Te past behind us, the future ahead of us

PART 2. THE PAST BEHIND US, THE FUTURE AHEAD OF US

On antagonists and helpers, and about the festive dinner during which HM Queen Sonja swapped table cavaliers to have a decisive talk with a Danish minister.

Te world already existed in Fjaler When Municipal Presidency Secretary, sheep farmer and entrepreneur Magne Bjergene received the Royal Medal of Merit in 2002, the Høegh center on campus was filled with his friends and other acquaintances. They all sang his praises as the center of attention that night. The list of what he had achieved at Fjaler was a long one. He had speed and flexibility. When he really wanted to achieve something, Bjergene was willing to stray from the trodden path.

“Unique”, was how Kjell Kvalheim from the Sogn & Fjordane7 Red Cross described him in a word.

Teacher Jelena Belamaric remembers how Bjergene, on a sailing trip to the Faroese Islands, practically ‘conjured’ a large, social gathering that included food, drink and good conversation. Chief planner Ivar Lund-Mathiesen and the first Chair of the Board Bjorn Rønneberg are among the many voices who claim that there would be no UWC Red Cross Nordic without him. Bjergene had a background as an agronomist and liked to say about himself that he possessed a knack for holding precarious situations together. This would show in his unusual ability to combine different sectors. The basic idea behind establishing two big institutions at Haugland was precisely because education and health are two sides of the same coin.

He was not easy – Magne8 was not easy, one of the neighbors up here said.

7 e jubilee book, Sogn and Fjordane Red Cross (1946-1996) 8 In the following paragraphs the author uses the rst names Kjellaug and Magne and not the surname. is is to avoid confusion regarding which of the two one is hearing about.

Kjellaug Bjergene looks back at her life with Magne. Their friendship began in 1959, when she came to Dale to enroll at the Falch’s Boarding and High School. Magne actually lived in Dale. But he soon moved to Halsnøy to study at high school there.

By saying that he was not easy, they probably meant that he had many projects and that everything he undertook was done to perfection. Everything should be improved.

Sure. Both Kjellaug and Magne are children of progressive optimism from the postwar era. But Magne clearly was an even more typical representative of that trend. After some years spent in Bergen and in southern Norway, he got a contract in Madagascar through NORAD. His family lived on a farm there for three years. In 1978-79 the family was to return to Dale and their home farm. It was supposed to be a nice and quiet period, building up the farm and having a steady job as well. Kjellaug got a job as teacher; Magne was the Chairman’s Secretary in the municipality. But it stopped being “quiet” the day he found a special letter on the kitchen table.

Spectacle – I remember clearly as though it happened yesterday, even if it was only a simple letter bearing the logo of the Sogn & Fjordane Red Cross. It stated that Magne had been elected for the Property Committee of the Red Cross. That was surprising. We had never before had any business with the Red Cross. As time passed by, the name Christian Bekker9 was mentioned, and there was talk about voluntary work out at Haugland. Magne and I headed out there to help with some cleaning. We sat outside the house after having found all kinds of stuff. We looked out over the area. There was something holy about the atmosphere, as though something big was in the making.

– Magne8 was not easy, one of the neighbors up here said.

– Why was it that precisely you and Magne ended up out there?

– When we came back to Dale in 1979, the Municipal Director Arvid Follevåg got the idea that Magne should come to the home for the elderly for a talk with Becker. Follevåg knew that Becker was a native

1. Anna Macoun and Tom Gresvig as hosts for Queen Noor and Queen Sonja at the opening in 1995.

2. A joyful meeting between the Queen and the students.

3. The Baking House under construction.

9 Christian Bekker (1877 -1980) was born in Madagascar, lived in Bergen and owned Haugland in Fjaler. He was a lawyer and Supreme Court Attorney. Before passing away at 103 years old, he wrote in his will that the farm in Haugland was to go to Sogn & Fjordane Red Cross.

from Madagascar. So Magne brought him a selection of things we had bought there: large conches and shells. The old man, who lived to the age of 103, had created a precious office for himself. And then his will followed shortly after. “More or less deprived children” were to benefit from Becker’s resources. That is when Magne had to help define what “more or less deprived children” are. In 1983 Haugland was the location of a national camp for the Red Cross Youth. It was raining buckets. There were still only a few houses there at that time. But it was expanding. Still, dreams and ambitions were high and there was constantly something to inaugurate. At the same time, money was always short. At times, Magne felt it was all in vain.

– And then the Foundation for a Nordic UWC appeared in Fjaler, and had a talk with him…

– Yes, a lot started happening then. Many interviews for the newspapers and inspections. There was also some opposition by the locals which made it far from easy.

No, the development of Haugland was by no

Looking into the Haugland Bay.

means easy. But many of those who worked hard for the school’s existence point to Magne Bjergene- as well as Tom Gresvig, Bjorn Rønneberg and Ivar Lund-Mathiesen- as the school’s founding father. The property’s Secretary seemed to be going far beyond his mandate to make the school a reality. Due to his extensive involvement in all aspects of the story, it is needless to say that it was hard work, both day and night. So hard indeed, that it seemed like one needed a special kind of inspired motivation to pull it through.

– Yes, Mange’s heart was beating for creation. He was always, always like that.

Te good helpers The work on the Haugland area began in the late 70’s. It was the Sogn & Fjordane Red Cross who made the plans for the region. But they lacked the government and municipality’s committed decisions to build the Health and Sports Center. Magne Bjergene took up the case with the Fjaler Lions, the organization he had been part of since the early 80’s. More specifically he suggested that the Lions should sponsor the swimming pool at the Health Sports Center. This was the beginning of a process that ended with a deal during the national Red Feather campaign in 1986. This initiative gathered 19 million NOK for the health sports part of the Haugland area. When Magne was asked in an interview about the events, he mentioned Astrid Marie Nistad as crucial to the enterprise.

The Haugland area was used as a center for asylum seekers in the eighties. But then the foundation took over, via Magne. In 1987 he put forth a proposition to the Red Cross leader, Børre Jacobsen. For the Red Cross’ jubilee book, Jacobsen made the following statement: “I remember it well; the heavy snow falling that day in January 1987 when a delegation from Nordic United World College visited us. At the time I had never heard of the UWC. There were a lot of discussions about what to do with Haugland then. We agreed that UWC and the health sports part could become a joint venture. This enabled the government to make an exception for Haugland which was important for our progress.”

If the connection between the Red Cross and UWC might seem obvious today, back then it wasn’t quite

1. Zoe and Naza know how to enjoy Flekke rain, from 2015.

2. A happy boy - was a gift from the Lorentzen family in memory of Knut E. Lorentzen. Students were involved in making it, under the leadership of Ove Losnegård.

3. Anna Garner was central in creating the College programme for many years. In 2001 she became the first acting Rektor at a UWC.

natural to think along those lines. The Red Cross and UWC sharing the same leading ideas and therefore being primed to work together, was allegedly Magne’s original idea. And it was based on his broad conception of peace. “The concept of peace in this context means more than just absence of war. It is an ongoing process to uphold democracy, cooperation and cross-cultural exchange of knowledge and insight for and by one another”, Bjergene said to the Sogn & Fjordane Red Cross in 1996.

After starting the school in 1995, Bjergene was given relatively free reign as the Director of Development. He broadened his field of action by starting his Research and Development Company for UWC RCN; Haugland Rehabilitation Centre and Fjaler municipality. Magne wanted to proceed and was rarely motivated by maintenance work. When RCN-alumnus Mark Wang got the idea to start a UWC in China, Bjergene supported him wholeheartedly. Thanks to him, the Chinese UWC’s planning was underway, consolidated largely by the cooperation agreement that Bjergene arranged between the Sogn & Fjordane county and the Ningxia region. Not too long after, the construction was made possible with funding from the Norwegian Department of Foreign Affairs.

The Peace Corps Project in Western Sahara and Ningxia is another example of work initiated by Bjergene, in conjunction with Haugland International Research-and Development Center (HIFUS).

Bjergene was close to establishing a fish farm for the school and wanted to showcase it for the world as ‘best practice’ management from Norway. Together with Firda SeaFood and 0la Braanaas, he secured a concession for running a fish farm for educational purposes and at the same time, also secured a law that made such concessions possible. The fish farm was close to being realized when it was stopped due to a disagreement about the financing and the distribution of responsibilities between the school and its external partners.

As day turns to dusk Bjergene had a habit of donning a beret when making his entrance into one of the Nordic capitals in the name of the good cause. Something told him that Chinese politicians would appreciate a recital of

The bay by the Høegh Centre as a starting point for fjord activities.