Swedish News:

Swedish moms more often sick. Henning Mankell’s house for sale. Homeless woman couldn't stay registered as unemployed. Card playing prohibited. Draftee receives 37,000 SEK for frostbite due to bad mittens. 

  • Swedish News:
    In short from Sweden, of Sweden and in Sweden.

  • Swedish moms more often sick
    By the time the first child is two years of age, Swedish moms have 50% more sick leave under their belt, compared to Swedish dads, a report from IFAU (Institutet för arbetsmarknads- och utbildningspolitisk utvärdering – the Institute for Evaluation of Labor Market and Education Policy) shows. “These numbers are remarkable,’ says Ulf Kristersson, Minister for Social Security. Kristersson says he wants the study to be followed up, and analyzed. “When we start a family, there is I think a tendency for women to take on more responsibility for family and children, which is what you finally see when it comes to sick leave,” he says.

  • Henning Mankell’s house for sale
    Need some inspiration? Crime writer Henning Mankell (author of the Wallander books) is selling his estate in Trunnerup, outside Ystad. It is a beautiful estate in Skåne, that Mankell has owned for twelve years. “It is too big, that’s the problem. A change in his circumstances means he’s choosing to sell it, though he still likes the area a lot,” says Inke Nordström, Mankell’s press person. Mankell wrote several of his Wallander books on this estate, and though he is selling it he remains in Skåne. “He’s looking for something smaller,” Nordström continues, “preferably in the Ystad area since he likes it so much there.” The Trunnerup estate was built in 1909 and is 280 square meters (3,013 square feet), the price is set to 8 500 000 SEK ($1,262.461). “You’ll get a lot for the money,” says Magnus Tarland, who is the realtor in charge at Fastighetsbyrån in Ystad. Included in that sum asre a total of three houses, a stable, and a piece of land. The big house was renovated in 2003 and has been continuously renovated since. “The location is perfect. It’s a bit aside, and has a great view, which is difficult to describe,” Tarland continues. The estate will also be marketed in Germany, where the interest in Mankell’s Wallander books is huge. Tarland says he doesn’t preclude a German buyer. There will be only private showings of the estate.

  • Fewer Swedes in Danish med schools
    The number of Swedish medical students in Denmark has drastically decreased. This year only 29 Swedes were accepted to medical schools in Denmark, compared to 314 only six years ago, reports Danish daily Politiken. The reason, according to Minister for Research, Innovation and Higher Education in Denmark Morten Østergaard, is that the admission process has changed, and the change doesn’t favor Swedes. “We are happy to receive international students, but they have to be admitted on the same basis as the Danish,” the minister says to Politiken.

  • Homeless woman couldn't stay registered as unemployed
    Arbetsformedlingen (The Swedish Public Employment Service) in Malmoe, Sweden is being criticized by JO (Justitieombudsmannen – The Parliamentary Ombudsman) for not having allowed a homeless woman to remain registered as unemployed. According to an employee at Arbetsförmedlingen, the woman’s social status was too complicated; so complicated in fact that she was taken off the register. The employee didn’t think the woman would profit from work, education, and trainee posts, according to daily Skånskan. JO criticizes Arbetsförmedlingen for having overruled the woman’s wish to remain registered.

  • Card playing prohibited at correction facility
    Inmates at the Kirseberg correction facility in Malmoe are being prohibited from card playing. The inmates calls the prohibition “filthy business” in a complaint to JO (Justitieombudsmannen or the Parliamentary Ombudsman), an article says in daily Sydsvenskan. “This idiotic rule is created with one purpose only: To ruin things for the inmates and create even more boredom,” the complaint states. The office manager at Kirseberg, Anders Eriksson, does not agree, saying he wants to see the card playing prohibited, as it often results in violence, threats, and collections.

  • Draftee receives 37,000 SEK for frostbite due to bad mittens.
    The mittens were bad, so bad in fact that they gave the draftee some serious frostbites. The man, who was doing his service at F 17 (a Swedish Air Force wing, with the main base located near Ronneby in southern Sweden), now receives 37 000 SEK ($5,473) because of the problems he suffered during a field exercise in the winter of 2010, according to a decision by Kammarkollegiet (an organization that exercises public authority and operates commercial undertakings). Swedish Radio reports that the draftee still suffers chapped skin and gets cold easier as a result of the faulty mittens.