A Different Drummer

My Norwegian weekend was like dipping my toes into the water of that whole part of the world - Scandinavia seems to be a great place to be and I am looking forward to spending some proper time there someday. I was chairing NTMS, the AIESEC conference for new members in Norway, so like any conference anywhere in the world, it was more like experiencing Norway from within the bubble of a conference - hotels, airport buses, etc. But what I saw of the place, I really liked.

What I saw of the people - well, that was another story. Norwegians are a really wonderful people. and far more different from the typical "western" mindset than I was expecting. They really have their own thing going on up there. On one side of things, there really is a modern day "Men of the North" Viking mode that the average Norwegian guy can enter into once the beer was flowing. I was absolutely confident that if I grabbed a bunch of the more loaded ones on Saturday night and found us a sturdy longboat, a solid round of pillaging could begin - provided the beer kept flowing.

Keeping the beer, or any consumer product, flowing, is actually a much more difficult task, especially when your a only carrying small amounts of insignificant European currency. Norway has a deceptively promising exchange rate of 8 Norwegian Krone to the euro, pretty much identical to the exchange rate of the Egyptain pound. But thats where the comparison ends. Prices in Norway are just incredible - almost a tourist attraction in itself. Paying 8 euro for a beer could concievably be promoted as a must-do experience, although I would reccomend promoting it to petrodollar rich Gulf Arabs and ironic Silicon Valley dot com billionaires rather than the average price wary tourist.

It is something worth seeing though, and I guess as a visible, living barometer of national wealth, prices in stores being roughly twice the level of London has to count for something.

The cool thing about Norway and Scandinavia in general is that they have two great, incredibly contrasting historical stereotypes or "roles" to live up to, and although both can be in conflict, both are something to be incredibly proud of. Theres the pillaging Viking routine, which is most valuable as an envigorating party trick (drunk people talking Norwegian sound consistently like they are planning the next raid), and theres the more modern trait, the great independant, civilised mediator of the world. As easy as it would of been to raise a vigorous manly raiding party in the evenings, in the daytime, I'm pretty sure I could have mobilised a team of 4 or 5 people who could be organising a two state solution in Tel Aviv with a few hours of preparation.

I was thinking about this a lot, and I couldnt stop relating it back to Australians. We are in many ways like the Irish - riding on the wave of one of the best national "brands" of any people in the world. Australia conjures up beaches, laid back party people, drinkers, sportmen, the innocent folk down under who are just having a good time, mate. I dont think this sells us short as badly as the Irish are with their national brand, which is essentially defined by alcohol alone. But maybe it would be cool for us to start outwardly positioning ourselves into a second model - keeping the first one, not only because its completely true, but because it is a good one to have. But can we get also be known for something a little more worldly?

The Norwegian equivelant of the laid back sun drenched Aussie, or the drunk drunk drunk Irishman, is the Viking. Rough beard flowing, cold ale in one hand being drunk from a horn, axe in the other, ready for a busy afternoons raiding and a long night of beer drinking and eating joints of roast meat with your hands. It appeals to a more primal conciousness of instant satisfaction, living on desires and a lot of things that will be permantly burned into the male conciousness, no matter how outdated it becomes when compared to our comfortable urban environment. But where the Norweians have gone one step ahead is to get together a secondary national trait, one reflecting the modern age. And its pretty sweet.

Norwegians are rich, generous capitalists who have made socialism work like nowhere else on earth. They are one of a few countries who havent pissed their oil money up the wall, instead using it to build a welfare state with the consistenly highest standard of living in the world, a massive $150 billion fund for the future, and absolutely no external debt. On top of all this, they are in many ways a role model for international co-operation, with incredibly effective international mediators, a huge international aid contribution, and Norwegians being seen everywhere in "international circles".

This probably wouldnt fit Australians, and we probably wouldnt want it to. Our independance isn't famous, and we are firmly on the "side" of the UK, and more importantly the US, in pretty much any major international issue. I suppose "pressure from Washington" could end up getting John Howard a gig as UN secretary general in 2007 (it nearly got Foreign Minister Alexander Downer appointed head of the International Atomic Energy Agency) , but I don't think we'd be fooling anybody.

Instead, I think we would fit a sort of globe trotting scientific/business leaders concept. Aussies have done super well in terms of top management in international business, as I pointed out on my blog last year. And Australian researchers and inventors are no slackers either.

Anyhow, all off topic. Congratulations Norway for that whole Norway thing you have going on up there. It was nice to be a part of it, if only for a few days, and I look forward to being there again soon. Hopefully, next time I will bring enough money to last for an afternoon....