Republic now!

We Swedes have been waiting long enough now, since the usurpator Gustav Eriksson Vasa by a coup d'etat abolished our electoral kingdom in 1521, and enforced hereditary monarchy. Interesting enough it was in those years that the Florentinian diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli wrote Discorsi, which is a book built on the claim that the republic is superior to other ways of governng a state. Of course, being Italian, you cannot argue that the republic is not a superior rule, and still claim to be an intellectual.

Machiavelli's main argument for not utilize republican rule was that some states had a population that was not yet ready for republican rule. The people had been living under such circulstances that were characterised by authoritarian, not to say tyrannical rule, and as a consequence they were not yet ready for the relatively free republican rule.

Before 1521, we Swedes elected who should be the ruler, but after the coup d'etat of 1521, we are sort of stuck with hereditary monarchy. Are we Swedes not yet ready for republican rule? Do we still have to breed ur head of state?

Some claim that the royal family is very good international PR for Sweden. We live in Europe and after the First World War the obligation of having a monarch was taken away and the republican rule was allowed in Europe again. Of course it never disappeared completely, which the Second and Third Republics of France is valid evidence of. The cruzial point, however, is that the majority of newly independent states, after WWI, are republics, not monarchies. Why is that?

First, hereditary monarchy is undemocratic and suggests that all people are NOT equal. Actually, the royal family is worth more than an ordinary Swedish citizen. The royal family has got blue blood. To my understanding only some crabs have blue blood, because the blood does not contain hemoglobin, but hemocyan. The Swedish royal family stems from a French lawyer, Henri Bernadotte, which does not seem that far above ordinary citizens. And Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, himself was a republican, he claimed.

Second, after all Sweden has been a democracy since 1921. Shouldn't we have reached the point of being able to deal with republican rule now and abolish monarchy once and for all?

Third, hereditary monarchy in Sweden has a bad track record. The beginning was not good with the coup d'etat of Gustav Eriksson Vasa. There was a second coup d'etat in 1680, when the King Karl XI took absolute power and stated that he no longer needed to listen to the Riksdag. The third coup d'etat was in 1788, by Gustav III. Luckily, a Swedish hero, Johan Jakob Anckarström, put him out of his misery in 1792. Furthermore, Gustav V tried to reach for power in 1914, but failed. At this point it would have been prudent to turn Sweden into a republic, but the opportunity passed by. So why wait until one of these half-wits try to make another coup d'etat?

Fourth, an interesting suggestion surfaced a couple of months ago, claiming that there was no need to replace the King with a President, simply because Sweden actually operates rather good without a functioning head of state. The little what is left of power, instigated in the monarchy, could easily be transfered to the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Riksdag.

Why wait? Do it now? Abolish this inferior ruling system now?

The Dangers of Pub Life

Experience taught Ridfrek that mooning in a pub during dart competition was a very bad idea indeed. Already Pavlov taught us that sensitive beings may have their behaviour altered by using rather easy mechanisms.

Horseshoe Crab

The horseshoe crab is an ancient speicies that exist in four main forms. It can be traced as far back as Devonic or Ordovician time periods. It may be called a crab or crustacean, but in reality it is more closely related to spiders and scorpions. The photo above show the form of horseshoe crab that may be found in the Gulf of Mexico.

Above there is a drawing showing the horseshoe crab seen from above and below. It has five pairs of legs (each one equipped with a pincer) and the tail is not dangerous, but provides the creature with something close to a rudder. The horseshoe crab uses it to turn over if it finds itself on the wrong side. The male horseshoe crab is about 2/3 of the size of the female. This creature is one of the oldest living on the planet.

The Case of the Horseshoe Crab

Finally, after waiting almost five years I managed to eat the infamous Horseshoe Crab. To my understanding it is the last remaining of it type of species. A relique from ancient times millions of years ago.

I ordered the Horseshoe Crab from a somewhat sceptic waitress. She looked deep into my eyes and asked:

- Are you really sure you want this? It is very spicy?

- Oh yes, I really want this dish. Actually I've been waiting a long time for it!

The waitress went away, and I must admit that I felt very excited as we waited for this culinaric sensation to be served. My dear wife who is a little bit more reluctant towards strange culinaric sensations choose another dish.

At last, waiting for about 40 minutes the Seahorse Restaurant on Koh Samet, Thailand, had the long awaited dish served. The Horseshoe Crab came in lying on its back filled with spices and a lot of stuff that was difficult identify.

Then the consumption of the Horsehoe Crab started. It was spicy alright. Hard-core chili and coriander. The Horsehoe Crab itself consisted of small circular quinoa-like balls, sometimes within some meatlike stuff. Despite the spices, this delicacy turned out to be a dissappointment, for more than one reason. First, it was rather tasteless. Second, the following night I spent in the lavatory. Third, It felt funny for three days after. My conclusion is that this was my one and only Horseshoe Crab.

Not that I hold it against the restaurant, but I should have noticed that Horseshoe Crabs are a sort of showcase for these restaurants, rarely bought and consumed.

Therefore there is a high possibility that the Horseshoe Crab investigated here, had been lying around for a couple of days or so. Ergo: My own fault.

Relaxing on Koh Samet

Since a couple of days I and my wife have been experiencing the nice and warm weather on the island of Koh Samet, Thailand. As we left Arlanda, Sweden, we experienced minus 13 degrees and a freezing blizzard. We were using our last strength as we managed to got to Terminal 5 and up and away to some hours later land in Bangkok, Thailand.

To us it seems like a miracle to exchange this horrible excuse for a weather against warmth and sunshine and nice food like fried rice and prawns, or a very nice and spicy Som Tam. Also we seen a lot of exotic birds, like 7 or 8 Hornbills and a lot of what seems to be some kind of Oriole or Beostare. I'll be back on that one later.

Later in the week I plan to eat rare and ancient Horseshoe Crab. Exciting...

Ridfrek Comes Out of the Garden

One day Ridfrek had had it. The Wisperer had been goin' on for days about the world outside the garden and finally Ridfrek got fed up and opened the gate and curiously peeped out on the world outside. It was huge... it was in fact enormous... Ridfrek got frightened and cloosed the gate fast. Immediately he heard the wispering voice of the Wisperer:

"- That wasn't so hard, was it?"

Ridfrek peered out again. Suddenly somebody was standing in front of him. The stranger standing in front of him had a similar hat as he had. The stranger also had a beard and the clothing seemed similar to Ridfrek's.

"- Who are you?" Ridfrek asked after a long silence...

"- Who am I? You seriously claim that you don't know my name?" said the stranger.

Ridfrek was puzzled. The stranger actually answered a question with another question. Ridfrek was unaccustomed with this, cause all he knew was his often pointless conversations with the Wisperer. The Wisperer who never answered anything directly and always spoke in riddles. After a while Ridfrek had managed to formulate another question.

"- Yes, that what I asked you! Who are you?" he said emphatically.

"- Who am I? Outrageous, the man is an imbecile!" the stranger concluded and turned arround and went away. Ridfrek didn't understand anything at first. But after a while he realised that he had had his first encounter with another person and it somehow had failed. He had almost made contact...

The Garden and Beyond

One day the Wisperer told Ridfrek that there was a world beyond the Garden. Ridfrek was very surprised as the thought had never occurred to him. He lived in the illusion that the universe was the Garden and nothing more. The new information was very tough to dissolve and Ridfrek had to consider it for weeks, even months. Of course, it is a tough one; You live in the illusion that your life is lived in a confined space, when suddenly someone tells you that there is more... much more! Ridfrek got totally lost, he couldn't even imagine the universe outside the Garden. In the end the Wisperer got fed up with Ridfrek and his indecisiveness.
"- Ridfrek, the Wisperer wispered, you have to go outside the Garden in order to find out what it's like there. You cannot imagine or speculate upon something which you have no experience of. It's pointless!"
Ridfrek was puzzled. How should he act? The Wisperer got fed up once again and told to try and look beyond the fence which was incirceling the Garden. Ridfrek had never thought of that, cause he had thought that the stuff he could see beyond the Garden was just like the things you see in a theater, like a sid-scene or some kind of front. Not that he knew what that was, but that's how he perceived it. There seemed to be many options of what to do, but as Ridfrek had a conservative mind, he disliked change and tried to avoid it as long as possible.