Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/03/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]OK, see you in MAY ;-) On 08/03/2005, at 1:17 AM, Daniel Ridings wrote: > Tourists are very welcome and the Norwegian population is a charmer. > > As a tourist, you won't need to have anything to do with these salaried > twits. :-) > > Daniel > > On Tue, 8 Mar 2005, Alastair Firkin wrote: > >> gee, Helen and I were due to come up that way, perhaps we will go to >> New Zealand: they are only moderately unfriendly there ;-) >> On 08/03/2005, at 1:04 AM, Daniel Ridings wrote: >> >>> Graham, >>> Foreigners are not really welcome here. Tolerated, but not welcome. >>> The >>> fewer, the better. Perhaps I'm exaggerating, but I feel I have to >>> since >>> Scandinavia has tended to have a liberal stamp on it. The various >>> countries react differently. I suspect that Sweden has the most >>> liberal >>> refugee policy, Finland the least, Denmark, a small country, has been >>> over >>> saturated and Norway is somewhere inbetween. Probably closer to >>> Finland >>> than anything else. >>> >>> Norway does have a lot of public money, oil money. So it can afford >>> to >>> have civil servants on duty who really don't have to pull much >>> weight. >>> They can act offended if you show up and expecting them to perform >>> their >>> duties. (I've had a run-in with a few of them, so my background >>> information might be tainted :-) ). It doesn't really matter if they >>> do >>> anything or not. The country and afford them. The bureaucracy is of >>> Byzantine proportions. >>> >>> So you have these furners. You make them report to the police station >>> (one >>> single police station in all of Oslo, the capital city, mind you, not >>> just >>> your local station) between 8 and 10? possibly 11. Anyway, at the end >>> of >>> the short time frame they close. Doesn't matter that you've been >>> waiting >>> there since 8 am, they close. Sorry. Come back tomorrow. >>> >>> So all these poor souls start queuing up at around 7 am. This >>> particular >>> day it was -15 degrees and the wind was raging off the fjord, the >>> harbour. >>> Cold. Very cold. Most of these people come from temperate zones ... >>> Africa, Pakistan, India etc. 15 degrees is cold for many of them. >>> >>> At 8 o'clock ... make that 8:05 if the police really feel like >>> screwing >>> with you, they unlock the door. Now at that point, you don't retain >>> your >>> queue place, but you have to rush to a number machine and get a queue >>> number. >>> >>> Some of these will not get served on today. The one station is Oslo >>> is >>> not >>> open long enough to take care of them. >>> >>> Maybe they'll get tired of it and decide to move home? >>> >>> http://www.rollei-gallery.net/ridings/image-80729.html >>> >>> Excuse my cynical humor today. I had a run-in with the customs people >>> at >>> the border last night. Norway is a member of Schengen so they're not >>> allowed to do controls of people, only of goods. I think they're >>> trying to >>> drum up business for the train line to Gothenburg they now have but >>> can't >>> get to take off (they raised the price 100%) so they're making sure >>> all >>> other forms of transportation are so miserable to use that people >>> with >>> opt >>> for the useless train instead (it's a milk-run. Stops at every farm >>> between Gothenburg and Oslo). >>> >>> Something like that ... >>> >>> Daniel >>> >>> >>>> Hi Daniel, >>>> >>>> I particularly like these two: >>>> http://www.rollei-gallery.net/ridings/image-80727.html >>>> >>>> http://www.rollei-gallery.net/ridings/image-80728.html >>>> >>>> and I am curious about the reference to 'foreigners dose of >>>> humiliation' >>>> >>>> --Graham >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Leica Users Group. >>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >>> >> Alastair >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > Alastair