News at a Glance

Ambassador to Return to Belarus

Following a controversial teddy bear protest – where Swedish PR firm Studio Total dropped teddy bears with human rights messages out of airplanes over Belarus – the Swedish ambassador and other diplomats were expelled from Belarus last August. Following the PR stunt, ambassador Stefan Eriksson “has since downplayed the importance of the stunt, pointing instead to Sweden’s development aid targeting democracy projects and his own meetings with opposition groups.” A recruitment process for a new ambassador is now in place and will ultimately lead to the position being filled in the near future. Belarus is set to improve its relationship with the European nations in the face of its cracking down on human rights advocacy groups.

Lågt vatten – Nya Fynd

Ett gammalt skeppsvrak har nyligen siktats alldeles intill Kastellholmen i Stockholm.

Upptäkten gjordes, av en slump av Marinarkeologen Jim Hansson som var ute och promenerade i Stockholm med sin sambo. – Det var en ren tillfällighet, vi var ute i solskenet. Och så får vi syn på vraket, som jag visserligen visste fanns där men aldrig sett, eftersom det legat under vatten, rapporterade Jim Hansson.

Foto: Jim Hansson, Sjöhistoriska.

Jim som är verksam vid Sjöhistoriska museet i Stockholm, har en teori; att det är resterna av danska 1600-talsskeppet “Grå Ulven” som nu kommit i dagen tack vare det låga vattenståndet. Skrovet har av allt att döma sänkts genom att det fyllts med sten, för att fungera som fundament för en tidigare bro till ön.

Billström Makes a Boo-Boo

Tobias Lennart Billström with the Moderate Party, is the Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy in Sweden. Recently, he has been asked to comment on several missteps, the most current of which came in an interview at the beginning of April. Billström told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper that “Sometimes we have this image that people in hiding live with a nice Swedish lady in her fifties or sixties who wants to help, but that’s not how it is. Most of them live with their countrymen who aren’t at all blonde and blue-eyed.” As this comment blew out of control on the political spectrum, Billström apologized for the overgeneralization and the comment which verged on blunt racism, suggesting he had been “inappropriate.”

Ogooglebar

In what the Swedish Language Council is calling a multinational corporation’s attempt to control language development, Google has effectively removed a term from the annual list of new Swedish words, unveiled in December. On this list was the word “ogooglebar” or “ungoogleable,” defined as something “that cannot be found on the Web with a search engine.” Because the definition did not specifically refer to the brand name Google and instead was very general and overarching, Google objected to it. A spokesperson for the Council, Ann Cederberg, calls this language control and says that “if we want to have ogooglebar in the language, then we’ll use the word and it’s our use that gives it meaning, not a multinational company exerting pressure.” After all, “Google has forgotten one thing: Language development doesn’t care about brand protection.”

Sweden Wins World Curling Gold

At the World Men’s Curling Championship in Victoria, Canada in early April, Sweden came out on top in men’s curling. Finally beating Canadian Brad Jacobs – from Northern Ontario – after his 3-year reign, Sweden’s Niklas Edin won 8-6 in the gold medal game. Scotland and Denmark played for the bronze medal after both losing to Jacobs earlier in the weekend.

Sweden’s skip Niklas Edin along with teammates Sebastian Kraupp, Frederik Lindberg and Viktor Kjäll. Photo © WCF/CCA/Michael Burns

The Llama Solution in Sweden

In southern Sweden, there has recently been a problem with wolves killing farm sheep and Skåne’s County Administrative Board thinks it has found the solution: llamas. The Länsstyrelsen is hoping that the natural fighting instincts of llamas will manifest in their scaring off the wolves who are causing damage to the farmers’ business. Because the Swedish government pays each farmer for each sheep that is killed on their property, the llama solution – which is based on a trial conducted in the US over the past couple of years – provides a solution, which could effectively pay itself off. Llamas will be instated to protect large estates and the effects will be closely monitored.