Ja til norske flagg og felles ekteskapslov

We are getting close to the best and wettest month in the Norwegian calendar year. It's best because it's May and it's lots of public holiday, our national holiday among others. It's wettest because of the unreal consumption of beer associated with russ, outdoor barbeques in the park, exam parties, and yes, the national holiday.

But a national holiday can never go down in history as just a national holiday, there are always emotions attached to it. This year, the big dilemma is whether foreigners should be allowed to walk up and down the main street of Oslo celebrating their new country by waving flags of their old. And according to 34 387 members of Facebook, they should not.

Facebook has gone from being the naughty lunch-time occupation hazard to becoming the fjerde statsmakt. Everything people can have an opinion about is truly documented by groups, anti-groups, anti-counter-groups and the like. "Melbourne is better than Sydney". "Melbourne is the best city in Australia". "Melbourne REALLY is cooler than Sydney!!!!!". These are examples of innocent groups stating the obvious, but it is no problem getting your opinions ousted on everything from marriage law, right to abortion, free Burma, Tibet, Zimbabwe, Luxembourg or another small, deprived country, the true opinions of Staff, boicot the Olympic Games, no to fur or yes to foreign flags on 17th May.

For most people joining these groups cause no harm, but to let Facebook be the only place where you show empathy, compassion or opinions can be a bit dangerous. What if Jens Stoltenberg couldn't be bothered giving a statement because he had already written on the wall for "Stop killing of the whales" group on Facebook? Or if Mugabe declared his victory by joining "Mugabe is the new president." People go out and join groups, often with the best of intentions, and of course a group will benefit more from 30 000 than 18 members, however it is also deceptive. I bet nearly all my friends have joined groups like "Stiftelsen organdonasjon." However if you read under the news section of the group it says that you should remember to tell your loved ones that if you die before you should, your organs should be donated. And I wonder how many of them have done that? So if you can't put your actions where your mouth is, you may not bother at all, as it sure won't help the depressed people of Tibet.

For your information, there will be foreign flags on my 17th May celebration. I'll leave it up to you if you want to come or not.