JUSTICE is the festival theme for 2021

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

We live in an unjust world. Some are poor, some are rich. Some are black, some are white. Some are women, some are men.

Practically speaking, what we humans all have in common — regardless of nationality or cultural background — is our desire for justice. Yet we profoundly disagree on what constitutes justice.

Some believe the genital mutilation of young girls is just. Some believe that it is just for children born and raised in Norway to be deported because their parents lied about their country of origin.

Some believe it is just for all humans to be judged after death — for some to experience eternal salvation, while others suffer eternal torment.  

No one believes that destroying the planet for all future generations is just — yet that is what we are in the process of doing.

We live in an unjust world. A tiny percentage of the world’s wealthiest inhabitants owns more than twice as much as the remaining 6.9 billion people on the planet. One half of the world’s population lives on less than five U.S. dollars a day.

In Norway, too, the differences have continued to grow since the mid-1980s, independent of which governing coalition of parties has set the policies. A fresh report from the Norwegian statistics bureau shows that income inequality in Norway is much larger than it was thought to be.

We live in an unjust world, in which the poor have less opportunities than the rich, in which women have less opportunities than men, in which those with disabilities have less opportunities than those without, in which LGBTQI persons have less opportunities than heterosexuals, and in which melanin-rich people have less opportunities than whites.

The UN's Sustainable Development Goals are the world's joint work plan for eradicating poverty, combatting inequality and ending climate change by 2030.

A different and more just world is possible. What we need is a political will to create it.

Petter Myhr

Director, Trondheim International Olavsfest