Green Driving

Environmental theme today. Five steps to greener driving behaviour:

1) Plan, plan, plan. It's essential for economical driving. Don't stop and start when it isn't necessary.
2) Drive in as high gear as possible. Change directly from second to fourth gear. Or from third to fifth. Today you can drive most cars in highest gear already at 50 km/h.
3) Keep the speed limit and don't overtake when you don't need to.
4) Motor break instead of breaking with the pedals.
5) Roll downhill - and keep level gas uphill.

Other tips
* Keep the right tyre pressure. Higher pressure reduces both wear to tyres and fuel consumption.
* De-assemble the roof box. Reduced air resistance gives lower fuel consumption.
* Use motor heaters. Cold starts consume a lot.
* Don't let the motor idle.
* Service the car regularly.
* Turn off the AC when you're not using it.
* Half of all car journeys are shorter than 5 minutes. Park the car and walk instead.

Source: Swedish Road Administration / Svenska Dagbladet newspaper

Another White Thing - UPDATED

SNOW!! Finally, after a winter with no snow so far (except for a powderish layer once or twice), we got 1cm or so yesterday and a few minutes ago it started snowing again. Big snowflakes are slowly falling from the sky.

Update 14:30 - Looks like it may be already melting :(

Show & Tell: Three White Things

Since I have been a total failure when it comes to posting photos from our trip to South Africa in December (to my defence I have posted a couple of hundred of them on Facebook) I thought I'd use my first go at Show & Tell (initiated by Norrskensbuddha) to give you a taste of South Africa. The instructions said "things" but I'm going to widen it a bit to fit my purposes.


White theme 1: Zebras - Just one example of all the cool animals we saw





White theme 2: Black and white - Our visit to Kliptown in Soweto, Johannesburg, symbolises the years of Apartheid in South Africa and the segregation that still exists



White theme 3: Seagull - Represents the beautiful and amazing nature and scenery we experienced in South Africa

K as in Killing-gänget

I've been challenged by Johanna to take part in a chain blogging exercise focused on films with titles following the order of the alphabet. It's my turn to find a film title that starts with K. Impossible! I don't like Kill Bill and I haven't seen The Kingdom. So I will go with a fun clip from the Swedish comedy group Killing-gänget. This is really only funny if you understand both English and Swedish but since probably at least half my readers fit that description, it will do just fine.

As goes with these challenges, I will have to pass the torch onto three people. My choice is: Anne, Marianne and Nonna.

Monster Called Haga

Alva's dad recommended a system that helps you track who's been visiting your blog and how they got there. Most of mine find their way here from other blogs (mainly the ones I visit often and some of which also link to me). Others search on Google (or other search engines, but Google is predominant) and for a mix of straighforward and inexplicably reasons end up on Anna, Fair and True:

* Offside rule for women (or offside rule and women's shoes) - This is a joke I posted once
* Is ljubljana safe for tourists - This is really weird because I have never even been to Slovenia...it must be one of my posts about the EU
* Monster called haga - Que?? At least it gave me a good laugh
* That booty shake - I think it's a You Tube clip with a cute little girl dancing
* Role models - A post about my mother
* Amazing talent - That's me of course!
* Celebrities for the congestion charge - Not sure where the celebrities come in but I have written about road tolls several times
* Jcr wii oxford - JCR is the junior common room (student member body and social club) at Oxford, and, well, you know by now what the Wii is
* California's 4 most popular attraction - Haven't been there for over 11 years but maybe I wrote about Alcatraz or something??
* Sweden most popular attraction - Must have been the Vasa Museum
* Durkslag in English - Colander or strainer, but this was actually a discussion in the comments to the post

Wiinjury UPDATED

Peter and I have been laughing at all the safety instructions that you have to pass through before the Wii lets you play a game of tennis or baseball, or even a-sitting-down-and-relaxing game such as Super Mario Galaxy.

On Sunday I got a taste of what they are trying to protect you from (and themselves, in case people want to sue). We were playing tennis - we have two wiimotes now - and stood next to each other in front of the TV, keeping what we thought was sufficient distance between us. Apparently not enough though as suddenly Peter, getting very carried away in his efforts to win over me, smashes me very hard on the shoulder with his wiimote.

Monday morning I was a bit sore, Monday night was probably the worst (going to a yoga class didn't help either) but today it's feeling much better. Good thing I have a massage session booked tomorrow.

Updated
I thought for a moment that I had coined a new phrase - wiinjury - but when I googled it I got over 6,000 hits. Someone already thought of wiiplash also :)

Nonsense Pondering

Is it just me or have you ever seen Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's daughter Suri in a pram or a pushchair? They are always carrying her, everywhere. It must be some Scientology crap, just like that barley (wheat) formula babies are supposed to drink according to the Scientologists, instead of breastmilk or regular formula. It's probably good for little Suri to run around, but sometimes she'd probably like to take a nap in a comfortable pushchair instead of her mum's shoulder.

Friday Four - Time Travelling

I really liked the book "The Time Traveller's Wife" and I need something to blog about while I sort out my South Africa photos (though I have posted most of them on Facebook). In addition, it was a long time since I did one of these Friday Four things (the guy even stopped posting them so I had to take an old one).

Theme: If you could wind time back and forth, what would you have done if you were...

1) ...7 years old?
Written down what I felt my first day of school because I can't remember it at all :( Weird, because I really enjoyed school. The good thing is that it must mean that it was a traumatic experience for me (it's not like my mum got lost on the way to school).

2) ...15 years old?
Convinced my parents to get me a moped and to let me go on one of those summer language exchange courses.

3) ...30 years old?
Not postponed things, like posting travel photos or sewing pillow cases (I bought the fabric in Hong Kong in March and... that's how far I've got)

4) ...60 years old?
Retired and spent the rest of my (hopefully very long) life travelling the world, spending time with grandchildren and doing charity work for a worthwhile cause (or involving myself in local or national politics).

2007 Summarised

Stealing an idea that is going around a lot at the moment.

This year's....

Daily joy: Facebook, reading my favourite blogs
Gratitude: surviving bad turbulence when flying home from South Africa
Greatest expectation: the long wait for the trip to South Africa (from March to December)
Greatest disappointment: the rainy summer
Greatest joy: spending every day with Peter
Greatest triumph: praise at work (e.g. a very nice personal thank you letter)
Greatest "I wish more had happened this year": a ring would have been nice...!
Most wonderful weekend: a cosy weekend at the country house
Ponder: where to (job) go next
Relief: at least some sort of progress on the climate
Best new contact: new blog contracts, or re-finding old friends on FB
Happening: seeing wild animals hands-on in Africa
Project: Helena's hen party for which I was the co-ordinator, or the planning of the South Africa trip
Trip: South Africa, or Hong Kong
Person: Peter
Piece of clothing: a dress from Sand that was way too expensive (though worth it!)
Book: Snabba Cash
Purchase: Nintendo Wii
Restaurant: the thai place near home which is saviour
Most difficult: finding time to read (due to my Internet addiction)
TV moment: Heroes
Best party: Helena & Tommie's wedding or many of the 30th birthday parties I attended
Film: elephants in South Africa

Back in Sweden & A New Year

We're back after a fantastic holiday (our luggage decided to stay a bit longer though...)! Will blog about soon - just need to go through a thousand photos first...

Happy new year to all my readers!

South Africa Here I Come!

We're off for a two-week holiday in South Africa - will be back here with lots to tell and photos to post in the new year!

Feminist Inspiration

I attended a very interesting lecture by Nawal El-Saadawi tonight. El-Saadawi is a leading Egyptian feminist, sociologist, medical doctor and writer on Arab women's problems. She is one of the most widely translated contemporary Egyptian writers, with her work available in twelve languages.

I just wanted to share a few of the interesting points she made (in the order they were raised):

• I don't like the term "the Middle East". Middle to whom? If we call it the "Middle West" people laugh but why? When I go to America I say that I go to the "Far West".
• We don't live in a post-colonial world; it is neo-colonial.
• There are global and local dictators. Local dictators imitate global ones.
• I challenge the concepts of "democracy", "diversity" and "multi-culturalism". They divide people. They are words of post-modernism, which in turn is neo-colonial.
• Condoleeza Rice is biologically a woman but when you open up her brain, George Bush is there.
• Nakedness and veiling are two sides of the same coin = the paradox of the woman's body. Plastic surgery is the post-modern veil, the veil of the body.
• The father (or the [male] teacher, professor, etc.) is the representative of the divine power.
• Religion (Christianity) has caused a split between body and spirit. The woman is associated with body, physical and feeling, while the man is spirit, mind and thinking. Eve ate from the tree of knowledge and became a sinner. Why was knowledge condemned?
• One cannot get away from the history of patriarchy in the bedroom.
• If someone says they are apolitical it means they are political but that they are hiding their politics. Everything is political.
• The education is system is based on fragmented knowledge. We specialise. We are not organised and united. But a physician must know why people get sick.
• We must believe that things are possible. The veil of the mind is the most dangerous.
• God is my conscious. Religion has no meaning if one does not do anything. If one just goes to church/mosque or read the bible/quran but never works for justice, is one then saved by religion/God?
• The religious backlash is a political backlash.
• A woman cannot marry two men because then one won't know who is the father of her children. The father's name is important. We should give the mother's name to children instead.
• There is a difference between sexual liberation and economic and political liberation. Women have the first but not the latter [not even in Sweden].

What Kind of Healthcare System Will My Children Have?

Some of the initiatives in the healthcare sector in Sweden are making me a bit worried. The new Op-Ed Dagens Arena - independent, radical and progressive - has written on the topic.

The centre-right Alliance majority in Stockholm County Council has decided to go through with major privatisation in the Stockholm region. One of the places where they are starting is my hometown (where I grew up) Södertälje. According to the proposal on the table all healthare in Södertälje should be privatised, including the emergency hospital. In addition the responsibility for financing and commissioning of the care will be transferred to a private company.

I do not have a problem with private providers of care. What I do not like is when we start financing care through private insurances or handing over responsibility that should remain in public hands. What happens with the democratic governance of the health service and the principles about equality in care ?

The emergency hospital is put in the hands of private profit interests linked to the insurance companies and a monopoly is created consisting of a private company that develops healthcare fully on its own conditions. Simply a private county council in the county council.

As mentioned above, I do not mind diversity of providers in the care sector (or education for that matter), in fact I think it can be a good thing in many ways. But when the majority of these providers are being bought up by big companies or international venture capitalist my alarm bells are ringing.

The centre-right talk about diversity within healthcare, social care services and schools and that different ideas, providers and methods are needed. But sometimes, or really, they seem to be pretty keen on privatisation for the sake of privatisation. Why are private monopolies better than government ones?

As pointed out in Dagens Arena, Fredrik Reinfeldt said in the election campaign last year: "We don't want to sell emergency hospitals. We are not proposing that and I'm happy that you gave me the opportunity to announce that decision tonight." (10 Sep 2007)

But what is this proposal if not selling out the health service in Södertälje? And that is just the start.

Age and Gender

Sweden has just (October) changed to the ILO definition of unemployment which encompasses the 15-74 age range instead of 18-65-year-olds. The Swedish unemployment rate accordingly rose to 5.7% from 4.8%.

This being said, according to fresh labour market figures from the European Commission, Sweden's elderly work the most in the EU. The statistics only look at 55-64 year-olds, but if Sweden is already best in the class in that age range, I would assume that the 65+ are doing reasonably well (although I really hope that our elderly don't have to work if they prefer to retire but that they can work if they want to).

The EU average for employment among 55-64-year-olds are 43.5%, far below the Swedish figure of 70%. One reason for the Swedish scoring top place is that employment among women aged 55-64 is by far higher than other EU countries: 67%. The equivalent in Belgium is 23% (wow, that's low!), in the UK 49% and in Finland 54.3%.

The European Commission praises Sweden for its work with lifelong learning and active aging. Coupled with the high birth rate in Sweden this provides a basis for an increase of the work force until 2050.

Countdown to Christmas

My blog has been given an early Christmas present! A new dress for advent and Christmas! What do you think?!

Spreading the Word!

I want to promote the blogs of the people I work for - you have seven bloggers to choose from!

More Pasta for the People

Håkan Bengtsson writes about an interesting experiment in Italy that he thinks should be followed around the world (he read about it in Dagens industri).

A union leader in Italy recently called the low salaries in Italy a "national emergency" and he is supported by pasta producer Enzo Rossi. Rossi grew tired of his teenage daughters wanting money all the time and being used to getting what they wanted. His solution to the problem was to make the family survive on the same amount of pay as his employees at the pasta factory, i.e. 1,000 euro a month. To succeed the family gave up the car for a scooter, reduced their consumption of nice wines and [Rossi] stopped smoking. They only ate out twice a month. After 20 days the money was gone.

His experiment was meant to open up his daughters' eyes but opened up Rossi's about his employees' salaries. He didn't like the experience of running out of money.

So Rossi decided to raise his staff's salaries!

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

We've been thinking about getting one for a while and today we did, a Nintendo Wii! 30 mins of play (tennis mostly) and I'm hooked. And I was supposed to bake and blog about serious stuff (climate change) tonight!

For those of you who also like games, here's another addictive game for you: pick the correct meaning of a word and win bowls of rice for hungry children around the world (for real).

P.S. We've got that Super Mario Galaxy game too!

Still A Long Way to Go

Sweden may be one of the most gender equal countries in the world, but in some areas we are far from reaching the goal. Some stats:

Women in the 20 biggest stock-listed companies' boards
2005: 16.1%
2006: 18.1%
2007: 18.3%

Swedish stock exhange companies completely lacking women on their boards
Industrivärden
Handelsbanken
Skanska
Volvo
SCA
Nordea
Telia
Sonera

The share of newly appointed board members who are women
2005: 20.6%
2006: 26.9%
2007: 16.8%

Share of female chairs
2005: 0%
2006: 0.7%
2007: 2.7%

Board election committees
Women: 18
Men: 84

7 election committees completely lacked women

(Source: Svenska dagbladet)

When Can I Try?!!