Carl's hard choices

Swedish politics used to be easy - the right was pro-EU and pro-Israel. The left was more interested in the developing world and pro-Palestinian. But the times they are a'changing - I have blogged about the EU issue before, and with the Ship to Gaza tragedy on his hands, our

Upcoming interview with Linda Scott Jacobsson at Lund Fair Trade City

Lund - the city I live in is a Fair Trade City, which means that the municipality, NGO's and private enterprises cooperate in promoting Fair Trade products.

Does this actually work? How does it look in practice? What are the problems that come up?

I don't know. That is why I will meet with Linda Scott Jacobsson, who is responisble at the municipality tomorrow Monday.

Linda Scott Jacobsson at a Fair Trade Event in Lund

Is there something I shouldn't miss? Do you have any questions? I would be glad to bring any questions from readers to the interview.









Please either post questions as comments here, or send tham to me as an email at danielnylinnilsson (a) gmail.com

Stockholm and Brussels revisited.

Awkward. Maybe that's the best way to describe Sweden's relationship to the European Union. Last week the former Finnish prime minister Paavo Lippanen vented his spleen on Sweden, that unlike Finland chose to remain outside the euro zone. That is maybe not really fair of him - the Swedes who voted no to the Euro did it becasue they thought joining the euro zone would harm the Swedish economy. Lippanen probably thought that it would do the Finnish economy good, and not only out of his belief in the European project. Lippanen was especially disappointed with his social democratic counterpart in Sweden, Göran Persson.

Be it fair or not, Dagens Nyheter's liberal chronicle writer Michael Wolodarski agrees with Lippanens criticism of the Swedish social democrats. That probably comes easy to Wolodarski, but the writer is worried about the current liberal right government's luke warm attitude towards the euro. Prime minister Reinfeldt, who used to be a staunch euro supporter, has publicly expressed his doubts about the project, and seems happy to keep Sweden out of the current turmoil.

Picture from the European Parliament

For Wolodarski, who is more of a liberal ideologist than a politician this is incomprehensible.

Swimming in Sofia

In a chronicle today in my hometown newspaper Värmlands Folkblad, Clara Bodin tells about a number of ex-communistic swimming baths she has visited.

The article is a formidable read (in Swedish), and it brought back a lot of memories from the times when I was swimming twice weekly before going to work in Sofia.

But it also gave me a kind of bitter taste... why does every account from Eastern Europe have to repeat the same tired stereotypes? Even those written by well meaning and knowledgeable authors.

(picture from wikimedia)

Clara tells stories about the swimming hall in Chisinau that hasn't been renovated since World War II

Stockholm vs. Brussels - a new deal?

Greece's close-to-bancruptcy has rattled the EU. The seriousness of the situation is underlined by the magnitude of the answer that came form the EU finance ministers last week. The fantastic sum of 750 bn EUR is supposed to calm the markets, and to show how dedicated European leaders are to save the Euro. Only time will tell if it is enough.

Yesterday the European Commission announced that a whole number countries, among them Sweden and Bulgaria did not meet the requirements to joint the Euro zone. Estonia did meet the criteria, but this looks more like a polite way of saying that the Eurozone has more than enough of its own problems right now. One of this problems is obviously the different economic realities in the different euro zone countries - and each new member state will make the divergence even bigger.


Image by irene

In spite of headlines talking about the collapse of the Euro, both Bulgarian and Swedish politicians have stated that they are looking to join the Eurozone, which seems suidical at a first look.