Friday, March 08, 2019

All Things Greta

Photo from TheNation.com
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who speaks truth to power, has been named "Women of the Year" by Expressen ("The Express"), one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden. She has an interesting back story (perhaps required nowadays for this kind of celebrity), such as major depression starting when she was five eleven, Asperger's and OCD. (She can also talk backwards.) From their interview of her (via Google's translation, which isn't perfect):
When I was five [should be 11], I went into depression. I felt very bad, cried every rest of the toiletand [sic] went home and finally there was no point at all going to school because I would still have to go home. I also stopped talking and eating. One big reason I was depressed was that I was worried about the climate and the environment. I felt that there was no point in everything when the system was so wrong and I didn't see that I could do anything about it.
Wow, these are very unfair thoughts for any child to have, let alone a 5-year old. Aren't kids being scared unnecessarily? A while back I saw someone on Twitter write that his 9-year old was looking up his life expectancy, and in the process came across some climate catastrophism and started crying. This (false) "we have 12 years to stop climate change" stuff isn't helping.

She also said:
I really do not like attention and being at the center, but one must take that if that is what is required for the media to start reporting on the climate and people should get their eyes up. Then it's a shame to complain. I myself have put myself in this situation.
I predict his girl is either going to become Secretary-General of the United Nations or a shark of a hedge fund manager.

2 comments:

Marco said...

The google translate is indeed rather poor. The text "När jag gick i femman gick jag in i en depression." is apparently translated as "When I was five, I went into depression." However, it actually means "When I went to fifth class, I went into a depression". The question above it asks her how her life was at age 11, so that fits with fifth class.

The sentence "Jag mådde väldigt dåligt, grät varje rast på toaletten" is probably best translated (says the non-Swede, familiar with a language closely related to Swedish) as "I felt really bad, cried every break on the toilet".

David Appell said...

Fixed. Thanks very much, Marco.