(Headline) "No Socialist Paradise: Sweden’s COVID-19 Response Is Nothing to Envy" (Lede) Eleanor Goldfield reports from Stockholm on how COVID-19 has laid bare the US-style capitalist reality creeping into Sweden’s already struggling socialized programs, posted by Eleanor Goldfield on 18 September 2020
Source: Mint Press News From Djurgården, I walk along the water on Strandvägen – a rising fall whips in a determined wind across the water, slicing at remnants of summer and carving pathways around centuries-old buildings. Colors like Nordic interior design catalogs look like they’ve been stirred among clouds – a muted vibrance that evokes a calm and stoic resolve. Albeit quieter than a typical early fall day, there’s a bustle. People are out and their faces are bare. Buses and trolleys roll by and not a mask can be seen inside. Scuffed and faded stickers on the street remind people to keep their distance yet they seem like relics from a time long gone when a global pandemic was something people needed to worry about. The only time I could feel the ghostly press of the pandemic was in the Old Town. Typically wall-to-cobbled-street-wall with tourists, it was surprisingly empty. A few crinkled and hand-scribbled signs in shop windows announced limited hours or closures – no open...