Horsecocks and sissies - stereotypes and self-perception

Some time ago, a southerner (a person from southern Norway that is), visited a small fishing village up north. To start with he had a hard time understanding the ways and humor of the people in the little town, but as the days passed on he got to know them better and better, and befriended them all. As the day came when he was to leave, they had a farewell party organized for him. And as the party drew to a close, one of the townspeople rose up to say the last words. At the end of his little speech, he said that "we have all concluded that you are in fact a really nice horsecock", and although the southerner himself was a bit puzzled by this remark, many of the townspeople were touched to tears about this unbelievable compliment.

This story is probably not a hundred percent true, but it nevertheless highlights some of the perceptions of northerners in our country - that is both their own self perception and the perception of others. Now, the fact that there is a divide in some ways between people in different regions in a country is nothing particular for Norway. You do have the same in France, in the UK, in the USA, and in Germany (think Ossies and Wessies), and problably any country in the world in fact. But what lies behind the differences (perceived and real) is quite interesting, I think.

According to the stereotype, the northerner is utterly straight forward. He is telling everything as it is, straight from the gut. Uncomplicated and unpretentious, he is free of any urbane streaks. And his language of course, is juicy and full of imaginative swearing. An independent soul, never giving up no matter how dark things (literally) look. And as for humor, it is at times dark, at times light hearted, but mostly very coarse and a lot of the time of a sexual nature.

I guess the development of the nature of the northerner (perceived or real) can be at least partly explained historically. (Note: the following is largely speculation and my interpretation of things. I do not have very much academical backing for my claims here.) The northern parts were (and some say it is still) quite provincial, being the back waters of Norway. In fact large parts of the borders were not drawn out until in the mid 18th century, at least in part reflecting the irrelevance of this area for the government in Copenhagen (as Norway was in union with Denmark at this time).

It is easy to imagine how people in this situation would develop a character different from the urban centers down south. This situation would have encouraged a mentality of self-reliance, as people would have to cope with their lives without any help from outside, and in short a "tougher" and coarser mentality than you would typically get in more urbane settings. And of course, as people sometimes tend to define themselves by their differences compared to others, this might have been a self-reinforcing process as well: "We are a tough bunch, much tougher than those sissies down south"

Even today, a lot of northerners are defining themselves based on the perceived differences from southerners. We up north have an image of the "typical" southerner as a wimp and office rat, sipping his caffé latte or whatever they drink down there, and we define ourselves pretty much as the antithesis to this. We take pride in being able to withstand the harsh and cold weather (never mind that there are regions further south which have much colder weather than us), that we have such a coarse and simple humor, etc.

Some thoughts on alcohol..

It can be no doubt that the Norwegian alcohol laws are quite strict. Alcohol is generally very expensive, it is only sold at certain times, and stronger alcohols such as spirits and even wine are sold only through special alcohol outlets (Vinmonopolet). Also, in traffic, there is a zero-tolerance towards alcohol.

This stands out in stark contrast to the country where I currently live, the UK. Here alcohol is sold any time, at low prices, and even heavily discounted. Very often, the person behind the counter in the corner shop will inform you that there is a 8 cans of beer for 6 pounds offer if you pick a less cheap alternative from the shelf. And what's more; you will often see people getting behind the steering wheel after a drink or two.

A couple of years ago, I spent a year in Germany as an exchange student. During that time, I got into the habit of drinking wine with my dinner at night. Coming back to Norway, I got a little annoyed when I "re-discovered" that wine is not sold in regular grocery-shops. To get yourself a bottle of wine for dinner, you'll have to go to the alcohol-outlet. I do still think that is a little over the top; why making getting a bottle of wine such a hassle? But having seen all the problems with alcohol here in the UK, I think the Norwegian alcohol legislation is mainly a good thing. There is a clear correlation between price and availability, and consumption - making alcohol less readily available reduces consumption. Alcohol (and stronger alcohols in particular) should be rather expensive and not too easy to get hold of.

Of course, alcohol abuse is a complex problem, both on an individual level and sociologically. As the drunkard Jeppe said in Ludvig Holbergs play Jeppe on the Hill, "Everyone says that Jeppe drinks, but no one asks why". To be sure, even with very strict alcohol legislation, a lot of Norwegians get pissed out of their brains too. But compared to the Brits, that's Sunday school. And it certainly would not help to reduce alcohol consumption to make it cheaper and more available.

Another aspect of it is that the legislation is helping to shape the norms and attitudes towards alcohol. For me, it would be almost unthinkable to get behind the wheel and drive after even only one beer. I think that goes for most Norwegians. Drinking and driving does not go together, full stop. That attitude is greatly helped by the strict non-tolerance laws when it comes to alcohol and driving.

I do not mean to present Norwegians as particularly good drinkers - we certainly are not. Many Norwegians drink too much and too often. The steep prices on alcohol (particularly in bars and discos) makes us drink more before we hit the town, so that we won't have to drink so much after going out. This of course just makes us drunker earlier in the evening. But having seen the attitudes towards alcohol here in the UK have made me a little more wary towards the problems associated with alcohol, and I would not want Norway to resemble the UK any more than we already do in this respect.

Scandinavian Gentlemen?

In this post, I would like to pick up the lead from one of my May posts, "Norwegian "politeness"", and continue on that. The other day, I had a little discussion with some of my colleagues at work about gentlemen. It might be said that we Scandinavians are not truly behaving like gentlemen, at least not in the classical sense - e.g. like a Frenchman. We often don't help the women put on their coats, hold their chairs, open the doors for them, etc. - all the things that would be expected from the classical gentleman.

Personally, I think the 1970s did a great deal of harm to the concept of being a gentleman in Norway. That probably holds true in some other countries as well. The 70s were of course a time of great liberation for women, and we (both women and men) should be very thankful of that. Still, the gentleman in the classical sense was largely sacrificed on the altar of equality at that time.

In the biological sense, the reason women need men at all after the act of conceiving their child is protection. Men are stronger than women, and particularly when the woman is pregnant, they are better equipped to gather food for her and care for her and her offspring. And when the family was faced with danger, the man is of course better equipped to ward off those dangers. To me, the classical gentleman embodies a lot of that strength and that ability to take care of his woman, albeit in a slightly more sophisticated form than the neanderthal club-wielding brute.

In the 70s, with the women's liberation, women seemed to not need men to take care of them any more. They could get jobs of their own, earn their own money, and take care of themselves. When men were trying to take care of them, that was seen as reactionary and as if they wanted to turn the clock back to the time when women were chained to the kitchen - which was not necessarily true.

It seems to me that the Norwegians (especially women) see equality as being the same. Instead of cherishing the difference between the sexes, we want men and women to be the same, and to be doing the same things. We want the same number of female truck drivers as male, the equal number of construction workers, electricians, computer technicians etc., and we want the same number of female and male nurses and kindergarden teachers.

Thanks to the developments from the 1970s, the Norwegian society is one of a very large degree of equality between the sexes, but at the same time one that does not seem to appreciate the virtue of gentlemanliness. Although I do appreciate the fact that men and women do have equal opportunities, I think it is a little sad that being a gentleman is not really something that is valued in our culture. Personally, I think we should celebrate the fact that men and women are different. Of equal value and with equal opportunities, but still different.

There is nothing wrong with men taking care of their women and children. Still, I think it is true for a lot of men that our culture have not instilled in us a sense that this is an important value (living with a French woman, this is something I get pointed out all the time). Our women are capable of taking care of themselves, so what do they need us to do that for? What do they need us to hold the door for them, or hold their coat, or bring them flowers? Of course they don't need us to, but how nice is it not when we do?

Sweet brothers? Norwegian-Swedish relations...

Commenting on my blogpost on meatballs, Renny jokingly said that he hates when people mix up the Norwegian meatballs with the "Swedish substitute." In that comment lies a little trace of a peculiar neighbourhood-relation with our "Sweet brother." I'm sure it's not unique for Norway and Sweden, but the relationship between us is quite fascinating.

In any Norwegian joke where Swedes are present, they are portrayed as the dumb ones, coming up with one stupidity after another. There is one joke where two Swedes are on holiday with a Norwegian guy who for some reason went missing. In the police office the two Swedes are asked to describe the Norwegian. The two Swedes think long and hard, then one of them says, "yeah I know - he's got two holes in his bum!" The policeman, who thinks that was a somewhat unusual description ask "and how do you know that then?!" "Because everytime we go somewhere, people are saying: There's that Norwegian with the two assholes!"

So, that's generally the Swedish stereotype. The Danes are not portrayed as dumb, but still not quite up to the Norwegian intellectual level. Finns are not either dumb nor smart, but are portrayed as hard drinkers with a insatiable sexual appetite. Icelanders are generally absent from Norwegian jokes.

It's not only in jokes that the Swedes are the dumb ones. One needs only think of the song "Jag är inta sjuk, jag är bare svensk" (I'm not ill, just Swedish). And there is something comic about how sports journalists seek up Swedish sportsmen for interviewing every time the Norwegians place first, just to rub it in that we won and not they.

Historically, it is at first glance a little strange that the Swedes, and not the Danes are the ones we want to make out to be the stupid ones. Norway has been under both Swedish and Danish yoke, but definitely the longest under Danish. And I dare say that the Danish period was the worst for Norway. Some has even dubbed the period of Danish rule "The night of four hundred years." So, from that perspective, the Danes are the ones that really should have been at the receiving end of our jokes.

Still, the period when Norway was in union with Sweden from 1814 to 1905 was a period of national awakening in Norway - the period when Norwegian-ness took hold in the people's mind. So - although I do not have empirical evidence for this assumption, I do think that the seed of the current-day relationship with Swedes stem from that era. It might also be that we have a eeny-weeny little bit of inferiority complex to Swedes - the Swedes being twice the size of Norway, it was a regional superpower in the Vasa-era (ca. 1521-1654), and more successful in their industry (IKEA, Volvo, Saab, etc.) than us..

Still, at the end of the day, even though we make all kinds of joke about Swedes, on a deeper level, there is no bad feeling between our two countries. The relationship is harmonious and friendly, greatly helped by cultural and linguistic similarities. But as with all relationships between brothers, there is bound to be some competition, and brotherly love is after all.. well, brotherly love..

The wonderful cheese slicer..

I don't think there is a single Norwegian kitchen where you cannot find a cheese slicer. It's such an integral part of our Norwegian food-culture, that we sometimes cannot understand how people can live without one, let alone live without missing one.

Whenever I have lived outside of Norway, I have had great trouble finding a cheese slicer, which at first came as a great surprise. How is it possible that this great piece of kitchen equipment is so hard to find? It is possible, but you have to search really hard and long. I remember that I did manage to locate one in Germany once. I haven't been able yet to find one in Liverpool, but I have great hope that I might find it at IKEA. The Swedes are also aware of the existence of the wonderful cheese slicer.

The cheese slicer is in fact a Norwegian invention, and of quite recent date. It was invented in 1925 by a carpenter by the name of Thor Bjørklund from Lillehammer. Since then it has become a much-used utensil in every Norwegian kitchen, but surprisingly not achieved much recognition abroad. With all due modesty - it is a great invention.

The virtues of the cheese slicer are many, but the most important ones are that it cuts the slices to perfect thickness, and it's ability to bring out the flavour and aroma of the cheese. You can of course get cheese pre-cut into slices from the shop, but that does not compare at all to the taste and flavour you get when it is freshly sliced. The cheese slicer works best with a slightly hard cheese, like a good and nice gouda. Obviously it doesn't work at all with soft cheeses like camembert or brie.

Norwegian "politeness"

One thing you would notice very quickly about Norwegians is that we are not overly polite or correct. We may forget to say please after every single thing we say, and we don't even say "enjoy" to our fellow diners before we dig into our plates. We do not always hold the door open for the next person, and the use of the polite form of "you" (Sie in German or vous in French), is a definite no-no, even though it does exist.

The thing with Norwegians and manners is not that we do not have any - which you might be forgiven for thinking sometimes - but that they are somewhat different than outside of Norway or Scandinavia.

To me, it seems as we do not care too much about correctness in our ways (like using the correct title or the polite forms) when we interact with people. The Norwegian "politeness" lies more in being friendly with people than in correctness. To me, there is nothing ruder than people being very correct and at the same time very unfriendly, like Germans telling you off in very correct language, or a Frenchman telling you to kiss his ass and at the same time being sure to use the polite vous-form (although I admit there is a certain elegance to that last one).

My girlfriend is learning some Norwegian at the time, and the other day she wanted to ask me in Norwegian to bring her an apple from the kitchen. But she could figure out how to say "please" at the end, so she asked me; "how do you say 'please' in Norwegian?" "You don't!", I said, without really thinking much about what I said, and she broke out in laughter. The way I said it might have sounded as if "please" was the worst you could have said. But it is true - we don't really say please that much. When you ask somebody something in the form of "can you...", that is already polite enough, and the "please" wouldn't be necessary. It would just sound ridiculous. The next day we went over to a couple we know (the girl is Norwegian). Just to check out if it is just me being particularly unmannered or not, we asked her what she would say in that situation. My girlfriend asked her, "wouldn't you say 'please' then?" "No! Do you want me to beg, or what?", she said..

Actually, in that situation, it would be less polite to say "bring me an apple, please" than just "can you bring me an apple?" I think it's got something to do with the phrase being formed as a question that gives you a choice, and not as a command. If someone were telling me to do something in Norwegian, I would be far less tempted to do that than if they had asked me to do it. And with a smile on top of that again, how could I not?

May 17 coming up..

The May 17 celebrations are not far away. in just a little more than one month the Norwegian nation will be celebrating its national holiday.

The Norwegian Forum for Immigrants would like children of "non-Norwegian" origin to be allowed to wave their home-country's flag in the official procession on May 17. The committee for May 17 says no. The arguments from the Forum of Immigrants are that this can make the procession more colorful, and that minorities' cultures are part of the Norwegian culture.

Yes, immigrants' culture should be considered part of the Norwegian culture. We do, in fact, have large minorities of both immigrants and indigenous people in Norway. They should no doubt be considered part of our culture and of our nation. But this is done not by waving different flags in the procession. It is done by showing one flag, namely our Norwegian one.

Personally, I think it is wrong that the Sami people are allowed to flag with their national flag on the national holiday. There are very heavily weighing historical reasons why they are allowed to do that, and of those the Norwegian nation have no reason to be proud. As stated before, I have great respect for the Sami people and their culture and history. Still, I do not think it is appropriate that they are allowed to flag with their own national Sami flag on May 17.

The plurality of our nation should be celebrated and appreciated. But this can be done in other ways, especially on this particular day. For instance, national dresses of any kind are accepted in the official procession.

By waving the flags of their home-countries or preferred nationality in the case of Samis, they are signaling that they are not part of Norway, but something else, different from our Norwegian nation. That is not what our national holiday is about. We should be celebrating unity under the Norwegian national flag.

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.

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.

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 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.