Öhrn Life Management

This finally landed:

“Dear Mr. Ohrn,

Reference to the above mentioned conference, please note that the conference will be held on 11 December, 2007 at the Four Seasons Hotel – Nile Plaza, Cairo.

A ticket has been booked in your name (Bangkok – Cairo – Bangkok).
Arrive Cairo on 10 December, 2007
Departure on 12 December, 2007

I would appreciate your advice on the following:
- Your Accommodation
- Exact Title of your lecture
- Your profile and a picture to be included in the conference program

I would appreciate receiving your reply ASAP.

Best regards,

Inji Yousri
Project Coordinator

AIT Consulting
19 Messaha Street
Dokki, Giza
P.O.Box 653 El Orman, Egypt
Tel: +202 33380701 – 33357500
Fax:+202 37482313″

Thailand does not have a democratic parliament. The ruling government is a junta and the parliament and the ruling “party” is the military today.

They say that there will be an election on December 23rd this year, we have to wait and see. IF there is an election we have to wait and see how democratic it will be, Thailand has a lot of poor people and a a lot of people that are looking to make an extra Baht, in any way. May it be at Nana or Patpong or by selling their vote. According to Bangkok Post, two thirds of the population is willing to sell their vote…

Sweden decides to sell Fighter Jets to this country. To a country that is run by the military, to a country where there is a civil war going on in parts of the country. A very small part, but still…

We are selling Fighter Jets.

It is really sad that I have to say “we” about that. I am ashamed.

I know that there are arguments for this deal. Intelligent people work day and night with this issue, with the deal as well as with the arguments. I listen to the arguments, I am being asked questions which I can’t always answer.
But I don’t need arguments, I just need to ask one question:

Why fighter jets?

The world does not need more fighter jets, we need less fighter jets.

We need more bikes, more watches, more designer restaurants and more boutique hotels. We need a better environment, cleaner water and more fresh air. We need more concerts, more art-exhibitions and more Tours de France. We need more peace and more democracy.

We do not need more fighter jets.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not a vegetarian, I am not a purist, I like brands, I like to dress up and to use my Tag Heuer watches, I like to ride my Felt Bicycle with my Polar Heart rate monitor strapped to the handle bar and my super duper Shimano shoes on my feet. I like to ride fast, I like to beat everyone I can going up the hills as well as on the flat, in fact I’d do almost anything to beat my fellow riders. I like to tell people off when I think they are wrong and I am right.

But I would not kill them.

We are selling fighter jets to a country where the level of illiteracy is so high that we don’t know if the people that are buying the jets – not to mention the pilots – can read the instructions in the manual for the Jets. There was a coup d’etat in Thailand 13 months ago and we are selling Fighter jets to the people who staged that whole thing…

I never used to like Starbucks all that much. I came across it in Seattle in 1994 then again in Westport in 1995, and I never thought that much of it.

I never missed not having it in Sweden. Moving to Bangkok I thought it was good to have Starbucks nearby, but I never went. For 21 months I think I had Starbucks two or three times.

Now after 22 months in The Big Mango, I am nearly obsessed. I can hardly go by a Starbucks “café” without stopping and check if they have any available sofas. Because the sofas are, to me, crucial. No Sofa – No Coffee.

And it puzzles me why there usually aren’t more than two or maybe three comfortable sofas in the Starbucks “Cafés” in Bangkok.

Except the one on Soi 49, which therefore obviously has become my favourite.

But, I don’t like to think of Starbucks as Cafés. It is a coffee shop. Cafés are genuine and Americans usually don’t know how to design and build cafés. A café beats Starbucks any day of the week and twice on a Tuesday. But I am still obsessed by Starbucks at the moment, and I give the American’s (yes, all of them) cred for creating such a good environment.

I get a notification from Facebook that I and a “Friend” are 83% alike on the “Things I Look for in a Friend”

Maybe the missing 17% come from that I value people that reply to messages?

Today I took a cab from the Prom Phong BTS station to Samitivej Hospital. When I came down the stairs from the BTS I stopped a cab and it happened to be one of few big taxis.

I got in and told him where I was going. Then I realized that I had traveled with the exact same cab and driver just a few days ago. Very strange. I must have done over 500 cab rides in Bangkok and only with the same driver twice if I have called him or her up.

He looked for her but could not see her at first. She was standing there sort of right in front of him, like a cowboy without a horse and with a flower and a paintbrush in her holster.

Why hadn’t he seen her? She was standing there, in the mist. But still?

She tried to get his attention, waving the paintbrush in front of his eyes, tried to get him to smell the flower.

He felt the sticky paintbrush touch his chin, and then he saw more of her. He tried to hug her but she looked over his shoulder and smoothly she avoided the hug. He would not give up, now that he had found her he would not let her go, not let her run not let her hide.

She tried to pass him the flower instead of the brush, now regretting the missed hug. He did not know what to do with the flower, he blushed, put his hands behind his back and said something.

To her?

To himself?

He was thinking; here am I talking to a lady cowboy, as tough as they come but I am not sure anybody else but me can actually see her. What am I then? Who can see female cowboys with no horse but with a flower and a paintbrush in her holster, what am I?

What is she doing in such a big city, this is no place for a horse.

“But she does not have a horse”, a voice whispered in his ear.

That’s right! What is this? Who is she?

Why do I see a lady cowboy? Why do I want to hug a lady cowboy?

More importantly, why doesn’t she want to hug me?

Maybe I should try to get to know her first?

“NO!”

I know her already.

Today the Junta of Burma just unplugged the Internet 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/04/asia/04info.php

I was complaing when we did not have You Tube in Thailand, I am willing to take that back and I feel sorry for the Burmese. Wherever they are.

Yesterday I went into iStudio, a Mac Store at Paragon. They usually have very good staff in there, very knowledgeable and nice but yesterday I met someone that was a bit out of the ordinary.

“Good afternoon Sir, how can I help you?”

“I wonder aboout the docking station for the video iPod, can I use my iMac remote control with that”

“Sir, that is certainly a very good question, let me find out for you”

He leaves to ask a colleague, comes back shortly after.

“You can most certainly use your iMac remote with the dockingstation for your iPod, no problem at all.”

“Ok. Good. Do you sell the docking station here?”

“We most certainly do Sir. But, to be perfectly honest, we are out of stock now so we don’t have it.”

“Ok, will you get it soon?

“Certainly Sir, certainly.”

It seems Facebook is taking up a lot of my time. But it doesn’t really.

I just thought that I should give Facebook some cred as well and not just rank on it.

I have found a number of old friends that I haven’t talked to in years. One lives in London since a few years back, one lives in Skövde since 12(!!) years and another one lives in Skattkärr.

Facebook is great.

Another thing that can be good about Facebook is the “Causes”.

I recieved this today:

“Hi, have you heard about the crisis in Burma?

Burma is ruled by one of the worst military dictatorships in the world. This week Buddhist monks and nuns began marching and chanting prayers to call for democracy. The protests spread and hundreds of thousands of Burmese people joined in — they’ve been brutally attacked by the military regime, but still the protests are spreading.

I just signed a petition calling on Burma’s powerful ally China and the UN security council to step in and pressure Burma’s rulers to stop the killing. The petition has exploded to over 200,000 signatures in a few days and is being advertised in newspapers around the world, delivered to the UN secretary general, and broadcast to the Burmese people by radio. We’re trying to get to 1 million signatures this week, please sign below and tell everyone!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/tf.php?cl_tf_sign=1
Thank you for your help!”

We can just wish for it to help.