Blog Om Sweden

BlogOm: New Address and Thanks!

2011-12-02T10:50:00.000+01:00

Over the past two years we have been so thankful that so many Swedes and Americans have found our blog interesting and useful. When we started this blog, we weren't sure what kind of reception we would get. The welcome we received was much more than we ever could have hoped for. Former Ambassador Barzun loved reading all the wonderful messages that were sent him about his musings on things Swedish and the connections between the US and Sweden. It has been no different for us following his departure. We want to thank everyone for their support, comments and suggestions!

We are not going away though! We have a new Ambassador and a new blog! Ambassador Mark Brzezinski and his wife Natalia will be blogging about their experiences, impressions and thoughts at "Brzezinski Blog" at the following address: http://blogs.usembassy.gov/sweden/

Please come and join us at our new blog and get to know our new Ambassadorial family!

Thanks for everything from BlogOm and the US Embassy Sweden!

Blog Om: An Evening Out

2011-11-01T09:54:00.000+01:00

Anna and Laura about to dance for science!

On Friday night, we got dressed up. We put on our dancing shoes and headed out for an evening of science. That’s right, science. We had the privilege to attend the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences’ (IVA) 92th annual meeting and banquet. The event celebrated Swedish contributions to advancements in science, economics, business and engineering. We learned that the biggest telescope to be built in Sweden in 35 years is ready for use outside Gothenburg. We learned that scientists in Uppsala are building a long mini-submarine to help study lakes under glaciers at the South pole. We learned that a research lab is figuring out how to use a laser to quickly identify metal types in order to recycle more scrap metal. We learned that researchers from KTH have reportedly discovered a new nitrogen oxide molecule which could help produce greener rocket fuel in the future. There’s only one word to describe these advancements: Wow.

During the annual meeting, the members of IVA honored Sonya Kovalevsky, the first woman to become a full professor of mathematics in modern times. And that happened in Sweden in the 19th century. She is still remembered today, 120 years after her death, for making huge strides as a mathematician and for breaking ground for women in academia. Honoring Sonya Kovalevsky was particularly meaningful given a fact we learned the day before: that only around 15 percent of graduates from undergraduate engineering programs in the United States are women. Sonya Kovalevsky lived in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin and Stockholm, all because she wanted to study. Now scholarships and conferences are named after her, some of which are meant to bring more women into mathematics. An inspirational legacy that is still needed today.

While we listened, we could not help looking around and thinking about science today. Science, research, math, engineering, business… it’s all global. The people in these industries are global problem solvers, roll models and innovators. They are diplomats, just like us.

After the annual meeting, the group moved from the Stockholm Concert Hall to the Stockholm City Hall for a banquet to celebrate all this success. We sat and ate in the same room where the Nobel Prize banquet is held. And then there was dancing.

Laura Kirkconnell and Anna Stinchcomb

BlogOm: Does Research Actually Spur Innovation?

2011-10-31T13:57:00.001+01:00

Last week we had the honor of attending events with Dr. Subra Suresh, the Director of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), where he featured as both a speaker and panelist. We learned a lot about how our own government funds, supports and promotes science. Did you know:

· NSF’s mission is to fund all types of research including “pure” research just for curiosity’s sake;

· Overhead is less than 6% of the total NSF budget of $7 billion;

· NSF gave a purely mathematical grant to Sergey Brin and Larry Page – the two men who ended up founding Google;

· NSF funds social science research because all our predictive powers about the planet don’t save lives if we don’t know how people respond to predictions!

Dr Suresh challenged our thinking with a few out-of-the-box questions. Our favorite was: Does funding research matter? The answer is up to you. Think about Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Did they invent something? Did they create jobs? Did they change the world? ''

Here’s another one. What do Alfred Nobel and the NSF have in common? 194 Nobel Laureates have been supported by NSF since 1950.

Dr Suresh was hosted by KTH University and by IVA (the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences). The discussions came back again and again to innovation, which is taking center stage in university and public policy planning. All speakers agreed on one thing: without constant innovation, whole economies run the risk of falling behind on a global scale. Getting to the heart of innovation – learning what ecosystems nurture it and finding the risk takers who embrace it – is one of the most pressing challenges of the coming decade. We felt grateful to witness two events that contribute to the core of that discussion.

-- Anna and Rachel from the US Embassy Stockholm Economic Section

BlogOm: Women Working Together

2011-10-11T07:32:00.002+02:00

Last night, I had the honor to host a truly special event at the Ambassador’s Residence, the closing cocktail reception for the Swedish-American Executive Women’s Conference.The Conference gives business women on both sides of the Atlantic an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas on how to support and mentor the women business executives of today and tomorrow. It’s the tenth time they’ve had this event, which rotates between Sweden and New York.

Their conference had featured remarkably open and free discussions of a wide range of issues from how to leverage the new media scene to how counterfeiting is not a victimless crime. It ended with an amazing nine-year old Swedish entrepreneur who started a business where she and other kids sell kanelbullar to raise money for Save the Children.

I was especially grateful for the opportunity to host this group, because empowering women through entrepreneurship is an expanding focus of US foreign policy. My “boss,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, recently formed the International Council on Women’s Business Leadership, where leaders around the globe advise her on how to integrate business interests and women’s empowerment into overall foreign policy. We are very fortunate that former Minister for Enterprise and Energy Maud Olofsson accepted Secretary Clinton’s invitation to join this Council.

The United States is not alone in this interest, of course. A recent summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) adopted a declaration that affirmed each member’s commitment to improving women’s access to capital and markets, building women’s capacities and skills, and supporting the rise of women leaders in both the public and private sectors.

Secretary Clinton spoke at this APEC conference on the symbolic impact of this declaration, saying it went beyond advancing the rights of women, achieving justice and equality on women’s behalf. The goal boldly extends beyond women to all humankind. It is to “give every one of our citizens, men and women alike, young and old alike, greater opportunity to find work, to save and spend money, to pursue happiness ultimately to live up to their own God-given potentials.”

You can read Secretary Clinton’s speech at http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/09/172605.htm

We at the U.S. Embassy here in Stockholm look forward to advancing our collaboration with Sweden to promote women in politics and business. The U.S. State Department has programs where we seek to support women’s entrepreneurship in developing countries, such as Pathways to Prosperity, which connects policymakers and private sector leaders in 15 countries across the Americas, and the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program. The U.S. private sector is also quite active, including Goldman Sachs, Coca Cola and Wal-Mart are undertaking.

I know this is a priority of the U.S. Government, and of Sweden. My embassy colleagues and I are excited by the possibilities to expand our work with Sweden in this area. And, meeting this engaged group of women business leaders makes me see more and more possibilities of great things we could do together.

So, I want to extend a special thanks to Reneé Lundholm for organizing this conference and making our evening possible, and to the wonderful group of American and Swedish women business leaders.

- Laura Kirkconnell

Blog Om: Embrace!

2011-09-15T10:45:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I participated in the opening of a new art exhibition in Växjö called Embrace! Embrace! explores the immigration experience through art and culture. The exhibition is hosted in Växjö's Utvandrarnas hus, allowing visitors to begin by reflecting on the history of the hundreds of thousands of Swedes who emmigrated to the United States from Småland from 1840-1930 and the art produced by those early Swedish immigrants. But Embrace! brings the long history of Swedish-American migration into relevance for today by featuring the work of current Swedish artists living and working in the United States. Embrace! draws upon the expression through art of past and present Swedish immigrants to foster contemplation of the experience of the many immigrants to Sweden who have settled in Småland.

Bishop and Imam of Växjö and Rabbi of Stockholm help open Embrace!

The exhibition comes from the life, love, and creativity of an indominable Chinese woman who emmigrated to the United States, and then again to Sweden. Curator Lixuan An grew up in the United States with many of the confused and conflicted feelings immigrants have as they try to find a place in a new society. After leaving the pervasive diversity of New York City to settle in Växjö with her Swedish husband and their daughter, Lixuan felt what she describes as "a curious chasm between generous immigration policies and the native Swedes' lack of emotional embrace for newcomers." After learning of the history of Swedish migration to America from Småland, Lixuan wondered "if Swedish people actively embraced this important part of their history, perhaps they would find a new empathy for those who come to Sweden today." That was the beginning of Embrace!

The U.S. Embassy is proud to be a sponsor of Embrace! Culture has historically been a very effective means for engendering safe, constructive contemplation and discussion of sensitive issues. There is no doubt that immigration, and the influences it has on both the immigrants and their new home societies, is a sensitive topic today in both Sweden and the United States. It just makes so much sense to look at this set of issues through the cultural experiences of immigrants themselves. For members of the "majority community" it can remind that - in the past and present - people just like them who have immigrated to a new land have the same feelings and desires to keep hold of parts of their home culture while seeking to understand, embrace, and be embraced, by their new home, as those new neighbors from unfamiliar places. For those who have immigrated, the themes and images of Embrace! can make them feel more secure, knowing that they are not alone in the displacement they feel and that by giving the best of who they are, they can enrich, and become enriched by, their new home.

I encourage you to visit Embrace! at Utvandrarnas hus in Växjö through January 28, 2012, at Alvesta kommuns uställningshall from September 22 - October 31, 2011 and in Ljungby at Ljunbergmuseet October 1-31, 2011. Details at www.embrace.se

Public Affairs Officer Chris Dunnett

Blog Om: Science, Nature and Economy

2011-08-26T10:02:00.000+02:00

Nature is the Economy

That’s what I learned last night.

I had the honor to attend the magnificent Royal Gala where Stephen Carpenter received the 2011 Stockholm Water Prize. Dr. Carpenter is Professor of Zoology and Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. His groundbreaking research combined theoretical models and large-scale research on lakes to show how lake ecosystems are impacted by humans and the surrounding landscape. He helped us understand how we all affect lakes by the way we farm, fish, and bring in exotic species – and what we should do about it. His findings have led to concrete improvements in managing lakes.

The evening was filled with many delights. The excitement and grandeur of a Royal event; a highly entertaining, charming Master of Ceremonies; splendid music, including an amazing 15-year old student from Lilla Akademien playing a beautiful piece that sounded like Gershwin and classical music at the same time, and the most evocative folk music as a chorus of women seemed to be standing of the shores of the Bohuslan Coast longing for their men out at sea. But none of that was the highlight.

The stunning beauty of City Hall, with its Golden Room and Blue Room; such creative, even artistic, Swedish cuisine; the many fascinating people I met – wonderful, but not the highlight. Seeing the humble joy and satisfaction of an American professor and scientist honored for a lifetime of work – that touched my heart, but it was not the highlight.

The highlight started with the buzz at my table among the Stockholm International Water Prize Laureates from the United States, India, Australia and elsewhere talking excitedly about the lively seminar they had earlier in the day. They said it was not the usual Power Points, or paper presentations, but a real dialog where people with very, very different views listened to each other, had their views shaped by each other, and reached “convergence.” Convergence, not consensus, they said. Convergence around what? I needed to know. But, I was timid that I might not understand the answer if I asked these chemical engineers, zoologists, ecological scientists, and limnologists what their great minds converged on. (I had to look up what limnology was – it’s the study of freshwater, like lakes.)

Fortunately, Dr. Carpenter used his Tack för Maten (and Tack for the honor of the Award) speech to tell us what they learned in their seminar that day.

I tried to remember each word, but can only offer a poor paraphrase.

Nature is the economy. And water flows through it all. Food security, human health, biodiversity, and so many other things that make our planet livable depend on water. Finance, prices, all of that, are only an approximation of what has real value - what we depend on to live. The problem is that pricing is not realistic because it does not reflect the value of things in the real economy – nature.

When I am not acting as Chief or Deputy Chief of the U.S. Embassy, I’m an Economic Officer. I have learned that economies only work when we get the incentives right, when we reward good behavior and discourage bad behavior. That’s why President Obama proposed to the G-20 that we eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels. As long as we subsidize green house gas producing energy sources, we will encourage too much production and consumption of those fuels. The decisions people make when we shop, invest, an go through our daily lives will not reflect the real value, the real cost. We need to align economic incentives with the real economy – nature.

Thank you to the Stockholm International Water Institute for bringing together such a passionate group of scientists, engineers, government officials, activists, business people, young people and others for the 21st annual World Water Week in Stockholm. Thank you for giving me such a great lesson.

Laura Kirkconnell, acting Chargé d'Affaires

Blog om: Water and science

2011-08-24T14:56:00.001+02:00

One of the fun things about being Charge’ d’ Affairs this week is that as Head of the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, I got to meet Alison Bick from Short Hills, New Jersey, winner of the 2011 Stockholm Junior Water Prize!
I met Alison during a wonderful event last night celebrating all 54 finalists, age 15-24, from 28 countries. The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) said that 9000 young scientists had applied in this year’s competition.

After four years of research on water pollution, Alison discovered a way to use mobile phones to accurately test for harmful bacteria in water. She did this while in high school! She just graduated and is on her way to Princeton.

Years ago, my younger brother did a high school research project on water pollution, measuring levels of harmful bacteria in Tampa Bay, Florida. We were very proud of him, but his project never grew to anything like this! To be fair, he was working before mobile phones. But Alison was not content with merely measuring pollution, she found a way to empower people to measure water pollution themselves with technology almost all of us now carry around in our pocket.

I was inspired by meeting Alison and the other young scientists. These are people who are using their minds and talents to make a difference – to make our planet better. On the occasion of the 2010 Stockholm World Water Week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “(…) being serious about dealing with and adapting to climate change is about being serious about water.” We are all fortunate that great minds like these are so serious about water.

And my younger brother? He did OK. He went to Georgia Tech, now has a teenager of his own, and works for a company where he helped invent a solar power source that U.S. Marines are using in Afghanistan. It folds out of a small plastic suitcase, and powers all sorts of things – even mobile phones!

- Laura Kirkconnell

Blog om: The World in Rinkaby

2011-08-01T15:24:00.003+02:00

The smallness of our planet hit home for me this weekend. I got to spend part of Friday and Saturday among nearly 40,000 young men and women gathered from 150 countries at the 2011 World Scout Jamboree in Rinkaby in the south of Sweden. Multi-colored scout tents and flags from every country represented covered an area the size of 800 football fields. Our population exceeded that of the nearest city, Kristianstad!

What do the scouts do at such events? Well, besides the obvious answers – have a lot of fun, make a lot of memories, and leave with a lot more friends than they arrived with – they learn.They learn about climate change and renewable energy; they learn about other religions and attend interfaith services; they learn other languages and about other cultures; they learn other ways of seeing the world – and of seeing themselves.

As a diplomat, I have spent most of the past twenty-seven years flitting from country to country, trying to build bridges of mutual respect and understanding between peoples and cultures. I used to think this sort of peripatetic diplomacy was the best way to correct misperceptions we have about each other. But after my day and a half with the scouts, I’ve changed my mind. I think it is far more efficient just to bring kids from every corner of the world to a small town in Sweden – and a whole lot more fun!

The high point of the Jamboree for me was the honor of presenting Mr. J.C. Park of Madison, Alabama with his Eagle Badge, the highest level a Scout can reach in the United States. Meeting him was a special treat because, it turns out, we are distant cousins. I had no idea of this until his mother, using the wizardry of the Internet, tracked me down somehow and asked me to present him with his hard-won award – proving again that on a tiny planet like ours, a mother’s determination empowered by technology can be an overwhelming force to reckon with!

The Jamboree reaffirmed my conviction that the most productive thing we can do to foster better international understanding is to bring young people together as often as we possibly can. I am a huge fan of international youth programs of every stripe and color – from the Peace Corps (I am very proud of my son who is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco) to the Fulbright Program to high school exchanges -- and to international gatherings such as the World Scout Jamboree.

It is a small world, after all. And most of it – the fun bit, anyway - is in Rinkaby this week!

Bill Stewart - Chargé d’affaires, a.i.

(See a clip from the Jamboree at the Embassy's YouTube page.)

Blog Om: Entertaining, If Not Always Enlightening

2011-07-19T17:02:00.000+02:00

Sport and Politics: Two of our favorite forms of entertainment. Why? Because they take our minds off the daily, often unpleasant, realities of life. In sport, Sweden can be rightfully proud of its women’s national football team, which captured the bronze medal at the World Cup in Germany. Less clear is how proud Sweden can be of the game that was recently played in Almedalen, a game of a very different sort.

A Rabelaisian wit once said that politics is a diversion of trivial men who, when they succeed at it, become important in the eyes of even more trivial men. The week of political theater staged earlier this month at Almedalen may not have proved his point, but it certainly did not entirely erase it, either. Almedalen is nothing if not entertaining. It is a bonanza for lobbyists, narcissists, special interest groups, and commercial interests. But perhaps more than anything it is a media circus which seems to have an almost intoxicating affect on journalists -- many of whom have a tendency to see themselves as both actors and judges in this game.

Not surprisingly, the fact that the next national elections are three and a half years away had a dampening effect on the political debate. Almedalen has often served as a launching pad for new political initiatives and ideas. This year, however, since the political platforms were already well known, there seemed to be more interest in the personal qualities and ambitions of new political leaders rather than political parties themselves, still recuperating from last September’s elections.

However, in all fairness, Almedalen was also about productive networking, bonding, and interesting (sometimes revealing) discussions in the wings between movers and shakers of Swedish society, business, and government. Party leaders, strategists, and spin doctors probably hope that Almedalen 2011 will be remembered for its visionary and probing discussions and their long-term effects on Sweden’s political landscape. However, the majority of the seminars and events were dominated by special interest groups focused on more practical issues, ranging from distribution of wealth, social services, and scientific achievements. While they received comparatively little media attention, they were, in all likelihood, more beneficial to the average Almedalen visitor than political shouting matches.

It is thus not unfair to ask the question: Has Almedalen week grown so much and become so obsessed with itself that it risks collapsing under its own weight?

For our part, we hope not – because whatever else it may be, it will always be entertaining. And that’s what it’s really all about, isn’t it?

Blog Om: The Donkey and the Cart

2011-07-14T15:42:00.000+02:00

I remember vividly my commute to work in Cairo, a teeming metropolis of some sixteen million souls. Scrunched in an armored minivan with other U.S. embassy colleagues, we would slither along the Corniche, weaving through the throbbing tapestry of vehicular traffic that clogs the banks of the Nile like brightly colored platelets in a pulsating bloodstream of humanity. Inevitably, we would pass at some point, incongruously trotting among the myriad of belching beeping cars, a donkey, patiently pulling its cart, usually loaded with agricultural wares, bound for the souq.

The sight sometimes reminded me of my good friend, an Arab businessman from the Gulf. Whenever we talk about “The Arab Spring,” he inevitably gets around to education. While all the talk about democracy, rule of law, and human rights is fine, he says, in some ways we are “putting the cart before the donkey.” You cannot build real progress -- be it political, economic, or social -- on anything except the firm foundation of a modern, robust educational system, he tells me with passion. And it is not mere rhetoric. He has spent much of his free time and intellectual energy – to say nothing of his personal wealth – in writing, speaking, and investing in educational change in his country.

I also have a friend who is a Swedish businessman who sees things much the same way. He has also invested his time and money in promoting education in Egypt, among other places, and is in the process of trying to expand his efforts there now, in the wake of the revolution. He too believes in fundamental educational reform in the region as the sine qua non for genuine progress, and he is putting his “money where his mind is” to do what he can to help.

It seems to me that while the efforts of governments such as the United States and Sweden (which both have very robust development aid programs in the region) are necessary, they will never be sufficient. It will take the vision, dedication, and hard work of individuals – like my two business friends – to lay the real foundation for reform.

That is the only way I can see to get the donkey back where it belongs.

Bill Stewart - Chargé d’affaires, a.i.

Blog Om: Dreams, Broken and Otherwise

2011-07-07T09:37:00.003+02:00

Fathia Absie

I recently had the privilege of meeting bubbly Somali-American film director (and writer and producer), Fathia Absie. Watching her documentary, “Broken Dreams,” was at once enlightening and deeply disturbing. Her interviews of family and friends of young American-Somali men who joined the ranks of extremists – despite their relatively conventional, middle class American upbringing and education – led to more questions in my mind than answers. Why did they do it? Why did they leave the comfort of home to join extremists bent on violence thousands of miles away, many of them to die there, leaving behind grieving mothers and confused friends?

I found no clear answer to the “why” of it.

One thing, however, was clear: the influences that lead to such decisions are complex and opaque, and not given to facile analysis. One of the most striking contrasts for me was that between Ms. Absie herself and the subjects of her film. She had found her home in America; they had not. She had chosen to celebrate life; they had chosen to embrace violence and death. That such a warm, positive, and optimistic artist as Ms. Absie would choose to dwell on such a dark subject is, oddly, inspiring. Instead of simply looking over her shoulder at her struggling compatriots and shouting, “I’ve made it – c’mon, this is easy!” she has chosen to tell their stories of suffering, confusion, and despair. In so doing, she powerfully challenged the oft-distorted press portrayals of her people. As she once said, “Nobody tells our stories the way we should…it’s about time that we tell our stories…there are a lot of crazy stories and rumors, so don’t believe the hype…”

In “Broken Dreams,” hype is hard to find. Hope, however, is not.

- Bill Stewart, Chargé d’affaires, a.i.

Blog Om: Crime…Pays?

2011-06-27T10:42:00.000+02:00

So it turns out that the study of crime can actually pay – and pay well, if you happen to win the Stockholm Prize for Criminology, which at SEK 1 million is the richest in the world. The United States and Sweden are close partners in many arenas, but I was not aware of how much we do together to fight crime. Five of the previous nine winners of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology have been Americans, with their research influencing policy debates about criminal justice around the world, not least in Sweden and the United States.

Hope For The Hardcore

This year’s winners, two prominent American criminologists, John Laub and Robert Sampson, received the prize for their painstaking research showing why and how criminals stop offending. Laub and Sampson discovered that even hardened criminals can kick the habit when they make the right choices at certain ”turning points” in their lives. Tracking some 500 male offenders born in the 1920s over the course of their lifetimes, Laub and Sampson found that if previously active criminals used ”turning points” such as marraige or military service to cut their ties to the old life, they could permanently kick the habit of habitual crime.

Pageantry with a Purpose

Personally, I got a ”kick” out of the pageantry surrounding the ceremony. Her Majesty Queen Sylvia was the gracious presenter of the award, with Minister Beatrice Ask in attendance as a speaker and host. For a celebration of the study of crime, it was a classy affair. Fortunately, the only fireworks came from the dozens of Roman candles lit simultaneously atop the delicious desserts.

To Drs. Laub and Sampson – skål! Your work has inspired us all, and given hope to many!

- Bill Stewart, Chargé d’affaires, a.i.

Blog Om: LGBT Pride Month

2011-06-21T13:49:00.001+02:00

On May 31, President Obama announced June as the 2011 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. In his statement on the same day, the President emphasized how his Administration “stands with advocates of equality around the world in leading the fight against pernicious laws targeting LGBT persons and malicious attempts to exclude LGBT organizations from full participation in the international system.”

In the same spirit, the UN Human Rights Council adopted the first ever UN resolution on the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons just a few days ago. The U.S. and Sweden both worked with the main sponsor, South Africa, to help pass this resolution. This resolution will open a broader international discussion on how to best promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons.

As yet another recognition of Sweden’s role-model work on LGBT issues, Swedish Minister Birgitta Ohlsson recently travelled to the U.S. to accept the Paving the Way Award on behalf of Sweden. The Award was presented to Sweden in recognition of its leadership in establishing equal rights for its LGBT citizens. Swedish milestones in this work include: the first country to permit its citizens the right to change their gender (1972); allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the military (1976); the first country to declassify homosexuality as an illness (1979); banning discrimination in all areas including hate speech (1987); recognizing same-sex unions (1988) and registered partnerships (1995); prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment (1999); allowing same-sex couples to jointly adopt children (2003); declassifying transvestism as an illness and enacting anti-discrimination laws on transgender identity or expression (2009); and legalizing same-sex marriage (2009).

With the annual Stockholm Pride Festival just around the corner and President Obama’s announcement of June being the 2011 LGBT Month, the Embassy Team is putting extra effort into calling attention to these very important issues. We are eagerly looking forward to the Pride Festival that kicks off on August 1 – the theme of this year being openness – and the special opportunities it provides to celebrate the progress that the LGBT movement has already made, but also to focus on the problems that remain in many countries around the world. The Embassy’s Management Counselor William Boyle will be participating in this year’s Pride Festival as part of the Stockholm Gay Chorus. He will be singing with the chorus at the Kärleksmässa in the Storkyrkan on August 7 and marching with the group in the Pride parade.

Blog Om: Fast Friends

2011-06-15T17:07:00.005+02:00

Chris Dunnett with Tierp Arena
co-founder Leif Andreasson

Last Sunday I participated in the formal opening of a new institution of U.S.-Swedish cultural exchange – a fantastic, new, world-class drag racing facility called Tierp Arena. I was honored to be invited to speak along with several local officials because it was great to see thousands of people from Sweden and over 20 other countries enjoying and celebrating a motorsport that has its roots in the post-WWII “hot rod” culture of southern California. I presented an American flag to the founders of Tierp Arena, that they raised over the facility in recognition of drag racing as a Swedish-American cultural connection. See photos on our Flickr.

At the Embassy we are proud, and often amazed, at the number and diversity of cultural links between the United States and Sweden. From the intrepid settlers who arrived on the Kalmar Nyckel in 1638 to establish the “New Sweden” colony on the shores of the Delaware River, to the young Americans dancing to the beats of Robyn, the things that link our countries together are old, new, and varied.

Another of those connections is the deep love among a large number of Swedes for classic American cars and American-style motorsports like drag racing. I am a classic car guy myself, so this fascination is easy for me to understand. But for others it is surprising, and perhaps strange.

I think that the reason one of the signs of summer in Sweden is seeing happy groups cruising around the central squares of many Swedish towns in huge 1950s and 1960s “yankee” convertibles is that our societies share a deep appreciation of freedom. The car culture in America is often described as reflecting American individualism. This and the ostentatious, showy, look of many American classic cars would not seem to go with what we are told are the core Swedish traits of consensus and understatement. But Swedish history is full of evidence that Swedes value personal freedom and adventure. From the nautical tradition that remains strong in Sweden, to the rugged Swedes who tamed this country’s vast forests and Arctic north – I see in the Swedish story many of same characteristics that shaped America.

Maybe that is one reason the over one million Swedes who emigrated to the United States in the 19th century were so successful there, and why our countries have been “fast” friends through good times and bad for hundreds of years.

- Chris Dunnett

Blog Om: grattis och gemenskap

2011-06-06T05:50:00.000+02:00

The U.S. Embassy in Sweden team joins with our boss Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in sending congratulations from the American people to our Swedish friends on your national day.

Swedish National Day

Press Statement

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Washington, DC

On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I am delighted to congratulate the people of Sweden on the occasion of your National Day this June 6. The history of our friendship dates back to the earliest days of American independence when Sweden was among the first to recognize our young republic. Swedish immigrants and their descendants have made a profound contribution to virtually every aspect of American life.

This is also an opportunity to reflect on the values that guide this friendship and partnership today. Together, we are working on humanitarian and development efforts around the world. We are committed to the future security of Afghanistan and Libya. Our relationship with Sweden touches virtually every aspect of human activity, from promoting internet freedom, developing alternative energy resources, and building sustainable cities, to the peaceful exploration of the Arctic and cutting-edge information technology research.
We can be proud of what our two nations have accomplished, and I am confident that even greater achievements lie ahead.

Blog Om: Sounds of Spring

2011-06-03T16:03:00.001+02:00

It is a beautiful day in Stockholm as I sit in the Embassy listening to the sounds of spring. The birds happily singing, the splashing of the pair of ducks who have taken up residence in our fountain, the far off hum of lawn mowers – and the joyful shrieking of truckloads of teenagers celebrating graduation - studenten.

This latter sound makes me the happiest. There is something about this ostentatious display by the reputedly staid Swedes that makes me smile. It is also a highly fitting sound of spring. A sound of joy at the boundless possibilities of a new stage of life.

Students and young people are very important to us at the Embassy. We have set engaging with what we call the “Next Generation” as one of our top priorities. This is because we understand that if the United States and Sweden are to have the same strong relationship tomorrow that we enjoy today, it is these students that have to cultivate and grow it.

We also know that we can’t take this for granted. The young people laughing and dancing outside my window do not think about Sweden-U.S. relations in terms of liberation from the threat of fascism in the 1940s, or the security umbrella the United States provided Europe during the Cold War. No, their views are shaped by the much more complex world we have today, where the problems we face and what to do about them are rarely so black and white. This came across clearly in a recent poll we did that showed while 72% of 16 to 30 year-olds have a favorable view of U.S.-Swedish relations, an alarming 60% had low confidence in the United States to responsibly address world problems.

That is why we at the Embassy are investing so much of our time and efforts in listening to and talking with the young people of Sweden. Our regular visits to gymnasiums and universities for open discussions with students are not only a lot of fun, they are important to our core function as diplomats – to better understand how Swedes see things, talk about U.S. views, and to factor all of this into foreign policy decision making.

So as the “Next Generation” celebrates in the streets of Sweden, we at the U.S. Embassy say GRATTIS! And good luck - we know how important your voices are who make these sounds of spring

- Chris Dunnett

Blog Om: Harmony and Continuity

2011-06-01T13:55:00.004+02:00

The dictionary defines harmony as: “a consistent, orderly, or pleasing arrangement of parts.” For almost two years Ambassador Matthew Barzun has sung a beautiful solo via this blog – fusing words with imagery to evoke thought and emotion as great songs do. But he would be the first to say that he was really not performing a solo. Just as with memorable music, it takes a team. We on the U.S. Embassy staff felt fortunate – and had fun – providing the accompaniment, backing vocals, and production for our lead singer on his successful tour of Sweden.

So there have been many voices, not just one. This is the power of harmony. When many voices come together – organized in a common direction – the result is more than the sum of the individual contributions.

The Embassy team – our choir – will continue to engage the people of Sweden, learning and pursuing greater harmony. We want to continue to use this blog to share our thoughts and experiences as we draw inspiration from Sweden and the many links between our countries.

We are meeting many people around the country through the U.S. Embassy Road Show, visits to high schools, and the other opportunities we get to engage with people in person. But strong and vibrant relationships need continuity. As Ambassador Barzun said in his farewell speech, we need continuity when our countries change leaders – not getting too focused on individual policies or politicians. While ambassadors come and go, each bringing their own strengths, the U.S. Embassy, and the U.S.-Sweden relationship, have continuity because it is many voices – not one – creating the harmony. And we have found that our social media platforms, like this blog, are important tools for keeping conversations going – maintaining continuity – between those times when we get to engage with people in person.

Every choir needs a conductor, not to replace the voices, but to give a little direction and set the stage. My name is Chris Dunnett and I am the head of Public Diplomacy at the US Embassy and I will be filling this role. My aim is provide continuity and bring in other voices from my Embassy colleagues to share what we hope you will find are interesting stories about our activities and engagement throughout Sweden.

Like any choir seeking to please our audience, we take requests. So let us know if there are things about the Embassy, what we do, where we go, and who we are that you would like to know more about. Critique of our repertoire is also useful and welcome.

So now we begin, writing new verses, and striving for the continuity and harmony that are so essential if we are to achieve more together than we could solo.

Blog Om: My New Mission

2011-04-29T18:19:00.001+02:00

Two years ago, President Obama asked me to serve in this great and globally connected nation of Sweden because I understood and believed in his vision for America and its role in the world. All of us at U.S. Embassy Stockholm have worked hard together to carry that out, expressing to Swedes that America doesn’t seek to command respect through power but to earn it through leadership and friendship. In a variety of ways, including this blog, we have sought to connect with citizens throughout Sweden in a direct and personal way.

But now President Obama has asked me to take on a new mission. He is seeking reelection and has asked me to help steer that effort by serving as Chair of his National Finance Committee. I am honored to be asked to serve in this new capacity, and am accepting the president’s call. However, because of the nature of American presidential elections, it means I will have to leave this post all too soon -- at the end of May.

The president sent me to Sweden with one word of advice: “Listen.” That’s what I have tried to do. I have been traveling throughout the country since I arrived, listening and learning. From Sweden’s leadership in sustainability and clean energy to its deep sense of international responsibility, as we have seen most recently in Libya, to the sense of balance embedded in the Swedish national character, I have soaked it all up and become forever enriched.

Brooke, our children, and I have lived a Swedish life together here – one that will always be precious in our memories. At the same time, we look forward to continuing the wonderful relationships we’ve forged with the many Swedes we count as friends. As we move on to the next mission, Sweden comes along as part of who we are. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Blog Om: Not Lost in Translation

2011-04-28T18:30:00.001+02:00

Google translate is a true gift for first-time speakers of a language, and one I put to use. But language, with all its subtleties and idioms, can be elusive even to the mighty Google. It can spit back some unexpected things. Here’s one I recently tried.

(Note: For those of you who haven’t used it, you type one language into a box on the left and it instantaneously translates into the other language in a box on the right as you enter words. For an English-to-Swedish example, typing “I like winter in Sweden” into the left generates “Jag älskar vinter i sverige” on the right.”)

I was going to meet with some Stockholm-area high school students, and I wanted to say something to them about the warm welcome our family has received in Sweden – that the country has become our “home away from home.”

When I typed that phrase into Google translate I expected to get something like, “Hem bort från hem.” And as I began to type it started to build up just as I expected. But when I entered the final “home” into the English box, the Swedish words vanished and just one remained, “Hem.”

“Home away from home” = home. To many lucky expats and diplomats living abroad, it can certainly feel that way. And our Swedish friends have made it so for Brooke, our children and me. For that and much else we are grateful.

P.S. By the way, in Danish it works as expected. You enter in "home away from home" and you get "hjem væk fra hjemmet.” A statement on differing Scandinavian hospitality or just a computer glitch? We may never know.

Blog Om: Class Outside

2011-04-18T13:23:00.009+02:00

Irrespective of when spring officially came to Stockholm, it really felt like it for the first time this week. That was fortunate because we had already planned to take a gamble on Thursday for setting up our Embassy-in-a-Box outside. We scheduled the set-up as training for new members of our team who haven’t been on one of the first three Embassy Roadshows but want to join one of our next ones – Örebro and Gävle coming up in May. And we took the opportunity to do an informal efficiency review.

We set it up in record time. The only thing that slowed us down was the space man. The suit is on loan from NASA, and, when combined with a mannequin we borrowed, it has become one of the more tireless and popular members of our traveling team. But also stratospherically difficult to assemble, it turns out.

We went through each Roadshow item, assessing the effort it took to bring along and to maintain, and then the impact it had in aiding our mission to serve and engage. So a score of low effort and high impact would be great and would assure its place on the next trip. Conversely, high effort and low impact would be cut out. Space man provided a bit of a challenge as he was high effort and high impact, but I’m confident we will find a way to lessen the effort and he will be with us in Örebro next month.

In the meantime, we thought not of the moon but of the sun as we held more meetings outside. For all our praise of the projector-friendly season and its different kind of light, we welcomed this kind too.

Blog Om: Leaving the Ground to Appreciate Roots

2011-04-13T09:28:00.005+02:00

Treehotel is one hour’s drive up into the woods from Luleå. I kept referring to it as if it were in Luleå until Luleå Mayor Peterson gently reminded me it was in the village of Harads, part of Boden municipality. But his admiration for the work we were seeing knew no municipal borders as his face lit up when talking about it.

We were greeted by Treehotel founder Britta Jonsson Lindvall. Her husband Kent Lindvall was on a fishing trip (he is also a professional guide), but this was still a family affair, and we met the multi-talented Sofia, one of their three daughters.

The story of Treehotel began with a single bed and breakfast that Britta ran in the forest. She was a natural entrepreneur and, over the years, also bought a local funeral home that needed a new owner. She jokes that she could start a “Dead & Breakfast.” Thankfully, she pursued a different idea for extending her hospitality.

It began to sprout after a friend came up into the woods to make a film about getting back to roots and being in the woods away from the city. To make the film he built a treehouse about eight kilometers away from Britta’s B&B.

After he left, she asked if she could rent it out. He agreed, and for a few seasons she did. Clients loved the treehouse, but hauling all the stuff out and back for one guest room was too much. So over a campfire on a fishing trip, some architects from Stockholm suggested they design and build treehouses closer to Britta. Now there are 6.

We had made a reservation to stay in one, so Sofia took us there, along the way mentioning that our house weighed seven tons. Upon arrival at the treehouse the first thing one notices as this giant thing hangs in the air tethered to trees is, “Wow, these pine trees are tall, but not very thick.” Americans might picture a sequoia—don’t. Instead, start with a thick Christmas tree and double it. Or imagine a thin telephone pole.

In any case, you can imagine the mental estimation and calculation we began behind tight smiles. But Sophia explained that trees grew slowly up here at this cold spot, so they were old and strong – just not very thick. 140 years old. And strong. Each one, she said, could hold 20 tons. Our house was attached to four trees so “only” seven tons were an easy task for them.

The trees move, and so does the house. There is power in movement. And power in roots. Both were on display as the house moved a lot during the night. The house was attached to the trees with collars that could be adjusted so they would never strangle the trees. It seemed like a good lesson for us when we got back to the city and shared not only what we learned at Luleå University of Technology about sustainable engineering in the lab, but also what we learned up in the trees: We are rooted but we can move, and we can adjust to change.

Blog Om: Ideas @ Zero

2011-04-12T08:50:00.006+02:00

The word for “spring” in Swedish is vår and the word for “our” is also vår. So “our spring” is “vår vår.” I got more of a kick out of this than my Swedish teacher appeared to, and I wondered if it there’d ever be a time when I’d actually use it. Turns out there was.

A small group of us from the embassy travelled up to Luleå last week to, among other things, lay the groundwork for what we hope will be a Roadshow there in the future. We stepped off the plane and it was snowing. Since spring in Sweden is statistical and place-based, not temporal and national, it was clear, as I was able to mention, that vår vår had not come along with us.

Luleå is top of mind to anyone who has walked in central Stockholm or flown on SAS because it is impossible to miss the marketing campaign of the Luleå University of Technology, where we would visit later in the day. On one very memorable ad there is a giant slab of ice with their tagline, “Great ideas grow better below zero!” Our car temperature showed the temperature at exactly zero and the sun coming out, so we had to act quickly.

Luleå University of Technology is home to 16,000 students with a major focus on engineering, including “sustainable use of resources,” “materials engineering,” and “process IT.” All of these are very much on our minds as we work to answer President Obama’s call for a “Sputnik moment” toward a clean energy future. We also wanted to recruit some new SAGA members and, as always, to listen and learn.

I spoke with a group of students for an “Open Q&A” on any topics they wanted to cover. We hit familiar ones from climate to confidentiality, and Net freedom and North Africa. After the questions, I continued my effort to find 3-D printers and to meet the people using them. We tracked one down at the industrial design building where product development students gather.

We did not find any Stradivarius violin prototypes, but we did see it producing working wrenches, as well as parts for Luleå’s entry into the Eco-driving Challenge. And we got a look at the prototype.

There before us were two classic icons of 20^th-century manufacturing – a wrench and a car –generated not from an assembly line or foundry, but from a printer. Imagine that.

Blog Om: Building a Platform

2011-04-06T07:05:00.006+02:00

We took our U.S. Embassy in a Box on the road again this week for our US Embassy Roadshow@Linköping, and were warmly greeted by Östergötland's Governor Elizabeth Nilsson.

In Umeå, we showcased the American-made Airstream trailer pulled by a FlexFuel Chevy Avalanche pickup truck (now available in Sweden, by the way). For Linköping we went more municipal than recreational, and showcased the brand-new, 100%-electric “green truck,” which is assembled outside of Los Angeles, California by Vantage Vehicles.

This truck goes 40 mph (64 kmh) and is targeted for universities, parks, and municipalities, which have fleets of maintenance vehicles. I doubt its inventors intended it to be used as the backdrop for our “tailgate” pancake breakfast that has become part of the tradition of the Roadshow, but there it was.

And speaking of California, Linköping’s sister city in USA is Palo Alto (the heart of Silicon Valley) so it’s no surprise that it was also teeming with innovation. But it’s an old city too. The Linkoping castle has stones dating back to the 1200s. I expected to learn about clever new ways to achieve sustainability – as I had at every stop – and indeed I did at a clean tech luncheon with innovators from throughout the region.

But I also heard an energy story I didn’t expect. It’s the story of how the famous King Gustav Vasa used to keep warm when he came to visit the Linköping castle – now home to Governor Nilsson. As she re-tells it, the king would have his army put on their full armor and run around to generate sweat and warm up the room. Innovative? Maybe. Sustainable? Not so sure. Swampy? For sure.

Back at the Embassy in a Box we welcomed students who warmed up our room by crowding around our iPad table and loading up Google Earth to zoom down and show my colleagues and me where they lived in the city. This was a nice way to do virtual site visits in a day that didn’t allow us to go as many places as we would have liked.

Between “Study in the USA” seminars we encouraged students to write on our open comment wall. We ask them, “What is the first thing you think of when you think of America?” and then give them a pen. We got a full range, from “Elvis” to “Elmo,” from “liberal” to “conservative” and from “Hollywood” to “NYC.” All those were written in English but there were also two great ones in Swedish: “vita huset” (White House) – I got that one, but was stumped at first by the next – and Frihetsgudinnan (Statue of Liberty).

And it was that subject – liberty – that dominated our open Q&A at the University. We discussed and debated the international response to Libya and the changes across the region.

Two dots make a line. And we knew that after Växjö we were on a good trajectory. Three dots make a surface, or, in this case, a platform – for building new relationship for innovation that brings sustainable growth and new jobs to both of our countries.

Blog Om: Flight

2011-04-04T13:19:00.002+02:00

Sweden has again demonstrated its strong commitment to the United Nations system and protecting universal human rights by joining the UN-mandated, NATO-led coalition to help enforce this no fly zone in service of protecting the Libyan people. It so happened that just as Sweden agreed to send up to eight Gripens along with support aircraft and personnel, I was visiting the birthplace of the Swedish Air Force as part our U.S. Roadshow@Linköping.

I went to the museum that was re-launched last year to commemorate 100 years of the Air Force. The entire basement is devoted to the recovered remains of a famous DC-3 surveillance plane that was shot down in 1952. The director gave me a tour and showed me the first plane from 99 years ago with a wooden propeller.

The next day at Linköping University I also got a look into the future of aviation, but a little background first.

3-D printing is an exciting technology I’d read about (Print Me a Stradivarius, The Economist). The price is coming down but is still expensive, and there’s talk about how these printers will soon become “ubiquitous.” But what intrigued me was the opportunity we have now precisely because it has not yet become ubiquitous.

Back when there was only one mainframe computer at universities many people from various disciplines would gather around to use it. Those were the future innovators of the information age. 3-D printing is at a similar place. At universities today one might be able to find a self-selecting group of future innovators just by seeing who is gathered around the printer. As it happens, students from engineering, industrial design, experience design, architecture, and more are crowding around to use this tool.

The Linköping University team kindly indulged me and hastily arranged a tour of their Concept Reality Lab, which housed the two 3-D printers on campus. I was not disappointed. I saw the American-made Dimension Elite, which is made by a company in that bastion of Swedish-American innovation: Minnesota. We saw products ranging from a custom milk foamer for coffee to components of a jet engine turbine.

I played around with the turbine and was then shown into another room that housed a future concept fighter aircraft. It had been designed in four months by a group of Ph.D. students in the lab. A flatscreen monitor showed this 6-foot model – made up of components made in the 3-D printer – actually flying. Right next to the fighter was a mini submarine that could be used for just the sort of underwater rescue that would have made the discovery of the DC-3 at the bottom of the Baltic even quicker.

It was a week that included the extraordinary requirements of international coalitions and the innovative leaders of the future gathering together. Together for now by necessity. But maybe necessity isn’t so bad. After all, it’s the mother of invention.

Blog Om: Swedish Spring

2011-03-16T11:25:00.007+01:00

For a country famously and wonderfully punctual, there is one thing you most certainly cannot set your clock by: spring. In fact, this week we missed it by just one day.

That will sound odd to American readers used to spring beginning each year at the exact moment when the sun is directly over the equator, known as the vernal equinox. This year it starts on March 20^th at 23:21 GMT no matter what the weather has to say about it.

(NASA)

But not so here. In Sweden spring begins after seven straight days when the average temperature has been above freezing. Once the thermometer says it feels like spring for a week, then “snap,” spring it is. Of course, those not raised in the Swedish climate may quibble that just not being officially “freezing” may be a low bar for a definition of spring.

For what it’s worth, summer begins after seven straight days of temperatures averaging at least 10°C degrees (50° Fahrenheit). So you can have a short spring or, theoretically, no spring at all. It also means that spring begins at different times in different places in Sweden, coming sooner (one would expect) in Kalmar than Kiruna.

So as winter comes to a close, we celebrate the end of the season I won't call dark but rather the “different kind of light” season. We don't know when spring will grace us, but we do have a schedule for the public art piece we installed for residents of Stockholm outside the residence. American artist Chris Doyle’s Underglow will be up for another 10 days when the sun is down.

(Chris Doyle)

The work is a projection from what is technically American soil (U.S. Ambassador’s residence) onto Swedish soil in a cross border cultural exchange – the kind we had discussed in Umeå, the 2014 cultural capital of Europe. Curating the work was a collaboration between artwithoutwalls, and my wife Brooke Barzun.

Chris Doyle’s work celebrates a seasonal cycle and things that grow without light. It also celebrates another kind of underglow – the warmth beneath the earth’s surface, which we are now harnessing to heat the residence. We had moved the embassy itself onto district heating a few years back, but the residence (a separate building a few blocks away) is not connectable so we recently completed installation of a geothermal system.

The conversion was not just the right thing to do, but was also the result of a mandate from President Obama to have all federal government buildings reduce greenhouse gas emissions 28% by 2020. This is a step toward that – it reduces the emissions from heating the residence nearly 75% – along with powering the residence (and Underglow) with electricity that’s 95% from hydroelectric and 5% from wind.

At the Underglow opening event a few weeks ago, I explained how we loved Sweden so much after 18 months, and how the people of Sweden and Stockholm had welcomed us so warmly, that we wanted to say, “tack.” This public art is our token of appreciation to Sweden – our neighbors in Stockholm and throughout the country.

So since spring is not officially here but presumably close, we want to share this two-and-a-half minute music video set to the music of the Sweptaways performing the song, “Say” by Swedish songwriter, El Perro del Mar.

My favorite part is the comment at the very end from the Swedish passerby – sums it up quite well.

Blog Om: Discussing Discussions

2011-03-08T15:19:00.001+01:00

The role of confidentiality in diplomacy has been much discussed in recent weeks and months. Confidentiality, of course, is at the heart of many of our most important relationships in life – with our families, friends, doctors, and many others – and yet we are rightly wary of its use in public life.

Foreign Minister Bildt said in an interview a few months ago that the world needs more diplomacy, not less, especially now, and that confidentiality is needed in making diplomacy an effective tool. He imagined a world without confidentiality in which all that was left was what he called “megaphone diplomacy” of folks shouting well-known points at one another and he went on to say that “from experience we know that that can lead to more conflicts and more problems.”

Secretary Clinton addressed the issue two weeks ago in a speech outlining freedoms in the Internet Age (the so-called Internet Freedom Agenda). She pointed out that open societies have throughout history sought to strike a balance between transparency and confidentiality – erring on the side of transparency – even as communication technologies have changed. “Businesses hold confidential conversations when they’re developing new products to stay ahead of their competitors. Journalists keep the details of some sources confidential to protect them from exposure or retribution. And governments also rely on confidential communication online as well as offline. The existence of connection technologies may make it harder to maintain confidentiality, but it does not alter the need for it.”

Not surprisingly, I agree with both. (It’s worth noting that the other two balances Secretary Clinton discussed were those between liberty and security and between free expression and tolerance. I recommend watching the full address.)

Readers of this blog know my fascination with the Vasa and all it teaches us about balance. But in thinking about this issue, I took inspiration not from the Vasa Museum but from the great Swedish diplomat to whom the street that runs by our embassy and through the rest of diplomat city is dedicated: Dag Hammarskjöld. His summation of the importance of trust in discussions does not require my paraphrasing or summarizing. He got right to the point: “I do not discuss discussions.”

Maybe a Finn could say it in fewer words, but not I.

Blog Om: Bright Eyes, Cold Feet

2011-03-01T09:13:00.006+01:00

Part two of two was taking place on a cold night in Södermalm. Part one had been experienced last summer when I had my introduction to the peculiarly Swedish backyard sport of brännboll. Now it was time for my initiation into bandy, brännboll’s more official –but still quite peculiar to American eyes – cousin sport.

To describe it for an American one can take two approaches. You can say it’s like hockey, only on a giant ice rink the size of a football field, eleven people to a side, no checking, and the puck is round and bright pink instead of flat and black. Or else you can start with soccer and add ice, hockey sticks, skates, and a smaller, bright pink ball. Through either lens, Hammarby was picking apart the league’s last-place team in the game I attended.

My embassy colleague Martin is a huge fan, having transferred his love of hockey (he’s from Michigan) into bandy. In preparation for part two, I had been told that there were three key things to bring as a bandy fan. Two of them, warm boots and a thermos of coffee, are pictured here:

The third thing? Well, you add it to coffee if you’re old enough and so inclined (and the lower the thermostat, the higher the inclination).

After the game I travelled across town to catch a show at Debaser by visiting American rock band Bright Eyes, featuring front man Conor Oberst. It was great to see Conor along his manager Nate as well as Mike Mogis, whom I had seen last year with Monsters of Folk. They introduced us to the members of their opening act, the talented Swedish band First Aid Kit. I could not help but notice that the enthralled fans of both acts were, well,…they were not legally entitled to enjoy the third ingredient mentioned above. Not even close.

I was grateful for a terrific night of cultural activities – some old to others and new to me, some old to me and new to others, and some in which I was simply old.

Blog Om: Ties, Tweets, and Taking Off

2011-02-23T10:44:00.010+01:00

We brought a mascot of sorts along with us for the Växjö Road Show.

The fine folks from NASA had lent us a space suit, which we stood in the corner. The young and young at heart took quick notice and wanted more. We were happy to be able to oblige them since NASA had given us free tickets to hand out for their “NASA – A Human Adventure” exhibit in Stockholm. We also talked up the incredible NASA space camp for eager ears.

For those more interested in terrestrial travel and history, we filled up great maps of our Swedish-American connections. It’s a simple exercise, using literal ties to represent the figurative ones, but there may be no better representation of why our international friendship is so strong.

We added to the Umeå finalists in our Tweet for a Trip contest where we ask people to submit 140 character answers to the question: Where in the US would you like to visit and why? Melodifestivalen-style we picked three finalists, as we do from each road show. We’ll choose the winner on the Fourth of July at the US Embassy Stockholm annual party. Their tweet will come true.

After another incredible visit, it was, as they say at NASA, time for reentry into Stockholm. Thank you to the wonderful people of Växjö for your hospitality, your great discussions, and your beautiful city.

Blog Om: The Sad Pill

2011-02-17T09:35:00.006+01:00

Despite the apparently simple, clear, and direct message, it still backfired. That was the lesson shared from a fellow panelist today at Campus Telge in Södertälje. We were gathered for a workshop on diversity and entrepreneurship with Mayor Anders Lago and business leaders from major multi-nationals and emerging local businesses.

The story is about a company with Swedish connections advertising its product for pain relief, headaches specifically, in an Arabic-speaking country. The message looked like this:

Hard to miss the point, you’d think. But it was the company that missed a larger point. In Arabic, as with Hebrew, you read from right to left. So the exact opposite of the intended message was received: If you want to get sad, take this pill.

Another panelist from a major Nordic hotel chain told the story of handling booking for a tennis tournament for the disabled. Organizers had called around to other hotels, which, when they heard about the event quite understandably asked themselves, “How many accessible rooms on the first floor with wide doors, etc. do I have?” The answer was always far fewer than the 190 or so needed, so the answer was, “No, sorry.”

This chain’s sales person looked at the situation in a different kind of light. Instead of going right to an answer, this person asked another question of the organizer: “What are your specific needs?” It turned out that the requirements when spelled out were not at all beyond the scope of what the hotel could provide. The answer came back, “Yes, absolutely.”

In a time of acute debate at home in the U.S. and in Sweden about immigration, and in a time of debates around the world about people demonstrating for their universal rights, it seems worthwhile to reflect on these two stories.

Let's not assume that messages obvious to us will be so to everyone. And let's keep asking more questions of our friends and partners to make sure each knows where the other is coming from. Both obvious. Both easy to overlook. But both have potential for bad consequences when we take the shortcut and possibly surprising results when we don’t.

Blog Om: Culinary Exchanges

2011-02-16T12:54:00.008+01:00

Two points make a straight line. It didn't take Linnaeus to teach us that. We always want our lines of engagement to trend upward, so before our second US Embassy Road Show we thought about what to repeat, what to do better, and what simply didn’t quite work from the first. One thing was certain: Pancakes stay.

In what is now a tradition we started the Road Show with American-style pancakes. I mixed, flipped, and served them to our first guests, who were our “Ask the Visa Expert” seminar visitors, our Host Committee members, and a group of 8th graders and. Turns out that 8th graders eat more pancakes per person than others. They were hungry.

Later, while visitors were asking the expert, learning about studying in the USA, and finding out about doing business with American companies, I had a chance to talk with the 8^th graders and see their feedback about what they liked and didn’t like about what they knew of the U.S. One thing they want to see change is fast food and obesity – we should have convenient food that’s healthy too.

Because we agree with our student friends, one of our experiments for the Road Show has been something we call a “think-outside-the-box lunch.” We find a top local chef (in this case Per Bengtsson) and ask him/her to cook a lunch that fits into a small, eco-friendly box, and we ask that it be in the spirit of our American-Swedish City exchange.

This proves harder than you would think because the concept constantly falls short of anything resembling a proper Swedish lunch. (Note for Americans: Swedes view lunch differently than we do. It’s a hot meal with knife and fork – what we usually associate only with dinner.) But that is just the point: think outside the box, right? So we push and cajole in an effort to show and not just tell that we can have convenient food that’s healthy too. The result? A caesar salad with isterband sausage wrap and an apple. If the path to next generation engagement lies in part through the stomach then we are on a good trajectory there too.

Blog Om: Roots, Glass and Monster Trucks

2011-02-16T09:17:00.007+01:00

Växjö. The name itself comes from the word for road (vag). It was the place where two roads came together as farmers brought their goods to market. With that kind of history we hoped that Växjö would be as welcoming as Umeå had been to the traveling office/expo/carnival we call the US Embassy Roadshow. We weren’t disappointed.

We may not have been farmers on our way to market but we did want to plant some seeds and cultivate relationships formed with the town and region in previous meetings. Växjö is a place where ideas and innovation sprout up, but it is also a place of expansive roots – the literal roots in the vast forests of southern Småland and also the roots of many American families due to the great emigration from 1850 to 1930. The theme of the trip was building on these strong roots for future growth.

Mayor Bo Frank and Governor Kristina Alsér welcomed us. In keeping with the old/new theme, our first two meetings were in starkly different buildings on campus at Linnaeus University, the Teleborg castle and the Ikea Huset – one 100 years old and made to look older and the other brand new and very much intended to be of the moment. Linnaeus University itself is such a potent mix of old and new with all kinds of time-defying combinations. It’s Sweden’s newest university at just over one year old, but it was formed from two quite old institutions in Växjö and Kalmar.

We wanted to talk about innovation in areas as diverse as delicate as crystal glass to giant earth movers and forestry equipment.

Those sound incongruous until one learns the history of why glass blowing proliferated here. Back in the 16th century the locals didn't have much but they had trees. (This also explains its reputation as a furniture capital – no less than IKEA started here – but that’s another story.) Glass needed wood for burning. They had neither the base material (sand) nor the know-how but they imported both and got to work. Good, old ingenuity that any American can respect. Up north they took the omnipresent ice and created Icehotel. Here they took the omnipresent wood and created Glashotellet.

Forestry also inspired the creation of giant earth moving machines by Cargotec, which include American parts like Cummins diesel engines. The company makes similar ones for the US market in Ottawa, Kansas. The tree cutters have sophisticated tracking systems running Microsoft Windows operating systems. They allowed me to drive one. My team members standing down below the giant grappling hook trust me with software, but from what I could make out of their faces down there I think they were less confident in my hardware skills.

Blog Om: Charting Your Course

2011-02-09T12:46:00.005+01:00

(Photo courtesy of Sweden.se)

The first conversation I ever had with a Swede in Sweden was about sailing. It was 11 years ago at the Grand Hotel in Saltsjöbaden two days before Santa Lucia. Brooke and I were there for a great friend’s wedding, and it began to snow outside during the reception. I went out to see it fall on the harbor.

I joined a man who described how beautiful it looked in summer when filled with boats. He identified himself as a sailor and member of the Royal Swedish Yacht Club (KSSS). He then made me promise I would come back one day so I could see what sailing in Sweden in summer was all about. I promised I would try.

The other night, I told this story at the beginning of a skål I was asked to offer at an event held at the Grand Hotel sponsored by the four royal clubs, and this year organized by KSSS. Each year, the event organizers select a theme country and this year it was the United States.

I told them that my first job was teaching sailing at a yacht club in Cape Cod, south of Boston. As I stood in the Grand Hotel’s magnificent building and said the words, “yacht club,” I figured they might be picturing something equivalent. I clarified.

This yacht club was – and still is – in a little village called Cotuit. It’s called Cotuit Mosquito Yacht Club because the roughly 4-meter boats we race look like mosquitoes out on the water. There is no clubhouse – just a splintery dock – and it costs one dollar a year to be a member. I served as an officer, but I am now too old to be eligible. Only members under 21 are allowed to vote and the by-laws read that all officers must be “under the age of 25 and lucky enough not to be married.”

Despite the superficial differences, I knew they would agree that if I were to take them there, and we stood together on a Saturday morning in July with other sailors in anticipation of a day on the water, the feeling would be exactly as it is on the KSSS docks. Mosquito or grand, the feeling is universal. The sailors all nodded their heads.

That feeling is about a lot of things – concentration, competition, co-operation – but most of all it’s about freedom. It’s a feeling that comes from charting your course, unsheltered from great forces of nature and trying your best to harness them.

Freedom. It’s an idea and a feeling – in its biggest and most fundamental sense – that’s much on everyone’s mind now.

Those with a head for such things and know all seven wonders of the ancient world remember that #7 is the Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt. Built in the 3^rd century BC, it was the tallest structure on earth for many years. Its roaring fire was said to be visible from 45 kilometers away.

All the sailors in the room could easily imagine what was in the hearts of those ancient Egyptians heading out into the open Mediterranean. And, of course, all Swedes and Americans, as free people in great democracies today, can imagine what is in the hearts of the citizens of Egypt and elsewhere around the world at this historic moment. That feeling is universal, too.

We took a moment to remember the freedom in every human heart and the peace that allows freedom to flourish. It remains much on our minds at U.S. Embassy Sweden and throughout the world.

Blog Om: Kalmar is Key

2011-02-01T14:44:00.005+01:00

2011 marks 400 years since one of Kalmar's most famous siege repulsions. Apparently, over the years, invaders tried 22 times to lay siege to Kalmar's castle and 22 times were fended off. That's some impressive defense. But on the night of my visit the castle gates were opened wide to celebrate local talent Jangir Maddadi. He was named settler of the year by the King of Sweden.

After learning about Kalmar's undefeated defensive record, I learned more about their history of playing offense, too. In 1638, 27 years after that famous siege, the City of Kalmar that took a boat called the Kalmar Nyckel ("Key" in English) and set off to go unlock the new world. It brought Swedish settlers to what is now Wilmington, Delaware in the U.S. to found what became Fort Kristina in New Sweden.

(Courtesy KalmarNyckel.org)

For those of us living at the intersection of Sweden and the U.S., Kalmar is a must visit. The history is palpable. The red brick and moat of the palace appears little changed from 17th century. We met with the publishers of Barometern and learned about the media landscape, the paper's first issue in 1841, and letters between Wilmington and Kalmar in 1962 declaring them official sister cities.

(Courtesy Kalmar Kommun)

We met with Vice Mayor Malin Petersson and the civic leaders involved in environmental issues to talk about SAGA. They showed a map that displayed the major development triangle formed connecting the largest three cities in Sweden: Stockholm, Göteborg in the west and Malmö in the south. Then they showed Kalmar - outside the triangle. Rather than complain, they made the point that it orients them outwards.

So it's no surprise that Kalmar was part of the initiative called Climate Pilots which four families in Kalmar were hooked up with four families in the Washington D.C. area to share practical advice on how to save money and save the environment by becoming eco-efficient.

The initiative took place after the formation of the U.S./E.U. partnership was announced with Swedish Minister for Enterprise and Energy Maud Olofsson and U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu in November 2009. While big national efforts were launched, this project was intended to be on-the-ground (quite literally) implementation - house to house and citizen to citizen.

Kalmar is key to U.S.-Swedish history, and it is clear that Kalmar is key to the future as well.

Blog Om: Teaching

2011-01-28T16:13:00.004+01:00

Yesterday we celebrated launch of NASA - A Human Adventure. Today we remember those seven astronauts we lost on the Challenger space shuttle launch 25 years ago. For many Americans like me, the moment when we witnessed or learned of the tragedy is seared in our memories. I went to high school in Concord, New Hampshire where one of those seven brave astronauts was from. Christa McAuliffe was a school teacher in Concord who was to be the first in her profession in space. When triumph turned to tragedy, the Concord community was devastated, as was the rest of the nation. Last night at Tekniska Museet we also observed a moment of silence to mark the anniversary of another sacrifice for space: the Apollo 1 fire that saw all three crew members perish on Jan 27th 1967. Talk then turned appropriately to the future and to need for the innovators and astronauts of tomorrow. Exhibitors wanted to encourage "space nerds" and "young geniuses," and to inspire school children to pursue big goals.

Christa McAuliffe herself was inspired by space as a teenager and then was selected out of 11,000 applicants to be the first teacher in space. I met with a group of children who were full of good questions I couldn’t answer. Luckily the experts in the room were able to help me out. Fun fact I learned from an expert who knew how to make memorable images for children and grown-ups alike: Rockets can consume as much fuel during liftoff as it takes to drain an Olympic-sized swimming pool in 2 seconds.

Blog Om: Big Goals

2011-01-28T07:45:00.005+01:00

Last night I helped kick-off the opening of a new exhibit* that is debuting in Stockholm today before heading around the world -- it's called "NASA – A Human Adventure"

NASA is always a fun topic for Americans to talk about -- that agency among our many agencies and programs back home might be the purest expression of my home country's spirit. Certainly, NASA represents the American desire to pursue big goals that stretch the imagination. Just three two days ago, President Obama invoked the birth of NASAin setting big goals for America in his State of the Union speech. Here’s what he said:

"Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik¸ we had no idea how we’d beat them to the moon. The science wasn’t there yet. NASA didn’t even exist. But after investing in better research and education, we didn’t just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs. This is our generation’s Sputnik moment".

It’s a powerful call to action in America – but notice the president’s emphasis on another key part of the NASA story: “We had no idea how.”

That’s the part that makes NASA a human adventure -- as this exhibit is so aptly named. The story of NASA is the story of people - humans - working hard and staying focused despite a huge leap of faith.

When Neil Armstrong’s foot finally and famously hit the lunar surface it was the last human step of millions of steps that preceded it. That footprint marked the triumph of human ingenuity – small steps – and the consummation of a national exercise in faith – a giant leap.

But, of course, Neil Armstrong didn’t call it a giant leap for America. President Kennedy understood from the beginning this was more than just a national exercise. Here’s part of what he said when he made the moon challenge to a joint session of congress (of course forgiving the male-centric language of the time):

“This is not merely a race. Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others. We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.”

And as we all know space exploration has become one of the great platforms for international collaboration. Right now, orbiting far above our heads are three Russians, two Americans, and an Italian in the international space station. Sweden has also had a representative there.

So for those of you in Sweden, I hope you will come to tour this exhibit which runs through November of this year and that you’ll think of it as an expression of the best of the American spirit. Hopefully we can all be inspired to think big, have faith, and see today’s competition as a step on the way to tomorrow’s collaboration.

*This exhibit is the result of a global collaboration between many partners including NASA who was represented by Jim Hull Exhibit & Artifact Manager and Debbie Rivera Strategic Alliances Manager; John Nurminen Events who was represented by Fred Weijgertse CEO and Jose Araujo Executive Producer; UAU in association with Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center represented by Chris Orwoll CEO; Tekniska Museet represented by Musuem Director Ann Follin Discovery Channel, The State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Moscow, and White Room Artifacts.

Blog Om: Köpings and Kebabs

2011-01-27T15:37:00.002+01:00

When we created my schedule for the trip to Kalmar with school visits in Nyköping and Norrköping I had to smile. I remembered that when I first was orienting myself with the Swedish cities and towns beyond Stockholm I saw all of these places ending in “Köping” (which I now know was the medieval designation for a market town). Linköping was not to be confused with Lidköping, nor Nyköping with Norrköping. And, of course, there’s Jonköping and “just plain” Köping. Now here I was.

The students in Nyköping Gymnasium specialized in media and communications and our session was covered in every conceivable medium as you might expect given their age – SMS, twitter, digital video, digital camera, note taking on laptops, all the tools of the trade. In Norrköping I had promised to go to a place for lunch that my friend from Stockholm told me was the best kebab in all of Sweden, Istanbul Kebab. Having only sampled limited kebabs, I cannot vouch for that pan-Sweden claim, but it was mighty good.

The students at Kungsgårdsgymnasiet – in Norrköping played an anthem as I came in by Tallest Man on Earth. They had clearly done their homework. (Thanks!) I had run through my familiar list of easy and difficult topics and was ready to answer any questions they had, but I wanted to ask them a few questions first. How many had been to America? About 20%. How many wanted to go to America? Every hand went up. OK. That was easy. Then: What are your positive or negative associations with America? I gave them a choice of picking whether to start with positive or negative. I thought they would pick positive but no, they wanted negative. On the negative side: Too fat. Too many cars. Capital punishment. Guns.

Guns were indeed of interest to all, and it was the first time I’d had questions about them in Sweden. I explained that getting into a partisan debate is not part of my job, but offered some historical background - it was the minutemen and local militias of armed civilians that made it possible for Americans to gain their independence from an oppressive regime. That is why the right to bear arms is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. There is a hot debate among Americans over whether this is still relevant today. But a wariness of government, and having the ability to replace an unjust one, through the vote as a rule but via other means given no other choice, are fundamental tenants of the story of American freedom.

The cars discussion gave a chance to talk about new American offerings like the Chevy Volt and how we’re looking at expanding mass transit and light rail in densely populated cities as part of president Obama’s $80b investment in alternative energy industries and jobs of the future. Cars and gun ownership are both deeply connected to Americans' sense of personal independence. They are good examples of how important it is to look beyond surface understanding and stereotypes to try to understand the always more complex historical/cultural "why?" of behavior in another society.

One student’s question reminded me that I’d delved so deeply into American things like Chevy Volts and WindStream personal wind generators that I’d forgotten a big point: Sweden has a lot to teach us. I reminded these young folks that Sweden didn’t always used to be green. I went over the story of Sweden transforming from the #1 most oil dependent nation to what amounts to first in the world for sustainability. I told them how we’re trying to share those kinds of stories with SAGA.

I had made some new friendships here and I encouraged them to help me keep them alive on Twitter and Facebook. After all, we still hadn’t debated the relative excellence of Norrköping kebabs vs. the world.

Blog Om: Grading winning and losing, and chatting with Elvis

2011-01-25T09:42:00.002+01:00

Last week marked the two-year mark of President Obama’s time in office, and the weather here in Sweden reminded me of that cold January day when it began. Not surprisingly, many journalists back home and here in Sweden were writing stories assessing the first two years. I agree with some and disagree with others, of course, but I was struck by how many framed the question as a win or lose proposition.

So I had assessment on my mind last week when I visited Kalmar and got to chat with students along the way (more on this in a future post). From a country that appreciates balance I was curious to learn what sort of grading system is used. It’s like this: Mycket val godkant (MVG), VG, G, and IG – translated loosely as very well done, well done, good, not good. Sounds reasonable. What, I wonder, would we learn if we assessed students on whether they had won or lost the last year? Not much, I suspect, except maybe the speed with which they transfer to another school.

On the way to Kalmar, I did a web chat with the afternoon newspaper Aftonbladet. I was in the car and my answers were transcribed, which meant I didn’t get to show off my typing skills (hard won in a summer typing school as a 14 year-old – very grateful to my dad for that one now but not so much at the time). As you will see from the transcript, the moderator didn’t exactly open with softball questions. We talked about some of the more controversial subjects from President Obama’s last two years, including a question about the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. Here was another place where the win/loss frame failed to shed light. Certainly President Obama wanted greater success, but he made an immediate decision and in the time since, thanks to help from friends around the world, 67 detainees have been relocated. And the work continues.

As the chat went on, I got to see the name of everyone posting. Most were names I would expect, like, Camilla, Ali, Andreas, etc. But then I got one from Elvis. I never did find out if that was his real name. It didn’t matter. A nice reminder of home just the same.

Blog Om: World House

2011-01-17T11:38:00.005+01:00

Today Americans celebrate what is officially called “MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., FEDERAL HOLIDAY,” made official each year by presidential proclamation. For President Obama this act is more than a routine duty, as he made clear when he accepted the Nobel Prize for peace – the same award that Dr. King had won 45 years earlier in 1964. In that acceptance speech, President Obama described himself as “someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King's life work.”

Since the president’s sense of service is inspired by King’s legacy, President Obama, in today’s proclamation, seeks to keep that legacy alive in deeds and not just words. “Commemorating Dr. King's life is not only a tribute to his contributions to our nation and the world, but also a reminder that every day, each of us can play a part in continuing this critical work.”

That’s why Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is also a national day of service. The White House and the Corporation for National and Community Service have made it easier than ever for Americans to volunteer and have even created a great volunteering portal on the web at www.mlkday.gov. They map out very practical steps for turning a service idea into action called a “blueprint for service.” In keeping with the home building metaphors, it tells how to lay a “foundation” and then develop a “floor plan” for one’s volunteer activity.

Swedes of a certain age may find this connection between Martin Luther King, Jr. and house metaphors familiar. In 1964, when Dr. King accepted his Nobel Prize for peace, he used one to focus his listeners on a challenge still very much with us today. Here is part of what he said:

“Some years ago a famous novelist died. Among his papers was found a list of suggested story plots for future stories, the most prominently underscored being this one: "A widely separated family inherits a house in which they have to live together." This is the great new problem of mankind. We have inherited a big house, a great "world house" in which we have to live together - black and white, Easterners and Westerners, Gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Moslem and Hindu, a family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interests who, because we can never again live without each other, must learn, somehow, in this one big world, to live with each other.”

U.S. Embassy Stockholm celebrates the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the national day of service his life has inspired. To learn more about Dr. King's life and legacy go to

http://www.thekingcenter.org/drmlkingjr/

Blog Om: Becoming

2011-01-12T14:06:00.003+01:00

I’m back in Stockholm after spending the holidays at home with family in Kentucky and then working last week in Washington. It’s great to be here, and I wanted to share a couple of back-to-Sweden observations and the thoughts they produced about our work in the year ahead.

First, Swedes and Americans have different “Happy New Year” customs. Back home people will continue wishing it to each other for weeks into January. Here one stops saying it pretty much after New Year’s Day. I learned this last year during a mild intervention after I was popping off “Gott nytt år” greetings embarrassingly late into January. The proper Swedish to use after the first day or two of the new year is, “God fortsättning,” or, in English, "Good continuance."

(credit: City of Stockholm)

The second has to do with a related nuance in Swedish-English translation. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to keep up on my Swedish lessons, and my first lesson in the new year was yesterday. We discussed verbs and specifically the importance in Swedish of “becoming” – bli, blir, blev, har blivit, or be, become, became, has become. Where in English we say someone "was angry," we say in Swedish “han blev arg,” or he became angry.

Both are examples of an emphasis on the transition. Not the state of what was, what is, or what will be, but on the changing itself – moving forward but still including parts of both the past and future. That strikes me as just the right thing as we think and talk about the state of the world and what we as diplomats and citizens can do about it – from preventing a friend from becoming a foe or turning from poverty to prosperity. It is a helpful way to think and talk about the ongoing, continuous work of change that is the business of (among others) diplomacy and development professionals around the world.

(credit: NASA)

At U.S. Embassy Stockholm, we will maintain continuity of focus. At the top of the list remain foreign policy priorities for the Obama Administration like the international effort in Afghanistan, the efforts to bring the government of Iran into compliance with its international obligations, and, most fundamentally, to engage with Sweden as a generous, principled, pragmatic partner for us in these issues and many others around the globe.

In the new year, we will continue to work on improving prosperity and security, and doing it in a balanced way. If we are out of balance on either we will, as the Vasa reminds us, not make it very far. We will continue to work toward our priority of doubling American exports to Sweden and making available the range of American products that can help low carbon growth. We will continue to show Swedish companies that America is not only a great consumer market for their products, but a place to grow business – as companies like Ericsson, Ikea, Volvo AB, Electrolux, and ABB have done.

We will expand on our work with the Swedish American Green Alliance (SAGA) to share success stories about creating jobs, reducing emissions, and combating climate change at the same time. We will also continue to take our diplomatic platform for engagement that we call an embassy and extend that outreach beyond the capital city. We will bring our U.S. Embassy Road Show, which debuted up north in Umeå at the end of last year, next to Växjö. And in all these efforts we will not only reach out to government officials and companies, but to citizens and students too.

On the plane back to Stockholm, I sat next to a woman from Sweden and we started a conversation on what I thought was the uncontroversial subject of weather. I commented that I enjoyed last winter and this winter so far because of all the white, light-reflecting snow. She shook her head: Last winter wasn't so good, she said. She didn’t mind snow, in fact she liked snow too but it was the "same old snow." It came early and stayed. She wanted snow but – somehow, in some way -- wanted it to be different. It seems that some Swedes’ appreciation of change is as boundless as snow in the Nordic winter.

Blog Om: Toward More Peace on Earth

2010-12-27T14:59:00.004+01:00

In the new year Sweden will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dag Hammarskjöld’s posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. The second Secretary General of the United Nations, Hammarskjöld is synonymous here with the internationalism that is at the heart of the Swedish character. Sweden’s diplomatic efforts have been critical to many of the most important diplomatic advances in recent decades, and Sweden is also the world’s most generous in international development spending per capita. At a time of year when we celebrate peace on earth, this noble trait deserves special gratitude.

(source: nobelprize.org)

The United States, too, has long been committed to international diplomacy and development (America is the world’s most generous in international development in terms of total spending). But that commitment was recently deepened and clarified in the form of the first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s blueprint for building international partnerships and deploying civilian power to meet growing challenges.

At the heart of the Review is the recognition that development is as essential to America’s security as diplomacy and defense. Through the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), Secretary Clinton has charted a course to fulfill President Obama’s commitment to development. Even in a time of fiscal constraint, the United States will remain committed to development, rebuilding the United States Agency for International Development into the world’s premier development organization.

The Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review is ultimately about building partnerships—partnerships across all U.S. agencies, with other governments, with the private sector, with civil society, and with the people themselves. Only though such partnerships can we make meaningful progress on the collective challenges that lie ahead.

The U.S.-Sweden partnership will be both a model and a catalyst for carrying out the QDDR blueprint. All of us at U.S. Embassy Stockholm look forward to another year of strengthening this important bond.

Blog Om: A Ton of Ideas vs. An Ounce of Imagination.

2010-12-22T14:42:00.002+01:00

This is my second and final posting from one of my favorite books about America that I’m rereading. I’ve referenced it on this blog before. The difference between ideas and imagination seems important as we discuss that other “I” word, "innovation", and what we can do (and not do) to encourage it. And on a more personal note, it also seems appropriate this week when many around the world celebrate a holiday where we remember and celebrate the unexpected power of small arrivals. (See below for familial and formatting disclaimer.)

A Ton of Ideas

Other things being equal,
A ton of ideas is barely worth an ounce
Of imagination.

Ideas see the light no doubt,
But like moths they will beat their tiny brains out
On a pane of glass.

Imagination oozes under the sash,
Wraps itself around the obstacle
And is beyond it while you still hear
The obstinate buzzing of the Mothbrain's wings.

What is imagination?
Who can say?
You cannot give a course in imagination
Or buy a notebook equipped with a filler of it.

Imagination cannot be taught
Because as far as anyone can tell
It consists of holding at least two
And sometimes twenty ideas
In mind
At the same time,
Each modifying the others
And usually contradicting them.

NOTE: It's not a book of poetry, but I have reformatted it to look like a poem because I have found that when I see stanzas it makes me stop skimming and slow down. It was written in 1954 by a man who had emigrated to America 32 years earlier at the age of 12. His father had visited America from Europe on a diplomatic mission during WWI. He is my grandfather, Jacques Barzun, and he just turned 103.

Blog Om: The Way to See America

2010-12-17T09:44:00.004+01:00

I have been re-reading one of my favorite books about America, which I've referenced on this blog before. It was written in 1954 and the subtitle is, "A declaration of love spiced with a few harsh words."

Some of what he says about the wide open spaces of America remind me of the wide open spaces of Sweden.

The Way to See America (1954)

The Way to See America
Is from a lower berth about two in the morning.
You've just left the station
And you raise the curtain a bit
Between thumb and forefinger
To look out.

You are in the middle of Kansas
Or Arizona,
In the middle of the space where the freight cars spend the night

And the men drink Coffee out of cans.

It is a perpetual refreshment to the soul

To see that the country is so large, so indifferent to the uses we have put it to,

So like a piece of the earth's crust

And unlike any map.

No names on it, no lines,
No walls with guns through them.
It is good that in this place there is more

Of just plain territory per square mile than anywhere else In the civilized world.

Europe is lovely but
It looks like a poodle cut -
The trees numbered,
The flat parts divided like Checkerboard,

The Rivers as slim and well-behaved as Mercury in a thermometer.

The towns, like dead men's bones
on a line of a caravan, huddled white and dry,

Crowded behind defenses that have crumbled.
And everywhere the steeples point
To remind you that you look upward if you want Space and serenity.

NOTE: It's not a book of poetry, but I have reformatted it to look like a poem because I have found that when I see stanzas it makes me stop skimming and slow down. It was written - again, in 1954 - by a man who had emigrated to America 32 years earlier at the age of 12.
His father had visited America from Europe on a diplomatic mission during WWI. He is my grandfather, Jacques Barzun, and he just turned 103.

Blog Om: Practicing Peacemaking

2010-12-14T13:54:00.005+01:00

We at U.S. Embassy Stockholm mourn the loss of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and send our thoughts and support to his family.

His death is, as Foreign Minister Bildt said today, one that is a serious loss of diplomacy. Secretary Clinton agreed and put it this way in her statement: “He was the consummate diplomat, able to stare down dictators and stand up for America's interests and values even under the most difficult circumstances. He served at every level of the Foreign Service and beyond, helping mentor generations of talented officers and future ambassadors. Few people have ever left a larger mark on the State Department or our country.”

Diplomacy has dominated the headlines in unproductive ways these past few weeks. Richard Holbrooke’s life and his work are strong reminders of the productive power of diplomacy that he preached and that he practiced.

Along with practicing medicine and practicing law, we say practicing diplomacy. I’m not sure why. But it doesn't end. You are always improving and learning and moving -- as Ambassador Holbrooke was all the time.

I am new to practicing diplomacy and only got to meet him once -- but I won't forget it. I was a recent graduate from “ambassador school” for first time ambassadors. I was getting ready to depart for Sweden and doing final rounds of consultations with all the experts in DC. Needless to say Ambassador Holbrooke was on the top of my list (and everyone else's) so it was hard to find time. I did finally catch up with him, quite literally, as I remember that he was moving. Moving fast on the way from a meeting with a foreign delegation to another at the White House.

In the brief time we had, we spoke about Sweden. Ambassador Holbrooke told me how fortunate I was to be serving in a country that was so engaged, not just in its immediate neighborhood but all over Europe (the Balkans) and indeed all over the world (Afghanistan, Africa, Iraq). He also said how fortunate I was to work with Foreign Minister Bildt, whom of course he called a great friend and whom he called simply “Carl” (and I don't). I didn't do a lot of talking, just listened and learned. As we parted, Richard Holbrooke gave me a what might be described as a pat on the shoulder that felt a bit more like a “slap on the back” -- like a coach to a player saying “now get out there and practice”. And then he was off to practice too. His skill on the field of diplomacy, his dedication to solving difficult problems and making peace, and his commitment to serving his country will be sorely missed.

Blog Om: Contrast

2010-12-12T17:44:00.003+01:00

Yesterday evening my wife and I attended the concluding dinner of Nobel Prize week - Sweden’s annual celebration of what is best in mankind. We shared shock and concern with our Swedish friends at hearing of the explosions near Drottninggatan. Like most residents of Stockholm, we have often strolled in that area, enjoying the vibrancy and energy of this beautiful city. Several of my Embassy colleagues and their families were among the hundreds of people joyfully doing holiday shopping in that busy part of the city yesterday.

The Embassy issued a statement today strongly condemning this act of suspected terrorism. I am deeply thankful for the bare good fortune that no innocent people were killed. I feel for the generous and welcoming people of Sweden who have been confronted with the worst in mankind. This makes for a difficult and stressful time filled with many questions.

As Prime Minister Reinfeldt said in his press conference today, it is important that we wait for all the facts to draw final conclusions. An act of cowardly violence will never change the Swedish character of openness. Openness to each other, to those from different backgrounds, and to playing the positive and constructive role in the world that is an outstanding feature of Sweden’s national character. To celebrate the best in mankind, no matter where in the world the source. That is the legacy of Alfred Nobel and the shining example of Sweden.

Blog Om: ‘Twas

2010-12-09T16:35:00.002+01:00

Two dots make a line so I guess this is now a tradition – a tradition rooted in the long and distinguished line of holiday cultural borrowing. Sweden borrows Lucia from Italy and Donald Duck from Hollywood. Back home, we borrow St. Nick from Northern Europe. And, for the second year, I borrowed (or maybe a little more than borrowed) from Clark Clement Moore and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas as I welcomed American Nobel Laureates for a luncheon on the eve of their award ceremony.

'Twas the day before Nobel, when all through the house,
Everyone was working, most especially my spouse.
The placecards were set on the tables with care,
In hopes that our Laureates soon would be there.

The team from our embassy in their best-est of threads,
Kept rules of protocol straight in their heads.
They came in advance to join the welcoming crew,
Practicing their “hello” “congrats” “how-do-you-do?”

When out at the guardhouse there arose such a clatter,
We stopped our practice to see to see what was the matter.
Away to the window we flew like a flash,
Put down our blackberries and threw up the sash.

The Stockholm sun, practically setting at noon,
Gave away its last rays to make way for the moon.
When what to my eager eyes should appear,
But three Nobel Laureates, and their friends most dear.

With their Nobel attachés — so Swedish, so great,
I knew, of course, they would never be late.
Up the stairs and through the receiving line they came,
We called them out by team, called them out by name.

“On Diamond! On Mortensen, & Pissarides!
“Now Heck, Now Negishi, and Doctor Suzuki
From the top of your fields to the grand Nobel hall,
We say “hooray hooray! — hooray to you all!”

“Understatement's a virtue,” I was told by a Swede,
We Americans sometimes need reminding, indeed.
But this much talent, in one house, at one lunch?
I will practice this virtue and call you “a talented bunch.”

But before we get carried away with the fun,
Let’s take a look at what these laureates have done.
In the interest of comprehension and time,
I’ll minimize jargon – plus…it’s too hard to rhyme.

Our Chemistry laureate while at U- Delaware
Worked hard to get carbons to open-up, to share.
New bonds were made, so showed his analysis
We call it match-making, they call it catalysis.

This proved so useful, the process bears his own name
The “Heck Reaction” in labs, now has worldwide fame.
Speaking of cross- coupling, getting molecules to mate
How can we find a job, a house, or even a date?

To economics for answers we must now turn
What can explain all the searching, near-misses, and churn?
The ways of markets could seem stranger than fiction
Until our laureates here helped model that friction.

Diamond & Mortensen lent their names to this Math
From MIT & Northwestern they cut quite a path
From their early research that they could not realize
Would lead them here: to this place, this week, for this prize.

So that’s our three winners from the US of A,
Different fields to be sure, but a common way:
Finding cures or finding jobs, the search is lighter
With their discoveries our futures are brighter.

Our Laureates will soon spring into their sleighs with rails,
Away they must fly in Volvos, white-tie, and tails.
So I say to you winners not the least bit in jest,
“Happy Nobel from us all, you make us feel blessed.”

See more photos from the luncheon at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/usembsweden/

Blog Om: Superlatives

2010-12-08T16:04:00.004+01:00

Nobel week is full of superlatives, but night before last I witnessed a different sort. I saw a performance of The Tallest Man on Earth – this is a singer, not a circus act.

From his voice you'd think he was from Kentucky, perhaps not far from Ben Sollee or Bonnie Prince Billy. And from the name you might think that this superlative boasting might come from a long, tall Texan or a brash professional athlete. But it is Kristian Matsson, and he is not from the hills of west Texas or Eastern Kentucky. He hails from the hills of Dalarna, Sweden.

His two shows here in Stockholm sold out . And his hometown hockey team from Leksand was in attendance. For those who couldn't make the show, you can enjoy another version courtesy of our county's National Public Radio. It’s from their Tiny Desk Series where performers sing to the web cam with books as a backdrop. Please enjoy:

Blog Om: Nobel’s International Intersections

2010-12-07T14:53:00.006+01:00

It is Nobel Prize week here in Stockholm when we recognize the world-altering achievements of Laureates from many nations. But for all of us at U.S. Embassy it’s particularly an opportunity to celebrate the American recipients, namely Richard Heck, Peter Diamond, and Dale Mortensen.

For me, it’s hard for me not to think about the Nobel Prize almost every day, seeing that I awake on NobelGatan (Nobel Street) and go to work at Dag Hammarskjölds Vag.

Of course, the prize is a symbol of individual achievement but, as Dag Hammarskjöld (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as second Secretary General of the UN) would have been the first to say, no one really arrives at the ceremonial stage alone. At our traditional recognition luncheon this week, we have the pleasure of meeting many of the people who helped the Laureates arrive. We see the family, the students, and teachers. We see the teams and international connections that made their achievements possible.

We celebrate Laureate Richard Heck, who shares his prize with Ei-ichi Negishi, who is of Japanese descent but born in what is now China and teaches at Purdue University in Indiana, and with Japanese scientist Akira Suzuki. American Laureates Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen share their recognition with Christopher Pissarides who is a British Cypriot teaching in London.

In light of those productive international relationships, it is worth remembering (as the leaders of the Nobel Foundation do vigilantly) that Alfred Nobel was attacked from both sides when he created this prize. He was attacked from one end for being a crass capitalist and therefore tainting the award. And he was attacked from the other for being too “international” – they would have had him give it to only Swedes or perhaps only Scandinavians (around the same time John Cecil Rhodes established the famous Rhodes scholarship and requested that it be given only to students from the British colonies, the United States, and Germany).

So, with acknowledgment of imperfections inherent in all human enterprises, it is great to celebrate the Nobel Prize this week for both individual achievement and cross-national collaboration.

This week is also a time to remember the words of last year’s Peace Prize winner, my president, Barack Obama, and his articulation of peace among nations that, as Nobel knew, are subject to the imperfections inherent in all human enterprises:

“We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations -- acting individually or in concert -- will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.

I make this statement mindful of what Martin Luther King Jr. said in this same ceremony years ago: "Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones.”….

“But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism -- it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.”

Blog Om: Tools of the Trade

2010-12-02T14:17:00.004+01:00

Mälardalen is one university with two campuses (like Linnaéus). I visited both today. First stop was the Center for Product Realization at the Eskilstuna Campus. Sten Ekman and Magnus Wiktarsson gave me a guided tour of the center, which used to be a factory that made industrial files like these:

They like the making-stuff history of the building because their whole approach is about breaking down barriers between disciplines as a means to better products (like Blekinge). They were open to any and all tools of the trade. The old files from the factory were safely behind the Lucite display case, but just about every other kind of tool was at work – from gears to gum, tape to toothpicks, and robots to rice paper. This was the home of the “factory in a box” project. I told them about our embassy in a box and they offered to come take a look and offer suggestions. I said, “jag, tack gärna” (yes, thanks with pleasure). One of Sten's favorite tools he imported from America.

It’s from The Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono, a bestselling book that I somehow missed (and I am a sucker for innovation/business books but this got past me). The idea is you

need all kinds of thinking: skeptical, creative, logical, etc. But knowing which kind of thinking you applying to a particular task (which hat you are wearing) makes all the difference.

Next I put on my listening hat and watched part of a first-year seminar where groups presented ideas about how to think differently about safety and security. Each group had been given only 36 hours to dream up new approaches. They offered to switch to English for my sake but that didn't seem fair so they continued in Swedish. I was, how shall we say, glad they had visual aids. Fascinating ideas on a topic that is so important for the next generation engage on.

Then it was off to a discussion with students at Västerås about the US-Sweden relationship and foreign policy challenges and opportunities. I was asked to talk about areas of disagreement between U.S. and Sweden. I paused because there aren’t a great number of them. But then I brought up the public debates that Foreign Minister Bildt has had in speeches and his blog about efficacy of sanctions and whether they can hurt those they are intended to help.

I explained how we in the U.S. understand and respect that argument, and agree that sanctions, if blunt and not carefully crafted, can be counterproductive, which is why UN security council resolution sanctions aimed at bringing government of Iran into compliance with its International obligations are designed to be highly targeted towards specific individuals and entities . Of course, the EU, with Sweden as part of it, and U.S. both implemented these, but these sorts of debates remain necessary whether through diplomacy in the capitals or dialog in classrooms.