Norway is a rich country owing its wealth to oil and natural gas. It has been voted by the UN as the best country to live in, for eight years running. It is a full fledged welfare state where citizen can get a monthly stipend even without working. It has beautiful landscape adorned by mountains and fjords. Technologically it is an advanced state where machines do every kind of work. The culture here egalitariansm where every individual is regarded as being equal irrespective of sex, religion, social status etc. The youths here are quite informed courtesy of free internet acess and easy information flow.
Living in Norway is an exciting experience and a challenging one especially when you come from a culturally different environment. A book by the name "Foreign to Familiar" categorizes cultures into two vast categories-Hot climate cultures and cold climate cultures. The book in a way helped me not be frustrated about tendencies and way of life here in Norway.
At this point you will allow me to put down my impressions and theories about Norway.
Independence-Norwegian are raised to be independent. From a very early age a child is taught to think for him/herself. If a child falls down for example, it is upon him/herself to get up and not be assisted.
A number of times i have felt that it is almost impossible to offer help to someone here. It can easily be thought as a sign of weakness to accept help since your are supposed to manage it by yourself.This in turn breeds individualism where as the child grows he /she tends to think of himself and what can benefits them.
I also think it will be a little difficult for a man to be a gentleman towards a lady. For the small things that make up gentlemanness like pulling a chair for a lady, seeing a lady off, helping carry some stuff for a lady don't find a place most of the times. The usual response from the ladies could be something like "thank you but i can manage"
Loneliness-This is a major social problem in Norway. Almost half of the population is lonely. My theory for this is simply.People have internet and as such they can almost transact anything on the internet. Information is in plenty, talk of maps to give direction. All this easy access to information makes it even easier to be independent. You don't need to ask a person about directions, read it in the map, you don't need to ask when the bus iis leaving, find from the internet. At least in Kenya you would have to talk to people to find some information which makes human interaction possible. I find this lacking here which in my opinion would be contributing to the loneliness.
The cheese theory- This is a theory that partly explains loneliness. The equality culture makes it hard to distinguish between the rich and the poor. While not everyone is on an equal footings, there are slight differences which are hard to recognize unless you have thoroughly investigated. since equality is such an important aspect of this culture some people may be tempted to live their lives in pretence just to keep up the social pressure of being equal. There seems to be a silent competition. People are closed up not wanting to reveal who they are, everyone wants to fit even when they are not equal. A friends tells me of a lady he met in a Bus dressed like professionally, when my friend asked where she was coming from she immediately answered "julebord" which is translated christmas table. Now this is common for companies to have Christmas tables(christmas celebration characterized by a lot of partying) for their employies. When my friend asked where she worked she felt embarassed becaused she wasn't employed. If you don't fit people tend to compansate for the gap by pretending to be who they are not, as such this leads to a cheese like life where from the outside it may look like its full but inside it is full of air bubbles. For how long a person manages to maintain this kind of life only time will tell, since any slight pressure on the outside may result to crumbling of the whole cheese of a person due to the incapacity of the airbubbles to support the weight of the pressure. Thus people can easily die with their problems rather than sharing them.
Honesty and trust- Whether this is a generalization or a theory, i may never tell. But i am thoroughly impressed by the kind of honesty i find here. People or rather students are open to stating the facts as they are including even the bad ones about them that people would always like to hide.
I have been going to a football hall where people are required to pay to use the facility. I have never seen a person standing there to ask people for money, people just come and pay. Even when they don't pay that specific day they still pay it later.
Though it may be costly in terms of fines to be found travelling in a bus without paying, i don't see policemen walking around in buses demanding evidence for payment. People are honest whether they are using bus cards of Cash, they still pay for it. Ordinarily i would expect that people would take advantage of this but Norwegians seem to be Honest. Whether it their individual conviction to be Honest or it is the trust in the system that makes them honest, it is evident that they are Honest.
If a Norwegian told you something or offered to show you how to do something, you can count on their word. Apart from the Jante-law that creates an inferiority complex for them, i find that Norwegians are only able to say they can do something when they are thoroughly sure they have master the art of doing it.
More reflections on impressions of Norway next time. I need to sleep now.
Living in Norway is an exciting experience and a challenging one especially when you come from a culturally different environment. A book by the name "Foreign to Familiar" categorizes cultures into two vast categories-Hot climate cultures and cold climate cultures. The book in a way helped me not be frustrated about tendencies and way of life here in Norway.
At this point you will allow me to put down my impressions and theories about Norway.
Independence-Norwegian are raised to be independent. From a very early age a child is taught to think for him/herself. If a child falls down for example, it is upon him/herself to get up and not be assisted.
A number of times i have felt that it is almost impossible to offer help to someone here. It can easily be thought as a sign of weakness to accept help since your are supposed to manage it by yourself.This in turn breeds individualism where as the child grows he /she tends to think of himself and what can benefits them.
I also think it will be a little difficult for a man to be a gentleman towards a lady. For the small things that make up gentlemanness like pulling a chair for a lady, seeing a lady off, helping carry some stuff for a lady don't find a place most of the times. The usual response from the ladies could be something like "thank you but i can manage"
Loneliness-This is a major social problem in Norway. Almost half of the population is lonely. My theory for this is simply.People have internet and as such they can almost transact anything on the internet. Information is in plenty, talk of maps to give direction. All this easy access to information makes it even easier to be independent. You don't need to ask a person about directions, read it in the map, you don't need to ask when the bus iis leaving, find from the internet. At least in Kenya you would have to talk to people to find some information which makes human interaction possible. I find this lacking here which in my opinion would be contributing to the loneliness.
The cheese theory- This is a theory that partly explains loneliness. The equality culture makes it hard to distinguish between the rich and the poor. While not everyone is on an equal footings, there are slight differences which are hard to recognize unless you have thoroughly investigated. since equality is such an important aspect of this culture some people may be tempted to live their lives in pretence just to keep up the social pressure of being equal. There seems to be a silent competition. People are closed up not wanting to reveal who they are, everyone wants to fit even when they are not equal. A friends tells me of a lady he met in a Bus dressed like professionally, when my friend asked where she was coming from she immediately answered "julebord" which is translated christmas table. Now this is common for companies to have Christmas tables(christmas celebration characterized by a lot of partying) for their employies. When my friend asked where she worked she felt embarassed becaused she wasn't employed. If you don't fit people tend to compansate for the gap by pretending to be who they are not, as such this leads to a cheese like life where from the outside it may look like its full but inside it is full of air bubbles. For how long a person manages to maintain this kind of life only time will tell, since any slight pressure on the outside may result to crumbling of the whole cheese of a person due to the incapacity of the airbubbles to support the weight of the pressure. Thus people can easily die with their problems rather than sharing them.
Honesty and trust- Whether this is a generalization or a theory, i may never tell. But i am thoroughly impressed by the kind of honesty i find here. People or rather students are open to stating the facts as they are including even the bad ones about them that people would always like to hide.
I have been going to a football hall where people are required to pay to use the facility. I have never seen a person standing there to ask people for money, people just come and pay. Even when they don't pay that specific day they still pay it later.
Though it may be costly in terms of fines to be found travelling in a bus without paying, i don't see policemen walking around in buses demanding evidence for payment. People are honest whether they are using bus cards of Cash, they still pay for it. Ordinarily i would expect that people would take advantage of this but Norwegians seem to be Honest. Whether it their individual conviction to be Honest or it is the trust in the system that makes them honest, it is evident that they are Honest.
If a Norwegian told you something or offered to show you how to do something, you can count on their word. Apart from the Jante-law that creates an inferiority complex for them, i find that Norwegians are only able to say they can do something when they are thoroughly sure they have master the art of doing it.
More reflections on impressions of Norway next time. I need to sleep now.
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