(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
In a few years, we will probably be able to look back on 2008 as an almost revolutionary year. 2008 may be the new 1968 – the year that has become a symbol of a larger movement and a radical change in society that was only implemented later. In 2008, we were able to experience the seeds of three global system changes.
One germ lies in the death of market liberalism, as expressed after the American financial group Lehmann Brothers went bankrupt on 15 September – which contributed to the world entering a so-called global financial crisis. Just as totalitarian communism died out as an ideal with the fall of the Berlin Wall on 11 November 1989, so market liberalism without state control may now have received its punch as a utopian social order. The market seems to have lost its power over the minds, to use the concepts of the economist Bent Sofus Tranøy. Hopefully, the events can be used to ensure a more responsible distribution of the material goods.
The second germ lies in the so-called food crisis, which became apparent in the spring of 2008. The huge increase in food prices in a number of countries – and especially in those referred to as in economic development – showed how unfair many of today's global trade agreements are. It was therefore a watershed when India's Trade Minister Kamal Nath in July stopped a draft agreement in the World Trade Organization (WTO), because his government felt that it did not adequately secure the food and trade interests of India and the majority of the world's population. It is not subsidies to the rich that should be the governing body, but a fair repayment to – or fair trade for – those who are financially poorer.
What we now see is "the rise of the rest" – or "the growth of the rest" – as Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria calls it. In other words, the democratically colonized and occupied countries' democratic struggle to regain their rightful place in the sun. Until the middle of the 1700th century, India and China, the two countries that have most continuously shaped world history over the last three thousand years, alone had over 60 per cent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP). Then the European wave of colonization began, and the world was turned upside down.
Now in the 21st century we are on our way back to a more normalized state. There is not one power pole, centered around the EU / US, that governs the world through dictation, like after the Second World War, but more and more democratic power poles. Hopefully, the events will allow Norway to rethink and seek new alliances with the majority of the world's population, preferably democratic countries such as Brazil, South Africa, India and Indonesia, instead of oil dictators like Russia and Iran.
The third seed of a new world order lies at the end of George W. Bush's eight-year reign in the United States, symbolized by his successor's historic presidential campaign and election victory on November 4. Barack Hussein Obama has been presented almost as a Hegelian world spirit on horseback. But his government appointments so far do not testify that he is anything but human, far too human – that is, it is the will to power and the exercise of power, more than the attempt at a radical new policy, that underlies the strategy. Nevertheless, Obama's inauguration, and the excitement he creates on January 20, will in itself be able to create the change one seeks. Hopefully, the Norwegian government can ensure fruitful cooperation with Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, so that in practice one can bring about a radical break with the legacy of the Bush dynasty's warfare and lack of consideration for global human rights.
Christmas' brutal Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, which has led to hundreds of civilian casualties, including children, shows that there are plenty of challenges in the year to come. This again shows the basic problem with today's attempt at a two-state solution. Israel's attack also shows how problematic it is that Norway continues to trade arms with a country at war – as it appeared in the previous issue of Ny Tid (December 19). It is the explosives in the Norwegian cluster bombs, which have not yet been destroyed, that were produced in Israel and were purchased in the late 90s. Until such official Norwegian support for Israel's weapons production ceases, Norway will speak with weakened credibility when criticizing Israel's use of weapons in the Gaza Strip.
In Norway, too, 2009 will bring challenges. The election in September could, in the worst case, lead to the right-wing nationalist Progress Party gaining government power. A FRP victory will not be in Norway's or the world's interest. Today's red-green coalition seems to be the best guarantor against a FRP government. The three mentioned germs of a new world order – represented by the financial crisis, the food crisis and the Bush crisis – then also seem to work to the advantage of the red-greens among most people. Now it is up to Minister of Finance Kristin Halvorsen to find a steady course that can convince the media and voters that we need more solidarity, international and community-oriented solutions, not fewer.
When we from the New Year can also rejoice that from the New Year came into force a new marriage law in Norway, adopted in the radical year 2008, there are good reasons to also be optimistic on behalf of the coming year. From 1 January, for the first time, people of the same sex will have the right to marry, get assisted conception and permission to adopt – and from the same day, gays in Hungary will have the right to enter into a partnership. Nepal, for its part, continues the country's pioneering struggle for the third sex, at the same time as the Supreme Court of Uganda on Christmas Eve ruled in favor of Victor Juliet Mukasa that transgender people have the same rights as other Ugandans.
All this testifies that much of the world is moving forward, after all. Therefore, it is about continuing to advocate for new times. Happy New Year.