Swedish News:

Uppsala first with eco food. EU politicians are mostly unknown to the public. Middle age: what's most forbidden? 

  • Uppsala, fourth largest city in Sweden and home to Scandinavia's oldest university. Above Uppsala Cathedral.
  • Uppsala first with eco food
    The municipal board is about to make an important change regarding an ecological framework for Uppsala: It’s been decided to serve 100 percent ecological food in the public schools and the environment in the preschools are to be completely non-toxic. The ecological framework should permeate all municipal activities and reach out to committees and community corporations as well. Politically, a broad majority are in favor of this eco-friendly direction.

  • Uppsala municipal board has decided public schools will serve 100 percent ecological food.
  • EU politicians not known
    At the end of May, people will elect politicians to the EU parliament, but a survey made by Sifo shows that three out of four Swedes have no idea who their Swedish EU-parliamentarians are, according to Europaportalen, a website for news. The most known EU-parlamentarian in Sweden is Marit Paulsen, from Folkpartiet (the Liberal People’s Party). Yet only seven percent of the 1,000 polled could name her. In total, only 169 of those polled could pinpoint at least one of the parliamentarians.

  • Soon Swedes will elect EU parliamentarians. But how much do they really know about who to vote for? The most known EU-parliamentarian is Marit Paulsen, yet only 7 percent of the 1,000 Swedes asked could name her.
  • Middle age—what’s most forbidden?
    Age crisis. Declining fertility. Invisibility. Are you talking about women’s middle age? In 1976, Swedish author Kerstin Thorvall published ”Det mest förbjudna” (The most forbidden), and now ten well known Swedish women have used Thorvall’s title to inspire them to write short stories about entering middle age, in an anthology called ”Kerstin Thorvall Book Club eller Det mest förbjudna 2.0.” One of the authors is Jenny Strömstedt, a journalist, who at 41 years is the youngest in the group (among the other women are Annika Lantz and Helena von Sweigbergk). Says Strömstedt: ”Aging is a change that ought to be an asset. Today a middle aged woman is a bad word, like 'menopausal bitch.’ But it’s such a relief to finally have the power, intelligence, experience and time, now that the kids are bigger, to finally live fully.” The book club was created shortly after Thorvall’s death in 2010, since participants wanted to talk about her books and what they had meant to them. ”This book was a highly selfish way to let our discussions in the book club remain alive,” Strömstedt concludes.