Watching the Swedes is about my observations of Swedish behaviour. Sometimes, it's easy to think that I am describing 'typical Swedish'. However, it's important to remember that I describe individuals I see and these people may behave in ways that are typical to themselves but not reflective of Swedish society as a whole. I am glad to say that, sometimes, it's just the questionable behaviour of one person.
One example of this happened today. It is an example that makes me angry, sad and frustrated.
Today a 74 year old Swedish woman died in hospital. She died after she was assaulted in a car park outside a supermarket in the south of Sweden. The whole thing started as an argument over a parking space between the dead woman and a man in his 20's. It resulted with the man punching the woman's wheelchair-bound husband, and then punching the 74 year old woman right in the face. He hit her so hard that she fell to the ground, smashing her head on the tarmac. The internal bleeding she suffered led to her death in hospital today. The young man is still unidentified.
What kind of a person hits someone in a wheelchair and then thumps a pensioner in the face?
Thankfully, this kind of thing is in the minority. I am glad to live in a country like Sweden which is relatively safe, and where people are relatively respectful of each other. This is why, when things like this happen, I feel shocked and angry.
I hope that it continues be a rarity and I continue to react in the outraged way I do. I hope everybody does. The day we are complacent is the day we condone this kind of behaviour. It's the day we say that it's ok to behave in this way.
And it's the day society goes to hell.
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