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Meet Heikki Holmås, Norway's new minister of International Development. He's a former "D&D champ" (he won a tournament in 1989) and convention organizer, who has recently "leveled up" to his new position. And as you can imagine, he has a lot of positive things to say about the roleplaying hobby:

RPGs can be extremely relevant in putting people in situations they’re unfamiliar with. Save the Children have their refugee games. I have friends in Bergen who’ve run human rights-RPGs. But you have to be professional. You create real emotions when you play role playing games, real emotions that stick, he says.

Holmås also thinks that LARP could help resolve some long-standing conflicts:

...there’s no doubt that you can put Israelis into the situation of the Palestinians and vice versa in a way that fosters understanding and builds bridges. Those things are an important aspect of role playing games which makes it possible to use them politically to create change.

Sadly, however, he doesn't seem to be aware of the Israeli Defense Force's attitude towards RPGs.

Still, it's people like Holmås who will lead to positive change, if anyone can. You can read the English interview at Imagonem.org - and if you happen to be able to read Norwegian, you can read the full interview here

(Special thanks to Lee Williams and boingboing.net for the link)

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