BOC#017 Box of Chocolates

Swedish Eugenics, The Monroe Doctrine, Potatoes, and Kibitzing

Apr 28, 2025

4 MINUTE MUNCH

WHILE SWEDEN WAS THE FIRST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD…

…to legally allow transgender people to reassign their sex during the early 1970s, it also ran a forty-two year eugenics programme which was terminated as recently as 1976. The eugenics programme which began in 1934 forced the sterilisation of women deemed mentally unfit for motherhood. In 1999 the Guardian reported that ‘teenagers as young as 15 were sterilised,’ and that ‘pressure was put on orphans and children in special schools and reformatories to have the operation as a condition of release.’ While the policy was ultimately withdrawn, the sterilisation of transgender people continued to be a condition of sex reassignment in Sweden until 2013. A compensation programme has since been launched.

IN 1832 U.S PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE DELIVERED A SPEECH TO CONGRESS…

…that went on to form the U.S foreign policy framework that came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. The policy was a means by which to preserve U.S interests in the Americas, and to prevent European powers from recolonizing the newly independent states of Central and South America. Much of South America had previously been colonized by Spain with the Spanish crown controlling regional trade to the benefit of the Spanish empire. Between 1810 and 1822, more than a dozen Latin colonies went on to declare independence from Spain, and by 1826, the continent was free from Spanish control. With the U.S seeking free trade in the Americas, it didn’t take long for the British Foreign Minister George Canning to throw his hat in the ring in support of the doctrine.

PASSAGE FROM THE STAND BY STEPHEN KING

“Shall I tell you what sociology teaches us about the human race? I’ll give it to you in a nutshell. Show me a man or woman alone and I’ll show you a saint. Give me two and they’ll fall in love. Give me three and they’ll invent the charming thing we call ‘society.’ Give me four and they’ll build a pyramid. Give me five and they’ll make one an outcast. Give me six and they’ll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they’ll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home.”

ON THIS DAY: 28th APRIL

…in 1923 the old Wembley stadium was opened for its inaugural event which was the FA cup final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham, and in 1967 at the height of the Vietnam war, Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the U.S army. He was subsequently stripped of his heavyweight title.

On the same day in 1945, as the second world war came to an end, Italian fascist Benito Mussolini was executed by resistance fighters in northern Italy.

DID YOU KNOW…

…that Hitler, who was influenced by Mussolini, issued the Nero directive which instructed German communication, transportation, and industrial infrastructure to be destroyed so that it couldn’t be used by the allies should they overrun the Germans. Hitler also supplied his aides with cyanide tablets following an oath to commit suicide should they fall captive.

THE POTATO WAS INTRODUCED INTO EUROPE…

…from the Americas by the conquistadors in the 16th Century. While the vegetable had been used as a backstop in the event of crop failure elsewhere on the continent, the Irish turned this ‘famine food’ into a dependable staple. When the fungal disease known as late blight made its way across the Atlantic by way of Belgium, potato crops were devastated. This is considered to be the primary cause of the 1845-49 Irish potato famine that cost the lives of an estimated one million people.

WORD OF THE WEEK: KIBBUTZ VS KIBITZ, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

A Kibbutz (pl. Kibbutzim) is an Israeli communal settlement, often agricultural in nature. Kibitzing is the act of watching a card game or other activity in an interfering manner e.g. ‘James stood by kibitzing’.