Random thoughts on Norway

The Catch-22 of a Small Language

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 07:46:00 +0000

Norway is a very small country. We just passed the five million mark last year. And outside of Norway, there are not a great many people who speaks our language. Not many at all. And if you look at the demographics, we’re not growing all that fast either.

I love my language. Obviously. It is my native tongue.

In a way, there are many advantages being such a small language. For one, the costs per capita (so to speak) of dubbing films, translating books, etc. are very high. That means that films are not dubbed and not very many books are being translated into Norwegian. So for that reason and others, we are very exposed to other languages - first and foremost English, of course. And thus, on the whole, we have quite good foreign language skills. Most people can to some extent communicate in English, and many people in other languages. All good.

On the flip side, in certain areas, we have to rely on foreign literature and media. I referred to this in a post back in 2009 titled «More on language - sub-standard Norwegian non-fiction». The main point was that the volume of non-fiction literature in Norwegian is very scant, and the number of good quality works low. This is an issue in academia.

But also outside of academia, this is a problem. Let’s say if you want to check up on something on the Internet. For me, I practically always type in the English search term when I want to look up something, sometimes even when my search relates to Norway. If you compare en.wikipedia with no.wikipedia, the contrast in striking. The volume of information in the Norwegian version is a fraction of the English one, and a lot of articles are not yet written.

And also, for certain stuff on the Internet, the English speaking community is obviously so much larger than the Norwegian-speaking one. Then you got the choice of relating to a tiny Norwegian community or a vast English speaking community online. This of course also goes for academia.

So, back to the title of this post: «The Catch-22 of a Small Language». Do we want to further the use of Norwegian whenever we can, produce Norwegian non-fiction literature that will be read by a handful of individuals, relate online to not many more? Or do we want to communicate in English (which is relatively easy for most people), and reach many more? If we choose the former, we will strengthen Norwegian as a language, I think, but isolate ourselves more. If we choose the latter, we will weaken Norwegian, but to a larger extent be part of a global community. It is a sliding scale, of course, but where on the scale do we want to be?

Nevertheless, it is a Catch-22 situation.

Gallons and litres - some thoughts on cars and culture

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:00:00 +0000

Recently, I heard a radio ad (or, rather a podcast ad) for the new Ford Focus. These days, every brand and company takes every opportunity to boast its green credentials and high environmental standards. This ad was no exception. The claim was forty miles to the gallon of petrol, which I believe is pretty good.

The ad was an American one. Had it been Norwegian or European, it would have had the same claim, I’m sure. But in would have been reversed. It would have claimed so many litres per kilometer. The difference is perhaps a subtle one, but I think it contains some important insights to our cultures, which in many ways are quite different.

Everything is bigger in America, they say. Cars are bigger, cans of coke are larger, and of course meals are bigger (note the fact that MacDonald's doesn’t have small sized meals, only medium and larger). Likewise with this particular example. First of all, a gallon is a larger measure of volume than the litre. A gallon is roughly four litres. And the mile is slightly more than one and a half kilometre (more precisely 1609,344 metres).

But most interestingly is this: In the American way of measuring petrol consumption, the focus is how far you can go on one unit of petrol (i.e. gallon). In the European measure, the important thing is how little petrol you use on a set distance (i.e. kilometer). So, it seems to me that the miles per gallon measure is more focused on how far you can go, not on how «green» or environmentally friendly the vehicle is and how much petrol you burn off. More so with the European way whose mentality is perhaps a bit more reserved and modest.

Also (and according to the «big in America»-thought), the more miles per gallon, the better. For the European way it is completely opposite; the smaller the litres per kilometer measure, the better. For the Ford Focus, the measure was 40 miles per gallon. For a fuel-saving European car, 0.5 or so would be good, but less would be even better.

In the American psyche, according to my understanding, a car is freedom. And the further you can go with your car, the more free you are. Driving into the sunset with your Mustang along the Route 66, and all those other clichés. The Americans were never much for trains and other means of collective transportation, but rather a nation of drivers.

Anyway, it's interesting to see how little things sometimes can say a lot about different mentalities...

The most sexy Norwegian dialect

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:53:00 +0000

So, it is finally officially confirmed, what all us northerners already knew. In a survey made by InFact, the dialect (or should I say dialects) of northern Norway has come out top as being the most attractive dialect in Norway.

I may be partly to this, but I must say that I agree with this conclusion. The dialects of Northern Norway has some sexy associations and connotations to it in many respects; it is something fresh and honest about it. Interestingly enough, the dialect that come out second in the survey was the far-south dialect; on the other extreme of our country.

As I also brushed upon in my previous post, Horsecocks and sissies, the sense of identity is pretty strong up north. The conclusions from the survey is that the self-perception of northerners is no longer connected to loud swearing and vulgar jokes (which of course is an improvement).

Check out Finnmarken for a (Norwegian) article on this.

Horsecocks and sissies - stereotypes and self-perception

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:30:00 +0000

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.

The Oslo Blog Gathering 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:46:00 +0000

There are some people in this world who has got an amazing passion for what they do, and who will go to great lengths for what they burn for and believe in. Renny Bakke Amundsen from RennyBA's Terella seems to be such a person.

This summer, he will be arranging the Oslo Blog Gathering, a five-day event for bloggers from all over the world. The Gathering will take place on August 18-22. This will provide a great opportunity for bloggers to meet up, make connections and the aquaintance of other fellow bloggers, and enjoy the city of Oslo in good company. If you are interested, please check out the website of Oslo Blog Gathering.

If you are not already familiar with Renny's blog, I urge you to check it out. He's writing extensively and in an interesting way on a lot of topics concerning Norway and Norwegian culture.

Some further comments and reflections on "Storsamfunnet"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:24:00 +0000

(This is a comment to my last post, "Storsamfunnet")

It's funny sometimes when you've been thinking about something, and you found yourself constantly stumbling over things that are connected to this particular subject. This happens all the time to me.

I just read a book called Å gjøre en forskjell (To make a difference) by the Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre. In his book, Støre is referring to the American sociologist Robert Putnam and his thoughts about what he calls "Social Capital". Social Capital is in a sense the glue that binds us together as a society. It is the feeling that we are a society, a feeling of mutuality in the society, of trust, and a feeling that each of is is part of the society.

In Bowling Alone Putnam shows how the American society is disintegrating in the sense that social and civic bonds are being weakened and are withering away. Partaking in NGOs, community service of any kind, etc. is on the wane. People are more focused on individual rights than in taking part in activities that improves the social capital of the country.

I see this as being directly relevant to the attitudes and mentality I described in my previous post. When your view of society is that there is a big bad monster - the big society or "storsamfunnet" - that you are not a part of and that is fundamentally opposed to your own interests, then there is definitely a case of a lack trust between yourself and society. If a lot of people feel there is a big divide between themselves and the society at large (which is really just everyone else, isn't it?), that cannot be good for society as such. Norway tends to take pride in being very egalitarian in many ways. But the idea that there is a "big society" dominating the "little people" is contrary to this.

Storsamfunnet

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 09:41:00 +0000

Occasionally I think and reflect upon words and terms in our language. Language is a funny thing - full of quirks, connotations, color, subtle or hidden meaning, etc. One of the terms I have some issues with I addressed in one of my post from October 2008, titled Social levelling. Another term that I have thought about quite a bit, but I never came to terms with and have never quite understood is "storsamfunnet". Translated, it means society at large or big society or something like that.

The term seems to be mostly used when there is somebody (a person or a group, most a minority one) that has been treated at variance with their rights, or in some way been treated unfairly or oppressed. A lot of times, the perpetrator of these sins is "storsamfunnet". It seems to me that the term is all but exclusively used by the political left.

Like many terms, this is one that only helps to muddle any nuanced and precise debate. It is devoid of any real meaning but conjures up a whole host of connotations. What comes up in my imagination when I hear talk of "storsamfunnet" is an army of faceless and heartless bureaucrats hellbent on making the lives of the "little people" (whoever they are) as miserable as they possibly can. From their shady offices they plot on ceaselessly to oppress any independent thinking there might be in the nation. Of course, you couldn't name any of these boogiemen, it's as if they're not really there as individuals, only as a group. But they are there - make no mistake about it - lurking in the shadows and under beds. And they are up to no good. Needless to say, "big society" is capitalistic to the teeth and fiercely loyal to USA.

In my opinion, the usage of such a term betrays a fundamentally pessimistic, negative and slightly paranoid world view. The state is not there to make our lives and coexistence better, more organised and safer. No, it's there to oppress us, to put us all under surveillance, to take away our liberties, to control us.

Well, to sum up all these chaotic ramblings in a way; I never really understood this term, and I can't really see what this "big society" is as opposed to normal society. And I think I am too optimistic and positive about the role of the state in the modern world to buy into any conspiracy that "big society" is there mainly to oppress us..

News and media in Norway

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:34:00 +0000

The decline of serious media is something that has been widely commented upon. Traditional media like newspapers and television have a hard time making a profit, and many turn towards a more "tabloidism". They shy away from serious news coverage and fill up their pages and time with pure entertainment. In that respect the willingness of the state-owned TV-channel NRK to do the opposite is truly laudable.

The quality of NRKs news coverage was already great as it was - serious and balanced - and it has had some really great docu-mentaries and programs on current affairs, especially Urix, a program analyzing various foreign affairs/current affairs topics. Now NRK is stepping this up even more, with more time for news and more debate-programs. One of the most promising "newbies" is Supernytt, which is basically news for kids. It takes guts to launch something like that, and I doubt that any commercial channel would have made such a gamble.

This increased focus on serious news and debate is especially welcome because Norway is in my opinion not rife with such. Granted, we do have a great national broadcaster in NRK, and it's main competitor, TV2 does have a dedicated channel to news - kind of like a Norwegian national mini-version of CNN. And we do have some relatively high quality national newspapers. Norway has a highly educated population and a high proportion of newspaper readers. But we are very few, there are only 4,6 millions of us. And in such a tiny market it is infernally hard to run any commercial tv channel or newspaper economically profitable in the same way you could in a larger market like Germany, the UK or even France. So even though we do have some good newspapers (like Dagsavisen and Dagens næringsliv), we do not have anything that is even close to newspapers like Daily Telegraph, The Times, Süddeutsche Zeitung, etc.

That is all fair enough though, given the way things are. But what is more lamentable or annoying or whatever, is that in parts of the country (where I live now for example), the good newspapers are not on regular sale. By that I mean that to get them, you will have to subscribe, which I did for a while, but then you will only get them a day or two late. So what we are left with if we want to read the paper version of newspapers are VG and Dagbladet, which are (in my opinion) crap and a waste of time to read.

Anyway. Ari Fleischer, George Bush Jr.'s press secretary, complained that the press always ended stories on a down-note, to point out something negative no matter how positive the main story was. I don't want to do that, since what I meant to do with this post was to praise NRK for what they are doing, which is truly great. So let me just end this by saying: Way to go, NRK!

Reflections on Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:56:00 +0000

This Christmas, my brother and I made a rather nice gingerbread house - a model of the village church. The result turned out to be quite nice, although the proportions are a bit off. Baking a gingerbread house is also in Norway part of Christmas traditions, and something that my family has been doing for as long as I can remember. A quite nice tradition it is, I think - it certainly gets me in the Christmas spirit.

We do not call it a gingerbread house, though, but a peppercake house. I wonder why that is. It contains both ingredients - pepper and ginger. Why is it that in the English language it derives its name from the ginger, but we name it after the pepper? Strange..

Living with my "foreign" girlfriend/partner, I constantly notice some things that are different elsewhere than here. One thing is about the Christmas tree. We got ourselves a really nice one this year, though not a Norwegian one. Ours is a Danish import. Anyway, normally we bring the tree into the living room and do the decorations on the evening of the 23rd, sometimes after the kids went to bed. So when the kids get up on the 24th, the tree is there for them to see for the first time.

Elsewhere the tree is brought in a long time before the 23rd, in some countries even on the 1st of December. To be honest I think I'd be fed up by the time Christmas came had it been in since then. We made a compromise - we brought it in on the 19th.

The main thing that strikes me as different - at least as to how I am used to celebrate Christmas, is that for me, the 25th of December has no significance. It is really like any Sunday. For many people, the 25th is the main day of Christmas, but for me it's always been the 24th that's been the day (and night, of course). It's the day of the main meal, and for the kids the day they've been waiting for because they open all the presents then, etc.

Well well, some pluralism when it comes to traditions can't hurt.. I guess it can only make things more interesting..

Anyway - I wish you all Happy New Year, and wish you all the best for 2010. As for the new year, I made myself quite a list of New Years Resolutions, and one of them is that I will stop neglecting my blog. 2009 was not a prolific blog-year for me. But through 2010 I will try my best to come up with one post every week.

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:58:00 +0000

I wish you all a very merry Christmas, and hope you'll have a splendid time during the holiday seasons. May all your wishes come true!

Here we go again

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:34:00 +0000

Here we go again. I'm not really referring to the recent election, which gave the red-green (centre-left) Labour-led government another four years in office. Given that there hasn't emerged any credible alternative on the slightly-to-the-right side of the political spectrum (excluding the Progress Party) that is not at all the worst result.

I am also not really heralding any re-launch of my blog; that all depends on my general level of inspiration at any given time. As anyone following my blog have noticed, my level of inspiration has not been very high lately. The most recent entry in my blog is dated April 20, almost exactly five months ago. Hopefully my muses will return..

What I am referring to is of a personal nature, really. When I started writing this blog, I was living in Prague. I had just quit my job back home as a teacher and left for a job in a global oil-company - which sounds deceptively lucrative and glamorous. It was not.

Anyway, before I left for my little odyssey abroad, bringing me to the Czech Republic and to the UK, I often felt like one of them polar explorers or hunters who let themselves freeze into the ice around Spitzbergen. It really felt like I went into hibernation just waiting for the winter to end and, literally and figuratively, for the ice to melt, so that I could sail south again. Living here back then I felt kind of far removed and separated from the rest of the world.

Now that I am back, and the autumn is here and the winter will soon be arriving, it again feels as if my ship is freezing in once again. Still I feel a little better about it somehow. Why it is exactly why I feel better about it this time, I don't know. Maybe it is because I had my fix of 'the World' for a while, or maybe it is because my family-situation is a bit different now. It's hard to say, but somehow I don't dread the coming winter at all right now..

April 20, 8.30 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:28:00 +0000

When I checked the calendar this morning, it said April 20. Normally that would spell out springtime in bold letters. But then again, I guess I'm not living anywhere normal, at least not weatherwise. Driving home this evening I took this picture with my mobile phone. Not quite what I associate with springtime..

I suppose this is what you can expect living on 71º north, but to me this is one of the aspects about it that makes me the most depressed. I make no secret of being a summer child. And getting this when I'd rather see the snow gone and the sun shining - not good.. But then again, things tend to change fast, and the spring will probably arrive soon enough. Its just that right now the seems really far far away.

Beware of Islamic oppression of the Samis!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 14:07:00 +0000

Anyone following the Norwegian news the last couple of weeks could not have escaped to notice the debate about whether or not to allow the hijab in the police force. Some arguments in favor of allowing it has been presented, and many good ones against. The blogger Knut Johannessen is presenting some of them in two postings on his blog Voxpopuli, titled Tilslørte politipiker and It's not the hijab, stupid!. On Wednesday this week one of the most bizarre arguments in this debate was heard.

In the February 18 issue of the local newspaper Finnmarken, the Sami politician Jánoš Trosten claims that allowing the hijab will lead to a renewed oppression of the Sami people. As much as I agree with mr Trosten not to allow wearing the hijab with a police uniform (or with an army or any kind of official uniform for that matter), his reasoning must be one of the most ridiculous ever. According to him, the hijab must be prohibited for the reason that the Sami community will not be able to handle the islamification this would inevitably lead to. Foreign customs like this are a grave threat to "an already weakened culture," which is still suffering from the Norwegianification processes in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.

Seriously, even in the case that his premises were true - how many female muslim cops does mr Trosten think would find their way up to Kautokeino and Karasjok in the case of an acceptance of the hijab in the police force?!? What would make us believe that the Sapmi area suddenly would experience a massive influx of hijab wearing female police officers? It beats me, but mr Trosten apparently believes that would be a probably scenario..

Mr Trosten, whom I mentioned in my post of 19 March 2008 titled Separatism in Norway, pt 2, is known to be among the more extreme of Sami politicians, if not the most extreme. Upliftingly, he seems to be quite alone in his fear that the hijab poses a large threat to the Samis and their culture. Several other notable politicians, such as president and vice presidents of the Sami parliament mr Egil Olli and mrs Marianne Balto, as well as former president of the Parliament mrs Aili Keskitalo, do not have any such fear.

As for mr Trosten's claims that the Sami culture is under any kind of threat in Norway, anyone living in Finnmark would take that with more than one grain of salt. The Norwegian policies towards Samis basically up to the mid-20th century were unfortunate and inexcusable. But with the massive revival of Sami culture and increased political power especially after the 1980s, you could not correctly claim that the Sami culture today is in any way weakened or threatened. As you could read into the post Separatism in Norway, pt. 2, some would say almost on the contrary.

Eavesdropping neighbors

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 08:14:00 +0000

So, it seems that our Swedish neighbors are eavesdropping on us. Listening on our phone calls and reading our emails. With the so called FRA act or FRA law, the Swedish government is at least given the opportunity to do so. Effective from January 1 2009, the act authorizes the state to wiretap all telephone and Internet traffic that crosses Sweden's borders without any individual warrant to do so.

Not surprisingly, this act is part of anti-terrorism legislation, seeking to protect Swedish citizens by stopping terrorist activity and plotting leading up to a strike. But the legislation has - also not surprisingly - run into a wall of criticism, with some commentators predicting the fall of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. Basically all major newspapers in Sweden have spoken out against the legislation. Even though the wiretapping is only intended for communication running across the border, some critics say it is in practice impossible to differentiate between international calls and calls between Swedish citizens. Also, the international criticism is stark: the Finnish government has sent an official protest to the Swedes.

Here in Norway, many are speaking up against the law, but the Government has not as of yet sent any official protest. Mainly Venstre (the Left Party) is speaking up, saying the Government is too passive and demanding some action and protest against the act. The act is negating Norwegians' and other non-Swedes' rights with regards to surveillance. Also, Norwegian business is being affected by the law and the surveillance of their activity. Recently, the Norwegian branch of the International Commission of Legal Professionals has filed a suit against the Swedish State at the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg. This has been widely supported in Norway.

This issue digs right into that post 9-11 debate of wether we should allow some infringement on our rights for the State to be better able to protect us against terrorists. As many, among them mr Barack Obama, have pointed out, this is a false choice. In the fight against terrorism, these are the rights and values we should be protecting, not limiting. By broadening the State's surveillance of citizens, we are heading the wrong way: towards an East German Stasi system where anyone the least bit suspect in the State's eyes (i.e. everyone) was secretly wiretapped with thick and growing folders filling up Government file-cabinets, just in case they might be up to something..

Norway, a.k.a. anti-semite #1

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 07:49:00 +0000

After a relatively long, unannounced break, I am once again back in business, writing on my blog.

As some non-Norwegians may know, but certainly all Norwegians are aware of, Norway take great pride in being a peaceful and peace-loving nation, as the whole world can see every year when the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo. We have also some history of brokering peace in many different places of the world, maybe most notably in Sri Lanka. But our definitive high-point in this regard is the Oslo peace accords from 1993.

When it comes to Norway having made some attempts on brokering peace in the Middle East, it is slightly amusing that Norway has been branded as one of the most anti-semitic countries in Europe, along with Sweden. This was one of the main conclusions of the 2008 symposium Behind the Humanitarian Mask: The Nordic Countries, Israel and the Jews. According to Dr Manfred Gerstenfeld, chairman of the Board of Fellows at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, "Norway is the most anti-Semitic country in Scandinavia."

I guess we cannot - and would not - deny that Norwegian media and public opinion is slightly on the Palestinian side in the conflict in Israel, and quite critical of Israeli policies with regards to the Palestinians. But to equate anything that smacks of criticism towards Israeli policy with anti-semitism is in my opinion just ridiculous. It must be possible to criticize the policies of the Israeli state without being branded an anti-semite. Our wise, elderly statesman Kåre Willoch, expressed this very eloquently when he said that the accusations made by the symposium and Dr Manfred Gerstenfeld is "traditional deflection tactic aimed at diverting attention from the real problem, which is Israel's well-documented and incontestable abuse of Palestinians."

Any illegitimate accusations of anti-semitism aside, Dr Gerstenfeld & co. now have got a legitimate issue to point at, namely a gargantuan diplomatic faux pas made by Trine Lilleng, first secretary at the Norwegian Embassy in Riyadh. In a private email, mrs Lilleng compared the Israeli conduct of their business in Gaza with the Nazi regime in Germany before and during World War II. However much one may disagree with how the Israeli state goes ahead in respect to the Gaza area, it is very unfortunate that mrs Lilleng made a comparison such as this. It will be interesting to see how long into the future she will be staying at the Foreign Ministry...

Convoy time!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:25:00 +0000

So that was it. 2008 is over, and our calendar reads 2009. I hope you all had a great Christmas, and wish you all the best for this year.

This year, I spent Christmas in Liverpool, but I am now back home, up north. And, oh my, it really feels like up north now, with the New Year's storms blowing. Generally, the weather up here is not bad, and nowhere near as bad as most people guess when I tell them where I live. Temperatures are bearable (at least on the coast - the warm current from the Gulf of Mexico really helps to keep the temperature not too far below zero), and things are over all good, weatherwise.

But around New Year, things tends to get a bit rougher. The winds take on force, and sometimes it gets quite nasty. Working 32 km of mountain roads away from home, I will probably have to drive in a convoy to get to work in the coming week or couple of weeks, as I did for the first time this winter today. As the weather has gotten even rougher now than what it was this morning, I am stuck here at work until the weather lightens up and the road will open again. Hopefully it will happen this evening some time.

The convoys are pretty good things, though. When the weather is rough, with massive snowfall and/or limited visibility, cars are not allowed to drive unaccompanied on mountain roads. So, at certain times, there will be a convoy going, with a ploughing truck in front. So, even though the weather is quite bad, you will normally be able to drive from one place to the next. But alas, not right now...

For more on winter driving in Norway, check out this post on the blog 57 North.

Political ads allowed on TV

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:21:00 +0000

Not very long ago, I wrote a post about political advertising on TV in Norway. During the three weeks since then, things have surely happened.

Despite political ads on tv being prohibited, the small local tv station TV Vest ran three ads for the local branch of the Pensioners Party in 2003. As a result, they were fined 35.000 NOK (roughly €4.500). This they refused to pay on principal grounds and took the case to the Courts of Human Rights in Strasbourg. They claim that the ban is an offense against the rights of free speech. Yesterday, the Court decided in favour of the TV-station. So, the way things are looking, political advertising is in principle allowed...

Interestingly, the British TV station Channel S was fined £40.000 on Wednesday this week for having run a total of 44 political ads for the Liberal Democrats. Also somewhat curious is that this case and the verdict has received very scarce attention in international media.

Check out the blog Word From the North for an interesting post about the ban, the case and the verdict.

Nice things half forgotten

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:44:00 +0000

Living away from home, there are always some things that you seem to forget. The little things. Smells, little things you see in your everyday life. Things that are around, that adds flavor to your life, and that sometimes are more 'unconsciously' noticed.

Part of my everyday life right now is my half-an-hour drive to work, driving through an area that is not populated. The area I live in right now is pretty sparsely populated to say the least. Anyway, on my way to work, especially in the morning, I see all sorts of animals running about, flying or doing whatever they do. I see grouse, foxes, eagles, and I've seen otters and lynxes. Some times of the year there are reindeer grazing about.

The last couple of years, I've been living in quite urban areas. I can't say that I have consciously missed all this while I've been away from home. But every time I drive along and I see one of these animals on the side of the road, I keep thinking how nice it is to live this close to nature in this way. You might of course come across a fox or some other animal elsewhere, too, and I've even seen one in the UK. But it's nothing like this, where I seem to pass some wild animal every other day.

Even though I am a bit ambivalent about living up here in 'nowhere', in a small town far away from everything else, this is one of the very nice things about living here. It adds to my quality of life.

Shut up, dog! Congratulations, Blacksheeps!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:45:00 +0000

Last night, the band Blacksheeps from Nesseby in Finnmark, Norway, won the Nordic MGP Jr contest with their great tune about the obese dog Kamilla. The song's title, "Oro jaska beana", is Sami for "shut up, dog!" Congratulations to Blacksheeps - well deserved! "Oro Jaska beana" can be heard and seen on Youtube.

Harr harr! - modern day pirates

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:43:00 +0000

Since I was a kid, I've been fascinated with pirates. I used to love reading about them. One of my favorite stories was about the famous pirate Edward Teach. Teach, better known as Blackbeard, fired up pieces of hemp in his beard to seem more fearful and demon-like to his enemies. Buccaneers, Swashbucklers and Privateers, hmmm, those must have been the days.. Since I've started blogging, I haven't really seen any natural opportunity to write anything about pirates. But now, with all the buzz in the media about pirates, I'm not going to relinquish on the chance to finally comment on piracy!

The last year or couple of years, the coast off Somalia and around the bay of Aden has become a real hot-bed for piracy, and a real hazard for ships passing through. The last year, pirate assaults off the east coast of Africa has increased by 75%. Just this week, on Thursday, a band of Somali pirates demanded a ransom of 25 million US dollars for the Aramco-owned oil tanker Sirius Star. And on Tuesday this week, a Greek cargo ship with a crew of 20-odd was also caught by Somali pirates.

The piracy in this area is a scourge for the shipping industry, and has forced several shipping companies to send tankers and cargo ships travelling between Asia and Europe around the Cape Good Hope instead of through the Suez Canal as they will have to pass through the bay of Aden the get there. One of those is the Norwegian company Odfjell, which weekly has got 2-3 ships passing through this area. For Odfjell this is a decision based on the crews safety, and will imply a large jump in costs due to the increased distance to be travelled.

The Norwegian Union of Ship-Owners (norsk rederiforbund) is frustrated that not enough is being done to rid this and other areas of piracy. The Union wants the Norwegian government to deploy military forces in the area to combat pirates. That might well be done, as the navy recently has been training on pirate-combating tactics. But even if Norway contributed to an international force, this would have to be huge, as the area in question is enormous - 6.6 million square kilometers. And also, of course the growth of piracy has its roots in the conditions in conflict-ridden Somalia itself. Without bettering the conditions in the country, solving the piracy-problem might be near impossible.

Political advertising..

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:28:00 +0000

Although political advertising is allowed in some media in Norway, it is not allowed in television. The ban on televised political ads has been a matter of some debate in Norway, and arguments both for and against lifting the ban has been put forward.

The strongest of the arguments is that to allow this would give the political parties with the most financial backing (i.e Labour and the Right Party) an unfair advantage in reaching more people with their message. The smaller parties like the Coastal Party (Kystpartiet) and even the Socialist Left Part (SV) would not be able to fund as much political advertising on TV. To lift the ban on televised political ads would be to subject the politics to the mechanisms of the capitalist market.

To a certain extent I do agree with this argument. Televised advertising is expensive, and only the largest and wealthiest parties would be able to afford to advertise enough for it to be effective. If it were to be allowed, it could be that this would lead to political parties being more driven to seek funding from private business. I do not believe that anyone gives away money for free. Funding comes with a price. So, if we could avoid that, it would be good.

All good arguments for upholding the ban aside, I still think it is a real democratic problem that the political parties are not allowed to present their political agendas and programmes in any unfiltered way on TV. Sure, we do have a good coverage of politics in the news, and politicians do partake on political TV-debates and other TV programs. But these are all filtered by journalists or debate-show hosts, often seeking to make their shows more interesting by focusing on the more sensational aspects and on conflict than necessarily on the parties' political programmes. And it is the journalists and show-hosts that decide exactly what is discussed.

It could be argued that the parties are allowed to present their message elsewhere, like e.g on their websites and in other media where they are allowed to advertise. But TV is still most people's main channel of information about politics, and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future.

Maybe in this matter we could get some ideas from the UK. Political advertising is not allowed in any laissez-faire fashion there either, but the parties are allowed a certain amount of free political TV advertising. This could be a way of solving this that we could contemplate as well. Each political party could be allotted a certain time for presenting their policies and their programmes on the state owned NRK (the same amount for each party or based on their number of seats in the Parliament). There could even be a minimum timeframe to avoid the parties presenting their policies in a too simplified way. Even "negative ads" could be allowed, by which I mean ads that point out weaknesses in the opposing parties' policies - this is a very effective way of unveiling inaccuracies etc. in such information.

Even if we take into account all the arguments for keeping a ban on political ads in TV, it is in my opinion very peculiar that we want to prevent our political parties and politicians from presenting their own policies. Instead of doing everything we can to educate the voters on the policies they are voting for or against, we are de facto limiting the range of information that voters are allowed. And in my mind, we are banning one of the most important sources of information.

About a road..

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:41:00 +0000

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

Some thoughts on book prices..

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Every month, I get an email from a book club that I joined some years ago, telling me which book is this month's title. The reason I joined the book club was pure and simple to get the "welcome present" of five free books, which I thought was a pretty good deal. The only drawback is that every month, I have to go through the hassle of canceling the book of the month. That I invariably do. Most often I don't find their monthly "recommendation" very recommendable, and besides I always have a sizable stack of books waiting to be read anyway.

But from time to time, there will be a title worth adding to my growing pile. That happened to be the case this month, with Geert Mak's In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century (hardcover) to the respectable price of NOK 375 (roughly 33 GBP or 42 Euros). But even though I find the title interesting, I would not consider for a second to buy it from the book club. Instead I head off to Amazon to find the same title for the much more appealing price of 6.54 GBP or NOK 74. (That is the paperback edition, but for the time being the title is not available in paperback in Norwegian.)

I do not think that I am alone doing this. A lot of people who, like me, are not too hindered by the (lack of) fluency in English, will opt for the English alternative even though they might have preferred to read it in Norwegian. That can not be good for our language, which some already perceive to be under pressure from English.

Another point is that it is not everyone who have a high enough competency in English to be able to go for the cheaper alternative. I would assume that for the "educated classes," the proportion of people having a high enough English skill is far higher than among the "less educated." To me, to keep the book prices in Norway so high does not seem to be good social policies. If we are so egalitarian as we claim to be, would it not be fair to make knowledge equally available to all?

The reason that book prices in Norway are so high is because there is a minimum price for books imposed. This is done to prevent online booksellers etc. from using their advantage to squeeze more provincial bookstores out of the market. If customers can get the same books cheaper from the online bookseller, they will not buy it dearer from their local bookstore. I do see the argument. But with international online booksellers available, this only serves to prevent Norwegian books from being sold at reasonable prices, one effect being that people buy English books instead. Isn't there a better way of promoting Norwegian books (both in original and translation) than pricing them so high that people can't afford to buy them?

Worries in the High North

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:01:00 +0000

In this week's issue, the Economist is featuring an article that highlights Russia's conduct in the Arctic areas. It describes this area, "cold, empty and rich in fish and minerals", as "a tempting prize for a big, confident country." Russian fighter jets have been frequently flying very close to Norwegian territory, something that while not illegal sends some worrying signals. The recent €4 billion emergency loan to Iceland is also a bit worrying - not in itself, but with regards to whatever Russia wants in return.

I have written some posts about this issue already; "The Bear and Us - Russia and Norway" and "The Bear and Us Revisited". My point in those articles was that although the Cold War is over, we should be very wary with regards to our Eastern neighbor.

As a tiny little country of only four and a half million people we are not in an ideal position if we should get into a conflict with Russia. But we still need to do everything in our power to stand our ground, and send clear signals of our own standpoint. Also, as I see it, we have no other choice than to keep both of our feet firmly grounded in NATO. It may be pointed out that "NATO presence is fitful" in the High North, as the Economist does. Still, it is a grave mistake to argue for us to distance ourselves from NATO and our Western allies, as some of our socialist parties do. We cannot afford to stand alone, and NATO is our best bet not to do so.

It has been sad to see that even our dear former Prime Minister, Haakon Lie, has been arguing against taking our share of responsibilities in NATO operations around the world. His rhetorical point is that Norway's borders are not running next to Afghanistan. That is of course true. But it is equally true that most NATO members do not have a border to Russia along the Pasvik River in Northern Norway.

Social levelling

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:14:00 +0000

If you follow the debate in Norwegian media about schools, you will frequently come across the term "sosial utjevning". The term, which can be roughly translated as "social levelling", digs straight into the strong egalitarian attitudes in Norway.

This term has got two sides to it. On the one side, we want to pull up the pupils and children that are struggling at school, and that have trouble learning important skills like reading, writing and arithmatics. This is of course right. To help struggling children to learn is an obligation we have as an inclusive society, and we need to try as hard as we can to help children that for some reason or other have problems learning. We need to do everything we can to help them acquire the skills needed to be successful in their lives. This goes for social skills, "hard skills" like reading, writing, calculus, and for instilling in them an understanding of what it entails to be part of a society.

But the term has also got an ugly back side, and it is this back side that I always react to whenever I come across this term. When you are levelling something out you are mending the dumps and holes, but you are also removing the bumps sticking up. Transferred onto the school system, this means that you pull up the struggling pupils, but you also pull some down, trying to make an average out of every pupil.

The idea behind this social levelling is to give every child the same opportunities to learn, indepentent of his or her parents' standing or financial resources. On the face of it, that is noble enough. But when this levelling is done by pulling some down, that is in my opinion inherently wrong. From my brief experience as a teacher, I know how many resources go to children with learning problems, and how much academically gifted children tend to be much more left on their own without much extra stimulus or extra challenges. As long as they master the curriculum, we are satisfied with that, and do not encourage them to reach further.

To be perfectly clear, I do not mean that we should stop making an effort to help children that struggle. But we also need to make an effort to help the children that display a gift for the traditional school curriculum to strive further. We should not try and level the children out and try to make them all equal by pulling some up and some down, but borrow the slogan of the American military and encourage every child to strive to be all that they can be.