Swedish News:

Wanted: Swedes. Professor copied doctoral thesis. Alcohol in front of kids? Vaccination against jaundice. Appelqvist awarded debut. 

• Wanted: Swedes
  Malta, Ireland and Spain: The list of countries wanting Swedish workers is growing. It’s getting more and more common for Swedes to work abroad, in Swedish with Swedish customers. Modern technology makes for more companies moving their customer service and call centers to countries that are thought to have better rules and tax regulations. In the three countries listed above, Swedish-speaking personnel is particularly sought after. And this week an advisor from the Irish employment agency came to Göteborg specifically to recruit Swedes for work in Ireland.

• Professor copied doctoral thesis
  A professor, who plagiarized texts from his doctoral candidate to use for his own book, is now awaiting disciplinary sanctions. The professor, who works at Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (the Swedish Unviersity of Agricultural Sciences), blames the copying on carelessness and admits the text in the book ought to have been better checked with the doctoral candidate before it was published in 2012, according to daily Sydsvenskan. The case has been turned over to Statens ansvarsnämnd (the National Disciplinary) and it will be up to them to decide whether the professor ought to receive a warning or a reduction in salary.

• Alcohol in front of kids?
  “Do not drink alcohol in front you the kids,” said Sanna Lundell (blogger and daughter of singer/songwriter Ulf Lundell) in a debate on Swedish TV recently. Yet a new study shows that nearly one in four parents think it is OK to do just that. Says Sven Andréasson, professor in social medicine at the Karolinska Institute to Svenska Dagbladet: “It’s worrisome that parents think like that.” Lundell said she couldn’t understand why drinking alcohol at a birthday party for a 3-year-old child is necessary: “While the adults step into the somewhat fuzzy world, the child is left in reality,” she said. “Alcohol is a chemical intoxicant comparable to a joint or a Sobril (a sleeping aid). But to sit with a joint in front of your children is something that many feel is weird.” The study shows that among men, 31 percent feel drinking alcohol in front of their children is OK, while only 15 percent of the women feel that way. Statistics from Sweden’s women’s centers show many women and children are harmed during vacations because of alcohol, especially in families where alcohol is being abused. “It’s alarming that so many think it’s OK to be intoxicated in front of their children. Children often get worried when adults get drunk,” says Carina Ohlsson, chairwoman of SKR (Sveriges kvinno-och tjejjourers riksförbund—The Swedish Association of Women’s Shelters and Young Women’s Empowerment Centers).

• Vaccination against jaundice
  Socialstyrelsen (The National Board of Health and Welfare) wants vaccination against jaundice to be included in the general vaccination program for children. Agneta Holmström, head of the infectious diseases unit at Socialstyrelsen, says the government agency will propose such a change in the fall, writes Göteborgs-Posten. The government will make the final decision. Many counties already began vaccinating children against hepatitis B during the past year. In Stockholm vaccinations will commence in 2013.

• Appelqvist awarded debut
  “Sjunga slutet nu” (Sing the End Now), Hans Appelqvist’s directorial debut, was awarded first prize at the Spanish Film Festival FIB Cinema. The jury felt the film with “poetic power and wrought humor managed to create its own universe in the borderland between the everyday and the amazing,” and they gave Appelqvist the award, which equals 50 000 SEK ($7,138). The short film is about a young boy, an older woman and a flying sphere. It is part of a larger project, which includes an album and a concert. Hans Appelqvist is a musician who won the P3 Guld’s prize for pop album of the year with “Bremort” in 2004.