. . . this week, launching the Swedish edition of "The Whistleblower." It's called "Sjuka Pengar" or "Sick Money," since whistleblower doesn't translate well.
The schedule is packed with television, radio and other news media interviews over three days, so a good start.
And Pfizer has finally learned how to handle the situation. Instead of writing angry letters to each radio and TV show, the way they used to do this, which created additional attention, they are now ignoring me.
The first journalist I met from Swedish Radio told me she'd called Pfizer in Sweden and they told her things are so different in the U.S. that my book doesn't impact them. She also called Pfizer in the U.S. and they told her my book was a flop in the U.S., so they couldn't care less.
The irony is, of course, that Pfizer didn't take this position until after they brought the book to Court and after I thanked them for helping me with the publicity.
And of course, Pfizer didn't mention that the book made #333 on Amazon and the entire first U.S. printing has left my publisher without any returns so far . . . oh well, at least it is nice to see that they are maturing over at Big Blue. The way they behaved initially must have had their PR advisors in tears.
By the way, this is what Stockholm looks like right now. Soooooooooooo beautiful it is almost painful.
6 comments:
Gosh but that is just a beautiful picture. So if whistle blower doesn't translate,(which is not very hard to believe once you see how movie titles are translated in other countries) do they have police there with whistles?
AND if they have whistles, and they blow them for "help", "danger", "Stop Thief!" sort of thing, then what is that called?
Sick Money wouldn't really translate over here to well either I suppose.
Do they have a phrase for "EVIL LYING BASTARDS WHO WILL SAY ANYTHING TO TAKE YOUR MONEY"?
Besides thief I mean.
Perhaps the Swedish translation is not that bad, after all. It does describe the kind of money the big pharma harvests with thier strip mining of all health care systems, be it private or public, SJUKA PENGAR. This is correct frome every point of view: they sell their goods to SJUKA people, using thier own invented SJUKA-ing ways of doing business and they do not mind pulling in the SJUKA PENGAR. Like Cezar of classic ROME, who described the money he pulled in from public washrooms he owned, "the money has no smell", so do the big pharma, sayng that the SJUKA PENGAR they pull in is completely kosher and even though it is SJUKA it does have no smell. It makes you SJUKA, does'n it?
Doc good luck in beautiful and decent Sweden and hopefully they are going to learn how to do their own SJUKA PENGAR-ing if there is anything to be sjuka pengaring. Maybe they are lucky, there is none.
Also, the word sjuk or sick can be used slangishly in combination with other words in such a way that "sjuka pengar" has the sense of something like "insane amounts of money" or "huge amounts of money". Perhaps "sickening amounts of money" although it doesn't really translate this way since "sjuka pengar" is more neutral, it can also be a good thing to pull in sjuka pengar. So it's more neutral. Ridiculous amounts? Perhaps, I don't know. Anyway, the double meaning works very well.
Sounds like an interesting book about a sick industry. Good work!
/Swede
Well Gustav, it is time for you to learn about as you say Sjuka industry and that , to be fair, also help sjuka people but in the process they think they are entitled to lot of Sjuka Pengar in retun. They have not gone as far as saying something like this:"Look mack, you got a life threatening infection and will die if we do not sell you our antibiotic. How much you are willing to pay for the life saving dose?". They are pretty close in some cases and that is why this is a sjuka industry especially in USA and those countries that do not have some kind of price and other control over them So Gustav if you and your country men and women read your own doc's Peter book and look into his and other's blogs, you will learn a lot and hopefully influence your own big pharma to change to the better if they also have these issues. Should be easier there for you already have better control over them.
The big pharma everywhere has to realise that they are here for us and those of us who become sjuka, not the other way around, that sjuka people are there for them to make (again) SJUKA PANGER. If they do that you just Sjuka Panger on them to the authorities and hopefully you have strong laws to look after them as they do in USA.
No Sjuka to you-good health to you.
Thank you Dr Rosk for the beautiful picture of Stockholm. I imagine that it will be a pleasant and fascinating city to explore and stroll through its streets and parks. As I noted in my recent comments to your “Thank you, America” assay posted in November 22/06, Sweden possesses cultural and social values that are worth protecting and preserving and these virtues reflect on the gallant and refined face of its alluring capital city.
In 2005 I came across a relatively large deteriorating1885 folding map of Stockholm and its accompanied description booklet. I was enchanted by the craftsmanship of the map’s drawing and the sensible arrangement of the city’s configuration. It appears that Stockholm has been a model city for a long time. It was worth restoring this map and then I donated it to a small Swedish Heritage Museum in the little town of Swedesburg IA.
Have a good time in Stockholm
Bergman
Both Stocholm and Sweden should be and can be examples of wonderful city and wonderful country that other countries could look up to and try do emulate thier model of social and economic justice, taking the local conditions into consideration. This especially would be useful for USA and Canada that is now sliding into USA model instead keeping its traditional model of social justice. The big corporations like big pharma are mostly responsibly for the inequality in these countries and they continue to promote even worse cndition for middle class. just watch Lou Dobbs on CNN and his commentary, War on the middle class, on this issue every night.
Things do not happen without the reason in universe. Maybe, just maybe we needed a Swedish physician/doctor to emerge as major WB and activist against the madness of big pharma for us to wake up and do something about it. It will not be easy, the big pharma and other corporations have the upperhand these days with their enormous supplies of $$$$ and hold on our "democratic" gouverments. However it can be done just as the Berlin wall came down the inequalities of the "dog eat dog" system can be reversed.
Example of gross inequality: The most expensive house ever listed in USA was in tens of millions of dollars, think about 50-60 millions, while in Sweden it was about $2 millon. They to have rich people but the difference between the rich and rest of them is nothing like in USA and unfortunately soon to be seen in Canada too wher the most expensive house was listed just over 20 million. Also the total number of their homless people in the whole country would fit into an average size theatre. And these "homless" have every opportunity to end it by just applying for shelter. Try doing this in New York or Toronto.
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