Sweden

Sweden is a small, family-oriented country in Scandinavia. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the largest city. Sweden has got 9 million inhabitants. With an area of 450,000 square miles, Sweden is a big country in Western Europe.

Sweden is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy. The prime minister of Sweden is 41 year old Fredrik Reinfeldt, leader of the Moderates. The Swedish parliament has 349 seats. Carl XVI is the current king.

Swedish Viking History

In Sweden the Viking Age¹ was getting under way by the 9th century, and vast repositories of Roman, Byzantine and Arab coins attest to the wealth and power Swedish Vikings accumulated over the next century. Vikings travelled mostly to the east, making their mark in Russia, as well as trading with (and pillaging) Byzantine territories. They also travelled west and there is considerable evidence² of artefacts (coins, remnants of ) on the North American continent. Vikings pillaged villages all over Ireland, and are the antecedents of many living Irish men and women, such as the former Taoiseach of Ireland, Charles Haughey and his cousin Sile de Valera, pop stars Bob Geldof and Phil Lynott, and artist Charlie Whisker. Remnants of a small settlement (called Ektorp) exist on Newfoundland which include the remains of small dwellings, deteriorated furniture and cooking utensils.

Christianity only took root in the 11th century.

Christianity in Sweden

80% of the inhabitants belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden named The Swedish Church (Svenska kyrkan in swedish). This church are very different to other churches because it has decided to marry homosexuals. This Church are not a conservative Church and does not protest against abortions, divorces, or anything else. About 5% of the Swedish population belongs to real, family-values Christian churches. Many Swedes are atheists.

Sweden got 18 weeks of free abortion and 4 weeks when the women need to have a special permission to be allowed to have an abortion. Right now the Swedish politicians are discussing if foreign womens should be allowed to have an (late) abortion in Sweden, and much suggests that the parliament will vote in favour for that proposition. In the 1960's the government decided to reduce the school education about Christianity. In 2000 the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the government was separated. Before that all children were born members of the church, except those whose parent took an active decision against it and both left the church. Even if a child were not christned he or she became a member for life, having to pay a small tax to the church.

Socialism

Sweden has high taxes and strong trade unions. Even if Sweden now got a new government instead of the old, socialistic, one, it's still a socialistic country and will be for a long time. Fredrik Reinfeldt says that he is not going to destroy the Swedish model - in fact he says he likes that model - he only wants to do some small changes. And despite that one of the parties in the government alliance is named "The Christian democrats", no decisions have been made to make christianity stronger in Sweden. There is, however, a few signs of light. a few years ago a Swedish baptist priest Åke Green was found not guilty of hate speech when preaching the bibles words on homosexuality and strange enough the struggle for religious freedom by some radical Muslim groups has lead to an awakening in the Christian society.

Swedes are paying 35% in taxes (in average), a great part of this money goes to contributions to unemployed people (4.8% of the swedish population are unemployed). In Sweden, everyone has the right to have a home, food, clothes, water. Swedes do also have equal rights to nursing and all schools (even the universitys) are free. Sweden is also a country with a big immigration.

Is Sweden a democracy?

Krister Renard, a swedish author, schoolteacher and member in the swedish organisation "Word of Life"^{3 4}, describes Sweden as a "totalitarian democracy". Sweden has fair elections. Approximately 80% of the population between the ages of 18 and 65 are members in a trade union. If the government were to try to reduce unemployment and other welfare benefits, trade unions would possibly strike perhaps triggering an economic meltdown far beyond that of an ordinary recession.

A "totalitarian democracy" may be a good way to describe Sweden.

Some Notable Swedes

• Alfred Nobel, instigator of the Nobel Prize
• Greta Garbo, actress
• ABBA
• Roxette
• Dag Hammaskjöld
• Anders Celsius
• Astrid Lindgren
• Carl von Linné
• Frederick Ljundberg
• Henrik Larsson
• Stellan Skarsgård
• Saint Bridgid
• Lars Magnus Ericsson
• Gustavus Adolphus (king, founder of Gothenburg etc, died 1632 in the Thirty Years War)
• Björn Borg, tennis player
• Olof Palme
• Ingemar Bergman

References

• SWEDEN.SE
• Svenska Kyrkan
• http://www.lo.se
• http://www.moderaterna.se
• http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=913&a=324428
• http://www.gluefox.com
• History of Sweden
• ¹ Forte, Angelo. Oram, Richard. Pedersen, Frederik. Viking Empires. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005
• ² Hudson, Benjamin. Viking Pirates and Christian Princes: Dynasty, Religion, and Empire in North America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
• ³ http://www.livetsord.se/default.aspx?idStructure=918
• ⁴ http://perkornhall.se/LivetsOrd/index-eng.htm