Between theory and practice

My life is a polarised matter.
I spend on average 10 hours a day on my thesis which is due on 4 April. On that day, my life as a student is over, my identity as an academic is challenged to the core. I have studied for 6½ years now and will hold to Master Degrees at the end of it. I have delved into the minds of hundreds of philosophers, analysts, scientists, antagonists. I have become one myself. But today, I have to go to work - my other work, out there in the real world. My work which involves 15 girls between the ages of 14 and 18 in one of the most troubled areas of Aarhus.

I believe that the challenges we are ready to take on present themselves exactly at that moment - when we're ready. Through all my years of studies I've thought of myself as an academic and believed that thinking is everything I'm good for in this world, my special talent. I still think it is. But, when this job with the girls landed in my world, I was ready for the challenge. And I took it on, insecure and vulnerable, worried whether I would be good enough, be anything at all. And I went home crying more than once. But I learned. So incredibly much. I learned that the world is not as square as I thought it was. I realised that there has been a valid purpose with my academic work, with challenging commonsense perceptions of cultural identities, because the world is not simple - but it is not as complicated as we often think either. Most importantly, I realised that the way the world looks today, the way this society looks today, I am needed out there.

I've spent nearly 7 years learning about the world, discovering the way we make sense of it and how this sometimes leads to conflicts. Conflicts that we don't understand because our theory doesn't fit the world. Now it is time for me to take the challenge seriously and make it my mission to be in the world of practice and not of theory. One does nothing without the other. Neither do I. World, bring it on!

Every chance that you get is a chance you take.

Quote of the day - again...

If you try, you risk failure
If you don't, you ensure it

Quote of the day

Omnia vincit amor
Amor vincit omnia

Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BC)

Quote of the day

"After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West made Islam the new enemy. How do you launch a missile against a religion?"

Jan Guillou

Reminder

Dear all, please check out Greg's blog about the homophobia campaign in Warsaw - it's fascinating, horrifying, worrying and extremely important! And this is me looking up to him...

Citizenship test

So, it finally arrived, the Danish citizenship test.

I studied it, I passed it and I read countless comments that people made about the nature of the questions in it. I didn't find it hard at all - but my daily task in this world right now is to study the government's version of Danish history so it wasn't surprising. I had 3 wrong answers, two about art (no surprise there either) and one about who can attend official hearings in Court.

This morning I listened to the Danish Minister of (dis)Integration, Ms. Rikke Hvilshøj, on geek radio's morning show. And, notwithstanding all my intentions of not getting upset, I am angrily trembling right now. Minister says the test is to give the foreigners (udlændinge) the opportunity to show that 'this is where I belong'; she says it is not too much to ask of people who want to exchange their citizenship - and by that token acquire rights to vote for parliament; she says the test questions are made to give a broad overview of Danish history, societal development and culture. She says the test doesn't entail a specific interpretation of what it means to be Danish, of what Danishness is. She says we (who?!) are entitled to make demands on new citizens, and this - THIS??! - is what she wants to ask for??! This is not asking, this is making a statement.

I suggest we make a 'welcome test' to be distributed among the population, asking them to answer 28 out of 40 questions right about what it means to live in a globalised world, the historical development of humanity, and how to take responsibility for the society of which you are a part. I suggest that we (who?!) make some claims on the part of the 'indigenous Danes' to show that 'this is where they belong'.

The Minister says that this is not (another) expression of the assimilationist aspirations of the current government. Hun er fuld af lort, for at sige det på RIGTIGT dansk [lit. she's full of shit to put it in REAL Danish]. As the last caller in the radio programme said (with an accent) what's next? You will test me on my ability to eat pork and fly the Danish flag - or my ability to be white?

Hurra

Nik & Jay vandt absolut INGEN Danish Music Awards i år! Der skal lyde et overordentligt rungende HURRA herfra!

Stand up for your rights! - continued...

Look at this guy! Isn't he gorgeous?! Campaign strategy: first week large billboard posters with no image just the text "What are you staring at, faggot (or lesbo)".
The next week, G appears on this poster with the text "Faggot. I hear it everyday. Hate hurts". Who would want to hurt this fantastic Prince of Warsaw??! Check his blog in my links section...

The lady on the radio

I love the voice of the lady who reads the news on Danish geek radio P1
She sounds comforting, like a sweet dame who would make you tea+biscuits and tell you the ways of the world
Because she knows them, for sure
She even knows how to pronounce the name of the President of Iran
and "Reclaim the streets", the slogan of a demonstration in Cph tonight
She sounds reliable, never pushes the wrong buttons like the 'news' readers on P3, little brother, pop-culture
I wonder what she looks like...

How exciting my life is ;-)