Category: Politics
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The Shaman, the Angel Princess and the Violent Coke-Kid. What is happening to the Norwegian Royal Family?
Painting exposed in the National museum in Oslo, by Lena Trydal “Folkekongen”. Picture in the museum taken by Ionut Burchi. I don’t often write about the Royal family, but today a Norwegian princess got married! Time for some updates and thoughts on recent scandals and what they mean in today’s Norwegian society. The Norwegian Royal…
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EU, Alcohol policy, the King, Whale Hunting. A List of Dead Political Debates in Norway.
Many foreigners believe that almost any political change is possible in a democracy like Norway, and they are right in theory. But in practice some debates are just dead in Norway and political parties don’t even fight for them. Most of the time it is because there is a general consensus in the population that…
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The 10 Golden Rules of Being Pregnant in Norway
Illustration: Tori Lind Kjellstad, all rights reserved. Learn pregnant-Norwegian. You learned Norwegian, nynorsk or bokmål, but now that you are pregnant, words you’ve never heard before pop out of nowhere. In my case despite living and working here for 10 years and speaking fluent Norwegian, I had never heard the word bekkenløsning (pelvic pain in English,…
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Is Norway a Communist Country?
This is an assumption many non-Norwegians make, especially from North America. Here is a list of points that might make people believe Norway is a communist country: Norway has free education including higher education. University students even get a scholarship and a loan (from Lånekassen) on top of university being free. Norway can be seen as…
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Is Norway about to Make Abortion Illegal? Understanding Norway’s Hottest Political Debate
If you live in Norway you might have noticed a lot of headlines about a guy called Knut Arild Hareide, the head of KrF aka The Christian Democrats Party. (If you are lacking behind in terms of Norwegian political parties read this: Norwegian Politics for Dummies and Clueless Foreigners.) This is Knut Arild Hareide: You…
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When the Roses turned Black. Seven years after Utøya Survivors Receive Hatred and Death Threats.
I remember vividly, like all Norwegians and foreigners living in Norway back then, where I was during the Utøya attacks. Especially because I had walked passed the car Anders Behring Breivik had hidden a bomb in 15 minutes before it exploded. He was targeting the Prime Minister’s office in Regjeringskvartalen in the centre of Oslo. My…
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10 surprising reasons as to why Trump wants Norwegians to immigrate to the US
A few days ago, Trump (President of the US for those not following) has said that the US would rather not accept immigrants from “shit holes” but rather from countries like Norway. Here are 10 reasons I believe he wants them to immigrate. Keep in mind this is a satire (wink wink): There is no…
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Environment: The End of Norway’s Double Standard?
I am often asked by foreigners whether Norway is a champion or a devil when it comes to environmental protection. I can’t blame them, Norway seems schizophrenic on the topic of environment. On the one hand Norway has this image of champion at protecting the environment, with pictures of fjords and pure water to advertise…
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Understanding the 2017 National Norwegian Elections – for confused foreigners.
In case you have not noticed, Norway will be electing its Prime Minister next week on Monday the 11th of September. The last time this kind of election took place in Norway it was 4 years ago, and back then I was just understanding which colour was associated to which party. Although I still don’t…