sweden

Sweden is a country which many Americans don't know much about. One of the most common prejudice is that the entire population is blonde and tall (which is not even remotely true), others may believe that the country is run by communists and that ABBA is the only music arrived therefrom. Fact is that Sweden may have more blondes than e.g. Spain, but there's still at least 40% who aren't. The current government of the mentioned country is Social Democratic, which greatly differs from Marxism and Leninism. The musical scene has of course developed since ABBA, and for a population of 9.000.000, Sweden has produced an awful lot of successful bands and artists. Some of these would be Millencollin, Hammerfall, The Hives, Ace of Base and The Cardigans. Many songs in the U.S. plastic-pop-industry has been written by Swedes also.. among these you can find many songs performed by Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Backstreet Boys, N'Sync and such. Some claim that Sweden among other things has the highest rate of suicides... but as some wise person once said (disputed who) "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." :) It does -not- snow 12 month per year. Actually, it snows barely 3 months every year in the capital city - you get more snow if you go North, less if you go South. In the summers, many Swedes on holiday tend to go to their vacation houses in less populated societies. Yes, a big amount of middle-class to upper-class households have these second houses. And they can afford them, even though all their money is stolen through taxes by "the evil communist regime". Sweden is aimed at being very equal country. Equality between genders is a highly valued issue and neo-feminism is one of the most popular ideologies (which has led many to believe that so called "feminazis" are running the country). All religions basicly has the same rights, and having the church involved in politics has been more or less banned for 300-400 years. The atheist population is also a vast majority. The schools serves alternative food for Muslims and others when the ordinary lunch collides with their relgious beliefs. Oh, and by the way, yes! They do have free school lunches :D Very good food too, even :) Oh, and about schools... most of the swedish population is well educated. Some would say that swedes generally speak better english than most Americans, and this is caused by English being a standard subject with the same importance as Swedish. Also, Sweden does not dub films, videogames and such, but tend to use sub-titles. The country has in fact no real "official language" though, and Swedish is legally regarded as a minority language. VOLVO, SAAB, Sandvik, IKEA and Ericsson are some of Swedens export successes.