PM responds to 11-year-old's accusatory letter
An 11-year-old girl's adorable letter to the Prime Minister asked why, "if you're the one in charge", he chops down Swedish forests. The reply, penned in officialese, was exhaustive, but left several questions unanswered.
"Hi fredrik! (sic) I'm writing to you because we're supposed to write to a famous person in school," the letter from Tess, 11, began.
She had several questions for Fredrik Reinfeldt:
- If our parents pay so much in taxes shouldn't we be allowed to eat as much as we want in school?
- If you're the one in charge why do we chop down so many trees?
- Why do you promise people one thing and do another?
- Do all classrooms have to be white?
While the PM himself did not pen the response, an employee at government offices sat down to write quite a lengthy reply to the school girl - although she did not address the final, interior-decor related question about the choice of wall colour in Sweden's schools. Instead, the public servant began by talking food.
"All children have a right to eat until they are full in school every day. If you're not full, you can take more food," the aide wrote. "On the other hand, we should all think about not putting more food on our plates than we will actually finish. We shouldn't waste our resources by throwing away food."
The school girl's letter, which contained the cute misspelling bästämer for the verb bestämmer (to decide), then asked the decider-in-chief about forestry politics.
Reinfeldt's staffer wasted little time in explaining that forestry policies had to balance production goals with environmental goals.
"The production goal means that the forest should be used effectively and responsibly so that we don't chop more wood than we need," the public servant explained, before launching into an explanation of ecological diversity in the Swedish woodlands.
She also made sure that 11-year-old Tess knew that Sweden helps other countries with sustainable forestry policies.
"It's not just our own forests that we take care of," she said.
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"Hi fredrik! (sic) I'm writing to you because we're supposed to write to a famous person in school," the letter from Tess, 11, began.
She had several questions for Fredrik Reinfeldt:
- If our parents pay so much in taxes shouldn't we be allowed to eat as much as we want in school?
- If you're the one in charge why do we chop down so many trees?
- Why do you promise people one thing and do another?
- Do all classrooms have to be white?
While the PM himself did not pen the response, an employee at government offices sat down to write quite a lengthy reply to the school girl - although she did not address the final, interior-decor related question about the choice of wall colour in Sweden's schools. Instead, the public servant began by talking food.
"All children have a right to eat until they are full in school every day. If you're not full, you can take more food," the aide wrote. "On the other hand, we should all think about not putting more food on our plates than we will actually finish. We shouldn't waste our resources by throwing away food."
The school girl's letter, which contained the cute misspelling bästämer for the verb bestämmer (to decide), then asked the decider-in-chief about forestry politics.
Reinfeldt's staffer wasted little time in explaining that forestry policies had to balance production goals with environmental goals.
"The production goal means that the forest should be used effectively and responsibly so that we don't chop more wood than we need," the public servant explained, before launching into an explanation of ecological diversity in the Swedish woodlands.
She also made sure that 11-year-old Tess knew that Sweden helps other countries with sustainable forestry policies.
"It's not just our own forests that we take care of," she said.
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