good for hunting and fishing pic: southlapland.com
The Girjas herding cooperative (Girjas sameby) was today granted the exclusive rights to small game hunting and fishing within their borders. Although the state of Sweden still formally owns the land, the state is no longer able to sell hunting and fishing licences – that right belongs solely to the cooperative members, if they so choose or not.
The case went all the way to the highest court, after mixed verdicts at the lower levels. The supreme court based their decision on the historical circumstances and rights due to their having lived and worked on the land since time “immemorial” (urminnes hävd).
Minister for Rural Affairs Jennie Nilsson commented that the ruling today will likely have consequences for not just hunting and fishing, but also for other Sami communities and for Sami who are not living in Sami communities. Others are worried, though, that this will sow seeds of huge discontent in those who also live in these areas but who are not Sami. Although most legal experts say this was the only correct verdict considering the four binding conventions Sweden has signed and that provide far-reaching rights for indigenous Sami people – it was not taken well by everyone, DN reports. Twitter wasn’t polite – or even decent – in many instances.
After the hullabaloo about scrapping Ancient History (those Romans and Greeks you learned about in school) from the Swedish school plan (läroplanen), the final version of the new school plan was presented to the government today. Although there are hopes it will be implemented as early as the beginning of the next school year, a more likely scenario is 2021.
Ancient history is back as required teaching in the middle school years, rest assured (see this post). Even the national anthem shall be mentioned, as well as the bible, and even a few common psalms. As a whole, there is to be a bigger focus on relaying facts in the early school years, leaving analysis and critical analysis to the later school years.
The major focus, however, is making the school plan, and grading, more transparent. The Swedish National Agency for Education, Skolverket, wants both students and their parents to better understand what is required for a certain grade. However, Skolverket emphasizes, the actual knowledge requirements for a grade have not been reduced in any way (SvD.se/läroplan).
How to squeeze in all the knowledge that needs to be taught in the current number of school hours is still the million dollar question. DN reports that the Swedish Association of Independent Schools (Friskolornas riksförbund) would like to see a change in the number of hours that is spent on each subject ( changes in the timplan), while the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svensk Näringsliv) is reported to think that increasing the number of hours spent in school might be a reasonable solution.
Where the money to increase the hours of school would come from could perhaps be called the ten million dollar question. Minister for Education Anna Ekström has ducked just that question by DN, saying it was a question “for another context.”
The next step is that Skolverket‘s plan is approved, or not, by the government and its supporting Center and Liberal parties.
The current number of hours each subject has during elementary school years (1-9):
Swedish/Swedish as a second language: 1490 Mathematics: 1230 Social studies (samhällsorienterande ämnena – SO which includes geography, history, religion, civics): 885 hours Science (naturorienterade ämnen – NO): 600 Physical Education (idrott): 600 English: 480 Shop (slöjd): 330 Music: 230 Art (bild): 230 Home economics (hem- och konsumentkunskap): 118 Students’ choice: 177
enjoying a wide variety of broadcasts pic: freepik.com
“There’s nothing on” is a favorite refrain, but the worry is now that the choice of things not to watch could be even less.
When Telia (the huge telecom company) got the go-ahead, and went ahead, to buy Bonnier Broadcasting there were some concerned voices. Namely that the Swedish state owns a whole 38% of Telia. Bonnier owned TV4 and C-more. Now that Telia bought Bonniers, the state now also owns a chunk of TV4 and C-more. Remember that the state also has the state-owned channels SVT1 and SVT2. This means that the state has pretty much a lock on a big part of the media landscape in Sweden.
There are many voices that say that the state doesn’t really, really control SVT1 and SVT2 – there are independent boards in between, there are laws saying the state can’t get too involved… but the uncomfortable fact remains that the state has pretty much a lock on a big part of the media landscape in Sweden.
One little uncomfortable blip came up only last week when SVT News announced that they planned a big new news program on SVT1 at 10pm every night. 10pm is when TV4 has (and has had for years) their own news program. This meant that the broadcasts conflicted with each other, and that “the public had to choose between the programs instead of being able to take advantage of a variety of news in the evenings” wrote TV4 journalists in a debate article. The journalists asserted that sending a news program at the exact same time as TV4 broke the newly agreed upon broadcasting license in which it is stated that SVT must work to present a variety of perspectives.
SVT changed their plans for their program, but the problem highlighted what can happen when they both largely belong to the same actor: two programs could easily have become one. Two perspectives could have become one. Representation could have been halved.
Both the Sweden Democrats and the Moderate party are pushing for the state to first look over how much of Telia and its network that the state should hold on to for national security purposes, and then to sell the rest, SvD reported back when the sale was initiated. Ibrahim Baylan, the social democratic Minister for Business, Industry and Innovation was less direct but said that it was up to Telia to be a responsible owner as the deal was getting a lot of political heat.
There’s been more shenanigans recently, although a TV4-less Christmas holiday has been avoided. Com hem, the cable distributor, is owned by Telias competitor Tele2. TV4 (now owned by Telia and by extension partly also by the state) is distributed by Com hem (DN.se/TV4). The contract between them is up at 12 tonight, but they somehow haven’t been able to reach a new agreement: TV4 was about to go to black on a third of Sweden’s televisions at the stroke of midnight. However, just this afternoon, TV4 said that they’d allow Com hem to send their programs without being paid for them until January 10th. In other words, fans of Jul med Ernst are saved. Also it would have looked bad for Telia (see above) if TV4 wasn’t able to be seen by a third of the country just when everyone is free to watch TV.
correction: news tweets have just gone out to say that TV4 will actually go to black at midnight tonight – the free offer wasn’t a free offer it turns out, and negotiations have broken down. This isn’t good, as it basically leaves viewers with SVT if they’d like some news besides from international cable channels. TV3 has The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition though, so that’s something.
It’s time for the government to get out of the broadcasting business.
The government gave notice today that they will make the final decision on whether or not Preem will be allowed to expand their business in Lysekil as planned. Preem is Sweden’s largest fuel company, refining 18 million cubic meters of crude oil every year. It also is the third largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in Sweden, and the expansion would make them the number one emission source. Some estimates have Preem’s expansion raising Sweden’s total CO2 emissions by three percent (svt.se).
Preem’s plan is to build a new refinery that would process crude oil to gas and diesel fuel with reduced sulfur content. About 150 new jobs would be created, according to Preem, and the refinery would be handle its emissions with carbon collections and storage efforts. Preem says that they are a way more environmentally friendly company than any another company who would otherwise process the oil would be.
Preem originally got the ok to go ahead from the court of property and environmental affairs (mark- och miljödomstolen). Soon afterwards, however, the decision was appealed by not only a slew of private citizens but also by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (Naturskyddsföreningen). Now, both the Conservation Society and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (Svenska Landsting) want the government to take it out of the hands of local authorities, and decide how to handle it at the state level.
Green Party leader and vice Prime Minister Isobella Lövin welcomed the chance, saying that the government has a responsibility to live up to the climate law. This law, passed in 2017, requires the government to push environmental policies that adhere to climate goals passed by parliament. Since the parliament has decided that Sweden will have zero CO2 emissions by 2045, Preem’s timetable might be tight: There are several preliminary instances to go through first, and the government won’t get near the question until earliest next year.
Meanwhile, the question still divides Lysekil. While many say that thinking Preem or Lysekil is going to save the world is ludicrous, others believe it’s still important to take a stand. Preem’s spokesperson Dani Backteg says Preem welcomes the government to make a decison: ”It’s obviously a complex question.”
Do you smoke? Do
you sometimes sit or stand outside your fave hang, alternately
shivering/enjoying the sun to have a smoke? You know it’s bad for you,
but..?
You may smoke
outside no more. Starting Monday, smoking is forbidden both inside and outside
restaurants and other public places, like outside subway platforms. Even
smoking water pipes and vaping is forbidden in public places.
So far, you can
still have at it in private. But as everyone knows, our private spheres are
shrinking bit by bit.
Especially if you can’t find it. The pill, THAT pill, and at least one of the brands, will be out of stock until at least the end of the summer, wrote SvD today. Another hormone replacement therapy pill (for the more mature woman’s needs one might say) is also out of stock for at least the next few months. (Also pregnancy prevention pills for cats are out of stock, though I am not comparing.)
That so many prescription medications are suddenly not available at the local pharmacy – or at any pharmacy anywhere in the country – has been a recurring news item for several months. But are pharmacies the problem? Are they just greedy money machines that won’t order what they don’t want to order and don’t care about the old and the sick and the in pain? In a debate article from May 19 (dn.se) two Stockholm doctors say no, and that in reality Swedish pharmacies knock themselves out trying to find medicine for their customers (a pharmacist showed me recently how to find a pharmacy that had what I wanted in stock – on fass.se).
For those who
weren’t here at the time, previous to 2009 pharmacies were state-owned affairs,
like Systembolaget. Since the deregulation, things have improved greatly, like
business hours, numbers of stores (at least in the cities) and an improved
selection (state-owned tampons were not fun). It’s uncertain where the bottle
neck is. After all, the pharmacies don’t make money on medication they haven’t
sold, and the pill has a pretty captive audience.
It’s a little embarassing that Sweden’s national day had to be patched together from different historical events (none of which were really particularly memorable on their own) to make a holiday that no one particularly asked for. But the idea finally seems to be taking off. Heja Sverige – way to go Sweden!
Today is also the anniversary of D-day, 1944. One can argue as to which is more important these days, but one can’t argue that Sweden played any role in Europe’s liberation.
Not since 2001 have Denmark, Sweden and Finland all had a Social Democratic government. Denmark’s looks a lot different than Sweden’s though, so in practice there may not be a lot of hugs and back-slapping happening at their next meeting. Still, the nordic countries (don’t say Scandinavian!) do put some stock in their common history, political history and location. One can say there’s a bit of a ”special relationship” between them – only across a smaller pond.
