On Politics
17 Dec 2011 2 Comments
in Denmark, Photos, Politics Tags: Barack Obama, Det Radikale Venstre, Enhedslisten, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Politics, Red-Green Alliance, Social Democrats, Socialdemokraterne, Socialist People's Party, Socialistisk Folkeparti
If you’re friends with me on Facebook, you saw the image/link I shared. It’s from Anti-Rebuplican Crusaders by the way of Re-Elect President Obama and shared by someone on my friend’s list. The image features a picture of and quotes George Clooney. The quote goes:
I’m disillusioned by the people who are disillusioned by Obama, quite honestly, I am. Democrats eat their own. Democrats find singular issues and go, ‘Well I didn’t get everything I wanted.’I’m a firm believer in sticking by and sticking up for the people you’ve elected.
If (Obama) was a Republican running, because Republicans are better at this, they’d be selling him as the guy who stopped 400,000 jobs a month from leaving the country. They’d be selling him as the guy who saved the auto-industry. If they had the beliefs, they’d be selling him as they guy who got rid of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ who got Osama bin Laden. You could be selling this as a very successful three years.
- George Clooney
Now, let me start by setting something straight: I’m not an anti-Republican crusader. I’m certainly not a Republican, either. On the contrary. But as the old quote goes: I may disagree with you, but I will fight for your right to have your beliefs/opinion/etc.
But I do think that Clooney has a point. I think that there is way too much mudthrowing in politics these days (also in Denmark) instead of acknowledging the actual accomplishments – and it overshadows the actual accomplishments. I honestly think that if the oppositions spent their energy on what they stand for and cooperate on what they actually agree upon (environmental issues, anyone?) instead of denying that there is actually something they agree with their opposing parties upon (12 minutes extra per day, five days a week or an extra hour per week of labor? Anyone?) or trying to trip their opposing parties in order to maintain their own or get (back) into a position of power, politics would be so much more effective as well as attractive. So much more would be done, and people like myself wouldn’t give up on political activity as easily or find the news so uninteresting and discouraging.
To be honest, I am one of those who was quickly disappointed after the latest election in Denmark (efterløn – anyone at all?). But I tend to forget three of the initial and instant accomplishments of that election:
- We elected our first female Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
- We changed the political color, thus having a left-wing government after a decade with a right-wing government.
- Every time I start feeling the disappointment sneaking in, I always think of what the alternative could be, and think that at least we’re going somewhat in the right direction by now.
Win-win-win!
Another thing I just realized was that they haven’t even been governing for 100 days yet (although we are almost there – the election was on September 15th), and I remember being puzzled by the people criticizing Obama for not accomplishing what he set out to accomplish before or about the time when his 100 first days had gone by. So this is also a note to self about just taking a step back, chill out, and give the politicians a bit of space to do their thing.
I do see the point that there sometimes may be a need for “watchdogs”, but there is a difference between keeping people to their word and throwing mud at them. Parts of that difference are respect, reason, and common sense. And may I add to that that it takes more than 100 days to get through some things and more than one electoral period to get other things through? Just sayin’. With the risk of coming off defensive, I can also inform the uninformed that the Danish system isn’t just bipartial (although it’s usually the leader of the Social Democrats on the left and the leader of the Liberal Party on the right who goes head to head for the position of Prime Minister); the Danish system is multipartial, meaning that a government usually consists of at least two parties who have to agree upon a government platform to govern from – thus naturally compromises have to be in the mix. As for now, we have the Social Democrats, lead by Thorning-Schmidt, flanked by the Social Liberals on the right and the Socialist People’s Party on the left having to govern from their platform while the Red-Green Alliance are yanking their chain from the far left. This also gives me reason to think that we might have to add about a week or so to the 100 days, as that was the time it took the three parties to agree upon a mutual platform to govern from.
You’re asking who I voted for? Well – that’s for us all to know, but for me to write a separate post on. If you know me well you already know, if you know me and the Danish parties you may be able to guess, and frankly I don’t think my confused pile of evenly confused thoughts on that subject fits into this post.
A couple of thoughts on food (#BAD – Blog Action Day)
16 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Blog Action Day, Writing prompts Tags: #BAD, food, ONE.org, WFP
Food. We all need it to survive – but unfortunately it’s not all who have easy access to this life necessity. This is why I write this blogpost: today is Blog Action Day, an annual day that happened to fall on the same day as World Food Day. This is why the theme of Blog Action Day this year is food. I have been wanting to get some thoughts on food down in writing on this blog – and now would be the chance.
There are so many ethics when it comes to food. Personally I believe that we should be taking care of our planet, the people and other animals on it, and the environment around it all, not just run it down to make money. This may sound saved and hippie-esque – well, it does, doesn’t it? But we should, shouldn’t we? And food and drinks seems to be something of the most obvious to work around to do so.
I’m no angel, though. Although I would love to buy everything organic and fairtrade, I don’t have the money to do so in my present situation. And I like meat a tad bit too much to not eat it. Not that I am entirely a carnivore – I’m an omnivore (just as human beings were initially made to be).
I do admire those who can lead a strictly vegan diet/lifestyle, and I love vegan and vegetarian food when it’s made right (just like every other kind of food; frikadeller, the Danish meatballs, don’t taste right if they’re made wrong either). I just don’t want to lay off meat.
But I do believe in treating animals well. This means that I buy as much of my animalistic products (meat, dairies) organic – and on the rare occasion I buy fish, I go for MSC-certified fish.
A concept I love and think should be a rule rather than an exception should be freeganism. A lot of supermarkets throw out food that is still in a good condition, and some people know how to get to the containers with the disregarded food – and they take the food with them. You who do this: know that I praise you! Everything else is a waste of food.
I remember when I visited London on my own back in 2004 – it was my third time there, but my first trip on my own – I ate at a Pret a Manger. I can’t remember whether it was a sign on the wall or one of those signs at the table, but it said that whatever was left at the end of the day would be given to homeless people. I love that solution as well. I think they still do stuff like that. Dear Pret, know that I praise you for that.
Anyway. I would love to give you some wise words on how to live the perfect, sustainable life with food – but as I said, I’m no angel. The best tips I can give you is to make your favorite food – BUT: try to do it with sustainable products! And google freeganism. Or check GratisMad (in Danish) and TrashWiki (in English).
RE-BLOG: Saying Hello: A Guide for Beginners (via studentdesignblog)
20 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Re-blogged entries Tags: art, cartoon, college, comic, design, drawing, funny, graphic-design, humor, humor-2, illustrated, life, life-2, running, sarcasm, school, student, virginia-tech
… Or at least make and keep eye contact and smile back!…
TAG: Friend Book (tagged by Ana Naddoush)
31 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Personal, Tags, Writing prompts
My name is Unna – but changing it on April 10th, 2012.
But people call me everything but (unless they’re Faroese, Icelandic, bright foreigners, extremely bright/attentionate Danes, or just heavily indoctrinated over time by yours truly). Why do you think I’m changing it?
I am 28 years old
If I was the dictator king everybody should focus on Matt. 22:34-40 rather than negatively charged passages of the Bible (or anything similar in their respective religion), only be able to buy organic, fairtrade, recycled, and other sustainable products (freeganism might even be the rule rather than the exception), have a block parties and BBQs throughout the summer, playing in the snow and have indoor/fireplace hygge throughout the winter, care well for the Welfare State (left wing style!), and just freakin’ BEHAVE.
My favorite subject in school: Wow… Which school?
Berna: P
Berna – 10th form: P and X
Johannesskolen: German, Music
Copenhagen Hospitality College: English: Wines from the New World 1+2
Frederiksberg HF-kursus: Music, English, Philosophy
My least favorite subject in school:
Berna: Physics & Chemistry
Johannesskolen: English
Copenhagen Hospitality College: Practical lessons in the kitchen (unless Jim Elkjær was the chef/teacher).
Frederiksberg HF-kursus: Religion
In my free time I like to procrastinate.
My favorite color: Blue.
My favorite animal: Cats, horses.
My favorite sport: Basket ball, soccer/European football
My favorite actor/actress: I find that Joshua McGuire did a fantabulous job as Hamlet when I saw the play at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre last month.
My favorite singer/band: Jamie Cullum.
The best book I have read: The Harry Potter series, Frank McCourt’s autobiographies.
The best movie I have seen: As my first action movie at age 12, “Batman Forever” is epic in my memory. Equally epic are the LotR Trilogy and X-Men movies. But the best right now must be “Interstate 60” and “Down with Love”.
I really don’t like caviar.
I really like The Daily Show. Watch this – and this. And this. And this.
I would like to travel to London, England and New York City, NY, US of A – those are topping my list right now – but am hoping and semi-planning to do some Interrail-ish thing through Germany, the Netherlands, and England next year.
I dream about working with theatre (if I may dream high, work at the Globe or for Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust) and do photography and travel/staycation/local observational blogging on the side.
When I grow up I would like to be one happy camper girl (sadly, I’m not too fond of camping… 
)
Parliamentary Election – finally!
26 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Denmark, Politics Tags: Denmark, Election, General Election, Parliamentary Election, Politics
http://politiken.dk/newsinenglish/ECE1372153/election-september-15th/
So the Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen has called for parliamentary (general) election about 2½ hours ago. The election is on Thursday, September 15th – thus only three weeks from now.
There has been press meetings with both PM Løkke and the leader of the opposition, Helle Thorning-Schmidt of the Social Democrats. Thorning-Schmidt had some beautiful points in her speech, generally centered around finding common ground and cooperating across the middle. There has been comments from a lot of politicians, and I find that the best comments have been from politicians from the left wing.
But there still is mudthrowing. I’m not 100 % certain whether or not it’s because I haven’t followed the news as well as I could, but it seems like several politicians are throwing mud at the opposition, thus making them look bad enough to have the voters not wanting to elect the opposition. But listening to politicians from the opposition, I have heard some of them do the exact same thing. In periods it just seems to be throwing mud and pointing fingers across the board – which is the very reason why I can’t take politics seriously and don’t always trust politicians, even within my own party.
As it is right now, the present government believes that they have the responsible solution for our economy – and the opposition will only leave us in uncontrollable debt. But the opposition seems to think the exact same thing: that they have the responsible solution, and the present government will only ruin us in the end.
I have no idea who is right. I’m not an economist. Personally I think it’s very unpredictable (I find that the most trusworthy understandable/agreeable statement on that point came from Bertel Haarder (V) – yeah, I know, that’s actually a surprise coming from me – that, as I understood him, we can’t know whether to invest now or later, depending on whether the economic crisis continues or not). But I think that the statements and comments from the left wing seem to be the most uplifting.
To those who know me, it’s not surprising that my vote will be placed somewhere on the left wing (thus indirectly to Thorning-Schmidt as the first female PM of Denmark). I agree that we should all take part the load – and those who have more should give more. When the present government made their tax cuts, I suddenly had 500 kr. (≈US $97/GB £60/€67) extra available per month – and that’s a lot to a student. But I would go without them in an instant if it meant paying off national debt and better conditions for those who have less than I do (and remember that taxes in Denmark pay for neat stuff like free education and free health care, thus free visits to the doc and the hospitals).
I genuinely do hope for cooperation across the line – I find that the entire block politics, mud-throwing, finger-pointing thing is ridiculous. It’s seen that two parties of each their color have similar opinions of what to do, and instead of focusing on cooperation, people focus on one party stealing the policy/ideaology of the other. I only have two things:
- Socialist People’s Party or The Red-Green Alliance?
I’m a member of the former, but find that they have moved towards the middle, thus away from where I stand. Populist much? Oh well. At the same time, though, will the Red-Green Alliance get enough votes to matter? I do want to have a leftist PM! - Villy Søvndal as Minister of Foreign Affairs?!
Villy, honey, you’re the leader of my party, and I have a deep affection for you, but you need to practice your English.
If you want to know what I’m talking about, watch the following video. The speech itself is actually pretty good, and I do think that he gets his point through – but I have seen worse than this (although I’m not certain where).
Where’d My Teeth Go?!
25 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
I was just watching TV earlier today – something which is becoming a new favorite of mine: “Markante Meninger” on TV2 OJ (the regional part of TV2 Denmark in Eastern Jutland, including Aarhus and its greater area where I live and study). “Markante meninger” means something like “significant opinions”. Two individuals are invited to discuss a small handful of current subjects – and I find that this is usually done in a pleasent manner. A favorite repeat individual of mine is Lotte Heise, an author and lecturer who is famous for saying a lot in a short amount of time (and being hilariously good at that).
One of the subjects that came up were children’s and teenagers’ teeth being severely damaged from acid which soda and fruit juice contains. There were some explicit photos from Tandplejen (dentists attached to primary schools in Denmark – and let me remind you again that the primary school in Denmark is up to the 9th and optional 10th form), showing teeth damaged by acid, from drinking soda and juice.
Honestly, this is the first time it occurred to me what happened to a specific trade of my teeth. I used to take lessons in horseback riding which included being thrown off by a horse every now and then. At some point, I chipped my tooth in the fall. That can’t be seen today. Granted, it was not much more than a tiny splinter – definitely not as obvious as Jim Carrey in “Dumb and Dumber” – and it has been a few years since then to say the least, but it does squeal about how “good” I have been at choosing water all by myself as a youngster (it didn’t get better until recent years).
The question for debate was what was to be done to avoid these sort of damages to children’s teeth.
I remember the first time I was in secondary school (gymnasiet), I remember there being a vending machine from Coca-Cola in the hallway, and the cafeteria selling sodas from Pepsi. Luckily, as it was pointed out in the program, most schools have removed this sort of vending machines. And Lotte Heise had a good point of giving her children some lemonade for lunch, but then have them drink water the rest of the day (and for that reason, the school cafeteria shouldn’t sell sodas, juice, etc.). She also had a point (as I understood it) with a bottle with a screw cap becoming sort of a nursing bottle (or as I would put it: a sippy cup – but her imagery is better!); you just automatically and mindlessly drink from it – and that not being a problem as long as the contents of the bottle is water; the problem occurs when the contents is soda, juice, etc.
Her opponent had an excellent point in each individual having a responsability for oneself, and I do agree on that part; but I have to agree with Heise that at primary school age, the parents have a responsability as well. Adults know right from wrong, good from bad, and healthy from unhealthy. They have to pass that on to the kids – and no, I don’t think that is done by putting wrong, bad, and unhealthy right there in front of the children’s noses. Then it’s too easy to react to the impulses from one’s reptile brain (lust = “I want”).
I’m not saying that removing these beverages from school compound will stop the students completely – no beverages were sold at my primary school, and as we grew older and had signed consent forms from our parents saying that we could leave school compounds on our own, we could just went to the convenient stores and supermarkets nearby in the longer breaks if we really wanted it – but it’s a start.
Speaking from experience, it’s easy to choose water instead of soda when being used to drinking water. But that’s the thing, you have to be used to it. It has to be a habit. Being an addict of caffeine and lover of sweets myself I know how difficult it can be to make that choice sometimes – and luckily I’m a fan of coffee with access to a coffee machine, places to buy and grind my coffee, and the money to buy coffee. Thus I’m able to kill my desire for caffeine with a cup or two and drink water when thirsty on a daily basis. And again, an addiction is related to habits in my humble opinion – something I don’t really need, but has been incorporated thoughout life.
When Heise spoke of the explicit warnings on packs of cigarettes and suggested that dentists came to the schools to show off the explicit images of what happens when teeth collide with too much acidy matter, I came to think that it might not be a bad idea. Not only do we have school nurses who I remember speaking of overweight with a boy in my class, but we also have sexual education – so why not learn about what bad stuff do to our bodies? I remember the boy being pretty open about his weight (we went to regular chats with the nurse in pairs), people actually being interested, and even the boys engaged in sex ed and saying things properly (like asking serious questions using the word penis instead of bad or everyday words for it), so why not?
Just my two cents.
Edit: Watch the show right here. Just know that it’s in Danish.
RE-BLOG: What I wish My College Professors Would Have Taught Me: Group projects can be completed alone. (via Bennis Inc)
25 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Re-blogged entries Tags: advice, back-to-school, beliefs, blog, business, career, class, class-work, classes, college, degree, education, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, graduate, group-projects, groups, growing-up, homework, humor, knowledge, learning, learning-2, life, living, penn-state, penn-state-2, professor, professor-2, sarcasm, school, student, teacher, teachers, teaching, team-work, thoughts, time-management, united-states, wisdom, work, world, writing, youth
I couldn’t agree more on this.
I remember when I was applying for university – the director of my gospel choir suggested that applied for University of Roskilde.
This might require a bit of explanation if you don’t know that university. The thing is that it’s different than your average university, at least in Denmark: it starts with a basis of whichever faculty you choose to study; be it humanities, science, or social studies, which will take you a couple of years before you can go on study on the specific study you want to focus on.
Another thing is that they have a major focus on group work. Every time you have to do a project – which is another thing they focus on: working on projects instead of regular lessons – you have to divide into groups, which can take up to a week, I’m told.
When the director suggested that I applied for University of Roskilde, I could have laughed as easily as I could have groaned and booed her out of the room. She seemed to think that I would fit right in there – but based on the very group work, I think she’s wrong. This I base on my experience from secondary school, where group work was also used. And we’re talking Higher Preporatory Exam here, a form of secondary school where you supposedly are an adult, somewhere else in your life, and more responsible (I was 25 when I graduated).
An experience that really stood out was when working on a science project. We only had a few days to complete it, and apparently I ended up in a group with a couple of the guys in my class who couldn’t get up in the morning. This meant that I met at 8 AM with a considerable lack of sleep (from staying up late to study and finish something for the project, if I remember correctly). The next member of the group showed up arund 9, and the boys showed up around 10 – and that was after me setting them straight (oh, bless the invention of cellular phones).
We did manage to finish the project. And I am a loner as it is. But working in groups like that doesn’t make my “love” of working in groups any better.
What I really prefer is that one does have a study group, but just to play off of, go to for help if one is stuck. I myself have very little patience left when it comes to waiting for the work of others in order to move on, and to be truthful, I don’t have the nerves to have people waiting for mine to move on – and in the end have a, well, somewhat coherent end result.
Sure, it might require a little more time to do such a project on one’s own, and/or the institution of education should ask for less pages, but nevertheless – group work isn’t for me, either.
via Bennis Inc
Norway
29 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
It’s been a week since the tragedy in Norway – and finally, I think I’m able to think somewhere in the area of clear about it, let alone have an overview of it. During the weekend I was quickly filled with the constant breaking news of bombing, shooting, shock, death numbers, the list goes on, and soon I was unable to contain much more. I’m not sure whether or not I would have been able to attend any of the events supporting Norway and those affected by the tragedy, but rest assured that I was there in spirit (and even watched the live transmission of the memorial service from the Cathedral of Copenhagen, Our Lady’s Church, on Wednesday) and that I do include all of this in my prayers.
I have to admit that one of my first thoughts when I heard that someone was doing a massacre was whether he was Muslim or not. If that would have been the case, I wouldn’t have been surprised, only ever so disappointed that there would be yet another reason for people to point fingers at Muslims – so granted, I was initially relieved when I heard that he was described as an ethnic Norwegian Christian (as I would if he was more generally described as Scandinavian or Caucasian Christian, for that matter).
But my relief didn’t last long. Bombings and massacres are nothing to be relieved about, nor is the identity of a bomber/murderer, no matter his/her background. Bombing and murdering is wrong, no matter the magnitude of it. What has been shocking me the most is that this has been planned for so long, so many people died, and that so many of the people who died were so young. And it only enhances it that their political orientation is so close to mine (I’m not a Social Democrat; I’m further on the left on the political scale – but the party I’m currently a member of is the “neighbor” to Arbeiterpartiet’s Danish sister party).
As I have previously pondered with other terrorist attacks, I can’t help but wonder what the people behind it was/were thinking; if they truly are of an Abramic faith (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and, as many do, speak of having to follow the rules of their faith, then why is it that they insist of breaking one of the Ten Commandments so thoroughly: “Thou shalt not kill” (the sixth commandment, Ex. 20:13)? That, to me, is one of the commandments that hurts people the most when broken. As a Christian one should also remember the Greatest Commandment (Matt. 22:34-40), which I have heard interpreted as having respect for your fellow human beings. Killing other people, their friends, their family members isn’t very respectful now, is it? I’m no angel and I do understand how it feels to thoroughly disagree with your government (doi, understanding since 2001!), but I know democracy and to wait my turn until the next election. I’m not saying that I would sit on my butt while waiting my turn or stay quiet if I see injustice from a governmental entity, but I do do democracy.
What I do enjoy in this entire mess is that I finally agree with people like PM Løkke and PM Cameron on something: the necessesity of staying together, uniting, through this and never to seize exercising our rights and freedoms as citizens of a democratic society (and I’m sure I could go on – I do remember hearing them both speak after the tragedy, and I generally agreed).
I’m not sure of how to end this. We’re lucky here in Denmark; although we had attempts of terrorism around here, but those have predominantly been averted (the worst case coming to mind is a bomb going off in a toilet at a hotel in Copenhagen). Hopefully we will stay as safe as that in the future.
RE-BLOG: I speak Disney (via Ana Naddoush)
31 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Re-blogged entries Tags: adventures, kenya, language, Photos, reflections-on-life
Well, Hakuna Matata, I suppose.
via Ana Naddoush
