Carina Persian: Carina Persian: 'You may even get a surprised smile in return'
Yes, you collect a whole lot of points when as a stand-in you work here and there and have to do a bit of shopping, either for immediate use or to take home after work. For the past month I've been working as a stand-in for Inga-Lill Bengtsson, a veteran at the Mosaik newspaper office, and have worked alongside Sofyan Aswad. He is often stopped at the door of our office by people wanting to talk to him. Sofyan always takes time to chat to them, and always has a smile on his lips.
To be able to meet one another in the community has been problematic for some time, but it doesn't do any harm to give the next person you meet a smile. Who knows, you might even get a surprised smile in return.
'Vänliga Veckan', friendly week, was started in 1946 by Harry Lindquist, who had heard that of the 8,569 persons who passed a machine that counted the number of passers-by, only 12 were smiling. He thought that was very sad, so he hit on the idea of Vänliga Veckan, which is now in the week in February in which Valentine's day occurs.
We ought to be able to have 'Vänliga Veckan' all year round. And in this newspaper there are so many friendly people to meet: the very engaged basketball trainer, Hej Främling! which has an inspiration day just for women, people who patrol at night to make things safe for all of us, and dentist Khaled Mekdad who gives his patients a beautiful smile.
Light and dark, cold and warm. On page 12 we tell you about Tareq Taylor who will brighten up and warm the hearts of TV-viewers all over Sweden on Christmas Eve, 24th December. Now when the days are growing darker we must make ourselves more easily seen by using reflectors. Viktor Bodén Björk, whom we write about on page 13, was very lucky when a cyclist suddenly swung out in front of his car. The man on the bike had a lucky escape too - he was not hit by the car, although it was dark and had no reflectors.
There can be darkness within people too, and unfortunately this shows up from time to time in real life. Here in Kristianstad as well. We write about it on pages 4 and 5, where we report some events and say what happens to the persons who are suspected of having been involved.
One person who could see in the dark with the help of his infra-red camera is the hunter Magnus Hellström, who saw eight wolves. He and his fellow-hunter decided to let the deer they had shot lie where it had fallen. 'I might perhaps be able to tackle one wolf, but eight are not to be toyed with'. Read more about the exciting encounter on page 12.
No, you shouldn't play with wolves or with fire.
After a number of fires in Östra Göinge inhabitants have been asked to report to the police if they observe anything out of the ordinary.
Read about the fires and other news from Östra Göinge on page 14.
Now I'll hand the baton back to Inga-Lill with a warm hand. See you again – with a smile.
