Young Leaders in Sweden

As I said before, I’ll use the first posts on my new blog to speak about my visit to Sweden where I attended the Young Leaders Visitors Program (YLVP for short). I will start now by a short article that sums up the whole of the trip, and will go more detailed on each of mentioned stuff later….

When you set your feet on Arlanda Airport, you not only see images of famous International Swedish figures like Alfred Nobel, ABBA & Björn Borg, but you also notice that it’s a ‘silent airport’. This is one thing that accompanies you during your stay in Sweden – it’s a Country with strong passion for the environment. Every wrapping is from recycled material, and people sparsely use private cars. Another feature is that the World Conscience (this is how Sweden is called) which hasn’t engaged in any war for almost 2 centuries is an extremely peaceful country – you never feel
threatened walking in the street no matter how late you are.

I have been in Sweden for 3 weeks this autumn attending the Young Leaders Visitors Programme (YLVP), organised by the Swedish Institute, the official body that promotes Swedish culture, civilisation and values abroad.  They aim of the programme was to build long-lasting relations with young voices in the Middle East. The YLVP gathered 21 participants from 5 Arab countries; Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Jordan & Lebanon together with 6 participants from Sweden. The objective was to empower the participants with modern tools to shape public opinion with a focus on leadership and intercultural skills.

 

The ‘young leaders’ came from diverse backgrounds ranging from journalists and bloggers to projects managers and university lecturers, but all having some link to media either ordinary (old) or social (new).

The first part was designated for teambuilding and personal development. After that there was an intensive workshop for training the participants on the usage of innovative internet tools helping them to be young opinion makers. Participants were then divided to 5 teams, each assigned to come up with a solution using social media tools to promote freedom of expression in the Middle East, thus combining and experiencing what was learned in the first part. Thus during most of the remaining time teams were working on their assignment, along with several lectures, study visits, internships and workshops by renowned Swedish speakers/trainers about creativity, media in Sweden, stereotyping, leadership, among many other topics. The venue was Hyper Island, an academy for digital media, whose alumni create digital media solutions for big companies in the 4 corners of the planet.    

With the busy schedule we had, it was only possible to see Stockholm on the only free week-end we had. On a sunny Saturday (a very unusual event in the grey autumn) we took a trademark sightseeing trip by boat. Stockholm is called ‘Venice of the North’ because it is made up of 14 islands between the Baltic Sea and Lake Mälaren and is linked by 57
bridges. That’s why the ideal start of touring the city is to take a boat trip allowing to you see almost all tourist attractions together in just a couple of hours. You also appreciate the style of the magnificently
looking building everywhere. There’s the city hall that hosts the Nobel Prize banquet with its majestic tower adorned with 3 gold crowns and overlooking the city. Stockholm boasts its cultural richness with 70
museums and 100 art galleries. The number 1 attraction is the Vasa Museum that showcases a warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 and was only rediscovered 333 years later – it’s the only surviving ship from the
17th century in the whole world. Also the Historiska museet (Museum of National Antiquitues) is the place to go for the richest Vikings collection in Scandinavia. But above all Gamla Stan (the old town, the oldest district in Stockholm) was the most adorable place in the city. Wondering around between the very beautiful old buildings (among which are Nobel Museum and the Royal Palace), big churches, narrow cobblestone alleys and souvenir shops was almost an every-day ritual.  The city also features an impressive multicultural aura. You can see that from the variety of restaurants available. I ate in Thai, Japanese, Italian, Syrian, Persian, Greek restaurants, that’s besides a host of other
national cuisines that I didn’t try (the Mexican is the one I’m sad I missed).

Sweden has an economic system that is a blend between socialism and capitalism. It’s a welfare country, where everyone lives luxury, but you can’t easily get filthy rich there due to the heavy taxes you have to pay. However, they have prosperous industry, with many famous brands – IKEA, world’s number 1 furniture manufacturers, Volvo, Scania & Saab in Vehicles Industry and Ericsson in electronics.  

As part of the YLVP, we all moved to Malmö for a weekend. Malmö is the 3^rd largest Swedish city and the largest in the southern most province, Skåne. This province was historically part of Denmark, it speaks a dialect that is a blend between Danish and Swedish (which are quite close to each other and to Norwegian – ‘tack’ is ‘thank you’, when pronounced with strong ‘a’ it is Swedish and with soft ‘a’ it is Danish!) and its flag is a mélange between the countries’ 2 flags. Malmö is 30 minutes by train from Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital. I took the train to visit Copenhagen with my passport in my pocket, but I never wanted it and I only discovered I crossed the borders when my mobile line was roaming on a Danish network (a lamentable fact when compared with moving across Arab countries). The Swedes are always pictured as the beautiful blonde model. But the fact is that this isn’t 100% true (but it’s true they’re beautiful). Out of Sweden’s 9 millions, 20% come from foreign backgrounds (12% born outside the country).  Sweden is a truly cosmopolitan country, and it’s Malmö that demonstrates it the best. There, people come from 180 nationalities, and it’s very common to hear Arabic while walking around. It’s to be remembered that Sweden is one of the most receiving countries to Iraqi and Palestinian refugees in Europe second only to Norway and thery’re mostly living in Malmö. And while the Swedes are one of the most tolerating people in Europe, they are very conscious about the racism and stereotyping in their society. There are many programmes tackling these issues, and there is a magazine that is specified only in fighting fascism, islamophobia and anti-semitism (Expo Magazine).    

Talking about stereotypes, there’s this one about the Swedes that they are introvert and boring (colourless!!). I had the chance to get a close-up on the every-day life of average Swedes taking the metro everyday, and the impression I got is that they are extremely helpful, always eager to lend a hand. I came to know Swedish families and have close relation with people there, and they are very warm-hearted and funny, too. I also made very good friendships with young people from the Levant and such human relationships are the most valuable thing I got from my trip.

 

On the last day, each of the five groups presented the idea they came up with. There will be a follow-up meeting in Alexandria in April for the groups to discuss the progress in their projects. In the closing ceremony we each received a diploma, a Dala Horse (Sweden’s symbol), and as a final reminder to Sweden’s passion with the environment a wooden (recyclable) USB flash drive.

 

If I get the chance to visit Sweden again, I will gladly cease such chance, and I strongly recommend Sweden to anyone who wants to visit a very beautiful country that prospers on valuing human beings.