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rasmack

I am thankful I live in a country where this is possible

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Tonight I was having a beer with a friend after work. Beer is good. Friends are good. Soon time passes 2 am and I had best be heading home. Om my way I pass the main building of my university, a place that was founded in 1479 (yes, that is before Columbus). I decide to walk the shortest route possible, and I find myself walking past the entrance of the supreme court. Not a guard in sight. I pass the church where our heir to the throne was baptized a few days ago, whereupon I continue past the main entrance to parliament. Noone to be seen.

For some strange reason I thought this post just might belong in Speakers Corner.

(oh, and in the 7-11 I ran into one of our most well-known actors. He looked a bit drunk.)
HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

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I decide to walk the shortest route possible, and I find myself walking past the entrance of the supreme court. Not a guard in sight. I pass the church where our heir to the throne was baptized a few days ago, whereupon I continue past the main entrance to parliament. Noone to be seen.



Um, "heir to the throne"? :S


I wouldn't want to live in a place where there IS a "royalty"-- regardless of whether there are no guards in front of the Supreme Court.

I imagine that any country that has "thrones" and "heirs" and "royalty" really can't make much claim to being "egalitarian" where it comes to all the citizens being equal, having claim to equal rights, etc.


Where are you talking about, anyway?

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(oh, and in the 7-11 I ran into one of our most well-known actors. He looked a bit drunk.)



Is that a point of pride?
If it is, I don't get it.

-
-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

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I believe he's writing from Denmark. And I think his point was simply that he enjoyed a good evening walk in Copenhagen. A "Feel good" post of sort. But I may be wrong...

"For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

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I thought it more likely that he was trying to dig at us Americans whose Supreme Court is under lockdown and constant guard, and our government is not accessible to us.

Otherwise, why not post about a fine night out in Bonfire?

Original Poster: how about some clarification, please?

-
-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

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Probably a bit of a jab where such things aren't possible.

But the main point of his post as I see it is: Denmark is a pretty nice little place. There's so far been little need for harder security measures and the authorities can be "talked to" and tend to be reasonable.

The distance between people of various social strata is not very big, it's pretty safe and attitudes rather relaxed overall.

Incidentally, the only power our royalty has is to spend some of our tax payer's money. It's a tradition thing, not a power thing. Being a Dane myself I won't object to a characterization as subjects and the tyrranny of our monarchy - I'll just say "sure, if you feel so" B|.

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Original Poster: how about some clarification, please?



Fine :)
I see so many Americans on this forum being proud of living in a place where they can carry guns. You guys are proud of your military. You are proud of your history. Feel free to add more.

All this is fine. It is a good thing

I was merely trying to show that different countries have different things to be proud of. I am proud of living in a place where there is no need to carry guns. There is no street in Copenhagen I would not let my grandmother walk at 4 am. I am proud of the history of my country (of which the monarchy is a part). I work at a university that was founded before Columbus. I could continue but that is not the point.

It was an attempt to broaden the view here a bit. :)
HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

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How large is Copenhagen, again?

How many millions of people live in its most urban area? How does its population compare to that of the U.S.?

This comparison is absurd. In most of the places I have ever lived, I did not need a gun, either. I also did not end up needing a smoke alarm, or a fire extinguisher. That doesn't mean I don't see utility in having them available if they should be necessary.

-
-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

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No, no, no. You -are- dissing the US. How dare there be another place in the world that is also good to live in. We have the greatest country in the world. Greatest. Because it's the land of the free. And the only reason we're so free is because of the all the brave people who call America home.

Admit it. Admit we're the greatest. Do it or die, fucker!
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:)Thank you for posting this thread.

I live in a country which appears hell bent on copying the worst form of US gun toting world domination bravado...without the guns.

Walk down the street of a large city alone late at night and you're likely to be set upon by a bunch of kids trying to look like american gang members. Such things are just the merest tiny tip of the nasty iceburg lurking underneath.

How hard is it to emigrate to Denmark?

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I know precisely what Rasmack is talking about. I lived in Hørsholm for a year, from 1992 to 1993. Attended Universitetet København. What an amazing city! I guess, looking back on it over 10 years later, what I realized is how easy going everyone was. Productive, business like, but at the same time not pretentious or arrogant. At the time, the big question was whether DK should sign the Maastricht treaty, which made the EU out of the EEC. I remember a lot of "nej" banners and a lot of pro-Europe banners.

But most of all, I remember Tuborg Grøn, and the most important phrase in all of Danish: "Jeg vil gerne ha' en øl, tak..."

To answer another person's question: Denmark's population is rougly 5.5 million. About the same as Massachusetts (6.2 million). Copenhagen is a modern, industrial city by any measure - and the roads and public facilities are a hell of a lot nicer.

Oh, but one quibble, Rasmack: would you let your grandma walk through frei Christiania? (Is it still as wacky as it used to be?) For those not in the know, Christiania is sort of this semi-autonomous area in part of Copenhagen. Basically, it was taken over by hippies back in the 1960s and they turned it into a self-govening commune. Back in the early 1990s, when I was there, it had a reputation as being a little seedy, and a slightly dangerous. The police sort of let it do its own thing, and it more or less did fine. Most Danes, though, thought of it as a bit of a wild and dangerous place. (Although all things are relative -- I walked around there at 2:00 a.m., drunk, and the only person who made any sort of contact with me was a guy in his 40s who was trying to give me directions, since it was clear I was not going to make the Night Bus out of town without help... I would not have felt so comfortable in the equivalent areas of many of the US cities I've been to -- places like Boston, New York, LA, SF, etc.)

Rasmack, a question for you. Is Cafe Blasen (a bar) still there? I was there so much, I used to get mail there (no joke). It was at Nørregade 6.

Also (apologies for all the additional edits), something occurs to me: one of the reasons why Denmark is so egalitarian and trouble free is that it is a very socially homogenous population. 97% or so are Danes, and the balance are about half Turks and half "others". Mostly protestant, some Catholics. My Danish friends used to complain about "all the gypsies", by which they meant Turks. That used to make me cringe.

So I think one of the trade offs is that Denmark is not much of a multi-cultural society. It is a very tolerant one, by most standards (including more so that a lot of parts of the US), but it's not in the same situation.

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My my, you are in a good mood today...

I am not dissing (is that a word?) the US. Got it?



Nice little country ya got there. :)
However, I can see how SOME people might view it as a comparison. Hell, even I thought at first that you were pointing out differences.

What I DON'T do is get all bent out of shape about it. You like you country because it is very safe and has alot of history and that is cool. B|

I think people should realize that if someone says, "I am glad that it is very safe where I live," it does not mean "I think where you live is absolute shite."

It is just a testament to how polarized and easily offended we have become that we jump to those kinds of conclusions so quickly. Quite sad really.
Why yes, my license number is a palindrome. Thank you for noticing.

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It is just a testament to how polarized and easily offended we have become that we jump to those kinds of conclusions so quickly. Quite sad really.



Agreed. 100 percent. I do not feel the slightest offence when reading Rasmack's post. Oh yeah, all those nice memories of Tivoli or Bakken park... :):P

dudeist skydiver # 3105

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The Danes’ cuisine tastes great and their jokes are hilarious. Of course, that is only in comparison with the Swedes ;)

Greater Denmark, let’s bring it back the old-fashioned way … :)

Edited to add: Denmark, the only country on earth where it was possible to meet with Nils Hansen and Hans Nilsen at the same time, I am not kidding.



Blutarsky 2008. No Prisoners!

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The Danes’ cuisine tastes great and their jokes are hilarious. Of course, that is only in comparison with the Swedes ;)



Are you daring me to make some rødgrød med fløde? In that case I dare you to pronounce it ;)

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Greater Denmark, let’s bring it back the old-fashioned way … :)



Rape, plunder, pillage and rape?:)
HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

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I know exactly what you are talking about, Copenhagen is one of the best cities ever.
I love Ströget, Nyhavn, Tivoli and all the cute little stores and stuff, and yes the feeling of not having to be scared shitless after dark.

And Peacefuljeffrey, chill out abit. America is not the only country in the world. Even though some americans like to think so. There are other Free countries out there. You have no idea what free is until you have left the US.

Of course there are bad parts about Copenhagen and Denmark, and Sweden and Norway and Germany, and France and EVERY country.

Pretty much everybody love their country and you know it even more after you leave it for what ever reason.

So it's not a diss against anyone or any country it's a fact there is more GREAT countries out there then the US.

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The Danes’ cuisine tastes great and their jokes are hilarious. Of course, that is only in comparison with the Swedes



Hey now!!! ;) Swedes are the greatest of them all ;)
Skydivers are a bunch of insensitive jerks...
And that's why I don't skydive anymore!

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I thought it more likely that he was trying to dig at us Americans whose Supreme Court is under lockdown and constant guard, and our government is not accessible to us.

Otherwise, why not post about a fine night out in Bonfire?

Original Poster: how about some clarification, please?

-



.......................... Dude ............................ :|
Deep breath. In with the good. Out with the bad.

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How hard is it to emigrate to Denmark?



You're Australian, right? I don't know about Denmark but Finland is really close by, how about that? We could swap places. You go and enjoy the 6 "jumpable" months each year, I'll come to Oz and deal with the gangstas. How about it?

It's always greener on the other side...;)

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Hey, Y'all are making me blush here. :$

It would actually be nice to see some positive threads about what you guys like about your countries. I have plenty of positive things to say about the countries I know, for instance the US, Germany and Sweden :P.

We can always go back to complaining about everything afterwards. :)
HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

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Rape, plunder, pillage and rape?



You said rape twice...



This is where I should be saying "Arrhh! I like rape.", but that would probably have RhondaLea threaten me with a spanking again :P
HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

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