Civil Service FAQ
This page will probably be revised after I've actually experienced the civil service. Oh, by the way, if there is a better word for it in English, I'd like to know.
What is it?
It is something you can get to do instead of military service if you happen to be picked to do anything of that kind at all. From what we've been told so far, it seems to include a lot of civics, as well as survival and first aid training as well as a bit of pshychology. In all, it seems a lot more meaningful than military service.
Addition on October 29, 1999.
Oh, there will be three weeks spent working in your home district in some kind of service occupation. Our overly-enthusiastic and abitious teacher virtually forbade us to wish for places in school or daycare of children, making us "wish" for places taking care of old or handicapped people. Then, we met the "preparedness-person" for Örebro who conviniently had prepared a list where we could change our wishes. He had the opinion that we might as well do something we'd enjoy, as we probably won't remember much of it anyway in ten years. Appearantly, the school doesn't know about this, I wonder if it's common? It does at least feel good that someone lets you make a decision you feel good with.
We now know the basics of how to prepare shelters and hand out and test gas masks, those are the things we'll be the experts at in a wartime situation. However, we've only spent a few hours on each of those subjects, a lot more has gone into different odd lessons on group behaviour and things like that. Lessons which no-one but the teacher takes seriously ... We should have had a lot of first-aid-training by now too, but that teacher has been ill the wrong week, so that still remains to be done.
Why is it?
Well, some time back, not sure exactly when, even the military managed to get into their heads that it was pointless to force all men to go through the military service (not to mention jailing those who refused. Sigh ...). Someone realized that some kind of training so that people could help society in other ways than by killing people during conflicts might be a good idea.
For me, it starts September 27, 1999 and ends December 17, 1999. I'll be at a school outside Södertälje run by Räddningsverket ("the department for rescue" or something), a civil organization. Education will mostly take place from 08:00 to 16:00, and we'll be able to go home during the weekends.
The place is called Almnäs and is a military garrison, but Räddningsverket is using it for training too. Not for very much longer though. We're the last group of civil service men being trained, and appearantly the current group of conscripts is the last one to come there too.
When and Where is it?
Addition on december 4, 1999.
So, What's Your Opinion About it?
As I haven't done it yet, I can't say anything about the contents. I'll repeat this though: is sure seems a lot better than military service.
Addition on October 10, 1999.
Two weeks into it, things look fully acceptable. We're a lot better off than those poor military sods. Pay is as good, we're here a shorter time, we get to go home every weekend, we can leave every evening if we want to and we get a light evening meal (for some reason, we're told they're very jelaous about that).
Addition on October 29, 1999.
Too much homework! When you've expected none, two or three we're expected to take seriously is a lot too much. That's all I have to say about that ...
Addition on December 1, 1999.
I've forgotten to mention that motivation is really low all through the group. Most people don't seem to give a damn about anything. This makes everything boring, and group exercises even worse. Also, no-one takes very much care about whether someone else would like to sleep or things like that. I won't be sad when it's over ...
Addition on March 23, 2001.
Civil Service postmortem.
Hey, what about your classmates?
Overall, they seem to be quite a nice lot. A selection follows:
Kristofer Gisslén
Former parallel class mate who takes a long time preparing for breakfast. Also an inspired writer, wait for his site for examples.
More about Kristofer.
Patrik Hetebrij
Works night shifts at Ericsson, and accidentally dropped his phone in hte toilet the first day in Almnmäs (strange enough, it came back from the dead and now it works just fine again). Met his girlfriend by feeling really low one evening (that's quite a novel strategy, isn't it?), and claims he hadn't got any exercise for the last fifteen years.
Karl-Oskar Gustafsson
Calm, cultural and with a great sense of humour. Simply a lot more civilized than the average classmate :-) ...
Henrik Falk
Roommate from Kvicksund and a talented imitator. He does some great, but mean, imitations of some of our teachers. However, he is also one of those people who complain a lot ...
Mikael Evertsson
Classmate during classes 7 to 9, now works as chef and seems to spend a lot of time on his bed. Also repeats Henrik's imitations until they're worn out. This is one of the people who I sooner or later get more or less annoyed at when I meet for any longer period of time.
Johan Bilock
Roommate and one of the few people who actually cares a bit about getting things done. The trouble is this often results in him doing too much of what others should have done, he's a little too nice for the enviroment to put it in another way. A really good guy who probably doesn't feel at home in the group, especially since some of the other guys in the room play stupid pranks with his bed a little too often.
