Today, al-Kasim is well known and liked within the older generation of Norway’s oil community (for whom his impromptu visit to the Ministry in May 1968 has entered the folklore). Beyond that limited circle, however, he is virtually unknown. The big newspapers have not profiled him; an internet search reveals little. I first learned of his story by coincidence, when a Norwegian development official mentioned him in an off-hand remark. The government has an ambitious aid programme (now called “Oil for Development”) to help poor, oil-rich states manage their natural resources. The official pointed out the irony in this, given that “it was an Iraqi guy who helped us set everything up in the first place. Without him we would just have let the American oil companies decide how to do things.” What a great story, I thought, almost too good to be true. But if it was true, how come so few people in Norway knew about it?

Time for people to learn about the Iraqi who saved Norway from the misery of other oil states, Farouk al-Kasim.  As the article notes, “Farouk is perhaps the greatest value creator Norway has had.”
(via kottke.org)

After a strong performance in Thursday’s semi-final and securing a second-half draw in the final, Norway are now Sky Bet’s odds-on favourites at 10//11 to win on Saturday. 23-year-old Alexander Rybak is the hottest favourite the competition has seen since Cliff Richard and ‘Congratulations’ and it looks like Eurovision will be heading to Oslo in 2010.

You’ll note that at 10:11, the bookies don’t quite give Rybak a 50% chance, but it’s really close. 

Around Oslo, I know several people throwing Eurovision parties this Saturday.  Unlike the usual Eurovision atmosphere which consists of enjoying some alcohol, laughing at ridiculous eastern European performances, and hoping Norway doesn’t embarrass itself, there is a marked tension in the air. 

We’ll see how Rybak handles it.  He nailed his semifinal performance:

If he can do it again, Oslo will get to have a schmalz contest huge party next May in addition to the usual festivities on the 17th.

Although the FIFA rankings aren’t the most accurate system ever conceived, they do give a rough idea of the quality of teams. 

• Germany: 2nd
• Norway: 45th
• Finland: 57th
• South Africa: 72nd

If Norway hopes to qualify for the World Cup, it’s going to have to have a lot better results against teams worse than it.  I’m not sure these last two results are that good an omen.

In surprising soccer related news (via my favorite soccer blogger):

*According to FIFA, the country that has requested the most World Cup tickets (other than host South Africa) is the United States. Go figure. Britain is third, followed by Germany, Italy and Australia.

SINGAPORE (AFP) — The strong yen has made Tokyo and Osaka the world’s most expensive cities for expatriates while sharp currency declines lowered living costs in Australia and New Zealand, a survey showed.

…

France’s capital Paris is now the world’s third-most expensive city, down from number two in the EIU’s previous survey, followed by Copenhagen and former number one Oslo.

Chant with me, “We’re number 5!  We’re number 5!”

One of the more minor Norwegian competitions/traditions is seeing who can have the first beer outside each year.  There are only a few hard and fast rules:

• You have to drink the beer outside
• You have to drink the beer in Norway…beer in January in Tenerife doesn’t count

I have a strong entry in the competition, having had beer outside in the sun yesterday at Aker Brygge.  Even if the beer was overpriced and it wasn’t exactly warm outside, it sure felt better than cold and gray. 

Alexander Rybak won the Melodi Grand Prix, Norway’s qualification show for the Eurovision song contest.  Not only that, but some commenters are calling “Fairytale” a favorite heading into the competition in Moscow in May.

Here’s a link to his performance.  The song invokes traditional Norwegian music and the dancers match with aspects of traditional Norwegian dance.

That being said, by:Larm is still going on today and tomorrow and it is possible to see a lot of bands in a little time. 

I’ll be doing my part by attending a show by the aforementioned My Little Pony.  If their sound in the studio translates even decently well to the stage then it’ll be a great show.

Here’s a video from them:

I’ve resisted posting about one of my least favorite things about living in Norway for a long time.  I figured that, even if I were initially skeptical, I would give the system a chance and see if it grew on me.  It hasn’t.

The basics:

• Vinmonopolet (“The Wine Monopoly”) is owned by the government.
• It is a non-profit enterprise.
• Wine and liquor can only be sold in Vinmonopolet.
• “Strong” beer can also only be sold in Vinmonopolet. 
  • What’s a strong beer?  Anything over 4.7%.  Yes, seriously.
• “Weak” beer is the only alcoholic beverage that can be sold in other stores.
• There are only 239 stores in all of Norway and only 24 in Oslo.

In short, the stores are horribly inconvenient, always have a long line, close at ridiculous hours, and have a terrible selection. 

For the government’s defense, click below.

According to its website, I’m crazy.

Although alcohol policy involves complex possibilities and dilemmas, all countries with a more liberal sales structure than Norway have substantially higher per capita consumption – often as much as double.

Interesting proposition.  According the World Health Organization, Norwegian per capita consumption (including estimated unrecorded) is approximately 8 liters per person per year.  Here are a few other countries with a more liberal sales structure (all in liters per person per year):

• Egypt: 1
• Mexico: 8
• Japan: 9
• USA: 9
• Canada: 10
• South Africa: 10
• Italy: 11
• Spain: 13
• Austria: 14
• France: 14
• Germany: 14

Including Egypt is cheating a little bit because Egypt’s laws are more strict during Ramadan, but for the other 11 months they are more lenient than Norway’s.  What including Egypt really shows, however, is not that the difference in sales structure matters most (as Norway claims) but that culture matters most.  The vast majority of Egyptians do not drink at all.  Thus, the more liberal laws do not matter to them.

Even if the claim about ALL countries with a more liberal sales structure having higher per captia consumption were true (which as shown it is not), it appears that the claims of ALL countries having a “substantially” higher per capita consumption and “often as much as double” are even less true.  As shown above, it is only the European countries that have substantially higher per capita consumption and only some European countries that have nearly double Norway’s rate.  Those European countries are, not surprisingly, major beer and wine producing countries where drinking is a significant part of the culture. 

Moving right along:

Greater use of alcohol carries higher costs in the form of ill-health and social damage. Vinmonopolet is accordingly an important instrument for making wine, spirits and strong beer available in a form acceptable for society and public health.

There is a subtle trick there.  While the first sentence is mostly non-controversial (although various studies on red wine consumption may poke some holes in it), the second sentence makes no sense without an implied fact.  If greater use of alcohol were truly a major problem, wouldn’t eliminating it be a better solution than helping the public buy it at a non-profit store?  The implied fact missing is that Norwegian culture, much like most of Europe, involves drinking.  Aquavit and lutefisk is as Norwegian as apple pie and ice cream is American.  Norwegians have also been making beer and other spirits for centuries. 

To recap: Alcohol is bad for one’s health.  Norwegian culture ignores this as Norway makes alcohol and Norwegians drink alcohol.  Yet, the government makes it a pain in the ass to obtain.  People still buy it.  People still drink it.  It just is incredibly inconvenient and the selection is poor.

Vinmonopolet offers a unique range of roughly 10 600 different products today. The most popular of these are available in all its shops, while those not in stock at one outlet can be ordered without additional charge.

10,600 doesn’t sound too bad though?  Well, turns out only 800 or so are in a store at any time.  The rest can be ordered online and will come in a week.  And these are the only things that can be ordered online.  If Vinmonopolet doesn’t carry it, you can’t buy it.

All products offered for inclusion in the company’s basic range are subject to quality control in the form of a blind tasting. These tests are carried out by a number of highly qualified tasters with both theoretical knowledge of and long experience with wine, spirits and strong beer. The decisive factors for Vinmonopolet’s product selection are quality, ability to deliver and price. New entrants to the product range are assessed as having the best quality in their price class. Today’s monopoly system accordingly represents a quality guarantee.

So a few experts get to decide the only things that anyone in Norway can buy.  If it doesn’t fit their palate, you can’t drink it.

No other retail solution could offer anything like the same array and quality of products nationwide. A supermarket, for instance, would only be able to provide shelf and storage space for a fraction of the range. In the longer term, only best-sellers would remain. Specialist stores could obviously be established – supplying Bordeaux wines, for instance – but their prices are likely to be higher than those charged by Vinmonopolet.

So supermarkets would carry popular favorites and specialist shops would have a wider selection than the current Vinmonopolet has at higher prices.  Consumers get more choices at a great variety of prices and this is a bad thing?

Reading Vinmonopolet’s website is like watching an acrobat on a tightrope.  It tries to occupy a tiny middle ground that exists only in some politician’s imagination.  Alcohol is bad, but we like to drink it.  Choice is good, but only so much choice.  A non-profit store is best to keep prices down, but taxes are necessary to keep prices from being too low.  It’s a broken system that punishes responsible and irresponsible consumers alike. 

OSLO, Feb 16 (Reuters) – Norwegian wage growth is seen moderating in 2009 after years of brisk increases as the labour market weakens, economists said on Monday following a state commission’s estimate of the impact on 2009 wages from pay hikes last year.

Unemployment is rising in Norway because of the global economic downturn, but remains low by international standards. Registered joblessness rose to 2.6 percent of the workforce in January from 2.0 percent in December.

While I have heard people mention the economic crisis, it certainly hasn’t impacted the lives of most Norwegians.  Although, perhaps there is a bit more to come if law firms are giving talks like this one.