Between the 9th and 12th of June 2005 there was a “H.O.G” – meeting in the Gulf of St Tropez. I live here, just two km from the main road, up in the hills. During a week there has been a constant roar, day and night, from the mighty Harley Davidson motorbikes. The roads have been filled with the knights of the Harley Davidson, sitting at ease, upright on their bikes, dressed the peculiar style of

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Six years ago I never had reason to give the dangers of a fire a second thought. Fires were something I read about in the newspapers. But then horror struck and my youngest daughter Ellinor got caught in a fire at the 6th floor of an apartment building in Paris.She woke up when her little studio already was filled with thick, black smoke and tried to get out. In her panic and fear she did

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What's Wrong With France?Read our article about France and the US, by our friend, the distinguished writer and digging journalist, Ken Timmerman. It was published in the right-wing, Insight Magazine. Normally we don’t like to take sides in politics, art stands beyond that, but Ken’s article rings a bell somewhere, especially for us who love France.Check www.insightmag.com"Going to war without

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I ljuset av ett eventuellt krig i Irak och amerikanarnas självsäkra försäkringar om en promenadseger, är det intressant att titta på en annan världskris i samma region, som också skulle bli en ”enkel operation” och som slutade i ett dundrande fiasko för en del av de inblandade, mest på grund övermod och personliga misstag. Inne i dramat fanns också ett modigt folks kamp för frihet, som helt

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I arbetet med en biografi om min fader, diplomaten, Harald Edelstam, har jag nu arbetat mig igenom 50-talet. Det var ett decennium, som dominerades av det kalla kriget och Sovjetunionens förtryck och terror över sin omvärld. Sverige fick sin beskärda del genom nedskjutningar av militärplan, spioneri och hotfulla gester. Vår regering påstod av vi var neutrala och att vi skulle skjuta mot alla som

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The bombing of Paddy’s Pub and the enormous bomb outside the Sari Club in Kuta Beach, when the crowd rushed out minutes after, was a horrendous act of sick, arrogant minds. The choice of Bali was also crazy. A peaceful tourist resort, it seems, swimming in blood.But this lovely and mystic place, with its beautiful and hospitable people, the astounding landscape, sweet villages and inviting

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The New York Times reporter, Erik Umansky, reports in the International Herald Tribune (the 23rd of September), about how we can survey the American and Iraqi military build-up in the Gulf region.Spy satellites that before were closely guarded secrets, are now available to you and me. The American military brass in Pentagon is of course not very happy. The Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld have

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This article by Stephen Schwartz, was published in the Spectator the 22nd of September and in the Sunday Telegraph the 23rd of September 2001.The first thing to do when trying to understand ‘Islamic suicide bombers’ is to forget the clichés about the Muslim taste for martyrdom. It does exist, of course, but the desire for paradise is not a safe guide to what motivated the appalling suicide

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Last night, I opened a bottle that I knew was still young and not ready to drink. It was a reputable Reserva from the Rioja , a 1995, it would be 5 years old in one month. I hadn’t tasted it since I acquired it at the bodega four months prior and, perhaps it was because my birthday was in two days, or simply the desire to prove to myself that I had made a good buy. So I opened it.What was

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När man talar om orsakerna till att Sverige inte angreps av Tyskland, dras ofta Göring upp. Han kallades i den tyska ledningen för ”der Schwedenreferent”, dvs. den som hade med Sverige att göra, Sverige specialisten. Egentligen inte utan orsak. Han hade bott i Sverige och talade bra svenska. Följaktligen skulle han inverka till förmån för oss hos Hitler. Huruvida så var fallet är mycket

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Dagen efter, den 26 november skulle äntligen det definitiva utlämningsbeslutet fattas i konselj. Uppe på slottet tog kungen och kronprinsen emot Per Albin Hansson, Undén, Vougt, Zetterberg, Danileson och Nils Quensel, som senare skrev om konseljen i sina memoarer. Resten av regeringen hade blivit kallade försent. Jag undrar om Harald skötte kallelserna den gången? Det blev en rörig konselj. Först

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Fram mot september - oktober organiserades lägren om och flyktingarna flyttades till läger där det skulle vara enklare att evakuerara dem till utskeppningshamnarna. Man ville också förbereda sig inför vintern. Tidigare hade de flesta bott i tält. På samma gång byttes en del svenska befäl ut. Förflyttnigarna skapade oro och irritation. Havdhem lägret på Gotland stängdes, med den konstiga

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Följande text ingår den biografi jag skriver om min fader, diplomaten Harald Edelstam. Fotnoterna kommer tyvärr inte med i denna internetversion. Fler delar kommer vartefter Baltutlämningen är en skändlig händelse i Sveriges moderna historia, som fortfarande kastar sina långa skuggor över samlingsregeringen och senare socialdemokraterna, som bildade regering i september. Särskilt tungt faller

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Some years ago, I stood in the pouring rain at the Bregenzstrasse in Berlin in an attempt to look for the shadows of my parents in 1941. - My father Harald, then a young, good looking, enthusiastic attaché at the Swedish legation in Berlin, with high ambitions and my mother Louise, innocent and sweet, with dimples in her cheeks and my new-born brother Carl in her arms, lived in one end of the

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Sweden is a country of contrasts. Very dark in winter, light all night long in summer; few every day outings in restaurants or with friends, but enormous national feasts; equality of all people at all levels, yet very formal traditions still prevailing; wine monopoly and a vast majority who make their liquor at home… One of Sweden’s peculiarities is its august parties. August is the month when we

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