The headline might be a little controversial to some. Norway is s democracy and I am not at all comparing my situation to countries where people are really suffering, but there are problems in what many outsiders believe is a perfect Scandinavian society.
Have you ever felt like leaving the rat race for a while, like Felix Stark and Selima Taibi from Franfurt, Germany did? They converted an American school bus to an RV and traveled from Alaska to Argentina. This is documented in the film Expedition Happiness, which is available on Netflix. View some of their videos on their You tube channel.
I go through the occasional sadness for the many things I missed out on when I was young, such as the life Jenna Spesard from Tiny House Giant Journey has, but my biggest concern at the moment is having the freedom of owning my own dwelling. That’s a freedom I don’t have, so it remains my main focus. The problem with renting is that it’s expensive and there are uncertainties to live with. The landlord can decide to break the contract, and although a standard contract in Norway requires a 3 month notice, that is a possibility you avoid as an owner. Besides, many don’t want to rent to minorities and disabled people, and if you are in one or both of those groups, you are not likely to get the best priced apartments. Many landlords buy houses and turn them into 3-4 apartments. I really hate it when I share a house with some people I like, but when they move out, the new tenants are horrible. That has happened several times, so renting may not feel like a very stable existence.
I turn 50 soon, and as much as I like the historic American tradition of freedom and moving west, something a lot of Norwegians did in the 19th century, freedom for me is more about establishing a base. Freedom is about individualism, being allowed to think and act differently, to be different. There are a lot of things you can’t do as a family, a disabled person, and multi-racial family, and it could be costly to assume that you can.
A report from The Norwegian State Housing Bank three years ago concluded that the people that are supposed to be their target group, economically disadvantaged, actually manage surprisingly well. There has been an assumption that they would have problems paying the loan back, even though this government program offers a lower interest than any private bank, but the sense of achieving something, of gradually owning more of their own dwelling, seems to make them more likely to succeed. So why is it so hard to give them this help?
I’m left with the impression that some people are more vulnerable than others, because they don’t have the same amount of freedom. The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affair published a study a couple of years ago where they had asked parents of disabled children about how much help they felt they had received. The parents had a much more positive experience if their children had been diagnosed right after birth, while other parents felt that no one gave them the information they needed. They had to figure out themselves who to ask and how to coordinate the help. I know about quite a few cases where no one believed the parents, which is a scary scenario in a country where the CPS takes a lot of controversial decisions .
There is not a lot of room for some families to choose even a slightly different path. Norway is sort of like the Borg. There is a very strong expectation in this country that you allow the collective to assimilate you. The individual is sacrificed because being different isn’t good at all. The truth is that most people have an idea of what normal, or the norm is, and anything outside this definition is bad. At least for some people.
I am more 