Amager Fishing!

Last Thursday my friend Kasper took a bunch of us fishing at Amager! It is on the ocean across from Sweden, overlooking the Øresund straight where there is a bridge to Malmo, Sweden.
 

This is us on a little hill next to the coast.... again taken by the talented Eda Elif Tibet. It was SO SO windy and sunny - though the sun is setting here.
 

And here is a group of us with a flag we found.... That is (from left to right) Arvid, me, Marijana, Tara, Carol, Ogi, Brandon, and Doron in front. Quite a fun crew.
 

Here is a view looking out at the ocean... Love the windmills. Kind of like Walla Walla, huh?
 

In the background of this next photo you can see my friend Kasper fishing... he is REALLY really into fishing and took us to his favorite spot on the outside of the city. It was super windy though so he was pretty much that only one that could cast his line without totally losing control. Still - we had SUCH a fun time sitting around all together, having some beers and chatting until the sun set. Which is quite late in a Danish summer of course.
 

Visas and Borders

The Visa journey… Sitting in the Danish Agency for Labour Retention and International Recruitment… an arm of the Ministry of Refugees, Immigration, and Integration. Woohoooo… When I got here almost three hours ago it said I had a wait time of 55 minutes. I am in line as number 162. They are on number 38. Damn.

This is such a strange sort of purgatory…. people are just moving slowing, but also exactly the same. Way calm about the situation. Like we all expect to be like cattle here. Almost everyone around me is brown. Lots of babies, old people, LOTS of young men. Last time I was here a little 2 year old was running around with a balloon. When it popped it was about the most exciting thing the room had seen in hours. (number 39!!!)

I am having all sorts of thoughts about deservingness and citizenship. This entire system of nations, borders, passports – it’s so new, so flawed. It chills me to think of how seamlessly we accept this system. Forventet ventetid, estimated wait time: 235. In minutes. This is pretty wild. There are more languages in this room than most hundred square mile sections of Denmark I would guess. Some musings on how to live my life. I really appreciate some aspects of how Danes approach “social justice” and human rights type work. There is less of a competitive edge to their notion of doing good work than I have found with most like-minded Americans. It’s a strange thing, really. Being competitive about helping people. I mean, really? But I’m serious. Why do I care about the world? Do I need to win at helping? NO. That’s some bullshit. Danes seem to value their own happiness in a way that many Americans I know who are interested in “helping people” just… don’t. There is something more genuine in that to me. More of a tendency, an emphasis on living life in a way that includes social justice, helping. The “do-good” isn’t separate from, but deeply intrinsic to, the rest of a person’s life. Of course it’s not all so rosy. But in general I really do think that Danes value their happiness. And that translates into them being less wound tight, holding less of a martyr complex, than a lot of Americans.  

 Part of that I think comes from the psychology of the welfare state. People have space to do what they love, what they’re good at, because different types of work are valued more equally than in other parts of the world. I absolutely think that hard work and valuable service should be recognized and awarded. But the hundreds times salaried leaders of big companies who really have done nothing remarkable apart from being born where they’re born and working how they work in our system – that doesn’t make me dance around about the American dream. Whenever I hear the sound of stamps I get slightly excited. You know new comers because they look at the overhead when the little ding! announcing next-counter-open sounds. The rest of us know that it isn’t our number. I have been mistaken for a Swede several times. Had a nice chat with a Canadian-Swedish couple that are pregnant together. They’re number 283 so coming back Monday.

For the final project at the end of the fellowship this summer, everyone is doing an “Action Plan” – a practice at creating a plan for a social justice action. I have helped brain storm with one of the groups. They are interested in ideas of nationhood and borders. The rights and deservingness bestowed up on us by virtue of soil and blood. As am I, clearly. My idea is to create an educational tool for elementary – high school aged kids. Of course adjusted by age. The basic structure will be that kids are given a passport that contains the rights available to someone in a given situation. There will be a story line of the people they become taken from a realistic sample of the experiences of people in that area (Copenhagen, for example). As the class learns about the stories and experiences of refugees to their community students would share what the person they are “playing” experiences. For example – you get sick! What are your rights? You outgrow your shoes! What is the “normal” next step? If you live in Center Sandholm you wait a couple months until your parents are issued tokens that can be taken to the camp store where you can get new shoes. One draw back of this program is that the kids who “play” more disadvantaged groups may gain a look at the lack of equality at play – but not every kid. So another way to approach it would be to have two profiles in each passport: native Danish and then another situation. Which can also include long-term resident, etc. They closed the doors half an hour ago but somehow the wait time as continued to increase. Clearly a ploy to assuage the masses. I have no stock in that little red number.

Forventet ventetid: 361 minutes.

HAHAHA there were just three ding!s within about two minutes and the crowd made a hugely audible “ooOOOOoooo” sound. And then we all looked around and were so aware of the collective hilarity of our situation. I’ve become buddies with a Chinese student who goes to Roskilde University. She gave me a cupcake. And two Indian men living in Denmark…. we’ve attempted to get on the internet together and generally joked about the conspiracy theory that is the little minute wait time light. Immigration authority friendships = the best friendships. My Chinese friend just realized she didn’t have the bank statements that she needs to prove she can pay for things…. so her friend is racing off to get it... She has lived here for five years and she says that this is the first time they’ve asked for it. Interesting!   

 Forventet ventetid: 195 minutes. REALLY??!?!?! Late breaking news.... I MADE IT!! One of my new friends from the immigration office gave me her ticket (very Willy Wonka) because she got another from her friend... I had helped her with paperwork she was missing and made her a drawing, she gave me a cup cake. Really a whole little world in there.... I AM ALLOWED TO GO TO DENMARK.

Sandholm Asylum Center

Last wednesday (yes I'm a bit behind) we visited the Center Sandholm - the first place all asylum seekers go when they arrive in Denmark. The tour itself was a bit odd, as always. The center is run by the Red Cross which is highly controversial because in order to do so they have entered into a private contract with the Danish government, which inherently compromises their commitment to impartiality.

























The place is run very much like a prison. It is isolated and individuals are treated like criminals... a funny thing when you consider their actual situation. We couldn't take photos inside the camp of course because it is where people lead their private lives. We did, however, photograph a protest going on right outside the center by some of the Iranian asylum seekers who may soon be deported. If deported they will most likely be murdered.


























When I say isolated - the asylum seekers are allowed to leave but in reality there is no where to go nearby that they can afford to access. Some of the children are bussed to school, but many are not allowed to go to Danish schools because the Danish authorities do not want them to develop connections to Danish society.

These photos are taken by Eda Elif Tibet, the Turkish fellow from Istanbul. She is interested in documentary film making and photography.

 




We spoke with the man who was coordinating the protest. They had been protesting for 28 days when we were there. For the first three weeks they were on a hunger strike. The man organizing the campaign was clearly highly educated - we speculated that he is a political asylum seeker as he made some illusions to that possibility though of course didn't want to compromise his identity.



Very descriptive.

Bikes and photos...

Hello all! We've been very busy with the summer academy the past week... I have led two days as the "program coordinator" which was pretty stressful but a good experience. I really enjoy the program fellows but it has often been extremely frustrating to be responsible for facilitating debates / dialogs with the speakers because I do not find their way of interacting with speakers to be respectful. Even now as I'm writing this I am listening to one of the fellows ask a LONG long question... it's hard to navigate. But I do like them all a lot on an individual basis - it'll all work out in the wash (like my mom says, haha).

 

But anyway.... above is a photo of the Danish metro system... taken by Eda Tibet, an amazing photographer who is one of the fellows on the program.

 

Here is a photo from the "Constitution Day" celebrations that I talked about last time. This guy is AWESOME. I major activist and voice in Nørrebro. He has collaborated on some songs with Aisha Fukushima, who heads up the RAPtivism movement for global justice. http://raptivism.tumblr.com/

 

 BIKES!

Constitution Day? ...and a tour of KPH neighborhoods

Today is "Constitution Day" in Denmark... Which is both celebrated with typical Danish flag waving (every single city bus sported two little Danish flags at the front) and gathering in crowds. We had normal programming in the morning – but one of the speakers was actually a Danish political scientist and political economist who I relied upon heavily in my thesis! I have to admit I was a bit star struck. I don’t suppose he’s used to young American followers. He probably just thought I had some sort of staring issue. A fair assumption really given my recent tendency to gape open-mouthed at any Danish speaker. All the neurotic writing down of vocab words and listening to Danish music and deciphering newspapers HAS paid off though… I’m just in the socially-awkward staring space at the moment.

 But to Constitution day! We went to a Ny-Dansk (New Dane) youth council celebration that featred local rappers and reggae artists as well as politicians such as the Minister for Integration and the Minister for Religion and Equality. They gave rather white bread talks but it was super cool to see them there in my neighborhood.... which you will read more about below and hopefully see why it was interesting to have the mainstream Danish political set present.

One of the program participants was a founding member of the Republican Movement in Denmark - which has nothing to do with American Republicanism as understood today. It's all about arguing about the state of democracy in Denmark and against the monarchy because it is so extremely undemocratic to preference certain people because of their birth. Not to mention pretty fiscally irresponsible to give them so much money when Denmark is in the red. The core argument though is that the constitution gives the Monarchy too much power and this flies in the face of Danish political values enshrined in the welfare state. In short, it is outdates. Maybe fine in 1849 when the constitution was officially written, but certainly unsuited for today. Technically no law is in force unless the Queen approves it. The Danish monarchy has significantly more power than the British monarchy because it's not just a verbally "understood" relationship between the crown and Parliament - the Constitution actually vests sovereignty in the Monarch. So. Constitution day. A bit of a big day for the Republican Movement folks.




 Thought I'd write about København neighborhoods! Or at least my take on them… might be interesting to look back on once I've lived here for a while.

Indre by – City Center, or literally “Inner City” but it has NONE of the connotations of an American inner city. This is the old part of town where you’ll find churches, castles, Parliament, the old stock exchange, and Nyhavn (the famous canal that is just crawling with picturesque boats and Danish flags and colorful canal-front houses). It’s very pretty and fun to walk around though of course the streets are very much pre-motor vehicle so it’s easy to get taken downstream to the wrong end point when you’re on a bike. Also prohibitively expensive place to eat or do anything really.


Here's a photo of me in Indre by taken at Distortion, which I wrote about a few days ago:



Vesterbro – “Vester” means Western. This is one of the ‘hip’ neighborhoods to live. Lots of artists, coffee shops, a totally different feel to the streets – a bit more close together. This is one of the places where communities of immigrants live because housing is less expensive. The old meat packing district was hear… today that’s a cool place to go for bars and dancing because the big warehouses have been converted.


Fredriksberg – A fancier neighborhood northeast of Vesterbro…. lots of pretty gardens and expensive apartments and nice schools. Part of Fredricksberg is literally in a different municipality than the rest of København because they’re the wealthiest and have their own system of garbage collection and recycling going, etc. Very strange to find that out because it doesn’t seem to fit with the Danish mentality… I will try to learn more.


Nørrebro – Nørre means North. Sensing a pattern!??! I thought the neighborhoods and streets were so clever last year until I learned what it all meant. Really quite factual and unimaginative… Danish itself is the spicy thing. This is THE most multiethnic place in all of Denmark. And I live in probably the most multiethnic spot of all, Mjølnerparken. Closer to city center, Nørrebro has bunches of places to go out and coffee shops and cheaper food options. As you go further from the city center it gets less wealthy and more populated by immigrant families. My neighborhood, Mjølnerparken, is actually a complex of four big apartment buildings that are the Danish version of “the projects”. Here’s an aerial photo of the complex:
 

In the media this place has been spoken of as the ‘ghetto’ but that word choice is highly contentious, extremely racially loaded, and completely far off from reality. As I sit on the balcony of the apartment where I am staying I can see a woman putting out laundry. She’s wearing a veil. That’s really what it comes down to. In the courtyard I see a guy helping his friend fix a bike and about 20 kids running around playing in the jungle gym. Hardly that terrifying if you ask me. Anytime there is a WHIFF of crime or trouble in this area it is front page news. So much so that Danish politicians have made a show of going to visit the neighborhood. And others (Pia Kjærsgaard of Dansk Folkeparti) publicly say that they are too afraid to go here. Here are some politicians 'visiting':
 


Østerbro - Øster meaning "Eastern". Unsurprisingly it is to the east of Nørrebro, along the coast. It is a more calm neighborhood. Definitely a place to raise your kids. The huge city stadium and one of the biggest parks Fælledsparken is there as well. This is where I stayed with Thomas for the first week. He's always complaining that it's not 'edgy' enough and that the only thing remarkable about it is the high number of grocery stores you can find there. It's nice though!


Amager - this is the island south of the rest of the city.... Morten lives here and we had our staff welcoming dinner there at his house but that's the most I've really been there. Pretty residential / isolated. I actually have hung out along the huge canal on the Amager side but that's it. We'll see if that changes or not!

And then there are other little neighborhoods within neighborhoods of course, and places on the periphery like Hellerup (POSH) north of Østerbro and Valby south of Vesterbro... but I can't claim to know much about it all beyond that. Hahah except i took my bus WAY too far past my stop yesterday almost to the next county. Nice sight seeing at least. Hej hej for now!

Welcoming Weekend

This weekend was the `welcoming weekend` for the summer program and damn it was exhausting!! Really interesting to be on the staff end of things. Of course last year I had a burning need to interact and be known by people... but I don´t really have that impulse now. Much more of a listener role. Just by human nature people treat people in positions of authority differently. It is just so hilarious though because I´m not much older than many of the participants and younger than many others. Ironically though just by seeming somewhat ´disinterested´ by hanging back a bit you seem more ´cool´. Human nature is hilarious.

The Danish interns are really wonderful and have been super keen on including me in their social group. I am focusing on remaining in the present with the program - it isn´t that hard for the most part because there is so much going on but I also can´t help but think about my life this fall! Like I know I´ve said before...

On Saturday we had THE most famous journalist in Denmark come speak to us. Unsurprisingly - he is a TV personality as well as editor etc - he was an incredibly engaging speaker. So much of what he was talking about ran all through my thesis - theories of civic and ethnic nationalism, the formation of the Danish state as a response to massive territorial loss, nationalism as scary-bad but Danish nationalism as not SOOO bad.... all these things about perceptions of immigrants. The way Denmark has responded so much more harshly and racistly to immigration than Norway and Sweden though they share much of the same dialogue on other politics and obvious cultural connections. Right now I am SUPER tired so I should go to sleep... More soon! Love, Alice