Freeway - Being European - a Swedish report

Being European - a Swedish report

"Being European - National and European Identity" is an important core study in our group in European Studies Senior Programme this year. We have discussed and found "Five ways in which we are Swedish", "Five ways in which we are European" and "Five goals for the future of Europe". And our friends in Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland have done the same. One Swedish group answered like this.

Five ways in which we are Swedish

Swedish Traditions

Lucia
Here in Sweden Lucia is someone which sings, has candle lights in her hair and a white dress. After Lucia come girls with glitter in their hair and white dresses, then boys with pointed hats and white costumes and finally gobblings. The real Lucia came from Italy. She was a saint from Sicily.

Midsummer
At midsummer in the middle of June we take a wooden cross and decorate it with flowers and leaves. Then we decorate two circles with flowers and leaves and hang them on the arms of the cross. That is called a Maypole. Then we dance around the Maypole and sing a song called little frogs. At midsummer we eat sweet pickled herring, pickled herring and new, fresh potatoes.

Christmas
At Christmas Eve Santa Claus comes and gives Christmas gifts to all the children who has been nice all year. He wears a long red coat and a red cap. He has a big white beard. Almost every family has a Christmas tree. Under the tree we put presents. We decorate the tree with tinsel and other things.

Volvo

A typical Swedish family is called "Svensson" and they have a Volvo, a house and a doggie. Many people all over the world don´t know that much about Sweden, but Volvo they know. The first Volvo car was built in 1926 and after that the progress went fast. Now Volvo is a well-known car all over the world. And not only personal cars are produced, also trucks and buses. Volvo is very good for Sweden because it kind of puts Sweden on the map and get many work opportunities for Sweden.

You have maybe heard about Volvo before, but if not you now have. We are very thankful to Volvo and what it has done to us and how Volvo has companies all over the world.

Swedish language
The Swedish language is unique for Sweden. Its not spoken in any other country. Our neighbours (Norwagians, Danes and Finlanders) understand Swedish but don’t speak our language in common. We all belong to the northgermanic language.

Here is a typical Swedish sentence: Hej hur mår du?

Hi how are you?

Astrid Lindgren

She was born on 14^th November, 1907 in Vimmerby, Sweden. In her lifetime she wrote more than 80 books, which have been translated in 71 languages. Astrid wrote books for children, which are well-known in many countries. She wrote for example Pippi Longstocking, Brothers Lionheart, Ronia the Robber´s Daughter, Mio, My Son and even more. We here in Sweden think that Astrid Lindgren´s books are a part of our childhood. She was a very important person for everyone in Sweden. She found the childlike mind in the adults and she helped the kids to like reading.

We are sure that even you in your country have read or heard about this writer. On 28^th January, Astrid Lindgren died, which is a loss for children. But we will remember her and her stories will always be important to us.

Wet Snuff
Sweden is the only country in the world that has under 20 per cent smokers. Probably because of the wet snuff. It’s illegal to sell wet snuff in the European Union except in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The dark brown powder that you put under you lip is sold in small round packages. You can get it in different sorts and flavours for example sport snuff, general snuff, and nr. 1. The wet snuff is better for the people around the user because you don’t get smoke in you face like you do with cigarettes. There is no second hand use.

But its still very dangerous and you can get cancer from it. That is why it should be prohibited in every country, Sweden too.

Five ways in which we are European

The euro

Eleven European nations will have a single currency: the euro. The changeover will affect 290 million people in the countries with then new currency. Inhabitants of euroland speak 17 official languages.
Euroland will be the world´s second largest economy after the United States.

The Eurovision songcontest
The Eurovison songcontest is a typical competition we have in Europe. Almost every European country enjoys it. Every country have their own song, which is usually in their language. But nowadays they can sing in which language they want to. The countries are competing for the best song and then they vote for the one they think was the best, but they can´t vote for their own country. "The winner takes it all"….just kidding. The winner in this competition will arrange the Eurovision songcontest next year. It is a lot of money involved in this but it is a big honour to make this arrangement and not at least to have produced the best song. This year this competition will be in Tallinn, Estonia. And who knows, maybe next year this contest will be in Ireland, Sweden or the UK.

The history of Europe
Europe has been the centre of the exploration of the world. During the 18th to 19th century explorers from Europe sailed all over the world and conquered it. 2000 years ago the Greeks and the Romans had extremely big empires and they still have an impact on our world today. We have a history to be proud of an we should always remember it. That includes the fact that we have started 2 world wars and that we must never do that again. Remember…

European co-operation
EU is a union of countries that collaborate about a lot of things. If a country is a member of EU, then you don’t need a passport when you travel across the boarders to other EU-countries. There are 15 countries that are members of EU in Europe. The members in EU help each other with the trades between the EU-countries. The risk of war between the 15 members is very small.

European championship
There are many sport competitions all over the world, for example VC and Olympic Games. But it is one special sport competition that just is for European countries, and that is European Championships. EC exists in most sports, for example football, handball and swimming. EC is also a very big event, which attract many spectators. You can say that EC is the same as VC, but a bit smaller and with fewer countries who are participating. Our countries have probably met each other in some EC Championship.

Five goals for the future of Europe

Equality within the European Union
One of the goals we in Europe have is that all countries should and be able to afford to join the European Union. We also want to obtain equality within the countries between the men and women. We think that everyone should have the right to do the same things and be able to get the same salary for the same work.

Peace
We think that one of the goals in Europe should be peace. We should stop all this violence and be friends. Because we need each others help. We hope that this is a common goal for every country in Europe. Don´t you?

Wealth
We hope that one of many goals with EU is to get a better wealth in Europe. Now it’s better economy in west compared with east of Europe. The goal with wealth is that every country in Europe will have a good economy. If it’s one country with bad economy is it EU responsibility and commission to help this country. Already EU have taken a big step against a better wealth, but it’s still much things to do. EU mean that we should be a collected union and that everyone will have it good. But there is one problem and that is the access to money. But if everyone does their best and hope, so who knows? maybe we will have a better wealth in a couple of years.

The European Union and the environment
In Sweden we have a fantastic environment and we like to keep it that way. When we joined the EU we had predicted that for example the traffic with truck’s would increase, and it look’s like that prediction was true. That is a bad thing but we hope that it will be better soon. We hope that every country will have fresh air and beautiful nature. Is that a thing that the European Union can do ? We don’t now, but we hope so.

In Europe we stay together
Like the United States of America we want to have a union with the same currency the same trading laws and a joint government. This would make Europe a strong union that could work together in times of trouble and in times of joy We want to be able to trade between the countries without customs and extra fees. Because we are all working towards the same goals we need to be on friendly terms. And that¢s why we try to avoid war because it would damage the whole union.