Back to blogging!

I took a month(?!) off from blogging. Haha it sounds like blogging is hard work and as if I’ve been doing it for ages, when in fact writing is something I do for myself anyway, regardless if I post it in a blog or not, and that I have been doing for ages. Blogging though, I only started in December! Anyhow, I was away during the holidays, I’ve had to work on some projects that took up most of my time, and I have been doing a little thinking on this blogging-thing.

My blog on your phone!

So far I've made Stockholm Serendipity available in a mobile phone friendly format. This way it looked nicer and was easier to read on the screen when you checked my posts on the go, yet you would see the full website version if you were reading from your computer. However, many of you readers have told me that the mobile friendly version, although working graphically better on your phones, does not provide an easy option for submitting comments and pressing the "LIKE"-buttons for Facebook, Twitter etc. (Yay, I'm happy so many of you are eager to comment on the stuff I write and really want to hit the LIKE to inspire others to explore my blog!) Therefore, I am trying a change today.

Sexuality education – global and local barriers and opportunities

Despite the crucial element of sexuality education to increase general public health and ensure actual implementation of human rights for all, it is a tremendously controversial topic in many countries around the world. In many cases, the discussions around sex, sexuality and the education of it, are infected by conventional wisdom, traditional believes and society’s norms. Whether sexuality education should exist at all is an opinion often tainted by internal political agendas, historical bonds between nations and religious dominance in the society.

The rationale for sexuality education is manifold. In some developed countries sexuality education is part of the national curriculum and should thus be integrated in formal schooling. Sweden is a prime example of such country where sexuality education is mandatory, the discourse around sex is widely open in society and access to information, clinics and contraceptives is impeccable. Despite this, teachers colleges most often lack in training their students, and thus the quality of sexuality education in schools are highly varied depending on the individual teacher. As a result, sex and sexuality are still often suppressed in society by taboos and stigmas.

On the topic of serendipity

Serendipity. Not the most common of words. I only learnt it some 6-7 years ago when I was in graduate school in the States. It was my social anthropology professor who used it in class when he was telling the story of an anthropologist in history who had made a random but all the same a very exciting discovery without even having been looking for it. My professor, Prof. C., had to pause his story to tell the class what the word meant as I believe almost everyone in the room, including my American native English speaking class mates, looked questioning at him when he had the described the anthropologist’s pleasant discovery as pure serendipity, quite the serendipitous moment. I remembered that moment in class, scribbling down the word in my notebook the way I guessed it should be spelled, I think got it right (!), and rolled it over my tongue. I loved that word - Serendipity.

What is the best thing you know?

London-Stockholm, Dec 2013

That is a question I was asked here by a reader, and I made it a challenge to write about it. Well, there are many things and situations and people that I like, and after giving it some thought I realised it is a much harder question to answer than I thought!

Gula droppar små

Det här med killar och toalettsitsen – ingenting nytt där tänker ni. Jo men faktiskt, jag har två funderingar varav den ena inte ens gäller killarna och hur de tänker eller kanske inte tänker när de inte fäller tillbaka toalettsitsen efter att de har kissat. Så min första fundering rör den mer omfattande diskussionen och missnöjet kring detta, ska vi kalla det fenomen. Diskussionen förs oftast av kvinnor, eftersom det är vi med snippor som sitter ner på toalettsitsen när vi ska kissa för att enklare pricka rätt, medan personer med snopp är de vi pekar ut som förbrytarna i denna toalettritual. Och hur går pratet kring det här då?

Idag är jag vuxen, men 30 november är hatets natt

Häromdagen var jag på Kungsholmen i ett ärende och istället för att som vanligt hoppa på 3:ans buss hem till Söder valde jag att promenera. Det blev lite på måfå som jag strosade ner för Hantverkargatan och förbi Stadshuset, denna vackra byggnad som för mig mer än någon annan symboliserar Stockholm, min stad. Som liten var det Stadshuset jag avtecknade i mina försök att skapa egna akvarellmålningar. Ett par gånger var jag uppe i tornet, jag tror att jag nån gång tävlade med mitt sällskap om att komma först upp, runt, runt och uppåt i en slags evig spiral som var på tok för lång för min pubertala konditionsnivå. Ceremonin för min lärarexamen hölls mycket högtidligt i Blå Hallen med efterföljande middag och dans i Gyllene Salen. Som stipendiat för studier i USA genom ett amerikanskt-svenskt samarbete har jag guidats omkring i Stadshusets salar och rum, korridorer och kontor för att lära mig allt om Stockholm. Det Stockholm som jag skulle komma att representera i mitt uppdrag som ambassadör för Sverige.