Doors let you in, they let you out. Some are inviting, others say “stay out”. As a few XUNICEF members have previously shown, doors can be elegant, artistic, majestic, stately or simple, rustic, even crumbling and dilapidated.
Having returned to Sweden after fifty years abroad—thirty of them with UNICEF—following the passing of my wife, I received my first pension payment into my Swedish bank account today. It amounted to almost SEK 100,000 for the month. That figure made me reflect. Sweden has always been a generous contributor to UNICEF, as have all northern European countries. For a couple of years, Sweden, a country of only seven million people at the time, I believe, contributed more to UNICEF than the United States, a nation forty times its size. We accepted that money with enthusiasm, assuring ourselves that our remuneration was reasonable, not excessive, and that our privileges were justified. Looking at my pension statement today, I don't believe that is true. In Sweden today, only just over 80,000 people out of a population of 10 million earn SEK 100,000 a month. Only a handful receive that much as a pension. It was ordinary workers—cleaners, drivers, and plumbers—who financed the lives we enjo...