Big Think

Kent Bra commented on Cory Booker on Race in America on November 26, 2008, 10:23 AM

With all due respect, the Governor should do better research on the countries he refers to.During this election period we've seen too many situations where northern-european countries have been used as negative exaples. For example, Vice president-elect Joe Biden was asked if America wouldn't become a "socialist country like Sweden" under Obama.So today I saw a clip from this video on the Colbert Report, where Norway, where I happen to live, is called a sanitized, homogenized and deodorized country.Are we the new punching-bag for political punchlines all of a sudden? We're a small nation with roughly 4.8 million inhabitants, 10% of which are immigrants. More than half of our population growth is due to immigration, with Pakistan, Somalia and Iraq being the biggest contributors. Every 8th person in our capital is a member of a minority.Compared to many American cities that might not be very impressive, but keep in mind that we've never been a colonial power and slavery was extremely rare here.I don't mean to nitpick, and I know Mr Booker doesn't have any obligation or power to "handle" foreign affairs, but I felt i had to say something about this tendency in american politics.Being a small and relatively insignificant country, we're still founding members of both the United Nations and NATO, and we're traditional allies of the United States. We've supplied troops and deployed special forces under American command during the Bosnia-conflict, the war in Afghanistan and the first gulf war. We're insignificant in the big scheme of things, but please do some research on the subject before bashing us on topics like this. Calling us a homogenized country while we're taking in more than our share of Iraqi refugees does not go over well here. Even when it is said in a domestic context.