Oslo, Norway
It can be difficult to see aspects of your own identity clearly without a contrast. As an Englishman amongst the English it's hard for me to understand many aspects of my own Englishness. In the same way, without comparing myself to other people, I can't accurately fathom my own personality. And so travelling is not just a chance to relax, eat out and take in the sights, but it's an opportunity to get some perspective.
Returning this week from the Norwegian capital, Oslo, I was struck by how easy it is to stereotype other cultures and assume our own is unique. There are two stereotypes about Norway: it is cold and depressing. These are often combined to arrive at the idea Norway has a high suicide rate because of the cold weather.
In fact Oslo, which is in the south of Norway, has a similar climate to London in June, July and August. Norwegian suicide rates, while higher than the UK are certainly not off the scale - they are comparable with those in the US and lower than those in Australia. Indeed Norway often comes near the top of tables for the happiness of its inhabitants.
If Norway isn't always a cold depressing country then what kind of a country is it and how can I tell? In many ways a city is a manifestation of its inhabitant's beliefs and attitudes, or at least a history of what they used to be. It's possible to read a city in the same way it's possible to read a person's expression.
It turned out that Oslo had much to teach me about Norwegian culture. After all, the city environment is an expression of culture, a way of the city's inhabitants revealing themselves. What does the city we live in say about us?
Two Legs and Two Wheels Good
The first thing that struck me was that cyclists and pedestrians rule the city rather than cars. At every corner there is a pedestrian crossing, people drive around the city slowly and, almost without exception, will stop when you want to cross the road. Back in the UK people pay lip service to sustainable forms of transport but what do we actually have? Ridiculous cycle lanes, roads jammed up with cars, a belief that it is everyone's right to drive up and over anyone else's head.
Cars
And what an acquisitive society we have in London. Looking at the cars people are driving in Oslo, I was wandering around the city for three days before I saw a show-off yellow sports car. In London the Porsches and Lamborghinis are nose to tail.
City planning
You only have to walk around Oslo or indeed any other town in Norway to realise that these people understanding something about design. There is a flow between commercial buildings, public facilities and the natural environment. I'm not just talking about an artsy-fartsy ascetic, I'm talking about practical usability, the difference between a public space being an obstacle and a pleasure to navigate.
Design
The famous Scandinavian design is in evidence everywhere. There is much more attention to functionality, simplicity and common sense. Doors, light-switches, toilets, fridges, heating and glazing. You name it, I saw better design and usability in Norway than in the UK.
Alcohol
No gangs of inebriated idiots roaming the streets - see below...
The Price Tag
Finally every English person's favourite subject: money. One stereotype in Norway that is certainly true is the high cost of...just about everything. My personal cost of living index, the price of pint of beer, broke all previous records. How does £8 a pint strike you? Hence no gangs of inebriated idiots.
But in defence of Norway, here's a culture that understands that you get what you pay for. You want to do it on the cheap? For the most part you get London: often dirty, smelly and unpleasant. You want to pay for quality? You get Oslo: clean, efficient, odourless (apart from the fish) and very pleasant.
We in the UK, however, live in the something-for-nothing culture. We want to cut the corners, make a fast buck, get there first, wherever there is. Hang the design, how cheap can you make it?
Depressed as I was, then, to return to England, I did so understanding more clearly what it means to be English. The Norwegians are people connected to their landscape, to their natural environment; people who care about design and don't think cars are the symbols of freedom their manufacturers would have us believe.
English culture is largely the reverse.
More on living in Norway
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I do say. However you are undeniably right about the cleanliness, architecture and down to earthness (hell, even the bums wear suits) the down to earth aspect is wat gets to me. I grew up in norway and moved to holland when I was 20. Thank god I got out. It's very socialistic in the sense that you're not supposed to stand out, be better etc. (I refer here to the infamous Janteloven: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jantelagen).
Although people are fairly friendly when you get to know them there is nothing like the dutch "cozyness". Drinking in Norway is close to a national disease. When you have to pay, as you saym 8 pounds for your beer, you want some damned effect of it. Result: youth crawling around in rural gutters, drunk out of their minds, screaming on the rightful Beelzebubian association in Milton's Paradise Lost.
Now this is not to say that Norway is not beautiful and norwegians surely know how to value nature, and this is probably one of the few positive things about it (and it's role should not be underestimated).
One more note: northern norway is so unpopular (with the exeption of Trondheim) that they promise to delete your student loan if you move there.
I admit I go back every year to draw in some natural wonders, I do however take my own booze.
"It can be difficult to see aspects of your own identity clearly without a contrast."
This is a point I've tried to emphasize with students in various psychology courses I have taught. And travelling is a great way to establish avenues that will allow for such contrast. But if one loses one's sense of self, sometimes you don't even have to leave your own neighborhood to rediscover core elements of yourself. For example:
I Found Myself at a Yard Sale
words and music by Dr. BLT (c)2006
http://www.drblt.net/music/yardsp.mp3
Bruce
aka Dr. BLT
The World's First Blog n Roll Artist
Thanks for your comment Lars, I did not know about 'Janteloven', very interesting.
I'm told by my Norwegian insiders that Janteloven is something of a 'display rule' in Norway. In other words, culturally, it's useful or 'proper' to appear that you believe in it. Whether the idea goes any deeper than this is up for debate.
Either way, my own experience was certainly that Janteloven did explain many aspects of behaviour there. That tends to make me think there is something to it.
Interesting note Jeremy. I never really thought of it as "holding any truth", but then again I admit I'm not particulary fond of people boasting their greatness. I think it's a matter of quantity not quality that makes it more pronounced in Norway. It probably has to do with the fact that schools are not divided into levels of skill, everyone is assumed to be as intellectually skilled as the other (officially) therefore it often happens that the smart kids are inhibited in their potential capacities while the "intellectually challenged" ones can't keep up with the tempo.
Again, some of my critism might lie in the fact I grew up in a relatively small town in Norway A(Halden), and in small towns Janteloven predominated (and I was an avid reader of Axel Sandemose's books).
Once more, yeah, maybe these rules have some sense but are not meant to be uttered this bluntly, maybe it's a more general small-town rule.
This movie here had some interesting depiction of norwegian rural life in it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157411
As a Norwegian I couldn't resist commenting on this one :-) bear in mind that I've never been to the UK more than a day
Re: bicycles -- it might be true that the situation for bicyclists in Norway is far better than they are in the UK, but compared to most other civilized countries like Sweden and Denmark and of course the Netherlands, Norway lags far behind when it comes to providing for bicyclists. One reason might be that fewer people in Norway cycle than in other European countries because it is so hilly and the weather is unsuitable for cycling a large part of the year. But of course it is as always mostly a matter of political will. Oslo has been run by car friendly conservative partys for the last couple of decades.
Regarding cleanliness -- your views on Oslo as being particularly clean surprised me a bit since I've seen it the other way around for a while. In the German-speaking parks of Switzerland, South Germany, and Austria you can eat off the sidewalks. Part of the reason for this might be that Germans are a lot more cleanly, but some of the reason might be that there is a much greater difference between wealthy and poor people. Because of this difference, it doesn't become prohibitively expensive to pay people to clean the streets. Here in Norway, where the minimum wage is quite a bit higher, along with the living expenses and taxes, the streets and public toilets tend to be quite a bit grimier than in countries with larger divides between rich and poor people. Personally I think grimy toilets is a price worth paying for an equal society. Another thing worth mentioning is probably that there are large differences between the east and west sides of Oslo when it comes to how clean the streets are. Unsurprisingly, the streets are a lot cleaner in the wealthy western parts than in the poorer eastern parts. When it comes to social economic factors Oslo is a very divided city, and if you only visit parts of it, it is easy to make wrong generalizations.
Re: Jantelagen -- I think this is a phenomenon all over, not just in Norway, what these particular for Norway though, is the incessant complaining by some people about how Jantelagen is holding them down. The explanation that they just might be average losers with illusions of grandeur never seems to strike them.
Laurie Taylor visits Norway for his Radio 4 programme 'Thinking Allowed' and finds that...
"...now the richest country in the world, Norway has only existed independently since 1905 and has built an identity which is associated with the beauty of its countryside and a rural way of life. This essentially romantic but cohesive national identity has made the process of integration for immigrants very difficult.
Laurie visits a young ethnically diverse hip hop group who have created a new language and asks how does their hybrid from of culture fit into ideas of Norwegianess and belonging?"
It's so fun to read about others point of view of Oslo. I never thought about Oslo in that way. For me, a norwegian student living in Oslo, all I see is the flaws. The visible drugusers, the hockers on Karl Johan and the total lack of respect for other human beeings. Well, a city can really be seen in different ways.
However, to be a student in Norway is rather delightful. We get scholarships from the goverments studentloan "assosiacion", (don't know the word for it) and we can easely get work. So all is not bad in Norway.
It was fun reading abaout you're thoughts about our city of Oslo :)
Hilsen Kine - a norwegian student :)