I spent Swedens national day in the company of refugees who have recently landed here from Syria, Eritrea and Ukraine, among others. Their stories of daring escapes, of burying loved ones killed in conflict with their bare hands, of the greed and treachery of people traffickers, and of families thrown to the four winds by conflict were hard to listen to, but listen we must. None of them wants to be a burden on this society, and all of them wanted one message to get across to the Swedish people - and that is their gratitude for a safe haven and a chance to start again. I will tell some of their stories in much greater detail soon, but for now Ill quietly celebrate Sweden and her people perhaps more than at any time in my 15 years here. How lucky we are to live in a democratic country, free to raise our children without fear of bombs or bullets, or a knock on the door in the middle of the night. For that, we should all be grateful, and we should never underestimate it.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 16:19:44 +0000
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