#tvättbjörn

[chispas-and-broken-bindings]

is that you @norrlands-nonsense?

raccoons should be encouraged. in what way precisely, i could not say. In their Pursuits, i would suppose

[pollizu]

i picked out some random words in swedish. swedes, d🤢nes, and norwegians don't get to vote

apparently it wasn't obvious, but im swedish and i know what these words mean

[treetownconfessions]

"tvättbjörn" is the swedish translation for "raccoon". it is ALSO the same translation for "washing bear" in reference to how raccoons wash their food before they eat. it should also be noted that shifty and lifty are green. my proposal? shifty and lifty are very distantly related to flippy in the same sense that 7th cousins are related. add this to the htf iceberg please

.

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

I just listened to a song about a racoon who loves to wash in four different languages

Her name ”Tvättis” only makes sense in swedish since it matches with the swedish word for racoon, ”tvättbjörn”.

[snowleopardcrk]

Swedish moment

Random fact,

A racoon is a 'tvättbjörn. If you translate it literally: Wash Bear I assume it got its name since racoons wash their food before eating, hence tvättbjörn

[thehermeticwitch]

Guess who refused to eat anything but grapes last night😅😮🍇😩 #hildy #brynhildrtheraccoon #brynhildr #racconsofinstagram #raccoons #tvättbjörn #ラクーン #カナダ #너구리 #野生動物リハビリ #野生動物 #魔女 #アライグマ #ラスカル #theraccoonwhisperer #енот #mapache #ratonlaveur #Waschbär #szop #vaskebjørn #rakun https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs7PzTOgcDy/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=h5unsygo58qd

[dunadagra-photography]

Nahrungssuche Mahlzeit! . . . #nature #natur #raccoon #animalphotography #animals #animalspicture #wildlife @nikoneurope @nikondeutschland @nikonbelgium @nikonnl #picoftheday #wildlifephotography #photography #naturephotography #naturelover #waschbär #tierphotographie #енот #アライグマ #미국너구리 #ratonlaveur #vaskebjørn #tvättbjörn #procione #mapache #raccoons #енотнойер #спб #питомец #еноты #енотполоскун #енотик @all_animals_addiction #all_animals_addiction (hier: Aachen, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/B60V_rfIO-_/?igshid=1n2ck8wldp7re

[chispas-and-broken-bindings]

Okay, I should have seen this one coming. 

[balloons-and-shadows]

Daily Swedish Lesson #71

Subject: Djurparken

En tiger - a tiger

En pingvin - a penguïn

Ett lejon - a lion

En elefant - an elephant

En gorilla - a gorilla

En giraff - a giraffe

En zebra - a zebra

En panda - a panda

En nöshörning - a rhino

En känguru - a kangaroo

En isbjörn - a polar bear

En kamel - a camel

En flodhäst - a hippo

En varg - a wolf

En schimpans - a chimpanzee

En ren - a reindeer

En utter - an otter

En lodjur - a lynx

En säl - a seal

En älg - a moose

En tvättbjörn - a raccoon

En buffel - a buffalo

En padda - a toad

En sköldpadda - a turtle

En struts - an ostrich

Question; what would be the literal English translation of a hippo in your native language?

In Swedish, a hippo is called "en flodhäst" which would translate to "a riverhorse"

In Dutch, a hippo is called "een nijlpaard" which would translate to "a nilehorse"

[chispas-and-broken-bindings]

5 facts about the fellow Hot Anna of your choosing.. - gooooo go goo! 😈 (would also like it known that I need to be told my nipple ribbon colour because outfit matching reasons yes yesss såatte yep)

@norrlands-nonsense you will ALWAYS be the Hot Anna of my choosing, my hot, funny tvättbjörn.

1. You are the funniest person on the internet. No one can change my mind. I’d be jealous if I weren’t so in love with you, since I already have a chip on my shoulder about not being the funniest Anna my husband has ever dated, and now I have you to contend with...another hotter, funnier Anna. Don’t ever come to the U.S. of A and steal my husband away. Unless you bring me Alexander Skarsgård or Alicia Vikander or Rebecca Ferguson or Joel Kinnaman in exchange (Sidenote: why are all of you Swedes so hot? is it all the Surströmming? does it contain alchemical properties beneath all that rot?) 

2. Tech-savvy extraordinaire. my personal help desk for basic internet functions. Does it sting a little when you laugh at my idiocy? Yes...maybe a bit, but I’d be lost without you, you manip-making magician, you website wizard, you reverse image search raconteur, you sexy gif finding sorceress. Thanks to you I know the going rate for most crimes and how to bully you into finding me high-res photos. MWAH!

3. You bake lovely, amazing cakes. You should have your own television show, where you seduce everyone with baked goods and your amazing tits. 

4. The Venn diagram of who we are each attracted to would basically be a perfect circle with only slivers on each side. on one would be my Draco, Lucky Blue...on the other would be yours, and because we are in polite company I won’t mention his age. (I also won’t mention his name, because I’ve already forgotten, since mine is better)

5. The day you finally write a fic, my life will be complete. I’ll probably pee my pants again reading it, because I know you will kill me with your scintillating calf-wanking. 

Happy New Year Norry! I hope you are cozy and happy and you are able to sleep tonight! If If find you online late, I’m going to bomp you on the nose!

EDIT: I FORGOT YOUR RIBBON! It’s coming! Scrambles, shit falling of my desk...it’s here somewhere...just need to wrap it...

[readyaiminquire]

The COVID games, or: why Sweden must lose.

The above image, a callback to a famous Swedish WWII propaganda poster, “En Svensk Tiger”, a wordplay on a Swedish Tiger but also a Swede remains silent. The above uses the image of a raccoon, or tvättbjörn in Swedish, which literally translates to wash-bear.

All makt åt Tegnell!1 or so one might think the crowds chat in Sweden. HRH King Carl XVI Gustaf can move over, the State Epidemiologist is now running the show. At least this is the picture one might get when reading much of the media criticism to Sweden’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sweden has set itself apart from most other countries, European or otherwise, in its response to the pandemic, specifically by taking a much softer approach. This ‘lunacy’ is likened to driving a speeding car towards the edge of a cliff -- while blindfolded. The so-called “Swedish Experiment” has included much softer measures, trusting the people of Sweden to follow social distancing rules, and deploy a people’s common sense [Folkvett], to quote our Prime Minister, in their day-to-day life. Much of Swedish society continues, unhindered. Most schools remain open, with the exception of colleges and higher education; most offices are open though it is recommended to work from home if possible; bars, restaurants, and shops have been told to enforce social distancing measures, but remain accessible. Sweden hasn’t even formally closed its borders (though it should be noted that all nations bordering Sweden have closed their, de facto closing Sweden’s borders). Is this response a gross misreading of the gravity of the situation? Is Sweden, its governmental and state bureaucracies, simply inept when it comes to dealing with such a crisis? Is Sweden carrying out a large-scale social experiment on its population, one likely to end in tragedy? These are some of the questions I hope to answer here.

I argue here that reaction to Sweden, and the dubbing of the response as the “Swedish experiment” is another case of what other scholars and analysts have dubbed Sweden-bashing: a means of being overly critical to Sweden’s (perhaps ironic) nonconformity when responding to global crises, and one often deployed to demarcate sides. This is something that goes back to the Cold War and has taken many forms over the years. These include criticisms of Sweden’s non-alignment during the Cold War, to criticism of Swedish state intervention, social programmes, and even responses to the 2015 refugee crisis. It is important to consider that the discourse if often, though of course not always, external, and typically come with ulterior political motives. This is something I will touch upon later, but for now we need to unpack not what Sweden’s response is, but why it is what it is.

  Culture, risks & hazards.

The criticism levied against Sweden often hinges risk. Either Sweden is taking too big of a risk with their response, or they are not taking the risks seriously enough. For a more detailed discussion on the maths behind the pandemic in Sweden, read this excellent post by a friend of mine; here we will look at the social and cultural process behind Sweden’s response. First, we need to define some terms: the difference between risks and hazards. The pandemic is better understood as a collection of hazards, or something with negative societal implications (social instability, economic damage, death, and so on), while the risks associated with the pandemic are the perceived chances of various hazards to come to pass. However, both risks and hazards are culturally coded, insofar as what we both perceived as a risk and a hazard is depending on our social and cultural positionality. In short, ideas of risk produce ideas of hazards. Take an extreme example: a community lives at the edge of a cliff, and they have done so for generations, and this cliff is an integrated part of their social and cultural milieu. Due to the community’s proximity to the cliff’s edge, it is perceived to be of minimal risk specifically as the community has organised itself in such a way as to reduce the chance of people falling off it. Due to the risk being (near-) zero, the cliff is not conceptualised as a hazardous object. Risk, in other words, produces hazards, and if the risk isn’t conceptualised as such, neither is the hazard.

How does this apply to the Swedish response? Surely the pandemic itself is conceptualised as a hazard? This is correct,  or rather more accurately a collection of hazards – health hazards, social hazards, economic hazards, etc. First, we must look at a Swede’s relationship to the state. In their book Är Svensken Människa? (Is the Swede Human?), historians Henrik Berggren and Lars Trägårdh define the Swedish sociopolitical hegemony as “state-individualism”. Through cooperation between State and People, a strong state-controlled framework is created in which the People exist and operate on remarkably individualistic (sometimes bordering on libertarian) assumptions. This symbiosis may appear contradictory, but it rests on deeply rooted cultural trust between State and People -- likely with its roots in Sweden’s social democratic tradition. Most relevant to the discussion here is the strong will to cooperate with the State, making most forms of incentives through coercion unnecessary. Cooperation as the operative function between State and People creates a specific framework in which risks and hazards are understood.

Let’s turn to a specific example in the Swedish response: no lockdown. As mentioned above, some restrictions have been introduced, daily life in Sweden continues largely unhindered. Shops are open, people go to restaurants; (most) children to school. The foremost hazard to be avoided – in Sweden and elsewhere – is an uncontrolled spread of the virus that may result in a collapse of the healthcare system and a skyrocketing death toll. From the perspective of an uncooperative population, harsh lockdown measures seem to make sense, despite the other hazards that come with more draconic responses (social, economic, mental health, to name a few). With a cooperative population, on the other hand, the risk and hazards of allowing society to remain open shifts and a complete shutdown instead presents a larger risk and hazard than working with the proverbial People. In the Swedish context, a shutdown presents strong economic and social risks than allowing self-policing presents risks around the uncontrolled spread.

  Experiments?

The above example considers just one dimension of the Swedish response to the COVID-19 spread, but nonetheless serves to paint a wider picture. The so-called “Swedish Experiment” is not so much a State response as it is a National response, insofar that it is underpinned by a strong sense of cooperation between the State and the People. The pervasive narrative of Sweden as being either particularly unprepared, or otherwise not taking the response seriously does not hold up to scrutiny. If anything, an argument can be made that Sweden’s response is one of the more thought-through responses, as it incorporates a strong understanding of its own societal structures, not to mention the State’s confidence in sticking to their plan despite the external criticism levied against it.

Calling the Swedish response an experiment seems to imply that what everybody else is doing isn’t. In other words, the typical responses we’ve seen: lockdown, coerced social distancing, the closing of shops, offices and schools, and so on, is implied to be a tried-and-tested method, while Sweden’s softer approach is a result of some crazed social experiment; all this in spite of there being no randomised controlled evidence that supports a lockdown as beneficial to halting epidemic spread. It is more accurate to say that all nations are experimenting with their responses. A pandemic of this scale has not been dealt with in living memory, so there are no “tried-and-tested methods”. Everything is an experiment. The general anxiety for the future illustrates this point succinctly: When will lockdown end? What will happen to the economy? Will there be a second wave? The answer to these, and many more, questions is that we simply do not know. If everything is an experiment, and even the most widely used response comes with a high cost and plenty of uncertainty to boot, how come Sweden is so strongly criticised?

Famed anthropologist Mary Douglas, in her work on risk and social meaning, argued that though the underpinning function of risk-thinking is to limit ‘bads’ from happening to a community, she highlights that it more specifically limits such outcomes by controlling social behaviour. The individual who takes unnecessary risks is chastised, and can therefore be upheld as an example to the community as a whole: don’t behave this way, because it is risky, and even if it doesn’t result in a bad outcome this time, you are nonetheless castigated for acting out of line. The reaction to Sweden’s response is not so blunt as a 1:1 comparison; I rather think it more subtle than that. Sweden is heavily criticised not to bring Sweden in line with other responses, but rather to show the necessity of stricter responses to the pandemic. In other words, Sweden is used in justifying one’s own response to the pandemic; as a stand-in for the individual in a community who is behaving recklessly. By reacting like this to the Swedish response, by painting its response as an outrageous experiment, you serve to justify your own harsher forms of lockdown or social distancing. Sweden becomes the stand-in for ‘that guy’.

This mentality, to justify the in-group behaviour by creating a narrative of a deviant Sweden is not only incorrect, but also dangerous. As outlined above, each country faces different challenges when responding to a crisis like a pandemic: perhaps they have an ageing population, or an underfunded healthcare system, or high unemployment, or a culture of large families living together. Each factor, and many more, will invariably affect the necessary response, and as seen on the graphs below (taken from the Financial Times), every country has a unique curve:

Therefore, each country is required to have a response that fit their own circumstance, and by comparing statistics across widely different countries, responses, and circumstances before everything is over doesn’t truly tell us anything of how (in)effective any single response has been. By creating a narrative in which there is one ‘perfect’ response (harsh limitations, state coercion, and so on) you assume that any response outside of this narrow definition is wrong. The fallacy at play here, “we must be right, therefore they must be wrong”, is potentially detrimental or even dangerous, as it may serve to shut out more contextually effective responses to the virus. Experimentation, counter to how it is typically present, remains a necessary component in finding the best solutions to such a pandemic – and it is something we are all engaged in, whether we like to think of it as such or not.

  Room for improvement.

This is all to say, however, that even with all the above in mind, we need to be mindful not to uphold Sweden’s response as perfect. There have been shortcomings, and mistakes have been made, and more likely will be made. It is the nature of the situation, but this is true for any country right now. In the case of Sweden, not communicating the potential threat early on resulted in a slow response in some areas, specifically banning visits to old people’s homes – places which have now been decimated by the virus. The response has also largely assumed a monolithic Swedish population, in other words assuming that all in Sweden fall under a normative Swedish cultural framework, often forgetting marginalised groups such as ethnic minorities, or people in poverty who struggle to comply with social distancing measures due to cramped housing or an inability to work from home. The response hasn’t been perfect, and it would be intellectually dishonest to argue this to be the case.

Besides, there are also important ethical questions that must be discussed. Sweden’s response appears to rest on a set of assumptions that a particular number of people will die due to the pandemic, and nothing can be done about this. The conclusion, therefore, is that it is better to have these deaths take place in the short term rather than the long term. It also (seemingly) operates with the end-goal being herd-immunity to avoid a potential second wave of the pandemic after the summer months. These are ethical dilemmas that must be discussed and dissected – not only for their potential scientific accuracy, but also for their underlying ethics. This points towards the elephant in the room: it is too early to tell whether the Swedish response (or any other) is effective at all, and these conclusions likely cannot be drawn for another year, if not longer. The point, however, is that just because one response to the pandemic is different than many others doesn’t necessarily mean it is (or will be shown to be) ineffective.

  Conclusions.

The Swedish response, dubbed the “Swedish Experiment” has been largely chastised for being a non-response, a bad response, or otherwise one lacking in ethics. However, it is important to understand that any nation facing a threat such as COVID-19 comes at the issue from different starting points, and while the end-goal is to minimise the hazards posed by such a pandemic, both the path to success and the end-goal in itself aren’t linear. We will do well to realise that while we’re all experimenting in our responses, we should incorporate various social and cultural factors into the response in order to create one that is as effective as possible for that specific context. The damaging potential of chastising any response that doesn’t fit a perceived linear narrative is that we miss out of the truly effective response as it serves to limit the potential for narrative thinking. Sweden’s response may be unorthodox, and it isn’t without its problems, but rather than focusing on that specifically, it might be worth taking inspiration from both Sweden’s response to the pandemic, but also the State’s willingness to craft a response that incorporates an understanding of its relation to the People, and people’s relation to each other. There can never be a single silver bullet to a situation like this; more optimistically there may be many.

1: A meme that spread across Swedish social media, it’s a play on a line from Astrid Lindgren’s children’s book The Brothers Lionheart, in which the main villain’s, Tengil, forces use the greeting “All makt åt Tengil!”.

Edited for clarification 13/04/2022.

Selected references

  Fox, N. J. (1999) Postmodern reflections on ‘risks’, ‘hazards’ and life choices. In: D. Lupton (eds.) (1999) Risk and sociocultural theory: new directions and perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 12-34.

  Lupton, D. (2005) Sociology and risk. In: D. Lupton (eds.) (2005) Risk. Abingdon: Routledge. Pp. 11-24.

  Berggren, M. and Trägårdh, L. (2015) Är svensken människa? Norstedts: Elib.

  Marklund, C. (2016) From “false” neutrality to “true” socialism: US “Sweden-bashing” during the Later Palme Years, 1973-1986. In: Journal of Transnational Studies 7 (1).

Special thanks to Prof. David Goldsmith for his insight into the numbers behind the pandemic in Sweden. Read more here!

[languemma]

Word Of The Day || 03.01.20

🦝Raccoon 🦝

-=-=-=-

[العربية [حيوان

[Bosanski] Rakun

[Català] ós rentador

[中文] 浣熊 (huànxióng)

[Nederlands] Wasbeer

[Suomea] Pesukarhu

[Français] Raton laveur

[Deutsch] Der Waschbär

[Bahasa Indonesia] Rakun

[Italiano] Il procione

[日本語] アライグマ / ラクーン

[한국어] 너구리

[Bahasa Melayu] Raccoon

[Norsk] Vaskebjørn

[Português] o guaxinim

[русский языке] енот

[Español] Mapache

[Svenska] Tvättbjörn

[Tagalog] Raccoon

[Tiếng Việt] Gấu mèo

* Note * Canadian French originally used the word chat sauvage (lit. wild cat) but it’s slowly being used less and less and being replaced by raton laveur.

[ankewehner]

Also German: Waschbär *goes to bother wiktionary* Dutch: wasbeer Afrikaans: wasbeer, wasbeertjie Luxembourgish: Wäschbier Danish: vaskebjørn Norwegian: vaskebjørn Swedish: tvättbjörn Icelandic: þvottabjörn Catalan: ós rentador Italian: orsetto lavatore Romanian: ursuleț spălător Spanish: oso lavador Estonian: pesukaru Finnish: pesukarhu Hungarian: mosómedve

do not separate them…..

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

Ok, I am filled with nostalgia rn.

So, there was this scandinavian travel agency that had these family themed trips, and their big mascots were Lollo and Bernie.

This song is a mix of swedish, norwegian and danish and I am not sure which language is which sometimes

Now, they were ok - but there were other sets of characters that used to perform on the hotels that they had here.

They were called "three little bears" and was a grizzly bear, a polar bear and a racoon (which, in the scandi languages is called a "wash bear"). They were... well...

They weren't as marketable.

BUT, they had the best songs! Like, I heard them sing the last time when I was... 6?? And all the songs are still playing in my mind. But the songs were not available anywhere?? They had these CDs, but the CDs were so hard to get? More or less impossible, and if they were available they were too expensive.

But now, they have, after all these years, uploaded these songs on Spotify. Complete with new, cartoony designs! But the singers seem to be the same ones back on the original CD, cause I recognized the voices.

They have swedish, norwegian and danish versions, I will link the swedish versions because. Yeah.

This is their "main theme". But all three of them have their own theme songs.

The grizzly bear's theme is that he likes to eat cookies and chocolate, but when his tummy is too full, he has to get up and "bump around" lol.

My ultimate favorite was the racoon's theme song

As mentioned, in the scandinavian languages call racoons tvättbjörn or vaskebjørn depending on the language, and it means "wash bear". So, of course, the racoon's name is Tvättis ("Washy"). Her song is, of course, about washing. But it's very catchy.

Now, the polar bear have a song too. But they release every song as a single, and they have literally started releasing them in august, the latest release of a song was september 22nd (so, 3 days ago when I write this). So perhaps, soon, her song will be up too. I remember it vividly - her name was Isidor and what I remember from her song is that they sang "Iiiiisi-diiiiisi-door". Probably won't explain much to you, but every time in my life I hear the name Isidor I instantly think of that song.

There was another character - Uncle Grubb. He hated the bears and wanted to capture them. When they performed at hotels, uncle Grubb tried to disguise himself to lure them into traps (and always failed). He is in many ways very Robbie Rotten-like.

His song is one of the catchiest. He sings about how he's gonna capture the bears and the bears sing in the background about how he never can capture it.

In conclusion, these are very classic kid themed songs and I have been bopping to them for an hour. I mean, now I finally have the full songs again!

All I had in my head since I was 6 years old was random lines.

"En ☝🏻 för alla🙌🏼 , alla för en! 🐻🐼🐻‍❄️"

"Iiiisii-diiiisiii-dooor! 🐻‍❄️"

"Farbror Grubb! 🥸 Men han kan inte 🙅🏼 fånga oss! 🏃🏽"

"Tvättis heter jag🐻🧼 , en tvättbjörn🦝som är glad 😁!"

[thehermeticwitch]

✨Happy girl Hildy✨ #racconsofinstagram #raccoons #tvättbjörn #ラクーン #カナダ #너구리 #野生動物リハビリ #野生動物 #アライグマ #ラスカル #brynhildr #brynhildrtheraccoon #hildy #theraccoonwhisperer #енот #mapache #ratonlaveur #Waschbär #szop #vaskebjørn #rakun https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs1x0QpgMTt/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1iraza4kn0t4x

[trendigtgott]

💙💛 NYTT PÅ TRENDIGT GOTT!!! 💛💙 Vilka sötnosar - från Raccon kommer 2 tvättbjörns småttingar choklad. En med smak från Kokosnötsmjölk och en med Cappuccini smaka 😋 Ekologiska, veganska, gluten- och laktosfria www.trendigtgott.se https://www.instagram.com/p/CdnU6lkMVaX/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=