Observations From an Outsider On the Inside

I don't really know how to start this post. I mean, I kinda want to write about how bad the economy is around here, but you already know that. In Norway we constantly get updates on the world's economy and politics through news papers and TV and radio and what-not and we might even blow it up and make it seem worse than it really is even though we probably won't notice it wherever we live. But being here in the middle of the downfall is...really hard to describe. Because I feel so helpless.

Being in the middle of everything means that I should be able to help, right? But it's so overwhelming, so out of reach, far away and at the same time way too personal. I am one of the lucky "citizens", (if I may call myself an American citizen for this one year only), who isn't affected that much by the bad economy in America. My host parents got pretty stable jobs, and my money doesn't even come from them so I am probably never going to notice the downfall, in a way. That does not keep my friends, however, from feeling the pinch. For being struck up close and personal when their parents are getting laid off. One of my friends here recently experienced how bad things are going when both of her parents lost their jobs in the same week. She no longer has a phone, it got taken away because her parents didn't have money to pay for it anymore, and they are living on food stamps. Luckily the school provides free breakfast and lunch for the students who have a hard time paying 1 DOLLAR and 25 cents for their meal everyday...

On the other hand it all affects me. How can I ignore the "FOR RENTAL" signs standing in almost every other front yard, the homeless people sleeping under a bridge, the women and men getting drunk every week day as if they can swallow down their bad luck. In the commercial breaks at TV, (which by the way are every five minutes and hell yeah it's annoying!!), I hear, whenever I forget to mute the sound, how to save money, how to not pay too much, not to loose your house, how to get cheap and secure insurance, how to tell your kids that you might not get dinner tomorrow. The never ending commercials promise "secure" loans and fake hopes for people in need for not only money, but faith in a nation who once stood tall and proud, but now has the weights of a worlds expectations on it's shoulders.

Some say that the economy is getting better, or more stable to be accurate. Personally, I don't know. I should probably read more about it and know more about how the taxes raise and how the insurance companies rip off people, but I don't. It's hard enough to look into my friends' eyes and know that they might not have a home in a couple of months, to listen to them talk about how their parents are getting drunk on Tuesdays to drown their problems, to talk about how my sister gets to go to Portugal, South Africa and Sweden when they might not even be able to pay for their gas. I don't even know how to comfort them, they won't take my pity; that is not going to pay their bills. I feel like running away, just to avoid facing everything ahead. At the same time I know that I can't and that I will always remember how their heads turned away in shame when they admitted to live upon other people's charity and the government's money.

So...what happened to the Land of Dreams again..?





Peace, and Hope for a better future. Ida.