from the hip

For the third time there are riots and street fighting in Oslo over the conflict in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians. A demonstration against Israel at the Israeli embassy in Oslo turned into a regular street fight when demonstrators threw bottles and stones, and fired fireworks at the police.

As they have one two previous occasions, the police responded with tear gas and spread the crowds. Then the violent demonstration turned into more or less undisciplined street fighting, breaking windows, beating up bystanders, and wrecking havoc on the usually quiet and peaceful city of Oslo.

Norwegian public opinion has increasingly turned in a pro-Palestinian direction over the last few years. Some of the leading newspapers, most notably the once liberal Dagbladet, are relative extremist in its pro-Palestinian view-points. Also, the current left-wing government of the Social democrat party and the Socialist party is pro-Palestinian in its orientation.

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The minister of justice in Norway has proposed criminalizing the purchase of sexual services. The law proposes imposing fines and up to six months in jail for anyone convicted of paying a prostitute for sex. The law is in line with a “Sex Purchase Law” passed by neighboring Sweden in 1999, which has been the subject of intense interest in Europe and elsewhere.

Justice Minister Knut Storberget said in presenting the proposed law: “People are not a commodity and criminalizing the purchase of sex would make it less attractive for human traffickers to look to Norway.”

I am not sure I like the law. I don’t really know how smart it is to criminalize people for buying sex. But at least that part of the law I respect. The part I have strong objections to, is the part that says that the law should apply to Norwegians visiting other countries as well. This is strange as a legal principle.

I mean, if a Norwegian drive a car at 160 km/hour on a German highway, this is legal in Germany but illegal in Norway. But people do not get punished for it when they return home to Norway. Same for smoking cannabis in Amsterdam. And so on. But now the government proposes that when a Norwegian does something in a foreign country that is legal in that country, he is to be punished when he returns home?

And, in addition to the very strange legal principle involved, there is also the almost impossible situation with respect to implementation. Are Dutch policemen supposed to look out for Norwegians buying sex, when that purchase is legal in the Netherlands? And the same in other countries, of course.

So, seems to me, the only people who will be punished for this are the ones admitting to have done it – some honest guys – and people who are informed about by friends that can’t be trusted or enemies, and then some few others more or less randomly.

To me it seems strange and not very smart to put in place a law that punishes the honest and rewards informers. Is that how the socialist government in Norway wants Norway to become?

One of Norway’s largest newspapers, Dagbladet, today implicitly accuses Norway’s Prime Minister, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, of having dished out false promises for 20 years about men’s rights to a paid leave following child births. This is an issue of great concern to many in Norway working for greater equality between men and women.

Every third father, approximately, does currently not have this right in Norway. Men only get this if the mother of the child has worked during six of the ten last months preceding the birth of a child.

The newspaper accuses Stoltenberg very smartly, without actually stating it explicitly, by publishing two news articles side by side on the internet version of the newspaper. One of the articles contains an interview with Mr. Stoltenberg dating from March 1987, 20 years ago. There, as a young and rising star in the Norwegian Labor Party, he strongly argues in favor of men’s right to a paid leave following child births is a very important issue.

The second article, posted right next to the first, states that time is running out for Stoltenberg. While not commenting itself, Dagbladet lets a veteran-member of the Labor Party in Norway, Britt Schultz, say that this reform is overdue, and that there has been a lot of symbol-politics about this, but that symbolic politics do not produce results. Even without comments from the paper itself, this seem to be a pretty strong statement by the paper.

So. There it is. 20 years of talk and no action. That’s a lot of talk.

Nicely done by Dagbladet. Actually.