Gatesnotes

The trouble with rich people's visiting habits, is that they come unannounced. So when Bill Gates finally decided to come by my door on Runde, I wasn't even in the country. Too bad. Now he has to return another day.

La jument de Michao (le loup, le renard et la belette)

Reviving Scriba Org

February 1994, Scriba Org was founded in a basement in Øvre Årdal, Norway. While our electronic floppydisk magazine, Scriba Communis Responsi, had already been living for two years, it was during the 1994 olympics, in a basement, that the "Arch prophets" made a grand vision of a huge organization for the betterment of mankind.

In its infancy, Scriba Org gathered some momentum, grew in number of participants and then fizzled out as life caught up with us during the dot.com bubble burst.

Twenty years after the original founding, however, one could say we have not only gained important professional and life experience, but much of what we have ended up doing are important aspects of what was once supposed to be Scriba Org.

For this reason, I have called upon the revival of Scriba Org. Refounding meeting will take place on August 24th, time and location TBD, with some founding members being virtual. More information to follow.

Bright colours

To stand out
I walk about
With colours bright
To show you light

What is it you desire?
That which you admire,
It puts your mind on fire!

Excel, my friend, come out!
You are such a wonderful sight!

A problem with Word

"Can you come to my office, quickly, I need help!"
I run to the office, where the client is working with a document in Microsoft Word.
"See, here is a graph of our economy the last 5 years."
"Yes?"
"And as you can see, we have spent more money this year than last year."
"Yes?"
"How do I write, with some good phrases, why we spent more money this year than last year?"
"You click here and start typing."
"Yes, of course, but what words do I use?"
"Errr... just explain why we spent more money?"
"But exactly which word to I write?"
"I don't quite see how this is an IT problem."
"It's in Microsoft Word."
Give me strength! (This incident happened to me a few years ago.)

The three symptoms of stress

Once upon a time, the three brothers Stress Symptoms were going to an overworked business to make some lives miserable. On their way there, they had to cross the desk of a fierce bureaucrat. First, little Headache had to cross the desk.

"Who is aching on my desk?" asked the bureaucrat.
"It's the little Headache, and I'm on my way to make some overworked lives miserable."
"Ha! I chomp down Headaches with my extra strong coffee every ten minutes!"
"Oh no! Please, don't caffeinate me! After me comes my bigger brother, a much bigger Stress Symptom!"
"Fine! You may go."

And so, the little Headache went on to make some lives miserable in the office.
Next to cross the desk of the fierce bureaucrat was the average drowsy Sleeplessness.

"Who is drowsing on my desk?" asked the bureaucrat.
"It's the average drowsy Sleeplessness. I'm on my way to make some overworked lives miserable my making them sleepless at night and drowsy at day."
"Ha! I chomp down Sleeplessness with prescription drugs every night! Muahahahaha!"
"Oh no! Please, don't drug me! After me comes the greatest Stress Symptom of all!"
"Fine! You may go."

And so, the office got drowsy, nobody slept at night and productivity halted.
Finally came the great Heart Attack.

"Who is attacking my desk?" asked the bureaucrat.
"It's the great Heart Attack! I'm on my way to relieve some overworked lives from their misery."
And so the bureaucrat died.

Celebrating the Norwegian constitution

May 17th

May 17th is Constitution Day in Norway. Albeit everyone agrees that the day is to be celebrated with parades, flags and speeches, the country is fairly split about the details. Some like their sour cream porridge with sugar and cinnamon only, while others insist on having a dash of butter on it, sugar is optional and yet others prefer a hot dog.

Being a day to celebrate the constitution, which was signed during the power vaccuum between the fall of Napoleon and Norway being handed over to Sweden, gave birth to the independent kingdom of Norway. The king was imported from Denmark to secure royal blood, which means the King was Norway's first official immigrant.

The conflict

Fast forward 2013 and the 199th celebration of the Norwegian Constitution. The details are still being decided by local comitees, making it an incredibly democratic and diverse celebration. In the city of Ålesund, a school celebrates its 90th year, and want to show off the diverse roots of its students. They have already made paper flags showing the Norwegian flag on one side and their country of origin on the other side. They as the local committee if these flags may be used as an additional prop during this year's parade. The committee allows this.

From this, it doesn't take long before a right wing online paper puts up the headline "Children will be denied waving the Norwegian flag on May 17th". And representatives of anti-immigration political parties make a big deal out of the idea that "we are celebrating Norway, not the UN!" and "Celebrating with any other flag than the Norwegian flag is an incidence of misunderstood multiculturalism."

Democracy

One of the things the constitution secures is local democracy. As such, any attempts to overturn the decisions made locally on something as little as this is an insult to the same constitution that is to be celebrated. I am not and advocate of suspending democracy in order to celebrate democracy.

How Ålesund decides to celebrate the constitution is completely their own thing. I may have opinions about it, but it is their celebration, and I am more than happy to let them make their own decisions.

Inclusion

For my own part, I recall the years I celebrated national days in other countries. In the US, I felt the strong patriotism from the Americans around me, this was a celebration of the USA, it was about how it was the best country in the world. As an alien, I did not really feel welcome. I could really feel my status, not only as a guest, but as a guest whose presence was completely irrelevant. Largely, I ended up staying at home or away from people on 4th of July.

Canada was a great contrast to this. More strangers than usual spoke to me. Everyone were happy. The concept was "come, let's celebrate Canada's birthday. I don't care who you are, let's just celebrate and be happy!" I always felt welcome on 1st of July. It made me very happy about being in Canada. It made me feel proud to be a Canadian, even though I very well knew that I was not.

For "my own country", I would much rather have "guests" experience the inclusion I experienced in Canada. Did I see other flags in Canada than the Canadian? Hell yes!

The alternative

The Norwegian flag of 1814 - and it is May 17th 1814 we are celebrating, right? Looked quite different. We should possibly pull these out of our great grand parents' closets. That said, we are not even celebrating the flag or the nation as such. The day is called "constitution day" and it is the constitution we celebrate.

I therefore suggest that we all print our own copy of the consitution and celebrate by bringing it with us in the parade, where we can discuss the terminology, legal implications and loopholes. Another idea is to have fleets that visualize the various paragraphs in the constitution. We could have concerts where the constitution is used as the lyrics. There are so many constitution-things we could do.

In the end, I can only quote Bill and Ted: Be excellent to each other, and party on dudes!