Correspondents' Correspondence
ROBERTS, STEVEN KELMAN \ COKIE
Correspondents' Correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS. Sweden in the World Stockholm—Upon Premier Olof Palme's...
...We then moved on to the children's permits, and there the poor soul was truly at a loss...
...Last November, my husband—a veteran reporter of U.S...
...Then why don't we have the courage while war is raging, to declare our belief in the only democratic state in the area...
...Why didn't the Foreign Minister express Sweden's feelings of solidarity with Israeli society, built up by the Israeli labor movement, when he spoke at the General Assembly...
...This July, at the UN Women's Conference in Mexico, the Swedish delegation agreed to a statement listing "Zionism' among a group of condemned isms...
...Puzzled, I said, "American...
...No," said I. "Catholic...
...in fact, his article was given the title "Palme for Sweden...
...The newspaper Ex-pressen noted that Palme's speech to a mass meeting in Cuba during his latest trip "was so carefully formulated that Swedes can read it as a tribute to social democracy while Castro can read the speech as a support for his policies...
...Then he inquired into my ethnic origin...
...After asking the usual questions about age, nationality, profession, etc., he came to one I was unprepared for: religion...
...he cried, calling over two colleagues for a consultation...
...And there they were faced with a decision between what are two absolutes in Greece—paternal dominance and Christianity...
...Hence I expected some difficulties would arise...
...This elicited a lot of throwing up of hands and rolling of eyes, as if to say, "These crazy Americans...
...In addition, his visits to developing nations, while they have little effect on Swedish public opinion in general, do seem to be popular among younger voters...
...Steven Kelman Crazy Americans Athens—An American moving to a small country like Greece is continually struck by the homogeneous nature of its society...
...Yes," said another, "but the mother is Christian...
...Sweden, Larson further observed, is rich, and therefore has both money and technical skills to offer, but small, and thus in no position to dominate the regions it seeks to help...
...Such ambiguity may be effective in countries which are not familiar with Olof Palme's way with words, but in Sweden it leaves a bad taste...
...When he got to that previously fateful point, he looked up and expectantly asked, "Jewish...
...I innocently stated, "Both...
...He replied with a laugh, "The Greeks voted 54 per cent for Caramanlis...
...Everyone in the world has a religion.' I stood there shrugging and feeling uncomfortable as he tried to be helpful by offering the one English word he knew: "Protestant...
...I suppose he put "Jewish" as Steven's ethnic origin because he never asked about it...
...And in an extremely significant move that mysteriously went virtually unreported in the national press, the Palme government broke with Swedish trade union representatives at the annual International Labor Organization meeting to vote in favor of seating the PLO as observers, whereas the Swedish unions came out against the motion...
...As the product of every imaginable strain, I could think of no other answer...
...So I meekly answered in my best Greek, "He has none...
...The split was unusual because of the close government-union ties in the country...
...As he reached the now sticky religion part he eyed me warily...
...Dealing with any bureaucracy is frustrating, but here they have made an art out of requiring a variety of esoteric documents, all of them having to be stamped by specific officials in separate buildings...
...Impossible...
...Sweden's diplomatic triumphs in the Third World could indeed pay dividends in the form of orders for Swedish industry, heavily dependent on exports and always looking for new markets...
...It's probably better that way...
...For some reason, it never occurred to me to simply say "yes"' and be done with it...
...As disturbing as these individual actions is Stockholm's refusal to make any moral pronouncements on the Middle East of the type Sweden so readily issues on other international matters...
...Sweden in the World Stockholm—Upon Premier Olof Palme's return from a recent trip that took him to Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba, the editor-in-chief of Sweden's leading morning daily, who favors the nonsocialist Liberal party, Sven-Erik Larson, wrote a lengthy article attempting to explain this country's new-found prestige in the underdeveloped world...
...Here, about all that varies are political opinions...
...But in another effort to help me out, he turned the question into a multiple choice: "Irish, Spanish, French...
...Palme's entourage in Latin America included a large number of business figures, and the Premier discussed trade in each of the countries he stopped at...
...I was fascinated to see which would win...
...But with the nation gaining economically and the Social Democrats gaining politically from the burgeoning Third World relationships, the government is increasingly adapting its international stands so as not to upset its new friends...
...the policeman demanded...
...How could there be any question...
...I shrugged again and whispered, "Jewish...
...The religion is determined by the father," declared one...
...He clearly implied that Palme's foreign policy was good for the nation and should be applauded by all citizens regardless of their political affiliations...
...What else...
...He reeled off factors like Stockholm's backing of anticolonialist movements, its criticism of U.S...
...Finally, after much heated debate, Christianity carried the day and "Catholic" was duly inscribed in the proper space...
...In the United States, despite the efforts of Colonel Sanders and McDonald's, people are still likely to retain different tastes, different roots, different religions...
...Certainly, Sweden's position on the Middle East could not be labeled "courageous.'' At the fall 1974 General Assembly session, it voted for allowing the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to speak, and abstained on the final Mideast resolution...
...That was fine with the policeman, and he confidently filled in the rest of my spouse's form before proceeding on to mine...
...Nor are the unionists alone in their criticism...
...The officer on duty started with my husband Steven's permit...
...campaigns—unthinkingly asked an election analyst for an ethnic breakdown of the first vote this nation had in 10 years...
...but I didn't know what form they would take...
...Sweden did vote against cutting off unesco aid to Israel, however, and against Israel's exclusion from unesco regional bodies...
...screamed the man as I tried to crawl under the table...
...He has none...
...The only place it could do my kids any harm is Northern Ireland—and we're not planning to go there any time soon.—Cokie Roberts...
...A local trade union newspaper complained bitterly after the Yom Kippur War broke out: "We're for democracy...
...Since Steven must travel to Arab countries, he didn't want the word "Jewish" to appear on any of his papers...
...As I responded "yes" to all of the choices he became convinced that the proper answer was indeed "American...
...policy in Vietnam, foreign aid that per capita is twice as much as America's, and support in the United Nations for the "new economic world order" demanded by poor lands and opposed by most industrial states...
...Exactly how strange our Yankee heterogeneity seems to the Greek mind is demonstrated by a recent visit I made to the Alien Police for the purpose of obtaining residence permits...
Vol. 58 • September 1954 • No. 17
