Power to the People

If the Democratic Party in the USA would adopt a platform that looks something like this, they would easily take back the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. But apparently this is only possible in countries like Norway and Venezuela. Here's an article on the Norwegian budget:

Government presents 'offensive' budget

Norway's left-center coalition government presented its first state budget on Friday, unveiling a long list of proposals it claimed would change the country and further develop the Norwegian social welfare state. Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen claimed it was a budget that shows a government on the offensive.
Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen, from the Socialist Left party, is a key figure in the government coalition's budget proposal.

Halvorsen said the government's draft budget would "strengthen many of the social welfare obligations that are most important in Norway," and that it would "show our voters that we keep our promises."

The budget contains a large surplus, thanks to Norway's oil revenues, but nonetheless contains a series of tax hikes for Norwegians that total more than NOK 2 billion.

"The previous government chose tax relief," Halvorsen said. "The price we paid was a lack of day care centers for children, schools with fewer teachers, poorer services for the elderly. We wanted to change this."

She called the draft budget one "that will change Norway" and "further build up the Norwegian welfare state."

Income tax rates would rise for Norwegians earning more than NOK 650,000 (about USD 100,000) a year, while those with lower incomes will receive a higher personal deduction. Rates would also rise on the controversial tax Norway long has placed on individual net worth.

The tax on food items, meanwhile, would rise from 13 to 14 percent. Employers would see the tax they pay on employees (arbeidsgiveravgift) rise by one percentage point for workers over age 62.

These are just some of the revenue proposals that the left-center government coalition (made up of the Labour Party, the Socialist Left and the Center Party) is forwarding to the Parliament, all part of their drive for what they see as a socially-minded distribution of wealth.

The government plans to use the money on a variety of health and welfare programs, including NOK 2.2 billion in additional funding to local hospitals, NOK 700 million more for psychiatric health programs and nearly NOK 300 million for physical therapy and aid to the elderly.

The government also wants to boost foreign aid to the world’s poorest people by NOK 2.2 billion (USD 338 million).

Window Displays Offer Insight to Hopes and Aspirations of Stavanger Residents

Many Norwegians take for granted the ubiquitous window displays, or mini-galleries, that grace the streets of Stavanger. I have been greeted with shrugs of shoulders upon my inquiries to locals about the nature and meaning of the artwork, which has only left me more curious. Transcending the social and economic strata, this proliferation of individualized window art has also been noted and swiftly adopted by many immigrants, so it is no longer a uniquely native Norwegian phenomenon. Indeed, it is a common thread that binds everyone who lives in or passes through Stavanger, and therefore is a major source of pride in the area.

But what does it all mean? There are far too many displays for it to be considered purely an action by quirky individuals crying out for attention or validity in a socially conservative society. I have come to understand it as a window into the thoughts and dreams of the local residents.

The displays have been interpreted as a way to distinguish one house from another, since most are strikingly similar in appearance and texture, the colors ranging from white to gray to pale yellow and "baby poop" yellowish brown, but I think that no matter how disoriented one becomes under the influence of intoxicants, one can always find his own home.

Frequently plastic flowers are featured as a centre-piece to the exhibits. The better ones are faded by the sun, to give the appearance of comfort, like a familiar old pair of blue jeans. But the flowers are not a necessity - many windows feature flowerless plastic plants, again, the more faded the better. Some have interpreted the plastic plants and flowers as a softness in the heart of the Norwegians, like the longing for a more moderate climate that could foster such a sophisticated, beautiful type of organism. I have found, however, that an indoor environment almost anywhere is conducive to growing flowering and non-flowering plants, such as orchids, ferns, and geraniums, with only a minimal care needed.

Flowers, in general, represent the conception of an eternal Spring - a time of freshness, growth, curiosity, newness, imagination, enchantment, love, wonder, renaissance, and fruition. Plants represent a simplicity of life and basic needs, a balance of give and take. The plant collects light, water, and nutrients from the Earth, and in exchange changes carbon dioxide into fresh oxygen. It represents co-existence of different life forms. It says that we need each other, and on a more profound level, we are all inter-related, be we Scandinavian, African, Latin, Asian or Continental. Our different skills and cultures help each other to thrive. Add the plastic nature into the picture, and the result is a well-intentioned, manufactured synthetic society. In this society, appearance matters more than substance. Like hospitality to a stranger, at first it seems genuine, but over time the enthusiasm fades, as do the plastic flowers. A presentation of how we see the unlimited possibilities of our bountiful world when we are young eventually turns into a presention of the faded hopes and aspirations of a manufactured world as we age and our egalitarian ideals fade, and we turn our attention and imagination toward making and hoarding money. In seeming compensation, many of the older displays feature pottery, sculptures and idols, to represent the exchange of beautiful ideals for garish material wealth, the more crass the better the representation. Others feature old-timey artifacts to demonstrate the longing for simpler more innocent times. In fact, these days, many of the newer exhibits dispense entirely with the illusion of moral beauty and feature only distasteful knick-knacks, sometimes interlaced with pseudo-religious or sexual undertones. Some of the disillusioned younger folk even dispense entirely with all of the above and display only spent beer bottles to show their frustration with the situation. No fooling around here.

To underscore the popularity of these displays, Stavanger boasts numerous retail establishments that service this demand, and a Saturday market has even sprung up by popular demand, where residents can purchase or trade all levels of such demonstrative objects, as pictured below.

In the end, the window art exhibits are an expression of visual protest to the inescapable closed-minded manufactured society that has been allowed to dominate the lives of the inhabitants.

Norway Swings to the Left

Joins Spain, Portugal, France, Holland and Italy in leftward shift.

"The bloc led by Labour Party is set to get 88 seats, while Mr Bondevik's coalition is trailing with 81 seats. Labour has vowed to spend more on welfare benefits using oil revenues. Mr Bondevik had called for tax cuts. "

Broken Umbrella, Broken Bicycle

I've literally stumbled upon a brilliant Norwegian concept based on, and in answer to Broken Column, a set of sculptures that an Englishman placed about town. Many websites feature all of the quantitative data associated with Broken Column, such as distance above sea level, size, and maps to locate them, detailed information on constuction and placement methods and so forth, and refrain from trying to interpret the meaning of the work. The following Norwegian concepts defy quantitative analysis, and therefore the viewer is left with a more pure environment for reflecting on the nature of their meaning.

Broken Umbrella is a popular interactive work in which many loosely associated artists participate. The umbrellas, once transformed to appear to be broken, are placed about town, but not actually secured to the ground, so each day the sculpture actually physically changes shape and form! Most are neither open nor closed but somewhere in between, some appearing to be open and closed concurrently, I imagine to represent discord, and they are always carefully placed to approximate the illusion of the randomness of life in flux. New umbrellas are constantly being added in the Broken Umbrella Festival season, which usually runs from October through May, with the exception of December through February, which is Lost Glove Festival season. If you observe closely, you can even catch a glimpse of these elusive anarchic artists creating their works.

From June through September, a different subset of artists take over, and Norwegians celebrate Broken Bicycle. BB follows the same pattern, but features a combination of temporary and permanent works. You need to be quick to chart the location of, or photograph the temporary ones because the locations are frequently changed. The exhibits are a striking portrayal of the human spirit. Once new, clean and free to fly about, and over time, piece by piece, component by component, gradually worn down and damaged from overwork and rusted from an opressive environment, the tyres flattened and dry-rotted from supressed emotions, feelings, dreams, imagination, and finally, with a lack of care the bicycles, representing spiritual freedom, are disposed of like a cheap commodity.

Also from June through August, but mostly on Thursday through Sunday nights, the related Broken Bottle and Broken Nose festivals, dubbed "Living Art," are celebrated. The overarching principle is careful planning to ensure an appearance of chaos to the viewing public.

These works specifically define and secure Stavanger's place in its new title of "European City of Culture, 2008."

1. Mai Jazz Festival

Each May, Stavanger hosts several of the most well-known jazz artists in the world. The venues are spread out through the town for a long weekend, packed with jazz shows. Each theatre is different, and Stavangeren, for one, is a hundred year old cubical wood house. The inside is gutted and has seats on the floor and a balcony with more seats. It is effectively a big bass speaker and the musicians love to play there because the sound resonates so well. Seeing a couple of shows there in a year can really lift your spirits to help to see you through the rest of the rainy and cloudy year. 2005's festival featured Joshua Redman's screaming sax, and the bass of Stanley Jordan. How nice it would be to be able to see such shows year round, but for four days it is a slice of pure heaven. Plan to go!

2. Kulturhuset

The culture house has a library, the most comfortable cinema I've ever experienced, an art museum, a kids' museum, an outdoor cafe in the centre of town, and a fantastic music library with tens of thousands of cds and dvds for loan, including comprehensive jazz and soul sections, and even two guitars and a piano to attract musicians. A great resource.

3. Pure Water, Right from the Tap

Let the tap run cold for 20 seconds to clear out sediment in the pipes, and you have, for next to nothing, the cleanest freshest sweet water available to mankind on the planet. Water is the best drink in Norway, and in addition, makes a crucial ingredient for the high quality locally produced lager.

4. Robust Democracy

Here’s a place where there are many political parties, and they need to build coalitions to have enough power to govern. This means debating issues in a serious way and can give a small party power if they are needed to swing the vote. In a definitive kind of way, a robust democracy has many parties, one of which representing the viewpoint of any particular citizen, giving rise to a feeling of inclusion in the system and therefore, trust in the system. The current breakdown of support is listed in a link to the right titled “8 – Support Level for Political Parties.”

The only thing that gives one pause is the phenomenon of the rise in popularity of the "Progress Party," which is openly xenophobic and economically on the extreme right. The corporate Norwegian press picks up and broadcasts much of leader Carl Hagen's ranting against foreigners and his extreme views, sort of acting as a cheerleader. The fueling and rise of anti foreigner sentiment has created two distinct realities for native and immigrant Norwegians, and threatens the level of quality in education and innovation in the Norwegian economy, as there is neither a government agency nor laws to protect immigrants against discrimination. Check out the link to the right under "8 – Discrimination," which highlights some typical experiences of foreign born Norwegians and would-be immigrants. As the immigrant population grows and to the extent it is excluded from participating in Norwegian society, it is likely that the quality of life so treasured will deteriorate. Trust in the system comes from inclusion in the system. So in a way, Hagen is right in identifying immigration as an issue, but the problem is in the way Norwegian society as a whole treats newcomers and not in the culture from which the immigrants come, and his frequently broadcasted comments hurt the process. The media is not a democratic institution, so it is incorrect believe that it functions like one, but still, why do they always support the extreme right? Eventually maybe there will be an immigrant party, or maybe someone from one of the existing parties will figure out that they can be used as a voting bloc and will take up their cause.

But in the end, this is a robust democracy, and the Norwegian government policies accurately reflect what the majority of Norwegians want, for better or worse, unlike many nations where the government policy is shaped by monied interests against the will of the public, and for this reason the Norwegian democracy is included in my top 10.

5. Fresh Fish, Shellfish, Crabs and Shrimp

Available at the dock between the oil museum and the huge parking garage. One of the best benefits of living by the sea is the easy access to the fruits of the sea. There's nothing like fresh seafood and shellfish on a cold and gray Saturday to rekindle the spirit. The smoked salmon available from a 100 year old smokehouse named "Janas - Quality Product of Norway," near Johannes Skole at Johannesgate 37 is excellent and relatively cheap. And, if you're resourceful, you can collect mussels and catch makerel and cod yourself for little or no effort. So fresh and tasty!

6. No Crime to Speak of

Because Norway has a high tax rate and therefore an adequate social safety net, you don't see the kind of violent crime, such as broken car windows, break-ins, muggings, etc. that you can see every day in other places. The drug addicts get enough money for their addictions without needing to resort to theft and violent crime. At the worst, you hear drunks in the streets at night yelling, or wake up to broken poor quality vodka bottles on the street. The lack of violent crime makes it enjoyable to go out walking, or walk home from a show or bar, even late at night without worrying about physical injury. When crossing roads, the walk signals actually work, and drivers stop. Even at crosswalks on busy roads with no crossing light, the drivers slam on the brakes to stop when you step out onto the street to cross. With stiff penalties for traffic violations and many cameras about, virtually no one speeds or attempts to drive with the slightest alcohol in their system, and the cops generally don’t need to carry weapons to enforce the law.

7. Broken Column

English artist Antony Gormley made iron castings of his body, placed them all about Stavanger, and called the work Broken Column. The work is an interactive set of sculptures that encourages viewers to reflect, think, and use their imagination to deal with the fact that something like this exists in this town. When one sees it, one is tempted to find out more about it, and contemplate not only the literal, but implied meaning of what a broken column represents. Often you see T-shirts (and yes, sometimes black ones) with messages draped over the bodies, or crude magic marker scribblings of private parts as evidence that it caused someone to think for himself, within the limits of his cultural awareness.

I’ve never heard Gormley talk about his influences, but Frida Kahlo had a painting called "The Broken Column" from 1944 that suggested the following to one afficionado: "The Column itself, which is broken, shows one of the sources of her pain, the nails in her body show in a physical way the pain she was enduring, and the tears in Frida's eyes show that her pain was excruciating. Frida's face shows both courage, and resignation; Frida's nudity may suggest that she felt she could do little about her situation. But in spite of all her pain, Frida kept on expressing herself by making outstanding paintings..." (from http://www.fbuch.com/fridaby.htm). And in a way, this is something we all feel with the forces backed by trillions of dollars shaping our world, but yet finding our own individual way to thrive.

Money spent on projects like this adds to the cultural prosperity of the recipients. Art should serve the purpose of stimulating ideas, imagination and creativity in its viewers, paving the way toward interesting conversation and challenging sometimes repressive traditional assumptions. To this end, publicly funded art is money well invested. Or, put another way, the level of funding for, and existence of public and private works devoted to this kind of art in a community can be correlated into a measure of the level of cultural sophistication of that community.

8. Natural Beauty and Outdoor Activities

Being a large country with interesting geographic features and a small population, much of Norway is visually stunning. Even in the areas where sheep grazing has left large areas of almost bare rock, the views are still beautiful. There is so much to do and see around the fjord country of Stavanger, and almost all of it is accessable by public transportation or bicycle on a network of safe bicycle paths.

The first thing that comes to mind is Preikestolen, a rock table, the edges of which drop 600 meters straight down into a fjord. From Stavanger, it’s a quick ferry ride, a bus ride (waiting for the ferry on the other end) and then a couple hour hike up the mountain to the formation. Pack a lunch!

It’s worth mentioning that in Norway, access to the land belongs to the people, so unless land is being farmed you can camp there, wherever you want in the whole country. Also, no individual can own the seafront, so you could conceivably walk the entire coast without trespassing, and no fishing license is needed in coastal areas, so you could also conceivably pull your food from the sea to fuel your hike.

The sandy beaches of Jaeren are known for their excellent surfing conditions, and are one of the best places in Europe to surf.

If you’re into snowboarding or skiing, Norway is famous for its facilities.

There are a wide range of festivals in the summer months so just get out and enjoy it. If you have access to a car, be sure to see Sirdal, up in hytta country. You can’t take a bad photograph there.

9. Traditional Hyttas

The hytta is tradionally a simple but tastefully built holiday cabin in a remote area, and the majority of Norwegians have one in the family, and if not, at least access to one. Since there are many lakes and fjords, many of the hyttas are reachable only by water, and others are near ski areas in the mountains, usually without a road to the door, so some packing and hiking is involved. Many don’t have electricity either.

The idea is to get away from the business and stress of town life and noise of traffic and power tools, and to relax in a beautiful setting with the family by going out on a boat, hiking, skiing, cooking together, reading, or just hanging out in front of the wood stove talking. There has been a trend lately toward the “bigger than yours” type of construction, but public opinion is largely against this kind of vulgarity and the majority remain simple and natural.

10. Fiscal Responsibility

Norway is one of the few places on Earth where the government is planning for the financial future of its citizens. Norway was dirt poor before petroleum was discovered in the late 1960s, and the Norweigians know the value of a buck, or krone, as the case may be.

The CIA describes the Norwegian economy as follows:

"The Norwegian economy is a prosperous bastion of welfare capitalism, featuring a combination of free market activity and government intervention. The government controls key areas, such as the vital petroleum sector (through large-scale state enterprises). The country is richly endowed with natural resources - petroleum, hydropower, fish, forests, and minerals and is highly dependent on its oil production and international oil prices, with oil and gas accounting for one-third of exports. Only Saudi Arabia and Russia export more oil than Norway. Norway opted to stay out of the EU during a referendum in November 1994; nonetheless, it contributes sizably to the EU budget. The government has moved ahead with privatization. With arguably the highest quality of life worldwide, Norwegians still worry about that time in the next two decades when the oil and gas will begin to run out. Accordingly, Norway has been saving its oil-boosted budget surpluses in a Government Petroleum Fund, which is invested abroad and now is valued at more than $150 billion. After lackluster growth of 1% in 2002 and 0.5% in 2003, GDP growth picked up to 3.3% in 2004."

Of particular note is that the current government, although "a bastion of welfare capitalism" is currently run by a centre right government. I would guess what the CIA means by "a bastion of welfare capitalism" is that significant resources are devoted to keeping Norwegians out of poverty - resulting in Norway's #1 ranking by the United Nations' Human Development Report which ranks 173 countries for their quality of life, and that Norway, after its occupation in WWII, established itself as an egalitarian society. This is being chipped away at though, as "the government has moved ahead with privatization." History would bear that Norway is moving backward and not ahead as they privatize.

Norway has established a national savings called the Petroleum Fund. Wikipedia describes it as follows:

"The Petroleum Fund of Norway (see link to right labelled "10 - Petroleum Fund") is a government controlled fund owned by the people of Norway. Also called The Petroleum Fund.

The purpose of the fund is to invest parts of the large surplus generated by the Norwegian petroleum sector (mainly taxes of companies, but also payment for license to explore). It is predicted that revenues from the petroleum sector have reached their peak and will decline significantly over the next couple of decades. (editorial note - with petroleum prices on the rise, this is proving debatable) The Petroleum Fund was established in 1990 after a decision by the Norwegian Parliament to counter the effects of the forthcoming decline in income and to smooth out the disrupting effects of highly fluctuating oil prices.

The fund is administred by the Norwegian Central Bank. It reached a portfolio value of over NOK 1 trillion ($170 billion) in the first quarter of 2005.

Since 1998 the fund was allowed to invest up to 50% of its portfolio in the international stock market.

Debate

Due to the large size of the fund relative to the low number of people living in Norway (4.5 million people), the Petroleum Fund has become a hot political issue. The three major themes of discussion are:

If one should use more of the current oil revenues to solve current problems instead of putting the wealth into financial "gambling" through The Petroleum fund.

Con: No one shouldn't, investing money from outside the regular economy will drive inflation.
Pro: Yes one should, it will not affect the inflation if one invests in the right places.

If the high exposure (around 40% in 2003) to the highly fluctuating stock market is financially safe.

Con: Banks are safer
Pro: Evidence show that stocks generate more value over time than money.

If the investment policy of The Petroleum Fund is ethical.

Con: It is not possible to control.
Pro: It is possible to control.

Part of the investment policy debate are related to the discovery of several cases of investment by The Petroleum Fund in highly controversial companies, involved in businesses such as arms production and tobacco. The Petroleum Fund’s Advisory Council on Ethics was established 19th November 2004 by Royal Decree. Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance issued a new regulation on the management of the Government Petroleum Fund which also includes ethical guidelines."

The investment of this money, in being subject to politics in Norway and the Norwegian democracy being a robust one with many parties that reflects the will of the majority of Norwegians, is debated and invested as the majority of the population wishes. Now there's democracy in action. The reason this is one of my top ten items is because I think it’s very cool that this money wasn’t spent by the government on handouts to the rich or on secret no-bid contracts to ex-employers of prominent politicians.