#norwary

The Sami – an indigenous people who live in the far north of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia’s Kola peninsula – have persuaded Norway’s second largest pension fund to withdraw money from the Dakota Access pipeline.

The KLP fund said this week it would sell shares worth $58 in companies constructing the pipeline, after lobbying from the Sami parliament. Read more here.

An elk, grazing on an open snowy field. It lifts its head, nose sniffing the air for a moment before going back to munching on grass. It's alone, separated from its herd a mere 16 yards. A bow quivers as it strains against the arrow. Ping. Right in the eye, the elk drops upon the vegetation it ate moments ago. The herd, hearing the bow hit one of its members scatter into the shelter of a nearby forest, leaving any chance of more food.

I pull back my hood, putting away my bow while I approach the animal from my position in the grass. It's neck bends uncharacteristically over it's sideways body, along with its legs. The beast is massive, too big for me to drag back home alone.

"Felix, here. How long will this last us?"

A burly man towers over me, scanning it throughly. He scratches his dirty blond beard before speaking.

"Through tonight; we'll be able to feed both families, three if we ration it." I nod my approval then lift its head. The arrow cleanly pierced both its eyes, making it easy for me to pull it out intact. I motion for him to handle it and begin walking off south. He heaves quietly as he hangs the elk across his shoulders, catching up to me in no time. The rest of the group lags behind, skinning their prey prematurely as a lesson for the younger, more green hunters.

I put on my hood against the winter breeze biting my ear tips.

"You're getting to be a master at that bow of yours, no one your age can make that kind of shot."

"I guess, though no one my age has trained with it as long as I have." He chuckles.

"What?" I turn abruptly, stopping in my tracks.

"Nothing, just you never take a compliment, even from your superiors." Felix gazes at me with a side smile. It's hard to tell he actually has his own family when he acts so much like a youth.

"You learned to aim that thing within a week, and two months to perfect the precision and accuracy, the same period of time as all the other young. None of them come close to that level of skill; maybe one day you'll even go on a Fae course for it, who knows" he continues our trek, leaving me to scramble after him.

"They're also lazy, and don't call me a young, you know full well they're not my equals by any means" he sighs.

A war without weapons: Jon Seal on The Teachers’ Protest

‘What the teachers’ story tells us, is that you can fight without weapons and still win’. That’s what one of the contributors tells the documentary The Teachers’ Protest. The film, by Jon Seal, tells of steadfast resistance in the face of the Nazi regime of Second World War Norway. 

(more…)