Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Space Travel News .




DEMOCRACY
Norway celebrates 200 yr constitution amid hypocrisy spat
by Staff Writers
Oslo (AFP) May 17, 2014


Norway celebrated the 200th anniversary of its constitution on Saturday shortly after a controversy on whether the country betrayed its democratic principles by snubbing the Dalai Lama to please China.

The religious leader -- in Oslo between May 7 and 9 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his Nobel Peace Prize -- was not received by any member of Erna Solberg's right-wing government, or the parliament's president.

"The president should have met the Dalai Lama, given that the parliament has the ultimate responsibility for the Peace Prize," Frank Aarebrot, a political science professor at Bergen University, told AFP. The five members of the Nobel committee are appointed by the Norwegian assembly.

Others accused the government of "cowardice" and highlighted the contradiction of hailing the anniversary of their constitution -- the second oldest in the world after the US -- with grandiose words while bending to China out of economic interest.

"The contrast is embarrassingly large to all the fat words that the president of the parliament and others use now in the grand year of the jubilee of the constitution. Words about democracy and independence, freedom of speech and human rights," the political editor of newspaper Aftenposten wrote in the paper.

Norway's constitution was penned in 1814 in an effort to free the country from the foreign domination of Danes and Swedes, but the country only obtained its independence from Sweden in 1905.

Paradoxically, the Dalai Lama is a symbol for the autonomy of the Chinese-dominated region of Tibet and considered a "separatist" by Beijing.

Since Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, considered a criminal by his country, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, Beijing has stopped all high level diplomatic contact with Norway.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg said the Dalai Lama's visit had put her in a complicated situation.

"I made the difficult choice. It would have been easier to play the hero," she told Norwegian daily Dagbladet.

The spiritual leader was received in parliament by several members of the cross-parliamentary committee for Tibet, which includes the governing right-wing parties.

The meeting was held in a screening room, rather than an official reception room.

As the tradition marks, Norwegians celebrated the anniversary of their constitution with a children's parade in front of the royal palace in Oslo.

.


Related Links
Democracy in the 21st century at TerraDaily.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








DEMOCRACY
'New era' for India after landslide victory for Modi
New Delhi (AFP) May 16, 2014
India's triumphant Hindu nationalists declared "the start of a new era" in the world's biggest democracy Friday after hardline leader Narendra Modi propelled them to a stunning win on a platform of revitalizing the sickly economy. Preliminary results at the end of the marathon six-week election showed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by prime ministerial candidate Modi on track for the f ... read more


DEMOCRACY
SpaceX supply capsule heads back to Earth

Replacing Russian-made rocket engines is not easy

Pre-launch processing begins for the O3b Networks satellites

US sanctions against Russia had no effect on International Launch Services

DEMOCRACY
Against the current with lava flows

Opportunity In Search Of Aluminum-Hydroxyl Clays

NASA wants greenhouse on Mars by 2021

Reset and Recovery for Opportunity

DEMOCRACY
LRO View of Earth

Saturn in opposition tonight, will appear next to the moon

Russia to begin Moon colonization in 2030

Astrobotic Partners With NASA To Develop Robotic Lunar Landing Capability

DEMOCRACY
Dwarf planet 'Biden' identified in an unlikely region of our solar system

Planet X myth debunked

WISE Finds Thousands Of New Stars But No Planet X

New Horizons Reaches the Final 4 AU

DEMOCRACY
New Exomoon Hunting Technique Could Find Solar System-like Moons

Length of Exoplanet Day Measured for First Time

Spitzer and WISE Telescopes Find Close, Cold Neighbor of Sun

Alien planet's rotation speed clocked for first time

DEMOCRACY
Competition of the multiple Gortler modes in hypersonic boundary layer flows

New Craft Will Be America's First Space Lifeboat in 40 Years

Space Launch System Structural Test Stands to be Built at Marshall Space Flight Center

ATK Validates MegaFlex Solar Array For NextGen Solar Electric Propulsion Missions

DEMOCRACY
The Phantom Tiangong

New satellite launch center to conduct joint drill

China issues first assessment on space activities

China launches experimental satellite

DEMOCRACY
NASA Astronauts Go Underwater to Test Tools for a Mission to an Asteroid

25-foot asteroid comes within 186,000 miles of Earth

Halley's Comet-linked meteor shower to peak Tuesday morning

Less than a year from its Ceres rendezvous




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.