Sometimes I am surprised. Yesterday, for example, I watch the news on NRK (the state Norwegian television company). I watch attentively, so as to understand Norwegian (I have that age-related thing). They show a respectable-looking Norwegian who has in some way broken the law. Anyway by a court decision he must sit in prison, serve his sentence. But there are no places. He has to wait…. three years!
I think: “I didn’t understand something.” I ask my husband: “Where is he supposed to wait? At liberty? That is, continue to live and work, is that it? And wait until they ‘put him away’ 🧐 Anyway, all the places are taken! I remember they used to rent places in the Netherlands. Apparently it has become expensive to send the lawless abroad.
And here is another little story. Three Afghan children together with their mama the authorities decided to send back to their homeland, to Afghanistan. They flew as far as Turkey, because Afghanistan “started thinking and talking with the Norwegian embassy in Afghanistan.” These children together with their mama had lived and grown up in Norway and gone to school. For what reason they suddenly decided to deport them I, let’s say, did not understand, my Norwegian husband did not understand either. The children had Norwegian classmates friends left, who gathered for a rally in support and for their return to Norway.
They did bring them back! But it turned out very “fancy” for the state treasury, as much as 3 million Norwegian kroner or 300 thousand euros! They sent a private plane for them to Turkey, and in all this return as many as 18 staff were involved (the police among them). The Afghan mama, it’s true, arrived in Norway “unconscious” (they did not show her on TV, but sent her straight to hospital). Those are the kinds of Disposers of Destinies there are here.