Den själsliga nivån: varför mer jämlika samhällen nästan alltid fungerar bättre och om kulturens fiende och dess och musikens kraft…

Kate Pickett.

Richard Wilkinson.

Tack vare en kommentar från Kerstin på Motvallsbloggen på bloggen Björnbrum så fick jag tips om en ny bok av två brittiska forskare Richard Wilkinson, professor i epidemiologi, och Kate Pikett, högskolelektor i epidemiologi, som har skrivit om vad ojämställdhet betyder för befolkningens hälsa.

Jag sökte på detta och hittade en intressant inspelning från ett föredrag eller seminarium med dessa forskare. Jag skulle vilja skriva om vad de säger i detta föredrag. Tror jag ska göra ett helt separat blogginlägg om detta.

Men först litet allmän bakgrund:

Det har visats att stor ojämställdhet när det gäller inkomst i ett samhälle ofta har setts som splittrande, söndrande och frätande och det är också allmänt känt (är det, ibland undrar jag utifrån kommentarer på andra bloggar i detta ämne???) att i rika samhällen så har de fattiga kortare liv och lider mer av nästan varje socialt problem.

Men i sin nya bok ”The Spirit Level” så visar de utifrån 30 års forskning att mer ojämställda samhällen är dåliga för nästan alla som lever i dem – de välbeställda så väl som de fattiga.

De visar att varje modernt socialt och miljömässigt problem – dålig hälsa, avsaknad av gemensamt liv, våld, droger, fetma, mental sjuklighet, långa arbetsdagar, stor andel människor i fängelse – hittar vi i mindre jämställda samhällen.

Jag skulle också vilja skriva mer om thatcherismen utifrån artikeln ”Kulturens fiende – Andres Lokko om thatcherismen som jubileum och inspirationskälla", samt åter hänvisa till Barack Obamas tal om musikens betydelse för unga människor (och oss alla).

Tycker att detta hör ihop.

Om Thatcher och vad hennes politik ledde till:

”Ken Livingstone, den före detta illröde borgmästaren av London, intervjuas av Channel 4: ’ Thatcherismen var startskottet för trettio år av ekonomisk verklighetsflykt,’ sade han. ’Det är hennes nedrustning av industrin och därmed hela samhällen vi betalar för nu.’

Samtidigt hävdar arbetarklasshjälten Jarvis Cocker – tidigare sångare i Pulp – i en tidningsintervju att Storbritannien behöver en konservativ regering. Han lade till att det är en ’ytterst motvillig insikt’. På andra sidan järnvägsspåren, i Hertfordshire, döper punkbandet Gallows sitt nya album till Grey Britain och startar nästan på egen hand en ny era av uttalat politisk och brutal popmusik föranledd av den ekonomiska situationen.

Ju mer jag läser om Margaret Thatcher, ju fler jag pratar med om henne här i England, desto starkare lyser ett livslångt hat ur kultursektorns ögon. Labourpolitikern Tony Benn sammanfattade det effektivt i ett nyhetsinslag på ITV.

’She measured the price of everything and the value of nothing,’ sade han lika poetiskt som svåröversatt.

När jag för ett år sedan intervjuade protestsångaren Billy Bragg berättade han, med syrlig ironi, att hans största inspirationskälla var Margret Thatcher.

’Jag har henne att tacka för min karriär. Utan hennes metodiska utrensning av gruvindustrin hade jag aldrig sett på min musik som en plattform för ideologiska idéer och tankar.’/…/

Listan över brittiska artister som under åttiotalet skrev lyrik om Thatcher kan göras hur lång som helst. De såg inte bara hur kultur ersattes av en renodlad entreprenörsanda utan också hur solidaritet fick ge vika för hjärtlös sentimentalitet. Identifikationen med ens medmänniskor, grundläggande empati, fanns inte på Thatchers agenda.

Enligt författaren Hanif Kureishi var det hennes ’grundläggande kulturhat som sådde det första fröet till vår tids kändiskultur’. London, som varit en av den seriösa moderna teaterns starkaste fästen, blev i stället synonymt med populistiskt färgsprakande musikaler.

Som The Guardians kritiker Michael Billington uttryckte det:

’Bums on seats’ [ungefär ’häckarna på bänkarna’] blev under Thatcher ett viktigare kriterium för teatern än ’ideas in heads’ [idéer i huvudet’]./…/

Enkelt kan man utläsa hur viktigt det är för kulturen med en förkroppsligad fiende, någon som kan utgöra måltavla och personifiera orättvisor och systematisk hjärtlöshet. De premiärministrar som innehaft posten efter Thatcher – Major, Blair och Brown – har inte på något vis lyckats uppfylla sin föregångares roll som kulturens kollektiva symbol för ondskan.

Sue Townsend, författare till ungdomsböckerna om Adrian Mole, sammanfattade det kanske starkare än någon annan i en kortnovell i en brittisk dagstidning just inför 30-årsjubileet av Thatchers ankomst till Downing Street:

’Varje dag gick hon ensam och utan vänner till skolan och hem igen. Hon lekte inte med de andra flickorna på skolgården under rasterna: i stället anmälde hon sig som frivillig för att tvätta skolans toaletter. Hon tog med sig alla dessa tidiga erfarenheter till Downing Street där hon utkrävde sin hämnd och gjorde girigheten respektabel’.”

Ann Charlott Altstadt skriver i sin recension ”Skalar liberala lökar” om ’filosoferna’ Alexander Bard och Jan Söderqvists nya bok ”Kroppsmaskinerna” om:

”… författarnas tankesprång fylls inte ut av empiri eller argument. /…/

…som exempel på ideologiproduktion är den fascinerande med sitt ogenerade überdogperspektiv./…/

… ultradarwinismen som underliggande drivande faktor. De verkar uppfatta evolutionen som ändamålsenlig och funktionell, en form av intelligent design som motsvarar författarnas politiska önskningar./…/

Det kan tyckas märkligt att Bard, som vill avskaffa moralen/moralismen, anslutit sig till Folkpartiet som är det mest utpräglat moralistiska alternativet i svensk politik. Men det är trots allt logiskt: eftersom liberalerna inte tror på några sociala, ekonomiska strukturer blir de själva oundvikligen moralister. Varför finns klassamhället, enligt författarna? Jo, därför att folk inte fattar.

Liberaler kan inte förklara varför människor blir arbetslösa, bråkar i skolan eller begår brott, med annat än att det beror på dålig karaktär. Den enda förklaring de har till att stökiga klassrum är ett problem endast i socialt utsatta områden, är att föräldrarna är slappa och deras barn asociala. Moralismen är liberalismens auktoritära kärna och leder ofrånkomligen till kontraproduktiv rottingpolitik – ta dig i kragen, hut går hem, lås in dem länge och straffa minderåriga.

Det mest motsägelsefulla med Kroppsmaskinerna är att den egentligen är ett anti-liberalt manifest. Bards och Söderqvists liberala nätverk Liberati hävdar människans oberoende. Men i Kroppsmaskinerna framträder en människa som saknar gränser mot omvärlden.

Det finns inget jag som kan vara oberoende och det finns heller ingen omvärld man kan vara oberoende inför. Vi hör alla ihop, och är oupplösligt förbundna med varandra. Slutsatsen måste bli att vi alla delar ansvar och öde./…/

Vad skiljer en samhällsforskare och filosof från en föredragshållare och konsult? De sistnämnda vill inte så mycket undersöka eller analysera samtiden som att liera sig med den, för att casha hem typ 80  000 plus moms i arvode. Som filosofer vill Bard och Söderqvist knappt förklara världen, inte alls förändra den, de vill fakturera den.”

Eliter?

[uppdaterad på kvällen]. I ”Riksförbundet för unga musikanters” tidskrift stod att Årets kulturskola chockhöjer avgifterna. Stockholms kulturskola med sina 15 000 elever är Europas största och utsågs i våras till årets kulturskola och i motiveringen beskrev juryn denna skola som ”En god förebild”.

Elevavgifterna ska nu höjas rejält (från 750 kr till 900 kr per termin), skolan ska spara 13-18 miljoner, vilket innebär att 25 lärartjänster och 7 administrativa tjänster ska bort. I och med att flera lärare är deltidsanställda innebär detta att ännu fler personer berörs av detta, för att inte tala om vad allt detta innebär för elever. Politikerna vill att köerna ska minskas och man ska ta
emot fler elever med mindre pengar och personal.

Men de med god ekonomi kan sätta sina barn i privat undervisning, där deras barn får längre lektionstid… Vilket inte innebär att de med nödvändighet är beredda att betala så värst mycket mer för denna undervisning...

Se artikel i DN ”Hetsig debatt om kulturskolan”.

Enligt den först nämnda tidskriften (alltså inte enligt DN) har också en 9-årig svensk liten grabb, Sebastian Livonen, vunnit VM i pianospel i en tävling i Litauen i åldersgruppen nio till elva år.

I soffan i Gomorron Sverige nu på morgonen satt förre justitieminister Thomas Bodström och debatterade om elitsatsningar i fotboll. Han var för dem i min tolkning. Jag tycker att tendenserna är skrämmande…

I en annan debatt, om elchocker (som det dock inte kallas nu) skrev en debattör om tingliggörande av människor. Människor är inte subjekt, utan objekt, kunder osv.? Empati, vaddå? Jag tror att det är som en av kommentatorerna skriver (mina kursiveringar):

”Elsjokk på deprimerte er et slående eksempel på hva tingliggjøring innen psykiatrien er.

Hva i alle dager er det som gjør at man tror noen mennesker har helt andre behov enn en selv når en er langt nede? Som en kritisk norsk psykolog sa det: ’Man spør ikke lenger hvorfor noen er deprimert’.

Men når et flertall av dem som har kontakt med psykiatrien, har opplevd overgrep tidligere i livet, så er det ekstra opprørende å koble strøm på skallen deres.

Akkurat som i Sverige, tas heller ikke traumer alvorlig av det norske helsevesenet.

Og nå vil til og med Sosial- og helsedirektoratet ha tvangsbehandling med elsjokk, selv om de innrømmer at det ikke er bevist at elsjokk hindrer selvmord. Hva skal vi kalle en SLIK sykdom?” *

Hittade detta pdf-dokument om ”Känsla och dramatik” från Dramatiska institutet, en serie föreläsningar läsåret 2001/02, som verkar intressant, skrämmande och tankeväckande. Se t.ex. kapitlet ”Galenskapens historia” och om medikalisering och avmedikalisering och om diagnosticering, vad som kom att ses som sjukt, som tidigare inte ansetts som sjukligt och tvärtom; vad som ansågs som sjukligt, men som nu inte ses som sjukligt.

* läkaren Anna Luise Kirkengen skriver om begreppet "persistent somatizers" (ungefär "framhärdande inbillningssjuka") och undrar ganska sarkastiskt om det inte vore skäl att undra om det finns "persistent neglecters" i läkarkåren (dvs. "framhärdande åsidosättare/försummare/negligerare"!!??" Se i länkrullen till vänster under rubriken "Important to me" länken "Kirkengen: How Abused...". Är inte detta ytterligare ett uttryck för förakt för svaghet?

Men se återigen det filosofen Avishai Margalit skriver om människans sårbarhet, en sårbarhet vi alla delar...

PS. På kvällen: I den kommun jag bor kommer de att lägga ner en skola i ett område där det bor många familjer med sociala problem till förmån för en annan skola där det bor familjer som är väletablerade, med motiveringen att om de inte gör detta så kommer föräldrarna i den senare stadsdelen att starta en friskola... Det stod i tidningen att detta beslut tagits med majoritetsröst från ordförande i fullmäktige... Svaga grupper drabbas. En moderatpolitiker svarade med något om att om inte kostymen passar, så kommer ett par tusen elevplatser att stå tomma 2015. Vad ska man svara?? Jag blir helt matt...

Och i Lärartidningen som kom med posten idag står det om Maestroskolans förskola i Nacka... Den skola vid vilken pianoeleven ovan går (i musikdelen)... Eftersom artiklar inte går att länka från Lärarnas tidning kommer här denna artikel (denna finns under rubriken "Nyheter"):

"Alla sa upp sig på samma dag från privat förskola
[2007-12-12]
Underbemanning, brist på leksaker och ingen diskmaskin. Det bidrog till att hela personalen på den privata förskolan Lilla Maestro kollektivt sa upp sig.

– Visst kändes det som att vi svek barnen, men vi kunde inte stanna kvar. Många av oss mådde väldigt dåligt av situationen, säger Maria, en av lärarna.

Förskolan Lilla Maestro i Nacka startade sin verksamhet för 1
–3- åriga barn vid höstterminens början. Verksamheten låg i anslutning till redan existerande förskoleavdelningar för 3–5-åringar och grundskolan Maestro, som alla ägs av företaget Maestro Svindersvik.

Redan från början kände personalen att förskolan inte var en bra arbetsplats, enligt Maria. När de började sina anställningar var lokalerna ännu inte färdigbyggda.

– Vi fick färdigställa allt på helgen innan barnen skulle komma. På måndagen började barngruppen och vi hade inte hunnit planera över huvud taget, säger Maria. Enligt Maria var bristerna på förskolan många även fortsättningsvis. Det fanns inga diskmaskiner, så personalen fick diska för hand. Ingen städare var anställd – personalen fick själva städa efter arbetstid.

Den enda lekutrustning som fanns på gården var en sandlåda, och de musikinstrument som skulle användas fick personalen själva ta med hemifrån. Ingen utrustning köptes in, säger Maria. Hon och hennes kolleger fick jobba över på både kvällar och helger.

Personalen ansåg också att skolledningen behandlade den förskolechef som anställts illa, tog ifrån henne befogenheter och uppträdde hotfullt mot henne inför personalen.

– De visste ingenting om hur man driver en förskola. De ville bara ha in barn som sedan kunde fortsätta i deras grundskola. Syftet med verksamheten var att tjäna pengar på den, säger Maria.

Personalen hade flera möten med Lärarförbundets regionala huvudskyddsombud Viola Loch.

– Eftersom de fortfarande var provanställda fanns det inte mycket vi kunde göra. När provanställningen var över hade vi kunnat agera mer. Vi gav dem allmänna råd om att de skulle stå på sig och inte acceptera vad som helst. De anställda jobbade på villkor som de egentligen inte borde ha accepterat från början, säger hon.

Maria säger att droppen för personalen kom när de två extra halvtidstjänster som tillsatts för att lösa problemet med underbemanning plötsligt sades upp.

Maestroskolans rektor Georg Trolin vill inte kommentera personalens berättelse. I ett mejl till Lärarnas tidning skriver han: 'Lilla Maestro fungerar nu bra och vi jobbar vidare med nya medarbetare.'

Situationen på förskolan har gjort att flera föräldrar valt att flytta sina barn. En grupp på 40 föräldrar har tillsammans lämnat in en anmälan till Skolverket och kräver att Nacka kommun ska ta över Lilla Maestro.

Kommunen ger auktorisation till alla privata förskolor som vill driva verksamhet i kommunen. Enligt föräldrarna borde auktorisationen för Lilla Maestro dras in, på grund av missförhållanden på skolan.

Björn Jacobsson, chef för kommunens kultur- och utbildningsenhet, säger att ett övertagande av förskolan inte är aktuellt:

– Det finns inget lagstöd för ett sådant agerande. Däremot kan det på sikt bli aktuellt att pröva om auktorisationen ska dras in, men förskolan måste först få en chans att rätta till felen.

Enligt Björn Jacobsson arbetar förskolans ledning med att förbättra verksamheten Bland annat rekryterar man just nu ny, utbildad personal, säger han.

Ärendet med förskolan Lilla Maestro diskuteras på ett nämndsammanträde i kommunen den 13 december."

Funeral of Ingmar Bergman...

Today was the funeral of Ingmar Bergman at Fårö...

Swedish Television's site about the funeral, hopefully remaining the same over time...

Addition August 19: The photos are taken from the web: SVT, DN, Svd, Aftonbladet, Expressen... Bergman is now buried at Fårö (not in Stockholm where he was born and also lived). The people at Fårö greatly appreciates this. To them he wasn't the great film-maker but more like one of them it sounds... And the funeral was quite "simple". Only with a cello-solo played by a cellist from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra Helena Nilsson though (the Saraband from Bach fifth cello suite), two songs which the minister sang and two of the most common hymns *) at funerals here. On Bergman's own wish.

*) Hymn 249 "Blott en dag, ett ögonblick i sänder" and 277 "Så tag nu mina händer".

The High Coast...

From my journey this summer (the photos are taken with one week between, the first when I drove north, the second when I drove south): To the left Skuleberget. About Skuleberget in Swedish.
According to Wikipedia: the coast-line laid 285 meters higher than it lies today (the land elevation, after the inland-ice many thousand years ago). The mountain has a myth-covered cavern which is said to have lodged rubbers. The cavern lies high up at the mountains side. You can walk up there (I have never done that). But what I was learnt when I grew up and lived in this area (just outside Örnsköldsvik), as I remember it, was that the cavern was a cavern which the Vikings sailed to!! But I think the story about the rubbers are the more right one!? :-) They could sail fairly safely there and hide in the cavern with what they had rubbed???

Skule national-park with nice pictures, though in Swedish. The weather at Skuleberget.
The second picture is on the High Coast Bridge. Facts about the bridge and he building of it. Pictures from the bridge, today (even a web-camera) and from the building of it. Click on the pictures. About the bridge in English. Another picture on the bridge.

About the Word Heritage The High Coast - a site I warmly recommend (about all our World Heritages here in Sweden).

And watch this page about the Trönö old church!! Which lies in Hälsingland where I spent my vacation painting a house!!

Bergman again...

About Bergman on Sweden.se by the professor Mareet Koskinen. She wrote a book (came 2002) about Bergman based on Bergman’s own archives, and she is the first one who had access to these archives, I read it and reacted. I thought she is very psychoanalytical influenced, so I reacted against her analysis and interpretations of what Bergman has written, done, and what Bergman’s mom wrote in her diaries (Bergman's mom Karin was a very talented writer I think)... But I think Bergman himself approved of her (Koskinens) work (he too was influenced by Freudian ideas even if he never entered a therapy-room if I have understood it right. He was afraid of loosing his creativity if his neurosis was cured, something I think many artists thought then and many years further!? So they struggled with their depressions and neurosis and demons!!?? Which is so very sad! Because I don't think the creativity gets lost. On the contrary I say as non-expert).

The former head Åse Kleveland at the Swedish Film-institute got the message from Bergman that if they could fix a lorry they were welcome to fetch “skiten” (the shit). The “skit” was Ingmar Bergman’s archives with all his manuscripts, notes, synopsis's, sketches, photos and “behind-films”.

Bergman donated this archive to the state (to this country) and the Swedish Television, The Swedish Film institute, Swedish Film-industry and the Dramaten which together should form a foundation to administer the archive. I get an impression this archive is enormous!!

PS. A Norwegian friend sent a link to a review of a new book in Norway which a well-known Norwegian man, Trond Kirkvaag, has written about his father Rolf Kirkvaag (Born 1946, thus 28 years younger than Bergman), also a very well-known person in Norway, and how he treated his children. The father died 2002, 82 years old, and short after this Trond's twin-sister also died. This Trond has now cancer, severe?

This book has caused debates i Norway... Which proves that it is still difficult to raise issues like these in society??

People want to believe in the idealized picture they have!!?? Not loose their illusions? And isn't that about THEIR history?

So it isn't easy to reveal such things for a child to such a person?? Not even as grown up... And it was even more difficult earlier!? And then nearly impossible??

I googled on these two persons, and think the father Rolf really looked like a very nice and kind old man!! See here too. Difficult to believe, yes!!?? But I think the son is right!! And what he does means a lot to others I think!! And it was this that was referred to in this readers' letter.

Tillägg 20 augusti om föräldraskap (manligt och kvinnligt) och om Bergmans pappaskap i Tommy Jensens blogg "Lämna plats kvinnor, fast inte så mycket som Bergman fick". Tänker på mängden kvinnliga konstnärer genom historien... Inte minst på musiksidan...

Ingmar Bergman is dead...

Ingmar Bergman died in his home on the isle Fårö this morning . See DN and Aftonbladet about this and on the SVT-site (the Swedish television's site).

His Sommar-program in Swedish radio summer 2004.
In English on "Face to face". Another site in English. Svenska filminstitutet (in both Swedish and English). Even more.

Addition August 3: a tip from Helle Klein's blogg. And the site "Face to face" again. My "entrance" to Bergman is through his former wife, the pianist Käbi Laretei, and I haven't seen many of his films (hardly any) but read almost all his books, and from his mothers diary, and a book by Mareth Koskinen based on Bergman's archives, which he doanted some years ago to I am not sure right now... This last book I reacted against, because it was so psycho-analytically influenced!!

Käbi wrote a book some years ago about her life with Bergman, and she in fact mentioned Alice Miller!! I wonder if her son Daniel Bergman had informed her about Miller's existence?

And I think artists of all kinds have been influenced by Freud unfortunately. But Bergman was sceptical towards therapists, so he never entered a t herapy room, as far as I have understood. And I wonder if that wasn't a luck after all...

I also read a chronicle/column, "The day when Bergman phoned me", yesterday in one of our evening newspapers by a young female journalist, Belinda Olsson, who had reacted against Bergman as a father (he was a really lousy father). Bergman phoned her and she thought she was exposed to a joke, but it was Bergman, that was amused over what she had wrïtten, and they had a one hour long talk. Unfortunately this column is only in Swedish.

Käbi Laretei and Ingmar Bergman influenced and inspired each others mutually!! He admired here enormously, admired her intelligence and talent... And Bergman was very interested in music, but thought he was tone-deaf, visited concerts every day almost, when he lived in Stockholm.

Perches and Foppa-tofflor...

I am writing and listening to a CD I bought with music by Ralph Lundsten; "Bewitched" ("Trolltagen" in Swedish), which is ballet-music to a ballet in the Storforsen in the Luleå river I think, on the flat rocks in the Storforsen ("the Big Rapid" in English?).

Picture on perches. I really ate many perches!!! :-)

And a photo on the shoes that are very popular here in Sweden!! Named after the Swedish hockey-player Peter "Foppa" Forsberg.

More from the travelling diary…

Two days in Morjärv and Överkalix...

Yesterday morning I took my walking-poles (ski-poles) and went for a walk in the wood just above the houses in the village Forsbyn, in woods owned by their grandparents (paternal) and now by the three brothers since their parents are dead (my aunt and her husband). After me Sofie and Joel came running, Joel still in his pajamas!!! They should follow me on my walk. Joel in his pajamas too!! (he likes that pajamas!? Is walking almost till lunch in it, hmmm…). :-)

The evening before their uncle (now living in Umeå working as teacher in handicraft instruction) which is spending parts of his vacation in Forsbyn (fishing for instance) spoke about wild animals, such as elks (mooses) and bears in the woods here. The longer we came into the wood the children started to fantasize about bears. Think if we met a bear.

Suddenly when I had thought of turning around and walking home Sofie saw a big dark thing in the distance; was it a stone, or the roots of a tree or – a bear???

Despite I said that I wasn’t afraid at all that we should meet a bear they became more and more scared. And I was even less afraid because these children were speaking like Chip and Dale (Piff and Puff in Swedish), with no interruption and in the mouths of each others the whole walk!! All bears must have heard this and run far away (big bears afraid of small, eager children speaking)!! :-) We walked till we saw that it WAS a stone - actually.

We came home safely!! Phew!! :-)

Out there in the wood the children suddenly saw a very small frog, which looked like the chocolate-frogs in Harry Potter!! They had to investigate it of course!

We spent the rest of the day in the village Överkalix and a small village outside Överkalix (approximately 30 km south from the Arctic circle), where one of my uncles live and where the other uncle has a summer-house.

The summer-house lies near a lake and Sofie and her father took one of the boats and rowed out on the lake and fished. They got some perches (abborrar).

So back home in Forsbyn we grilled these perches and ate them with thin unleavened bread (tunnbröd), a typical bread in the north of Sweden. All this delicious I think!!

A photo over Överkalix from the north and on the Kalix river in Forsbyn. My oldest uncle's wife is a fantastic baker!! So I added a photo of the coffee-table, with the dangerous dragon Joel got when we were to IKEA!!! :-)

And we finished the day in Forsbyn before we drove back to the town Luleå with fixing one of the walls to the woodshed (vedbod) in the cow-house (barn).

I didn't have connection with the net and couldn't use my cell-phone the two days we were there "in the north"!

The day started with rain, as this morning also did. But now he sun has come!!

Kulturhuset i Luleå/the Culture-house in Luleå...

About this house (only in Swedish though) here and here. The house is called "Lady in red".

We cycled down to the town and house.

Visit to the Ralph Lundstensgården...

We visited the place where the Swedish electronic music composer Ralph Lundsten grew up. He was born in Ersnäs outside Luleå in Norrbotten (the north of Sweden) October 06, 1936, and grew up with an uncle (brother to his mother) as foster father.

About him in English (Wikipedia). About Ralph Lundstengården in English.

His home-site in Swedish, and about the place where he grew up, Ralph Lundstensgården in Swedish.

We have also visited the new Culture-house here in Luleå and I will blog about that later too.

Addition: the stone-walls to the cow-house or barn were really thick, almost one meter?? And this farm wasn't one of the poorer!??

I write with children around, who have a lot of energy, hence the manner in which I write now, even more than ever!! :-)

About an artist (painter)…

When I sat at the hair-dresser I looked in magazines with a lot of reportages and a lot of photos over people as it use to be in these of which one of all these reportages and photos was about the Swedish artist Karin Mamma Andersson.

She is in fact youngest daughter to mom’s perhaps best friend in the village Överkalix where they both grew up!! The world is really little. Now I had to google on this Karin.

Here some links: her curriculum vitae in Swedish and in English, and here and here from the Moderna museum in Stockholm about exhibitions she has had there.

She lives with the colleague Jockum Nordström (in Swedish) and they have two sons Valentin, 19, and Rudolf, 16 år.

She was born in February 1962 in Luleå in Norrbotten, in the north of Sweden, where her mom still lives.

She is the woman behind the Nobel-diplomas in literature 2004, 2005 and 2006 to Elfriede Jellinek, Harold Pinter and Orhan Pamuk and got the finest art-prize in Scandinavia, "Carnegie art award", 2005, with the prize-sum of one million Swedish crowns.

She explained her name with that Karin and Andersson are two very common names in Sweden. And when she got children she was called "mamma" by them (as we call our moms here!!!).And then she started to call herself Karin Mamma Andersson, a little for fun, this combination is after all not common at all. And she has continued with this, and now it has become such a "trade mark" too, so she has kept it...

About her in Swedish.
Examples on her paintings at this site.
Articles about her in our two biggest newspapers: Here and here and here. With photos on her.

The painting to the left above is Karin's and the one to the right Jockum's.

Jochum was born 1963 in Stockholm. Addition July 22: He is also author and illustrator of child-books...












It was together with Karin's mom my mom crushed the car-lights on a car-wreck when mom was 4 (or maybe 5) years and Karin's mom one year younger!! Mom got furiously beaten for this with a belt by her father, my grand-father, for this. Sounds horrible, with the beating...

I don't know what has happened with Blogger?? I have lost buttons to edit with, no matter if I use Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox (or no matter what computer I use; I have blogged on four different computers the last three or four weeks), and when I down-load photos I can't move them or put them where I want as I could earlier!! Why I wonder?

The photos are from articles in our two biggest newspaper, DN and Svd.

From the wooden-castle or hostelry Gästgivars...

From an old hostelry (gästgiveri) we visited yesterday before I went home. They were doing handicraft there when we came... See sites on the net about this place/house: in English and English again here and in Swedish here.

On the photos an old organ, a man carving horses and other things, and articles made of straw (Christmas things).

English word of today "hostelry" which means "värdshus" or "gästgiveri" in Swedish.

Addition after a bike-tour before a dinner (light!! But I am fairly hungry, hmmm...): More about the wooden-castles *) and the most famous of them in the same area as Gästgivars!! I strongly recommend a visit of these sites!! I didn't know about them before!! I lived here, in this area, for 5 years, when I was 18 (when I had moved from Skåne in the south of Sweden) till I was 23!!

See the former blogpost about the linen-county Hälsingland!!

*) Denna hemsida är om Träslottet i Arbrå.

The linen-county/linlandet...

From a visit to a place called Trolldalen (”the trolls/goblins valley” in English), showing the linen-handling more than 100 years ago. The farmers in this county, Hälsingland, got their wealth from the linen. And they have built very big and beautiful houses paid with the money they got from the linen, called "wooden-castles" (träslott in Swedish).

We took a "fika" (coffee or tea with bread) and during that it started to rain. A small boy enjoyed the rain a lot!! He was so cute!

With this borrowed computer and Internet Explorer I can't edit my blogposts as I should want...

Addition July 19: Now I saw that träslotten are called wooden-castles in English!!!

Poem...

From "Schubertiana".

“So much we have to trust, simply to live through our daily day without
Sinking through the earth!
Trust the piled snow clinging to the mountain slope above the village.
Trust the promises of silence and the smile of understanding,
trust that the accident telegram isn’t for us and that the sudden
axe-blow from within won’t come.
Trust the axles that carry us on the highway in the middle of the
Three hundred times life-size bee swarm of steel.
But none of that is really worth our confidence.
The five strings say we can trust something else. And they keep
us company part of the way there.
As when the time-switch clicks off in the stair-well and the fingers – trustingly –
follow the blind handrail that finds its way in the darkness.”

From “Shubertiana” by Tomas Tranströmer

See about Tällberg forum. And Music at the lake Siljan.

Even more about Astrid Lindgren…

Astrid Lindgren left her enormous archive to the Royal Library (Kungliga biblioteket) in Stockholm, and this library contains 125 shelf-meters of manuscripts, letters, press cuttings etc. Most parts of it are letters (from the whole world) and press-cuttings. Unesco has given this archive the status of World-memory (translated directly from Swedish; corresponding to World heritages, which Ingmar Bergman’s and Alfred Nobel’s archives are suggested to be too), by this sanctioned that this archive is important to protect for human beings and the whole world. She and the Danish author H. C. Andersen are the only child book authors which are honoured in this way.

One of her admirers has said about her that she was “simple (or plain), brave, wise, kind, sees when the emperor doesn’t have any cloths – and points this out (talks about it)!”

She was 38 when she made her début as author and 68 when she made her début as political author.

Was she both Pippi and Ronia and Emil etc.? In one and the same person? My wonder…
Ronia the concretisation of the growing child’s rebellion, fear, sorrow, love and also strength. “Watch (Mind or look out for) the Hell’s Gap!”
they said to Ronia, to warn and protect (over-protect?). But then Ronia immediately rushes to it instead.
“How am I supposed to mind for the Hell’s Gap if I am not there?” she wonders.

A woman met Astrid Lindgren and overwhelmed over the situation she said:
“Oh, how wonderful, Astrid, to shake your hand!”
“Shake it again then!”
Astrid Lindgren replied!!

Her first child, Lasse (Lars) she bore in secret before she was twenty, he spent his first three years in a foster home in Copenhagen and one year with his maternal grandparents at Näs in Småland (see earlier blogposts about Lindgren with links to different places etc. connected to her including the farm she grew up on, Näs!).

Her marriage became short. When she was 44 her husband died and she lived the rest of her life as widow, never married again.

Already in February 1951 she participated in a radio program about “the single mother’s situation”. At that point few knew that she talked from own experiences. Her attitude was both then and later that the children should come in the first place, the child was always the most important, not the mother, how difficult her situation even was. She thought it was the children who had to suffer for the moralist’s sake.

At the same time she warned for generalisations and for romanticizing the motherhood. She thought a good foster home could in the specific case be better than a too young and immature mother.

And with an inimitable “lindgrenskian” turn she slightly bantered with how easy it seemed to be to take the guilt feeling away for “the extra-marital fatherhood”!!!

She also said to a friend:
“I can walk out on the street and look people directly in their eyes and then I can’t help thinking: ‘How do you have it, you poor thing?’ One can’t avoid wondering when one knows how people have it: ‘Is it really like this it is thought it shall be? (are those the intentions about life, the world, human beings lives?)’”

She also had her small thoughts when she watched the men in the park (Vasaparken) outside the windows to her apartment at Dalagatan in Stockholm, men who were alcoholics sitting on the benches there. She felt with them too.

In the aftermath of the tax-raid (round up) on Ingmar Bergman 1976 she wrote a letter to one of the responsible about this:
“I think the police shall treat whoever it concerns respectfully [no matter if it was famous person or not, and not treat the famous worse either!! My interpretation).”

She thought one should be careful going out to the press with things before anything was properly investigated, in this case if Bergman deliberately had committed any crimes concerning taxes or not. That people shouldn’t be given out officially only on suspicions.
“It’s like this it is; a judgment in court must have been pronounced first even when it is about the worse and biggest murderer in the whole world!
If he has done something that isn’t right, then of course he shall soot for this when the whole is proven. But don’t pick a human being to pieces as long it’s only about suspicions, a right even Ingmar Bergman should have, as you and me and all which lives in a law-governed society.”

One characteristic thing about her in all she engaged herself in is that global issues are mixed with local. She was a woman with intuition which reacted on “the concrete question at issue”, not an intellectually calculating person which on beforehand estimated in which circumstance her words would have largest or greatest possible effect. She reacted with her heart but also used the head when she was arguing for her cause.

She said to another woman:
“You feel in your stomach what’s right or wrong. Act on your gut feelings, trust them!”
And Astrid Lindgren also thought that it is only the grown up and calculating which start thinking in patterns like
“…on the one hand we shall… to… but on the other we can’t… because…”

A former Swedish politician Bengt Göransson says about her that she was always “common” (i.e., “as we all are”, she never took a position from above) in her appearances, never the great author which spoke to an ignorant public. She spoke from below, before the authority, which she says she had learnt both to obey and respect (??). Her usualness was also her strength he thinks.

Astrid Lindgren spoke about the libraries by informing how great they are for the children, and showed with a grimace that she thought that those who attacked the libraries are mean and stupid, that was enough (no more words than those!!). When she said what he thought she wasn’t the expert who spoke from above but she said what people in general thought. She never started a contribution to a debate with “We intellectuals…”

She also avoided the sunken rocks the populist always risk steering onto when he tries to interpret what people want. It’s simply so that Astrid Lindgren spoke about things she reacted on. She had a strong intuition and felt what was wrong. She reacted spontaneously and rapidly without dedicating herself to tactical considerations. That’s the reason why she so often hit the right thing, and when she captured a general opinion – “what people though” – she didn’t because she had stronger antennas than people in general, antennas which tells what people thinks, but she just said what she herself thought, frankly and directly.

Not only a great author but also a political person, let be with strong traits of the truth telling child in the Emperors New Cloths.

I guess she would have had a lot to react on today…

Photos above taken here today and on the grave yard taken yesterday, on the old church ruin there...

Ingmar Bergman archives recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World International Register...

Here information about this; the first in English and two in Swedish: here and here. :-)
It stood that Alfred Nobel's archives are also recommended at the same time. Astrid Lindgren's are already included.

Bergmans arkiv - nytt världsminne! Tack Anja för tipset!! :-)

Addition at 14.10: Am about to pack my car and going north on a trip. Probably stepwise to Norrbotten? Let's see. So blogposts will be fewer and not so long as they have been? But you shall never say no!? Maybe I write nevertheless on the portable computer and as much, and just log in shortly on he net for publishing them on the blog?

I am taking some books with me, for instance an anthology about Astrid Lindgren I got today and that has come recently. So maybe I want to write about her too? :-)

Tips om popkollo...

Tips från "Allsång på Skansen" om popkollo för flickor!!! Information in English about a music-camp for girls!!
Now I am going to watch the British series "Midsomer Murders".

At last out on the net...

Now I am out on the net for the first time with my new computer!! Fantastic! With the help of one of my brothers in law. But I would probably have managed it myself - I think! On the first photo: Two of my nephews to the left and my youngest brother to the right, and the neck of a brother in law.
I wonder if we are fairly lucky with the weather here in Dalarna where I am celebrating midsummer!? It hasn't been any rain yet and we have been sitting out eating herring at lunch time. But I think the weather is worse in the southern parts - not fun!

The relatives in the north sound as they too have ok weather.

Now we are going to grill... Nice. I have taken photos on celebrations we visited here which I will publish later, with may pole and plays.

Happy midsummer or Glad midsommar to all who happen to read this blog!

Addition: now some photos added back home again. When I drove home it started to rain a little and was fairly cold out...

On the last photo the neck of my youngest brother and another of my brothers in law t the right..