Today my mother was laid to rest at Gräsö Church on the island of Gräsö in Sweden’s Roslagen Archipelago.
Gräsö Church is a historic wooden church built between 1695 and 1697. In 1719, during the Russian raids along Sweden’s east coast known as the Russian Pillage (Rysshärjningarna), the church was severely damaged and vandalized. It was gradually restored over the centuries and today is home to, among other treasures, a beautiful 15th-century altarpiece.
This church was woven throughout my mother’s life. She was baptized, confirmed, and married there. Today, she was laid to rest in the same church where she faithfully served for many years as a church warden in the Church of Sweden.
Because I couldn’t be there in person, this is my tribute to her.
I’m singing “Blott en dag” (“Day by Day”), the beloved hymn written by the Swedish poet Lina Sandell in 1865. The hymn has been translated into many languages and is known in English as “Day by Day and with Each Passing Moment.” For generations, its words of faith, comfort, and trust have brought peace to people in times of sorrow.
“Blott en Dag” written by Lina Sandell 1865. The hymn has been translated into many languages and is know in English as “Day by Day and with Each Passing Moment”.
Vivianne Älvebrink, née Hörner, passed away peacefully on June 24, 2026, almost exactly fifteen years after her husband Gunnar Älvebrink, who passed away on June 26, 2011. Together they built a long life on Gräsö, the island where she was born on April 21, 1936, in Nötsveden and which remained her home throughout her life.
Vivianne worked for many years as a dental nurse. Beyond her professional career, she was deeply committed to public service. She served as a church warden in the Church of Sweden and was an active and respected local politician representing the Moderate Party in Östhammar Municipality. Over the years she served on the Municipal Executive Board, Municipal Council, Building Committee, Tourism Board and Election Committee, contributing to the development of her community through dedicated leadership.
She was a remarkable woman, strong willed, colorful, intelligent and fearless. She faced life with determination and left a lasting impression on all who crossed her path.
Vivianne is survived by her children, Henrik Älvebrink of Östhammar, Johan Älvebrink of Uppsala and Caroline Älvebrink Calais of Dallas, Texas, along with their families, as well as her grandchildren and great grandchildren.
With Vivianne’s passing, a distinctive and deeply rooted presence is lost, a woman shaped by strong convictions, steadfast commitment and a profound love for Gräsö and the Roslagen archipelago.
Tacksam till Epoch Times Sverige för publiceringen. // I am grateful to Epoch Times Sweden for publishing my article.
”När Sverige gör Texas till sin VM-bas möts två fotbollskulturer – och två samhällsmodeller. I Frisco välkomnas landslaget med en entusiasm som säger något om USA:s växande fotbollsambitioner. Ändå riskerar Sveriges bild av värdlandet att reduceras till Donald Trump och politiska motsättningar snarare än företagsamhet och framtidstro, skriver Caroline Älvebrink Calais, politisk ekonom och frilansskribent.”
“When Sweden makes Texas its World Cup base, two football cultures—and two societal models—meet. In Frisco, the national team is welcomed with an enthusiasm that speaks to the USA’s growing football ambitions. Yet there is a risk that Sweden’s image of the host country will be reduced to Donald Trump and political divisions, rather than enterprise and optimism for the future, writes Caroline Älvebrink Calais, political economist and freelance writer.”
A Swedish-American perspective on culture, capitalism, media narratives, and what the 2026 FIFA World Cup reveals about the growing divide between Europe and the United States.
Heja Sverige! It was Texas hospitality at its very best when North Texas welcomed the Swedish national soccer team to its FIFA World Cup home base in Frisco. For me, a Swede who left the small island of Gräsö for a journey through Europe and Latin America that eventually ended in the Lone Star State more than two decades ago, it is exhilarating. Not only because North Texas, and especially the City of Frisco, has more or less adopted Sweden as its own team. Sweden’s greatest World Cup success since reaching the final in 1958 came in 1994, the very first time the United States hosted the tournament. That summer, Sweden captured a bronze medal with a team many Swedes still regard as one of the finest national squads ever assembled.
Disappointingly, Swedish media coverage has so far failed to acknowledge the warmth and genuine enthusiasm Texas has shown. Instead, media outlets across the political spectrum have used the tournament as another opportunity to focus on familiar political criticisms of the United States. The political undertones are not surprising, over the last few years Sweden has become one of Europe’s most Trump-skeptical countries, and coverage of America is almost automatically filtered through Donald Trump, wether the subject is politics, culture, or as now, the FIFA World Cup. The divide goes beyond disagreements over NATO, climate policy, or global responsibility. President Trump’s showman style clashes with Swedish cultural norms built around modesty, consensus, and ‘lagom’, the idea that nothing should be too much or too extreme.
Another sticking point is the different view of capitalism. Swedes live in a competitive market economy with a large welfare state, but although they support private enterprise, there is a strong belief that it must be accompanied by heavy regulation, a generous social safety net, and high taxes. Capitalism is seen as a useful engine for creating wealth, but one whose rewards government should redistribute. For many Swedes, paying a 25 percent value-added tax and an income tax approaching 57 percent seems entirely reasonable.
All of this runs through Swedish culture. In the United States, soccer is a growing niche sport competing with football, basketball, and baseball for attention. In Sweden, soccer is a core part of everyday life and national identity in very much the same way Texans relate to American football. I remember casually playing soccer with my male and female classmates on Gräsö. We were just 50 kids in the school, so everybody was needed. Soccer is built from the ground up through local democratic sports clubs where members hold majority voting rights and clubs belong entirely to their communities. The so-called 50+1 ownership model exists as a guardrail, making it harder for outside investors to simply buy control the way they often can in other European leagues or American sports franchises.
In the United States, sport is not simply something people do, it is a billion-dollar business. Games and leagues are profit-driven entertainment products. For the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Texas has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure, stadium preparations, security, and fan experiences as Dallas-Arlington and Houston are hosting sixteen matches combined. Here, soccer is not only about tradition or community identity, but also about growth, investment, global visibility, and the belief that major international events can create new opportunities. Capitalism is part of Texas culture and identity, viewed as the engine that creates opportunity, prosperity, and individual freedom.
I hope highlighting these differences brings some understanding to why Americans and Europeans in general, and Swedes in particular, so often talk past one another. The FIFA World Cup is a rare moment when two very different ways of seeing football, politics, and capitalism meet on the same pitch. What looks familiar on the surface can often reflect very different ways of thinking underneath.
Caroline Älvebrink Calais
Political Economist | Writer | Swedish-born, Texas-based | Writing on politics, economics, geopolitics, and culture.
At Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, and other endangered species roam across a landscape dedicated to conservation, education, and research.
This video offers a glimpse into one of Texas’ most unique destinations and the important work being done to help protect wildlife from around the world.
Whether you’re visiting Texas for the first time or have lived here for years, Fossil Rim is a destination well worth discovering.
Fossil Rim is one of my favorite destinations in Texas and a place I return to whenever I can. I especially enjoy sharing it with my brother, sister-in-law, and nieces when they visit from Sweden. Watching their reactions to wildlife roaming freely across the landscape always warms my heart.
The highlight of every visit? The giraffes. They never fail to make us smile.
President Biden sa i måndags att vi stod inför en ny världsordning. Biden har stoppat olja och naturgas utvinning efter att USA varit självförsörjande och oberoende av den internationella oljemarknaden under den tidigare ledningen.
Du kan också gilla min Facebook sida “ Hänt i Veckan med Caroline Älvebrink Pod” där jag kommer att posta dokument jag baserar min pod på eller annan information som inte alltid ryms i podden.
Copyright 2022, Caroline Calais. All rights reserved.
New York Times stämmer USAs utrikesdepartement för att få tillgång till Hunter Bidens email.
Gilla gärna min Facebook Sida “Hänt i Veckan med Caroline Älvebrink Calais” där jag kommer att posta dokument jag baserar min podcast på samt annat som inte alltid ryms i min podcast.
Copyright 2022, Caroline Calais. All rights reserved.
En ‘information frihets förfrågan’ från BuzzFeed, Washington Post och Judicial Watch har lett till att 3000 sidor email från USAs talesman för Pandemin, Dr. Fauci, släppts. De visar bla hur den organisation Dr. Fauci är chef för, mellan 2014-2019 skickade $3.5 miljoner till Wuhan Institute of Virology, ett labb med koppling till Kinesisk biologisk krigsföring. Detta trots att Obama Administrationen infört ett moratorium på Gain of Function Research, forskning som i korthet betyder att forskare studerar virus för att se hur de kan bli modifierade till att bli dödligare eller lättare att sprida till människor.
Copyright 2021, Caroline Calais. All rights reserved.
In a debate article in Sweden’s biggest newspaper Aftonbladet on New Year’s Eve 2020, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, admits that the covid-19 pandemic has revealed the deep deficiencies in the Swedish society. Not surprising . At the end of February 2021 12,713 people in Sweden has died from the illness, that’s about 1,270 per million inhabitants compared to 121 in Finland and 121 in Norway.
The question is why the difference. A report released earlier this year by the Swedish Covid-19 Commission points to Sweden’s failing universal healthcare. Especially failing in protecting older people. Almost 90 % of the people who died in Sweden was 70 years of age or older and most of them lived in service accommodation. The report concludes that there are structural shortcomings in eldercare and that providers were unprepared and ill-equipped to deal with the pandemic due to, among other things, fragmented organization and lack of medical expertise.
“The overall assessment is that the Swedish strategy, regarding elderly care, has failed,” Jimmie Åkesson, the leader of the Sweden Democrats, wrote on Twitter. “It is a tragic story about how people in Sweden in 2020 died unnecessarily.”
In the beginning of December the country’s statistics agency, said Sweden recorded the second deadliest month. The death toll in the country of 10 million was only eclipsed by the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.
However, according to Prime Minister Löfven, Sweden has not only failed in universal healthcare , the government has also failed in protecting its citizens against rampant criminality and violence.
” You should be able to trust the Swedish system, when you call the police, become sick, are old or giving birth to your child”, Löfven said in his debate article.
Food for thought for the Biden Harris administration maybe? President Joe Biden has among other things called for giving every American affordable healthcare , building on Obama Care and getting rid of private medical insurance. His running mate Kamala Harris has not explicitly talked about defunding the police although many demonstrators this summer said so. Instead she has talked about ‘reimagine’ public safety
“ We need to reimagine how we are achieving public safety in America,” she said in early June 2020 in an episode of the TV program The View. “To have cities where one-third of their entire budget is going to policing but yet there is a dire need in those same cities for mental health resources, for resources going into public schools, for resources going into job training and job creation — come on. We have to be honest about this.”
Maybe it is time for the Biden Harris administration to ponder Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven’s latests debate article.
Copyright 2021, Caroline Calais. All rights are reserved
I början på februari 2017 hade jag möjligheten att delta i en lunch på Belo Mansion i Dallas med Dr. Charles Kupschan. Kupschan är Professor i International Affairs på School of Foreign Service, Government Department på Georgetown University, i Washington D.C. och en Senior Fellow på Council on Foreign Relations. Från 2014 to 2017 var Kupchan en Special Assistant till President Obama och Senior Director för European Affairs på National Security Council i Obamas Vita Hus. Det var en kul och intressant lunch där Dr. Kupschan berättade om både Obama administrationen och den nytillträdda Trump Administrationen.
President Obama, sa Kupschan, var en metodisk, försiktig och väl förberedd president, om än lite för försiktig något som resulterade i att Obamas policies ibland hamnade in något slags “no mans land”. I Syria till exempel, gick President Obama aldrig över den röda linjen, vilket han lovat internationellt — han var rädd för att situationen skulle eskalera, förklarade Kupschan.
“He did not make the tough call needed”
Charles Kupschan, Dallas, Texas den 2a februari 2017
Den största oron Dr. Kupschan hade över President Trump och hans administration, trots att han tyckte det fanns många talangfulla människor i Vita Huset, var att de inte fattade beslut som var baserade på fakta utan på känslor. Dr. Kupschan tyckte också att President Trump jobbade som om USAs regering var ett familjeföretag.
Det sista Dr. Kupschan sa till mig har jag dock aldrig kunnat glömma. President Obama, sa Kupschan, var en absolut ärlig och omutlig människa. En människa med integritet.
Charles Kupschan Dallas, Texas den 2a februari, 2017
Och så trodde jag också till för cirka en vecka sedan. Justitieministern William Barr lade då ner utredningen mot President Trumps förre Security Adviser General Michael Flynn. Det trots att Flynn i 2017 sagt att han ljugit för FBI om en konversation han hade med den Ryske ambassadören Kisljak under samma tid President Obama lämnade Vita Husets nycklar till nyvalde President Trump.
Beslutet att fria General Flynn har mötts av mycket kritik. En del svenska journalister har t.ex skrivit att justitieminister Barr går president Trumps ärende i syfte att hjälpa Trump “blanda bort korten”. Talmannen Nancy Pelosi anklagade argt Justitieminister Barr för att politisera rättsväsendet och President Obama har själv irriterat sagt att rättsstatsprincipen nu är i fara. Många demokrater har framfört åsikter om att Barr borde avgå.
Det är dock svårt att förstå hur Justitieminister Barr skulle hjälpa Trump att “blanda bort korten” (vilka kort förresten?) eller ens politisera rättsväsendet och hota rättsstatsprincipen. För de hemligstämplade dokument som nu gjorts tillgängliga för allmänheten visar tydligt på FBIs partiskhet och förklarar varför general Flynn tidigare i år dragit tillbaka sitt erkännande, sägande att han blivit otillbörligt åtalad.
Och President Obamas FBI försökte verkligen sätta dit Michael Flynn. St. Louis US Attorney (åklagare) Jeff Jensen gick igenom fallet Flynn på nytt för att se om FBIs intervju med Trumps Security Adviser Michael Flynn var en counterintelligence undersökning, eller vad Flynn trodde, bara ett oskyldigt samtal om hans kontakter med ryska diplomater.
Dokument som består av två email konversationer samt en sida av handskrivna anteckningar av personer involverade i förberedelserna av FBI intervjun (många har gissat att de handskrivna anteckningarna är gjorda av FBI agent Peter Strzoks älskarinna advokaten Lisa Page) med Michael Flynn. På den handskrivna anteckningen, daterad den 24e januari 2017, samma dag Flynn intervjuades av FBI, skriver författaren:
“What is our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”
“Vilket är vårt mål? Sanning/erkännande eller att få honom ljuga, så vi kan åtala honom, eller få honom avskedad?” (svensk översättning av anteckningen)
Chockerande. Men budskapet är klart. General Flynn skulle luras in i en fälla och sättas dit. Av FBI! Och de personer som åklagare Jeff Jensen pekar ut i sin undersökning är FBI direktör James Comey, och förre detta top counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok. Agent Strzok intervjuade Flynn och detta trots att hans avdelning redan beslutat att stänga ner en counterintelligence undersökning mot Flynn.
General Flynn, som var en livslång demokrat och jobbade under President Obama som en top intelligence officer, avgick som Trumps utrikespolitiska rådgivare bara några veckor efter att Trump blev president 2017. Den tre stjärniga generalen fick sälja sitt hus för att orka med de advokatkostnader FBI undersökningen gav och för att skydda sin son, Michael G Flynn, som jobbar i sin fars konsultfirma Flynn Intel Group en lobbying firma, från en liknande FBI undersökning.
Men det viktigaste går inte att förneka. Obama Administrationen ville bli av med President Trumps security advisor General Michael Flynn. Och påstod att Flynn kunde vara en rysk agent. FBI startade därför en counterintelligence undersökning i augusti 2016. Märkligt med tanke på att Flynn, är en pensionerad, tre stjärning general, som nyligen författat en bok där Ryssland är identifierad som en global fiende till USA.
Men det var inte första gången avlyssning skedde. Enligt Washington Post avlyssnades medlemmar i den Amerikanska Kongressen av USAs Intelligence byrå när de 2015 kommunicerade med Israels premiärminister om Obama administrationens Iran avtal.
Hur som helst. Den 12e januari, 8 dagar innan President Obama lämnade sitt ämbete samlade han, enligt FBI direktör James Comey, en liten grupp bland annat bestående av President Obama och Vice-President Joe Biden, och avslöjade då avlyssningen av general Flynn och Rysslands ambassadör Kislyak. Rutin samtalet hade hänt i december 2016 och President Obama hade nu detaljerad kunskap om vad general Flynn sagt. Varför? I de dokument som släpptes av justitiedepartementet i föra veckan uttryckte President Obamas vice justitieminister Sally Yates förvåning över vad som hänt. Det är lätt att förstå, President Obamas åtta år vid makten var över, så varför avlyssna Trumps utsedde security advisor?
Detta speciellt med tanke på Obamas egen historia med General Flynn. 2014 hade Obama sparkat Flynn som direktör för Defense Intelligence Agency med motiveringen att Flynn var uppstudsig och inte följde order. “Insubordination” var den officiella termen. Flynns motivering till dispyten var att Obama inte gillade Flynns hårdare tag mot Islamitisk extremism. President Obama varnade senare President Trump för General Flynn.
Vem som har rätt av de två har egentligen ingen betydelse. Det viktigaste är att President Obama och hans Vice President Joe Biden kände till att en person i Trumps Vita Hus var avlyssnad av FBI. De kände till och med till detaljerna om samtalet.
Hur är det möjligt? Oberoende av politisk hemvist är storyn om General Flynn och hur han behandlades av det USA han givit sitt liv för, både ute på slagfält i Afghanistan och senare i administrativ funktion, något som borde väcka avsky hos alla. Vem är det nästa gång som FBI och en utgående administration tänker sätta dit för att de inte gillar personen. Du själv?
Fortsättning följer om hur Rysslands utredningen gick till, General Flynn ser ut att vara en slags katalysator. Fler dokument kommer att släppas till allmänheten. Det är nästan ironiskt. Jag trodde alltid att President Trumps valrop “drain the swamp” var ett skämt, ett slags sätt att egga supporters ute på kampanj evenemang. Något han bara sa och som folk gillade att höra. Det visar sig dock att President Trump har haft rätt hela tiden, Washington är ett träsk och President Obama är mitt i det.
Last week’s climate and environmental events could not have been spent more differently. For while Swedish 16-year old climate activist Greta Thunberg held a speech to UN and got together with her loud cliques in New York and Montreal for a climate protest , Swedish Crown Princess Victoria brought her 7-year old daughter, Princess Estelle, out on an excursion in the Swedish woods near Hagaparken, Stockholm, spending ‘World Cleanup Day’ picking up trash left by careless visitors.
“It is very important for us all to help out and clean up our environment”, the Crown Princess said in Swedish TV . “It is a lot of trash out there”.
I remember doing the same as a child. People visiting our beautiful island Gräsö summertime left tons of litter behind. Waiting in line in their vehicles to take the ferry over to the mainland, for example, they not only left their cars run idle, they also threw out their trash. Used dipers, beer cans, candy wrappers and other more unmentionable trash littered our roads, woods and beaches.
The answer to this environmental hazard was to let the school children in grade 1 to 6 on the island — all 50 of us — yearly spend a so called “sports day” picking up litter. It was disgusting. Still, we learned a lesson these warm and smelly September days — the importance of being a good steward of our environment. To this day I never let my car run idle – not even in 100 degree Texas heat – litter or let my shower run on full capacity when shampooing my hair.
Greta Thunberg and her school friends have learned how to protest, create hashtags and take selfies with politicians and celebrities. In New York, Greta urged the world to ‘wake up’ saying that we are facing the biggest human crisis ever.
” This is not something you can package and sell or ‘like’ on social media”, she said in her speech.
Kind of ironic for a girl whose road to celebrated climate hero never would have happened if not for social media. On page 224 in the book ‘Scener ur Hjärtat’ (Scenes from the Heart) written by Greta, her dad Svante Thunberg, mom Malena Ernman and sister Beata, it is pointed out how powerful a little girl with an Instagram account and a picture of a polar bear would be. “ A defender of our security as efficient as all the world’s armies put together”. Exactly how the family planned to achieve this goal is explained in the the second edition of the same book.
It starts early on August 20, 2018, only 3 days before the launch of the book ‘Scener ur Hjärtat’ (Scenes from the Heart). Greta bicycles to the Swedish Parliament with her dad following close behind carrying her homemade cardboard box sign. Once situated outside the Parliament Greta asks people walking by to take her picture and share it on social media. One of the people that are happening to walk by this day is PR-expert and entrepreneur Ingmar Rentzhog. Rentzhog’s tech startup ‘We Don’t Have Time’ aims to create a social media platform focused on climate change.
Strangely enough, the journalist Anders Hellberg from the environmental magazine ‘Effekt’ also walks by the Parliament this day, followed by a documentary filmmaker. It does not stop there. All major Swedish newspapers run the story of 15-year old Greta’s spontaneous school strike for the climate. And the Swedish ambassador in Paris promotes Greta and the book (today translated into several languages) on the embassy’s Twitter feed.
There is no doubt that Swedish politicians and Swedish mainstream media have done their best to launch Greta as the latest Swedish export product. It might be needed. Sweden, by many seen as a beacon of light and social innovation, an example on how to solve and deal with societal problems in a fair way is today plagued with rampant gang violence, a deteriorating welfare system and failure to integrate recent migrants. A parallel society has emerged and according to police reports Sweden has 60 vulnerable areas, 23 of them especially vulnerable.
So even if it is true what Greta’s mom Malena Ernman writes in the book on page 43, that Greta is one of few people (in the world) that can see carbon-dioxide emissions with her naked eye, I’m pretty sure that Princess Estelle is one girl growing up to be a good steward of the environment.
Copyright 2019, Caroline Calais. All rights are reserved
AllSides Technologies Inc. is a company that provides Media Bias Ratings to make it easier for news consumers to identify media bias. This is their latest rating of US media.
The US is now officially headed for an epic general-election rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and the questions is; will we see a repeat of the 2016 and 2020 elections with stories of foreign interference, internet censorship and the uncertainty about election results and the legitimacy of elections?
A crazy week in American Politics. Fire Alarm pulled by a democratic congressman just before his colleges voted in congress on a bill to fund the government. The new Senator John Fetterman dress down rule. And a new FBI document released by Senator Grassley indicating Joe and Hunter Biden took bribes in Ukraine. Hunter Biden in court again.
Caroline Älvebrink Calais (Caroline Calais) Blog 