11 minute read
In the Loop
Calendar & Events
A guide to fun and interesting Swedish events outside Sweden
CHICAGO Swedish American Museum
5211 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60640 Tel: 773-728 8111 | info@samac.org www.swedishamericanmuseum.org Feb 4-6 – Jokkmokk’s Market Online: The world famous Sami market held every February in the small town of Jokkmokk in the north of Sweden is a huge tourist attraction. This year the market has been moved online and can be enjoyed by everyone around the world. More information can be found as it becomes available on their website https://www.jokkmokksmarknad.se/en/
MINNEAPOLIS American Swedish Institute
2600 Park Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55407 Tel: 612-871 4907 | www.asimn.org ASI has reopened to the public since September 11. Feb 27 – Thurs-Sat 10am to 4pm: Virtual Midwinter Folk Festival – A full weekend of workshops for strings, nyckelharpa and song, with guest musicians including Anders and Maria Larsson, Eva Tjörnebo and more!
PHILADEPHIA American Swedish Historical Museum
1900 Pattison Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19145 | Tel: 215-389 1776 | info@americanswedish.org | www.americanswedish.org Reopened to visitors since July 3 with normal operating hours. Ongoing through May 2021 – Around the World: The Global Curiosities of Carl Otto Lindberg! This exhibition explores the life of a Swedish-American mining engineer. Ongoing through Mar 2021 – From Fairy Tale to Fantasy: The Art of Gustaf Tenggren – This exhibit charts Tenggren’s career in the United States – from his early successes in New York to his time at Walt Disney Studios and eventual retirement in Maine. Feb 13 – Sat 11am: Semlor To-Go & A Movie at Home – This year the Auxiliary will continue the tradition with advanced semlor order and pick-up and a link to a live viewing of a Swedish film you can watch at home. Semlor are $6 each and orders are due by February 10th.
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PORTLAND Nordic Northwest
Nordia House, 8800 SW Oleson Rd., Portland, OR 97223 | Tel: 503-977 0275 www.nordicnorthwest.org Feb 5 – Fri 7:30pm: Friday Night Lecture Series – Beauty Secrets of the Gods. Join storyteller Barbara Fankhauser for another evening of tales of Gods and Goddesses – tricksters and ice giants. Doors open at 7:15 PM at Nordia House.
SEATTLE Swedish Cultural Center
1920 Dexter Ave. N. Seattle, WA 98109 Tel: 206-283 1090 | www.swedishclubnw.org info@swedishculturalcenter.org Feb 5 – Fridays: Wonderful Winter Magic Film Series. The four-week film series begins with The Snow Queen. Family film full of traditions and charm of days of old. 5:30 p.m. $5 donation. (Dinner served while you watch if purchased in advance.) Feb 7 – Sun: Swedish Pancakes to Go. We’ve said that Swedish pancake breakfasts will be one of the last events we add back in, due to the crowding in the kitchen and around tables. That doesn’t stop us from trying Swedish pancakes to go, though! Mark your calendars and watch our news for how to pre-order, pricing, timing, etc.
National Nordic Museum
2655 NW Market Street, Seattle, WA 98107 Tel: 206-789 5707 | nordic@nordicmuseum.org www.nordicmuseum.org Feb 6, 13 and 20 – Saturdays: 11am to 12 noon: Introduction to Papercutting with Anna Brones. Papercutting is an art that spans history and cultures, from simple silhouettes to intricate designs. Join artist Anna Brones to learn the basics of papercutting and how to create your very own papercuts.
WASHINGTON, DC Embassy of Sweden
2900 K Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20007 Tel: 202-467 2600 | www.swedenabroad.com ambassaden.washington@gov.se The Embassy will remain in a modified telework arrangement, offering limited
18 20 22 24 26 consular services by appointment only. Phone hours are: Mon-Fri 9 am to 4 pm (closed for lunch 12 to 1 pm), 202-467 2600.
OTTAWA Embassy of Sweden Ottawa
377 Dalhousie Street, Suite 305, Ottawa ON K1N 9NB Tel: 613-241 2277 www.swedishembassy.ca The Government has extended the ban of entry to the EU via Sweden until 31 March 2021.
VANCOUVER Scandinavian Community Centre
6540 Thomas Street, Burnaby, BC V5B 4P9 Tel: 604-294 2777 | info@scancentre.org www.scancentre.org Due to COVID-19, the Scandinavian Community Centre is opened only to booking and hosting small scale events, activities and rentals. Please call 604-294 2777 or e-mail info@scancentre.org. Visit www.scancentre.org. for further updates.
WINNIPEG Swedish Cultural Assoc of Manitoba Scandinavian Cultural Centre
764 Erin St, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3G 2W4 Tel: 204-774 8047 | www.scandinaviancentre.ca/sweden | Registration by email at svenskclub17@gmail.com Brunches and Dinners To-Go – The Scandinavian Centre and Bonne Cuisine by Michael have joined together in offering delicious meals to-go, prepared fresh at the Centre. Contact sccreservations@ shaw.ca or bonnecuisine@mts.net for more information and to place an order. Nordic Book Club –Features reading a book from a different Nordic country each month. Members are invited to join a Zoom meeting to have a discussion. For more information, please register with Marilyn at old_soul_art@hotmail.com Swedish Movie Nights – Swedish movie nights are continuing for the winter season on a virtual basis. Participants watch the movies on-line from the comfort of their homes, then join the Zoom meeting to review and socialize together. For more information, please register with Marilyn at old_soul_art@hotmail.com
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BC Organizations Scandinavian Business Club
Monthly meetings feature business speakers. Guests and new members welcome. Call SBC: 604-484-8238. Visit us at www.sbc-bc.ca
Scandinavian Community Centre
Scandinavian Community Centre Beautiful setting for weddings, parties, birthdays, meetings and seminars. 6540 Thomas Street, Burnaby, BC info@scancentre.org Tel: 604-294-2777 www. scancentre.org
Svenska Kulturföreningen
Ordförande Ellen Petersson 604-970 8708. Kassör är Linda Olofsson, 604-418 7703 www.swedishculturalsociety.ca. Email: swedishculturalsociety.ca @gmail.com
Swedish Canadian Village
Beautiful Assisted Living Residence & Senior Subsidized Apartment Buildings Located in Burnaby, BC. Tel: 604-420 1124 Fax# 604-420 1175 www.swedishcanadian.ca Swedish Heritage in BC 1812 Duthie Ave. Burnaby BC. Laila Axen Tel: 604-526 7464. Visit us at www. swedishheritageinbc.org. E-mail: swedishheritagebc@gmail.com
Sweden House Society
President: Rebecca Keckman Vice President: Dorothy Carlson Treasurer: Carole Walkinshaw, Email: swedenhousechair@gmail.com
Swedish Club of Victoria
Dinners, Events and Meetings, for information contact Annabelle Beresford @ 250-656 9586 or Swedish Club of Victoria Facebook.
Washington Organizations
Nordic Museum has moved to a beautiful, brand-new building! In Seattle, 2655 N.W. Market St., Ballard; 206-789 5707.
Swedish Club
1920 Dexter Ave. N, Seattle, WA 98109; Tel: 206-283 1090. Open Wednesday evenings for supper and games, Friday for lunch and dinner. Pancake breakfasts on first Sundays of the month. Rental venue for meeting, parties, etc. www.swedishclubnw.org
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The Art of Denial
By Peter Berlin
Is it really true that humans are the cause of global warming by allowing factories and power stations to spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere? One could just as well argue that all vegetation needs CO2 to grow. Surely, we should therefore increase rather than decrease the emission of carbon dioxide. Such is the reasoning among many deniers of climate change.
Take the Holocaust, Srebernica, moon landing, climate change, AIDS, COVID-19 … did they really happen, or are they just myths? Everybody has the right to question widely held truths, at least in countries that treasure freedom of expression. Skepticism is considered obligatory among scientists and historians, in the sense that every scientific theory or experiment is questioned over and over again before it is finally either accepted or discarded. But there is a difference between skepticism and denial.
According to a 2010 article by M. Scudellari in Natural Medicine, “denialism is the rejection of basic facts and concepts that are undisputed, well-supported parts of the scientific consensus on a subject, in favour of radical and controversial ideas.” These controversial ideas are rarely submitted to the scientific community where they would risk being instantly dismissed; instead, they are conveyed to the general public on social platforms using cherry-picked facts and statistics as arguments.
Psychologists have studied the reasons why some people question widely held truths based on science or historical facts. One psychological
Global warming and sea-ice loss will contribute to the decline of polar bears. Photo: iStock
explanation for denialism is that deniers shun uncomfortable truths by seeking refuge in alternative realities. For example, some deniers reject the existence of COVID-19. They say that the authorities, for reasons of their own, wish to restrict people’s freedom of movement and basic human rights. As for genocides such as those that took place in Srebernica, in Rwanda and during the Holocaust, deniers attempt to refute or minimize the scale and severity of these events, perhaps because they reflect negatively on the person’s self-image or nationality.
Many deniers cling to conspiracy theories. For example, they believe the widely reported but mostly unproven infringement of Soviet submarines in Swedish territorial waters in the 1980s was a myth, a conspiracy by high-ranking Swedish Navy officers to justify their demand for a budget increase. Similar conspiracy theories accuse narrow interest groups of exaggerating the threat of phenomena like climate change, AIDS or COVID19 for their own political or economic gain.
There are still hundreds of people who deny that the Earth is a sphere. Their home is the Internet and various Flat Earth societies. Any evidence available from space exploration, such as satellite images of the Earth, is dismissed as fake. Buzz Aldrin, who together with Neil Armstrong was the first human being to step onto the Moon, was once approached by a reporter who demanded that Aldrin confess to the whole Apollo 11 mission having been a hoax, a conspiracy, an elaborate simulation intended to deceive the general public. Aldrin tried to walk away from the reporter who followed him and pestered him with repeated insinuations. Finally, Aldrin lost his temper and punched the reporter in the nose … but that’s another story.
A new Galileo biography draws parallels to today’s science denialism. Galileo Galilei (15641642) before members of the Holy Office in the Vatican in 1633. Painting by Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury 1847.
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