(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
[4. April] "Some are starting to talk about the threats: What will happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We have some difficult days ahead. But I don't care. Because I've been at the top of the mountain. "
In those words, Martin Luther King jr. about to end the last speech of his life, in Memphis, 3. April 1968. The following night, the 39-year-old pastor and Nobel laureate was shot dead by James Earl Ray while standing on the balcony of his motel. The shooting set the mark for an 13 year-long non-violent match of global casting.
King was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's peaceful resistance struggle, satyagraha. Which in turn was influenced by the idea of civil disobedience from the American 1800 number philosopher Henry Thoreau, who was again inspired by and referred to Indian Rig Veda writings.
King's peaceful fight started with getting into the driver's seat and leading the bus boycott of Montgomery in 1955, after Rosa Parks refused to obey the law to give up the seat to a white man. It continued with highlights such as the March for Washington in 1963 and the famous "I have a dream" speech, through the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize the following year, as well as the formal legal victories with the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the National Voting Acts (1965).
So King did not just lay the groundwork for all Americans to have the same civil and political rights. His tireless struggle created hope for Nelson Mandela and the majority of the inhabitants of the apartheid state of South Africa. And King is, can and should be an inspiration when minorities are discriminated against in Norway in 2008.
Unfortunately, it is true that King's message is still highly relevant in today's Norway. It shows the conclusion of the Gender Equality and Discrimination Ombud (LDO), who on 27 March determined that Ali Farah was discriminated against when the ambulance staff left him bleeding in the Sofienberg Park. The most frightening thing, however, is not the behavior of the ambulance staff, but the lack of the will and ability to clean up Ullevål hospital, the Norwegian Health Authority and the Ministry of Health. In practice, these state agencies accept and encourage discrimination by not taking the witnesses and the County Governor's reports seriously.
The Farah case is part of a larger context, where Norwegian officials act or formulate themselves in a frightening way similar to what King was exposed to in the USA in the 1960s. The fate of Nigerian-born Eugene Obiora, who was a Norwegian citizen, is another example. One and a half years ago, the unarmed father of small children died when the Trondheim police found it necessary to arrest him. On March 29, the news came about the Civil Ombudsman now demanding that the Minister of Justice clarify who is responsible for the police not knowing that Obiora was subjected to life-threatening arrest methods, in violation of the human rights convention.
Obiora is dead, but his case is alive.
This is how a line goes back in time also to Benjamin Hermansen, the 15-year-old from Holmlia who was killed by neo-Nazis. But also a line up to this week's news stories about how so-called dark-skinned "accidentally" are stopped far more frequently than others by the customs at Gardermoen.
This is not just about individual destinies or about minorities, but about the big we, about how Norway as a majority society should appear. And we will not move forward until we have fought the prejudiced demons that still haunt our lives. As King did in his day, with the good help of hundreds of thousands of so-called white Americans in the 1960s.
It is a shame to say so, but in the treatment of minorities, Norway now seems to be many years behind the more inclusive in North America. In the United States, such Farah and Obiora cases would lead to a just and proper dishwashing. One would not settle down with the authorities' passivity and evasive behavior. Action would be required. Now!
But before action, one needs to listen to the last words of Martin Luther King jr. spoke before he was killed. Like a Moses, he knew he did not want to see the future, to experience a United States where a colored American is the favorite to become the country's next president: “I have seen the promised land. I may not want to go there with you. But tonight I want you to know that we, as a people, will come to the Promised Land. "
Words spoken in the United States in 1968. We should start using them in Norway in 2008 as well.
The end of dictatorship
[tyrant] Wednesday, April 2, was a day of joy. Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission could then determine that dictator Robert Mugabe's party has lost its majority in parliament.This is the end for Mugabe, 28 years after he was completely carried forward and elected to power in April 1980. But one thing is to gain power. Another thing is to manage it, as by ensuring free choices.
In addition, it is about knowing when to relinquish power, as, for example, Nelson Mandela did after five years. In contrast, Mugabe became the hero who became a dictator. Not unlike the now 81-year-old guerrilla leader Fidel Castro. It was not until February that he relinquished the presidency to his younger brother Raul, after holding power for 49 years and without letting the Cuban people freely decide their leader. The Cuban government has now finally given people access to DVD players and toasters.
Despite eloquent rhetoric, this also testifies that Fidel Castro, like Mugabe, became a tyrant who doubted power. As the first editor of this publication, Sigurd Evensmo, wrote in 1970, in his settlement with Norwegian Stalin and Mao worship, we also now need to "consider every earthly paradise with a certain skepticism".
