Gunillocentrism – web diary of a freelance journalist

Back in Stockholm Saturday morning

Thomas Hylland Eriksen

social anthropology

Ghana, Indonesia, USA, Malta, Russia, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Sweden

fieldwork in Jemen, Iceland,

U2!

restaurants

Kyss Frosken

Big Brother och Usama

söte bror

Oslo!

/Gunilla
Ute i frosken

“Put all his pictures in a place you won’t see them, preferably the trash.”

Advice on how to handle men from Peggy Dowd (1908–2005), mother to New York Times’ cool columnist Maureen Dowd

I’m in Oslo! (For the first time in … 25 years!)

Believe it or not, but I am trying to do some academic work, namely on the concept of Human Security:Oslo Summer School in Comparative Social Science Studies 2005.

Oslo is nice and cute, but also very small (and ridiculuosly expensive). Like a large village, hehe – just like Stockholm is a small metropol.

The course is actually on PhD level, which is a first for me. I have promised myself to avoid PhD programs by all means, since I realize that given my personality I would never finish any dissertation – but I thought a one-week long program would be OK.

It’s nice to be back in a university environment, although I have to admit I read the course literature very, very sloppily (if at all)!

Tomorrow I am supposed to give a presentation on “states as security threats”, so I have to read at least those texts – but here I am, blogging and eating an excellent fish and seafood bisque at Lorry Restaurant. Not reading the texts at all (yet). I get flashbacks from my student time.

But I hope that the course will at least give me lots of insights that will be useful for my journalistic work. I have already set up an interview with Professor Thomas Hylland Eriksen on Thursday, and today he and I had a bizarre conversation on Pakistani immigrants, poison in fish, and myths on Norwegians.

And the course participants will probably be of interest, too! They come from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, but also from more exotic countries such as USA, Indonesia, Ghana, Malta… (The Indonesian girl turned out to actually know Puspa, my Jakarta friend who visited me in Stockholm in December.) And I have met a Swedish PhD student who had super-helpful information for my upcoming Greeland trip! She is studying political consequences of global warming.

Back to the bisque!

/Gunilla

You have all heard of the infamous Nigeria letters: Nigerians (and others, mostly Africans, or at least people claiming they are writing from Nigeria, Angola, Congo etc) spamming people with e-mailed requests on helping them with money transfers. Usually the recipient is promised hundred thousands of dollars, if they only help out with a huge bank transfer from their account.

I just recieved a new version of a Nigeria letter!
I recently posted my Harlem apartment on Craig’s List, an electronic bulletin board for people in the USA who are looking for or offering housing. Quickly after the posting, I received this personal letter, see below, from a guy offering to be my new flat mate – if I only help out with a small bank transfer first… Does anyone really take these letters seriously? I guess so, since the business goes on and on and on and on.

/Gunilla

Hello
My name is Nikky James i am.30.yrs old,i am single with no kids,i
based in west africa(Nigeria},i will be coming to the state in few Weeks
time from now.Let me know how much it cost per month plus deposit.
I am interested in the Apt,but am presently in west africa {London} i may
be in the state 27th july,2005.I hope this is ok by you.i will be paying
for 2months for now
As regards payment,this is what i am going to do. I have a client in the
US who is owing me US$3500 i would instruct him to make out certified check
to you in that amount you can now deduct your money from it
and send me my balance, Although the value of the check is more than the
total price but i think i should be able to trust you with my balance.The
reason why i am doing this is that it would take a check sent from over here
in Africa 21days to clear over there,whereas a check sent from the! US
would clear tops within 48hrs.
.Please let me have your full contact address where the check will be
mailed out to.,also i will like to know the full name the check will be made
out to. so that i can instruct my client to make out the check to you.
Pls get back to me as soon as you get this mail so that we can round
things up in a timely fashion.you will email or fax me a copy of the reciept
after
payment as been recieved.i will send you a copy of my pics.
Thanks in this Regards
Nikky

Nu har vi gift bort Nina (Solomin)! Vigseln gick av stapeln på en Mälarbrygga i Gröndal i torsdags, under överinseende av en rabbin. Det var en fin händelse, med mycket klezmermusik, dans och god mat. Oivvio&Joanna höll världens bästa tal, om de många olika Ninorna (coola Nina, folkdans-Nina, utrikeskorrespondent-Nina, den fromma Pnina – och Patriks Nina).
Min bröllopspresent till Patrik & Nina blir ett album med bilder jag tog – jag fotograferade precis hela kvällen! Friends of Nina, maila om ni vill se några.

/Gunilla

I’m back in Stockholm, after five days on Öland with my family. Here’s what I am doing right now:

• trying to put together my Greenland trip – it’s almost impossible to find tickets on appropriate days! But the route is exciting: Stockholm – Copenhagen – Kangerlaussaq – Nuuk with plane; Nuuk – Ilullisat with boat; Ilullissat – Kangerlaussaq – Copenhagen – Stockholm.
• trying to read some of the literature on human security for next week’s course in Oslo
• trying to find housing in Oslo
• trying to pitch stories on my Greenland trip – but to whom?!
• hanging out with friends (but it’s difficult to coordinate schedule, everybody’s so busy!)
• editing a piece for the radio (but I don’t know how to do it!)
• organizing pictures (my digital camera, which was lost on board a plane to Denver in the end of May, has been localized, which is no less than a wonder!)

…and then I am supposed to work at the foreign news desk of TT as well. How do people have time to work?!

/Gunilla

“Lattelon” uttalas med betoning på sista stavelsen, och är min brorsdotter Claras benämning på … vattenmelon, såklart. En ny klassiker i familjen Kinns förråd av barnspråk.

/Gunilla
Djupvik, Öland

Here’s a fairly accurate article on Sweden:
The Scandinavian model - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune
I especially like the fact that the writer, Jonathan Powers, says Swedish women are free and strong, yet retain their/our feminine charm…

My last day in Stockholm for a little while will be spent celebrating Liberté, Egalité & Fraternité + my friend Kristin’s birthday party at Södra Teatern (with the city’s best combination of view, people, and ambiance).

Tomorrow: off to Öland!

Gunilla

Readers of this blog will no doubt get sick and tired hearing about my “hot spots”, i e the places where I manage to get online access with my computer. But you better get used to it, it makes me so excited…

I have felt very unproductive and extremely offline since I came back from the USA. Since I have no broadband/DSL access at home, I have to rely on stone age-style with modem, which a) sucks b) is expensive. Here in the Old Town where I live, virtually noone seems to have a router for wireless access. And Rome was even worse than Stockholm as of lack of free hotspots.

But to my huge relief, I just discovered one – when sitting in my garden (in the block of Cepheus, in the medieval middle of the Old Town)! It’s not great – it’s actually not very stable at all, but it’s there.
I wish you could all see how beautiful it is here: with houses in blue, red, white, yellow, with trees, bushes, roses and other flowers, a fountain – and a blue sky, a warm sun, and cool breezes! A perfect office, indeed.

As soon as I have freed myself from the euphoria of being online here in the garden for the first time ever, or when I run out of battery power, I will start reading the course material that I just received – for a summer course I will attend at Oslo University in a few weeks. Very exciting – but too much to read for July!

/Gunilla

In case somebody who was planning to come hang out in my garden tonight is reading this, please be aware that my 17.00 plane is one hour late! This means I will only come to Arlanda at 19.05, thus one hour later than expected.

You’re still most welcome (anyone reading this, actually). But I won’t be at home until 20 o’clock or later.

I am sitting at Kastrup eating a shrimp smørrebrød, so I am not exactly suffering – but it would have been good if I had made it to the 16.20 plane. But I had one piece of “luggage” (OK, results of some Rome shopping) checked, so they couldn’t let me on that earlier flight.

I’m leaving Rome now, after a weekend with shopping, eating and hanging out…

/Gunilla