On the Nordic countries

I really admire the Nordic countries. For their sizes and their relatively low profile in history compared to their more illustrious neighbours (e.g. France, Britain, Germany), they now enjoy relatively high profiles, and are faring better than their Iberian cousins in southwest Europe in the modern world. Though Spain has been bouncing back since the Franco era came to an end, Portugal is still in many senses a developing country.

As with Canada, people don't hear much about these countries. Perhaps this is because very little bad news comes out of these places. Aside from news of the rare political assasinations (e.g. Anna Lindh), we really don't hear much bad news. On the other hand, we often hear about how these countries consistent rank near or at the top of different indices/indexes, such as competitiveness, transparency, life expectancy, human development, etc.

What really impresses me is the economic clout that these relatively tiny countries have. It's a little known fact that Denmark is home to the Maersk, the world's largest shipping firm. Most people know of Nokia, the world's leading cell phone maker, but few know that it's a Finnish firm. As for Norway, there may not be any high-profile Norwegian firms, but I'm sure most people would be surprised to know that Norway is the third largest oil exporting country after Saudi Arabia and Russia. Iceland also doesn't have any globally famous firms, but they are world leaders in renewable energy technology, especially geothermal energy. Sweden, of course, is home to global powerhouses such as Ikea and Volvo. Not only does Sweden produce the world's safest cars, but they also provide stylish but affordable furniture to people of all income levels all over the world. Sweden, with its small size of 9 million, is also a major exporter of athletes such as hockey players (e.g. Markus Naslund and Peter Forsberg) and tennis players (Stefan Edberg and Bjorn Borg), as well as superbands like ABBA.

While Canada has some big and prominent firms such as Bombardier and Nortel, I've always felt that we rely too much on the export of our natural resources. Perhaps having so many natural resources is actually a curse. I don't think we will be able to develop and utilise our human resources as well as Hong Kong and Singapore do, and I think we will remain behind a lot of people in innovation. While some of us cut down trees, others of us catch fish (but only for a couple of months per year), and most of us sit on our fat asses, Nordic people produce very fine things, Hong Kong people produce money out of thin air, Koreans design the world's most stylish electronics, and Taiwanese design and produce the world's microchips and laptop computers. Even when it comes to the export of human capital, the Philippines is known to be an exporter of maids and nurses, India and China are exporters of technicians and engineers, but Canada is an exporter of obnoxious singers like Celine Dion, obnoxious comedians like Jim Carrey, and obnoxious backpackers that sew Canadian flags onto their backpacks. I suppose the latter doesn't really count as human capital, though. All the same, we export our obnoxiousness and our stubborn and arrogant belief in our superiority. If we truly want to be superior, we should stop patting our own backs by that the UN has rated Canada the Most Livable Country in 1996 or whatever year it was and start working harder and being smarter.

The funny thing is that the Nordic countries seem to have short histories, despite the prominence of their ancestors during the Viking Age, though it is true that they have been relatively marginal players on Europe's political and economic scenes. The Viking Age seems to be a forgotten chapter in the oft-forgotten Medieval period. While the Vikings didn't leave behind monuments like the Classical civilizations of Greece, Rome, and Egypt left behind the Parthenon, the Colosseum, and pyramids, I'm sure they did more than raid and pillage. The Normans, for example, were descended from Norsemen, and we all know the role of the Normans after the Norman Invasion in 1066. I suppose, though, that the role of the Vikings are not much discussed because the dominant English and French intellectual discourse on history attempt to draw a straight line from the Classical civilizations to the powerful English and French kingdoms, ignoring all that happened in between. Perhaps the fact that Vikings have nothing to do with Christianity and democracy is also a factor.

I must say that as a Canadian, I really envy the Nordic countries for prominence despite their small populations - they have a combined population of 25 million, while Canada has about 32 million people. Despite my jealousy of Nordic success, I do hope that these countries, as well as France and Germany, succeed. I feel there are two fundamentally different currents in political and business culture. On the one hand, some countries are trying to keep the welfare state intact and treat each citizen as an investment and a valuable resource. On the other hand, there are countries that have a culture of cutting costs and turning workers into bare-bones commodities, as both white and blue collar workers live without access to quality health care, where quality higher education can be prohibitively expensive, and job security is a thing of the past. Since I enjoy my weekends and vacation days and I value my access to quality health care and my privilege to pursue higher education, I really hope that the welfare state model/culture will persist.