I
Romantic?
IS THE ARCTIC
An interview with Swedish diplomat
Andreas von Uexküll
By John Bechtel,
Freelance Features Writer
4*
SUMMER 2016 | Scandinavian Press
n the world of the performing arts, the Romantic Period refers to a 75-year time
spread in the nineteenth century known for its emphasis on emotions and spontaneity.
The pianists Chopin and Liszt were part
of this movement, as were composers Berlioz
and Verdi in opera. Over a century later, when
thirty-year-old Andreas von Uexküll, staffer/
second secretary with the Swedish embassy in
Tallinn, Estonia, saw soprano Mariliina Vilimaa
perform at a musical called “Bel Etage,” a
romantic period of his own began.
They met soon after, as Mariliina continued
her career as a singer for the Estonian National
Opera. Two years later they flew together,
now married, to Andreas’ new assignment in
New York City, as a member of the Swedish
Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
A lot has happened in the dozen or so years
Andreas von Uexküll
since. After spending half of that time at
the U.N., they returned to Andreas’ native
Sweden, where he served as Senior Arctic
Official to the Arctic Council based in
Stockholm.
Mariliina continues her love of music and
the performing arts, and occasionally sings
at private events. Today, they are the proud
parents of four children: Liise-Lotte, 19;
Johannes, 10; Adele, 9; and Mathilde, 4. LiiseLotte attends university at Stockholm, and
the rest of the family are back in America,
this time to Washington, D.C., where
Andreas and Mariliina Vilimaa von Uexküll
Andreas is Minister Counselor for Trade and
with three of their four children, Adele, 9;
(Continued on page 00)
Johannes, 10; and Mathilde, 4.
EconomicAffairs.
Left: House of Sweden is a stunning example of contemporary Scandinavian architecture designed by Gert Wingårdh and
Tomas Hansen. It was inaugurated in 2006, as the new home of the Embassy of Sweden in Washington D.C. As a physical
representation of Swedish values such as openness, transparency and democracy, House of Sweden is the flagship of
Swedish public diplomacy in the United States.
Scandinavian Press | SUMMER 2016
4(
(Continued from page 00)
Swedish Icebreaker Oden
It is obvious Andreas is enthusiastic
about his work, and he is quite fluent
about it. For example, did you know
that 1,200 Swedish companies and
U.S. exports to Sweden combined,
create over 330,000 direct jobs in the
United States? Or that the large Swedish
icebreaker Oden (named after the Norse
god Odin), was the first non-nuclear
icebreaker to reach the North Pole, on
September 7, 1991? That it has been to
the North Pole five times since then?
Built in 1988, it has a helicopter on
board, and was commissioned to clear
a passage for cargo ships in the Gulf of
Bothnia, between Sweden and Finland.
Later modified as a research vessel,
it has a crew of 15 and space for
laboratory equipment and 80 scientistpassengers. The Oden was chartered
from 2006/07 through 2010/11 by the
US National Science Foundation to
In 2004, Sweden’s largest icebreaker, Oden, assisted the high-profile research
mission of Arctic Coring Expedition, ACEX. The mission was to drill about 450
meters into the sediment of the seabed of the Arctic Ocean at 1200 meters water
depth. The sediment cores were used for reconstruction of the environmental
history over the past 56 million years in the Arctic.
The indications given by the core samples are that the Arctic Ocean once had
experienced 20º C (68º F) surface temperature. Further studies will establish the
precise nature of the transition periods from hothouse to icehouse that this region
evidently has experienced already once.
Vast quantities of rock are mined and transported around the clock, every day at Aitik’s open pit mine, located above the
Arctic Circle, in the municipality of Gällivare, Sweden. The deposit consists of chalcopyrite and pyrite yielding copper, gold
and silver. Aitik employs approximately 679 people and is the largest private employer in Gällivare.
break the ice channel into the American
McMurdo Research Station on the
Ross Sea in Antarctica. On board it
has advanced scientific equipment
designed to do seabed mapping in both
the Arctic and the Antarctic, able to
penetrate up to 100 meters (328 feet) of
ocean floor sediment.
This year the Swedish Polar
Research Secretariat (a government
agency in charge of coordinating and
promoting Swedish polar research
activities) announced an Arctic
research expedition to be jointly held
onboard the Oden and the Canadian
icebreaker CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent
in the Canadian archipelago from
August 5 through September 20 of this
5)
SUMMER 2016 | Scandinavian Press
year. This is dubbed an Early-Career
Scientist program and each “cadet” will
be assigned a mentor.
Swedish Industry
and Trade in the Arctic
It would seem to the casual observer
that there is considerable overlap in
the focus of Andreas von Uexküll’s
current position as Minister Counselor
for Trade and Economic Affairs and
his prior position as Senior Arctic
Official. In Arctic Sweden, mining and
forestry are major economic activities.
The largest iron ore mine in Europe
is in Kiruna, and Sweden boasts the
Aitik open pit copper mine, according
to some sources the EU’s largest, near
Gällivare; both places are above the
Arctic Circle. Additionally, there are
shipping, oil spill prevention, the
maritime industry, weather and ice
information services, space industry,
and research and development. In fact,
the Scandinavian Arctic is by far the
most-developed part of the pan-Arctic
world. The Arctic region of Sweden
plays an important and growing role in
their national economic health.
Arctic Tourism
Then there is tourism. Arctic
tourism is not a homogenous industry:
(Continued on page 00)
(Continued from page 00)
there is the mass market of sightseers;
there is the sport fishing and hunting
market; the ecotourism market—those
who seek solitude with nature and to
see wildlife in its natural habitat; the
adventure tourism market such as
downhill skiing or dog sledding; and
finally the market that perhaps most
of our readers fall into, the culture and
heritage tourism market. These are
travelers who want to experience the
lives and habits of the native population
and learn more about the history of the
people and places they visit. However
fleetingly they want to participate in
a lifestyle that deserves preservation,
not merely observe it. They respect the
value and fragility of their unfamiliar
surroundings. The Arctic region with
its austere and eerily quiet moonscapes,
harsh environments, and indigenous
populations with highly adaptive
survival practices has a strong
appeal for such travelers.
•Kiruna
The Baltic
Region
Gällivare•
Gulf of
Bothnia
Norway
Is the Arctic Romantic?
Finland
Sweden
Russia
Gulf of
Finland
Helsinki•
Oslo•
•
St.
Petersburg
•Tallinn
Stockholm•
Estonia
Baltic
Sea
Denmark
Latvia
Riga•
Lithuania
Copenhagen•
Vilnius•
Russia
Belarus
•Minsk
Germany
Berlin•
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SUMMER 2016 | Scandinavian Press
Our thanks to Minister Counselor
Andreas von Uexküll and his family for
sharing a small part of their story and
the story of the Swedish Arctic, where
ancient traditions and cutting edge
technology come together.
Poland
Warsaw•
To return to our opening analogy
with the Romantic Period in the arts,
with its emphasis on emotions and the
individual, we might ask is the Arctic
romantic? If it is true that a picture
is worth a thousand words, I leave
you with this painting (see next page)
of what could have been an Arctic
landscape, entitled “Wanderer above the
Sea of Fog.” It was painted by Romantic
Period artist Caspar David Friedrich in
1818. How do you experience it? What
feelings does it evoke?
Hope or despair? Promise or
warning? Invitation to adventure or
potential for disaster? Familiar or
frightening? Loneliness or welcome
solitude? The Arctic has been all of
these things to different people at
different times. It has been said that
the difference between loneliness
and aloneness is that one is a form
of emotional neediness and absence
of something, and the other is an
expression of completeness, abundance,
and a source of energy. That one is
about fear and the other is a form of
fullness and capacity to share. Today
the Arctic is about respect and awe
combined with cautious optimism for
its potential, if shared and used wisely.
We cannot be indifferent to the Arctic.
An exuberant Andreas von Uexküll
plants the Swedish flag at the North
Pole during a visit to the region. The
area holds major strategic significance
for the handful of nations that ring the
Arctic Circle—the United States (Alaska), Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark
(Greenland), Iceland, Sweden, and
Finland. Russia has the longest Arctic
coastline by far, extending more than
ten thousand miles.
It moves us. It is romantic.
Half-a-million indigenous people
live their lives above the Arctic
Circle, in an environment so harsh it
destroyed all but the very hardiest of
the European explorers. In the three
countries of Norway, Sweden, and
Finland, with the most developed
Arctic regions of the circumpolar
world, these aboriginal tribes live in
this reality without borders. They call
it home. Who are they? What can we
learn from them? Would you like to
meet them? What is going to happen to
them? They too, are part of our Nordic
heritage.
Read more about them in a future
issue of Scandinavian Press.
Scandinavian Press | SUMMER 2016
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