SaloSong

Using the power of Google translator which I have re-discovered via a Sidewiki Firefox add-on I set about reading Carl Bildt’s blog. Bildts blogs from a position of power and prestige. He is afterall a former Swedish PM who now finds himself as Swedish Foreign Minister. Add to that longtime blogger and something of a digital pioneer. A digital diplomat long before the phrase came into modrate usage.

Arriving at his blog is slightly underwhelming, a simple Wordpress design instead of a formally branded blog site. The blog shows no sign of high office or a lofty mission statement. To further personalise the blog his image forms part of the banner. When you land on this page you know you have arrived at Bildts home not his office.

However once you get stuck into reading his blog you are of course reminded he is Foreign Minister. His style is relaxed and the blog entries are were the personal meets the political. He has a relaxed travelogue style. He will tell you what he gets up to on his downtime in say New York, museums. When he visits a country he gives his opinion not just on the issues but on the landscape, his memories and Abba. I could detect no theme to his blog topics but Abba popped up surprisingly on the Mekong river were an Abba night was advertised at a reaturant. This afforded him a digression into the nature of Swedens very light ‘cultural imperialism’. Would have preffered a spot of Ingmar Bergman myself.

The tone can be described as friendly reportage. Telling his audience what he has been up to on a particular day. My personal blog bugbear is the blog backslash diary. Bildt overcomes this tendency by having a confessional style rather than a diary one. Yes, he goes to meetings with some lasting nine hours. However Bildt will tell you about one such meeting on Burma were he is candid saying “it is difficult to see the meeting as a breakthrough of some kind…”. He blogs in the moment not after the event. You can see this on his entries for the Irish Lisbon Treaty referendum. He blogs a yes vote result before it is official. Then follows up later with a short entry later that has a cryptic reference to conservative as another treaty hurdle.

How do his readers respond? quite engaged if we go by the number of comments which are on the high side. In a cliche Nordic liberal sense moderation is very muck on auto pilot. One comment asks if Israel would stop “peeing on everything and anybody …” a Google translation  generates the polite ‘peeing.’  Swedish party political stuff is fair game on the blog comments. Lenght of comment is not an issue, one came in at 922 words.

This appears to be his personal blog not an official one and I could find no reference to it on the Foreign Ministry website. If you no more please let me know.

One key factor for Bildt is that he blogs everyday. Really he does. Having delved into his blog I could find one instance were he did not. For this blogging sin he apologised ‘no Internet access in Dushanbe’.  One person posted a comment noting ‘your work rate is impressive. Your patients are impressive”. However as we know all work and no play makes Bildt a dull boy. He resolves this by giving you the work and the play.

The blog wrapped as it is in a simple wordpress style, is easy on the eye and fits Bildt perfectly.