Why Norway is a peculiar country

by Llama_guy on September 24, 2008 Comments

You all probably don't know a lot about Norway, right? The land of trolls and fjords, situated on the northern part of Europe. We're a small country, only 4,7 million inhabitants and a total area that's the size of the states and Texas and Mexico together. You wouldn't think such a small country was anything significant, yet we're one stinking rich country - one of the richest in the world actually - with a GDP of at least 400 billion dollars. The national oil fund - which consists of money Norway's earned from oil and gas - has enough money to buy out eight of the largest corporations in the world - including Walt Disney and General Motors. The GDP per inhabitant is the second highest in the world, at almost 50 000 dollars. I just find it funny that such a small country as Norway is so rich. Another thing I find funny - and disturbing - is that the politicians of Norway talk so much about how Norway is going to be a big environmental-and-peace nation in the world, giving lots of money to various environment-friendly organizations and working actively for peace in war-struck areas in the world, yet we're the third largest exporter of oil and gas, and the seventh largest weapons exporter in the world. I was really shocked when I found out about the latter of those, but the former didn't come as a surprise. There's more things that are peculiar about Norway, one of them being our tall mountains and deep fjords. In just a kilometer or two as the crow flies, the terrain can elevate from kilometer-deep fjords to giant mountain plateaus that're from a kilometer to two high. Moreover, our climate is very warm, even though the southernmost parts of Norway aren't much more south than the southernmost parts of Alaska. We've got warm summers, often with temperatures close to or past the thirties (90s if you use the Fahrenheit scale), and mild winters with snowfall mostly in the inner and northern regions of the country, and only very little of it in the more southern areas, especially along the coast. And while most of it has its natural explanations, I still find Norway to be a peculiar country. For fun, here's some pictures from Norway: On a side note, I've been sick with a cold and slight fever lately. EDIT: If you can't view any of the images completely, right-click and do either of the following: press 'view image' if using Firefox, press 'open image in new tab' if using Google Chrome, press 'properties' and then copy the url listed into your web browser if using Internet Explorer