On my Swedish Friendster message board a woman is asking how to get around the regulations and cash in on the Swedish state
child allowance even though she no longer lives or pays taxes in Sweden. Several people have given her answers along the lines of "you can't" or "you can't, and you shouldn't even think of it".
I googled, and found out that the child allowance program was introduced in 1937, and since 1948 every child, irregardless of the parents' level of income, will receive support until the year they turn 16.
Currently the allowance is $153 per month for one child. If you have several children, the amount you are given for each child
increases.
I think the woman who was asking felt she had the
right to the allowance. And I think besides the monetary gain in her mind the notion of a right was closely linked to an idea about herself as a Swedish person. I can only guess, but I think she simply feels Swedish, and therefore feels she has the right to certain benefits.
When you leave your homeland you give up rights and obligations, and you also leave a part of your identity behind. From then on you have to negotiate who you 'are' in more complex, and sometimes surprising, ways.
Someone told me a story once about an American traveling in Europe, who had brought with her a large supply of American stamps to use on the postcards she was sending back to family and friends in America. When she ran out of stamps she was faced with a crisis. Where could she find American stamps in Europe? She asked her friends for advice, and when they told her, she had a very hard time understanding that stamps follow countries, not individuals. She wouldn't accept that she, as an American, was supposed to use French stamps.
Sometimes it's hard for people to realize that to some extent the context that they are in determines who they are, or what they are. The world doesn't circle around any of us. It just circles.
My journalism class went on a field trip to downtown San Jose today.
San Jose makes me think "there is no 'there' there" over and over again. It's not pretty, and not charming. It has multiple layers of history, randomly sloshing together. It has good pearl tea, and expensive parking. It has street names in Spanish, ridiculously fancy "European" cafes and restaurants, and homeless people snoring loudly in the middle of the afternoon.
I went to Japantown in San Jose today.
San Jose is the same everywhere. All sorts of cultures butted up against each other in no particular order. Japantown has Japanese shops and restaurants, and Cuban, Mexican, Korean, and Hawaiian ones. It also has vaguely Chinese-esque buildings.
And an auto repairshop that looks like it's part of the set of Grease.
There was ice in the Bay Area today.
This movie is great because of the great actors.
This computer bag is called The Considerable Embarrassment, and now it's mine.
The quarter started and in addition to teaching I am also taking a class from one of my colleagues. It's magazine journalism and it's super interesting and fun and I can see a new career coming on.
I've seen these trees for months, and I have noticed the fragrant pretty leaves. But now when the yellow flowers came out I recognized them. They are Mimosas!
A girl from the Swedish Friendster online community emailed me about finding a job in the US. She is finishing up classes in a Swedish communication department.
Someone I know drives a late 1980's Honda Civic Wagon. One morning on my way to work I saw him from a distance, coming towards me. Then I heard the car. No, I don't mean the engine. What I heard was the music. A small Honda roaring down an empty street at 8am, fueled by Spoon.
