Norway for me is the old, kind, blue eyes woman who opened her small wooden house in the rough Hardanger plane to two young Italians hunting for wooden stavkirker and looking for some to eat in that desert region. She cooked for us delicious eggs and bacon and we were so simply happy to remember for ever a people and a country. at those mid-sixty years we were running on narrow white road, paying attention to stones jumping from the wheels of other cars, and through black stone tunnels arriving to ferries crossing the fjords, trying to win the race among cars for taking the ship. Driving until North Cape was an adventure taking weeks. Today you have wonderful highways along the coasts, unbelievable bridges crossing fjords, large and lightened tunnels, and of course a big traffic of electric cars running at high speed in the country. Norway has been totally transformed after the crude oil discovering and exploiting after 1969, and the country becoming very rich. Luckily the virtues of this mountain people have not been disrupted from the suddenly exploded golden age and the revenues of this new activity have been carefully administrated by government. Sparing resources from the beginning, today the sovereign fund of the Norwegian State accumulated more the two trillion $, quite 350000 $ per capita of the 5,6 million of inhabitants, of which only 0,2% are classified poor. And this result after investing a lot in infrastructure, education, welfare reaching the top quality of life in that difficult climatic and morfological environment.
I was recently returning for the third time to the old Viking capital, Trondheim, so beautifully located on a deep fjord, with the river Nidelva surrounding the old city grouped around the unforgettable cathedral of 1150. Of course in the last fifteen years from my previous visit you can see the transformation in the airport, trains, highways connecting suburbs diffused along the fjord with the white small houses and with some recent condo, not so big to disturb the natural scenario, quite impressive between rough hills of black granite, green of forest and the see. But visiting the cathedral and its bishop palace, walking quietly along central street, eating in traditional old restaurants or in modern brasseries, you don’t feel an atmosphere of high consumption or richness exhibition like in some cities in Southern Europe. Everything is going on very softly and the behaviour of people is quite the same of my first visit in 1966. Norvegians seem to have saved their deep rooted character , in an abundance situation usually corrupting any people which live a bonanza period. This is really fascinating and it’s also a basic stone on which to build the future. Families seem everywhere with two or more children, anyone wants to have his own house independent a possible far from others, the big breakfast, the best of the world, continue to be prepared and is the real place for the people to stay together, with a disciplined sequence of the various food from fruit and yoghurt to different breads and butter and jams, to fish, to eggs and bacon, to salami, to cheeses, to delicious small cakes. And take into account that Trondheim is also a big Science and Technology University. This is the central Norway, in the South and the capital Oslo you can perceive a more excited climax, more running of business people, but always very far from Californian frenetic atmosphere. More than Norwegians, other near people look at this country for their future, so you can see planes full of Baltic workers coming to Oslo, which lacks of professional guys in health management, engineering, high-tech, but also asks more services to families and hotels. To Oslo, to Oslo, is the motto in Scandinavian, like the Cechov’s to Moscow, of his drama Three Sisters. A hope for the future for many young student in technology looking for an environment open to culture and starts up in all the Baltic area, but also for professionals living in the less developed South of a new rich North. The new positioning of Norway it’s also clear looking at destinations of plane taking of from Gardemoens, the top designed airport of the world, mainly to Central and East Asia than in traditional Europe or US cities. A small country with reasonable ambitions and an attractive economy and society. Some sign of inflation and possible difficulties for manpower, are at the moment at the horizon, but we hope in that mountaineer character.
