Gender neutrality

For the first time ever there’s an fictional character in book described as hen a mix between han and hon… Is that really neccessary ? Do you think society dictates childrens gender roles by its assumptions and presumtions ? Women and girls should look cute and where dresses, makeup and long hair. While boys and men should try to provide for their family, be able to protect their family and relatives whenever needed, work out in a gym regularly and don’t show any emotions in public…

There are a few families that have decided to not let the friends and family know the gender of their child… because they claim they want protect the child against gender roles that society has assigned us. Is it a good or a bad move ?

Pink are for girls blue are for boys. Girls should play dressup and house while boys should play with cars and lego. Some daycare centres have decided to not use him and her and instead call the children a person. And some daycare centres makes no difference between girls and boys, at least in Sweden.

Would you raise your child with consideration to gender neutrality ?

Electricity, diesel, nuclear power plants

I’m not sure if the same can be said for the rest of the World or Europe alone or if it’s solely Sweden who struggle with this issue every single year. Most Swedes don’t worry about salaries , bills or health related issues. No, far from it!!! Of course we do worry about those things to but a majority of Swedes worries for another thing instead; the electricity price. Weither or not they should adjust it to a fixed rate or have it untied, the fixed rate is better if the winter is expected to be extremely cold while untied rate is generally better as long as you don’t need so much electricity.

What do you worry about every month?

And in Sweden like most countries , we get our electricity from nuclear stations which at least one Swedish politicial party think  are a big issue. Because this party in particular favours a more environmental friendly thinking, with more equaility for men and women. Do you think that nuclear stations are good or bad – in the long run?

For a long time now, many years in fact Swedes have recieved a tax reduction when they have used diesel cars instead for regular cars that runs on petrol. An expert advised the Swedish government to remove the tax reduction because it isn’t needed anymore and it would benefit the Swedish economy if the diesel was available for the same price like petrol.

Would you prefer a diesel car over a petrol car if you could recieve a tax reduction ?

Julian Assange

Mr Julian Assange the creator of Wikileaks has been confined to house arrest since Sweden issued an extradiction order on him because he is accused of rape in Sweden. Some say this is a false accusation made by people who’d like to hurt him or possibly wants to hurt Wikileaks more. Great Britain is still showing no sign on complying to the extradiction order to have him brought to Sweden – to face the charges. Now in Mr Assange’s defense Sweden is in turn accused of having a insecure legal system since the extradiction order didn’t come from a judge but the orders was instead given by a prosecutor. And apparently Sweden isn’t the only European country that has a judge issue extradiction orders , 8 or so other Europan countries does as well.

Is the international extradiction order not to be followed what then ?

Changing times

I must say I was somewhat surprised when I heard that Croatia had been accepted as EU’s 28th member state… I suppose it was to be expected at some point but I wasn’t prepared for it right now. I mean who knows what will happen to the EU union and especially what the stricter control of the member states economies and budgets will mean…

Mr Juholt has resigned after a 7th month long period as the Party leader for the Social Democratic Party and what’s more is that there isn’t anybody else willing to replace him and take on the big task to clean up things. Of course there’s been a lot of people asked but so far everyone asked has declined. And unfortunately it his likely that the entire board will be forced to resign.. They have until Friday to decide and to find a candidate.

A lot of Swedish political parties seems to have lost votes and thereby influence and like the Social Democrats other parties are looking for reforms and new elections or replacements of Party Leaders… And it seems likely that Sweden will be accepted into the EU cooperation – without having changed their currency for EURO…

Euro or not

It has not been a surprise that both Germany’s Merkel and France’s Sarkozy wants a stricter economic control of all it’s member’s economy. Apparently they would like Sweden to join in the Euro union but Sweden are already an EU member. And so far Sweden have managed to not get so affected bythe current recession – maybe because we still have our independence and our own currency.

Some politicians now fear that Sweden will be forced to join in the Euro union while others think that scenario would lead to Sweden leaving the EU union…

2020

2020. Remember that year. According to experts Sweden will have achived complete equality.. I’m not sure I believe it. Do you ? I mean it’s only 9 years until 2020. I guess we’ll have to wait and see…

Swedish values

Sweden is by far not the best country in the world, I wouldn’t go as far as to even call it the second best country although it apparently became the second best country in a survey some time ago. We have many good things here but also some less good…

Plus:

• no mandatory military service
• free education although state founded after High School (student loan)
• free health care
• religious freedom and freedom of right to expression
• relatively safe

Less good:

• The health care system doesn’t really work here; having to wait for hours just to see a GP, or trying to get an ambulance, in Sweden you might not get one even if you’re basically dying !!!
• basically all statefounded and run facilities are constantly forced to cut down their budget because they politicians only want to save money
• no educated teachers or lack of them, poor elderly care, poor infrastructure in some regions, high unemployment, homeless people and lack of policemen, high taxes, no protection for mentally ill people they recieve little or no necessary health care
• there have been a few cases where the Swedish government have been suwed in EU court

Lupus non mordet lupum

Lupus non mordet lupum, speak of the wolf.

Gender roles & babies

So what if the Swedish Crown Princess is pregnant !? She’s not the first women to expect a child, the only thing that makes this pregnancy get media attention is the fact that the child will be the next monarch in the Swedish royal family (if monarchy still exists in Sweden) but also the epecting mother is not an ordinary woman she’s HRH Crown Princess Victoria the future queen.

Sweden hasn’t had that many queens to be exact but just because she’s royal doesn’t mean anything special she still has to go through a normal 9 months long pregnancy.

And btw, the child isn’t born yet. It is expected to be born in March. As in 2012 not 2011.

So let’s give them a break people, Crown Princess Victoria might be pregnant but let’s not take things for granted. Yes of course the baby will need a name (or four to be more exact) and he or she will probably get more than two godparents. Let the baby be born before anything.

So what if she’s an older first time mother, a lot of women do these days. And let’s not exclude the unborn child from line to exession based on presumed dissabilities. Did you forget the baby isn’t born yet. There’s still 4 months left of 2011 and the baby will probably not be born before 2012.

The storch is expected to the castle…

After everything the Swedish royal family went through in the last year and a half there’s finally some good news and reason to celebrate. The future queen of Sweden has announced her pregnancy and upcoming birth in March… This is after one year’s marriage (well add a few more months) so all the speculations about weither or not HRH Crown Princess Victoria were pregnant can now end. For this time.

Is it a girl or boy? Do you think it will be twins? Will Sweden have not only one Queen but two in row or will the future queen give birth to a prince (Crown Princess) and future king ?

What do you think they will name him or her ?

I will not say what I believe that child will be named because I frankly don’t know for one, secondly Swedish royalities usually have at least four personal names which usually already is in the family.. But I doubt Zlatan will be one of the names …