Mo i Rana | The most important thing I want to say to a Mo i Rana in urban puberty is: The point is not to get big. The point is to become a well-functioning adult that other people want to be around
Reader letter This is a debate post, written by an external contributor. The post expresses the writer’s attitudes.
Growing up should not be the only goal
Before Christmas, Sven Henriksen asked a timely question in Rana Blad: What will you become when you grow up, Mo i Rana? In the same post, he nicely summed up the cultural desert and the island city center just the way I myself experienced it for many years before I packed up and moved to Trondheim and later Copenhagen. Mo i Rana was not “big” enough for me. To the great surprise of my 19-year-old self, this is now changing. Teenager Mo i Rana is growing up.
The most important thing I want to say to a Mo i Rana in urban puberty is:
The point is not to get big. The point is to become a well-functioning adult that other people want to be around. Growth, relocation and the business boom are good things that bring with them important ripple effects for the whole society, but becoming a big burden is not the only goal. Just as important should be to develop a good society. One genuine good society, which means that people do not use the airport to leave the city, which Henriksen so wisely warns about.
How do you create a good society, then? Sure, we need shops and airport and hospital. Not least, we just need, cafes, culture houses and events, and other places where people can meet. But we must not remember the most important resource: the people who live in the city and what culture they create together.
Like other young people, Mo i Rana can do well to learn from the bigger cities and their mistakes. If you disregard the fact that korona has foxed most of the best in the big cities, it is a lot of fantastic in Oslo, Trondheim and Copenhagen. But something that may often be neglected in the story of the big cities with all the possibilities is the loneliness that paradoxically arises in the narrow blocks. In 2021, 31 people lay dead at home in Oslo for a whole week before they were discovered [1]. I think that these sad statistics and trends are a consequence of the traditional structures that once gave people community, e.g. extended families, associations and neighbors, have been replaced by bad surrogates for social contact (even before the corona): (U) social media, Netflix and focus on things and status. Throw in polarization, recent housing prices, increased inequality in society, and algorithms in social media that set fire to professional lines and disagreements, and we have a cocktail that does not exactly facilitate a good society.
Robert Putnam describes in the book «Bowling alone» how activities that used to be done together in common today are performed alone. Think, in the United States it has become common to bowl alone! It is also not uncommon to not know what the neighbor’s name is. I myself have no idea who or how many people live in my block in Copenhagen. The pandemic has apparently set fire to these trends. Many are lonely and miss an everyday life with meaning, social ties and belonging.
Therefore, when we try to build the Mo i Rana of the future, we should ask ourselves how we build these things: Community, belonging and pride in the city. We should use the destructive influence of the pandemic and the sad trends in the West to build something new. Perhaps Mo i Rana can show the world (yes, in fact) what is possible in the time of polarization, isolation, and loneliness. Perhaps we can build a society with space for everyone, where even those who think change is scary will have the opportunity to take part in perhaps the most meaningful project ever: The Green Shift.
But what can robberies do, quite concretely, to counteract the negative tendencies seen elsewhere in the Western world? In Mo i Rana, for example, we can be at our best by being reasonably small (even after Mo grows up): that you know people in the city. That you are greeting people. I may be colored by being a «millennial», but my spinal reflex is that talking to people in the city is «small». I do not think I’m alone. Still, a vibrant city center is not just people queuing for coffee; there is also talk, small talk and socialization I the queue!
We can strengthen communities, in associations and clubs (not just sports – not everyone likes football or skiing). Oh, or what about a sauna along Moholmen? A convenient staircase has been built down to the water, and the beach has even been cleared. Since the weather gods, as is well known, have a fundamental problem with our part of the world, a sauna can extend the bathing season considerably – and at the same time you can create winter bathing clubs for the freezing sticks as well.
We can take care of the distinctive, and invite others into it: We have beautiful nature right outside the door. When it comes to people from other parts of the world who may not be used to walking in all kinds of weather, we should take them with us. Lend clothes and have a crash course in why wool should be at the bottom (if they should not know it), and share the nature experience with the newcomers! Even better: the threshold for going on a trip could be lowered for both old and new robberies by reopening the gondola in Langneset. With cafe! And wine and beer serving! (No, I have not put myself into any budget- I just dream, here). Otherwise, we can learn something from Bodø Red Cross, which has a concept they call «Borrow a Bodø resident»: Local Bodø residents make themselves available every Wednesday at Stormen library to «hang out» with temporary networkless newcomers. Well behaved!
We can strengthen the local community, to be on and build new ties in our immediate vicinity. Robbers need to train the socialization and inclusion muscle! We should put away focus and focus more on life around us instead of consuming empty Instagram calories. The phone has made us passive receipts of content while we could have spent time on some of our most basic needs: belonging. Be included. Contribute. Then call! Just do it, do not send message first. We should get better at stopping by for a spontaneous coffee. What are we going to do with the newly renovated kitchen and x number of decorative pillows if only those who live there are to see it anyway? And when the corona gives sail, let’s go out into the city. Not to take selfies, men to meet. Be together. The point is, we do not necessarily need new food and interior design stores. We need meeting places! And a more social culture!
And one last thing, Mo i Rana, where you stand on the butt of life as “big”: Reins now that rural animal. You know, that animal that knows about all your faults, and only cares about them. Allergy to diversity. It’s uncharming. And if Mo i Rana is to get rid of the unofficial stamp as “Rykteby nr 1” (as it was at least called when I was younger), we almost have to ask ourselves if we can find something more interesting to talk about yet who have done what (and with whom). Preferably at a bar. Which is open. And as one can take the bus to and from.
Silje Lensu Dåbakk, occasional robbery
