Even a stopped clock is right twice every day.
And Trump-haters are right at least once in a lifetime. As a proud member of Trump’s base, I find myself in compete agreement with the Never-Trumpers on the subject of Saudi Arabia. What a miserable ally we find ourselves in bed with!
A Saudi prince was explaining his purchase of a new silver limousine. There was some confusion. Apparently, the prince’s friend thought the prince had just purchased a silver-colored limousine. Wrong! The prince had custom-ordered himself a brand new limousine made completely out of genuine silver! Meanwhile, a few miles away, Saudi Arabian babies were blinded by the disease trachoma by the age of 5. Sure, it would be great to treat those children with the miracle of modern medicine, but apparently the Saudi royal family recognizes you can’t afford everything you’d like to.
There’s a ritual in Saudi Arabia involving ordinary Saudi citizens who meet with the crown prince at a gigantic outdoor banquet and wait their turn in line to deliver details of their financial difficulties to the prince, who listens intently and, along with expressing great sympathy, concludes each audience by bestowing a rather large sum of money as a gift from the royal family. Many outside onlookers are impressed. “What compassion!” “What a marvelous way to let all that petroleum wealth trickle down to ordinary Saudis!”
I disagree. I think it’s a perfectly miserable way for this diseased hangover of the feudal system to bribe its lower-class members. Perhaps the only saving grace of this retched extortion is that it reminds me of its exact opposite, a thunderously praiseworthy way to share the national wealth. The praiseworthy practitioners rarely, if ever, get saluted for the sheer nobility and genuine compassion of this “opposite way.” Let me now take this opportunity to render all due praise on another oil rich country that does things right!
One summer in the late 1940s, I walked out of the Maryland motor vehicle offices in Baltimore. My eyes settled on a premises across the street, with a sign announcing it as the Norwegian Seaman’s Home. I happened to be studying Norwegian at the time and, coming from North Carolina, I badly needed practice. I rang the doorbell and introduced myself as an American college student who was very interested in Norway. The residents had never heard of such a thing and welcomed me almost as a visiting rock star (this was of course before the term “rock star” had entered the lexicon).
This led to transatlantic adventures, as a mess boy in the Norwegian Merchant Marine, a scholarship to the University of Oslo, marriage to a Swedish woman, two bilingual children and many other wonderful blessings. It also gave me some insight into what a truly great citizen of the world Norway is! And it gave me some rich knowledge of which I wish Sens. Warren and Sanders could partake.
Norway is a democracy, and, despite high taxes and a broad, deep welfare safety net, it insists it is not a socialist state. Norway struck it rich with North Sea petroleum after World War II. But not one penny went to buy limousines made of precious metals! Instead, a committee was empowered to study the needs of the new wealthy Norway and the means to meet those needs.
I am politically a conservative. The liberals have won most of the arguments in Norway for the past half-century or more. It’s quite likely I could not bear for one solid hour to be with the members of that committee! However, I can heap mountains of praise in front of them all for the humanitarian impulses I’m sure we both share!
Allocating national wealth is not enough for Norway. They are impelled into what I call aggressive goodness in the international arena. Norway jumps into the middle of wars large and small and aggressively assigns itself peacemaking and peacekeeping roles despite the dangers of such national exercises. Norway, which has maintained close ties to Sri Lanka since 1952, was for many years instrumental in mediating the conflict between the Sinhalese and the Tamils in that nation.
I’m grateful for having met and befriended a truly great Norwegian statesman, the late Thorvald Stoltenberg, who held many top posts in Norway, including foreign minister, and was the father of former Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, currently secretary general of NATO. Thanks to that connection I think I’ve achieved a balanced view of Norway and its many virtues.
Norway was occupied by Nazi German invaders on April 9, 1940. Yes, the man whose name became synonymous worldwide with “traitor” and “collaborator,” Vidkun Quisling, was Norwegian. However, the heroes of the anti-Nazi Norwegian underground committed many acts of bravery and, indeed, denied Hitler his supply of heavy water necessary in the manufacture of the atomic bomb. Many thousands of refugees were spirited into the safety of neighboring Sweden by the anti-Nazi Norwegian underground.
Since then, Norway, with a population of 5 million, has offered its peacemaking and negotiation services to other nations locked in murderous combat. And Norway asks nothing in return except a better world.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia still expects us to keep celebrating the latest reforms enacted there, such as women being allowed to drive!
Maybe part of our deal with Saudi Arabia ought to be weekly seminars aimed at helping the Saudi Arabians act more like Norwegians!
