US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Norway

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is going to Norway for an official visit later this week. She will arrive in Oslo on the evening of Thursday 31 May after leaving the first stop on her European tour, Denmark, behind. On Friday 1 June Clinton will have meetings with both prime minister Jens Stoltenberg and foreign secretary Jonas Gahr Støre and give keynote remarks at the global health conference hosted by the Norwegian government, "A World in Transition - Charting a New Path in Global Health". Queen Sonja is also going to attend the same conference held at Oslo City Hall. King Harald will grant Clinton an audience at the Royal Palace, where Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit will also be present.

According to Norway.org, Clinton also wants to meet with survivors from the Utøya island massacre of 22 July 2011.

On 2 June the US secretary of state and foreign secretary Støre will travel to Tromsø, home of the Arctic Council Permanent Secretariat, for discussions of US-Norwegian co-operation in the Arctic. According to the press releases made by the Norwegian FO and the US Department of State,  the discussions will focus on climate change and the sustainable development of untapped resources.

Hillary Clinton's visit will be her third to Norway, but her first as secretary of state. As US first lady she visited Lillehammer in 1994 in connection with the Olympic Winther Games, and she paid Svalbard a visit in 2004, then as US Senator, together with a delegation which included Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Sununu.

Following Clinton's visit to Norway, she will head on to Sweden for meetings with senior Swedish officials and where she will also participate in a Climate and Clean Air Coalition event on short-lived climate pollutants. It seems she will not meet any Swedish royals, though. I mentioned the visit to Denmark earlier. Although there is nothing about an audience with Queen Margrethe, cf. Kongehuset.dk's calendar, the website Altinget.dk claims that they will indeed get together for a short conversation.

The secretary of state's trip to Europe also includes visits to Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Postscript 30 May 2012: The calendar at Kongehuset.dk, the official website of the Danish Royal Court, has now been updated and states that Queen Margrethe II will receive the US Secretary of State at Amalienborg Thursday 31 May 2012.

Updated: Postscript added 30 May 2012 at 14.40.

Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, Oklahoma, USA

Yesterday I wrote about the proposed locations of the Norwegian national 22 July memorials. The proposals are - as expected - already debated, as many feel that the park next to the Oslo Cathedral would be a more fitting place for a national memorial in the capital. The cathedral was the natural place to visit for thousands of mourners in the days and weeks that followed the terror attacks. Who will forget the vast flower garden outside the cathedral? The steering committee wrote in its report that Domkirkeplassen (the Cathedral Square) still is a living, informal memorial place and didn't want to replace it with a permanent memorial. The national memorial place is supposed to unite everyone, independent of political or religious affilation. The steering committee felt that the square/park outside the cathedral would be too exluding.

Other people find that the Government Quarter, where the first terror attack took place, would be the best place for a national memorial. Others again think that Nisseberget in the Palace Park would be a good idea, while some people feel the location is rather "irrelevant" to the tragedy that took place in Oslo.

The discussion of the location and what the memorials should look like will of course continue. I am not going to compare the 22 July attacks with other terror attacks, as the story behind the different attacks are so different. Still, many thought about the Oklahoma City bombing in the days after the 22 July bomb attack, and it has also been mentioned during the trial.

The bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on 19 April 1995 killed 168 and injured more than 680 people besides destroying or damaging more than 300 buildings. I am sure there were many debates about the memorial in Oklahoma as well, something that I will not go into. The memorial was formally dedicated on 19 April 2000, while the museum opened the year after. I visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum in July 2005, and was very moved by the way the memorial was designed and by its simple beauty, if you can use that word about a place where such a horrible crime took place. The Reflecting Pool, the Feld of Empty Chairs symbolizing the 168 people who were killed, the Survivor's Wall and Tree and the Memorial Fence were all well-chosen parts of the memorial where the victims, survivors and rescue workers are honored.

The Norwegian national 22 July memorials will of course be different in style and size, but I wouldn't be surprised if the artists and/or architects who will work on the memorials in Norway will look to elements of memorials such like the one in Oklahoma City for ideas.

Updated on Friday 27 April 2012 at 08.30 (minor language correction).

National 22 July memorials report submitted

The Norwegian Government decided in December 2011 to establish two memorials after 22 July, one in Oslo and one in connection with Utøya (Hole municipality), following the 22 July attacks. According to the Ministry of Culture's press release of 22 December 2011, the memorials are intended to both honour the memory of the deceased and represent a collective tribute to the volunteers, survivors and rescue personnel. 77 people died in the attacks.

The steering committee for the national 22 July memorials, chaired by former Minister of Culture Åse Kleveland, submitted today to the Government its report Steder for å minnes og påminnes - innstilling vedrørende minnesteder etter 22. juli ("Places for recollection and reminding - a report concerning memorial places after 22 July"). The report (in  pdf) can be read here.

The committee has visited and discussed several places in Hole and Oslo to place the memorials. Regarding Hole municipality, where Utøya island is situated, the steering committee believes that the memorial place should be accessible to everyone and therefore located on the mainland. Therefore Sundvollstranda, Vik, Sundøya, Gamleskolen, Elstangen, Sørbråten, Lauvodden (Veikroa) and Lien were all visited, and the committee concluded that Sørbråten (see pp. 12-14) was the best place, with Lauvodden as an alternative. Both places are connected to Riksvei ("National road") 155 and are close to Tyrifjorden lake with a view to Utøya and with limited passing traffic.

I gather that Arbeidernes Ungdomsfylking (AUF, Workers' Youth League) will also set up their own memorial on the island itself.

In Oslo the committee has visited Domkirkeplassen (the Oslo Cathedral Square), Stortorget (the Main Square next to the Oslo Cathedral), Eidsvolls plass vest, Tullinløkka, Youngstorvet, Grev Wedels plass, Kontraskjæret/Skansen, Nisseberget (in the Palace Park) and Regjeringskvartalet (the Government Quarter). The conclusion was that Nisseberget in the Palace Park (pp. 21-23) was the best place, with the Government Quarter as an alternative. The Royal Palace has responded positively to the proposal. Nisseberget is in the report described as "a sunny height in the Palace Park, between Wergelandsveien and Slottsbakken", with a great view to the city, and is "both secluded and open at the same time".

Personally I would have thought that the Government Quarter, which was severely damaged by the car bomb on 22 July 2011, would be the most fitting place to raise the memorial, but the committee regards the uncertainty about when the reconstruction work is finished as a weakness. But even if also the Government decides on Nisseberget for the national 22 July memorial in Oslo, it will not exclude a memorial also in the Government Quarter, although in a smaller scale.

It is now up to the Norwegian Government to decide where to place the national memorials. The committee has suggested that an invitation will be given to an open, international "prequalification" for a commission which includes the two national memorial places. In the so-called open prequalification artists, architects and co-operating groups will present their reasoned applications for participation. The prequalification will be followed by a closed competition where up to 20 artists etc. take part.

The plan is that the national memorials will be unveiled on 22 July 2015, four years after the attacks took place.

Sweden: Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel to become parents in March 2012

The Royal Court in Stockholm published earlier today, 17 August 2011, the following announcement:

Their Royal Highnesses The Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel are happy to announce that The Crown Princess is expecting their first child.

The birth is expected to take place in March of 2012. No changes in the schedule of The Crown Princess's public engagements are planned during the fall of 2011.

In the Swedish version of the announcement we are also told that the Crown Princess is doing well.

Prince Daniel said to Aftonbladet today: - Vi är jättelyckliga och glada förstås, men vi tar en dag i taget. ("- We are very happy and pleased of course, but we take one day at a time.")

For some reason also the King of Norway, who is busy these days with the regatta H.M. Kongens Serieseilaser, was asked to comment the pregnancy news today (VG Nett): - Dette er kjempehyggelige nyheter! This is wonderful news! He declined to offer the Swedish couple some advice on the way, though.

The speculations about a name for the future heir has of course already started, and according to the betting company Unibet Gustav and Oscar are - as of now - in the lead among the male names, while Desireé seems to be the safest bet if the royal couple gets a girl. Betsson has Gustav on first place, while Oscar comes close behind. Personally I would love a future King Oscar! I haven't really thought so much about a girl's name yet, but can surely give some thoughts on it later on.

Crown Princess Victoria will, by the way, visit Norway on Sunday 21 August to attend the National Memorial Ceremony for 22 July 2011, which will take place in Oslo Spektrum. Together with her husband Prince Daniel she will return to Norway already on Thursday 25 August to attend the church service in Oslo Domkirke (Cathedral) on the occasion of the Norwegian Crown Prince couple's 10th anniversary.

Norway in mourning

The flower garden outside Oslo Domkirke (Oslo Cathedral).

Outside the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament).

In Grubbegata. "Vi vil aldri glemme." ("We will never forget".)

In Akersgata, one of the roads that leads to the government offices.

One of the government buildings, where the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Justice and Police held office.



Late Friday night (29 July) I came home from a 3 weeks' long vacation to a capital very different from the one I left… The city I live in and love has got a scar it will take a long, long time to heal. The whole nation has got a scar. Norway is in mourning.

Yesterday I went with my family to downtown Oslo to see with my own eyes the damage the car bomb did to the government offices and surrounding areas on 22 July and to lay down flowers at the flower garden outside Oslo domkirke (Oslo Cathedral). A way of working through the shock and grief one feels after the 22 July terror acts in Oslo and at Utøya.

The terror acts carried out by Anders Behring Breivik were targeted against the government of Norway and the Worker's Youth League's (AUF) summer camp at Utøya, but the whole nation was affected.

It is almost impossible to add anything of substance to everything that has been written in forms of newspaper commentaries and blog articles as well as in the social media after the tragedy that struck our country. My heart goes out to the families and friends of the victims.

In the midst of this monstrous tragedy it has still been comforting to see how the Norwegian people have reacted in such a dignified manner – it has been wonderful to witness the unity and compassion the Norwegian have shown. It has been good to see true leadership carried out by the prime minister. And it has also been good to see how the royal family has shared the sorrow and grief of the people. The royals have met the AUF members and the families of the victims at the temporary reception centre at Sundvolden Hotel, they have attended mourning services, visited hospitals, held speeches and appeals. But first of all they have offered a shoulder to cry on, shown empathy and compassion.

It has also been comforting to see how the whole world has expressed sympathy and shared our grief. In times like these we need to stand united shoulder to shoulder.