I'll start with the positive.
The Danes are an extremely trusting people. They trust their government, and they trust each other. Over the weekend, my husband and I went to a second-hand shop and bought this little sideboard:
Since we don't have a car here, we made arrangements to have it delivered on Monday afternoon. Well, actually, my husband made the arrangements. In Danish. I understood that the cabinet was 500 kroner, and the delivery cost was 200 kroner. What I didn't catch was that the delivery cost was to be paid when it was delivered, not when the cabinet was purchased. So, when the guy showed up at our place, and after we'd brought the thing into our "pub room," he surprised me by asking for the 200 kroner. Which I didn't have on me, having assumed it was already paid. Once I called my husband to verify that the delivery charge was to be paid upon delivery, I apologized profusely and ran around the block looking for an ATM. Didn't find one. Closest one was a good 10-minute walk away. So the delivery guy not only drove me to an ATM, but he also navigated the one-way streets, going out of his way, to then drop me back off at home.
Now, you might be thinking, "Of course he did. He wanted his money." True enough, but we later discovered that one of the doors on the cabinet was locked, and we didn't have a key. So, my husband called the second-hand shop to see if they had the key. They said to stop by the store and they'd see what they had. When I got to the store yesterday, the man at the counter handed me a bag of keys, supposedly keys to every piece of furniture in the store that needed a key, and told me I could take the bag home, find the key that works, and bring the bag back when I was done. So, today, I'll head back and drop of the bag of keys, having found the working key and opened the cabinet door.
This is all totally mundane stuff, but it's stuff that just makes me feel really great about how kind and understanding and patient people can be.
But then, they go and screw it all up.
A couple of days ago, the Copenhagen Post posted this article. The article discusses a flyer that was posted by the management at a local movie theatre warning movie-goers that, since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan was coming to an end (a month in which Muslims are not supposed to do things like go to the movies), they could expect an influx of "annoying" Muslims at the large blockbuster movies, and that security guards would be on hand to deal with any "unacceptable behavior" by said Muslims.
It's just so wildly, blatantly racist that I don't really even need to say anything about it to make the point. Other than... Hey Denmark... This shit is not okay. Anyone who says it's okay is also a big, giant racist, and you shouldn't be listening to the advice of racists.
The people in Denmark have been extraordinarily kind to me, but I fully recognize that part of this is because I'm tall and blonde. I look like one of them. It breaks my heart that people who don't look Scandinavian often have an exponentially more negative experience.
Good that you already get this "insight" in your first few months in Denmark. I was oblivious in my "honeymoon phase bliss" during my first year and I think it ended up abruptly after one man ching chonged me when my husband and I were sitting outside in a cafe, and the other called me "luder" (prostitute).
ReplyDeleteSweet.