What Every American Should Know About Europe

by Melissa L. Rossi

  Postwar Sweden zoomed to the top of the moneyed pack. Absolut Vodka, Saab, Volvo—and more recently furniture manufacturer IKEA and phone-maker Ericsson—are but a few of the names that made Sweden a global player. Pharmaceuticals are also big biz: Swedish drugmaker Astra hit the mother lode with Losec, an ulcer medication that is one of the most prescribed remedies on the planet.16 Politically, Sweden stood out as well, particularly after Olof Palme stepped in as prime minister. He infuriated the United States (by opposing Vietnam) and Israel (by supporting the PLO) and the government in South Africa (by supporting Nelson Mandela and loudly opposing apartheid).

  Olof Palme made the Swedish model famous

  OLOF PALME (PRIME MINISTER, 1969–1986)

  Handsome in a craggy-faced sort of way, Social Democrat Olof Palme put Sweden smack bang in the middle of the international power map. He promoted nuclear disarmament, was vehemently antiapartheid, and opined that Israel was overstepping borders in the Middle East. When he likened the U.S. bombing of Hanoi to Hitler’s persecution of the Jews, Nixon kicked the Swedish ambassador out of Washington. Although a pusher of peace, the Swedish prime minister, who came to power in 1969, also pushed arms to plenty of questionable leaders, including the ayatollah in Iran, and he was chummy with Cuba’s Castro and the PLO’s Arafat, to whom he gave financial aid. Friend of the poor and the powerless, Palme welcomed refugees from Third World countries to Sweden—and in 1985, he insisted that Sweden formally adopt the idea of “multiculturalism.” Adored by some, loathed by others, he would never have been forgotten, but his assassination in February 1986 made him a martyr—and made Swedish detectives look like fools. Nearly two decades and $50 million of investigations later—the manhunt was Sweden’s most extensive ever—Palme’s killer is still at large, and even the weapon hasn’t been recovered.

  Before Palme, a Swedish leader hadn’t been assassinated since 1792, when King Gustav III attended a masked ball where he was fatally shot. However, UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld died in 1961, when his plane mysteriously crashed over Northern Rhodesia, an event many believe was no accident.

  After Palme died, Sweden never again found such a strong voice—unless you count ABBA—although likable Anna Lindh showed potential, and it’s said Prime Minister Göran Persson was grooming her to take over his spot. That she went down as Palme did—assassinated in public while without a bodyguard—has underscored the fact that the country is changing in ways unforeseeable by the original modelers of Sweden.

  Sweden doesn’t belong to NATO, but she does have a well-trained military and plenty of arms manufacturers, including Bofors and Saab Missiles. The world’s sixth largest arms industry (it sold about $700 million worth in 1999) has sold killing machines everywhere from Singapore to Iran.

  Hot Spots

  Stockholm: A tantalizing tangle of streets, stone stairs, ornate castles, and floating hotels, Stockholm is the most cosmopolitan of Scandinavian capitals, a magnet for architects and designers who rave about the international style and French flair. Tourists and Swedes alike flock here during summer—for the Water Festival of concerts and theater on the shores—and to catch rays on the outlying islands of white wooden houses.

  Rinkeby: The Stockholm suburb of apartment towers houses “New Swedes”—Turks, Kurds, Iraqis, Iranians, Syrians, and Yugoslavs; the main square is now a colorful market selling exotic goods, and on Sundays it is encircled by Swedish evangelical types who sing Christian songs and implore the Muslims to see the light.17

  Göteborg: The port city, Sweden’s second largest, has it all: dramatic architecture, lakes, nature reserves, museums (World Culture to the Butterfly House), ferries to the nearby islands, and the country’s biggest citywide party every August.

  Stockholm: Site of summer fun

  Malmö: The edgiest urban center in Scandinavia—and arguably the most artistically charged. Also headquarters for the Skåne movement, which wants to reunite Malmö with her seventeenth-century owner, Denmark.

  Göta Canal: Tourist ships cruise through the scenic countryside on this 120-mile canal, connecting the Baltic to the North Sea.

  Internet Bay: Mobile phone technology was born at this IT center that nudges the Arctic Circle in Luleå; hundreds of new tech companies have launched here, hoping for a repeat.

  The laundry room: No barging in with the laundry basket: one must sign up in advance for a two-hour spot, reserving it with your key, and do one’s washing in private. The government provides laundry-instruction classes for foreign-born people and sometimes hires supervisors to ensure laundry rules are followed to the tee.18

  Systembolaget: Buying booze is an ordeal. One enters a clinical state-run warehouse with short open hours, waits in line, fills out a form, and pays sky-high prices. The government says the hassle is an effective deterrent to alcoholism; Swedes are among Europe’s lowest alcohol consumers—at least until they leave Sweden.19

  Absolut Absurdity: Sweden is home to Absolut Vodka, but for decades it’s been absolutely difficult to buy a bottle of the stuff. All liquor is incredibly pricey—averaging about $26 a bottle—and it’s sold only through the state liquor outlet, closed on weekends. A beer in Sweden costs eight times more than in neighboring Denmark. (But in Norway the prices are even more sobering: a pint of ale goes for $10 and up.)

  The Ice Hotel: Every winter in the Lapland district of Jükkasjärvi they chisel an elaborate hotel—with rooms, bars, chairs, tables, and beds—from ice. Don’t wait too long to check in: by spring, it’s a pool of melted memories.

  Hotshots

  The royal family of the House of Bernadotte: King Carl Gustav, cousin of Denmark’s Queen Margrethe, is perennially Sweden’s most popular man—impressive, since he’s been ruling since 1973, stepping up at age twenty-seven. He holds no power, but is a perpetual do-gooder—he formerly headed the Boy Scouts—and looks dashing in full regalia when presenting the annual Nobel Prizes. Met his queen, a German commoner named Silvia Sommerlath, at the 1972 Munich Olympics, where she was a hostess. The royal offspring are jet-setters, but relatively scandal-free, except for the time Prince Carl Philip reportedly pranced around naked with his classmates at a religious retreat. The German celebrity press, however, was brimming with rumors of royal riffs, white-powdered noses, and illegitimate babies—so many untruths that the royal family finally demanded front-page apologies and admissions of fabrications. They got them.

  Göran Persson: Prime Minister, 1996–present. The sole Social Democrat to keep strong hold on a Scandinavian government since the right-wing craze hit, he is Sweden’s second-most popular man. Nobody is sure why: between neo-Nazis, immigration issues, and increasing violence, Sweden is getting slammed, and aside from the economy, Persson hasn’t really tackled the demons. Pundits were open-mouthed when Swedes reelected him in 2001; hadn’t they seen the popularity polls?

  Anna Lindh: Foreign Minister, 1998–2003. Forthright, funny, and popular, the assassinated foreign minister had been chummy with Secretary of State Colin Powell, who claimed the three best things about Sweden were “ABBA, Volvos, and Anna Lindh.” Lindh remarked, “Am I only third?”20

  Henning Mankell: Adored crime-fiction writer Mankell explores how the Swedish Model has gone flabby in intricate mysteries about Midsummer’s Eve murders, Latvian criminals, and ethnic clashes in Skåne, all solved by overworked, dogged, and diabetic Inspector Kurt Wallender.

  Ingvar Kamprad: Forbes says he started selling bulk matches as a kid and founded IKEA at seventeen. It paid off. He’s now worth $28 billion.

  August Strindberg (1849–1912): The man who was to Sweden what Ibsen was to Norway wanted to be an actor, but was so untalented on stage that he swallowed opium, hoping to end his life. Instead it launched a new career. During his opiate journey, he cranked out a play in four days. The playwright later convinced a pregnant baroness to dump her husband and marry him. Their stormy union inspired numerous works about twisted love, including The Dance of Death (1901) and Miss Julie (1888), in which
the baroness starred. Strindberg despised Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, who parodied him as a boozing poet in Hedda Gabler.

  Greta Garbo (1905–1990): Husky-voiced and mysterious, Greta Garbo just vanted to be alone, and the star of Anna Karenina, Grand Hotel, and Flesh and the Devil rarely granted interviews to the press. At the height of her career in 1941, she called it a wrap and became a recluse in New York.

  CELEBRITY CONFUSION: INGMAR BERGMAN (B. 1918) VS. INGRID BERGMAN (1916–1982)

  Ingmar is the director (The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Cries and Whispers) who captures the torment in daily life and whose trademark is the dialogue-free half-hour scene of a wretched soul looking out a window. Ingrid was the movie star, cast opposite Bogart in Casablanca, who played a holy martyr in Joan of Arc and a prudish nun in The Bells of St. Mary’s, but who was viewed as quite the opposite after she had an affair and a child with Italian director Roberto Rossellini, leaving her husband and child to marry him.

  Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002): Housebound with a twisted ankle, Astrid Lindgren conjured up a rebellious adventurer named Pippi Longstocking, writing up the adventures as a birthday present for her daughter. Pippi had universal appeal. Lindgren wrote more than eighty books, selling over 130 million copies, and in 1999 was hailed “the most popular Swede of the century,” even though she then lived in Norway.

  Lars Norén: Formerly Sweden’s most admired playwright, he befriended an imprisoned neo-Nazi, wrote a sympathetic play, and cast the neo-Nazi as a prison inmate in the National Theatre production. While out of prison, the actor robbed a bank and two policemen were killed. The play flopped too.

  Lukas Moodysson: Films of Sweden’s most celebrated director range from hilarious (Together parodied a 1970s Swedish commune) and moving (Fucking Amal concerned a teenage lesbian trapped in a small town) to tragic (tearjerker Lilya 4-ever focuses on a Russian prostitute bottoming out in Malmö). Lilya was so moving that it prompted new legislation about sex trafficking.

  ABBA: Second only to the Beatles in record sales, ABBA got their big break from Eurovision, taking top prize in 1974 for “Waterloo”—a chart-topper followed by eight more. Their Stockholm studio was so flashy that Led Zeppelin rented it to record an album. ABBA broke up in 1982, but Muriel’s Wedding reinvigorated CD sales, as did the hit musical Mamma Mia. In 2000, the band was offered $1 billion for a reunion gig, but turned it down.21 Definitely not an influence for the “white power” movement.

  Zvi Mazel: Israeli Ambassador to Sweden, 2002–2004. The career diplomat lambasted Swedish politicians and media as anti-Semites and “anti-Israelis,” and went berserk in January 2004 at an art exhibition in Stockholm. When he saw the piece Snow White and the Madness of Truth—a controversial mixed-sculpture piece of a small boat, with a photo of a Palestinian suicide bomber, crossing a pool of red bloodlike liquid—Mazel threw a floodlight into it. Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon applauded the move, and at least a few Swedes applauded when Mazel soon thereafter retired.

  15. FINLAND

  (Suomi)

  The Attractive Outsider

  FAST FACTS

  Country: Republic of Finland; Suomen Tasavalta

  Capital: Helsinki

  Government: Republic

  Independence: December 6, 1917 (from Russia)

  Population: 5,232,000 (July 2004 estimate)

  Head of State: President Tarja Halonen (2000)

  Head of Government: Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (2003)

  Elections: President elected by popular vote, six-year term; prime minister appointed by president

  Name of Parliament: Eduskunta

  Ethnicity: 93% Finnish, 6% Swedish, Russian, Estonian, Sami, Roma

  Religion: 84% Lutheran; 14% none; 1% Greek Orthodox; 1% other

  Language: 92% Finnish, 6% Swedish (both official); Sami

  Literacy: 100% (2003)

  Famous Exports: Lordi, Linux, Olympic gold medalist skier/singer/stripper Matti Nykänen

  Economic Big Boy: Nokia (mobile phones): 2004 total sales: $39.71 billion1

  Per Capita GDP: $30,600 (2005 estimate)

  Unemployment: 8.2% (January 2006 Eurostat figure)

  EU Status: Member since 1995

  Currency: Euro

  Quick Tour

  Land of spooky black forests, the darkest winters, and 10,000 sparkling lakes, Suomi has always been the off-yonder Nordic country whose tight-lipped inhabitants rarely let out a peep.

  The cliché: Two Finnish friends, who haven’t seen each other in years, celebrate their reunion at a bar. The barman serves two shots. The first man says, “Cheers.” The second man says nothing. The barman serves two more shots. The first man says, “Cheers.” The second man says nothing. The barman serves two more shots. The first man says, “Cheers.” The second man says nothing. After a long silence, the second man turns to the first. “Look, did you come here to drink or just to chitchat?”

  QUIRKY FINLAND

  They’re considered taciturn, but Finns—who hold an annual wife-carrying contest (the ladies are hauled upside down across their hubbies’ backs) in Sonkajärvi—are secretly an oddly funny bunch, particularly after they toss back some vodka. Their hidden passions come out on the dance floor, which they rip up to the Finnish tango that blends waltz rhythms with lyrics about nature—it’s so popular here that tango clubs open in early morning so night-shift workers can swing and swirl before heading home. Finnish male choir Mieskuoro Huutajat is all the rage, but they don’t sing, they shout—sometimes from floating icebergs. One of their most popular numbers: the Finnish national anthem.2 Another amusing thing about Finns: they adore Conan O’Brien, who flippantly campaigned for the (successful) reelection of President Tarja Halonen, because, he said, they look a lot alike. Constant jabs about Finland as part of Late Night’s “Conan hates my homeland” routine brought a flurry of mail from Finns, inviting him out. In February 2006, he flew to Helsinki to tape a show. The funniest thing: the Late Night show from Finland was hilarious.

  Reindeer is a common Finnish dish served up sautéed, smoked and sliced, cubed in stew, or as a slab of reindeer steak. Hurry and get some while you can afford it: the price is skyrocketing.

  The most distant Nordic country in every sense of the word, Finland is the stunning surprise of Scandinavia. Never mind that she’s still frequently forgotten on maps of Europe, that many assume her leading manufacturer—wireless telephone giant Nokia—is Japanese, or that many believe Finland was part of the Soviet Union (well, the Soviets sure yanked the chains). The former wallflower is the region’s dynamic up-and-comer: technologically savvy Finns are the world’s most plugged-in to the Internet3 as well as the biggest users of mobile phones, not surprising, perhaps, since Nokia is the planet’s largest mobile phone maker; the former toilet paper company now kicks in 4 percent of Finland’s GDP and accounts for 25 percent of Finnish exports.4 The least corrupt place in the world, Finland is one of the world’s top three locations for doing business, says the Economist Intelligence Unit, and the World Economic Forum hails Finland’s as the world’s most competitive economy.

  Ring tones—musical chiming for mobile phones—were born in Finland and quickly grew to be a multibillion-dollar business; according to the University of Oxford they generate 10 percent of revenues for the world’s music industry.5

  The neighbors are openmouthed that the Finns are finally opening theirs—mobiles have made them far chattier—and are nonchalantly assuming a much more prominent position in the world. Finnish computer whiz Linus Torvalds developed Linux—a revolutionary computer operating system that can be downloaded for free and threatens to replace Windows. Finland’s razor-sharp minds are developing vaccines for AIDS, as well as alternative energies, and the country’s educational system shines. Finnish students are Europe’s brightest.6

  WOMEN IN POLITICS

  In 1906, Finland became the world’s first country to give women the vote and the right to hold office—now, females hold over a third of Parlia
ment’s seats. It wasn’t until 2000, however, that a woman—Tarja Halonen—stepped in as president. In 2003, Finland became the first European country to have women as both head of government and head of state. That arrangement fell apart before you could say “grrrl power.” Prime Minister Anneli Jaatteenmaki resigned after being accused of blabbing state secrets about a hush-hush meeting between President Bush and the former PM who secretly supported the 2003 Iraq invasion, which, she said, compromised Finland’s neutrality.

  Finns have a rep for being coolheaded, but their favorite activity is to sit in a small wooden box that’s hotter than hell. The Finns invented saunas and have been sweating in them for over 2,000 years; now there are over 1.6 million saunas across the land.7 So adored is the ritual of overheating in pungent rooms while beating themselves with birch sticks that apartment buildings often have a sauna on each floor; the wood-lined ovens are so frequently used that they caused an energy crisis in 2003. Finns love the startling cold, too—which is handy, since the temperature rarely exceeds 65°F even in summer and in winter can drop to 50° below—and Finns are prone to jump naked into frozen lakes straight from the sauna.

  President Tarja Halonen: Conan’s twin?

  “The mightiest enemy of the Finns is the gloom, the sadness, the bottomless apathy… The grip of depression is so firm that many Finns see death as their only salvation.”—Writer Arto Paasilinna in his 1990 book, Collective Suicide.8