Zlatan, Volvo & Wilderness

Music by: Zlatan Ibrahimović featuring Day - "Du gamla, Du fria" (The Swedish National Anthem)
Produced by Max Martin

Clip description:
"Sweden is our home. Mountains, vast forests, long distances, sun, rain, darkness, snow and ice. This inspires and challenges us when we develop our cars. The Swedish wilderness is our heritage and it is here we find our strength. Just like Zlatan Ibrahimović. This is our celebration of Sweden."

---

Zlatan (the son of a Bosnian father and a Croatian mother who individually emigrated to Sweden, where they met each other, fell in love, married and built a family), is undoubtedly the most widely loved Swede living today, although his "Swedishness" is disputed by a small clique of xenophobic extreme nationalist. 

Zlatan is a professional footballer who at the moment plays for the French club Paris Saint-Germain and the Swedish national team. He has previously played for the Swedish club Malmö FF, the Dutch club Ajax, the Italian clubs Juventus, Inter Milan and A.C. Milan and the Spanish club Barcelona (briefly). Zlatan is regarded to be one of the best footballers of his generation in the world.

Volvo is a Swedish multinational manufacturing company headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden. Its principal activity was the production, distribution and sale of cars, trucks, buses, and construction equipment. In 1999 the car division, Volvo Car Corporation, was sold to the American Ford Motor Company, who in turn sold it to the Chinese motor manufacturer Geely Automobile (owned by the Chinese Zhejiang Geely Holding Group) in 2010.

Notwithstanding these facts, Volvo Cars is still a Swedish company with its headquarter based in Sweden and its production in Sweden and Belgium. (Some cars are also produced in China, but exclusively for the Chinese market.)

So Zlatan, driving in a Volvo and cavorting about in the empty Swedish wilderness while rapping the Swedish national anthem, kissing and cuddling a blonde woman and blonde children after taking a sauna in a log cabin in the woods and jumping into an ice hole afterwards is about as Swedish as you can get - at least for 95% of the population in Sweden. We love it and ignore the clique who don't.

The only thing "un-Swedish" about this commercial is that Zlatan is actually wearing trunks when he jumps into the ice hole, no decent Swede would ever do that. It's pure blasphemy against everything that is sacred, nature should be met in the flesh as every Swede knows! 

Misandry and Zlatan

It´s been an exciting morning.

First of all, I learned a new word, misandry. (Take the link to Wikipedia to learn the meaning of the word.)

Secondly, I read a comment directed at me on a Swedish blog where the blogger herself referred to me as "the Zlatan of self-pitying". The selfsame blogger also honored me with a blogroll of my own, with the reason given that she didn't read my blog herself but that she wished to perform a public service to her readers.

For those of you who do not know of Zlatan Ibrahimović let me tell you he is the best Swedish professional soccer player ever. (Again, if you wish to learn more about Zlatan take the Wiki-link)

Even if I know I should have ignored her baiting, I could not resist so I dropped her a reply (here translated to English):

Well, (bloggers first name), it is normally not considered pleasant to kick on someone who is already down on the ground, but perhaps there are other standards on the West Coast? No for sure, I know that there aren´t, because I have lived there myself for five years.

If you are tired of my self-pitying, I can honestly say that it most likely is a slight breeze compared to how I feel myself. Unlike me, however, you have the privilege to surf on with a snort; I have to live my way through the crap.

When I began blogging, I promised myself that the blog would be a true, honest and open account of my experiences or else I should not do it. Of course I do not write about everything concerning my dealings with others, but in regard to myself, I am completely open. If this does not suit you obviously you should not read it - and most definitely not give it a blogroll of it´s own on your blog.

December 31, 2011 14:42

---
Enough of this bullshit, now I am getting ready for this evening. Have fun everyone!