Platform Hipokrit

Statoil´s new platform Hipokrit, based offshore Lofoten is back in the spot light after a load of Baloney was once again thrown from its sides. A local spokesperson in Hastard was unavailable, again, seemingly endlessly unavailable until we sent a rather sarcastic email and received the following statement: “I am a sorry I have tried to get hold of the person responsible but they just wont return my calls”. We sent another email thanking them for there reply and received: I am out of the office until 28th November on another course. Luckily at the end of the day we were able to get hold of the superintendent of the Hipokrit, who said, he was on his off time, how about calling the rig direct. Which we did and received the following reply: I am out of the office until 28th November on another course. After this we gave up but spoke to a very nice person from Bellona, the body responsible for baloney casting from fixed instillation. There spoke person said: I can only tell you what I read in the local paper, but its true they have been throwing Baloney over the side of the rig again. She went on to say, actually this was not the first time she had read this in the local paper this year, and she recalled it was probable the third time baloney or potential baloney had been thrown from the side of the Hipokrit platform. She was sorry she could not give any more information as she was only temping from manpower.

A leaked report from Ballona about baloney casting has landed in our email box and it states clearly that Statoil had been told of the potential catastrophe that awaited them: Statoil replied: I am out of the office until 28th November on another course.

A local person who wishes to remain nameless said: We don´t need the oil industry in Lofoten, we have asylum seekers! Shortly after this he drove off in his 4x4 toyota! However the truth has been spoken as most communities in Lofoten when not selling dry fish generate capital by importing bewildered refugees.

Statoil HMS section was contacted again, and amazingly answered by saying: Sorry for the slow reply but we have been on a course again. We in Statoil boast and brag about openness, compassion and being a caring company, and this year we can proudly say our policy extend from the office into most of the car park. We replied again and received: I am out of the office until 28th November on another course.

Return to school and asylum

Since moving to Lødingen, which lies in the community called Ofoten, which just so happens to be east of the famous Lofoten I have returned to school, quite literally! Each day sees me nervously negotiating the teenage kids in the hallway to find the adult learning classroom within the secondary school of Lødingen. The kids seem very nice and occasionally say hello and giggle when I try and speak back. Returning to school to kick-start my Norwegian again has been a really interesting experience to say the least. There are two classes, one for people that have asylum, for which I am in and another class for asylum seekers who have been sent to Lødingen to wait for a decision to be made on there application. The class I attend is mainly made up of women, from Russia, Latvia, Poland, Cuba, Thailand and Brazil. There is also a couple from Palestine. Now and then there is a bit of friction between the girls, which is great to watch. One day we were asked to join the asylum seekers and prepare some food. They are mainly from Eritrea and Somalia. It’s a humbling experience and reminds me how fortunate I have been to grow up in two democratic countries. The group I joined was made up of a very quiet man from Eritrea and the other a younger lad from Afghanistan. The young lad spoke better Norwegian and so we struck up a broken conversation as we prepared potato salad. I wanted to ask so many questions but felt it was rude to ask, so the conversation drifted on. Afterwards when I was leaving he ran over and asked if we could speak English. We walked through the playground chatting and I asked why he had come to Norway. He just said someone told him it was a good place and that it was safe. He described how he had been smuggled through country after country before ending in Norway. I told him I thought it sounded so dangerous. He just smiled and said, sometimes you just don´t think your going to get out alive.

I took the following pictures during our cooking class. I asked permission of every single person before taking his or her picture. They have also been published on the community website.