From: tomas_e@LINK.Physchem.KTH.SE (Tomas Eriksson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Fighting Racism?
Date: 8 Apr 92 10:39:52 GMT
Reply-To: tomas_e@LINK.Physchem.KTH.SE
Organization: Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

raustein@athena.mit.edu (Yngve Koehler Raustein) writes:
>In article <10846@chalmers.se>, d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se (Bertil Jonell) writes:
>
>|>   This year however a nasty rumour reached the ears of the Principal. 
>|> It said that the students had planned to sing the Swedish national anthem at
>|> one point during the graduation cermonies. The Principal immediately 
>|> interposed himself and told the pupils that they were forbidden to sing the
>|> Swedish national anthem on graduation because of "racist connotations".
>|> 
>|>   There is no doubt his intentions was good, but we know what road good
>|> intentions pave. What will the students think when racist cliques try to
>|> fool people into believing that Swedish authorities and politicians want to
>|> de-Swede the country at the same time as their own Principal forbid them
>|> to sing the Swedish national anthem? 
>|>   If I attributed to malice what can be attributed to stupidity I would 
>|> really question the motives of that Principal.

When the "flames" (in an out-of-Usenet sense) started, the principal 
allowed the 9th-year students (who were arranging this) to vote, if they 
wanted "Du gamla, du fria" to be sung. The result was 76 yes, 1 abstained
and *no* nos. So the pupuils will sing it after all.

>I must admit that I don't know 
>the words to the Swedish National Anthem beyond "Du gamla, du fria, 
>du fj{llh|ga nord..." -- does it contain any reference to the "Aryan race" or 
>anything else that might justify the Principal's reaction?

Du gamla, du fria, du fj{llh|ga Nord
Du tysta, du gl{djerika sk|na
Jag {lskar dig v{naste land upp} jord
Din sol din himmel, dina {ngder gr|na

Du tronar p} minnen fr}n fornstora dar
D} {rat ditt namn fl|g |ver jorden
Jag vet att du {r och f|rblir vad du var	*
Ja, jag vill leva, jag vill d| i Norden!

* = there may be an error in this line

(Since Swedish and Norweigan aren't two languages, just two dialects, I 
suppose I don't have to translate it. :-) ) Some hypersensitive people
interpret the final line as some kind of expansionalistic attitude, 
since it says "Norden" and not "Sweden". I would say that this is more a 
sign of the times our national anthem was written in.

Believe it or not, but I *never learned* the national anthem in school! 
Back in the strange 70s it was more or less banned from school. The 
principal in question probably still lives in that decade. Over the last 
decade, Swedish nationalism has become more accepted again. It just took 
the leftists 15 years or so from 1968 to realise that you can wave a 
Swedish flag without being a nazi or hating everyone who is blonde, 
blue-eyed and at least 180 cm tall. :-)

Tomas
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tomas Eriksson                                          tomas_e@physchem.kth.se
            Surface Force Group, Department of Physical Chemistry,
               Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic