Norwegianne.net

Category: Politics

  • Expensive to live in Norway

    StavangerAgain and again it seems like Norwegian cities are amongst the most expensive places to live in the world – based on cost of living, excluding rent.

    Latest comes this from Numbeo, where four of the ten cities on the top-ten list are Norwegian.

    1. Trondheim

    2. Stavanger

    4. Oslo

    9. Bergen.

    Numbeo takes its numbers from people who report them, so I suppose it also varies where people shop when it comes to groceries, but still…

    Recent example of cost-reporting on their homepage. A small cappuccino costs €1.50 in Verona, Italy. It costs 49.50 NOK in Stavanger. Converted to a mutual denominator, such as dollars, a cappuccino costs just under $2 (or $1.9 to be precise) in Verona, whereas in Stavanger it costs a bit over $8 (or $8.2 to be precise).

    However, to weigh up for the high cost of living, the salaries are also fairly compatible. Mostly. Which again drives up the cost… and the cycle continues.

  • Ponderings on the Norwegian Municipal elections 2012

    Today it is election day in Norway. We have elections every second year, alternating between parliamentary and municipality/county elections. This  time it is municipalities and counties that are up for grabs.

    As I mentioned in August, I have already voted electronically.

    I haven’t really changed my mind. The only thing that has vaguely tipped me away from the party I voted for back then was the planned expansion of the toll-road around my part of town, but the only party that is against that is also so douche-baggy that I really don’t want them to have my vote for anything.

    As we don’t have a two party system, we do have a lot of parties. I overheard someone say that voting for smaller parties is a vote wasted. But, if we all thought like that, we would end up with a two party system, and I think we would be poorer for it.

    There will be an election wake going on television tonight, but, unlike the parliamentary elections, I can’t muster that much interest in the results to watch. I’ll be settling down on the couch with a pair of knitting needles watching my box set of Bones. I’m not much of a political junkie.

  • National Day of Mourning

    21. August will be a National memorial in Norway. There will be an arrangement later today.

    The song below is another of those songs that have really been the “soundtrack” so to speak, for getting through this tragedy. It was written as an ironic approach to the European Union referendum in Norway in the 90s, but was re-recorded with Maria Mena soon after the attacks, and seem to have a level of comfort in it.

    Almost a month since it happened.

  • Norwegian elections

    Even though the Norwegian election campaigning has been postponed by the Utøya shootings, I have still managed to vote as the election itself is going normally. Election day is September 12, but they open up for distance voting a fair bit before that.

    And this year, they’re also experimenting. 10 municipalities in Norway are offering electronic voting. I happen to live in one of them.

    I would have gone to vote on September 12, at my local school – but this is shiny and new… and I just had to try.

    Essentially, what they have done is give each Norwegian their own secure (or so they claim) virtual identity with accompanying pin codes. You can apply for study loans, you can check your taxes, you can apply for kindergarten places for your children, and so on, with these virtual identities. And now the citizens in ten municipalities can also vote.

    It was remarkably easy. I’m not sure how secure it was, but if I am worried about that, I can still head down to the paper voting on September 12 – testing the electronic system does not negating voting by paper. I can also change my vote as many times as I’d like by September 12.

    It is the last cast vote that counts.

  • Signs of Spring in Norway

    Every year there are certain signs that spring is coming to Norway: the snow is melting, the crocuses are popping up – and there is a possibility of widespread trade union strikes hanging over our heads.

    In Norway, the trade unions hold the potential to paralyze the country for weeks on end. The unions have gathered in clusters, to be able to put forward more powerful demands. The biggest cluster contains roughly 25% of the population of working age.

    And it seems like all these confederations or clusters of trade unions have chosen to negotiate in the spring.

    This week there was a potential for a transport union strike. It would have put a stop to all transportation by bus. School buses included. Negotiations past the deadline ensured that it did not happen. (Instead we got ash from Iceland, putting all planes and helicoptres on the ground)

    There is still a possibility of a construction strike, I think. I’ve chosen to be ignorant of the possibilities – until I am forced to accept them as realities.

    Last year, on my first day of work… there was a possibility of a strike at my new place of work. Not the thing you want when you’re new and uncertain of where to go or what to do.

    As a kid, I used to love the season, and the possibility that school would be closed on account of strikes. And once it was.

    The biggest obstacles come when airline pilots or crew steike, when the healthcare sector does, but also when the garbage collectors do – or the truckers who transport food to the grocery stores. There was a major strike of the truckers some years back – and we almost returned to the rationing system of WWII due to the scarcity of foods in the stores.

    But most of the time, springtime in Norway moves on without much trouble at all. Except for this year with the ash coming in from Iceland.

  • Norwegian election night…

    Election in Norway tomorrow. Unlike the presidential elections in the US, when I stayed up all night to watch the results on the BBC, I will be sleeping in my bed. The reasons for that are many, but the most obvious one at the moment is that I’m no longer a student, who has the next day off… There is actually work on Tuesday.

    The other reasons are that I am currently not owning a television set. I gave my old one away when I moved from Denmark, and I haven’t got to the point where I have bought a new one.

    I suppose it will be streamed on the net, if I do decide to watch, so not owning a television set is no hindrance in that regard.

    But the race looks to be so close anyway, that it probably won’t be decided night to Tuesday anyway.

    I will be voting tomorrow. And it won’t be for the same party that I have voted for until now. Which makes the end result a bit more interesting. But I still won’t be watching the tallying of the votes. Unless Norwegian politics somehow becomes more interesting in the next 24 hours…