About a road..

I have moved back to Norway. Back to my home town up in the cold, high north - the district of Finnmark. And that is the main reason that no posts have appeared the last couple of weeks. Even though I started this blog as a way to keep myself somehow informed and mentally occupied with things happening back home when I was living abroad, I will continue along the same lines from inside of Norway. In a way, it might be more a view from "the inside." But Finnmark is far far away from the more densely populated south, so it will be in some ways a view from afar still..

Since I have moved up here, it might be appropriate that I start out with a current issue from Finnmark - the controversies about a road being built to an even more remote and smaller village than the one that I am living in. The issue touches on an issue that I have brushed on before, the relationship between Samis and non-Samis.

The tiny village of Nervei has long been without any proper road connecting it to "the rest" of the world, but has relied on a ferry arriving from time to time. Not being quite happy with that, understandably, the people of Nervei has done a great job in collecting money and organizing the building of a road of about 20 km themselves, the work on which is going on now.

The problem with the road and the work arises partly from the fact that the road runs through land that is used as grazing lands for reindeer. So, Reindeer Grazing District Number 13 has taken this to court trying to get the roadworks stopped, or alternatively and much better to get some economic compensation. This issue really exemplifies that old joke that the two Norwegian terms that the Samis bother to learn are "our Sami rights" and "compensation." Many non-Samis see this whole story as a Sami knee-jerk reflex to get even more compensation.

The reindeer-herding Samis do rely on lands all over Finnmark for grazing, and some of their claims are legitimate. The lands are not very fertile, and are easily grazed down. Thus, herding the reindeer around is essential both to feed them and to avoid damaging the lands used for grazing. But in this particular situation, their claims ring terribly hollow. We are talking about an improvement of an already existing tractor trail, which means it is not a case of destroying any grazable areas. And it is also not a case of a heavily trafficked road that will disturb the reindeer.

Personally I think issues like this, where a small part of the Sami reindeer-farmers are trying to exert their influence to wring some more compensation out of the State coffers, are having a detrimental effect on the relationship between Samis and non-Samis in Finnmark. Non-Samis are being annoyed and aggravated over what they perceive as exerting their power just for the sake of it.

For more information about this road, take a look at this blog (in Norwegian: På vei til Nervei