Three years anniversary since first visit to Sweden

Yesterday marked my three year anniversary visiting Sweden. And I am staying in this exactly same hotel. That was a warm sunny day three years ago when I arrived here, and the sun was just starting to come down. It was early in the evening, I had a walk around the hotel and was quite impressed by the tranquillity and the green here.

Now I have been to Sweden for at least ten times, though embossing enough that I still don’t understand much Swedish at all other than “hej”. It is so easy to get around since everybody speaks good English. To celebrate my three year anniversary for being a regular visitor to Sweden, I decided to take a long walk after work yesterday. When I was walking through the green with country houses in the woods, I was quite indulged in this peace and utterly refreshing scene. This is the kind of Scandinavian beauty, simple, fresh, peaceful and humble, but I can certainly see the attractions here. I took a deep breath of the crispy air mixed with fresh grass smell, I could almost feel the clean air going deep down through my lungs.

Apart from the weather, Sweden is a lucky country in a lot of ways, but obviously the government has done a good job to make it an industrialized country but at the same time preserving the natural environment. Its success is built on highly educated population and well run welfare system that give most people a comfortable life. And even famous for being a liberal society, the traditional family values are well reserved. And it is also a very equal and harmonious society, class is not something people tend to have in their mind.

South Sweden (represented by Malmo and its vicinity, which used to be ruled by Danish hundred years ago), it is quite different from Stockholm. Clearly, there is subtle competition going on between the south and the north, like in any other countries. It is warmer and sunnier in summer, and it has much more open land for houses and it is generally a more laidback life style.

While I was walking along the road along the forest, there are bird with very pretty long colourful tails flying over the bushes and trees, and wild blue berry tree spread all over the small hills, it was such a good feeling to be so close to the nature.

Coming from a country so populous and still poor at large, sometimes I can’t help to envy a country like Sweden. However, it is much easier to run a small country which has enjoyed two hundred years of peace and with much ample per capital resource. As for China, there are too many issues we need to tackle at the same time.

A overdue promise

I was watching the documentary "promises", and tears welled in my eyes. It was such a good documentary, it didn't focus on shooting on the war torned Jerasulem, the kiling and being killed. It makes us think, as part of human nature, we always try to find shortcut for a rather complicated issue. But in this case, we have long come to realize that it is such a complicated issue tangled by clashes of culture, religion and ideologies and the peace mission if it ever materialize, will be a long bumpy road.

The world is not on childeren's hands, but maybe the hope of the peace is on the childern's hands. That is one of the key messages the film sends out. When the parties in the middle of the conflicts only get to see one sided stories everyday on TV, the hatred is natural. However, peace could never been won by war or carrying on revenge.

Peace, can only start from understanding each other (the differences and similarities), take part of the existence as given, remember the history but prepare to move on. And compromise and forgiving, it is part of the peace formula.

Chinese had a long war with Japanese during second world war, both nations suffered, as the invaders, the Japanese had to be held responsible for the war crime and killing of millions of Chinese civilians. And I am sure taking revenge has always rooted in some Chinese's mind, but is it something that should be encouraged and glorified? No, peace only starts when we are ready to reconcile and make compromises.

Peace in the middle east, such a remote dream to come true, and for the kids in shattered homes, that is a overdue promise. Our hearts all ache when we see the endless killing and destruction of ordinary life, but sometimes I doubt if the rest of the world has really done enough to help. Children, when their minds are still not tinted by one sided stories, could be something we put efforts on as a long term solution. In the end, I believe mind is more powerful than guns.

Hampton Court

It was a beautiful sunny day and it was Saturday - the best day of the week. I had a long walk along the river from Richmond all the way to Hampton court. There are old houses and modern buildings on both sides of the river, under the warm sunshine, people are fishing by the river, cycling around the river path, and kids are playing in the water. It is a 6 mile walk, I enjoyed it very much except when I finally arrived at Hampton court, my feet started to ache a bit :)