Freedom of speech: Are Danes taking it too far?

This is one of the topics I have touched on a couple of times but I have never dedicated a blog post to it. It is also one of the things Danes take great pride in, freedom of speech. I think that a number of Danes would say that Denmark is all about the freedom of speech. The thing is that Danes do not take great pride with a lot of things but they do with this one and with H. C. Andersen, even though they didn't like him that much while he was alive.

Freedom of speech, the thing that made Denmark infamous in the world when the "Mohammed" cartoons were published by the Jyllands Posten back in 2005. They weren't much better at the beginning of this year when the same news media published an article about corona with the Chinese flag that had the particles of Corona virus on it. A day later Chines embassy contacted Jyllands Posten and demanded an apology and that their modified flag be removed. Neither happened, on the contrary, Danish government sided with Jyllands Posten saying that the freedom of speech is everybody's inalienable right and that everyone can exercise it as one sees fit. So the Chinese didn't get their apology. Are they taking the freedom of speech a tad bit to far? The other day I saw a status by one of my ex-colleagues, where she inquired, how is it freedom when you are insulting religious feelings of a certain group and in consequence potentially causing harm? Shouldn't other people have the freedom of not being the receivers of harm? How is it appropriate to mock the biggest pandemic the world has seen since The Spanish Flu? Nobody considers it funny anymore, including Denmark, but they will say it was still a good joke at the time. 

Well, no matter these considerations, this is how their society works. Everyone has the right to say whatever they want, nobody will prevent them, but if they break any other laws while doing it, they will be adequately punished. 

There was one bizarre example during their last parliamentary elections. One extreme right wing candidate that was running for parliament, Rasmus Palludan, as a part of his campaign, went to the neighborhood with a majority of people with Islamic religious background and he started spewing all sorts of vile insults he could find on them. Couple of police officers protected him, he had no supporters present around him and later he ended up in jail for his little performance because he went across the boundary of hate speech. The point is that no matter how extreme his political views are and no matter that by doing it he was breaching other laws, his right for free speech was respected. 

Are Danes going a bit too far with it? I have a pragmatic take on it. If we would limit the free speech with taking into consideration that nobody gets offended, we could barely say anything and sometimes I get the feeling that this is the direction where the world is heading. 

I will give one benign example. I have one opinion that I know stands out from the majority. I dislike Christmas. That holiday never resonated with me well. To have a part of the year where everyone just goes on an spending frenzy and suddenly becoming do-gooders, which they are not for the rest of the year. I just find the whole holiday a bit fake and forced. But I will stop here because this is not the point of this blog post. 

The point is that, if we would limit the freedom of speech by saying that one is free to say what one wants as long as it doesn't hurt anyone's feelings, or that it doesn't offend anyone, we would become unable to voice our opinion about things as benign as the one I just offered. I am sure that there are people out there who love Christmas and who could be potentially hurt by my take on Christmas. Should that be enough to prevent me from expressing it? I think not, that would be too extreme. 

And then there is the case of people like Rasmus Palludan. Should his freedom of expression be limited because of what he has to say? I don't think so either, because people with extreme political views are present everywhere and repressing their freedom to express their opinion would not accomplish that these opinions would go away, it would just suppress them in the underground but they would still be there. The difference would be that not a lot of people would know about it and how strong they are but with freedom of speech, public is informed about them. We know who are they, where they are and how many of them there is. And knowing is always better than not knowing. So, no I don't think that Danes are taking it to far. There is an unexpected twist to their freedom of speech but I will cover that next time.

How to tame your teachers

Three weeks ago I had an opportunity to talk to an English teacher who is working in a high school. That got me very excited because I have heard about some things that are allegedly happening in Danish schools which I wanted to check with someone who actually works there so I can get information from the first hand. And it is as bad as I have heard. Danish schools have completely eliminated any form of upbringing of children and as a consequence have degraded the professional integrity of their teachers. Danish students in schools have a free reign to act as they want, no boundaries and teachers can do nothing about it. They became a well paid punching bags.

But let's start from the beginning. When I just started with language school, there was one teacher who was always starting her classes in the way that was foreign to me. She would present the topics of today's class with "I was thinking maybe we could..." or "I suggest that today we...". After she would present it she would ask "if everyone is ok with that?"

That confused me a bit. I wasn't sure why is she asking for our blessing. None of us in class knows Danish and that is the reason why have we came to school, we came to learn. On the other hand, she is the teacher, she is the professional. I assume that she has the knowledge and the tools to teach us. When it comes to knowledge and expertise, in the classroom students and teachers are not equals. The teacher know and have the tools and students don't. And, I assume that she has the tools and the knowledge to teach me danish because she is the professional.
 

When I came home I commented on the event with Luci and asked her what was that all about and what happens if the student declines the suggested lesson? She said that students indeed have the right to decline lessons and that is why the teacher is offering them as a suggestions at the start of the class. But what can the teacher do in the case that the student declines? Basically nothing! If the student declines the suggested lesson, teacher can proceed with the planned lesson with other students but she will have to find something else for the student that refused. If the student keeps refusing the teacher will have to proceed with the search for a lesson that the student will accept in the end. This was indeed a shock for me but it was only the first one.

Then there was Rita. Rita is a very popular Danish TV show about a super cool school teacher. TV show is about her private life but also about the school life and some problems that both teachers and student are facing. While it is fiction and the TV show does exaggerate a bit, but in essence it does portray what is going on in Danish schools. What is going on in Danish schools is at least a bit chaotic, a bit of education and 0 upbringing. From the perspective of values, Danish students can learn that bullying teachers is institutionally approved, that having no respect for others is also approved and that whatever you do, there will be no consequences for your actions.

Here is the most extreme example. In one episode a student mounted a blow up sex doll on the ceiling of the classroom and the teacher was completely powerless to do anything. The only thing he could do was ask the student politely to take it down, which he refused. As that student was the class leader, he started throwing pebbles at the teacher and the whole classroom followed. At that moment the teacher couldn't take it any more so he got up and went out of the class. The student that started it all went after the teacher saying: "You can't touch me, you can't touch me!" In the end, the teacher couldn't take the bullying anymore so he stops, turns and slaps the student, which in the end leads to his dismissal from the school. Do not get me wrong, of course that was very unprofessional from the teacher and he had it coming, but how come that he was powerless do do any form of disciplinary action before the situation completely went out of control?

But ok, it was just a TV show, so at that point I didn't want to jump to any conclusions. Fortunately I didn't have to. Two weeks ago I had a chance to talk to a teacher and he in essence confirmed everything I have been seeing and hearing. The teachers indeed have no tools to bring order into classroom if it starts descending into chaos.

I asked him: "Let's say that someone starts causing a mess during the class, what can you do in that situation in order to put a stop to it in that moment?"

The answer is... nothing. You can politely ask him to stop and if he doesn't, you are powerless. The best thing you can try to do in that situation is to turn the class against him. So you can hope that the rest of the class wants to participate in a lesson and that they will enforce the discipline because you are not allowed to do it. So instead of giving teacher proper tools to enforce discipline in the class, teachers are in the complete mercy of their students and if they can resort to any tools it is subtle manipulation? Sounds like a good recipe to bring out the worst in people

Teachers can do certain things but only after the class, not during the class. They can go to the principal office and call in for a parents-school-teacher-student meeting and try to talk some sense into the student and/or the parents but there is a distinct possibility that they will be dismissed. A number of parents in Denmark is bold enough to question the teachers ability to teach, the teachers ability to choose work materials and instead of trying to educate or up-bring their kid, they will defend his/her unruly behavior and teachers again, can do nothing against it.

Of course that the teachers are not perfect. I had my share of bad teachers and there wasn't one of my ex students who didn't experience at least one bad teacher while they were in their study years. So there is something to keep an eye on. With that being said, teachers are still the people who spend a lot of time with children. In Denmark, maybe even more then their parents spend with them. Don't they deserve at least the basic human decency? Why are schools fighting against bullying among students but allow bullying of teachers by students? At what point did students became the untouchable holy cows who demand royal treatment from others but can treat others like garbage without any consequences? And I am at a total loss to figure out how is that in any way helping with their education and upbringing? Is being disrespectful indeed became a positive value in the modern world and if it did, when?

Railway as a reflection of society

Recently I have heard something very interesting from an acquaintance. It was a nice sunny day, we had a BBQ and were chatting, "solving the world problems", sharing experiences of life in Croatia and Denmark and discussing problems that both societies face. As we touched on traffic issues in Zagreb, I mentioned that for me the biggest surprise was how good Danish railways are.

When I moved here and Luci and me decided that we are going to live in Roskilde, I immediately started thinking that I will have to find some work in Roskilde. My statement surprised Luci and she asked me why do I think that. And I said because of commuting. How should I commute every day from Roskilde to Copenhagen when the two cities are 40 km away without a car?" By train ofc., she added, we have good railways. I was very sceptical about that considering that I come from Croatia.

Commuting on a daily basis by train&bike in Croatia would be mission impossible. First of all the round trip would last too long in order for it to be a feasible commuting option and putting the bike on the train would be madness. It just couldn't be done because Croatian railways are horrible and the service isn't very user friendly.

Train ride between two cities 60km away lasts for over an hour and the trains are not going often enough in order for it to be feasible for commuting. But the real train ride horror story is the train ride between Zagreb and Split. These two cities are a bit over 300 km apart and it takes the train 9 hours! Fortunately for me, I didn't have a lot of first hand experience with Croatian railway but there was one that put things into perspective. I was traveling from Zagreb to Brno by train. It was a looong ride in general but the part in Croatia was a neverending story. For those first or last 50 km it felt like the train was crawling at the speed of a bicycle. It was just so slow! But when it entered Slovenia, it started flying.

With having this knowledge and experience with Croatian railways, it is no wonder that I was a bit sceptical of the train rides when I moved to Denmark. But then I tried it and boy was I in for a surprise. 

First and most important thing is how fast the trains are. It takes a train from Roskilde to Copenhagen between 19 and 25 minutes, depending how many stops they make. There is no way you can make that trip with a car in that time. If the roads are empty it will take you approximately 45 minutes. So the car is a better option only if you are going somewhere that is far away from the railway. Secondly, there is a train going every 10 minutes, so I don't even need to think, what train am I going for. I just go out of the apartment and if the train went in front of my nose, next one will come within 10 minutes.

The usage of trains is very friendly. It is simplest to have a rejsekort with which you just check in and check out on the stations. And you can have everything with you on the train: bike, baby stroller, dog, a lot of luggage. Every train has at least one compartment for people with bikes, baby strollers and dogs. And nobody is bitching about it. In Croatia it was always a struggle to get the bike on the train but I need to admit that my knowledge about that is a bit outdated.

Danish railway system is incredibly reliable. In a more then a year and a half that I have been living here and commuting to work every day trains didn't run 1 time and that was because someone commited suicide so they had to close down the traffic. On 2 other occasions trains were running slower. 3 times in a year and a half! That is impressive.

It is indeed a very interesting correlation, one that I could never figure out my self, but when I started to think about it it makes a lot of sense. A society, that is far from perfect, but that runs like a well oiled machine with full employment and by some measurements with the happiest population in the world has a railway system that is user friendly, fast and reliable.

On the other hand we have a society that is barely lubricated and stutters all the time, having a hard time getting away from its past, that is heavily depopulating has a railway system that hasn't been updated since the 19th century (metaphorically speaking), that is user unfriendly, slow and unreliable. How does all that compare to China or Japan where the trains are running over 300 km/h? It makes me wonder....

Corona, corona, corona

Corona is ramping up again and this time around Denmark is "the bad boy" of Scandinavian countries. Number of newly infected per day in the last two weeks started from a bit above 400 per day, then it went to a bit above 500 per day and last weekend it went to above 600 per day. Sweden is currently doing better even though their total corona death count since it all started is still a lot higher. I wonder would party-Danes be deserving of the same welcome these days in Sweden, as party-Swedes were shortly after the lockdowns started?

With corona party ramping up, corona measures started ramping up as well, with an increasing number of them having no to little sense. I need to be fair and say that one did make sense. Use of face-masks is now necessary in all public transport and that one did make commuting easier. Before face-masks were obligatory one had to make a seat reservation for every train ride. That was causing a lot of problems in daily commute because sometimes you just couldn't get the seat reservation in the next hour. I was kicked out of the train at least once because I couldn't get a seat reservation and I had no plans of waiting for more then an hour.

But at this point reason goes on holiday. As the number of newly infected started to ramp up it was clear that new measures are on the way but boy were we in for a surprise with the brilliance of the new measures.

Sneezing in restaurants and Copenhagen night life

After bombastic announcements of the looming Prime Ministers press conference everybody was on the edges of their seats and then she said that... night life in Copenhagen is problematic and that it needs to be controlled. In order to do that restaurants, cafe bars, night clubs and bodegas must close down at 22 in the evening and not at 2 in the morning as it used to be. Another measure implemented is the usage of face-masks in restaurants, cafe bars and bodegas. Face-masks need to be used only while standing. Once you sit down, you can take the face-mask off. Let's say that a person has corona but he is asymptomatic. That person will still be able to spread corona in the restaurant since he still can sneeze, cough and spit unobstructed after he sits down.

Second brilliant measure is the suggestion how to limit socializing. The suggestion is to cherry pick 10 people with whom you want to socialize and restrain yourself from seeing anyone else all they way up to next spring because winter is coming immune systems are going down and corona will be extra successful while spreading so we need to limit it. Makes sense right?

Well not quite because by that count nobody could socialize outside of work or education with anyone all the way until the next spring. Luci would use up her quota on her co-workers and I use up my quota on my fellow language school students. So, if we want to be corona-responsible we should not socialize with anyone until next spring.

Honorable mention from Croatia: keep the music down and play Vivaldi

Croatian crisis headquarters - a temporary body in charge of implementing all the corona measures came up with a new creative measures to keep the spread of the virus. They are suggesting to keep the music down. When you lower the loudness of music people have less need to be very close to the person they are talking to. So in essence, the quieter the music, the better social distancing is. But that is not the only brilliant conclusion they have reached. They have also issued the list of "corona songs". So allegedly some songs are better to play if we want to keep the virus from spreading and of course that all the songs on that list are classical music pieces. I love classical music and listen to it often but I just don't see who will play Vivaldi in a cafe bar or a night club.

As I said before when I was writing on corona. I am in no doubt that the virus is here, that the precautions are necessary and that we need to make adjustment in our everyday lives. But these measures are just ridiculous. To me it looks like the countries are implementing them just because they need to do something since it is getting worse but they are not sure what. On the other hand, countries are unwilling to go back to the full quarantine mode because it is too disruptive to the modern way of life. But there still are simple measures that could work: implement obligatory usage of face-masks in all closed public spaces, everybody who can work from home, should work from home, switch all education online. I do not understand why something like this couldn't work? I assume there are smarter people then me making those decisions. Hopefully I will continue to enjoy my Vivaldi at home only.