I don't normally talk about local politics in this blog, but the latest actions of our mayor and deputy mayor are worth a mention. The characters you see pictured to the left are Swedish television's classic children's "stars" Humle and Dumle. They were two not so bright friends who lived in the cupboard. They are figures of fun and to call someone Humle or Dumle these days is a way of saying they are stupid beyond words.

And that is exactly what our local leaders are called here colloquially. No-one in Nynäshamn calls them by their names and is it any wonder. I sometimes think that B1 and B2 would do a better job. I won't bore you with the litany of reduced services and higher rates we experience while they vote themselves increases and luxury holidays. That's boring and all too common elsewhere.

But what floored me has been the ongoing dog's breakfast about the reward for information about the train vandals I talked about last month. The local authorities and the train company had announced a reward of $A10,000 for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the damage. Well, two 13 year old boys came forward to the police and their statements led directly to those vandals being caught.

Of course, now that it's time to actually cough up the reward money, Humle and Dumle are suddenly putting conditions on it. They said that it wasn't meant as an the only reason to come forward. It seemed to them that if these kids knew who the vandals were, they should have told the police without needing a reward. WTF? When there was a community uproar over that, they then said that it was too much money to give a kid. Excuse me? You offered a reward to anybody with information, not "anybody who we think is old enough to get the money". People feel they are picking on the childen just because they're childen. I personally don't care how long they knew who the kids were - they came forward and now those vandals are being dealt with. Pay up!

This has been going on for weeks now. The latest version they are offering is that as the kids heard about it at school, they will give the reward money to the school! So, if they heard it at the local hamburger bar would you give the reward to the hamburger bar? Where is the logic in that? Humle and Dumle argue that then all the children would get a benefit - yeah, including those who did the vandalism in the first place!

The sad thing is that people will now be less likely to come forward again after seeing how this whole thing has been mishandled. The community leaders had a chance to reward a couple of local childen for doing something to help out their community. Now they are trying to make them sound as bad as the vandals. It is still being furiously debated around the town with most people being of the opinion that the childen should get this reward money - no strings attached. Whatever they do, it will be a lost opportunity. If they pay out, it will look like they bowed to public pressure. If they don't it will only confirm the town's opinion of them as deserving the title Humle och Dumle

And keeping on the politics, but this time a very lighthearted picture I was sent by a friend, along with the caption Abbas eyed as possible Arafat successor



I've circulated the picture to a few expat friends here in Sweden and we've had a good laugh at the thought of Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Annifrid in charge of the PLO. It has resulted in a few terrible puns from a couple of my friends who wondered if that meant the winner takes it all or hoped that it wasn't going to be their Waterloo after they said I do, I do, I do, I do, I do. I have some very strange friends!

Another sent me this picture as a suggestion for a winter coat for Lambi. I thought it was quite cute - well at least on those dogs. She could be our own little hot dog. But Lars-Göran was less enthusiastic. He figures that I already stand out in Nynäshamn and we don't need to do anything else to add to that.

I wonder what he means?

We are about to watch a program on Discovery called City Taxis - we read the blurb that went with the program which said that the presenter was travelling to Stockholm - a beautiful and well organised city in a wonderful country. Lars-Göran has just quipped that he didn't recognise that description - maybe the word Stockholm was a misprint. Not very patriotic, is he?

Till next time