Konkurranse: Finn flest feil.
Mvh,
Per
---------- Forwarded message ----------
So, This Is Heaven: Norway
A U.N. report named it the top place to live. And the once poor nation
is dedicated to spreading its now substantial wealth.
By CAROL J. WILLIAMS
Times Staff Writer
November 8 2001
OSLO -- Imagine a world so shielded from modern dangers that children
accept candy from strangers.
Think about a place where lifelong financial security is guaranteed,
no matter how many layoffs, stock market crashes or catastrophic
illnesses come your way.
Consider the psychological well-being of belonging to a country where
no one is homeless or hungry, where women and men are equal, where a
pristine environment is reverentially protected and where sharing the
wealth with the world's less fortunate is a moral obligation.
Norway is not utopia--after all, it does suffer the occasional
incursions of the cruel outside world. But most Norwegians admit that
in terms of uplifting ideals and earthly comforts, life in this
country is as good as it gets.
And this year's U.N. Human Development Report confirms that: It ranks
Norway the No. 1 place in the world to live, based on a cocktail of
indicators about health, wealth and social outlook.
Of course, the measurements don't take into account the fact that
darkness falls by 3 p.m. half the year and tax rates swallow up to 60%
of your income. Also escaping the statisticians' notice are new social
strains created by a sudden influx of immigrants into a longhomogenous
nation.
But the glowing report card has filled many of the 4.5 million people
holding passports to this place at the top of the world with newfound
pride and a sense of validation that sharing and caring aren't
extinct.
And although there is much muttering over high taxes, many Norwegians
contend that they should be giving even more of their money to solve
the rest of the world's problems.
"Our moral obligation to share the wealth increases with the amount of
our wealth," says International Development Minister Anne Kristin
Sydnes, noting that the North Sea oil that is the primary source of
Norway's prosperity should be viewed as a global resource.
Norway's North Sea tracts have proved to be a bountiful source of the
precious commodity, turning this country once dependent on fishing and
farming into the No. 2 oil exporter in the world. Even with
fluctuating oil prices, Norway has skillfully managed the state-owned
industry and amassed a public fund of $60 billion.
"We could easily give five times as much as we do in foreign
assistance," argues Ingebrigt Steen Jensen, a media magnate who
insists that most Norwegian entrepreneurs hold global welfare above
personal enrichment. "We have this huge cake, but we can't eat it all,
so isn't it better to share it with this room full of hungry people
than to put it in the freezer for later?"
Like many Scandinavians, Jensen recoils at what he calls the excesses
of American life, from the prevalence of handguns and poor people to
the death penalty and class distinctions that deprive some urban
children of equality in education.
"This probably looks something close to a communist regime," he says
of his own country's penchant for social leveling. "But here even the
police are unarmed."
Although crime does exist--there are about 50 killings a year and
thousands of petty thefts--Norwegians enjoy a sense of personal
security unimaginable to Americans. Most people leave their homes
unlocked, and no one hesitates to stop and help a motorist in trouble.
Norway also is one of the few countries that donates millions more in
foreign aid than the U.N. target of 0.7% of a nation's gross domestic
product.
Jan Erik Hansen, cultural editor for the influential daily newspaper
Aftenposten, believes Norwegians also are committed to their outsize
role in foreign development because it elevates an otherwise powerless
country into the ranks of global players.
"Norway is a very small country--something we don't like to recognize,
and we don't have to when we occupy a fair number of important
international positions," Hansen says.
He contends that the nearly 1% of GDP spent each year to fight global
poverty and enhance peace buys his nation both clout and
respectability. Oslo often plays a mediating role in foreign
conflicts, from efforts to reconcile North and South Korea to the
now-foundering Middle East peace process.
Although taxpayers have long supported Norway's international
generosity, last month's parliamentary elections reflected some dismay
with the way the Labor-led government has handled finances in the oil
boom times. After the Labor Party posted its worst showing since 1924
on the day before the Sept. 11 attacks, a conservative-led coalition
came to power under Christian Democratic leader Kjell Magne Bondevik
with a mandate to lower taxes and tap the oil fund to overcome
shortages in the social welfare system.
But social analysts say Norwegians are unlikely to cut back on foreign
aid, especially following the U.S. attacks, seen by some as an extreme
form of revenge for perceived social injustice. And even the lavish
domestic spending on cradle-to-grave services is unlikely to be
abandoned, because the benefits are tangible.
"In a welfare state, which is what we have built here, no matter who
your parents are you have the right to an education or hospital care
as good as anyone else's," says Anne Lise Ryel, deputy justice
minister. "Opportunities don't depend on social class, and no one
wants to change that."
This is a society firmly grounded in egalitarian values, and Norway's
public schools are of such quality that even the royal family attends
to the pandemic informality--the king is addressed simply as Harald
and the prime minister as Kjell Magne.
Choices for Women
One factor that helped lift Norway to the top life-quality rung was
its success in achieving gender equality. Although there are no
official quotas, as there are in neighboring Sweden, women in Norway
occupy half the Cabinet and parliament seats and fill more than 40% of
judicial and academic posts.
"We place a very high value on both work and having a family and
believe a woman should never have to choose one or the other. Most
women with children continue to work in Norway, not because they have
to but because they want to," Ryel says.
Three-year maternity leaves, broad part-time opportunities and
creative application of telecommuting help keep women in the work
force. So do the generous benefits for both men and women of eight
weeks' vacation, liberal sick leave and day care that is reliable and
inexpensive.
At the office, there is a continuous supply of coffee and pastries,
and workaholics are objects of pity among their peers.
But the very success of Norway's social services is presenting the
country with new problems. Good medical care for every citizen has
raised life expectancy to one of the world's highest levels at 78.4
years, placing new demands on the health-care system as the population
ages. State assistance to single mothers is so generous that there is
no need for a father's income. Half the children here are now born out
of wedlock.
And Norway's commitment to providing education, libraries, day care
and government services of uniform quality across a territory as long
as the U.S. West Coast eats up more of the abundant resources with
each year, since public investment in thinly populated regions is just
as expensive as in urban centers.
Philosophy professor Arne Naess complains that there is also something
lacking in a country that is so self-sufficient.
"People don't talk to each other here. Everyone walks around alone and
preoccupied," says the professor, who will soon turn 90. "There was
more of a sense of togetherness after the war and until the 1960s,
when we got all this oil money."
Apparently, Norwegians have more of an affinity with nature than with
other Norwegians. They feel a unique bond with the sea, forest and
mountains despite the severe winters, Naess says. "I don't know any
other country where there is this intense connection with nature."
A land of striking beauty, with its coastal tracery of fiords and
snowcapped mountains, Norway has remained untouched by pollution as it
has evolved from a fishing and farming society into high-tech and
white-collar business without an intervening phase of heavy industry.
To take advantage of the abundant natural splendor, almost every
family has at least one weekend home in the mountains or on the sea.
Environmental quality was among the lifestyle indicators evaluated in
the U.N. development rankings, in which the United States placed sixth
among the 162 countries examined. Per capita GDP is highest in the
United States, at $31,872 compared with Norway's $28,433. But outright
wealth in the U.S. was superseded by a less effective war on poverty
at home and abroad, shorter life expectancy and higher crime rates.
As Norwegians learn to settle into a lifestyle that is the rest of the
world's envy, purveyors of pampering and self-improvement are enjoying
boom times despite a traditional abhorrence of flaunting money. Oslo,
with only 500,000 people, now has four restaurants with Michelin
stars, and sales of home spas have risen 20% in each of the past few
years.
For the most part, however, Norwegians don't consider fine dining or a
personal sauna to be luxurious indulgences.
"There is a strong focus on being healthy and not letting yourself get
overweight," says Per Lome, director of the Tylo sauna and steam-bath
franchise here. He estimates that 60% of new homes and country
cottages are now equipped with home spas.
More problematic for Norwegians are the flashy cars and ever-bigger
boats showing up on the streets and shoreline as some Norwegians
abandon modest traditions.
"There's definitely a trend toward bigger and bigger boats," says
Morton Taroy of the Oslo Boat Center. "It's the same with Ferrari
sales. Ten years ago, you wouldn't be able to drive around in a car
like that because it would be seen as showing off. Nowadays you see
them everywhere. It's the difference between old money and new money."
Because Norway's oil wealth is managed by the government with an eye
to benefiting future generations as well as today's, the $7,000 per
capita income from the industry doesn't go directly into each
Norwegian's pocket but into a fund. Still, the huge budget surpluses
provided by the oil money allow the state to fully finance what in
most countries are personal expenses, such as saving for retirement or
a child's college education.
Statistics Norway, the national profiling agency, reports that the
average Norwegian spends more than 26% of his or her income on
leisure-time comforts. And in sharp contrast with other countries in
densely populated Europe, 80% of the households are single-family
homes or spacious apartments in small-unit clusters.
Many Retain Frugality
Having been among the poorest of Europeans for the first half of the
20th century, many Norwegians retain a frugality bred by that
hardship.
"Most people are still very cost-conscious," says Annelise Sorli, a
young mother and travel agent. "More than a million Norwegians travel
each year on charter holidays, and the cheaper destinations, like
Turkey and Bulgaria, are always the first to sell out."
The opportunities most Norwegians have to indulge their wanderlust is
helping them learn to appreciate the advantages they have long taken
for granted, Sorli says.
"We live in a very safe country. We don't have to worry about
something happening to our children when we are at work or what will
happen to us when we get older," she says. "But it's human nature to
look at what could be better. Sometimes it's good to go abroad and be
reminded of how much we already have."
But that recognition of good fortune is rare despite Norwegians'
relatively recent experience on the other end of the affluence
spectrum.
At Jensen's Dinamo Media Agency, in an elegant 19th century villa
overlooking Oslo Fiord, the employee-owners work in jeans and sweaters
and gather for brainstorming sessions over pizza. They work flexible
hours, strive for Fridays free of e-mail and encourage each other to
get home by 5 p.m.
"The one thing people say they don't have enough of is time--money and
material goods are way down the list of what people want," says
Jensen, himself bemused by the elusive commodity. "My grandfather
worked 68 hours a week, cut his own wood, had no modern conveniences
and still managed to play in the local band. I work 37 hours, I have
every appliance and convenience, I don't even accompany my children to
the barber, yet I feel like I don't have any time."
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 11-07-02 MET DST