Maybe some of you have read about it, maybe you haven't, but we had quite a big thing happen here in Sweden yesterday.
The Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, Sweden's version of the Secretary of State, was stabbed last night while in a department store (for full story, get it here). This is the equivalent of the death of Colin Powell, or Jack Straw.
These things don't happen here. People are overwhelmingly safe. The only people who have bodyguards in Sweden are the Prime Minister, the King, and the Crown Princess (in Sweden the first born becomes the next ruler, regardless of gender).
In fact, they don't even have bodyguards all the time. A colleague recently told me of a school field trip that his daughter was on. They went to the island of Djurgården, which is a beautiful island in the center of Stockholm with a number of fabulous museums. There, the whole group bumped into the King, walking his dog. With no bodyguards. According to my colleague:
The King comes over to greet the school trip.
His daughter regards the King. "Whazzup, King?" she asks him (or the Swedish equivalent).
"Whazzup?" he replies. In Swedish, of course.
Then they all walk away.
Apparently, said daughter later got a lesson in how to address royalty later.
But this is an example. Things are low-key here. The politicians and royalty enjoy being close to the people. Sweden is safe. Until now, again. The last time something happened of this magnitude was when the Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated in 1986. The crime was never solved.
I was in Gothenburg when the last time there was an EU summit, for a business meeting. Let me tell you, it was not a good place to be an American in at that time. The town is ordinarily so peaceful, the people so kind, that the ugliness that was unleashed was awful. I remember seeing, as my SAS plane landed at the airport, Air Force One sitting on the tarmac. It was surrounded by armed marines, and there was another plane also equally guarded, apparently the carrier of GWB's many secret service agents. The irony is that as I was landing and looking for a cab to take me to Company X's Gothenburg office, the Norwegian Prime Minister was also landing. He flew a SAS flight, on economy. When he landed, he called a cab to take him to the summit. He was all alone, not a bodyguard in sight.
I love that.
I relly like it here sometimes, but it would not shock me if Anna Lindh's crime does not get solved either. The press are saying it was not political, however Sweden is in the middle of a political firestorm, as the vote for the Euro comes this weekend. Anna has been the most strident proponent for the Euro, which does not look like will pass this weekend. I can't believe that her near assassination does not have something to do with it.
I told my Partner Unit last night that I figured her case would (sadly) end up like Olof Palme's-unsolved. He stubbornly resisted that. I pointed out that the police seem to really stress out over high-profile cases (apparently the Palme case was riddled with errors, but I have no info on that).
"Not like they always catch murderers in the U.S. in high-profile cases." he pointed out.
"Generally they do." I replied defensively.
"J.F.K." he replied, looking at me.
"They caught...a guy." I said.
"A guy?"
"Yes, Oliver Stone, they caught a guy. Lone gunman and all that." Even I knew I was talking out of my ass, but he allowed it.
"And what about O.J.?" he asks.
"Oh," I reply breezily. "He did it, I am sure. That was just a distortion of justice."
"Ah. Totally different thing." he replied.
I like Anna Lindh, actually, even though I am divided on how I feel about the Euro and I do hope she survives. And anyway, once the storm dies down on the horror of what happened, a new debate will come, which I am bracing myself for-how the violent images and impressions from the U.S. are affecting European society.
The kid gloves will be off then, I assure you.
-H.
PS-an update: Anna Lindh died at 0529 this morning. People are in tears in the office, and in a state of general shock. Anna Lindh will be sorely missed.
Posted by Everydaystranger at September 11, 2003 08:59 AM | TrackBack