Swedish News:

Ikea-Kamprad's daughter snubbed. The 'Generation Pamper Me' are crowding Swedish ERs. Palestinian ambassador to Sweden. 

• Ikea-Kamprad’s daughter snubbed
  Founder of Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad, has through an agreement made sure that his daughter Annika will inherit a couple of million SEK (2 million SEK equals a little more than $300,000), while her brothers inherit the company Ikea, a business worth much, much more. But Annika Kihlbom doesn’t feel snubbed. “I’m happy with the agreement,” she says. Annika is the adoptive daughter of Ingvar Kamprad and his ex-wife Kerstin Vadling (they adopted her in 1958, when she was 3 months old – but when the couple divorced in 1961, Annika went to live with her mother). Kamprad himself has said: “I’ve planned my death ever since 1978. When it comes to the future of Ikea, my construction is such that my family can’t break down the capital.” He placed the greater part of the Ikea-concern out of reach from his children under a Dutch foundation in 1984, and a smaller part of the concern, the Ikano Group, is divided between his three sons. Thus Ikea comes first, then the sons, and lastly the daughter, Annika. The Ikano Group is worth 10 billion SEK ($1.5 billion) and last year it had a turnover of 38 billion SEK ($5.7 billion). In an interview with Expressen, Annika keeps claiming she’s happy with the agreement, and that she has a good relationship with her father and her three half-brothers, and was never interested in Ikea.

• Generation Pamper Me
  Young people come in hordes to Swedish emergency wards, with nothing but colds and minor aches. Now Swedish physicians issue a warning: Generation Pamper Me is draining the resources, and it’s the elderly who have to pay the price. “It might be cuddling parents’ fault,” says Elaine Bergqvist, expert in rhetoric and author of the book “Du är din generation” (You are your generation) about generational crashes. “Young people born in the 1980s have learnt how to take what they feel is rightfully theirs.” Hans Friberg, Managing Director at Lund’s emergency ward adds: “Most people coming here are in the ages 20-25, and the reason they come is either colds or sore throats or other more diffuse problems that might be psycho-social.” These young people want their symptoms evaluated right away. David Eberhard, psychiatrist and author of the famous book “I trygghetsnarkomanernas land” (In the land of the safety addicts), also blame cuddling parents, known in Sweden as “curling parents”. “There’s a huge gap among generations when it comes to seeking all kinds of help,” Eberhard says, “help for physical as well as mental problems. Young people ask for help when their dog dies or their girlfriend breaks up. That ‘I’ should have the best possible help is part of their self-realization. ‘I’ am important. ‘I’ am not going to see just any doctor, ‘I’ am going to a specialist. What most young people don’t realize is that the emergency wards are staffed with regular physicians, not specialists.”

• Palestinian ambassador
  The Palestinian people now have an ambassador to Sweden, her name is Hala Husni Fariz and she was welcomed by former Prime Minister Carl Bildt. Palestina has previously been represented by a so-called general delegation in Stockholm, which last spring was upgraded to a so-called representation. Hala Husni Fariz, born 1955, has been the highest representative of Palestina since she arrived to Sweden in July of this year. But both Folkpartiet (the Liberal Party) and Kristdemokraterna (the Christian Democrats) criticize the decision. Says Folkpartiet’s foreign politics spokesperson Fredrik Malm: “It’s unfortunate that Carl Bildt has taken this decision and it is regrettable that it should come at this point in time, when the UN is to discuss the acknowledgment of a Palestinian state. I wish Sweden had a more balanced position concerning the Middle East conflict, and would work to promote peace or a two-state solution instead.” The foreign politics spokesperson for the Kristdemokraterna, Désirée Pethrus, is also surprised. “If this has not been coordinated (the decision to have a Palestinian ambassador was not coordinated by the government) then it is simply wrong. I am surprised that such a decision has been taken now, when the topic is so hot at the UN.” Bildt himself doesn’t want to comment, but says: “This is a decision that is in line with what other European countries are doing, and we have handled it in a normal way.”