Hilde hailed (Verdens Gang)

International Development Minister Hilde F. Johnson was the hero of Johannesburg yesterday. Senior UN official Mark Malloch Brown gives her most of the credit for preventing the World Summit on Sustainable Development from ending in failure. "Hilde is without doubt the most important minister on development issues. The way she argued her case and her personality turned around a conference which was about to go in the wrong direction," said Mr Malloch Brown, head of the UN’s largest development programme, the UNDP. Non-government organizations are also full of praise. "We are impressed by the way Børge Brende and Hilde F. Johnson have been working. The Norwegian ministers have given the best performance so far in Johannesburg," said Steve Sawer, responsible for climate and energy issues at Greenpeace.

Report slams pre-school day care plan (Aftenposten)

The introduction of a cap on the price charged for a pre-school nursery place will delay the construction of additional nursery places and will make them unnecessarily expensive, according to professor Jørn Rattsø and three colleagues from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. The academics were commissioned by the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs to analyze the proposal by the Labour Party, Socialist Left Party and Centre Party. "The opposition’s proposed pre-school day care reform has a number of obvious weaknesses. The reform model is not clear-cut because it does not make a distinction between those who own the pre-school nurseries and those who finance them," said professor Rattsø. The report makes gloomy reading for the four parties behind the pre-school nursery agreement.

Schools selling off books meant for lending (Dagsavisen)

When he was Education Minister, Trond Giske gave students at upper secondary schools NOK 200 million worth of free textbooks. Now colleges are selling off the books. Mr Giske has warned that he will raise the matter in the Storting to find out if the Ministry has given the colleges the go-ahead to sell off the textbooks. "This is completely scandalous. The books are the property of the students and the colleges cannot simply do what they please in this way," said Mr Giske.

Call for instant divorce (Aftenposten)

The compulsory one-year separation period before a divorce can be granted prolongs the suffering for women and children who are the victims of violence and threats, and for those who want to escape from forced marriages. That is why the practice should be abolished, according to Conservative MP Afshan Rafiq. The proposal has been cleared with the Conservative Party’s parliamentary group. Children and Family Affairs Minister Laila Dåvøy (Chr.Dem) is sceptical. "A period of separation is necessary to prevent people from rushing into a divorce. It is also necessary to take time over these cases out of consideration for any children involved. Many people also benefit from counselling," she said.

Norwegians want more private schools (Klassekampen)

Six out of ten Norwegians think it is alright to send children to private schools if parents are dissatisfied with the quality of state schools. The population is split down the middle in their opinion of whether more private primary and secondary schools should be opened. 46.6 per cent are in favour of building more private schools. "It surprises me that so many people are in favour of private schools," said Rolf Reikvam (Socialist Left), who chairs the Storting’s education committee. Even though these recent figures could help to weaken the faith of those who strongly defend the standardized state school system, Mr Reikvam is convinced that the principle of publicly funded compulsory education remains strong in Norway.

Could lose NOK 30 million on bank guarantees (Verdens Gang)

Investor Carl Fredrik Seim and his newly acquired Mjellem group of companies could lose over NOK 30 million on bank guarantees following the liquidation of the Mjellem & Karlsen shipyard in Bergen. It turns out that the banks which lent money to the cash-strapped shipyard have not contented themselves with securing their millions against the shipyard’s assets. They only granted the loans when they were given guarantees from the other companies in the Mjellem Group. It transpires that more than NOK 30 million of the shipyard’s assets have been mortgaged to the other companies in the Mjellem Group. The mortgages fill a hefty eight pages in the Brønnøysund Register of Mortgaged Moveable Property.

Bow Eagle’s second officer arrested (Aftenposten)

A warrant has been sought for the arrest and extradition to Norway of the second officer of the Bow Eagle, the Norwegian ship that was last week involved in a fatal accident in which four French fishermen died. "Initially a deckhand was also considered a suspect, but following Friday’s official inquiry into the accident in Rotterdam he is now defined as a witness. Only the second officer will face criminal charges in connection with the accident," said inspector Svein Erik Krogvold of the Hordaland police district.

Worth Noting

• When Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik arrives in Johannesburg today he will have good reason to be proud of both Environment Minister Børge Brende and International Development Minister Hilde F. Johnson. Environmental organizations which are following negotiations at close hand have lauded Norway’s efforts.
  (Dagbladet)
• Norway’s great victory in Johannesburg is that there will be no changes in the way the WTO regulations are referred to in relation to the UN’s implementation plan.
  (Klassekampen)
• Professor Jørn Rattsø is leader of a project to analyze of the opposition’s proposed pre-school day care reform. He is known as one of the leading experts on local government management, but is also controversial because he has twice led the so-called Rattsø Commission on local government revenue distribution.
  (Dagbladet)
• "Gro Harlem Brundtland’s claim that women who do not make it in the Labour Party have only themselves to blame, has hurt the feelings of many women in the party," said former State Secretary Britt Schultz.
  (Dagsavisen)
• The Centre Party’s parliamentary group has embarked on a pilgrimage to 40 different places in northern Norway. The objective is to discover the life force of northern Norway and renew the party’s own political platform.
  (Nationen)
• A European survey gives Norwegian schools a mediocre score, and only Greek pupils are more disruptive. Now comes the backlash against an education system in which teachers have had their authority severely eroded.
  (Vårt Land)
• Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss has rejected a Danish demand that Norway pay around NOK 100 million in punitive duties because Norwegian companies have fraudulently exported Russian cod to the EU. "It is the fish exporters who are responsible, not the authorities," said Mr Foss.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Workers at the bankrupt shipyard, Mjellem & Karlsen, in Bergen thought they had a last order to complete – to build frigate parts for the Spanish shipbuilders, Izar. It has now been revealed that the contract has not actually been signed. The new owners could therefore complete their dismemberment of the shipyard faster than previously anticipated.
  (Aftenposten)
• At the height of the yuppy era it was the richest who borrowed most. Now it is those on low to middle incomes who have increased their level of indebtedness most, according to figures published by Statistics Norway. This cannot continue. The banks must take a look at their lending policies, according to Harald Magnus Andreassen, chief economist at First Securities.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)
• It is extremely unlikely that there will be another rise in interest rates this year, but early next year the Norwegian Central Bank will probably put up interest rates. This is the belief of the experts at Nordea Markets.
  (ANB)

Today’s comment from Dagbladet

Sunday was a special day for the Norwegian air traffic industry, and there is every reason to wish the newcomer, Norwegian, good luck. It is high time there was competition in the domestic air travel market. Even when Braathens was operating there was little real competition. We have already seen the effect of Norwegian’s entry into the market in the form of significantly lower fares. The passengers are the winners. That Norwegian has a better chance of survival than Color Air, which was rapidly forced to throw in the towel, is because the awarding of bonus points on domestic flights has finally been abolished. This system made it impossible to compete with the established airlines. The Norwegian Competition Authority and Labour and Government Administration Minister Victor D. Norman have been the driving forces behind efforts to remove this meaningless system. SAS has only itself to thank because the airline insisted on giving the points to the person travelling, not to the person or organization who paid for the ticket. The Labour Party fought alongside airline employees to retain a system which was mostly enjoyed by those on high incomes. Jens Stoltenberg has a lot of cleaning up to do.