How great it is when stuff just works

In September this year I was violently attacked by 3-4 unknowns who beat me up like nothing I’ve ever experienced before and stole or destroyed most of what I had on me. With a bit of luck I got out of it alive and I still have my health, long-term trauma still pending..

What I don’t have is an insurance.

However, the Norwegian social democracy is – thanks to a left-wing direction – bound to take care of its own. Instead of being left with a 10,000 NOK deficit on top of the experience itself, I could transfer my economic claims for damages to the state. This means that in the hypothetical but very unlikely case that the police ever catch these men, or that I myself recognize them on the street, they will have to pay restitution to the state and not to me.

It’s a cumbersome process of fulfilling the criterias of application, and I didn’t have much hope being that they had stolen most of my stuff. The settlement I applied for is limited to victims of violence and does not repay what has been stolen. For instance, I had two thousand in cash which I’ll never see again.

Yesterday I got my reparation from the state, earlier than expected, and with a very positive result. Two earlier cases in court established a precedent for giving me a) reparation for my stolen glasses on the count that they were most likely destroyed in the course of action and b) economical satisfaction for the infringement of my personal freedom.
I didn’t expect that at all.

So I just wanted to express my positive opinion of social beauracracy when it works like it’s supposed to, being that I am a tax-paying citizen in a country where no man needs to walk alone. No one should ever have to be solely responsible for events acted upon him when it is a fact that we’re all born into a community, a society, a family of sorts. We’re in this together. Colour me communist.

4 thoughts on “How great it is when stuff just works

  1. …it’s pretty scary to read that it happened three times in four years and if your trauma isn’t showing in a larger scale, then you are a very brave guy.

    I am not sure what you refer to when you say economical satisfaction, though…does that mean you got some of the money back?

    Either way, one more reason your country is known as the only place in the world where people can’t die alone and poor even if they wanted to.

  2. They are three pretty separate events, and this is the only one I’d label serious.

    I was lucky to survive and not lose my left eye, but long-term effects may take years to discover..

    Gotta keep my fingers crossed and live on as normal:)

  3. Sometimes living in Scandinavia just comes with its own benefits. We get to be rich AND caring at the same time, which is something you can’t say of most countries, even the nicer ones!

    /j.

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