Posted on 01/29/2005 5:05:36 PM PST by franksolich
The Swedes helped many Norwegians escape from the Nazis. I dont know anybody that think that the Swedes back stabbed Norway during WWII
well thats Swedish Names. Norwegian is Olsen, Hansen. Olsen is the most used last name in Norway
Like when I went to school in the US. There were a few Norwegians on campus. One semester 5 Swedish guys came. The became our friends immidiatly. Partying, hanging out and doing home work togheter. I think all the Norwegian thought it was really nice that other Scandinavians came.
thats because they change their name when they came to the US. Many did do that. If you have old papers about your Norwegian family you will see that they probably were called Hansen and changed their family name to Hanson when arriving in the US
Well I am a very outgoing person. I think you guys are getting things a little bit wrong. It has never been a big issue here. The Swedes help many Norwegians
Coming out of Minnesota, I am reminded of the old adage:
"You can always tell a Norwegian, but you can't tell him much!"
Cheers!
There was an article in one of those Norwegian newspapers--but too old to use for the "Norway ping list"--about the different fates for Norway and Sweden, given that Sweden joined "Europe" while Norway (through popular vote) stayed out of the "Union."
For the very short term, Sweden ostensibly is to gain much, and Norway to lose a great deal.....but for the long term, it is speculated Norway will come out better, being "Norway" instead of being a small inconsequential part of "Europe."
This sort of agrees with "intelligence" analyses predicting the world in 2010, 2015, 2020, all of which appear to believe trends will be for the breaking-up of Europe, not further unification.
And now there are moves towards breaking up Bosnia into independent states.....my God, first there was the great big massive Communist bloc, which shattered into thirty or so countries, Yugoslavia one of them, which broke up into six or so countries, and now that fragment of a Yugoslavian province is to be broken up even further.
It appears that if Norway hangs tough, and stubbornly remains "Norway," instead of succumbing to pressures to become part of "Europe," Norway might actually come out on top of most countries of Old Europe.
"Culture shock," sir.
When I was in that wretched mess called "Ukraine," right about the time of their independence, whenever I came upon a Canadian or Frenchman or Irishman (there were damned few of them in Ukraine then, and later; and I was the only American I ever saw), I practically kissed his feet, simply that in this anarchistic chaos, it was nice to meet with someone from the civilized western democracies.
We had something in common, alone in this wild land.
But outside of Ukraine, I would not give a Canadian or Frenchman or Irishman a second look.
They might - they are blessed with all that oil!
You are dead on correct with that! The more alien the culture, the greater the appeciation for anything you can relate to!
I was really grasping at straws, sir; I was in Ukraine on my own, by chance (no one paid me to go there, or to be there), and during those tumultuous times, it got pretty lonely. I felt as if a Norwegian in Japan suddenly encountering a couple of Swedes, any time I met anybody--and I mean "anybody"--from the west.
I even got lonely for the Latin alphabet, and sometime during that winter, grasping for straws, found a Polish dictionary and read that, just to "make contact" with something familiar to me (in this case, the alphabet).
Is there still a French Polynesia, or are those islands an "independent" nation now, sucking off the mother-country trough?
France does not give up its possessions peacefully. :-)
It's still a French colony, territory, whatever.
it appears that Europe has learned precisely the wrong lessonIn many ways it has, as can be seen by the outright worship of anything peaceful. But a thorough analysis of the conditions leading up to this attitude is likely to show it inevitable, at least for as long as the total devastation of Europe after WWII is in fresh memory. It's easy, and very human I think, to after such a catastrophe bounce way too far towards the other extreme point.
After what 17?!? UN Resolutions and how many years they trot out Hans Blix to lecture us!No argument there, although I must admit I sometimes get tired of this objectification of all that's wrong with the UN into the character of Hans Blix, silly as he may be.
So I don't fault Swedes for their actions in WWII. But I do take issue with their failure to learn anything from it.Herein lies a problem - Sweden came out of that hell in very good shape. Unfortunately, being rewarded for morally questionable actions and mistakes is hardly an incentive to learn different ways. 190 years in peace makes this shift very difficult (or, why we conservative Swedes are a rare breed).
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