Interesting Things About Norway
Norway is a naturally beautiful and peaceful Nordic country located in Northern Europe, part of the Scandinavian Peninsula. At the end of June 2022, the population is around 5.505.165 and is only half percent of Jakarta’s population, the city I currently live in. About two-thirds of Norway is mountainous, with deep glacial fjords and more than 50.000 islands.
I am grateful that I have ever lived in a city called Stavanger to pursue a master’s degree. Stavanger is the fourth largest city in Norway after Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim. It is popular among hikers since the city has world-renowned mountains that are Preikestolen (the pulpit rock) and Kjeragbolten (a rock wedged between a cliff). Trolltunga (Troll’s tongue) is also the famous one located not far from Stavanger.
As long as I have lived in Norway, I found some interesting things that might be rare to be found In other countries, especially in my country, Indonesia. Here are those things:
Energy
Norway is one of Europe’s richest countries and the revenue mostly comes from exporting oil and gas. The center of the oil and gas industry is in Stavanger since it is surrounded by the offshore platform. Although they produce a high amount of oil and gas, they do not use it for their country, the export to other countries makes Norway the third-largest exporter of natural gas in the world, behind Russia and Qatar. Furthermore, they use renewable energy instead. 98 % of the electricity production comes from renewable energy and the Hydropower is the most of the production, followed by thermal power and wind power. They have an extraordinary natural wealth so they use it properly. The oil and gas thing is why I chose Norway to obtain the degree before I pivot to the tech industry.
Another interesting thing, the usage of electric vehicles in Norway is the largest per capita in the world, as you can see from the graph below. The government encourages their citizen to use the electric car by reducing or completely waiving some of these fees. Two years after I graduated from the University of Stavanger, the Uni provides the pinpoint for the rental service for the electric vehicle as this one is part of the smart city project. Poor me that I did not get a chance to try this car rent. Previously they only provides electric bike rental.
Waste Management
I could say that Norway is quite strict with its waste management. While other countries usually only separate by three types such as organic, inorganic, and recycle, Norway classified the trash into 11 types.
- Clean plastic packaging (the purple bag)
- Food waste (the green bag)
- Residual waste (the regular shopping bag)
- Paper/cardboard (container for paper/cardboard)
- Glass/metal packaging
- Fabric/clothes/shoes
- Garden waste
- EE-waste
- Hazardous waste
- Oversized waste/re-use
I was amazed for the first time I saw the recycling machine that was located in most supermarkets. When people buy a water bottle, the supermarket charges an extra fee for the bottle depending on the size of the bottle. If you have already finished the drink, you can return it to the machine it directly crushed it on the spot, and then the machine gives you two options, donate or take the credit. The credit is like a return credit from the extra charge that you pay in front and can be used in that supermarket. No matter where you buy the bottle, and where you return it you can still get the return credit.
This machine is the most incredible recycling scheme that makes Norway leads in the world. The founded company, Infinitum founded this machine in 1999. As far as I know, for those who live in Jakarta, we can also find this machine in the Grand Indonesia Mall.
Cashless
While other countries still use cash for the transaction, Norway already left it behind. I moved there at the end of 2016 and I rarely meet the physical money. Again, Norway becomes the world leader in leaving physical notes and coins followed by other Nordic countries. They use the debit contactless card by using the NFC system instead. In our country, the NFC system only works on e-money and Visa credit cards. For the credit card NFC, there is still a limited device that can use the transaction by taping the card.
“Banknotes and coins are used in only 3–4% of all transactions in Norway, the lowest level of cash usage in the world, according to calculations by Norges Bank”.
Moreover, they have one amazing app called Vipps. This app allows you to do the bank transfer to all local banks only from a phone number without an extra charge. The app was developed by one of the biggest Norway banks, DNB, and is launched in 2015. This app became Norway’s largest payment application.
Cashless has become my habit until now and I am grateful that when I came back in 2019, Indonesia started to have so many e-wallet options and other cashless providers, as well as the number of the digital bank, is growing.
Education
Another special thing about Norway and the other Nordic countries is education. Those countries provide the tuition FREE quality education. In Norway, they provide free education starting from elementary to master’s degree and are open for both local and international students. While the Ph.D. student will get a salary from the university as they work as a researcher for the university. The Norwegian government believes that education is an important thing and a human right. Although there is no tuition, the living cost is quite high. So if you consider having a study in Norway, do not forget about the living cost.
PS: As you can see from the picture, Norwegian treats the bachelor’s and master’s graduation ceremony as not a special thing (like everybody in Norway has a master’s degree) they don’t use the graduation gown or robe. The international student only wears casual outfits, and the local student uses traditional clothing called Bunad. However, for the Ph.D. graduation, they use the robe as they believe that Ph.D. is a great achievement.
Parental Leaves
Norway never failed to amaze me. This country treats its citizens well as they provide maternity and paternity leaves generously, longer than other countries. Again, Norway was the first country in the world to reserve paid leave specifically for fathers. The mothers are entitled to a total of 12 months of paid leave before and after the birth. As for the fathers, they are also entitled to obtain up to 15 weeks to accompany the mothers.
Thank God Alhamdulillah I got the opportunity to leaves in this beautiful and humane country, as well as got free study in this country. If you have a chance to visit Norway, even if it’s only for holiday, please do! I bet you will love this country.
Sources:
https://www.norskpetroleum.no/en/production-and-exports/exports-of-oil-and-gas/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_Norway
https://www.kolumbus.no/en/news-archive/kolumbus-for-a-smarter-city/
https://www.intelligentliving.co/norway-incredible-recycling-scheme/
https://www.oslo.kommune.no/english/waste-and-recycling/recycling-in-oslo/#gref
