Thought I’d kick off this staff blog of ours by summing up the last week from Sweden’s perspective. Or, perhaps I should say, my Swedish perspective. Sorry if what comes to mind on this Monday is primarily negative. But there will be plenty of chest-beating in the future, I’m sure.
1. Zlatan failed miserably in the Champions League. Am the first to admit that he was the worst player on the night. His brilliance was nowhere to be seen and he was utterly passive, agreed, but let’s not forget that the rest of the Barca side was almost as lame. Rumours surrounding Ibrahimovic’s future in Barcelona have already begun circulating. Will David Villa arrive in Barcelona and if so, what happens to the pecking order?
Did José Mourinho’s words make things even worse for Zlatan?
2. The JD Salinger copyright case dragged on. Am a big fan of The Catcher in the Rye, read it at the age of 15, then again at 30. Now here’s this Swedish author Fredrik Colting, who writes 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye. Don’t know what to think of it all. Think I’d be inclined to defend the guy if I thought his book was good, so I guess I should start by reading it. But my gut instinct tells me I’ll find the book, as Holden Caulfield would probably have put it, ehrm… phony. The New York Times write quite often about this case in their arts blog.
3. Elin Nordegren is at “home” in Sweden and has been spotted jogging without her wedding ring. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods missed the cut. I’m not even going to post links for this one, Google it yourselves.
4. We were reminded more than once that British Petroleum’s recently appointed chairman is Swedish. The timing of his arrival at Ericsson in 2003 was impeccable — I guess you can’t win them all…
5. On a brighter note, the Swedish pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai was unveiled. To read a little about what Sweden hopes to communicate, try this article.
/Oliver
