tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554094839017805685.post5353823828999534000..comments2023-08-02T09:42:47.494+01:00Comments on Moridura - - - ©Copyright Peter Curran 2015: Norway celebrates the 200th anniversary of its exit from a 434 year Union with Denmark – with a speech of congratulation and friendship from Denmark.moriduraalt.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17002920496823680378noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554094839017805685.post-37167625825659490032014-05-16T09:30:40.811+01:002014-05-16T09:30:40.811+01:00Thanks for clarification, Troels.
regards,
Peter...Thanks for clarification, Troels.<br /><br />regards,<br /><br />Petermoriduraalt.blogspot.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17002920496823680378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554094839017805685.post-74513894815767914122014-05-16T03:55:47.354+01:002014-05-16T03:55:47.354+01:00@ Thomas Widmann
First of all, thank you for taki...@ Thomas Widmann<br /><br />First of all, thank you for taking an interest in my translation, I appreciate that. By your initiative, I decided to take a close look at the sentences you mentioned, and try to carefully examine and translate it again with my thinking cap on.<br /><br />When I did the translation I used the text of the speech published at the Folketing's website: http://www.ft.dk/Folketinget/Folketingets_formand/Taler_og_artikler/Stortinget.aspx<br /><br />The speech as presented by Mogens Lykketoft does vary a slight bit, however I found it easier to translate the text, rather than to transcribe and then translate.<br /><br />After having looked at it closely, and really reading it with my thinking cap on, I think it is actually Mogens Lykketoft who might have been a bit imprecise in his wording, so my translation actually also functions as a clarification of what he said.<br /><br />In the text that I translated, the sentence is: "Sammenlagt er vi efter størrelse verdens største donor til humanitær bistand og udviklingsprojekter."<br /><br />For the purpose of consistency, I would translate that as follows:<br /><br />"Taken together we are, in terms of size, the world's largest donor of humanitarian assistance and development projects."<br /><br />If you read this and really think about it carefully, it can only make sense if he meant it in some sort of proportional term, either in terms of population or the size of our economies, because in absolute numbers (As you mentioned) there are countries who spend way more money on development aid.<br /><br />To give you some numbers, in 2012 the United States development aid budget was 30 billion US dollars. The Scandinavian budgets (Lykketoft spoke in the context of the Nordic Council when he said "we", so I think he meant all of the Nordic countries) were as follows:<br /><br />Denmark: 2,72 billion<br />Sweden: 5,24 billion<br />Norway: 4,75 billion<br />Finland: 1,32 billion<br /><br />(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_governments_by_development_aid )<br /><br />I do not have the number for Iceland, but given the size of their population it would logically be less in absolute numbers than the rest of us.<br /><br />Putting together the aid budgets of the Nordic countries which I listed above gives you 14,03 billion dollars. While this is an extraordinarily large number for countries our size, it is still less than 50% of the United States aid budget in absolute numbers.<br /><br />However, as a percentage of GDP (Which is, by its nature, a proportional term, and I think this is what Mogens Lykketoft meant when he said "by size", he meant the percentage of GDP), the top country is Luxembourg at 1 percent, then the Nordic countries follow:<br /><br />Sweden: 0,99 percent<br />Norway: 0,93 percent<br />Denmark: 0,84 percent<br />Finland: 0,53 percent<br /><br />(See the source for the exact ranking, as the Netherlands and the UK come before Finland)<br /><br />So putting together the Nordic countries gives you 3,29 percent, and bingo there we have the number Lykketoft refers to when he talks about the Nordic countries, together, being the largest donor of humanitarian assistance, ie. the percentage of GDP spent on aid, an inherently proportional concept.<br /><br />So to sum up, if you put the Nordic countries together, we are indeed the largest international aid donor in the world, BUT not in absolute terms, but rather in terms of percentage of GDP.<br /><br />I would say that while my exact wording might warrant improvement to specifically state it being in terms of GDP, I think my translation was not incorrect, but actually a clarification in itself. Lykketoft does not use the term "GDP" ("BNP" in Danish, scary thought, 'ey?) in his speech, he simply said "efter størrelse" ("by size") and "i størrelse" ("in size"), which makes sense if one reads it as "efter vores økonomiers størrelse" ("by the size of our economies"), so I also think my use of the word "proportionally" is being the most true to the words of his original without being a direct translation, but a fluent translation.Troels Justhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02391276702015185221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554094839017805685.post-34178133945696247912014-05-15T23:16:40.357+01:002014-05-15T23:16:40.357+01:00Thanks for that clarification, Thomas.
regards,
...Thanks for that clarification, Thomas.<br /><br /><br />regards,<br /><br />Petermoriduraalt.blogspot.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17002920496823680378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554094839017805685.post-89372435447642006702014-05-15T23:11:23.463+01:002014-05-15T23:11:23.463+01:00What he says is this: "I størrelse er vi tils...What he says is this: "I størrelse er vi tilsammen den største donor i verden i humanitær bistand på udviklingsprojekter." This means: "In size we are together the largest donor in the world in humanitarian assistance to development projects."Thomas Widmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00556092637506486689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554094839017805685.post-79713512529604929962014-05-15T22:53:24.655+01:002014-05-15T22:53:24.655+01:00Thanks, Thomas - I'll check with Troels.
reg...Thanks, Thomas - I'll check with Troels.<br /><br /><br />regards,<br /><br />Petermoriduraalt.blogspot.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17002920496823680378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7554094839017805685.post-3817321293602940712014-05-15T22:21:41.593+01:002014-05-15T22:21:41.593+01:00Very interesting, thanks a lot for posting this! ...Very interesting, thanks a lot for posting this! I don't think the "proportionally" is right, though -- I think he meant Denmark and Norway together are the largest donor in absolute numbers.Thomas Widmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00556092637506486689noreply@blogger.com