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December 9, 2009
Obama Snubs King of Norway
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-09/obamas-oslo-snubfull/
"It's very sad," said Nobel Peace Center Director Bente Erichsen of the news that Obama would skip the peace center exhibit. Prize winners traditionally open the exhibitions about their work that accompany the Nobel festivities. "I totally understand why the Norwegian public is upset. If I could get a few minutes with the president, I'd say, 'To walk through the exhibition wouldn't take long, and I'm sure you would love the show. You have no idea what you are missing.'"
Meanwhile, the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet is reporting that the president has declined an invitation to lunch with King Harald V, an event every prize winner from the Dalai Lama to Al Gore has attended. (The newspaper's headline: "Obama disses lunch with King Harald.")
Also among the dissed, according to news reports: a concert in Oslo on Friday that was arranged in his honor, and a group of Norwegian children who had planned to meet Obama in front of City Hall.
"The American president is acting like an elephant in a porcelain shop," said Norwegian public-relations expert Rune Morck-Wergeland. "In Norwegian culture, it's very important to keep an agreement. We're religious about that, and Obama's actions have been clumsy. You just don't say no to an invitation from a European king. Maybe Obama's advisers are not very educated about European culture, but he is coming off as rude, even if he doesn't mean to."
Posted by Rob Kiser on December 9, 2009 at 9:02 PM
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