SwedishNews

Green Party: Abolish the monarchy! Beyoncé not happy to be retouched. First Swede in Cleantech Scandinavia Hall of Fame.  

  • No photoshopping for sure.. "The Swimsuit Issue," the Swedish film by Måns Herngren, brought down the house at New York's Tribeca Film Festival.
  • Green Party: The monarchy should be abolished
    Though most of Sweden is looking forward to the royal wedding on June 8 (two days after Sweden’s National Day), there’s a great number of people who wish to see the monarchy abolished. The congress of the Miljöpartiet (the Green Party) is sharpening their tone against the monarchy, as a majority of the delegates voted for stating that the monarchy in the long term “should be abolished” in their new party program. In the current program, from 2005, it states that the Green Party has problems seeing how the monarchy would fit into a modern, democratic society and that nobody should be born to an office. This statement will stay in the program along with the addition that monarchy should eventually be abolished.

  • The 1950s look may be coming back ... in some ways.
  • Beyoncé not happy to be retouched
    “Many models are too skinny,” said managing director for H&M Karl-Johan Persson in an interview with Metro. But his admission doesn’t count for much, since even American pop star Beyoncé (currently the H&M model for swimwear) has been photoshopped. “When Beyoncé discovered they’d edited her body in the pictures, she got upset,” says a source to The Sun. “She refused to give a green light to the images.” Said Persson in the Metro interview: “I think we have a huge responsibility (regarding how thin the models are). We are a big public company, many people see us. I don’t think we’ve always been good. Many of the models are too skinny, even underweight, but there are also those who are just thin, and we will continue to work with them as long as they look healthy.” But Beyoncé, who is known all over the world for not only her music but also her curves, evidently didn’t seem “healthy” enough. However, press officer for H&M Camilla Emilsson Falk, told Metro that Beyoncé was their first choice for the swimwear campaign. “Our purpose all the time has been to show Beyoncé as the incredibly strong and beautiful woman she is. It’s been a close and good collaboration all throughout. Both parties are happy with the images that we, along with Beyoncé and her team, have approved of.”

  • Swedish physicist and professor Lars Samuelson has been inducted into the Cleantech Scandinavia Hall of Fame. Photo: Boberger.
  • First Swede in Cleantech Scandinavia Hall of Fame
    Professor Lars Samuelson, director of the Nanometer Structure Consortium, has been inducted at an award ceremony at the Cleantech Venture Day in Malmö. The hall of fame has three members already: In 2009 it was given to Finn Lassi Noponen (the investor), in 2010 to Norwegian Alf Bjørseth (the entrepreneur), and in 2011 to Finn Markku Koivistu (the intrapreneur). Adding Samuelson (the researcher) is a tribute to his achievements and also highlights the importance his research in cleantech growth. Samuelson is one of the world's leading researchers in nano-science and helped create a world-class Nano-competence center in Lund as a research platform for new materials. The official motivation is: “For creating a world class research-based cleantech applications generator that has the eyes and ears of international finance. Lars Samuelson is an inspiration for showing how to turn research into business.” The Cleantech Scandinavia Hall of Fame awards people who have inspired others in the Nordic cleantech industry, helping to accelerate Nordic cleantech development and growth. It is given by Cleantech Scandinavia—not sponsored and has no other purpose than the above. Nano-science or Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Nanotechnology as defined by size is naturally very broad, including fields of science as diverse as surface science, organic chemistry, molecular biology, semiconductor physics, microfabrication, etc. The associated research and applications are equally diverse, ranging from extensions of conventional device physics to completely new approaches based upon molecular self-assembly, from developing new materials with dimensions on the nanoscale to direct control of matter on the atomic scale.
    For more information: www.cleantechscandinavia.com

  • The Swedish monarchy—should they stay or should they go? That depends on who you ask, and perhaps also what political party that person belongs to. The Swedish Green Party (Miljöpartiet) wants to abolish the monarchy. Photo by Bruno Ehrs/Kungahuset.se
  • May both names live on!
    A new draft of the Swedish Name Act has been filed with hope to get rid of stale old gender roles: Both spouses ought to be able to use the hot double surname. Today it’s much more common for the wife to take the man’s last name at their marriage. “The Name Law that we have today was already out of fashion when it was adopted in 1982,” says Olle Abrahamsson, chairman of the Name Act Committee. “With our proposal both spouses’ names may live on.” The Swedish Name Act has been under investigation, and now the committee has handed over its report to Minister for Justice Beatrice Ask. “It’s been somewhat annoying for years now that it’s been impossible for people to share the same names through the middle name system we currently have. It’s only one spouse who can get the name as a middle name and you cannot pass on a middle name to your children,” Abrahamsson continues. When asked why this is so important, Abrahamsson says that if you allow a middle name for both spouses and the children, it leads to equality benefits. “Today it’s mostly the woman who renounces her last name and takes that of her husband’s. With a change, both names can live on.” This system was introduced in Norway with the expressed motivation that it would improve gender equality, to break the pattern of the woman taking her husband’s last name. But according to Abrahamsson it ought to be up to the individual to at least have the choice: “Why should that choice be reserved for those who were lucky to get a double last name when it was allowed, like (former Press secretary to the Royal Court of Sweden) Tarras-Wahlberg?” Abrahamsson says there should also be a choice as to whether a person wants to use a hyphen or not with their double last names. Today it costs 1800 SEK ($274) to change your name in Sweden, but Abrahamsson suggests it ought to be free of charge when it has to do with a surname change founded on the first name of either parent (such as Andersson or Andersdotter). He also feels that people ought to be able to take a last name that is already carried by more than 2000 people, and that the old tradition to take a family’s farm name as part of the surname also ought to be revived: “It should only be applied to known farm names, as the custom is in Dalarna, where you’ll find people with Nygårds- or Busk- before their surnames.”

  • Too curvy or just right? Rumors have Beyoncé being unhappy about her photoshopped body in H&M’s ads, whereas press officer Camilla Emilsson Falk says both H&M and Beyoncé are happy with the photos. Photo: H&M