Voelkerwanderung

A post on a more personal note this time..

Through the ages, people have moved from country to country, or land to land. And always, they have had some good reason for it. It might have been famine, it might have been wars, or it might have been political or religious persecution. In most cases it had to do with the hope of creating a better life for themselves somewhere else. One good Norwegian friend sometimes points out that I`m prone to stating the obvious, and I guess he would have done that with what I just wrote.

But in my case, it`s not really that obvious. For the last three months, I have been living in the Czech Republic, and I am not alone being an expat here. Prague has got loads of expats, having moved here for different reasons. Some moved here because they had a hard time getting a job at all back home, and some people because they simply could get a better job here. I had a good job back home. It was well paid, and comfortable enough. I had good colleagues, with whom I had a great time. And of course, I was safe, living in one of the safest areas in the world. Still I wasn`t happy with my life there.

One of my former colleagues was sometimes talking about Abraham Maslow`s hierarchy of needs. As long as your basic needs (food, sleep, safety etc.) are not met, you will be occupied meeting those. If you`re constantly hungry, most of your time and energy will be spent trying to get food. But when your basic needs are met, you will try to get your less basic needs met as well, like self-esteem, fulfilling your potential or filling your life with interesting experiences. Maybe when you live in a place like Norway, your basic needs will be met, and some people tend to get a little bored. Being safe and well fed, and having a "comfortable" life, can sometimes be boring.

Maybe that is the reason a lot of people decide to go and live abroad, where the standard of living is lower, and where you earn less money. Compared with my salary in Norway, what I earn here is a joke. And getting simple things done can be a hassle sometimes, especially since I haven`t put as much time as I planned into learning Czech, and communcating with people can be hard. But at least it feels more interesting and more stimulating than living back where I used to in Norway. I have a feeling that I experience different things, that I learn more about the world, at least in a different way than I would back home.

As an historian, I sometimes notice that as the world move forward in time, some things stay the same. People behave in the same way as they did 2000 years ago. Sometimes they do it for the same reasons, sometimes for differing reasons. People will always be people. As people during the ages migrated to create a better life for themselves, so did I. Not because my life was bad, but because it felt like I was in the wrong place at the wrong time in my life. A luxury problem, perhaps, feeling that my life was too comfortable (or boring), with all my basic needs met, but with some of the ones at the top of Maslow`s pyramid met unfulfilled.

Kebabs for votes

It seems Norwegian politics is not avoid of episodes you would normally expect to find in less politically developed countries. In the recent local elections, homeless people and drug addicts have been offered 50 Norwegian crowns (6.50 Euros) or one Kebab to vote for Yosouf Gilani and the Labour Party in Drammen.

It is not clear yet, whether this incident was an attempt by the Labour Party to buy votes or an attempt by other parties to hurt the Labour by causing a scandal.

Either way, this episode is something that damages Norwegian politics, and drags in down into the dirt. Neither the Labour nor its political opponents are gaining anything by such behavior. Not only it is simply tasteless to buy off homeless people and drug addicts for small change, it is also making Norwegian politics resemble something you would find in some banana republic where the respect for democracy is next to nothing.

Some of the people who were attempted bought off found this tasteless too, and simply took the money or the kebab and voted for some other party. It seems a free will can not be bought after all..

A Mullah deprived of his rights?!?

The Iraqi/Kurdish Mullah Krekar has just managed to top a long list of ridiculous statements. This time he is claiming that he has lost all his rights, that he has been labeled a threat to the Norwegian state, and that he has been deprived of social security and any possibility to work in Norway, where he has been staying the last 16 years. Mullah Krekar came to Norway as a refugee from Iraq in 1991. I`ll leave the last couple of statements alone and concentrate on the first one, that he`s been deprived of his "rights".

After having been the leader of Ansar al-Islam, having threatened Norway with revenge in form of terrorist acts in case he will be expelled, and having publicly declared his support for Osama bin Laden and his war against western civilization, it is amusing that Mullah Krekar got the nerve to claim any rights at all. And in response to his victimizing of himself in this respect; of course it is reasonable to label him as a threat to the state.

In any state, its members (which by I mean the people living in it, including refugees, e.g. Mullah Krekar) has got certain rights and certain obligations. One of the most basic obligations, of course, is not to harm or destroy the society in which you live. If you cannot even fulfill this obligation, how can you even think of claiming to have any rights in this society? Can you really expect the state to do anything for you then? Personally, I don`t think so.

So in Mullah Krekar`s case the Norwegian state has more than given him his rights. The main reason for not expelling Mullah Krekar is that Iraq will not give any promise that Krekar will not be tortured or killed if he returns to Iraq. Thus, the Norwegian state cannot expell him.

This threat of being tortured or killed if he returns, is something that Mullah Krekar seems to have an on-and-off fear of. It is not, it seems, his main concern when he goes on holiday to Iraq. When he is in Norway, though, it seems to be a very overhanging danger that he will be tortured and killed if he returns..

Zoon politicon and new revolutionary inventions

This blog of mine seems to have turned out to become a lot more politically oriented than I envisioned when I first created it. That is fine, though. Maybe I am more of a zoon politicon, or political human being, than I thought.

This time, though, I am going to write about something completely non-political. Today, I read about a "new" "invention" in one Norwegian newspaper, Dagsavisen. This new thing is a toilet whose users will not even have to wipe themselves. Instead you will be getting an automatic wash down there when you`re done. I really didn`t think that this was such a new invention, but maybe it is. And maybe it`s good for the trees as well - we don`t have to cut down as many to wipe our asses. Nevertheless, supposedly it is much better and much more sanitary than what we have now.

This article really reminded me of a banner I saw in Indonesia when I was studying there in 2000. This banner was a commercial for a brand new invention down there, and this invention was even, obviously, seen to be even more revolutionary than the recent one here. It was nothing less than the "toilet for the new millenium", and I even think there was a couple of exclamation marks after that. Still, I had to laugh a little at the time, because this toilet for the new millenium was just a regular WC. A white ceramic toilet which flushes when you push the button on top.

I guess things can always be put in some kind of perspective..

Some random thoughts on the upcoming election..

The local elections in Norway are four days away. On monday the Norwegians are going to the polls.

In one recent opinion poll, the Right party gained five percentages, while the Forwards-party lost five percent. Also the right wing of Norwegian politics got a total of 52 %. This is, to me, uplifting news, especially for a country I always saw as too far left. Also, in the recent elections in high schools, the Right party gained significantly in comparison with the latest elections in 2005, while the Forwards-party lost, also significantly. The elections in high schools are viewed as a fairly good pointer as to how the real elections will turn out. Let`s hope they will this time as well.

This is uplifting also because the "serious" right is gaining at the expense of the more populistic parts of it. I am very sceptical to the Forwards-party, and I do think they are in effect bad for the Norwegian right-of-center. Let`s hope this turn will make it less necessary for Erna Solberg, the Right Party chairman, to make any arrangements for a potential coalition with the Forwards Party.

I`ve noticed that the Norwegian Labour Party are focusing on something unusual in their campaign ads this election. In one of the ads, Rune Gerhardsen, the Labour candidate for city council chairman in Oslo, is pointing out to one of the young up-and coming politicians that it should be easier to succeed for young people in Oslo. That is probably true. In reference to one of my earlier blogs-postings, let`s hope it will be accepted as well.. Anyway, I applaud this focus on success.

In another of the ads, mr. Gerhardsen is asking the same girl if she could promise him that he will be taken care of when he is getting old. Her answer is that they will need to win the election before she can promise him that. This is interesting. In a recent report on the work conditions in the health care in Oslo, the conclusions are that there are way to few nurses, not enough time available for each patient, etc. Maybe the Labour has got some kind of plan to correct everything thats wrong with public health care, who knows..

Personally I think the state should give such a promise. That`s what living in a welfare state is all about. You should be taken care of when you`re not able to do it yourself. It is the state`s task to make sure of this. This is not to say that the state needs to actually perform care-taking tasks itself. Maybe a better solution will be delegating tasks the state is unable to perform properly itself to others, for instance by allowing private companies to offer services like this to a larger extent.

As an example, the Ørland county in Trøndelag is offering public care for old people for 75% of the base pensions + 85% of earnings on any kind, including interest on savings. 75% of the base pension comes to exactly 4.176 Norwegian crowns a month. Why not let private companies offer such services? It`s already something that is paid for, so why not let there be some competition about it, and maybe some companies are able to provide better services for less money? Probably private companies will make an effort to offer better services to attract customers, and they will potentially be able to cover more of the demand than the state is currently able to do..

I am pretty sure the right wing of Norwegian politics would be more willing to open up for this than the left side.