Wolf Politics Howl Again

Norway is famous for its' wild landscape and to some extent also its wild deer and large carnivores. Not many people from outside will know that the euro-siberian Wolf is present in only tiny numbers relative to the rest of Scandinavia, Russia of course. Even Italy has more wolves than Norway. However those 60-80 resident wolves in Norway have become once again  symbol politics. Town versus country. The elite vs the small farmer. The subsidised meat versus the subsidised predator.

However Wolves are very keen on the domesticated sheep, and given that shepheards with dogs are consigned for economic reasons to the past, Canis Lupus can have a field day with a flock of the docile wooly herbivores. Of course cars, dogs, hypothermia and disease take many more sheep, in the order of many hundred fold. Yet the wolf (and other predators in some areas like the wolverine and even bear) in Norway, to the average sheep farmer anywhere near their terratories or itinerant paths they are the worst of enemies. A shadow of fear upon their livlihoods.

Farmers in the Hedmark region border the largest concentration of wolves. Of course they and many hunters claim that there are far more than the figure of around 74 resident wolves. However this is what the nature conservation authority estimate, and they spend a good deal of time and resources counting known flocks, which have definable terratories, and tracking itinerant lone wolves or pairs who have broken away from other packs outside Norway.

We have even had a wolf claimed to be within ten kilometers of here. Without very fresh tracks or a stool sample, it is very difficult to distinguish from a large dog. However a camera sighting was made in our neighbouring town of a rather sad looking young male, who was no bigger than an German Shepherd. The same wolf was likely to the one shot in the next region, as no futher traces were found. Scary? Not for us or anyone I spoke to, even a farmer. There is quite little sheep farming in our region, being mostly woodland, and beef being more pracitical for the grassland which is available.


Before that again there was a wolf which evaded 70 hunters or more in the next small county inland. THis was in the middle of the week, and three dozen mostly grown men threw down their daily work and went on the hunt. It was shot somewhere else. The hunt is a very big 'æresjakt' as it is both a rare predator and attracts kudos amongst other farmers and their communities.  They really feel threatened even by a single wolf, perhaps, but the pride of getting one as a trophy lies deep in their folklore and would be noted as a mark of respect down generations to come.

Oddly enough I thought, a zoology professor insisted on national Radio that these wolves I mention, were Swedish wolves! I thought that was either some nationalistic idiocy or an attempt to protect the Norwegian population from felling. However their is an evolutionary explanation (God's intelligent design for those of religiously impared). The resident Norwegian wolf-packs can have their ancestory traced back to the end of open wolf culling. There is some DNA from wolves who have wandered in over the border, but the majority seem to have Norwegian passports as it were according to our Prof'. The explanation is that these wolves are the remnants of very shy and elusive packs who kept themselves well away from humans, while the itenerant wolves, needing no visa or passport to cross the endless eastern woodlands that run from the SE to the NE of more or less the entire country, are not so shy of humans.

In Sweden there are a lot more wolves several hundred pack wolves and they kill an average of 300 sheep. This pales into perspective when farmers are claining  over two thousand sheep per year killed in traffic. Norway has maintained, many would argue artificially, its small farmer population as part of national pride and a suposedly self sustaining post war food policy, while Sweden has exposed itself to the wolves of the EU market and CAP,  and abandoned supporting small, "ineffective" farms long ago, leaving the decaying remnants of communities in many of the valleys which just over the border into Hedmark, Oppland and Tronderlag, are still farmed extensively. Norway subsidises lamb production by as much as 40kr per kilogram, with the consumer then having to pay 199 to 299 NOK for most cuts. When it comes to the popular traditional christmas dinner of salt lamb ribs, 'pinnekjøtt', they have to import a sizeable proportion from abroad, especially Sweden.

"How would you like to have a wolf live near you and come and kill your children?" is the perfect example of the emotive argument the farmers' self appointed PR crowd and politicians claim. Attacks on people are rare, even threats are. But about 5 years ago some swedish school kids encountered part of a pack of wolves on their way home from school. The wolves and the kids retreated their own way. How many  drivers retreated their own way and didn't kill the children they did on the road statistics of Norway and Sweden? When a pair of wolves located in Oslo's own national park, Nordmarka, it was a sense of excitement for many, and photographers hacked their way through miles of the most inaccessable pine woods to try and catch some shots. A few sheep were killed, not all were confirmed wolf kill. The Elg hunters were up in arms because there was evidence a couple of elg and calves had been taken. Personally I am much more afraid of traffic, and especially those drop outs who seem to come from the small communities, who do pills and drive old sooked up mercedes or Volvo 240s. One even seemed to play a game of chicken with a bus I was on, driving right for us on our side of the road. I guess there are 60 of them in the whole of Norway the Police keep an eye on. Perhaps we could have a licensed cull?  Or free to shoot policy when one is proven a threat?

Statistics on wolf attacks on flocks of sheep in Norway are a little bit hard to come by. There seems to be deliberate obfuscation to my mind, as to whether there are more or less than someone would like us to know. The farmers do get compensation, but complain about the paperwork and having to get the nature rangers out to test for DNA. However that wasted time taken away from farming, is not actually a reality for the majority, especially of small farmers who have incomes from other sources that their poor prey animals. Also given the opportunity to bash about the woods for a week they will gladly hunt wolves and give up their flocks.

 It is a fact that a wolf, wolverine or bear can kill a flock of 30 sheep in one sitting, and do many of them just for the hell of it. However a single loose dog can kill almost as many. Who is kidding who about wolf attacks and how many sheep really get killed? Or how many are our seemingly tame Canus Domesticus, which cause several severe maulings to family members every year, and go loose on sheep if they get the chance. The dog is far closer to its recent ancestor the wolf than many would like to know, with packs of dogs posing a lethal danger to humans in Bucharest for example. Sheep have been  bread to be softies. From the point of view of 'factoids', sound-bites and fancy answers which contradict reality, the farmer's lobby are more keen on propaganda than the nature ranger service or the green party of course. Like the climate debate, the authorities and the greens present real research, but in a democracy those are open to challenge and contradiction from 'sources' of confidence, which it seems are largely a body of anecdotal attitude comong from farmers.




More sinister though than any debate about threatened livelihoods, are some of those farmers with jobs off shore or their own building firms. These gentleman farmers make only a fraction of their income from lamb meat, but need to keep it up to get their subsidy which maintains the point of having a farm at all! THe farm pays for itself, with the meat being part of that hobby economy. They are more interested in a glory hunt, and having free reign to kill any itinerant wolves, anywhere they care to drive to. They are the ones off out all week with a rifle and a pick up truck, not tending their flocks when a wolf felling license is given for a 'Swedish' lupus. Not all gentleman farmers and not all sheep farmers are against wolves. Here it gets very sinister because if they speak out in the media or local society, they recieve death threats.

It becomes obvious if you follow with the anger and rhetoric the wolf is not a symbol of fear, it is a symbol of power for farmers and hard pressed rural communities. Small farmers who have not diversified or become collectives, are really struggling especially with the policies of efficiency the conservative coalitions sprung upon them without much forewarning in any of the two main parties' manifesto. Larger farms are better in a land so geographically spread out, and those farms who invest in scale get the best support. They want to have a complete cull of wolves, but the politicians on their side know that is unlikely but they may achieve a felling of half the national population of wolves as a result.

Help is on the way for the wolf in terms of facts perhaps, as a programme of radio collaring specimens from the Hedmark and Oppland areas is rapidly being set in place. This will give more answers about their intrusion, and maybe catch some 'red handed' . But  which will be disputed anecdotally again, and they who shout, cry boo-hoo or bully hardest in the media, in the face of scientific evidence,  these days have an uncanny habit of winning.

Kampen for Norskværelse

Det var et morsomt og ofte pinlig show den der "Kampen for Tilværelse" på NRK.

Men som innvandrere har vi utfordringer for å være vår selvest selv. Det er lett å tabbe sosialt. Det er lettere å bli nedprioritert på jobb og nedbemmanet når først øksen faller. Man kan føle at man bare ikke eier de sosiale antenner man skulle ha for å funke i Norge. Det kan være rett og slett vanskelig å være meg!

Ofte vi tar litt feil her vel. Flytting til Norge er oftest i forbindelse med enten kjærlighet, dersom man har funnet seg norsk partner, eller som flyktning når hele opplevelse er både underlig og stort sett betryggende. Kanskje det er faktisk mindre fortvilende å være flyktning og kommer inn sakte men ganske sikkert inn på det norske samfunn? Kanskje man har mer tid å studere norske vaner og komme inn på sosiale krets gjennom super liberale SV støttekontakter?

I alle fall er det vanskelig for mange av vi som ikke er skandinavisk å sette oss inn her. Sotra jente, 32, skilt, søkes kjærlighet med roughnecks fra Aberdeen. De vare ikke lenge på Sotra. Ingen pub-kultur. Raseri anfall pga norske køvaner.Adjø kjære blondine alenemor igjen skal du være. Mange saker nettopp sånn, at ellers resurssterke og super sosiale folk fra mange land kommmer hit og bommer med en gang ellers nekter å godta at livet kan være Så Kjææædelig før det store laurdags kveld begynner. På arbeidsplass er du nesten alltid en gjestarbeider dersom kone di ikke er datter til eieren. I nedgangstid som nå, er det mange som sitter hjemme uten jobb nå, og de skal kanskje være de aller siste å få jobb igjen når oppturen kommer i gang.

Men vi ofte flytter hit på det største av alle livets skiftepunkter og det er når barna skal bli en del av bildet vårt. Då medbringe vi en helt feil rekke av forventninger om at livet skal liksom fortsette å være gøy, sosial og spennende. Babyen skal fort bli stort nok å bli tatt av besteforeldre mens vi ut og party eller på fjelltur i Morroco. Vi skal etablere nye venner gjennom jobb og familie som vi kan ta en halv litre eller seks med av en Torsdag lønningspils kveld.Virkeligheten er annerledes. Ikke bare at livet vårt er skiftet, men forventninger av oss er annerledes. Etter et par måneder har mamma et større rett å bli ut på byen med jentene enn du har hatt noensinne. Besteforeldre forventer å få besøk ofte men ikke forvente  å få ofte ansvar for barnebarn - nei de har trening, søskentreff og sydentur i siktet. Sosiallivet nedskaleres i en stor pang. Verre blir det når andre eller tredje barn kommer. Hvis man bestemme seg for nummer 3 har man kanskje blitt en del av babykultur i Norge og vant til at sosiallivet dreier seg om familier og noen veldig få nær venner (som er hennes forresten). Tur til hjemmelandet blir sjeldnere etter at Gran Canaria blir krav fra kjerringa for å få tilskudd med sol om vinteren. Man blir til en drosjesjåfør for barnas aktiviteter etter skolen, som de ofte gir opp etter noen år allikevel for å finne på noe som er lengre å kjøre til.  Blautekake serveres for konfirmasjoner på rekk og radd og så er du ut av barnasvingen og da skjær skilsmisser fleste i disse dagene fordi det var så lite igjen. Med 'anglosaxon' bakkgrunn er det oftest norske kvinner som bestemme at nå er det lite romantikk igjen, etter at du har vært trenet opp for å bli en perfekt pappa som matcher alle kravene, så er du brukt opp. Uromantisk. Kjedlig. Litt småtjukk. Ikke rik nok. Mangler forståelse for hvem damen egentlig er inni seg.

Utenlandsk damemennesker som føder halv norske barn her kanskje har det lettere. Eller kanskje ei. Jeg har hørt utenlandsk damer snakk om hvor ofte mannen er på jobb eller topptur med gutter i Jotunheimen.  Unge nordmenn har kanskje lurte seg en ikke likestilling dame som kan være hjemme med barna og så kose seg uten de kravstore forventninger til at man er så mye hjemme og utføre så mye av husarbeidet.
Løsningen for mannemennesker er å oppføre seg som en miniriking fra vestkant. Leie inn hushjelp og barnavakt og jobbe litt overtid for å betale for det. Då har du tid å være romantisk og smatidig er du en den gode lille pappa når det gjelder arbeidsplassen og fremføring i bedriften. Setter større krav til besteforeldre - litt som utpressing av helgevakt for barna eller ser de ikke dem igjen.

Bo på rett sted. Hvis du har en storby yrke då må du virkelig bo i en av de, og velg den som er nærmest besteforeldre eller bo nærmere Gardemoen enn Olso S å si det sånn. Sosiallivet i Norge foregår mye i krets. Noen er så enkelt som pubquiz som er kanskje lett å bryte seg inn på, andre er sånn først lag Bærum håndball og Idrettslag 1992 old-boys og 'don't even go there'. Jobben kan ha en god sosialside og det kan være viktig å være med for å binde man inn. Men det er lurt å snakke engelsk i slike omstendigheter og unngå å være senter for oppmerksomhet. Kanskje stille opp litt seint etter alkohol har løsnet humoret og tungene litt.

Husk at det er veldig likt egentlig å flytte til en mindre sosiale landsdel eller by, eller sånn suburb-uten-pub i hjemmelandet ditt. Der finne man ofte at ting går i krets og at det er vanskelig å få fotfeste.  Men ikke prøv så hardt i det hele tatt! Du trenger et skohorn - enn kompis som kan bringe deg inni kretsen og være der for deg. Bruk først og fremst kretsen du har rundt deg fra før, venner og familier for å skohorne deg selv videre. Idrettslag kan være litt vanskelig. Hvis du er kjempe flink så er du en utenlandsk besserwisser. Hvis du er litt dårlig, så er du en ivrig dust som skulle ha blitt kompetent i sporten som barn - pøh! Veldig lite i Norge har voksen nybegynnere klasse- joda hvis du er dame eller flyktning kan det være slikt. Men håndball for 32 år mannlige nybegynnere finnes desidert ikke. Skitur er nasjonal sport og 'mosjonist' hobby, og i det skal du være dust min venn. Men morsomt blir det for slekt og venner gjengen å le av deg og snakk om hvor dårlig du var første gang på ski....og gidder de ikke invitere deg til langtur til hytte på ski.

Etterski er ikke noe for langrenn, kjapt parkeringsplass prat for å unnskylde sin smørejobb og viruset barna tok med seg hjem fra barnaskole har ødelagt sjansen å nå merke i årets Birkebeiner. Hvis du er flink på slalom du får du se bak teppe på hvordan gode voksende mannfolk oppfører seg på veldig dårlig viss så snart de er sluppet av kone-bånden og er på Hemsedal som guttergjeng. Og et jernteppe er det slikt det er - med forventninger til erdru og ordentlig atferd hjemme og hos familie. Aldri drikke for mye. Blir til stedet for barna og viser at du kan springe ut til soverommet deres raskere enn mamma kan legge sitt halv glass rødvin på bordet. Tåler alt av småprat om hvem og hvem og når og hva. Det er mye å tåle i noen norske familier. En utholdenhets prøve for både ørene og hjernens øvre deler.

Du må ta et valg mener jeg mellom å være den perfekte faren som bøye seg veldig og virkelig prøve å balansere jobb, barna og oppmerksomhet for dame foran egentlig noe som er veldig spennende, avslappende eller gøy  i livet, eller stå fast på at du er ikke norsk. Du vil på byen en gang i uken med guttene. Du skal på golftur to ganger i året. Overtid på jobb føre til mer penger i framtiden. Tør jeg å si det på en eller annen måte:  du forvente at damen utføre mer av barnas oppdragelse og husarbeid enn du...en radikal påstand. Nesten terroristisk. .......men bare våger å si det dersom det er deg som har en vesentlig bedre jobb en kona som kan betale for ja, Gran Canaria, BM'er enn serie til henne.

Meg? Jeg....jeg prøvde noe midt i mellom og har vel bommet nesten fullstendig og det er bare et mirakel at vi er sammen og at jeg ikke har flyttet tilbake. Limet i dette komplisert konstruksjon er selvsagt barna. Vi bor i en liten by og jeg huske veldig godt nå hvorfor jeg flyttet ut fra en landsby når jeg var knapt moden nok. Folk var smålig der og tett som tyver  - som vi sier, vet ikke om det er et ordtak i Norge - de holde seg til seg selv. Store og mindre snobber og omvendt snobber. Morsomt nok både her og i hjemmelandet mitt er det slikt at 'innvandrere' både "innlandske" og utenlandske er snart i mindretall - men de innfødte holde seg fast til noen viktige krets og stillinger i samfunnet og er mistenkelig og ikke veldig imøtekommende. Det er litt lett å bli 'uglesett' uten at du har gjort noe i mot slike folk. De liker sine og er sakte å la nye folk få fotfeste. Man må måle slike i henhold til hjemmelandet ditt - det er viktig- fordi det samme krefter er til stedet. Folk som kanskje reiste litt ut i verden, likte det dårlig og ville tilbake til sine små kretser og lukker seg inn mot det store utenfor landbyens grenser.

Desto større byen er, desto større snobber er og i Norge å være snobb betyr også å være innvandrere skeptisk. Noen er lett å unngå, noen i jobb, tomteierskap eller familien er helt umulig å unngå. Noen er så pass snobbete til å fullstendig undervurdere et 'blandings familie' og kan være ganske slemme og sleipe når det gjelder penger, rettigheter og å være inkluderende. Andre snobber bare har det som et form for forsvars mekanism og det kan brytes ned når du selv er hyggelig, morsomt, imøtekommende og hjelpsom. Verstinger er kanskje de som skjuler at de er snobb og er litt nysjerrig for å få da deg i en liten boks med lapp på  ' mindreverd'.

Men store byer betyr også større muligheter for et bredt sosiale krets. Arbeidsplassen er gjerne litt yngre, ofte større og mest sannsynlig mer dynamisk enn ut på landet. Folk på jobb er mer åpen og venner av venner er litt lettere å komme inn på, og det kan gå mye fortere dersom man finne felles interesser med de to gruppene, at plutselig man har en bra sosiale og sports kalender. Jeg trives best sosialt i mellomstor byer som Kristiansand eller kanskje Tønnsberg, men trivdes bedre i Oslo og Bergen enn jeg gjør nå ut i teitelandsby. Folk er bare veldig uvant og har småkrets vaner her på landsby, men i motsetningen til mitt sosial mistrivsel og slit med jobb og ukependling osv, barna trives veldig. Så er vi tilbake til hvor familien står i det norske livet. Og det er et helt riktig sted for dem å være egentlig!!

Small Town Blues ....Take II....

Some days you just get the feeling that you are not wanted, that you are uninvited to the party, that you don't quite fit in,  that you are all-in-all surplus to the requirements of a small town.

I can't blame Norway for this. I come from a village where if people can squeeze you out by some form of cliqueness, snobbery or plain stand-offishness and social anxiety, they will. Not for them the big town with the pressure to meet new people and make new relations all the time. The mirror image of this in fact, that meeting new people is something to be avoided, that we have more than enough with our family and our cliques. We who saw the big wide world, didn't like the effort we had to make, and scurried back to small town certainties and pettiness.

For years we have seen the slightly mad, eccentricly dressed 60 something woman wander round the shops in town, trying to make conversation. Her only crimes are that one she maybe a little simple, learning difficulties we might go so far to say in a PC manner but more so that she talks a lot. She does so with just about anyone who returns her greeting,  with a slightly heavy tone of expectation that her topics of conversation inspire dialogue and engagement. Some shop assistents are out right rude to her, ignoring her completely as a pest. She used to be maybe associated to a couple of other folk in the town centre, but now we only ever see her alone or with her shy-and-retiring husband who is also a little 'differently able'. I think me and my other half are both starting to feel a little like this woman if truth be told.

Also not that you can always blame small towns either. Living in some residential areas of cities can be equal in terms of social exclusion. Usually then it is economic snobbery and pressure for time. In small towns though, people are on average not so well off here, and often the quite wealthy are down to earth or even definitively egalitarian. Life has a slower pace. Less travel, less overtime, quicker home. Often even on fine spring evenings, well trodden paths and pavements are bereft for other human life. Rather people hide away inside or on their balcony's or out in their wee boats and huddle together as families or small groups of long established friends.

As parents we have a dilema. If we were single people or a forlorn, barren middle aged couple, then there is probably no way in hell we would still be here or have moved in the first place. On the other hand in that free-and-easy capacity we may have come easier in to some social 'krets' ( social circles) by shere prescence of a laid back form. Parenting and dog ownership are often cited as the two best ways to meet new people in towns or villages in particular- we are kind of a large village, small town size in fact often with a village feel until gatherings like 17th of May when you get a feeling for the bulk of people hiding away in those appartment blocks and bungalowed hillsides. However parenting at least carries with it also the risk of social exclusion in many forms.

The first trip wire for parenting as a route to a social life, is letting the wrong person know too much about you and your situations. Gossip and pigeon holing are rife, and it seems very much more important to the small towner than the casually disinterested or slightly snobby 'vestkant' Oslo type. there is an almost tangable lust to exclude, to find reason to not be inviting and thus there is a nasty curiosity which poses as the outreached hand of friendship. Social class, nationality, regionality, all play a role as does personality - are you slow, a bit dull, nice and generally one of those rather tedious types who seem to be able to have a two way, non threatening babble about kids clothes, sleeping times, food, holidays, flu and other ills then you at least stand more of a chance than folk like us.

We like to challenge authority, ask why mediocrity and outright bad service persist, and demand maybe a little more than we are allowed to generally in terms of being sociable. We're a bit intellectual, a bit hyper or intense for sure. We come from from another dimension, another wave length and after 8 years we are having one last fling at trying to meet somewhere half way or even make the effort to tune in once in a while, fully to that slow sinusoidal social signal that permeates the town so insipidly. So we as parents, meeting other parents are our own worst enemy, or rather the reverse, they see us as the enemy.

Secondly with kids in the picture is the old problem of what wavelength the kids are on with each other and who developes as playmates. This goes as far as having to move kindergarten. Usually there is some minor violence involved when a kid gets excluded, or bullying. Sometimes though it is just as above, the other parents get to know enough to satisfy their threshold to socially exclude you from being in the friends set with them based on a by proxy estimation of what people you really are via the type of child and thus uprbinging you give them.

Lastly there is the trap again of established circles and the time people feel they have with the new. This extends to kids because some relationships predated childbirth and kindergarten while others could be solidified there and then because of 'oh good, another small towner with a known, safe, local history we can relate to'.

Incomers all complain about this unless they are the sharp elbowed, pusher inner types who seek out the upper social echelons in business, politics and culture. An exception is sport, where smarty fitty pants from outside the area is a little set to one side and more or less ostricised for being a bit too good and self-good as they call big headed here.

Perhaps we made the "mistake" of not moving small enough? Two of the outlying villages in the council area apparently are much more socially inclusive than home town. People who grew up there also complain about the tightness of the town folk when they began at high school over the fjord. Living in the South here, people from outside often comment that folk 'don't take you in' and that is true but only really if you have no real reason to come in on them in general, people are yes ok a littel reserved like Aberdonians but not up their own arses like Fifer's. Once you make a good friend, then y ou have a better friend really than from your home land or town, because Norwegian generosity to friends is second to none. it is like the arabic brother or sister. Mi casa su casa. It is quite embarressing sometimes, because we have little often to give in return being quite (or just relatively) poor and living in a small house with no cabin or boat in the family fortune.

To us then the town's social exclusion is both a puzzle and seems a sickness, like a slow growing sosiopathic cancer that has always been there, it just persists in a kind on malignancy that stamps out new growth in terms of friends circles. Even an icelandic circle there is here, fell apart because the longer established icelanders belonged to a couple of 'closed circles' and just gave up on the new social circle that was evolving.

However the cure is rather blindingly obvious. You get to play ball with all the other outsiders who weren't picked for the first 11. Then you find out that small towns out on the coast attract not only the home birds back to roost, but also the slightly unhinged, the eccentric and the rather socially inept types - some have married into the area, and after the usual 10 - 18 year period divorce as if obeying the national statistical trend.

We are both however, giving it all one last chance, one last big effort this year before we perhaps just look elsewhere and let job opportunities steal us away to a larger town or city even. This time we can be a litttle more careful, a little less expectant that the rules of engagement for friendship here abide any normal sense of them. And we have a more relaxed attitude, sort of take-it-or-leave it unlike the keeness we had maybe 8 years ago when we moved here. The resolution for both of us will be new, permanent jobs and hard cash, but that is really only an excuse for getting the hell our of a place dogged with social malaise.

1.Mai....ikke relevant som offentlig fridag i Norge lengre?

Et hyggelig 1 Mai tog med Per Kristian, Pål. Torgeir og Knut Henning og min første i Norge. Det er ganske få som stiller opp i toget, men mange som får gleden av å ha en fridag om våren- når det ellers faller på en ukedag. Det er mange som klager om hvor mye skatte og bomavgifter man betaler i Norge, men tydeligvis få som husker at man har det høyeste levestandard i nesten hele verden. Det virker som det er få som også husker at vi har rett til fem ukers ferie, en helsetjenester mange vanlige arbeidere i USA bare drømmer om, fastansettelse etter en rimelig prøveperiode, trygghet på arbeidsplassen og begrenset arbeidstimer.

I disse dagene med fremgang av de borgerlige mye av dette er tatt for gitt, og privatisering og skattekutt er presenterte som et alternative for bedre levevilkår for snitt arbeidere i framtiden. I dag huske vi i alle fall at det var arbeiderbevegelsen som kjempet for rettigheter i tider når man hadde ikke råd til legen for å pleie syke barn, når man hadde ikke offentlig sykehjem for oss når vi blir svak i senere livet, at de ikke var et rimelig tilbud for barnehage og at utdanning for folk fleste avsluttet i alders 14 - 15.

Vi husker, og vi advarer mot den "Grå-Blå" fremmarsj mot lavere lønn og dårligere vilkår for servicearbeidere, mot en skift til "effektiv" velferds profittering med ansatte på  midlertidige kontrakter, innkjøp av private tjenester i stedet for faglig forvaltning i kommunene, mot lavere skatt men høyere utgifter i privatiserte service som jernbanen, fra-skriving av rett til overtid og tillegg. Vi står sammen på arbeiders dag og vi husker de gevinstene som mange nå tar for gitt.

Bedre enn Pakke Lasagne

Nordmenn liker noen ferdig blandet krydder retter veldig godt - taco kit pa fredag , meksikansk gryte med ris i, j'ger gryte og sist i min liste men ikke minst lasagne. I motsetning til slike pulver baserte rett og sauser at vi faar i Storbrittania  er disse ikke saa verst nar det gjelder innhold. Salt og diverse darlige smatt ligger langt ned pa innholdslisten og det er mangle pa baade MSG og Palmeolje i Toro sine produkter i allefall. De heller torke ut i svaere trommler med bruk av billig hydrostroem, og begynne med naturlige ingredienser som tomat i lasagneen.

Pakke lasagne var litt annerledes for meg og jeg ikke likte det forst gang jeg smakte paa det. Det er et barnevennlig rett uten skilling mellom et lag hvit og et lag rodt saus- det er en blandet tomat, melk og ost- saus. Sjapt skulle det vaere og et trygg valg of foreldrer som da kjope seg 30 minutter til lekser eller Zumba. Men saken er at det ikke er sa veldig hurtig a lage egentlig. Man ma steke kjoetdeigen, varme ovnen og bruke kanskje 45 minutter for det kan spises. Likedan da a lage fra buns og bruk en snarvei til deilig heimelaga versjonen.

Inngredienser / 4-5 porsjoner

400g kylling-kjottdeig
kvart av en stor rodlok
2 stang seleri (eller bruk en halv rodlok)
en hel stor gulrot
4 hvitloks bater
1 boks tomat
1 ss tomat puree
4 ts maismel
200ml kremflote
400ml vann
200ml melk (400 kan erstatter den mindre sunn flote)
150g Hvitost evt mozarella
2 ts fersk kvernet sort pepper
1 ts chillipulver
2 ts paprika
2 ts rosmarin
1 ts timian
2 ts sukker
3 ts basilikum (helst ferskt eller bruk pesto)

Bruk en rasp for rodloken, hvitloken, seleristang og gulrot - lag sma hauger av hver paa en tallerken.
Dette gaar kjempefort og utloser mye smak fra rodloken som blir litt moset av raspen. Sla pa en stor gryte halv fylt med vann med salt opp i og matolje (best ekstra virgin oliveolje) og sett paa varmen. Slaa paa ovnen 190*C.

Stek kyllingkjottdeiget i oliveolje litt til og tilsett rodlok og hvitlok. Fortsette a steke til kylling begynne a bli brun, og da tilsetter gulroten og stangselereien og slar ned varmen litt. Stek videre til at gulroten blir mykt. Hel over melet og alt av krydder bortsett for basilikum/pesto, og blandt godt inn. Naa tilsetter tomatene, vannet og pureen og sla opp varmen slikt det koker opp litt. Tilsett kremfloten og fortsette a smakoke et par minutter. Tilsett melken og la det varmes gjennom, slar ned varmen la det smakoker  2 minutter til. ta av varmen - sa Tilsett osten og pestoen /ferksbasil og bland inn over en lav varme slikt osten smelter inn

Na komme snarveien. Vann i storgrytteren er kokendes naa og man da koke to til fire lasgne pastaplater opp i om gange, fiskes ut med tanger. Det tar kun to minutter hver runde. Ta et lag med sausen i bunnen av ovnform og dekk med de forste to eller fire plater som er litt myke. Sa et lag til saus mens to /fire plater kokes opp. Slikt bygge man opp tre eller flere lag.

TIl slutt kan man fortynne ssiste bitt av sausen med mer flote og tilsett litt mer ost, en knip muskanott og litt maismel  2 ts blandet godt i vann slikt toppen i allefall likner og smake som en mer vanlig lasagne.

Stek i ovnen i kun 10 minutter, og hvis det ikke er gyllende og litt brun paa toppen, sett paa grillen slikt det ser deilig ut.

Serverer evt med salat eller raa grunnsaker i lange biter.

Norway Beware! The Neo"liberal" Conservative Future is Bleak for Most

Norway remains a thorn in the side of the Neoliberal fascist movement. It wasn't so very long ago in the 1960s in fact that Norway had one of the poorest economic standards of living in Europe, at a level on a par with Portugal. Oil was then of course a huge fortuity. But it was more the perception that this massive wealth could be shared by society and everyone should be able have a better standard of living throughout society that is the vital difference between democratic Norway and the now post democratic UK and USA.

The post war growth in the economy and average standard of living hit the buffers in the 1970s in many western countries, but the UK and the USA as now fading imperial powers. The cure for these nations was presented by the Neoliberal agenda which has now had over 30 years to run its course and deliver economic growth and a revival in average living conditions. Only it hasn't - economic growth from the 1980s to current day has declined and on average, been far lower than the post war Keynsian period. However growth in value for the very wealthiest has increased as probably never before, even in the medieval times of Kings, Popes and warlords.

Norway was an easy win for both social democracy and oil capital. There was a willing workforce, many of whom were seamen or worked with mechanics on farms and huge oil resources relative to the population. Also there was a large degree of social cohesion in terms of race and a rather class-less society with Christian values. People lived in the 1960s in either small communities where they all met at school, church and sports club or they lived in quite small cities where they organised themselves by unions, associations and chambers of commerce and more closed old-boy gentlemans clubs.

Norway is a G20 country while the USA and UK over shadow the country in terms of net wealth and now China eclipses any single economy in terms of growth and probably net value if there ever was a fire sale for an alien world with enough gold to buy it out. What Neoliberalist propganda has acheived in the UK and USA is the perception that liberal, Keynsian economics are inherently wrong and that wealth is best created and distributed by the individual acting by their own working efforts alone.

The end result over the last 30 years of the rampant application of NeoLiberal (I prefer neoconservative as a term) has been a shift of power away from collective bargaining and away from democratic control or investment in the essentials of life towards ownership by inevitably the rich global elite and their massice enterage of 'white russians' - the well paid career fascists in politics, the judiciary and the police,  the 'independent economic institutes' and the stock markets.

As once democratically empowered voters and unions members we are now 'empowered' existential beings in the post collective society. Those who deserve more, work harder get more. Dog eat dog. The reality is somewhat different from the utopian ideal which promised economic growth and a better standard of living via lower taxes and more efficient, privatised essential services. Freeing up so much flow of money and power for the rich elite should have lead to 'trickle down' which rather instead is the biggest lie ever uttered by a politician. Now in the UK and USA there are increasingly expensive


Social cohesion is something which is a little intangable, but certainly the modern way of life and economy does more to create social outcasts in terms of two main factors - mental health and migration. Poor mental health provision. Metropolisation in Norway is a large economic factor and with the centralisation of oil corporates and the 'beasts of quango beaurocracy' moving to Oslo in particular, so has the City over taken the county as where most people live and work. Cohesion means some nice nationalist things with a small N - cross country skiing, football, and the general obsession with fitness and achievement via completing distance events.

However more people are becoming politically actuive in a NeoLiberal party, the Fremskritts Parti, or ""progress party". They are being drawn in by the promise of lower taxes delivering higher personal wealth for all, and the use of nationalism and outright racism to exploit the unease that many Norwegians feel about the growth of in particular, Muslim immigration. While the centre of politics want to both limit assylum based immigration now, they also want to promote better integration. FrP have taken a move away from this in policy now by extending the period under which applicants for assylum can expect to wait before a decision is made.

The Left across Europe have also agreed that this massive influx of in particular, unskilled young male muslims is unsustainable, and even Merkel has renaged on her dream of filling the gap in the mysterious decline in the German population with middle eastern faces. However xenophobia is an area the soft right and the Left will not enter while the FrP feel they have free form to promote racist ideology based upon  prejudices about Islam, in particular appealing to our western woman, while using skin colour in their posters to raise hackles and exploit fear, with "the rapist was of foreign origin' along with a white girl being persued by a middle eastern youth.

Like Trump in the USA, they have found that hate and suspicion pays in current day politics, as much as greed does. Post war social democracy created it's own monster - a greedy educated white collar and skilled blue collar new economic middle class on the one head of the beast, while on the other a jealous, highly taxed over class who found commod ground with the other head. Along with the new super global corporations and their lobby structures and legal department muscle, a many headed medusa was formed with the Reagen -Thatcher followers as the vocal choir of trans atlantic reform for the rich to become far more powerful than they ever really had been.

There are of course many criticims which can be laid at the door of Liberalist and Socialist ideologies. An ever increasing tax burden on all of society linked to the need to always be paying unionised workers in line with inflation with no real incentives or momentum for gains in productivity. Yet thrity years on the UK languishes in productivity because it has largely deindustrialised. Privatised public services can now exert above inflation price rises on consumers based on either local monopolies, such as rail, or subtifuse in marketing power and water utilities. Also these utilities must have large beauroracies in croporate accounting compliance for the LSE, and as mentioned, large marketing budgets in order to maintain an acceptable churn rate in what is a soft war of attrition.

What lies in store for Norway with the inevitable extention of NeoLiberal economics via a shift to the right with FrP steering much of the current and probably next government?  Better, toll free roads? More money in your pocket from lower taxes? Peace of mind from efficient privatised public services? The release of wealth from where there was once communist style stagnation?

Unlike Norway, the UK and USA are at the bitter end of 30 years of neoliberalism and proto nationalism. Public spending as a proportion of GDP is not low because the countries have lagre defence budgets to maintain their international power, as demonstrated in the 'oil grab' war against the bogey man of Sadam Hussein, with the result being the rise of IS/ISIS/ISIL. Also they have large welfare bills in keeping the lid on social unrest from the growing underclass and as revealed in the last few years, subsidising the 'procariat' with their part time temporary jobs in retail and privatised services. Even the UK chancellor is doing something dramatically social democratic to address this faslehood, by rasiing the mimiunm wage.  Average wages have been slow to grow in the post eighties malaise and have been in relation to inflation stagnant since the financial collapse of 2008. Yet average house prices have gone on now to be more than 12 times average income. There is then no coincidence that the average first time buyer is 37 years old, and rising due to this disconnect.

The UK economy has moved quite quikcly away from being an economy based on investment and return in prodcution as main value creation, with high economic growth relative to the last 20 years low single figures, to a "service" economy where capital invests more in fact in property and essential public utilities.THe economy has moved away from manufacturing to being an owned-to-rent where capital now makes most return on investment from exerting ever more rent rather than 'earned income' from production. Property is an esculator which is linked to three factors - growth in population, growth in wages and metropolisation of jobs. Growth in any one of these areas would be enough to make for an above bank interest ROI, but all three in combination can accumulated to make for double figure ROI per annum, which is just not available via investing in the risky industrial productioin economy, no matter how high tech it is. However this own-to-rent capitalist economy includes not only that rented property you lived in until you were in your mid thirties, but also those high electricity and gas bills, and that expensive commute and that declining privatised service you pay more for less for such as the post office/Royal Mail.

Norway can expect that average wages will decline under neoliberal rule, while take home money may increase by tax cuts, these for the average worker will soon be eaten up by higher costs of housing. Why? Because tax cuts will give the wealthiest the most money back and they will invest in property, as for the reason explained above- it is percieved as the 'safest' ROI and has become so historically.

Norway can also expect that privatised public services whill either cost more, as in the railways or 'own proportion' in health, or deliver less, such as road repairs being less effective. The need to show a large gross margin, eventualk profit and then the accountancy and marketing beaurocracies lead to a concentration of suppliers who reach price parity.

The Right in norway have been promoting a more "flexible " legislature on work contracts. The3y want to move away from permanecny because it has a percieved risk and cost for especially  small businesses, many of whose owner-managers are politically active in the Right. Befo0re the oil price crash, their propaganda used the approach of getting the quite large number of high-school-drop-outs into work by allowing them to work a contract of a whole year without any permancy, instead of today where often employers like McDonald'd franchises dispatch trainees at the 6 month stage to avoid 'on costs' of permancy, such as pension payments.

The new Right in Norway  went fishing for a problem to cure with job insecurity for the majority, when the economy was still growing more than the UK or US in % terms and unemployment was low. Now with rising unemployment they can find an excuse to introduce this and render the Norwegian model redundnatnt thus locking more people into renting and feeding the captial property economy for longer time before they eventually find or negotiate permancy, or if banks in future will be more flexible on loaning to people without secure contracts.

This has been the greatest lie of the Neoliberals for 30 years + - that job insecurity is a flexibility which creates more jobs, wealth and well being. Neoliberal countries also have far higher rates of unemployment and especially "underemployment" than liberal scandinavia and social democrat Germany. To some extent permancy in Norway is merely a perception, but it is also an important part of working culture and probably in fact works to promote moderation in wage demands. Employees are loyal to employers and not job shopping relative to their US compatriots. Consumer confidence is kept high by the perception in the lending supply chain that there is a degree of protection.

Neoliberalism has just failed to make life better for the eaverag worker and indeed made life a lot worse in many ways for some poorer workers. The aervage income  person works in IT/internet, finance admin' or Supply Chain now and is expected to work overtime with no additional salary yet also has no real job security and can be repossessed and out in the street within a few weeks of being fired.  A recent wide reaching financial investigation revealed that over 100 million Americans have no more than 1000 dollars in savings money.

. Now in fact it is its' dieing throws and much like Hitler in the bunker, is demanding more of its followers and exploiting more of its populace in attempt to prove itself right and the natural order of things. Also like Hitler, in an well trodden road to popular scapegoatism,  it has turned to blaming ethnic peoples in society for the ills of the average white western worker, thus the rise of Trump in the USA-.

Unfortunetly there is the unavoidable fact that progress in soceity is inevitably linked to taxation and national investment, be that by kings and churches or by governments and local authorities of today. It has had thirty years to work and has failed the average and most proliferate of workers, while it has marhginalised the old, the infirm and the metnally ill. It has rewarded the top third of society and created many mechanisms of meta-democracy where by the rich can evade taxes and coproatrions can evade environmental and social repsonsibility.

Like Communism and most other extreme idologies which concentrate power in the hands of an unelected few, Neoliberalism will eventually be overthrown. It creates too much inequity in society that eventually enough of the population will feel disinfranchised and rebel against it via the ballot box or by more radical non party political action. However before it does this, it will extend its reach to countries like Norway with the same appeal of lower tax and personal responsibility. They will claim that your hard earned money is being sqaundered on the poor and undeserving who do not work as hard as you. They will appeal to the xenophbia inherent in any mono ethnic population.They will use government to communicate propoganda on the effectiveness of privatising public utilities which will then cost the consumer and tax payer more over time, as we see with the UK railways anad health proviswion. In the end they will fail to deliver anything for the average worker here than the  misery of uncertain employment. Norway, will you take that road?

Oppskrift for Deilige Burgerer for Borgerer....

Grillsesong er i gang. I fjor årets siste grillkull eller gas blir brukt opp i de få fine kveldene når terassene er lune i le av østavinden og overrsvømte i sterk April sol. Et år til med nitrate stappa' pølser og ferdig marinerte svinekjøtt? Neida, jeg kutter ut så mye drita mat som mulig. Det bare tar like mye tid for kullene å brenne og blir glødende for at man kan forberede god mat for hele familien.

Favorittene er ferdigkokt kylling bryster som holdes i kjøleskaper t.o.m 3 dager før de slenges på grillen med litt krydder eller marinade, og vips så snart de er litt brune på begge sider er de klar for en saftig spising opplevelse som ikke vil skuffe. Kongereker på spydde med grønsaker biter også, jeg tiner i lunken vann egentlig som er strengt forbudt i prof'kjøkken men funker bra for meg for alt av sjømat.

Men heimelaga biffburger er noe helt tops for alle i familien og de er veldig lett og sjapp å forberede. Jeg anbefale å lage dem opp rå kvelden før men denne oppskriften funker 99% likedan med dem ferdige 5-10 minutter før grilling. Størrelse av demnog utforming er etter personlig valg - jeg anbefaler dem enten som "quarter pounders" (150g hver cirka) , små "sliders" eller tynneree Mcdo's/BK stil "patties" avhengig av hvilken type halvstekt eller frosne heimelaget rundstykker du har- dvs tilpasset størrelse og ønsker. Ferdige Burger brød er noe hersk i Norge - polarbrød er et godt alternativ for barna som tåler litt søt.

Ingredienser  -

(5-6 personer blir gode og mette!)

2x 400g Karbonadedeig 
En halv rødløk eller vanlig
To båter Hvitløk
Et egg
To dessert skje potetmel

Krydder - la oss være ærlig og ikke matsnobber-bruk:
2 t.s. Aromat Krydder
2 t.s. Kjøtt og Grill Krydder
1 t.s. rosmarin
1 ts timian
1 ts. Fersk kvernet sort pepper

Opsjoner- 2 - 3 ts chilli pepper i stedet for sort
2 dessert skje smokey-bbq-sauce

Rundstykker - halvstekte etter eget valg- salat osv aug'

Helt greit hvis kjøttdeig har varmet opp litt på veien hjem fra butikken eller står ute på kjøkkenbenk i 20 minuter- da blir burgere letter gjennomstekte og smaker bedre. Kalde kjøtt inni er ikke bra.

Sett tørr krydderene i bunnen av en stor bolle. Tilsetter kjøttdeiget.

De nye stjerne-fot-blander stav redskaper er helt tops for å begynne å gni kjøttet ned litt, ellers bruk hendene!

Delvis skrell og så rasp løken med et vanlig rasp slikt det blir nesten en puré. Press hvitøløken og legg til i bollen. Bland inn godt.

Legg oppi melen. Blandt ekstra godt, bruk gjerne hender nå. Så tilsetter egget og fortsetter med grundig blending med hendene.

Nå er det på tiden å sjekke at grillkullene er godt i gang og tennvæske er brent bort ! Jeg bruker en elektrisk dings som likner en svære el'kjæle element. Det funker helt tops særlig med litt vind, for å tenne grillkull. Då blir det uten noe dritt forurensing av ristet fra tennvæske og det ofte går raskere faktisk! Så snart flammene er godt i gang og noe av kullene glør så kan det fjernes - når ilden demper seg og glørne blir litt grå med ask, då er de optimale for grilling.

Sett også runstykker i ovnen nå. Grilling og feks salat laging eller øl drikking går fort fram nå og brødmat skal vi behøve!

For å formere kjøttdeigen til burger velg en kakekutter eller en ovnfast, flat bunnet skål ( "rammekin") som er litt større i diameter enn evt rundstykkene. Lag med plastfilm og driss litt matolje i bunnen, ekstra virg' anbefales. Nå press inn en del av deigen som virker passe stor med en dessert skje eller større serveringskje og press ned og rundt for å formere fine burgerer. Løft ut ved kantene av plast film. Nå kan disse oppbevares på et døgn feks dersom du ville forberede i forkant av en hurtig grilling neste dag. Ellers holde de formen litt bedre.

Med glørne i grillen, ta burgere ut av plasten og legg med olje-siden opp med det første. Stek til godt og brune under, så snu og stekt til de er brune på den nye ned siden og litt saft kommer fra toppen. Då er de gjennomstekt, som jeg mener er beste etter en dose Campylobakter fra en understekt burger i 1995 gav meg mye ettervirkninger. Men om du kverner ferske kjøttdeig sjøl med veldig reneapparat så kan du begynne med dette 'medium rare" osv.

De skal ikke brenne og hvis de blir brune veldig fort, så bør du enten løfter ristet hvis det går annen eller ta dem opp i litt alu'folje. Ta prøv en for å se om de er gjennomstekt og ikke for tørre. Veldig mager kjøttdeig er dårtlig tilegnet burger, men det kan berges i etterkant ved et liten bit smør på toppen av en burger lagt i alu'folje og satt på lav varmen ved grillet.

Rundstykker er feridige , salat biten er klart for tjenesten. Burgerer trenger ikke å hvile , bare serveres etter litt tid for nedkjøling fra ildenes varmen.

Kaldeburger kuttet i to blir godt pålegg i luksusklass hvis det er noe til overs, men då blir du heldig om du får igjen med 4-5 til bords !