This is Sonja. She’s one of many ordinary citizens who have been access to the country of Sweden’s official Twitter account as part of a social media experiment.
“Sweden stands for certain values — being progressive, democratic, creative,” Patrick Kampmann, Volontaire’s creative director, said in an interview. “We believed the best way to prove it was to handle the account in a progressive way and give control of it to ordinary Swedes.”
The @Swedens are nominated by others — people are not supposed to put their own name forward — and then selected by a committee of three, including Mr. Kampmann. The qualifications are that they have to be interesting, Twitter-literate and happy to post in English.
They are told not to do anything criminal, to label political opinions as their own and “not to make it sound like the entire Sweden feels that way,” said Cherin Awad, the Muslim lawyer, who was @Sweden from Feb. 27 to March 4.
Mr. Kampmann says he counsels the @Swedens to engage in “their normal Twitter behavior.”
Sonja, a 27-year-old woman who calls herself a “Holy mother of two,” obliged…much to the chagrin of many of her countrymen. Some interpreted her comments as anti-Semitic, but a calmer look shows that it may have been a clueless and clumsy attempt to call out Jew-haters.
In nazi German they even had to sew stars on their sleeves. If they didn't, they could never now who was a jew and who was not a jew.
— @sweden (@sweden) June 12, 2012
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Once I asked a co-worker what a jew is. He was "part jew", whatever that means. He's like "uuuuh… jews are.. uh.. well educated..?"
— @sweden (@sweden) June 12, 2012
Where I come from there is no jews. I guess its a religion. But why were the nazis talking about races? Was it a blood-thing (for them)?
— @sweden (@sweden) June 12, 2012
Im sorry if some of you find the question offensive. Thats was not my purpose. I just don't get why some people hates jews so much.
— @sweden (@sweden) June 12, 2012
Twitter respondents were flabbergasted by her ignorance:
https://twitter.com/twMaize/status/212527206801477633
Sonja from @sweden is a tragic example of the political and historical ignorance that exists in EVERY country http://t.co/v5RDP9y7
— Heidi Marie Allen (@heidinoemm) June 12, 2012
@sweden maybe you should read a few books Sonja?
— Timbuktu (@jasontimbuktu) June 12, 2012
We have a timely recommendation:
It was on this day in 1942 that Anne Frank received a diary for her 13th birthday. We discuss: http://t.co/umkUoxde
— Jewish Tweets (@JewishTweets) June 12, 2012
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