from the hip

A number of indicators for the Swedish economy tells a tale of a national economy that faces severe challenges. The Swedish Consumer Confidence is at its lowest lowest for over 15 years, a new report from the National Institute of Economic Research (KI) shows.

Also, the earninigs of one of Swedens leading banks, Nordea , are tumbling. For the April to June quarter, Nordea, the largest bank in the Nordic region, reported a 15 percent drop in net profits to 693 million euros ($1.1 billion) from 816 million a year earlier.

“Signs of slowing international economic growth particularly in the United States and in large parts of Europe, are becoming increasingly apparent,” the group said in its statement. The Nordic economies have so far been relatively resilient in the face of the international slowdown, but the uncertainty has gradually increased.”

The Macro Consumer Confidence Index, which measures consumer confidence in the Swedish economy, continued its decline in July and is currently at its lowest level for 15 years. 57 percent of households held the opinion that the Swedish economy has deteriorated over the last 12 months, up from 43 percent in June.

The Swedes deserve special attention today. Two of their international brands, H&M and IKEA, both fabulous successes internationally, came out on top in a study of European brand names.

H&M is Europe’s second biggest clothing chain. On Thursday it was named Europe’s most valuable brand, beating such rivals as Zara and the British chain store Marks and Spencer. Financial Times writes:

The Swedish-based chain’s brand has a value of €10.37bn, according to the first ever rankings of European retailers by Interbrand, the brand consultants. It is well ahead of the rest of the pack, with runner-up Carrefour valued at €6.6bn.

And, not only that, IKEA, the world famous furniture store, placed at the number three spot on the same list, with a brand name value of €6,5 billion! In addition, that is only the brand name value in Europe - IKEA is a brand name in the US and other parts of the world as well. A great sucess for Sweden!

Here is the complete list of the top European brands:

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

Today there was a big meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, about the bare breast (”Bara Bröst” in Swedish) movement. The topic is why naked female breasts provoke some people so much.

The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet has an interview with one of the participants, feminist Nour El-Refai says that “I think people should let women’s breasts in peace. We women should be allowed to de-sexualize our breasts if we want to. We are not to blame for the sexualization of breasts. A de-sexualization of breasts would increase my freedom as a woman.”

Nour firmly believes that the bath house protests of the bare breast movement in Sweden represent a good approach for the movement, as they are visible manifestations that attract attention.

She says de-sexualization of breasts is important in order for the sexes to be able to act natural: “I do not get wet by watching the naked breasts of a man, so why should it be that way for men?”

The feminist movement in Scandinavia has been very successful in a large number of areas. Now a growing number of feminists, especially in Sweden and Denmark, want to fight for the right to behave as men do with respect to their bodies. They essentially want to be able to be topless wherever and whenever men are allowed to be topless. In public bath houses, at the beach, and similar places. They also want to be able to take off their shirts on the soccer field after a match, like the men do. And so on.

A short statement of their goals in English can be found on one of their blogs. Also, Washington Post has had an article about this movement. And here is a Wikipedia article (unfortunately in Swedish).

Swedish actress Izabella Scorupco is extremely upset. She played the movie “Sun Storm” (Solstorm), based on a crime novel by Asa Larsson, together with actor Mikael Persbrandt. The movie was first shown i Sweden in November 2007.

In the movie, Izabella Scorupco - elected as the most sexy woman in Sweden in a vote by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet - has hot sex with Mikael Persbrandt on a kitchen table. A small part of this is shown in the movie.

On the newly released DVD, however, four and a half minutes of sex is included as background material - with the title “the sex scene”. The actress is upset because she had not been asked or informed about this in advance from the movie company.

When asked about this by Aftonbladet, the producer Lena Rehnberg says that the scene was included on the DVD because is was a “freaking good scene” (skitbra, in Swedish).

And that’s sufficient as a reason, I guess?

And now, of course, the sex scene is being distributed on the net. Which, I guess, is not likely to make Scorupco any less angry?

In the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the Swedish star Malin Åkerman states that “Boys love me because I am Swedish!” And, hmm, well, I am sure there are a hundred reasons for boys to love Malin. But Swedish? Cmon!

I thought that whole “Swedish sin” thing was over ages ago. And if it is, then why should anybody love her because she is Swedish?

Just look at what I found a cute, wonderful blog today that summarizes what Europeans think of each other.

The Scandinavians — Widely respected by most other Europeans, because of their high standard of living …and blond hair and blue eyes. However, within Scandinavia there are some persistent stereotypes. The Norwegians, Danes and Finns all think the Swedes are stupid and uptight. Norwegians are considered racist. Danes are considered more blunt than the others, maybe a bit more cranky, and the Finns are oddly introverted, even by Scandinavian standards. Except for the Danes really disliking Germans, and Finns really disliking Russians, they don’t really have anything against other Europeans.

So, as you see, Swedes are really stupid and uptight - I could even throw in stingy - so why should they have any competitive advantage what so ever?

Swedish and Danish women are still fighting for equal rights. Scandinavian women have in many ways been in the forefront in women’s struggle for equality between the sexes. And much has been achieved. A number of studies indicate that wage discrimination has more or less disappeared in Scandinavia. And the women have won a number of other important victories as well.

Now a group of women are fighting for the right to bath and swim topless in public swimming facilities. The city of Sundsvall in Northern Sweden granted women this right after a bare-breasted protest a while ago. And now Copenhagen has permitted topless swimming as well.

Another victory for Scandinavian women.

Actually, for the men as well, I guess?

The Sun (UK) wrote about this today (03/29):

Campaign leader Astrid Vang, 20, who took her top off with others to protest at a leisure centre at Christmas, said: “We women would like to decide by ourselves when our breasts should be sexual and when not.”In swimming pools they should not and that is why the breasts should not be covered - We will bathe topless just like men.”

The Danish campaign was inspired by a Swedish group called Just Breasts, which was formed after two women were asked to cover up their breasts by a lifeguard at a public pool near Stockholm.

Swedish protesters carried out several full-frontal marches in their country but their tireless topless fight will not stop at swimming pools — the perky sufferagettes want to show tops the red card at football matches next.