Bokvår. Books move people. And sometimes they can move a good part of the world as well.
(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Like when you read the documentary about a cheerful, female Olympic runner who died as a result of persecution in his home country and exclusion from "Festung Europa". Athlete Samia Yusuf Omar (1991-2012) drowned in flight over the Mediterranean 2. April 2012.
The Somali runner participated in the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008. She was cheered on by the stadium audience and TV viewers when she finished last on the 200 meter, after spending over 30 seconds. The return to Somalia became more difficult for Samia Yusuf Omar. She had run without her hair covered with a white headband with Nike logo, something the Al-Shabab militia did not accept. She got death threats.
Samia continued to train under increasingly uncertain conditions in the capital Mogadishu. As the London Olympics in 2012 approach, the talented sprinter decides, in desperation, to flee to Europe, to his own dream. But the dream stops in the Mediterranean. As for so many others: Last week, more than 300 people from Africa drowned when their boats sank on their way from Libya to Italy. The EU and Schengen countries such as Norway have stopped helping them in need, when Italy's "Triton" rescue project ended in November – since other Schengen countries would not pay.
Last year, 3300 refugees drowned in the largest cemetery of our time in Europe. In 2015, the cemetery seems to be filled with even more that we do not want to receive.
The story of Samia Yusuf Omar gives us an insight into one name, one person behind all these numbers. Therefore, her book, "Don't Say You're Afraid" (Pax Forlag), written by Italian author Giuseppe Catozzella, is an important read. It is an example of the importance of the book as a medium. At the end of February, Catozzella comes to Bergen and Oslo to talk with Maria Amelie during book launch.
The pursuit of the good life can also have completely different angles, but in the same way be intertwined. On Tuesday 10 February, the Center for Development and the Environment (SUM) at the University of Oslo gathered for a debate on their latest book publication. The book "Sustainable Consumption and the Good Life", with the editors Karen Lykke Syse and Martin Lee Mueller, deals with interdisciplinary perspectives on sustainable consumption and the pursuit of the good life. New Time writer Kristian Bjørkdahl is also a contributor to the book, as is social anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen.
In the book draws, Syse introduces the book by drawing the lines back to the Greek philosophers Epicurus and Aristotle and up to, among others, American Martha Nussbaum. And not least, she emphasizes the interdisciplinary research center's own philosopher and ecosophist, Arne Næss (1912-2009). The question to scientists is: "What does it mean to live the good life in a time when the planet is overheating, population growth when new heights, the ocean is acidified and fertile soil erodes?"
During the debate on the book, the Green Party's Rasmus Hansson, among others, spoke about how much resistance he received in the 2013 election campaign to talk about the fact that Norway in the 1980s was not so bad, even though it was not close to today's standard of living. Man's quest for a better standard of living is ingrained in our genetics, and we have difficulty relating to abundance. It is historically new to humanity, Thomas Hylland Eriksen pointed out.
Thus, consequences such as climate change and environmental problems become difficult to deal with. In addition, the lack of peace and resources in one place, and relative security and abundance in another place, set an ancient force in motion for us humans: "out-groups" and "in-groups" are created. Walls are built, seas are made deadly to cross.
Can books move us humans in this murky sea? In addition to love, man's pursuit of happiness is the very original theme of literature. This week Alaa Al-Aswany (b. 1952) visited Norway. The Egyptian author's latest book "The Royal Egyptian Automobile Club" (Gyldendal) is out in Norwegian. Here, characters from a multicultural 1940s reality meet in Cairo. Rich and poor, colonial masters and royalty, Nubians and Greek Egyptians.
In addition to writing, something Al-ASwany only does between 6.30 and 10.30 in the morning, he is a dentist for more than 3000 cement factory workers. Al-Aswany has told The Guardian that he uses his profession as "a window to Egyptian society". He believes that success can be dangerous. 'You get isolated. But if you lose touch with the street, you're in trouble. More than 60 percent of Egyptians are below the poverty line. I have to be loyal to them, otherwise I will lose everything. "
The author must therefore go out into the real world to be an author. In the same way, everyone else can turn it around and say that we must enter the books so as not to lose touch with the world. Norway's success can be dangerous. Despite historically much travel, we seem more isolated than in a long time. Our most important window to the world still seems to be the books:
The stories that Al-Aswany spins from his dentist's office. Or stories about the 21-year-old Olympic sprinter Samiah from Somalia. She did not dream of gold, only of having an opportunity to run free. Now she is also at the bottom of the Mediterranean. The best sink first.
TTN
Leader of Ny Tid, in print 13 February 2015
