Left vs Right, i.e. Good versus Evil? + A Defense of Privatization

With the squabbling on the Norwegian political right about potential coalitions for the elections next year going on, I'd like to share some more or less coherent thoughts on left vs. right.

To start with, I do not consider the good old left-right axis of politics to be very helpful. Those who have read my previous posts, or who know me, would probably position me somewhat to the right. And if we were to use the left-right axis at all, I would agree to that. But it is a very one-dimensional way of looking at politics, and a way of simplifying it down to stupidity. Still, I will be using the left-right notion in this post, if for no other reason that it is so ingrained, and that the political parties are seen to belong somewhere on this axis.

It happens on both sides of the political spectrum, the presenting of itself as the only "good" option, while the other side is pretty much seen as "bad," sometimes almost "evil." The left presents itself as taking care of everybody, while the other side wants to create a society where every man and woman stands on his and her own. The right on the other hand presents itself as the only side able to keep the economy going, and it the left gets its say, the economy will fall to pieces immediately. We have had governments from both sides in Norway, and the society and our country is still alive and kicking, and mostly everybody got a decent life. Contradicting a lot of the rhetoric from both sides, neither have inflicted any serious damage on our society yet.

I do not think a leftist government would be total ruin for our economy, even if we have a Minister of Finance from the Socialist Left party (SV). And I seriously doubt it very much that people who vote right would want to live in a society where people are left on their own if they cannot afford to pay for hospitals, schools, or care in their old age. I certainly do not. Keep that in mind as you read on. Otherwise, some of the following might come across as slightly tasteless. That is not my intention.

The idea of the welfare state is still going very strong in Norway. Very few would want to abolish State owned schools, hospitals, or unemployment security and social security systems. Having said that, I do not understand the allergy on the left towards anything and everything that smacks of privatization. The thinking seems to be that if we allow private schools, hospitals or caring facilities for old people, our welfare state would go straight down the drain. I strongly disagree with that.

Competition has proven itself to be a very effective way of increasing quality. If businesses have no competition, they see absolutely no reason to strive hard to provide the best products or services. But as soon as there are others competing for the same customers, each will have to try very hard to come up with better products and better services. That will push prices down, and customers get better products and services. The same goes for hospitals and schools.

Again, I do not want to see state owned schools or hospitals abolished. Every sick person should get care, no matter how much or little they earn. And every child should have education, no matter what the income of their parents. And everybody should be cared for in their old age.

But I do think that allowing private schools, hospitals, and caring facilities would benefit our society, and help increase the quality also in the state owned ones. And it will also provide us with more choices and options. If my old grandmother is not happy with one caring facility, she should have to option to choose another one. Why should she not be allowed to do that?

When the time comes to send my children to school, I want them to have the best possible education there is. If I or my family gets ill, I want us to have the best possible treatment we can get. And when I am old and fragile, I want to have the best old-age care that I can get. Even if I have to pay for it. Quite frankly, no matter how politically incorrect it may sound to Norwegian ears, I do not care if there are other children that do not have the same opportunities than mine have, and I do not care if there are other old people who can not afford the same care that I can. And probably there will be children with parents who can afford to send them to better schools than I can, and there probably will be people who can afford better care in their old age than I can. So be it.

I do believe in the old Norwegian saying that "Hver er sin egen lykkes smed" (a little less poetically translated to "each of us are creating our own happiness"). If the government of the country that I live in will try to stop me from creating my own or my family's happiness, or if, in the name of equality, it tries to prohibit better schools or hospitals for some on the grounds that there are others that cannot afford it, I would think really hard about whether I want to live there or somewhere else.

Comments, aynone?

Some noteworthy Norwegian blogs, pt.2

In my post on March 20, "Some noteworthy Norwegian blogs," I mentioned just a few good Norwegian blogs. Of course there are many more.

Lately, I have come across several good photo blogs. The Norwegian photographer Roy Mangersnes got a great blog, Wildphoto, with loads of great nature pictures on it. Not all of them, but most, are from Norway. Visual Norway also got some nice photos, pretty much of anything from the photographer's broken fence to drifting ducks in the pond. Some of the pictures are taken in the city of Bergen, like some really nices ones of the Wharf (Bryggen).

There are several blogs with daily photos from cities in Norway. Here are some of them; Oslo Daily Photo, Trondheim Daily Photo, and Stavanger Daily Photo.

Last time, I mentioned some blogs about Norwegian expats living abroad. There are of course blogs from "foreign" expats living in Norway. One of these is Irish Nomad in Norway, by freelance writer Johanna C. Leahy. Johanna blogs quite enjoyably about expat life in the capital of Norway with her four kids. Another one by an American expat in Oslo is called An American in Norway.

As a last blog, even though it is not about Norway, I would like to mention Beer, Maine & Me, which got a post about "beer in unique places (Honningsvåg, Norway)". Since I went to high school in Honningsvåg, I thought this was kind of amusing. The World's northernmost beer brewery, opened in 2000, is actually situated there.

More on language - sub-standard Norwegian non-fiction..

I read an article in Dagsavisen the other day that digs right into the subject of my post about erosion of the Norwegian language a few days ago.

The Norwegian Society of Non-fiction Writers would like the State Library to increase the number of non-fiction titles bought to their book collections each year. The libraries disagree, for the simple reason that the quality of those works is too low. There are simply not enough Norwegian non-fiction works of decent quality written every year.

I do remember from my own university studies that it was a problem to find books about my subject written in Norwegian. Thus, I had to resort to English books. I am not sure I had one single book written in Norwegian on my list of sources used for my thesis. This is the reality for a lot of students and people in academia. There are simply no books, or at least too few books, written on specific subjects.

This, of course, contributes to creating, what the Minister of Culture, Trond Giske, calls a "gap" in our Norwegian language. For many parts of academia, we rely heavily, in some cases almost exclusively, on English literature. Naturally, the vocabulary for those subjects is very influenced by English, and in some cases the English terms are being used. Again, from my own studies, I sometimes had slight problems finding the correct Norwegian translation of specific terms, and was tempted to use the English term.

The State Libraries do have some solutions to this problem, though, that might interest mr Giske. One of these ideas is more grants and scholarships, to enable non-fiction writers to actually get the time necessary to write good non-fiction. Also, they suggest better training and more courses for aspiring non-fiction writers, as well as more focus on advisory to the writers in the writing process from the publishing houses.

Scandinavian Babel - some more thoughts on language

My last post was about language, and I'll stay on that topic on this one as well.

Generally speaking, Scandinavians - that is Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes at least - have little trouble understanding each other. Applying a little goodwill, we can communicate with each other, speaking our own language with people from the other Scandinavian countries. Still, it is a little harder than when communcating with fellow countrymen. And it seems that not everybody are able to understand the other Scandinavian languages equally well. For me, I always thought that it seems as if we Norwegians understand the other ones better than they understand us.

I have thought that instead of there really being a difference, it might simply be us Norwegians perceiving ourselves as better than them - as we often do. But there is actually a scientific study from 2004 confirming that Norweigans tend to understand the other Scandinavian languages better than what our neighbours do.

According to the study, there are several reasons for this.

For one, the Norwegian language is based upon the Danish language, and thus has a lot of the same words as Danish, but the pronounciation is closer to Swedish. Thus we have an advantage understanding both of these languages.

A second reason can be found in the strong standing of local dialects in Norway. We have a tradition for speaking our local dialects no matter who we speak with, and as Norwegian dialects can differ dignificantly from each other, we are used to understanding people who speak differently than ourselves.

A third reason for us Norwegians understanding especially Swedish quite well, is that we have easier access to Swedish television than vice versa. Even from young age we watch Swedish films and televison like Pippi Longstocking and Emil i Lönnberga with the original Swedish soundtrack/voices.

As for Danish, that can be a challenge to understand, even among the Danes themselves. Check out this sketch on YouTube from the Norwegian comedy show, Ut i Vår Hage: The Danish Language.

Norwegian Language Under Threat..

The Norwegian government has drawn up a strategic policy to try to preserve the Norwegian language. Applaudable.

Anyone who has ever visited Norway would have noticed the strong standing of the English language. If you turn on your television, there's a large chance that the language being spoken will be English, even in Norwegian channels, not to mention the large amount of English-language channels available on cable or satelite. If you walk into any bookstore or kiosk, you will find heaps of books and magazines in English. And of course, the prevalent language in many areas of academia is English.

Norwegians, alongside the Dutch, got a reputation for being well versed in foreign languages. Almost everyone speaks English at a fairly decent level, and a great deal speak a third and maybe a fourth language. A lot of the reasons for that can be attributed to the strong standing of English and other languages, and the tradition for not dubbing films and tv. The only movies and tv being dubbed into Norwegian are childrens' tv and films. Otherwise it will be subtitled, with the original language being spoken.

Especially within academia and business, the pressures on the Norwegian language is great, and if the ongoing trends continue, the Norwegian vocabulary in these areas will erode. The government, and the Minister of Culture, Trond Giske, has recognized the need to do something about this. While there is nothing wrong with being open to other languages, the Minister of Culture is certainly right that there is a danger of the Norwegian language eroding, at least in certain areas. And preserving a Norwegian vocabulary is important, even in very internationally oriented areas of society, such as business and academia.

Erosion of a language is something that happens over time. From day to day it is not noticable. But you would not have to go back very long to notice some significant differences in the way we speak. English has slowly crept into our everyday language, and English phrases and words have become so commonplace that we do not even think of them as English anymore. Words like chips, coaching, teamwork, carpark, dating, computer, and so on are used so often that they have become "Norwegian".

As language is culture, it is part of our culture that is eroding. That should be taken seriously. If you go even further, and accept the romantic notion that language is the soul and identity of a nation, it is our Norwegian soul and identity that is eroding.

I do think it is a good thing that we are open to other languages, and I do not want Norwegian television to start dubbing movies and other tv-shows into Norwegian. And I would not like to see the strong standing of English or other languages in Norway diminished. Still, a greater awareness and appreciation of our Norwegian language would be a good thing.

Anyone to notice the irony of me writing this post? A Norwegian blogger asking for more appreciation of the Norwegian language - in English...

Hot dogs and loose teeth..

I read an hilarious story in the newspaper today.

After a wet night out on the town in Tromsø in northern Norway, a guy was lining up to get himself a hot dog in a deli. Either he was really hungry, or just plain rude. In any case he tried to sneak in the line, much to the dismay of the lady in front of him, who turned around and punched him in the teeth. Passing a police patrol a little later, the offended reported the angry lady, who was then brought to the police station where she spent the night. She was later given a fine of 8000 Norwegian Crowns, or about £800.

I certainly do not miss angry ladies ready to punch me in the mouth, but I do miss those Norwegian hot dogs. You don't get them here in the Czech Republic, and I do not think I'll find them in the UK, where I'll be moving soon.

Souls of peoples, continued..

The other day, I noticed a posting on another blog called Whithey's Big Adventure. It's really about foreigners having lived in Norway for too long, but it really sums up us Norwegians:

You know that you've been in Norway for too long when...

* You start believing that if it weren't for Norway's efforts the world would probably soon go under.

* You buy only your own drink at the bar, even when you are with a group of people.

* You're not surprised if the person in front doesn't hold the door open for you.

* When a stranger on the street smiles at you, you assume that: a) he is a drunk, b) he is insane, or c) he is American

* You think there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.

* You usually eat lunch at 11 am and dinner at 3 pm.

* You can prepare fish in five different ways without cooking it.

* You spend all your spare time in the great outdoors whatever the weather.

* You dress up for social occasions, dress down for work.

Some bits of history - the Kautokeino Uprising of 1852

This post is related to my entry of March 19, "Separatism in Norway, pt. 2." It is not related to separatism, but nevertheless to conflict between Samis and non-Samis in Finnmark, Norway's northernmost administrative region. The Norwegian director Nils Gaup has recently made a feature film about this dramatic event, the Kautokeino uprising of November 8, 1852. I haven't had the opportunity to see this movie yet, by I can't wait to..

Briefly told, a posse of 35 adult Sami men and women and 22 children under the age of 13 ganged up and killed the sheriff and the merchant and badly beat up the subparish priest in the town of Kautokeino. The leaders and several members of the posse were imprisoned, and the leaders were sentenced to death and executed in 1854.

Both the actual events and the reasons for the revolt has been subject of much controversy, and there are several differing opinions on these subjects. It is the only known incident of conflict between Samis and non-Samis in Norway that has led to loss of life.

The group responsible for the uprising was part of a religious sect adhering to teachings of the Swedish preacher Lars Levi Læstadius. The sect held that theirs, not the official Church's, was the true faith. Læstadianism appealed to the Sami population for several reasons. For one, unlike the State Church, it was not seen to be representing an oppressing colonist government. Secondly, it got rid of some serious social problems such as drunkenness and reindeer theft in the areas where it had large followings.

Læstadianism was not agressive in nature, but there had been situations of commotion with its followers in the Kautokeino area before the uprising of 1852. The preceeding years, sect members had been acting threatening towards non-converts. On one occassion a confirmation-service in the town of Skjærvøy had been cancelled because of trouble with Læstadians. As a result, several of the responsible were sentences to forced labour sentences. This included some of those involved in the later 1852 uprising.

In November 1852, a group of Sami Læstadians had gathered in a reindeer herding camp just outside of the town of Kautokeino. On Sunday, November 7, the group broke up, and left for Kautokeino, which the angry crowd reached the following morning. The main object for their anger was a local merchant of Swedish Nationality, mr Carl Johan Ruth, who had made a fortune on others' misery by selling booze. The anger was also directed at the local Sheriff, Lars Johan Bucht, and the subparish priest, Fredik Hvoslef, both seen as representatives the colonist State power.

When the group, led by mr Ole Somby, reached Kautokeino, they were met by mr Ruth and mr Bucht. Fighting broke out immediately, and one of the Sami leaders, Aslak Hætta, clashed together with the Sheriff. The Sheriff was brought to the ground, and in the fighting mr Hætta bit off his nose. Hætta got hold of the Sheriff's knife, and stabbed him. In the meantime, the merchant, mr Ruth, was clubbed down. The women in the crowd jumped on him, and hit him several times in the head with sticks, leaving him lifeless on the ground. The merchant woke up a little later and tried to escape, but was stabbed down by Aslak Hætta.

The Sheriff was brought into mr Ruth's house. Even though he was dying from his wounds, Ole Somby's brother and also one of the leaders, Mons Somby, found it best that he was to be stabbed to death. As Aslak Hætta remarked, "the Anti-Christ was somewhat recilient." After the posse had stabbed Bucht to death, they set the house on fire and rounded up the priest, Hvoslef, and his family outside. The priest was whipped badly. Only his wife, eight months pregnant, was spared.

The uprising was finally brought down with the help of other Samis from the neighboring town. Five members of the group were later sentenced to death, of which only two, Mons Somby and Aslak Hætta, were actually executed.

The explanations for the uprising are numerous, amongst them were hate, desire for revenge, and religious fanaticism. One of the most credible explations is from the Dutch sociologist, Nellejet Zorgdrager. In her book "The Struggle of the Just - Sami resistance against Norwegian colonialism," based on her Ph.D thesis, Zorgdrager contends that the Kautokeino uprising has its roots in the court sentences after the commotion in Skjervøy the year before.

The 22 Samis involved in this had been given - at least in their own opinion - harder sentences than necessary, and on top of the forced labour were also deemed to pay the cost of the lawsuit. The only way to collect that kind of money would have been to sell off all but the entire herd of reindeer, which would have left them with no livelihood. To make things even worse, the borders with Sweden had been closed in September 1852, shutting off the winter grazing areas.

Thus, the only two alternatives were either to wait to get their reindeer herds confiscated by the Sheriff, mr Bucht, or to preemptively attack the colonialist power, represented by mr Ruth, the Sheriff, and Hvoslef. They chose the last alternative.

This post was based on the following sources:
Johan Brox: Kautokeino-opprøret: Kautokeino 1852
Wikipedia: Kautokeinoopprøret
Altaposten: Det blodige opprøret

Design Awards 2008 to Dagsavisen.no

It delights me to see that the Norwegian design awards were given to Dagsavisen, my favorite Norwegian internet news site.

Dagsavisen got the award for "pure, delicate internet sites in contrast to the competitors' more gaudy websites." The committee further went on to say that "serious approach, good editorial leadership, and focus [...] heightens the level of the open exchange of opinion. In addition to that, it is relieving that the number of ads on the front page is reduced. This is an internet newspaper establishing itself in a league of its own on the Norwegian market." I agree. It really is in a league of it's own, not only when it comes to design, but more importantly with regards to serious journalism.

Leaping over to another topic - when I looked at the picture on the article on Dagsavisen, I noticed something that has been pointed out to me several times since I moved abroad - we dress like shit.. Even when we go to receive an award like this, we dress up in t-shirts, sneakers and jeans. Never mind we go up on stage, in front of hundreds of people and cameras broadcasting us to potentially millions, we still dress like..this. There is a certain charm to that, I think - unassuming and unpretentious. Still, it is kind of peculiar. .

Some noteworthy Norwegian blogs

Norway is a small stretch of land, but there are a lot of blogs out there concerning themselves with our little country. And a lot of them are in English. Here is an overview of but a few that I think are worthy of a visit or two.

Photos from northern Norway features breathtakingly beautiful pictures from the northern region of Norway. The nature is in itself beautiful up there, and this photographer, Thomas Laupstad, really knows how to capture that beauty. Some of the pictures are also quite unusual and fascinating, like a closeup of a housefly or little sprouts coming up through the snow. Visit this site, and the next thing you'll do is to buy yourself a plane ticket to Norway.

RennyBA's Terella is another very noteworthy site. This was actually one of the finalists for best European blog on Weblogg Awards 2007. RennyBA blogs about anything Norwegian - culture, food, traditions, and history in a very personal manner. His site also contains a lot of great pictures.

Two blogs that I find appealing are South Africa and Becoming Imigrant. Both blogs are written by Norwegians living with their wives and family abroad - in South Africa and Brazil respectively. In South Africa, Jonny Stensby is blogging about anything and nothing, at times being very witty. Often he is on the philosophical side, reflecting upon life, existence, and basically anything else, from emigrant hairdressers to the possibility of calculating the existence of God. Becoming Imigrant is not as obviously funny, but it definitely got it's (mostly understated) humor. The blog is all about the author's life as an imigrant to a foreign country with his brazilian wife, "living in the energy where two cultures collide."

Separatism in Norway, pt. 2

I want to take up again the subject from my posting on March 8, "Separatism in Norway".

After the Kosovars declared their independence from Serbia on February 17 this year, Norway was one of the first countries to recognize Kosovo as an independent state. We might have been right to do that, or we might not. I will not take a stand on that now. Still, we should be aware that there are trends of separatism also in Norway. I do not think there is any imminent danger of parts of Norway trying to break free, but the trends can nevertheless be felt and seen.

I will not discuss the separatist attitudes in the western parts of Norway that Professor Frank Aarebrot warns against. What I would like to focus on, is the Northern parts, from where I come.

Without going excessively into detail, I will sketch out some of the historical background of the indigenous Sami people in Finnmark, the northernmost administrative region of Norway. For more detail, check out the article on Wikipedia about the Samis.

The Samis are believed to have populated the northern areas around 2500 years. The first written record about the Samis, or Fennis as he called them, is from the Roman historian Tacitus from 98 BC. The lifestyle of the Samis was largely nomadic, and closely bound up to the reindeer herding or hunting.

Except taxing them, the Norwegian-Danish government basically left the Sami people to their own up until the 18. century. At that time, it initiated policies of christianisation and assimiliation of the Samis. These policies culminated from 1900 to the 1940s, when the government basically tried to wipe out the Sami culture. Some of techniques used to achieve this was lobotomy, sterilization, removal of Sami children from their parents, etc. Of course, speaking Sami language in schools, etc., was forbidden.

After the Second World War, things have gradually improved for the Sami people. Today they are recognized as a minority, and have a large degree of influence in Finnmark and the other northern regions. In 1989, Sámediggi (pictured), an elected Sami parliament, was founded, with the overarching goal of furthering Sami language, culture, and society.

Since the late 1970s there has been a great deal of debate around the rights of the Sami people in the northern regions. Central in this debate has been the Sami right to use of land and water. As of 2005, according to the Finnmark Act, all of Finnmark is governed by the Finnmark Estate on behalf of the population of the region. As stated on the Act's official website, "The objective [of the Act] is to ensure that the land and natural resources in Finnmark are managed in the best interests of the inhabitants of the county and as the basis for the Sami culture and the Sami economy."

What non-Samis in the region perceive as an ongoing grab at power is creating a great deal of antagonism towards the Sami population. The Finnmark Act is seen by many non-Samis as unfairly favoring Samis. The Samis are only part of the population in Finnmark, and other people can claim equally strong historical usage of land and water resources.

There is a joke in Norwegian, which goes like this; What is the first word a Sami child learns? "Restitution". What is the second word it learns? "Our Sami rights". Part of the non-Sami antagonism towards Samis is based on this perception of Samis' endless clamour for their Sami rights, and their claiming resitution for all sorts of more or less legitimate reasons. And for this purpose, they are using the history of Norwegian policies towards Samis for all it is worth.

Apart from the political side, there is also a strong Sami nation-building effort that has been going on for quite some time. The Samis have come a long way from the immediate post-World-War-2 era, when most Samis tried to hide their ethnicity. Today, there is a prevalent pride of being Sami. Many Samis wear their national dress, the Sami language is spoken on an everyday basis (it is also one of Norway's two official languages), and there has been an upswing in promotion of the Sami culture. Sami parents put their children to expressedly Sami kindergardens, to foster a clear sense of belonging to Sami culture from an early age.

While there is nothing wrong with expressing your cultural heritage, whether that is Norwegian, Sami or Pakistani, it cannot be denied that this nation-building effort is accentuating differences between "Norwegian" and Sami, and furthering the belief that being Sami is fundamentally different than being of "Norwegian" cultural heritage. Another symptom of this feeling of otherness, can be seen with the desire to flag with the Sami flag on the national holiday, May 17.

I must point out that most people of Sami origin are good and sensible Norwegians. Still, there is a part of the Sami population expressing separatist attitudes. Among them is the highly controversial Sámediggi representative Janos Trosten (pictured). According to Trosten, the Norwegian government is to be considered colonialists, and that the Samis should be the undisputed rulers of Finnmark and the northern regions. Among Trostens other claims is that the Samis have the sole ownership of the Snow White natural gas fields off the coast of Norway.

While I hope that it will not happen at all, and I am sure that it will not for a long time, I fear that if the trends are strengthened, we could have a potential separatist movement going on at some point in the future. Trosten's following is very small, but if the Samis' perception of themselves as being not Norwegian are strengthened, it could become larger. And especially if the government is caving in to claims such as Samis having some kind of sole ownership to the huge riches off the coast, this could get to be the economic backbone enabling them to create a separate Sami state.

Political positioning for the 2009 elections..

In an interview with the national broadcaster NRK, Erna Solberg, the chairman for Høyre (Right), declared that she will be the candidate for the prime minister post in any rightist coalition for the next election.

The last time that Høyre was in government was from 2001 to 2005, in partnership with KrF (the Christian People's Party) and Venstre (Left). Even though Høyre won the most votes of the three, they did not get the Prime Minister post. The current government is a center-left coalition consisting of AP (the Labour Party), SV (the Socialist Left Party), and SP (The Center Party).

On the right side of the Norwegian political spectrum, there is an ongoing controversy about wether or not the different parties are willing to enter a coalition partnership with FrP (the Progress Party), a populistic party on the right side led by party foreman Siv Jensen.

Erna Solberg of Høyre (pictured) has recently been expressing that the rightist parties should - and need to - cooperate with FrP to be able to present a viable alternative to the current center-left government. Lars Sponheim of Venstre, on the other hand, is adamantly opposed to any institutionalised cooperation with FrP, and KrF is also lukewarm to the idea.

FrP has never been in government, but sees its opening now, in partnership with the other parties on the right. Considering that FrP is getting rates of around 25% on some opinion polls (26.5% in March), it might be difficult to see how the other rightist parties could get enough votes to form a government without FrP. Solberg might be very right in saying that the other parties need to cooperate with FrP if they want to form a government. Their choice, then, might be whether they want to govern with FrP or not govern at all - at least not yet.

As I have expressed before, I am not comfortable with the idea of FrP in government. Of course, one might think that the populism might give way to more responsible policies when the party actually needs to stand behind all it´s proposals. Still, as much as I would like to see a rightist coalition in government, I am really in doubt if I would rather not see one at all than to see one in which FrP is a major partner - which it inevitably would be if in government.

If Høyre and FrP would form a government, they would - according to the beforementioned opinion poll, get 43.9% of the votes. If all the parties on the right except FrP would form a government, they would get 30.0%. That would probably not be enough to form a stable government - my bet is that FrP would do anything in their power to destabilise a rightist government they had been excluded from. It is really sad to see that we have a party like FrP that is in fact destroying any prospect for a responsible and stable rightist government in Norway.

The current government is not a disaster for Norway. But I think that a right-of-center government (without FrP) would be better for Norway. It would be more business-friendly, more sympathetic to privatisation, and more able to increase Norway´s competitiveness internationally.

To be continued...

Some reflections on navels and the souls of peoples..

When I started this blog, it was as an attempt to keep in touch with what happens back home. Yesterday, I noticed some sites written by people living abroad, away from their home countries. Two of these were www.iliveherenow.com and Travels in Time.

I really enjoy to read about how other expats are living. Reading through these sites, I noticed that, they all concern themselves with the places where these people are living. As you would expect. This made me think, about my own blog, and a little about us Norwegians.

When you live abroad, away from home, in a country where thing as not the same as home, it gives you a great opportunity to reflect upon yourself as an individual and a member of your nation, in my case as a Norwegian. You see things that are different from home, and you suddenly notice things about your home country that you haven't before. And you see yourself reacting to different circumstances in a way that you maybe wouldn't if you had been at home.

I think that one trait of ours (i.e. of us Norwegians') is that we can be rather self-centered. Take my own blog - I don't blog about the country I am in. I blog about Norway and Norwegians. Instead of taking the opportunity to reflect upon the Czech Republic, where I live right now, I just keep gazing at my own Norwegian navel. And that's they way it is with a lot of us.

I remembered I watched the news on tv some time ago. The reportage was about peacekeeping, or peace diplomacy. Some reporter - a Norwegian one - interviewed Bob Geldof about it, and asked what he thought about the Norwegian peace-keeping and peace-making efforts. His reply was: "So you're fishing after compliments again?" I think that response captured the way we act in a lot of situations pretty well. We basically love to hear how good we are, and how good Norway is.

We truly are a navel-gazing nation.

Back to where it all started - New year's resolutions revisited..

Consistency? Never mind that..

In January, I decided to expand the scope of my blog, as compared to what was the original idea. On further reflection, I do not think that was a good idea.

According to some business theorists, it is essential for any company to have a clear core product. When you start your business, you need to define exactly what your business does or should do. Only with a clear understanding of your business' purpose, and of what it does, it is possible to be really successful.

Take McDonald's. Their core product is hamburger meals served very quickly. That is what people expect when they go to McDonald's. And that is what McDonald's should do well. It is all nice and good with healthier food, sundaes and salads, coffee and cupcakes, etc., but the main reason most people come to McDonald's is the quick burgers. If McDonald's should cease to serve the quick burger meals, it would stop delivering it's core product, and people would stop coming there. (Actually, as a digression, this has happened. I went to McDonald's the other day to get a hamburger meal. But since it was early in the morning, they only served toasts - it was "breakfast time". I was disappointed. They did not serve their core product. I will not go to McDonald's in the morning again.)

According to the same principle, I think I need to have my "core product" a little more clearly defined with this blog. And that "core product" is once again random thoughts on topics related to Norway or Norwegians. It is a wide subject, but nevertheless a subject, and a quite clearly defined one.

So, from now on; Random Thoughts On Norway. For my random ravings on other topics, I have created a new blog, titled "Nomadic mind".

Russia, post or pre Putin..

One of the opinion pieces in the previous issue of The Economist, "Russia's Uneasy Handover", reflected upon the Putin legacy in Russia and the coming Medvedev-Putin regime.

As the article pointed out, "Mr Putin was lucky to inherit a recovering economy and an incipient oil- and commodity-price boom from Mr Yeltsin." In other words, Putin's perceived success lies not so much in his policies per se, but more in lucky circumstances.

If that is true, which it most certainly is, it is now the perfect time for Putin to stand back, and wait for better times before he again takes center stage in Russian politics. With a recession imminent, the Russian economy, which is very dependent on exports of commodities like oil and gas, will most certainly decline in the coming years.

Even though Putin most probably will be the de facto ruler of Russia, he is still in name only prime minister. Thus, it will be very easy for him, when better times come, to blame the Russian economic decline on the policies of Medvedev. Only a returned President Putin with unrestrained powers can get Russia back on track.

A grim prospect...

Bloggers, a.k.a. Parasites?

I read an interesting story on the Online Journalism Review today. The article is titled "Are blogs a 'parasitic' medium?", and is a response to the question if bloggers simply are leeching on honest, hard working field journalists. The author does not think so, and I agree.

In the article, associate professor at Medill School of Journalism, Rich Gordon, said that the accusation of being parasitic only refers to one type of blog, namely blogs that "comment on matters of public interest that are typically covered by mainstream media." According to that, I guess this blog would be directly hit be those accusations. I openly admit that a lot of my postings are comments on things that I have read elsewhere. And without those, I don't think I would have written a whole lot.

Still, I do not think that blogs that simply refer and parrot other stories would be very successful or interesting. And most blogs that do refer to articles written by others, could be compared to opinion pieces or reflections. It is the reflections that is the essential part of these blogs. So with this one.

I do not think there is any conflict of interest between blogging and original reporting. They are different types of media, and they have got different purposes. Blogs commenting on other stuff could obviously not exist without its origin of inspiration. But the relationship could be viewed as symbiotic rather than parasitic, as the article points out. Blogs could never replace the invastigative field journalism, neither should they. But to comment and reflect on it is, in my opinion, completely legitimate. And when the sources are cited, as they definitely should be, they could channel more readers to the articles commented upon, rather than "drain" anything from them. Thus, both the blogs and the original sources, whether in print or online, gain by this relationship.

Separatism in Norway

The Norwegian professor Frank Aarebrot warns about separatism in Norway in an interview with the Norwegian daily Dagsavisen.

According to him, there are signals in the western parts of Norway that people are pissed off with the centralised governent, and the fact that they don't see enough of the wealth that this part of the country is creating. Approximately 70 percent of the national wealth is created in this region, but only 28 percent is given back.

This might not happen tomorrow, but the spark to light something nasty will not necessarily be big, Aarebrot says. If someone turns up with the idea to create a regional protest party with separatist goals, "all hell could break loose."

The article can be read in Norwegian here.

Conventional wisdom: American stupidity..

America-bashing seems to be a favourite sport, not only in Norway, but also among large parts of the European population. We never get tired of pointing out how stupid, un-enlightened and devoid of knowledge the Americans are. We flock up to watch movies like Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, Supersize Me, and other movies pointing out every thinkable aspect of USA to be critizised. Links to clips on YouTube like "Stupid American" are mailed around to make sure we all see the evidence of the American stupidity and ignorance.

To be sure, there are quite a few things about the United States worthy of criticism. Quite a few of the White House's moves might rightfully be critizised, and George Bush Jr. might not strike us as the smartest world leader around. Still, the anti-americanism is wonderfully one-sided and un-nuanced.

It is possible to find American people who to a large extent lack common knowledge, as the before-mentioned YouTube-clip shows. And it is possible to find people who are plain out dumb in the United States. It might not even be hard. Still, that is true everywhere. You can find dumb people wherever you go. Even in Europe. And - I know many might be surprised to hear this - it is possible to meet intelligent Americans. I have actually met quite a few personally.

As for general knowledge, if you ask the next European guy on the street some basic questions about the United States, I'm not sure he will be able to answer that. Try asking who the governor of Kentucky is, who was the President of the United States before Jimmy Carter, what is the state capital of Alaska, which other states Utah borders to, or who is the speaker of the House. Even if you ask the simple question what the official language of the United States is, you would get mostly the wrong answer - the United States does not have an official national language.

The United States is roughly the size of Europe (9.8 million square meters), and consists of fifty states and one district (Europe consists of forty-eight countries). And contrary to what most Europeans thinks, it is very, very diverse in a lot of ways. So, to compare the United States with Europe would be fair. Different states in USA differs much in the same ways that countries in Europe differs from one another. And despite the steady stream of cultural input we get from over the pond, I would hold that we generally don't know a whole lot more about the United States than the Americans know about us.

To me, there is something not very enlightened about this one-sided anti-americanism and America-bashing that is going on. I would appreciate it a lot to hear some more nuanced viewpoints about the United States or how it conducts is business worldwide, or generally even just about Americans. To denounce 300 million people as retards, as a lot of Europeans seem to be doing, is dragging ourselves down to the same level of ignorance that we imagine the Americans to be on.

Some random thoughts on the Afghanistan war

Flash from the news #1; US Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama recently told the German weekly "der Spiegel" that the Europeans have to provide more support in the form of troops in the war in Afghanistan.

Flash from the news #2; The former Norwegian Foreign Minister Torbjørn Jagland expressed his views that NATO needs more troops in Afghanistan, and that Norway should shoulder more of its responsibility and provide more troops than what is currently the case.

There is no doubt that the support for the US-led invasion in Afghanistan among the poulation of the Western World is waning. A few weeks ago the US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, addressed this in a speech. The European political leaders have not succeeded in explaining the reasons for the invasion in Afghanistan and the reasons why the war is still going on. And also, he said, the war in Afghanistan is commonly mixed up with the war in Iraq.

The invasion in Iraq was, it could be reasonably argued (and I agree with that), based on false evidence, and it was also a case of the Bush administration taking advantage of a broad support for their War on Terror. Still, the war in Afghanistan is not the war in Iraq. When the US and the UK invaded Afghanistan in 2001, there was huge international support for the invasion. With the close links between Taliban, which were in control of Afghanistan, and Al-Qaeda which were also hiding out in Afghanistan, this invasion was legitimate, and the West was right in supporting the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. To oust the Taliban from power in Afghanistan was legitimate and backed by virtually the entire Western World. And even though the US messed up with also invading Iraq, the war in Afghanistan is still a legitimate war.

So, to bail out from this now is simply wrong. We agreed to this invasion in the first place, and we have an obligation to stand by until the situation is stabilized, or we are "victorious". The public support for the Afghanistan war might be waning, but politics are not done with plebiscistes for every single decision, and politicians are not supposed to go solely after the public opinion. It might be that our politicians did not educate us enough, but it is anyways their responsibility to stand by and not withdraw the support we gave at the outset. We went in there, and we need to stay in there until have achieved our objectives, which among others were to oust the Taliban regime from power and make sure they stay out of power. To pull out of Afghanistan now will be to leave the country in a state of disarray, where the Taliban can easily come back.

According to common sense, it is necessary to have enough troops to win any conflict. And according to the Powell doctrine, when you enter a conflict, you better make sure you go in with overwhelming force, so that you are certain you will be victorious. If you go in without the necessary level of force, you will be bound to enter a quagmire, much like the US did in Vietnam.

When US President Lyndon B. Johnson decided to go into Vietnam, he did not go in with the necessary firepower to win the conflict in a reasonably short amount of time. And when he and his administration witnessed the conflict prolong, they sent in more troops only little by little, but still not enough to win. Mired in a conflict that could not be resolved within a short time, and without the necessary force to do that, the administration lost their support among the US population.

Similarly, without the necessary international support (both diplomatically and militarily), the US and NATO will have a very hard time winning the war in Afghanistan. And as Torbjørn Jagland said in the beforementioned interview, if NATO does not win this war, its relevance in following scenarios will be diminished. So in addition to a stable Afghanistan, the future of NATO could also be at stake in this conflict. For a country as dependant on NATO for its security as Norway, the choice should be clear.