City to Kids: Speak Swedish or Get Out!

Rosengård, Malmö - Photo from Flickr

The children in municipal after school programs in Malmö, Sweden, are only allowed to speak Swedish. The ones speaking their native language are reported to be punished or asked to leave.

The interviewed head of the program offers an incoherent and irrelevant explanation referring to their rules: The children are to respect one another, and violence is not tolerated. Anyone breaking these rules will first get a warning, and for a repeat offense the child will have to leave for fifteen minutes.

One is left to wonder, whether the children expressing themselves in their own language is considered violent or disrespectful. For those of us more concerned concerned about the municipality not respecting a fundamental human right of the children, the statement seems a sorry excuse for double standards.

Nine Cops and a Male Prostitute Caught Pants Down

archive photo, flickr

The Nine Swedish Riot Police Officers who were caught with their pants down with a male prostitute are back on the streets.

It has been a few weeks since the nine police officers threw a party in a cabin outside the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. An instructor would eventually find them naked ‘dramatizing some sort of homosexual relationship*’

The ‘game’ is reported to have the bunch of 30-40 year old men getting out of their uniforms and play naked with their weapons – Police issued sub-machine guns. An additional hired gun, a male prostitute, had been paid to attend.

Getting off on Police Brutality?

The nine ‘deeply regretful’ cops have today resumed their duties. “We trust them to the extent that they can perform full regular active police duty,” says Eric Nord, Commander of Field Duty Officers. He does not mention whether the prostitute has returned to his active duties as well.


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* (sic) - A Swedish relationship?

The photo above is an archive photo from Gothenburg Riots of 2001. It is used for illustration. the officers are probably not the same ones as in the story.

SAS SK 2867 Crash is Gettin Ugly

October 27th 2007, SAS flight SK2867 crashed on landing due to the starboard landing gear failure. Only minor injuries to the passenger and crew were reported.

Following the incident, SAS and the Danish Board of Civil Aviation (SLV) blamed Bombardier, the Canadian manufacturer of the Dash Q400 plane, for the incident. "We have no confidence on this model anymore," proclaimed SAS President and CEO Mats Jansson in the media.

SAS consequently got rid of the Q400 fleet—to the beat of their own badmouthing campaign against the plane manufacturer. Bombardier eventually chose to pay up the bulk of the total SEK 1.5 billion replacement cost, 1.1billion*, to shut them up. "We are very satisfied with the settlement,” Mats Jansson said.

Today, the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tiende reports that SLV has known since 2007 that the most likely cause of the incident was SAS own faulty maintenance. Peter Udsen, a mid-level manager in SLV, has in a number of e-mails in 2007-2008 pointed this out. "Your personal opinions are of no consequence," his superiors are reported to have responded. Udsen soon resigned from SLV.

News of Sweden Links:

Read the article in Berlingske Tiende
Watch the SAS SK 2867 Crash Video
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* SEK 1.1 billion is roughly $125 m US, $160 m CDN, 100 m €

Sony Ericsson's Anti-Palestine Message

'Win tickets to the Millennium Films with Sony Ericsson!' With these words have the mobile phone manufacturer Sony Ericsson, and the Swedish RIX FM -Radio Channel been enticing young visitors to their site.

Thanks to a sharp-eyed visitor, it was discovered that the chance to win tickets is not all the site has to offer: Flashing almost too fast to notice, the screen repeated a political message between the frames: 'Down with Palestine!'

According to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the Sony Ericsson head of PR, Gustav Brusewitz, said the message is a part of a Unix code (sic) that has been copied and pasted from the internet without cleaning it up.

'In this case it is extremely subtle and hard to discover. We just have to blame it on the human element.' I.e. Sony Ericsson shrug their shoulders and consider this not a big deal. Aftonbladet article makes no mention of an apology.

In Swedish rhetoric, blaming the human element is as saying 'to err is human.' Sony Ericsson is thus hiding from accountability behind an abstract cliche, as though their negligence and their lack of professionalism were an act of God.


Should a global corporation with with an audience of billions accept the responsibility for the message they broadcast? Or do you agree with Sony Ericsson, that just saying 'oops!' is a proper response?

Well, Mr Brusewitz, Take this: 'Down with Sony Ericsson!'

Oops! did I say that?


News of Sweden Links:
Aftonbladet: Det dolda budskapet i Sony Ericssons spel