Dreaming of Freedom

It was extremely interesting hearing Ariane Sherine - talk about the Atheist Bus Campaign that she created last year. It’s always inspiring to hear about people who make a bit of a splash. The campaign was really encouraging for a lot of atheists out there and it’s great to see that they launched a bill board advertising campaign on Wednesday - targeting the concept of labeling children as religious or non-religious. See the image here. In a similar vein there is also an effort to campaign against faith schools that the BHS is running.
Find out a bit more about the funding of faith schools on the ATL site or on wikipedia. There is also an interesting dossier on Faith Schools
complied by the Accord Coalition.

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Cambridge is beautiful in the autumn and it seems to be speeding by in a whirl of work and cycling. We’ve had a stream of visitors to Cambridge and have been on adventures around the city and up to the observatory to see the old telescopes and listen to talk about dust in the universe. There are free talks open to the public every Wednesday at The Institute of Astronomy at 7pm.

The Festival of Ideas started last Wednesday. I have been to two excellent sessions on how to read poetry as well as French film - the title of which has been translated into Couscous.

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Vanessa has got her wonderful website all set up - anyone looking for online English lessons should check out englishteacheronline.co.uk.

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Yesterday morning I sat on the balcony in the glorious sunshine munching English muffins and butter and watching the myriad of rowers battle their way up and downstream. To compete the illusion of a life of idleness I donned a massive straw hat and sipped a cool drink. This is the life. When I finally torn myself away from the balcony I went to see an exhibition by Katy Bailey at The Pumping Station on Cheddars Lane. There were some artists exhibiting as well as some photos up. It was great nipping between bits of old machines to squint at the pictures.
I then cycled into town over Midsummer Common to get to Parkers Piece so I could help out on the Cycling Campaign stall. Wandering around I also met the Humanist Society and have resolved to go along to some of their events and find out what they’re like. To finish the day off I met up with Andy and sat on the wall outside King’s College chatting about life, politics and other such great matters!

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I have been really excited to discover that you can now learn for free at various institutions including the Open University and MIT. While you may not get a qualification at the end of your studies - disseminating course material in this way gives everyone the opportunity to access higher education. This is the beginning of something great - let’s hope all universities start to provide similar access to their materials.

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Swedish humanists have put up adverts around Sweden proclaiming ‘God probably doesn’t exist’ in an attempt to challenge the role religion plays in public life. Sweden is a remarkably secular country but it’s still good to see that such a campaign is taking place. I’m all in favour of keeping religion out of public life and make it a private affair. It’s great to see it being discussed around the world.

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It was our last day in Helsinki today and we thought we’d head out to Suomenlinna on the ferry. This group of islands served as a military fortress and prison for the last two hundred years and has been placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as an example of European fortification architecture. There wasn’t much open on the island at this time of the year but the information centre with attached museum was open and provided some tables and chairs for chilled picnickers as well as free washroom facilities. We wandered over the islands and wished it was was summer so we could really appreciate it. We ended up in Cafe Chapman for a cup of coffee before getting the ferry back and dashing to the airport just in time to get our flight back to Gothenburg. I was pleased to discover that Blue 1 offer complimentary coffee on their flights - the coffee was all the better for being free. The sun was shinning when we got back to Gothenburg and it felt like we were coming home.

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Week two of SFI passed uneventfully. It continues to be excellent although we can’t help but sit there letting about 70% of it wash over us as incompressible. It seems that usually someone or other understands what the teacher is saying and that manages to carry the class forward. It’s very interesting trying to learn a new language. I think I’m still in awe of myself trying and can’t quite believe I ever will. But nothing ventured, nothing gained…
Although it feels like a mountain to climb, it is an excellent excuse for reading kids books and last night I branched out into film and tried to watch Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking). Perhaps not surprisingly I could really only make out a couple of words!

It’s now turned icy cold here which is a relief after all that horrid rain. Braving the cold on Thursday night I took the ferry across to Lindholmen and met up with K and friends to watch Manufacturing Consent - a film all about Chomsky and seeing as it’s his 80th birthday coming up, we ate cake to celebrate. Although he is one of the leading intellectuals of the day and certainly has some of the best politics, I don’t think there is much in the way of films about him. I think this one is a good attempt to introduce people to ‘Chomsky the political activist’. Chomsky himself if somewhat ambivalent about the film, in part because he feels the medium of film is prone to heroizing. He says he regularly receives letters asking how people can ‘join his movement’, which is of course frustrating when he is just one person in a whole diverse sea of people working towards a better world. I think the fact that he is a professor at MIT, articulate, white and male gives him a certain credibility to begin with but also he is extremely hardworking and in the public eye and that in itself is going to lead to a certain amount of admiration. So while he isn’t the figurehead of any movement he is certainly able to analysis, collate and present evidence that is used to support anarchist interpretations of theories of power, propaganda and control - which is something that makes anyone read his work feel less isolated in their own interpretation of the world and more empowered to try and change it for the better.

On Friday after work I met up with Karin at Botaniska and walked around the wooded laked area behind it. It was cold but beautiful and the pearly white deposits of frozen water sparkled on the trees and the heather and the frozen ice shapes on the lakes and puddles made the world seem calmer and stiller. There was hardly anyone there and we spent a couple of hours wandering around and stiffening up in the cold before coming back to the flat for a well earned fika.

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What a week - the rain seems to have been nonstop and I’ve spent very damp mornings in my SFI classes. I’ve also spent an unhappy amount of time on trams and buses after getting a puncture mid week. Despite classes starting at 8am I have spent a very happy week at SFI learning Swedish - but it’s early days still and I’m still trotting out the sentence: ‘jag förstår inte svenska’ (I don’t understand Swedish) whenever I have to talk somewhere that isn’t class.

I’ve been spending the rest of the time meeting up with Karin and Cheri and of course going to the bookclub where we discussed The Sea by John Banville at length (well in between the cups of tea and life stories!). There really is nothing like sitting in a warm room with a cup of tea and a whole bunch of woman.

On Wednesday night I went to see When We Dead Awaken by Ibsen at the Pustervik Theatre in Järntorget which I thought was very well done. I hadn’t seen that Ibsen play before so it was great to stuff it into my mind along with his others and where better to see it than in a Nordic country in the depths of a rainy November.

Today I introduced Jin Sook from my SFI class to the delights of the Stadsbibliotek (City Library) and she treated me to lunch in the lovely little restaurant opposite where for about 79ske (£6.60) you get a very hearty lunch. I finished off today by going to the Arbetsförmedling (unemployment office) to see if they could help me to find a job. I’m not sure they can but still it was probably worth a try. They suggested that I come back when I have learnt Swedish and in the meantime contact my embassy to ask what companies there were here that employ English speakers!

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I woke up early very excited because today was the very first day of my Swedish lessons with SFI. I bundled myself up protectively against the cold and wet only to get half way down the hill and fall off my bike. Soaking wet and very shaken I had to limp home to get changed and start the journey all over again. Eventually I got to class, very late but happily in time for fika with kanelbullar!

All my studying has paid off so far and there wasn’t much I didn’t understand. The teacher is very kind and speaks slowly. The class seems very nice, altogether we will have three teachers so I guess that will help us with not becoming dependent on one teacher’s accent. And there is an interesting mix of students from all over the world. It was really nice to be sitting cozily in a classroom again and chanting after the teacher - it was happily reminiscent of primary school.

So now I will try to write some of this in Swedish as well! Bear with me as it’s probably going to be hideously wrong!!

Idag jag ha mitt första Svenska lärdom med SFI och det var bra. Alla mitt studiera hjälpa och det jag förstå mycket. Läraren är mycket vänlig och talar långsamt.

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