The Norwegian Royal Court. Annual Report 2013

The Norwegian Royal Court published its annual report for 2013 on Thursday 10 April 2014. The report gives an overview of the activities of the Royal Family and Royal Court and also includes the accounts for the Civil List and a survey of the orders and medals awarded by the King during 2013. The press release last week stated among others:

"During 2013, His Majesty The King attended 314 official events in Norway and abroad, while Her Majesty The Queen attended 98 official events, His Royal Highness The Crown Prince attended 200 official events and Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess attended 72 official events. The Royal Family visited 47 municipalities in 16 counties and Svalbard in Norway, and paid several visits abroad. The King and Queen carried out their annual county visit in Sør-Trøndelag county in June, while the Crown Prince and Crown Princess visited Vest-Agder county in September.

The King and Queen conducted a State Visit to Turkey in November, while the Crown Prince and Crown Princess travelled to the USA for an official visit in May.

In 2013 the Royal Court completed its modernisation and rationalisation process, and all Court employees have now been consolidated into a joint overall organisational unit.

A report on the use of the funds allocated to the Royal Court (the Civil List) and the staff of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess by the Storting is submitted annually.

The allowances provided to the King and Queen and to the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, respectively, are meant to cover the management, operation, maintenance and development of the private properties, as well as official attire and private expenses.

The accounts for the Civil List showed a deficit of NOK 6 701 468. This deficit will be covered by previous appropriations.

The accounts for the staff of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess showed a deficit of NOK 37 251. This deficit will be covered by appropriations from previous years.

The accounts for “Åpent Slott” (cultural outreach activities) showed a surplus of NOK 373 266. This surplus will be transferred to equity capital."

Not surprisingly the press and the social media focused on the deficit of NOK 6 701 468, but many left out the fact that the deficit was to be covered by previous appropriations. It is not as if the royal family and court are on their uppers. The activities and the costs seem to be well planned. The Norwegian tabloid VG wrote in its coverage of the annual report that the celebrations of the crown prince couple's 40th birthdays last year cost as much 2,4 million NOK. In addition security cost as much as 2,7 millions, taken from the police force budget. Crown Prince Haakon's 40th anniversary was marked by a music festival in the garden at the Skaugum estate, where numerous royal guests were entertained. Obviously a party on such a large scale has to cost something. The court's information director, Marianne Hagen, confirmed the numbers, but "had  no further comments". Maybe not the best reply, but then again what should she have said? Simply that this is what a party like this costs? Many people would then say how the money could have helped the sick and elderly. It is hardly possible to win an argument about the cost of royal celebrations. But it should be stressed that the expenses were covered by the civil list, not by any extraordinary grants. And concerning security costs, even a president would need security if he was to hold a private party.

The annual report reveals that 22 persons received the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 2013, compared to 27 in 2012 and 30 in 2011. Among those 22 were Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, President Abdullah Gül of Turkey (both Grand Cross) and the composer and musician Henning Sommerro (Commander).

61 persons received the Order of Merit (all classes combined), among them Barry White, the US Ambassador who left Norway in September 2013, and has not yet been replaced. President Barack Obama has nominated George Tsunis to the post as Ambassador to Norway, but he has not yet been confirmed by the Senate. As you might recall, he did not do too well at his confirmation hearing, and Senator John McCain has said he would fight the appointment when it is finally voted over in the Senate.

But back to the annual report again! The Medal of St. Olav was awarded to only one person, in 2013, Johan Beck, who has served as a verger at the Norwegan Seamen's Church in Stockholm since 1974! In addition there were 162 recipients of the King's Medal of Merit, among them Tove Fleischer from my home town Sandefjord. Fleischer has for many years been in charge of the local society for the protection of animals and has done a fabulous job, so it was well deserved. The King's Commemorative Medal was awarded to 9 persons in 2013. The medal is conferred for "particularly meritorious service to His Majesty the King", and among the 9 persons were one of the King's drivers, Bjørn Einar Lindstrøm.

The annual report 2013 can be downloaded here. For earlier annual reports, go here. See also my earlier blog articles The Norwegian Royal Court. Annual report 2012 (published 17 April 2013), 2011 (published 11 April 2012) and 2010 (published 12 April 2011).

Nomination of new US Ambassador to Norway announced

We didn't have to wait long for the announcement of the nomination of Barry B. White's successor as US Ambassador to Norway. The day after I wrote that Ambassador White was to leave for the States within the month, the White House named George James Tsunis of New York to the post as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USA to the Kingdom of Norway.

The American embassy in Oslo tells that the US Senate is to schedule a hearing of George Tsunis, before continuing the confirmation proceedings.

George Tsunis is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chartwell Hotels, which owns, develops and manages Hilton, Marriott and Intercontinental hotels throughout the Northwest and Middle Atlantic states. He is also in charge of George Tsunis Real Estate, Inc., and used to be a partner in the law firm Rivkin Radler.

According to Newsday.com, Mr. Tsunis, 45 years old, of Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York, is a businessman who left the Republican party to become a major democratic fundraiser in the 2012 election. Jon Cooper, a former Suffolk County (Long Island) legislator, has said he was impressed with Tsunis' knowledge and expertise of foreign policy issues, while John Jay LaValle, the Suffolk Republican Chairman, has commented that Tsunis "[...] played his cards properly and is a well-liked guy."

In my blog article 3 days ago, I expressed my hope for a Norwegian-American Ambassador, but got a Greek-American instead! Nothing wrong with that, of course. His business background and short career as a Democrat supporter means that the Norwegian-Americans will have to contribute more in future elections to be considered for the post in Oslo! At least Tsunis has a small connection to Norway through his work at Chartwell Hotels, which among others manages the Hilton Hotels. The founder of the original Hilton Hotels company was the Norwegian-American Conrad Hilton (1887-1979), whose father Augustus Halvorsen Hilton came from the farm Hilton Søndre (Southern Hilton) in Kløfta, Norway.

I only hope that Mr. Tsunis will make most of his stay in Norway and that he will travel as much around the country as Ambassador White has and will learn to know the country well.

US Ambassador to Norway goes home

King Harald of Norway will grant the US Ambassador to Norway, Barry B. White, a farewell audience on Monday 16 September 2013, the list of official engagements at the Royal Court's website reveals. Mr. White is to leave his post within a month, the US Embassy in Oslo has informed me via its Twitter account. No successor has yet been named. The normal procedure is that the Deputy Chief of Mission, will be in charge until the new ambassador is in place. The person who holds the position at the moment is Julie Furuta-Toy.

Ambassador White was confirmed by the US Senate on 22 September and sworn in on 21 October 2009, before being formally accredited Ambassador to Norway in November 2009. He has travelled a lot in Norway during his years here and seems to have been well received everywhere. I had a short chat with him at the election gala at the Grand Hotel in Oslo last year. Of course at that time he had no idea what the future had in store for him. It will be exciting to see who President Obama will nominate. I think it would be rather nice to have a Norwegian-American Ambassador, at least because it would give me an opportunity to trace his or her roots!

The blog - standing

I have decided to continue my tradition of giving some statistics for my blog, as well as to look back on the year that has passed and to point at topics of interest and what one can expect of this blog in 2013. My previous statistics articles were published on 1 January 2011 and 8 January 2012.

The number of articles in 2012 went down from 104 to 98 compared with 2011, but that was more or less as expected. I don't have enough time to write more than 1-2 articles a week on average. Obviously I had more spare time in the first part of the year (I wrote 13 in January and 14 in February 2012), while only 2 in July (I was abroad for 3 weeks in July and August). The number of unique page views is as of today (2 January 2013) 173 391, as compared to 95 537 on 8 January 2012 (counting from August 2009), so the blog is well visited, even though it is not updated as regularly as one could have wished.

Most of my blog visitors come from the United States (57 116), UK come second with 11 762 visitors, while Germany is third with 11 218 page views. Now for the main statistics - the most popular articles...

 Top ten counting from August 2009 to January 2013

1. 20.05.2012: HH Princess Athena Marguerite Françoise Marie of Denmark (5061 page views)
2. 26.10.2011: Princess Tatiana of Greece is pregnant (1473)
3. 02.09.2012: Confirmation of Marius Borg Høiby (1039)
4. 25.07.2010: Countess Ruth of Rosenborg has died (944)
5. 16.11.2010: UK: Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton engaged to marry (931)
6. 23.02.2012: Royal birth in Sweden (879)
7. 30.11.2011: 'King' Leka of the Albanians has died (864)
8. 21.02.2012: HM King Harald V of Norway's 75th birthday (845)
9. 23.01.2010: Cimetière de Passy, Paris, France (791)
10. 29.01.2012: More on Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s Twitter account (698)

The latter was a follow-up to my first article on the subject, which was published on Friday 20 January 2012. It should be added that the numbers show unique page views. The Princess Athena article has in reality got 5359 hits as of today, while the article about Countess Ruth of Rosenborg's death has been viewed 1338 times.

Last year I was still amused that the Countess Ruth article still topped the statistics, but fortunately it has been passed by 3 other articles during 2012. The first to take Ruth down from the throne was the article covering the false pregnancy news - as it later turned out - about Princess Tatiana of Greece, the spouse of Prince Nikolaos, the third child of former King Constantine. The number of views really took off when the postscript was added on 12 March 2012, telling that she was not pregnant at all. A somewhat embarrassing story, and I can only wish I had been more critical when I wrote the article back in October 2011, although I guess most readers would agree with me that Billed-Bladet should take most of the blame!

Thankfully enough, the number of views almost exploded when I wrote about the names of Princess Athena, the second child of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie of Denmark. But why the article became that popular still puzzles me. Anyway, 5 of the 10 most read articles were written in 2012, which means I did something right during the year... When I look back on my contributions in 2012, I feel most satisfied with my articles on Crown Princess Mette-Marit's Twitter account, Painting in Canada and the many cemetery articles (there are many more to come!). On the other end of the scale, I was not too happy with my article on the names of Princess Estelle of Sweden, published on 25 February 2012. It started well, but then I made a mess (among others) of the rather easy task of giving examples of other Bernadotte descendants who were named Estelle (but not necessarily as a call name). As I don't remember all the Bernadotte members by heart, I consulted Ted Rosvall's latest edition of Bernadotteättlingar, but didn't read the relevant pages well enough, and couldn't even turn the page to find the last example, and I was duly corrected... I just have to laugh it off and try to being more focused in the future...

US elections 2012

As I am very interested in US American history and politics, I was very ambitious in writing several articles on the primaries in January, but it all stopped in February. I just didn't have the time to follow it up on my blog, but used my Twitter account instead. I wrote on my blog on 3 January 2012 that "It is of course far too early to predict who will win the election in November, but as of now I think the chances of Mitt Romney becoming the next US President is greater than that Obama will be re-elected", stating the weak economy as the reasoning behind my view point. I made all the necessesary reservations, of course. During the spring of 2012 I gradually changed my mind, as I came to realize that Romney had even more weaknesses than the president had. The voters, or at least the small majority, didn't manage to identify themselves with the GOP candidate, and he wasn't especially liked by the right wing of the Republican party either. Most in the know predicted the presidentical race to be close, and it was, but most of the time President Obama was leading the polls in the most important states, so it shouldn't really come as a big surprise that he won. Still, considering the bad state of the economy, I find it somewhat amazing that Obama actually pulled it off.

The US political dynasties still fascinate me. It is interesting to note that yet another Kennedy - Joe Kennedy III - was elected to the House of Representatives. One of the more moderate Republican voices in the Senate, Scott Brown, lost the election against Elizabeth Warren, but might get a comeback later in 2013 as John Kerry's senate seat becomes vacant.

It will be interesting to see how Obama will perform in the next four years. There are many aspects of the 2012 election and the candidates which could be interesting to discuss further, but I will leave it, at least for now. There are so many other blog topics worth discussing as well. It is safe to say, however, that considering the many biographies I have read on American politicians during 2012, I must say that my interest in US history and politics have deepened even further during the year!

Reading

I have already touched on my reading list. My sparetime has become rather busy due to family obligations, organisation work etc., but still I have managed to read quite a few books, mostly biographies, during 2012. My most valuable reading time is on the metro (T-bane) on my way to work and back again, which explains why I use my Kindle device for most of my reading, as it is most practical. I have planned for a long time to write a longer article about my reading list and my impressions of the various books I have read, as it could be a nice exchange with my blog readers, but it has to be done later. The best biograophy I have read in 2012? Not exactly a new title, but Donald Rumsfeld's Known and Unknown from 2011 was very impressive. On the other end of the scale, Senator Marco Rubio's An American Son. A Memoir, was a big disappointment. Not well written - too superficial, too many repetitions. I know that autobiographies written when the author tries to position himself for a possible office - Rubio was mentioned as one of several possible VP candidates for Romney before Paul Ryan was picked - comes into a category on its own and should be judged with that in mind. I also know that many consider Rubio to be among the favourites to win the GOP nomination for presidency in 2016 (yes, it is very early still!), and although I understand that his Cuban background could work well with the Latino voters, I would be surprised, almost disappointed, if the Republican party should elect a politician with so little substance. Give me Governor Susana Martinez or even former Governor Jeb Bush any time...

Best novel? It took a while for me to discover Tess Gerritsen, but her crime novel The Surgeon from 2002 was excellent. One of the best crime novels I have ever read, and I have read a lot! Her latest, Last to die, is also recommendable.

Travels

I love traveling, and although I couldn't add a new country to my list, my trips abroad was very enjoyable also in 2012. I have already written about my visit to the island of Tjörn back in May, while I have just started to write about my US visit in July/August. I will have to come back to my two trips to Norwich as well. Then later I have to go further backwards to write about other trips in Norway and abroad. And of course there will be new trips...

2013

There will be lots of topics to write about and discuss in 2013, I am sure. In Norway the general election will take place in September. Exciting! The forthcoming royal birth in the UK will give lots to write about, and hopefully the process to the change the succession law will go well in all the countries Queen Elizabeth II is head of state of. There will be a royal wedding in Sweden in June, and the Romanovs will celebrate their 400th anniversary. I can't promise that the number of articles will be higher in 2013 than in 2012. I expect, however, that the majority of my articles will cover genealogy (including cemeteries) and royalty. Anyway, thanks for stopping by! And once again I wish you all a very happy new year!

Photo: Outside the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston with the Lincoln monument, July 2012. Inscription: "Abraham Lincoln created the state of West Virginia by proclamation and signature / West Virginia joined the Union June 20, 1863".

Updated on Thursday 3 January 2013 at 08:05 (link added to Painting in Canada article).

Condolences from King Harald to the President of the USA

King Harald of Norway has in a letter to the President of the USA, Barack Obama, offered his condolences following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting last Friday (14 December):

17.12.2012

The Honorable
Barack Obama
President of the United States of America
The White House
Washington, D.C.

I was shocked and saddened by hearing the news about the tragic loss of so many lives at the Sandy Hook elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut; and particularly that so many of the dead are children.

I extend to you, Mr. President, to the affected families and to the people of the United States of America my sincere condolences and my sympathy at this difficult time.


Harald R

US Presidential Election 2012, Iowa caucuses

Finally the day has come! The US Presidential Election 2012 opens with the Iowa caucus tonight. As I have written earlier, I am very interested in US politics and have looked forward to this year's campaign for a long time.

The former Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, has more or less been campaigning ever since he lost the GOP nomination in 2008 to John McCain, and many consider him to be «the next in line» to front the party in this year's election. He is supported by the majority of the Republican establishment, he is in the lead among the Republican candidates concerning fundraising, he has solid business experience which surely will be helpful and the polls show that he has the greatest chance to beat President Barack Obama.

It is of course far too early to predict who will win the election in November, but as of now I think the chances of Mitt Romney becoming the next US President is greater than that Obama will be re-elected. The economy is the main reason for this. According to Cafferty File no president since Roosevelt has won re-election with unemployment over 7.2% The current rate is today 8.6%, and no-one seriously expects that it will be anywhere near 7.2% in November. But if the economy shows signs of improvement in the fall, Obama might surprise us after all.

The GOP campaign has been interesting to watch the last few months. Romney is obviously one of the Republican candidates closest to the political center, and for the Republican (Christian-Conservative) right he is just not conservative enough. The «anyone but Mitt» slogan has dominated in the GOP campaign so far, where more conservative politicians, supported by the Tea Party, have give given Romney a true challenge for a while but then slipped behind again – Pawlenty, Bachmann, Perry, Cain and Gingrich have all come and gone. Romney's position has not weakened. Tonight only Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum have a chance to win the Iowa caucus, and to keep some excitement a few more weeks I almost hope that Santorum will win the majority of delegates!

Romney doesn't need to win tonight, he is certain to win in New Hampshire and will probably take South Carolina unless Santorum's campaign should catch more wind if he does well tonight. Gingrich shouldn't be ruled out completely, but as I have already hinted I would be really surprised if Romney doesn't win the nomination in the end. It will be more exciting to see who he will choose as his VP candidate. He might have to pick a more conservative partner in order to please the right wing of his party, but the VP can't be too conservative either as it would surely scare off too many of the independent, centrist votes. I will come back to this later on.

The results of the Iowa caucus is expected to be ready around 3 a.m. Norwegian time. I would love to stay up to follow the news as the results come in, but as my 17 months old daughter has not given me the best sleep the last couple of nights, I will have to wait until tomorrow to get the latest news of the campaign. I plan to visit the United States in the summer and really hope that I will be able to follow the election campaign more closely then.

I have to include some genealogy in this article as well. It is after all one of my main interests. Fortunately the website of the genealogist William A. Reitwiesner, who died in 2010, is still in existence. At his website Wargs.com you can find the ancestry tables of Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich. Rick Santorum is not listed, but you can find some details here and here. I have blogged about Michele Bachmann, née Amble, earlier. I haven't had the time yet to do more research on her Norwegian ancestry, but you will find some details here, here and here. One of Rick Perry's great-great grandfathers was a Choctaw (Native American) according to this page. Yet another page with information on his ancestry can be found here. And finally, go here for a collection of the presidential candidates' ancestries. I can of course not speak for the accuracy of information given at the various websites I have provided links to.

Updated on Thursday 5 January 2012 at 15.45 (subject title).

Guests at the British Royal Wedding 2011, one confirmation

Ever since the engagement between Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton was announced in November last year, royalty watchers and the media have been busy guessing about the guest lists to the wedding and reception.

Today we got the first official confirmation, as the Public Relations Office of HRH Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia (Yugoslavia) announced in a press release that Crown Prince Alexander and his wife Crown Princess Katherine have received an invitation from HM Queen Elizabeth to the wedding on 29 April 2011. Their Royal Highnesses say they are delighted to attend the marriage and are very happy for the young couple. Queen Elizabeth is, by the way, Crown Prince Alexander's godmother.

I am sure we will get far more details about the guest lists when we get closer to the wedding. Many courts will mention the royals' attendance in their lists of official engagements. There are some courts, however, which believe that attending a royal wedding is not an official engagement, so for some of the royals we just have to wait until they appear at Westminster Abbey. I am confident, though, that Buckingham Palace (or Clarence House) will publish the lists in due time.

Many have suggested that because it is not the heir to the British throne that is getting married, "only" the heir to the heir, the number of royal guests will be lower than we witnessed in 1981 when the Prince of Wales got married to Lady Diana Spencer. I think we can expect a great royal turn-up, though, and that most, if not all, of the European royal and princely families will be represented.

Concerning the speculations that have been going on, The Daily Mail claims to know that Sarah, Duchess of York, former wife of the Duke of York (Prince Andrew), is to receive an invitation. If the article is correct, I would not be that surprised, despite all the headlines the former duchess created last year (and in earlier years). But The Daily Mail has also claimed that President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have been "left off the guest list" as it is not a state occasion. I cannot understand why anyone would believe that they would be considered for an inviation in the first place. Then again we all know that The Daily Mail and other British tabloids should be read with a critical eye.

I will surely return with more comments on the guest lists as we get closer to the wedding.

Monticello Society makes ready for US elections 2012

It is only January 2011 yet, but the speculations about possible candidates for the Republican nomination for US President have been going on for a while already, and most of the Republican politicians will publically announce their candidature during the winter and spring. The election will take place on 6 November 2012, by the way. It will as always be a long and exhausting campaign.

The Norwegian-based Monticello Society, which I am a member of, is perhaps the best place for Norwegians to find information and facts about US American politics and campaigns.(*) The purpose of the Monticello Society is to study the history, society, politics and culture of the USA, to work to enhance Norwegian's knowledge and understanding of American affairs and to oppose anti-American attitudes, particularly in the Norwegian media. Each year the society hosts the Reagan Conference and arranges members meetings with US politics and society on the agenda. The society's president Jan Henrik Gilhuus and vice president Jan Arild Snoen are among the leading experts on US American politics and campaigns here in Norway and are often consulted by the media.

Today it was announced that the society's 2012 election pages had been created. It aims to cover the nominations and campaigns for president, Senate, House of Representatives as well as the elections on state level. Besides the presidential election, 33 senate races as well as House of Representatives elections and 11 elections for Governor will take place. Exciting as always!

I have followed US politics and campaigns with great interest since I was a teenager, and have set a goal to read a (serious) biography of every US president, as well as books on other central politicians past & present. During the last few years I gather that I have read far more books about US politicians than about royals. In other words, I am really looking forward to the elections in 2012!

It is far too early - at least for me - to make serious predictions. It is not difficult, however, to say with almost certainty that President Barack Obama will win the nomination for the Democrats. The only elected Democratic President to have lost the nomination was Franklin Pierce in 1856, and I don't think that Obama will be seriously challenged within his own party. The midterm elections in 2010 turned out to be a disaster for the Democrats, so Obama will have tough job ahead of him in order to be re-elected. But it is still a long time until 6 November 2012. If the financial situation improves, it will improve his chances. Democratic presidents who run as a moderate but rule as a liberal will often end up in trouble, as Carter experienced in 1980. Obama has to move to the center to win back his supporters from 2008.

The campaign to win the nomination for the Republicans will of course be far more exciting, and it is still a very open race, among the reasons why I follow so many Republican politicians on Twitter. Many would maintain that the Republicans tend to nominate the candidate who is regarded to be "next in line", and this time it is Mitt Romney's turn. Personally I am not too excited about his candidature, and he seems a bit "yesterday news" to me, but I will probably be wrong. The last poll shows that former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is in the lead, but as of today both would lose to Obama (see RealClearPolitics, polls 20 and 21 January 2011). Other candidates mentioned are among others former Alaskas Governor Sarah Palin, who was the Republicans' vice president candidate in 2008; former Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Senator John Thune of South Dakota, US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Jr. of Utah, Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana and Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts.

It might be too early for Scott Brown to run, but then again he is not in a much different position than Barack Obama was in 2008. Some think he is too liberal, too. He could be vice president material, though, although a Romney/Thune or a Romney/Daniels ticket might seem more likely. It will be fun to watch John Thune's campaign though - if he decides to run, that is. Of course the world needs a US president of Norwegian ancestry! :-) I still find it difficult to believe that populist candidates like Palin and Huckabee could win the nomination - the former will most likely be crushed by the other Republican hopefuls if she dares to run.

I will surely return with more comments and predictions later on! We are up for a lot of fun!

(*) Of course I get my news feed from many other sources, including RealClearPolitics, Politico.com, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post (which, by the way, asks today: "Who can win the 2012 GOP nomination?"), The Boston Globe and others.

Updated on Sunday 23 January 2011 at 10.15 (url corrected); last time updated on Wednesday 1 February 2012 at 23.30 (typo corrected).

King Harald cancels attendance in President Kaczynski's funeral

Most of Europe's airspace has been closed for security reasons due to the volcanic ash spread from Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland. This has made it difficult for many state leaders to attend the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski in Krakow on Sunday 18 April 2010.

King Harald V of Norway, Norway's foreign secretary Jonas Gahr Støre, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, President Barack Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy are among the many state leaders who have cancelled their trip to Poland.

The state funeral of Lech Kaczynski will begin with a mass at the St. Mary's Basilica. Later the bodies will be interred in the crypt of Wawel Cathedral, a decision that has sparked many protests. Many feel that the controversial President Kaczynski should not be regarded as equal to Jozef Pilsudski (1867-1935), architect of Polish independence and Chief of State 1918-1922, or to the many Polish kings who are laid to rest in the crypt.

Maybe one should not focus too much on the president himself, but on the institution of the presidency. I find it appropriate that all heads of state who have expressed a wish to be buried in the crypt at Wawel should have their wish respected. It was the family of President Kaczynski who had requested that he should be buried in the crypt, so in accepting the request maybe a precedence has now been set.

The family of President Ryszard Kaczorowski (1919-2010), who also died in the plane crash at Smolensk, Russia, was also offered the honor, but declined. His funeral will take place on Monday 19 April 2010 in Warsaw.

Sources and references

• BBC News 18 April 2010
• VG Nett 18 April 2010
• The Guardian 14 April 201
• Official Website of the President of Poland
  

Definately the end of an era in Massachusetts

I was obviously not the only one who was surprised by Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts special election to replace Senator Edward Moore Kennedy in the US Senate. Martha Coakley must have done a really bad campaign after having had a 20 percent lead earlier in the race. Another reason could of course be that many people are disappointed with President Barack Obama's first year as President.

I am not sure if it is too healthy that one person or one party dominates for so long as Edward M. Kennedy and the Democratic Party have done in Massachusetts, so in this respect it might not be too bad that Scott Brown won the race, but it is a pity if this will affect the most needed health reform now as the Democrats' filibuster-proof dominance has ended.

It will be interesting to see how President Obama will handle this and other challenges in the next three years. It might be an uphill struggle with more disappointments. I don't think one can expect the Democrats to win back the filibuster-proof dominance (why on earth did they create this silly system anyway!?) in the fall, as the Republicans are expected to win back more seats in the Senate.

If the US electorate doesn't feel that the economy has improved when the presidential race takes place in 2012, I am pretty sure that Mitt Romney will take the oath on 20 January 2013...

• Massachusetts Senate Race 2010 (The Boston Globe)

Nobel Peace Prize 2009 awarded to Obama

Courtesy: Whitehouse.gov.

I very much welcome President Barack Obama to visit Norway. In fact, when Obama won the election in 2008, I sent him a short congratulatory note expressing my hope that he would visit Norway soon.

But I would have preferred that the president of the United States came to Oslo in connection with a state visit and not in the capacity as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, at least not so early in his administration when he has made no achievements which could defend such an award.

The chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, Thorbjørn Jagland, announced on Friday 9 October 2009 that the prize for 2009 was to be awarded to President Obama for his «extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples».

I find President Obama to be an impressive and admirable politician with the best intentions, but I share the view many have expressed so far that it is far too early for him to be awarded such a prize, especially when there are so many other – and better qualified - persons who were nominated. Now I know that it has not been uncommon in the past to award the prize as an inspiration to continue the work for peace, but good intentions and a string of vague speeches should not be enough to qualify.

So far it has been more talk than actions and results. Now I am not saying that it has only been about rhetoric so far and little or no substance, but Obama has in my opinion so far not taken that many initiatives on the world arena that make him worthy.

I am afraid that this year’s decision has only contributed to weaken the prestige of the Peace Prize even further, especially after the committee in the last few years have made so many controversial choices. The committee has become a laughing stock, something for instance comments made by Michael Binyon in The Times demonstrates. We all had deserved better.

I hope it was more than rhetoric when President Obama in his comments to being awarded the prize said that «I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations and later that «I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize».

One still wonders what one should give President Obama if he actually achieves something one day. As of now, it is too much, too soon.