After a Summer break and loads of iced coffees in the sun, Lost in a Cup is back in town and so are the Cultural Cafés!
Following the success of our first digital event in July, we decided to keep it going and hold more events in the coming months with different themes and topics to focus on to get the debates going and bring people together in our borderless cultural cafe.
The theme this time is going to allow us to debate a situation of doubt we have all experienced at some point or other in our lives. When we see someone breaking the law should we: report it, try to sort it out ourselves or just walk past and totally ignore it?
Whether it directly affects you or it doesn’t, should you report what you’ve witnessed? To what extent should we tolerate wrong doings? Or take our own direct action? When instead should we delegate it to the authorities?
We look forward to gather together once again, with people from different countries and backgrounds, to discuss the topic and challenge our thoughts with inspiration from academic research. Prepare your coffee-cup and get ready for the second Cultural Café!
Today is ‘Black Friday‘ part of ‘Black Week‘ the day in which all prices of every physical and online store get slashed for the joy of the masses – apparently.
This “tradition” started in the USA and as many things in popular culture it spread to this side of the Atlantic too. In Sweden it arrived fairly late, only the last year or two but now it’s a big thing and countless emails spammed each and every one who had the misfortune of signing up to newsletters from online shops and retailers.
This new phenomenon of Black Friday in Scandinavia is all the most interesting because it encourages people to rush, push and go grab the best deal – something that is not really that common in this part of the world.
Ironically today is the first day of real snow in the Uppsala – Stockholm region with several centimeters which fell over night. I would like to think that it was the old spirit of Janteläget blowing its white dust to cover the country and hinder people from the shopping craze some might have been keen on taking part in.
Those of you who follow carefully Lost in a Cup’s social media might remember from last year that the prices were not slashed and that there was actually a campaign to underline how the whole selling tactic goes against our ethos and way we see the world.
Therefore, even this year Lost in a Cup will have no discounts. But luckily there is lots of snow around here, so feel free to join us in a snow fight instead of doing so in a shopping centre or on our online shop.
Enjoy the snow and don’t get too lost in a cup of black (Friday) coffee. Look beyond!
Here at Lost in a Cup prices and philanthropist mission stay the same today as everyday of the year, so there will be no discounts on the products sold.
However we do strongly encourage people to celebrate today by having ‘black coffee’.
We believe that a good cup of black coffee tastes more authentic and is more rewarding than any percentage of discount a retailer can give.
Many put milk or sugar, or both in coffee but it’s good to have a pure, black coffee to really appreciate its taste.
The simplicity of the flavour, appreciated even more if lukewarm, is something rather special. Often our lives are complicated with too many extra things but every so often if we just stripped it down to the basics, the essentials then we would really appreciate what we have.
It is a naked coffee, you appreciate every detail, both good and bad.
However if you do this, you might discover that the coffee you are drinking is not really great tasting in its ‘naked form’.
If you order coffee from the shop I go to the storage, find the articles, put them in a box, print the label and send you the goods.
Can you also put ‘men’ in clearly defined boxes? – No.
Recent years have seen post-structuralists look into many of the norms in our societies and question them often shedding light on dogmas that could be changed to improve our conditions of living.
A lot of progress has been made to empower women by giving access to higher education, something not very common 50 years ago and encouraging a stronger position and role in society beyond the household.
What about men? How much has been done to encourage men to take on household duties, look after children, be more emotionally available, say how they feel, open up? – Not much at all.
Last week was ‘remembrance Sunday’ and people marked the sacrifice of many men who died during wars throughout history. Going to war, fighting and dying in battles they barely understood and sacrificing their lives for the glory of their country – or so they told them. The trauma of war scarred people for life but society forbid them from crying or being visibly affected by the horrors they witnessed in the trenches. A proper man is supposed to have a stiff upper lip.
Sweden is world leading in trying to work on this second, often overlooked, side of gender equality by implementing parental leave for both mothers and fathers.
Today is #internationalmensday and it is worth a thought on how confined the role of a man is within most societies. ‘Man up!’ – ‘Don’t be a pussy!‘ are common things to say or hear even today; is this effectively putting men into a box that limits who they can be and what they can do?
If you want to have coffee in a box check out the web shop.
If instead, you want to try to take men out of ‘the box’ contribute your views on the topic of ‘Men’ and the role they have or should have within our society. All stories and comments welcome on #BackStories
This article is in line with Lost in a Cup‘s ethos and value #EspressøYourself which distinguishes it from your average coffee seller online.
Nya Moderaterna (M) or the new Moderates in English, answer the 9 Political Questions asked to all major parties represented in Stora Torget, Uppsala.
Answering our questions is Moderaterna candidate for Uppsala Fredrik Hultman.
1. What are the core values your party represents?
The Moderate Party defines its ideology as liberal-conservative. According to the party platform, our core values are Liberty, Safety, Openness and Justice.
We believe in the potential of every human being to improve their own lives and the lives of others through entrepreneurship and innovation. Therefore, we want government to be limited, but the state to be strong when it is needed.
2. Where would you place your party in the Left-Right political spectrum?
The party is usually described as being centre-right.
3.Which are the parties you feel closest to in the European Parliament?
The Moderate Party is a member of the European People’s Party (EPP) party group, and has traditionally been rather similar to the British Conservative Party (although, they left the EPP some years ago). The Moderate Party is by far more EU positive than the British Conservatives, but we still share some core ideological tenets with them.
We also have a lot of things in common with the Finnish Kokoomus, the German CDU and the Irish Fine Gael.
4. Why should people vote for your party?
We are a party for the hopeful, the ambitious and the hard working. We believe in the potential of every human being to achieve great things, and want politics to reflect that. Politicians should keep out of people lives, and encourage private initiatives and entrepreneurship. But we also need a strong state, that could provide a strong safety net for those who need support, such as the sick and the elderly.
If more people work and contribute to society, we have more tax money to spend on promoting the general welfare of all people, by investing in education, health care and care for the elderly. We are not the party that makes the most extravagant promises, but we never promise more than we can deliver. We always prioritises core welfare services, such as health care, care for the elderly and education. Those services are provided at municipal and a county level.
5. What are the general priorities your party aims at achieving throughout Sweden?
Our main priorities in this election are reforming the benefits system, cutting taxes for low-income workers and pensioners, investing heavily in cutting waiting times in the health care system, implementing effective environmental policies and ensuring that Sweden is safe by investing in the police force to ensure the rule of law.
For the past four years we have seen a rapid rise in violent crime and sex offences. The government has been unable to address this. The number of police has dwindled due to internal issues at the police authority and poor working conditions, while too few are accepted to the Police Academy to meet the need of the Swedish police force. This has also lead to many serious criminal offences not being investigated within a reasonable time. The Moderates want to raise police salaries significantly.
Since the refugee crisis in 2015 it has been made abundantly clear that Sweden cannot have migration policies that greatly diverges from neighbouring countries. Therefore, we want to keep some of the fundamental parts of the temporary legislation that was enacted in 2016, and which expires in 2019. For example, we want temporary residency permits to be the general rule and demand that immigrants who bring over family member show that they will be able to support them financially. We also want improve integration policies by demanding that immigrants learn basic Swedish as a condition to earn permanent residency and citizenship.
Today, taxes are high while it is still possible to earn more from government handouts than by working. We want to introduce a benefit cap, to incentivise work. For the same reasons, we also want to cut taxes for low income earners. As a matter of fairness, we also want to cut taxes for pensioners, so that people who have worked their whole lives can support themselves.
During the past four years waiting times have risen steadily in health care. We want to invest directly in decreasing waiting times. We also want to introduce more teaching hours in primary schools, to improve results and offer more support to students who lag behind.
We are the only party that has presented a plan to increase defence funding so that it will be 2 % of GDP, in line with the NATO requirement, and we also want Sweden to join Nato.
6. Why should people vote for your party on a Local level?
We are the party that prioritises safety, low taxes and core welfare services. We want local government to run more efficiently and cut municipal taxes so that working families and pensioners get to keep more of the money they’ve earnt. By committing to focussing on core welfare services, we can also afford to cut taxes. The Moderate Party is the best option for those who want sound economic policies.
Today, the tax rate in Uppsala municipality is higher than in comparable municipalities, but the welfare services are not by any comparison better in Uppsala than in other municipalities. Out of 290 municipalities, Uppsala schools now rank in 146th place. When the Moderate Party gained power in 2006, schools ranked in 214th place. In 2014 when we lost power, Uppsala ranked in 54th place. We have improved school results before, and with our policies we will be able to do so again.
7. If elected, what will you do for Uppsala? And for Uppland?
In Uppsala we want to implement our seven-point programme for schools, by introducing qualified teacher assistants to minimise teachers’ workload, and allow them to focus more on teaching. We also want to introduce centralised corrections of test, and implement a model for developing better teaching through teacher conferences lead by qualified researchers, or teachers with an equivalent level of academic education.
We want to focus on making Uppsala safer, by introducing more camera surveillance in public places and having more security guards in public areas. It is unacceptable that many citizens are afraid to go out because of the rise in violent crime.
We want benefits for the unemployed to be tied to demands for work applications. There must always be incentives to find work. In Uppsala, everyone who is able to work, should be expected to.
We promise to immediately add funding to schools that need extra funding for children with special needs. We believe that the cuts to that funding has been irresponsible and needs to be addressed as soon as possible. We also want to improve the traffic situation, by creating more parking spaces and get rid of the bottle necks that create traffic jams.
At a regional level, we want to address the staffing needs at the Akademiska Hospital. Nurses have been resigning at a discouraging rate, to the extent that certain wards cannot remain open. We want to introduce a career system, which rewards loyalty and experience, and also conduct necessary re-organisations to improve working hours for hospital employees.
We also want to make investments collective traffic, and are open to creating a tram system, provided that it is the most feasible and economically sound alternative.
8. Do you have any links to further material on your party in English?
It is important to note that the Moderate Party is cooperating closely with the Alliance (Alliansen), which also consists of “Centerpartiet”, Kristdemokraterna and Liberalerna.
Therefore, we have agreed on certain sets of policies that we would like to implement together with those parties if we are able to rule as a coalition on national, regional and/or municipal level. A vote for the Moderate Party is therefore also a vote for the Alliance. We have no intention of collaborating with other political parties, especially not the Sweden Democrats. However, we have reached agreements with the Social Democrats and the Green Party on important issues in the past, such as the Energy agreement two years ago that was agreed in parliament, and we are open to more of those agreements in the future.
We governed as the Alliance on a national level, in Uppsala municipality and in the Uppsala region between 2006 and 2014. Since 2014 we have been in opposition, and are now looking forward to get back into power.
To read more about the Swedish 2018 Vote go to the homepage of the section.
KristDemokraterna (KD) or Christian Democrats in English, answer the 9 Political Questions asked to all major parties represented in Stora Torget, Uppsala.
Answering our questions is KD candidate for Uppsala municipality Mimmi Westerlund.
1. What are the core values your party represents?
Unlike liberals and socialists, we Christian Democrats do not harbour any utopian notions of what society may become. There is no single answer to aim for. Instead, we act based on good values. There are no perfect people and there are no perfect societies. In our pursuit of a good society, we do not ignore the individual and collective, but focus more on the interrelationships that exist in between: a life partner, family, colleagues, friends, neighbours, churches, companies, associations and charities. We are community builders.
2. Where would you place your party in the Left-Right political spectrum?
Right. We are a freedom and market-friendly based party that emphasises responsibility for our fellow human beings. We aim for reasonable taxation and want to prevent the wastage of taxpayers’ money, and we draw a line between what is and isn’t the duty of politics.
3. Which are the parties you feel closest to in the European Parliament?
We are a part of EPP, European People’s Party along with the Swedish Nya Moderaterna (The Moderates).
4. Why should people vote for your party?
We have attempted to dissolve the weak leftist government throughout the mandate period, we were a driving force behind the exposure of # transportgate which deposed two Ministers. We tore down the ‘opinion corridor’ when our grassroots movement nullified the December Agreement (Decemberöverenskommelsen). We have been a stable part of all centre- right governments since we entered the Riksdag in 1991. On top of that, you get a party that has the courage to place soft values first – safety, healthcare, and welfare.
5.What are the general priorities your party aims at achieving throughout Sweden?
1. Build more homes for the elderly
Current government policy will result in housing shortages for 20,000 elderly by 2030. This means that we will not be able to offer everyone good elderly care. The way to prevent this shortfall is to build more residences.
2. Strengthen the elderly’s personal finance
Abolish pension tax and lower the tax for elderly who want to work. Increase housing grants and rent cap levels.
3. Remove county council responsibility for hospitals
The distribution of healthcare across 21 different county councils is inefficient and unequal. We can shorten healthcare waiting times and give everyone qualitative care if the state assumes the primary responsibility for healthcare.
4. Employ an additional 10,000 police officers
We want to resolve the police crisis of the last few years with better working conditions, higher salaries and increased police recruitment. Sweden needs an additional 10,000 police officers.
5. ‘No’ to parental leave quotas
Families know best what solution is appropriate for them. That’s why we say ‘No’ to parental leave quotas and ‘Yes’ to unreserved parental leave. We also want to lower taxes for families with children.
6. Stop wasting tax payer’s money
Money that could be used for welfare is being wasted on costly and misguided subsidies and municipal white elephant building projects. We intend to stop this.
6. Why should people vote for your party on a Local level?
We have plan for a more secure Uppsala for you and your family.
In Uppsala, security should not only be a political slogan – it should be a keyword in all of the municipality’s activities and works:
Residents should be guaranteed safe streets and squares;
Children should be guaranteed a safe upbringing, and
Elderly should be guaranteed a safe elderly care.
You should simply be able to trust that basic welfare works.
Our main suggestions for safer streets and squares:
1. Values and norms should be given a greater part in integration work.
2. The municipality’s rules should be reviewed to regulate where begging should not occur
3. The security perspective should be an integral part of urban construction work to avoid creating environments that are perceived as insecure.
Our main suggestions for safer families:
1. The size of the children’s groups in kindergarden should be reduced to up to 12 children in the toddler groups and 15 in other groups.
2. Build 1,000 new smaller houses with 2-4 stories yearly, instead of tower blocks.
3. Children in need of help and support from e.g. social services should never have to wait, especially the children who grow up in families with substance abuse problems.
Our main suggestions for safer care for the elderly
1. Every person over 85 years of age should to be guaranteed a place in adapted accommodation (elderly care, nursing home etc)
2. Home service needs to be reviewed with new site sharing and improved quality, e.g. by reducing the number of home care staff.
3. Open more meeting points for older people, who offer exercise and senior restaurants, including in rural areas.
7. If elected, what will you do for Uppsala? And for Uppland?
Except for the above we’ll take responsibility for Uppsalas economy – stop wasting the tax payer’s money and start building our welfare strong again!
8. Do you have any links to further material on your party in English?
Uppsala’s residents should be guaranteed more secure streets; the children should beguaranteed a safe upbringing and kinder-garden, and the elderly should be guaranteed a safe elderly care. You should simply be able to trust that basic welfare works. Up until then – we have to cut spending on things that isn’t basic welfare such as the couch on Forum torget that cost 12 million SEK (http://www.unt.se/nyheter/uppsala/forumsoffans-prislapp-12-miljoner-kronor-5030420.aspx).
To read more about the Swedish 2018 Vote go to the homepage of the section.
However if you do this, you might discover that the coffee you are drinking is not really great tasting in its ‘naked form’.
Nya Moderaterna (M) or the new Moderates in English, answer the 
KristDemokraterna (KD) or Christian Democrats in English, answer the 
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