Yeah, I know. Time passing by very fast many times and here I am trying to catch up. Well, at least I can sleep during nights again and it feels as if I might have got about an hour plus, in front of the computer each day. Perhaps I can try to compensate the delay although with a little longer section this time, about Swedish politics.

When watching the news today I came to think about the issue and felt that perhaps it would be good to go over some points concerning that topic. Many tend to believe that Swedes are rather well educated. When entering politics lots of people here feels suddenly very, very lost. In my opinion that´s true. Swedes seems to a great extent to suffer from the self centered worldview that is to a lot extent experienced through Google at their phones. This is giving lots of charismatic leaders space to sell easily sold points built on low quality facts to their own parties, which in turn causing lots of confusing among Swedes that no longer follow that what really is happening in the political chamber during daytime.

As of now the all so stable Swedish governance system has experienced one crisis after another where many voters have felt driven over owed to too many collaborations between political parties partly not voted for and too much foul play by some parties. One of those hot spots was the former governments´ action to bypass the bureaucratic system for starting the wolf hunt, which has been a very, very sour spot for continued trust in the system.

Sweden has for as long as I can remember had a number of stable parties represented in the parliament. Others come and go, struggling to keep enough mandates. They still are: the Left party; Green party; Social democratic party; Centre party; Liberal party; Christian democrats; Moderate party; and the addition of the: Sweden democrats, recent years. The order more or less represents their left/right winged positions in relations to others with the extremes on each side.

These parties are readily splitting themselves into two groups with the breaking point between the Social democrats and the Center party, by the name Alliance since 2006 at the right side and a less pronounced name for the left winged ones.

Before mentioning how much Sweden has changed from 2006 to 2017 I should also mention that many here support this new societal direction for Sweden while others don’t. This with the very individual oriented mindset has created an identity crisis for what sort of a society Sweden should represent internationally.

So! From a situation where everybody seemed to know exactly which parties to vote for and what to expect, to the position where most people wonder what´s going on…

Prior to the 2006 election many were displeased with the Social democrats, being very strong in their political position. When I begun my military service the same year lots of the young people cheered when the Moderates (at the time the most extreme right wing party) was elected and together with the three other parties proclaimed the so called Alliance. One year later when we were done, not that many were that happy anymore. Even outside of the military when I came back to the real world many young people were displeased for their vote at this very extreme party.

Had the promises about a new gentler political agenda just been empty words? Lots of sick people that got their subsidies revoked, lots of money being transferred from international aid, not much financial help to small companies after all. How could this be, many of these young people wondered? Everything that this guy (Reinfeldt) said sounded so good! He seemed to be on top o things!

This was the starting point of a development still going on where many Swedish people realized that our system had become very untrustworthy or even in some issues like the wolf hunt, corrupt. Except for the latter part, I would say that nothing than the voters interest to take responsibility for their freedom to vote, had changed. Swedes have for many years made lots of fun of US voters that tend to believe any smear campaign toward the other political field. Now it seems as many Swedish people independent of age are in the same position as many young ones; they have become ignorant. Shouldn´t the parties stand for what they have promised?

Regrettably as a Swede I actually think that common knowledge in Sweden has fallen to such a question. With a rampant accommodation crisis since people with no subsidies are forced into big cities for work, lessened taxes to public health care and social protection systems many Swedish people are living in the world they have created for themselves. Many stand for this development proudly though.

Of course many are still looking for an escape goat. Of course it must be the politics as such that has gotten so rotten, right?! So now many are protesting by supporting the so called Swedish Democrats. At least they are going to punish all the immigrants… right? Do you think that most people voting for that party know that they are running an ever more right winged political agenda than the Moderates concerning even Swedes?

The fault is always someone else’s when it comes to politics. Even among voters.

/Erik

For the first time in many weeks I have made something significant toward picking up the trail of the thesis proposal since I faltered. It´s hard to know how to approach this last lap of the education – the last course. At least it feels as some kind of break through.

Regrettably the course leader begin to send posts about coming deadlines around the corner. Gosh. Well I guess one has to keep the calm and try to work the problem best possible.

I have mailed some of the leading authorities within Swedish health care science towards laser, trying to speed up their process a bit by posting information back and fourth. As usual I guess they haven´t taking the time to do that themselves. Sorry to say I haven´t heard anything from the eye doctor in question. What more can one do?

Yesterday I got this letter that suddenly enlarged my own world. This kind of letter that makes your heart to jump a couple of times, before realizing it wasn´t a catastrophe. Although still serious. As we know the heat has returned to the world again where west and east are dividing the world with Syria as baseline. We that have done our military service in Sweden got this letter reminding us that big Sam hasn´t forgot about our duties, demanding us to confirm our responsibility. No one knows how things are going to end. Can only hope the world remember enough to avoid a third world war.

Although in the middle of all the hardships I got contacted by Viva la France and Pocahontas from the internship course. It feels good in such times to remember the twins. As it looks now we are to have a little reunion in Uppsala over some food tomorrow evening. It would be good to have something else to think about for a minute or two.

/Erik

Time is ticking and I´m trying to get a heading on the situation. I spend much time just mustering. I met the supervisor and got feedback on the core from the examiners´ points to my proposal. Thoughts were mostly about the reason for exploring the issue. So I guess I´ve to dive deeper into it. Regrettably for me, my interest is not enough, hehe.

While resting the eyes from the static effort focusing onto screen and paper I have come a long way towards finishing Starcraft Brood war campaign where the eyes can work more dynamically. Sorry to say it don´t hold the quality as that in Starcraft. Far from it!

Meanwhile when having time, I´m thinking about the bachelor and being at square one again after the Master. The season is about to begin within the horticultural and agricultural sectors. Contacts begin to pull left and right. Pruning, cultivation, services, mainly. During the master program I have been representing green enterprises in the class, mainly agriculture. That SLU in my opinion discrediting our program compared to others is just as maddening as it was during the bachelor. Very frustrating actually.

Soon the Master is over and of course I´ve learned lots of stuff during my time here. It´s good to hear that classmates got recognized to many people´s amazement owed to the master degree. I just hope this could give me some slack as well. Something I don’t have from the bachelor. I´ve been recognized for my knowledge during this one and a half year. I feel strong into my main fields: Agriculture; environment; logistics; biochemistry.

So I wonder why SLU hides us away; holding in on half of our competence. Mainly research and agricultural competences. Green enterprises or agencies have little idea what a cultivation engineer really is and whenever they have, the name make them wonder what we could contribute with at all. Wouldn´t they have heard about us? And not a word about our bachelor in Biology from SLU.

Would it be so hard to give credit to the students they have educated? More than the agronomists, farmers, horticulturists and landscape architects/engineers. Where are the cultivation engineers? I know now we have begun to take positions in agencies and consultant companies but not even close to other students.

/Just a though

Today I read that we lost Hans Rosling, a very distinguished professor within international stability spheres. He took his assignment with great seriousness. During my whole education there used to be one live presentation after another on TED talk or YouTube. He used to be very interactive while describing global development indexes measuring stuff like global population, conflicts, economical development etc.

I had the privilege to see him live at SLU Ultuna a couple of years ago alongside Johan Rockström. As usual sustainability issues were parts of the themes. I believe I´m most grateful for his open reaction criticizing Rockström for using these new unsophisticated gadgets such as pointers during the presentation. I could see the former a bit ashamed picking up the old school stick the very next time he went on stage.

Well the time is ticking I guess and it becomes more clear that our generation is to take on the responsibility for this and future generations. If we decide too that is… The old-timers are disappearing one by one and soon it´s very much up to us to constitute the foremost line in societal developments.

Just like last time I have problems with the eyes. Trying best possible to contact stakeholders I have been in contact with before in various parts of the society about laser injuries and protection measures. Not least in the science field. What more can one do than trying another lap to urge for more focus towards recognition towards us in need of help and protection to further exposures?

One day at a time..

Anyhow, if you are interested I have included a rather entertaining presentation by Rosling. Perhaps it´s your cop of tea as well?

/Until next time