Boykot G4S

hullo hullo again!

Two posts in two days, Hege and my mother will be so pleased. Susan - thank you for reading! My Aunt Mary told me that you had been checking in earlier this summer and I was very touched.

Today was my first day with Copenhagen-freedom aka a CYKEL! Ohhh it's the best feeling.... really the way to get in the flow of the city, to feel like you're a bit a part of it. Pubic transport is excellent here - at least compared to Seattle and many other cities I've been to. But biking, that's the way the city really moves. On my first day with a bike I had to start out by getting the tires pumped which, luckily for me is extremely easy in Copenhagen. There is a bike shop on any somewhat major street and every bike shop pumps up your tires for free - many even leave the air hose outside the shop for people to use after hours. Let's hear it for social cohesion and community trust!

I ended up biking almost 50 kilometers today.... I am going to have one sore rear end tomorrow, that is for damn sure. First off to a meeting with the World Food Program, which has one of its headquarters in Copenhagen. More on that later... then I walked ALL OVER with a "treasure hunt" get-to-know you thing for my masters program, THEN to Albertslund and back to Brønshøj. I know that doesn't mean much to most people who might read this... but Albertslund is a WAYS away - it's a suburb of Copenhagen where, among other things, the headquarters of G4S is located.

G43 is a security corporation, like I said in my post yesterday, that does some "normal" routine security jobs - at Aalborg University for example. But they also are the company that provides the equipment and surveillance for Israeli prisons which we know have violated human rights repeatedly. They contract all over Gaza and the West Bank, policing the borders - in other words enabling Israeli occupation and exploitation. (** For the record, I am not against Israel being a state. I oppose the forced displacement and/or ghettoization of Palestinians and existence of a second-class citizen regime within Israel.) This is a "week of action" for the group calling for an end to G4S involvement in Palestine. The route we took included stops at prominent businesses that use G4S. One of the really empowering things about Denmark, from my perspective, is that national change seems so much more tangibly possible. Already some companies have left G4S and G4S has said that it is talking about leaving Gaza by 2013. The US can seem like such a leviathan at times. Good to remind myself, though, that we have local communities, smaller units as well.

The demonstration was extremely fun! So many happy, open minded people. And so much bike riding! My first biking demonstration, I have to admit. There were plenty of signs and some bell ringing and horn tooting, but mostly just a happy group of people cycling around with a police escort. Most people were young, unsurprisingly, but also a fairly sturdy middle-aged to older contingent. Older protesters really have a soft spot in my heart. My two friends from my masters program who invited me we very protective of me, made sure I was having a good time and not biking in front of oncoming traffic or anything exciting like that. The weather was very nice... which I think contributed to quite an upbeat protest atmosphere given the content of what we were demonstrating against!

One of the friends from my program, was one of the people who organized the demonstration... she grew up in Nørrebro, Copenhagen's most multiethnic neighborhood, and was politicized about Palestine from an early age due to having plenty of friends who are Palestinian refugees. We talked a bit about challenges of being in Denmark as a foreigner - it was so reassuring and fascinating to hear her perspective. Though she was born and raised here she is very much bicultural, and didn't have the same childhood exposure to Danish tradition and culture at home. She's also a invisible minority - she easily passes for Danish and her name blends in as well. Denmark can be a very rigid place to join. It's open in some ways - open to new ideas, to exchange... but when it comes to what is "normal" and what is "done" I have felt that there is a pretty narrow idea of what to do here. 

About the World Food Program: 

Quite an interesting presentation - among other things I have been shifting my opinions on the important differences between humanitarian and development aid. It's pretty easy for these statistics that can really knock the wind out of you slip into your mind and off the radar very quickly. And of course we can always say - yes, this is an important cause but there are SO many important causes. But then again.... 1 in 7 people in our world go to bed hungry every night? A billion people? I've heard before that we have enough resources to feed the world it's just political will, infrastructure, societal stability, and other human factors standing in our way. It's not a matter of fancy science or over population. Though, of course, over population is something to think about.... especially since we haven't proven that we can manage a world humanely with the number of people we already have. But I hadn't intended to go off in this direction... suffice it to say - I used to be highly skeptical of the type of development that you see in movies - bags of rice dropping from the sky, etc. I still am, and I absolutely believe that we must remain skeptical and critical of the ways this type of aid casts recipients as "less-than". It was heartening to hear the director of WFP talking about the need to not simply say, "Hello poor Africans - here's some rice and beans, off you go." They try, when possible, to use food aid toward sustainable development. But the sad fact is, a lot of their work IS patching up crises. WFP is the largest humanitarian aid organization in the world. They are able to reach about 90-100 million out of the 1 billion hungry people in the world.

Trans-Balkan Bussing: the paradise edition

Hi again!

I am actually home now but I am going to go back in time and talk about our time in Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia.... We headed south from Ljubuski after - as I have said - the most amazing time meeting Marija's family and getting to know her home.

BorderFAIL:The bus ride was obscenely beautiful... sun sets and Adriatic islands and mountains and ragged coast lines. I mean, come on. We crossed into Croatia very quickly - I knew Ljubuski was on the border but it really is RIGHT there. You can see the wealth increase pretty immediately. Nicer roads, houses, more development. When the bus stopped we wandered off for our mandatory ice cream (at least two a day in that heat, let's be real). We weren't sure what currency to pay in... but Sofia has been in Croatia before the Sarajevo conference so she was going to treat me to ice cream but then... the prices are in Bosnian KM? Well maybe it's because we're near the border....right? even though you'd expect the Croatian side not to be so open to Bosnian currency. So we had to ask the cashier what country we were in. Turns out we had crossed back into Bosnia - the 20 kilometers of Bosnian coastline that breaks up the Croatian coast. Definitely the first time I had neglected to be aware of what country I was in.

Dubrovnik
Ridiculously beautiful, quite touristy. The Old Town is quite a large and well preserved fortress complete with churches and opticians and homes and plenty of souvenir shops. My Grandpa Hugh and Grandma Jackie visited Dubrovnik several years ago on a trip down the Croatian coast and showed is some insanely beautiful photos so I was really excited to see it in person. The beaches were divine and the company of my four amazing friends made the time relaxing and super fun. On the other hand it was pretty expensive and a bit of a jolt after being in Bosnia, Europe's poorest economy. Especially since Dubrovnik is probably the most affluent place in Croatia and you can really see that dripping off hte tourists.

The view from our hostel in Dubrovnik!!! Almost all of the buildings in Dubrovnik (and alot of Croatia) have that kind of roof... looks really pretty with the crystal blue waters, green and gold/white coast...)

We found an incredible beach the first day where we could jump off a little cliff and swim into a cave. A pretty sizable cave... with a place to go "ashore" at the very back. It was nicely spooky. Oceans, I realize agian and again, have a vital place in my heart. Hearing waves, letting the water toss me around, laying on the beach - there's nothing like it for me.

That is me and my friend Aisha at the beach we found that I was just talking about. So pretty!

The next day Sofia, Ida and I woke up earlier than the rest and went on a hike up one of the hills - yes, Dubrovnik is QUITE hilly. Which, in that heat is something you take notice of. So the early morning was certainly the only time I was going to want to hike around... Afterwards we went to a War Photography museum that was showing exhibits about the wars in Yugoslavia including an entire exhibit on the Srebrenica massacre. It is 17 years ago today that the Srebrenica massacre was taking place.

Lokrum Island!!

*Side note: I noticed that the New York Times ran a photo on July 10, 2012 of victims being buried to commemorate the 17th anniversary. The caption refered to the people as "Muslims" who were killed. While it is true that the victims of Srebrenica were targeted because of the affiliation with Islam, they were not all Muslims. They were all Bosniaks, the ethnicity associated with the Muslim religion in Bosnia... but they were by no means not all of the same religious persuasion. It is provocative to some that all of the burials at the Srebrenica memorial site are Muslim. In a certain light, this move presents the narrative of the history of the tragedy in the terms dictated by the perpetrators: "Serbs deserve this land, Muslims should be killed". That narrative flattens the diverse identities and experiences of Bosnians - for one neglecting the fact that ethnicity has hardly been a purely segregated essense in Bosnia over the past several hundred years. It's virtually impossible to find a Bosnian whose enture family belongs to one ethnicity.

Back to Dubrovnik... I know Srebrenica talk is a far cry from the picturesque Croatian beaches... but really this contrast best shows the head space I was in when we were there. It was eery to watch people wander around this beautiful, and yes, historical area that is so very close to Bosnia but doesn't carry the legacy of war and trauma with it in nearly the same way. It almost felt unfair. And of course Croatian people were impacted by the conflict in BiH - both as neighbors and through close ties with loved ones... but I could palapably feel that in Croatia the war isn't something that needs to be perpetually addressed and balanced as in Bosnia just some kilometers away.

The next day we found ourselves a boat to a practically deserted island and swam swam swam. It was so good to relaaax. Lokrum Island, it was.

Okay more later... 

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.