Gratulerer, my fellow Norwegian Americans, for a United States president at long last has invited our cousins toughing it out in the Old Country to migrate to the land of freedom and chronic traumatic encephalopathy — not like those undesirables inhabiting “shithole” countries. What the roughly 4 million of us with parents, grandparents or long-ago Viking descendants from the smallest Scandinavian nation also noticed was Trump’s idea of the prototypical non-shithole country: our humble Norway. It also has universal healthcare, a ridiculously large sovereign wealth fund and top-notch infrastructure. No, Norway wasn’t as poor prior to the development of its oil resources as many people think, but up until the 1960s it was fairly common for ambitious Norwegians to embark for the United States if they could. But Solberg knows the fortunes of Norway, a country of only 5 million people, are linked inextricably with those of the world.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 12, 2018 00:33 UTC