Ambassadors for Sweden

Thinking of how much TPB is in the media all the time just made me realise something. We’re creating jobs. We’re creating tourism. We’re creating an interest for Sweden and Scandinavia.

Just look at these facts!

This year I’ve had at least 25 international journalists visiting me in Sweden or Norway.
They all travel for at least two days to come here, do the interview and go back home.
When they ask for a hotel I give them advice – a nice place I know is central and there for easy to find. It’s reasonably priced as well. I also encourage them to see the local sites, go over to Copenhagen and see that too. Most do.

Other reporters go to Stockholm to see the other guys. It’s probably about 25 there as well.
So let’s say we ourselves get at least 50 international tourists to visit each year (and now I’m not even counting the fact that most come in pairs – one reporter and one photographer). All of them with the intention of writing a story about the thing recognised as the Swedish Pro Piracy. Most of these reporters work for magazines or television channels with at least one million viewers/readers. I know many of them probably overlap, but for the sake of argument, let’s say we get the story and information out to an audience of about 50*1 million. In average, each year.

It’s 50 millions of viewers/readers that get to learn about Sweden, how open the community here is and how beautiful it is! And the 1.5-2 million unique visitors we have each day already know this.

Before launching The Pirate Bay v2.0 some years back, one of the most downloaded torrent was a course in Swedish since TPB was only in Sweden at the time. We get e-mails daily from young people around the globe that never heard of Sweden before and now wants to move here. They download the courses in Swedish they can find and learns the language. We help open the eyes of a lot of people, that Sweden is a country they like and see as something futuristic and great. Sweden is considered cutting edge, technology- and freedom wise.

All over digg.com and other cool social networks there is always the comment “last place on earth with true freedom is Sweden” or “I really want to move to Sweden”.

I don’t want to sound like a patriot, because I’m not. I think there’s a lot wrong with the Scandinavian countries, but to be honest, I can’t find another place I’d rather live. I do travel so I’m not stuck here all the time like a lot of other people, but it makes me realise that we have something good here. And that we’re promoting it.

… so how come we don’t get any recognition for our aid of getting Sweden on the international map? How many other Swedish groups of people can get an audience of 50 million people outside the country to read about the awesome things going on here? I think it’s time the tourism department started working together with us. And maybe invite us over for some food. How about giving us some award or maybe even funds as a recognition for our work?

NB. The picture in this blog entry shows the old Scandinavian tradition of Midsummer. A time when most teenagers get drunk and lose their virginity, a time to celebrate the phallus and a time to behave really badly with no remorse the day after since everybody does the same stupid stuff.