Scan Magazine

New Year’s Truce

The baby-craving gene seems to have bypassed most female members of my family and has instead been replaced by a dog-craving one.

IS IT JUST ME…

Who has any respect for December weekends? No, of course nobody does. Any sane person will shiver at the sheer thought of weekends in December.

Transparency – for good or ill, it’s the new Internet environment

Internet transparency? I’m both scared and excited about its benefits and dangers. I remember keeping a lock on my personal, well-hidden diary when I was young, so I gasp when I see how young people expose themselves on Facebook. Nowadays it seems to be increasingly difficult to communicate confidentially, even to be in danger of being seen as having something to hide if one tries to do so.

Taste

Soon after moving to England, I made myself two promises: one was that I was never to display multicoloured fairy lights in any home of mine; the second was that I was NEVER to have ANYTHING to do with net curtains. I’d look at these strange rags with scorn, pitying the fools who actually believed that they would prevent people from seeing into their homes and disregarding what I felt the curtains said about their homes in the first place.

IS IT JUST ME…

IS IT JUST ME... Who at this time of year is under a huge amount of pressure from ski-enthusiast friends and family-members? Ski-enthusiasts insist with almost religious ardour, that their “truth” is the same truth for everybody else. You don’t find that kind of insistence from people who figure-skate, play volleyball or occasionally vacation in Brighton.

Culture in Sweden 2011

Sweden is a country with high cultural intensity – and density! A country widely known for its natural beauty and vast landscape scenery, Sweden is also prominent in cutting-edge urban culture.

Keeping overseas companies outside the UK tax net

There are many reasons why someone who lives in the UK may have an ownership stake or influence over a non-UK company. For example, offshore companies as well as companies incorporated in countries such as Cyprus, Malta or Luxembourg are often in tax planning structures. It may also be the case that the owner lived in another country before coming to the UK, and set up the company in that country before moving. Also, it is not unusual for people to accept appointments as directors of companies which are based in other countries.

Sweden: Small country with Big companies

On July 6 the Swedish pavilion at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai welcomed its one-millionth visitor. The huge interest in our exhibition – with the theme innovation by Sweden – is just one example of the curiosity about Swedish ideas, solutions and culture that I have met here at home and around the world during the last years.

IS IT JUST ME…

Or is there something odd in our attitude towards the economy? I get that the financial situation is tough, but for some reason we keep referring to the economy as if it was a person. A human in its own right – and, may I say, not a very stable one.

Uniform

Before starting school in England, I found myself trawling through the shops of my nearest town in an apprehensive daze, as I tried to gather the garments needed for my school uniform. If anyone reads this who is in fact English, you may frown in bewilderment at this thought, but as no one had exactly explained to me what the official rules of a school uniform were, I genuinely found the whole thing to be a mystery.