观点:挪威人为什么感觉幸福?

北欧绿色邮报网主编评论员陈雪霏

挪威被评为2017年联合国世界幸福指数最高的国家。

挪威的幸福秘诀是什么? 根据挪威驻爱尔兰女大使艾尔瑟.贝利特.艾克兰德在去年4月份发表的一篇文章,挪威幸福的秘诀是挪威人不吹牛,不喜欢公开表达自己的幸福。

 

联合国世界幸福报告是从2012年开始评比的。其实在那前一年的2011年是挪威人最悲伤的一年。正好是恐怖分子布雷维克炸政府大楼造成8人死亡,并枪杀69名在一个岛上举行政治活动的青少年。挪威人本土生出的恐怖让挪威人欲哭无泪。但挪威人还是通过各种纪念活动从悲伤中缓过来,继续过着自己认为幸福自由的生活。

 

那么,在挪威人眼里什么是幸福呢?其实,这和挪威的福利制度分不开的。那就是每个在挪威有长期居住权的人,都可以免费就医。人们不必为大病发愁。而这个福利制度是从高税收中得来的。除此之外,挪威人幸福的秘诀还有以下几个特点。

 

根据挪威大使的自述,挪威人二战以后逐步兴起一个语言思潮,那就是去掉各种职位,职务,先生,女士和太太之类的名称。每个人都是一个个体,大家互相叫名字就可以了。在学校老师叫学生名字,学生也可以叫老师名字。这样,大家都可以感觉很平等。在瑞典五六十年代以后,人们也逐渐取消了这些繁文缛节。获得教授职位是很不容易的。

 

第二个幸福的原因就是男女平等。政府政策强调男女平等,不仅规定妇女有产假,而且规定男人也要休产假带孩子。而且,挪威男人真的在家带孩子,不觉得不好意思。同时社会政策也规定人们可以安排不同时间工作,不一定非要8小时坐班。坐班族是必须坐,但是,可以灵活时间的,女人可以在孩子睡觉以后工作到深夜,然后白天忙家务,这都是可以的。这种做法完全改变了男人整天在外面应酬,女人整天做家务,没有工资的状况。女人能从事社会工作,男人也能从事家务,让人能大大地感受到男女平等和幸福。

 

第三,以上的政策也是挪威福利社会的表现,就是说,医疗保障让每个在挪威的人都能有医疗保险,人们不会为大病发愁。

 

第四,广阔的自然空间。挪威地广人稀,人们的生存空间很大,因此,挪威人可能很少斤斤计较,同时,热爱大自然,过一点儿粗糙的生活,并不觉得是苦。只要大家都很平等,老人小孩都有照顾,没有巨大差距,人们的幸福感就很高。

 

艾克兰德大使自述到,挪威并不完美。挪威也有自己的问题,只不过没有那么严重。挪威人自己很少公开说自己很幸福,从外表看,甚至让人觉得挪威人很冷淡,无聊。但是,联合国世界幸福报告认为幸福不是指啤酒的价格,去高级饭店吃一顿,或者是给自己买最新最时髦的服饰和包。

 

“幸福就是关于正常的日常生活,是否我们每个人都感觉自己包括在其中,融化在我们生活的社会里。我认为这就是幸福的秘密。”艾克兰德大使这样写到。

 

另外,从2012年开始,凶杀率也非常低,每10万人只有2.2人。挪威人的平均寿命达到了79岁。甚至挪威人不想移民美国也是挪威人幸福的一个表现。

 

100多年前,瑞典人有三分之一的人移民美国。但是,十多年前,笔者与挪威一名士兵交谈时,他说,挪威甚至都不愿意加入欧盟或申根,这是因为挪威有很长的海岸线和石油资源。挪威属于富裕的国家,因此,生活不发愁,而且在不断地追求普遍幸福的理想。

观点:中国应该采取明智的战略战术来应对川普的贸易战

北欧绿色邮报网资深记者陈雪霏报道:中美贸易战让媒体吵得沸沸扬扬,欧美缓和又让人觉得中国好像很孤立。但是,让墨西哥资深记者纳瓦鲁的话说,中国人和墨西哥人都是知道自己应该怎样生存的人。

他说,墨西哥左派领导人阿姆罗上任以后,对美国态度有所强硬,川普也开始对墨西哥示好,态度不像对待前领导人那样强硬。墨西哥是受川普制裁和贸易战的首家。但是纳瓦鲁说,这种猛增关税的做法确实影响贸易,但是,对于墨西哥来说,由于有北美自由贸易的协定,在北美自由贸易的框架下,墨西哥和加拿大的贸易大部分还是没有受到影响。川普伶牙俐齿,说的狠,但是,实际上,双边或三边自由贸易没有受到影响。

由此可见,川普对中国的贸易打击确实很大,因为中美没有自由贸易协定。中国必须具体问题具体分析,采取具体战略战术来应对对自己的不利。例如,习主席在金砖四国峰会期间与印度总理会谈,试图从印度购买大豆的做法就很实际。中国可以从很多其他国家购买大豆。同样,有些产品可以销售给其他国家和地区。

他说,其实,川普的举动也是为了赢得大选,他很实际地采取措施。他知道对方的弱点,然后,很扎。中国也必须充分了解自己,了解对方,根据实际情况采取措施,而不是领导怎么说就怎么做,一切都只靠一人。这种只靠一人的做法是很脆弱的。也是川普如此大胆对付中国的一个原因之一。因此,中国最好要继续群策群力,集体领导。

据他观察,川普在会见俄罗斯总统普京以后,民调又下来一些。不过不管怎样,他长期在美国带过,感觉美国人还是比较认真的,也是爱管闲事的,有做的不对的地方,总有人会抱怨,总有人会不满意,因此,也催生了美国的不断改善。相比之下,北欧人更感觉幸福一些,但实际上,也给人一种不太在乎的印象。久而久之,发展也会缓慢。

据记者本人观察,中国也经历了不同的发展阶段,例如,在毛泽东时代,人们一直说自己形势一片大好。人们似乎没有抱怨,但是,物质生活水平较低,人们都比较平均,所以,也不好抱怨,或者是无力抱怨,不敢抱怨。改革开放以后,人们开始抱怨,把一切问题都推给四人帮和文革及左派。右派重新抬头。有的右派公开说自己是右派,如何如何,主张一切都要由市场来决定,由市场供求来决定,不许有任何政府干预。追求奢华完美,一套房子不够住,看到了挣钱的机会和政府政策的不完善,一下子买几套房,在中国滚雪球的情况下,一下子就爆发起来。于是,才有能力想着这里移民,那里移民。同时,言论自由,很多人觉得中国没有言论自由,但我看中国曾经到了一种自由滥用的阶段,很多人都指名道姓地互骂,我不知道这是否叫人身攻击。社会乱象百出。坏人的胆子也越来越大。只要为了钱,忽视了产品质量。这种现象屡禁不止。

不过,报道出来以后,总归还是得到了纠正。中国人还真是应该遵循谦虚谨慎戒骄戒躁的思想。尽管暴富以后,想低调都不行,有的人会很膨胀,但是膨胀之后,就会有很多悲剧发生。我感觉,中国所发生的很多事情都是西方在几十年前已经发生过的事情。有朋友问我,中国能不能避免西方的错误呢?我的回答是,我们在试图避免,但是,很多时候,很难避免,不经历过就不知道。例如所谓自由就象禁果一样,人们拼命地去追求所谓自由,结果进入很多误区。没有约束的绝对自由是没有的。一个自律的人实际上自由度反而会大一些,因为他知道哪里是极限。但有的人以挑战极限为乐,那就只能自己负责了。

同样,国与国之间也是这个道理。一定要知己知彼。

Narendra Modi, Xi Jinping vow to maintain ‘momentum’ on sidelines of BRICS; Chinese defence minister to visit to India in August

Modi, who is in Johannesburg to attend the BRICS Summit, met Xi for the third time in nearly three months on Thursday evening after their two-day informal summit in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late April and a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Qingdao, China in June.

“It is important to maintain this momentum and for this we should, at our level, regularly review our relationship and give proper instructions whenever required,” Modi told Xi in his opening remarks.

File image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. AP

File image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. AP

He told the Chinese leader that their recent meetings have given a new strength to bilateral ties and also provided new opportunities for cooperation.

Xi said that the Chinese side is ready to work with the Indian side to carry forward the fresh impetus of bilateral relations since their informal meeting in Wuhan, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

He called on the two sides to strengthen strategic communication, increase mutual trust, promote practical cooperation, as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges, strengthen dialogue and properly manage differences, it said.

At Wuhan, Modi and Xi had decided to issue “strategic guidance” to their militaries to strengthen communications to build trust and understanding, a move aimed at avoiding a Doka La-like situation in the future.

Modi said the Johannesburg meeting has provided one more opportunity to them to strengthen their closer developmental partnership.

Briefing the reporters about the meeting, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said the two leaders reaffirmed their readiness to give the necessary direction to their militaries to enhance communication between them and to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas.

“They were satisfied with the efforts being made by the officials of the two sides to strengthen bilateral engagements and to implement some of the understandings and decisions that the two leaders had reached at Wuhan,” he said.

Modi also expressed his willingness to send National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to China this year for the Special Representative-level boundary talks, he said.

Gokhale said the two sides had agreed at Qingdao that the Chinese ministers for defence and public security would travel to India this year.

“It was decided that these two visits would take place in August and October, respectively,” the foreign secretary added.

In Beijing, Chinese defence ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang confirmed that State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe “plans to pay a friendly official visit to India” at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman.

“We have provided a top-level design for bilateral ties in a macroscopic perspective and a timely fashion, which is conducive to mobilising the positive elements of all sectors in both countries and uniting the wills of the 2.6 billion people of the two countries, so as to form a force that would push bilateral ties into the future,” Xi told Modi.

Gokhale said both the leaders also remarked that in the last few months mutual trust has increased between the two sides.

Xi once again conveyed to Modi that he is very happy to accept his invitation to visit India for an informal summit, the second one, next year and both sides also agreed to follow up on a number of issues, the foreign secretary added.

They also agreed that the high-level people-to-people mechanism which would be established between the two sides will also meet this year, he said.

One of the important issues which Modi raised with Xi at his previous meetings is of how the two sides can enhance Indian exports to China particularly agricultural exports.

“It has been decided that an Indian trade delegation will be travelling to China on August 1 and 2. Among the issues they will discuss are exports of soya, sugar and non-basmati rice and they will also look at the possible import of urea from China,” he said.

Modi also mentioned about the pharma sector and cited a Chinese movie titled ‘Dying to Survive’ which is based loosely on the role that the Indian cancer drugs play in saving the life of the main character of the movie, Gokhale said, adding that it was decided that an Indian pharmaceutical delegation will visit Shanghai, China on 21 and 22 August for talks.

Xi said that as major emerging market economies, as well as vindicators and contributors of the current international order, China and India should strengthen bilateral cooperation, while exploring a new model for regional cooperation, upholding multilateralism, championing economic globalization and striving for a more just and rational international order, Xinhua reported.

Xi and Modi will meet again at the margins of the G20 summit in Argentina at the end of 2018.

Source: Firstpost in India.