A couple of interesting takes from China on the Breivik massacre, the second based on the article in Foreign Policy that James criticised last week. Naturally, the crime is found to be unbelievable. But, from the perspective of people living in China, what people really find unbelievable is Norway.
You need to bear in mind here that compared to China, the United States has a more comprehensive welfare system, greater freedom and a less brutally competitive society. So from that perspective, Scandinavia is somewhere you go after you die if you’ve been good. People want to believe in it, but can’t quite fully bring themselves to.
But do they get the equivalent of Paris Syndrome if they ever arrive?
Posted by: skidmarx | August 05, 2011 at 10:30 PM
The other Norwegian connection:
"To raise beer consumption for each adult by just one bottle takes an additional 370,000 tons of grain. Three additional bottle per person would take the equivalent of Norway's entire grain harvest"
Lester R Brown, Who will feed China? (Earthscan, 1995), pp51-52.
Posted by: chjh | August 06, 2011 at 02:17 PM