Dark lands: the grim truth behind the 'Scandinavian miracle'
theguardian.com
Dark lands: the grim truth behind the 'Scandinavian miracle'
1–10 of 33 posts
Re: Dark lands: the grim truth behind the 'Scandinavian miracle'
#2What a nice take-down.
Re: Dark lands: the grim truth behind the 'Scandinavian miracle'
#3"Ask the Danes, and they will tell you that the Norwegians are the most insular and xenophobic of all the Scandinavians, and it is true that since they came into a bit of money in the 1970s the Norwegians have become increasingly Scrooge-like, hoarding their gold, fearful of outsiders."
I wish UK had a story of successful multiculturalism to tell.
Re: Dark lands: the grim truth behind the 'Scandinavian miracle'
#4What a nice take-down.
Seemed like a random assortment of cherry-picked stats and anecdotes.
Re: Dark lands: the grim truth behind the 'Scandinavian miracle'
#5Add to this the fact that Greenland is the suicide capital of the world (most suicides per capita).
Re: Dark lands: the grim truth behind the 'Scandinavian miracle'
#6All this does is show that human societies are big, complicated, and flawed, even the successful ones. And you can always cherry-pick statistics to point that out. I don't think anyone is under the illusion that Scandinavian countries are perfect, but it's quite true that they also have many statistics going in their favor and programs other countries can learn from.
Also, some of the statistics are questionable. Quoting ecological footprint and suicide rates without adjusting for climate? Not sound, but what do you expect from an article that just presents a random grab-bag of out of context statistics?
Re: Dark lands: the grim truth behind the 'Scandinavian miracle'
#7Look to me like dear Michael has been forming his view largely by asking assorted grumpy people for their personal opinions about people in their out-groups.
I want my four minutes back.
Re: Dark lands: the grim truth behind the 'Scandinavian miracle'
#8Re: Dark lands: the grim truth behind the 'Scandinavian miracle'
#9"Ask the Danes, and they will tell you that the Norwegians are the most insular and xenophobic of all the Scandinavians, and it is true that since they came into a bit of money in the 1970s the Norwegians have become increasingly Scrooge-like, hoarding their gold, fearful of outsiders." I wish UK had a story of successful multiculturalism to tell. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12371994
True. And Norway's a sovereign country, free to introduce immigrants at a rate that works for them. The New York Times just featured an article about how Norway's immigration is creating ethnic ghettos.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/world/europe/anti-immigran...
Re: Dark lands: the grim truth behind the 'Scandinavian miracle'
#10Look to me like dear Michael has been forming his view largely by asking assorted grumpy people for their personal opinions about people in their out-groups. I want my four minutes back.
Yes, I think it's a bit tongue in cheek. There are few countries that compare to Scandinavia and Finland in terms of quality of life - Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Switzerland...nothing else really springs to mind.