Talk:Sweden/Archive 1

message: Could this be of interest to members of this forum?  I created a table for all the Olympic medal count winners including Sweden. It also includes a total medal count for the entire European Union (among many other things). The original article is here: Olympic Medal Statistics: Medal Count Winners. Recently, however, someone nominated this article for deletion. If you want to comment on whether it really should be deleted, go to this article's entry. Thanks!
Medalstats 14:17, 3 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sweden at the Olympics - Adding Olympic Medals of the EU? 

message: On official language. Even though Swedish may not hold status as official language it is far more than just most common. Laws are given, and official documents are published, only in Swedish. It is the language of the dominant culture and few countries may have been so exclusively comitted to a single language culture, as Sweden (after 1809). The terminology de facto standard language may be replaced by a better one, albeit accurate. -Mic
On Swedish (language) I'm about to write: Swedish is the national (but not official) language of Sweden, mother tongue for the Sweden-born inhabitants (7,881,000) and aquired by nearly all immigrants (1,028,000) (figures according to official statistics for end of 2001).
The prior statement there (Swedish being spoken by nearly all inhabitants of Sweden) wasn't really to my liking. At the same time, I propose the term "national language", but please change it back if it looks awkward.
On official language (continued) I was taught (in my Swedish class) that Swedish was declared the sole language of the government in the late 17th century. I'm puzzled by not being able to find any references to this. (I mean: I don't find it in the Real World, on the library.) -- Ruhrjung 11:02 May 15, 2003 (UTC)
:I think the term national language works. It is potentially confusing but to some extent it is an improvement over previous terminology in making it less officious. There is currently a government bill proposing to give Swedish status of official language. The bill is meant to be analogous with introduction of the minority languages, but the general sentiment is that the it will fail to become law due to lack of support in parliament. -- Mic 11:51 16 May 2003 (UTC)
----
Hmm I have wondered hwt shall we do about the coat of arms, as the "lesser arms" were shown but now have been replace by the "greater arms", the are both coat of arms but what one should be shown? or should they btoh be some how fited in? -fonzy
:As you know there are two official "Riksvapen", or coats of arms of the realm. The larger one represents the Monarchy and Sweden as a state. The lesser arms is a part of the larger and primarily used to represent the authority of the elected government within Sweden. There is Coats of Arms article in the works as well as more on official heraldry in Sweden. -- Mic 12:07 May 4, 2003 (UTC)
----
I remove the following paragraph from the page:
::Sweden is one of the world's most secularised societies, and the church has so many members only because, until recently, Swedes automatically became members of the State Church at birth.
Seems rather POV to me, and maybe hard data of attendance to mass, daily prayer, communion, or feeling of closeness to God would be better?
-- Ruhrjung 11:31 16 May 2003 (UTC)
::Swedes do become members of the church at birth, though - it takes some considerable legal effort to revoke one's membership, too - David Stewart 12:03 16 May 2003 (UTC)
:::Apparently that was before 1995. If one of a childs parents was a member then the child would automatically become a member too. And leaving the church just requires filling out a form.. at least according to . Here are some statistics on how many people have joined/left the church in the last years . -- Jniemenmaa 13:59 May 16, 2003 (UTC)
::::The Church of Sweden was the official registrar of Swedish citizenship and domicile until 1990, when these tasks were transferred to the tax authorities. The separation of church and state was effectuated on January 1, 2000. It has been possible to transfer membership to another church since 1850s and leaving the church altogether since 1950s. Leaving the church requires a filling out a form, which has to be completed and returned by November 1 if the member wishes to leave the following year. Many chose to leave the church over membership fees, amounting to roughly 1% of the income, and still beeing collected by the tax authorities. -- Mic 16:36 16 May 2003 (UTC)
:Being a Scanian, I might agree that Scania is one of the worlds most secularized countries :-))), but you don't have to go further than to Småland (i.e. to Sweden) to find lots of churches of different denominations in also the smallest villages. Well, seriously, I think the removed sentence was rather unneccessary. In an American Criminal Court drama, the Defence would have shouted "Objection, speculations" or something similar. -- Johan Magnus 01:21 19 May 2003 (UTC)
Users have been latinizing all manner of place names in Swedish location names on the English pages.  This has to stop.  I swear, this is an over the top offensive slight to the pages and to Scandinavians.  When a page is written in English, that does not mean pseudo-latin.  I, for one, am severely disgusted.  Somebody with some enforceable authority change and protect those pages, please.  Latino-maniac arrogance has no place in non-latin location names.
68.0.150.158
:Well, if you couldn't find a more important fight to pick, start editing and be bold in updating pages. With regards to pre-20th century concepts, you ought to consider that also for English speakers Latin was the lingua franca.--Ruhrjung 17:07, 30 Sep 2003 (UTC)
replies: text: See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Swedish provinces -- Mic 15:16, 1 Oct 2003 (UTC)
thread_title:  Official language 

message: Under Holidays, it is said that: "The Swedish holiday calendar consists mainly of Christian holidays. Many of these are however a continuation of pre-christian customs, such as Midsummer and Walpurgis Night." This gives the impression that Midsummer and Walpurgis Night are, in fact, today considered a Christian holiday. To the best of my knowledge, it is not. Does anyone have an explanation of the reasons behind the chosen wording? Alarm 13:51, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Holidays 

message: Hi! I'm doing a project on Sweden,and i need to know about the economy. I was searching for some info, and i noticed that there isn't anything about the economy. Could someone find the Gross Domestic Product of Sweden in 2000? I seem to have trouble! Thanks.
user:Proud Canadian
You can probably find something here Swedish economy Talous 15:22, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Swedish Economy 

message: I know the phobia of "other" language, but the French map is clearly superior in that it shows lakes and rivers.
--Fred-Chess 08:37, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with you on this. The French map is a better map and so much superior that it should replace the English map untill a better one is found. I think that the World Factbook maps are of quite low quality. Jeltz talk 12:33, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  I have made some improvements of the map and uploaded it. --Fred-Chess 01:01, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  French map 

message: i was just about to edit the pre-history, but I will wait a while and paste it here for the time being.
=== Pre-history ===
Sweden was inhabited by hunters and gatherers during the Stone Age (6000 BC – 4000 BC), following the recession of the last ice age – the Weichsel glaciation. The region developed rather slowly compared to southern Europe;  while the Romans wrote poetry, Scandinavia had just entered the Iron Age.
Sweden was first mentioned in the 1st century, by Roman historian Tacitus, who wrote that the Suiones lived out in the sea and were powerful in both arms and ships. After that, the sources are scarce. 
Sweden as a name originated in a so-called "back-formation" from the plural form Swedes (Old English Sweoðeod, Swedish Svear), the land of the Suiones. This referred to the inhabitants of eastern Sweden only, in Östergötland, primarily around lake Mälaren; towns of Stockholm, Sigtuna and Birka. The western parts were on the other hand inhabitet by Götar in Västergötland.
During the Scandinavian Viking culture of the  9th and 10th century, the Svears primarily went east, to Balticum, Russia and the Black Sea, and by lakes of Russia down to southern Europe. The Kievan Rus', from which Russia takes its name, traces its heritage to the Sveas.
With the Christianization in the 12th century, the country was consolidated, with its center at the water-ways of the northern Baltic and the Gulf of Finland. 
Like the rest of Europe it was in the 14th century struck by the Black Death (the Plague), with all the effect. But Sweden's expansion into the northern wilderness of Laplandia, the Scandinavian peninsula, and present-day Finland continued; the country today known as Finland was a part of Sweden from 1362 until 1809.
--Fred-Chess 10:18, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  edit conflict... 

message: Sweden was inhabited by hunters and gatherers during the Stone Age (6000 BC – 4000 BC), following the recession of the last ice age – the Weichsel glaciation. The region developed rather slowly compared to southern Europe;  while the Romans wrote poetry, Scandinavia had just entered the Iron Age.
Sweden was first mentioned in the 1st century, by Roman historian Tacitus, who wrote that the Suiones lived out in the sea and were powerful in both arms and ships. After that, the sources are scarce. 
Sweden as a name originated in a so-called "back-formation" from the plural form Swedes (Old English Sweoðeod, Swedish Svear), the land of the Suiones. This referred to the inhabitants of eastern Sweden only, in Östergötland, primarily around lake Mälaren; towns of Stockholm, Sigtuna and Birka. The western parts were on the other hand inhabitet by Götar in Västergötland.
During the Scandinavian Viking culture of the  9th and 10th century, the Svears primarily went east, to Balticum, Russia and the Black Sea, and by lakes of Russia down to southern Europe. The Kievan Rus', from which Russia takes its name, traces its heritage to the Sveas.
With the Christianization in the 12th century, the country was consolidated, with its center at the water-ways of the northern Baltic and the Gulf of Finland. 
Like the rest of Europe it was in the 14th century struck by the Black Death (the Plague), with all the effect. But Sweden's expansion into the northern wilderness of Laplandia, the Scandinavian peninsula, and present-day Finland continued; the country today known as Finland was a part of Sweden from 1362 until 1809.
--Fred-Chess 10:18, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pre-history 

message: As you can see, only a portion of these inventors have their own articles. I suggest that anyone proficiently familiar with the subject(s) would do Wikipedia a service if he/she would take the time to write a cuple of articles.
*Nils Alwall, (1904-86), the dialysis machine
*Arne Asplund (1903-1993)
*Nils Bohlin, (1920-2002)
*Gustaf Dalén, (1869-1937)
*Rune Elmqvist, (1857-1924), implantable pacemaker
*John Ericsson, (1803-1889), inventor of USS Monitor
*Lars Magnus Ericsson, (1846-1926)
*Bengt Gadefelt, (1924-2001), the turbo engine for cars
*Carl Edvard Johansson, (1864-1943), gage block sets
*Johan Petter Johansson, (1864-1943)
*Håkan Lans, (1942-)
*Gustaf de Laval (1845-1913)
*Frans Wilhelm Lindqvist, (1862-1931), Primus (kerosene stove operated by compressed air)
*Carl Rickard Nyberg, (1858-1939)
*Gustaf Erik Pasch, (1788-1862), the safety match
*Baltzar von Platen, (1898-1984)
*Erik Wallenberg, (1915–1999), the Tetra Pak
*Jonas Wenström, (1855-93), the three-phase electrical system
*Sven Wingquist, (1876-1953), Self-aligning ball bearing
Maybe the article Sweden should also have a segment that deals exclusively with Science in Sweden. Well-known inventions/inventors and discoveries/discoverers etc. What/why/when/how regarding the contributions to the international scientific community.
Tsaddik Dervish 11:11, 14 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Swedish inventors 

message: The image :Image:Sweden 1658.png and the assosiated text "Current day Sweden (red) with annexed territories (orange) in 1658." views the Swedish Empire from our temporal Point-of-View.
It maybe Ok to include the present borders of Sweden in the picture. This could be done by overlaying the outlines on the 1658 map. It is however factually incorrect to represent Scania as a part of Sweden proper and Österland (Finland) as "annexed territory". The exact opposite is true. -- Petri Krohn 01:39, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Rewrote text. The picture still needs to be redrawn. -- Petri Krohn 04:30, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Sweden with annexed territories

message: I noticed that a FT article from 7/15/05 has significantly different demographics, specifically, it had the number of Muslim immigrants in Sweden at 350,000. Given the considerable difference, does anybody have a better way of getting this number? Malik
: Depends on what you mean by "muslim". That number is probably the total of immigrants and native-with-both-parents-as-immigrants that originate in predominantly muslim countries. The most "optimistic" calculation along these lines is 400,000. The total membership of muslim congregations is about 80,000 so 100,000 is a reasonable number for the number of practicing muslims, and 350,000 may be a reasonable estimate of the number of people with an islamic cultural background. --BluePlatypus 11:03, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Demographics 

message: Sorry to have to make this  point, so heavy handedly, but there are some endlessly commenting on Cuba who believe that Cuba is a  socialist country just like Sweden.  See some discussion below and more at 
e.g. ::The socialist/communist discussion is neverending and I don't see a way out either (by the way, I'm in favour of 'socialist' for roughly your reasons and because Cuba calls itself socialist - it's their country, so who are we to disagree). The use of the word 'state' is something like the word 'regime'. They both have perfectly neutral meanings, but most to most people they have a flavour and are therefore perceived as pov. So that's tricky. Should we be correct or follow common usage (such as in the media)? Or simply avoid the issue by not using the words? Ultimately, the best solution seems to be consistent. So if we call this a state, we should also use that term for democracies, as you point out. So I'm with you on this account too, but it remains a messy issue. DirkvdM 11:42, 1 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I'll answer to your original question, DirkvdM. Sweden's government is usually described as social democratic. Cuba is not a democracy. / Fred-Chess 04:56, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

text: Here's one more article for you to ignore: Wikipedia:Don't disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point -- Curps 16:22, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Parallels with Cuba 

message: I updated and corrected the energy/electricity statistics and removed the old source. The old values mixed electricity production (from renewables) and total energy usage (from coal, peat etc.) in a very unlogical way. The new values are from Statistics Sweden and deals only with electricity production. 130.240.200.146 01:31, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Electricity statistics 

message: Hello,
I've added the section "Swedish Nobel Prize Winners"
--Cr34t0r 11:39, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I fail to see why citizenship should matter. He was a resident of Sweden for almost all his life, and had a tremendous influence on Swedish culture. Of course, the fact that he remained a Dutch citizen could be mentioned, but it doesn't warrant his exclusion from the section. -- Jao 15:16, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Swedish Culture 

message: I have added some information about Sweden's collaboration with the Allied forces during WWII that is necessary to include because it creates a balanced picture of Sweden's role during the war.  Sweden breeched neutrality in favor of both sides, but for the Nazis it was forced upon them, while for the Allies it was voluntary.  The cooperation with the Allies was actually a more serious breech of neutrality, but it is unfortunately often forgotten, probably because the cooperation with the Nazis is seen as more sensational.  I haven't yet found an English source about this online, but maybe someone else can?  The swedish source is:  http://www.smb.nu/pos/02/06a_beredskapsserien.asp
: Sweden had little choice.  Sweden also gave shelter to many jews from other countries. (Blacksun 02:30, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Sweden during WWII

message: I do not fully agree with calling our 'Statsminister' 'Prime Minister':
1. Prime Minister gets translated to Permiärminister in Swedish. (fe. prime minister Tony Blair -> Premiärminister Tony Blair) Whereas Minister of State would be directly translated to 'Statsminister'.
2. If you asked a swede who the prime minister of sweden is he would probably be confused and not understand you if you asked who was the minister of State most people would quickly say Göran Persson.
3. Comparable to the Tsar (sp?) of Russia, we would never the monarch of Russia for king of Russia (Same goes with severall other countrys too, Emperor of China, Ceasar of Rome etc. etc.)
Anyway I as a Swede would like it to be changed to Minister of State, with an explanation of it being equivalent to Prime Minister. 83.226.228.40 20:00, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The Swedish Goverment Offices use the name Prime Minister themselves, and I think that Göran Person usually (or always) is called Prime Minister in English media. While I don't think that it would be wrong to call him Minister of State the general usage is Prime Minister. Jeltz talk 20:16, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

text: Google: "prime minister göran persson" - 68,100 hits. "minister of state göran persson" - 6 hits. So that's the end of that. He's most commonly referred to as "Prime Minister" in English, so that's what should be used. It's also what's used officially. As for 1) It's a different word, but still the same title. 2) I doubt that very much. I don't think many Swedes would have problems knowing the answer to "Who is your Prime Minister?". (in English) They might be confused if you asked them in Swedish and said "Premiärminister", but that's simply because it's not the usual term. It's still the same term as "Statsminister", even if "Premiärminister" is the more direct translation of the English term. 3) Exactly. It would be confusing to use a term other than the commonly-accepted one, even if it has the same meaning. Which is exactly why "Prime Minister" should be preferred over "Minister of State". (BTW, "Tsar" means "Emperor", not "King"). --BluePlatypus 00:08, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

text: Also, Minister of State means an junior minister in English, i.e. someone who isn't even a proper minister. Thomas Blomberg 08:37, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Prime Minister/Minister of state 

message: "Hjalmar Branting, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Sweden", claims the caption under his portrait - and the article about him, as well. Well, that's news to me - and I think most Swedes. What about Nils Edén, Carl Swartz, Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, Karl Staaff, Arvid Lindman and all the others? Hjalmar Branting was the first Social Democratic Prime Minister, but definitely not the first Prime Minister to be democratically elected. Sweden became a constitutional monarchy in 1809. Anyone care to argue about this before I change it? Thomas Blomberg 09:25, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That depends a lot on one's definition of "democratically elected". Branting is certainly one candidate, as his second cabinet was created after the first election to the second chamber including women (1921). But parliamentary principles had of course been laid down in practice for several decades then (even though a truly "democratically elected" PM, in a strictly formal sense, didn't exist until the 1970s), so if male-only democracy counts, we could just as well get a very early name, e.g. Arvid Posse. But this phrase is by no means clear-cut, and so should not be used lightly, such as here or in the introduction of the Hjalmar Branting article. -- Jao 21:44, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think the only valid statement would be that he was the first Social Democratic Prime Minister. Measuring democracy by the rules for suffrage is very difficult, as there has always been rules limiting who can vote. Right now, all Swedes who are 18 or older can vote, so one could argue that there was no democracy when only those who were 21 or older could vote - and if the voting age is lowered to 16, then suddenly there was no democracy until that happened. Also, formally no Swedish Prime Ministers have ever been elected, as Swedes vote for parties, not individuals, and the leader of the party with the most votes normally becomes the Prime Minister, so the sentence is misleading in that aspect as well. Thomas Blomberg 01:52, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

text: I have changed the image caption since I agree with that it is hard to say who was the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Sweden. A claim this uncertain doesn't belong in an image caption. Jeltz talk 21:11, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  And I have changed the Hjalmar Branting article the same way. Thomas Blomberg 21:30, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Branting the first democratically elected Prime Minister?? 

message: IMO, the term "neutrality" is used in the wrong way in this article. Sweden maintains a policy of non-alignment, meaning that the country doesn't belong to any military alliances or unions, despite any sympathies or allegiances towards other countries. That is not the same as being neutral, which basicly means that the country is totally impartial toward any other country. Maybe this article would benefit from an explanation of the differences between those two? /Magore 14:59, 5 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Neutrality or non-alignment? 

message: There is a very good picture from the city Linköping in the Sweden article, but it hasn´t got anything to do with the context of the article - the motive is a local government office in Linköping and doesn´t say anything about the landscape, culture or topography of Sweden. I have removed it - but anyone who would like to see it can look at the Linköping article. user:Erik031
:I agree. It is a very nice image, but it is not clear why it should be among the relatively few pictures on this page. (But Erik, when you edit, you should log in with your username and leave an edit comment to explain what you are doing - otherwise it will just make people think it is some random vandalism.) I also think we should remove the Thor painting by Winge from the history section. It is an interesting example of 19th century national romanticism, but has nothing to do with Swedish pre-history. I think a picture of the mounds at Gamla Uppsala or a Vendel period helmet would be better. up◦land 09:47, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nice picture, but not here 

message: I have reverted this article back to version 55579635, since it was vandalized by user 68.96.129.77, who replaced the entire section about the history of Sweden with some nonsense. Unfortunately, a few constructive edits were removed as well, and this is what happens when we edit vandalized versions of the articles on wikipedia. If your edits were lost, please add them again. And be more careful the next time you make edits to an article on Wikipedia, and check that the version is good before proceeding. If not (ie it has been vandalized), revert back to the last good version. Thank you. /Magore 17:35, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: One of the two edits removed was changing the number of muslims to soemthign different to what the source used in this article says without removing the refernce. The other was adding some information about some kind of Swedish dumplings. They might deserve to be mentioned in the main article since they are kinda well-known in Sweden, but I think of many other well-known local dishes. Jeltz talk 19:02, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Be more careful when editing, please 

message: Hello, I've taken the liberty of making what I feel are some improvement to the politics section. The previous text was not that bad, I just felt it focused a bit too much on history of Swedish politics. I belive this is best explored in a separate more detailed article. Likewise for the foreign policy of Sweden section, which was more about Swedish politics during WWII and the Cold War than about the politics today. The Catalina affair isn't exactly defining of Swedish foreign policy today.
I didn't mean to upset anyone, so, if anyone disapproves, please feel free to revert (though I hope you will not) or give me suggestions for which bits to keep/change/improve.
Cheers,
Osli73 21:37, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Swedish politics 

message: The Language section consists of two paragraphs - one about Swedish and the other about the knowledge of English in Sweden. Nothing technically wrong with this, though I think it gives the section a slightly wrong focus. I would suggest adding something about the different dialects in Sweden (which are quite varied for a country with such a small population) and, perhaps, something about the languages of recent imigrants to Sweden (Finnish, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, etc.).
Osli73 21:41, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Language - dialects 

message: While the introduction isn't technically wrong I feel that it's not as good as it could be. A couple of thigs bug me (though just a bit):
1. How can Sweden be a "Nordic country in Scandinavia"? At the very least, the wording is a bit strange.
2. "Mountainous wildreness" sounds a bit harsh. Better to say something about mountains on the border to Norway or similar. 
3. "Natural resources of water, timber, and iron ore have made Sweden highly prosperous." It's one thing to state what the main natural resources are. It might even be correct to state that these contributed to Sweden's early industrialization (though other factors, such as early economic liberalization, contributed perhaps even more). However, to say that these natural resources "have made Sweden highly prosperous" is not correct. These natural resources continue to play an important role in the economy, but they are by far superceeded by other sectors and factors. I would suggest something else (perhaps saying something about the telecommunications, IT, automotive and pharmaceutical industries).
4. "Its citizens enjoy an extremely high standard of living in a country that is universally perceived as clean, modern, and liberal." Saying that Swedens standard of living is "extreme" is pushing it a bit and quite subjective. "Universally" feels a bit too broad, better to take it out.
In general, I find the article very good. However, I have three general criticisms:
* It has quite a lot of focus on history, also outside of the history section. I've already made some changes of this in the Politics section.
* The article feels a bit antiquated. As if it had come from some 1970s school book if you will (no offense intended to any editors here). It talks about iron ore and hydropower, the welfare state, etc. It also includes a slightly smug tone (the "excellent" this and the "modern" that).
* Related to the second point above (the 1970s feel) the text feels a bit like it was written by a member of the Social Democrat party. Sentences like "The standard of living has become markedly high under Sweden's social democratic system" don't feel NPOV. Add comments about how "In addition, the ceiling on health care costs makes it easier, relative to other nations, for Swedish workers to take time off for medical reasons."
What do you think about my comments? I would be willing to work through some changes and either make them directly in the article (and let you revert them if you dislike them) or publish them here on the Talk page and let you discuss them.
Osli73 22:07, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Specific comments on the introduction and general comments on the article 

message: I've decided to be bold, and thus removed some of the information from the section about music. We already have an article about the music of Sweden, and I don't see any reason for adding the name of every swedish group or artist that someone has heard about. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and not an indiscriminate collection of information. Information added to the main article should be notable and of general interest. /Magore 22:10, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Music - Cleanup 

message: I removed all the images. I'd like to have a discussion on what images should be best suited for the section. Currently the images were:
Image:Gamla_Stan_swe.jpg|View of Gamla Stan in Stockholm.]]  	 
image:Tarfala.jpg|Image near Kebnekaise from Lappland in northern Norrland.]] 	 
image:Halso island.jpg|Image from Göteborg archipelago in northern Götaland.]] 	 
Image:Scania outside Malmö at Lockeby.jpg|Image from Skåne in southern Götaland.]] 	 
Image:Hhgg.jpg|An autumn image from Dalarna.]]
Image:Turning Torso och Bo01 2.jpg|The Turning Torso skyscraper in Malmö, Skåne.]] 	 
Image:Akallavy.jpg|Akalla outside Stockholm.]] 	 
Image:Sågargatan 11 Södermalm Stockholm 2005-06-13.JPG|Södermalm, Stockholm.]]
Ideally the images should give a selection of typical Swedish stuff. However, of these images, three are from stockholm, two are from Skåne, one from Norrland, one from Gothenburg, and one from Dalarna (but it could be taken anywhere?). 
Please have a say on which images you like to be included! Please also make any suggestions you may have on what images you would like to see for the section. I am fairly acquainted with the Commons server and could probably dig up something.
Fred-Chess 10:24, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removed images in geography section 

message: external links:
*VisitSweden.com - The Official Travel and Tourism Site
:Why removing the official tourism site?
*History of Sweden: Primary Documents
*Schlockholm - Swedish news in English from the capital, Stockholm, commercial
*Historical Statistics of Sweden
*World History Database Chronology of Sweden
see also 
*Provinces of Sweden
*Catholic Church of Sweden -- should be integrated with religion in Sweden
*Islam in Sweden -- dito
*Nobel Prize -- should be integrated with culture
*Swedish Royal Academies -- dito
*Foreign relations of Sweden -- integrated with section foreign policy
*Ethnic Swedes -- integrated into demographics section
(more to follow)
Fred-Chess 10:49, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  other removed material 

message: Hello,
Since noone responded to my comments on "Specific comments on the introduction and general comments on the article" above I will now go ahead and do some cleaning up of the article. Please let me know if anyone thinks these are inappropriate (make specific comments).Osli73 07:19, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Going ahead with cleanup of the article 

message: The root of the name Sweden has come up in Talk:Viking. This was said.
:The name of Sweden in Swedish (Sverige) is short for Svea Rike. Svear (or, in English, "Suiones") is the old and indigenous name of the (tribe of) people who lived in the core area of Sweden, ie where Stockholm lies today. The middle part of Sweden is still named Svealand, which translates into "Land of the Suiones". So, to sum it up, Sverige or Svea Rike can be translated into "Kingdom of the Suiones", or something like that.
Maybe this should be investigated and included in the article if it is true.--OrbitOne  [Talk|Babel] 20:22, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That is correct. Sweden of today is divided into three regions - Svealand (same meaning as Svea rike, Sweden proper), Götaland and Norrland. Svealand and Götaland are former lands or countries of their own, but I'm not sure about Norrland. As far as I know, it was settled a lot more recently. Anyway, that the indigenous name for Sweden is derived from "Svea rike" is correct and should in my opinion be included in this article. /Magore 21:42, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  But it is in the article. Look under section Pre-history. / Fred-Chess 04:02, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sweden, the name 

message: I thought floorball ("Innebandy" in swedish) is the most popular sport in Sweden? Popular as practitioning, not watching. I'm pretty sure it has the highest numbers of participants if you count the players not "registred" (in a league club etc), who just plays for fun/exercise with collegues/friends etc. Hallogallo 12:04, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I have somewhere read that floorball was the second most popular sport in Sweden if you count the number of pracitioners. I don't remember where I read it though. Jeltz talk 19:23, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sports - popularity 

message: The article currently calls the murders of Palme and Lindh "political". Since the motive of the Palme murder is unknown and the murder of Lindh does not seem to be politically motivated at all I think it is incorrect/misleading to call the murder "political". It would be better to say that "two high-ranking politicians have been murdered", or something in along with that.
Do you agree to change?
Osli73 09:57, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Murders of Palme and Lindh - political? 

message: The Foreign policy section feels too much like the History of Swedish foreign policy rather than current foreign policy. I suggest a rewrite. Is that ok by everyone?Osli73 20:01, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Foreign policy section focuses too much on history, at the expense of the present 

message: The line "In the 17th and 18th centuries Sweden extended its territory through warfare and became a Great Power" ought to be changed to "In the 16th and 17th century" or even better "In the 17th century". Sweden did not do any territorial wins during the 18th century, and it certainly did not become a Great Power in the 18th century.--Warfvinge 15:01, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: "In the 17th century" would be OK for me, but the mention of the 16th century should be left out. Not much happened during that century in terms of expansion, although we have the bloodbath in Stockholm as well as the rebellion led by Gustav Vasa. /M.O (u) (t) 16:23, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Question regarding a fact in the introduction.  

message: The last paragraph in the Energy politics section says that: "Sweden decided to phase out nuclear fission before 2020, although it is very unlikely that this will happen."
Could someone please add why it is unlikely to happen? I'd appreciate that.
Samuel 13:28, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nuclear phase out 

message: The Prime Minister of Sweden is still Göran Persson, even though he and his party lost this sundays election. New Prime Minister will probably be Fredrik Reinfeld, BUT that is not yet declared. I don't know the exact dates for when this goverment will step down and the new will take over, but as of today this has not yet been done. 213.112.157.154 23:23, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Prime Minister and Goverment 

message: I received a request to semiprotect this article, in advance of the change in governments. I have to say that I do not think that's necessarily warranted based on a quick review of the history. (and I don't really have the background to know whether there is more to it than that) In general, WP policy is to use protection and semiprotection very sparingly. If there is a flood of vandalism, please feel free to ask on the vandalism noticeboard  or the general admin noticeboard or (best) the request for page protection board for assistance. Hope that helps and happy editing on this generally quite excellent article, all... ++Lar: t/c 18:21, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Request for semiprotection 

message: considering that sweden holds the 6th position in the HDI, i don´t see why this isn´t considered as the "very top".
unless the very top is the top 5.
i´m just wondering why, i don´t know.
:If you look at the article on Human Development Index it has a category for countries with an HDI from 0.95 and above. Sweden is incredibly close but not included in this group. I think this is the reason. Valentinian (talk) / (contribs) 08:57, 24 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  HDI 

message: In the Politics section, the party composition of the Riksdag is said to be as of May 2006, though the primary figures are actually the results of the September elections. The newly elected Riksdag is not yet in place, and is to be opened on October 3. Either should the figures concerning the previous Riksdag be restored until October 3, or the text should be changed to something like "the future Riksdag, to be officially opened on October 3, will constist of ...". /The Phoenix 16:12, 24 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Composition of the Riksdag

message: What is with this: "foreign policy in peacetime and neutrality in wartime. Sweden is a very poor country in Southern Africa."
I see it in the main page but I can't seem to find it in the edit section.
:The sentence was introduced by an anonymous user today at 08:26 UTC and removed by Gnangarra today at 09:26 UTC. It's the nature of this project that content changes, articles get vandalized, and the vandalizations get reverted. If you refresh the page, bypassing your browser's cache, you will get the most recent version. -- Jao 12:45, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  wikipedia bug ? 

message: Former wording sugested the public health care system leading to unusually high suicide statistics. For my part i can not see this glancing over http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide_rates/en/index.html WHO's figures. In fact Sweden is on par with most western european nations (even if you disregard differentialting countries with primarilly public health care or private). Further its suggested the statement to be a common myth, due to sweden being one of the first nations to publicise their statistics on health care. As for the statement on mental health, i would suggest someone looks into the validity of this.
: It is a rumour in the U.S. that Swedes are prone to suicides. I've heard it on several sit-coms. I don't where it comes from. / Fred-Chess 20:00, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Public health? 

message: Fredrik Reinfeldt is as of today, October the 5th, 2006, the new prime minister of Sweden, after officially being elected by the swedish Riksdag. Do NOT change back to Göran Persson as the PM of Sweden, please. /M.O (u) (t) 14:06, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Göran Persson will resign tomorrow noon, until then Sweden will have two prime ministers. See http://www.svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=22620&a=673993&lid=puff_673992&lpos=rubrik or Swedish Wikipeida. Vints 15:20, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Nonsence, Göran Persson resigned today (Oct 5) at 14.08. See e.g. press release of the Riksdag --- Camptown 20:06, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: You are wrong. The Riksdag chose Reinfeldt Oct 5 14.08. But he will take office Oct 6 noon. Persson signed his resignation September 18. Vints 06:03, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Persson heads the caretaker government until PM Reinfeldt presents his cabinet. Persson's application for resignation was "approved" by the Riksdag on October 5, when Mr. Reinfeldt took office. Big deal? ---Camptown 07:42, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Swedish Wikipedia says October 6. See also  Vints 09:05, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

text: Unprotected. Kusma (討論) 10:33, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fredrik Reinfeldt elected prime minister of Sweden