A Swedish art student who feigned a psychosis and acted as if she were about to commit suicide was ordered to pay a 2,500-kronor (350 dollars) fine for the stunt.
Anna Odell, 35, had risked up to two years in jail for the incident she staged in January as part of her final exam project at the Swedish University College of Arts, Crafts and Design.
The Stockholm district court convicted her of abusing the psychiatric health system and resisting arrest, but she was cleared of raising a false alarm. The project has been hailed as a legitimate arts project by some, while others say she drained resources from the psychiatric health system that is severely stretched.
Odell's lawyer told reporters they would consider an appeal against the conviction of abusing the health system.
Odell - who testified that she had a history of mental health problems - filmed her actions on a bridge in Stockholm. She was so convincing that police were called to the scene chose to take her to a psychiatric ward in central Stockholm, where she was admitted.
She also used her hospital records and other documents as part of the arts project. Odell resisted police officers and hospital staff, who gave her sedatives and were forced to strap her down to a bed.
In her testimony she said the pretence was necessary to offer a real view of how the Swedish psychiatric care system treats people.
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Swedish Customs and Culture - Food
No one visiting Sweden in August can fail to notice how shop window displays from variations on the theme of crayfish.
Nowhere is the crayfish so ardently worshipped as in Sweden. Eating of crayfish has expanded into a ritual meal surrounded by all manner of accessories, preferably with an authentic full moon thrown in. The decorations consist mostly of colored paper lanterns in the form of smiling moon-faces suspended over the table.
A hundred years ago, the catching of crayfish was forbidden except for a couple of months every autumn. At one time the lakes of central Sweden teemed with this black gold, which was exported to the high-class restaurants of Paris, London and Berlin, but over-fishing was threatening to annihilate them.
In 1907 the Swedish crayfish enthusiasts were struck by a disaster: the “crayfish plague” which was a lethal parasitic mould, which eliminated rare crayfish from most of Sweden’s fishing waters. The Swedes imported crayfish, first from Turkey and then from Spain and today from the US. making Sweden the world’s biggest crayfish importer.
Eating crayfish the Swedish way is not easy, but the experience of a crayfish party can very well modify the myth of Swedish uprightness.
Nowhere is the crayfish so ardently worshipped as in Sweden. Eating of crayfish has expanded into a ritual meal surrounded by all manner of accessories, preferably with an authentic full moon thrown in. The decorations consist mostly of colored paper lanterns in the form of smiling moon-faces suspended over the table.
A hundred years ago, the catching of crayfish was forbidden except for a couple of months every autumn. At one time the lakes of central Sweden teemed with this black gold, which was exported to the high-class restaurants of Paris, London and Berlin, but over-fishing was threatening to annihilate them.
In 1907 the Swedish crayfish enthusiasts were struck by a disaster: the “crayfish plague” which was a lethal parasitic mould, which eliminated rare crayfish from most of Sweden’s fishing waters. The Swedes imported crayfish, first from Turkey and then from Spain and today from the US. making Sweden the world’s biggest crayfish importer.
Eating crayfish the Swedish way is not easy, but the experience of a crayfish party can very well modify the myth of Swedish uprightness.
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