So I spoke to one Swedish person yesterday, and one person that lives in Sweden. The Swede had lost a former colleague in Thailand, who was also a distant relative, and the American guy I know who works in the National Archives in Stockholm went to see a colleague to talk about an email she'd sent him before the holidays, only to find out she's dead.

There are 3,000 Swedes dead. It's incredible to think that the biggest disaster ever to befall the population of a country can happen on anyother continent. But there you are.

It seems everyone knows someone who has died. The Prime Minister, Göran Persson, apparently lost a schoolfriend, and even Princess Madeleine has lost people.

It's only right, I think, that attention should focus on the people that actually live in the countries that are affected. But there's an awful lot of suffering in Scandinavia at the moment, and there are an awful lot of people who died a watery death a very long way from home.