[Bassim]

Svaneska

Thank you for your compliments. I have always listened to my inner voice and it says to me that I have to write. It is not easy for me to write in English
and still I have to open my dictionary many times searching for a word or a phrase. Sometimes, I feel that the sentence I have written is not good or sounds strange, but I have no other choice- I have to write and tell people the truth. You know, there are two sides of this country but the Swedish government likes to show only the positive. It is almost as in the old Communist countries where officially everyone was happy and satisfied. In difference to the Swedes I have already lived in such a political system and know how easy it is to manipulate citizens and make them believe they are living in the best country in the world. I hope I will write about my experiences with the Swedish papers and journalists who report the news which do not exist in reality.

They do the same thing as their colleagues in the communist countries had done for years- when reality is not so bright just invent the news about something positive! For example, instead of criticising the politicians who have created ghettos where not a single Swede live among all these immigrants and where the criminality is very high, they are writing articles about associations and clubs which are insignificant or stopped to exist years ago.

If a person who never visited such a ghetto read the article in the paper, he or she would believed such place is paradise on earth! The tragedy with the majority of the citizens of this country is that they have no time to think about such things. And they often believe their politicians blindly.

For not visiting IKEA you really did not miss much. IKEA is a place which I avoid as much as I can and the only IKEA products I have in my home now are six glasses and some plates.

When I came here in 1993 I was poor and the only furniture I could have afforded was IKEA's. The problem with IKEA is that one has to assemble all furniture oneself with the help of the instructions which are sometimes so complicated that people cannot understand them at all.
When I bought my furniture I asked my four fellow countrymen to help me but when I noticed that they did not understand anything, I drove them all back and spent the whole day and night sweating and fighting to make a job done.
However, the owner of IKEA Ingvar Kamprad is one of the richest persons in the Europe. Nowadays there is even a bank called IKANO.

Thank you once more for helping me!
Bassim