Notices by Patricia Aas (patricia@social.vivaldi.net)

“About four-in-ten U.S. adults believe humanity is ‘living in the end times’”

- Why fix the climate when we won’t live long enough to regret it?

I just can’t. Why the hell is what these people believe my problem???

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/12/08/about-four-in-ten-u-s-adults-believe-humanity-is-living-in-the-end-times/

Guy on podcast: twice as many Americans, compared to the global population, believe that The Apocalypse will happen in their lifetime.

… that explains a lot, actually

An American guy at a tech conference told me to my face that the only way to fix the climate was for the whole of humanity to fall to their knees and repent.

I stared at him gobsmacked thinking he must’ve been messing with me, but no. This quite prominent guy was not only serious, he felt perfectly comfortable saying it to another adult.

Norwegians, no matter your sexual orientation, please make June infinitely gay this year. Every opportunity you have: introduce a rainbow or fifty. Show that hate and intolerance has no place in our neighborhoods. Make sure every secretly gay kid sees at least one rainbow every day.

This process has btw been depicted in the movie “Oslo” where (as a complete aside) Andrew Scott, who plays Moriarty in Sherlock, plays Terje Rød-Larsen. Which was very hard for me to reconcile, because for some reason my brain expected him to suddenly turn nefarious at any moment. The movie is available on HBO Max here in Norway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_(film)

"Israel says it's recalls ambassadors from Ireland and Norway over recognition of a Palestinian state"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/22/norway-palestinian-state/7eafc372-1806-11ef-97db-d9db0c732407_story.html

The Norwegian government is hoping that this will support moderate forces and build up under a two state solution.

The Norwegian prime minister speaking about the background of this decision, in Norwegian.
https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/eMKWzM/norge-anerkjenner-palestina-som-stat

Reading some of the reactions to this internationally I feel some folks are missing the point. Norway isn’t expressing support for Hamas or animosity towards Israel. Norway is saying that the Palestinian people should have democratic, lawful, self determination within a state of their own. And so should the Israeli people. This isn’t about any faction. This is a hope for a future.

“Norway is a friend of Israel and Norway is a friend of Palestine”

The formal date for the recognition of a Palestinian state is May 28th.

What might not be well known internationally is that Norway has been deeply involved in mediating and facilitating official and unofficial peace talks in this conflict going back decades. They are after all called the “Oslo accords”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_I_Accord

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_II_Accord

What it does express (perhaps indirectly) is that the “wait and see and hope” policy Norway has been doing for decades has failed.That we are further away from peace now than we were 30 years ago. So this is just a different expression of Norways constant hope for a peaceful and prosperous coexistence for the both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.