Swedish Language Blog

As many, if not all of you know, Sweden has a strict monopoly on its alcohol sales. It is only “Systembolaget”, the name of the organization, that is allowed to sell alcohol over 3,5% in all of Sweden.

There are a total of 416 stores and 508 agents who are allowed to sell alcohol.

When talking about alcohol in Sweden many people believe that, were the monopoly to be taken away, the consumption of alcohol would increase enormously and would be a huge cost to society. Others counter and say that the only reason we still have a monopoly on products such as alcohol is for the government to have a big source of income. And that it wouldn’t really matter at all if people were able to buy alcoholic beverages in supermarkets as they do with other products.

Many people who have immigrated to Sweden find it completely ridiculous that there is only one or two stores in a whole city where you can purchase alcohol. Not to mention that on red days Systembolaget is closed. During Halloween for example, all of Systembolaget’s stores in Sweden were closed. People who were planning on partying were extremely frustrated that they had forgotten to buy a lot of spirits the day before and had to settle for low percentage drinks from grocery stores instead.

On Systembolagets homepage they have published a short video on their stance on what were to happen if the monopoly was removed. The video is only about 1,5 minutes and in english so it is well worth a look.

http://www.systembolagetkampanj.se/forskarrapport_en/

There is also a Swedish version for those of you who want to practice you swedish. The two versions are almost identical apart from the fact that they are in different languages. There is also the possibility of subtitles so you can hang along a little more.

http://www.systembolagetkampanj.se/forskarrapport/

Many countries all over the world have recently banned free plastic bags (plastpåse) in grocery stores, including in Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, France and many more. Kenya, certain parts of India, Bangladesh and Taiwan have even banned plastic cutlery in some cases. Sweden has not. According to Hannes Borg, employee at the Ministry of Environment, Sweden has no reason to.

The reasoning being one that, Sweden has a law saying that all producers have the responsibility to take care of the waste of their product. They have to by law, offer their customers some sort of possibility to recycle the containers of the bought product. The producer responsibility (producentansvar) has been applied to 6 different areas; packaging, waste paper, batteries, electric and electronic devices, cars and tires. The customer also has an obvious responsibility to sort and return the remnants of the packaging.

Consequently, there are no rules for a product like a dish-brush, since nobody has payed for the dish-brush to be specially “taken care of”. That is also one of the reasons why only packaging is recycled in Sweden. Other plastic materials, for example, are usually incinerated with the rest of the garbage.

When one of Sweden’s most established newspapers SvD (Svenska Dagbladet) interviewed Svante Axelsson, secretary general for the environmental organization “The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation” (SSNC) (Svenska Naturskyddsföreningen) even he said that a ban on plastic bags would be more of a symbolic action. He however pointed out, that it is not good to consume plastic, and any unnecessary consumption of plastic bags should be avoided. SSNC hope consumers will bring their own cloth bags with them when they do their shopping instead.

After learning that “environmentally friendly” Sweden, in faith that their producer responsibility law will be enough to stop mass pollution, has not banned plastic bags, do you think the right decision has been made? Which would in your opinion be the more efficient way to prevent environmental damage?

If you are interested in reading an article on the subject (although it is in Swedish) this is the link to SvD’s (Svenska Daglbladet’s) homepage:

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/plastpasen-forbjuds-men-inte-i-sverige_759345.svd

Since today marks the opening of the Swedish Riksdag and it’s election day in our neighbouring country Denmark, I figured 10 nice and easy facts about Swedish politics would be appropriate.

1. As Head of State, the King opens the Riksdag session every year in mid-September. This service takes place in Storkyrkan and the members of the Riksdag, the Royal family and invited special guests are attending.

2. There are currently eight parties represented in the Riksdag: the Moderate Party (Moderaterna, M), the Christian Democrats (Kristdemokraterna, KD), the Liberal Party (Folkpartiet Liberalerna, FP), the Center Party (Centerpartiet, C), the Green Party (Miljöpartiet de Gröna, MP), The Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterna, S), the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna, SD) and the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet, V).

3. In the general election of September 19, 2010, Fredrik Reinfeldt (Moderaterna) became the first conservative prime minister to be reelected. When he became Sweden’s prime minister back in 2006, he ended 12 years ruled by the Social Democrats.

4. Since the 2006 election, the Riksdag set a world record for female parliamentary representation, with women making up 47 percent of its elected members. Sweden remains in the lead after the 2010 election, with 45 percent female representation in the Riksdag.

5. To vote in Sweden, you need to be 18 years and a Swedish citizen. 7 million people in the country are entitled to vote.

6. The Riksdag makes the decisions and the Government implements them. The Government also submits proposals for new laws or amendments to laws to the Riksdag.

7. A party must receive at least 4 percent of all votes in the election to gain representation in the Riksdag, a rule intended to prevent very small parties from getting into the Riksdag.

8. Sweden was the first country in the world to introduce freedom of press, in 1776.

9. Sweden is one of the largest contributors to the United Nations and one of the few countries to meet the UN’s aid target of 0.7 percent of GNI. Sweden became a member of the UN in 1946.

10. Sweden was one of three EU countries not to join the European currency. Swedish voters rejected it by a clear majority in September 2003.

The lefy wing of the Riksdag, Stockholm.

The Chamber.

(Source: www.riksdagen.se, www.sweden.se)