President Nasheed meets with the Speaker of the Swedish Parliament

President Nasheed has today called upon the Speaker of the Swedish parliament, the Hon. Per Westerberg. The meeting was held in the Speaker's Chambers of the parliament.

The Speaker welcomed the President to Sweden and to the parliament, and congratulated the President on his success in promoting democracy and good governance in the Maldives. He also noted the important role the Maldives has been playing in the lead up to Copenhagen, and briefed the President on the importance that Sweden attached to the success of the climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

Speaking at the meeting, President Nasheed said that as Sweden would be holding the Presidency of the European Union at the climate conference in Copenhagen, he hoped that the strong emphasis Sweden has on conservation would make a vital contribution to the outcome of the talks.

Further, the President said that time was running out and that effective measures needed to be taken to cut down greenhouse gas emissions and also contribute to adaptation. The President said that Kyoto represented a list of things that countries were not supposed to do and perhaps the emphasis needs to shift to a list of things that countries can do, particularly to promote renewable energy technologies.

Moreover, the President said that sound environmental policies required good governance and therefore promotion of democracy would also contribute to greener policies, because people power would be mobilised behind the long term interest of conservation.

The President also expressed interest in promoting exchanges and collaboration between parliamentarians of Sweden and the Maldives and noted the important contribution such co-operation can make for better understanding and consolidation of democracy in the Maldives.

Speaker Westerberg concurred on the importance of both mitigation and adaptation, and agreed that democracy and sustainable development were very closely inter-related. He also reciprocated the President's interest in developing collaboration between the parliamentarians of the two countries.

Source: isria.com

Sweden trumped by Maldives in Second Life

The Maldives has pipped Sweden to the post by unveiling the world's first virtual embassy in Second Life just days before the Scandinavian country's planned launch.

Sweden received much international attention in January when it first announced plans to open an embassy in the virtual online world.

Sweden's Second Life embassy, which opens on May 30th, is to be a replica of the House of Sweden in Washington DC.

Susanna Wallgren from the Swedish Institute has just received an e-mail informing her of the new Maldives embassy when we speak to her. She assures The Local that there is no sense of being upstaged by the island nation.

"Not at all. Good for them. It is great that more countries are realizing the importance of establishing a presence in Second Life," she said.

The head of the Swedish Institute, Olle Wästberg, mentioned earlier this week that the project has cost a total of 400,000 kronor ($57,000). Next week Wästberg will be joined by Foreign Minister Carl Bildt - both in Second Life and at the Swedish Institute - for an inauguration ceremony to mark the opening of the new embassy.

But for now the spotlight is on the Maldives. The small island nation in the Indian Ocean has placed its virtual embassy in the Diplomatic Quarter of Diplomacy Island in Second Life.

"The Maldives is not the wealthiest island in the world. This can give people a contact with the Maldives that they might not otherwise have," Stewart Gibbon from the Maldives Mission in Geneva told The Local.

He explains that he was not even aware of Sweden's plans for online diplomatic representation until his boss happened to mention the fact.

"I suppose it's nice to be first but this was not a deliberate attempt to beat Sweden to it," he added.

At the time of writing there were around 6,500,000 residents living in the alternative reality of Second Life.

Source: Sweden Local News