Opinion
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Pay cuts – a shortsighted strategy
With the economic downturn unemployment has become a real threat to Nordic workers. Many are prepared to stretch far to keep their jobs, including taking voluntary pay cuts. But pay cuts do not necessarily solve a business’ problems, and could prove to be a bottomless pool.
2 minutes -
Nordic labour markets: a Brussels point of view
Those looking to learn something from the Nordic labour markets treat them with envy and respect, but also with a degree of scepticism, writes Jørgen Rønnest.
2 minutes -
Working con amore
After fifteen years in Italy, it feels wonderful to be taken on the wings of the Scandinavian labour market. Not under! That’s the whole point.
3 minutes
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Things to do on holiday
“How was your holiday?” they ask me. I think to myself – holiday? What holiday? I’ve worked harder over the past three months at home than during an entire year in the office.
3 minutes -
UK’s Eastern European salvation or damnation
A day trip to Britain’s famous Blackpool seaside resort left me wondering whether I’d taken a wrong turning and ended up in Poland. In every chip shop, every café, every gaming arcade and at every amusement ride I was served by a Marek, an Ewa or a Dariuz.
3 minutes
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Packing your bags is hard to do
Two nights a week, over twenty foreigners like me gather in a classroom at an Oslo language school, determined to improve our faltering Norwegian.
3 minutes -
Tasting the community spirit
A few weeks after moving to Norway, I did something I would never have done anywhere else. At 6pm on the dot, I left my flat to meet my neighbours in the courtyard. We planted flowers, cleaned the grounds, painted the door frames, did the odd repair, and generally made our apartment block a better…
3 minutes -
Book in review: What future for the Nordic model?
Slash taxes and cut benefits to put an end to poverty. This is the recipe that is often prescribed by neo-liberal thinkers to solve society’s woes. Doing the opposite, in their minds,would amount to kill the golden goose of economic development.
3 minutes -
Homo Nordicus in the eyes of a Diego
If you rotate Norway like a compass with Oslo in the centre, the North Cape would hit Rome, I am told. Still there is a full ocean, or maybe several, separating the Nordic and Latin cultures.
3 minutes
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Book in review: Karaoke Capitalism
We live in the time of individualism. Grab the microphone and express your unique personality. Welcome to Club Karaoke Capitalism, where talent, originality and/or money creates freedom of choice like never before. At least for some.
3 minutes