
An Iraqi who saved Norway from oil (2009) - sndean
https://web.archive.org/web/20100123225932/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/99680a04-92a0-11de-b63b-00144feabdc0.html
======
ethbro
Thanks to everyone who mentioned this in previous comments. It's a fascinating
bit of history.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19593054](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19593054)

------
azernik
Little throwaway bit:

"Nor was it straightforward to resign from his job. When al-Kasim broke the
news to his boss in London, “he said: ‘Damn you, Farouk. We were counting on
you. Now you are letting us down.’” The top director put pressure on him to
stay, but al-Kasim explained that only Norway offered the care his son needed.
In the end, his superiors relented. “My immediate boss said: ‘I can’t promise
you that you will get a job, but I can say now that we will not stop you
getting one.’”

And so no one interfered when Norway’s Ministry of Industry hired al-Kasim as
a consultant. His job would be to analyse the North Sea exploration results –
at a salary just above that of the prime minister."

That he had to rely on the graciousness of his employer to refrain from
blackballing him is still a reality for a lot of professionals.

------
Someone
For those interested in what they invest in, that data is public:
[https://www.nbim.no/](https://www.nbim.no/). They hold, for example, 0.86% of
Amazon, 1,34% of AMD, 0,97% of Apple, 0,33% of Facebook, 0,95% of Microsoft,
and 0,8% of Tesla.

~~~
achow
Amazing dashboard

[https://www.nbim.no/en/the-fund/holdings/holdings-as-
at-31.1...](https://www.nbim.no/en/the-fund/holdings/holdings-as-
at-31.12.2018/?fullsize=true)

------
Abishek_Muthian
>their youngest son “completely transformed” by the treatment he received in
Norway

Even though he didn't get enough credit for the work he had done, his goal to
provide better health care for his son is fulfilled; that should provide him
the satisfaction above everything else.

~~~
peteretep
> that should provide him the satisfaction above everything else

Being a good parent above all other considerations is not a universally held
moral.

~~~
village-idiot
We can assume that it’s one that the subject shares though, considering how
much risk he and his wife were willing to tolerate to get their son better
treatment.

~~~
peteretep
What him and his wife were willing to risk: moving to Norway, when one of them
was Norwegian, from Iraq.

~~~
village-idiot
The article makes it very clear he had planned to give up his career, and they
had to effectively smuggle themselves out of the country. The government was
tracking him so they knew who to grab if they nationalized the oil.

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simonebrunozzi
For the curious: the fund's current value is at $1.05 Trillion dollars (USD).

With 5.3 million Norwegian, that equates to $198k per capita. Impressive.

Also: "Since 1998 the fund has generated an annual return of 5.5 percent".

Well done Norway, and well done Farouk al-Kasim.

What a pity that the Iraqi government didn't let him run a similar scheme for
the Iraqi oil. Things would be much different today.

------
btrettel
By coincidence, I recently watched the first episode of a TV show where
Norway's oil resources contribute to a different kind of trouble.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupied](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupied)

~~~
pizza
Occupied is pretty good!

Check out Nobel if you want to watch another Norwegian political thriller with
a focus on the interplay between energy resources and international relations-
this time about a Norwegian guy who comes home from Afganistan only to become
a pawn for international politics

~~~
gdy
It is russophobic.

The idea of Russia invading Norway to resume Norwegian oil production because
the EU asked it is absurd.

Were it to happen in real life, Russia would be applauding Norway for rising
the oil price and ramping up its own oil production as much as it can.

~~~
lagadu
So you're saying that a fictional show is... fictional?

~~~
gdy
Imagine a movie depicting Jews baking matzos using the blood of christian
babies.

Would you reply with the same "So you're saying that a fictional show is...
fictional"?

~~~
pytester
Russia is a state that has occupied at 7/8 European countries in the last
century.

Judaism is a somewhat vaguely defined cultural/religious grouping.

In European history the last large scale attempt to blur the distinction
between race and state ended with attempted genocide. It's somewhat
distasteful to continue repeating that mistake.

~~~
gdy
Your attempt to justify russophobia is distasteful.

All this nonsense like 'we don't like Russian state but love Russian people"
doesn't fool anyone.

~~~
pytester
I watched the TV series and it was actually remarkably sympathetic towards the
Russians involved. The Russian government obviously wasn't very pleased with
it, but I doubt the EU were either (it portrays neither state in a good
light).

The way America treats Russia (in TV, movies and the media, where it's the
bogeyman du jour), on the other hand, is vastly different and arguably quite
russophobic.

~~~
gdy
Well, I must admit I stopped watching it after several episodes, perhaps I
should get back to it.

------
refurb
The province of Alberta, Canada does something similar with it’s Heritage
Trust Fund. 30% of royalties are put away.

Current balance is $120B which is actually a lot considering the province has
only 3M people (~$40,000 per person balance).

However, it’s be rife with mismanagement.

~~~
graeme
You’re very wrong. The current bslance is about $15 billion Canadian. $190
billion was the non-renewable resource money generated. They only out 30% in,
unlike Norway’s 100%, and they stopped adding money in 1987.

Alberts has an estimated population of 4.3 million, so they have about $3500
per person only.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Heritage_Savings_Tru...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Heritage_Savings_Trust_Fund)

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta)
(For population stats)

~~~
refurb
Ahh.. looked at the wrong numbers.

Regardless, if Alberta had done the same as Norway (100% of royalties), they
still wouldn't have as much money in the fund.

------
djrobstep
Living in Australia it breaks your heart to see how much this country has
squandered a similarly historic natural resources boom.

Instead of taxing it heavily and using it to build an enormous pool of money
for the common good, we've simply handed it over to private interests.

Australia has also squandered opportunity in its retirement system: 2.6
trillion in high fee individual accounts (1% given away to the financial
sector in fees every year!) instead of in a sovereign wealth fund like
Norway's with a fraction of the admin costs.

Every country with an interest in a wealthy, fair society should be following
in Norway's footsteps.

Fun fact: Norway is mostly socialist. The government owns the majority of the
country's wealth.

~~~
netsharc
Someone replied to you but he deleted it. I meant to continue the conversation
with:

If this article (referencing a 2008 paper)
[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/13/north-...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/13/north-
sea-oil-money-uk-norwegians-fund) is to be believed, the UK had the same
thing, but the money went to tax cuts for the rich. So it does smell like
corruption to me.

[He talked about some conservative governments being corrupt, to which I
think:] Conservatism is a con anyway, selling austerity as a pain that the
citizenry needs to suffer to get a "healthy economy", which means cutting
budgets where somehow the solution is to outsource things (e.g. with the NHS),
meaning the private companies owned by the elites rake in the money. And then
they sell the "it's the immigrants who are overtaxing our resources" to get
the public to vote for Brexit. (Where less EU regulations mean the elite will
have more power to influence the government to allow worker exploitation)

~~~
Thlom
In Norway it’s EU regulations that makes it easier for the conservatives (and
the last 20-30 years the social democrats) to privatize the economy and
exploit workers. EU is a neoliberal project with some benefits for the common
man.

~~~
vnorilo
Norway is not in the EU.

~~~
lixtra
Nonetheless, plenty of EU driven rules apply in Norway. So gp’s statement
could be true.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway–European_Union_relati...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway–European_Union_relations)

~~~
village-idiot
Mostly around trade, so that Norwegian products can be sold in the EU and vice
versa without secondary inspections. Only 21% of EU laws apply to Norway, and
I don’t see any evidence that the EU could do anything like force Norway to
privatize things.

------
throwaway284721
> Inflows of hard currency push up prices, squeezing the competitiveness of
> non-oil businesses and starving them of capital.

This is true for any kind of industry that a country has a competitive
advantage in.

~~~
pytester
There's a vast difference in the effect on a country depending on whether its
competitive advantage comes from resources or people though.

If it comes from resources then the incentive to develop the people is lost
and they're either bought off or ignored. Look at what happens in Russia or
Venezuela or Saudi Arabia.

~~~
throwaway284721
So what's wrong with being bought off? People in Kuwait have it very well.

~~~
pytester
In the 17th century Bolivia was considered the richest country in the Americas
because of the Potosi silver mine while the eastern seaboard of America was
basically a poverty stricken nowhere.

Now Bolivia is the poorest country in the Americas and the US is the richest.
This is basically why.

The answer is - it works fine until the resource price drops or you run out of
it.

Kuwait may be fat and content now but it has a dark future ahead of it once
they stop being able to live off foreign cash.

------
benj111
To me this is a story of immigration.

Europe is currently 'struggling' with immigration, the subtext being they
don't bring skills, lower wages for the poorest, etc.

Here you have an immigrant that brings massive wealth to a country, (and he's
essentially a healthcare tourist!)

~~~
etaty
I think, you are missing half of the context.

He is Iraqi, but his wife is Norwegian. They met in London, during his study.
They have a child together, who need cares only available in Norway.

In most countries this kind of immigration is doable (high skills and related
to the country by marriage). Is it called immigration?

Migrants moving to a country without having an initial link with that country
is a more complex problem.

~~~
GordonS
I thought immigration _wasn 't_ possible in most countries if you have
dependants with considerable healthcare needs?

------
dankohn1
Such an inspiring story. And so frustrating given the political push by Trump
and Brexit to make it much harder for talented foreigners to immigrate.

------
CryptoPunk
>>Such resignation reflects bitter experience of the way that dependency on
natural resources can poison a country’s economic and political system.
Inflows of hard currency push up prices, squeezing the competitiveness of non-
oil businesses and starving them of capital. As a result, productivity growth
withers (a phenomenon known as “Dutch disease” after the negative effects of
North Sea gas production on the Netherlands).

That's an incorrect summation of the "Dutch Disease". Productivity growth
doesn't suffer. Productivity growth, or GDP growth, increases with higher oil
output.

The Dutch Disease is a politically slanted term to describe how other
industries languish when one expands. But a rise in oil production is not
associated with declining productivity growth, and the Dutch Disease theory
does not include that proposition. A rise in oil production/exports makes an
economy more capital-rich, which raises productivity.

