Pølseveven

The new opera

2008-06-08T12:06:00.001-07:00

Dugnad in Son

2008-05-15T03:13:00.000-07:00

Dugnad is a Norwegian word for unpaid, voluntary work. It might be like a Barn raising, where friends and family meet to help an individual, or the members of a club meet to build a clubhouse, arrange a flea market and so on. The "Dugnad" is similar to the Finnish (and Finland Swedish, but not standard Swedish) Talkoot (Wikipeda).

Mamma removing the paint from a door before repainting it.

Icecream break.

By cutting a tree we almost cut the electricity line.

Torunn, Karoline and I enjoying a beer afterwards.

Easter

2008-03-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone! I am spending Easter in Oslo. The photo above is from Nordmarka, one of the forests surrounding Oslo. After a couple of weeks with springish weather, the winter returned, and we got another chance to do some skiing before the season is finally over.

Apart from skiing, I have spent Easter sowing, listening to an audio criminal novel (it's a Norwegian Easter tradition to read criminal novels and see criminal series, don't ask me why..)., and celebrating my grandfather's 100th anniversary. My Bestepappa died in the mid 80ies, and I remember him as a funny granddad full of pranks, like blowing the content of the eggs in the fridge out, leaving them empty to my grandmother's big surprise when she was going to fry eggs for breakfast. When we stood by the family grave on Thursday, my mother said that under that stone lie a lot of funny people. And to celebrate that, the living among us went home and had a good time, with good food and drinks and memories of the past.

Stockholm

2008-03-23T14:12:00.001-07:00

A couple of weekends ago Siobhán and I visited Anna in Stockholm. The weather was awful, so we had the perfect excuse to spend the time hanging out in underground shopping malls and sitting in cafés for hours.

But the weather cleared enough to take some scenic photos.

Siobhán and I are watching Anna do grocery shopping.
Preparty in Anna's cozy flat before exploring Stockholm's nightlife.
Sunday night we visited Anna´s friends Anna and Jeanette and got delicious homemade scones. The perfect end to a great weekend (I prefer this to the actual, but not so perfect end, which was going up at 5 in the morning to catch the plane to Oslo...).

More nachspiel

2008-02-28T12:50:00.001-08:00

Best with sound:

Nachspiel - Daniel, me and mac

2008-02-28T12:01:00.000-08:00

Best with sound:

Skiing - Oslo

2008-02-26T13:16:00.000-08:00

Crossing Tryvann

View over Oslo from Frognerseteren

Frognerparken

2008-01-27T13:21:00.000-08:00

In Dhaka - or on the ferry to Denmark...?

2008-01-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

In Espen's flat it is hard to tell the difference...

Back in Dhaka - views from a rickshaw

2008-01-27T12:30:00.000-08:00

November

2007-11-20T13:30:00.002-08:00

Saturday between 3 and 5 pm:

Ein Koffer in Berlin

2007-10-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

The weekend before the last Inger-Johanne, Ingvild and I went to Berlin! For me it was the first time, and I liked the city a lot. The shopping was a highlight, another was the DDR museum, where you can explore the daily life in DDR by opening drawers and doors and see what is behind. A museum for the voyeur...or the anthropologist - whatever you want to name it.

Experiencing Berling nightlife was also interesting. Germans must be the most down-dressed people in Europe. We were simply astonished by the amount of dull outfits (women partying in oversized plain, white blouses, men and women in baggy, striped brownish-grey jersey sweaters). How is that possible in a city with shop after shop full of cool clothes?

Biking in Lillomarka

2007-10-18T12:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday biking in Lillomarka, one of the forests surrounding Oslo.

32

2007-10-01T13:17:00.001-07:00

So I have turned 32. It feels good. For one thing, I am happy to have gotten this far. And I am also happy to be a number that I really like. 32 is one of my favourite numbers. My most favourite number is 8. So being 32 in 2008 looks promising. Of course, I am aware that my like and dislike for numbers is just a feeble attempt to try to be in charge of things that are beyond control. But after all, that's what human beings do, trying to control their environment with technology, magic being just one category. So I'll hang on to my number-magic and look forward to be 32 in 2008.

The bridal gnome

2007-09-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

Anna caught the bouquet, Siobhán caught a whistling gnome.

Sofia + Michel

2007-09-18T12:38:00.000-07:00

The first spark at that auspicious James Bond party in 2005 has now become a marriage. Which started with a fantastic party, last weekend, in den Haag.

Chayan and Mohan - in Oslo!

2007-09-17T13:28:00.000-07:00

Weird, but in a nice way; Chayan and Mohan from the Dhaka Hash and the Dhaka dancefloors suddenly appeared in Oslo, in search for old friends, new business opportunities and salsa parties.

Visit from Malaysia

2007-09-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

Colleagues from Malaysia in Oslo, this is Andrew and Nithi at the Ekeberg restaurant.

Nithi, Gaute and Grace

The Oslo fjord before sunset...

...and after

Dressed in Telenor

2007-09-12T04:37:00.001-07:00

Back again

2007-09-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

Once again I'm back again with a promise of trying to be more regular in the future... Some of you have asked for photos of my flat, and this is it. Not fully furnished, but working on it!

The last six months has been a period of intense consumerism. I say to myself that if I get all I need at once (like a macbook, a stereo, a tv, a new espresso kettle (where did my old go?), doormat, mop and bucket etc. etc.), I won't have to buy much for years to come. As my very advanced mobile phone has turned out to go from not reliable to unuseable for photos, I decided to get it over with and buy a digital camera on Saturday. The guy in the photo shop recommended an easy to use (I hate manuals!) Canon Ixus. He said: "This brand has been around a long, long time, even before I was born." "And I was born in 1986", he added gravely. Since when did my childhood start to take place in a distant past...?

Sankthans - Hvaler

2007-07-03T07:37:00.000-07:00

I spent Midsummer eve in Åse's summer house at Hvaler, which is on the coast that turns into Sweden some miles futher south. We were 12 people. 7 of us took development studies together 10 years ago. While Midsummer rained away in Oslo, we had beautiful weather and sat outside all night, eating, drinking, singing and playing silly games.

Jim Stärk at Skaugum a Thursday night

2007-07-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

To make up for what I wrote in the last entry: this is what Oslo can be like when it is not cold and rainy like it is now:

A Thursday night Jim Stärk played at Skaugum, a backyard bar. Åse, Espen, Liv, Liv's father (in Oslo for work) and I are sitting in the stairs with a view of the band...

...and the people.

Intermission

2007-07-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last posting. Getting Internet in my flat turns out to be a long process, and so does getting a Macbook. Now it is cold summer rain in Oslo, so I will post some photos from Lahore, one of my favourite cities in the world.

Faisalabad

2007-06-08T05:13:00.000-07:00

Very dry and very hot. It's 47 degrees in Faisalabad now. We have been to the field for four days, interviewing people. It's been very interesting, but hard work both physically and mentally. I thought I drank enough of both water and saline, but still ended up with a fever. Now we have come to Lahore, where I am resting in bed and doing pretty good. Seeing what I saw in Faisalabad makes me feel grateful that I can be sick in a comfortable bed in an airconditioned room.

This flag shows that the house belongs to Shia Muslims. A black flag with a hand on top.

Mad Cow's s lazy relatives.

Bangladesh being my default South Asian setting, I compare Pakistan with Bangladesh all the time. Many big things to say, but there was one small thing that struck me. Only one has asked me whether I am married, or how many children I have. In Bangladesh I even had an imaginary husband to refer to when I needed it, so I would tell the same story every time. Nithi, my male Malaysian colleague was often asked, however, and next time he goes to Pakistan he will be equipped with an imaginary wife named Candy... a sure success!

Eager beaver

2007-06-03T02:54:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I visited Kjersti and Snorri in Nittedal. We took a walk past a beaver dam and saw this. It's hard for a numerically challenged person like me to say how tall the tree is, but it is so big that it is hard to see how the beaver was thinking to make use of it. Perhaps that is why she has left it. Or perhaps she is waiting for a storm to pull it over.

Rubber ducks

2007-05-21T13:11:00.001-07:00

The big one wins in the end...

17th of May - the Norwegian national day

2007-05-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

A classical national romantic motive... Blossoming fruittree and national costume. This is in front of my parent's house.

The 17th of May is the Pohela Boishakh of Norway. Big crowds, processions and celebration of everything national and rural. Me, Shaheen and brother Thorbjørn on our way to wave to the royal family.

The royal family on the balcony where they stand for about 4 hours waving to the school children's procession.

This is me in my national underwear...with Inger-Johanne and Daniel's cute-pie Bodil in my lap. Bodil and I have had our moments of toe biting (her) and screaming (I), but are now very good friends.

The dangers of suburbia

2007-05-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday I visited Karianne, Håvard, Hanne and Mio the cat. They have recently moved to a neighbourhood with two evil cats who keep chasing Mio up trees. Mio is the black spot you can see far up in the tree, Karianne is on the ladder and Håvard is on the ground. Hanne and I are watching through the window.

A night in Lillomarka

2007-05-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

Friday night Jorunn, Gase, Gase's friend Stian, Ingvild and I spent in Lillomarka, one of the forest areas surrounding Oslo. We walked to Revelitjern, where we made a fire, ate pølse and lompe, and slept under the open sky. It's been a few years since last time I did this, but I don't think as long time will go until next time.

Basking on the pebbled shores of Brighton

2007-05-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

On my way back from Dhaka I had a stopover in England to go and visit Mishu in Brighton. I called when I arrived in Sussex. Mishu came to find me, but I happened to be at another bus stop. I called again, but we were disconnected because of low battery. Luckily, he managed to tell me where to go before we were disconnected; I should find my way to the student residence "Islop". This was at least how it sounded in my ears, and this was what I asked the first person I met :

- Do you happen to know where Islop is?
- You are looking for Hislop? That's just over there, turn left in the crossing.
- Oh, Hislop is what it is called! Thank you!

I felt that she looked at me a bit oddly, but didn't think more of that. After turning left, I met someone else:

- Can you tell me where I can find Hislop?
- Yes love! That's the buildings you can see over there.

I arrived at "Hislop" only to find to my great amazement that the name of the place is in fact "East Slope", but with the peculiar British way of swallowing letters, it turns out more like "Islop". But the most amazing thing was that everyone understood what I was saying, except for myself...

Looking up on the rows of low houses that is "East slope" student residence, I realised that there has to be several hundred students living there. How to find Mishu? By asking someone, of course! I asked the first and the best, a guy coming towards me on his way to the garbage bins:

- Do you know Mishu?
- Sure! I'll show you.

He took me to a courtyard and up some stairs, and there he was, and it was great to see him.

The day after we spent basking on the pebbled shores of Brighton. The man behind this poetic expression, Nabil, was unfortunately not there because he had to submit an essay. But Antonie and George came out from London, and we bought some beer and some crisps, as they call it in Britain, and basked in the sun till it was time to go for a little sightseeing before I entered the bus to Heathrow.

Dhaka people

2007-05-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

Coming back to Dhaka was very good. When I came out of the airport and smelled the early morning Dhaka air, every good feeling I have had in Dhaka came rushing back to me. The pictures in this entry is of a few of the people who meant a lot to me while I was in Dhaka, and who means a lot to me when I am not there. Like Imran and Anna captured at a rooftop party in Niketon above. It was the leaving party of someone I have never met before. That is typical of my experience of living in Dhaka - going to parties where you don't know the host, but are welcomed like a friend.

Syed and Siobhán

Sumaiya

Chye and Francois

Chris and Wilhelm

Siobhán and Linda (sorry for posting yet another sleep photo, Linda, but this is too much cute...).

Viv and Wilhelm

Anna (who together with Siobhán took most of the photos in this entry when the camera in my N73 mobile stopped working) and myself.

Back in Dhaka - but did I ever leave...?

2007-05-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

Finding one of my hairpins still in the flat in Dhaka made be doubt it...

Following James Bond

2007-03-26T13:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we followed in James Bond's wheeltracks down to the coast, through small towns and past old monasteries and high up in the mountains on a winding road overlooking the Adriatic ocean. I'm very impressed with Kristin who was driving!

Montenegro is just as beautiful as I thought, even more. A good thing we got the opportunity to get out of Podgorica to see this!

Podgorica - Balkans Fagernes

2007-03-24T01:24:00.000-07:00

Now I am in Podgorica, capital of Montenegro, which since summer 06 has been an independent country. Before that, Montenegro was a part of Serbia. This is a tiny country with both mountains and coast. However, I don't think the capital is the gem of this country. Podgorica reminds me of Fagernes, a small town in Norway. There are a lot of those horrific shopping-and-living buildings that looks like they are made of plastic, have shopping malls on the ground floor and apartments ("condos") above with balconies. Like Fagernes, this is mixed with traditional architecture (see the church in the parking lot above), and surrounded by old, charming farm houses. Around the city are round shaped, snowcapped mountains.

In the restaurant, food is listed in kilos and grams. You don't order a dish with ham or sossage, you order a dish of 250 grams of ham or sossage. Yesterday we ended up having deep fried pancake with ham and lots and lots of melted cheese inside, topped with a heap of greated cheese and a deciliter of sour cream. On the side we had a mountain of sliced pickled cucumbers. Food for people who work in the fields, not for fieldworkers like we are, who sit still and listen to interviews all day...

Tomorrow we have the day off, and we will rent a car and go to look for the beautiful Montenegro.

Beograd

2007-03-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

Until yesterday I was in Beograd/Belgrade (capital of Serbia). Belgrade has a variety of building styles, some old building (don't ask me which style, but "European looking") and some newer ones ("socialist looking"). And there is a beautiful, well kept fortress that I plan to post some photos of when i go back next week...

Something else I plan to photograph is some of the bombed out streets. The buildings are still standing there with big holes or walls missing. In one of the office buildings I saw, half of the space was in use while the other half was torn to pieces. It is a depressing sight.

In Belgrade the recent war is present not only physically in the damaged city space, but also in the way people talk. A seemingly neutral question about whether Podgorica has ever been bombed, caused uneasy glances. Likewise, the issue of Montenegro's independence or the reconstruction (or construction?) of the Montenegric church is laden with so many feelings and seems to be put into words only after analysis of the people present and with many precautions.

I got it!

2007-03-15T14:01:00.000-07:00

To my great surprise and much greater joy, I got the flat! It was quite nervewrecking in the end, when I understood that I had a chance to get it. I waited four hours for one of the OBOS-members to figure whether he would snap it right in front of me or not, with a membership he got in February. I was away with work at at a conference center outside Oslo, and I was in a ski track in the forest when the broker told me it was mine, and, to quote Mishu: "my mind suddenly became colourful like a Hindi film"!

Bidding for a flat

2007-03-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

Today I have bidded (bad, bud??) for a flat for the first time. It's a beautiful flat prized reasonably low, but it is owned by the socialdecmocratic cooperation OBOS, which means that the members (and I am not one of them) will wait around till it is over and then use their right to buy at the price that has been settled on. But of course not if they can't afford it or don't want it enough to spend the money. So there is still a chance...

Check it out:
http://www.finn.no/finn/realestate/object?finnkode=9495228

And wish me good luck. It is all over by midnight Tuesday.

Take the night back!

2007-03-07T12:16:00.000-08:00

As a reaction to the recent wave of rapes in Oslo, there will be a rally tonight starting from Olaf Ryes plass 10.30 pm. We will not accept that women's freedom of movement is violated. We don't want our society to develop into a society where instigation of fear is used to control women.

Those who are in Oslo, join us! Those who are not, support us by sparing a moment to think about what fear does to female mobility in the country where you live.

Ski - Nordmarka

2007-03-03T08:27:00.000-08:00

Next time I'll try to hold my mobile the right way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HYHmXR1Dos

Bangkok

2007-02-22T12:58:00.000-08:00

On the way back to Oslo we had 18 hours transit in Bangkok (yes, I know Islamabad is about midways from Bangkok to Oslo...). Spending two nights in a row on economy class is not my favourite thing, but this time I had nothing against it, since I was going to meet Jess in Bangkok! Jess works in Sri Lanka, and just happened to be a few days in Bangkok to visit Amreen from Dhaka, who works as an English teacher.

Amreen worked, and Jess and I spent the day taking the "river bus", getting a foot massage, practising our Bangla with a Bangladeshi tailor, and most of all, catching up. I have missed Jess a lot, and it was so good to be with her again. Such a great coincidence that we both happened to be in Bangkok, of all places, on this particular day.

Jess left a few hours before we did, and after seeing her off to the airport bus, Amreen, Per and I had dinner at "Cabbages and Condoms", a restauran chain run by Thailand's Population and Community Development Association to fund their work for condom use. Good food and a playfully kitchy ambience made this a place I would like to go back to. They hand out condoms with the bill, and mine slid in between the pages of my passport, where I luckily found it just before giving the passport over to the immigration officer...

http://www.gonomad.com/features/0011/snedaker_cabbages.html

Islamabad - 2

2007-02-22T12:32:00.000-08:00

We met these guys in a dvd&kitch store. They bought a movie and gave it to us. This is just one of many encounters in Pakistan with random people who go out of their way to be kind or helpful.

A few hours earlier I had the greatest pedicure experience ever. Not because of the pedicure itself, but because of the workers in the parlour. It was three girls working there, and I was the only customer. One of them spoke some English, and we started talking about Valentines Day, men, marriage and the like. Perhaps that was what inspired one of them to put on some Bollywood music, and soon after we were dancing. Totally unexpected, and because of that, totally great.

Islamabad - 1

2007-02-22T08:27:00.000-08:00

After a week in Kuala Lumpur, we went to Islamabad. This time we only stayed three days (and frankly, that's enough time in Islamabad). On the day of our flight we hired a car to go to Murrey, a place up in the hills close to the city, where the British used to go to escape from the heat in the hot season. This time of the year it is quite chilly in Islamabad, and as we came closer to Murrey, it started to snow.

The snow caused traffic chaos, so we turned and went to see Faisal mosque instead, which reminds me of Saruman's place in "Lord of the Rings". As we admired the mosque, a group of young guys approached me and asked if they could take their photos with me. Before I knew it, I became a of prop for their posing. They rested their elbows on my shoulder, tried my other shoulder, took jackets on and off, shot photos alone with me or with a friend, and after quite a while they were confident that they had gotten a least a few good shots...to do what with? Show their mothers? Post in a matrimonial ad? Anyway, they had a good time, I had a good time, and it was all videorecorded from a distance by my colleague Per...

Penang

2007-02-21T00:21:00.000-08:00

Weekend trip to Penang. Colonial hotel, pool, GT...

Chinese architecture...

coming an hour too early to the bus terminal, having a tea at a roadside café before going back to Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia - truly unreal

2007-02-11T22:06:00.000-08:00

Arriving Malaysia, I had the tune from the Malaysian tourism tv-commercial in my head: “Malaysia – truly Asia” . I only spent a week in Malaysia, two days in Penang and the rest in Kuala Lumpur, so my impressions are of course limited, but what I have seen of Malaysia is far removed from the Asia I have experienced. With a big exception for the traffic jams, that is. Once the jam looses up, on the other hand, the driving is really controlled and smooth. At least in comparison with all the other places in Asia I have been.

Another reason that “truly Asia” is not a fitting description, is that it is so clean. No rubbish in the streets, and neatly shaped bushes along the road for miles. But the main aspect of the Malaysian unreality is the lack of beggars. I did not come across a single beggar, not even in the bus terminal. And after looking hard, I only saw one person sleeping in public space. Where are the potential beggars? In jail? Kept away from the streets by the police and dropped far away from the city border? Or are all Malaysians simply content?

Zeeshan's birthday

2007-02-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

On Saturday Zeeshan's twelwth birthday was celebrated at Megazone with lazer-war and pizza afterwards. We were sneeking around in a dark labyrinth with loud techno in our ears, shooting our enemy, the green team, with lazer. The adult team won, so I could leave the place with my honour intact. The birthday kid is the one with his hands in the air.

The 100$ laptop

2007-01-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

Here it is, Nicholas Negroponte's 100$ laptop! I like the colour... Perhaps it will be an important factor in bridging the digital divide. Perhaps it will be too fragile and too difficult to repair to have any lasting impact. User generated content seems to be a part of the vision. As long as local adults (teachers, NGOs and others) are included in this vision, and not only the actual intended users (children), this seems to me to be a good strategy. If local adults are bypassed and the children alone are encouraged to create content within this Western-developed technology, I will be surprised if the project will not be critisised as neo-imperialism. I will also be surprised if the good old Great Jewish Conspiracy will not be a hot topic in this regard.

Winter is here!

2007-01-31T08:31:00.000-08:00

New Years in Paris

2007-01-14T12:45:00.000-08:00

It's about time to wish you a happy new year! I spent the New Years weekend in Paris with Antonie, my friend from home who now studies at SOAS together with Nabil, who used to work at BRAC, and her friend Veronique, whom she got to know when she was working in Madagascar.

The big event was the New Years party with three Malagassy bands flown in from Madagascar.

The members in Hazolahy, the band in the picture below, are good friends of Antonie and Veronique. Having no previous experience with Malagassy music, I wasn't sure what it would be like (only that it would be an experience). I thought that it would perhaps be a little monotonous towards the morning, but I ended up having a great time all night, dancing and looking at all the others (adults and children, rastas and ties&suits, glamourous partygowns and casuals). One of the most fascinating sights was the little girls in children-sized adult-dresses sent on the stage by their mothers to shake their 9 year old butts. My puritan genes twitched a little at that point...

Antonie (who also the woman behind these photos) has posted a video from the concert at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuP5f86R8iA

You should also check out some of Hazolahy's music videos, for instance this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMaQgpny8XM

Me and "The man with the hat"

A guy who evidently enjoys dancing with Vero!

The Groupies

Grandmother Guitar Hero

2007-01-07T14:16:00.000-08:00

The Christmas present of the year was Espen's gift to his brother Anders: Playstation's "Guitar Hero"! This is a tv game where you try to play just like the rock stars, with a plastic guitar that is connected to the screen where the notes comes rushing towards you with different colours that corresponds with the keys on the guitar. This was the big entertainment on Christmas Day. Our 91 year old grandmother was the greatest star, playing "Killing in the name of":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOe-oUBhO_A

Wilhelm jumping after Wirkola:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG6KcV-9u8Q

Thorbjørn in deep consentration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTMKf_Be55k

Christmas

2007-01-06T04:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas came with no snow, but frost. Below is the view from our garden.

The neighbours' Christmas pig guarding the entrance.

Christmas Eve. Hanne & Hanne

Førjul

2006-12-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

Now it is only two days to Christmas! There is still no snow, but at least there is frost, so it is possible to get the Christmas-feeling. This is anyway by far the closest I have been to "Christmas-weather" in the last two years. One year ago I was in California, having a bizarre Christmas-holiday that turned out good in the end. It makes me think of a Dan Bern song I repeatedly heard while I was there:

She said love, love, love is everything
I said ok, I guess, whatever
She said what does that mean
I said nothin, it's just good to have a backup plan

Thanks Chris and Damian who excactly one year ago provided me with a back-up plan, and a good one at that!

http://www.danbern.com/newamericanlanguagelyrics.html#newamericanlanguage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od0IXXqourw

December sun

2006-12-22T14:08:00.000-08:00

Walking by Akerselva

2006-12-17T11:26:00.000-08:00

Today Ingvild and I walked by the bank of Akerselva, the river that divides Oslo in a west-side and an east-side. The last few days has been under zero, but no snow yet, and it is not likely to come before Christmas.

We walked to the Sunday market by Blå, where local crafts people sell their stuff. I bought some decorations for the Christmas tree, and a really cute present I will not reveal on this blog...

The Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony

2006-12-13T13:14:00.000-08:00

10th of December Mohammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Price, and I was lucky enough to get an invitation to the ceremony, which took place in the city hall of Oslo. It was a very special experience to see all the Bangladeshis with small flags, hear Yunus talk and see the dancers from Bangladesh. I was there with Shaheen, former BRAC colleague who studies in Oslo now, and afterwards we both met a lot of Bangladeshis we haven't met before. It turned out there are quite a few in Oslo after all. Telenor had set up a tent outside with dal and ruti for everyone who wanted to try a Bangladeshi specialty (or at least something that resembled...). There we met two other former BRAC people, Shahjamal (left in the photo) and Milon, who also study here. It is so fun to see BRAC people in Oslo!

The peace prize has created a debate about Telenor's role in Grameen Phone, and sadly it has mostly been on a tabloid level, accusing Telenor of expoiting the poor women in Grameen Bank. It is not a secret that commercial enterprises want to earn money, but it is also not a secret that creating sustainable, profitable businesses benefits the development of a country. Having made that clear, we can go on to discuss how much profit should be taken out, or whether or not the company should be converted into an enterprise where all the profit is reinvested in the company. That is by the way a really interesting model that I would like to learn more about.

Happy Lucia-day everyone!

Køben

2006-12-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was like Dhaka moved to Denmark for a little while. Annette, Andreas, Martin and Tom was already there, Sarah and Chad came from Athens and Linda from Lund (Sweden). Friday night was just like the Dhaka days, with Sarah and Annette cooking and I chopping vegetables and staying far away from anything that can have real impact on the food.

The food turned out excellent, duck with orange sauce!

The dinner also turned out to be a real party, with lots and lots of wine.

Chad has already become a bit blurred...

Saturday Martin took us on a tour in the Carlsberg brewery, with beer tasting included in the ticket (this is after all frivolous Denmark).

After Carlsberg we had a pølse, of course, and stopped by a café for a couple of Irish coffees before dinner at a Mexican place and dice playing in a pub run by a sad, old man who had his bed folded up in the corner, his pot of bean stew heating on his radiator and his two canary birds in a cage where they had to stay because we were not to happy about having birds flying around us. Some of us didn't care about either the possible bird attacks or the dice playing (sorry Linda ;).

Sunday we had tropical brunch in a place with tropical heat before Linda left for Sweden, Sarah and Chad left for Athens, Martin left for Amager or some other part of Copenhagen, Andreas left for work and Annette and I did the only sensible thing: stayed in the sofa watching comedies and eating chips and chockolate all day long.

København - Copenhagen

2006-11-28T08:36:00.000-08:00

Stories from Copenhagen is coming up, in the meantime check out Sarah's blog.

Friday night: The Sad Beads, capitalism and development

2006-11-18T04:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I met Åse and Espen, two friends from development studies, at Mir at Grünerløkka to hear "The Sad Beads" play Nick Cave. I got the chance to show off my camera phone, but the result was a bit blurred, as you can see. My flashy phone triggered a debate about capitalism and development. Can my work contribute positively to development, or is all about making money? I think it is both. For a commercial company to take any interest, there has to be money in it, either through direct sale or through reputation as a company with "social responsibility". But it is possible to earn money on selling products that people can use to better their life situation. Getting the right prices on chicken in the nearby market through her mobile phone gives a poor widow the information she needs to know whether the middle man who takes them to market for her is cheating her or not. It doesn't give her the power to challenge him, but at least it gives her facts to base her challenge on, if she will take the fight. And this is only one example. For more, read the short version of Prahalad's "The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid" at http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~brewer/ict4b/Fortune-BoP.pdf

Closing the summer house for the winter

2006-11-15T12:15:00.000-08:00

Two weekends ago, my mother, father, brother and I went to our summer house at the south coast to close it for the winter. Luckily, the weather was good. November is a bit late to take up the boat, because there can be some nasty storms that time of the year. The house is the building you see on the right side. It is on a group of three small islands called Lyngør. My grandparents bought the property in the fifities, making their best buy in their lives.

The lighthouse, viewed from outside our kitchen.

The boat that is still on the water is ours, and we are about to drag it ashore with my grandfather's homemade wiresystem.

Cleaning the boat. (Charlene, notice my Joe F. pants ;)

To the right is the beach. The water is quite shallow, so it gets warmer there than on the other side of the house where it is deep.

Come visit me at Lyngør this summer!

Work

2006-11-14T13:01:00.000-08:00

I am slowly learning the mysteries of modern technology, after spending my time at BRAC with word pad only. Tonight I have figured out how bluetooth works, and the result you see above! This is the Telenor headquarter. It is, as you see, a futuristic looking building located on the beach. In my mind the perfect combination. Behind the bathing house you can see Oslo, or at least accept that it is there, in between the trees.

Today I came to work 8 o'clock in the morning to hear about the new must-have; a little rabbit you can take home to read the weather forecast for you and wave its' ears when someone is calling (if you for some reason don't hear your phone ringing). The best thing is that it can get married with another rabbit through Internet, and then your rabbit's spouse will wave its' ears when your rabbit does...marvellous!

Oslo

2006-11-14T12:34:00.000-08:00

This is it, my hometown. This is the harbour with the old castle where I used to work as a tour guide in the background. Saturday I went shopping for wollen tights and socks with Shaheen, BRAC colleague who has moved to Oslo to study.

I'm blogging!

2006-11-12T13:19:00.000-08:00

Hello, everyone! Today I have reached a new stage in life. I've got a blog! Now I just have to figure out how to use it...

For those who don't know, 'pølseveven' means 'the sossage loom', alternatively 'the product of a sossage loom'. If it is not totally clear to you just why I chose this name, 'pølsevev' is more often used referring to 'nonsense' than referring to a woven structure of sossage.

I hereby declare Pølseveven for opened!