February 22, 2005 7:53 AM

You want me to do WHAT in front of all these naked Norwegians??

F**k for the boondocks: Echoing the notorious ‘Fuck for Forest’ stunt that combined public sex and fundraising for the rain forest, an organization of rural youth are trying to find ways to raise the population in Norway’s outlying districts

Let it never be said that Norwegians lack the creative problem-solving gene when it comes to dealing with difficult problems. I doubt that the Lutherans I grew up around in my small hometown in northern Minnesota would have come up with a similar solution.

The “Fuck for bygda (rural areas/boondocks)” campaign from the Norwegian young farmers league (NBU) is a humorous - yet serious - attempt to focus attention on the exodus from Norway’s rural areas, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports.

Besides a declining birth rate Norway’s outlying districts also see their residents moving to urban areas, and small local schools have begun to disappear.

Six years ago the residents of little Gloppen held a high-profile ‘community reproduction effort’ in a local gymnasium that embodies the spirit of “Fuck for bygda”. The endeavor was a big success according to organizer Per Svein Reed, who told NRK that the school is now “nearly bursting” with kids.

Gloppen’s snow-hole project was less of a hit. Gloppen businesses dug out cozy little caves in the mountainside snow and put out hundreds of torches to add to the romantic atmosphere. The effort did not result in a noticeable rise in the local population nine months later.

“Fuck for bygda” will encourage rural youth to get together and reproduce to help maintain their local societies.

I’m curious as to what Gloppen’s “community reproduction effort” involved. Seeing as how it was held in a gymnasium, I can’t get the picture of hundreds of pasty-white Norwegians doing the horizontal bop on the gym floor out of my mind. AUGGHHH…make it stop!!!

It’s all too easy, of course, to make light of the situation. While the comic relief potential is at near-record levels, it does mask a serious problem. What DO you do when your rural area is slowly dying because young people are leaving? I’m not certain that most Conservative rural types, especially in the US, would embrace a “community reproduction effort”, but hey, if it works….

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 22, 2005 7:53 AM.

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