A hope of a future

It's been a few days now, but still I can't believe it. Still I have no words.

A good friend and member of the same union as I, is still missing and most likely killed in the attack on Utøya. I got to spend far too little time with him. Still I'm hoping to get the message that he's alive. But as time pass, hope fades.
Rest in peace Snorre, you where a good friend, a good unionist and a good man.

July 22nd will never be same. At least 76 people where killed in two attacks, carried out by the same man. A bomb were detonated in Oslo centrum and then the attacker drove to Utøya, outside Oslo,  and started shooting youths participating at a political summer camp.

He did all this because he was against the direction in which Norway was going. He feared muslims would take over Europe and Norway. And he felt his voice was refused in the public debate.
Because of these frights he attacked one of the parties in government at their root. He wanted to scare the politicians into doing as he wanted. The Prime minister and leading politicians have said that our answer to these attacks will be more democracy and more openness. And the people of Norway have reacted with silence and flowers.

The sad thing is that we are all accomplices in the prehistory of the attacks. Everyone who haven't spoken up when they have heard racist remarks. Everyone who didn't prevent a muslim-looking man from being threatened of a subway cart and everyone who didn't stop a man from giving a muslim-looking man a Hitler salute, both in the first hours after the attacks in Oslo and Utøya.
In the last decade everyday racism in Norway have gotten more and more accepted. And it turned to the worse in the first few hours after the attacks. Until we got the news that the attacker was a blonde norwegian christian.

We now have the opportunity to make a society which really are including and open. My hope for the future is that my soon to be born son will grow up in a country where people doesn't get judged on the color of their hair or skin, or on their religious belief.
If we manage that, the lost lives in Oslo and Utøya won't be in vain.

I will also offer my deepest condolences to all the families and friends of those who where killed in Oslo and Utøya.

Shock and awe

Det er i Hellas det skjer om dagen. Mye har vært skrevet og ment om Middelhavslandet siden krisa var et faktum for nærmere to år siden. Og med en nylig vedtatt spareplan på utrolige 222 milliarder kroner fram til 2015 så er jeg personlig mer bekymret for Hellas framtid med sparepakka enn om de ikke hadde fått lånene fra EU og IMF.
Og selv om det kan være et og annet fornuftig punkt i spareplanen (f.eks. kryssjekke informasjon om mottakere av trygdeytelser opp mot pensjonsytelser) så vil det totale omfanget av sparepakka sette Hellas i en mye værre situasjon.

En viktig del av sparepakka er også et omfattende salg av statlige selskaper som omfatter flere flyplasser, motorveier, vann- og avløpsverk, postverket, togselskapet, gresk tipping og det greske teleselskapet.
Yannis Veronfakis (gresk økonomiprofessor) frykter at dette nedsalget vil ende på samme måte i Hellas som i Russland på 90-tallet.

Det beste rådet jeg har hørt om gresk økonomiden siste tida må nok være at vi alle reiser på ferie til Hellas i sommer og ber om kvittering hver gang vi handler...