Answer me, dammit!

I’m listening on audiobook to “The Guns of August”, Barbara Tuchman’s classic account of the opening month of The Great War. This is also known as World War I, but I have always thought that name was a bit odd, since people then had no way of knowing that there would be another World War. So how could they know the one they were fighting was Number One?

Anyway, what strikes me about the proceedings leading up to the disastrous month of August 1914 (the month my maternal grandparents were born, by the way, one day apart) is the amount of diplomatic inquiries and ultimatums that go unanswered. I often gripe about how people don’t respond to my e-mails and think this is a modern phenomenon, but not even 100 years ago could people be bothered to answer letters and questions of extreme importance to the order of the world.

Isn’t it weird?

Disasters I don’t care about

I have recently lost very little sleep over Haiti, and started wondering why. Over the years, there have been certain tragedies that for some reason have electrified me – the Oklahoma City bombing, the Dunblane massacre, the Beslan hostage crisis and the Indian Ocean tsunami, to name a few – and others that have completely failed to divert me from household chores.
Why? I don’t have the faintest idea. I can’t see a pattern. Maybe it’s timing, that I was at a certain emotional place when the stories broke? Maybe it's the storytelling itself, that a very good reporter told it to me first? Maybe I have been unevenly distracted by work? Maybe I have trouble feeling sorry for other people when I’m busy feeling sorry for myself?
Is it just me?

Open you e-mails, Sarah!

Read about Sarah Palin in the paper this morning, which reminded me of a an e-mail I sent her about a month ago. Here’s what it said:

Dear Mrs Palin,
I’m finishing up listening to “Going Rogue” on audiobook and just wanted to let you know how it has changed my opinion of you favorably. In Sweden the press was pro-Obama to the point of idolatry during the election. I supported him, too, but I also believe in respecting other points of view and walking a mile in my opponent’s shoes. “Argue as if you are right, listen as if you were wrong,” as someone said.
Throughout your book I found myself agreeing with many of your views, and realizing that the world wouldn’t have turned evil if you and Senator McCain had won the election. I still disagree with most Republican standpoints, but I have a feeling you’re okay with that. True defenders of personal liberties and freedom of opinion wouldn’t want it any other way.
Most importantly, I can see that you are a good person and didn’t deserve the bad treatment you got. Simply listening to your audiobook seems to be mildly offensive to some of my friends, which gives me a chance to ask what’s wrong with trying to understand another person’s worldview. Nobody ever has a good answer.
What I’m trying to say is thanks for writing the book and all the best to you and your family in 2010!
Sincerely,
Henrik Harr
Stockholm, Sweden

I thought it was a nice enough letter, but I haven’t heard back. She’ probably real busy.
Other people I haven’t heard back from either: crown princess Victoria of Sweden, queen Rania of Jordan and marathon nerd Dean Karnazes.

“But I had two trips left!”

A man was hit by a subway train in Stockholm yesterday. He had dropped his cell phone on the tracks and jumped down to get it. As stupid as this is, it reminded a friend of mine of an even more stupid man – the one who asked her to jump down and get his discount card.
“You look like you’re in good shape. Why don’t you get that for me?”
“Are you insane?”
No, he probably wasn’t insane, just indifferent to the life and security of a fellow human being. I suspect he is a sociopath, someone who doesn’t care about the suffering of others. A psychopath would enjoy inflicting or observing pain, but that label would only apply to this man if he had deliberately thrown his discount card onto the tracks in order to make someone else risk his or her life to retrieve it for him.
“But I had two trips left!”
Sure, let me risk my life to save you 22 and a half kronor.
Idiot.

Amfibus

Either April 1 comes early in Scotland, or this is the new ferry between Renfrew and Clydebank in Glasgow. An 700,000-dollar Dutch amphibian bus that replaces a ferry being decommissioned next month.
I haven’t made up my mind whether or not to believe it yet.

Grattis mamma!

My mother Elisabeth turns 70 today – congratulations! Here she is in the middle of Johkenjuananjohke (Handölan) in Jämtland in the scorching summer of 2009. Big hugs!

Life might be dangerous

Here’s a good quote about risk from The Science of Fear by Daniel Gardner:

“If an independent thinker really wishes to form entirely independent judgements about the risks we face in daily life, or even just those we hear about in the news, he or she will have to obtain multiple university degrees, quit his or her job, and do absolutely nothing but read about all the ways he or she may die until he or she actually is dead.
Most people would find that somewhat impractical.”

Former commie makes a killing!

This one cracked me up.
Apparently, the leader of the Vänsterpartiet (Left Party) of Sweden recently sold his apartment on Södermalm in Stockholm and made 600,000 Swedish kronor (roughly 85,000 dollars). But his dogmatic party indoctrination will not allow him to be rejoice at this fact. Instead he tells the Swedish media that “This isn’t something that makes me cheer.”
How is it possible for this man to let party dogma pervert the natural order of things to the degree that being handed 85,000 dollars doesn’t make him happy?
Or is he just full of crap and dancing on the inside?
Personally, I bet it’s the latter.

Photo: Andreas Apell/Dagens Nyheter

"Core what?" Epilogue

Brand manager: “Yes, community is an important attribute for X, but I’m afraid I will not be able to continue this discussion. The reason is that I have to give other initiatives higher priority.”
Henrik: “That’s okay, but can you please tell me your core values anyway? I have a personal interest now.”
“I’m sorry, Henrik, but since we are not taking this further I don’t want to communicate these. The core values are building blocks we use to arrive at our pay-off, and nothing I want to share at this time. Hope you understand my position.”
“Absolutely. I don’t want to pry if they are company secrets. I just think core values are something a company should be proud of and loudly declare to the world, like I do at the bottom of every e-mail I send out. Plus, it becomes impossible to judge if a sponsoring idea is aligned with your core values or not if you can’t find out what these are.”

So in the end I failed. Sorry. For the record, the core values for my one-man company are: fairness, integrity, compassion, joy and quality. Let me know if you don’t think I’m living up to them.

It’s a ... globule!

Stockholm’s Globe Arena has safely delivered a little ball that glides up its side. For $16.50, people can go inside it and ride through the gray, icy skies of Stockholm to look at its gray, icy rooftops from above.
It will look and feel a lot better in summer, I’m sure. Until then, congratulations on the addition to the family.
Mother Globe is reported to be exhausted but happy.

"Core what?" part II

Okay, so today I called up the brewery person who was thought to maybe know the company’s core values.
“Why do you want to know?”
“Well, it says on your web site that all sponsoring must be consistent with your core values, so I wanted to see if my project is.”
“What’s your project?”
“It’s a book that I thought your X brand might want to sponsor.”
“How do you figure?”
“Well, I don’t know, really. I was hoping to learn about your core values to decide if we’re a good match.”
“Okay, you should talk to their brand manager.”
“Actually, I just need the core values, and I was told you might know them.”
“Of course I know them, but X is a different brand.”
“But it’s part of the same company.”
“Yes, but they have their own values. Let me give you the brand manager’s number.”

Later that evening:
Brand manager: “Excuse me, have we been in touch before.”
Henrik: “No, you don’t know me. I talked to Y who said you could tell me the core values for X.”
“What’s this about?”
“Your web site says sponsoring has to be aligned with your core values, so I’m trying to find out what they are before I decide if I should contact you.”
“Well, the one we always talk about is togetherness.”
“Togetherness?”
“Yes, 18-to-35-year-old males being together and feeling close.”
“Okay, that sounds like it might work. Anything else?”
“Let me send you my e-mail so I can explain more.”

Am I alone in thinking this suspicion is weird? Shouldn’t companies want to shout out their core values to the world? Regarding the values of this particular company – if I ever find them out – when I know, you’ll know.

“Core what?”

I was putting together a sponsoring request to a big brewery today and saw on their corporate web site that “all support and sponsoring must be compatible with our core values”. These core values weren’t listed anywhere on the site, so I called the switchboard.
“Core what?”
“Core values. Your own core values.”
“Ahhh, let me see who I can find who might know.”
I thought “You should know”, but I didn’t say anything. I really do think she should know, though. And don’t say “What do you expect? She’s just a receptionist.” If you want core values to mean anything at all, then yes, the receptionist should know them by heart. Or have them posted on the wall in front of her face.
She doesn’t have to be able to recite them backwards in her sleep. But the CEO should.