The first thing I can see from the plane is unusual relief, fjord-studded as if it was Slartibartfast who designed it. Hills with thousands of fir trees, so many hills that I wonder if there’s an airport at the horizon. And when I touch down – light and gentle beauty; the air smells of freshness, naughty chilly on my nose, while everyone’s wearing sandals and short-sleeve T-shirts. After all it’s 17°C and it’s summer.
The sky can hang overhead so blue only in a place as clean as this. There’s water everywhere. I can see no factories, or tall buildings. The skyline is rich with low houses in all hues you can imagine. Velkommen til Norge!
Norway is a wonderful place to bring your children up, to work and enjoy social prosperity, to live in peace and comfort, or just wander around in astounding yet mysterious nature. Norway is the quintessence of the social state, where the Government takes care of most things, education and health care are free and at the end of the day, the sky-high taxes result in immediate social benefits. Norway is a great country. I could easily move there right now.
As with many modern states, Norway, too, faces a serious yet universal problem among youths – alcoholism. One in six Norwegians aged at least 15 has some sort of alcohol dependence. Every Friday and Saturday night those otherwise normal, modest, pretty intelligent people turn into depressed, screaming kiddos, stumbling along the paths, unable to have fun as most of you would imagine.
To shed some light – in the Norwegian culture there is a sort of an exaltation that is visible in language too. The evening starts with a vorspiel (spirits, including home-made or moonshine), combined with just as much beer (øl), wine or champagne. And this is before the party has even started. A Norwegian comic strip pretty much sums it up: “The Norwegians don’t drink more than the other nations – they just drink it all at once.”
So, one wonders, why Norway, a country one can easily call perfect in terms of social and economic development, faces such a cultural phenomenon. The answer of such a question requires serious digging into Norwegian culture and tens of years living in the country, which a tourist lacks. Still, some things are easily observed.
The popular stereotype describes Norwegians as gloomy, depressed people, who are hard to strike a conversation with. Such a stereotype is probably plausible, or at least it used to be. Today, the young Norwegians lack the qualms of those who brought them up.
You might look for answers in an attempt to shake off the Viking’s heritage of temperance. In a way, this drunkenness is a yearning for liberty free from the bans and the rigid code of behaviour, dating back to the Viking times, when life was much harsher than today.
In a similar line, others believe that drinking is an attempt to forget the Viking history and embrace the world with modern amiability, a craving for entertainment and joie de vivre.
Stress shouldn’t be underestimated too. Peer pressure at school is just as important. Norway owes a lot to its subjects’ work ethics, to the spirit of solidarity and cooperation, which one can see anywhere – from the local supermarket to the professional relations. Pressed for time, facing rigid laws, huge taxes, difficulty in finding a job… and here he/she is – a young and promising Norwegian, stumbling along, wasting money on alcohol.
One wonders, perhaps this trend originates in Norwegians’ proverbial self-consciousness? My friends tell me that the Norwegians find it embarrassing to discuss important issues when they are sober. Sorrow, cares, love hardly make it to their agenda before they say “Bottoms up!”. Perhaps this is an oversimplification of the issue. But you can see all over the place young, chatty blokes and lassies, who are eager to explain to you anything about life, the universe and everything, once they’ve made their way to the pub…
Despite (or out of spite) the restrictions that the authorities have imposed on the access to alcohol, the Norwegians drink on and drink like it’s the end of the world.
May the respected reader not take it for granted that the Norwegians drink more than he/she does, and all you can see while in Norway is drunk people. Not at all! The situation is very very different, but I’ll share more later on.
To Be Continued…
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