NORWAY: Rat-Race Means Little

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32298, 16 May 1970, Page 5

NORWAY: Rat-Race Means Little

BU

ROSS BROWN)

In between long periods of rolling smokes and drinking coffee, the electrician worked steadily in the new bungalow. Then one day he vanished.

A month later someone collected his tools, yet offered no explanation for his friend’s absence. Whether the electrician had gone fishing or on an alcoholic binge, no-one knows. No-one frets. He is Norwegian, and an impulsive digression from normal routine is considered his own business. Terms like “rat-race’’ or “materialistic striving" mean little in Norway. The rugged topography, unbalanced climate and sparse population have developed values and ideals that offer few comparisons with elsewhere. Remoteness—whether in fiord or modern city block has caused a lack of human contact that denies most forms of competition. Paradoxically, an individual with small spirit for teamwork, and who tends to cross the street against the red light, has still constructed an amazingly progressive nation. Fifty years ago some areas suffered famine and migration was constant. Nowadays the fur-coat and late model car are accepted. “Viking resourcefulness” is sometimes given as the reason for the industrial boom of recent years, one that has kept clear of economic peril. Yet synonymous with “export” has been “survival," and Norwegians have long realised the necessity to diversify products. Industrial Exports An important chemical and metallurgical industry has grown from the exploitation of hydro-power, and Norway is now the fifth largest producer of aluminium. Electric generators are sent to Ethiopia, kitchenware to Brazil, trawlers to Ghana. The fishing catch is still worth SNZI2O million annually; 200,000 ton tankers, built in Norway, are manned by small crews. Mink pelts are sold to Paris, yachts to United States, paper to Russia. However, the suggestion of vigorous activity is not borne out by close experience with conditions. The calm but effective industrial revolution can also thank careful planning. well-trained personnel, powerful yet disciplined union!. The general pace of life remains slow. The Norwegian has the world’s highest rate of longevity, and the octagenarian on skis is not an extraordinary sight. Casual Approach A casual approach to duty exists. When the worker wants to talk, he relaxes and talks. He receives four weeks annual holiday, but even then his five free-davs at Easter may drift into 10. tike a young seaman ashore, he often disregards accumulating money. Oslo tradesmen earn around SNZSOOO yearly, but outings to restaurants, expensive furnishings in the flat, a sum-mer-hut or boat are supreme before the idea of saving to own a home.

His high taxes meet the costs of welfare and a harsh winter. With neither chain stores nor markets for secondhand goods, he pays lofty prices, yet is ensured of quality articles. Oslo, a non-bustling capital where ship-horns reverberate in wooded suburbs, presents bronzed faces in beer-gardens during summer. Yet further north conditions can still be hard.

A widow and her family, living on the inhospitable Trondelag coast, followed a fishing - farming existence. When the elder son skippered the boat to sea. his crew was aged seven and five. Life with few luxuries was normal to these people, who saw nothing heroic in their way-c'-i’fe and refused offers to

' ■'O’fed to a town. rctfc Norway disperses into barren moors and links

with Russia. North Norwegians feel that isolation deprives them of educational and industrial development. Their only contacts with the outer world in winter may be radio or the coastal ferry. Extremes of mid-winter darkness, then mosquitoes and total daylight of July, often parallels the moods of the Northlander. Obstinacy easily submits to heartiness.

Many West Norwegians still persist in living in situations that tempt disaster. Communities cluster beneath stark peaks: farms balance on ledges in gaping fiords. Foreign visitors to the fiords this year. 200,000 of them, will see the romantic tourist-brochure duplicated. Silver-headed children row boats to school, cow-bells ring, spinning-wheels turn. But passenger liners now cruise past factories that export furniture and foodstuffs in this region that was once only renowned for its waterfalls and beauty. “Tiger City” The Oslovian, unfortunately. is hardly aware of outer Norway. He prefers to holiday in Majorca. He realises that the present drastic housing shortage has small chance of being alleviated within the next decade. Oslo has been called alternatively “The Big-hearted City'’ and “The Tiger City.” It can be generous and liberal. Hippies sleep in the grounds of the Royal Palace; vagrants erect housing from packing-cases around the wharves, boozers drink mixtures ranging from paint remover to raw alcohol, and never fear police persecution: nine daily newspapers communicate degrees of political thought from Powellism to an Ibsenian Radicalism. Nevertheless, hulking louts abuse slightly-built Southerners. Flats are often leased with contracts stating: “No smoking, no children, no using the toilet after 11 p.m.” And in high-priced, supposedly sophisticated, restaurants. “gorrilla” doormen are liable to blacken eyes if overt signs of conviviality are shown. The claim to /“love this land,” emphasised by the National Anthem, is strongly demonstrated by the Norwegian. He respects his landscape. Littering is negligible, vandalism hardly a problem. A minimum of advertising

billboards must be placed well clear of highways. Dinghies, owned by the council and set on lakes in the 200 sq. mile Nordmarka forest—ls minutes drive from Oslo’s centre—are used by all and never damaged. If in the middle of his long and crystallised winter the Norwegian dreams of the sun, he should be excused. Whether he wants to possess this source of energy is indeterminate. Misty Valhalla probably still occupies his contemplation. A family of 10 that headed from a bleak northern fishing-port for Australia returned home within the year. “The sun,” said the father, “was no substitute for Norway.”