[Svaneska]

here is the rest of the story . . .

I imagine that some of the professors sat on this bank, watched this peaceful river and thought what their next project might be. Probably/possibly they thought to make people blind and deaf to see how they would react/to observe their reactions. They had the freedom to do whatever they wanted, their task was not a simple one; they wanted/wished to create the perfect Swede. Perhaps they would have succeeded if McDonald’s and Coca-Cola had not come along and made their bodies’ fat and their teeth rotten.

In the summer, I hear tourists talking in superlatives, "What a beautiful place! Have you seen the women? Absolutely splendid! What beautiful scenery!…."

I sit beside them wondering if I would/should tell them something about the other side, which is not so bright. What would happen if I told them that the driver who is so bored waiting for hours in his taxi over there has a PhD in history and never got an interview just because he has the ‘wrong’ name; or the bus driver, who will take them to the airport, is an engineer who worked for more then twenty years but now drives the bus and feels depressed. Shall I tell them that a person who sold them chewing-gum at the newsagent's was a professor at Baghdad University but here he can only find employment as a manual worker?

"No!" I tell myself, "they have come here to spend their money and they deserve not to know the truth. Let them leave Sweden with their nice memories – and their illusions intact”.

Sometimes it's better to stay ignorant!

I hope this is helpful . . .
take care
have nice weekend