6

We need your support!

Swedish Press strives to create a high quality magazine for you, but the costs are considerable and ever-increasing. Please consider making a generous donation to help keep your publication, and Swedish heritage, alive. You’ll find a form on page 2 as well as page 29. Tack!

Whether your Swedish is fluent or rusty, we hone your language skills by publishing some articles in Swedish. But never despair: you will find English translations online thanks to our valiant team of volunteer translators. Simply go to http://biolson. atspace.cc/swemail/ and you will find translations of all Swedish articles going as far back as to August 2007.

We regularly publish articles in Swedish Press about the fortunes and misfortunes of Swedes who emigrated to America over a century ago. It is generally well known what motivated them to leave Sweden and what awaited them on arrival in the USA and Canada. Through interviews we also inform our readers what it is like being a Swedish expat in North America in this day and age. But what about Swedes in other parts of the world? We thought our largely North American readership might be interested in finding out about the lifestyle of their compatriots in widely differing climates and cultures. This is why we have chosen the Swedish Diaspora as the main theme in the May issue of Swedish Press. With the help of Svenskar i världen (SVIV) we were able to contact movers and shakers in various Swedish communities who have kindly contributed insights into expat life in faraway lands (page 11).

SVIV also arranged for us to interview their Chairman of the Board, Louise Svanberg, the ultimate cosmopolitan who shares her time between Stockholm and Boston (page 16). Speaking of SVIV, it is worth visiting their website www.sviv.se which is a veritable goldmine of information for homebound Swedish expats and anybody else planning to move to Sweden.

These are strange times when most of us find ourselves locked down due to the coronavirus. My Canadian wife and I just barely made it out of the UK on March 28 to our Canadian home. We count ourselves very lucky, because at least we are not stuck in a deserted hotel or on a wayward cruise ship; nor are we financially dependent on jobs from which we might be laid off. Even so, the constant bombardment of bad news on radio and television is unnerving for everybody, including ourselves.

Some foreign news media claim that Sweden is failing to apply the same strict rules that prevail in most other countries to keep COVID-19 in check. This is vigorously denied in both official Swedish circles and private emails. We report on the latest situation on page 6.

One unfortunate consequence of COVID-19 is that our sources of advertisements have dried up. These revenues have been crucial in order to maintain the printed version of Swedish Press. We therefore ask our subscribers for generous donations so that we can continue to publish the printed magazine (page 2 – inside front cover). If the shortage of funds continues, we are considering shifting to digital distribution only. In preparation for this eventuality, we kindly ask our subscribers to send us their email addresses to subscribe@swedishpress.com.

On a more cheerful note, I think you will enjoy our updates on recent events in Sweden and Swedish-America – despite the fact that many of them have had to be cancelled, as told by Henric Borgström (page 30). Some of the articles will undoubtedly bring a smile to your face, like the one from 1870 offering advice to prospective emigrants from Sweden to North America (page 20).

Spring is just around the corner – another reason for us all to smile! from the Editor’s Desk ] [ The Swedish Diaspora

Peter Berlin Editor Peter@Swedishpress.com May 2020