Wednesday, August 23, 2006

On a poetic note

"Strip away the layers and reveal your soul
Got to give yourself up and then you become whole
You're a slave to yourself and you don't even know
You want to live the fast life but your brain moves slow
If you're trying to stay high then you're bound to stay low
You want God but you couldn't deflate your ego
If you're already there then there's nowhere to go
If you're cup's already full then its bound to overflow"

...I'm not religious, everybody knows that - but this part of Matisyahu's King Without a Crown always gets everything in me moving. Yasemin has born witness to that countless times in Thessaloniki when I first discovered the song. The important sentence for me is precisely the one with God mentioned - but I understand 'God' as any measure of Happiness we try to achieve in our lives. Such acievements require us to give up ourselves - I know it sounds corny, but still it's true for me. You have to give yourself up to find that which you hold in higher respect than your mere existence. For some, that is God, for others it is love, for me it is Life itself...

Betryggende

Dansk Folkeparti ekskluderede igår 8 lokalformænd og en bestyrelsessekretær for deres utilstedelige adfærd i forbindelse med optagelsen af nye medlemmer med højreekstrenustiske sympatier. Idag siger partiets sekretær, at der vil blive afholdt kurser i partiets linie for lokalformænd og andre personer med autoritet i partiet. Interessant. Meget interessant endda, at man er nødt til at undervise medlemmerne af eget parti i, hvad dette står for. Betryggende at vide, at der faktisk er retningslinier for hvor meget til højre, man må være for at kunne optages som medlem. Iøvrigt sagde den fantastiske Peter Skaarup igår, at det var meget udansk at have radikale holdninger hældende mod højre. Nå. Jeg troede egentlig, at et "varmt nationalt sindelag", som de kalder deres politiske platform på deres hjemmeside, var ganske mod højre. Og for nogle uger siden pev flere medlemmer af partiet over at blive 'singlet ud' på deres arbejdsplads for deres politiske holdning. Hvor forfærdeligt! Tænk at blive udpeget som problematisk for det, man tror på. Jeg forstår helt ærligt ikke, hvordan disse mennesker kan sove om natten. Det absurde vil jo ingen ende tage! De piver over noget, de selv praktiserer endda med politisk magt bag; at være genstand for offentlig hetz er tydeligvis meget ubehageligt for dem selv, men der er ingen grænser for, hvor 'rationelt', 'realistisk' og 'hudløst ærligt' det er, når de gør det samme mod muslimer eller indvandrere generelt. Helt ærligt...

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Boats to Europe

This morning, I noticed the talk of so-called 'boat refugees' on the radio and just now I read an article in the newspaper (Politiken) about the issue. There are a few things in the article that caught my attention - especially considering the newspaper's usual left of centre angle on issues of this sort...
The article reports that a European network of sorts has been established to patrol the waters that divide - or connect depending on how you look at it - Europe and Africa. There is much praise for this operation because it helps 'everyone': the European countries are relieved of the burden of 'Afrcians' (yes, that is the term used in the article) on their soil and the 'Africans' are saved from a horrible death in the water. Or...? The 'boat refugees' - who are not in any juridical sense refugees - are often called illegal immigrants because they arrive in the receiving country without documents, without the proper paperwork in order for them to be allowed to live in a European country.
In Thessaloniki, Yan and also Fitti, Yasemin's boyfriend, taught me a few things about this. First, there is no such thing as an 'illegal immigrant'. An immigrant is someone who has a permanent residence permit or citizenship in the state concerned. Furthermore, calling people - persons, individuals, humans like me and my neighbour - illegal signals a lack of understanding for their situation. Respect for human dignity, the main principle of human rights work, should be the guiding light when talking about a very difficult situation like this one. 'Illegal' refers to the crime they are committing - but we don't call murderers illegal persons, do we? Thus, the proper term is (economic) migrants.

Second, Yan wrote an entire thesis on the issue, asking the question: why do economic migrants, i.e. people who try to escape an unbearable situation which is caused by economic relations in the country, why do they not have the option to seek for a better life somewhere else? I'm not sure how Yan answered the question, but I know how she asked it. She pointed to the power of the European countries and their money, she pointed to the fact the developmental aid and programmes actually create more migrants instead of decreasing the number. And she pointed to the Eurocentrism inherent in so-called 'strict border control', the protective rhetoric towards the nation-state. She argued (in 80 pages) that economic migrants have a right to respect for their human rights too, just like everybody else - and that the problem is not only in the influx of 'Africans' but also in the actions of European states towards less privileged countries. Okay, maybe what I just wrote is not that clear - it was just to say that the issue is not simple, and that the 'boat refugees' are also human and should be treated as such.

Next wonderment is the fact that the article does not teach me anything about what happens to these people when the 'water border patrol' stops them. Do they just send the little boats back? Do they block their way in the water and look upon these people with no sense of compassion, with hard eyes because the people in the boat are doing something illegal? What is the function of these patrols is what I want to know...
And lastly, did it ever occur to anyone that the people who got on the boats already considered the risk of dying a helpless death in the water? I mean, the article calls these deaths a tragedy - but I would say the real tragedy is the situation that makes people take this risk, the situation in their 'African' homelands which make them put so little value in their own lives that the risk of not making it to the other shore is a risk worth taking.

An event of Happiness

This weekend, my friend Ditte and her male companion Jesper said their "I do's" in front of God and the congregation - a repeat of promises they made to each other on 15 July last year in all secrecy. It was an emotional day for me - friendships are also moved and touched by marriages. My congratulations to Ditte and Jesper in winning their battles on this one, having a relaxed and undramatic wedding celebration. I was grateful for the task of following Ditte from the beginning of the day - breakfast and coffee at the hairdresser and putting on the dress at Jesper's grandmother's house. All of it a very special experience for me, Ditte being one of my very closest friends. How fascinating to bear witness to a love so strong...

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

'Drawing Danishness' moving into the world

I've had the incredible fortune of getting Mr. Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, former big shot politician in DK, to read my thesis. Although he is retired from politics now, his opinion is still valued in public debates here. As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, he encouraged the current government i.e. the same party he was leader of some years ago, to commission a proper investigation of discursive practices in DK. I sent him my thesis and got a positive and fruitful response this Sunday. He encouraged me to write a feature article for one of Denmark's liberal newspapers (not Jyllands-Posten) and forwarded my name to the editor...... (!!) So now, I'm struggling to put my fingers where my mouth is (??) and produce something fairly coherent and in Danish about this thesis. It ain't easy, I tell you. It's scary knowing that many people will possibly read it, my name will be in a newspaper next to something I have written and have to defend. Oh, the pressure... For the first time since I finished, I sat down today and started reading the bloody old thing. Some passages I still have to skip because I'm too embarrassed of the generalisations I'm making or the obvious political stance, I'm trying to hide. Honestly, my favourite parts are my thank you's and the title page...

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Comment in Danish

Kommentar til udtalelser i Politiken 10. august 2006

”Vi har ikke lavet klassedannelse, men blot et morgenmøde i grupperne hver morgen”
Ruth Hagen, skoleleder på Vesterbro Ny Skole

Interessant er det, at man for at afholde såkaldt ”danske forældre” fra at flytte deres børn til skoler med en mindre procentdel tosprogede elever, vælger segregering som løsningsmodel. Om noget cementerer det skellet mellem de ”rigtige” og de ”forkerte” danskere. Man vælger altså at imødekomme en frygt hos disse ”danske” forældre – en frygt, der som oftest bygger på det forskruede og problematiske billede, medier og politikere tegner af minoriteter indenfor landets grænser. Et fornuftigt skridt i skole-sagen ville være at indkalde de ”danske” forældre til integrationsmøde og lære dem, hvordan situationen faktisk forholder sig i dette dagens Danmark. Hvordan skal denne opdeling af skolens morgenstund modvirke parallelsamfundsdannelse, der til daglig bekymrer den danske befolkning? Hvordan skal den lære forældre, der er indvandrede for år tilbage, at deres børn er lige dele danske og lige dele ”anden etnisk herkomst”?

Haarders udtalelser om, at ”ændre nogle centrale formuleringer” i skolens skriftlige forslag, så opdelingen kan ”erklæres lovlig” signalerer en fuldstændig ligegyldig omgang med generelle principper om lighed og mod diskrimination. At Haarder kan forestille sig at modificere ordlyden af et forskelsbehandlende forslag, så det kan legitimeres i juridisk forstand, er en indrømmelse af dets særdeles problematiske indhold. Denne praksis, der finder sted i alle hjørner af Danmarks sociale og offentlige sfære, illustrerer den fordomsfuldhed og i dens ekstreme form racisme, der påtales af internationale organisationer særligt i denne tid. Hvis det, der bliver sagt, kan anklages for at være diskriminerende eller racistisk, så kalder vi det bare noget andet – hensyntagen til borgerne, beskyttelse af ”danske” værdier eller nytænkning indenfor integrationsinitiativer (!).

I øvrigt fratager forslaget de ”danske” børn muligheden for at danne sig indtryk af og have oplevelser med de danskere, der ikke nødvendigvis ligner dem selv, og det er derfor også en begrænsning af deres frihed til at lære deres samfund at kende i en fordomsfri atmosfære. Danmark er ikke kun befolket af ”rigtige” danskere med familiære rødder solidt plantet i den historiske danske muld, men også de (tilsyneladende neutralt) benævnte nydanskere, der i bedste fald bliver portrætteret som ”forkerte” danskere, i værste fald som udlændinge, der slet ikke hører til i Danmark. Den mangfoldige struktur i den danske befolkning ændrer sig ikke, inden disse børn bliver voksne og bevidste deltagere i samfundet. Man kunne da håbe og ønske sig, at de blev givet en realistisk chance for selv at danne sig et indtryk af, hvilke perspektiver der er i mangfoldigheden – både de problematiske og de mulighedsfyldte. Oplyste borgere forholder sig til et realistisk – om end altid subjektivt – billede af det samfund, de lever i, og denne skoles intention om en opdeling ”i det små” så at sige, altså en opdeling, der tilsyneladende ikke har videre konsekvenser, er præget af en hegemonisk kunstighed. Det er en opdeling, der på ingen måde præsenterer disse børn for et realistisk billede af dagens og fremtidens Danmark, og den er endnu et forsøg på at manifestere de ”rigtige” danskeres kulturelle og politiske magt over de danskere, der af flertallet betragtes som hørende til andetsteds.

Denmark and racism

In these days, several Danish ministries are presenting this year’s report on their actions in relation to the Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination to the so-called treaty body of the UN, the Commission for the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). After reading the article in Politiken yesterday, stating that Danish society is up for “another exam on racism” in front of an international organisation, I felt something was missing. The article mentioned several reports dating back to 2004 in which the legal and institutional practices of the Danish government in this field have been criticised. However, the article does not specify the differences between the institutions that are researching, commenting and criticising. Earlier this year, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published a highly critical report on Denmark, and the Danish Prime Minister rejected the findings of the Commission outright due to the plethora of ‘factual inconsistencies’ of the report. He was talking about numbers and figures. The nature of the ECRI’s criticism is fundamentally different from what will come out of the meeting with the CERD, and in my opinion this is a crucial point to make when talking about the monitoring activities of the different organisations.

The ECRI is a commission under the Council of Europe (Europarådet), the primary human rights organisation of Europe. The Council of Europe was established shortly after the Second World War with the prime purpose to secure human rights in its Member States which presently counts 46 including both Turkey and Russia which might not normally be understood as ‘European’. The Council of Europe is frequently misunderstood to be linked to the European Union but despite the cooperation in many fields of politics, the two organisations are distinct and profoundly different organisations. The difference is especially seen in the focus of their work. It was the Council of Europe that drafted and adopted the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) in 1951; the European Union has no such document although it is currently trying to adopt a Constitution which incorporates the ECHR as a separate part of the document. The Council of Europe has proven to the most effective regional human rights system in the world (compared with American and African counter-parts who have similar functions but fail to achieve success in creating institutional and legal stability so to speak in the field of human rights). This is mainly due to the refined workings of the Court which has consistently improved its legal practices through a steady development of case-law in relation to the changing make-up of Europe and its controversial issues. The ECRI was established in 1997 as a response to the ‘right-turn’ of European politics in general and the acceptance in European populations of prejudiced and racist discourse in the public sphere. The ECRI is not a monitoring body as such – it is an expert commission which tries to disentangle the institutional, economic and social dynamics that cause, create or justify hostility towards minorities.

The CERD on the other hand is a UN monitoring body, and the subject of its monitoring is the implementation of the Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination. This convention was also drafted and adopted after the Second World War, but has a narrow scope towards racial discrimination i.e. it does not provide a fixed framework within which to deal with discrimination based on for example religion. It monitors the effect of the legally binding convention signed by the Member States of the UN and issues recommendations to the governments of these states. The material up for discussion in the CERD is reports provided by the governments themselves, or their specialised institutions in the field of discrimination. States are obligated to submit reports every 3-4 years. Thus, what is up for discussion this week in the CERD is the Danish government’s self-image. This is not to say that the CERD blindly takes the word of the governments as truth; it is a critical body of experts who questions the account provided by the institutional representatives. However, it is focused on the institutional practices of a state and does not deal with the wider context of a more social and popular nature. Discussions concern new legislation, policy changes and the general ‘philosophy’ behind the political agenda.

The point of all this was to emphasise the differences between the activities of organisations dealing with racism and discrimination on an international level. When the ECRI published its third report on Denmark in May, it created uproar in the Danish public on both sides of the ideological gap. The ECRI has the authority to be a lot more critical than the CERD and it has a wider basis for criticism due to the nature of its research (including NGOs for example). Furthermore, it is directly linked to the activities of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, hence the power of its recommendations have direct influence on the political make-up of Europe as opposed to the CERD which centralised functions may be important but not sufficiently linked to a political authority with implementational power.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Finding home

...................Wow! What a different life, returning to solitary living and a flat that brings back both good and bad memories............

I have since I got home completely destroyed my flat, broken down kitchen cupboards, violently torn out screws from walls and bathroom fittings from pipes. After deconstruction comes reconstruction, and I painted both ceilings and walls of my so-called 'natural habitat' - all by myself... Oh well, what I meant to say was that I spent the last week and a half as 'interior-decorate-zilla' and am now all out of physical umpf. Half-done is annoying, but I just can't muster anymore strentgh to finish. Completely unwarranted, my brain started working again - on its own, thinking critical theories and sour replies to Danish politics.

What is home to me now? Many thoughts and ideas, among them my beautiful friend and her son and the forthcoming celebration of their family life (a wedding), my other friend and his insightful contributions to world order, my third friend, currently visiting Venice and her vigilant encouragements to whatever project I'm involved in, my fourth friend who got herself a boyfriend, my fifth friend who will be an aunt sometime next year, my parents coming by for coffee... Actually, probably, maybe, home is now somewhere inside me where all these magnificent people have room all the time, wherever I am. The phrase 'Home is where the heart is' can for me now be turned around: The heart is where my home is... Like I missed the people here, I miss the people there, and as Yasemin told me many times it is so hard to get used to missing people. It is however part of the human condition when humans live the kind of life I live.