Swedish News:

Shortage of physicians? Sweden is Europe's gambling mecca. Assange arrest warrant upheld 

  • WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks at a news conference in London Sept. 1, 2010 after Sweden's Chief Prosecutor Marianne Nye announced she was reopening a preliminary investigation into rape charges against Assange. (Nye stepped down from the case in 2013) Yahoo! News photo via Reuters /Andrew Winning
  • Shortage of physicians?
    Foreign doctors are saving Swedish healthcare. They cost 260,000 SEK apiece to recruit and require a program of intensive training in the Swedish language. After a year's work in Sweden, they are profitable for the region they work in.
    The other side of the coin is that physician shortages worsen in much poorer countries.
    The Agency for Health Care analysis concludes in a report from last year that Sweden is one of the countries in the OECD that has the most doctors and doctor visits per thousand inhabitants. Yet Sweden has one of the worst results in time patients and physicians feel they have with each other. The Swedish physician shortage is primarily a question of where and how doctors work. There are too few workers at health centers and in rural areas and too much time spent by physicians on documentation and administration.
    The report found "the proportion of physicians who use their highest skills for most of the working time has decreased between 1992 and 2010 and that 36 percent of physicians say that they often or very often perform duties that any other person or profession should be doing."
    The belief that computer systems can replace medical secretaries has had serious consequences. While doctors are grappling with ever new and more computer systems and more requests for documentation, their time for patients is reduced. This can be measured and reported as a shortage of doctors but could as well be poor organization.

  • Sweden doesn’t educate enough medical doctors but must rely on people with foreign medical licenses. Sollefteå in northern Sweden is in need of more doctors and even offered a finder's fee to anyone whose help leads to a hire.
  • Sweden is Europe's gambling mecca
    The Swedish gaming industry is booming like never before. A new study of Gamer Developer Conference (GDC) shows that Sweden is Europe's gaming center, writesComputer Sweden.
    More than 400 game developers have been able to rank the different countries — and the best games come from Sweden. The successful Minecraft is but one example.
    One of the reasons it's going so well for the Swedish game industry is the breadth of the games, says Ola Holmdahl, CEO of game developer Tarsier Studios in Malmö. “But we are used to looking outward, and thinking bigger markets than our own,” he says.
    He also believes that Sweden is extra good at making games where several may join in and play simultaneously. But other things are also in effect.
    “Sweden is a welfare country, a majority of the population has home computers and of course the right infrastructure with early, fast connections and Internet access. All this has naturally played a role,” Holmdahl says.

  • The Swedish gaming industry is booming like never before. Above, Minecraft, originally created by Swedish programmer Markus "Notch" Persson
  • Assange arrest warrant upheld
    After an unusually long negotiation, Stockholm District Court announced on July 16 that the warrant for the arrest of Julian Assange on charges of sexual assault should not be lifted. The decision was expected. His friends — including radical icons such as Michael Moore, Ken Loach and Noam Chomsky — have devoted a lot of time to spread the image of Sweden as a kind of legal banana monarchy. The courts are said to be politicized. The rule of law is minimal.
    While conspiracy theories — that the government acted on CIA orders —are not likely to be accepted in Sweden, the propaganda does undermine public confidence in the Swedish legal system. The critique has formed an unrealistic picture of the Swedish courts abroad.
    There are grounds for criticism of the rule of law in Sweden when it comes to detention times, which are too long. But Assange's unusually long detainment is not due to the lethargic Swedish police or lazy prosecutors. He has kept himself from justice by seeking refuge in Ecuador's representation in London. When lawyers talk about an "intervention" treatment and "house arrest" they ignore that the suspect has voluntarily chosen to stay at an embassy to avoid the court.
    If Assange's request to be interviewed in London by Swedish prosecutors was met, it would have created a practice with unclear consequences for the Swedish judicial system. A Swedish prosecutor cannot on British soil take any coercive measures. To let suspects of crime and detained persons formulate conditions for the judicial process would also be offensive.
    It is difficult to take seriously Assange's fear of being extradited to the U.S. from Sweden. It is WikiLeaks’ criticism of the United States that prompted intellectuals in the U.S. to support a detained suspected sex offender. U.S. criticism outweighs the fight against sex crimes and of women’s rights for them. No request for extradition has been made from the United States. If a request would be formulated, the Swedish Supreme Court can still veto an extradition. Even if the judges of the Supreme Court would accept the request, the government has the last word and may still reject it.
    Furthermore, this European arrest warrant also gives Britain a veto right about putting Assange on a plane to the USA. The European arrest warrant has several procedural safeguards, apparently unknown to most.
    The warrant for Assange’s arrest is in conjunction with allegations of sexual assault. It is time to pay attention to the alleged real victims in this case, to debt and substance of the criminal case.