Some things are universal.
A young Swedish woman blogs about the story of her sick mother being kicked off the federal benefits system by Sweden's conservative government. Within 24 hours, the story goes viral on Facebook, and is forwarded over 20,000 times. The Facebook attention catches the eye of the media, that then interviews the girl and her mother as the top story on the nightly news, which leads to her being profiled as the top story of the largest Swedish daily.
Twelve hours later, the candidates for the prime minister-ship are meeting for their last debate, two days before the national elections. The story of Emilie and her mother is brought up, and the candidates spend ten minutes discussing health care and conservative budget cuts, all the while the current sitting Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, remains silent until forced to comment on the case by the debate moderator.
Over at Balloon Juice, a progressive American blog, Tim F. wrote a tongue-in-cheek blog post about how the Swedish right needs to attack this girl, just like the American right would do in their stead.
The Swedish right needs to find some way to caricature people like that blogger as an alien ‘other’ who, unlike true Swedes from real Sweden, doesn’t deserve any sympathy at all.And what do you know? The Swedish right did just that. When confronted with a real life story of a mom and her daughter in need, they went on the attack, and denigrated the girl and her mom. They called her a liar, claiming that her story part of a left-wing plot to win the election. They did exactly what the right-wing in America does whenever they're confronted with a real human being, a real American, who's been hurt by Republican policies and politics. They go on the attack, and attempt to destroy the victim one more time.
The girl has now responded, and it's a great response. Here is her blog post in Swedish. And here is the Google Translate version in English, which is more than readable enough to understand.
Here is one criticism she received:
"I agree with everyone that this is terrible. BUT how you honestly can sit in an interview on TV4 and claim that this was not planned, admit that you are active in the Left and then pretend that you would not have posted this blog entry if you had known that the reaction would be so great. Embarrassing, embarrassing, embarrassing - why didn't you write about this right after the incident but instead waited until four days before the election? Again, it's tragic that the whole thing has taken place, but to publish now smell desperation! ILL and dirty! "Here is one small part of her response:
[How] could this have been planned? I don't know if you realize it, but up until now, my blog only got a few visitors a day. That it was like this now came as a shock to me. Even if I did plan to write this to coincide with end of the election, how could I know that it would have such an impact? And do you seriously that I'd name my blog "Chlamydia Letter" if I thought it would turn me into a public figure? It is embarrassing to be "chlamydia girl."
I'm not a public figure.... I'm an ordinary girl. I had only talked to my friends about the situation. But I wanted to make sure that my friends would know, that they'd understand better why I feel the way I feel. The enormous pain inside me has grown long and then wanted it just come out. I figured now would I share with my friends. And it happened to be the night of Wednesday, when I wrote the post for three hours. I did not have the slightest eye on the election campaign, because I have not had the energy. I just wrote about my mom. As I have previously written about my PMS, about how the teaching profession is the world's best job, how I mixed a good drink, or how I feel. I love to write, that's all. The reason why I started this blog is one of the very first posts.
The only thing that is unforgivable is that sick people do not get the support they deserve. Even if it was that this was deliberate - which, as I expressed clearly, it was not - why is it unforgivable, bad and dirty? Those of you who write in this way should learn to appreciate the basic principles of democracy.Here's a Facebook fan page devoted to the girl's plight.
And here's a viral video that's been going around, in English (it's funny, and not unfamiliar to an American audience).
