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The Old Country Newsletter – Did Swedes Help Build Manhattan?
Your Weekly Newsletter from Sweden!
Philip G
December 05, 2025
Good morning!
It’s Friday, December 5.
The Christmas lights are going up, the daylight is going down, and December has officially settled in. Whether you’re already deep into saffron buns or still pretending it’s October, I hope the end of this work week brings a little warmth to the winter darkness.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Phil
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Word of the week
GLIMT[gleemt]
glimpse; spark; twinkle.
Social Democrats Face Blowback Over Shadow Media Network as Meta Pulls Ads
Attribution: SvD
Sweden’s Social Democrats are under fire after a TV4 investigation revealed that their media company, AiP, operates partisan websites and meme accounts that aren’t always clearly linked to the party—prompting accusations of running a “troll factory” and triggering major fallout across Sweden’s political and media landscape.
According to TV4, AiP Media Produktion AB—fully owned by the Social Democrats—pushes political content through sites like Politikkollen and meme channels such as “Jävla uland,” often without an immediately obvious disclosure of the party ties. Moderates party secretary Karin Enström blasted the setup as “manipulation,” arguing it mimics neutral platforms while masking its political purpose. AiP CEO Daniel Färm insists the connection is transparent enough, noting that disclosures exist—if a user clicks into the “About” page.
The controversy quickly expanded. Political commentators pointed out that S-leader Magdalena Andersson previously condemned the Sweden Democrats for similar tactics, making the party’s defense now appear inconsistent. The uproar has also overshadowed Andersson’s attempts to build bridges with the newly elected Centre Party leader, a key relationship for a potential future coalition.
Then came the corporate blow: Meta banned AiP, and thus the Social Democrats, from advertising on Facebook and Instagram, arguing that party-owned media must follow political advertising rules. Shortly after, AiP’s editor-in-chief Jenny Åkervall—herself politically active within the party—stepped aside as the company undergoes a restructuring to reposition itself as a general news outlet. Färm says clearer labeling will be implemented across platforms, though he maintains that AiP, not the party, is responsible for editorial decisions.
Postcard from the North
Kungsträdgården, Stockholm
In other news
🔋 Sweden’s Environmental Protection Agency now forecasts that the country’s electric vehicle fleet will fall short of the 2030 target, SVT reports. According to Mobility Sweden CEO Mattias Berg, Sweden has lost momentum in the transition due to economic downturns, the removal of the climate bonus for passenger cars, and policy changes such as the lowered diesel tax. He says that electrification is struggling most for heavy trucks, but that concrete policy measures exist that could accelerate progress again.
📰 An investigation by SVT’s Dokument inifrån finds no evidence supporting media personality Joakim Lundell’s long-publicized claims that his mother abused him during childhood. Records from social services, child psychiatry, and the courts instead depict Lundell as a child with severe aggression issues who was placed in foster care because his parents feared he might harm his siblings. Lundell maintains that discussing his past is traumatic and criticizes the program, while the journalists say they asked the same questions other reporters have posed but were more thoroughly informed.
🪖 Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson met his U.S. counterpart Pete Hegseth in Washington and later said that the United States, in its current political form, is “a different kind of ally” with a new tone and higher expectations. A key topic at the meeting was the war in Ukraine, where Jonson emphasized Sweden’s position that peace must be achieved and expressed hope that the U.S. shares this view. According to SVT’s U.S. correspondent, Jonson said he got the impression during the talks that the American stance aligns with Sweden’s desire for a peaceful resolution.
A Glass Box and a Long Week, For a Good Cause
Attribution: Expressen
Every December, Sweden does something that feels almost impossibly earnest in a world that’s anything but: it puts three celebrities in a glass box, locks the door, and broadcasts them live for 144 hours straight. Welcome to Musikhjälpen, the annual charity marathon that is part telethon, part festival, part national group hug.
This year, the traveling glass cage has landed in Karlstad — temporarily renamed Kärlekens torg — and hosts Linnea Wikblad, Assia Dahir, and Hampus Hedström are already settling into their nearly week-long confinement. They sleep on bunkbeds, eat whatever is handed through a slot, and talk, sing, joke, cry, and coax the country into donating for a cause.
And Swedes respond. Four-year-olds arrive with homemade collection jars; school classes start mini-fundraisers; local principals promise questionable tattoos if donations hit a certain threshold. It’s chaotic, wholesome, and deeply Swedish in a way that doesn’t quite translate until you’ve lived here: the seriousness of purpose wrapped in the coziness of a community bake sale.
This year’s theme, that “All children have the right to go to school”, puts a global spotlight on the 234 million kids living in conflict zones where education is anything but guaranteed. In a geopolitical moment where generosity often feels exhausted, Musikhjälpen insists that a small, chilly nation in the north can still care loudly and publicly.
To an outside eye, the whole thing may look quirky. To a Swede, it’s tradition. It’s a reminder that even in dark winter, light can be made, and shared, together.
Swede-ish Notes
From Okome to the Edge of the Sky
It’s been 90 years (give or take) since a boy from a small village in Halland may have perched 250 meters over Manhattan — lunch pail in hand, hat on head, and New York sprawling beneath. The photograph from 1932, widely reproduced through generations, shows eleven ironworkers on a steel beam during the construction of what would become Rockefeller Center. According to local tradition and family lore from the village of Okome, one of those men is said to be Albin Svensson; known back home as “Julles-Albin.”
The story is part history, part mystery. Most serious researchers caution that identities can’t be confirmed. The original photo was staged as a publicity shot for the building’s promoters, and many claimants have surfaced over the decades.
Still, as long as there are those who remember the immigrant journeys, the name “Albin Svensson,” and a family photo from Okome, the possibility remains alive.
Maybe that’s the real magic of the image: not just the thrill of danger high above Manhattan, but the idea of ordinary people, some who might be from small Swedish hamlets, claiming a piece of the skyline, clutching hope (and lunch-boxes) against the Great Depression. For Swedish-Americans, it could be a quiet link across the Atlantic: a reminder that stones, steel and dreams helped build more than walls. They helped build lives.