Cold around me

It's cold around me. I was taking a walk earlier today, and came home after an hour with red, frosty cheeks. When slowly getting warm again I felt my legs itch as they defrosted... This is Gothenburg, Sweden, in Januar 2006. Around 20 cm of snow lies at the ground; with more at some places where the wind has thrown it up in banks.

It poured down last thursday night. Friday morning the trams were out of schedule and the papers ran stories about traffic jams. You could easily believe this was the first time snow had hit Sweden, ever. It's the same way around, every winter. The traffic departments are caught with surprise, same thing with the transportation companies. No planning, no preparations whatsoever. We don't act as a society, but as a lot of small, single entities with no kind of cooperation in between. No one takes responsibility, no one tries to learn anything. In many municipalities the money reserved in the budget for snow clearing is not enough even for one day of snow weather. It's understandable to make that post small if you are planning the economy in a desert state, but not if you are elected ruler of a municipality in Sweden.

Things like snow and ice would be a lot easier to cope with if we all learnt to cooperate a little more; if we just once could try to plan our society a little. The idea of the Swedish welfare state, "Folkhemmet", doesn't seem so bad anymore. I guess it's often that way. You don't really learn to appreciate things until they're gone. Welcome to the new way around; less regulations, less central planning. But still more snow.