Thursday, May 23, 2013

EuroVision and Sunshine


Above is Norway's entry for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest held last Saturday.

(If you're asking yourself "What is Eurovision?" Here is a long answer, but, in short, it's a competition where many of the countries on the continent + a few, neighboring countries perform songs, one per country, and the citizens of all of Europe vote for the winner)

Even if this is confusing to you, there's only one thing you need to know.  Norway finished fourth.  They should have won.

Listen to the song.  It's epic (I think it sounds like a Bond song!).  It's moving (she's feeding you her love!).  It's well performed (even if this isn't the actual contest performance, it pretty much is identical).  Yet, it languished in a distant fourth place to the eventual winner (Denmark, whose song is aptly described as "Rihanna in Westeros"), Azerbaijan, and Ukraine.

Yes, in a European-wide song contest, they finished behind a country that's not in Europe.

At least they didn't finish behind this behemoth from Romania.


And that's all I can muster about Eurovision...  If you want a better, thought out summary, please refer to this blog.

OTHER, WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS:

- As I stare at the third, straight day of chilly weather and rain, I just keep thinking about the days preceding those.  They were three, magical days of uninterrupted, 70+ F (22+ C) weather and it was amazing.  You'll be in my heart forever...

- My birthday is in two weeks and it was just announced that, on June 19th, Immortal Technique will be performing in Oslo... Take those two facts for what you will

- I, seriously, just listened to the entirety of the Tarzan song just now.  Wow.  It's not even my top-five, favorite, Disney song.  Here's the order of my list that it's in: 1) "A Whole New World" (Aladdin); 2) "Colors of the Wind" (Pocahontas); 3) "Circle of Life" (Lion King); 4) The Beauty and the Beast song... Tale as old as time?; 5) "Kiss the Girl" (The Little Mermaid)

uhmm... yeah,

ALT FOR NORGE



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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Remembrance and odds-and-ends


As a way to get to know the city (and kill time and calories), I am prone to wander aimlessly through the streets and alleys (not so much the latter since I've discovered scooping up dog poop is met with a very meh approach here in Oslo).  During my sojourners, I have discovered various little "gold markers" on the ground.  At first, I didn't really pay attention to it because, well, there's a lot of random signs and markers in Norway (That tends to happen in places with thousands of years of history).

However, one afternoon, I passed a series of them and, since I really wasn't in that big of a hurry, I decided to actually read what it said.  The first word that jumped out at me was "Auschwitz", which needs no hyperlink as everyone knows the name as that of the largest, concentration camp run during World War II.  

The rest of the marker gave the name of the individual and listed that they had, indeed, died at the aforementioned internment camp.

As this was unusual, I went home to research this phenomenon to see if it was an isolated plaque or whether it was part of a larger network.

The formal name is Stolperstein (German for "Stumbling block", it is spelled Snublesteiner in Norwegian) and they're monuments created by Gunter Demnig, a German artist, to commemorate individual victims of Nazism all over the European continent.  

Naturally, Oslo, the largest city and initial target of German invasion in April 1940, has the most Stoplerstein/Snublesteiner of any Norwegian city.  I've come across ten so far in my travels, including the first one which sparked my follow-up on the subject

  
Her name was Ruth Maier, an Austrian Jewish woman, who sought refuge in Oslo in April 1939 and, as the memorial denotes, she was deported for Auschwitz in 1942, where she died later that same year.

Maier is known as "Norway's Anne Frank" as she, too, kept an extensive diary detailing the horrors and atrocities that befell her in her homeland and the harrowing escape to a believed safe harbor only for it to not be so.  Her lesser acclaim can be attributed to the fact that it took 65 years for her writing to reach publication (in German and Norwegian), 67 for it to be in English.

But now I know of her and her life that happened a short walk from my apartment.  It's good to know of history and not to forget it.

OTHER WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS:

- As a follow-up to my remark about the civic pride and holidays, two weeks ago, comes even more.  A Norwegian associate of mine told me that a Norwegians favorite month of the year is May because there's hardly any working days.  While this was said in jest, it's easy to see where the joke is derived.  The following are holidays where a vast majority of the country is shut down:  Labor Day (May 1), Ascension Day (May 9), Constitution Day (May 17), and Pentecost (May 20)

- So, it seems like Michael Moore loves Norway

- It's comforting to know that no matter how obnoxious you may think this blog seems at times, it will never compare to this guy

- While we're on the point of exploitation, I love how many Norwegians think of Americans in terms of this video... When, based on my "limited exposure", an extremely small number of Norwegians could place my home state on the map or articulate much about it even though it has a larger population than Norway (and it's a pretty notable state with an infamous TV series based on it's largest city... it's not like South Dakota or Wyoming)

So, as I wrap this up, I want to give a shout out to all the youngsters in Russ.  Step. Up. Your. Game!   Not once have I been awakened by drunken hooliganism, not once have I had to step over a passed out teenager, and not once have I felt a twinge of jealousy for not having as cool of a senior tradition... Class of 2013, you better bring the noise tomorrow on Constitution Day

ALT FOR NORGE RussByen!!





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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Norwegians Goons, Gangsters, and Other things that go bump in the night

In my last post, I, briefly, touched on the idea of crime here in Oslo.  In talking about it, I didn't go into detail about the (mis)perception of safety issues here in the Norwegian capital.


Look at the chart above.  

Oslo is approximately at 1.77 murders per one hundred thousand people, leaving it in the middle of the pack.  This might seem troubling (and no doubt the sensationalist, Norwegian media presents it as such), but, in actuality, it's not that bad.  

First, let's compare that number to American cities (I know, I know... bare with me).  Looking at population alone, Oslo is most comparable to Tucson (9.9 homicides per one hundred thousand).  A look at only demographics makes Colorado Springs (6.1) the match.  While a comparison of both gives us Seattle (3.2) still nearly double the homicide rate in Oslo.

Secondly, when compared to the seventeen, other European cities on this chart, it's important to note that of the cities with lower murder rates, seven of them have less than 120,000 people.  Which makes them more like suburbs than major cities, even if they hold such a place in their respective countries.  Furthermore, eight of the other cities remaining have almost double the population of Oslo, which means that for their murder rates to be similar, they have almost twice the number of total homicides.  In a city of roughly 500,000 (like Oslo), 1.77 means roughly 9 murders a year.  In a city of one million, that would equal 18. 

That's right, Oslo got boats... no word on if the Norwegian Jimmy McNulty was ever assigned to it

Murder isn't the only crime happening and while crime, as a whole, has been on the rise, it is important to denote which crime.  According to the link, environmental crime, drugs, and violence are the categories which saw an increase over the past few years.  Not to trivialize the damage of pollution, because environmental crime can mean a lot of things.  To me, Oslo has a distinct lack of trash cans in public and those that are sat out are much too small unless trash is picked up more frequently.  

Anyway, my point wasn't to offer a symposium on crime in Oslo, but to address the ways in which it has affected me.  

At least once every other time I find myself out at a bar and my Americanness becomes common knowledge, some Norwegian will approach me and articulate how "real" he keeps it.  Which, sounds hilarious (and, I assure you, the first few minutes are 99.9% of the time) but is reminiscent to my youth growing up in the suburbs.  Where me and my friends would run around with red bandanas and talk about being thugs.  The difference being that these guys who approach me have ink (shout out to homemade tattoos!  But, no matter how many daggers, "Haugestua" doesn't sound hard) and are at an age when they should realize that claiming such a status has repercussions (it's like people watch the first 3/4s of "Scarface" and then fast forward through the end).  

However, its not like you can't go to American town X or Belgian town Y and not find the same thing.  

As such that there are countless citizens of Oslo perpetuating this "thug life" (which, is only present in very select few.  I don't want you to think that waves of Vanilla Ices are surrounding me when I go out... Also, as it should be noted and will be explained in a future post, all of these guys are both ethnic Norwegian and from East Oslo), there are also countless people believing the hype.  There have been countless people who recoiled in horror when I informed them that I hung out or walked through a certain neighborhood at night.  It is so easy for people to take isolated incidents (it's so American Pie to start off about how one time your friend had something happen to them...) and make them the norm.  That's not to say there aren't dangerous people and situations that can occur in this city (trust, I always keep my head on a swivel), but it tends to not happen to people not associated with the life.

With the exception of the startling number of female assaults that happen here.  That's insane and deplorable and really needs to stop (Sorry, I can't find an English version that doesn't say "Don't let the brown people in!!  They are rapists!!" but, in general, the number is, statistically, almost double the expected number for a city of this population).

OTHER WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS:

- I am straight in love with the fact that it's been 10 Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) for the past ten days straight... As Mr. Bell will eloquently remind you, no one cares about 40 degree days

- I also am a huge fan of all the state holidays here in Norway.  I told you about Adult Spring Break, but now there's Labor Day (May 1) and next week Ascension Day (May 9).  Civic Pride (no Honda!)

ALT FOR NORGE




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