It's getting dull in the stores. Whole sections are empty: No cheese of any kind, almost no frozen food - I actually bought the last package of brown cheese in one store, and the last package of frozen lasagne in another. Bread, milk and beer is reliable, and so is fresh meat and pasta. Looks like I'm eating that for a while. Still no toilet paper, but I'm safe. Had to check two stores to find dish soap (?) this week. Did I say dull? I meant exciting. Which not-vital-but-oh-so-enjoyable product will run out next? There's one chain not affected by the strike, but it has the queues to match it, and is a bit away, so I'll only use it for necessities (ie. chocolate spread).

The hotel strike ended before it began. Good for them.

The journalists are still on strike. All major newspapers are closed. That's good news too. Anything that encourages Norwegians to experiment with foreign newspapers is a Good Thing, and with luck one or two will go bust. Not likely, but our media needs a shake-up, and I'm allowed to dream.

Last time the journalists were on strike was only two years ago, when they demanded a fifth vacation week. I remember passing their stand near Stortinget. At the top of the stairs to the subway, journalists with big posters explaining how horrible it is to have four weeks of vacation. At the bottom of the stairs, a drug addict with a cup, begging for spare change. Contrast or parallel? They got their fifth vacation week, but now they're at it again, for some obscure right to something-or-other in relation to their pension plan. What a bunch of whiners.

Some of the strikers run their own strike newspapers, like this one. I'm not sure what to make of this article by Dagbladet journalist Simen Ekern, who places Sergei Eisenstein's 1924 movie Strike at the top of a list of good striking movies. Strike is a "cinematic masterpiece which truly matches today's situation". The movie "takes place in tsarist Russia. A strike among factory workers draws out, and it all ends in hunger and suffering." Uh-huh. I'm sure it's a great movie, from an entertainment point of view. I hear Eisenstein was some kind of genius. So was Leni Riefenstahl, but to recommend her Nazi propaganda movies for their political qualities is to go a bit far. Ekern doesn't just (self-ironically?) endorse the political message of a Soviet Union propaganda movie, he compares the pathetic blackmail of filthy rich Westerners with the life-and-death struggle of 19th century Russian workers. Radical chic or Marxist delusion? Whatever.

The point here - what we should remember above all else - is that Simen Ekern is a whiner, like the rest of them. Yeah I know, I'm not being very sympathetic to their struggle for fair and just pension plans. I've hardly bothered to learn their demands. But anyone who is extremely rich and uses blackmail to get even richer is a whiner, and that's as deep as I intend to analyze this.

I'd say your analysis is deep enough. You could always use bigger words and longer sentences, but the meaning would be the same.

Bjørn, I agree with you. I have NO sympathy with these strikes, at least not with the rich journalists. They ARE a bunch of whiners. I find your comment about how good it is that a newspaper strike introduces Norwegians to foreign news outlets quite amusing. Didn't think of it that way, but you have a point. Just pray they don't read the Swedish ones......

And I'm sick and tired of the empty food stores around my neighbourhood.

And who knows? Some of the newspaper readers may even discover blogs.

You think you have problems??

Via Fred's site, of course:

http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9576597%255E1702,00.html

Cinema stormed in Cannes protest
From correspondents in Cannes
May 16, 2004

FRENCH showbusiness workers protesting plans to cut their benefits occupied a cinema at the Cannes Film Festival today, leading to clashes with police that left at least six people injured.

Police forcibly ousted about 100 protesters who had stormed the Star cinema in downtown Cannes to disrupt the movies and force out filmgoers....

Bjørn: There are still lots of stores not affected - mainly independed stores not connected to chains. The one close by me is almost totally non-affected (Note for others: I live about 5km from Bjørn).

There's still a lot of cheese. He sells toilet paper for about 10kr ($1.5) for 8 rolls. More than enough dish-soap, but I think he's running out of frozen food (but hey, make your own food from scratch, it tastes better anyways). He also have a stack of eggs, so no danger of running out of that neither.

However, he's out of butter, and according to him won't get any more next week. Apparantly he sold out two boxes of butter on saturday - something that used to last more than a week :) He hadn't planned that his store should get _that_ popular due to the strike. ;)

Interesting, I didn't know Norway had the same issues with labor strikes as other European countries. For some reason I had envisioned a more peaceful co existence between labor and management in Norway than France for example.

My guess is that the journalists can probably be replace by something less than an infinite number of monkeys. I would suggest management look into this as a possibility. The monkeys might not even have to be brought to Norway; their simian skills could be out sourced directly from Africa or South America. The savings would be enormous and the journalistic output relatively comparable.

As for the lack of toilet paper and frozen lasagna at grocery stores, this is a much more serious problem. Are the distributors on strike? Will America have to airlift toilet paper and brown cheese to Norway? Maybe this is an opportunity for the USA to win back the hearts and minds of Norwegians?

Franko

Franko: "For some reason I had envisioned a more peaceful co existence between labor and management in Norway than France for example."

Oh it is. Our strikes are less bitter and much less likely to turn into revolutions. Quite peaceful, almost ritualistic.

"Will America have to airlift toilet paper and brown cheese to Norway?"

A Danish radio talk show has already stepped in to solve the toilet paper situation. I hear they were handing out rolls on Karl Johan in Oslo this week. Brown cheese we'll have to do without. I doubt it's made anywhere but Norway.

What I get more and more through the norwegian media is the social democracy bias that a(/any) society is develeoped through strikes! More and more I see how heavy the Norwegian mind is influenced by process philosophy.

Sounds like a socialist paradise, like the former Soviet Union and its satellites, or Cuba today. The only difference I can see is that eventually, the strikes will end and you'll see products back in the stores instead of empty, Soviet-style shelves.

RIP Euro Socialist Utopia?

French 35-hour week 'a disaster'

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/18/wfran18.xml

[ Brown cheese we'll have to do without. I doubt it's made anywhere but Norway. ]

Well Bjorn, there's a piece of cheese in the fridge at work that's looking pretty brown. If you think the strike is likely to last another ten days, I could mail it to you.

(Incidentally, someone brought in three soft cheeses to work today. Luckily I had almost a full packet of crackers, so we all had a feast. Mmmmm, cheese).

PS Do you have any rumegröt? (sp?) I'd have thought a few packets of that would spoil your appetite for a month.

Brown cheese? Hmm. MOre important, how are the Aquavit supplies holding up

Here in Israel, it sometimes seems that the various unions have a rotating strike schedule. The port workers go on strike every few weeks, as does the teachers union. The petrol suppliers stop delivering petrol every few months, and the flour manufacturers were talking about a strike just last week. Don't get me started on the airport workers...

BTW, I LOVE Norwegian brown cheese, and I can definitely feel your pain.

Liza: "BTW, I LOVE Norwegian brown cheese, and I can definitely feel your pain."

No pain yet, I have a whole package left.

Herbie: "MOre important, how are the Aquavit supplies holding up"

Probably well, but I wouldn't know. Hardly anyone drinks it outside the Christmas season, and I try to avoid it even then. There's a good chance of a brewery strike soon, though, in which case we'll run out of beer.

If only beer try this:
White Beer Cheese Dip Serves: 12

6 cups shredded Asadero OR Provolone cheese
1 cup beer
1 sm. onion - chopped fine
2-3 jalapeno peppers - seeded, minced
2 cloves garlic - minced
2 Tbls. prepared horseradish
1 tsp. hot sauce

Combine all ingredients in crock pot or bouble boiler and stir. Cook until all ingredients are melted together. Serve hot with warmed corn tortilla chips

"Bread, milk and beer is reliable, and so is fresh meat and pasta. Looks like I'm eating that for a while."

Apparently not, the breweries just went on strike today...

Even our "paparazzi"-magazines go down:

http://pub.tv2.no/nettavisen/english/article227596.ece

«There is only one reaction to this, and that is that I’m irritated,» said Roger Andresen, head of NGF.

Ofcourse. Sure. If someone decides to strike, then we're all supposed to sit back and suffer from the consequences.

Remco: "Apparently not, the breweries just went on strike today..."

Actually I can understand the brewery-strike to a certain degree. I do not agree with the demand from the strikers that they should be able to veto hiring extra work, however - the second part of the demand is somewhat understandable.

The second demand from the brewery-strikers is that extra-workers should have the same wages as the regular workers - that is - that the breweries should not be allowed to hire easter-european workers for sub-standard wages, thus squeezing out the norwegian workers.

Of course it could be argued that the breweries should be able to hire whoever they want, and that the workers should be able to "under-bid" eachother, but on the other hand - if we allow workers from other countries to enter the country, work cheap for a couple of months and then leave the country - we risk that low-skilled workers are 'out-competed' by foreigners - and we export norwegian money out the country in an unreasonable amount.

In short, I think one of the demands from the brewery-workers make sense.

Strike is a really cool movie if you like the whole film-for-film's-sake kind of thing. But is sounds like the Eisenstein picture they really need is Ivan the Terrible, which is all about how power corrupts the soul.

"...and we export norwegian money out the country in an unreasonable amount."

I just read a recent article in the New York Times which said that (and I cite from memory only) Hispanic workers in the US will send about $30 billion this year out of the country to their families at home.

Think about that the next time you criticize the US for its low foreign aid per GNP ratio (a criticism often heard in Nordic countries, who have a higher ratio).

Nordic countries don't even come close to matching the complete amount of wealth the US distributes to the developing world every year, in terms of aid, worker remittances and, most importantly, trade.

Markku you say "Nordic countries don't even come close to matching the complete amount of wealth the US distributes to the developing world every year, in terms of aid, worker remittances and, most importantly, trade." That is like apples and oranges. I would think that in order to make any comparison you would first have to adjust for population differences. Then you would have to adjust for state funded programs vs. private remittances and then for impact. I think impact would be quite important because it is basically the donor telling the charity case how the money will be spent and on what as distinguished from private transfers which the recipient can do as they will. The next measure would be to try and assess the impact in terms of raising the standard of living from either type of transfer. In public transfers it can be argued that they release more funds for graft. :-)

Comparing total wealth transferred abroad is really not like comparing apples and oranges; even if it was, the US still wins hands down in terms of worker remittances and trade (the US is the largest importer in the world, while most European economies have a surplus).

And when adjusted for per capita spending, US remittances are even greater, but this would be unfair, as the GNP level is what really matters. Remember, the EU has more citizens than the US, even before the recent enlargement.

On private donorships, well, the American people have the most generous, well-endowed private foundations in the world. European private foundations are not as wealthy, since most assume that the state will take care of all the socially responsible giving.

"In public transfers it can be argued that they release more funds for graft."

Yes, indeedy, this is one of the main reasons foreign aid has a dismal record, while private transfers of wealth through remittances and trade are much better than aid to governments.

Though don't tell that to Scandinavians. They prefer to look at just that one set of numbers (the one that shows their foreign aid per GNP ratio is slightly bigger than that of the US), and condemn the US for greed and lack of sensitivity towards the poor nations in the world.

Believe me, as someone who is bilingual, the trash one reads in European media...!

Remittances to Mexico alone were $12 billion in 2002, IIRC. That's what Vincente Fox said in a speech. Estimates are about $20 billion a year out of America.

Remittances are the 3rd largest income of Mexico.

I read a tome on the history of Sweden once, which had a factoid that absolutely floored me: in the 1900's, at the turn of the century, as much as 15% of the Gross National Product of Sweden, Norway and Denmark... - consisted of remittances sent by immigrants in America to their families back home.

It really is remarkable that Rune above considers immigrant remittances sent out of Norway today "an unreasonable amount", considering how Norway's economy was built up on such remittances at one time.

Marrku Nordstrom: Uhm, I've not talked about *immigrant* remittances at all.

If you have nothing to do while waitng for the strike to end you might wish to read a new book by Sauel Huntington [who wrote The Clash of Civilizations] entitled "Who Are We? The Challenges To America's National Identity" Just a superb analysis of America -- warts [not too many :-) ] and all.

Rune: you're playing with semantics. Immigrants, foreign workers, guest workers, illegal workers, whatnot: they still have a positive economic impact on their host countries, and the countries of their origin.

Unless, of course, the host country happens to be a social democratic welfare state which doesn't, by definition, accommodate market forces as well as free-market states.

Bjorn, do you need a stinky cheese care package?

## On private donorships, well, the American people have the most generous, well-endowed private foundations in the world. European private foundations are not as wealthy, since most assume that the state will take care of all the socially responsible giving. ##

Well, it may be true for foreign aid, but for helping the poor nationally, private charity is really a gigantic disaster. I really can`t see privat charities taking the place of the state in countries like the US, Chile, Taiwan and Japan.

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