Re: Dark, cold night; forgot, for Kate

[Guest guest]

I forgot to mention, the singer/songwriter I sent you a youtube link with recently (Björn Afzelius), wrote a song 1997 (about 10-11 years after the event), where he tried to explain to his daughter, the changes in Sweden that this single event effected. It's called "På Mäster Olofs tid" (in English: "In Master Olof's time"). The Swedish word for master, "mäster", in the song, is a very archaic one, and I think he uses it to underscore just how much it seems to be another time altogether, although it was only a decade ago. It ends with a reflection on how it took just one bullet to change a whole people and a whole country, and he, too, uses the imagery of a dark and cold night ("the new times came in just one cold night, no one ever saw a night that dark").If you are interested, it's on youtube too, at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBy618hWeMglove/Reb--- In MSersLife , Kate Rothschild wrote:>> How very tragic, Reb. Sweden was so innocent then...How horrific. It took just > one turn of events to change a country forever. So sad. Did they catch the > person and prosecute? It is eerie that that is the site of the terrorist event > not so long ago. Eerie.> You and are in my thoughts,> love,> Kate> > > > > ________________________________> To: MSersLife MSersLife > Sent: Mon, February 28, 2011 9:02:31 AM> Subject: Dark, cold night> > > 25 years ago tonight, Swedes went to bed for the last time in Sweden as we knew > it, and woke up the next morning (25 years ago tomorrow) to a whole new > reality. > > The Swedish prime minister Olof Palme was shot down and killed on a Stockholm > street as he was walking home with his wife. They had watched a late night movie > together with their son and his fiancée. > > They had walked only about 350-400 yards when a man approached them from behind > (some witnesses say he had been waiting outside the theatre and followed them > from there, but it's uncertain; The man following and the man approaching them > may have been different persons), he said something to Mr. Palme that his wife > either could not make out, or was too traumatized to remember afterward, she > only knew he had said something. And in about the same instant, he shot Mr. > Palme in the back. Then, as Mrs. Palme kneeled down beside her husband, the > perpetrator fired a second shot, directed at her. But because she was in motion, > the bullet only scorched her coat. The unknown man took off running in about the > same second he had fired at Mrs. Palme, and it's possible he never knew (then) > that she was not hit. Either that or he just couldn't risk staying around to > take a second shot at her, especially as he had already shot the man who was > obviously his real/main target. > > Why no security? Well, because that was the way it was back then. It was a much > more trusting and open society than what we have now (than what that > assassination partly created). No one could have imagined something like that > happening. In Sweden, at least. It was just not our reality. Not until then. > > In november 1985, not even half a year before he was killed, Olof Palme appeared > as a surprise guest on a concert held in support of Mr. Mandela (later > president of South Africa, but back then still in prison), and of the efforts to > bring down the racial segregation there. This short clip shows his > appearance:

He is introduced without > being named ("please welcome one of the greatest artists in Sweden today"), and > as he walks on to the stage, you can hear exactly when/where the audience > recognizes him. > > The reaction of the crowd speaks volumes, in my opinion. When did you last hear > a pop and rock crowd on a concert, thinking they are about to listen to some > tunes, react that way when they understand that instead they are about to listen > to a politician giving a speech...> > That night 25 years ago changed Sweden for ever, and I guess that's why so many > poetic depictions (in songs, poems etc) and political commentaries on the event > have focused on the image of a cold, dark night. It fits. And hence my choice of > subject line for this post too. > > It was almost uncanny, and more than a little fitting, that the terrorist > bombing in Stockholm a couple a few months ago, an event that also changed a lot > about Sweden (even if not as deeply as the Palme-assassination, the first cut is > the deepest, as they say) took place along the same small street as the one > where Palme was shot, the street that was 25 years ago called Tunnelgatan > (Tunnel Street), but is now named after Palme and known as Olof Palme's Street.> > love> /Reb>