Tag: International politics

We will speak up!

29. september 2017 / louise1978 / 2 kommentarer

Do you feel better now, having spent the better part of half an hour trying to convince me of your hateful racist opinions being true? Would you feel better if you succeeded?

And why the need? Why does it matter to you how I feel? It doesn’t change you when I say I believe every person is the same, that I don’t look to color or religion when I judge.

You get so busy; googling statistics, raising your voice, cheeks red with excitement, not the good kind, though. They are less intelligent, you state. You read that article once. Because they haven’t been educated for generations, these people. But of course, you’re not a racist. It’s just a question about what culture you’re raised in. This makes it okay, you obviously think.

These statistics, the articles, you’re exchanging religion with culture makes it okay for you to think less of other people, to judge them, to view yourself as superior. This matters to you, obviously, the feeling superior. It matters a lot.

Your words and arguments start feeling physical, suffocating me with their hatred. The room feels smaller and smaller. I feel like screaming.
In this moment, you’re everything that’s wrong with this world.

The right wing hate, the bigotry and the wars. The self-righteous self-serving bullshit …

And you call me blind to the facts. You call us blind to the facts.

Us. The ones who want peace, the ones who don’t judge people by the color of their skin, the aim of their prayers or the land they came from. I’m blind, you scream, waving around your statistics.

I have long since shut up. You won’t let me talk in anyway, and if you did, you wouldn’t listen. You will never be able to hear me.

You scream so loud trying to convince me with your hate, I believe you’re trying to drown out how much your voice resonates with the memories of Holocaust. How it all began once before …
I will speak up, but not to you. I will speak up to the world. To us. Those like me. I know you’re out there. We will speak up.

The hate will never win.

Det falske skræmmebillede/The fake scare story

2. februar 2016 / louise1978 / 0 kommentarer

Et af de ord, der oftest bliver slynget rundt i tidens mest populære debat, er ordet: islam. Det er som om, islam står i lighedstegn med alle udlændinge, flygtninge, indvandrere og migranter, som om alle, der krydser den danske grænse uden at være født i Danmark, hører under islam. Det er så uhyggeligt unuanceret, men man må jo indse, at det er det, som gør det så utroligt nemt at male et skræmmebillede for alle, der ikke evner eller orker at skabe sit eget overblik.

Islam er en religion på linje med kristendom, jødedom og andre. En religion er ikke det samme som kultur, og man kan på ingen måde skære alle, der deler en religion, over en kam. Af samme grund kan det simpelthen ikke lade sig gøre at påstå, at alle, der tror på islam, er ens. Og på samme måde kan man ikke påstå, at en bestemt religion er bedre end en anden.

Vi ved alle, hvad der er blevet begået af mord, krig og forbrydelser i kristendommens navn. Og hvad der stadig begås i religionens navn i dens mere ekstreme grene. Hvis du løfter en finger mod en religion, må du løfte den mod alle, som bruger religionen som et våben i deres personlige vendetta.

Det er nemlig personligt. Det handler ikke om kultur eller religion. Det handler om personer. Jeg kender mange mennesker med forskellige religioner, kulturer og personligheder. Hverken kultur eller religion definerer dem som mennesker. Den kristne er ikke nødvendigvis medmenneskelig og forstående, ligesom muslimen ikke nødvendigvis er fjendsk og intolerant. Heller ikke omvendt. De er alle forskellige personer med forskellige holdninger. Nogle holdninger er givetvis præget af kultur, barndom, religion og omgivelser, men alle som en er de mennesker domineret af personlighed mere end noget andet.

Hvad skaber et menneskes personlighed? Det er en større afhandling, men jeg tør godt påstå, at flere millioner mennesker ikke har en ens personlighed, selvom de deler samme religion. Den gruppe indeholder diversitet i samme mål som enhver anden religiøs gruppe.

Er det så denne gruppes kultur, der er et problem? Nej, for kulturen er nøjagtigt som religionen, ligeså mangeartet og præget af alt mulig andet. Alle, der kommer fra Danmark er ens … Nej vel. Heller ikke alle fra Jylland, fra København eller fra Lille Olmstrup.

Det kan ikke lade sig gøre at påstå, at alle fra en gruppering er ens. Derfor kan det heller ikke lade sig gøre at danne en mening om et menneske baseret på det menneskes kultur eller religion. Ergo kan et menneske alene dømmes på dets person, m.a.o. det menneskes handlinger og meninger.

Og så er det svært at male et dominerende skræmmebillede over en befolkningsgruppe.

Hvordan vil jeg ses af andre mennesker? Som dansker? En del af en bestemt nationalitet og kultur? Er jeg som alle andre danskere? Så bestemt ikke. Som kristen så? Nej. Jeg er bestemt ikke religiøs på noget plan. Hvad så? Hvordan skal andre dømme og kategorisere mig? Som menneske, tak, som person. Kom ud og mød mig, se mig i øjnene, tal med mig og lær mig at kende. Derefter kan du dømme, hvis du finder dom nødvendigt.

Så drop nu brugen af islam i skræmmekampagner. Drop nu forsøget på at modstille religioner. Drop nu i det hele taget religionen som sagens kerne. Lad mennesket møde mennesket. Se udover alle de prædikater, fordomme og holdninger som alligevel ikke kan bære i det mellemmenneskelige møde.

Lad os nu tale om det, der er vigtigt.

……………………………………

One of the words most often used in the most popular debate at this time is the word: islam. It is as if islam equate with all foreigners, refugees, immigrants and migrants, as if all who cross the Danish border without being born in Denmark belong to islam. It’s so eerily undiscriminating, but you have to realize that this is what makes it so incredibly easy to create a scare story for all who haven’t the ability or the strength to create their own overview.

Islam is a religion just like christianity, judaism and others. A religion isn’t the same as culture, and you cannot in any way lump all together who share a religion. For the same reason you simply cannot claim that all who believe in islam are alike. And in the same way you cannot claim that one certain religion is better than the other.

We all know what has been done concerning murders, wars and crimes in the name of christianity. And what is still being done in the name of religion in the more extreme branches. If you raise a warning finger at a religion, you must raise it at all who use religion as a weapon in their personal vendetta.

Because it is personal. It has nothing to do with culture or religion. It is all about people. I know a lot of people with different religions, cultures and personalities. Neither culture nor religion define them as people. The christian isn’t necessarily humane and understanding and the muslim isn’t necessarily hostile and intolerant. Neither the other way around. They are all different persons with different agendas. Some agendas are certainly colored by culture, childhood, religion and surroundings, but all of them are people dominated by personality more than anything else.

What creates a personality? That would be a greater dissertation, but I dare claim that many millions of people haven’t the same personality even though they share a religion. That group contains diversity measuring up to that of any other religious group.

Is it then the culture of this group, which is a problem? No, culture is exactly like religion, just as varied and colored by many things. All who come from Denmark are alike … Nope. Not from Jutland either, from Copenhagen or Little Olmstrup.

You just cannot claim that everyone from a certain group are alike. Therefore you cannot have an opinion about a person based on that person’s culture or religion. Ergo a person can only be judged on its person, i.e. the actions and attitudes of that person.

And then it becomes hard to create a dominating scare story about a group of people.

How do I want to be viewed by other people? As a Dane? Part of a certain nationality and culture? Am I like all other Danes? Definitely not. As a christian then? No. I’m definitely not religious at all. What then? How are others to judge and categorize me? As a human being, thank you, as a person. Come out and meet me, look into my eyes, talk to me and get to know me. Then you can pass judgement on me, if you find it necessary.

So please, stop using islam for the scare stories. Stop trying to oppose religions. In every way just stop making religion the core of the matter. Let people meet the people. Look above all the labels, prejudices and attitudes that in cannot last in the inter-human meeting in anyway.

Let us now talk about that, which is important.

Skam over Danmark/ Shame on Denmark

28. januar 2016 / louise1978 / 0 kommentarer

Jeg bor i et land, som i disse dage er skældt ud verden over. Store, internationale medier skriver artikler, laver satire og sætter Danmark på forsiden, fordi dette lille lands regering har vedtaget love, der lugter langt væk af tidligere tiders nazisme og fremmedhad. Facebook, Instagram og andre sociale medier slynger om sig med hashtags som #shameondenmark og #ikkeimitnavn. Jeg indrømmer, at det gør min egen Facebookside også. Men så aktiv, som jeg nu er, i debatten om flygtninge og det stigende fremmedhad, så stoppede jeg, da jeg stødte på #shameondenmark.

Jeg indrømmer, at jeg før har skrevet ordene: Jeg skammer mig … og det er pinligt … Men faktisk, indser jeg nu, har alt dette ikke noget med mig at gøre. Jeg er dansk, jeg er født i Danmark, mine danske aner går hundredvis af år tilbage. Danmark er mit land, min arv og mit blod, men det her, denne udvikling, har intet med mig at gøre. Jeg har ikke stemt disse mennesker ind i regeringen, jeg har ikke støttet disse lovforslag, og jeg har på intet tidspunkt været med til at skabe denne udvikling i mit land. Og dette er mit land! Så nej, det er ikke Danmark, der skal skamme sig. Danmark er et skønt land, og det er fyldt med mennesker, der både kan og vil hjælpe mennesker i nød. Det er fyldt med glade, kærlige, sjove mennesker, som favner resten af verden, som ser fremad og som kæmper deres egen daglige kamp for at ændre udviklingen mod kulde og had.

Så jeg foreslår, at vi ændrer tonen her og nu. Det er ikke #shameondenmark. Det er skam over de mennesker, som vil gøre landet til Helvedes fremmedhadske forgård, skam over de mennesker, som ikke orker at favne og rumme deres medmennesker, skam over de mennesker, som lever i angst og had til andre til det punkt, hvor de ikke længere rummer næstekærlighed. Skam over dem; ikke over Danmark, ikke over danskerne.

Lad os stå sammen og vise verden, at Danmark er kærlighed, at Danmark er, hvad det altid har været: et land, der trods dets bette størrelse både kan og vil hjælpe, rumme, favne og elske. Lad os være tidligere tiders modstandsbevægelse, vores bedsteforældre og oldeforældre som kæmpede mod hadet, hjalp dem i nød og stod frem, når det gjaldt. Lad os vise verden, at det er Danmark. Danmark er ikke vores regering. Danmark er ikke de nyhedsoverskrifter, der nu suser verden rundt. Danmark er os, som træder frem og siger: Stop! Vi vil ikke være med til det her. Og så ændrer vi det.

For faktisk kan vi ændre det. Regeringen er kun så stærk, som de folk, der står bag dem. Og vi er det folk, der kan træde væk og vælge fra. Så jeg foreslår, at det er netop det, vi gør. Vi er mange, rigtigt mange, der ikke vil være med til denne politik. Og når mange står sammen, kan alting ændres.

Det er tid til nye hashtags. #danmarkerkærlighed #dendanskerevolution

Lad os ændre verden nu.

——

I live in a country, which in these days is much-criticized around the world. Great international media write articles, create satire and put Denmark on the front pages, because the government of this tiny country has voted on laws that reek of past times Nazism and xenophobia. Facebook, Instagram and other social media throw around hashtags like #shameondenmark and #notinmyname. I admit, so does my own Facebookpage. However, as active as I am in the debate on refugees and the rising xenophobia, I stopped when I came across #shameondenmark.

I admit, earlier on I have written the words: I am ashamed … and it’s embarrassing … but actually, I now realize that all of this has nothing to do with me. I am Danish, I am born in Denmark, my Danish heritage goes back hundreds of years. Denmark is my country, my heritage and my blood, but this, this development, has nothing to do with me. I haven’t voted for these people to be government, I haven’t supported these new laws, and I have at no point been part of creating this development in my country. And this is my country! So, no, it isn’t Denmark that should be ashamed. Denmark is a wonderful country, and it’s full of people who both can and will help people in need. It’s brimming with happy, loving, funny people who embrace the rest of the world, who look forward and who fight their own daily battle to change the development towards cold and hate.

So, I suggest that we change the tone here and now. It isn’t #shameondenmark. It’s shame on the people who want to turn this country into the hateful Forecourt of Hell, shame on the people who cannot be bothered to embrace and hold their fellow human beings, shame on the people who live in fear and hate of others to the point where they can no longer contain humanity. Shame on them; not on Denmark, not on the Danes.

Let’s stand together and show the world that Denmark is love, that Denmark is what is has always been: a country that in spite of its tiny size both can and will help, embrace, hold and love. Let us be past time’s resistance movement, our grandparents and great grandparents who fought against the hate, helped those in need and stood tall when it mattered. Let us show the world, that this is Denmark. Denmark isn’t our government. Denmark isn’t those head lines that now fly around the world. Denmark is us who step forward to say: Stop! We will not be part of this. And then we change it.

Because we can change it. The government is only as strong as the people who stand behind them. And we are those people who can step back and choose differently. So I suggest that this is what we do. There are a lot of us, really a lot, who will not agree to these politics. And when many stand together, anything can be changed.

It’s time for new hashtags. #denmarkislove #thedanishrevolution

Let us change the world now.

There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark

7. august 2015 / louise1978 / 0 kommentarer

In Denmark we have a minister of integration … We have a lot of ministers, and they have a lot of opinions. In Denmark, we also have a so-called democracy, basically meaning that our selected ministers represent the people of Denmark. Ideally, this is the perfect way to run a country – a free country, a country for everybody … or what?

Our minister of integration has a plan to lower financial help for refugees. She wants to put ads in international newspapers warning refugees from coming to Denmark, telling them we do not want to help them. She wants Denmark to be known as a country that doesn’t help people in need. This is how she wants people to see Denmark – a closed, self-sufficient country only for original Danes.

I feel estranged from my own country. Here I am – a Dane born and bred – Danish relatives named and recorded going back to the 1500’s – and I feel so un-Danish if this minister is supposed to be representing Denmark. She and I have absolutely nothing in common.

Here we have a refugee – country at war, cities bombed, house ruined, no work, no money, no food, no hospitals, no infrastructure – we have a family, children, grandmother, with nowhere to go, nowhere to survive – they manage to get to the border – they’re dying from hunger, thirst, sickness – they manage somehow to get on a boat – they manage somehow to sail across the ocean – they manage somehow to get to the border of Denmark – and there stands the minister of immigration with the international newspaper in her hand, pointing at the ad, telling these people we do not help refugees – off you go – find somewhere else.

I’m outraged.

In so many ways, Denmark is one of the richest countries in the world. Yes, this is a small country, yes, we too have to struggle to keep things running, but still … we have financial support for everyone: people without work get a monthly income, we have free education and even a monthly income for students so they can focus on studying without having to work full-time, we have free hospitals, free doctors, free school, free pension. We live well in Denmark compared to so many other countries. Yes, you can find the stories of people struggling to get by in Denmark, of course you can, but by and large, we are healthy and wealthy and fine. So we turn our back to those in need?

I don’t get it.

Luckily, I’m not alone. A lot of people are showing their support to a group on Facebook collecting money and signatures to answer those ads. The other day, an ad was published in a Danish newspaper and soon there will also be one in The Guardian telling the world that refugees should definitely come to Denmark, that we’re a nice country that helps and that a lot of people in Denmark are actually friendly.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Velkommen-til-flygtninge-Nej-til-St%C3%B8jbergs-skr%C3%A6mmekampagne/1004040489619586?fref=nf

This is the Denmark I like to see, and the Denmark I feel a part of.

Of course, then you can discuss how these ads are going to affect refugees. How likely is it that said refugee described above is going to stop at a kiosk, buy an international newspaper, read the minister’s hateful ads and decide: Oh, I had better stay here.

Not likely. And not likely either that said refugee reads the counter-ad and decides: Oh, I’ll go then.

Nope. Not at all. Luckily.

However, what truly concerns me is how the international society will look upon Denmark … Danes … me. Denmark is fast-forwarding towards a reputation as a cold, self-sufficient, racist country with only their own gold and comforts in mind. And this doesn’t sit well with me. I do not want to be associated with that. I am not like that. We live in 2015! We’re ages, decades and centuries from the times when you only knew your own village and everything different scared the living daylights out of you. We live in a global community. We all know everything about each other. Today more than ever we know we’re all the same – and no one today can close their eyes to their neighbours and lock down the border. At least, no one can do this and say truthfully: I didn’t know.

We know there are people in need, we know people are dying, we know people need help – it’s right there on all of our electronic screens. You know this. And you decide, openly, shouting it out: We Do Not Help In Denmark. Die on your own. This border is closed.

I am disgusted.

I suggest we cut Denmark in half. I’ll be on the open side – with open borders, lots of people ready to help, collecting clothes, blankets, food and water – welcoming people in need with open arms, helping them settle, listening to their stories, knowing these are my fellow people, my brothers and sisters, and knowing this is life, this is what it is all about – sharing, being a human being.

Looking across the water, I’ll see the great concrete wall of Closed Denmark, and sitting there on the beach alongside my international family, we will wonder however they’re doing on the other side of the wall. There’s only the rotten stench to tell.