Swedish culture

Gothenburg is not a romantic city.  It lacks the charm of Paris and the novelty of Budapest.  Unlike Stockholm it can’t rely on the cachet of being a capital and it doesn’t have a medieval quarter.  On the other hand, as second cities go (think Birmingham!) it has plenty to recommend it.  Like Melbourne, another second fiddle city, it is characterised by its inhabitants as “liveable”, meaning that while it doesn’t have anything unmissable to lure tourists, it is a pleasant, if unremarkable, place to pass one’s life_.  And it punches above its weight: there’s a fine art gallery and an excellent opera house, for example, even though opera itself make only an occasional appearance, the bulk of the offering being somewhat more middlebrow.  

But what really gets this city’s inhabitants excited is the sea.  Were it not for their equal passion for landbased outdoor activities of almost any kind, you’d swear they have webbed feet.  Harmless amusement is guaranteed by murmuring thoughtfully in the vicinity of any Gothenburger, “You know, on balance I think the Stockholm archipelago just has the edge over the west coast” then standing back to enjoy the apoplexy.   Compared to the UK, where boat ownership is confined to the wealthy, Swedish statistics are extraordinary: one survey suggests that the ratio is 1.7 boats to every adult Swede and this is borne out by my anecdotal encounters.  Swedes are obsessed by boats: ordinary people who teach high school or sell white goods for a living build their own craft or decide to abandon a comfortable apartment to live in their sailing boat with barely more space than a garden shed.  Speaking of which, summerhouse ownership is similarly widespread and the fact that many are indeed little more than large sheds underlines their purpose for use and relaxation, not as status symbols.

 

Maybe its their appreciation of the outdoors which makes Swedes so environmentally alert.  Car drivers are not permitted to idle their engines while stationary and supermarkets offer deposits on plastic drinks bottles. Sophisticated machines by the checkouts where you can see your empty offerings whizzing through the sorting mechanism are a novel and educational amusement for small children.

Sweden is considerable less wealthy than the US with a GDP per capita of $40,304 compared to $51,704 coupled with legendary tax rates.  Yet the OECD Better Life index reports that Swedes are happier than Americans.  This disjunction might be explained by the Gini coefficient, a measure of wealth distribution where 0% signifies complete equality and 100% complete inequality.   At 25%, Sweden is the country with the second lowest value (beaten by Denmark at 24%) compared to the US at 45%.   While one is not necessarily the cause of the other, there is likely to be a correlation because of the general Swedish attitude to acquisitiveness.  This is epitomised by the word lagom meaning "just the right amount". The archetypical Swedish proverb "lagom är bäst" is translated as "enough is as good as a feast" and reflects the cultural disapproval of excess and its display.   Contentment arises from enjoyment of the natural world, in boat and summerhouse, not an endless competition to earn more money.

© David Thompson 2013