"More than 300 million years ago, this island emerged from a warm Silurian sea." "The bedrock features fossils of ancient coral, shellfish and other mysterious species." "Fårö was originally known as Faröy." "The name is thought to mean "the island to which one journeyed"" "or "the traveller's island"." "Several theories exist as to the origin of this name." "In olden times, there was a great deal of commerce conducted on the Baltic, and Fårö may have been a sanctuary for people less welcome elsewhere." "At present, the island of Fårö has 673 inhabitants." "Fifty years ago, nearly twice as many people lived here." "We have documented the lives of some of these people." "We will also touch on the conditions of yesteryear." "dedicated to the inhabitants of Fårö" "Richard Östman developed a severe headache when he read in the papers a few years back that a large cement company had applied for a concession to exploit sand off Salvo Rev and Sudersand." "This headache was distilled into a poem, a remarkable occurrence, given that Richard never read poetry and had never tried his hand at it before." "Since then, he has written more than 500 poems." ""I stole a rose, a wild rose of Fårö" ""A rose growing on the fair beaches of Fårö" ""I traced the date in the sand" ""The sand others intend to remove" ""I heard the words of my forefathers" ""Do not defile the sand God gave to Fårö" ""If you do the very nature of the island will go to waste" ""And we will be transported to another place"" "Anything you take from the sea, the sea will reclaim." "If they had taken sand from Salvo Rev, the sea would have taken sand from places like Ullahau." "The site that had been dug up would have to be replenished." "Do you plan to move to Visby?" "Yes, to work, because there are no jobs for nursery school teachers on Fårö." "It didn't work out like that." "I had a baby of my own, and I had to give up my plans to go to school." "Do you like Fårö?" "Sure." "Sure, in the summertime." "Not during the winter?" "No, it's boring here." "How do you like Fårö?" "lt's nice." "l'm going to move." "Why?" "There are no jobs here and there's nothing to do." "It was a different situation, living there as a child." "You felt like you were missing out on things." "Now I like going back because it's so nice and peaceful." "It's different." "I'm planning to move to the mainland fairly soon." "Are you planning to stay here on Fårö, or do you plan to leave?" "I'm not sure." "I work in an office and I maintain a register of all the customers we have here on Gotland." "Are you planning to stay on Fårö?" "No." "No?" "Why not?" "There's nothing to do around here, and there are no jobs or anything." "I wanted to leave." "When I was 15, I dreamed of going to Stockholm." "What are your plans?" "l don't know." "I went to business school in Fårösund for a year, then I worked at the Konsum co-op for six or seven years before starting with this." "I think I'll probably leave." "It's no fun." "There's nothing to do." "What's the nightlife like?" "Well, it's lousy." "There's nothing to do." "I just packed my bags and left." "I didn't have a job or anything." "I had no problem getting a job once I was here." "I couldn't leave this place." "Growing up on an island, you want to be near the sea." "It would be strange not to see it." "It's all right." "It hasn't harmed me in any way." "It can be good for you to learn to deal with crowds." "It's not an ideal setting for children to grow up in, though." "Living in high-rise buildings..." "Going to Fårö and looking out at the sea is liberating." "You feel free." "Well, I can enjoy the summer and the sunshine." "I wish I could join in, but I can't." "Then I met Anton." "How old were you?" "Eighteen, I guess." "Then we got married when we were 19." "I was born here." "This farm has been in the family a long time, since the 1 7th century." "Do you have any siblings?" "There were three of us." "My sister, Ellen, is the oldest." "She moved out when she got married." "I took over the farm, and Erik had his own career." "He started working over at Bungenäs and went on to be a ship's pilot." "How big is this farm?" "l have 21 acres of my own." "How much livestock do you own?" "Well, we have six cows and a few calves." "I lease land, too, about 40 acres down by the church." "I work the land in 13 different places." "Can you make a good living?" "Well, you've got to do something." "This or that... I've learnt about keeping cows." "Sure, I've had my share of bad luck, but you take things as they come." "Sometimes the cows get sick and have to be put down." "Transportation costs are so high." "Young people around here don't want to be farmers." "In the old days, you kept a cow and a horse and tended your farm in your spare time while you had another job." "But nowadays people want to have time off after work." "Tell me about the fire." "How did it start?" "Our neighbour, Einar Söderdahl, came over around lunchtime and said that there was smoke coming out of our roof." "We were just about to have some coffee and tea, like we always do." "All we could do was grab the kids and rush outside." "Anton took the fire extinguisher upstairs, but the whole place was in flames, so nothing could be done." "What about the fire department?" "They came later on." "The ferry didn't wait for the fire trucks." "They were left behind." "So the Fårö Fire Department got no help." "There was no assistance from Fårösund." "The police figured a spark had been generated somehow." "It was a tile roof with wooden shingles underneath." "Birds nested there." "They figured a flying spark had ignited a bird's nest." "But that seems odd to me, because the fire started indoors, up in the attic." "The children were upstairs until it was time for coffee." "They hadn't heard a thing." "Fifteen minutes later, the place was in flames." "Where did you go, you and the children?" "We stayed with Britt-Marie for a few months, then we moved out to our old summer cottage in Fifång." "We stayed there until December 21st." "There's no running water or electricity." "We could make do at first, but after a while... lt still affects you." "What did your father think?" "lt was even worse for him." "Really?" "We had to go to the doctor and get him some medication." "He went to pieces." "Which isn't surprising at all, because there were so many really old, irreplaceable items." "Didn't you get anything out?" "No, just a few kitchen chairs." "Six chairs." "It doesn't make sense." "You get all muddled." "You don't know what you're doing." "That's the truth." "You just don't." "I went upstairs and got half of the sewing machine." "I left the other half behind." "I might as well have taken the other half, too." "How did the children react?" "It was awful." "They were upset and all." "They gave us medicine for them as well." "Our 13-year-old, Ulla-Karin, took it the hardest." "She's quite..." "She cried at night and woke up shouting that the place was on fire." "You have nine children." "Do you worry a lot?" "No." "I don't have the time." "They've pitched in and helped me out with their brothers and sisters." "By the time the younger ones were three or four, the older ones helped change them." "They've learnt how to do it." "I think it's gone very well." "Your in-laws lived with you." "Yes, they did." "Did they help you out?" "Did your mother-in-law help you?" "No, she would say, "You chose to have them, so you take care of them."" "So I never asked her to help me." "How big is this farm?" "Thirty acres of cleared land." "There are 100 acres of woodland as well." "Then there are the heaths, about as many acres." "How much livestock?" "Right now I have four head of cattle, and I keep sheep and pigs." "Valter Broman owns and runs his family farm." "According to Fårö standards, it's a mid-sized farm." "He is 67 years old." "Since the death of his mother several years ago, he has chosen to live and work completely on his own." ""There is an earthly paradise" ""Where roses grow tall" ""And there, among the scarlet tulips my friends and I are content" ""I amble along its beautiful paths" ""Where flowers bow down" ""I go up to the mighty oak and sit at her feet" ""l whisper the name of my beloved" ""And the oak begins to speak" ""She tells me tales of days gone by" ""And the birds in the trees respond" ""l watch as night meets day" ""And I hear the songs of many birds" ""Blend into a chorus" ""And from the top of the oak I hear the cuckoo call out"" "Now that I'm older, I have a pension and more time on my hands." "At times, it's as if I feel inside my head that I just have to write, otherwise my mind won't let me rest." "And sometimes, at night, when I wake up and can't go back to sleep... lf l've been to a spot during the day that I find beautiful, those images pop into my head." "And the lines of the poem come to me at night." "But I find it difficult... I don't want to get up and write the lines down." "I don't want to disturb Agda." "If I don't write it down in the morning, say, if Agda needs my help, it's very hard on me." "I jot my outlines down on a piece of cardboard or a box." "I can go down behind the barn, next to the fence, or go inside the barn and close the doors behind me." "It's such a release to put it down in writing." "It's as if I barely know it by heart at that point." "But it feels good." "I always bring a piece of paper and a pencil with me." "Norsholmen has beautiful rauks, stone pillars, and I saw some sheep trails." "When I saw them, I immediately sat down and wrote a poem." "My father was born here, and his father, too." "We go way back to the Vikings, I guess." "Were you born here on this farm?" "Yes, indeed." "ln one of these rooms, perhaps?" "Yes, indeed." "Up there." "How many siblings do you have?" "None. I had a sister, but she died young." "My dream, when I was a little boy, was to be a veterinarian when I grew up." "But as it turned out, we couldn't afford it, and my father felt that since he had a son, that son should take over the plough." "I was planning to be a teacher." "I went to school in Visby, but I had trouble with my eyes." "What kind of trouble was that?" "Astigmatism." "Couldn't they do anything for you?" "l couldn't get glasses." "So I couldn't pass the teachers college vision test." "With the exception of the past 10 years, though, I've always read a lot." "It was terribly hard work to plough the rocky fields in Norsholmen." "I had to think about something else just to keep myself going." "Was your mother prepared to make such a financial sacrifice?" "She sold off half the farm when I started college." "She couldn't have run the farm back in those days." "All those stone walls and all..." "She couldn't have taken care of all that alone." "So we sold it." "After my father's death, people became aware that I had certain skills." "They would send for me when there was a calving." "Were you very disappointed that you weren't able to pass the test?" "Of course." "At first it was awful." "But then you accept it." "There are worse things that can happen." "If my eyes had been useless, that would have been one thing, but this was simply a case of not being able to meet their specific requirements." "At night people would come banging on the window." "I've been to Dämor, Lauter, Skär... I've been all over to help out with the calving." "I've also helped people with their sheep." "Our mathematics teacher was here one summer." "She was from Visby and had a limp." "Her name was Kristiansson." "She came to tutor the children at Stengården." "She came to see me." "This was after my mother had passed away." "I was stirring these huge pots." "We had just had a meal when she came." "I asked her in." "Thirty people had just had their dinner, but we found a place to sit." "And the first thing she said was," ""No, Agda. lt wasn't meant to be like this, not with that brain of yours."" "It seems like tourists come first and the locals come second." "Take the children and grandchildren of the locals, young people who've returned and who want to build here." "Some of them have had to wait as long as five years for a building permit." "Then you hear about summer visitors who get a permit in three weeks." "It's like they're trying to keep the local residents down." "Now for some statistics." "Between June 15 and August 15, 1978, the ferry transported some 1 12,000 cars and commercial vehicles." "In a period of the same length in December and January, only 16,000 vehicles." "Tourism is good, but we also get certain kinds of people..." "We've seen fishing boats destroyed in the fishing villages." "Someone tore down a shed and made a campfire." "Then it's gone too far." "They're welcome, as long as they leave things alone." "What's the hardest part?" "The hay." "It's heavy-going and takes a lot of time." "I spend many days outdoors." "If the weather's poor, the work gets heavier." "It's hard to get the hay dry." "It's a lot of work." "But you never ask anyone for help?" "No, I can handle it." "Well, Ingrid, more than 10 years have passed since we last filmed you." "What year was that?" "I don't remember." "That was back in 1969, in April." "We sat on one of those big hay rakes and talked." "That's right." "I ran the farm back then." "You're a farmer." "Yes." "How long have you been a farmer?" "Well, I've been a farmer since 1937." "That's when my father died." "And that's when you took over the farm?" "I had worked before then, since he got sick." "My sister died back in 1957." "She had cancer." "That was difficult." "Per was only three at the time." "And the others?" "Mona was 1 4 and Jan was 8." "Did they move in with you then?" "No, we've always lived together." "They didn't have to move, which was a good thing, considering." "Please tell me about what has happened since we last spoke." "Per has taken over the farm." "Right now, he leases the land." "He was only 16 at the time, right?" "Yes, he was only 16." "When did he take over?" "In 1972." "He does construction work, too, since you can't live off the farm." "You need modern machinery." "You can't get by with just a horse and a harrow." "I do carpentry work, too." "You can't really live off the farm." "This farm is too small for that." "You need to have a bigger farm to make ends meet." "It's hard to sell your product." "It seems like the big farms have an easier time placing their product." "It's as if they keep us down, keep smaller outfits down." "I don't really understand the Liberal Party's farming policies." "One aspect I dislike a great deal is that my nephew can't simply inherit the farm." "In my opinion, relatives should be entitled to the land." "When a farm has been in the family and then goes to someone else... I think the family ought to have first call." "You have to take care of the land." "You can't be a "weekend farmer"." "Young people should take precedence." "When I met Per, I didn't know that I would be so involved with the animals." "But I enjoy it. lt's interesting." "Most places will probably fold in the next 10 years, but the people who stay on will make a living." "If the tourists don't take over." "You've had some health problems." "Yes, I have." "That's true." "What's been the matter?" "l was diagnosed with diabetes back in '72." "l couldn't handle..." "You must have had it longer than that." "l must have. I just didn't realise it." "How did you find out?" "I was very thirsty and tired." "I could fall asleep on my feet." "That's how I found out." "That must have been a strain." "It was very difficult." "Not having any strength was terrible." "All I could manage was the cooking, and I don't like to cook." "I've always worked outdoors." "I enjoy outdoor life." "Last winter we had lots of snow, and that was lovely." "No cars." "That was the best part." "And I like the fact that there's a force that can get the better of mankind." "The weather is proof of that." "When I want to give Per a hand but don't have the strength, that's pretty upsetting." "I don't know what to expect from one day to the next." "Some days I'm so tired." "Per does the milking before he goes to work." "Sometimes he packs his own lunch, and sometimes I do it." "And I clean the tank." "We have a milk tank." "I tend the pigs, too, and clear out the pigsty if I'm feeling up to it." "It's not that I have to do it." "I enjoy pottering about in the barn." "Do you miss being able to work hard?" "Oh, yes." "I still think I'm up to it at times, but I can't always manage it." "I don't like that." "I wish I could get well." "I do my best, but I can't do much." "It's humiliating." "That's how I feel when I can't manage things." "Give it a good, hard shove, Berra!" "You have to put your back in it." "Do it from the other direction." "It looks good now, but it looked damned strange this morning." "That's not how it should look." "I had problems getting started." "You must have had temporary insanity." "It looks okay now, though." "Well, humble beginnings and all that, you know." "I reckon it'll stand up to rain now." "I don't have any teeth, but I'll manage." "Everything will be fine." "This is the last time for me, I reckon." "Last time?" "No, you have a headache, that's all." "But it never goes away." "Well, you're 83, right?" "Okay, let's brush down the excess here." "All the way to the edge." "There are some reed marshes here on Fårö that you can't harvest, but there are several that you can." "The edges of these folded reeds are slightly barbed." "They catch, you see." "When you thatch roofs with these reeds, the reeds go flat, either with the flap side out" "or with the spine side up." "There will be other reeds around it on either side, and water will run off in the channels." "When it rains on a roof that's been thatched with reeds, the moisture will never penetrate deeper than a few centimetres." "That's why reeds are a first-class roofing method for feed storage." "If you keep livestock in a barn with a tin roof, you'll get condensation." "The moisture can spoil hay, which never happens with a reed roof." "And it doesn't burn, it just smoulders and causes a lot of smoke." "People used to cut the reeds by hand in the marshes." "You couldn't use horses, and there were no tractors." "Nowadays we use lightweight tractors and harvesters." "We have nine loads down there." "We need 20." "I reckon that will be five loads, and we have the wetlands over there that we cut this morning." "How many loads did we get in the first bit?" "At least three." "Three for sure." "Then there's that stretch over there." "It should amount to six or seven loads." "Six or seven loads for sure." "Six and three makes nine, and nine and nine is 18." "That should be enough." "The reed does have a Latin name, but I don't remember it." "It's so complicated that it keeps slipping my mind." "Do I like Fårö?" "Yes, I suppose I do." "It would be nice to have a change, though." "But I'd like to live on Gotland." "There isn't really much to do." "I want to stay here." "I really like it here." "We'll see. lt depends on if I can get a job." "I'm going to look for work on the mainland or in Fårösund." "You can go fishing." "I like it here." "I don't know." "There are no jobs here." "I don't know. I like it here." "ls there anything in particular you like?" "You don't have lots of asphalt and stuff." "It's mostly grass and trees and things." "Yeah, it's a nice little island." "When I came here back in 197 4, this school had just been renovated." "They had added a lunchroom and a gym." "That was great, since they didn't have a gym on Fårö before then." "The kids were excited." "But there wasn't any equipment." "There were sets of wall bars and some beams, but that was it." "I called them up, but there wasn't enough money." "There was no money left in the budget." "So I contacted the person at the council, the person in charge of supplies for physical education, and asked if we could have some." "He said, "Write me a list of what you need and send it to me", which sounded simple enough." "So I made a list and waited." "They sent us some jump-ropes and a few balls, which was nice, but nothing else materialised." "So I called the fellow a few months later, and he told me to make a list." "I told him I had already done that." "He said, "Well, it must have gotten lost, so write me a new list."" "By now, I've sent five or six lists." "Every year, we've received one or two items on our list." "Now, five years later, we have a more or less fully-equipped gym." "You get the feeling, and the locals feel the same way, that if you call the council, all the lines are always busy." "It's hard to get ahold of the people in charge." "You don't know who you're dealing with, either." "Say that a certain official is from the south of Gotland and that person makes decisions about Fårö, or the other way around." "They made the district too large." "That was a mistake." "Standards aren't as high out in the country." "Your tax money doesn't provide as much as it does on the other side." "And, of course, that's disappointing." "You often feel passed over." "It's something that happens a great deal, in my opinion." "The rye that grew here on the chalky land was so fine." "The flour was different from the flour ground from rye that's grown on humus soil." "It gave bread a different colour." "My mother always preferred to use the rye grown here at Norsholmen for the special loaves she baked for Christmas." "And these stone walls around the fields..." "My ancestors told me..." "My father and my grandfather told me that you should never have a stone wall along the southern border of a field." "That's because when snowdrifts remain on the ground, the tender crops get mouldy." "The sun can't reach through the stone walls." "So you only had stone walls to the north, and you had wooden fences to the east, west and south." "Wooden fences were warmed up by the sun and the snow melted away better." "This stone wall has been here for at least a hundred years, maybe more." "I helped make some of the walls on the other side." "We gathered stones from the beach." "We built them in stages, depending on the water level." "When the tide was out, you could find more stones to build the walls with." "You see, the stones that were on land were flat and brittle." "They had been exposed to the elements." "They weren't as strong as the ones that had been underwater." "Start up the tractor." "is there any more?" "Where do you want the cut, Otto?" "I thought I had made the cut on the joint." "That's fine." "You need to butcher it right." "It takes some cutting." "The claws won't come off." "Here we go." "There goes the other one." "Come on." "I don't see very well." "I'm getting too old." "You used to be a master butcher." "That was a long time ago." "When I was 1 7 or 18, I slaughtered an ox." "I'd never done beef before." "I just did my best, and it went well." "Have you sharpened it?" "That's a sharp knife." "And now for the head." "l'll hold the head." "Good." "Try to lift it a bit higher." "Well, it looks like winter's on its way, even though it's unexpected." "The water level is so low, which means it'll be getting colder soon." "Here it comes." "That one's tricky." "I'm tall, so I'll get it." "The cats eat four times a day now that it's cold." "Let's save some for them." "We'll put this one in the freezer." "I wish it wasn't so darn cold." "My poor fingers." "Hello, this is Fårö." "Good afternoon to you." "There's hope for us yet." "No, there's no snow falling right now." "It's cleared up." "Here's your data. 329. 83605." "Cross, cross, cross, 52." "853, cross, cross." "553, cross. 4 1805." "And 00478." "We use this thingamajig instead of manning the lighthouse." "It serves Fårö, Gotska Sandön and Östergarn." "This contraption sends reports to Norrköping if anything goes wrong." "But a machine like this can never look out over the sea and spot a ship in distress." "I was so tired and poorly." "I had to go to the hospital and have my appendix removed." "Then came the diabetes." "My health has been bad for five years now." "They found out that I had angina, too." "They gave me medication, and now I'm doing fine." "The angina was very painful." "Aches and pains..." "Mornings are the toughest part." "You feel better once you get going." "On earth, where sun departs" "Shadows are spreading" "Then on our darkest night" "Comes with her shining light" "Saint Lucia" "Saint Lucia" "Then on our darkest night" "Comes with her shining light" "Saint Lucia" "Saint Lucia" "Thank you." "What a treat!" "Here's a small gift to remember us by." "Thank you very much." "There aren't many people around here today." "No, they're at school with the children." "Yes, I heard." "I see." "I haven't seen this little fellow before." "Hello." "Yes, you have, actually." "Really?" "He was at the confirmation." "Really?" "Yes." "In the name of God, our merciful Father, we commit the body of Adolf Mikael Johannes Ekström to the peace of the grave." "Ashes to ashes," "dust to dust." "Jesus Christ, our Saviour, shall raise you up on the last day." "We were in the barn, and the children were in school." "Victoria had made coffee and set out some cake for him." "When we were finished in the barn, we tended to the sheep." "We were busy with the newborn lambs, so I guess it must have been around... 8:30 a.m." "When we came in, Victoria said," ""Grandpa hasn't had his tea."" "So I said, "He might not be feeling well," and I went to his room." "He was lying there in bed." "I touched his hand and he was all stiff." "Stiff as a board." "He had to be outdoors or he didn't feel well, come rain or come shine." "Sometimes it was slippery out." "He couldn't walk very well after he hurt his head, so we often asked him to stay indoors." "We were afraid he would fall and hurt himself." "But he just had to be outdoors." ""We are all like leaves upon the ground" ""Storms would howl, but I never grew weary" ""l fought the wind that shook me" ""l understood the purpose of it all dear Lord" ""Our struggles lead us to your gates" ""Let me fall without a sound, far out of sight" ""Let me wake in a shimmering meadow" ""Let me make my way like a turning leaf" ""To the familiar strains of my country's own song" ""l sleep in peace in my Father's arms" ""And I will wake up in another place" ""No longer do storms ravage me" ""And my working days are done"" "Fårö had a fishing boom during World War II and for some years after that." "By the time I got started, there wasn't much left." "There were only two boats in operation." "This one has a gross weight of 44 tonnes." "She's a 56-footer. 17 metres." "The vessel should be less than 10 years old to qualify for a government loan, and there's a 50-foot minimum, too." "We knew she was a good ship." "The vessel itself cost 200,000." "Then you had to buy equipment, too." "You need more than just the boat." "The equipment costs just as much." "For two years, they're straight loans, then you pay them off in 10 years at a 5% interest rate." "That's the only benefit the government provides for salmon fishing." "But it's pretty decent of the government to do that." "Where are your fishing grounds?" "All over." "From the Gulf of Bothnia to the Bay of Danzig." "We can fish in Polish, Russian and Finnish waters." "The Polish authorities want you to report your catch every day, and the same goes for Russia, but we're allowed to fish everywhere." "We can run up to the Gulf of Bothnia and down to the Bay of Danzig to get to where the fish are at, or where we think the fish are at." "What's your top speed?" "Eight knots." "So you can be out for 24 hours..." "Sure, sometimes even longer than that." "Each boat is permitted to use 600 nets or 2,000 salmon hooks." "That's your daily quota." "We stick to that, but the old quota was 700-900 nets." "Doesn't that make you angry?" "Sure it does." "But the same rules apply for everyone, no matter what." "They say that the fish population in the Baltic Sea is being depleted." "That's right, and that might well be the case." "They let the West Coast trawlers fish these waters." "They were here all spring, fishing." "They depleted the herring in the Atlantic, and that's a bit bigger than the Baltic, so I figure that the process will go faster here." "They'll do it in no time." "If they can stop this drain on the herring and sprat populations..." "That's what the salmon feed on." "No food, no salmon." "If you get 600 fish in 10 days, that's fine." "That's a fair haul." "The salmon must measure 60 centimetres." "We have to throw the smaller ones back." "We can't sell them." "No one will take them." "Where do you sell your catch?" "Mainly to Gotlands Fisk, and we sell a little to the mainland." "Who sets the prices?" "I don't know, but they vary." "There can be a difference of three to four kronor per class." "There are different classes of salmon.;" "2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-7, 7-9." "What does that mean?" "That you get 20 for the lowest class and up to 40 for the highest, per kilo." "These prices can vary depending on the buyer." "We aren't allowed to fish between June 1st and August 25th, but the water's too warm for fishing anyway." "As of August 25th, we have to work every day we can." "We can be out for six days before we need to come ashore." "Later on, in October and November, we can stay out for 10 days and then come ashore." "We only stay in port if it's too windy." "You find yourself looking forward to the 25th so you can set out again." "Once you've got the bug, you can't quit." "My Fårödokument 1969 ended with a bleak prognosis.;" "All forms of public services were being decreased." "The fishing industry no longer existed." "Few jobs were available." "The future was projected as follows.;" "this sparsely populated island would, for six weeks each summer, turn into a grotesque tourist paradise for the mainlanders and Social Democrat bigwigs on holiday." "This nightmarish vision hasn't come true." "Though the residents of Fårö can hardly be said to be better off now, things haven't gotten any worse, either." "In one respect, there's been a radical change." "The young people no longer look down on Fårö." "They're prepared to stay on and try to make the best of less-than-stellar circumstances." "Moreover, Fårö has an asset other sparsely populated regions lack." "It's becoming more and more popular with tourists." "If the authorities could act in an open-minded fashion and help the people of Fårö build cottages on their own property that were fit for year-round rental, this would generate a modest increase in prosperity and create many jobs." "Hopefully, the next Fårödokument will be completed in 1989." "It will be interesting to see if we're still around."