EkobankenLars Pehrson from the Danish bank Merkur Andelskasse marked to Icelanders, who have lost their savings and often living as well in the recent economic crisis, in a seminar on socially responsible banking held during the summit meeting of the Nordic countries that modern banking can still be likened to Formula 1 racing in street traffic.

This year the bank, along with other two, was awarded a nature and environment prize of the Nordic Council of Ministers. Merkur Andelskasse shares the prize with Cultura Bank from Norway and Ekobanken from Sweden.

Those three represent a new trend in banking. They merge traditional market economy with value-based banking. As usual, the goal of the banks is to move cash flow and earn a profit, but they only lend money to companies and projects that share their values. It is their task to find agencies and people who are most effective in producing such values. And the venture must be successful at that.  

Flags of the five Nordic countries. Photo: Johannes Jansson/norden.orgYear 2030: the five Nordic countries – Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland – have merged into a united political federation with 25 million inhabitants and a common constitution, rule and head of state. Jakob Sjövall, MA in political science from the University of Stockholm, discusses the prospects for the emergence of a new, strong political force on the European as well as the international stage.

The idea of the Nordic countries forming one unified state has once again come to the forefront. Last year the renowned Swedish historian Gunnar Wetterberg came dynamically out with the idea of the Nordic Federal State, supported by arguments based on facts, which caused much sensation in the Nordic region as well as all over Europe. In the course of one year his proposal has put some flesh on its bones, has been widely debated and has been published as a book.

Wetterberg argues enthusiastically for a federation which, in addition to a common head of state – according to the latter the Queen of Denmark – would have common foreign, defence and fiscal policy frameworks and exercise legislative cooperation in various fields of social policy, starting from the hot topic of immigration.

Nordic Statistical Yearbook 2010. Photo: Johannes Jansson/norden.org25% of Swedish citizens between ages 16 and 24 were unemployed in 2009. Denmark and Norway do somewhat better in this respect, their unemployment rate among young people being around 10%. The Nordic Statistical Yearbook 2010 includes the above and other interesting statistical data on the Nordic countries.

Also from the Yearbook 2010:

• In Iceland 37% of students quit school right after compulsory school. The percentage of students with just basic education is higher only in Aland, namely 38%.
• In Sweden the most popular name for newborn girls is Alice. In Finland the most popular name is Aino, in Denmark Freja, in Iceland Sara and in Norway Emma.
• Sweden is the Nordic country where women have the most abortions. In Sweden 348 abortions per 1000 newborns were performed in 2008. However, in Greenland, which is an autonomous country of Denmark, the number of abortions is higher than that of live births.

Mona Sahlin. Foto: Lena Dahlström/socialdemokraterna.seIt won't make any difference whether the left or the right wins the Swedish elections on 19 September – the Social Democrats will bomb either way, says political analyst Eva Franchell in the online magazine Analys Norden. They may even be in for their worst election result ever...

Four years later, the Social Democrats are being led by Mona Sahlin, who was meant to breathe new life into the party and present stiff competition to the governing parties. But nothing has gone the way the Social Democrats planned. Franchell says that the party failed to make the most of the opportunities it was presented with to unleash a storm of criticism on the governing liberals – the financial crisis, promised jobs not materialising and the failed climate talks in Copenhagen last December. Sahlin, in fact, has barely raised her voice. And this is the selfsame party that won the electorate over just a couple of decades ago. But times change – and so do people's needs.

Nordic Statistical Yearbook 2009. Photo: norden.orgThe recently published Nordic Statistical Yearbook 2009 shows that Swedish men are the most successful at staying away from cigarettes. 87% of Swedish men and 85% of Swedish women do not smoke on a daily basis.

These indicators are slightly better than the average for the Nordic countries – figures from 2007 show that 73–80% of the population do not smoke, which is also highlighted in the statistical overview of the Nordic countries to be issued by the Nordic Council of Ministers before the annual Nordic summit. Ministers and members of the parliaments of the Nordic countries will gather for the summit from 27 to 29 October this year.

A creative incubator offering business training to start-up companies through state support is a very useful thing. Particularly so when the incubator offering the service pays for itself.

Kreator, founded in the Swedish city of Umeå, is itself a company and offers the same service – albeit slightly more than your average creative incubator. What gave them the impetus to launch their service was the fact that not all creative people want to become fully-fledged entrepreneurs, but still need creative enterprise. As such, Kreator offers creative people the chance to rent themselves business associates or an employer.

"The Nordic countries ought to strengthen their co-operation and face the challenges of globalisation to avoid marginalisation," according to Lars Oxelheim, Professor at Lund University in Sweden and affiliated with Fudan University in Shanghai, in a debate article in 'Svenska Dagbladet’ today.

The Göteborg Book Fair is a garden, says Kätlin Kaldmaa. The directors of the fair have succeeded in creating a new world every year, a microscopic world compared to the planet in all her plentitude And every year there are new trees of thought, experience and writing, becoming rooted in thought, experience and writing of guests.

Laupäeval, 29. septembril avati Göteborgis Hnossi galeriis üheksa noore Eesti ehtekunstniku näitus FRAGMENTA. Peale suurepärase kunstilise ande seob neid asjaolu, et nad kõik on käinud end täiendamas Põhjamaades stipendiumiprogrammi Sleipnir raames. Ehete maailmast räägivad ehtekunstnikud Julia Maria Künnap ja Piret Hirv.