I voted!

Like I said on Friday, there's an election in Norway today. This year it's the general election (as opposed to the election we'll have in 2015 that will be a local election). The polling places opened at 9 am, I was there around 9:15.

My vote counts! 

My polling place is located at a primary school, and the school children were playing around in the school yard as I entered the place. It reminded me of my childhood when my primary school also was a polling place and how exciting I found the elections. I think every time all the school classes were allowed into the place and the polling place manager would explain and show to us how to vote. I was anxiously waiting for the time when I would be able to vote myself. As I was to leave the location today, I saw a school class entering and I hope those kids feel the same excitement as I did. 

On my way back home I dropped by the grocery store, and there I saw one of the more curious things about election day in Norway.

Election day. No beer sales.

The stores are not allowed to sell beer, and the liquor store is closed. I don't know when the law about no alcohol sales on election day was passed, but I find it interesting that it is still there and that it doesn't seem like any of the parties are trying to remove it. 

I hope all my Norwegian readers has used their right to vote this year, and I hope the rest of you will use your right the next time your country holds an election! 

The privilege of democracy

Every two years I have the privilege of doing one of the things I appreciate the most with my country: I get to vote! I get to read through party statements and pamphlets, I get to visit the party websites where they present elaborate plans on what they want to do if voted in to government. I get to attend mass meetings if I want to, I can rally for one of the parties if I want to, I can even write angry letters in the newspaper about why I think the current government sucks and therefore everyone should vote for MY party (if I'd have my own party).

This would be my slogan. 

But here's the sad fact: Even though most countries in the world today are free or partly free (Freedom House and EIU have different ways of measuring it, but their conclusions are very similar), still 34% of the world's population do not have any democratic rights, and another 23% only have it to a certain degree.

Very green is very free, very red is very unfree.
The map is made by Futuretrillionare based on the findings of EIU's Democracy Index survey for 2012.

I live in the country in the world with the highest democracy rating (again according to the Democracy Index by EIU). But me being a woman with the right to vote is also here a relatively recent thing. This year we celebrate 100 years of women's right to vote here in Norway. This  means that my great grandmother was born in a time when women were considered less worth than their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons!

This is not my great grandmother. This is Fredrikke Marie Qvam,
one of women we can thank for our right to vote here in Norway. 

I guess there are many reasons why election participation is declining, but I just can't wrap my head around why people choose to stay home instead of voting. Here is a list of some of the reasons why I vote:

• Having the right to vote is a privilege. It is my duty to make use of that privilege. 
• I like to complain. If I'm going to complain about my government the next 4 years, I have to participate in the election. If I don't participate in the election, I have no right to complain. I really like to complain. 
• There are some things that are important to me. Voting is a way for me to show my government what those things are. 
• Even though the world has never been as democratic as it is now in the 21st century, we are still facing challenges. The world was actually more democratic in 2006-2007 than it is now (look at the previous links I've posted), and that is something I find frightening. Voting is one of the ways I can show the importance of democracy. 

Elections in Norway are always held on a Monday in September. This year's election is this coming Monday. I'm looking forward to it. Happy voting! 

Not just a walk in the park

Even though I can already feel the fall in the air, it doesn't mean that it is getting cold and dark here up north quite yet. Yesterday turned up with blue skies and temperatures around 20C (70F), so I grabbed my camera and a small plastic bucket and went for the hills.

In Norway we have the freedom to roam, which means that we are allowed to access any uncultivated land on the countryside. This access also includes wild berry and mushroom foraging.

Hazelnuts that are not yet ripe, lingonberries that will be ready to be picked in a few days,
and tasty blueberries I brought with me home. 

I live in a neighborhood with several large apartment buildings mixed in between villas, duplexes and quadruplexes. And just behind this neighborhood there are large hills covered with forests.

A small creek just behind one of the large apartment buildings in my neighborhood. 

It has been a very dry summer, and one thing was completely missing in the forest: Mushrooms! At this time of years they are usually all over the place, but I didn't see a single one of them.

Instead of mushrooms I found this bench in a very unlikely location;
a spot where the sun never shines, and with no view.
What a sad place to put a bench! 

Even though several thousand people live close to this forest, the only other person I met was an old man on his daily hike.

I love how he walked in his steady pace, resting his arms on his back.
I might walk faster than him for a short while, but I'm convinced he would have
outlasted me and could have continued in that pace from here to eternity. 

The highlight of my walk was when I took a tiny, little path off of the main path and suddenly had this view in front of me.

Far down there you can see my house. 

When I got home my hands looked like this:

Blueberry hands! 

If I were to predict the future by reading my palms, I would say that I will soon meet a sweet blueberry pie!