World’s most famous Norwegian dies aged 87 (Aftenposten)

Thor Heyerdahl, seafarer, discoverer and archaeologist, died yesterday at his home near Alassio in Italy. Norway has lost a legend and one of the few Norwegians whose name and reputation were known worldwide. The Kon-Tiki expedition gave the world’s media a new darling – a Norwegian eccentric, perhaps a serious Viking, perhaps a mad professor. Looking back, we see the legacy of a lifetime’s work.

Professionals to let mediator decide pay issue (Aftenposten)

Doctors, dentists, engineers, economists, lawyers and other professional groups have decided not to use their legal right to strike. They prefer to have locally determined wage agreements where an independent mediator ‘adjudicates’ in cases where the two sides cannot agree. The negotiating body representing doctors, dentists, engineers, economists, lawyers and other professional groups has willingly given up its right to strike. It has never brought them any success.

Minister under investigation (Nationen)

The Storting’s Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs Committee has unanimously decided to investigate Agriculture Minister Lars Sponheim (Lib) following his Ministry’s decision to grant a Liberal Party member exemption from the requirement that his house in Lillesand, a popular holiday destination, be permanently occupied and not used merely as a holiday home when it was sold. Holiday homes in the area fetch a far higher price than property subject to the local authority’s permanent residence by-laws. "We take this matter very seriously and feel it requires a thorough investigation. We are obliged to get to the bottom of this case, with regard to Mr Sponheim’s explanation to the Storting, how the legislation is put into practice and to ensure equality before the law," said committee chairman Ågot Valle.

Conservative anger over SAS (Aftenposten)

The Conservative Party’s industrial affairs spokesman, Ivar Kristiansen, has asked Trade and Industry Minister Ansgar Gabrielsen to have a serious word in the ear of SAS chairman Egil Myklebust. Mr Kristiansen is both exasperated and furious about the way SAS treats Norway and its Norwegian customers. "A company which forgets that the passenger tax was abolished on 1 April, which sweeps away all competition, winds up SAS Commuter and claims not to realise that its workforce is being cut helps make the very concept of state ownership hollow," said Mr Kristiansen.

Agreement on lottery cash in sight (Dagsavisen)

Scientific research will no longer be among the areas to receive funding from the state-owned national lottery company. A majority in the Storting would probably prefer to fund research by transferring NOK 14 billion of the country’s oil revenues to the Research Fund. The Storting was yesterday due to vote on a proposal from the Progress Party to change the way lottery profits are distributed. But the Progress Party, Socialist Left Party and Labour Party are still negotiating. The Research Fund currently amounts to NOK 13 billion. Labour’s Trond Giske has proposed the transfer of NOK 14 billion from the Government Petroleum Fund to the Research Fund. The return on investment would then be sufficient to compensate for the loss of the NOK 800 million which up until now has been transferred from the lottery company to research projects. This solution will probably win the support of the Progress Party and the Socialist Left Party.

Education Minister hopes reform will revive village schools (Nationen)

The Government wants to make it easier for the private schools sector. Private village schools could therefore become an alternative if local authority run schools are closed. "It is the local authority which benefits from school closures, not the local community," said Education Minister Kristin Clemet, who hopes that her Private Schools Bill will lead to the establishment of more village schools. Under the proposed new legislation private and state schools will be placed on an equal financial footing.

New opera house and dockland redevelopment to go ahead (Dagsavisen)

Construction of the immersed tube tunnel under the harbour at Bjørvika in Oslo will now go ahead, thanks to state funding, the Oslo City Council and motorists’ toll fees. Along with it Norway will get a brand new opera house. The tunnel and opera house are inseparable. Without the tunnel the Storting would not be particularly keen to grant almost NOK 3 billion to build the opera house, whose chosen location is currently right next to a vast motorway junction complex. But MPs have now committed themselves to supporting the construction of the immersed tube tunnel, which could be completed in 2012.

Worth Noting

• Agriculture Minister Lars Sponheim has been accused of misleading the Storting over his involvement in the exemption of a house belonging to a fellow Liberal party member from local authority regulations demanding the owners live there on a permanent basis. Mr Sponheim did not trust the fact that Leif Helge Kongshaug was telling him the whole truth and now the furious Minister is seriously considering whether to fire his own State Secretary. Mr Kongshaug waited 16 whole days after the media broke the story before telling Mr Sponheim that he was involved. (Verdens Gang)
• The time when the engineering industry set the standard for the year’s wage increases has come to a close. From now on large parts of the manufacturing sector will negotiate their own agreements at the same time as the shipyards. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The Government is planning to permit the sale of non-prescription medications in grocery stores. But the National Poisons Information Centre says that the sale of paracetamol-based products should not be liberalized. (Aftenposten)
• Over the past three years 182 asylum-seekers have been deported from Norway as a result of criminal convictions – 101 of them last year. During the first quarter this year 35 such individuals were deported. (Dagsavisen)
• The unregistered vehicles which clutter up the streets of Oslo, to the annoyance of motorists looking for scarce parking places in the capital, will now be removed. Transport Minister Torild Skogsholm is planning to clear away the unpopular rust-buckets with the help of a new statutory instrument. (Dagsavisen)
• 129 patients at 12 hospitals around the country have so far been infected by the bacteria found in the Dent-O-Sept brand of oral swabs. Director General of Health Lars E. Hanssen says he cannot rule out more hospitals being affected by the infection. (Verdens Gang)
• It is not the beer which is expensive when you pay NOK 65 for the pleasure of drinking a half-litre in the warm spring sunshine. It is simply a demonstration of market forces at work. Customers accept the fact that 60 per cent of the price is pocketed by the bar or restaurant owner. (Dagbladet)

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

A luminary of twentieth century Norway is dead. A life of adventure, but also of controversy, on the high seas, in several research disciplines and as a contributor to our knowledge of cultural history has come to an end. Thor Heyerdahl was one of very few Norwegians to become world famous in their own time. He was, no less, a citizen of the world, who through his work showed how links can be traced between peoples of differing ethnic and cultural origins. With his archaeological studies and ethnological theories Thor Heyerdahl flew in the face of received wisdom in many fields of research, because he believed that there must have been contact between prehistoric civilizations on different continents. The scientific significance of his expeditions and archaeological digs has yet to be fully evaluated. But one thing is certain – Thor Heyerdahl gave force to an anti-authoritarian attitude and independence of mind which will go down in the annals of scientific research as a lesson to remember.