from the hip

A new report from the the Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees (TCO) cited in Swedish online newspaper The Local, reports that there is considerable ethnic discrimination in Sweden.

The results show clearly that foreign-born graduates of Swedish universities have less chance of finding a job that equates to their qualifications than their Sweden-born counterparts. Those that do find work, are often over qualified and have to work harder to find it.

The study was performed by integration researcher Lena Schröder based on Statistics Sweden (SCB) data compiled on all those graduating from a Swedish university in 2003 and their employment situation in 2006. The Local writes:

The report does however show that education pays, for all. But a Swedish university education pays less for those born in eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America and especially for those arriving in Sweden after age of seven (when primary education begins).

These findings raise questions about the Scandinavian welfare states’ integration policies. In the US, companies are forced to monitor their hiring and promotion decisions closely in order to avoid very costly law suits. So to a large extent, non-discriminatory policies are enforced by the legal system. In Scandinavia much softer methods have been used to promote integration, relying to a large extent on labor unions and voluntary compliance.

The mobile operator 3 has will now further increase the speed of its Swedish turbo wireless broadband. The new Swedish net will support turbo-3G, also called HDSPA. Theoretically it will have a speed of 21 Mbps.  Along with its network supplier Ericsson, it will also continue to extend network coverage.

Using HSDPA Evolved 3 will be one of the first mobile broadband suppliers to offer such a high speed. The new high speed net will be launched commercially during the second quarter of 2009.

Ingvar Kamprad, Sweden’s richest and the founder of IKEA, has a reputation for being stingy. Now he seemingly wants to change his image. Or perhaps Ingvar Kamprad has found that he may have more money than he needs.

In December he is meeting in a court in the Netherlands, where the foundation which owns IKEA, and which is controlled by Mr. Kamprad, is located, in order to change the bylaws of the foundation so that it may give away money to charities. Presently, it can only give money to “innovations in architecture and interior designs”.

Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, is a very interesting and quite likable guy. He was born on a farm in Sweden (March 30, 1926). His net worth is reported to be 530 billion Swedish kronor, roughly 63 billion USD.

In 1897 his grandfather killed himself with a shotgun when he could not pay the mortgage on his farm and three years after moving his wife and three children from the Sudetenland.

Kamprad’s widowed grandmenother saved the farm from bankruptcy by sheer willpower and hard work.

The founder and owner of Ikea had entrepreneurship and sales in his blood early on as a teenager. He peddled matches, fish, pens, Christmas cards and other items by bicycle. He began selling furniture in 1947.

According to BBC:

By the age of 17 he had formed a small company to enable him to bid for a contract to supply pencils. Within five years he had set up a mail-order firm and was sending goods out with the daily milk round.

Soon afterwards, he snapped up a disused factory and began turning out furniture. His low prices undercut the cosy Swedish cartel of the time which imposed a boycott on Kamprad’s company in the late 1950s.

Kamprad responded by turning to Polish producers for inexpensive components that could be assembled at home from flat packs. The modern Ikea was born.

The acronym IKEA is made up of the initials of his name (Ingvar Kamprad) plus those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born; and the nearby village Agunnaryd.

Kamprad has lived in Epalinges, Switzerland since 1976. According to an interview with TSR, the French language Swiss TV broadcaster, Kamprad drives a 15 year old Volvo, and encourages IKEA employees to always write on both sides of a paper. In addition Kamprad has been known to visit IKEA for a cheap meal. He is also known to buy Christmas paper and presents in the post-Christmas sales.

Kamprad avoids wearing suits, flies economy class and frequents cheap restaurants. He has been quoted as saying that his luxuries are occasionally buying a nice cravat and eating Swedish fish roe. “How the hell can I ask people who work for me to travel cheaply if I am travelling in luxury?”, he says. “It’s a question of good leadership”. Or, as he also says: “I’m stingy and I’m proud of the reputation.”

Kamprad suffers from dyslexia. That has not prevented him from making sucess, but he has admitted that his dyslexia has played a part in the inner workings of the company. For example, the Swedish-sounding names of the furniture sold by IKEA were originally chosen by Kamprad because he had difficulty remembering numeral stock-keeping units.

As well, Kamprad has had a drinking problem. While working with furniture manufacturers in Poland earlier in his career, Kamprad became an alcoholic. However, he has said that his drinking is now under control

While Kamprad’s frugality is well documented, it is also an important part of the carefully managed image. He also owns a villa in an upmarket part of Switzerland, a large country estate in Sweden, and a vineyard in Provence in France. And for several years he drove a Porsche.

But basically, he is a focused, hardworking businessman with a frugal style who does not believe in wasting time.

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?

Here is a review of Sunstorm at ScandinavianBooks.

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.