Oh - those Danes...!

New Address

2008-04-20T13:39:00.002+02:00

Dear all,

You'll find the successor to this blog at DEIXIS - pragmatic advice.

See you there.

Sabine

On the Way Out

2008-03-26T20:17:00.003+01:00

Everybody knows that the Ark of the Covenant was discovered by Indiana Jones and disappeared again, securely packed in a big wooden container in some warehouse in the US.

Or so I thought.

However, when watching Tempelriddernes skat ("The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar") a couple of days ago I found that this particular kind of information must have escaped film makers in Denmark. Because in this film the Ark had ended up in the crypt of one of the round churches on Bornholm (where nobody seemed to speak the dialect any more, by the way).

I had bought the DVD because I intend to inflict it on a friend of mine in Germany who teaches Danish to youngsters. They probably won't care.

Now, I am wondering,though.

Wouldn't it have been appropriate for the heroes in the film to return the Ark to Israel and probably the Chief Rabbinate? It's not something professor Jones could have done so easily - but it should be a piece of cake nowadays.

And did those film people really have to choose such a lousy little box, considering the level of craftsmanship the children of Israel must have had at the time it was made?

The third of these Knights Templar films has just hit the cinemas in Denmark. The hallmark of good children's literature is that adults can enjoy reading them, too. They don't patronise their audience.

These films do.

Farvel og tak

2008-03-23T07:23:00.002+01:00

Dear readers,

For various reasons I have decided to discontinue my blog.

After about two and a half years of blogging I have to admit to a certain metal fatigue and need a break in real life.

I'll delete my posts at the end of the month.

Thank you all for stopping by, reading, and sharing your comments.

There are somewhere between 70 and 80 of you.

Take care. Maybe we'll meet in real life.

All the best,

Sabine

Early Morning in Copenhagen

2008-03-19T06:46:00.002+01:00

I thought the sounds from the street were muffled when I woke up - but I did not expect to be met by this view...

Today...

2008-03-18T07:17:00.003+01:00

... it's like being somewhere in the mountains.

The sun is shining brightly - and there's snow. Especially in the shadows where the wind is icy.

No point in going abroad on that account. Spending most of the day out of doors is almost an obligation.

The skiing conditions, however, aren't even close to satisfactory ;-).

Arne Jacobsen: Series 7

2008-03-17T08:55:00.004+01:00

"It was one of those really ugly rooms," said the best of all Claras. "You know: Series 7 chairs and PH-lamps all over. It looked like any other public institution. And having a posh meal in a place like that seemed simply a bit strange."

I wasn't there. But I would probably have agreed.

This is where we meet the famous Danish design: in public places. Where design is not meant to be a statement but fulfil a function.

Arne Jacobsen's chair Series 7 is quite comfortable (mainly because the back is slightly flexible). But I wouldn't want it in my home.

My son-in-law grinned disbelievingly at my daughter's words. He grew up in a home where this kind of design is considered the height of good taste. They are classics, and you don't argue with them. So every now and then I take on the role of cultural mediator, wondering however, how I would feel if I had grown up in Denmark.

Would I, too, think the world of Arne Jacobsen's design? Or would I find it even colder and less inviting than I do? Probably. I cannot warm to Bauhaus, either. It's practical and very much no nonsense, which ought to appeal to me - but it doesn't. So it may be a matter of temperament.

The most interesting thing, though, is that the idea behind much of the Danish design was to create items for the people. They were supposed to be affordable even for the working class - which they aren't really.

They are the project of a certain segment of the Danish middle class. In order to understand what it's all about I guess one ought to have been there.

Secular Reflections on Palm Sunday

2008-03-16T08:41:00.002+01:00

Tomorrow we enter the Stille Uge ("Silent Week"), as the Danes call the week before Easter. Since the met office is sending out forecasts about snow it might be appropriate to launch an Easter version of "Silent Night". After all, a white Easter is much more likely in this country than a white Christmas.

This year on Good Friday there will be opened a sex fair called Erotic World in the lovely town of Aabenraa i Southern Jutland.

The local bishop, Niels Henrik Arendt (link in Danish), calls this a lack of respect for the most serious of all Christian days of sorrow. His colleague at the see of Roskilde, Jan Lindhardt (link in Danish), calls it an expression of bad taste and scandalous.

Well, he will soon retire, so words like scandalous may be sign of a vocabulary that comes with age, but he is entitled to his opinion, just as his colleague.

However, his wish that things again were as they had been in the "good old days" (partly described in a post I wrote last year) shows how little he is in touch with that part of the Danish culture that for many years now has regarded the Easter holidays as a holiday. It is of a very considerable size - 80% of the Christian population of Denmark do not believe in the resurrection of Christ (which as far as I can remember from the Lutheran indoctrination I was subjected to is the tenet of its faith and somehow renders these people faithless - but what does the bishop care?).

Mr Lindhardt would love to have the old division between what's holy and what's profane re-established. But most of all he wants to be respected for being a Christian, something, that (according to some newspaper copy) has never been the case in all the two thousand years there have been Christians around.

"We are used to being treated like dirt," sighs the poor man (who as a bishop belongs to the Danish elite and has me pay for his wages and his pension although I'm no member of his club). "But we bear it with a certain humility."

We are facing the silent week - don't make me laugh.

Worth a Visit

2008-03-15T16:42:00.002+01:00

This morning I took the little one to see an exhibition of paintings by the group known as Skagen's Painters that is currently shown at the museum of modern art Arken in Ishøj.

I made it quite clear that there would not be any trains to look at, but very likely quite a few boats, and luckily we had seen a couple of installations he found fascinating before we reached what I had come for.

If you are into that kind of art the exhibition is well worth a visit. It's something about the way it's hung. Not so much about the individual pieces, most of which I had seen at one time or another.

In a way retrospectives are always about reshuffling the cards. This one I felt was quite a success, and I am already contemplating to go back and have another look, without having to amuse a child as well.

There was only one thing that puzzled me. P. S. Krøyer's portrait of Georg Brandes is on display there. There is very little summer, sun, and carefreeness about it. So I was wondering what it was doing there - pleased though I was about seeing it.

Maybe I should buy the catalogue the next time I'm there...

Soot and Such

2008-03-14T07:44:00.002+01:00

We may very well live in the days that will witness the end of the Danish way of life as we have known it, and through this at least the re-definition of some of the real Danish values, such as hygge.

Now as you all know, hygge and candles go together. But you may not have thought about the fact that candles and soot do, too.

And it may very well turn out that all the restrictions that have been devised to deter people from smoking are worth very little in a country in which the homes are full of soot, which has a negative impact on respiratory systems.

Up to 5,000 people lose their lives in Denmark every year because of the lung diseases and heart attacks that are caused by candles. 17,000 are hit by acute bronchitis each year because of candlelight. It's worse than walking through Copenhagen, although there are plenty of Diesel-driven cars that lack a particle filter.

Soon we will hear calls to ban candlelight in children's institutions and public buildings.

Seeing that the burning of candles only contributes to our carbon emissions may make this all sound reasonable: save your health and the future of the planet.

Luckily candles aren't as addictive as nicotine.

Finally...

2008-03-13T11:38:00.003+01:00

... I have decided to let those of you who read Danish take a look at the booklet I began to work on last summer.

As always it took much longer than I had anticipated.

Here it is, though: Danskerne - en brugermanual.

Reduction

2008-03-12T09:03:00.002+01:00

One of the big crises in a relationship is the birth of a child. Especially nowadays. And having twins or triplets is very likely to ruin the relationship. It's one of the facts of life.

In Denmark it is legal to have the number of foeti reduced to two. Now obstetricians, gynaecologists, and midwives have found that the number of women who choose this option is increasing.

One of the member of the Ethical Council, Per Øhrstrøm, wants to have examined the causes for this increase.

Since he's a man and has made a scientific career it is very likely that there are facts of life that have escaped him: having twins is by all accounts an overwhelming (and rather expensive) experience. Having triplets is much worse.

People may talk misty eyed about variety and how wonderful it is - but this society leaves very little place for anything that is not centred around the common and garden variety of a couple with children who are born one after the other with a couple of years between them.

I recently talked to a mother of twins who was struggling with the bad conscience of someone who feels that she has very little time to stay at home with her kids when they are ill. And ill they get. It can't be avoided.

So the parents of triplets need to be able to line up a lot of people who will support them. And society isn't geared for this, either.

Choosing the abortion of one sibling out of three cannot be an easy decision. I am sure it will haunt some people until the end of their days. But it's no big mystery why they feel that they have to make this choice.

Somehow kids always are in the way. It's an impression modern societies are very good at reinforcing.

Copyright

2008-03-11T09:23:00.002+01:00

Life isn't easy - but you know that already.

However, Kurt Westergaard, one of the Mohammed cartoonists and well into his seventies, seems first now to have discovered this.

His cartoon - a man with Levantine features wearing a turban that contains a bomb - is being used by people he does not like. And without his permission.

It can be seen on websites, t-shirts, posters - and was only meant to be printed in newspapers and magazines.

Mr Westergaard does not want to be considered a representative for one certain political point of view, and of course not by the nasty people. So now he tries to stop the unpaid use of his drawing wherever he can.

Interestingly enough this is by some of his unwanted fans considered censorship - they obviously believe that freedom of expression means freedom to use other people's expressions. Yet others argue that the cartoon belongs to the public domain because of the disturbance it created.

But can you blame the man for wanting to be paid?

From another World

2008-03-10T13:04:00.004+01:00

I do live in a very neighbourhood with big contrasts.

There are, for instance, two schools. One of them what in the US would be called a senior high school, and one that goes from the third form all the way up to the A-levels. The former is called Vestre Borgerdyd Gymnasium and the latter Skt. Annæ Gymnasium.

Vestre Borgerdyd has been particularly sought after by immigrants, while Skt. Annæ is as Danish as a school in Copenhagen can get. Among other things it is the home of the Copenhagen Boys' Choir, and you can't get in without having to pass an entrance exam, which is something very uncommon for a Danish school.

Yesterday there was a concert at Skt. Annæ´s. They seem to rent out their premises every now and then.

There was a row. People hit each other. Some shots were fired. Nobody was hit. But all the same.

The school's headmaster told the press today that none his pupils had attended the concert.

Which came as no surprise to me. The organising body was Pakistani.

Alliance of the Sleep Deprived

2008-03-09T09:08:00.002+01:00

Yesterday morning the little one decided that the night was over at 6.15.

It's not so bad now that it's not staying pitch dark until 8, but still very early, if you ask me.

The sun was shining. Everything spelt "SPRING" with big letters, even though the air was cold, so around eight o'clock we went for a walk. Shopping for lunch on the way.

The best place to do so early in the morning is Emmery's right up the street.

It took us some time. There were daisies in the grass, and blackbirds in the shrubberies. A broken umbrella and quite few cars.

But we eventually reached the shop where there were more customers like us: grown-ups with small(ish) children who believed the best way of spending some of this unearthly time was by buying some breakfast in the only bakery in our neighbourhood.

And we all knew it. So here we found ourselves united in some kind of a secret society - and immediately we behaved like it: with smiles and "good mornings".

Very weird. Very unlike what people usually do here. We'll probably go again on Saturday.

Unity

2008-03-07T08:28:00.002+01:00

This Danish Commonwealth is a very difficult idea for people to wrap their heads around. Or so it seems.

In January, for instance, the Faeroe Islands were hit by a severe storm, that almost obliterated the town of Skálavík on Sandoy, completely destroyed the harbour, and left several small villages without electricity in several days.

The gale was mentioned in Danish news. It's effects weren't. Somehow pictures from those windswept islands in the North Atlantic are of very interest here on the mainland. The Faeroe Islands are in many ways to Denmark was Denmark is to the rest of the world: not really noteworthy. There aren't that many of them - approximately 40,000. They speak a quaint language (in many dialects), eat strange food, and behave in strange ways while on the whole doing very well economically.

And when one of their communities was hit by a natural disaster - which only was storm, which in itself was no real news material - the media in Denmark couldn't be bothered.

Now, however, the Icelandic town of Flateyri, which received emergency help from the Faeroe Islands thirteen years ago, when it was hit by an avalanche that destroyed one third of the town and caused the death of 20 people, has started a fund-raising campaign in aid of their linguistic cousins in Skálavík. This has made the Danish news.

Being part of the Danish Commonwealth obviously does not inspire this kind of help.

Hygge

2008-03-06T13:25:00.004+01:00

This is a story that has escaped me completely - and if I hadn't come across it on a German website I would still be blissfully ignorant.

Now, how much meta-text can we extract from this story?

Fact: IKEA gives rugs, door mats, and so forth Danish names.

This could mean:

IKEA acknowledges that this certain je ne sais quoi called hygge is absolutely Danish.
IKEA had run out of Swedish and Norwegian place names to use when they finally decided to sell rugs and door mats.
IKEA believes that Danes ought to be treated like rugs and doormats.
IKEA never thought about rugs and door mats as something negative.

And Mr Kjøller could mean:

That he's entitled to say anything he likes in order to get his name printed.
That he wants to show how you can whip up negative emotions among Danes about something as silly as the naming of rugs and door mats.
That Danes don't care to be belittled, ridiculed, and scoffed at, either.
That Danes may not like to be belittled, ridiculed, and scoffed at but that they won't start burning Swedish flags - nor will they stop buying cheap rugs and door mats, no matter what they are called.
Exactly what he says he means in the article this post links to.

This is the country where they invented irony, you know (and don't you dare wave Socrates in my face). The pity is, though, that we may have to buy Mr Kjøller's latest talk in order to figure out what he meant.

News from the Labour Market

2008-03-06T08:21:00.003+01:00

Yesterday the Danish Eastern High Court decided that firing a person for no other reason than that they are blind is legitimate.

The story goes as follows: The Danish Heritage Agency had an architect in their employment who, although nearly blind, was quite capable of inspecting the buildings that were under his care. In short: there was nothing wrong with his work.

In 2005 he got a new boss who had to restructure the organisation, meaning: people had to be fired.

One of them was the architect for no other reason than being blind. There was nothing wrong with his work.

The court's ruling seems very strange, unless of course there was more manpower necessary when this architect was sent out to do his job. After all, this may have been the case, and therefore firing him may have meant that someone else could get the sack, too.

It's part of the hiring and firing culture in Denmark that does not particularly protect people with handicaps. No special rules in the labour market there.

Ambitions

2008-03-05T07:55:00.005+01:00

Last year in November I spent an evening with a friend in Berlin talking about Danish politics. It was a couple of weeks after the general elections so there was much to talk about. My friend speaks some Danish and takes a general interest in what is going on up here - and she was flabbergasted when I told her that - according to rumours - PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen was hoping to become the first "proper" chairman of the EU.

"How does he think he'll get the support?" she wondered.

Well, if you ask Danish journalists it's all wrapped up already.

Maybe because they are tired of him. They perceive him as someone who can never do any wrong, who always knows where to go and what to do - and when it comes to predicting the future they believe he's second to none.

What makes them think that the leader of a country that does not really want to commit to the EU, who is best friends with George W. Bush and a true supporter of the (otherwise in Europe not very popular) assault on Iraq is anyone's guess.

As I said: maybe they are just tired of him.

All this DNA

2008-03-04T08:22:00.002+01:00

There were two important Danish kings called Canute: the first one was called "the Great", the second was Canute IV, who is the only Danish saint recognized by the Catholic church.

His remains (and those of his brother Benedict) can be seen in the crypt of Odense's cathedral, St Canute's. Bones in glass cases.

At the moment they are being examined, partly because scientists wanted to establish whether the man, these bones had belonged to, really had been killed by a group of angry peasants, partly because they want to know whether this really is St Canute, the son of Svend son of Estrid whose DNA they already have obtained.

Svend is properly buried at Roskilde, by the way. No showing off the bones there...

I have seen quite a few Danish churches in my lifetime, and it is very likely that I will see more. The cathedral is quite big and rather impressive for a town that around 1800 had approximately 5,000 inhabitants. But then, they always are. It's what they were meant to be.

But the bones... Lutherans don't worship reliquaries. So displaying the remains of someone we somehow are acquainted with seems slightly tasteless. All the other royal Danish graves and sarcophagi I have seen are closed. No chance to catch a glimpse of rotting flesh and the changes of the world's glory.

There is nothing homey about the crypt, by the way. The first time I visited it I had the impulse to go out and by a blanket for the bones. They looked so very desolate and cold.

It makes me wonder how much some people still seem to fear the power of a sainthood.

Uniforms

2008-03-03T09:33:00.002+01:00

What is it with human beings and uniforms?

It's not just women who find them attractive you know. Although this is generally accepted.

Men have a thing about women in uniform, too, and this has led to a conflict between the nurses at a hospital in Silkeborg and the management.

The bone of contention is the title of the hospital's newsletter for employees.

It's Under kitlen or: "Under the Smock".

So far 65 nurses have signed a protest, because they find the title hurtful, marking their profession as something that comes right out of a porn magazine.

Other groups at the hospital may think it's a bit of a joke. That the girls should find their sense of humour and stop being offended.

They, however, are tired of being ridiculed and objectified.

So whatever it may be about humans and uniforms - it does not seem to be the same for men and women.

Realities

2008-03-02T13:40:00.002+01:00

Last week was not one of the most memorable I have had in my life. It wasn't really bad - just filled with a lot of irritating moments. As soon as you think that now you can make a fresh start of the day something else happens, but nothing is of such importance that it warrants one's hiding from the world.

Some of you may know what I mean - and for the rest of you: I hope you won't have to find out.

However, there was something that pissed me off so entirely that I had to abstain from blogging, because I was worried that I might throw a public tantrum. The thought did not appeal to me.

The thing is, though: I am still angry.

Here's the reason: I was invited to a meeting with someone who is partner in a company trying to get a corner in the market for expats. I went - and found that the idea was that I blog for them. There was no talk about compensation.

People who don't blog themselves don't appreciate that it takes time and effort (as I have elaborated recently). So I said no. And this could have been the end of it.

But there was something else. To begin with a nagging feeling. Here are four Danes, all men, trying to sell what they believe foreign specialists and managers want when they come to Denmark: contact with other expats.

Network is what you have with people who aren't natives. Your colleagues for instance are not your network if you're a foreigner. As if moving to a new country and starting in a new job weren't enough - you can't even count on your new colleagues for social contact. You have to go somewhere else (or live a lonely miserable life).

The message is loud and clear: you can add to the value of our economy.

As a Danish friend of mine once said: There are situations where it's quite adequate to say sgu and for helvede.

I think this is one of them.

Fear

2008-02-28T07:36:00.003+01:00

Courage is a difficult entity. It is always easy to tell others to be courageous. Anybody who has ever thought they were the spokesperson of a group opposing an authority only to find that their formerly ardent supporters suddenly were no support at all knows this.

Being courageous is a very different thing. Many people who show extraordinary courage say afterwards that they could not really help themselves.

And sometimes all that is left is the courageous option.

Take for instance the story about the cartoonist who recently was the centre of attention because of three men's alleged plans to murder him because of his drawing of a man with Semitic features carrying a bomb in his turban.

His number of options has been significantly reduced by his choice to have the cartoon published. He did not know this, but there is no going back now. He has to live with the consequences of his action - which, among others, are that the hotel where he stayed while it was thought that his life was in serious danger asked him to leave because he was a security risk for the other guests.

Other hotels were of the same opinion. Well, they are businesses.

But then there is the cartoonist's wife. She is a kindergarten teacher, and yesterday she was told that parents whose children go to the kindergarten where she works were so worried about this that she had better stay at home until further notice.

According to the intelligence service the woman does not pose any threat. The parents aren't sure, and it is difficult not to blame them. It's bad enough to have to leave your children in the care of strangers for the better part of their waking hours, having the impression that there is some kind of unclear threat hanging like a cloud somewhere in their vicinity does not make it any better.

Now they are blamed for being cowards.

It's easy to tell others to be courageous.

I want a Water Meter

2008-02-27T14:08:00.003+01:00

More than 10 years ago, when chatting on the Internet was something very new and by many considered rather kinky I quite often chatted with someone who worked at some water works in the UK. Something that really could get him going was the fact that private homes were supposed to have water meters installed.

Having grown up in a house with a water meter I could not really understand why he was so upset. I still can't. There is nothing wrong in knowing how much you consume and what you use it for - from my point of view.

So now I am facing a dilemma: in my flat there is no water meter, either. I pay rent. That covers the costs for the cold water I use as well. And my heating bill covers the hot water according to the number of rooms I have.

There simply is no way for me to tell whether I use much or little, and doing anything further to cut down on my water consumption seems quite futile.

What I save, others can squander without a second thought. They don't know. They can't tell. And neither can I. Water has no impact on our personal finances. Electricity on the other hand has.

From this point of view a dishwasher is a really poor investment.

Safety in Numbers

2008-02-26T07:24:00.004+01:00

There are aspects of Danish thinking I yet have to understand.

Take for example the idea that there are organisations people have to be members of. Like the Church of Denmark, for instance. Or a trade union.

It is the perspective of the members, of course, and it is quite matter-of-factly. Or, rather, it has been.

One of the reasons why Danish politicians and clerics alike are afraid of severing the ties to the CoD is that people would leave the church. If they had to consciously choose to be members of this organisation they wouldn't - and what would that do to the Church?

Trade unions are a slightly different matter in so far as you are not born into one but there are still quite a few industries where not being a member - or being a member of the wrong kind of union - will get you in trouble.

It's this thought of pressuring people into an organisation and thereby securing their solidarity that has put many people off unions in Denmark. They believe that they are better off fighting on their own than paying through the noses so their leaders can lead a life that is far beyond anything ordinary union members can dream of. And for a long time the fact that the unions spent a lot of money supporting the Social-Democratic party was a bone of contention, too.

Slowly but surely the traditional unions have lost members. Into thin air, and to other organisations, one of them calls itself Christian and organises employers and employees under one umbrella.

Christian employees don't strike. Therefore they don't have to pay money into a strike fund, which makes their membership considerably cheaper and therefore attractive to those who still believe that some kind of organisation is in order. And now that the hairdressers have joint the Christian employers' association, threatening those of their employees with lock-out if they don't leave their union the old giant, who had been at a loss as to what to do for the last two decades or so, is suddenly awoken.

A lock-out we are told will be met by blockades of other businesses run by Christian employers. Petrol stations, for instance.

We'll see who'll blink first. Some say the Government.

Something Moves

2008-02-25T12:01:00.004+01:00

There are drugs, and then there are drugs. We all know this. The amount of cocaine people take is rising, thinking that since it's not a loser drug like heroin it's all right, maybe cool - but definitely nothing bad.

Heroin, however, is a nuisance. We all know that.

In Denmark the idea that people who get addicted to heroin only have themselves to blame has been prevalent for as long as I can remember. It has been the source of a lot of human misery, as well as for righteous indignation, a number of therapist jobs, and - not to forget - considerable wealth.

I have never understood what good it does to a society to leave these drugs to market forces. The market may be black - but that does not keep it from functioning according to the forces of any other unrestricted market. Banning these substances quite clearly does not work. It only leads to miserable lives with additional illnesses, criminal behaviour, prostitution, and what have you.

Seeing that getting rid of a heroin addiction is a very difficult and for many insurmountable obstacle the question is: what do we get out of criminalizing them? Does it make us feel better to find that our cars have been broken into? Or that women are pressured into unsafe sex because they need the money for the next fix?

Finally part of the answer seems to be "No" - since the government is willing to hand out free heroin for those addicts who have no other way, in which they can return to what we would call a more normal life.