An Enemy of the People in Oslo

I work nightshifts in a communal house that cares for five under-age boys from Afghanistan. In addition I run a B&B in my house on Nesodden, and I also arrange painting classes together with an artist.

I belong to the northeners, the fair ones, the extroverted, the environmental-conscious, the honest, the 5children-mothers, the practical, the calm ones, the ones enjoying life, the pensive, the problemsolvers and the from-time-to-time cowards but I do not belong to the carrier-climbers, the meticulous, the materialist, the excercise and diet fanatics, the «know-it-alls» or the stuck up ones.

I come from Værøy, Lofoten, an island in the north with 750 inhabitants. The reason for moving to Oslo was studies and work. The first time I came here I experienced proper spring for the first time- the lilac bushes were blossoming and the sound of Oslo for me was the trams running down Bogstadveien. I was in my early twenties and it was very exciting for a young girl to experience the city life with so many different people; I had hardly seen foreigners before, and there were all these shops and this great nightlife . I thrive here, but I miss the nature of the north, the safety, the people and the solidarity.Oslo has changed since I first moved here in the early eighties. As the years passes by I have grown more skeptical towards wandering around in Oslo late at night, because of the increasing violence and crime rate. Now I live in Nesodden, and thus I represent the people living outside Oslo and commuting to and fro  – you could say we depend on the city and the city depends on us.  

I hadn’t read the play before I was given it for this performance. It seems  a very interesting theme, and applicable to the society of today. I admire brave people who dares to voice their opinion against the majority, but either way one really needs the majority along to get things done.

Some years ago there was a big turningpoint in my life; I was a Christian but I had long doubted the teaching of the religion, and I was critical against the dogma of Christianity. I did not believe in heaven and hell anymore. Then I was diagnosed with cancer and for a short while I thought it was a punishment from God.  I then started a spiritual path where I after a while realized that spirituality and the divine is deep within every human being, and that the religions only create fear.  

I am taking my car from the pier at Nesodden, and then the boat to Aker Brygge.