|
GSE
Trip Home
Meet
the Team
Introducing the team members to you.
Photos: click a photo
to see it full size. Use your browser BACK button to return to the journal
page.
Contact the Team
The GSE team to Norway would like to hear from you.
Please e-mail us:
Mike Morris
John Hobday
Margit Karkela
Lynn Keillor
Alanna Simone Tyler
THE TRIP
April 22-23 - Days 1-2
April 24 - Day 3
April 25 - Day 4
April 26 - Day 5
April 27 - Day 6
April 28 - Day 7
April 29 - Day 8
April 30 - Day 9
May 1 - Day 10
May 2 - Day 11
May 3 - Day 12
May 4 - Day 13
May 5 - Day 14
May 6 - Day 15
May 7 - Day 16
May 8 - Day 17
May 9 - Day 18
May 10 - Day 19
May 11 - Day 20
May 12 - Day 21
May 13 - Day 22
May 14 - Day 23
May 15 - Day 24
May 16 - Day 25
May 17 - Day 26
May 18 - Day 27
May 19 - Day 28
May 20 - Day 29
|
April 25, 2003
Drammen, Norway
By John Hobday
 Lynn
Keillor wrote a few days ago that the city of Drammen (pronounced more
like "Drumman") reminds us of Duluth. Indeed there are a number
of similarities: large hills, a river emptying into a larger body of water
(in Drammen’s case, the Drammensfjord), a revitalized downtown, and its
status as a major national port. We were fortunate to be able to tour
two interesting municipal sites today: the local Chamber of Commerce and
Drammen’s Port Authority. (Photo right: Some road signs are
easier than others to understand! )
Chamber of Commerce Visit
 Mia
Brambani, a Rotarian and the energetic Informasjonsrådgiver (literally
"Information Advice Giver," more commonly known in the U.S.
as a public relations or communications director,) told us about the history
of Drammen, the great fire of 1866 in which the majority of the population
was left homeless, the upcoming 200th city anniversary in 2011,
and the large downtown revitalization projects currently underway in anticipation
of the anniversary. (Photo left: Learning about city government from
public relations director Mia Brambini, seated in the chambers of the
13-member executive committee of the 69-member Drammen city council. )
 For
any city government readers, you’ll be interested to know that as of 2001,
Drammen’s City Administrator has the pleasure of overseeing a City Council
of 60 (down from an original 87) and an Executive Committee of 13. Interestingly,
the mayor is not elected directly. You vote for the party, and the party
chooses the mayor. The full council considers such issues as finances,
strategic questions, the 2011 revitalization plan, the enviornment, water
issues, etc. Drammen is one of Norway’s ten largest cities and faces a
current budget shortfall of $15 million US. (Photo Right: Norwegian
children spend a beautiful spring day out at the city market plaza with
their "dagmama" or day-care provider.)
 Ten-to-fifteen
percent of the population is minority (mostly from Turkey, Pakistan and
Somalia). The city faces many of the same cultural integration problems
as are evident in Minnesota. A number of noteable differences exist, though:
"Introduction Centers" work with new immigrant arrivals to speed
their integration into Norwegian society, pay checks are tied to language
study, and a 48-hour job guarantee exists in which all new arrivals are
able to start doing "something" upon arrival to the country.
This may not be exactly their chosen position, but if someone is medically
trained, for example, every effort is made to place them in a medical
setting. (Photo above: "Spiraltrollet" - the mascot troll of Drammen,
with body made of rope wound in a seven-turn spiral representing the unique
spiral tunnel that winds its way up the inside of the mountain to a beautiful
city park. )
Drammen Port Authority Tour
Our day continued with a very interesting
visit and tour of Drammen’s Port Authority. For living in an area that
bosts three significant ports (Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth), most
of us knew very little about ports. In Drammen, the port tends to be seen
as a part of the city with warehouses that people would perhaps not like
to have to look at. Its economic impact to the area in terms of income
for 2500 families and indeed its importance for all of Norway is not to
be underestimated, though. Ideas for gaining local support by making the
benefits of the port more known to the citizens were circulated.
 We
were lucky enough to spend the afternoon with the Port Captain himself,
Ivar Vannebo, a bright, young, energetic man of perhaps 30 who oversees
all operations and expansion efforts for the port. Historically, the area
of Drammen has been used as a port for hundreds of years dating back to
the time of the Vikings where they would use Drammen to bring in the plunders
of their foreign raids. Major imports include fruit from Argentina, Israel
and Cyprus, newsprint from Canada (we found this of particular interest
because of Norway’s large timber industry), and most of the new cars imported
to Norway. Two large parking ramps have been built right on the port property,
in fact, to temporarily store the 65,000 cars arrived to Drammen each
year.(Photo above: Port Authority director Ivar Vannebo explains the
important role that harbor, rail, and roadway connections play in Drammen
and southern Norway.)
 Here’s
a seemingly unrelated port question: What do you do with thousands of
tons or rocks removed from the endless Norwegian tunnel construction projects?
In Drammen, the port welcomes the rock to fill in part of the bay and
create a larger port. Dump trucks work around the clock delivering load
after load of rock. A portion of tour was on a part of the port island
that did not even exist a year ago. (Photo right: Lynn Keillor working
to take the "prize-winning photo" at the Drammen harbor. )
 (Photo
Left: Sven Christian Enger, Mike’s host, explains the history of Eidsfos,
an iron foundry established in 1697. )
Night Life in Drammen
Margit, Alanna, Lynn and John checked
out the local "hot spot" in downtown Drammen tonight where we
made up about 25% of the hot spot’s Friday-night patrons. We enjoyed an
evening of musical renditions of the Beatles and remixed John Denver—a
real treat for John in particular (really). A lively discussion about
American music and other interesting topics ensued with 12.5% of the bar
patrons.
|
