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Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon and Princess Mette Marit visit the city of Kristiansund

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Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Crown Prince Haakon is currently on a special journey in southern Norway. The goal is to learn more about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected various Norwegian industries and the Norwegian people. Last week the journey started in Østfold on Tuesday, when the Crown Prince visited a virus test station. On Wednesday and Thursday the journey continued to Vestfold and Telemark.

Now a new week is starting and the journey continues to Western Norway and the city of Kristiansund. Crown Prince Haakon was on Tuesday accompanied by Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mette Marit. The royals used the royal yacht “KS Norge” during the visit.

The Crown Prince and Crown Princess were greeted by children waving flags when they started the day by visiting the Allanengen Primary School. The rector of the kindergarten accompanied Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit to the “Breathing Room” where they met five children and three teachers. The conversation was about integration and the children’s everyday school life during the pandemic.

From the kindergarten, the royals continued to a school in downtown Kristiansund. Here they got to learn about the children’s experiences in the last six months with home schooling. Then followed a visit to the campus of Norway’s western university. Crown Prince Haakon visited the university alone to learn more about the new plans for new buildings at the university. His Royal Highness also oversaw the opening of a brand new house for students at the campus.

Cultural life in Norway has also been hit hard in the last six months by the pandemic. Outside the city`s Opera House. Crown Prince Haakon was greeted by the local opera director and young people who danced in the west-Norwegian Opera House. Inside the opera, Crown Prince Haakon received briefings about the Opera and about the cultural school.

Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit also visited the municipality’s test station for Covid-19 together with Mayor Kjell Neergaard. On Wednesday, the journey continues to the city of Florø. The journey ends on Thursday in Stavanger.

Denmark: Crown Prince Frederik meets winners of the Danish Championships and European Championships 2020 in Entrepreneurship

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Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Young entrepreneurs from across Europe were honoured by Crown Prince Frederik at a lunch in Copenhagen on Monday when he met the winners of the Danish Championships and European Championships 2020 in Entrepreneurship.

The event, which took place at Industriens Hus in Copenhagen, welcomed top teams of student entrepreneurs along with judges and business partners. The team “Bubbles” from Herning, who won both the Danish and European Championships in Entrepreneurship, presented their technological system to help students with ADHD.

“Every year, thousands of students from youth educations across the country participate in the teaching program Company Program, which the Foundation for Entrepreneurship is behind,” according to the Danish Royal House. “Here, students learn, among other things, to translate ideas into practice, market research and business start-up. The most innovative student companies qualify for the Danish Championships in Entrepreneurship.”

Frederik was received at the event by CEO of DI Lars Sandahl Sørensen, CEO of the Foundation for Entrepreneurship Christian Vintergaard, and Chairman of the Board of Representatives of the Foundation for Entrepreneurship André Rogaczewski. After lunch, team Bubbles delivered their award-winning presentation to the Crown Prince.

After winning the Danish Championship in Entrepreneurship, team Bubbles represented Denmark at the European Championships in Entrepreneurship where they competed against 39 other teams. Team Bubbles was then named European Champion for their innovative technological solution for classrooms.

The product, called MotherBubble, allows children with ADHD or ADD to concentrate and follow lessons more easily by connecting “teacher and student in a noise-free communication channel, where sound-insulating headphones eliminate the noise around the student and only shut the teacher’s voice through.”

Crown Prince Frederik learned more about the system, which gives children the opportunity to concentrate better through the sound-insulating headphones while the teacher wears a microphone. MotherBubble eliminates outside distractions for children who have difficulty focusing and get distracted easily, allowing them to focus on the lesson at hand.

In addition to Bubbles, Frederik also met students from the teams Cemima, Ergonomic Comfort, Leathery, Pack Me Up and Get Up.

Featured image: Crown Prince Frederik (Mogens Engelund – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38905130)

Estonia: The Riigikogu started its Autumn Session

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Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet — Põlluaas spoke about the adoption of the first Constitution of the Republic of Estonia one hundred years ago, and the challenges faced by democratic countries, the foreign and security policy and the activities of the Riigikogu in connection with the corona crisis.

Põlluaas pointed out that the COVID-19 situation was not likely to end in the nearest future, and its course was unpredictable. “Therefore we need to do everything to minimise risks to human life and health, and to ensure the functioning and recovery of society and economy. For that, we have adopted a number of important measures that have justified themselves, but we cannot sit back,” Põlluaas said. “As we have seen in the case of COVID-19, it is often vitally important to include urgent issues in the agenda at once and to solve them. However, things must not be over-dramatised. A balanced approach is needed,” the President of the Riigikogu emphasised.

Põlluaas underlined that we were global pioneers in providing digital services, but we needed a fundamental and comprehensive discussion on the relations between technology and politics, as well as technology and the parliament.

“This spring, we amended the Riigikogu Rules of Procedure and Internal Rules Act so that in a crisis situation, where the parliament cannot convene physically, it would be possible to hold plenary sittings electronically. We have been developing a relevant platform for the whole summer and it is already in the testing stage. Only a few parliaments in the world have such a possibility of electronic sittings, and I dare affirm that ours is a cut above all of them. In the near future we will all have a chance to test it,” Põlluaas said.

Speaking of the tasks faced by the Members of the Riigikogu, Põlluaas noted: “Although we may have different approaches to problems, we definitely share the common opinion that the state must always try to improve the life of the people of Estonia. If we have good will and sufficient readiness to cooperate, we can do it.”

Kaljulaid spoke about Estonia’s long-term development issues, development of economy, personal freedoms and universal rights, problems relating to the administrative reform, strengthening the role of local governments and resolving the challenges faced by the Riigikogu.

Kaljulaid said, “These long-term developmental risks must be mitigated with smart leadership. That work can be done in this very hall.”

“And then, we have the pandemic. Fighting the virus means that our ordinary rights may be restricted in the name of a certain greater societal benefit – preventing fatalities. But these restrictions must be proportional and applied uniformly,” the President of the Republic said.

“I would be proud of the Riigikogu if this year’s debates were to show our people that you truly care about their rights, freedoms, future, and also their wish to make local communities the kind of Estonia that the people who live there themselves desire,” Kaljulaid emphasised.

“I would be proud of the Riigikogu if, in this season, parallel to the heated debate over freedoms and interpretation of the Constitution, you were to finally begin drafting laws that will give us a green Estonia, a monolingual school system, and legislation that is as permissive as possible in regard to new technologies founded on data use,” the President added.

“Let’s make it so that the rest of the world isn’t a step ahead of us, but vice-versa,” Kaljulaid said. The President of the Republic wished the Riigikogu all the strength.

The songs performed by the chamber choir Collegium Musicale, conducted by Endrik Üksvärav, created a festive atmosphere at the opening sitting.

Text of the speech by the President of the Riigikogu Henn Põlluaas:

During the open microphone, Kalle Grünthal, Peeter Ernits and Urmas Espenberg took the floor.

 

Iceland: Njal’s Saga to be completed tonight at the Icelandic Saga Centre in Hvolsvöllur, South Iceland

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Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Njal’s Saga, the best-known among the sagas of the Icelanders, will finally be completed tonight – on tapestry, that is. Since February 2013 – for seven years and seven months – a group of about 20 women have gathered two nights a week, needle in hand, at the Icelandic Saga Centre in Hvolsvöllur, South Iceland, to sew a 90-meter-long tapestry depicting this famous saga, Morgunblaðið reports.

The location for the project is no coincidence, for this part of the country provided the setting for Njal’s Saga.

A Bayeux stitch, or laid couching work – a stitch used in the Viking Age – has been used for the project. The yarn is a type of Icelandic woolen yarn that has been dyed locally, using natural herbs. On average, about 13 meters have been sewn every year, according to the tapestry’s website.

Artist and literary scholar Kristín Ragna Gunnarsdóttir designed the pictures that were printed on the tapestry to be sewn.

All the work has been done on a voluntary basis, and numerous people have taken part in the project in addition to the core group of 20. Visitors to the Saga Centre who over the years have wished to take part in the stitching have received instruction and then recorded their name in a special book, along with the part of the project they have completed.

That book already includes 12,500 entries.

Shortly, the tapestry will formally be delivered to the local government of Rangárþing eystra, South Iceland. It remains to be seen where the public will be able to “read” this colorful version of Njal’s Saga, since suitable housing for it is still being sought.

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Njáls saga, Brennu-Njáls saga or “The Story of Burnt Njáll” is a thirteenth-century Icelandic saga that describes events between 960 and 1020.

The saga deals with a process of blood feuds in the Icelandic Commonwealth, showing how the requirements of honor could lead to minor slights spiralling into destructive and prolonged bloodshed. Insults where a character’s manhood is called into question are especially prominent and may reflect an author critical of an overly restrictive ideal of masculinity. Another characteristic of the narrative is the presence of omens and prophetic dreams. It is disputed whether this reflects a fatalistic outlook on the part of the author.

The principal characters in the saga are the friends Njáll Þorgeirsson, a lawyer and a sage, and Gunnar Hámundarson, a formidable warrior. Gunnar’s wife instigates a feud that leads to the death of many characters over several decades including the killing by fire of the eponymous “Burnt Njáll”.

The work is anonymous, although there has been extensive speculation on the author’s identity. The major events described in the saga are probably historical but the material was shaped by the author, drawing on oral tradition, according to his artistic needs. Njáls saga is the longest and most highly developed of the sagas of Icelanders. It is often considered the peak of the saga tradition.

Njáls saga, like the other sagas of Icelanders, is anonymous. There are, however, many theories about the saga’s authorship. The oldest idea, attested in the early 17th century, is that Sæmundr fróði wrote the work. Other suggested authors include Sæmundr’s sons, Jón Loftsson, Snorri Sturluson, Einarr Gilsson, Brandr Jónsson and Þorvarðr Þórarinsson.

The saga is now believed to have been composed in the period from 1270 to 1290. Among written sources which the author likely used are Laxdæla saga, Eyrbyggja saga and Ljósvetninga saga as well as the lost sagas Brjáns saga and Gauks saga Trandilssonar. The author must, however, have derived the bulk of the material in the saga from oral tradition which he manipulated for his own artistic purposes. Opinions on the historicity of the saga have varied greatly, ranging from pure fiction to nearly verbatim truth to any number of nuanced views. It can be regarded as certain that Njáll and Gunnarr were real historical people and their fateful deaths are referred to in other sources. Gabriel Turville-Petre said, “It was not the author’s purpose to write a work of history, but rather to use a historical subject for an epic in prose”.

 

Denmark: Crown Princess Mary delivers speech at WHO’s 70th Regional Committee Meeting + VIDEO!

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Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Crown Princess Mary spoke at Monday’s opening of the 70th World Health Organisation Regional Committee for Europe’s session, where she discussed how COVID-19 has affected the world.

Meeting virtually due to lockdowns and restrictions, Crown Princess Mary’s remarks were delivered via video link. She told guests that COVID-19 has proven to be “a tough teacher, testing us when we didn’t expect it and making us pay for our missteps.”

She continued, “I am sure that you, as I, have experienced uncertainty, worry and sadness in recent months, as we try to find meaning in rapidly changing events, as we are unable to follow the familiar patterns of daily life, and as we are prevented from spending time with friends and loved ones.”

Crown Princess Mary also spoke of her regard for health care workers, and the spotlight they have found themselves in since the pandemic began. “[T]here can be no health care without the health workforce. Health workers are the backbone of our health services. These brave individuals have put themselves in danger to serve their fellow citizens,” she said.

“They have worked around the clock to respond to the pandemic and to keep other essential health and care services operating. They have and have earned, even more so our deepest gratitude and respect, and they deserve our unwavering support.”

And speaking of the collective response to the pandemic, Crown Princess Mary noted: “For many, the psychological, emotional, social and economic costs of the pandemic will be felt for years to come. The pandemic has made even more clear the health inequities and areas of weakness that exist in our Region. But – while we have certainly been tested and taught these past months, we have also had the opportunity to learn a great deal collectively.”

Of the work of nurses and midwives—this year being designated the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife—Crown Princess Mary said that they had been “taking on increasingly advanced and specialized roles, leading teams, conducting research, influencing and implementing policy, and educating the next generation. Through the COVID-19 emergency and beyond, we must invest in them, and support them to reach their full potential.”

Finally, speaking of her own areas of interest within the healthcare field, Crown Princess Mary spoke about maternal health and immunisations, especially the need for special care once a vaccine for COVID-19 becomes widely available.

Crown Princess Mary then ended her speech, saying:

“As this group gathers virtually to map the way forward, I hope that we all have the humility to be taught and the openness to learn – from what we have experienced individually and collectively during this pandemic, and from each other. The path ahead may seem daunting. The challenges we face are, indeed, great.

“But I have faith in the dedication and bravery of our health workers, and in the commitment and creativity of our health leaders and decision-makers – in all of you. I look forward with great anticipation to coming together at the next Regional Committee – hopefully in person – and to listening, learning and finding inspiration from each other.

“Working together to make the world a safer and healthier place for everyone is the most fitting of legacies to honour those we have lost as a result of this virus, and an invaluable gift to the children of the future.”

The 70th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe wraps up on today.

Estonia: The Riigikogu has a new system for making verbatim reports

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet — From today, the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) is using a new system for preparing of verbatim reports of the sittings. The system is called Hans and it was developed by the Estonian IT company Finestmedia. The system is using the speech recognition technology created in Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech).

Administrative Director of the Chancellery of the Riigikogu Ahto Saks said that the new system performed the time-consuming work of stenographers. “The system records the debates taking place in the Riigikogu Session Hall as sound files, and the speech recognition writes it down. After that, editors come to help Hans and revise the text, and then it is published on the Riigikogu website,” Saks described the workflow.

Saks explained that it had taken two years from the idea to the introduction of the system, but it was not completely ready yet, and the development and improvements continued. “First, Hans will make the verbatim records of the Riigikogu sittings and Question Times. It is planned to use the system also in the work of the committees in the future,” Saks added.

Finestmedia’s Head of Division Lauri Esko said that creation of the verbatim reports system had been an exciting challenge for their company. The technological solutions provided by different parties could be inventively integrated to see how the synergy emerging from it brought about a major development.

“We created a solution that has a much wider potential than its today’s use,” Esko pointed out. “The systems containing speech recognition can be an efficient tool in the work of courts, prisons and the police, but also in health care, research and journalism, where writing down or making a detailed report of a conversation is necessary.” Esko added that the solution also had a great export potential. “We have already introduced Hans to delegations from several countries who wish to start writing the success story of their e-governance with its help,” he said.

Head of the Laboratory of Language Technology of Tallinn University of Technology Tanel Alumäe believes the new system shows how modern technology helps make routine work more effective.

“We have been actively working on speech recognition for 15 years, and today Estonian speech recognition is used by radiologists, researchers and journalists. Web-based speech recognition is freely available to everyone through ‘tekstiks.ee’ environment,” the researcher said. “In spite of the smallness of the Estonian language, the Estonian language technology is on a relatively high level.” Globally, speech recognition is widely used with larger languages.

 

Danish and Greenland Geological Survey: Greenland ice sheet breaks off into the ocean

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Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – An ice sheet measuring an area nearly double the size of Manhattan has detached from the Arctic’s largest remaining glacier, according to the Danish and Greenland Geological Survey.

The Spalte Glacier, recording at 113 km2 area, has detached from the Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden Glacier in what appears to be “progressive disintegration” of the ice sheet, according to scientists.

The ice shelf has lost 160 km2 since records began in 1999 with significant losses over the past two summers.

The atmosphere has warmed 3 degrees on average since 1980 and the region has experienced record-breaking warming these past two summers.

“We have seen a glacier that was normally locked in ice age conditions is starting to wake up and it’s of great concern because this particular ice shelf, the largest remaining in the Arctic, is connected to the largest drainage system of the Greenland ice sheet,” Prof. Jason Box, ice climatologist, told Euronews.

SEE if you have enough self-love in your life

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Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Healthy, natural and harmonious self-love is the hallmark of a warm, pleasant and trustworthy person who can take equal care of themselves and their relationships with other people and the world, writes Hedvig Evert in her book “The Artist of Happiness”. We bring you some characteristics of people who have learned to love and value themselves, and characteristics of those who have not yet done so.

A person having enough self-love is characterized as follows:
• they have adequate self-esteem
• they know their worth
• they take 100% responsibility for their own life
• they believe in their abilities and importance
• they make decisions based on love, trust and peace
• they are calm, smiling, stable
• they are confident in themselves and others
• they are open to the world
• they feel the value of their own activities
• their self-image is clearly perceptible
• they are mentally and physically healthy, they radiate positivity and give energy
• they act with inner feelings and inner motives
• they focus on satisfaction, not success
• they feel and radiate love
• they are self-assertive
• they are cooperative
• they perceive the abundance of resources and bring everything necessary to their life

A person not having enough self-love is characterized as follows:
they have low self-esteem
• they experience feelings of inferiority
• they avoid responsibility and look for justifications from the outside
• they have low self-confidence and experience oppressive guilt
• they make decisions based on fear, anger, frustration
• they are irritated, anxious, tense, worried
• they are constantly controlling themselves and others
• they are suspicious and skeptical of the world
• they are living in constant anticipation of praise, recognition and gratitude
• their self-image is poor and undeveloped
• they have a weaker health, chaotic health problems; they radiate negativity
• their actions are motivated by external factors
• they want to prove themselves with every act
• they seek to earn love
• they are either too intrusive or too humble
• they are competitive and show combative attitude
• they perceive a lack of resources and are constantly exerting themselves

How to have enough self-love for yourself? First, you need to focus your attention, which is scattered everywhere in life, on yourself. Love equals attention. Read more about this in the OHMYGOSSIP article “Start Comparing Yourself to You, Not to Others or 5 WAYS to Cultivate Love, Care and Self-Respect”

Source: NordenBladet.ee
Featured image: Pexels

Norway: Crown Princess Mette Marit’s son Marius Borg Høiby pursues new career as a motorcycle mechanic

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Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – In the past few years, it has been known that Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s eldest son, Marius Borg Høiby, has tried his hand at several different jobs. He was once editor of Tempus Magazine, a position he lost as a result of the magazine closing down.

In December 2018, it was announced that he had been appointed to a new job in a property company, a role he was to hold for only a couple of months. In March of the following year, he worked for the dating app Moodie, and now the 23-year-old has once again taken on a new role.

Norwegian magazine Se og Hør reports that the elder son of Norway’s next Queen Consort is working as a motorcycle mechanic. According to the magazine, Mr. Høiby is working in a medium size motorcycle shop in the small town of Lier, not very far from the Skaugum Estate in Asker, where his mother and family lives.

The Royal Courts communications manager, Guri Varpe, told the press that they do not want to comment on the matter. Neither Marius Borg Høiby, nor the workshop he is working, for has made any comment.

It is well known Mr. Høiby has held a keen interest in motorcycles for several years. His interest in motorcycles became public knowledge last year, when he put his bike up for sale. According to the advertisement, it was a Harley Davidson of the type “Sportster Custom” from 2001. The price tag was set at 75,000 Norwegian crowns. At that moment the reason why Mr. Høiby chose to sell the motorcycle was that he did not have a valid certificate to ride it. He then stated: “I bought it last autumn, with the intention of getting it registered as a medium bike, but it turned out not to be possible. Since I only have valid licence to ride medium-heavy bikes, I cannot use it”.

It is not very often that Marius Borg Høiby participates in events with the royal family. He was present in Asker church last Saturday when his half-brother, Prince Sverre Magnus, was confirmed. The Crown Princess’ eldest son currently lives with his girlfriend, the model Juliane Snekkestad, in the city of Tønsberg.

Estonia: The upcoming Pan-Finno-Ugric Day will highlight the importance of Finno-Ugric cultures in the European cultural space

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Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet — On Saturday, October 17th, Pan-Finno-Ugric Day, which is one of the most important yearly cultural events of the Finno-Ugric peoples, will be celebrated. In a message sent to the Ministers of Culture of the kindred nations, Minister of Culture Tõnis Lukas emphasised the importance of the Finno-Ugric languages and cultures in the European cultural space.

‘The Pan-Finno-Ugric Day is the most prominent symbols of cultural cooperation between the three Finno-Ugric countries of Estonia, Finland and Hungary. It highlights the unique nature of the Finno-Ugric languages and the importance of Finno-Ugric culture in Europe’s rich cultural space. And it also points out the importance and value of the cultures of small nations in the wide world,’ the Estonian Minister of Culture said in his message to Annika Saarikko, the Finnish Minister of Science and Culture and Prof. Dr. Miklós Kásler, the Minister of Human Resources.

Lukas also invited his Finnish and Hungarian colleagues to the 8th World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples that will take place in Estonia next year. The event will take place at the Estonian National Museum in Tartu from the 16th to the 18th of June 2021. The theme of the congress will be Cultural Landscapes – Language and Mind.

This year, the events that are centred around Saturday’s Finno-Ugric Day are dedicated to the Year of Digital Culture, and therefore, many events will be available via webcasts. The main events of the Finno-Ugric Day will be conferences at the Estonian National Library and Narva College starting on Friday, October 16th, where, among other things, issues related to the teaching the languages of kindred peoples will be discussed along with the possibilities of utilising modern technology to achieve this. The main concerts of the Finno-Ugric Days will take place at the Estonian National Museum on Saturday, 17 October and at the Theatre Centre Vaba Lava on Sunday, 18 October. There will also be an additional programme of concerts, exhibitions, poetry evenings, radio and TV shows, and films. A number of thematic films and programs will also be broadcast on Estonian National Broadcasting’s Jupiter portal, and webcasts and other events will be available on the Fenno-Ugria NGO website.

Based on a decision of the 4th Finno-Ugric Cultural Congress in 1931, Finno-Ugric Days are held annually throughout the Finno-Ugric world on the third weekend of October. Since 2011, Finno-Ugric Day has been a day of national importance in Estonia. The Fenno-Ugria NGO is the main organiser of the Finno-Ugric Days in Estonia.

 

Source: Ministry of Culture – Republic of Estonia

 

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