Swedish News

 

  • Dolph Lundgren on Dolph Lundgren. The action actor now lives in Spain with his wife and two daughters. He says he favors Miljöpartiet and is fond of fine art.

  • 'Time to toss out' Swedish for Immigrants.
    A group of Moderate Party politicians wants to scrap Sweden’s current program for teaching introductory Swedish to newly arrived immigrants in favor of courses more closely linked to the job market. “Right now it takes too long in many cases until refugees and immigrants find themselves with any real connection to the labor market,” said Moderate Riksdag member Elisabeth Svantesson. Svantesson, along with her colleague Tomas Tobé, are part of a Moderate Party working group exploring issues related to employment and integration. The working group is part of a wide effort by the Moderates to improve what it sees as a failed set of integration policies, which have made it difficult for immigrants to find work quickly and lead to unnecessarily high levels of social exclusion. In a set of suggestions presented recently from the working group, Tobé and Svantesson outline what they see as an entirely new approach to the way Sweden helps immigrants learn the language of their adopted homeland. For the last forty years, immigrants to Sweden have been offered free, publicly funded introductory language classes through Swedish for Immigrants (Svenska för Invandrare - SFI).

  • Best dressed - Joakim von Ditmar exudes worldliness in a velvet jacket.

  • Daylight savings time and heart attacks.
    Researchers in Sweden have found that the twice yearly ritual of resetting the clock according to daylight savings time can affect one’s chances of suffering a heart attack. A study by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows that heart attack risk increases by 5 percent in the days following the springtime change to daylight savings time. “It’s a small increase in risk for the individual, primarily in the first three days after the time change. The lost hour of sleep and the consequent disruption of sleep are the most plausible explanations,” reported Imre Janszky, one of the researchers involved in the study. Conversely, the chances of a heart attack drop slightly in the autumn at the end of daylight savings time, when setting clocks back allows people to get an extra hour of sleep.

  • Lundgren on Lundgren.
    Dolph, that is (or Ivan Drago for Rocky-fans). While chatting with Expressen readers, he gave some insights to his life. Where do you live? “I live in Spain and London.” Do you have any children? “Yes, Ida who is 12 and Greta who is 7.” Do you ever hang out with Sylvester Stallone? “Sometimes in L.A. - it’s always fun to meet and talk about movies and boxing.” I’ve read you’re interested in art; what artists do you like? “Carl Fredrik Hill, Basquiat, Donald Baechler, Lena Cronqvist, and many more.” Who is your idol? “Clint Eastwood. I would love to make a movie with him.” Are you in touch with Grace Jones? “Not for some years, no, unfortunately.” What Swedish political party are you closest to? “Miljöpartiet seems OK.” Have you ever met Angelina Jolie? “No, but I hear she’s dating that short guy….” Coffee or tea? “Coffee.” Favorite car? “Land rover-Jeep.”

  • Leaner ärtsoppa for Thursday’s lunch.
    Warm the punsch and prepare the pancake batter, here’s a leaner recipe for Thursday’s pea soup lunch! It should be made a day ahead and serves 6 people. Ingredients: 1 cup yellow peas, 2 small yellow onions, 2 cubes vegetable bouillon, 4 cups 2 oz water, salt to taste, 1 teaspoon thyme. Serve with rye bread, lean, smoked ham (1/2 pound) and mustard. Wash the peas in cold water and put them in 3.5 cups water for 24 hours. Pour off the water. Peel and slice the onion. Bring the water to a boil along with the onion, the bouillon, the salt and the thyme. Add the peas. Let cook for 40 minutes. Enjoy with the ham, bread, and mustard.

  • Exciting doors.
    Doors are quite boring, really. Especially outer doors. The design group Note is looking to change that. “The door is the first thing that greets us when we come home,” says one of Note’s designers, Jon Eliason. “Up till now it’s been a sad affair. So we created the concept door ‘Fold’, which comes with a surprise. When closed, it looks just like any other door, but when you open it, the round glass in the center remains in the wall, it’s like a link between inside and outside. That’s the surprise moment!” What other plans do Eliason and his colleagues have for doors? “We’re thinking about creating a round door. Seriously! A round door.”

  • Best dressed.
    På Stan picked this look as one of the best and we’re bound to agree. Just look at that pose! And the luxurious velvet jacket! It is all beautifully pulled together with a silk kerchief from Hermès. We’re clearly in the presence of a highly sophisticated man. The jacket comes from Wallach, the shirt from Dsquared, the ring is a signet ring and yes, that’s a Rolex Daytona you see there. The man himself comes from a private island outside of Lidingö, he’s 40 years old, and his name is Joakim von Ditmar.

  • Stieg Larsson is best.
    Who do you think is the better author, Jan Guillou or Stieg Larsson? Expressen’s readers agreed: 81.1% said Larsson, and only 18.9% felt Guillou was the better writer. Don’t know? Both authors can be read in English. Stieg Larsson titles include: “The Girl who Played with Fire” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”; and by Guillou there are “The Road to Jerusalem” and “Coq Rouge”.