Since many years ago, the  Swedish health care had declined to such low water mark that somebody found it necessary to enhance the health care by political means. A party was founded 2005, baptized to the “Sjukvårdspartiet” (The Health Care Party). A party necessary just to grant a fair share of the taxes to such a basic thing as health care, in one of the most tax loaded countries in the World, sounds strange. The strict restrictions inflicted over the World, labeled as “ pandemic Covid 19” made the poor situation still worse. Yet Sweden is still a rich country but health care, dental care and pension payment are not priorities for the government.

One of the modern tasks for government leaders over the World is to announce prolongation of the so called “pandemic restrictions”. It has become such a frequent task that the declarations and speeches of new, harder and longer restrictions has turned to routine speeches, even for the Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven. To keep hope in the population of his country, he usually repeat the mantra “soon you may hug each other again”.

It is an empty, meaningless mantra, as eviscarated as his mind. Fortunately, a lot of people, even journalists has started to react. Journalist Alex Schuman in the daily newspaper EXPRESSEN writes about it (follow in free translated excerpt), original article you can find on this link:

“And I was struck that there has been an almost unreasonable nagging from the Prime Minister Löfven during the pandemic about these hugs. Prohibition of hugs, longing for hugs, promises of hugs soon. All the time these hugs, as if they were absolute essential, yet crucial. Löfven seems to be convinced that the Swedish people's desire to be hugged again is enormous. Throughout the pandemic, I have wondered what he is talking about with such a huge craving for hugs?

In any case, I do not belong to the group. Who would I hug when I get the chance? My parents are dead, my grandparents are still more dead. I already hug my children, and there is not really a single person in the "loved ones" category that I have not been hugging. Could it be that Stefan Löfven has thought terribly wrong? Has he imagined that Sweden consists of a single happy nuclear family idyll? That each of the 10 million Swedes is a harmonious part of a blissful chain of parents, children and grandchildren and all hold hands and embrace each other? Does he think everyone has a family? Does he not know how lonely we Swedes really are? I am struck by the fact that for all the people out there who do not have a single one to hug when it is not a pandemic situation, Löfven's nagging about these hugs must be quite painful to listen to, even provocative.

Maybe Löfven believe that Sweden is like a social paradise. In every little corner, in the sunny gardens from Ystad to Haparanda, the hammocks full of children and grandchildren dressed in folk costumes who sit and eat sandwiches with farm made butter and drink lemonade and hug grandparents all day. And then the pandemic strike down and the nuclear families are torn apart, wild screams, one last hug, and grandpa and grandma isolate themselves and eat canned cat food. The children they almost hugged to death during their lifetime, can now only be met in ZOOM talks. The kids, confused and resentful, stretch their small hands towards the screen, to pat grandpa's face and with teary eyes they moan - they just want to hug!

And suddenly the Prime Minister interrupts the accordion music on the radio and promise: soon you will be able to hug again, but not this Easter. If we are to be completely honest; this rhetoric is based on a romantic dream that essentially does not exist. That's not true. Welcome to Sweden, the strange country where the World's loneliest people live. Swedes are maybe the most skilled in the world at forgetting the elderly. They hide old parents in asylum for retired, let them stay there under the responsibility of paid care takers. The few times they meet, they feel sometimes everything carried through the life, all the injustices that should have been talked about a long time ago, but, suddenly the elder lie dead and a bubble come up like an indefinite darkness. This is Sweden, the stronghold of family dysfunctionality. Here no one knows how to say "I love you" and no one knows how to hug, here the embraces are angular and feel uncomfortable, elbow to elbow and a few quick pats on the back and then jump to the side, keep the distance. Then, go home to single households where it is possible to lock the door and be unhappy in peace.

When the prime minister says “soon you can be hugged again”, it does not feel like a promise but like an ominous threat, because in Sweden there is nobody to hug and if there were somebody, they still do not want it.”

Maybe Sweden is not the only strange country like that, but fortunately, the most countries in the World are socially much better developed.