HENRY MUTEBE: My lessons from Norway

Some interesting things I learnt in Norway which are relevant for our society.

How does this topic come to my mind? Today, I read an article on a news website called ”Noway Today’ which reported that a Norwegian lady called Bjørg Teigen, aged 52, picked a wallet containing 45,000 Kroner (the equivalent of 18 million Uganda shillings) and took it to Police. Now this is a lot of cash considering that in Norway, you can spend months without touching paper money…as the economy is electronic and you dont need cash.

She later received a call from Police to thank her and to let her know that the owner was overjoyed. The police in fact made a tweet to thank her for her honesty. The lady was however surprised by this media attention and remarked that she doesn’t understand why people are making it a big deal and that she expects everyone to do what she did and that she would would be happy to do it again. She did not think this was a big deal. True, this is the wonder of Norway.

Now this is what I learnt about Norwegians.
Norway is one of the ten richest countries in the world and they rank number one in the Human Development Index (2017) (that ranks countries according to the quality and standard of Life of citizens). I will not talk about infrastructure and all the modern facets of life that one of would think of an industrialized country. These are obvious. It is very well developed and organised.

What I want to share are their software(values) that drives this development, peace, security and community.

My views are those of an outsider. To the Norwegians, this is the normal. My views may not sound like anything out of the ordinary to them as they think their situation is normal and they expect everyone to behave or conduct themselves that way. However, having lived in a different society, I can see the difference and understand that what they consider normal and ordinary is quite extra ordinary and invites us to take some lessons from them.

Norwegians, (I mean the majority I have seen), are very tolerant. I will explain to you why this is very important. When a society or people are tolerant towards one another, it means that they can dialogue just about anything. So violence, conflict and war is always, far away from their society. In Norway, people of different opinions, cultures and values co-exist. Having a different opinion or being different is actually celebrated regardless of whether people agree with you or not. They will defend your right to be different or have a different opinion to the last of their breath. This is a very important value if society is to develop.

Norwegians, as I observed them, dont like busking in glory or being lavished with adulation. They feel that everyone should be good to their neighbour and that if someone does something nice, its expected of them and they should not purposely seek to busk under praise or adulation. A professor or any other person serving in a different position doesn’t ‘show off’ or create that kind of fence around them because of their status. It doesn’t matter. Just do your job. Its even hard to know who is who in society. Its just not nice to project yourself as ‘the one who is big, or rich or…good.’ They look down on anyone who is arrogant. Its just not their value. In fact its hard to know who are the celebrities in Norway because society is so leveled in many ways. Its hard to know a poor person from a rich one. They keep a very minimal descent life and respect and support one another.

Norwegians are very humble. Amidst all their wealth, you can stand on the street and may take a year to know who owns what, who is rich, who is a professor or student. It is almost an egalitarian society. Even in dressing, you will notice almost similar colours and fashion…there is some sort of uniformity and a purposeful escape from ‘standing out’ or appearing ‘bossy or arrogant or shouting.’ I may be wrong…but this is how I see it.

Norwegians are also very respectful. If you entered a bus or train, everyone is quiet. At first, you may think your neighbour doesn’t want to talk to you. But in reality, they love to respect their neighbour, no interfering with your neighbours’ quiet and space. They love their personal space and accordingly offer the same respect to their neighbours.

Norwegians are very generous. Generous in the sense that they are willing to offer a lot of help to others and yet remain silent about what they have given. Norway is one of the few countries that offers scholarships to International students and doesn’t organise fares and exhibitions to show them off and project to the world how they are ‘helping the poor students’ from the developing world.

In fact, the day I made my first step into the lecture room, professors said they would highly appreciate if all students used the word ‘Countries in the global south’ instead of ‘developing countries or LDCs.’ They argued that all countries are still developing but perhaps some are more industrialised than others.
In class, you see the level of care with which people craft their words ensuring that the diverse nature of learners in the classrooms dont feel offended or that their cultures, ideas and ways of life are respected. It is simply amazing the level of ‘ubuntu’ you can find in the people.

Norway is one of the few countries in the world where education is free for all. There have been debates about introduction of tuition fees for international students but many Norwegians have stood with international students and rejected the idea. They believe in equal opportunity for all.
Regardless of your nationality, they give you a chance to make a shot at life. You do not have to be a Norwegian to get free medical care or education. As long you are legally resident in Norway, you are accorded all the previdledges including voting in local elections once you have stayed for some years (I think 3 years).

Norwegians have the largest oil fund in the world. The money is too much so that if it were to be distributed to every citizen, everyone would get about US $150,000 or more. However, Norwegians argue that the oil money is not their money but they hold it in trust of future generations. So, they put a limit to however they can use from that oil money. Only 4% of profits from the oil money. Note that they dont use the oil money itself…but profits from the investments they make using the oil money. That is how sacred they hold and respect their future generations.

Norwegians contribute the largest share of development assistance and aid to the world. They contribute over 1% of the GDP to Development accross the world mostly supporting Peace, environmental protection, social justice, education among other development priorities in the global south.
Norwegians love supporting dialogue and peace.

What I also found interesting is the level of personal responsibility. People dont liter or throw rubbish just about everywhere, not because of the laws per se, but because everyone feels it is a good thing to keep their society clean. Cleanness is a personal value and not the fear of the state.

The leaders (whiever party they belong to) subscribe to a certain ideals that provide an ireducible minimum package of services. So some people dont even vote because they know that there is a quarantee of a minimum level of services that the government will provide. there seems, amidst all the differences in political ideology, a shared concern for one another, trust between the people and their leaders and proffessionalism within the governanace and administrative structures.

There are also structures that ensure that young people are taken through the proper mentoring and opportunity to understand development and the minimum values of their society. So leaders are not afraid who comes into government because they know that they have gone through the refinary and will atleast deliver and hold sacred the values that majority of norwegians espouse.

I have participated in some student politics and its amazing how much training, mentorship, respect, structure and organisation is involved that ultimately has bearing on preparing young people for future leadership portfolios. You are prepared to think, you are given the opportunity to get the knowledge to think and are given a set of values that make you put your society first and the collective needs of a society above self.

People dont have to demonstrate before a road is done. People are happy to pay their taxes (and by the way Norway has one of the highest tax rates in the world)… but people are happy to pay because they see the value of what their money does. There is so much good done by others that you are left with no option but to also learn to think of the collective and spread good or do good for others.

In schools, cheating is totally out of question. The teachers want to be sure that the best doctors attend to them when they retire and need medical attention. So they dont cheat for pupils or students. They know that this is the best safeguard for society. The policemen are so polite because they know that the safety of their society is not in the guns but a good relationship with the public. In fact, you can spend a a year in Norway without seeing a gun. People are so surprised when they see a gun. It is such a rare occurrence. Here, we would be surprised to see a policeman without a gun. I have grown up to think a police officer without a gun is not real. Norway changed my mind about this

Teachers in the classroom want children to excel. They do not threaten or appear to be competing with the student. I was amazed by the sort of comfort we were given, the support and help towards examinations. You literally are assured by your professor that they want you to excel…and that you everything is going to be just fine. They encourage you to generate ideas and want to know your opinion and not merely what they told you or taught you.

The rector (equivalent to the vice chancellor) is so friendly, so approachable and is not moving around with big files and personal assistants in big cars. In the institution where I am studying, I was actually informed the office of the vice chancellor does not have like a personal car for him. There are a few vans he can borrow like any other stuff member if he requires one. Here, each head or staff wants or literally has an office car.

Makerere University for example has over 350 cars which have to be serviced some of which do add any value to the University. This is so while students struggle with finding learning materials, space for lectures, and other critical necessities. There is a lot of wastage of resources in our systems and it is driven by the failure to think about the collective good. we allocate resources to the few at the expense of the majority.

You have vice chancellors in this country who do not have a facebook or twitter account through which they can engage with their student community. They seat like small gods and dont care about their students needs or issues. The distance between a vice chancellor and students is just too much in many of the institutions. They are not student friendly.

If a Norwegian has to do a job, it has to be done. If the deadline in day x, you will have any answer by day x. There are no unjustified extensions, there are no excuses and leaders hold public servants to account. I have reflected on how Norway works and realised it is not so much about the laws or who is in power, it the values of the society which are shared by majority.

The values of concern for one another, sharing of the common good, respect for one another, tolerance, promoting understanding, celebrating difference and putting the common into wealth and wealth into the common as the SG of CM said. If i have an opportunity in the future to shape value systems and or policy, I would like to court Norwegians as development partners to come here and we share. There is so much Ubuntu or ‘being humane’ in their families, structures, institutions, and values. It doesn’t mean they don’t have concerns or issues as a society, but from my view as an outsider, these societies have a lot to teach us about how to co-exist, share what we collectively have, how to progress together, and the sustainable use of our resources.

If a Norwegian read this post, they would simply laugh and say Henry what have you said? what is special about Norway? This is what everyone should do.’
They have made such good progress and become so comfortable and used to it that it is almost impossible for them to see how different and effective their systems are. If there is anything I have learned from Norway about leadership, it is to work for the good of all, allowing professionals to do their job, respect and tolerate others, share opportunities, spread the good, and create a system that benefits all… knowing that at the end, you and your children benefit from that system even when you no longer have the power and authority to dictate the distribution and allocation of resources. #Ubuntu #Norway #Uganda