Archive for the ‘Global’ Category
The Bronx’s Swedish heritage
The sea captain Jonas Brunck from Komstad, Sävsjö in southern Sweden gave name to the city distinct Bronx in New York. Brunck sailed overseas in the 15th century at a time when many swedes immigrated to America, and came to own a vast land close to Manhattan. When Brunck lived in New York, the city was called New Amsterdam, a dutch colony. The area around Bruncks land was Native American territory. Brunck bought his land from native Americans and tended the relations with the natives. Brunck was called “The Indians white friend” and that is also the title of a book about Brunck written by Frank Th Essel. Brunch was involved in natives rights to their land and hosted negotiations on this issue with the dutch on his farm Emmaus. The negotiations resulted in a treaty which benefited the native Americans. At the Mueum of Bronx this story and many others are told at Museum of Bronx history in Bronx NY. As a swede myself this was an interesting piece of history to come across and I wanted to share the story of Jonas Brunck in my blog. More New York stories will come during 2010, Happy New Year to all.
The friendly spirit of New York
Posted by Johanna in Anthropology, Global on december 8th, 2009
I have been to the states, and hence afk for a couple of weeks now. It was was my first visit and it was something like a cultural shock for me actually. I am European and I did not really expect a cultural shock when visiting the states. I will give you examples in a comparative anthropological perspective during December in my blog. Today I will tell you about the friendly and welcoming spirit that hits the New York visitor.
I landed at night-time and just went to the hotel to get some sleep. The first morning and my first impression in New York was when I headed down to Starbucks to get my morning coffee. The staff was overwhelmingly polite and cheerful at the early morning hour. Very friendly and when I had placed my order, and paid for my Soja latte, the barista asked for my name. A couple of minutes later another staff member calls out “Soja latte for Johanna is ready” and a Starbucks cup with my name written on it is placed in my hand.
This was such a nice gesture, I thought of all the stressed people in this million dollar city who rush off to work with a paper cup in hand, with a homely spirited handwritten name on their cups. I was just amazed. I think this is a rally neat and polite gesture to treat your costumers and name their cups. To bring a familiality to the multinational coffee shop is just very clever technique to serve the costumers. I kept returning to Starbucks during my stay in US, never an unfriendly face there. And actually, everyone, everywhere was really friendly and talkative, quite the opposite to my hometown where the “mind your own business” ethos is imbuing the Stockholm city culture. The service people in Stockholm are never overly friendly and I do not expect them to be either. My impression is that the Stockholm general spirit is VERY different from New York.
Bhopal disaster 25 years ago today
The picture of today is a reminder of the people whose lives were lost in Bhopal today 25 years ago. I borrowed the the picture from SASNET webb.
With or without my cell phone
Posted by Johanna in Global, Popular culture on oktober 20th, 2009
I have for the last couple of days managed my daily life routine without a functioning cell phone. For me, personall y,I went through the first phase of panic the first day I realised I was completely disconnected. During the second day I felt totally calmness. I checked my voicemail regularly and I was at a state of peace in mind with nothing to distract med from the here and now.
Having tried this I think that the cell phone is an element of stress for some of us. We need to constantly be available to answer both the ringing and the text messages. We are, as cell phone owners by many means required to answer. I provoked my surroundings for 4 whole days and some people got really frustrated. Why dont you get a new phone? I just couldn’t be bothered. So I took a hippy-time-out – without my cell-phone.
But now I’m back. texting and phone-ing as usual. But I strongly recommend everyone to take a break. Too much time is spent over addictions to technology – sometimes you need to reflect and take a step back. I can honestlty do not remember the last time I was without a cell phone for a couple of days.
Modern day colonialism
Since my previous entry I feel an urge to explain how I apply the concept of colonialism in modern times. I think colonialism has at its core a selfish centre. When selfishness results in taking advantage of less fortunate people I apply the term as a noun “He/she is behaving colonial”. Colonial mindset is widely spread in the globalised world, quoting Mumbai-based psychiatrist Harish Shetty “Anyone in power will target the vulnerable in this globalised world”. This quote is from the article “Mind of a rapist” India today July 6, 2009, where the issue of power in rape-crimes is issued. The article brings out interesting views regarding this particular crime and focus on the power aspect in the act rather than the sexual activity, which I thinks is well written and serious article. So I stress that rapists are colonial in their abuse of power over the less powerful (read poor women) in society.
Pay day – a day for Global activism
On September 25 there is an global inequality campaign issued by Plan international Sweden, an aid organization which I volunteer at. Plan Internationals event Pay Day is addressing the global inequalities in the world and is a fundraising project which supports children’s rights. Take action! How do one take action in this project? It is pay day tomorrow, and tomorrow we manifest against global inequalities by paying for something that under normal circumstances is free in our home country Sweden, but not worldwide. A simple textmessage, BARN to 72910, cost 25 sek or a facebook status update, no cost for you but you donate 5 sek to the campaign by doing so – are the ways to donate money in this campaign.
(Pictures borrowed from Plan International Sweden webb)
