King Haakon IV, "What happened to Spirituality in Norway?"

The decline of Spirituality in the West in general, the weakening and the right-out abolishment of the Christian faith in many places today, and the materialization and dehumanization process reflected in the general coldness between people, gives reason for great concern."

                                                                                                        H. Dahle-Sladek

Norway as a Non-Piety State

or how an Error in Spirit Became a Catastrophic Failure in Matter

Article by Harald Jan Teodor Dahle on Pentecost Sunday May 20, 2018. "Piety is the dignity of the Spirit as it is reflected towards God and people," says Dahle. "And there were more spirituality and piety in Tehran than on St. Peters Square in Rome," he observed. (C) 2018 Harald Dahle. Quote with reference to source, thank you.

In the Norwegian society of today, Man is undoubtedly being reduced to the weight of his own body. The newspapers write about losing and gaining weight every, single day. "It's all about meat, meat and more meat," says Harald Dahle, "and nothing about Man as a Spiritual being in God. In their educations Norwegians learn nothing about Spirituality, but every-thing about fiscal policies and fancy theories." He reflects on the Norwegian's Laissez-faire type mantra "to Enjoy,"

With the full blessing and encouragement of an authoritative and non-spiritual State, off course! You know, the Norwegians doesn't really have anything of spiritual value, and this is why they so desperately try the become what they are not and can never be, canonized. The decline of Spirituality in the West in general, the weakening and the right out abolishment of the Christian faith in many places today, and the materialization and dehumanization process reflected in the general coldness between people, gives reason for great concern; in Norway, however, this is "business as usual", a stroke of death before the curtain fall.

Before we as less civilized and empathic people criticize religion and spirituality in the Islamic Republic of Iran today one should first explain and understand the collapse of Christianity as a main factor in the western societies of today. In the Age of conspicuous consumption, oil and gas, sexual "freedom" and decline of conservative values the Norwegian society is identified with an overwhelming absence of piety in combination with a cold, disdained and superfluous inter-human relations almost devoid of human dignity. Just as it was in the last days before the fall of the decadent, Roman Empire!

On the streets of Oslo, the Norwegians bow their small and worried heads down towards their large, active-matrix organic light-emitting diode screens on their cell phones. And that they do all day! And it is the only time ever when the Norwegians bow their heads! On the walls of the houses in capital Oslo, there are not the minutest sign of spirituality. No al-fresco paintings of the apostles, the Blessed Virgin Mary, a cross, some ornaments pointing towards a cultural connection with continental Europe. Nothing! The capital is chemically, organically, and spiritually devoid of any sign of a higher and dignified purpose in life!

Alongside country roads leading through walleyes and over plains, through small towns and barren fields there is not a single cross, no memory built for an ancient, Christian pilgrim who shall have walked and died there. Not a signpost pointing towards a time when Norway was a country belonging together in spirit with the other Christian nations on the grand mainland of Europe. Below a breath from Norway's Catholic Era. Harald Dahle's fatherly mentor and friend, the French Dominican munch, Pater Marie Gabrielle Vaneufville in the living room at Bjerkebæk, the home of the 1928 Nobel Prize winner in literature Sigrid Undset.

What we do see when we travel are road signs of more food, more gasoline and more pizza and kebab shacks. And so go the days, one after the other, in a country so absent of spiritu-ality that one is damn lucky to find an open church on a Sunday at eleven am. And even luckier if one can find a person to have a dialogue with, "as the Norwegians avoid talking at all costs, except for when they criticize a fellow citizen for daring to having an opinion." That is when they really start to utter strange and hateful words. Below, decadence in the old Rome; fill your stomach, drink, relax and enjoy life! And T.S. Eliot wrote that,

"Norway is the country of the flesh, not that of the spirit," ads Harald Dahle laconically. Below, decadent Rome in the times before the collapse of the Empire: "Enjoy, have bodily pleasures, laugh, drink and fill the stomach."

THE SLIPPERY SLIDE TO HUMAN CATASTROPHE

“In my work dealing with people and dialogue, “says Harald Dahle, “I have come to learn that many of us are not capable if viewing another human being right in front of ourselves with warmth, empathy and humanness. I believe this defect to be one of several primary causes for disharmony, conflict and war!"

This phenomena bears special relevance to the people of Norway who actually live on an "island" - with the North Sea on one side and the forest and mountains bordering to Sweden and Russia on the other - and can do as they damn well please without having to take into account the more aristocratic and refined continental European culture further south. "I was in Munich already in 1956 and was raised in Sissach in Canton Basel Land in Switzerland," says Dahle whose father became a Swiss citizen. Harald Dahle, "I have long and close experience with the Swiss Calvinism and the heavy Baroque inspired Catholic churches in Bavaria." It sets the Norwegian cold and minimalistic Lutheran Church, controlled by the Department of Church -and Culture, in a certain perspective!"

The German philosopher, sociologist and composer Teodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno, left picture, has also had opinions about the "coldness between people phenomena: “Without the chilly and disdained behavior between people, the extermination of the Jews would not have taken place in Germany” he warned. Adorno was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, whose work has come to be associated with thinkers such as Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer and Herbert Marcuse , for whom the works of Freud, Marx and Hegel were essential to a critique of modern society.

“What can oppose the decline of the West is not a resurrected culture but the utopia that is silently contained in the image of its decline.”

He is widely regarded as one of the 20th century's foremost thinkers on aesthetics and philosophy, as well as one of its preeminent essayists. As a critic of both fascism and what he called the cultural industry, his writings - such as Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), Minima Moralia (1951) and Negative Dialectic (1966) - strongly influenced the European New Left.

Below is the front page of Norway's largest daily newspaper Aftenposten on May 30, 2018: "The Norwegians: Norwegian culture superior, we have little to learn from others!" Harald Dahle, "This is nothing new. When I was a first grader I brought Italian hits on single records to be played in the music lesson hour. I was booed out! Nobody wanted to hear it, and the teacher had to defend me from the vicious attacks of the Norwegians. Also, I had a non-Norwegian surname, and that I guess added fuel to their hatred."

"I was beaten and trod on every week for three years till we had to move to the other side of town in order to get peace. This was Oslo in 1957. Oh, yes I have witnessed the so called superior Norwegian culture close-up and first hand. There isn't much humility there, I can assure you!"

Once in a heated debate, Norway’s famous playwright and world Citizen Henrik Ibsen shall have said, “The Norwegians should, instead of criticizing everybody else look into them-selves first!” Through or not, it rings a bell! Due to the Norwegians general suspicious

attitude towards foreign people and culture, and their lack of warmth and everyday joyful spontaneity, they are less prepared to deal with cultures of a more spiritual, complex and opposite nature. It might be possible for Norway to create bonds with other cultures who are much older and robust than itself and who possess a higher degree of spiritual aware-ness and dignity, but this kind of relationships will almost always remain on an artificial level, that is an economic level, without deeper roots and ties to a common spiritual base.

WHEN THE ATHEISTIC, ARROGANT AND PROTECTIVE NORWAY ENTERED THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN AND WAS KICKED OUT ONLY THREE YEARS LATER

"I will argue that their neck muscles were not heavily burdened by the weight of their capability to sound judgement."

This bears specially meaning for the wobbly Norway-Iran relations some twenty years ahead of Ambassador Noghrehkar Shirazi's four year turbulent and exhaustive period in Oslo from 2000 till 2004. Picture of Ambassador Noghrekar Shirazi, who on July 10 2003 got heart problems due to the massive attack on the Embassy, is seen here being carried away by Oslo medical first responders.

Harald Dahle, "The Iranians were so tired of the bullish attitude of the Norwegians, that at one point in 2003 they were ready to break off all further contact and go home. When the Iranian Embassy was under siege on July 10 2003 and the demonstrators were dismantling the main door at the embassy to get access, the Oslo Police finally came. His Excellen-cy Rezvani, assistant to Ambassador Shirazi told me in person, "At last the Police came. I remember with dismay that one police officer softly laid his arm around the shoulder of the violent demon-strator - just as a father would do towards his own daughter - and I thought to myself, what is this Police doing?" The Police authorities excused themselves by saying they did not have enough people working that day!

Above picture, the Government of Iran with vice President in President Khatami's Govern-ment His Excellency Mohammad Ali Abtahi. In 2002 he was the Director for the Center for World Religions; he said to visiting Harald Jan Dahle, The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, NUPI: Norway's answer to the Temple of Apollo, better known as "the Oracle of Delphi."

In the autumn of 2003 my work inside Iran more or less over for now. Many people wanted to talk to me in Oslo to hear what I had to say. One of them was a representative of the Norwegian Institute of International Affair, NUPI whom I had met at the Nobel Institute some weeks prior. He invited me to the NUPI Headquarter so that I could give him the latest updates on Iran, he thought!

Arriving at NUPIs flashy thinktank Headquarter at Hambro's Plass, left picture, in Oslo in high spirit, this representative greeted me with a big and inviting smile. I tried to follow this mysterious man on a mission from above as he hurriedly run-down stair after stair in front of me till we came to a lover and darker level of the humongous NUPI headquarter. A rather desolated place, I would say, with rows and rows of tiny, empty offices each with a slim see-through window pane. The offices had space enough just for a slim table, a chair and a rectangular, narrow window on the far side. The view from that window went nowhere. There we were! Standing uncomfortably close! With my PC on the table beaming out high-level video impressions from my meetings in Tehran."

And above all, no respect and dignity. It was obvious that this active NUPI representative just wanted to milk my information regarding Iran; have everything for nothing, as they say, a Norwegian treat. Former Governor of the Central Bank Iran had though me, "What sits in your heart when you talk, will sit in the heart of the person you talk to.." Actually, I didn't feel anything in my heart during my visit at NUPI in Oslo!

To take possession of the truth and twist and bend that truth is a very serious legal and humanistic matter. The ultimate betrayal is to sit and wait for an opportunity, and then when it arrives, use that opportunity to take possession of the truth and twist and bend that truth in order to make it a supportive case for one’s own intentions. As it is today, when the Police falsifies facts, uses own defined mafia like methods and sets aside laws and international tractates like the United Nations Charter, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the fourth Amendment to the Bill of Rights, the United States Congress. The Police must stand as an example for the people by the people and show Piety in everyday life, not as it is today when we have Piety in reverse!

SECRETARY OF THE HIGH COUNCIL OF FREE TRADE-INDUSTRIAL ZONES

Reception the Iranian way, left picture. Respectful, empathic and with dignity. Fruits, cake and tea in a worthy setting. Not like in Oslo where you are treated as "Ein Jude" ready to be harassed at any moment! To the left is Hossein Nassiri, Advisor to the President and Secretary of High Council of Free Trade Industrial Zones; right me. Arriving back in Oslo was like coming to a war zone. "No-where in the world did I experience more lack of basic manners as in the Norwegian Capital Oslo, where people generally do not know how to behave in a public spaces, it was ugly!" complain Harald Dahle after his arrival back from Tehran in 2003. Picture from the office of Hossein Nasiri in Tehran. (C) 2002 Harald Dahle.

Back to NUPI, where I didn’t allow the representative in front of me that cheap strategy. I briskly turned off my PC and told him up in his surprised NUPI-face, "That the meeting was definitively over!" And after just about fifteen awkward minutes, but, he didn't give up that easily and desperately tried to continue the strained meeting. In fact, almost begged me there and then to let the PC continue and show my video interviews from the Iranian Capital. But the charade was definitively over! It had felt more like a veiled interrogation than a respect-ful and empathic welcome placed in a respectful and nice office with nice chairs, a table, teacups and a cake. I was used to that from Tehran. After all I was fifty-three years of age at the time and had spent six consecutive years in the Islamic Republic of Iran and often under great strain.

"I was good enough for the Vice President, the Governor of the Central Bank, the Deputy Minister of Oil and President of the National Iranian Oil Company with more than 150.000 employees - but not for NUPI Director Sverre Lodgaard, which tells you all you need to know about arrogance, disrespect and stupidity in academic circles in Norway."

But at NUPI there were no respect; they behaved like good old intellectual train robbers! Shocked and disappointed, I hurried out of the impressive oracle packed with hyped-up theories, relieved to have left nothing of intellectual value behind. Indeed, what a welcome meeting it had been!

Left picture: Former NUPI Director turned senior researcher Sverre Lodgaard: IBM machine. No piety? Later that same year there was a meeting at NUPI and the subject was again Iran. After the meeting, the then Director of NUPI Sverre Lodgaard, turned senior researcher after 2007, came up to me and shook my hand. His handshake was demonstratively weak as he looked at me with great disdain. And I thought to myself, “So now you are angry because I didn’t give NUPI any information from my time in Iran. But you see Mr. Lodgaard, you showed me neither empathy, respect nor dignity. You treated me as cattle, had me run downstairs and placed me in an interrogation like micro-office where I was left standing and bewildered. Why should I give anything to you people?" About the only time you show some dignity is when you suck up to the American lecturers that you invite to talk at NUPI. I have seen it with my own eyes! And that is why NUPI didn’t get anything from me.

The U.S. Department of State-people in Dubai really pissed me off: "Any secrets Mr. Dahle?"

The United States Department of State in Dubai also desperately wanted information from me from my time in Iran. But they also forgot to invite me for tea and a cake, so they didn’t get anything either. So much for empathy and good manners! Cheap, cheap and cheaper!

"Which, truth be told, had actually collapsed years before Norway's Grand entrance into the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2000."

And the former Iranian Ambassador to Vienna His Excellency Noghrehkar Shirazi's arrival in Oslo the same year amidst Gotterdammerung.

"I work on a Spiritual basis, not on a Diplomatic basis." Harald Dahle

Harald Dahle's three years in St. Dominicus Monastery Neuberggaten 15 in Oslo.

"After all, being a Catholic, we have much historic material in common with the Muslims." says Harald Dahle, and continues, "In the Muslim teachings, Jesus is regarded as a great Prophet - in the West he is increasingly not!"

And when I worked i Tehran I found Jesus the Prophet on a first-day postage envelope, which surprised me a lot." Harald Dahle had once lived three consecutive years in the St. Dominicus Monastery in Oslo from 1968 till 1970. His fatherly mentor in the Abbey was Pater Marie Gabrielle Vaneufville, a most piety French munch. Dahle, "We had room next to each other on each side of the narrow corridor on the third floor in the old, Swiss-style wooden building.

"Words like vagina, penis, balls and tits are classy words that the Norwegians frequently like to use in their dignified talk - and fuck, off course, not to forget!"

Now and then he would knock carefully on my door and ask me to lower the music a tad. Every day I had dinner with the Brothers. During the dinner one Brother read from a book while the others had their meal. There were no talking. I used their well-stocked library, and was included as one of them. Pater Halvard Rieber-Mohn was a great sport too, and thought me many things in literature and in writings. In the evenings we watched television together. What a glorious time of my life it was!"

Photo above. From left, the 1928 Nobel Prize in literature, author Sigrid Undset with her son and Pater Marie Gabrielle Vaneufville at Bjerkebæk, Lillehammer, Norway. Vaneufville was friend of the 1928 Novel Prize winner in literature Sigrid Undset, who wrote about life in Norway's Catholic era. Vaneufville had visited her several times at her home at Bjerkebæk at Lillehammer.

"In August 1969 I went to Rome to research the possibility to be a priest," says Harald Dahle. " I was sitting in a small espresso bar in Via Conciliazione one early evening in August 1969, looking out on the few people rushing to and fro. Then I saw this priest walking briskly in the direction of St. Peters Basilica, and I remember that he gave me the impression of being lonely, single and in a hurry. And I decided there and then that I didn't want to join the Clergy after all."

Below is a handwritten letter from Pater Vaneufville to Harald Dahle,

"With my good wishes and a fatherly blessing in Jesus."

This was back in 1968 when Harald rented a tiny room next to Pater Vaneufville on the third floor in the old, Swiss style looking wooden house on the lawn next to the St. Dominicus Monastery church in Neubergaten 15 on Oslo's West side.

Morning mass to the small chapel. Harald Dahles strict Catholic upbringing gave him the basis for understanding piety and other religions and spiritual cultures later in life. It also gave him deep insight into the "sporty" and "body-oriented" Norwegian society. Here from a 1957 photo from the Catholic summer Camp for children at Persbråten at Hadeland Norway. #3 from left is seen a smiling and tall Harald Dahle wearing a white T-shirt and short, dark trousers followed by a smiling Sister Gertrud at center and Sister Sigrid with the cross to the far right. Hidden behind the tall girl wearing a skirt with flowery patterns is sister Janina. (C) 1957 Harald Dahle.

"Nowhere else in the world, except in Oslo, was I treated with maximum disdain, no respect and piety," one elderly woman living in one of Oslo's posh areas confined sadly to me, "I have lived here in this house of mine for almost forty years now after my husband died too early, and during this time none of my neighbors invited me home for a cup of coffee, which is chocking! I come from Holland, and that could never have happened there!"

Back in 1977, however, then Bishop John Wilhelm Gran of the Catholic Church in Norway had invited myself to his residence. He pointed out the difficult situation for the Church in Norway between the State and the people. Gran was not overly optimistic if the Church separated from the State. "Nobody knows what will happen," he said, "and we shall count on the Lord for guidance." Gran was a most piety man. On December 30, the leading newspaper in Norway, "Aftenposten" published the large interview that I had made with the Bishop. In October the same year Gran had written a kind letter of introduction for me to the Vatican Radio, part of a fact-finding tour that I did in Rome in November that same year, covering opera singer Luigi Infantino, film director Giuliano Montaldo, film director Dino Risi, the Cinecitta film studios, an audience with Giancarlo Leone the son of President Leone in the Quirinal Palace (the President Palace), and Radio Televisione Italiana, RAI, at Piazza Mazzini in Rome. The project became a great success and contributed to bridge the gap between Europe's far North and the cultural-cradle Italy further south.

THE ANGLO-PERSIAN OIL COMPANY:

THE FLAME THAT INSTIGATED THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION TWENTY-FIVE YEARS DOWN THE ROAD.

Entering the lands of the ten-thousand-year-old cultures, the Western man wants to deal with the Middle East and brings with him his short-lived, mediocre and often arrogant culture. (The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Persia as an example.) And he does not understand the importance of drinking tea or coffee and having a cake before talking.

"The most dangerous you can do in Norway is to have an opinion; one is instantly attacked and ripped apart!"

Nobody offered me even the slightest cup of tea in Norway. In all its glorious monetary wealth, Norway is the poorest country in Spirit and in dignity. However, when it comes to spend pleasure time in their weekend "hytte", country sack, or country palace, depending on what economic level one is on, they are off like sniffing rabbits in the northern sunlight.

Because that is what they do in the Middle East, in China, in Japan and in Korea, offer the arriving guest tea. But not in Norway! Mr. Lodgaard at NUPI, for instance, is probably an IBM machine! His writings on Iran bears the glowing hallmark of a man that seem to be well informed. Except for the lack of one important element. Piety. And when you leave out this one word, you are not talking about the Islamic Republic of Iran today anymore, but a sort of theoretical construction, wish-thinking wrapped in a quasi-scientific-style writings. This, indeed, is not only the clash between civilizations and spirituality, but among mediocre minds. Ready to be flushed down the toilet at any second?

Left picture: The Foreign Depart-ment Tehran. Then Ambassador to Europe and America (now Am-bassador to Paris) Ali Ahani with Harald Dahle in Dr. Ahani's office. Courteous cups of Iranian coffee is seen on the table, the cakes are out of frame. This was dialogue between people based on a mutu-ally beneficial and respectful basis. Below is video from the meeting with Dr. Ahani.

"In relationship with Iran, Norway was lagging (seriously) behind compared to the other European countries," said Ali Ahani to Harald Dahle. I have been up in the County of Telemark in Norway. There, in Morgedal, I heard one person wheeze to me that “Catholics are the devil’s children!” And I thought, how very interesting!

"Only two hour’s drive from the Capital Oslo, one is back to the Reformation again."

And as the Norwegians are that locked in their fanatic thinking about Catholicism even today, it should come as no surprise that politicians and bureaucrats in Oslo easily adapt to the flawed Technicolor version of the "bad Mullah regime in Tehran”. Subsequently, this was also the distorted view of the Norwegian Government in 2002.

With ill advice comes disastrous result. The Norwegian Parliament Stortinget, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway’s Oil and Gas Partners, the Directorate for Energy and Oil and the medium sized oil company Statoil, now Equionor, were all on the same wrong track in 2002 when high-leveled delegations landed at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran. What wrong track?

THE GRAND FOLLY:

NORWAY ENTERS THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN IN 2000

"Iran Daily" Thursday November 11, 2000. It looked good - on the surface! However, the Islamic Republic was on a spiritual track while Norway seemed not to be. Even the Minister of oil Zanganeh has his Salah prayer-time five times a day! What did the Nor-wegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy hope to accomplish with its atheistic and barren approach into a religious, Islamic State? Among so many well paid advisers that NUPI has, and among other institutions as well, not a single, high-paid researcher could advice the Norwegian Authorities in proper and convincing manner. Or put in another way, "It was the collapse of the partitocracy and the rise of stupidity," says Harald Dahle. Below, piety the Muslim way!

Because spirituality in a broader and transnational context was unheard of mention-ing in connection with an industrial project of some size in those days. And that is a very serious and grave mistake! Like it or not, it is a clear sign of a lesser developed culture!

THE NORWEGIAN OIL AND GAS PARTNERS INTSOK

In the spring of 1999, I paid a cordial visit to the Lion's den, the Norwegian Oil and Gas Partner INTSOK's office in the building of the Industry and Export in Oslo to see if there was something that I could help them with. If you don't approach companies you will never know, right! I was used to that from my work at IBM. INTSOK was founded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Statoil, Stakraft, Saga Petroleum and Norsk Hydro among others. And with Mr. Werner G. Karlsson. A bright man with a master’s in science and a Bachelor in Mathematics. He meaningfully offered me a glass of water from a fancy see-through water bottle standing quietly for itself between us on the long the table.

"Have you worked on Minister Level before?" Werner Karlsson

Karlsson asked me, slightly arrogantly, "Have you worked on Minister Level before?" And as I do not generally work on "Levels" I answered back in a humble manner, “No I haven’t!” And the meeting was over! He thanked me for coming and wished me a nice day.

What the "walking computer" Karlsson, left picture, did not realize was that I could have solved Norway’s #1 problem there and then and put the country on the right bearing to Tehran. I could have avoided the hugely embarrassing Statoil-Iran bribery case and made a great upstart for Norway. But the good and well-mannered Karlsson was not able to under-stand this, because he worked on "Levels", the same as all the others did, and thus they were locked in a mental labyrinth and could not find their way out again. I had the map of that labyrinth and I knew the way out. But nobody was interested to even remotely consider talking to me. Which is where this story actually starts.

"How was it was possible that one of the most technically and economically advanced countries in the world could collectively and with wide open eyes commit a diplomatic and industrial suicide of the proportion that Norway did with Iran between 2000 and 2003?

It was possible because the Norwegians did neither possess a spiritual cultural base nor an understanding of the importance of piety, something of a higher nature than money. God! The Islamic Republic of Iran is a God-fearing nation, and so are its people. The Kingdom of Norway is a God-fearing nation as well, but that is more in a distant way, in an abstract sort of relation to God, without the nearness of an emotional and intellectual connection. In their daily lives Norwegians live and are separated from religion, while in Iran, the people of Iran are not. When Norway entered the Islamic Republic in 2000 it was "flying blind" and as a consequence it crashed!

"They thought that they had the right compass bearing, but they did not! Because they were immune to input from others than a tight group of people close to themselves."

Photo right. Then Statoil's General Manager in Iran Harald Finnvik seen here with Harald Dahle's Iran film in his right hand during the last minister meeting at NIOC in Tehran on May 27 2003. Accord-ing to Finnvik, he was not inform-ed about the Statoil Rafsanjani money arrangements and plans. Harald Dahle, "I met Finnvik on several occasions and he invited me up to his plush, Norwegian inspired office, in the center of Tehran. I really felt sorry for him, because he did a remarkable good job under difficult circumstances, and it looks to me as they kept him out of the loop and struck him in the back." Photo (C) 2003 Harald Dahle. "It is something of a puzzle," says Harald Dahle, "why the leaders in Norway at the time did not possess the required professionalism" to deal with it's own entrance into Iran in 2000. "Why put money under the table when one could have put it on the table, if required," explains Dahle.

"The collective harassment towards Harald Dahle in Oslo and Tehran,

 from the politically correct Norwegians, bears much resemblance with

 the psychological processes in antisemitism. What they witnessed

 chocked the Iranians to the bone!"

After all Oslo had plenty of time throughout the years to prepare itself in the direction of Tehran." However, history is history and the facts are there in the archives of the Foreign Department in Tehran and Oslo and here in my drawers and PC. Norway-Iran relations in the period between 2000 and 2003 is locked in a time capsule. And no matter how one wished the result should have been, the truth is there to see. But to understand it, and draw a lesson from it, is quite another matter!

HOSSEIN ADELI PhD THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT IN TEHRAN

Right picture: Foreign Department Tehran April 2002. The Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs, and former Governor of the Central Bank His Excellency Hossein Adeli PhD with Harald Dahle, right, after a meeting in April 2002. In a meeting between Harald Dahle and Ambassador Faraji Rad on April 12 2005 the Ambassador conveyed that the massive rejection and harassment of Dahle was not acceptable. It was the intense lack of openness, their protective stance and right out fiendish attitude which has left behind a very bad impression among Iranian dignitaries. Ambassador Faraji Rad, "We know that Norway wants to have a good relation to the United States at the same time that it tries to build a good relation to the Islamic Republic. However, the lack of openness about Iran in the Norwegian consciousness is something that we find troublesome. Iran is a local super power with great influence towards countries in the region and we believe that is a reason why the United States will not attack Iran."

ANTISEMITISM

AND THE RISE OF FASCISM IN POST-WAR NORWAY

In a broader definition of the term antisemitism I can confirm that,

"it is not a requirement to be a Jew in today's Norway in order to be treated as “Ein Jude.”

It is sufficient to possess good human, empathic qualities, be positive, dress well, speak well and otherwise contribute with quality work. That in itself will, as we have seen and shall witness later, qualify for serious harassment followed by denial of work in the Kingdom. Antisemitism on many levels, open and covert, is alive and well in Norway today.

"Duly protected by a Police force who sympathize with and protect neo Nazis when they arrogantly march passed bewildered citizens and display their ice cold, fascist hatred."

The anti-Israel stance of the Foreign Department in combination with a general decline in humanistic values and thinking in Norway today makes the words of the German philo-sopher Karl Jaspers ring eerily through,

“If it has happened once, it can happen again.” And I ad, “It has happened again. It is happen-ing right now!” Photo of Karl Jaspers in his reading room.

It gives reason for great concern, when we know that the Foreign Department demanded and instructed the largest daily newspaper in Norway “Aftenposten” not to print the alarming news that “the German fleet was on its way to take Norway”, which its correspondent in Germany at the time had hastily cabled back.

THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OSLO

"Much fear of openness from the Norwegian side derailed common progress and left the Iranians bewildered and frustrated."

That the Foreign Department was not indicted for this treasonous behavior after the war is in itself remark-able. It’s overtaking of the free press with its “not to print” instruction to “Aftenposten” of April 1940 sets a certain Que for the Departments skewed priorities and thinking in post-war Norway and it's subsequently fiendish behavior towards Harald Jan Dahle as it had repeatedly tried to shut down Dahle's work in Oslo and in Tehran. Picture below is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo.

"Norway breach Human Rights Articles every, single day." Harald Dahle

HUMAN RIGHTS

Article 23 of the United Nations Human Rights Charter states that "Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment."

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, states that: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 4 of the Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union states that, "everyone shall have the right to thought, conscience and religion.

Article 5 states that, "Everyone have the right to freedom of ex-pression. This right shall include freedom of opinion and the freedom to receive and impart information and ideas, particularly philosophical, political and religious. "Infringing on and hindering my work and curbing and blocking my right to receive and impart information and expression are clear violations of Article 4, 5, 19 and 23," says Harald Dahle. He is currently contemplating to write a petition and take the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights United Nations Office 1211 Geneva 10, Switzer-land and to the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe 67075 Strasbourg-Cedex France. "It will be quite a spectacle," he admits.

"The hostile stance of the Foreign Ministry in Oslo made Guantanamo and Bagram look quite pale in comparison."

I met Foreign Minister Jan Pettersen at Azadi Hotel North in the Capital Tehran were we all stayed. He had flown in from Kabul, Afghanistan the night before and now he was sitting in the lobby with two aides on his right side. When he saw me coming he stood up and shook hands with me and smiled. After my return to Oslo in 2003 things changed to the worse. In August of 2015 the former Foreign Minister Jan Pettersen stalked and came up on the side of Harald Dahle as they walked in Bogstadveien, one of Oslo's busy main streets. Below is the exact spot where Foreign Minister Pettersen stalked and harassed Harald Dahle. Picture of Thon Hotel Gyldenløve in Bogstadveien 20, Oslo.

Harald Jan Dahle, “Jan Pettersen came up along my right side; he was walking fast and briskly turning his head towards me. His face was pink of anger; his white teeth in both the lower and upper jaw yelped at me, eyes full of aggression. It was an ugly sight! It reflected the sheer hatred which the Foreign Department in Oslo had in store for me. They had been on my back in Tehran and Oslo and showed no willingness to get off." Picture bellow. His Excel-lency, Mr. Jan Pettersen, Norway's Foreign Minister from 2001 till 2005 is seen here making his point of view abundantly clear,

"with a threatening, tight fist and red tie, a sort of empathy in reverse!"

By harassing, demonizing and hindering a certain representative of the media; repeatedly block and sabotage his international protect-ed and respectful work one is en-titled to ask this question, "Which side is the Foreign Department on and whose obligations does it actually serve?" But like in 1940 and now in 2002 it has been more important for the Foreign Depart-ment in Oslo to be "political correct" with a stiff upper lip than to empathize with the people of Norway and fully adapt to Article 23 of the UN's Charter which Norway ratified on November 12, 1948. I therefore conclude that reduced empathy, respect, dignity and piety and the absorption by money, greed and selfies have tipped the humanistic core values from "we care" to "we couldn't care less", and that is a serious shift in a nations collective psyche. Reflected today in the rise of fascism, violence among youth and a general disrespect for law and order.

"The Foreign Ministry should take a course in basic manners," Harald Dahle Today, Mr. Pettersen is Norway's Ambassador to Vienna. This is very interesting, as Austria is the country in Europe who has the oldest trade arrangement with Persia, dating back to the sixteenth century. Also, Iran's Ambassador to Oslo Noghrekar Shirazi was Ambassador to Vienna before arriving in Oslo. Shirazi, "Two of my children were born in Vienna," he told Harald Dahle, and continued, "There are three Iranian Ambassadors to Vienna; one to the UN, one to IAEA and one to the Embassy." Dahle, "Shirazi's wife is a highly cultural person who had studied the Catholic religion. In order to create a bridge between the Muslim and the Catholic faith I presented her with a small rosary which she joyfully accepted.

"No such spiritual bridge-building took place towards the arrogant Protestants. They seem to know everything better!"

You know, the West has carved up North Africa and the Middle East, all on false claims of weapons of mass destruction. And what have we got the last thirty years? A humongous refugee crises pushing Europe to its very limit! This devious process is the opposite of piety; it is evil incarnate, leaving people in the region with dehumanizing burdens and destroyed lives."

THOMAS J WATSON: THINK

At IBM, were I worked in the early seventies as a sales repre-sentative, we quickly adapted to Thomas J. Watson's cognitive marketing slogan "THINK". I still follow his splendid advice. Thomas John Watson Sr., left, was an American businessman. He served as the chairman and CEO of International Business Machines and he oversaw the company's growth into an inter-national force from 1914 to 1956.

In April of 2002 Harald Dahle was invited by Contract Director Reza Shaheri to the Head-quarters of "the Muztasafan Organization of the Islamic Revolution", formerly the Mustasa-fan and Janbazan Foundation MJF, which is the Middle East's largest foundation, or Bonyad.

THE MUSTASAFAN ORGANIZATION

OF THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION

Left picture. Contract Director Reza Shaheri, left, looks on Harald Dahle's "Vision of Iran" concept, right, at an exhibition for oil, gas and technology at the University of Kish in February of 2002. The island of Kish lies in Iran's Special Economic Zone in the Persian Gulf. French oil company TOTAL has its supply base there from where it supports its operations on the humongous South Pars Field. Dahle visited Total's base and made a filmed interview there. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Bonyad is the second-largest commercial enterprise behind the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company, NIOC, and biggest holding company in the Middle East. According to one of the foundation's former directors, Mohsen Rafighdoost Mostazafan allocates 50 percent of its profits to providing aid to the needy in the form of low-interest loans or monthly pensions, while it inves

Whilst technically appointed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad he is considered to be closer to more pragmatic conservative factions and during the 2005 presidential election he was the campaign manager of Ali Larijani, the conservative candidate. He was also a presidential candidate in the 2013 presidential election, but withdrew before the polling began. Referring to the controversy over Iran's nuclear program, Mottaki said the referral of the issue to the UN Security Council would be a detrimental move. He called for negotiations and said Iran does not seek nuclear weapons, and instead wants the same rights as other members of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

EPITAPH

In the early spring of 2002, alarming Doppler-staccato messages from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo started to tick in to Ambassador Noghrekar Shirazi's office. They contained wailed critics of one Mr. Harald Jan Dahle, who they thought had too easy an access to high-level meetings with the Iranian dignitaries in Oslo and in Tehran. Harald Dahle, "I vividly remember an irritated and blushing Ambassador Shirazi turning to me. With shivering voice full of deep indignation he countered bitterly,

"Maybe they should have done what you are doing now...many years ago." Clearly, there had been a lot of dissatisfaction over time from the Iranian side on how they were looked upon and treated by the Foreign Ministry in Oslo. Harald Dahle, "One can't just kick-start a strained, bilateral relation, as it had been between Iran and Norway, and hope that it will take flight in the desired direction.

"You must plant a tree, let it grow, water it and protect it."

Then, after years of mutual respectful cooperation, one will see the fruits of those investments take place. Austria's relation to Iran and vice versa is a good example of this.

"And Norway should refrain from playing the moral and ethical compass for every other nation on Earth!"