There’s an article in the current issue of The New York Review of Books [March 5, 2015] entitled “Norway: The Two Faces of Extremism” by Hugh Eakin, a senior editor of the NYRB. The article deals with Norway’s manner of dealing with the enhanced threat of Islamist extremism that is plaguing all of Europe right now, with the unusual background twist occasioned by the country’s most devastating act of terrorism in its history which occurred in the summer of 2011 involving the massacre of 69 people, many of them children, at a summer camp on a small Norwegian island. The twist comes into focus when we learn (or remember) that the terrorist, a Norwegian right-wing extremist, was not a Islamic jihadist at all, but an avowed enemy of Islam, upset because of the country’s “multiculturalism” and lax immigration laws.
Notwithstanding these terrible events and the prospect of further terrorism in Norway and elsewhere from whatever source, the author of the article gives a brief description of what Norway’s all about. It’s that which I thought you might find of interest:
By almost any conventional measure, Norway is a blissful anomaly. According to the International Monetary Fund, the country’s GDP per capita is now more than $100,000—more than Qatar’s and second only to tiny Luxembourg’s; remarkably for an oil country, it also has low income inequality, thanks to a highly redistributive tax system. Norway is the most democratic country in the world, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s measure of sixty different political criteria, and it outperforms any other nation on measures of gender equality. Along with [Erna] Solberg, the current prime minister, many of the most important cabinet members are women, including the ministers of finance, defense, trade, environment, and social inclusion.
Nor does the country suffer from the urban malaise that plagues many of its neighbors. Its small population occupies one of the largest countries in Europe, and its uncrowded cities are known for their clean water and air. Despite vast oil resources, Norway gets 99 percent of its electricity from hydropower and produces so little waste that, along with Sweden, it has begun importing garbage from other countries to fuel its incinerators. Almost every child is educated through the public education system. Norwegian prisons are considered models of enlightened rehabilitation. And on measures of “social trust”—the degree to which people say they trust others and their governments—Norway routinely ranks first or second in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Since 2008, the tax returns of every citizen have been published in a searchable online database.
The point of this is: Norway Anyone?
