Keeping sense of proportion, Swedish-style
I am yet again indebted to those lovely people at The Local, this time for a bizarre tale of Scandinavian humour failure:
"One of Sweden's largest teachers unions has expressed its dismay at Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's decision to burst into song at the Polar Music Prize ceremony in Stockholm on Wednesday".
Pink Floyd (named for two pre-war blues singers, Floyd Council and Pink Anderson - true story) were being awarded a lifetime achievement award or somesuch by our Swedish chums, and for some reason Reinfeldt dedided that he just had to sing 'we don't need no education - yeah!' while on stage for gong dishing duties. All pretty rock 'n' roll, eh people?
There is a clip of Reinfeldt bursting into song here, but it may well involve downloading plug-ins and the like. I could not get it to work with Firefox and had to use -shudder - Internet Explorer. Still, worth it for the reaction shot of Roger Waters - you can practically hear his toes curling. Floyd have never really been my thing, so I am at a loss to suggest a more amusing / less painfully predictable lyric for Reinfeldt to seranade the nation with. Answers on a postcard please.
Meanwhile, back at our po-faced Swedish syndicalist Lärarnas Riksförbund: "the Prime Minister should try to make up for his anti-educational crooning by singing something positive about a profession he calls the most important in the country".
Ohfuhgodssake.
"One of Sweden's largest teachers unions has expressed its dismay at Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's decision to burst into song at the Polar Music Prize ceremony in Stockholm on Wednesday".
Pink Floyd (named for two pre-war blues singers, Floyd Council and Pink Anderson - true story) were being awarded a lifetime achievement award or somesuch by our Swedish chums, and for some reason Reinfeldt dedided that he just had to sing 'we don't need no education - yeah!' while on stage for gong dishing duties. All pretty rock 'n' roll, eh people?
There is a clip of Reinfeldt bursting into song here, but it may well involve downloading plug-ins and the like. I could not get it to work with Firefox and had to use -shudder - Internet Explorer. Still, worth it for the reaction shot of Roger Waters - you can practically hear his toes curling. Floyd have never really been my thing, so I am at a loss to suggest a more amusing / less painfully predictable lyric for Reinfeldt to seranade the nation with. Answers on a postcard please.
Meanwhile, back at our po-faced Swedish syndicalist Lärarnas Riksförbund: "the Prime Minister should try to make up for his anti-educational crooning by singing something positive about a profession he calls the most important in the country".
Ohfuhgodssake.
Labels: popular culture, Sweden
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on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 8:22 am.
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Maybe Silvio Berlusconi could give him a few tips on how to woo the voters.
Could be a plan...
I thought that song was actually very pro-education, in the true meaning of the word ?
Alan Douglas
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