Second paragraph of third chapter:The Danes do seem to have an uncommon facility to get on with each other regardless of age, class or outlook. Egality comes easily to them. One of my most cherished memories of this inclusiveness is of a friend's fortieth birthday party where his octogenarian grandmother was seated next to the country's most ( Read more... )

See note on methodologyI admit this one took me by surprise. I had read it, of course; published in 1991, a careful exploration of three millennia of philosophy for younger readers, it is very clearly set in Norway even if that doesn't add much to the story.  I had completely forgotten the setting, and you probably have as well. By a huge margin, ( Read more... )

This is a fascinating and brutal report commissioned by the Norwegian government on the Norwegian contribution to the failure of the Sri Lanka peace process, in which the government of Norway was the sole mediator between the goverment of Sri Lanka and the LTTE Tamil rebels. I learned a lot from it about the brutality of both sides during the war ( ( Read more... )