Dec 25, 2017

Santa Leif

It’s Christmas day. My house is quiet and warm imbedded in the white snowy northern Sweden landscape. It’s -8°C outside (17,6°F) and comfy cozy warm inside. Did I mention it’s warm inside?

This is the story. Or, let me begin here: Christmas in Sweden is a 2 week stretch of Holidays when the country pretty much shuts down. It’s a good thing to not get sick at Christmas, your car better not break down and pray to that newborn Jesus that everything in your house works as it should.

Now, this is the story: the morning before Christmas I suddenly didn’t have any hot water. You really don’t want that to happen, especially since the day before Christmas this year was a Saturday. So no plumbers on duty for two weeks.

For as long as I can remember I’ve had my own special plumber, his name is Leif. He knows my house, plumber-wise, in and out. I’ve lost contact with him though since he changed employer this spring, and here I was, the day before Christmas Eve without hot water and didn’t know what to do.

I tried to calm myself down with the fact that you can always boil water. Being without heating in your house this time of year, now that’s a real problem!

Still, a bit desperate I tracked Leif down, so grateful when he picked up the phone. We tried to figure out what’s happened and still quite don’t know. But over the phone he guided me in the menu of my heat pump (which is only two years old and have worked very well (as it should) so I have had no reason to become familiar with it. Happy and grateful I could actually take a shower in the afternoon.

Christmas Eve morning I woke up and my house was cold. The floors downstairs (floor-heating) were cold and the radiators upstairs too. What?! I can’t believe this is happening! My consolation was the house would be filled with family in a few hours, we would keep warm together and I wouldn’t have to be alone in the cold, But that’s just today…

In slight panic I called Leif again. What now? He had arrived in the mountains for the Holidays. But he is just the kindest. Once again he was guiding me in the heat pump and found something irregular. Now Maria, he said, you will have to do a Norwegian restart… I found the head switch for the pump and turned it off. Then on again. And there is was, the missing thing (I can’t even explain in Swedish)!

Did I mentioned my body had turned really bad already the day before and not at all up for any acute technical adventures?

I had contacted my Christmas Eve guests and called on them to dress really warmly, so at their arrival we agreed on pretending we were in one of those Christmas movies wearing all wool, wrapped in blankets in front of the fire place. An adventure!

In a while though, my floors weren’t as cold any longer! The trick worked! Eight people plus two toddlers helped too of course, as well as the fire place and tons of candles all day long. And the warmth between siblings, cousins, parents and children. 

The Christmas Eve that started in cold Holiday panic turned into a warm, fun and memorable celebration. It was also the year of the return of the Santa. My father used to be the fun and crazy family Santa, but since his passing we have celebrated grown up Christmases. With two little toddlers though it was time for a new Santa era. 

Trouble 2 has axled his grandfather’s matel, although the outfit is all new. So is his approach. But of course we closed the Santa ceremony as we always did, singing the Swedish national hymn, Du gamla du fria. For the record, as far as I know, this only happens in our family, it is not a common Swedish tradition.

But the real Santa this Christmas is Leif who with his good heart and calm voice made my water and house warm again. Uh, come to think about it, that sounds a bit like Jesus, right…? 

Happy Christmas all of you!

Dec 17, 2017

Fake chandeliers for Winter Solstice

It is only four days until it happens! The day that marks the turnaround of the light. The day when the sun starts it’s slow-paced struggle to once again win this cyclical war against the suffocating darkness here at the 64th latitude. The Winter Solstice! It’s terribly annoying how the most important day of the year has to linger in the shadows of Christmas, is there anyway we could change that? I would like to throw a big Winter Solstice party, but somehow I can never make that happen…  

For those of you who have been following me along the seasons you know I get through the darkness with adding light. Inside and outside. One thing I do is spotting interesting lights in the stores and then wait for the season sales to hunt for them. It takes patience. Like every hunt.

Some years ago one of those cheep stores where you can find most anything at a bargain and in a guaranteed bad quality (Rusta) added an interesting item to their assortment. A crystal chandelier made out of plastic and and wire. The lights are led. They come in two sizes.

Those creations made me stop. They are unbelievably ugly. Yet fascinating. I had the feeling I would find a spot for them somewhere…

When my carport was finally done, all white painted panel inside, I knew that was the place. Odd, yes, Very. But so right.

At the Christmas sale 2014 I bought the first big one. Half price. Of course. That’s how cheep I am. The big one wasn’t that big though, it would just look silly in the carport. So the year after I purchased two more. Three big boxes with plastic/wire chandeliers took up a lot of space att different places for 1,5 years before my electrician finally found his way here.

But man, was it worth waiting for! In October 2016 three fake chandeliers had found their purpose hanging close to each other in different heights from the roof ridge in front of the west window facing the fields. Putting the switch on I frowned in disappointment at the fact that two of them turned out warm white and one more of a copper tone. Yeah, that’s the downside with hunting at different years… It actually grew on me though, it’s kind of cool, especially since the exterior of the carport is red.

Now, the chandeliers came in a smaller size too. Hmm. My mind wondered for a long time before it settled. For the apple tree. But of course! At the Christmas sale last year there were three of them left at the shelf when I got there. Half price. I grabbed them.

They’ed been sitting in their boxes taking up space under my staircase for eleven months before my imaginary image became reality. It was Mohammed (I will tell you about this amazing young man further on) who hang them and completed my vision for me. 

So, three fake crystal chandeliers in the carport and three in my grandfather’s crummy old apple tree. What does it look like? Well, it’s kind of cheesy of course. But it’s also so out of context that it’s fun and even pretty. It works. And the light and the accomplishment of the hunt for it make me happy every time I look. And so are my guests and my home care people, I can tell.

There won’t be a Winter Solstice party, it’s just impossible three days before Christmas (in Sweden). But the fake chandeliers are shining and my surroundings dressed in snow. It actually looks like we will have a white Christmas this year (knock on wood! )

Dec 10, 2017

The nobility of the Nobel Prize?

It is snowing heavily here at the end of the road. The Advent stars are lighting up the afternoon in my windows as well as in my neighbors. I am listening to the Peace Prize laureates Beatrice Fihn and Setsuko Thurlow from ICAN receiving the award in Oslo on this Nobel Day. The message is sad and hopeful, dark and light, just as the day around my house.

So, it’s December 10, the annual event when Sweden - and Norway - is in the limelight of the science world. The day for the Nobel Prize, instituted by Alfred Nobel, inventor of among other things dynamite and artificial silk.

In Sweden, this fall the Nobel Prize has been clouded by shameful news. It is the Royal Swedish Academy which appoints the literature laureate. The Academy was instituted by King Gustav III in 1786 and consists of eighteen members appointed on life time - nowadays by the Academy itself. Their operation and proceedings are ruled by statues from Gustav III. It is a bit like a secret society, but as the members of the Academy are ranked high in regards of trust and irreproachability, it has rather put the Academy even more on a pedestal than been a problem.

Until now. This fall the Royal Swedish Academy is dethroned. No one is safe from #metoo. 

In this case a man married to one of the Academy members and himself a profile within the arts is accused by 18 women for sexual assaults and rape. As if  that wasn’t bad enough these assaults in some cases have happened within the Academy’s facilities and apartments. And it’s been going on for decades. 

This has put the spotlight on the Academy and its closed circle and non-transparent operations. Of course it was common knowledge that this man had been performing inappropriate (to say the least) over years and years. So, what more is going on within the Academy?

2016 another one of the institutions behind the Nobel prizes was under scrutiny. Karolinska Institutet is the institution appointing the prize in medicine. I would say the word scandal was not an overstatement when it became clear that research fraud was prior to star surgeon and researcher Paolo Macchiarini’s - connected to Karolinska Institutet - synthetic organ transplants which caused the death to most of his patients. 

In the Macchiarini case the horrific outcome of an institution so star struck by a famous surgeon they didn’t make a proper back ground check of course was the main focus. I did not pick up a lot of concerns about how the scandal would reflect on the Nobel medicine prize though.

This year, however, there have been discussions regarding the Royal Swedish Academy and it’s role in the Nobel prize. Not when it comes to appointing the laureate, but if there is irregularities within the Academy and what effect that might have on the look of the prize.

The Nobel Prize is the most valuable science award in the world. It is the dream of every scientist, it’s a multi million industry for all the main universities, and it is of definitive importance for the development of the world and mankind. I am thinking it is crucial for the Nobel brand that all organizations, institutions and every person connected to the Nobel Prize process is irreproachable. It is most troublesome when someone is casting dark shadows on the shining Nobel medal. And, as a Swede I might add, on Sweden. How to assure the nobility of the Nobel Prize?

Fortunately the literature laureate Kazuo Ishiguro is not defining his award with what’s going on within the Royal Swedish Academy. And right now he is sitting in the Blue Hall of the Stockholm City Hall decorated with ice and flower arrangements conveying the Archtice nature, listening to ice xylophone and horn, watching dancers in silver and white. In the ceiling an aura borealis, the northern light. The Nobel Dinner is as always an incredible celebration for eyes and ear. And outside my window it’s dark since many hours and the snow is still falling. It's peaceful and comforting.

Dec 3, 2017

Me too/the Swedish landslide/part 2

And the landslide keeps rolling…

* Monday November 27 under the hashtag #thelastnailinthecoffin 4627 women within the construction industry sign a petition out of anger, frustration and grief. They are testifying about sexual harassments and assault within a male dominated industry.

* November 28: #thelastbrief is more than 2000 women in the PR and advertising industry writing a brief about sexism and sexual harassments within the profession.

* The same day 3853 teachers sign #notpassed to stop the sexual harassments and assaults from colleagues and principals/heads, as well as students and parents.

* November 29, 1992 women active within equestrian sports puts the spot light on what the environment for girls having the stables as their second home looks like.

* November 30 it’s time for 1730 women serving the country in the Swedish Defense Forces to speak up: “We have joined the Swedish Defense to defend Sweden and the right to live in what ever way we want to. Often though, the worst antagonists have been within our own organization”.

* The same day 1863 women and non-binary convey whats boiling within the restaurant industry, a sector characterized of uncertain terms of employment, hierarchy and a sexist macho culture. 

* Also #excavationinprogress, 387 women in the field of archeology let us know about a sexist structure rooted in the history of archeology.

* 978 women working in green businesses such as farming, forestry, horse business and orchards testify of sexist comments and rapes in barns as well as board rooms.

* More then 1000 nurses witness about sexual harassments at work. In 69% of the reported cases the perpetrator is a patient.

* The largest appeal this far in Sweden was also published Thursday November 29. 10 400 doctors and medical students - women, non-binary and transgender - tell the story about the teaching hierarchy which makes them dependent of senior colleagues for decades in the stairs of career. Because of that, sexual assaults are very rarely reported.

* Friday December 1 #metoobackstage. 1615 women behind Swedish TV-productions, movie and theatre stages testify about how exposed they are at work. About the structures in the name of art allowing men taking advantage of anyone from script writers to tailors in the crew.

* In addition to these industry campaigns I would also like to recognize the prostitutes and the women victims of honor related violence. They are too trying to make their voices heard, from the bottom of or society. From the streets and the hidden silent fear.

These thousands of voices have been added to the Me too movement in Sweden in only a week. And we are now hearing women in true male macho sectors like Swedish Defense Force speaking up. The movement is moving. Moving forward. Onward we go.