Swedish couple in Sirinhaém

[Gileno Machado]

A neighbour called me a while ago and said that Sirinhaém had an important visit this afternoon: King Carl Gustav and Queen Silvia of Sweden stopped for a brief visit to the beach on their way to the neighboring municipalty of Ipojuca where they've visited a shipbuilding factory recently innaugurated.

The Royal couple is staying at a nice beach resort in Muro Alto, 30 km to the south of our house and not very far from the hotel where Alberto stayed with his family last year. The newspaper reports that they both love drinking coconut water and appreciate very much the local plants, especially the palms (they must be relatives of Bo and Ciczi...haha).

Queen Silvia (who is half Brazilian and lived her childhood in São Paulo) is a fantastic person indeed and she often comes to Recife on short vacations. My cousin Sérgio Lôbo is the commercial consulate of Sweden for the Northeast and he represents some companies like Volvo in our market, so he is often in touch with them during these visits. They're quite simple people and very interested in Nature and Environmental issues. From here they're going to the heart of Amazonia in São Gabriel da Cachoeira where they'll stay for the next weekend.

I'm disappointed for not being in the other house this afternoon when they arrived at the beach...otherwise I would try to give them a couple of local palm seedlings for their glasshouse garden in Stockholm...and also send another one as a surprise souvenir for Ciczi...

[DoomsDave]

Whoo-ee, Gileno, you are well-connected!

Maybe Their Majesties will drop on over here for a little palming and beaching in California . . . .

[bgl]

Gileno,

Fascinating! Thanks a lot for the update, had no idea! But then again, I don't really make it my business to keep up with these things! Would have been a nice touch if they could have just waited a few weeks and joined us in Rio next month for the Biennial!

Bo-Göran

[Kris]

Good to know about the volvo cars,comming to brazil...

Thanks for the visuals..

love,

kris

[Gileno Machado]

Kris, we have Volvos for sale here for a long time now, nice cars...also SAAB trucks, a big factory in the southeast.

Bo, it would be great to have them at the Biennial, hmmm?

The swedish government (and the king) are actually in Brazil at the moment lobying for a multi-billion dollar contract for the aviation industry, in order to suply the brazilian air force with new supersonic jets. SAAB is trying to sell 36 new fighters Gripen NG, in full partnership with Embraer, including development and technology transfer and shared assemblage for future sales worldwide. The other two companies in the bidding process are Boeing (F-18 Super Hornet) and Dassault (Rafale), since the russians have been turned down during the qualification process. The Brazilian government is pushing towards Dassault, and Sarcozy has come here already twice in campaign, but the press here is against the deal with the french (Rafale has not been fully tested yet and it's the most expensive of the three). Hillary Clinton has been putting a lot of pressure towards Boeing too, but the Air Force says the Super Hornet does not meet the operational requirements and the american law doesn't allow full technology transfer, although the specialized press says it's supposed to be the best, except for aircraft carrier based operations, when Rafale performs best. Now the King Carl Gustaf is asking for a strategic partnership with Embraer, and he will be visiting the factory tomorrow, after meeting the President this afternoon...

Ohh well, I wished all these billions could be spent in other infrastructure projects in this poor country, like energy, highways, education and health...the old fashioned Mirages could still do the job for a while...and besides that, we haven't been in wars for a long time now, just like Sweden...

Here's the link for the press report: King of Sweden