Successful Integration – A Utopia?
Vos
By controlling both Denmark, Germany, and even Poland Sweden has became not only a great power, but an international nation where Swedes live side by side with foreign inhabitants, who struggle to adapt to our society.
The basic condition are the same of each and everyone of us, or are they? Well you would guess so, to quote a great leader of Sweden:
“Blood will be shed, but in the end I think we do what’s best for both of our countries.”
Or another one:
“The country of Germany was corrupt as their polish leader Popolo destroyed their market and did everything in his power to make a living hell out of the nation, so we basically saved them”.
Sounds like a logical argument, doesn’t it? But many don’t agree with the above statements as The war also have been criticized for being “imperialistic” and “unjust”.
For the everyday Swede not much have changed . For the everyday German it has.
In a good or in a bad way?
That remains to be seen…
Oxford, United Kingdom. 04:10 pm.
After watching more then three Hollywood dramas and more then once summoned the cabin attendant for more peanuts I finally step out into the hot sun of Kidlington airport.
I adjust my tie and look at my watch, the appointment is not far from here but I’ll have to hurry. I pick up my baggage and yell for a taxi cab to pick me up.
When I later arrive at the house I get surprised of how alike it is my own. Only a left out floor distinguish his quality three from my four at home. I knock on the door when the German I’ve travelled so far to meet opens it. We greet each other before we sit down in a pair of leather sofas standing in a room to the left of he hall. He offers me a Budweiser but I refuse to take it, in my mind sad to see a German drinking it.
I start the interview.
Me: You left Sweden shortly after they took your country, Germany, any specific reasons? is true like they are saying. That “almost every true German wanted Sweden to attack their country” ?
Bob ( I call him Bob because he choice to be anonymous):
Well I think I’m a “true German” and if I wanted them to attack my country I wouldn’t move here. You see, the only ones in Germany that wanted the war was Popolo and the polish community, only them. They WANTED Sweden to take “their” country, to revenge the war between Poland and Germany. The friendship between Flammbar and Popolo is evidence enough.
Me: I see. But still, your economy was terrible and the inflation was one of the biggest in the world. It must have been terrible to live in a country under those conditions?
Bob: It was, but here is a fact: I never asked for any help. There are other solution then war. Other solution then being forced into another nation. I was actually going to recruit new Germans from different forums on the web to get some help overthrowing Popolo.
I’m not a Swede and will never be one, it’s that simple.
Me: So you left Sweden because you were too proud to live there? Don’t you think it’s possible for you to be a part of the Swedish community and try to change things? They have promised you’ll get your country back when v1 is out, remember?
Bob: No, I first and foremost couldn’t speak their language which automatically makes it impossible for me to enter congress and read half of their published articles. Second, I’m not even sure I can get my country back. That promise your talking about is very unclear and, honestly, I don’t think it’s ever going to happen.
I say good bye and leave, in a modest way. United Kingdom as well as a few other countries are English speaking which makes it easy to adjust, so it’s easy to understand why he moved here.
But here is the thing. You can’t force Swedes to speak English as they are, after all, living in Sweden. And is it really that bad?
Many, and don’t know how many, Poles, Germans, and Danish have settled down in Sweden I remind myself of. I throw a rock into a street corner, just to see a scared cat jump over a fence. And a lot of them are working diligent to improve their own living, Some of them have no problems with living in Sweden. Like that guy I talked to a while ago, I think his name was Tamagotchi. This is what he sai😛
“The difference between Germany and Sweden isn’t visible at first blush, because nobody see marching soldiers and army vehicles on streets. But this difference can be sensed - pre-war Germany was very aggressive, much more then Sweden now.
It’s easy to adjust to your society hard because most people don"t have language troubles and life here is not really different from German - work, military - all the same.
The bad side is that nobody can return our poor Motherland back too life and nothing in your country can replace it. It is not the trouble of Sweden, but anyway it is very frustrating. The good is lack of aggression and violence, that pre-war dying Germany was full. And advanced level of market, that gives good chances for a startup projects of new and old ex-German.”
What he is saying is good and I’m sure he is not alone out their.
...
I take a walk, the meeting ended quicker then expected and I’m not really sure what to do. More interviews and work will follow tomorrow but the night is still young.
I find a cosy little internet café, much smaller then the one I use to visit at home, and I pay for an hour on the computer.
How timely! I’ve received an email from an old Danish guy I’ve been trying to contact.
His name is HrBjorn and this is what he writes:
“In Denmark we actually had a chance of getting elected as Mayor in our cities, that we do not have now, since the Swedes have moved to our cities, and voted Swedes as Mayors. The party that is really bad, and the most serious imperialistic party is Flashback.
And in Denmark we had a media section, that didn"t float with SPAM, like there is in Sweden.
Swedish immigration is like a boat that doesn"t float, it sucks.
It took a while before people in Sweden actually wrote english, this fucked up the immigration badly, furthermore, the things that makes this game exciting, is that you have a shot at getting massive power, that"s just a loooooooooong shot if you are Danish or German, since Swedes have moved out to the conquered regions, and voted fellow Swedes into Mayor, thereby oppresing the inhabitants of the region, since they did not want a imperialist to have the power in their region.
If I should make a list of bad things about Sweden, it would be a loooong list, but in a few sentences:
The lack of political balance sucks, it is like you have a democratic dictatorship in Sweden. My god, have there ever been a not-flashback president?
The imperialism that is in Sweden sucks to.” ( He got a lot more to say but I made a cut here, just pm him for it)
A lot of critique indeed! A successful integration might be an utopia, at least in a “not English speaking country” in lack of a better word. But Sweden is actually a lot better then most countries if you make a comparison! And we are working to make it better! Wont we give them their countries back as soon as we can?
Turkey for example wouldn’t allow the Israelis to do any politics and they actually blacklisted them!
Sweden also had a pretty good reason for attacking when many presidents starts war without having one. “Expansion” is sometimes the only reason, hidden behind bad arguments.
Now that is imperialistic!
To stay in a conquered country is always hard to do. Nationalistic feelings together with the bitter taste of failure isn’t easy to treat.
Do you expect people who first “killed” your country brothers and/or got “killed” to drop their weapons and join you? Make food at the same production line?
And here is the big question: Have you failed if they don’t?
I step out of the café, The headwind caresses my forehead. After a minute of thinking I decide to travel home already tonight.
It’s going to be a long flight.
Comments
For the record, it should be written \"A Utopia\", unless someone changed the pronunciation on me. Reading now.
I\'ve always found it hard to believe Sweden is actually as powerful as its statistics suggest. I wonder how they accomplish anything with their spammy media and such.
Interesting to get some perspective inside the country itself. Sweden certainly appears to be even worse than I always imagined it.
The only thing wrong with Sweden intigrating other countries is that it\'s official language is Swedish, while English is more widely used and understood in the rest of the game
Thank you Inferno! I had no idea.
Emerick - I agree
If the conquered were impassioned enough, they could keep writing/spamming Articles over there in English until everyone conformed. I think.
Very good article, keep it up!
Inferno: the forum on erep.se is very active, and so is the goverment.
I don\'t really see why sweden is so often seen as the antagonist. Alot of other countries have been doing things way worse than we have...
I don\'t blame you guys for invading Germany this time, considering both your contract with them and Popolo\'s take over
\"could keep writing/spamming Articles\"
Canada.....
Vos, thank you for your article, very nice!
Vector, you see... Sweden can be good. Or sweden can be bad. That really doesn\'t matter at all. We are Germans and we stay Germans. We lost our Homeland. Nothing can replace it, neither Sweden market, nor beatiful Swedish girls. The one thing we need - our country back. And we\'ll try to get it, with peace or with force our flags will fly over these lands once more.
\"can you expect a whole nation beginning to speak another language over nights?\"
Of course not. It\'s not your fault at all, but you have to admit that it\'s a detriment to the intigration process
@the last paragraph: it has to be pretty aggrivating to non-Flashback players
Canada could understand English just fine.
And they were excellent spammers
Germany and poland will be free when FFF becomes available...
They were fighting us *during* the war because they didn\'t want to get taken over.
I\'m talking about spamming *after* the war because you want a conformidy of language.
Im afraid I dont follow. Who wants a conformity of language and in what way is this done?
Yeah Inferno, I\'m just saying that they were really good spammers.
\"Im afraid I dont follow. Who wants a conformity of language and in what way is this done?\"
For Sweden to be a better country for the conquered people, a common language would be better. That\'s my only point.
I don\'t know. They did well enough for a little while, but it seemed like there was a point where their endurance was at its end, and they couldn\'t spam any longer.
@Danny and Grev Per: A party that get 40% of the votes isn\'t a democratic problem. We have lived in that kind of reality in Sweden for ages when the socialdemocratic party always attracted +40% of the votes.
I do agree on that the integration will be a problem since most of the swedish forum is in swedish but give it some ime and the important stuff will be in english. I honestly believe that we will have a Denmark, Germany and Poland again but not the size they used to be, until then feel free to ask for translations and PM the persons you wish to write in english.
BTW Good luck on having the french to use english as a common language if they would ever become a country with 4 different languages!
Danny - Flashback is the most imperialistic party, come on, do you even look at P.U.R.J.O as a serious party?
vos dont lie i dont say that my companies are doing great ! write my whole interview
Purjo is most definitely a serious party. Their party leader takes part in discussions and promotes war in a way that\'s not just \"WAR IS FUN HAVE TO WAR\".
Sorry Zocky but for some reason I can\'t find your answer. I could change that part though.
I tried too be objective thru the whole article by the way. I expressed both bad and good options about war & Integration.
Good