World events

Thanks, Alan & Tim! Hardly a 'world event', but it's a big thing for us in this weird little CORNER of the world.

I haven't been to the town or the parades, but I'm donning a suit soon and going downtown for some BBQ and specialty beers with friends. The weather is variable, but right now pretty good.

I need to post a couple of Youtube videos in the day's honour (I'm allowed a bit of patriotism today, I hope).

A choral a cappella version of our national anthem set to images of Norway (moves me to goosebumps every time I watch it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl … UtiIMZIVOU

And then a video of May 17th in Oslo, as seen through the eyes of an American traveller:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl … AjW0710Fz4

There has been a factory fire about a mile from our house. Roads closed, trains delayed, etc.

Exploding propane tanks shook the house at the the height of the fire. It's been going on now for 4 hours and is now dying down.

I'm glad it's all gone well and is healthy etc etc other than that I don't care at all.

^
I approve.

Nobody talks about our new king. But a baby, who barely said anything clever, gets all the attention.

Ridiculous!

Royal stuff annoys me. I find something fundamentally wrong about the idea that some people are better or more interesting than others simply because they have been born into a particular family. It's one of the parts of human nature i find the worst, when people worship others for no good reason. It annoys me that wars and things that really matter are considered less important news than some rich chick having a baby. It annoys me that I'm constantly bombarded with this stuff every time I turn on the telly. And it annoys me that a huge amount of taxes go to that instead of health care and education.

Anyway, I realise that many people need this stuff, and royalty might be the safest outlet for this need to worship, as they don't have any real political power anymore; so politically I'm not really a republican.

Peter

I did! Impressed you noticed the going-ons in our small and insignificant country.

While I was in the booth, I also saw that there was a referendum about Olympic Games application for 2022. I voted 'no'.

Well, that was a mixed experience.

My own party -- Venstre (maybe close to Social Liberals in an international context) -- is still very small, but did well and is in a government position. The big, SCARY thing about the result is that we're getting a new, right-wing government (and the progressive right will be part of the government!) and a new prime minister. I can only hope that the two big right-wing parties which form government will ask Venstre to be part of it, and then Venstre can hopefully 'torpedo' some of their worst policies (esp. in relation to the environment, immigration etc.) or at least find reasonable compromises that don't completely undermine our social-democratic tradition.

Damn, it's difficult to speak about Norwegian politics in English so that it makes sense to everyone.

Unbelievably thoughtless, that's for sure.

I wonder what Fancy Dress fan HARRY thinks about it?

It's not even all that original.

The paper knows that it will infuriate a section of the readership. When you think about it, the newspaper is trying to gain from the tragedy of that day. Just like all the papers do when it comes to stories about Diana.

The even more insidious rag The Daily Mail would always give it a good run for it's money, though unlike The Sun they'd suck any last semblance of "fun" out of it.

If anyone were to read THIS then we'd probably not bother doing any Christmas shopping.

But I have a feeling that whatever they say and whatever slant they put on "legitimate" stories can be disregarded.

Christmas shopping it is then.