aron_kristina

Tomorrow we're having a spring party thing at my church, and I'm leading the traditional male choir. I don't know if it's traditional in any other part of the world than Sweden, but here it's sort of been decided, for obscure reasons, that at spring it's supposed to be male choir. Actually, the most traditional day to sing spring songs is last of April, but you can do it most of May too.

Anyway, I'm a bit stressed about this, but in a good way. The practice basically consist of 30 minutes on the day, because it's that kind of low pressure choir, and no one will mind if I fuck up a bit, but this is something I know how to do, in theory at least, and I want to not do it badly.

This is the most famous of the songs, it's called 'Längtan till landet'. I don't know which choir this is, but they're obviously good.




Also, because I think it's awesome, during the LGBTQ-festival in Göteborg my church is going to hold a rainbow service :D

Having watched a lot (that is, at all) of tv lately has got me thinking of WWII. First, yesterday there was on the regional news about a movie premiere of a documentary of the kids that came to Malmö with the white buses. Some of the survivors were there, and even though a lot of them had moved away from Sweden they all seemed to have very fond memories. I mean, some of them travelled half way round the world to attend the premiere.

Secondly, today I watched a documentary about the occupation of Denmark. Very fascinating, interviews with people who were there mixed with old clips of the occupation, and so on.

Both of these things got me thinking about Swedens role in all this. As is perhaps known, Sweden was "neutral" during the war. Which means that we didn't pick sides, exactly, but we allowed the Germans to transport troops and weapons through Sweden and didn't try to help Norway and Denmark during the occupation. Well, some people did, obviously, but officially we were neutral. Ish. There was some breaking of the Haag convention. We also transported loads of iron to Germany.

The thing is, basically every other west European country has had to deal with the aftermath of WWII (and the easter European countries too, I'm sure, as well as other, but I don't know as much about them), but here in Sweden we just buried it. So, for instance, when it recently came to light that Ingvar Kamprad (founder of IKEA) used to belong to a nazi subgroup during the war. Now, if this had happened in, lets say Germany, it would have been brought to light way earlier, and it would have been dealt with. He would have had to own up to it and things would have been brought out in the light, and that would have been that. Now instead he insists that it was because he was young, but he's still said some highly questionable things which makes him seem a bit, well, murky. I mean, fair enough, he was young, 17, but I've been seventeen too, and I didn't turn into a nazi. Neither did most of the Swedish population who were teenagers during that time. The fact is, one gets the feeling that most people were against Germany, if only for the fact that they occupied countries.

We also haven't dealt with the fact that when our own people, Norway and Denmark became occupied we did nothing. We haven't dealt with the fact that yes, while a lot of people weren't nazis, some of them were. Some of them still are. We have loads of neo-nazis in Sweden, and I can't help but think that this has something to do with it.

Now, I'm not saying I don't understand the Swedish government during that time, because we were sandwiched between Soviet and Germany (or rather, their occupied territory), and declaring war would probably means loads of dead people. We were also almost attached a couple of times. Being neutral is perhaps less important than being alive. On the other hand, maybe taking a stand for something you believe in, like the fact that people shouldn't be slaughtered in death camps, is important too.

Sometimes, when things like this come up I think were a nation in need of psychotherapy.

A collegue of mine today claimed that to get smoke free was more difficult than getting free of heroin. Never mind the fact that stopping heroin can kill you... She also said that nicotine patches were bullshit since it keeps up the nicotine dependence, never mind the fact that they're like a thousand times more healthy, and doesn't force the people around you to inhale your gross smoke. Anyway, it's possible that she had some points, but all I could hear was "waaaa, pity me, I can't stop because it's harder than not doing heroin, you guys, waaaaaaaaa".

Also, she buys her ciggies illegally (doesn't pay tax for them), which means I have no respect left for her. None whatsoever.

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I'm sure I had something more to write about, but I can't remember it. Have some more of the indulgent kidfic instead:

The Most Beautiful Sound I Ever Heard, chapter 5