OPINION
THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK
23 - 29 November 2012
Manhattan mayhem: a reminder of what really matters
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MacCarthy’s World BY CLARE MACCARTHY Clare MacCarthy is Nordic correspondent for The Economist and a frequent contributor to The Financial Times and The Irish Times. She’ll go anywhere from the Gobi Desert to the Arctic in search of a story. The most fascinating thing about Denmark, she says, is its contradictions.
OR SOME unknown reason the television feed to most of Gentofte went AWOL today. The husband and kids thought this a disaster until I reminded them to cast their minds back to Sandy – the superstorm that recently spread havoc from the Caribbean to New Hampshire and beyond. It robbed scores of people of their lives and thousands of others of their livelihoods. Suitably chastened, they revised their definition of ‘disaster’ on the spot. One of the most enduring images of this vicious tempest’s rampage across the American East Coast was the sight of a blacked-out Manhattan skyline. As the storm bore down on the Big Apple, television viewers worldwide were transfixed by the scale of the disaster and the human suffering that would inevitably follow. When cascading power outages knocked off electricity across the megalopolis, we wondered how New Yorkers would cope. Living off canned food for a few days is easy enough to imagine, but what would it be like to be trapped in an elevator on the 50th floor with
As the storm bore down on the Big Apple, television viewers worldwide were transfixed by the scale of the disaster and the human suffering that would inevitably follow no mobile phone signal and no idea of when power would be restored and rescue would come? That the disaster hit in late autumn (or fall, as our American friends prefer to call it) made the event all the more poignant; at this time of year most of the world’s major religions celebrate some variant of a festival of light. For Hindus and Buddhists it’s Diwali, for Jews Hanukkah and Christians have their Christmas.
The New York melting pot is home to them all, and this wonderful, welcoming city, which has the heart to accommodate every strand of opinion, is usually a great place to visit in late autumn. For the occasional visitor such as myself, it’s often the cheesy touristy things that are most memorable. No native New Yorker would dream of going ice-skating on Rockefeller Plaza, but believe me, it’s a fun thing to do. Likewise, the giant Christmas tree that is erected every year at the same site strikes a chord with people regardless of their attitude to Christmas. It’s a marvel to behold – a tree of up to 30 metres high, bedecked with 30,000 lights strung along five miles of wiring. The Rockefeller tree tugs at the heartstrings because it’s fundamentally an expression of joy and hope for the future. And New Yorkers being the tough and resilient folk that they are, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be a tree again this year – power shortages regardless. But while we all gear up to celebrate Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah or
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just the seasonal break, another aspect of superstorm Sandy is worth bearing in mind: the response of the authorities to the disaster was truly outstanding. Everybody from the top brass at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to individual fire fighters on the street, swung into action quickly and efficiently in a superbly co-ordinated effort. As the New York Times pointed out in an editorial, FEMA, which is charged with directing everything from search and rescue teams, to supplying fresh drinking water and helping hospitals in an emergency, is funded by central government funds. This is an element of ‘big government’ that neo-cons like Mitt Romney wish to eliminate. Conservatives in the UK, Denmark and elsewhere are similarly keen to roll back spending on anything they don’t deem immediately necessary. But perhaps the devastation wrought by Sandy might give them pause for thought? I wish you all a happy and safe holiday.
International student city another step in the right direction
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Christian Values BY CHRISTIAN WENANDE Christian Wenande’s Danish/American background caters well to a city brimming with cultural diversity and strife. The CPH Post journalist loves life in Copenhagen but yearns for the indomitable mountains, rolling prairie and starry nights of his Wyoming sanctuary.
HILE strutting about the other day, displaying my feeble attempt at sporting a Movember ‘stache, I met up with engineer Jørgen Rossen and the Danish ambassador to France, Anne Dorte Riggelsen, and was pleased to hear about their ambitious plans to establish a new international student city in Amager (see page 10). While the initiative is still in its infancy at the moment, it’s the latest move towards a more internationally-diverse and culturally-accepting Denmark. Drawing inspiration from the international student city in Paris, the International Student City in Copenhagen (ISCC) would provide housing to upwards of 5,000 students, something that the city desperately needs with the international student population expected to exceed 15,000 by 2020. But the ISCC won’t only be alleviating the housing shortage. It will also help tackle many of the other issues that have contributed to Copenhagen only being ranked 39th out of 98 student cities in the world. It’s no secret that Danes aren’t the most open people on the planet and it’s a shame that the love-
ly city is hindered by its limited ability to accommodate its valuable foreigners. One of the brilliant concepts that ISCC will employ is that each individual national will have its own house. Denmark, Cambodia, Armenia, Greece and Great Britain are just a few of the over 40 nations that have their own house in Paris. But the true genius is that only 50 percent of each nation’s students may reside in their national house. The remaining half are spread out over the houses of other nations, thus allowing students to live with and embrace different cultures. Just picture it: Americans living in the Russian house, Danes in the Colombian, French in the Australian. It’s globalisation glee. This should help address that tendency students have towards seeking out their own kind when living abroad, but it will also provide an international foundation and flavour that Danish students can ingest, which may lead to them adopting a more positive stance towards their international community. The possible establishment of the ISCC is just one of several initiatives of late that convey a consolidated movement towards a more open-minded, wel-
coming and, dare I say it, cultured Denmark. It looks as if the decision-makers are finally accepting that Copenhagen needs to shape up if it wants to remain a competitive player on the global stage. The city’s über mayor, Frank Jensen, may be a Christmas party debaucher extraordinaire, but there is no denying that he’s seen the light in terms of Copenhagen needing to embrace a more international outlook. Jensen has already endorsed building more international schools in Copenhagen and has proposed that councils adopt languages other than Danish in order to cater to the international community. He is also firmly behind initiatives geared towards attracting and retaining skilled international talent, many of whom avoid Denmark because the country is less attractive than other nations when it comes to jobs, friendliness and accommodation. They will mean that students who have a positive view of Denmark when studying are more likely to stay and keep their skills in the nation after graduating. Furthermore, that phobia of foreigners generated by 9/11, and the consequent rise of Dansk Folkeparti,
seems to have abated as of late, as was exemplified by the fall of the rightwing government and the laxation of immigration laws earlier this year. Certainly, there is much room for improvement in the immigration arena, particularly as the woeful Immigration Services that continue to be inadequate and far too bureaucratic in their procedures. Almost everyone I know seems to have a story about a highly-skilled person who wants to work here but has waited months upon months for a visa. Situations like these certainly don’t help the retention or attraction of anything, except maybe a one-way ticket out of Denmark. So yes, there are the small matters of the 800 million kroner needed to begin the construction of the ISCC, and an immigration system that still throws far too many barriers in front of people wanting to live in, and contribute to, Denmark. But with a number of dedicated souls like Rossen and Riggelsen behind the ISCC project, and a mayor who continues to fight the good fight, Copenhagen could very well morph into a little international gem sooner than one might think.
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