On The DL

The Norwegian Experiment and Its Lessons for the U.S.

by Danielle Zimmerman

Mon., Jan. 28, 7:30 p.m., free, 4719 Springfield Ave., glakey1@swarthmore.edu

Vikings, Edvard Munch, black metal: No doubt that Norway has long been cool. But according to George Lakey, there's a whole lot more about the country that deserves our attention. When visiting his former home after being away for many years, the peace activist and founder of Philadelphia-based Training for Change observed that Norway had flattened its class structure and relieved a vast amount of the poverty that once existed there. At a lecture in his home, Lakey will address a few things that we, as Americans, could learn from our Scandinavian peers.

In recent years, Norway has ranked high on the Human Development Index (which considers factors such as life expectancy, child welfare, standard of living and gross domestic product per capita) and was rated the most peaceful country in the world in a 2007 survey by the Global Peace Index. The way Lakey sees it, this way of life is attainable. "How is it possible that people who put their values first, who make the economy work for them, end up out-competing economically with a place like the U.S.?" he asks. "There are other ways in the world that things are done. Maybe your economics professor in college didn't tell you that there are other ways, but in fact, the world-kept secret is that there are."