Swedish royal wedding

Picture from svt.se

I have been watching an online broadcast from Sweden, the wedding of the Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Daniel Westling this evening. The whole ceremony was beautiful, I give them that. But as a republican I find it difficult to accept this kind lifestyle where one family lives above the rest of the people, and with the people's money. The royal family might have some PR value, but as a concept it feels wrong. The recent studies and polls show that the popularity of the monarchy is in decline in Sweden. It is going to be interesting to see whether the Swedish monarchy will survive in the future.

Globalization in micro level

I burn candles almost every day. For lighting the candles I do not like to use lighters. I associate them with smoking. I use matches.

I was a bit upset to found out that the only matches available in my daily grocery store Cold Storage were Swedish matches - säkerhets tändstickor. Are there not any Singaporean, Malaysian or even Chinese matchers available?