Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Facken får välförtjänt stryk

Utan att på något sätt vilja stödja en antifackrörelse á la USA, är det ändå med en genuin njutning jag läser om Byggnads som inte längre tillåts fortsätta med sin utsugning av svensk byggindustri. De har tidigare alltså snott 1,5% av alla byggarbetares lön, oavsett facklig tillhörighet, och bidragit till Sveriges osunt höga byggkostnader. "För att kontrollera lönens storlek" säger Byggnads. För att göda en självgod tyranni á la Sverige skulle jag säga.

Sverige fälldes i Europadomstolen för att ha brutit mot artikel 1 i konventionen för de mänskliga rättigheterna. Sverige! Inte någon bortglömd diktatur, utan Sverige, vars medborgare tror sig vara så moraliskt högt stående.

Heja EU!

Saturday, February 03, 2007

The best day of my life?

I just had a fantastic day. It was so good I want to make a note, a place to come back to ro re-live this day and recap this deep feel of happiness I feel right now. It's so strong, even though it's Saturday night, I'll go to bed early not wanting to be anywhere else than right here, right now.

This day started where Friday ended - in my kitchen. I had cooked a nice pasta dinner to us - me, my Mexican friend Jarmo and his Spanish friend George. Unfortunately my friend Lena couldn't make it, she became ill that Friday, and my friend Nina was buying a car. When the clock stroke Saturday, we were stuffed with pasta and had emptied two bottles of nice red wine (Ramón Bilbao (also used in the pasta sauce) and Viña Albali (a gift from George)). We've had a few drinks as well, so we were well prepaired for this fantastic Saturday. We continued the partying in town, Park Lane to be exact. It was great fun, but after a while I decided to go to Dubliner's to see my friend Sofia, who no longer lives in Gothenburg. We had great fun, but it was late and soon we took a cab to my place to sleep.

Is there anything worse than waking up all alone, with a severe hung-over, after a good night out??? Well, this morning I wasn't alone. I got up early (my father was about to pick me up at noon) and made up the dishes from the dinner (yeah, better do the shitjob as soon as possible to get it over with). I was in a silly good mood! I actually love my hangovers. I never feel sick, instead it feels like there's a soft blanket over my brain, making everything soft and mellow and just - groovy. :) I also get a nice, deep bass voice which sounds brilliant in the shower! So I was singing along, making poor Sofia wander what the hell she's done to deserve this early waking up! But she didn't complain about my the buns I served, nice, hot and crispy straight from the oven (I always have these buns I make myself in the freezer).

Then Sofia left, I played some piano and father came to pick me up. We where going to Inet Data to get me a laptop. Sure, I could have done that without my father, but he was picking up the freezer box I had used to thaw my freezer the week before. Also he's a bit of a computer geek, just like me and I had planned to go with him back to Älvängen to see my sister's kids. (It turns out they got some bug making the youngest sick, though, so I decided to stay in town in the end.)
Anyway, I bought the LG F1 laptop I had looked at for a while for my newly started firm (Auvinen Konsulting). I needed a good working tool that I could use whereever I went.

The weather this day was just awesome! February, but 7 sunny degrees and a clear blue sky. I just couldn't stay in, playing with my new toy! But Nina didn't mind driving us (in her new Mazda 3!) to some place by the sea. While waiting for her I made some food to bring along (the buns, you know, with brie, honey and wallnuts) adn then got down to Linnégatan to get me a coffee and a sandwich in the sun. Sitting at Dream Coffee I red an interesting article in Affärsvärlden about yet another bad side of the oh so overrated "swedish model". (The swedish model is about the employers and the employees together coming to an agreement about pays etc. The government doesn't need to do shit, nor the legal system. Works fine in a perfect world (just as communism would have been grand in a perfect world). And it has worked quite well historically, probably because the party which has always dominated Swedish policy - the Social Democrats - and the unions are so tightly coupled they are to be seen as one. Which of course is a severe contradiction to true democracy. (I would like to claim that Sweden historically has not been a democracy - it has in practice been a one-party dictatorship. Hopefully this can change now that they finally lost power.) Also the unions have a very strong position in Sweden, they actually do represent the vast majority of the employees. (Which, again, I would claim is not truly democratic. In a democracy, you should be able to choose wether to be a member or not yourself, but this is often not possible today. This has led to a situation where the unions (just like the Social Democratic party) have become arrogant and haught. And as we all know - pride comes before a fall...)). Anyway, the article explained how a few people in the unions and in the employers' organization control hundreds of billions of our money - the pension funds. And this is all done in a structure without insight. "A democratic deficit" as one person politely put it...

Anyway! Then came Nina and we went out for a walk in Hinsholmen. We walked out on the cliffs, talked about life, as we always tend to do, and enjoyed the buns and fruit I brought in the sunshine, looking out over the sun-lit sea. So beautiful. Then came clouds and we escaped the cold going for a spinn in the Mazda 3. Nice car, indeed!

Nina left me off at home and I unpacked all the gear I've bought and did the laundry. Then I got hungry and thought I'd invite someone over to join me eating - after all it was Saturday! But Lena was even more ill. Then Lina called! A girl I really, really like. Unfortunately she lives in Oslo, so we've just met once. But I still love talking to her. We are somehow so different but still so much alike. It's weird, but it feels really good.

After those calls it was too late to invite anyone so I cooked a tasty broccoli/blue cheese dinner for myself. But the day had been so good I didn't mind rounding it off all alone. Not a bit. I even told Jarmo I'd go to bed instead of meeting them in Nefertiti. Then I wrote this. And the day had turned over to Sunday. The end of a really, really good day.