Out of touch with reality: ..but my heart still tells me that it's true..

Visiting Norway last weekend, I happened to read something in Dagens Næringsliv, which kind of made me laugh.

The piece I read was in reference to some statement the Norwegian princess Märtha Louise made in an interview with a Swedish newspaper. In her opinion, men and women in Norway are completely equal when it comes to salary and career opportunities. She could as well have paraphrased Ronald Reagan's famous quote, "My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not", because the facts and the evidence clearly show that what she said is not true. According to the facts, women have on average 30% lower salaries than men, even in leading positions.

The opinion piece in Dagens Næringsliv went roughly like this:

"Bad connotations

Princess Märtha Louise tells the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that she is not a feminist. She says that 'the word feminist is a word with such bad connotations'.
Soon the word royalist is, too."

Speed king (cutting corners)

It is not a great time for the Norwegian Royal Family nowadays.

Every Norwegian knows that our King is a mean sailor. He`s really fast out there, on the waves. But he might have cut one corner too many now, or gone a little too fast, because he`s actually been disqualified from the ocean sailing World Championship. Not good..

One of my friends asked me just recently if I`m anti-royalist. I don`t think that I am, but after that ridiculous angel-school-affair, I think I am starting to be. But not quite yet. Instinctively, I`m holding on to Norway being a monarchy. It must be my conservative nature..

Angels and Norwegian princesses

As I am currently not living in Norway, I don`t really follow the Norwegian news as closely as I normally would. Right now, that makes me really, really happy.

Before, I kind of thought that Norway being a monarchy is a good thing. Even though it is an antiquated form of government, it is something that unites us Norwegians. And up until now, I always thought the Royal Family were pretty good ambassadors for Norway. Now, I`m starting to have some serious doubts about just that.

One of the top stories in the Norwegian news right now is the Norwegian Princess` "angel-school". Students of this school, which by the way had its opening day today, are being promised that they are guaranteed to get in touch with angels only after a few weeks. Her Royal highness Märtha Louise herself, of course, claims to be some kind of psychic, and has for a long time been able to even communicate with her horses on "a deeper level", whatever that means. With this new school of angels, the Norwegian royal stupidity reaches new heights, even topping the Princess` and her husband`s book publishings.