So the Swedish election happened. Two clear losers and many bittersweet victories. With the final tallies done, it looks like SD — Sweden Democrats — will either become part of a government or supporting a government. So I guess we will find out what “lagom” means (one of SD’s election posters promised to make Sweden lagom again). Not particularly ambitious in my view. Let’s see if they pick up the responsibility and how they fare.
On the more curious side, the tallies also came in for the political parties that did not make it into the parliament. The Swedish election system allows like almost everyone to run for the election.
Feministists got 0,05%, Pirates got 0.14% and Nazis got 0.26%(source). Next time they should join forces and run as Vikings. Just imagine how they would solve the climate crisis: Wind and muscle power to replace fossil fules and nuclear power. Slavery to replace immigration. Bite gold to replace dollars and euros. (No, I’m not serious).
Next: Denmark
There will be an election in Denmark too, soon. Before June 2023. There are some small but important differences on how elections are done in Denmark and Sweden: In Denmark, the prime minister has the right at any time to call for an election for the national parliament, no later than 4 years after the previous election. In Sweden it’s at a fixed date every four years, held together with the local elections.
While I can’t vote in Danish elections, I still follow Danish news and politics. The corona crisis has been tough on the incumbent social democrat government, particularly after culling 12 million minks and paying the industry a shocking 20 billion DKK in compensations to keep quiet and move on. However, the opposition has had a complete meltdown. Latest polls indicate that more than half of the voters will vote for a different political party than at the 2019 election.
Clemency at Fastaval
Let’s talk about something else: I was inspired to create a story game! And it got accepted for Fastaval, a Danish rpg convention that consumed many hours of my life before I moved to Stockholm in 2017.
I got inspired to write the game Clemency when I read the book The Cost of Clemency, a collection of stories that Washington Post did in 2016. In President Obama’s last year as president, he commuted the sentence of 46 non violent drug offenders. Remember the “3 strikes and you are out”? This policy from the 90ies put away people for decades.
In the game you tell the stories of four of these as they learn of their release and as they try to become a part of society again and to re-connect with friends and family.
For many, coming home from prison meant joyful reunions, meeting grandchildren for the first time, rekindling old romances. A few decades in prison made the mundane seem miraculous: taking a bath, driving a car, eating a pineapple. But those decades also broke up families. Parents died. Partners left. Some ex-prisoners returned to grown children who were angry with them and to a world that didn’t seem to have a place for them. Work has been scarce. One year later, a journalist meet up with one of those who have been given clemency. Is it possible to pick up and continue a life after so many years away?
So great with a new hobby project and great to have it on the program for Fastaval 2023!
War in Ukraine
Ukraine demonstrated they can do OPSEC and psy-ops as they kicked out Russia from Kharkiv. The cost of freedom and the right to choose who to represent you is paid by Ukrainians in blood. Something we take for granted in Scandinavia today.
Three sources I check daily to get deep insights about the war, the kind of stuff that does not make it past election news and royal funerals on the main stream news sites:
