Ok im pretty sure this is my first properly topical post, not usually my area is a tend to just list ideas and then write them when I get around to it. Last week though a new government was elected in Norway, I'll start by saying I am not very knowledgeable in regards to politics but I do try to keep myself up to date as I understand the importance of these things. Now the chances are there will not be any major or radical changes but the shift was an important one for me as an immigrant. I began by taking the whole thing a little personally and it took me a little while to really cool off a try and look at this more sensibly and objectively. This will not be terribly objective but I will to my best. This could get a little long as I try and touch base on all the key points, please do stay with me as I think its all very interesting, even if it is politics.
So firstly for a bit of background, for the last 8 years Arbeiderpartiet (Workers Party/Labour) have been in power in a coalition with a socialist style party. I believe the Labour party are a typical left wing labour party with policies such as equality, aid and that kind of thing. Generally things have gone very smoothly over this time from what I gather with the majority of people having very few complaints. Given the condition of the international economy I dont think the average Norwegian has any idea how fortunate they are but then again I probably don't either.
The big two concerns from what I could gather politically in Norway are immigration and healthcare. No surprise here as this is the case in many countries but the specifics of it I find quite interesting. Despite what some Norwegians seem to think, coming from England I would say that there relatively few immigrants in Norway.The problem is however there are notably large number of immigrant beggars in the large city centres so it pushes the problem into peoples minds. Norwegian health care is a whole subject in itself but the main cause of complaint is that it is slow and inefficient, much like the English NHS.
So what have Norway voted in now? Well, its another coalition, fronted by a right wing party named quite simply Høyre, meaning "right" but essentially they are a conservative party. They also in many ways follow the traditional conservative mould supporting privatisation, and independence although its wildly believed on an international spectrum, the Norwegian right wing parties arent very right wing, but that is all relative. As a business graduate I can completely relative to many right wing conservative ideals. I believe the profit motive through privatisation can lead to more efficient operations in many industries. That said however I do not agree with large scale privatisation of schools and health care. I am not a complete socialist in this regard, I do believe private schools and healthcare should exist, anyone who as earnt enough money I think has the right to be able to seek out and pay for what they believe is a better service, but this should not be so wildly available that it is used as a mechanism to actively support the public systems. While public healthcare reforms are also planned, there is a large emphasis on increasing availability of private healthcare and private schools. I wont essay out the details but in my opinion these measures can only reduce the quality of the public system and create more inequality and class separation.
The real worry in many ways is who joins them in this coalition. That party translated as the "step forward party" are essentially characterised as an anti immigration party, and generally accepted to be kind of racist. For an English comparison I would say UKiP rather than going as far as BNP, but still its not good.
My concern is that Norway has become blinded by a few immigrant beggars and forgot what I consider to be Norway's almost defining characteristic, equality. It is a similar change that recently happened in England from labour to conservative, but the difference there was in England we were in crisis and therefore change is to be expected. Norway are not in crisis, not even teetering on the edge of a real struggle. They have been ticking along nicely with a generally sensible, sustainable and most importantly, fair welfare system. To me it feels a little like greed and short-sightedness. The most frustrating thing of all though is many people I've spoken to and many professional analysers are of the opinion that people are just tired of the current system and essentially, just fancy a change. This is ridiculous in my view, this is not choosing what to have for dinner, its who is going to run the country, and there simply is no where near enough justification for change.
While it is not a strong shout, there is a general murmer from the Norwegian populous that seems to be, there are too many foreigners and we are all too nicey nicey. Well as one of those foreigners maybe its not surprise I've taken the whole thing a little to heart. I worry about what changes will be made to my rights here. Because I'm white educated European I think people don't categorise my being a foreigner in the same way as they do others. The fact is though I came to Norway with only a degree and struggled to get a job for several months and I was definitely not supporting the economy. My Doctor in Norway is an Iranian immigrant that studied in England, my Norwegian class is full of PhD students, doctors and professors from a range of countries including Napal, China, Iran, India etc. These are the researches that are supporting the oil trade and the Doctors that are treating the Norwegian people. The country is crying out for more engineers and doctors and yet they just heavily voted in favour of anti immigration. Once again I am talking about the educated immigrants where it is no doubt the uneducated ones that have a drain on the economy that this is really all aimed at, but its a hell of a challenge to draw lines in the right place on this kind of thing and many people will find themselves undeservingly on the wrong side.
At first the whole business did not overly concern me, I tried not to get to involved as I knew I could not vote but eventually I have been sucked in, and here we are. Interestingly actually I knew I may never be able to vote as to do so you must be a Norwegian citizen, and Norway do not allow duel citizenship. This means to vote I would have to completely cast off my British label, hand over my British passport and from then after be completely Norwegian. Forgive me Norway but have a day off, that is never happening. I know its only paper, but my heritage is important, I love this country and may live here for 50+ years but I will always be an Englishman. Duel citizenship would be an ideal goal for me but Norway remains one of the few countries that doesn't allow it. This rule was recently addressed as looks like it is being changed in Denmark and there was some belief it may be re-examined in Norway, but with the current government in there is simply no way that will happen.
Ok so I'm going to leave it all there before this becomes a full essay, to summarise I'm sure things will be fine and probably shouldn't worry too much and I definitely shouldn't take the whole thing so personally but I'm sure many would understand why.
No comments:
Post a Comment