Travelling and risks

We wear helmets when we ride our bikes, we block the smoke from far away and we make sure our children eat food grown without pesticides. We probably prevent many accidents and diseases in this way, but there are those who argue that we are becoming safety junkies and developing panic syndromes. What really happens when the world's disasters creep closer to us anxiety-ridden Swedes?

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Differences in managing risks

When travelling, one cannot help but reflect on the differences between how Swedes deal with risks in their environment compared to how people in other parts of the world do. In some countries, people live in constant insecurity, with war and threats around them in their daily lives.

In other countries, helmets and seat belts are not used - even though they are available and even though traffic is much more risky than in Sweden. I don't recommend this last one at all; if a seatbelt and helmet are available, I think it's terribly unnecessary not to use them. At the same time, I can't help but wonder what this safety thinking does to us humans.

The world is global

Sweden is not an island with impenetrable walls to the rest of the world. On the contrary, we are part of something global. Disasters that happen in other parts of the world also happen to us. We are often on the move, people move back and forth across the planet, and people in crisis-hit countries need our help.

How do we manage risks?

But how do we, who are frightened by a puff of smoke from a cigarette or a sprayed carrot, manage to deal with acute dangers? We have noticed what happens when someone perhaps have glimpsed a small submarine or when the occasional person landing at Arlanda purely hypothetically could have Ebola. Like, what do we do when there is a real crisis? Can we handle it ... or do we need collective therapy then?

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