“Swedish Västerås” pickling cucumber crop from our own garden, scrubbed clean.
The preservation process depends entirely on the Lactobacillus bacteria that cover the skin of a naturally grown cucumber. These are removed by the food industry while harvesting as a matter of routine, thus complicating the home-pickling process.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
Continue reading “A Swedish perspective on cucumber pickling, a matter of pragmatic luxury”
Early autumn harvest – one for the pickling.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, A Neikter Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
Continue reading “Home vegetable garden: early autumn harvest”
Hot chocolate, at Ahlströms konditori, Swedish west coast, Gothenburg.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
In the past week, a conversation in a restaurant at Haga, between myself and a restaurant steward, after lunch when I was looking for cookies to go with my coffee:
“Yes, can I help you? You’re looking for something?”
“Yes, do you happen to have cookies to go with the coffee?”
“Only on Fridays, sorry. But you can walk over to Jacobs. They have cookies and dessert in general. We don’t.”
Two things struck me when I first arrived in Gothenburg about the cityscape in the early 2000s. The first was how lacking in skyscrapers the city of Gothenburg was, and the second, much due to the first, you apparently needed to walk for miles to get to where you wanted. Continue reading “Existential authenticity in tourism and Ahlströms konditori from 1901, Gothenburg”
Dr. Cheryl Marie Cordeiro, speaking about 18th century trade relations between Sweden and China at the China Goes Global (CGG) 2014 conference held at the Shanghai Jiaotong University, China.
Text & Photo © E Dijk, JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
The 8th international conference of China Goes Global, organised by the Chinese Globalization Association took place for the first time this year in Shanghai, China. Co-hosted by the Institute of Chinese Enterprises Development at the Antai College of Economics and Management of the Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) and KEDGE Business School (France), it was there that I was given the opportunity to speak some about Sweden’s trade relations with China during the 1700s.
In the process of doing some literature review for the presentation, I found myself thoroughly enjoying Robert Crowcroft’s (2012) article entitled, Globalisation and Public Language, where readers are left with a sense of seething irritation at the ubiquitous yet careless use of the word ‘globalisation’ and its concept, the contention being that both academics and politicians alike have failed to disentangle the various meanings of the word ‘globalisation’, and how can that be when not a day goes by in public discourse that the word is not used? Continue reading “China Goes Global 2014
Distinguishing between international and global societies, valuing many systems within one system of global trade: the case of Sweden and China in the 1700s.”
Noodle soup.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
§START
$1: most theories of consciousness still put the human being at the center of it all / that[i]s my problem with them / and i don[o]t like it / it[i]s like thinking the sun revolves around the earth because you observe it to be such / the theories haven[o]t matured in the thought processes / these theories they have now are put out to make the human being feel important // what i[a]m saying is that / from a cosmic perspective the difference between humans and mold or bacteria is insignificant / it[i]s like / nothing // in fact / look at yeast / it can raise bread // <1 can the human being raise bread >1 / <2 what can humans do compared to yeast >2 / nothing / at some level / humans are not much better than a virus / destructive and eating everything in sight / and if we can do better / we[a]re not showing that we can do better / the general consciousness of humanity is going downhill // this somewhat has to do with technology / globalization / and the interconnectedness of everything / too much too fast / inequality gaps increasing between groups of people / and people feel it / they get disenfranchised Continue reading “Swami – product development of an orange cushion cover”
Wilted, at Zhouzhuang water village, Jiangsu, China.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
As if apologetic that all I’ve experienced this time in Shanghai in terms of weather was rain and grey skies, the weather took a turn for the chirpier on the day I was to visit Zhouzhuang, deciding to turn on sunshine at full blast. This was not so much seen as already felt in the early hours after sunrise. Standing under the concrete shelters of the hotel, I had already begun to swelter. Continue reading “China Goes Global 2014
Zhouzhuang water village, China”
ZTE Corporation, Shanghai, China.
Text & Photo © C Lattemann, JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
Founded in 1985, ZTE Corporation is China’s first dual listed company. Listed on both the Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock exchanges, ZTE is a giant of a corporation hidden in plain view with its revenue in 2013 hitting a cool 12 billion USD. And it is growing rapidly yet. The telecommunications equipment and systems company that plays a principal role in supporting China’s massive constructions of 4G networks, surpasses the more renowned Europe based Siemens, Ericsson and Philips in patented innovations, reporting a sustained triple digit profit growth in its nine month forecast in 2014. Continue reading “China Goes Global 2014
Visit to ZTE Corporation, Shanghai”
Along Panyu Lu, Shanghai, with Esther Dijk, from Canada.
Text & Photo © M Salman, CM Cordeiro 2014
It’s been a few days of royal tropical downpours in Shanghai, the warm kind of rain that leaves little room to deny a hot chocolate and a scoop, or three, of ice-cream.
After initially checking into the wrong hotel, and lamenting the fact that I will need to forgo both the hot chocolate, and one particular ice-cream parlour near that hotel that I had become somewhat addicted to when last in Shanghai, I was delirious happy as a butterfly on nectar, to have found this outlet just three minutes around the corner and out the door of where I am currently staying. Continue reading “China Goes Global 2014
Warm rain and gelato in Shanghai”
Crayfish. Often consumed, under the “soft August moonlight” (Swahn 2004:248), is popular in Sweden during the late summer months.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
From saving Middle Ages monks from starving too much during the long period of Easter Lent, and in 1522, being prescribed as a remedy for cholera, to later being seen as disgusting to eat because they were thought to be scavenger creatures that fed particularly on human corpses, the humble crayfish has seen its ups and downs in terms of reputation: Continue reading “August crayfish 2014”
“What do you mean this is not antique?”
Donsö hamnfest 2014
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014
So autonomous are the archipelago islanders that closest neighbours, living in the same summer house, agreed to visit the harbour festival each at their own time and convenience, coming back to discuss, “So, what did you think about the harbour festival? Did you like it?”
Most noticeable this year was the lack of an urgent and pushy crowd, witnessed only a few years ago at this annual hamnfest. The change in general behaviour could perhaps be attributed to several factors, though two that come across as most likely are, that the festival this year seemed catered much more to children’s summer activities with a mini-Libseberg of sorts going on, and the other being the establishing of online communities of trade that the islanders had initiated, rendering trading in goods and services between themselves an everyday affair where the harbour festival provided a bolstering physical meeting point. Continue reading “Swedish west coast Harbour Festival, Donsö 2014”