls for rape as a bit of a sport (having no respect for them due to their percieved -or actual- promiscuity). 

It was interesting at the parties I attended in Sweden (usually one or two per day) that, when this topic came up, the converations typically switched quickly from English (for my benefit) to Swedish.  I think this was because it is generally considered bad form to speak ill of national policy in front of non-Swedes.  I think the people also wanted to be very careful and precise in what they said - recognizing that many of their comments would potentially be illegal under Sweden's preposterous "hate speech" laws.  It was funny that, while I was there, the Swedish ambassardor to Belarus (called "White Russia" by almost everyone in Sweden) was expelled for being too outspoken regarding free speech rights.  I mentioned to several Swedes that I found it odd how pleased they seemed to with their ambassador's tough stance, given how little "free speech"  there is in Sweden.  I don't think they had any idea what I was talking about.  The Invandrare situation may help them see it more clearly. 

10. Old American Cars -

It is said that there are more vintage American cars in Sweden than there are in the US.  I don't know if that's true, but it would not be surprising.  In many Swedish towns, particularly in the North, it is common to own an old Fleetwod, Charger, T-Bird, Mustang, and to go cruise downtown on, say, Thursdays.  I happend to arrive in the middle of Car Week in Rattvik, not far from where my wife's family is from.  We drove over for one of the big cruises - about 1,200 cars looping around the small town area - many with yound people dressed in 50's garb, blaring old rock music and drinking beer (I cannot express to you how out of character riding around with beer is for the average Swede).  It was fairly crazy.  By the time we left, around 10 (sun still basically up), things were getting a little dodgy.  There was some minor crowd trouble and two rapes reported the next day.  Glad we left before it got too heated.  As I mentioned before, young Swedes are crappy drinkers. 

11. Stockholm -

Not sure why more people don't go to Stockholm, as least in the summer.  It's anchipelago (and is located next to another), so you're forever on the water.  It's strikingly pretty,  there's lots to do, it's safe, it's clean.  Aside from it being expensive (and it's not awful - at least if you're not staying in a hotel and/or eating out a lot), I don't know what's not to like.  There's a bit of movement (I guess that's the word) afoot to increase the level of tourism in Stockholm.  Swedes are sort of torn about this, as the present level is pretty manageable, and I'm not sure significantly more people riding all of the ferries is necessarilly a good thing.  It's already pretty darn crowded.  Heck, the ferry I took to Vaxholm (45 minutes out in the anchipelago) was so crowded I practually had a German in my lap.  By the way, everyone should go to Vaxholm once. 

Thanks for stopping by, all. 

KTrain made me laugh out loud.  Thanks for that.

Hutch, always an honor. 

GW, agreed on French woman (and British everything else).  The French fans they showed at the handballs games were freaking gorgeous. 

Nut, I too found that most Swedes have been to the US, but only to the major cities - and most often only New York.  I'm not sure what sort of idea you get of the USA from only seeing NY - probably something similar to the view one would get of Sweden from only visiting Stockholm (only even less indiciative).  Still, Swedes seem to like the US, if not US foreign policy.