(Disclaimer: I am not xenophobic or racist, I do enjoy the odd joke though :P. I also understand that people from Gotland are, according to a few people, a bit different from the average Swede, but I'm still gonna generalise...mainly because I can't be assed being politically correct)
(Another Disclaimer: Not all Muslims are pissed off protesters)
England Vs Sweden
This blog is a long time coming, well, not really, I only thought about doing it yesterday. Anyway, I've decided to do a "Tale of the Tape", which is a comparison of facts and statistics between both countries. Here are my results:
Sweden
Population: 9,340,682
Ethnic: 82.1% Swedish
Divorce: 54.9%
Life Expectancy: 80.9 years (whole population)
Area: 173,745 Square Miles
England
Population: 50,762,900
Ethnic: 83.6% White British (that includes all of Great Britain)
Divorce: 42.6%
Life Expectancy: 79.4 (whole population for the UK)
Area: 50,346 Square Miles
Analysis
First of all, let's take a look at the obvious; Sweden is over 3 times the size of England and yet England has over 5 times the people. That is outrageous whichever way you look at it, England is crowded as fuck! Makes me feel less guilty about emigrating to Sweden, I think I helped out England by moving. Is it a wonder why I left? There is simply no room. Still, not as bad as China eh?
One thing that did shock me was the divorce rates. Did you know, that Sweden has the highest divorce rate IN THE WORLD? Based on personal experience with Swedish people, it shocks me. Nobody has a clue as to why, I've tried my hardest to find a reason and the closest thing I came to was that, it's a lot easier to get married over here than a lot of other countries...which still doesn't answer why there is, roughly, a 12% difference between England and Sweden. It shocks me more now than it would have before I moved here. Moving on....
Everything else is basically the same with only a few minor percentage differences. I pretty much got all my info from Wikipedia and other related sources, so take that as you want. I expected there to be a much bigger difference for the life expectancy...I would think that all the pollution and killings in England would make it lower. These days however, you just never know.
Well, that's the facts out of the way...let's get started on what I think of Sweden and England.
One thing that did shock me was the divorce rates. Did you know, that Sweden has the highest divorce rate IN THE WORLD? Based on personal experience with Swedish people, it shocks me. Nobody has a clue as to why, I've tried my hardest to find a reason and the closest thing I came to was that, it's a lot easier to get married over here than a lot of other countries...which still doesn't answer why there is, roughly, a 12% difference between England and Sweden. It shocks me more now than it would have before I moved here. Moving on....
Everything else is basically the same with only a few minor percentage differences. I pretty much got all my info from Wikipedia and other related sources, so take that as you want. I expected there to be a much bigger difference for the life expectancy...I would think that all the pollution and killings in England would make it lower. These days however, you just never know.
Well, that's the facts out of the way...let's get started on what I think of Sweden and England.
Opinion
I am basing my opinion on personal experience, I might be bias, I might not be...either way it's an opinion and if you don't like it then leave constructive criticism, not retarded comments like "DATZ NOT TRU!!" or "RAZIZT!". You will look like a dildo.
Personal space is the distance from one person to another. I have come to notice that Swedish people have smaller personal space than English people. As a rule of thumb, whether it's outdoors or indoors, I tend to keep about an arm's length away from a person and I believe that's also the same for a lot of English people. Swedes however do things a lot differently. Case in point:
Lisa and I were walking by the sea, there is plenty of greenery to walk on, there was only us out at the time, until we see a guy walking in our direction in the distance. I assumed he was going to keep maybe 10 feet away as it was such a big field. Anyway, he's walking toward us even more and as he's getting nearer, I see that this guy isn't going to keep his distance so I figured he wanted to say hi or something. As you can tell, he didn't do that, he didn't utter a word and kept about 5 inches away from us as he walked past. It was after he passed us that he turned out of the way. What the fuck is up with that? LOL. That's actually happened a few times and it's mainly with men, the women tend to conform to the typical English way of things I've found.
Personal Space
Personal space is the distance from one person to another. I have come to notice that Swedish people have smaller personal space than English people. As a rule of thumb, whether it's outdoors or indoors, I tend to keep about an arm's length away from a person and I believe that's also the same for a lot of English people. Swedes however do things a lot differently. Case in point:
Lisa and I were walking by the sea, there is plenty of greenery to walk on, there was only us out at the time, until we see a guy walking in our direction in the distance. I assumed he was going to keep maybe 10 feet away as it was such a big field. Anyway, he's walking toward us even more and as he's getting nearer, I see that this guy isn't going to keep his distance so I figured he wanted to say hi or something. As you can tell, he didn't do that, he didn't utter a word and kept about 5 inches away from us as he walked past. It was after he passed us that he turned out of the way. What the fuck is up with that? LOL. That's actually happened a few times and it's mainly with men, the women tend to conform to the typical English way of things I've found.
Money
Everything is expensive in Sweden. That's that. I can't believe how outrageous the prices are over here. A typical PS3 game that's been out for let's say 6 months, is around 590kr...which is roughly £55!!! I'm sure they're much lower second hand, but I could easily buy a PS3 game from the UK for about £15-30 brand new.
Groceries are outrageous most of the time, take for example a pasta salad. I could buy a huge pasta salad from Asda for about £1.5o, if it's on offer. On offer here for medium size tuna pasta salad is around 30kr, which is about £2.80. That's just one thing, but basic things like bread and milk can set you back by quite a bit. Cheese is extortionate...I think Lisa bought a block of cheese for about £5. That's disgusting.
It's no-one's fault that these prices are this high, it is what it is. Every time Lisa has gone to England, she's been amazed at how cheap everything is and how excellent the quality of most things are. You learn to live with it in Sweden...if I want a PS3 game or a CD or DVD, I get it shipped from the UK, it might take longer, but there's no way I will pay £55 for a game.
Groceries are outrageous most of the time, take for example a pasta salad. I could buy a huge pasta salad from Asda for about £1.5o, if it's on offer. On offer here for medium size tuna pasta salad is around 30kr, which is about £2.80. That's just one thing, but basic things like bread and milk can set you back by quite a bit. Cheese is extortionate...I think Lisa bought a block of cheese for about £5. That's disgusting.
It's no-one's fault that these prices are this high, it is what it is. Every time Lisa has gone to England, she's been amazed at how cheap everything is and how excellent the quality of most things are. You learn to live with it in Sweden...if I want a PS3 game or a CD or DVD, I get it shipped from the UK, it might take longer, but there's no way I will pay £55 for a game.
Work
Since moving to Sweden, I've noticed that everybody has a goal in life. Whether it's to own their own store or to go to University, they all work hard for it. I've never known such hardworking people in all my life. They don't complain about the weather, they're not lazy, they all have lives to live and they live them well.
England, as a country, has achieved a hell of a lot of things, but through my experiences with people on both sides, I just feel that Sweden has more ambition and more drive to work hard and make a difference. I'm not slagging English people off either, I think that the English are going in a different direction than Sweden when it comes to their ambitions that's all.
England, as a country, has achieved a hell of a lot of things, but through my experiences with people on both sides, I just feel that Sweden has more ambition and more drive to work hard and make a difference. I'm not slagging English people off either, I think that the English are going in a different direction than Sweden when it comes to their ambitions that's all.
Censorship
England is pretty strict when it comes to swearing on TV. After 9pm you can say whatever you want, however before that, broadcasters can get fined thousands of £s for letting slip an F-word. In Sweden, there isn't really an issue on cursing, they obviously have a certain degree of etiquette, but overall it really isn't a big deal. I've even seen some nudity before 9pm over here LOL and it was in an advert!! Nudity FTW!!
The other kind of censorship is views and opinions. I find that in England, if you disagree with a Muslim on TV or make fun of Islam, then you're going to get protests no matter what. No other religion makes such a fuss, the worst the Catholics can do is have some bishop issue a statement. It was like them daft Danish cartoons...you know, the one where someone drew a bomb on that prophet's head. They still protested in England...even though it was all going on in Denmark...I never understood that. Any excuse for a fucking protest.
I'm not sure exactly what it's like in Sweden on this kind of matter, but it's likely just the same. I know for a fact that they're not too high on homophobia, which is obviously understandable, but I think that people should at least listen to some opposing viewpoints on things like same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption.
England is pretty strict when it comes to swearing on TV. After 9pm you can say whatever you want, however before that, broadcasters can get fined thousands of £s for letting slip an F-word. In Sweden, there isn't really an issue on cursing, they obviously have a certain degree of etiquette, but overall it really isn't a big deal. I've even seen some nudity before 9pm over here LOL and it was in an advert!! Nudity FTW!!
The other kind of censorship is views and opinions. I find that in England, if you disagree with a Muslim on TV or make fun of Islam, then you're going to get protests no matter what. No other religion makes such a fuss, the worst the Catholics can do is have some bishop issue a statement. It was like them daft Danish cartoons...you know, the one where someone drew a bomb on that prophet's head. They still protested in England...even though it was all going on in Denmark...I never understood that. Any excuse for a fucking protest.
I'm not sure exactly what it's like in Sweden on this kind of matter, but it's likely just the same. I know for a fact that they're not too high on homophobia, which is obviously understandable, but I think that people should at least listen to some opposing viewpoints on things like same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption.
Overall
Which do I prefer? While they both have their good points and bad points...I would say that Sweden has the upper hand. It's a great place to be, especially for me. I think the UK just really needs to clean up it's act on crime and immigration mostly, too many scumbags out there getting into the country and blowing it up. I would definitely raise my children (if I ever have any) here, people just get on with their lives, they don't fuss about the little things.
In England, things like Snowmen are considered sexist, "Bah Bah Black Sheep" is labelled racist and the Nativity insults most religious groups. Fuck political correctness, people should be able to say and do what they want (within reason of course!). It's about time the UK Government had a backbone and started saying "No!" to these idiots who think they can demand and use their "civil rights" as an excuse.
With immigration a lot of cases are completely genuine, they need to leave their country because they are going to be killed and yes, the UK should help them out. However there are people out there that figure that England is a gold mine and so they come from their countries, bring their families and abuse the system - it's completely out of order because they make it an unpleasant place to live.
Never go into another country and tell them how to run things, it didn't work for America when it invaded Vietnam and Korea did it? Criticise all you want, write newspaper articles stating why you think your country does things better but never ever protest or demand things! You have no right to. I have learned to respect this country and it saddens me to know that there are people out there who think they have every right to change it to suit themselves. I would never dream of protesting or demanding anything in Sweden EVER. This isn't my country, I haven't earned enough merit to call it that. I will always live by Sweden's laws and will respect those laws as long as I live here, if I'm not happy with it, I will gladly pack my bags and leave.
Sweden has done great things and I'm proud to be living here. The best thing that I have ever done in my life is move here. If anyone slags off Sweden to me I'd have their guts for garters, it's too nice a place to be insulted (make as many jokes as you like though, believe it or not, they're not all blonde and they don't all like ABBA...sucks really :P).
In the future I might hate this place, for now though I love it here and wouldn't trade it for anything...unless someone has a spare million lying around. One day I might leave, you never know, but currently I'm enjoying the people, the surroundings and the scenery.
I would recommend Sweden to anyone.
'Till next time....
Which do I prefer? While they both have their good points and bad points...I would say that Sweden has the upper hand. It's a great place to be, especially for me. I think the UK just really needs to clean up it's act on crime and immigration mostly, too many scumbags out there getting into the country and blowing it up. I would definitely raise my children (if I ever have any) here, people just get on with their lives, they don't fuss about the little things.
In England, things like Snowmen are considered sexist, "Bah Bah Black Sheep" is labelled racist and the Nativity insults most religious groups. Fuck political correctness, people should be able to say and do what they want (within reason of course!). It's about time the UK Government had a backbone and started saying "No!" to these idiots who think they can demand and use their "civil rights" as an excuse.
With immigration a lot of cases are completely genuine, they need to leave their country because they are going to be killed and yes, the UK should help them out. However there are people out there that figure that England is a gold mine and so they come from their countries, bring their families and abuse the system - it's completely out of order because they make it an unpleasant place to live.
Never go into another country and tell them how to run things, it didn't work for America when it invaded Vietnam and Korea did it? Criticise all you want, write newspaper articles stating why you think your country does things better but never ever protest or demand things! You have no right to. I have learned to respect this country and it saddens me to know that there are people out there who think they have every right to change it to suit themselves. I would never dream of protesting or demanding anything in Sweden EVER. This isn't my country, I haven't earned enough merit to call it that. I will always live by Sweden's laws and will respect those laws as long as I live here, if I'm not happy with it, I will gladly pack my bags and leave.
Sweden has done great things and I'm proud to be living here. The best thing that I have ever done in my life is move here. If anyone slags off Sweden to me I'd have their guts for garters, it's too nice a place to be insulted (make as many jokes as you like though, believe it or not, they're not all blonde and they don't all like ABBA...sucks really :P).
In the future I might hate this place, for now though I love it here and wouldn't trade it for anything...unless someone has a spare million lying around. One day I might leave, you never know, but currently I'm enjoying the people, the surroundings and the scenery.
I would recommend Sweden to anyone.
'Till next time....
1 comment:
I skipped the wrestling ones!lol but I like this one! lol
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