TheWaterRat

I have come across this project called The Fun Theory. It is a partly promotional, partly serious initiative from VolksWagen, the car manufacturer.

You should watch the videos below as they are mildly entertaining.

Now. What I found interesting is not the initiative per se – I could possibly agree that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better – but the fact that those videos were filmed in Sweden. I can understand, to a point, the piano stairs, but getting so excited because of some lights on top of a bottle recycling bank or because of a funny noise coming out of a rubbish bin, made me wonder… Is really Sweden the most boring country in the world?

I have only been to Sweden once and I would be a poor judge of lifestyle in the fjords. So, I leave it to a Swede to tell it as it is.

Envisage a country where it is dark for most of the year. Imagine a place where the snow is so deep you can’t leave home without a snow-plough.
Imagine somewhere so cold that if you go out with wet hair, it freezes and breaks off. And a glass of beer costs around £5 ? if you can find one.
Welcome to Sweden; a country of nine million people but so dull that even Sven Goran Eriksson left.

I was born and brought up in Sweden. As a child, I thought it was perfectly normal that it snowed from October to April. I didn’t grumble when I was fed raw fish and bits of elk, or when I had to travel to and from school in the dark.
I thought, like all those around me, that Sweden was great. I imagined I would live there for ever, marry Thomas Ostman from the next village (even though he hated me) and have lots of little Annikas and Bjorns.
Until the age of 16, I knew no better. Then I visited England. Suddenly jumping in a freezing lake at the end of April to celebrate spring’s arrival seemed eccentric, if not insane.
Hurling myself naked from a sauna into a snowdrift no longer felt like a great way to spend the weekend.
I also discovered there was a world out there that we Swedes were rarely told about. And that there was this thing called the sun that didn’t only come out in June, July and August.
It didn’t take me long to decide to move permanently. [Moving to England because of the sun. This is reason for another post for sure]
[...]
The image of Swedes is that they resemble their most famous vehicle, the Volvo; reliable, steady and safe.
[...]
As children we learned songs about snow. ‘Yippee, it’s snowing,’ run the lyrics of one gem. ‘Isn’t that fun? Hurrah. We’ll get our skis on and take our sleighs out and won’t we have a blast.’
Well, hello! It may seem like fun for a day or two, but it snows for seven months. [...]

Interestingly, Swedes are taught from an early age that they are the only people in the world who can run anything.
I admit that if you look at Ikea they have a point. Where else can you get a plate of meatballs, furnish your kitchen and stock up on aquavit all at the same time?
Though, of course, you won’t find any aquavit in Ikea stores in Sweden. Oh no. Alcohol is dangerous and is only sold from a state-owned shop called Systembolaget, which closes at 3.30pm, so you need to plan the fact that you’d like a bottle of wine with dinner before lunch.
Of course, Swedes don’t complain about it. They are used to being obedient.
For example, on September 3, 1967 at 5am, the whole country went from driving on the left to driving on the right, despite the fact that 80 per cent of the population had voted against the change in a referendum.
Sweden is the only place in the world where this could have happened because everyone there is used to doing as they’re told. Imagine trying the same stunt in Italy or France.
It is a myth that Swedes are jolly, happy people. If this is what you think, it’s because you have probably only met Swedes abroad. And of course they’re happy overseas; they’re not in Sweden any more.
Or you have caught them just before one of the three main social events that punctuate the Swedish calendar and give Swedes a licence to drink as much as they like.
First, there is the last day of April, when Swedes congregate around lakes, break a hole in the ice if they are still frozen over, and jump in.
Then, on midsummer’s night eve, when it is light all night, the Swedes dance around a maypole. Should you happen upon this festivity, you must be prepared to sing a song about little frogs which ends with everyone throwing themselves on the ground.
Finally, at the end of August, there is the big crayfish party which marks the end of summer and when, yes, you stuff yourself with this lobster-like creature while sitting outside in the cold and pretending to be in the Mediterranean.
[...]
On a normal day in Sweden no one smiles. If you do smile, people look at you as if you’re trying to steal their wallet.

~Freely taken from an HELENA FRITH-POWELL article on the Daily Mail.

Dare I say more?

Useful links