"There is some magic in wealth, which can thus make persons pay their court to it, when it does not even benefit themselves. How strange it is, that a fool or knave, with riches, should be treated with more respect by the world, than a good man, or a wise man in poverty!"
13 March 2013
Henry Kissinger
"The real distinction is between those who adapt their purposes to reality and those who seek to mold reality in the light of their purposes."
Dale Carnegie
"If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep."
Epicurus
"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."
12 March 2013
Oprah Winfrey
"I finally realized that being grateful to my body was key to giving more love to myself."
Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Man is born a predestined idealist, for he is born to act. To act is to affirm the worth of an end, and to persist in affirming the worth of an end is to make an ideal."
Jacqueline Cochran
"I have found adventure in flying, in world travel, in business, and even close at hand... Adventure is a state of mind - and spirit."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life; he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days."
W. Somerset Maugham
"There was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to the same species; and it was strange to think that but a little while before they had spoken and moved and eaten and laughed."
11 March 2013
New book: A mammoth unparalleled
He was born on the same day as Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Vivica Bandler and Lars Huldén, he has been named to both Finland's sexiest man this year's left-handed person, he is a person who seems to bring the emotional register to life - there are those who hate him; there are those who envy him and there are those who adore him ... we are talking of course about Jörn Donner, 80 years old today.
And just in time for sense days now published his autobiographical works mammoth, mammoth - like myself have spent hours - days! - To read your way through 1128 pages:
The comments on social media after Jörn Donner was the guest of "Skavlan" on Swedish Television speaks - my God, the man has the sense of humor! -
the same week, he was the guest of Marie Lundstrom at Sveriges Radio and it was also interesting to read the comments that the program gave rise to - someone described JD as both unbearable and uncomfortable (before the hen heard the program), another wanted to be able to see the program on tv, a third told me that his mother had it together with JD in Helsinki in the 50's ...
One woman wrote that we need such as Jörn Donner: people who are outspoken and free in thought, and many seemed surprised at JD's gentle image and his self-critical look back on the year that has passed. There was hardly anything left of the arrogant, hefty, sassy, ??ironic and self-sufficient, JD, what happened?! Vafalls, Gossen Ruda has gone and become nice and cozy on old da'r!
The public persona Jörn Donner is different from the private Jörn Donner, who is described by friends as a shy, reclusive, kind and caring. The mammoth sounds JD all personality traits come to the surface - this will fit both the arrogant and cocky J, as the reclusive and melancholic J.
It may seem pretentious and presumptuous to publish a book of 1128 pages about himself - but JD is not alone in its mega projects in recent years, both the Swedish director / writer Lars Norén has published his diaries in a band on one 680 pages, the Norwegian author Karl Ove Knaus Yard has written more or less fictitious about his life in the sexdelade novel series My struggle - the entire series is given away at 3622 pages.
The main character and the self in mammoth are Jörn Donner - or J, as he calls himself - and the book consists of various types of texts: clips from earlier books, quotes from letters and diaries as J left it to a (fictional) assistant, Frederick Cook, to go through.
Thanks to this Fredrik can J create a distance from his own (real) person, and look at yourself from an outside perspective - comment (for Frederick Cook) annoying feature of the main character's personality (eg, self-absorption and hypochondria) and question some behaviors such as all those women business often been at each other ...
This play of fact and fiction makes it naturally easy for Jörn Donner slipping away and refer to the author's freedom to interpret and romance a truth that is his, and assert that J does not necessarily = Jörn Donner.
Evidence and counter-evidence: Spring 2012 J went out to the country with a garbage bag full of letters from and to about 15 women - an estimated 1,000 letters burned up in a fire liberating: "No one can ever say that my quotes were inaccurate, untruthful or distorted. The evidence found in the ashes. "
Mammoth or Jörn Donner left documents. If illamåendets history in Finland is a meandering story that basically follows a chronological order from February 1933 until today - with flashbacks, digressions, glosses and explanations to various papers and documents as assistant Frederick picked out J's voluminous archives.
The mammoth finds J to all the books he has written bears autobiographical traits, and it is clear that J used himself and his life as raw material and sounding board for both his works of fiction as the essayistic travel reportage and portraits he has written over the years (film director Ingmar Bergman , author Elmer Diktonius, Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, the father Kai Donner).
Anyone who read his Donner know in other words a lot of it as J brings out the mammoth, but in this heavyweight book makes J an attempt to see his 80-year life from a holistic perspective - both professionally and privately, how was it that he became a writer / filmmaker / politicians, what motives he had, and which bases his restlessness and rootlessness - his inability to fully connect with, and to be constantly on the lookout for something else / someone else?
Loneliness and the war did J to writers: when J was two years old his father died, philologist, ethnographer and politician Kai Donner, and J's mother Greta became a single parent with five young children to care for + family farm Ahdenkallio just outside Hyvinkää, summer instead Framnäs in Bromarv and floor on the North Quay 12 to provide for.
During the war years spent J often land in Bromarv or Hyvinkää while her mother (who for long periods was sickly) was elsewhere and the much older siblings served in the Armed Forces. During long periods of raised J primarily of maids and domestic servants.
The loneliness drove him to read (everything from Runeberg and Bertil Malmberg Stein Riverton, Biggles books, Ibsen and Gogol) and writing letters (which he signed at a young age with a cheerful "Sieg Heil") and their own newspapers.
Eventually J away from the conservative patriotic ideals that characterized the bourgeois home in Kruununhaka and joined the socialist circles. Youth uncompromising desire to breakup and revolt strained relationship with the mother, something that J mourn today.
Modern hoped to the last that J would follow in his father's footsteps and pursue an academic career in the Finno-Ugric language research - J studied certainly both literary studies, political science and philosophy at the university, but had no ambitions to become researchers or academics - he wanted to be a journalist , trip out and see Europe, the world, to try to understand it, "everyone depends on everyone."
Mother Greta could die before J became Master of Arts - for a fee, and the summer of 2003 he was also a professor title in the gift of friends who paid 3,000 euros for the title.
The laziness that J repeatedly come back to as a basic element in his character is difficult to understand when you take some of his almost feverish activity in many areas - his bibliography includes more than 60 books since his debut in 1951 and his film production amounts to more than 20 films cinema and television, in addition, the J in various replays worked in radio and television, both in Finland and Sweden, he founded and published magazine Arena (1951-54), he has worked as a film critic in BLM, Daily News and Vapaa Sana, for a period He was managing director of the Swedish Film Institute (1978-82), for several decades, he wrote regularly columns for several newspapers and magazines, as a politician, he has been a member of both the Helsinki City Council (1969-76, 1985, 2005-08) and Tammisaari City Council (2001-03) who in parliament in different occasions (1987-95, 2007), he has been Consul General in Los Angeles (1995-96), MEP (1996-99) and Chairman of Helsinki Cultural and Library Board (2005 -08) - including and mm.
Laziness (imagined or actual) is one side of the coin, while energy and (according to himself) destructive versatility served the other side - in any year, J has been driven by a restless curiosity and fumbled far and wide with too many balls in the air simultaneously, Instead of focusing on one thing at a time. This is also (according to himself) contributed to much of what he has done (books, movies) become medlemåttiga products - the quantity and quality do not always go hand in hand: "I suffer from too much ambition, too meager head and excessive mediocrity "writes J eg in October 1960, and it appears that he constantly struggled with an uneasy sense of inferiority and inadequacy.
The mammoth is largely about precisely this duality and contradiction in J's life - both on a professional level and on a personal level, a conflict that has taken many forms:
For four decades, wrote J. regular columns in various newspapers and magazines (among them Ilta-Sanomat, Blue Wings, HBL), but since he voluntarily quit as a columnist in 2007, he has no longer access to the natural forum and a visible platform for their glosses or their analysis of the state of the Republic of Finland or in the world - the silence is certainly self-chosen, but he provides that no response to know what he thinks of as Middle East question, or if the planned downtown library - the only thing that interests the press seems to be his illnesses. J is i.e. afraid of being forgotten - the silence and solitude can be a burden, even if it is self-selected.
J's interest in politics and history and social and cultural issues has brought him to the corridors of power in Helsinki and Brussels - but he doubts that he managed to make a difference. The latest attempt to be elected to parliament (2011) he describes as "an unsuccessful way to excuse the general idleness" and he ensures that voters seem to see him as a used card. His relationship to power and politics is characterized by a love-hate chafing.
Again and again recurs J to diverse reasons curse: that working drug addict J throughout her life been so incredibly productive in many different areas (according to himself) have been him in the dish, and he claims to be misunderstood by critics and unseen by the cultural establishment - but no one should be led to believe that he cares.
Constantly this duality: to be or not to be part of a context, wanting or not wanting to take root, to despise and curse someone / something you also want to be seen and accepted by - get an approval and a little cred for what you have done .
Speaking of fear of being forgotten or not given place in the public sphere: in recent weeks, it has been split parameters of J both in Finland and in Sweden, and television, radio and newspapers have competed to outdo each other than with a naked Jörn, than a weight lifting Jörn front of the bookshelf in the workroom on the North Quay.
The Helsingin Sanomat (02/03/2013), Anna-Stina Nykänen through the interviews with födelsedagsjubilaren over the past week in Apu, Seura, Image, Suomen Kuvalehti, Yloppilaslehti and Helsingin Sanomat, and she tries to call in mammoth Jörn Donner by lifting the various key elements of Articles: how to prepare the various newspapers Jörn in words and images, the issues it focuses on (what is J afraid of? how does J on Aging • What is the meaning of life according to R), and finally calculates she up all the characterizations that she will find in the articles (my translation): studious lazy, arrogant know-it, arrogant shit boot, conscientious objectors, filmmakers, asocial person, ill-mannered brat, gäckare, tease, fucker, människoslukare, intellectual, intriguer, rebel leaders, samtalare, author, communist, cosmopolite, critic, culture mammoth, cultural personality, iconoclast, ifrågasättare, linslus, collaborators, narcissistic, actors, opportunists, deserters, traitors, polemicist, politicians, citizens, provocateur, radical, yeller, rabid radical, reporter, combat buck, troublemaker, yeller, villain, sex symbol, sivare, civilized, outsider, viewer, snob, conventional switches, Finland's sexiest man, vane, workaholic, old man, visionary, intelligent.
Our need for JD (actual, like the fictional) seems to be insatiable, and - as Jukka Petäjä notes in his interview with JD in Helsingin Sanomat 26.1.2013 - would the Finnish cultural life be much poorer without JD: if Jörn Donner did not exist, we would have to invent him.
The voluminous book has nothing personal, and according to the author is the reason to force all curious to read the entire tome to possibly find himself in it - either by naming names or implicitly.
Many example might be curious about the women in J's life - among them, the three wives Inga-Britt Wik (as J was married to 1954-62), Jeanette Bonnier (as J was married to 1974-88) and Bitte Westerlund (as J married with 1995). Long Where Gare conditions is also mentioned (Harriet Andersson, Sun Axelsson example), while other women are mentioned by name, a letter, or a simple pronoun (she).
In most cases, J decent regard to living or dead persons, while in other cases it may seem right blunt and ruthless: the relationship with the now-deceased first wife Inga-Britt seems to have been conflictual and doomed from the start, and for many years could also be in the public share of a mutual pajkastning where invektiven and accusations flew close by book pages.
Striving for honesty and sincerity in all situations but not necessarily any sympathy points.
The mammoth can eg J not fail to speak obliquely about Inga-Britt, and he feels relieved at her death (2008) because she can no longer make any demands on him.
J has six children with four different women - the two oldest sons (John and James) by Inga-Britt Wik, daughter Susanna (from a relationship with Meri Vennamo) and Otto with an unnamed woman in the book, the youngest sons (Daniel and Rudolf ) has J with his current wife Bitte.
In the TV show "Skavlan" (SVT 01/27/2013) J admitted that he was a bad father, and in the tabloids in the past week have been the eldest son witnessed a constantly absent and generally indifferent father - the inflamed relationship between J and children Mother meant that J and the oldest sons barely spent time at all until recently when the relationship has been what one might describe as "factual".
Throughout the book is J openly indifferent to the first four children, and imposing three of them "to some future loose people." He says he is certainly able to spend time with them, but do not have them in the same manner as he may lack the two youngest in their absence - in itself a natural result of that he was present and participated in the youngest sons lives in a completely different way than before, of course.
J's restlessness and constant need to rush on have thus contributed to many conditions and human relations have been put on the exception, but sometimes distance also could be a boon for a relationship, and according to J himself, he is better at making love on the distance than up close.
That J would rather hang out and confide in (a select few) women than men is a fact - but throughout life, however, he met some men who he felt kinship with, among them Harry Schein and Ingmar Bergman, whom he calls his mentor.
The mammoth searcheth J often themselves in a seemingly merciless way - he presents himself (sometimes, however, in a roundabout way through the Assistant Frederick Cook) as self-absorbed and hypochondriac, he is prone to manic depression, he is often sad and melancholic, he feels misunderstood as a writer and filmmaker, he's a lousy businessman and the only thing he can is to write - write = live.
In the preface writes Jörn that journey with the book marked by parting sadness, and that he tried to write "without regard to self-censorship or others' admonitions" - he learns not to be unchallenged, and the headlines in both Finland and Sweden will probably be filled by Donner Mania the next few weeks!
In one of his books, he quoted a few lines of poetry by Bertil Malmberg, and they can be safely on their way to summarize J. 's attitude to life:
The lines that run
and crossed in my hand
they form a chart
to the unfamiliar country.
They take what secret
my destiny set
The aim, as opportunities
in my väsendes night.
They show me the way
between the vortex and the atoll.
It's just to sail.
But in which direction?
Why worry my heart?
Why I hesitate yet?
I have my charts.
But compass, where is it?
In February broadcast YLE Teema a handful of Jörn Donner's films - more info can be found on Yle Teemas website.
Anais Nin
"Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic."
Henry George
"Man is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal that is never satisfied."
However, it was thinly between the laughter
Tram between Djurgården and Sergels torg, Stockholm
Two men ~ 30 sits on the tram approaching the Sergels torg square.
Man 1 (on the North): now we are in Malmö. It's so short distance down here, so you end up missing a station in Malmö.
10 March 2013
In the wake of emigrants
On Tuesday begins the celebration of it was 375 years since the ship Kalmar Key arrived in Wilmington in Delaware, with the first Swedish immigrants aboard. One million Swedes followed across the Atlantic in Kalmar key's wake.
The United States was and is a nation of immigrants. Today is the large group of Latinos are the fastest growing minority. The Hispanic roots in including Mexico and Puerto Rico today represents over 11 percent of the electorate. The South is becoming bilingual. But the group Hispanics also puts great impression in the East Coast New York and Washington, which is striking when I along with a group of political editors of the Swedish Media Lens directing visiting the United States, the political and economic center during the course of a week. (Medicare Alen is a company that manages assets earlier M-branded press organs sold. Undersigned sits on its board).
Just the ethnic change in the United States will return to virtually all meetings of think tanks, NGOs and editors. The group Hispanics are now larger than the African-American. It is young and growing rapidly. For it will Latino voters have particular importance in some vågmästarstater. For Republicans who for several years has focused the winning white (less educated) Americans in the hinterland relationship with Latino voters to have a live-or-die issue.
In the last elections frightened Hispanics of Republican tough attitude towards undocumented, a line now looks to be in reversal. Republican hope that Catholic Latinos with strong moral values ??would turn towards the east and west coasts of urban Democrats and liberal stance on value issues did not. The second-generation Hispanic Cubans in key Florida without personal experience of Castro repression is also not nearly as anti-communist as their parents' generation. The fact that over 70 percent of Latino voters in the U.S. voted for Obama should not have surprised the Republicans.
There was previously a show in the U.S. to minorities, except the Jewish, which largely vote for the Democrats, as the years tend to vote more Republican. A growing group of Asians have higher incomes than the white U.S.. Minority populations are - and should be perceived in a Swedish context - often more industrious and hard-working than majorities. But today, there must be a Republican reversal to win the trust of African Americans, Latinos and Asians.
In simplified terms, the white Protestant European culture is on the verge of losing its position as majority culture also influenced a range of policies. No political leadership is insensitive to voters roots, explains the head of one of the country known think tanks. If the proportion of European background decreases, it seems reasonable that the American commitment to economically, politically and militarily in Europe subsides.
But it is also important to create a common foreign policy stance. Group Policies aimed at autonomous groups within the same country risk creating divisions and internal conflicts and Barack Obama accused during the campaign to specifically target individual groups of voters.
In an even greater extent than the ethnic and demographic change in the United States will affect foreign relations teaches the rapid energy transition - relatively unknown on this side of the Atlantic - changing international rules. In a number of states is now clean Klondike atmosphere. Labour and international energy giants Statoil of Norway moved its focus to the U.S. in search of the black gold. The extraction of shale gas in Sweden has mainly been portrayed as an environmental problem, the phasing out of shale gas is already visible in the declining U.S. carbon emissions have not attracted the attention of many.
While talking to many analysts that the U.S. will become self-sufficient in fossil fuels. The world price of gas drops today because of the increased supply in the U.S.. In Moscow see why Putin regime of exploitation in a state like North Dakota with great concern. Kremlin's strategy of using energy as a political force goes to nothing at falling price levels, which means a reduced Russian influence in Central and Eastern Europe.
In at least equally affected the Middle East. The U.S. military presence in the region is far from being solely linked to the oil sources flows. Military backing of vulnerable Israel is a more idealistic motives, concerns about cross-border terrorism and an increasingly aggressive Iran is the second reason. USA also serves on the seven seas shipping routes as a kind public good - that is its fleets to secure shipping lanes from pirates and lawlessness.
But it is clear that the Middle East loses in strategic importance to Washington on the world's commodity map redraws and dependence on the Gulf decreases. The combination of demographic change and increased energy teaches strengthen reorientation, both militarily and politically to the Pacific and Asia.
The anniversary of Kalmar twinning Wilmington testify how strong bands of the Atlantic. A delegation from Kalmar Municipality traveling later in the spring sunshine to celebrate and bring alive the historic relations between the U.S. and Sweden. 100-year-old band is not likely to be cut by demographic changes or fluctuations in the price of oil. But perhaps it will be on Europe and Sweden to take greater responsibility for family ties when Uncle Sam is increasingly looking eastwards.
If your friend isn't gay, is she happy?
Bus 400 at Tibro
Girl 1 ~ 20: on that note, I don't understand why everyone wants a gay guys to mate!
Girl 2 ~ 20: Uh?
Girl 1: no so I have you!
09 March 2013
Travelers jammed when airlines cooperate
Camilla Waldenström's ticket between London and Miami was booked on SAS home page and the bar the airline's logotype. But when she and her family because of the delay, missed connection at New York airport Newark wanted the Scandinavian airline still does not provide help. Reason: it was the SAS partners United flown the route Miami-New York where the delay occurred.
The family turned to the consumer organisation Flightright as now filed a lawsuit against SAS.
READ ALSO Reservation determine what compensation you get
-SAS has designed and sold the trip and thus has a responsibility, "said lawyer Stephan Eriksson at the law firm of Liman and Partners for Flightrights action
The SAS is to a different view:
It is United's responsibility to take care of the family because United caused the delay, says Malin Selander, press officer at SAS.
What sets to it is the airlines ' cooperation within alliances. SAS is part of Star Alliance along with Lufthansa, Thai Airways and United, which means that when you book a ticket with SAS, it may in fact be another airline flying.
The advantage of alliances is that airlines have a much greater range than if they remained outside collaborations, the downside is that it is difficult for the customer to know which company the ticket really applies, and thus also which companies to turn to if something goes wrong.
When Camilla Waldenström booked his trip for just over a year ago she called SAS to make sure that the intermediate time of approximately 1.5 hours in New York was sufficient. SAS representative ensured that this was the case and that the family would be rescheduled to a later plan if they would miss the connection.
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The disappointment was great when SAS personnel in Newark, announce that the company did not take any responsibility for the family. Camilla Waldenström called SAS customer service in Sweden, only to be met with the same answer.
– They said that we had to blame ourselves because we opted for a cheap company United. But we didn't, we booked the via SAS website, says David W.
Malin Selander at SAS:
"We regret, of course, if the family had been badly treated, it may not happen. But the thing had our staff right. The responsibility lies in this case of United that caused the delay, "she said.
And that is precisely the question of liability as Flightright want to try with his lawsuit.
– Since the SAS has planned family trip and sold the tickets where the company's partners United flying leg Miami – Newark, SAS should have the same liability as if they themselves are flown each route, says Stephan Eriksson and continues:
The issue of an airline's responsibility when the company has designed and sold a trip but had a partner to fly part of the trip has not yet been tried on a European level. It is therefore a precedent-setting case that we would like to see the District Court take further to the European Court of justice. If the Court goes on our line will affect all airlines in the EU.
Camilla Waldenström's adventure ended with the family got a hotel overnight stays by United. The day after the American company helped the company to access travel codes in SAS reservation systems so that the tickets went to reschedule. The family landed at the airport a day later than planned.
– Everyone understands that it may be wrong, but as a traveler, you have to know whom to turn to for help, says David W.
Anna Quindlen
"Think of life as a terminal illness, because, if you do, you will live it with joy and passion, as it ought to be lived."
Dee Hock
"The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it."
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal
"We cannot destroy kindred: Our chains stretch a little sometimes, but they never break."
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