Happy New Year!

The picture shows Persian sweets, one of the desserts featuring at our New Year's Eve potluck dinner tonight.

Winter Leisure

View from yesterday's walk. Today it's been very mild, so the snow is melting fast. Fortunately it's going to get cold again tomorrow, at least -10'C, so that should avoid complete thawing. We headed out to the country house today and are currently cosied up in front of the fire while waiting for our dinner and overnight guests to arrive.

Happy Christmas! / God jul!

Show & Tell: Half-Year Check, Second Half 2009

I'm over two weeks late with my Show & Tell posts so I thought I'd better get them done before it's time for the last theme of the month (and before Christmas). Nilla's second theme of the month was Lucia - more about that below - and her third theme, to provide a half-year check, i.e. an inventory of the last six months of 2009 through photos, starts here! (All photos can be enlarged with a simple click!)

JULY

I worked most of July. It was the first month of the Swedish Presidency of the EU so it was quite hectic despite it being the height of the Swedish holiday period. I went twice to London on business and to the political week in Almedalen (a Swedish institution!) as usual. A very good friend and colleague H. sadly left us for Oslo :( On the bright side Peter's cousin S. got married and we had a great time at the wedding, or the party rather (which included inpromptu rope jumping and climbing...).



AUGUST

August equals holiday! We spent a lovely week in the southern and south-western parts of Sweden, followed by 10 days or so in the US, seeing both the west and east coasts (which reminds me I haven't finished my travel diaries from there). Since I will definitely write more posts about the US holiday I have just included our Swedish road trip in the collage.



SEPTEMBER

I went back to work on 1 September. It was still summer though for most of September, resulting in lunches out on terraces and balconies up until the very end of the month! I went on a very interesting work trip to London, where we simulated the climate negotiations (which went roughly in the same directions as the real ones...) As for our social calendar, we fit in one wedding and two crayfish parties.

OCTOBER

October was cold, much colder than normal, and we didn't have much sunshine (though it wasn't as bad as November...). Highlights of the month were a Michael Jackson tribute party, taking a friend's daughter to Walking with Dinosaurs and attending our good friends C. & J.'s son's baptism.



NOVEMBER


If October was bad weather-wise, November was just pure misery. Stockholm had 17 instead of the usual 55 hours of sun (average). Luckily we saw some sun on a weekend trip to Berlin (which I blogged about here). November featured the births of two babies in my circle of friends, a christening and a surprise party for a friend who turned 40 (same friend whose son was baptised the month before). We also bought some wild boar from a friend whose husband goes hunting and made minced meat (among other things); the mince are now meatballs that we will devour as part of our Christmas meal tomorrow!



DECEMBER

And now it's December, a month dominated by Advent and Christmas preparations. Which brings us to Lucia. Nowadays, at least for the last four years, the only Lucia celebration that I'm a part of is the one at work. I'm not a singer (even though I always used to be on the school choir) so I don't join the other girls (yeah, mostly girls), instead I just enjoy the glögg and lussekatter with the performance. But when I think of Lucia in general I think about memories of Lucia performances with my cousins for my grandparents at 6 am in the morning, being one of the contestants for the "role" of Lucia in ninth grade (didn't win needless to say), going to pretty wild "Lucia wake" parties during upper secondary school, and celebrating Lucia at (or organised by) the Swedish churches in New York, London and Brussels.

December also saw a great colleague leaving us after four years - he's the one in the Pippi wig! :)

Check out my last inventory from June!

From Hopenhagen to Nopenhagen

Or Brokenhagen. What else can we call Copenhagen? Crapenhagen perhaps?

Yes, it didn't turn out the way we wanted it to, or the way it needed to. But we cannot give up. We must see this as a start, even though we wanted it to be an end - the end to fossil-fuel, planet destroying practices. Because even if many countries started addressing climate change ages ago, major emitters such as the US and China* were not there, as in where the EU and climate progressives such as Brazil are. Now they are. Because even though the Copenhagen Accord is in many ways a disappointment, it is the first time the US and China actually signs up to anything that in effect means they admit guilt and that they too have a responsibility. Sure, it is not legally binding but I'm confident the political and public pressure from around the world will be so big that there is no way back for them. A representative from one of the Indian NGOs (I think) said: "it takes a long time to get the elephant moving but once it is moving it is very difficult to stop it".

We just need to move on and get down to work. There is no point in looking back (beyond learning useful lessons on what went wrong in the preparatory work and how the UN international negotiations process can be improved, etc.). I may be a naïve optimist but I think it is likely that the world's countries can make this into a legally binding agreement within a two-year period.

* China has the largest share of global greenhouse gas emissions though not per capita

Singing in Christmas

My friend H sings in one of the Sofia church (Södermalm, Stockholm) choirs and this is probably the fourth year I go and listen to their annual Christmas concert. Highly recommended! Walking there in a foot of snow helped us getting into the right mood and spirit. Now I'm back home sipping ginger cookie flavoured coffee - yummy!

Still Snowing

Or again rather.

Hopenhagen

Things aren't going that well in Copenhagen though there are still some signs of hope. Send all your thoughts of hope and all the energy you can spare to the negotiators trying to agree a new climate change deal for the world by the end of Friday!

Snow Storm

Visibility down to 100m at times. I'm doing a pretty good job at fixing a white Christmas for the Swedish homecomers, so far at least!

White Bliss Proper!

Annika and all other Swedish expats coming home for Christmas, I'll (try to) make it stay!!

Travelling Reader

Read an excellent quote!

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
- Saint Augustine

Speaking of reading (i.e. not travelling but actual reading), hands up those who think I will reach my goal of 20 read books for 2009?! Have read 14 so far and am reading two at the moment. 17 days to go. I should say that these days I read mostly when on leave, which I will be for a few days this holiday season, or travelling.

Semi-White Bliss

The other snow disappeared quickly but now we have some new one. Will see how long it lasts...

It's Snowing!

Not that much snow yet but it's the most we've got so far this winter.

No Pun Intended

No 16 is my favourite!

1. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.

2. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says,"I'll serve you, but don't start anything".

3. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.

4. A dyslexic man walked into a bra.

5. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm, and says: "A beer please, and one for the road".

6. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?"

7. "Doc, I can't stop singing The Green, Green Grass of Home." "That sounds like Tom JonesSyndrome." "Is it common?" "Well, It's Not Unusual."

8. Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning." "I don't believe you", says Dolly. "It's true; no bull!" exclaims Daisy.

9. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.

10. Déjà Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.

11. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day, but I couldn't find any.

12. A man woke up in a hospital after a serious accident. He shouted, "Doctor, doctor, I can't feel my legs!" The doctor replied, "I know, I amputated your arms!"

13. I went to a seafood disco last week... And pulled a mussel.

14. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.

15. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says, "Dam!"

16. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Not surprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

17. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel, and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office, and asked them to move along. "But why", they asked, as they moved off. "Because", he said, "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

18. A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt , and is named 'Ahmal'. The other goes to a family in Spain, they name him 'Juan'. Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal".

19. A dwarf, who was a mystic, escaped from jail. The call went out that there was a small medium at large.

20. And finally, there was the person who sent twenty different puns to his friends, with the hope that at least ten of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

Show & Tell: Christmas Presents

Not everyone looks forward to Christmas. The single mother who cannot afford to buy presents. The child who knows his or her parents will drink too much and fight their way through Christmas. The child swimming in presents but gasping for love from distant though present parents.

Read an article by Eva Franchell* on the Nordic Council site that made me reflect for a moment.

Her piece is titled Three images of Sweden just before Christmas 2009.

Rosengård on the outskirts of Malmö - Children living in misery and pure poverty. Cockroaches and mold. Ten people in a two-bedroom flat. 10% of Swedish children are considered poor** - in Rosengård it is 60%***.

Nyfors, Eskilstuna - Young people looking for jobs that are not to be found. 7% unemployment. Young people start their life as adults with a trip to the welfare office. Or resort to crime.

Stureplan, Stockholm - A handbag still costs over 10,000 SEK (920 euros). The international crisis is not to be seen. The shops are expecting record sales also this Christmas.

Eva writes that the market analysts in Stockholm are saying that the crisis is over. But, she continues, for many people around Sweden it has just begun. The share of Swedes on welfare benefits has increased with 20% compared to last year - but most of them do not live in Stockholm, at least not in the centre, instead they live in industrial towns where some companies, usually those supplying other, bigger industries, have had to close or lay off workers. The municipalities have received their share of the national rescue package but often it is only enough to cover the additional welfare benefits expenses.

Eva makes the issue political - and rightly so; politics is about people's different views about people and society - but I'm not going to do that today. I just want to highlight that there are people even in Sweden, both before and after the economic crisis, who are not that well off and could do with some help. And what better time than Christmas to think of a fellow human being. Because I do believe that we're all the same deep down irrespective of where we live, in the rich suburb or on the street. We all have the same needs to eat, sleep and love.

So, buy some presents for your loved ones as you usually do - I will - but for every gift you buy, send a thought to those less fortunate in society and preferably a monetary gift too.

For example, to/through Stadsmissionen:

Or Rädda Barnen:



* Probably most known as the best friend of Anna Lindh, the Swedish Foreign Minister who was murdered in 2003
** This is in an international comparison very low but it doesn't make their plight more bearable.
*** But there is also hope in Rosengård. The now world-famous footballer Zlatan comes from Rosengård. But, as Eva rightly points out, Zlatan is not only a symbol of hope and success despite humble origins; but also of growing inequalities between rich and poor


Show & Tell
I should also say that Nilla is our Show & Tell hostess for December. You can see the rest of her topics in one of the right-hand column.

Secret Santa

One lucky blogger out there will get this in the mail soon! :-)

Impulsive Drinking

6 o'clock post-Christmas shopping, pre-dinner drink, just like that!

Interesting (?) Fact of the Day

This morning when I was reading Arte & Marte, the biannual magazine published by the Swedish House of Nobility*, something caught my eye on the Family News pages (you know, those pages listing marriages, birth, deaths, etc.). It read:

Gyllenhaal, Maggie Ruth, *1977, actress, and John Peter Sarsgaard, *1971, actor, married 2 May 2009

I didn't know that the Gyllenhaals were members of the Swedish nobility, let alone any nobility?!! Guess you learn something new every day! Even if it's värdelöst vetande (worthless knowledge), as we say in Sweden :)

* One member of this household happens to be a member of this house as well, and it's not me...

Finally...

...some sunshine! And a temperature drop that brings out that longed for Christmas spirit. November was such a miserable month! A total of 17.5 hours of sunshine compared to the normal 55 hours. And a proof that the weather has been upside down; average temperatures in November were higher than those in October!

The Scale of the Challenge

Today I went to an interesting seminar about climate change organised by the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. After the presentations (one on the science and one on the security implications of climate change - both very interesting but I won't go into the detail here) there was a panel debate with four Swedish politicians - Sofia Arkelsten from the Moderate (Conservative) party, the Left party's Jens Holm, Claes Västerteg from the Centre party (former agrarian party, now small business party) and Social democrat Anders Ygeman.

Their first task was to envision a Sweden eleven years from now, in 2020...

...that would have had to reduce emissions by 50% compared to 2009 levels*. In the scenario emissions trading is not allowed and since it's only eleven years away we cannot count on much of the new technology, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) or electric cars to have come through the pipeline yet, or on any new nuclear plants having been built (or at least not to be in operation yet).

So what did our group of politicians come up with?

• - Transport - the main quick fix as these represent a large chunk of our emissions - is very, very expensive. The tax on petrol is at least 27 SEK per liter. We have not seen the benefits of investment in the rail sector yet.
• - Taxes and other economic instruments are our main tools. A massive tax on CO2 is in place. Aviation and heavy transport by lorries are subject to further levies. All cities have a congestion tax.
• - We heat our homes with electricity - biofuels (still) emit too much and are thus costly considering the high CO2 tax in place.
• - We are moving to the cities as urban areas are more energy efficient. More effective use of space means that - by building smarter and denser - we don't need to travel as much and waste collection, sewage and other logistics are also more efficient.
• - Usually we can't afford to go on vacation but if we do we stay away longer.
• - We have stopped eating meat as it is too costly from a CO2 perspective**, with the exception of game and some grazing animals.
• - Renovations and refurbishment of homes that improve energy efficiency and/or reduce emissions, e.g. solar panels, insulation, are tax deductible.
• - We are discussing closing down industries in Sweden to reach the goal but we are concerned that will just move emissions elsewhere. We need to take a global perspective.

Radical as it may sound it illustrates well the scale of the problem. If we are to stop the increase in global average temperatures at two degrees this may be the only way to go.

They politicians went on discussing if society will succeed making a change (even if not as drastic and radical as the above), what the necessary changes in the economy and in consumption patterns will be and how we can consume without destroying the planet, but that's another post!

* This would be tougher than any of the targets that the EU has committed too so far or that are on the table in the climate change negotiations. Sweden's commitment is 40% by 2020 on 1990 levels.
**Today, 2009, emissions from meat production is equal that of 4 million cars on Swedish streets.