It was a wonderful morning in Oslo today. Sky was grey. Clouds where colliding with the ground, creating that humid mist that makes it cold and uncomfortable. I woke up early as usual, listening to the sound the caretaker makes every morning, swiping the leaves off of the parking lot. It is a calming, soothing sound that usually makes me smile, realizing I have slept the whole night, and a new day is ready to take me for a pleasurable ride.
Then, out of the grey, a different sound. Not the garbage van that arrives every second morning, nor was it a stray cat crying for love. This morning in Oslo, there was a new sound. A sound that is very distinct. A sound that can make you curious, scared, or really grateful. It all depends on your previous experience with this sound.
To me, the sound gave flashbacks to my accident.
The sound was that of a chopper. And it was not just passing by. It was pretty clear to me that there where several of them. Circling my block. Or at least that´s how it felt.
It was a wonderful morning in Oslo today. All up to this point. Since I woke up, the city has been a spectacle of noise, police, VIP´s, guns, security posts and fences. The city I know as a safe, secure and calm city, bordering boredom, had turned upside down thanks to the Nobel Peace Prize.
I am not going to comment on what I think about giving it to Barack Obama. And I will not spend a lot of your attention on the Peace Prize itself.
I simply would like to share my point of view regarding the paradox of declaring Oslo for a war-zone for a few days to hand out a peace prize.
To comfort myself, I know that Oslo will return to it´s peaceful state Monday, when Obama have left, the army has gone back to their forests, and the police is back in the streets after taking the weekend off. And no, I do not plan on spending the weekend in Oslo, as with no police to protect it´s citizens this weekend (they are all taking the weekend off because they have all worked too hard with this security circus), I prefer to spend my time in the country side.
But Monday, I´ll be back. And free to walk where I want again.
Watch the pictures of Oslo today below!
You do not see army choppers hanging above Blits every day!
Both army and police are on location to secure President Obama while in Oslo.
Even considering Henrik Ibsens great fantasy and future visions, I do not believe he ever expected army choppers to buzz around his head during peace time.
The Oslo City Hall is ready to receive the VIP´s. Even the fountain is covered in plastic. Again, it is not an everyday sight to see armed police officers in the streets of Oslo. Thankfully.
Let there be no doubt. You are NOT expected to cross this border. What you do not see in the picture is the lack of space behind me, there is only a couple of meters from the fence to the building behind me. So there will be not large mass of people to force this fence down either.
No Presidential visit without some revolt. These two where of the silent kind. Not sure Obama ever saw them, though!
The one on the right holds a map. A map he flashed around in a quite sharing manner. A better zoom, and I might have caught the map and it´s markings.
Same brave guy, this time briefing two colleagues. The dogs are bomb sniffers. At this time, I´ve spent five minutes shooting the officer in the middle, and finally he caught on. At this time he sees me, and move behind the dog handler on my right, hiding from sight.
Service is everything. Even today. So this nice police man guides this lost jew (I may be mistaking about him being a jew, though) over to the fence. "You may stay behind that fence" "Oh, here?" "Yes, there" "Here?" "Yes"...This went on for a couple of minutes. The police man obviously has more patience than I do!
This is how the Norwegian Parlament looks like under siege. See how the Swedish police try a silent overtake in the picture further below. The Swedish are located directly diagonally from where I am standing, on the other side of the parlament building.
One thing is to see the large number of Norwegian police men roam the streets of Oslo. I can even find some rational in the army that show off their latest toys. But allowing the Swedish police this close the Norwegian Parlament, that is a bit too much even for me. We kicked you guys out a century ago, and although you guys have taken over every service post in Norway, I am not really comfortable to see the Swedish police force protecting my city.
Of course, it could be you guys are jealous that we managed to get President Obama to visit? Or are you still mad at us for leaving you before we found the oil?
On the serious side, it is nice to the EU adaptation and the Schengen agreement actually working. Thank´s for helping out!
The cortege is ready!
I am a tiny bit surprised that not one of the police men asked me to move on or stop shooting pics. Well, actually, one did. She was blond, and had no voice. Probably still down with the Pig flu, so I found it best to obey her request with a nice smile and a blink of my eye. Except her, everyone else were real nice, smiling, helping out, and it looked like they where actually proud of their work. Like this guy here. He even made jokes.
I am very glad that I only went out to shoot these pics for the fun of it. I spent a couple of hours, and could come back in to the heat.
More than that, I am very happy to live in Norway. We get to see this kind of circus only when the US President visits. And that is not something that happens everyday. Most other days, I do not need to worry if I will be stopped on the streets asked for ID, I do not have to worry if the tube is running as normal, nor do I have to accept the noise of choppers swiping just a few feets above the roofs.
All this noise makes me consider the paradox of making a war zone out of Oslo in order to give a peace prize.
War Zone???? I have been in
Great personal take on this!