Autumn Colors

 
 
 

It has been a mild autumn this year. After the "false autumn" in the middle of August, the temperatures rose again and the first half of September felt like Indian summer. Needless to say, the flowers are happy. And I am glad to have some mild days when I could take a comfortable walk outdoors and capture many wonderful gifts in Nature. These photos were taken last weekend.

Yesterday was Anna Lindha's memorial service at the City Hall in Stockholm. Foreign Ministers from around the world, all dressed in black suits, attended the solemn ceremony which included many touching speeches and melancholy pieces of music. The EU environment commissioner from Sweden, Margot Wallström, gave a touching speech in which she said we could still talk to Anna Lindh as her love still lives among us. Wallström is someone who reminds me of Lindh. She is a female politician with a strong will and idealism. She is also a mother and a very beautiful woman. Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong and currently an EU commissioner of external relations, also gave an eloquent speech. I was glad to see him on TV as I used to interview him quite a lot when working as a radio reporter in Hong Kong.

My work and studies have been taking up most of my time nowadays so I have become less active online. Things are going well in both areas so far, except for a little bit of a problem with a colleague, who seems to feel threatened by my presence and has not been treating me with kindness. But I hope this will be resolved in time.

Nation in Mourning

It has been a very sad couple of days in Sweden. Our Foreign Minister Anna Lindh died yesterday after having been stabbed by a lone attacker inside NK, a department store right in the middle of Stockholm in broad daylight. It shocked the whole country into a sort of paralysis, disbelief. "How could this happen in Sweden?" they ask.

Unfortunately, this question was a repetition of what happened almost two decades ago when Olof Palme was shot in the streets of Stockholm. Neither him nor Anna Lindh had bodyguards around them at the time of the murder. The so-called "open society" is put into serious question now. How do politicians continue to be close to the people while maintaining their personal safety? For the Swedes who value so much the transparent way the government is run, they might have to radically switch to a different scenario. To me, the politicians definitely should drop their gullibility and heighten their alertness a great deal.

It seems that outspoken, brave and colorful politicians who dare to be different have a tentancy to be hated and even killed here in Sweden. Even back in the 18th century, King Gustav III, who was gay, very colorful, flamboyant, culturally minded and wanted to give more power to the common people, was assassinated. I certainly hope that this would be the last of such tragic fates.


Flowers for Anna Lindh outside of the Swedish Parliament today. I went into the parliament reception area and signed the condolence book. There was her photo, a candle and a red rose on the table. Everyone who signed was looking very solemn and sad.

The weather was gloomy the whole day, with a few drizzles, and so are the mood of people in the streets. Most Swedes prefer silence as a way of mourning. I did see some tourists happily taking pictures near the parliament, as if nothing had happened.

So far the suspect has not been identified yet, and police is working hard on security videotapes and on finding witnesses who can provide clues. It is frustrating to know that the murderer is still at large. I certainly hope it will not be like the Olof Palme case, where the murderer and the motive of the murder is still unknown.

It is sad that tragedies like this often seem to throw a message right in our faces: that we are surrounded by evil forces, that we cannot always be sure of the goodness of the world.

But at the end of the day, I still believe that love and light will drive away darkness. Without darkness we'll never know what light means. So is the same with evil in this world. Somehow they are necessary to tell us what is good, and to remind us of what we should appreciate in our lives. We each need to light a candle in our heart, and start the peace process within us.

My thoughts are to Anna Lindh's family - her husband and two young sons (9 and 12). May Anna rest in peace. And I pray for a world of peace.

"Brittsommar" - Indian Summer

How is everybody? Here in Stockholm, we are experiencing a wonderful Indian Summer--Nature's consolation to the premature arrival of fall. The temperature is around 20C but it feels like 30C when sitting in the sun. On Friday both Durox and I were off, so we rode our mopeds in the sun and came to this secluded place where there was a pair of benches facing each other, as if custom-designed for us :-). We took a siester on these benches, soaking in the sun like a traveler would drink from an oasis on a desert, not knowing when the next time the life-saver will appear.

 

Yesterday I visited Durox at his work, and took a little walk around the area, which is surrounded by water and islands. It is one of the most picturesque areas of our city. Many people lined up for the ferries to the archipelagoes to catch the last chance for a "summer" excursion. Some took their speed boats and sailing boats and basked in the mild sea breeze.

 
Sunbathers sitting by the coast of Skeppsholmen, a small island where Sweden wrote down its brilliant ship-building history.

 
Left: Af Chapman. The ship was used to train sailors decades ago and now is used as a youth hostel. Right: The brownish building is Wasa Museum. It houses the 17th century Wasa warship, which sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 and later exacavated from the bottom of the Stockholm harbor in the early 60s. The building with a steeple is the Nordic Museum.



Lots of boats and yachts on the Stockholm harbors.

 
Left: This beautiful castle-like building on Skeppsholmen is the site for Admiralitetshuset, some sort of military office, and for the Swedish Tourist Association. Right: Distant view of Kastellet, a little tower on a separate island next to Skeppsholmen. The tower's purpose was to salute incoming ships during the old days.

* * * * *

Tomorrow I am going to start working. Despite the beautiful weather I can't help but feel a streak of melancholy. Even though I am more than grateful to have gotten this job, in my heart I mourn the imminent loss of freedom which I have been enjoying during my jobless days. Perhaps it is fear that is knocking on the door of my soul. Fear of being burnt out again. Fear of losing the freedom of being able go out in Nature whenever it strikes my fancy. Fear of having to do work that I don't necessarily feel inspired of. I have had so many terrible experience with previous works, that this fear invariably creeps in when I am about to embark on a new job. But this time, I will not let external factors crush me. Yes, I shall consciously choose to be a healthy worker, not a workaholic. I shall remain my own boss at heart, and make sure that I do not sell my health and soul to work.