I need a few books that was internally published by another Swedish University, wrote to them and they Fedex the books to me. It was followed by an invoice a week later asking for payment via bank transfer. Note that the practice in Sweden was take first pay later. Not like in Asia where you jolly pay everything first before you can even touch the book.

I won’t be in Sweden to pay personally and bank transfer is kinda expensive to Sweden. I asked the administrator if I can pay via credit card. She checked and told me that they do not accept but I can send via cheque if I wanted. I calculated, if I really send via cheque, given the hefty banking fees, the university will be left with not much after the deduction and told them that I decided to pay via bank transfer so that I can ensure that they receive the full amount of money.

One day later, today, I received an email from the administrator waiving off all the fees for the books and telling me to enjoy reading them! They are really too kind! Honestly I have encountered such treatment from other Swedish universities who are unselfish when it comes to sharing of knowledge.

I called up the best chocolate store in Europe and ask them to send the university staff a huge hamper of chocolates . They are really sweet! BTW their collection of books are fascinating. Taking for instance, Lund University, it is by law having to keep every copy of every published book in Sweden for posterity. The university had been around since 1666. I must say that we Singaporeans do have a lot to learn from Sweden, at least be more gracious and less Kiasu.