Karin

Some info from my sister. :)

I'm going on a volunteer trip over Spring Break with an organization called Students Today Leaders Forever. The trip is called Pay It Forward (it is modeled after the book/movie). Basically, we are going to be going to 6 different cities and helping out in different areas within the community.

The organization that is running the trip has set up a blog so family and friends can keep track of where we are and what we are doing each day. I'm not sure exactly what they are going to be putting on it but if you are interested in following along, here is the website:

http://apollo.stlfbsu.org/

Jante Law

I mentioned this in the last post, so I thought I'd paste it in. The "Jante Law" came from a book by a Danish writer where he portrays his view of what it was like to grow up in a small Danish town. It isn't a law, per say, but rather an idea in Danish culture that has roots way back.

The ten rules are:

1. Don't think that you are special.
2. Don't think that you are of the same standing as us.
3. Don't think that you are smarter than us.
4. Don't fancy yourself as being better than us.
5. Don't think that you know more than us.
6. Don't think that you are more important than us.
7. Don't think that you are good at anything.
8. Don't laugh at us.
9. Don't think that anyone cares about you.
10. Don't think that you can teach us anything.

It is a somewhat controversial topic in Denmark and is probably debated how much it still applies in large cities like Copenhagen. But I think it gives a good picture of why Danish culture is the way it is in different ways.

Do we have some of these ideas in Minnesota too?

People in our block

We had a party in the kitchen on Friday and I got to meet a lot of the people who live in the block here. Magnus, a Danish guy from the west coast of Jutland, is studying at Roskilde University about 30 minutes west of Copenhagen. Hans is from southern Jutland and also studying here in Copenhagen. A Norwegian girl, Suzanne (I think that was the spelling) from Oslo is here studying at the Copenhagen Business School. Her boyfriend (Tony, from London) is living here currently. I guess they met while she was studying in Thailand and he was traveling there. Sofie (from Copenhagen area I think) is studying Danish. I guy I met earlier, Rognas, is studying software/IT at Roskilde. He's from Lithuania.

There were a number of other Danes at the party I didn't get a chance to talk to much.

Other people living on the floor (who didn't come to the party) include 2 brothers from Africa. I don't really see them and it doesn't sound like anybody else sees much of them either. Nobody really knows them. There are 2 Chinese couples I think. They are always cooking late at night when I go in there. The Danes haven't really gotten to know them very well either they said. Then there are two people from Romania living on my floor. The girl (can't think of her name right now) has been studying here for 4 years (computers, information systems). Her brother, who is older, lives here now too and he is working. They live in different rooms I think, just on the same floor. She said she was working too, at the airport.

About Romania

I talked to the guy for awhile at the party and his sister for awhile this evening. Their names are hard enough for me to remember and pronounce, much less spell, so sorry for the lack of names. He is a "transit worker" with a moving company. I think he drives truck around when people move. He really likes it, because he is getting a very good wage here in Denmark and he gets a chance to see the whole country. He can work for 5 hours in Denmark and earn the wage it would take someone at home 24 hours to make.

Romania is a new member of the EU as of January 1, 2007. As such, there is free movement of people, goods, money, etc in and out of Romania. They said that basically an entire generation of young people have left Romania. There is no future in trying to stay and work/live in Romania compared to what they can earn in Spain, France, Italy (and Denmark/Sweden, etc). She says that the politicians say this is a good thing, because these young people will send money back to Romania and maybe come back themselves and it will help the country grow. Unfortunately, as money comes back the prices for things have been going up dramatically. Her mother sometimes works 7am-9pm and is really only earning enough money for her apartment and food. Not enough money to save. Her comment was that younger people like to have a little extra spending money too, and it is just impossible in Romania with those wages and the increasing cost of living. So the young people are being forced out, rather than necessarily choosing to leave.

They are both from the Transylvania region in Romania, where the dracula castle is. Dracula was a book, but it drew on connections from a Transylvania/Romania ruler who had a habit of killing lots of people by impaling them on a sharp pole. They both say it is a very beautiful area and I get the impression that they'd certainly be living in Romania if they could. There just isn't any future or means for a future in living there. The Dracula Castle is actually owned by an heir to an old "Germanic" dynasty in Romania, and he is trying to sell it currently. The Romanians had kicked this dynasty out of Romania, but they did end up keeping their property. Now a big issue is if he can sell it to whoever he wants for the highest price. She said it had been decided that he had to offer it to the community for a price they could pay, but it is currently in the EU court system.

About Lithuania

Rognas is a really tall guy. He must be well at least 6'6"...I don't know. Much taller than me. I get the impression they follow the NBA quite a bit, because when I mentioned I was from Minnesota he immediately placed that with the Timberwolves. He is here studying and gets a free education in the Danish system, although that isn't the reason he's here. Says Lithuania was the biggest country in Europe, but by the late 1700s had become part of Russia. They became there own country again after WWI.

They have their own language and culture, but people swear in Russian. He was unaware that Canada/Minnesota/etc had sent so many furs back for hats in Europe. Thought that was just Russia.

Thats about all I can remember...conversation was a few days ago.



I'm pretty sure I was younger than everyone there. Most Danish students are older than those in the US. They finish gymnasium one year later than we finish high school (they are roughly comparable). Then is is common for a student to take a year or so off and work some, travel, or spend some time at a folk high school (like an American college campus kind of... they take classes and live with people... no grades or credit). After that they'll work towards a Masters degree or something like that. School is paid for and students get a living subsidy. It isn't much, but enough to cover the minimum basics of a place to live and food. This can last a maximum of one year longer than the offical length of your degree program. So if your masters is supposed to take 5 years, then the student aid will have a maximum of 6 years. There is some room for error if students need to choose a different line of study, if they get very sick, or something like that.

My Danish teacher says that Danish students have a much higher dropout rate than in the US. I think you can explain that pretty well based on the price we have to pay. If you have already spend $20,000, you have a lot of incentive to finish. With a high minimum wage in Denmark, there maybe isn't as much of a discrepancy in wages between someone with a college degree and someone without one?

Our room is always the "American" room, although there has never been guys in here before (always girls). They never really met the last people who lived here. The American girls just didn't really interact with them at all. I get the impression that most of the people in the block haven't been here an extremely long time.

The Romanians and the British guy definitely are the most outgoing people. Danish people are quiet reserved. From what we talked about in Danish class, it is kind of goes along with the ideas of equality. They don't want to draw attention that you aren't equal (as far as knowing people, how things work, etc). Also a little bit with the Jante Law...it could be viewed as trying to be better than somebody else by showing off all the "people you know".

Anyways, just my impression. The Danes invited me to their Thursday food club.

Tearing down the Youth House

The Youth House, source of all the demonstrations/riots the last few days, is being torn down (or so I read in the news).

Associated Press article

I guess that is one way to stop the young people from using it again. I don't know if it will solve the problem though, as they will probably be even more mad now than they were before. We'll see what happens.

Update

Here is a news story from the English language weekly, The Copenhagen Post:

With the smell of burnt plastic, wood and other refuse still hanging over the streets of the Nørrebro district, residents and shop keepers are beginning to clean up after a day of violent protests by supporters of the Ungdomshuset youth collective.

The main Nørrebrogade thoroughfare was still closed to cars Friday morning, but cyclists were able to weave their way past melted rubbish bins and charred bike frames set alight by the young people as they reacted to an early morning police action to evict the squatters.

After what police called a 'quiet' afternoon, the riot broke out in earnest when a rally held by supporters moved in against the police, casting cobblestones and erecting baracades across Nørrebrogade and other side streets.

Police arrested 219 people in conjunction with the riots. Another Ungdomshuset rally has been called for this afternoon, and police have called in reinforcements from throughout the country in expectation of a new wave clashes.

Sympathy protests were staged in the cities of Aalborg and Århus. German police report arresting 14 people in Hamburg in conjunction with protests outside the Danish consulate.

Young people have also reportedly held demonstrations in Oslo, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Flensborg and Vienna in support of the Copenhagen protests.

Danish police have tightened control at its borders in order to prevent foreign protesters from entering the country.

I guess the main issue is the fact that the kids thought the city had given them the house, which it sounds like they did. After the fire in the '90s and the condition of the house, the city didn't want the liability of safety concerns anymore so they sold it to a lawyer. That lawyer then sold it to this conservative Christian "sect". When it was still public property, it was legal for the kids to be there. After the city sold it, it became private property, and it became illegal for them to be there. So when the Christian group asked the police to clear out the house, the police had to do that. Really the issue started when the house was sold.

I think 90% of Danes are really against these demonstrations. These kids are abusing the Danish welfare system. They say they are anarchists but still want all the benefits of the Danish welfare state and handouts like this house. Danes really don't like violence either. There has never been a revolution in Danish history, which is different from about every other European country. Everything is about compromise.

Anyways, the issue is far from over. They will need to find some resolution somehow or the fighting in the streets will probably continue.





(if the video is jerky, just press pause and wait for a minute before letting it play)

Visit to Øster Farimagsgade

I visited the 7th graders again today. The principal came in (I assume he was the principal) and told the class something. I'm pretty sure he was telling them about the raid on the house and that they should be careful walking home.

They were finishing giving presentations on a book they read. It was a book in English, and they had to give the presentation in English. This was their first presentation in English that they've given. I was very impressed. I could certainly understand everything they said, and not really many grammar issues either. Much better than my Danish! Many Hans Christian Andersen stories. One girl did a Maya Angelo story. One girl did hers on a Paris Hilton autobiography.

Afterwards I got to chat with some of them. They told me all about the issues with this "house" in Copenhagen. They knew some kids who were going to demonstrate. Older than them. But 15-16-17 year olds.

They start/end school at different times each day I think. Just depending on when they have classes. Today was about 9:30am until 3:30 pm.

The class I go to is 9:45am-11:15am. Afterwards they have their lunch break. There isn't a cafeteria at the school...everybody brings a lunch from home. Most people do anyways. Some of them don't eat anything, which didn't surprise me. There were certainly kids at home at that age who would eat a bag of chips or something for lunch. If school doesn't start until 9:30 for them today, I imagine they've just eaten breakfast not too long ago.

No school buses. Most of them live close by. Either within walking distance, or they take a bike or public transportation.

I played some basketball with them during their lunch break. Need to take your shoes off before going in the gym. Julie (the teacher) played basketball too. The kids all call her Julie. I was a little taller than most of them. :) But not by too much though. It was a lot of fun, and I was only a few minutes late for my philosophy class. It was time well spent. They are all quite good at English, but a little shy and unconfident with speaking it, so playing basketball with them should help.

A little excitement in Copenhagen

Some demonstrations in Copenhagen today after the police evicted some squatters from a house they've been living in since 1982.

Associated Press news article
BBC News article

A little background on the issue:

Danes view themselves as a very tolerant society. A quote from a Dane:

Denmark is a very tolerant country. In all sorts of ways.

Take gay rights. Our country was the first to allow same sex marriages back in 1989. Take the generous social benefits in Danish society; we tolerate that a minority of unemployed may not really want to work, because we want to secure help to those who do. And Danes have a high tolerance of inappropriate behaviour – particularly if it involves drinking. A shrug is a typical response when someone makes a complete fool of herself at a party. “She was drunk”, it’s said afterwards. And all is forgiven.

In Denmark we cherish tolerance. It is an important part of our self perception.

In the 1970s, some Danish people took over an abandoned military barracks in Copenhagen and kind of declared this as an autonomous region. My Danish politics professor described them as the "flower power" crowd. As Danes view themselves as tolerant, and really favor compromise over conflict in just about all areas of government, Christiania was allowed to stay. It actually isn't too far from my kollegium. You can click the link if you want more information about it.

Along those lines, in 1982 the municipality of Copenhagen allowed a group of young people to inhabit another building owned by the city, called Ungdomshuset. This is where the problems were today. I guess the building had a bad fire in the 1990s, and it turned out to be in worse shape than authorities thought. They wanted to renovate the building, but the squatters didn't cooperate. Anyways, the city of Copenhagen sold the building in 2000 to a Christian group. The squatters refused to leave. The group that bought it was well aware that this was the squatters intention before they purchased it.

Anyways, the squatters were still there until today. The city of Copenhagen, friends of these squatters (in Christania and elsewhere), and others had tried to find compromises. They raised money to buy the house back from the Christian group, but the group didn't want to sell. They found a different house for these people to have, but the squatters said they weren't leaving.

It went through all kinds of court battles, and the squatters lost and were ordered out by December 14, 2006. There were some riots on December 16, 2006 about the issue by these people in Copenhagen. I think it got kind of violent when the police came to break it up.

Anyways, the police raided the house this morning and arrested about 70 people I think. There were demonstrations all day today. Police in riot gear driving around in 10 person blue vans. Nothing violent though. They think these demonstrations might continue for awhile, with friends of these squatters from other countries maybe coming.

It was all over the news tonight. There were 2 helicopters flying over Copenhagen all afternoon. Nothing to worry about though. This area where the "action" is about a mile north of the metro station I get off at to go to DIS. My kollegium is in the far opposite direction. This is what DIS had to say:

Some of you may be aware that Ungdomshuset, a center for youth in Copenhagen, has been slated for closure and that there has been much controversy over this, including some violent protests in December. This morning Ungdomshuset was raided by the police; in response supporters of Ungdomshuset have started to gather in the surrounding area of Nørrebro. DIS students are strongly advised to avoid Nørrebrogade from the roundabout to the lakes. There is a potential that protests could spread to other areas of the city, including around Nørreport station and/or Rådhuspladsen (City Hall), over the coming days. If you see a large crowd, please avoid it, and do not walk or bike down any streets which are blocked by the police.

At this point, we currently assess the risk to DIS premises as LOW and to DIS students as LOW

So, no worries.

There were some demonstrators near city hall this afternoon after I got out of class and was heading towards my bus. I stayed well clear, but did snap some pictures from a block away.

2007_02_28 Demonstrations

I was very impressed with the police. They were extremely non-confrontational, but at the same time certainly made a big splash with their presence. The major Copenhagen newspaper had people all over town handing out "special editions" for free. I have no idea what is in it, but lots of pictures.

I'll let you know if anything new happens.