New blog

Dear visitor,

from now on I will be blogging on the address tommy.funebo.se.

Welcome there!

Freudian name slip

Few know that Jay Leno has chosen a somewhat unholy name for himself. "Leno" is the Latin word for pimp.

New university chancellor an anglophile

Anders Flodström, noted earlier in this blog on account of his hostile attitude towards the Swedish language, was last week appointed chancellor of the royal and state universities. His appointment was the first done by the new center-right government meeting the new standards of open contest; since all higher civil service positions up til now have been filled by the old boys network or with people holding a party book in the social democratic party.

So, Flodström is qualified for his job! But probably determined to undermine the role of our national language in education and science.

May Day in Uppsala

Last year the Christian Democrats managed to pull off the biggest May Day parade here in Uppsala, with some 1 200 participants. Today was not so great for them, only 400 turned up. Still, the only non-commie, non-pinko political party to show themself on this one truly red day in the almanac.

Göran Persson gets it on in London

Swedish PM Göran Persson is not very good at speaking foreign languages. This is a true story - he once visited London for a European summit, and relaxing after hours, he hooked up with a London hooker:

- I love you, Persson said, somewhat uneasy and eager to "break the ice".
- I love you too, the hooker said routinely.

Now Persson had to think really hard. He didn't want the hooker to see him as some kind of foreign bum. Said he finally:

- I love you three!

True blue traitors

-Well, today we are no longer a Swedish university but a European and a global university. We recruit the best students no matter where in the world we find them, and therefore English is the natural language of education, says KTH principal Anders Flodström in Swedish State Television.

- On the whole this will put educators and students in a sort of semi-colonial situation. Living in a land that was never occupied, they will be forced to change to a language they do not fully master as soon as a foreign student or teacher sets foot there. I find it extremely unfortunate that this decision has been made, remarks Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary with the Svenska Akademien (Swedish Academy), guardians royal of the Swedish language and the institution that awards the annual Nobel Prize for literature.

Engdahl's rebuttal is part of an increasing domestic opposition to the almost self-obliterating national policy of cosmopolitism in Sweden. As late as last year centrist Alliansen put it to the vote in Riksdagen (parliament) that the Swedish language should be made an official language in Sweden, but lost to the leftist red-green government led by Göran Persson. Since the turn of the millennium Finnish, Tornefinnish, Romani Chib, Sapmi and Yiddisch are the sole official languages of the land. The majority language has never had official status.

The two most offensive factors surrounding the change of main tutorial language in what is Sweden's biggest technological university are:
1. The university is governement operated
2. The foreign students that are "recruited" pay nothing. The Swedish taxpayers pick up the whole tab, and to what end?

Blind man in fierce fight with deaf man

A true story, reported by Andreas Jélvefors i Metro, Swedish national edition, April 10, 2006.

After late one evening returning to his home in a Malmö apartment building, the blind man rang the doorbell of his next door neighbour to enquire about the time. The neighbour, a deaf man, at first did not understand the question. His blind neighbour soon started talking in gestures which then caused the deaf man to hold up his watch in front of his neighbour.

Being blind did however make it impossible for the time lost man to perceive the watch being held in front of him, and frustrated by the long silence he ended up punching the deaf man. The incident ended with the two men, both in their sixties, pounding each other with their fists and falling to the floor where the bout continued.

The deaf man filed a complaint to the police with the assistance of his personal social worker.