Rød Grød med Fløde, Blåbærsyltetøj, Angstskrig & Røget Ørred!
Is there anything more Danish, than those 4 expressions? They are tongue twisters, designed to make foreigners turn into question marks, trying to comprehend, why any language would develop such sounds.
But that’s not what I’m here for, I have a rant. I have a rant about Danes, being Danish and the values connected to that. I am so sick and tired, of Danish people thinking they are better than other people, of how the Danish social system is superior, how our politics are free and that we are the freest people in the world.
Danish people are rude and remote, a Danish person will only hold the door for me in 1 out of 25 times, today I nearly had a door slammed in my face twice; Danes accept racism if it’s put up as a joke, or told by a proxy; Danes won’t talk about their emotions (not easily anyway), they complain about their low self esteem, and then refuse to talk about it; not drinking is considered very rude (alcohol that is), a problem I often encounter; Danes are very difficult to approach, you try picking up a conversation with a random person, even within the same environment (like my school), they will try to turn off, hardly reply; it’s very important to be introduced into a circle, which makes the first few weeks in a new city (I moved to Århus to study), rather difficult, since most people don’t know anyone, so the barriers shields and walls are down for a short time, and then back up.
I love Denmark, it’s my country, but I hate Danes.
Denmark is supposedly the happiest place in the world, well there’s a reason… Danes love to bitch, whine and complain, we are happy, because we live in a nation with unprecedented whining, bitching and complaining. It’s such a snug little country, the famous social net, getting paid to study, stable politics, solid economy, instead of unemployment we have a shortage of workers, so the unemployment rate is as low as it can be within a western society, the only problem is that welfare and unemployment money, is the highest in the world, meaning a certain part of the population, has almost nothing to gain by getting a job. So what do we complain about? EVERYTHING! We will complain about the smallest insignificant things; the escalating crime (it isn’t escalating, attention is simply being brought to it), the differences in the political parties (there aren’t any, at least not in the major parties), how people want more for free from the government, but pay less in tax (mathematically impossible), our involvement in Afghanistan (NATO and UN sanctioned mission); our third vote for the Euro, I know they are politicians, and I do support it, but the people have spoken… Twice! They are always trying to seize the right moment for the vote, but the right way to do it isn’t to keep trying until you get it, but accept the voice of the people, it isn’t a democracy, it’s a dictatorship for spoiled brats, if they don’t get what they want, the stamp the ground, and kick up dust until they get it!
I love Denmark, it’s my country, but I hate Danes.
What’s the biggest attraction is “Vild med Dans” (a Danish version of Strictly Come Dancing), and I feel very sorry for the sad people, who have nothing better to do, with their vapid pointless lifes, than watch that show; I’m pretty sure those people also have a subscription to Ekstra Bladet (junk newspaper (aka. tabloid newspaper)), Se & Hør, Billed-Bladet and eat about as healthily as Howard Taft. Most people watch TV, and I even do occasionally (the news, takfor i aften (a Danish 30 minute comedy show) and sometimes the simpsons), but there’s a line to be drawn somewhere, it isn’t just “Vild med Dans”; it’s the amount of crap being broadcast, like “Unge Mødre” (young mothers, a show about teenagers having children), X-Factor and the amount of reality shows that’s being forced upon us, and should a Dane turn to a real scripted show, they get 2900 Happiness, a TV show with the worst acting in history, and most TV is the same; but at least we are free from the curse of makeover shows, in previous times, it was impossible to turn on the TV, without encountering a makeover show.
So what alternative do I suggest? I don’t know, it must be up to people to control their own lifes, which is why they can watch 2 hours and 40 minutes of TV per day… I know, I’m a student, and I don’t even have time to watch that much, but I would never want to; if it wasn’t for the amount of study books I have to read, I would read in my spare time, instead I have begun learning to play guitar; once I get my camera back, I will go around Århus and look for good pictures, and I have started doing fitness twice a week, and plan to run twice a week as well.
So what am I judging Danes for?
Am I better than them? Certainly not, I have many flaws, some big and some small, other people have other flaws. That however, does not excuse them from my point of view, I just acknowledge that I’m not better or worse, we are all people, we are all the same, and we have the same inherent flaws. So what do I want Danes to do? Get off their fat arse (we are getting fatter and fatter) and do something, move about, entertain themselves, do something as a family or with friends. The youth is known for their apathy worldwide, but in Denmark, very few people actually give a damn. It’s despair mostly, we feel like Denmark has been lost, and there isn’t much we can do about it; and we blame everyone we can; the immigrants and refugees get by far the most flak, and looking at statistics it isn’t “unfair” to do so, the problem is that the vast majority are thoroughly nice people, it’s a minority that makes it a problem for everyone, however their criminal minority is bigger in percentage, than the one from the genetically Danish population; but if I came from a war-torn country, or any country culturally vastly different, I’d not only get scared, I would try and fight it, stick with my own kind, same as would happen, if a lot of Danish people got stuck in Afghanistan, or as the British did throughout the world, during their age of global conquest. Crime may never be excused, but that’s exactly the problem, the criminal immigrants and refugees make up a miniority, the same thing could be said about the Danes, the crimerate among us is a minority, but a lot of hatred fuels political parties like Dansk Folkeparti, the third biggest party in Denmark, is a racist party.
I love Denmark, it’s my country, but I hate Danes.
Why do we Danes feel that our society is superior? We are always bragging about our “social net”, yes it’s very nice; but we forget about each other. We feel that through our taxes, we take care of each other, and beyond that, we don’t need to think about each other; and it’s true to a certain degree, taxes are absurd in Denmark, and everyone is well taken care off, there is no need to worry about a health insurance, unemployment or getting old. But as I mentioned before, Danes are rude and distant; the quote “light up, forget you’re Scandinavian” comes to mind. We need to start caring again, we need to look to other people, and we need to begin Christmas in early November (although that’s a global problem).
As I said about politics, it’s all about bickering over nothing, and looking at each other with hostility, snappy retorts and thinking that we always have precedence; we need to start agreeing.
We have this feeling that we are superior, but we keep failing the statistics, Finland uses 70% of the funds (per student) we do on education, but they are far ahead of us; our health system is very costly, but in other countries they spend far less, for a longer life, and higher physical quality of life (Japan especially, but even in Spain they live longer); in fact we come in 32nd, wordwide, with countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan, South Korea (which has a minimal government health system), Israel, Malta etc.
If we want to to feel superior, we should be superior, and not nr. 14 on the Human Development Index, as well as nr. 14 on the Worldwide Press Freedom index.
I love Denmark, it’s my country, but I hate Danes.
I’m glad to have been born and raised in Denmark, it just doesn’t hold enough for me. I want to go above and beyond, but that doesn’t mean, that Danes shouldn’t be able to behave nicely. Every time I come home to Denmark (either from travelling, or from when I was living in Spain), I’m always appalled by the behaviour of my fellow Danes, but at no time was it worse, than when I worked in Fakta. Yes it’s a minimum wage job, but it’s also a minimum appreciation job, although people didn’t shout quite as much at me, as they did when I worked in a 7-Eleven.
Since working those jobs, I always say “thank you” and “have a nice day” when I’m done, even in a supermarket (leaves most people staring), because I know what it means to people, when people said it to me, I felt a lot better.
Please…
This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 17:27. It is filed under Declarations, Denmark.
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