Mardi Gras

While lent has long faded from the collective consciousness in Sweden, the tradition of eating sweet rolls with lots of whipped cream and almond paste in preparation for the fast has not.

Outside, the sun is slowly returning even if spring is still months away. It goes without saying that life here at the 63rd parallel would be unbearable in the absence of modern technology and indoor heating. Still, I am always surprised by how many people in Umeå who seem to wish modernity away. Eating a bean burger at Max earlier today, I could read on the tray about how their tree-planting carbon-neutralizing programme in Africa “enables smallhold farmers to remain in their rural communities and not having to move to overpopulated cities”. I guess all I can say that we in Sweden should be grateful that no one intervened in our societies in the 19th century with a similar neo-colonial agenda...