On the 14th of February 2009 a Swedish child Thor Danielsson Wang, just one year old, disapeared during a visitation with his father Yen-Cheng (Andrew) Wang in California, USA. Chances are the father has already left the country with the child, to Taiwan or Argentina.

His mother Mia Danielsson has sole custody and they are both registered as living in Sweden. Seven weeks have now passed and Thor's case seems to have fallen between the cracks, nothing is being done.

The American authorities say that it is the Swedish authorities responsibility to assist their own citizens. The Swedish authorities (UD) say it is not their problem.

Consequently an online petition has been set up demanding the Swedish Foreign Affairs Department (UD) act on the matter of Thor's disappearance and that the Swedish police become involved in the case. The signers of the petition do not accept that our Swedish citizens should find themselves helpless and without rights when in another country. Help is needed immediately to find this little boy so he can be reunited with his mother.

The petition is in Swedish but the above text gives a general translation. If you want to sign the petition and put pressure on the Swedish government and police to act, write your name in the left box, and the place you live in in the right box. The tick, or checked box means your name will be visable on the list, Skriv under means sign.

Why is this important? Apart from the fact that it is yet another case of child abduction, which is terribly traumatic for the child/ren, it is a matter of responsibility. We live in an international community, we move around and might be somewhere else for months at a time. But we still need to know someone will come to our aid in times of trouble. It is not enough to stand back and say - well it didn't happen here, they were out of the country at the time, not our problem.

Sign here.

Melbourne dad finds kidnapped sons and shows up Swedish cops

Interesting and scary to read some of the responses to this story on the expat forums around the place...... The Swedish authorities have not gained a whole lot of credibility from this case.

With the Royal date of June 19 2010 being announced just a couple of days ago, hotel rooms are already starting to be booked.

It seems that many hotels have daily prices - so the price on the day the hotel is booked is the price you pay - even if the booking is for June 19th 2010.

The announcement has been made on the Royal Website, sadly the translation has not yet been made into English - you would think it would be done at the same time, considering the international value of such news.

Victoria and her Daniel will follow a long line of Bernadotte weddings on June 19 with Victoria's own parents being married on that day in 1976.

It has been interesting to follow the coverage of the Royal Family ever since the news of the engagement. The wedding has sparked debate about the relevance of royalty, who will pay for the wedding with a facebook group calling for it to come from the royal budget (not the taxpayers'), whether or not it is time for the King to abdicate and hand down the reins, whether or not she should be marrying a commoner and what public opinion's response is, the commercial value of a wedding and a royal family in terms of tourism, the effects of the wedding on public opinion and the 200th anniversary of the Bernadotte family in Sweden, discussion about his title and the equality issue - why does he become a prince but a queen becomes a queen, how the royals handle the press and the feedback on YouTube, what will his role be, as well as how he waves and how hard it will be for him to learn the ropes.

Read a comment in the media yesterday that this royal wedding does not have that much international interest and that few Europeans would probably even know we had a Crown Princess!! Classic example of Jante Lagen - and amazing that it exists even on this level. The statistics on my blog of visitors from around the world prove otherwise!

If nothing else hundreds, thousands of news articles have been produced on Victoria, Daniel and the royal family - both here in Sweden and abroad.

SvD, SvD2, DN,