'The grim truth behind the Scandinavian miracle' – the nations respond.
In trying to make myself heard above the clamour of pro-Nordic propaganda in the British (indeed, global) media, and shake a few people out of their decade-long Scandi-trances, I hereby plead guilty to a selective, provocative slant on the region. Everything in my recent piece Dark lands: the grim truth behind the "Scandinavian miracle" was true, and backed up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Monetary Fund and the UN, but it was perhaps a different truth from the one many are used to hearing.
Happily, my book is more nuanced. I reflect on the many positive aspects of the Nordic societies: their gender and economic equality, high levels of trust, social cohesion, life-work balance and so on. That said, it is still one man's view: an impressionistic, opinionated travelogue rather than a definitive academic text, just as the article was a corrective opinion piece, not a news story.
In fact, nearly all the negative views in the piece originated with the many local experts I interviewed during my years of research: the leading anthropologists, ethnologists, economists, politicians, academics and journalists. I make little claim to originality in describing Sweden as quasi-totalitarian, Norway as insular, Finland as taboo-ridden, or the Danes as jingoistic greenwashers.
It was interesting to observe the different reactions to my piece. The Finns were pretty cool; the Swedes, pedantic but resigned; the Danes did get a little fighty; the Icelanders were irritated not to have been given more attention; but the Norwegians, boy, they were not happy.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/05/scandinavian-miracle-denmark-finland-iceland-norway-sweden
= new reply since forum marked as read
dipsydoodle
Don't bug Norwegians - if you do - you get our attention - and that is never a good idea to do thank you 
By the way - a nice piece of writing I would say, for the most part right on spot too
Diclotican
Vikings sailed in longships. They were likely the first Europeans to land in North America.
I am proudly half Norwegian and half Suomilainen. (Look it up if you don't get it.)
Sisu! (Look that up, too. However, it's one of those words which does not translate to English.)
