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| Christmas at the Royal Copenhagen |
| Courtesy Wonderful Copenhagen |
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| The Danes know how to integrate
land and sea. |
| Courtesy Wonderful Copenhagen |
To the visitor arriving by sea, the most striking
thing about Denmark is the quality of the light,
a hue like no other; old-fashioned travel writers
call it “white sunshine.” It has an eerie
resemblance to the white blonde hair of many of
the natives. When the days are partly cloudy, both
colors stand out with a special, almost exciting
brightness, five million points of light.
Denmark is a constitutional monarchy. Queen Margrethe
II is a largely ceremonial ruler. She can appoint
the prime minister and the cabinet, but they have
to be elected first, and can be dismissed by the
Folketing (parliament) with a vote of no-confidence.
The population is 5.3 million. Eighty-five percent
of them live in towns and cities. Even though Europe
has been civilized, built up and planned for over
a thousand years, 64 percent of Denmark is agricultural
or forest. Denmark is a land of islands, divided
into 14 counties (amter) and 275 municipalities
(kommuner). Few Danes live more than 32 miles from
the sea.
Danish political life is orderly, like the Danes
themselves. Consensus rules, and most major legislation
is passed by sizable majorities. The very spirit
of consensus is a political force all by itself,
and radical ideas are pretty much shot down before
they get out of the box. The prime minister himself
stresses that none of his new, right-of-center programs
will be shoved down anybody’s throat.
Generally, the politicians are sober and competent,
just the kind of people you’d want running
your trust fund. And in a way, that’s what
they do. The wealth of this nation is shared with
its citizens, and woe to a politician who tries
to fiddle around with the people’s money. There
is a case right now, involving a man named Pedersen,
who absconded with DKK 70 million that had been
gathered for charity, and who is now in jail in
America, fighting extradition. From the talk on
the street you’d think he’d beaten up
the queen.
The economy
Historically, shifts in herring migration have been
the Danish equivalent of crop failures. Their other
talents have been at trade, and they are formidable
at it. Even the Vikings got far more revenue setting
up market towns than pillaging. Unemployment, which
has been as high as 12.5 percent, is now below five
percent.
The Danes are self-sufficient in energy -- even
in oil, thanks to their share of the North Sea rigs.
Their principal exports are machinery, instruments
and food. The United States is Denmark’s largest
non-European trading partner, with over five percent.
The U.S. ships Denmark machinery, aircraft, computers
and music, and it sends the U.S. industrial machinery,
chemicals, furniture, pharmaceuticals and meat.
Americans
It would be difficult to find a country with a better
attitude towards Americans. American music -- especially
jazz -- is wildly popular and shows no signs of
dimunition. American English, when spoken in public,
is widely accepted. English is compulsory in Danish
schools and is actually the semi-official second
language. It is in fact so popular that Danes are
worried about the future of their own language.
About 350,000 Americans visit annually, and they
are treated with the utmost care and respect. Even
in the lowest and roughest bars, the patrons instantly
and cheerfully dredge up their English without missing
a beat. Even complicated directions from bus drivers
get explained with a smile.
It goes deeper than popular culture. Erik Sprunk-Jensen,
CEO of Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals, and a man too young
for World War II, said, “Twice in the last
century the USA saved Europe, and too many Europeans
have forgotten that.” Mærsk Mc-Kinney
Møller, sitting in a plush boardroom with
other European businessmen, told his colleagues,
“If it wasn’t for America, we would not
be here.”
Almost all surveys have put Denmark high among
expatriates. One reason is that the traffic is light,
diffused as it is between trains, bikes, walking
and cars, so traffic jams are the exception. What
price can you put on that? Then there is the safety
factor, another unpriceable. It’s very difficult
to get mugged, you almost have to know somebody;
in fact, since all crimes of violence, such as they
are, are domestic squabbles, you do. Fewer than
10 percent of expats surveyed were dissatisfied
with living there.
American commentators have called Europe a fairyland
supported by American military might. Danes bridle
at this; their soldiers are “fighting shoulder
to shoulder” with our troops in Bosnia and
Afghanistan and they pay their dues at the UN. A
lot of Danes want to shift Denmark’s image
away from all this fairyland business, stressing
instead that Denmark is a place so modern and wired
that it takes your breath away, one that stays in
business only by being better at it than the rest
of the world.
That is all true. But, without prompting, you also
hear, “Maybe I would say it’s a fairytale.
A wonderful little country to live in.” This
from a highly placed, conservative businessman.
The spokesman for the National Police prefaced a
sentence with, “I don’t want to use the
word ‘fairyland,’ but…” more
than once.
Denmark is a pool of peace in a seething planet,
like a church on an urban intersection. Violent
crime is so low that it’s discussed as a bizarre,
alien phenomenon, like typhoons or even warp drive.
Niels Northrup, police reporter for the Ritzau Bureau,
says that the Vesterbro (red light district), a
perfectly safe and essentially quiet neighborhood
by the train station, is “about the best we
can do” for a bad part of town. The most prevalent
crime, by far, is burglary, followed by smuggling.
With all this, some Danes aren’t impressed.
“Numb,” is how one young artist described
her compatriots. “Lazy with state handouts,
lacking the fire to really do something amazing.”
When asked if creating and running a society without
corruption, crime, racism and indeed almost any
of the ills that afflict practically every other
land on earth wasn’t amazing enough, she yawned.
She’s not alone. A lot of Danes feel that their
tremendous tax payments aren’t being used wisely
enough. And the idealistic crowd seems to feel guilty
about having no obstacles.
Immigration
The number of immigrants has doubled over the past
20 years to 287,000, about five percent of the population.
The Sept. 11 attacks have not helped their situation.
Danes -- all Europeans -- are unaccustomed to the
idea of immigrants, and it’s going to take
some getting used to. Immigration was probably the
biggest single reason for the rightward political
shift in almost every country on the continent.
Many immigrants are publicly religious, and bring
about the kind of reaction that many Americans have
for Jerry Falwell. The Danes file their religious
beliefs under “private, personal matters”
and find people that are not doing that to be a
bit embarrassing. But officially, they are trying
hard to integrate immigrants, and they’re backing
it up. Bertel Haarder, the minister of European
Affairs, says that helping immigrants into Danish
society is “my top priority. We don’t
want the immigrants to get trapped in welfare.”
Danes know they need the immigrants, in big and
small ways. Right now, four working Danes support
each person who needs it, in 10 years there will
be only three. The Danes also need Muslims, for
instance, to do things like helping to maintain
vital services during the Christmas holidays. There
seems to be a better integration here than in other
European countries. The police, for instance, are
learning Arabic.
The downside
Uganda had Idi Amin, jazz has Kenny G, and Denmark
has winter. And a Danish winter is not a magic kingdom
Christmas card scene with snow and reindeer. It’s
as dark and grim and wet as a film noir crime scene.
Night falls around 4:00 pm. The people change their
colors to gray, like adaptable birds. The Danish
climate, in fact, has been described as “eight
months of winter and four months of bad weather.”
This writer, on a beautiful August afternoon, sitting
in a café on the canal, with nothing but
bikes and sailboats gliding by, was overheard to
remark, “This is a wonderful place. I love
it.” Several Danes, sitting nearby, glumly
issued an invitation to stay through February and
“tell us how much you love it then.”
The Danes, of course, know how to use it. Technical
and artistic innovation, one of the cylinders that
drives the country, was largely born out of the
need to occupy people’s minds during those
dreary nights. It’s a wonderful feeling to
conquer it, as well, by shaking off the slush in
a comfortable home. They have marvelous Christmas
celebrations.
Personal taxes are very high, easily reaching 68
percent. Added to that is a 24 percent VAT and more
than 100 percent new car tax. Thor Pedersen, minister
of finance, is eager to cut them, but in a gradual,
Danish manner.
“We have used 30 years to reach the highest
level in the world," he says. "It will
take years to go down.”
So, maybe it isn’t a fairyland, but it’s
quite a place. The most remarkable aspect, to an
American, is the absence of real poverty. The homeless
-- there are some -- wear not street-stained castoffs
but a semi-military uniform of their own design,
looking a lot like Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club
Band. Little old widows, sitting in cafes, were
never slow to order extra liqueurs and whipped cream,
well into the evenings. Eating dog food has never
occurred to them.
And perhaps the greatest illustration of an equitable
society was witnessed on a sunny afternoon on the
Stroget, Copenhagen’s main walking street.
Sitting near a church was a beggar, with a small
cap full of coins in front of him. As is the style
of beggars all over Europe, his head was bowed in
shameful, sorrowful humility. Or at least it looked
like shameful, sorrowful humility. A closer look
revealed why his head was bowed over his outstretched
hands.
He was reprogramming his cell phone.
For more information, please visit: www.denmark.dk
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