02-09 The Nordic Region

My interest in visiting the Nordic countries over the years was trying to understand how they were able to work together so effectively. And on what we call tough issues like taxation and climate change.
The map shows the Nordic countries of Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. What they obviously have in common is the Arctic climate, with long summer nights and cold dark winter days.
I did get a clue from my father who spend a year in a farm outside Regina in 1928. It was something he had to do to pay for his free passage to Canada from Belfast. It was the winters, he would explain. Helping and cooperating was necessary for survival.
It is not as if the Nordics were all speaking the same language, although I have heard people in Sweden tell me they can follow people speaking Danish or Norwegian. But the language in Finland has Hungarian roots and is entirely different.
I have noticed things in common at international conferences held in Helsinki and Stockholm. When together in groups they all switch into English. And they are all highly educated. Those I met could speak three or four languages.
And something I found of special interest. There were as many female business leaders as male. And the focus at the conferences was always about being more productive, something essential for competing in a high tax economy. I had the sense that the role of women was more than women’s rights, but about being smart.
And speaking of taxes, they all have what is called a Value-Added Sales tax of about 25%. This of course pays for universal health care and free education through to university. And I never heard anyone whine about taxes.
Their geography is of interest. Massive forests that provide the raw material for bioenergy in Sweden and Finland. Natural mountains and waterfalls for hydroelectric power in Norway. Geothermal in Iceland. And wind turbines for windy Denmark.
And Iceland is not the only Nordic nation with melting glaciers. The photo is of a glacier in Norway.
And all the Nordic nations are setting goals to be world leaders in reducing the use of fossil fuels. In the Anglo-Saxon world of the UK, Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand, we talk a lot. The Nordic countries act. They have a consensus political culture.
They will be more than welfare states, but fossil fuel free welfare states. What makes this possible is that all the Nordic nations are highly productive high-tech societies.
But we must be honest. It will not be hard to become free of fossil fuels when your society is such a climate winner. The Nordic nations are enjoying more weeks for growing food, new fish stocks in warmer waters, more tourism and more resource exploration in their far north.
And a new trade route through the Northeast passage around Russia to reach Asian markets.